We can take up this matter of the centers along three lines. Much has been written and discussed anent the centers, and much mystery exists which has aroused the curiosity of the ignorant, and has tempted many to meddle with that which does not concern them. I seek to elucidate somewhat and to give a new angle of vision to [162] the study of these abstruse matters. I do not in any way intend to take up the subject from such an angle as to convey rules and information that will enable a man to vivify these centers and bring them into play. I sound here a solemn word of warning. Let a man apply himself to a life of high altruism, to a discipline that will refine and bring his lower vehicles into subjection, and to a strenuous endeavor to purify and control his sheaths. When he has done this and has both raised and stabilized his vibration, he will find that the development and functioning of the centers has pursued a parallel course, and that (apart from his active participation) the work has proceeded along the desired lines. Much danger and dire calamity attends the man who arouses these centers by unlawful methods, and who experiments with the fires of his body without the needed technical knowledge. He may, by his efforts, succeed in arousing the fires and in intensifying the action of the centers, but he will pay the price of ignorance in the destruction of matter, in the burning of bodily or brain tissue, in the development of insanity, and in opening the door to currents and forces, undesirable and destructive. It is not the part of a coward, in these matters concerning the subjective life, to move with caution and with care; it is the part of discretion. The aspirant, therefore, has three things to do:

1. Purify, discipline and transmute his threefold lower nature.
2. Develop knowledge of himself, and equip his mental body; build the causal body by good deeds and thoughts,
3. Serve his race in utter self-abnegation.

As can be seen from the above tabulation, the subject is not only vast but abstruse. This is principally owing to the fact that until the race is normally clairvoyant, it is not in a position to verify what is said, and has to accept the statements of those who profess to know. Later when man can see and prove for himself, it will be possible to check up these statements; the time is not yet, except for the few.