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🟡 Vegetarianism and Occultism (Full Audiobook) | C. W. Leadbeater · Occult & Supernatural Audiobooks: Forbidden Rituals, Esoteric Texts & Paranormal Tales

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  Speaker 1: Introduction of Vegetarianism and Occultism by C. W. Lead Beater.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Andrea Fiori. Vegetarianism and
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  Speaker 1: Occultism by C. W. Leadbeater, Introduction. In speaking the relation
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  Speaker 1: between vegetarianism and occultism, it may be well for us
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: to begin by defining our terms. We all know what
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: is meant by vegetarianism, and although there are several varieties
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  Speaker 1: of it, it will not be necessary to discuss them.
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  Speaker 1: The vegetarian is one who abstains from eating flesh food.
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  Speaker 1: There are some of them who admit such animal products
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  Speaker 1: as are obtained without destroying the life of the animal,
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  Speaker 1: as for example, milk, butter, and cheese. There are others
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  Speaker 1: who restrict themselves to certain varieties of the vegetable, to
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  Speaker 1: fruit and nuts. Perhaps there are others who prefer to
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  Speaker 1: take only such food as can be eaten uncooked. Others
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  Speaker 1: will take no food which grows underground, such as potatoes, turnips, carrots,
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  Speaker 1: et ce. We need not concern ourselves with these divisions,
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  Speaker 1: but simply define the vegetarian as one who abstains from
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  Speaker 1: any food which is obtained by the slaughter of animals,
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  Speaker 1: of course, including birds and fish. How shall we define occultism.
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  Speaker 1: The word is derived from the Latin occultis hidden, so
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  Speaker 1: that it is the study of the hidden laws of nature.
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  Speaker 1: Since all the great laws of nature are in fact
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  Speaker 1: working in the invisible world, far more than the visible.
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  Speaker 1: Occultism involves the acceptance of a much wider view of
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  Speaker 1: nature than that which is ordinarily taken. The occultist, then,
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  Speaker 1: is a man who studies all the laws of nature
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  Speaker 1: that he can reach, or of which he can hear,
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  Speaker 1: and as a result of his study, he identifies himself
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  Speaker 1: with these laws and devotes his life to the service
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  Speaker 1: of evolution. How does occultism regard vegetarianism. It regards it
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  Speaker 1: very favorably, and that for many reasons. These reasons may
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  Speaker 1: be divided into two classes, those which are ordinary and physical,
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  Speaker 1: and those which are occult or hidden. There are many
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  Speaker 1: reasons in favor of vegetarianism which are down here on
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  Speaker 1: the physical plane, and patent to the eye of any
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  Speaker 1: one who will take the trouble to examine the subject,
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  Speaker 1: and these will operate with the occult student even more
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  Speaker 1: strongly than with the ordinary man. In addition to these,
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  Speaker 1: and altogether beyond them, the occult student knows of other
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  Speaker 1: reasons which come from the study of those hidden laws,
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  Speaker 1: which are as yet so little understood by the majority
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  Speaker 1: of mankind. We must therefore divide our consideration of these
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  Speaker 1: reasons into two parts, first taking the ordinary and physical.
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  Speaker 1: Even these ordinary reasons may themselves be subdivided into two classes,
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  Speaker 1: the first containing those which are physical and, as it were, selfish,
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  Speaker 1: and secondly those which may be described as the moral
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  Speaker 1: and unselfish considerations. First, then, let us take the reasons
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  Speaker 1: in favor of vegetarianism, which concern only the man himself
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  Speaker 1: and are purely upon the physical plane. For the moment,
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  Speaker 1: we will put aside the consideration of the effect upon others,
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  Speaker 1: which is so infinitely more important, and think only of
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  Speaker 1: the results for the man himself. It is necessary to
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  Speaker 1: do this because us. One of the objections frequently brought
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  Speaker 1: against vegetarianism is that it is a beautiful theory, but
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  Speaker 1: one the working out of which is impractical. Since it
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  Speaker 1: is supposed that a man cannot live without devouring dead flesh.
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  Speaker 1: That objection is irrational and is founded upon ignorance or
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  Speaker 1: perversion of facts. I am myself an example of its falsity,
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  Speaker 1: for I have lived without the pollution of flesh, food,
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  Speaker 1: without meat, fish or fowl for the last thirty eight years,
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  Speaker 1: and I not only still survive, but I have been
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  Speaker 1: during all that time in remarkably good health. Nor am
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  Speaker 1: I in any way peculiar in this, for I know
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  Speaker 1: some thousands of others who have done the same thing.
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  Speaker 1: I know some younger ones who have been so happy
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  Speaker 1: as to be unpolluted by the eating of flesh during
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  Speaker 1: their whole lives, and are distinctly freer from disease than
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  Speaker 1: those who partake of such things. Assuredly, there are many
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  Speaker 1: reasons in favor of vegetarianism from the purely selfish point
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  Speaker 1: of view, and I will put that first, because I
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  Speaker 1: know that the selfish considerations will appeal most strongly to
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  Speaker 1: the majority of people. Though I hope that in the
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  Speaker 1: case of those who are studying theosophy, we may assume
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  Speaker 1: that the moral considerations which I shall later adduce will
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  Speaker 1: sway them far more Forcibly. End of introduction Recording by
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  Speaker 1: Andrea Fiori, Section one of Vegetarianism and Occultism. This LibriVox
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  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Recording by Andrea Fiori,
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  Speaker 1: Vegetarianism and Occultism by C. W. Leadbeater, Section one. We
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  Speaker 1: want the best, I take it. Then, in food as
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  Speaker 1: well as in everything else, we all of us want
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  Speaker 1: the best that is within our means. We should like
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  Speaker 1: to bring our lives, and therefore our daily food as
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  Speaker 1: a not unimportant part of our lives, into harmony with
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  Speaker 1: our aspirations, into harmony with the highest that we know.
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  Speaker 1: We should be glad to take what is really best,
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  Speaker 1: And if we do not yet know enough to be
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  Speaker 1: able to appreciate what is best, then we should be
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  Speaker 1: glad to learn to do so. If we think of it,
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  Speaker 1: we shall see that this is the case along other lines,
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  Speaker 1: as for example, in music, art or literature. We have
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  Speaker 1: been taught from childhood that if we want our musical
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  Speaker 1: taste developed along the best lines, we must select only
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  Speaker 1: the best music, And if at first we do not
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  Speaker 1: fully appreciate or understand it, we must be willing patiently
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  Speaker 1: to wait and to listen until at length something of
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  Speaker 1: its sweet beauty dawns upon our souls, and we come
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  Speaker 1: to comprehend that which at first awaken no response within
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  Speaker 1: our hearts. If we want to appreciate the best in art,
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  Speaker 1: we must not fill our eyes with the sensational broadcasts
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  Speaker 1: of police news, or with the hideous abominations which are
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  Speaker 1: miscalled comic pictures. But we must steadily look and learn
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  Speaker 1: until the mystery of the work of Turner begins to
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  Speaker 1: unfold to our patient contemplation, or the grand breadth of
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  Speaker 1: a last case comes within our power to understand. So too,
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  Speaker 1: in literature, it has been the sad experience of many
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  Speaker 1: that much of the best and the most beautiful is
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  Speaker 1: lost to those whose mental food consists exclusively of the
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  Speaker 1: sensational paper, or the cheap novel, or that frothy mass
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  Speaker 1: of waste material which is thrown up like scum upon
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  Speaker 1: the molten metal of life, novelettes, siri and fragments of
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  Speaker 1: a type which neither teach the ignorant, nor strengthen the weak,
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  Speaker 1: nor develop the immature. If we wish to unfold the
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  Speaker 1: mind in our children, we do not leave them to
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  Speaker 1: their own uncultivated taste in all these things, but we
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  Speaker 1: try to help them to train that taste, whether it
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  Speaker 1: be in art, in music, or in literature. Surely then
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  Speaker 1: we may seek to find the best in physical as
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  Speaker 1: well as in mental food. And surely we must find
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  Speaker 1: this not by mere blind instinct, but by learning to
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  Speaker 1: think and to reason out the matter from the higher
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  Speaker 1: point of view. There may be those in the world
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  Speaker 1: who have no desire for the best, who are willing
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  Speaker 1: to remain on the lower levels, and consciously and intentionally
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  Speaker 1: to build into themselves that which is coarse and degrading.
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  Speaker 1: But surely there are many who wish to rise above this,
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  Speaker 1: who would gladly and eagerly take the best, if only
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  Speaker 1: they knew what it was, or if their attention was
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  Speaker 1: directed to it. There are men and women who are
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  Speaker 1: morally of the highest class, who yet have been brought
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  Speaker 1: up to feed with the hyenas and the wolves of life,
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  Speaker 1: and have been taught that their necessary dietary was the
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  Speaker 1: corpse of a slaughtered animal. It needs but little thought
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  Speaker 1: to show us that this horror cannot be the highest
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  Speaker 1: in the purest and that if we ever wish to
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  Speaker 1: raise ourselves in the scale of nature, if we ever
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  Speaker 1: wish that our bodies shall be pure and clean as
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  Speaker 1: the temples of the Master should be. We must abandon
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  Speaker 1: this loathesome custom and take our place among the princely
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  Speaker 1: hosts who are striving for the evolution of mankind, striving
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  Speaker 1: for the highest and the purest in everything, for themselves
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  Speaker 1: as well as for their fellow men. Let us see
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  Speaker 1: in detail why a vegetarian diet is emphatically the purest
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  Speaker 1: and the best end of section one. Recording by Andrea Fiori.
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  Speaker 1: Section two of Vegetarianism and Occultism. This LibriVox recording is
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  Speaker 1: in the public domain recording by Andrea Fiori. Vegetarianism and
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  Speaker 1: Occultism by C. W. Leadbeater, Section two. More nutriment First,
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  Speaker 1: because vegetables contain more nutriment than an equal amount of
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  Speaker 1: dead flesh. This will sound a surprising and incredible statement
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  Speaker 1: to many people, because they have been brought up to
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  Speaker 1: believe that they cannot exist unless they defile themselves with flesh,
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  Speaker 1: and this delusion is so widely spread that it is
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  Speaker 1: difficult to awaken the average man from it. It must
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  Speaker 1: be clearly understood that this is not a question of
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  Speaker 1: habit or of sentiment, or of prejudice. It is simply
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  Speaker 1: a question of plain fact, and as to the facts,
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  Speaker 1: there is not, and there never has been, the slightest question.
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  Speaker 1: There are four elements necessary in food, all of them
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  Speaker 1: essential to the repair and the upbuilding of the body.
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  Speaker 1: A Proteins or nitrogenous foods. B carbohydrates C, fats, D salts.
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  Speaker 1: This is the classification usually accepted among physiologists, although some
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  Speaker 1: recent investigations are tending to modify it to a certain extent.
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  Speaker 1: Now there is no question that all of these elements
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  Speaker 1: exist to a greater extent in vegetables than they do
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  Speaker 1: in dead flesh. For instance, milk, cream, cheese, nuts, peas,
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  Speaker 1: and beans contain a large percentage of proteins or nitrogenous matter. Wheat, oats,
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  Speaker 1: rice and other grains, fruits, and most of the vegetables
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  Speaker 1: except perhaps peas, beans and lentils, consists mainly of carbohydrates,
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  Speaker 1: that is, of starches and sugars. The fats are found
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  Speaker 1: in nearly all of the protein foods, and can also
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  Speaker 1: be taken in the form of butter or of oils.
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  Speaker 1: The salts are found practically in all foods to a
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  Speaker 1: greater or less extent. They are of the utmost importance
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  Speaker 1: in the maintenance of the body tissues, and what is
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  Speaker 1: called saline starvation is the cause of many diseases. It
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  Speaker 1: is sometimes claimed that flesh meat contain some of the
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  Speaker 1: things to a larger degree than vegetables, and some tables
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  Speaker 1: are drawn up in such a way as to suggest this.
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  Speaker 1: But once more, this is a question of facts and
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  Speaker 1: must be faced. From that point of view, the only
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  Speaker 1: sources of energy and dead flesh are the protein matter
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  Speaker 1: contained therein and the fat, And as the fat in
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  Speaker 1: it certainly has no more value than other fat, the
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  Speaker 1: only point to be considered is the proteins. Now, it
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  Speaker 1: must be remembered that proteins have only one origin. They
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  Speaker 1: are organized in plants and nowhere else. Nuts, peas, beans,
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  Speaker 1: and lentils are far richer than any kind of flesh
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  Speaker 1: in these elements, and they have this enormous advantage that
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  Speaker 1: the proteins are pure and therefore contain all the energy
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  Speaker 1: originally stored up in them during their organization. In the
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  Speaker 1: animal body, these proteins, which the animal has absorbed from
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  Speaker 1: the vegetable kingdom during its life, are constantly passing down
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  Speaker 1: to disorganization, during which descent the energy originally stored in
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  Speaker 1: them is released. Consequently, what has been used already by
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  Speaker 1: one animal cannot be utilized by another. The proteins are
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  Speaker 1: estimated in some of these tables by the amount of
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  Speaker 1: nitrogen contained therein. But in flesh meat there are many
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  Speaker 1: products of tissue change, such as urea, uric acid, and creatine,
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  Speaker 1: all of which contain nitrogen and are therefore estimated as proteins,
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  Speaker 1: though they have no food value whatsoever. Nor is this
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  Speaker 1: all the evil. For this tissue change is necessarily accompanied
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  Speaker 1: by the formation of various poisons, which are always to
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  Speaker 1: be found in flesh of any kind, and in many
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  Speaker 1: cases the virulence of these poisons is very great. So
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  Speaker 1: you will observe that if you gain any nourishment from
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  Speaker 1: the eating of dead flesh, you obtain it because during
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  Speaker 1: its life the an animal consume vegetable matter. You get
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  Speaker 1: less of this nourishment than you ought to have, because
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  Speaker 1: the animal has already used half of it, and you
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  Speaker 1: have along with it various undesirable substances and even some
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  Speaker 1: active poisons, which are of course distinctly deleterious. I know
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  Speaker 1: that there are many doctors who will prescribe the lowes
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  Speaker 1: and flesh diet in order to strengthen people, and that
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  Speaker 1: they will often meet with a certain amount of success,
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  Speaker 1: though even on this point they are by no means agreed.
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  Speaker 1: For doctor Milner Fothergill writes, all the bloodshed caused by
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: the warlike disposition of Napoleon is as nothing compared to
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: the loss of life among the myriads of persons who
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: have sunk into their graves through a displaced confidence in
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: the supposed value of beef tea. At any rate, the
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  Speaker 1: strengthening results can be obtained more easily from the vegetable kingdom,
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  Speaker 1: when the science of diet is properly understood, and they
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  Speaker 1: can be obtained without the horrible pollution and without all
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  Speaker 1: the undesirable concomitants of the other system. Let me show
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  Speaker 1: you that I am not, in all this making any
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  Speaker 1: unfounded assertations. Let me quote to you the opinions of physicians,
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  Speaker 1: of men whose names are well known in the medical world,
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  Speaker 1: so you may see that I have abundant authority for
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  Speaker 1: all that I have said. We find Sir Henry Thompson
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  Speaker 1: f r c S. Saying it is a vulgar error
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  Speaker 1: to regard meat in any form as necessary to life.
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  Speaker 1: All that is necessary to the human body can be
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  Speaker 1: supplied by the vegetable kingdom. The vegetarian can extract from
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  Speaker 1: his food all the principles necessary for the growth and
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: support of the body, as well as for the production
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  Speaker 1: of heat and force. It must be admitted as a
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  Speaker 1: fact beyond all question, that some persons are stronger and
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  Speaker 1: more healthy who live on that food. I know how
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  Speaker 1: much of the prevailing meat diet is not merely a
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  Speaker 1: wasteful extravagance, but a source of serious evil to the consumer.
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  Speaker 1: There is a definite statement by a well known medical man.
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  Speaker 1: Then we may turn to the words of a fellow
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  Speaker 1: of the Royal Society, Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson, m D.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: He says it must be honestly admitted that weight by weight,
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  Speaker 1: vegetable substance, when carefully selected, possesses the most striking advantages
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  Speaker 1: over animal food in nutritious value. I should like to
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: see a vegetarian and fruit living plan put into general use,
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: and I believe it will be. The well known physician,
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: Doctor William S. Playfair c B has said quite clearly
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: animal diet is not essential to man. And we find
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: doctor F. J. Sykes, b SC, the medicat official for
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: Saint Pancras, writing, chemistry is not antagonistic to vegetarianism any
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  Speaker 1: more than biology is. Flesh food is certainly not necessary
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  Speaker 1: to supply the nitrogenous products required for the repair of tissues. Therefore,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: a well selected diet from the vegetable kingdom is perfectly
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: right from the chemical point of view. For the nutrition
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: of men. Doctor Francis Thatcher frcs FCS remarks, I have
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  Speaker 1: no belief that a man is better physically or mentally
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  Speaker 1: for taking flesh food. Doctor Alexander Haig f p CP,
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  Speaker 1: the leading physician of one of the great London hospitals,
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  Speaker 1: has written that it is easily possible to sustain life
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  Speaker 1: on the products of the vegetable kingdom needs no demonstration
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  Speaker 1: for physiologists, even if the majority of the human race
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  Speaker 1: were not constantly engaged in demonstrating it. And my researches
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: show not only that it is possible, but that it
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: is infinitely preferable in every way and produces superior powers
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  Speaker 1: both of mind and body. Doctor M. F. Cou Rays
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: in the American Practitioner and News of July nineteen o
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: two concluded a scientific article as follows. Let me state
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: first that the flesh of warm blooded animals is not
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: essential as a diet for the purpose of maintaining the
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: human body in perfect health. He goes on to make
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: some further remarks, which we shall quote under our next head.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: The Dean of the Faculty of Jefferson Medical College of
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: Philadelphia said, it is a well known fact that cereals,
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: as articles of daily food, hold a high place in
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  Speaker 1: the human economy. They contain constituents amply sufficient to sustain
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: life in its highest form. If the value of cereal
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: food products were better known, it would be a good
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: thing for the race. Nations live and thrive upon them alone.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: And it has been fully demonstrated that meat is not
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: a necessity. There you have a number of plain statements,
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: and all of them are taken from the writings of
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: well known men who have made a considerable study of
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: the chemistry of foods. It is impossible to deny that
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: a man can exist without this horrible flesh diet, and furthermore,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: that there is more nutriment in an equal amount of
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: vegetable than of dead flesh. I could give you many
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: other quotations, but those above mentioned are sufficient, and they
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: are fair samples of the rest end of section two
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: recording by Andrea Fury Section three of Vegetarianism and Occultism.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: Andrea Fiori. Vegetarianism and Occultism by C. W. Leadbeater, Section
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: three Less disease second, because many diseases come from this
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: lowesome habit of devouring dead bodies. Here again, I could
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: easily give you a long list of quotations, but as before,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: I will be satisfied with a few. Doctor Hosiah Oldfield,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: m R C. S L R c P writes flesh
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: is an unnatural food and therefore tends to create functional
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: disturbances as it is taken in modern civilizations. It is
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: infected with such terrible diseases readily communicable to man as cancer, consumption, fever,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: intestinal worms, et cetera. To an enormous extent. There is
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: little need to wonder that flesh eating is one of
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: the most serious causes of the diseases that carry off
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: ninety nine out of every hundred people that are born.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: Sir Edward Saunders tells us any attempt to teach mankind
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: that beef and beer are not necessary for health and
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: efficiency must be good, and must tend to thrift in happiness.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: And as this goes on, I believe we shall hear
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  Speaker 1: less of gout Bright's disease and trouble with the liver
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: and the kidneys in the former, and less of brutality
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: and wife beating and murder in the latter. I believe
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: that the tendency is towards vegetarian diet, that it will
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: be recognized as fit and proper, and that the time
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: is not far distant when the idea of animal food
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: will be found revolting to civilized man. Sir Robert Christison,
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: m d. Asserts positively that the flesh and secretions of
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: animals affected with carbuncular diseases analogousts to anthrax, are so
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: poisonous that those who eat the product of them are
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: apt to suffer severely, the disease taking the form either
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: of inflammation of the digestive canal or of an eruption
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: of one or more carbuncles. Doctor A. Kingsford of the
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: University of Paris says animal meat may directly endanger many
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: painful and lonesome diseases. Scrapula itself that feacan source of
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: suffering in death, not improbably owes its origin to flesh
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: eating habits. It is a curious fact that the word
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: scrapula is derived from scrapha a sow. To say that
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: one has scrapula is to say that he has swines evil.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: In his fifth report to the Privy Council in England,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: we find Professor Gamghi stating that one fifth of the
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: total amount of meat consumed is derived from animals killed
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: in a state of malignant disease, while Professor A. Winter
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: blythe f r C S writes, economically speaking, flesh is
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: not necessary, and meat seriously diseased may be so prepared
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: as to look like fairly good meat. Many an animal
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: with advanced diseases of the lung yet shows to the
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: naked eye no appearance in the flesh which differs from
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: the normal. Doctor s One K. Coombs, in the article
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: above quoted, remarks, we have many substitutes for meat which
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: are free from the deleterious effects of that food upon
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: the animal economy, namely in the production of rheumatism, gout,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: and all other kindred diseases, to say nothing of cerebral congestion,
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: which frequently terminates in apoplexy and venal diseases of one
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: kind in another migraine, and many other such forms of
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: headache resulting from the excessive use of meat and often
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: produced when meat is not eaten to excess. Doctor J. H.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: Kellogg remarks, it is interesting to note that scientific men
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: all over the world are awakening to the fact that
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: the flesh of animals as food is not pure nutriment,
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: but is mixed with poisonous substances excrementitious in character, which
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: are the natural results of animal life life. The vegetable
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: stores up energy. It is from the vegetable world, the
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: coal and the wood, that the energy is derived, which
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: runs our steam engines, pulls our trains, drives our steamships,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: and does the work of civilization. It is from the
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: vegetable world that all animals, directly or indirectly derive the energy,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: which is manifested by animal life through muscular and mental work.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: The vegetable builds up, the animal tears down. The vegetable
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: stores up energy. The animal expends energy. Various waste and
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: poisonous products result from the manifestation of energy, whether by
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: the locomotive or the animal. The working tissues of the
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: animal are enabled to continue their activity only by the
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: fact that they are continually washed clean by the blood,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: a never ceasing stream flowing through and about them, carrying
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: away the poisonous products resulting from their work as rapidly
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: as they are formed. The venus blood owes its character
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: to these poisons, which are removed by the kidneys, lungs,
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: skin and bowels. The flesh of a dead animal contains
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: a great quantity of these poisons, the elimination of which
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: ceases at the instant of death, although their formation continues
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: for some time after death. An eminent French surgeon recently
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: remarked that beef tea is a veritable source of poisons.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: Intelligent physicians everywhere are coming to recognize these facts and
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: to make a practical application of them. Here again, you see,
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: we have no lack of evidence, and many of the
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: quotations with regard to the introduction of poisons into the
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: system through flesh food are not from the vegetarian doctors,
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: but from those who still hold it right to eat
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: sparingly of corpses, but yet have studied to some extent
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: the science of the matter. It should be remembered that
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: dead flesh can never be in a condition of perfect health.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: Because decay commences at the moment when the creature is killed.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: All sorts of products are being formed in this process
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: of retrograde change. All of these are useless, and many
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: of them are positively dangerous and poisonous. In the ancient
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: scriptures of the Hindus we find a very remarkable passage
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: which refers to the fact that even in India, some
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: of the lower casts at that early period commenced to
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: feed on flesh. The statement made is that in ancient
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: times only three diseases existed, one of which was old age,
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: but that now since people had commenced to eat flesh,
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: seventy eight new diseases had arisen. This shows us that
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: the idea that disease might come from the devouring of
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: corpses has been recognized for thousands of years. End of
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: section three. Recording by Andrea Fiuri. Section four of Vegetarianism
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: and Occultism. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: Recording by Andrea Fiori. Vegetarianism and Occultism by C. W. Leadbeater,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: Section four. More natural to Man Third, because man is
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: not naturally made to be carnivorous, and therefore this horrible
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: food is not suited to him. Here again, let me
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: give you a few quotations to show you what authorities
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: are ranged upon our side of the matter. Baron q
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: Vier himself writes, the natural food of man, judging from
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: his structure, consists of fruit, roots and vegetables. And Professor
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: Ray tells us certainly man was never made to be
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: a carnivorous animal. Sir Richard Owen f r C. S
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: rights anthropoids and all the quadrumana derive their alimentation from fruits, grains,
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: and other succulent vegetable substances, and the strict analogy which
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: exists between the structures of these animals and that of
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: man clearly demonstrates his frugivorous nature. Another fellow of the
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: Royal Society, Professor William Lawrence, writes, the teeth of man
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: have not the slightest resemblance to those of carnivorous animals,
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: And whether we consider the teeth, the jaws, or the
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: digestive organs, the human structure closely resembles that of frugivorous animals.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: Once More, Doctor Spenn, Sir Thompson remarks, no physiologist would
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: dispute that man ought to live on a vegetarian diet,
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: and doctor Sylvester Graham writes, comparative anatomy proves that man
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: is naturally a frugivorous animal, formed to subsist upon fruits, seeds,
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: and farinaceous vegetables. The desirability of the vegetarian diet will,
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: of course need no argument for any one who believes
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: in the inspiration of the scriptures, For it will be
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: remembered that God, in speaking to Adam, while in the
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: garden of Eden, said behold, I have given you every
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: of a tree yielding seed. To you it shall be
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: for meat. And it was only after the fall of man,
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: when death came into the world, that a more degraded
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: idea of feeding came along with it. And if now
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: we hope to rise again again to eat in it conditions,
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: we must surely commence by abolishing unnecessary slaughter performed in
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: order to supply us with horrible and degrading food. End
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: of section four. Recording by Andrea Fiori, Section five of
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: Vegetarianism and Occultism. This LibriVox recording is in the public
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: domain recording by Andrea Fiori. Vegetarianism and Occultism by C. W. Leadbeater,
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: Section five Greater Strength Fourth because men are stronger and
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: better on a vegetarian diet. I know that people say
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: you will be so weak if you do not eat
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: dead flesh. As a matter of fact, this is untrue.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: I do not know whether there may be any people
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: who find themselves weaker on a diet of vegetables. But
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: I do know this that in many athletic contests recently,
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: the vegetarians have proved themselves the strongest and the most enduring,
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: as for example, in the recent cycling races in Germany,
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: where all those who took high places in the race
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: were vegetarian. There have been many such trials, and they
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: show that other things being equal, the man who takes
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: pure food succeeds better. We have to face facts, and
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: in this case the facts are all ranged on one
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: side as against foolish prejudices and lothsome lust on the other.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: The reason was plainly given by doctor J. D. Craig,
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: who writes vigor of the body is often boasted by
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: flesh eaters, particularly if they live mostly in the open air,
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: but there is peculiarity about them, and they have not
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: the endurance of vegetarians. The reason of this is that
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: flesh meat is already on the downward path of retrograde change,
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: and as a consequence, its presence in the tissues is
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: of short duration. The impetus given to it in the
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: body of the animal from which it was taken is
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: reinforced by another impulse in the second one. And for
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: these reasons what energy it does contain is soon given out,
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: and there are urgent demands for more to take its place.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: The flesh eater then may do a large amount of
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: work in a short time. If well fed, he soon
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: gets hungry, however, and when so becomes weak. On the
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: other hand, vegetable products are of slow digestion, They contain
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: all of the original store of energy and no poisons.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: Their retrograde change is less rapid than meat having just commenced,
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: and therefore their forces released more slowly with less loss,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: and the person nourished by them can work for a
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: long time without food if necessary, and without discomfort. The
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: people in Europe who abstain from flesh are of the
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: better and more intelligent class, and the subject of endurance
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: has been approached and thoroughly investigated by them. In Germany
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: and England, a number of notable athletic contests that required
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: endurance have been made between flesh eaters and vegetarians, with
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: the result that the vegetarian has invariably come off victorious.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: We shall find, if we investigate, that this fact has
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: been known for a long time, for even in ancient
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: history we find traces of it. It will be recollected
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: that of all the tribes of Greeks, the strongest and
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: the most enduring, by universal admission and reputation, were the Spartans,
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: and the simplicity of their vegetable diet is a matter
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: of common knowledge. Think too of the Greek athletes, those
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: who prepared themselves with such care for participation in the
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: Olympian and Isthmian Games. If you will read the classics,
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: you will find that these men, who in their own
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: line surpassed all the rest of the world, lived upon figs, nuts, cheese,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: and maize. Then there were the Roman gladiators, men on
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: whose strength depended their life and fame, And yet we
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: find that their diet consisted exclusively of barley, cakes and oil.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: They knew well that this was the most strengthening food.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: All these examples show us that the common and persistent
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: fallacy that one must eat flesh in order to be
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: strong has no foundation. In fact, indeed, the exact contrary
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: is true. Charles Darwin remarked in one of his letters,
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: the most extraordinary workers I ever saw, the laborers in
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: the mines of Chili live exclusively on vegetable food, including
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: many seeds of laguminous plants. Of the same miners, Sir
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: Francis Head writes, it is usual for the copper miners
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: of central Chili to carry loads of ore of two
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: hundred pounds weight up eighty perpendicular yards, twelve times a day,
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: and their diet is entirely vegetarian, a breakfast of figs
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: and small loaves of bread, a dinner of boiled beans,
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: and a supper of roasted wheat. Mister F. T. Wood,
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: in his Discoveries at Ephesus, writes, the Turkish porters in
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: Smyrna often carry from four hundred to six hundred pounds
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: weighed on their backs, and the captain one day pointed
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: out to me one of his men who had carried
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: an enormous bale of merchandise weighing eight hundred pounds up
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: in incline into an upper warehouse, so that with this
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: frugal diet, their strength was unusually great. Of these same Turks,
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: Sir William Fairbaron has said, the Turk can live and
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: fight where soldiers of any other nationality would starve. His
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: simple habits. His abstinence from intoxicating liquors and his normal
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: vegetarian diet enable him to suffer the greatest hardships and
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: to exist on the scantiest and simplest of foods. I
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: myself can bear witness to the enormous strength displayed by
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: the vegetarian Tamil coolies of the south of India, for
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: I have frequently seen them carry loads which astonished me.
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: I remember, in one case, standing upon the deck of
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: a steamer and watching one of these coolies take a
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: huge case upon his back and walk slowly but steadily
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: down a plank to the shore with it and deposit
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: it in a shed. The captain standing by me remarked
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: with surprise why it took four English laborers to get
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: that case on board in the docks at London. I
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: have also seen another of these coolies, after having had
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: a great piano put on his back, carry it unaided
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: for a considerable distance. Yet these men are entirely vegetarian,
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: for they live chiefly upon rice and water, with perhaps
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: occasionally a little tamarind for flavoring. On the same subject,
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: doctor Alexander Haig, whom we have already quoted, writes, the
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: effect of getting free from uric acid has been to
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: make my bodily powers quite as great as they were
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: fifteen years ago. I scarcely believe that even fifteen years
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: ago I could have undertaken the exercise in which I
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: now indulge with absolute impunity, with freedom from fatigue and
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: distress at the time, and from stiffness next day. Indeed,
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: I often say that it is impossible now to tire me,
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: and relatively I believe this is true. This distinguished physician
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: became a vegetarian because from his study of the diseases
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: caused by the presence of uric acid in the system,
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: he discovered that flesh eating was the chief source of
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: this deadly poison. Another interesting point which he mentions is
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: that his change of diet brought about in him a
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: distinct change of disposition, that whereas he found himself constantly
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: nervous and irritable, he now became much steadier and calmer
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: and less angry. He fully realizes that this is due
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: to the change in his food. If we require any
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: further evidence, we have it close to our hand. In
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: the animal kingdom. We shall observe that there the carnivora
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: are not the strongest, but that all the work of
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: the world is done by the herbivora, by horses, mules, oxen, elephants,
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: and camels. We do not find that men can utilize
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: the lion or the tiger, or that the strength of
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: these savage flesh eaters is at all equal to that
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: of those who assimilate directly from the vegetable kingdom. End
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: of section five. Recording by Andrea Fiori, Section six of
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: Vegetarianism and Occultism. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: Recording by Andrea Fiori. Vegetarianism and Occultism by C. W. Leadbeater,
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: Section six less animal passion. Fifth because the eating of
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: dead bodies leads to indulgence in drink and increases animal
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: passions in man. Mister H. P. Fowler, who has studied
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: and lectured on dipsomania for forty years, declares that the
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: use of flesh food, by the excitation that it exercises
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: on the nervous system, prepares the way for habits of
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: intemperance in everything, and the more flesh is consumed, the
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: more serious is the danger of confirmed alcoholism. Many experienced
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: physicians have made similar experiments and wisely act on them
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: in their treatment of dipsomaniacs. The lower part of man's
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: nature is undoubtedly intensified by the habit of feeding upon corpses.
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: Even after eating a full meal of such horrible material,
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: a man still feels unsatisfied, for he is still conscious
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: of a vague, uncomfortable sense of want, and consequently he
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: suffers greatly from nervous strain. This craving is the hunger
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: of the bodily tissues which cannot be renewed by the
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: poor stuff offered to them as food. To satisfy this
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: vague craving, or rather to appease these restless nerves so
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: that it will no longer be felt, recourse is often
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: had to stimulants. Sometimes alcoholic beverages are taken. Sometimes an
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: attempt is made to allay these feelings with black coffee,
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: and at other times strong tobacco is used in the
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: endeavor to soothe the irritated, exhausted nerves. Here we have
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: the beginning of intemperance, for in the majority of cases,
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: intemperance began in the attempt to allay with alcoholic stimulants
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: the vague, uncomfortable sense of want which follows the eating
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: of impoverished food, food that does not feed. There is
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: no doubt that drunkenness and all the poverty, wretchedness, disease,
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: and crime associated with it may frequently be traced to
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: errors of feeding. We might follow out this line of
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: thought indefinitely. We might speak of the irritability occasionally culminating
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: in insanity, which is now acknowledged by all authorities to
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: be a frequent result of erroneous feeding. We might mention
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: a hundred familiar symptoms of indigestion and explain that indigestion
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: is always the result of incorrect feeding. Surely, however, enough
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: has been said to indicate the importance and far reaching
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: influence of a pure diet upon the welfare of the
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: individual and of the race. Mister Bramwell Booth the chief
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: of the Salvation Army, has issued a Pronunciamento upon the
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: subject of vegetarianism, in which he speaks strongly and decidedly
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: in its favor, giving a list of no less than
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: nineteen good reasons why men should abstain from the eating
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: of flesh. He insists that a vegetarian diet is necessary
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: to purity, to chastity, and to the perfect control of
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: the appetites and passions which are so often the source
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: of great temptation. He remarks that the growth of meat
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: eating among the people is one of the causes of
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: the increase of drunkenness, and that it also favors indolence, sleepiness,
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: want of energy, indigestion, constipation, and other like miseries and degradations.
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: He also states that ezema, piles, worms, dysentery, and severe
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: headaches are frequently brought on by flesh diet, and that
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: he believes the great increase in consumption and cancer during
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: the last hundred years to have been caused by the
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: corresponding increase in the use of animal food. End of
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: section six recording by Andrea Fury, Section seven of Vegetarianism
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: and Occultism. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: recording by Andrea Fury. Vegetarianism and Occultism by C. W.
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: Leedby's section seven six. Because the vegetable diet is in
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: every way cheaper as well as better than flesh. In
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: the encyclical just mention, mister Booth gives as one of
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: his reasons for advocating it that a vegetarian diet of wheat, oats, maize,
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: and other grains lentils, peas, beans, nuts, and similar food
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: is more than ten times as economical as a flesh diet.
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: Meat contains half its weight in water, which has to
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: be paid for as though it were meat. A vegetable diet,
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: even if we allow cheese, butter and milk, will cost
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: only about a quarter as much as a mixed diet
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: of flesh and vegetables. Tens of thousands of our poor people,
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: who have now the greatest difficulty to make ends meat
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: after buying flesh food, would buy the substitution of fruit
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: and vegetables and other economical foods be a to get
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: along in comfort. There is also an economic side of
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: this question which must not be ignored. Note how many
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: more men could be supported by a certain number of
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: acres of land which were devoted to the growing of
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: wheat than by the same amount of land which was
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: laid out in pasture. Think two, for how many more
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: men healthily work upon the land would be found in
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: the former case than in the latter. And I think
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: you will begin to see that there is a great
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: deal to be said from this point of view. Also
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: end of section seven recording by Andrea Fiori. Section eight
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: of Vegetarianism and Occultism. This LibriVox recording is in the
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: public domain. Recording by Andrea Fiori. Vegetarianism and Occultism by C. W. Leadbeater,
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: Section eight Sin on slaughter. Hitherto we have been speaking
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: of what we have called the physical and selfish considerations
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: which should make a man give up the eating of
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: this dead flesh, and turn him, even though only for
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: his own sake, to a purer diet. Let us now
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: think for a few moments of the moral and unselfish
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: considerations connected with his duty towards others. The first of these,
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: and this does seem to me a most terrible thing,
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: is the awful sin of unnecessarily murdering these animals, those
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: who live in Chicago know well how this ghastly, ceaseless
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: slaughter goes on in their midst, how they feed the
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: greater part of the world by wholesale butchery, and how
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: the money made in this abominable business is stained with blood,
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: every coin of it. I have shown clearly, upon irreproachable testimony,
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: that all this is unnecessary, and if it is unnecessary,
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: it is a crime. The destruction of life is always
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: a crime. There may be certain cases in which it
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: is the lesser of two evils, but here it is
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: needless and without a shadow of justification. For it happens
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: only because of the selfish, unscrupulous greed of those who
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: coin money out of the agonies of the animal kingdom,
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: in order to pander to the perverted tastes of those
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: who are sufficiently depraved to desire such lowsome ailment. Remember,
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: it is not only those who do the obscene work,
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: but those who, by feeding up on this dead flesh,
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: encourage them and make their crime remunerative, who are guilty
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: before God of this awful thing. Every person who partakes
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: of this unclean food has his share in the indescribable
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: guilt and suffering by which it has been obtained. It
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: is universally recognized in law that ca facet per alien
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: facet per se. Whatsoever a man does through another, he
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: does himself. A man will often say, but it would
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: make no difference to all this horror if I alone
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: cease to eat meat that is untrue and disingenious. First,
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: it would make a difference, for although you may consume
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: only a pound or two each day, that would in
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: time amount to the weight of an animal. Secondly, it
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: is not a question of amount, but of complicity in
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: a crime. And if you partake of the results of
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: a crime, you are helping to make it remunerative, and
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: so you share in the guilt. No honest man can
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: fail to see that this is so. But when men's
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: lower lusts are concerned, they are usually dishonest in their
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: view and decline to face the plain facts. There surely
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: can be no difference of opinion as to the proposition
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: that all this horrible, unnecessary slaughter is indeed a terrible crime.
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: Another point to be remembered is that there is dreadful
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: cruelty connected with the transport of these miserable animals, both
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: by land and sea, and there is often dreadful cruelty
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: in the slaughtering itself. Those who seek to justify these
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: lonesome crimes will tell you that an endeavor is made
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: to murder the animals as rapidly and painlessly as possible.
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: But you have only to read the reports to see
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: that in many cases these intentions are not carried out,
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: and appalling suffering ensues. End of section eight. Recording by
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: Andrea Fury. Section nine of Vegetarianism and Occultism. This LibriVox
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Recording by Andrea Fury.
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: Vegetarianism and Occultism by C. W. Leadbeater, Section nine. The
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: degradation of the slaughter man. Yet another point to be
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: considered is the wickedness of causing degradation and sin and
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: other men. If you, yourselves had to use the knife
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: or the pole axe and slaughter the animal before you
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: so you could feed upon its flesh, you would realize
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: the sickening nature of the task and would soon refuse
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: to perform it. Would the delicate ladies who devour sanguinary
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: beefsteaks like to see their sons working as slaughter men.
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: If not, then they have no right to put this
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: task upon some other woman's son. We have no right
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: to impose upon a fellow citizen work which we ourselves
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: should decline to do. It may be said that we
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: force no one to undertake this abominable means of livelihood,
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: But that is a mere trigivousation, for in eating this
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: horrible food, we are making a demand that some one
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: shall brutalize himself, that someone shall degrade himself below the
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: level of humanity. You know that a class of men
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: has been created by the demand for this food, a
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: class of men which has an exceedingly bad reputation. Naturally,
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: those who are brutalized by such unclean work as this
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: prove themselves brutal and other relations as well. They are
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: savage in their disposition and bloodthirsty in their quarrels. And
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: I have heard it stated that in many a murder case,
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: evidence has been found that the criminal employed the particular
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: twist of the knife which is characteristic of the slaughter man.
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: You must surely recognize that here is an unspeakably horrible work,
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: and that if you take any part in this terrible business,
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: even that of helping to support it, you are putting
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: another man in the position of doing, not in the
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: least for your need, but merely for the gratification of
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: your lusts and passions, work that you would, under no
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: circumstances consent to do yourself. Then we should surely remember
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: that we are all of us hoping for the time
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: of universal peace and kindness, a golden age when war
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: shall be no more, a time when man shall be
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: so far removed from strife and anger that the whole
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: conditions of the world will be different from those which
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: now prevail. Do you not think that the animal kingdom
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: will also have its share in that good time coming,
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: that this horrible nightmare of wholesale slaughter will be removed
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: from it? The really civilized nations of the world know
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: far better than this. It is only that we of
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: the West are as yet a young race, and still
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: have many of the crudities of youth. Otherwise we could
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: not bear these things amongst us even for a day.
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: Beyond all question, the future is with the vegetarian. It
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: seems certain that in the future, and I hope it
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: may be in the near future, we shall be looking
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: back upon this time with disgust and with horror, in
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: spite of all its wonderful discoveries, in spite of its
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: marvelous machinery, in spite of the enormous fortunes that had
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: been made in it. I am certain that our descendants
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: will look back upon this age as one of only
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: partial civilization, and in fact, but little removed from savagery.
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: One of the arguments by which they will prove this
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: will assuredly be that we allowed among us this wholesale,
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: unnecessary slaughter of innocent animals, that we actually battened on
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: it and made money out of it, and that we
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: even created a class of beings who did this dirty
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: work for us, and that we are not ashamed to
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: profit by the result of their degradation. All of these
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: are considerations referring only to the physical plane. Now let
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: me tell you something of the occult side of all this.
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: Up to the present, I have made to you many statements,
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: strong and definite, I hope, but every one of them
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: statements which you can prove for yourself. You can read
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: the testimony of well known doctors and scientific men. You
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: may test for yourselves the economic side of the question.
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: You may go and see, if you will, how all
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: these different types of men contrive to live so well
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: upon vegetarian diet. All that I have said hitherto is
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: thus within your reach. But now I am abandoning the
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: field of ordinary physical reasoning and taking you up to
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: the level where you have naturally to take the word
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: of those who have explored these higher realms. Let us
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: then turn now to the hidden side of all of this,
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: the occult end of section nine recording by Andrea Fiori,
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: Section ten of Vegetarianism and Occultism. This LibriVox recording is
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: in the public domain. Recording by Andrea Fiori. Vegetarianism and
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: Occultism by C. W. Leadbeater, Section ten occult Reasons. Under
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: this heading, also we shall have two sets of reasons,
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: those which refer to ourselves and our own development, and
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: those which refer to the great scheme of evolution and
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: our duty towards it, So that once more we may
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: classify them as selfish and unselfish, although at a much
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: higher level than before. I have I hope clearly shown
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: in the earlier part of this lecture that there is
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: simply no room for discussion in regard to this question
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: of vegetarianism. The whole of the evidence and of the
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: considerations are entirely on one side, and there is absolutely
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: nothing to be said in opposition to them. This is
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: even more strikingly the case when we come to consider
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: the occult part of our agreement. There are some students
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: hovering around the fringes of occultism who are not yet
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: prepared to follow its dictates to the uttermost, and therefore
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: do not accept its teaching when it interferes with their
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: personal habits and desires. Some such have tried to maintain
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: that the question of food can make little difference from
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: the occult standpoint, But the unanimous verdict of all of
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: the great schools of Occultism, both ancient and modern, has
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: been definite on this point, and has asserted that for
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: all true progress, purity is necessary, even on the physical plane,
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: and in matters of diet, as well as in far
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: higher matters. In many books and lectures, I have already
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: explained the existence of the different planes of nations, nature,
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: and of the vast unseen world all about us, and
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: I have also had occasion to refer often to the
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: fact that man has within himself matter belonging to all
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: these higher planes, so that he is furnished with a
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: vehicle corresponding to each of them, through which he can
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: receive impressions and by means of which he can act.
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: Can these higher bodies of man be in any way
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: affected by the food which enters into the physical body
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: with which they are so closely connected. Assuredly they can,
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: And for this reason, the physical matter in man is
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: in close touch with the astral and mental matter, so
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: much so that each is, to a great extent a
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: counterpart of the other. There are many types and degrees
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: of density among astral matter, for example, so that it
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: is possible for one man to have an astral body
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: built of course and gross particles, while another may have
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: one which is much more delicate and refined. As the
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: astral body is the vehicle of the emotions, passions, and sensations,
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: it follows that the man whose astral body is of
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: the grosser type will be chiefly amenable to the grosser
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: varieties of passion and emotion, whereas the man who has
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: a finer astral body will find that its particles most
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: readily vibrate in response to higher and more refined emotions
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: and aspirations. The man, therefore, who builds gross and undesirable
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: matter into his physical body, is thereby drawing into his
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: astral body matter of a coarse and unpleasant type as
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: its counterpart. We all know that on the physical plane,
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: the effect of over indulgence in dead flesh is to
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: produce a coarse, gross appearance in the man. That does
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: not mean that it is only the physical body which
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: is in an unlovely condition. It means also that those
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: parts of the man which are invisible to our ordinary sight,
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: the astral and the mental bodies, are not in good
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: condition either. Thus, a man who is building himself a
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: gross and impure physical body is building for himself at
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: the same time coarse and unclean astral and mental bodies
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: as well. That is visible at once to the eye
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: of the developed clairvoyant. The man who learns to see
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: these higher vehicles sees at once the effects on the
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: higher bodies produced by impurity in the lower. He sees
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: at once the difference between the man who feeds his
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: physical vehicle with pure food and the man who puts
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: into it this loathsome decaying flesh. Let us see how
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: this difference will affect the man's evolution. End of Section
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: ten by Andrea Fiori. Section eleven of Vegetarianism and Occultism.
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: Andrea Fiori. Vegetarianism and Occultism by C. W. Leadbeater, Section
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: eleven Impure vehicles. It is clear that a man's duty
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: with regard to himself is to develop all his different
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: vehicles as far as possible, in order to make them
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: finished instruments for the use of the soul. There is
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: a still higher stage in which that soul itself is
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: being trained to be a fit instrument in the hands
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: of the deity, a perfect channel for the divine grace.
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: But the first step towards this high aim is that
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: the soul itself shall learn thoroughly to control the lower bodies,
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: so that these shall be in them no thought or
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: feeling except those which the soul allows. All these vehicles,
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: therefore should be in the highest possible condition of efficiency.
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: All should be pure and clean and free from taint.
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: And it is obvious that this part never be so
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: long as the man absorbs into the physical encasement such
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: undesirable constituents. Even the physical body and its sense perceptions
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: can never be at their best unless the food is pure.
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: Any One who adopts vegetarian diet will speedily begin to
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: notice that his sense of taste or smell is far
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: keener than it was when he fed upon flesh, and
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: that he is now able to discern a delicate difference
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: of flavors in foods which before he had thought of
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: as tasteless, such as rice and wheat. The same thing
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: is true to a still greater extent with rect regard
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: to the higher bodies. Their senses also cannot be clear
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: if impure in coarse matter is drawn into them. Anything
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: of this nature clogs and dulls them, so that it
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: becomes more difficult for the soul to use them. This
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: is a fact which has always been recognized by the
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: student of occultism. You will find that all those who
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: in ancient days entered upon the mysteries were men of
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: the utmost purity, and of course, invariably vegetarian. Carnivorous diet
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: is fatal to anything like real development, and those who
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: adopt it are throwing serious and unnecessary difficulties in their
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: own way. I am well aware that there are other
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: and still higher considerations which are of greater weight than
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: anything upon the physical plane, and that the purity of
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: the heart and of the soul is more important to
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: a man than that of the body. Yet there is
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: surely no reason why we should not have both. Indeed,
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: the one suggests the other, and the higher should include
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: the lower. There are quite enough difficulties in the way
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: of self control and self development. It is surely worse
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: than foolish to go out of our way to add
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: another and very considerable one to the list. Although it
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: is true that a pure heart will do more for
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: us than a pure body, yet the latter can certainly
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: do a great deal. And we are none of us
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: so far advanced along the road towards spirituality that we
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: can afford to neglect the great advantage that it gives us.
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: Anything that makes our path harder than it need be
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: is emphatically something to be avoided. In all cases. This
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: flesh food undoubtedly makes the physical body a worse instrument
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: and puts difficulties in the way of the soul by
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: intensifying all the undesirable elements and passions belonging to these
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: lower planes. Where is this serious effect during physical life?
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: The only one of which we have to think if
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: through introducing losome impurities into the physical body. The man
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: builds himself a coarse and unclean astral body. We have
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: to remember that it is in this degraded vehicle that
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: he will have to spend the first part of his
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: life after death. Because of the gross matter which he
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: has built into it, all sorts of undesirable entities will
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: be drawn into association with him, and will make his
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: vehicles their home, and find a ready response within him
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: to their lower passions. It is not only that his
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: animal passions are more easily stirred here on earth, but
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: in addition to this, he will suffer acutely from the
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: working out of these desires after death. Here, again, looked
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: at even from the selfish point of view, we see
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: that occult considerations confirm the straightforward common sense of the
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: arguments on the physicsane. The higher sight, when brought to
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: bear upon this problem, shows us still more vividly how
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: undesirable is the devouring of flesh, since it intensifies within
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: us that from which we need to be free, And therefore,
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: from the point of view of progress, that habit is
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: a thing to be cast out at once and forever.
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: End of Section eleven. Recording by Andrea Fiori, Section twelve
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: of Vegetarianism and Occultism. This LibriVox recording is in the
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: public domain. Recording by Andrea Fiori, Vegetarianism and Occultism by C. W. Leadbeater,
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: Section twelve. Man's duty towards Nature. Then there is the
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: far more important, unselfish side of the question, that of
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: man's duty towards nature. Every religion has taught that man
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: should put himself always on the side of the will
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: of God in the world, on the side of good
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: as against evil, of evolution as against retrogression. The man
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: who ranges himself on the side of evolution realizes the
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: wickedness of destroying life. He knows that just as he
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: is here in this physical body in order that he
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: may learn the lessons of this plain, so is the
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: animal occupying his body for the same reason, and that
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: through it he may gain experience at his lower stage.
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: He knows that the life behind the animal is the
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: divine life, that all life in the world is divine,
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: that animals therefore are truly our brothers, even though they
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: may be younger brothers, and we have no sort of
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: right to take their lives for the gratification of our
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: perverted tastes, no right to cause them untold agony and
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: suffering merely to satisfy are degraded and detestable us. We
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: have brought things to such a pass with our miscalled
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: sport and our wholesale slaughterings, that all wild creatures fly
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: from the sight of us. Does that seem like the
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: universal brotherhood of God's creatures? Is that your idea of
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: the golden age of the world wide kindliness? That is
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: to come a condition when every living thing flees from
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: the face of man because of his murderous instincts. There
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: is an influence flowing back upon us from all this,
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: an effect which you can hardly realize unless you are
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: able to see how it looks when regarded with the
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: sight of the higher plane. Every one of these creatures,
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: which you so ruthlessly murder in this way, has its
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: own thoughts and feelings with regard to all this. It
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: has horror, pain, an indignation, and an intense but unexpressed
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: feeling of the hideous injustice of it. All. The whole
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: atmosphere about us is full of it. Twice lately I
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: have heard from psychic people that they felt the awful
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: aura or surroundings of Chicago, even many miles away from it.
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: Missus Besant herself told me the same thing years ago
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: in England, that long before she came in sight of Chicago,
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: she felt the horror of it and the deadly pall
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: of depression descending upon her, and asked, where are we
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: and what is the reason that there should be this
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: terrible feeling in the air. To sense the effect as
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: clearly as this is beyond the reach of the person
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: who is not developed. But though all the inhabitants may
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: not be directly conscious of it and recognize it as
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: Missus Beaisant did, they may be sure that they are
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: suffering from it unconsciously, and that that that terrible vibration
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: of horror and fear and injustice is acting upon every
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: one of them, even though they do not know it.
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: End of section twelve. Recording by Andrea Fiori, Section thirteen
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: of Vegetarianism and Occultism. This LibriVox recording is in the
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: public domain. Recording by Andrea Fury. Vegetarianism and Occultism by C. W. Leadbeater,
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: Section thirteen. Ghastly Unseen Results. The feelings of nervousness and
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: profound depression, which are so common, are largely due to
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: that awful influence which spreads over the city like a
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: plague cloud. I do not know how many thousands of
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: creatures are killed every day, but the number is very large.
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: Remember that every one of these creatures is a definite entity,
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: not a permanent, reincarnating individuality like yours or mine, but
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: still an entity which has its life upon the astral
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: plane and persists there for a considerable time. Remember that
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: every one of these remains to pour out his feelings
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: of indignation and horror at all the injustice and torment
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: which has been afflicted upon him. Realize for yourself the
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: terrible atmosphere which exists about those slaughter houses. Remember that
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: a clairvoyant can see the vast hosts of animal souls,
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: that he knows how strong are their feelings of horror
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: and resentment, and how these recoil at all points upon
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: the human race. They react most of all upon those
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: who are least able to resist them, upon the children,
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: who are more delicate and sensitive than the hardened adult.
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: That city is a terrible place in which to bring
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: up children, a place where the whole atmosphere, both physical
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: and psychic, is charged with fumes of blood, and with
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: all that that means. I read an article only the
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: other day in which it was explained that the nauseating
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: stench which rises from those Chicago slaughter houses and settles
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: like a fatal miasma over the city is by no
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: means the most deadly influence that comes up from that
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: Christian hell for animals, though it is the breath of
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: certain death to many a mother's darling. The slaughter houses
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: make not only a pest hole for the bodies of children,
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: but for their souls as well. Not only are the
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: children employed in the most revolting and cruel work, but
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: the whole trend of their thoughts is directed towards killing. Occasionally,
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: one is found too sensitive to endure the sights and
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: sounds of that ceaseless, awful battle between man's cruel lust
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: and the inalienable right of every creature to its own life.
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: I read how one boy for whom a minister had
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: secured a place in the slaughter house, returned day after
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: day pale and sick and unable to eat or sleep,
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: and finally came to that minister of the gospel of
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: the compassionate Christ, and told him that he was willing
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: to starve if necessary, but that he could not wait
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: in blood another day. The horrors of the slaughter had
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: so affected him that he could no longer sleep. Yet
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: this is what many a boy is doing and seeing
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: from day to day, until he becomes hardened to the
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: taking of life. And then some day, instead of cutting
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: the throat of a lamb or a pig, he kills
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: a man, and straightway we turn our lust for slaughter
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: upon him in turn, and think that we have done justice.
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: I read that a young woman who does much philanthropic
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: work in the neighborhood of these pest houses, declares that
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: what most impresses her about the chill children is that
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: they seem to have no games except games of killing.
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: That they have no conception of any relation to animals
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: except the relation of the slaughterer to the victim. This
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: is the education which so called Christians are giving to
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: the children of the slaughter house, a daily education and murder.
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: And then they express surprise at the number and brutality
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: of the murders in that district. Yet your Christian public
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: goes on serenely saying its prayers and singing its psalms
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: and listening to its sermons, as if no such outrages
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: were being perpetrated against God's children, and that sinkhole of
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: pestilence and crime. Surely the habit of eating dead flesh
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: has produced a moral apathy among us. Are you doing
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: well do you think in rearing your future citizens among
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: surroundings of such utter brutality as this? Even on the
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: physical plane, this is a terribly sious matter, and from
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: the occult point of view, it is unfortunately far more
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: serious still, for the occultists sees the psychic result of
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: all this, sees how these forces are acting upon the people,
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: and how they intensify brutality and unscrupulousness. He sees what
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: a center of vice and of crime you have created,
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: and how from it the infection is gradually spreading until
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: it affects the whole country and even the whole world
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: of what is called civilized humanity. The world is being
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: affected by it in many ways which most people do
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: not in the least realize. There are constant feelings of
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: causeless terror in the air. Many of your children are
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: unnecessarily and inexplicably afraid. They feel terror of they know
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: not what terror of the dark, or when they are
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: alone for a few moments, strong forces are playing about
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: us for which you cannot account, And you do not
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: realize that this all comes from the fact that the
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: whole atmosphere is charged with the hostility of these murdered creatures.
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: The stages of evolution are closely interrelated, and you cannot
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: do wholesale murder in this way upon your younger brothers
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: without feeling the effect terribly among your own innocent children.
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: Surely a better time shall come when we shall be
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: free from this horrible blot upon our civilization, this awful
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: reproach upon our compassion and our sympathy. And when that comes,
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: we shall find presently that there will be a vast
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: improvement in these matters, and by degrees we shall all
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: rise to a higher level and be freed from all
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: these instinctive terrors and hatreds. End of section thirteen. Recording
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: by Andrea Fiori. Section fourteen of Vegetarianism and Occultism LibriVox
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Recording by Andrea Fiori.
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: Vegetarianism and Occultism by C. W. Leadbeater. Section fourteen The
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: better time to come. We might all be freed from
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: it very soon if men and women would only think.
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: For the average man is not, after all a brute,
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: but means to be kind, if only he knew how.
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: He does not think. He goes on from day to
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: day and does not realize that he is taking part
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: all the time in an awful crime. But facts are facts,
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: and there is no escape from them. Every One who
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: is partaking of this abomination is helping to make this
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: appalling thing a possibility, and undoubtedly shares the responsibility for it.
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: You know that it is so, and you can see
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: what a terrible thing it is. But you will say,
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: what can we do to improve matters? We who are
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: only tiny units in this mighty, seething mass of humanity.
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: It is only by units rising above the rest and
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: becoming more civilized that we shall finally arrive at a
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: higher civilization of the race as a whole. There is
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: a golden age to come, not only for man, but
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: for the lower kingdoms, a time when humanity will realize
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: its duty to its younger brothers, not to destroy them,
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: but to help them and train them, so that we
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: may receive from them, not terror and hatred, but love
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: and devotion, and friendship and reasonable cooperation. A time will
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: come when all the forces of nature shall be intelligently
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: working together towards the final end, not with constant suspicion
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: and hostility, but with universal recognition of that brotherhood which
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: is ours. Because we are all children of the same
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: almighty Father, let us at least make the experiment. Let
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: us free ourselves from complicity in these awful crimes. Let
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: us set ourselves to try, each in our own small circle,
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: to bring nearer that time of peace and love, which
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: is the dream and the earnest desire of every true
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: hearted and thinking man. At least, we ought surely to
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: be willing to do a small thing as this to
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: help the world onward towards that glorious future. We ought
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: to make ourselves pure, our thoughts and our actions, as
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: well as our food, so that by example as well
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: as by precept, we may be doing all that in
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: us lies to spread the gospel of love and of compassion,
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: to put an end to the reign of brutality and terror,
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 1: and to bring nearer the dawn of the great Kingdom
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: of righteousness and love, When the will of our Father
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: shall be done upon Earth as it is in Heaven.
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: End of Section fourteen recording by Andrea Fiori. End of
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: Vegetarianism and Occultism by C. W. Leadbeater