1. Hereditary diseases:
   1. Inherent in the planet itself and having a definite effect upon humanity, through contact with the soil and water.
   2. Developed during past ages in mankind itself and handed on from generation to generation.
   3. Characteristic of some particular family and inherited by the member of this family as part of his chosen karma. Souls come into certain families because of this opportunity.
2. Diseases invoked by tendencies in the man himself. These are governed by his astrological sign - either his sun sign or his rising sign and will be considered later.
3. Contagious diseases (epidemic or endemic) which are of group origin and involve the man as a part of his group karma, but are quite frequently unrelated to his personal karma.
4. Acquired diseases and accidents which are the result of injudicious action or unwise habits in this life and definitely condition his future karma. One interesting point in connection with accidents might here be made. Accidents are frequently caused by what might be regarded as "explosions of force". These are generated by a man or by a group of human beings through hatred or [548] jealousy or vindictiveness, which qualities react or are "turned back" upon the individual life like a boomerang.
5. The diseases of mystics with which we are at this time concerned. Speaking generally, these are caused by the energy of an awakened and active lower center being transferred into a higher one. This is done in three stages and each stage brings its own physiological difficulties:
   1. The stage wherein the energy of the lower center becomes intensely active prior to rising upward. This will produce over-activity of the organs in the physical area governed by the center, with consequent congestion, inflammation, and usually disease.
   2. The stage wherein the "processes of elevation" are taking place, producing intense activity in the higher center and a lessening of activity in the lower. A fluid period intervenes in which the forces swing back and forth between the two centers, accounting for the uneven life of the mystic in the earlier stages of his unfoldment. This is particularly the case in connection with the solar plexus. The energy is rejected at first by the higher center and is then reabsorbed into the lower only to be elevated again and again until the higher center can absorb and transmute it.
   3. The stage wherein the energy is raised definitely into the higher center. This leads to a difficult period of adjustment and of tension, again producing physical ills but, this time, in the area controlled by the higher center.

When, for instance, the sacral energy is raised to the solar plexus, there will be found many ailments involving, as noted before, the intestinal tract. When the energy of the lesser centers which are found below the diaphragm (but not up the [549] spine) are raised to the solar plexus center, trouble involving the gall bladder and the kidneys will often be found. Occultly speaking, any process of elevation or of "raising up" automatically involves death. This death affects the atoms in the organs involved and causes the preliminary stages of ill-health, disease and disruption, because death is nothing but a disruption and a removal of energy. When the science of the transference of energy from a lower center to a higher is understood, then light will be thrown upon the entire problem of dying and the true Science of Death will come into being, liberating the race from fear.

The above summation of the threefold activity which is going on in the human body all the time will give some idea of the strain under which the individual man labors, and will account, therefore, for much of the discomfort and disease found in those areas in the human body which are governed and controlled by a particular center. I would like to add the following points to the information given above: