On the Nature of Congestion by Alice Bailey
How can I define congestion for you when the understanding of force and energy and their relation to each other in the human body is still as yet an embryonic study? To say that congestion is congealed force is misleading; to say that it is static energy means little; to say that it is irregular or non-rhythmic vibration hardly makes sense. My problem is lack of words and of correct terms in which to carry to you esoteric truth.
Congestion is perhaps best defined as the arresting of the free flow of the force through the centres or centre and throughout the body. It exists in two forms:
1. That congestion which produces its effect within the centre itself, and therefore and consequently, upon the gland. It is inhibited, either as it pours into the centre (when it does not affect the gland except in a negative sense), or as it leaves it (when its effect will be positive in some way or another). When the difficulty takes place as it pours into the centre, then the energy is thrown back upon its originating source—either the astral or mental bodies—and you have a psychological inhibition. There is no impetus from within to which the allied gland can respond. When the difficulty is in the outlet into the physical body, you will have no free flow of force, the gland related to the centre will be definitely affected, and either be overstimulated by the nonrhythmic flow or undernourished. This in turn affects the glandular secretion and later the blood stream.
2. That congestion which takes place as the energy or the life force flows throughout the physical body, and as it flows finds there certain forms of weakness, various diseased areas and regions where its flow is impeded or too rapidly circulated. The flow of energy can be arrested in certain areas and can nourish also diseased areas in the body, or can also cure and cleanse them. A temporary congestion can be of beneficent value as well as a malefic force. This may surprise you?
Again, I have to repeat how vast is the subject with which we are dealing, and all these earlier instructions and the answers which I give to the questions only serve to show how abstruse the matter is. But if you will have patience and will be willing to learn by absorption more than by analysis, you will later discover that you know much—intuitively and discriminately.
On Ascertaining the Location of Congestion.
There are three ways whereby the healer can ascertain the presence and the location of congestion and any other form of difficulty-producing objective disease:
1. There is, first of all, clairvoyance which enables the healer to see visually where the difficulty lies. This form of diagnosis is not always accurate and can be “coloured” by conditions present in the healer himself.
2. There is a form of direct perception, a process of “clear knowing,” which is a soul faculty and infallible, once a person has been rightly trained in its use. It is a blend of mental and spiritual perception and is definite knowledge, or an intuition, if you like, which enables the healer unerringly to put his finger on the place of difficulty and to know its cause, its effect and its end.
3. There is also a more physical method, which is based on sensitivity in the lower nature, which enables the healer to register in his own body the same difficulty of which the patient is aware. This is called “occult transference” and should only be employed by those who know how to absorb and to dissipate. In this case, the healer can also feel the cause of the disease through the pouring in of energy to the etheric counterpart of the physical plane disease, or as an extreme emotionalism or sensitive response in the astral counterpart.
On the Dual Cause of Congestion.
Let me make one or two concise statements and then explain. First, subjective condition alone cannot cause an outer congestion. The soul has arranged to express itself through the medium of a body which has certain predispositions.
Second, the subjective is a causative factor when in collaboration with the inherited tendencies of the physical body; therefore, all congestion cannot be avoided, for the subjective life determines the condition and the physical body is predisposed to certain diseases. This is the will of the soul. Might I point out that at this stage of human evolution, no subjective conditions are ever right?
Third, an outer condition alone cannot be a causative factor. If I am right in my major premises (and this the new and coming science will prove), then the observations of the medical world will need to be readjusted to the facts. The causative factor exists in the meeting of the inner and the outer existing factors.
Let me make the matter a little clearer, for confusion may be caused by the idea that disease is the result of two causes—an inner cause and an outer cause. The subjective [310] situation is the initiating cause. Some psychological factor, leading to a wrong use of energy, sets in motion those inner tendencies which find their way out, as vital determining factors, on to the physical plane. There they come into contact with the physical body or expression which has certain predispositions, certain inherited weaknesses, certain glandular deficiencies—all of which were part of the needed equipment whereby the soul determined that certain needed lessons should he mastered. The relation established between the outer and the inner forces is the basic cause (expressing itself in two causes) which produces some form of disease. It is again the negative and the positive aspects brought into a relation which produces a third factor: the manifestation of some form of disease.
If you speak of perfect physical conditions, I know of no such conditions or of any physical body or physical environment to which such a term could be applied. There must be both the inner psychological situation and cause, which is the subjective reality (on a tiny scale), and the outer physical condition, manifesting as a weakness or as imperfections; these, in their turn, are a tendency from a previous life, a predisposition, an hereditary lesion or a latent difficulty, based on earlier life interests or malpractice. Bring these two major determining factors together and—under the law—you will inevitably have some visible manifestation of physical disease or difficulty; this can be serious or relatively unimportant; it can be dangerous to life or capable of providing only temporary discomfort. No outer condition alone is adequate to produce disease, but the difficulty is that modern medicine does not yet permit the hypothesis of hidden cause except those superficial ones such as, for instance, that worry and intense anxiety can aggravate existing heart trouble. It does not yet permit of those factors which trace back to an earlier life. In the case of contagious diseases, the inner cause is of group origin, and has therefore an outer group effect and is an expression of group karma. The difficulty of the matter is consequently great.
There must be, as you perceive, two existing factors, and these, when related and stimulated, produce the appearance of disease. It should be remembered that the question of the soul’s choosing of a body and the type of vehicle wherein certain types of lessons can be learned and certain educative experiences mastered, is a little-understood theme. In connection with this, I would remind you that disease is often a mode of clearance and ultimately beneficent in its effects. It is the working out into manifestation of an inner undesirable factor, and when the inner and the outer causes are brought out into the clear light of day they can be handled, understood and often dissipated and ended through the tribulation of disease and suffering. But this is a hard saying.
Alice Bailey – Esoteric Healing
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