The gift of clairvoyance is not always a desirable gift

The gift of clairvoyance is not always a desirable gift

On May 28, 2023 By Ridzerd

The first thing man gets to know when he enters the astral space, what he sees when his astral eye is opened, is that he finds himself enveloped in the astral body. It is in this astral body that all desires, passions, sensations and so on surge. Here we see clearly what otherwise lies hidden in human nature. Everything hidden becomes visible when we look at this human aura. What I have called the astral, man’s entire sentient nature flows out of it in wavy movements with a certain luminosity. 
I would like to mention a few details that will show you how some things that we otherwise find incomprehensible immediately become understandable. One can often see that certain people, when they are standing at an abyss, show an insuperable desire to throw themselves into it, although they fight against it with all their might. Or one can see what thoughts pass through a man’s soul when he has a knife in his hand. All these things have their deep basis in the human astral body. They are based on the fact that in the astral we have a completely different being than we encounter in the human outside. But they are subject to fate, to karma. If you have certain desires in life, you have had experiences in a previous life that can be pushed into the background by the present mind. But they slumber in the astral body. 
Suppose someone took part in a cruel war in a previous life; there you will see in his aura how through his karma all these atrocities were built into his astral body, with which he now has to wage hard struggles in his present physical life has. Just as threads are spun between a past life and the present, so are threads spun from the present to later lives. The seer sees all this. He sees how a person’s karma works out, and he also sees how for example, a person tries to suppress a tendency out of prudence or how he suppresses feelings. The seer sees to the bottom of the soul. 
Those who have the gift of sight do not consider it a desirable gift that brings joy in all cases, especially when people have feelings they shouldn’t have. And for the beginner, the chela, it is often disastrous because he is easily attracted by everything he now sees.
Source (German): Rudolf Steiner – GA 88 – Über die astrale Welt und das Devachan – Berlin, 18 November 1903 (page 60,61)
Translated by Google with a few adjustments of my own
PS  This makes me think of a cousin of mine. It’s been about 30 years now. He was 33 years old at the time. He had a good job as a lab technician. Had a good girlfriend whom he was to marry. They had also already bought a house. But one Wednesday morning he drove in his car to the highest flat in Sneek and jumped off. Sad, terribly sad.


THANKS TO: https://rudolfsteinerquotes.wordpress.com/2023/05/28/19045/