The solar plexus center is, at this time, highly active among men and women everywhere. In every country millions of people are over-sensitized, emotional frequently to the point of hysteria, full of dreams, visions and fears, and highly nervous. This produces widespread gastric difficulties, indigestion, stomachic and liver ills and diseases, and intestinal disorders. To all of these the race today is exceedingly prone. To these are often [540] coupled all kinds of skin eruptions. The cause is twofold:

1. The over-stimulation of the solar plexus center by its practically exclusive use, and by the consequent inflow of forces from the astral plane, to which the solar plexus is the wide open door.
2. The increased and constant use of this center as its rhythm and vibration get too powerful to control. The man then succumbs to the temptation to focus his life interest and attention in the astral world and to do this with increasing awareness, interest and phenomenal results.

The man is, therefore, a victim of forces which would otherwise produce a gathering together of that "which is lower" and their necessary transference into that which is higher. A needed purpose would then be served, but - in the case we are considering - these forces are all concentrated in that central area of the body which is intended to be simply the clearing house for that "which is below into that which is above". Instead of this, there is set up a tremendous whirlpool of forces which not only produces physical difficulties of many kinds (as stated above) but which is also a fruitful source of the cleavages with which modern psychology is dealing at the time. So potent are the forces generated by the over use of the solar plexus (which is one of the most powerful of all the centers) and through the consequent flowing in of astral forces of every kind - thus augmenting the difficulties - that they assume eventually complete control of the life. The forces below the diaphragm and those above become separated by this vibrant and potent central force center. Cleavage, astralism, delusions, hallucinations, nervous disorders of every kind and difficulties of a physical nature which definitely [541] involve the intestinal tract, the liver and the pancreas are only some of the problems which arise from the uncontrolled use of the solar plexus center. The man becomes controlled by it and is not the controlling factor, as he is intended to be.

The second illustration is connected with the unfoldment of the heart center with its recognition of the group life and consequent group responsibility. This today is rapidly growing and can be seen on every hand. Students are apt to think that the awakening of the heart center and its consequent group recognitions must be expressed in terms of religion, of love and of divinity. They, therefore, make of it something spiritual, as that much misused word is understood by the orthodox religious man. But it is far more than that. The heart is connected with the life aspect, for there is the seat of the life principle and there is the life energy anchored. It is connected with synthesis, with the monad, and with all that is more than the separated self. Any group which is engineered and controlled by one man or by a group of men, whether it is a nation, or a big business institution or an organization of some kind or another (such as a great hospital) is connected with the life which is found in the heart. This remains true even when the motive or motives are mixed and undesirable, or purely selfish. A business magnate controlling vast interests who has the lives of many people dependent upon the contingencies of a business which he may have founded and over which he presides, is beginning to work through the heart center. Hence the prevalence of certain forms of heart trouble to which so many people of influence and power so frequently succumb. The heart becomes over-stimulated by the impact of the energies pouring in on the man who is subjected - among other things - to the directed thoughts of those connected with his organization. Can you see why, therefore, the senior members of the Hierarchy, Who work through the [542] head and the heart centers, keep Themselves withdrawn from public life and much human contact? These two illustrations may help to clarify in your minds the sense in which I here use the term, "utilization of a center".