1. The stage of mental recording. The clarity and the accuracy of this recording will be dependent upon the condition of the channel of reception, the antahkarana; in this recording, curiously enough, a certain element of time enters in. It is not time as you know it upon the physical plane, which is but the registration by the brain of passing "events"; it is the higher mental correspondence to time. Into this, I cannot here enter as the theme is too abstruse; for time, in this connection, is related to distance, to descent, to focus, and to the power to record.
2. The stage of brain reception. The accuracy of this reception will be dependent upon the quality of the physical brain cells, upon the polarization of the thinking man in the head center, and the freedom of the brain cells from all emotional impression. The difficulty lies here, that the receiving aspirant or the focused thinker is always aware emotionally of the descent of the higher impression and of the consequent clarification of the theme of his thought. This must, however, be recorded by a perfectly quiescent astral vehicle, and therefore you will see one of the main objectives of true meditation. [106]
3. The stage of recognized interpretation. This is an exceedingly difficult phase. Interpretation is dependent upon many factors: the educational background, the point reached in evolution, the mystical or the occult approach of the disciple to the center of truth, his freedom from the lower psychism, his essential humility (which plays a major part in proper understanding), and his personality decentralization. In fact, the character in its entirety is involved in this important matter of correct interpretation.

There is no need for me to elaborate this theme. The true disciple is ever aware of the possibility of error, of the intervention of psychic intrusions and distortions; he knows well that true and effective interpretation of the imparted impression is dependent largely upon the purity of the receiving channel and upon the freedom of his nature from all aspects of the lower psychism - a point oft forgotten. A thick veil of concrete thought-forms can also distort the true interpretation, as can astral intervention; the teaching upon the Path and the spiritual impression can be interfered with by glamor from the astral plane or by separate and [107] concrete ideas emanating from mental levels. In this case it can be truly said that "the mind is the slayer of the real." There is a deep occult significance to the words "an open mind"; it is as essential to correct interpretation as is freedom from glamor and the psychic expressions to be found upon the astral plane.

As the two processes are slowly developed, the third stage automatically becomes increasingly effective. The [108] received and interpreted impression brings about fundamental changes in the life and the state of consciousness of the aspirant and, above all, in his orientation. He becomes an evocative and invocative center of energy. That which he has received through the medium of his aligning channel becomes a potent factor in invoking a fresh flood of higher impression; it also makes him evocative upon the physical plane, so that the magnetic aura which he has engendered becomes increasingly sensitive to these spiritual inflowing impressions, and also increasingly sensitive to that which he evokes from his surrounding physical environment and from humanity. He becomes a power station en rapport with the Hierarchy and he receives and distributes (in response to the evocative call of humanity and human need) the energy received. He also becomes a "receiver of light" and of spiritual illumination, and a distributor of light in the dark places of the world and into human hearts. He is, therefore, an invocative and evocative center for use by the Hierarchy in the three worlds of human evolution. [109]