a. Instinctual psychological thought habits, which have their roots deep in the animal nature and hark back to the primal instinct of self-preservation. Savage races however, have little of this. That forward looking anticipatory state of mind is predominantly a human characteristic and is that germ of the imaginative faculty, linked to the mental processes, which will eventually merge into that intuitive meditation, plus visualization, which is the true basis of all creative work. But at present it is a menace and a hindrance. Ancient suffering, dire memories, haunting miseries, deep seated in the subconscious rise to the surface frequently and cause a [303] condition of fear and of distress which no amount of reasoning seems able to quiet. Facilities of communication put even the most unimportant en rapport with the tragedies, pains and sufferings of his brother thousands of miles away. The economic catastrophe of the present time has brought about a condition of mass terror, and the more sensitive the individual the more he will react to this state of mind. Fear of the future is therefore a distressing blend of instinctual memory and anticipatory imagination, and few there are who escape this menace. Worry and anxiety are the lot of every man and cannot and will not be offset and overcome by any lesser factor than the soul itself.

b. The flashes of prevision emanating from the soul who is dwelling in the consciousness of the Eternal Now. When contact with the soul is firmly established and the consciousness of the Knower is stabilized in the brain then prevision will carry with it no terror. The picture will then be seen as a whole, and not as a passing and fragmentary glimpse as is now the case. So again, the remedy remains the same: the establishing of such close relations between the soul and the brain, via the trained and controlled mind, that cause and effect will be seen as one, and right steps can be taken to handle situations correctly and to the best advantage. Prevision seldom takes the form of forecasting happiness, and the reason is not far to seek. The race is at a point where the prodigal son is conscious of the husks and of the futility of earthly life. He is ready for a careful consideration of the Buddha's message, and he is ready because he has been devoured for centuries by war and famine, by desire and by the economic struggle. The vista he sees before him appears black and forbidding and full of cataclysmic disaster.

It is possible also for the more advanced aspirant and those upon the Path of Discipleship to contact ancient vibrations of evil and misery on the astral plane - evil long past and gone; it is possible for them to read a tiny fragment of the akashic records which concerns coming distress to an individual or a group, which they themselves may never see and yet nevertheless appropriate the conveyed information to themselves and suffer consequently.