Volume 11, Issue 1, page 13

everything he could find on the
subject. Then, in 1893, while
stepping up on a curb in downtown New York, he experienced
what R. M. Bucke probably would
have described as "Cosmic
Consciousness" -- when the lights
of myriad suns opened in the
center of his head for a brief
moment. "In that instant or
point, eternities were apprehended. There was no time.
Distance and dimensions were
not in evidence". He found he
could "know about any subject
-- by thinking". Then began his
life of writing, editing, and
teaching -- of which "Thinking
and DestinY" probably is the
crowning manuscript.

Percival calls the conscious
self -- what we have been incorrectly taught to think of as
the "I", or the "soul" -- the
"doer in the body". Most of
our difficulties stem from our
thinking of ourselves as the
body. And in that thinking is
the secret of what is wrong
with us -- as well as what is
right.

One may fool his neighbors
with his hypocrisy -- doing apparent good while thinking
hate and evil -- but he cannot
fool the laws of the universe.
These thoughts, which can create such evil manifestations
as "accidents", disease, various kind of vermin, parasites,
and insect pests, bring his reward, his "judgment" for the
level of his thinking. Tho his
outward actions attract the
plaudits of the multitude, his
innermost thoughts and desires
-- if they are of murder, hate,
lust, etc. -- are creating h i s
punishment, because "thought
must be balanced by the one who
issued it, according to the
responsibility which was his
at the time he generated or entertained it. By "his responsibility" is meant his appreciation of right and wrong,
his standards of right.

Altho Percival finds little
to commend in "religion", he
thinks it probably better to
have some kind of religion
than to have none, because "it
keeps the believers from doing
worse than they do ". However,
he contends that religions are
substitutes f o r knowledge --
holding the minds of men in
bondage to a thought-created
God or gods. These gods have no
intelligence or powers of their
own -- only what he or they get
thru thoughts of human worship.
Therefore he/they is/are as
j ealous, murdering, kindly,
forgiving, etc., as man endows,
or has endowed, them. And once
created, a God is not destroyed
by a mere " whoof -- begone! "
A doer is of 12 portions --
six male (desire) and six female (feeling). Only one of the
12 portions is embodied at any
one time. After death, the doer-in-the-body is not released
for his judgment-and-rest cycle until the fourfold body is
dissipated, either by decay,
eaten by animals or fishes, or
by cremation. Percival recommends cremation, as it would be
somewhat frustrating to be held
in the world of form because
some anatomy instructor insisted on rattling your "pickled"
skeleton before the class daily,
delaying your normal progression. Almost as frustrating as
having your body serving an indefinite sentence as a mummy on
museum floors.

Thinking is done while in
the body -- even to determining
the primary events of the next
life and when it will begin.
Any thinking between lives is
sort of mechanical and automatic. In fact, this betweenlife era is one of judgment
and purification, in which the
doer undergoes two successive
periods of desire frustration
(Hell) and desire fulfillment
(Heaven) before being born
anew into another physical
form. This rebirth is a reuniting of the components that
made up the previous body --
which is one reason why it is
so necessary that they be reduced to light substance from
the heavier materials of the
former embodiment.

Percival depicts briefly the
history of the Four Civilizations -- three of which have
been destroyed when the lowest
of the four classes usurped
authority over mankind and the
resultant degeneracy and thinking reduced each succeeding
civilization in turn to ruin --
of which only a few survived
to start over. We now are of
the Fourth Civilization, which
is supposed to have its apex
in one of the Americas -- but if
the doers fail to make of this
a permanent civilization, Percival sees a long period with
no civilized life.

Students of Atlantis, subsurface peoples (Shaver's cavern people?), and races long
extinct will be fascinated by
the fresh ideas presented -- as
will students of religion,
Theosophy, Spiritualism, Rosicrucianism, etc. Some may not
agree with Percival -- but life
should not be a matter of
agreement anyway. We cannot
advance by believing -- we make
our destiny by thinking. And
thinking -- in this reviewer's
estimation, is diametrically
opposed to believing. We believe only that which we don't
bother to think about. And life
is too important to keep in
this category. Wait until you
no longer have a body if you
want mental stagnation.
-- Trah Nika
THINKING AID DBSTIIT, by Harold W. Percival. 1014 pages.
One-vol. $7.50, two-vol. set,
$10.00. Pub. by Word Pub.'Co.,
33 W. 42nd St., New York, I.P.
"Thinking and Destiny", by
Harold W. Percival is one of
the "classics" in the field of
metaphysical and religious literature. It is a BIG book --
more than 1,000 pages -- covering far too many points for
this reviewer to touch even
the highlights in the confining
space of a review. However, we
found therein as much material
for discussion and study as we
have found in any book we've
read in the last few years --
and this includes such books
as "Oahspe", "Thirty Years
Among the Dead", and "The Urantia Book". (Remind us in our
next incarnation to start
studying some of these books
earlier in life -- before we
waste so much time learning B
comes after A, "Mary had a little lamb", and "Jesus loves
ne, this I know, 'cause the
Bible tells me so". Maybe then
we can do justice to all that
seems crying for attention.)
"Thinking and Destiny" was
dictated by Percival between
the years 1912 and 1932 -- and
not sent to the printers until
1946 after 14 years of editing
and correcting. It is now in
- its fourth printing. Percival
speaks of removing duplications,
- during the editing, and there
still are duplications, but
these aren't objectionable. In
fact, there is so much material
that one needs these occasional
repeats and summations to keep
the whole picture before him.
Percival writes quite plainly.

W not bogging his information
down with a lot of artificial
mumbo-jumbo and euphuisms -- as
do so many so-called "systems".

In a brief Foreword, Percival tells how he was reared a
Qrristian -- but quite early,
found himself unable to accept
the absurdities of Christianity. At the age of seven, he
resolved to devote his life to
the learning of the secrets of
life and death. Fifteen years
later, he heard of Madam Blavatzky and her Theosophical
Society, and was so impressed
13 that he joined, after reading