The So-Called Dangers of Initiation

Human beings can only overcome their fear of death and boldly face death when they know that there is an immortal, eternal core within them, for which death is only a transformation of life, a change in the form of life. As soon as a person finds the immortal core within themselves through secret science, they train themselves more and more to overcome all such feelings, and ultimately also to overcome what is called the fear of death. But the more materialistic a person becomes, the more fearful of death they become. No secret science can protect people from seeing the truth behind the scenes. It must show them how eternal life, how karma, brings about the great balance in spiritual life. This Spiritual Science must show them many things. It cannot show them the bliss behind the scenes of life without at the same time showing them the terrible powers, the enemies that lurk behind it. That is quite true. But it also shows them how they can overcome any fear of these enemies. It shows them how they can face all this with a free and bold eye. It teaches them to become objective and unbiased if they patiently submit to its education. But many come to ‘theosophy’ with the ordinary feelings of our present-day trends. What they hear sometimes affects them as something deeply depressing, something that attacks their soul terribly, because as a result of their materialistic way of thinking, they have fear and dread of life. This is the immaturity that many people bring into Theosophy and which can only be overcome gradually through theosophical work itself. Again, it is not the fault of theosophy or the secret science. It does its part not to shock people too much. For if it were to reveal the whole, full truth about some things that are very close to human beings, if it were to say how the fearful are separated from the fearless, and how great the number on one side and the number on the other , many would be shocked.