Elisabeth Haich(1897-1994) was a Spiritual Teacher and author of several books dedicated to spiritual subjects. She was born and raised in Budapest, Hungary.
She has become world famous for her profound understanding of the human soul. The Yoga schools she set up with Selvarajan Yesudian after World War II have become internationally renowned. In her best known book Initiation, Elisabeth Haich relates the dramatic story of her past life, her apprenticeship with Divine Ptahotep and her introduction to yoga in ancient Egypt.
Elisabeth Haich explains in Self Healing, Yoga and Destiny the attitudes necessary for the path back to one’s self. Based on many years personal experience, the author creates an understanding of how to realize the essential source of life and shares her personal views on love , accidents, suffering, destiny, illness, self-healing and transformation.
Elisabeth Haich starts out by explaining that the Sanskrit word (compare with Theosophy and the Yoga Sutras by Patanjali) karma means “individuality”, “character”, “act”, “deed” and “destiny” because a character causes deeds and with it destiny. Therefore destiny is always the perfect reflection of individuality.
Man is ahead of all other living creatures because he is able to think. But it is not enough to listen to language because it can be true or false. The test of character is always the deed. Talk without action is empty.
Character is independent of intellect and speech in her view. Humans can even compare themselves with others in respect to destiny. People who are similar to each other have similar destinies. We as individuals are the cause of the turns taken by our fate; we discover the secret of unseen relationships and with that the law of karma.
The driving force of destiny is the individual himself, and if he wants to change his fate, he must first change his character. Whoever masters himself becomes master of his own destiny (see also Laws of Destiny) .
Only a person who is conscious of what he does can do this. But first he has to travel a long way!
She relates in her writing that if a person wants something his or her will creates thoughts, which lead to acts, that everything has consequences and that the consequences of our acts run outwardly in all directions until they come back to us. If we cause pain, the same pain will strike us. But if our actions are generous, fate will be equally generous.
Selfish people radiate the atmosphere with selfish energies according to her and she believes that people can find freedom only in themselves. We must change ourselves before the world around us can be changed.
Suffering awakens our desire for freedom and feelings for others. Slowly we understand that good brings good and evil brings evil.
In the author’s opinion many people claim “love”, say they live for others but in reality they expect others to live for them. They never understand that these people might need something else. We need to give understanding, love, and gratitude.
She further points out that we must pay attention to all our thoughts, all our words, and all our deeds. She warns us to never let unfriendly feelings color our thinking about any one, because all these thoughts and feelings will come back to us. In addition, we must avoid thinking about sickness and disease.
She recommends talking about health, strength, and happiness, filling the air around us with joy.
Higher people on the ladder of development have stronger and more penetrating energies at their command and therefore reactions are faster to what they do.
She says that people are blind and believe in coincidences, when in fact these are consequences and goes on by explaining that each human being has his own individual fate within the general destiny of his family, nation, and continent.
A person can only be killed if and when he carries within himself the destiny of being killed. Nothing happens by chance according to her! Fate has different effects on people – one may be broken and the other is not even thrown off balance. She recommends that we should expect help only from inside ourselves and not from the outside and that we need to believe in ourselves.
The path toward this great goal is self-knowledge, self-development and self-control! In the East this pathway is called Yoga.
To attain self-knowledge we must look at ourselves in the mirror, look at our facial expression and the force of our muscles. Elisabeth Haich sees laughing as the touchstone, the mirror of our individuality. She advises to watch our movements and the way we look at people. We should gesticulate less and stay quiet with all forces collected.
When we practice self-control we watch what we do. She sees it as our duty to offer as pleasant an appearance as possible to those around us. She predicts that parallel with the development of our self-control, our suggestive power will develop as well.
Constant self-observation and self-control will enable us to avoid all kinds of accidental movements. We should not wince for pain or show our anger.
She emphasizes that we must not even allow ourselves to think anything evil because she sees thoughts as spiritual energies so strong they can penetrate anything and will come back to us.
Keeping thoughts and emotions under control is a higher form of self-discipline in her view and physical discipline will lead us gradually to that, because it strengthens our will. And constant self-observation will lead us into the world lying behind the curtain of consciousness.
She is convinced that Hatha Yoga will give us the key to the secret in which the great miracle takes place because we turn inward. We should practice with our eyes closed and we need to concentrate.
She continues by explaining that physicians provide care but that nature heals. If we become one with nature, we are nature and then the healing becomes self-healing.
She explains that the approach to research in the East and West is different.
In her eyes the true essence of things can only be recognized and understood through direct experience.
Hatha Yoga takes us back to nature, shows us the close relationships between body and mind and gets us acquainted with the healing forces of herbs. She states that life here on earth is only a school, an opportunity to gain experience.
Our earth has two poles and we humans also function through polarity. The seat of the positive pole is in the brain; the seat of the negative pole is in the last vertebra. Between these poles flows a current of very high frequency and this current is life itself. Health is nothing other than perfect equilibrium between these currents (positive, giving, animating; negative, receiving and resisting traits).
Throughout mankind, the degree of consciousness attained differs from person to person. The chief requirement for our health is for us to learn, step-by-step to expand our consciousness and conduct it into each part of our body. We have to consciously control our vital energies. Yoga helps us by teaching us about the body’s nerve centers and their functions. She continues by describing in the chapter certain disorders and what they show and explains that everything comes from within us and that every accident is a form of self-punishment.
Health is a duty in her opinion and begins with breathing properly. In fact, the key to self-discipline and self-control is breathing in her eyes and the most important Yoga exercise is absolute rest and relaxation.
In order to avoid becoming a burden we must call up all our forces and work together in the great task of building the right kind of new world.
According to her we all have thirst for absolute freedom and to do as we wish. This is as pronounced on the most primitive level of human life as on the most advanced. But in reality we do not seek freedom where it can be found and sink deeper into slavery. Even our struggle for money and power stems from the belief that these will bring us freedom. We waste our whole life going after money and power and think up ways how to exploit our fellow men and once we acquire it, we become the slaves of our wealth and power. We throw overboard all our inner values. We could see it if we would observe it.
Only when we liberate ourselves from these wishes can we attain perfect freedom. Absence of desire opens our eyes. It enables us to judge everything on the basis of its intrinsic value and enables us to be objective. To be free of desire means to be free of suffering. Our body belongs to the physical world but our consciousness can rise up to the level of spiritual omnipotence. It is our job to tap the highest intellectual spheres with our consciousness, bringing into palpable material from applications for the great eternal truths we find here. We forget that our “Self” is spiritual and immortal, and that it is part of the infinite being which animates the entire universe. As long as our wishes bind us to matter, we cannot be free – we will be prisoners of the earthly sphere.
We should also remember that thoughts have their individual wavelength, their transmitters and receivers everywhere in the world. When we meditate we can tune in on the proper wavelength to hear a great master. Those masters transmit their messages to those who have matured enough. Whoever hears it, follows it. We have to overcome the world of the body and to conquer the treasures of the spiritual world. We have to follow the voice of the Master in the depth of the forest and then the initiation begins. This kind of settlement where a great master is surrounded by a number of pupils is called an Ashram. Life here is extremely simple and conducive to meditation. Those disciples have many lessons to learn, among them to conquer the chakras. The Yoga disciple awakens these chakras by means of special exercises and learns to subject them to his will. The important thing is to expand consciousness, to master thoughts, feelings and movements.
The author also elaborates about the fact that precise mathematical laws determine the path of the earth. Not a single movement occurs by chance and that’s why she deduces that the path of humanity is not a matter of chance. Invisible forces guide our life in exactly the same way as the planets are kept in their orbits in space.
The history of nations shows that humanity goes through periods in its development. Each period brings man a new idea to carry out, a new task to perform and a new trial to face. Our civilization, having sunk deep into the morass of materialism, gave birth itself to the devastating forces which swept away the old world.
We know a lot about art, science and technology, but nothing about man!
A person who has lost himself is plagued by burning unrest; humanity plunges into misery because people seek happiness outside themselves instead of within. Sooner or later we must learn that the true reason for our suffering is our abysmal lack of self-understanding and self-control. When we control ourselves, we control fate. For thousands of years certain initiated men and women have been at work at secret places to share knowledge with those who seek it. Now people are initiated in greater numbers. Thousand of years ago candidates had to pass numerous tests including defiance of death. Only after this test could they go on to higher levels of training.
If we live consciously we are on the trail of self-knowledge and self-control. With every step along the way our destiny is more and more inclined to obey our will.
Yoga = System of Self Development;
Yogi = Completely healthy Being, helping others.
Yoga teaches us the laws governing mind and body, and to preserve our health. Yoga brings health, calm and feeling of security. Yoga develops our power of concentration, increasing the resistive capacity. A person who practices Yoga is always master of the situation because he possesses spiritual weapons, which make him invincible.
In the chapter about Magic she explains that we are always performing magic because magic is a natural force guided by man. Farmers, breeders – they all perform magic. Even writing is magic. But the greatest magic word is language, sound, the word LOGOS (compare with Theosophy). The logos created order out of chaos and is still doing so today. Logos is the most powerful magic force available to every living creature. Sound is the creative element of the logos and the logos is dwelling within. It has its own characteristic sound, its own name made up of the elements of its true being and given to it by God. Whoever can hear his name reverberating in the depths of things has achieved omnipotence over everything that exists. It is the true inner name (that’s why monks give up their worldly names).
We use the power of our logos to charm people, each according to his own individual level of development. When we persuade someone, we are performing magic with the logos, with the power of the word. Everyone has the power to calm or to irritate people around him – all with the power of the logos! A single, simple sentence can affect our whole life, guide us, and keep us from making mistakes. She also points out, that the healing power of the logos, the word, in the form of hypnosis and verbal suggestion does exist.
She explains in this chapter also that those who wish to learn must be master of the equilibrium; that they must understand that we live in a world of polarity meaning that we need equilibrium between positive and negative to be alive and that nature strives for balance through compensation. In her eyes nature does not tolerate any unbalanced condition. That’s why man can only calm down when he has found his spiritual equilibrium. White magic is the unselfish use of natural force whereas black magic is the selfish use. For that reason it is good that our psychic sight develops parallel with our spiritual progress.
As long as an individual has not become completely impersonal, he cannot be objective and his view points will always be selfish. Only when a person has become impersonal can he become selfless in the truest sense of the word. Uncomfortable conditions make it possible to gather certain experiences to discover what we must not do in order to avoid the same fate. This applies to healing through magic not medicine, which develops parallel to the progress of the world. She reminds us that progress of science demands its martyrs though. She also adds, that if we don’t learn the lesson we can’t be healed by medicine! Therefore we should always try to find the lessons hidden within our suffering, instead of ranting ignorantly at our fate! If we have learned our lesson, our suffering will end.
God, who controls our destinies knows best whose time has come and why we must go.
Once we have reached objectivity we should use our powers but we have to place our person at God’s disposal. Those people have no personal wishes, no personal viewpoint and will; they are moved by one will. As long as we have a personal viewpoint, we can not become a higher being. A black magician uses his powers, whereas a white magician is one who is used by the divine.
There are a number of methods to speed up the development of our soul and nervous system. Disciples on the [tooltip title=”” content=”Compare with the first paragraph in Initiation by Annie Besant under Spiritual Development” type=”classic” ]path[/tooltip] toward magic have been subjected to the most rigorous trial and initiation is granted only to those who pass them all.
- The first requirement is patience. We must observe ourselves at all times.
- We must have no passions – clinging to nothing.
- We must see the true essence and look at everything with eternal love.
- We should not feel pain or sorrows when the moment of passing away comes. That does not mean becoming dull but helps us feel true joy and sympathy.
- We must eat as little meat as possible, avoid alcohol, tobacco and all kind of narcotics.
- We should sleep with our windows open, lying in a north to south direction with only a little pillow.
- We should spend a lot of time outdoors in nature and get in close touch with the animal worlds.
- We should seek out the link between all the various forms related by nature and the meaning with, beyond, and above them.
- We should always try to recognize the true inner name of things, the forces which are hidden behind the letters, the relationships of sound, color, odor, taste and form.
- We have to learn the sacredness of silence and keep our knowledge to ourselves. We must learn to keep silent when others with less knowledge show off. This is a simultaneous test of our vanity and humility. We learn new things through silence. Even flowers and rock can speak to us. And the wisdom of the ocean is deep! When we understand silence, the spiritual eye is opened and we begin to see the soul of the people, the spiritual work everywhere, the cosmis relationships.
All at once we will notice that our words and deeds have different results than those of average people. We notice that greater forces are set in motion by our will than was formerly the case. We notice that others approach us in confidence, because they detect the radiation of our impersonal love for our fellow men – that our presence brings out the good in people of good will and the bad from those living on a lower plane will drop their masks. We will then understand not to be angry because we can see way down deep into the motives and see that people are ignorant, not bad.
In the end, we will notice that our own destiny is beginning to move. Our inner transformation is answered by fate with outward change. If we decide to travel along the pathway toward white magic, we will have enough work ahead of us for many years. At the right time higher powers will give each of us the teacher we need for the next stage.