The Astral World—Higher Occult Powers / Clairvoyance, Spiritism, Mediumship, and Spirit-Healing Fully Explained

by Joel Tiffany

Lust may be defined to be the desire for self-gratification. The forbidden fruit is that which seems to be desired to make one happy, and is sought after, not for the purpose of supplying a need, but to gratify a desire.

Man’s constitution is such that there are needs pertaining to every part thereof; and those needs are indicated by awakening desires; and when the need is supplied, a pleasure or gratification is experienced, which is a sort of plaudit of “Well done;” and all legitimate pleasure or happiness which man is constitutionally fitted to enjoy arises from complying with the proper demands of his being. All constitutional demands of the being man have strict reference to constitutional needs; and the life and energy making that demand will not be disregarded. It will not suffer the being to find rest until the demand is complied with. It will create restlessness and disquiet; and the individual will give expression to that life and energy in some direction, if he does not in the true one.

Man possesses within him immortal energies, or he could not be immortal. He has that which is essentially being and life, and which can not be destroyed. Hence his divine energies will act with omnipotent power to him, and he will be constrained to submit.

Here, then, is to be found the fundamental distinction between true and false impulse—true and false action. That impulse which arises within, indicating a need of some department of our being, is true and legitimate; and all proper action which tends to supply that demand, without conflicting with any other need, is true action. All other action and impulse are illegitimate. The distinction between the two classes of impulse and action is easily made, by an appeal to our own consciousness. By a careful examination, we can tell at once whether the impulse to perform any act for ourselves arises from a sense of need or from a desire of self-gratification; and whether the impulse to perform any act for others arises from a near or remote prospect of self-gain, or from a sense of fitness, justice, or goodness of the act, in forgetfulness of separate self.

In the very outset I postulate the following as undeniable truth: All true desire in man has respect to a need of some department of his being, which, when truly supplied, will harmoniously develop him in respect to every other department of his being, and also in respect to all other beings necessarily connected with him. That all true happiness or enjoyment which he is capable of possessing must flow as a consequence of truly supplying these needs; and that while every need of his being is fully supplied, he will be in the enjoyment of all the happiness he is capable of desiring, and consequently will not desire happiness on its own account.

I postulate further; that until every need is supplied, man will feel a sense of lack, a desire for something which he does not possess, the tendency of which will be to stimulate him to activity in some direction; and unless his activity is directed to the proper supplying of the need, it will be misdirected, and will tend to deprave rather than to improve his being.

Hence I postulate further, that when man feels within himself a desire for happiness, he has demonstrable evidence that these are needs of his being which have not been supplied; and any attempt to fulfill his desire, short of finding out and supplying the true need, will be derogatory to his highest good and destiny, and will consequently fail of conferring that which he seeks, happiness.

I therefore postulate further, that happiness or enjoyment is not to be sought; that if it come at all, it must come unsought; that it is a necessary and inseparable incident of the true life, by which is meant that life which in its activity fulfills its every need. That happiness which is sought after is never found, simply because it is not an end, but only an incident of being; and that while man is absorbed in the pursuit of pleasure, he must necessarily be unmindful of his needs, and thereby he will neglect their demands.

Here we have the foundation laid for examining the distinction between the true impulse, known as love in the various planes of unfolding, and that which is to be characterized as lust. The true impulse is that which indicates a need of some department of our being, and which prompts to activity, looking to the supply of that need, independent of any gratification which it may promise. The false impulse is that which prompts to activity, not in respect to any specific need, but in respect to the gratification which it may afford. This latter impulse is known as lust.

For the purpose of distinction I shall denominate the true impulse, love, as being a manifestation of the Divine Father’s wisdom and goodness, in whatever plane it may be found; and I shall denominate the false impulse, lust, as being a manifestation of that which tends to lead to selfishness and antagonism, and makes the interests of finite self overrule those of infinite self, or the selfhood of the divine.