---

The Hill of Discernment

By Alfred Trevor Barker

---

Thoughts on Devachan

Many years ago the late A. P. Sinnett was feeling a bit anxious as to what the state of his soul would be after death, doubtless having in view some of those passages in his life's diary which the Master K. H. so delightfully referred to as having been inscribed with Mr. Sinnett's reddest pencil. He referred his questionings on the after life to the Master, who assured him that he need have no doubt that he would be reborn in the Devachan, because even a few short years' study and application of the Teachings of Theosophy would be quite sufficient to bring about such a result.

It seems to us that this incident discloses a most inspiring incentive to spread abroad the Message of Theosophy wherever men and women are willing to listen to it. It amounts to nothing less than this: enough spiritual food is taken into the mind of the average human being by a few years' study of Theosophy to rescue them from the dread possibilities of extinction — for it should be known that for the millions of the profane (those who have never wakened from their material sleep to the recognition of the higher spiritual nature), the next step forward in their souls' evolution will be to insure that when they pass into the Kama-loka. after death they will have enough spiritual stamina to give them birth in the Devachanic state. Devachan is an illusion only for those who are able to perceive a greater reality, but it is an absolute necessity for the great majority of the human race; and if the study of the Teachings of Theosophy and the life after death will give to them the priceless boon of the discovery of the higher part of themselves, there is certainly no need to make any apology for inviting their attention to these age-old Truths. No amount of dabbling in the psychic realms of spiritualism and mediumship can possibly generate those purely spiritual energies that bring the soul to birth in a higher state of being. On the contrary, the greater the inclination to psychic phenomena and the worship of the dead, the greater the risk of having a long spell in Kama-loka, with the attendant possibility of being attracted into the mediumistic vortex through Kamic affinity.