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Vegetarianism and Occultism - C W Leadbeater · Vegetarianism and Occultism

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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
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  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
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  Speaker 1: to begin by defining our terms. We all know what
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  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: ve 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 and fragments of a
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  Speaker 1: 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: and 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 loathsome 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, uts, peas,
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  Speaker 1: and beans contain a large percentage of proteins or nitrogenous matter. Wheat, oats, rice,
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  Speaker 1: and other grains, fruits, and most of the vegetables except
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  Speaker 1: perhaps peas, beans and lentils, consists mainly of carbohydrates, that is,
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  Speaker 1: of starches and sugars. The fats are found in nearly
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  Speaker 1: all of the protein foods, and can also be taken
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  Speaker 1: in the form of butter or of oils. The salts
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  Speaker 1: are found practically in all foods to a greater or
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  Speaker 1: less extent. They are of the utmost importance in the
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  Speaker 1: maintenance of the body tissues, and what is called saline
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  Speaker 1: starvation is the cause of many diseases. It is sometimes
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  Speaker 1: claimed that flesh meat contain some of the things to
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  Speaker 1: a larger degree than vegetables, and some tables are drawn
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  Speaker 1: up in such a way as to suggest this. But
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  Speaker 1: once more, this is a question of facts and must
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  Speaker 1: be faced. From that point of view, the only sources
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  Speaker 1: of energy and dead flesh are the protein matter contained
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  Speaker 1: therein and the fat, And as the fat in it
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  Speaker 1: certainly has no more value than other fat, the only
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  Speaker 1: point to be considered is the proteins. Now, it must
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  Speaker 1: be remembered that proteins have only one origin. They are
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  Speaker 1: organized in plants and nowhere else. Nuts, peas, beans, and
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  Speaker 1: lentils are far richer than any kind of flesh in
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  Speaker 1: these elements, and they have this enormous advantage that the
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  Speaker 1: proteins are pure and therefore contain all the energy originally
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  Speaker 1: stored up in them during their organization. In the animal body,
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  Speaker 1: these proteins, which the animal has absorbed from the vegetable
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  Speaker 1: kingdom during its life, are constantly passing down to disorganization,
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  Speaker 1: during which decep the energy originally stored in them is released. Consequently,
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  Speaker 1: what has been used already by one animal cannot be
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  Speaker 1: utilized by another. The proteins are estimated in some of
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  Speaker 1: these tables by the amount of nitrogen contained therein. But
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  Speaker 1: in flesh meat there are many products of tissue change,
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  Speaker 1: such as urea, uric acid, and creatine, all of which
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  Speaker 1: contain nitrogen and are therefore estimated as proteins, though they
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  Speaker 1: have no food value whatsoever. Nor is this all the evil.
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  Speaker 1: For this tissue change is necessarily accompanied by the formation
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  Speaker 1: of various poisons, which are always to be found in
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  Speaker 1: flesh of any kind, and in many cases the virulence
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  Speaker 1: of these poisons is very great. So you will observe
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  Speaker 1: that if you gain any nourishment from the eating of
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  Speaker 1: dead flesh, you obtain it because during its life the
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  Speaker 1: the animal consume vegetable matter. You get less of this
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  Speaker 1: nourishment than you ought to have, because the animal has
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  Speaker 1: already used half of it, and you have along with
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  Speaker 1: it various undesirable substances and even some active poisons, which
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  Speaker 1: are of course distinctly deleterious. I know that there are
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  Speaker 1: many doctors who will prescribe the lowes and flesh diet
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  Speaker 1: in order to strengthen people, and that they will often
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  Speaker 1: meet with a certain amount of success, though even on
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  Speaker 1: this point they are by no means agreed. For doctor
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  Speaker 1: Milner Fothergill writes, all the bloodshed caused by the warlike
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  Speaker 1: disposition of Napoleon is as nothing compared to the loss
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  Speaker 1: of life among the myriads of persons who have sunk
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  Speaker 1: into their graves through a displaced confidence in the supposed
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  Speaker 1: value of beef tea. At any rate, the strengthening results
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  Speaker 1: can be obtained more easily from the vegetable kingdom, when
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  Speaker 1: the science of diet is properly understood, and they can
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  Speaker 1: be obtained without the horrible pollution and without all the
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  Speaker 1: undesirable concomitants of the other system. Let me show you
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  Speaker 1: that I am not, in all this making any unfounded assertations.
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  Speaker 1: Let me quote to you the opinions of physicians, of
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  Speaker 1: 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
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  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 fact,
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  Speaker 1: beyond all question, that some persons are stronger and more
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  Speaker 1: healthy who live on that food. I know how much
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  Speaker 1: of the prevailing meat diet is not merely a wasteful extravagance,
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  Speaker 1: but a source of serious evil to the consumer. There
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  Speaker 1: 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.
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  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
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  Speaker 1: see a vegetarian and fruit living plan put into general use,
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  Speaker 1: and I believe it will be. The well known physician,
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  Speaker 1: Doctor William S. Playfair c B has said quite clearly
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  Speaker 1: animal diet is not essential to man. And we find
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  Speaker 1: doctor F. J. Sykes, b SC, the medicat official for
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  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,
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  Speaker 1: a well selected diet from the vegetable kingdom is perfectly
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  Speaker 1: right from the chemical point of view. For the nutrition
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: of men. Doctor Francis Thatcher f RCS FCS remarks, I
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  Speaker 1: have no belief that a man is better physically or
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  Speaker 1: mentally 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
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  Speaker 1: show not only that it is possible, but that it
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  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
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  Speaker 1: in the American Practitioner and News of July nineteen o two,
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  Speaker 1: concluded a scientific article as follows. Let me state first
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  Speaker 1: that the flesh of warm blooded animals is not essential
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  Speaker 1: as a diet for the purpose of maintaining the human
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  Speaker 1: body in perfect health. He goes on to make some
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  Speaker 1: further remarks, which we shall quote under our next head.
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  Speaker 1: The Dean of the Faculty of Jefferson Medical College of
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  Speaker 1: Philadelphia said, it is a well known fact that cereals,
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  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
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  Speaker 1: life in its highest form. If the value of serial
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  Speaker 1: food products were better known, it would be a good
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  Speaker 1: thing for the race. Nations live and thrive upon them alone.
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  Speaker 1: And it has been fully demonstrated that meat is not
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  Speaker 1: a necessity. There you have a number of plain statements,
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  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
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  Speaker 1: a man can exist without this horrible flesh diet, and furthermore,
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  Speaker 1: that there is more nutriment in an equal amount of
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  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
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  Speaker 1: are a fair samples of the rest end of section
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  Speaker 1: two recording by Andrea Fiori. Section three of Vegetarianism and Occultism.
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  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
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  Speaker 1: three Less disease second, because many diseases come from this
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  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,
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  Speaker 1: I will be satisfied with a few. Doctor Hosiah Oldfield,
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  Speaker 1: m R C S L RCP Rights. Flesh is an
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  Speaker 1: unnatural food and therefore tends to create functional disturbances as
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  Speaker 1: it is taken in modern civilizations. It is infected with
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  Speaker 1: such terrible diseases readily communicable to man as cancer, consumption, fever,
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  Speaker 1: intestinal worms, et cetera. To an enormous extent. There is
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  Speaker 1: little need to wonder that flesh eating is one of
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  Speaker 1: the most serious causes of the diseases that carry off
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  Speaker 1: ninety nine out of every hundred people that are born.
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  Speaker 1: Sir Edward Saunders tells us any attempt to teach mankind
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  Speaker 1: that beef and beer are not necessary for health and
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  Speaker 1: efficiency must be good, and must tend to thrift in happiness.
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  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
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  Speaker 1: and the kidneys in the former, and less of brutality
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  Speaker 1: and wife beating, and in the latter. I believe that
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  Speaker 1: the tendency is towards vegetarian diet, that it will be
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  Speaker 1: recognized as fit and proper, and that the time is
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  Speaker 1: not far distant when the idea of animal food will
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  Speaker 1: be found revolting to civilized man. Sir Robert Christison, m d.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Asserts positively that the flesh and secretions of animals affected
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  Speaker 1: with carbuncular diseases analogoists to anthrax, are so poisonous that
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: those who eat the product of them are apt to
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  Speaker 1: suffer severely, the disease taking the form either of inflammation
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  Speaker 1: of the digestive canal or of an eruption of one
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  Speaker 1: or more carbuncles. Doctor A. Kingsford of the University of
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: Paris says animal meat may directly endanger many painful and
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: lonesome diseases. Scrapula itself that facan source of suffering and death,
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: not improbably owes its origin to flesh eating habits. It
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: is a curious fact that the word scrapula is derived
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: from scrapha a sow. To say that one has scrapula
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: is to say that he has swines evil. In his
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: fifth report to the Privy Council in England, we find
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: Professor Gamghi stating that one fifth of the total amount
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: of meat consumed is derived from animals killed in a
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: state of malignant disease, while Professor A. Winter blythe f
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: R C S writes, economically speaking, flesh is not necessary,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: and meat seriously diseased may be so prepared as to
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: look like fairly good meat. Many an animal with advanced
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: diseases of the lung yet shows to the naked eye
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: no appearance in the flesh which differs from the normal. M. K.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: Coombs in the article above quoted remarks, we have many
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: substitutes for meat which are free from the deleterious effects
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: of that food upon the animal economy, namely in the
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: production of rheumatism, gout, and all other kindred diseases, to
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: say nothing of cerebral congestion, which frequently terminates in apoplexy
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: and venal diseases of one kind in another migraine and
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: many other such forms of headache resulting from the excessive
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: use of meat and often produced when meat is not
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: eaten to excess. Doctor J. H. Kellogg remarks, it is
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: interesting to note that scientific men all over the world
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: are awakening to the fact that the flesh of animals
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: as food is not pure nutriment, but is mixed with
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: poisonous substances excrementitious in character, which are the natural results
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: of animals. The vegetable stores up energy. It is from
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: the vegetable world, the coal and the wood, that the
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: energy is derived, which runs our steam engines, pulls our trains,
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: drives our steamships, and does the work of civilization. It
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: is from the vegetable world that all animals directly or
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: indirectly derive the energy which is manifested by animal life
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: through muscular and mental work. The vegetable builds up, the
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: animal tears down. The vegetable stores up energy. The animal
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: expends energy. Various waste and poisonous products result from the
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: manifestation of energy, whether by the locomotive or the animal.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: The working tissues of the animal are enabled to continue
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: their activity only by the fact that they are continually
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: washed clean by the blood, a never ceasing stream flowing
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: through and about them, carrying away the poisonous products resulting
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: from their work as rapidly as they are formed. The
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: venus blood owes its character to these poisons, which are
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: removed by the kidneys, lungs, skin and bowels. The flesh
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: of a dead animal contains a great quantity of these poisons,
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: the elimination of which ceases at the instant of death,
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: although their formation continues for some time after death. An
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: eminent French surgeon recently remarked that beef tea is a
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: veritable source of poisons. Intelligent physicians everywhere are coming to
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: recognize these facts and to make a practical application of them.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: Here again, you see, we have no lack of evidence,
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: and many of the quotations with regard to the introduction
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: of poisons into the system through flesh food are not
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: from the vegetarian doctors, but from those who still hold
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: it right to eat sparingly of corpses, but yet have
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: studied to some extent the science of the matter. It
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: should be remembered that dead flesh can never be in
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: a condition of perfect health. Because decay commences at the
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: moment when the creature is killed, all sorts of products
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: are being formed in this process of retrograde change. All
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: of these are useless, and many of them are positively
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: dangerous and poisonous. In the ancient scriptures of the Hindus
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: we find a very remarkable passage which refers to the
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: fact that even in India, some of the lower casts
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: at that early period commenced to feed on flesh. The
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: statement made is that in ancient times only three diseases existed,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: one of which was old age, but that now since
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: people had commenced to eat flesh, seventy eight new diseases
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: had arisen. This shows us that the idea that disease
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: might come from the devouring of corpses has been recognized
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: for thousands of years. End of section three. Recording by
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: Andrea Fiori. Section four of Vegetarianism and Occultism. This LibriVox
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Recording by Andrea Fiori,
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: Vegetarianism and Occultism by C. W. Leadbeater, Section four. More
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: natural to man Third, because man is not naturally made
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: to be carnivorous, and therefore this horrible food is not
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: suited to him. Here again, let me give you a
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: few quotations to show you what authorities are ranged upon
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: our side of the matter. Baron q Via himself writes,
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: the natural food of man, judging from his structure, consists
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: of fruit, roots and vegetables. And Professor Ray tells us
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: certainly man was never made to be a carnivorous animal.
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: Sir Richard Owen f r C. S rights anthropoids and
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: all the quadrumana derive their alimentation from fruits, grains, and
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: other succulent vegetable substances, and the strict analogy which exists
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: between the structures of these animals and that of man
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: clearly demonstrates his frugivorous nature. Another fellow of the Royal Society,
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: Professor William Lawrence, writes, the teeth of man have not
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: the slightest resemblance to those of carnivorous animals, and whether
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: we consider the teeth, the jaws, or the digestive organs,
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: the human structure closely resembles that of frugivorous animals. Once More,
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: Doctor Spencer Thompson remarks, no physiologist would dispute that man
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: ought to live on a vegetarian diet, and doctor Sylvester
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: Graham writes, comparative anatomy proves that man is naturally a
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: frugivorous animal, formed to subsist upon fruits, seeds, and farinaceous vegetables.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: The desirability of the vegetarian diet will, of course need
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: no argument for any one who believes in the inspiration
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: of the scriptures, For it will be remembered that God,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: in speaking to Adam, while in the garden of Eden,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: said behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: which is upon the face of all the earth, and
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: every tree in which is the fruit of a tree
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: yielding seed. To you it shall be for meat. And
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: it was only after the fall of man, when death
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: came into the world, that a more degraded idea of
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: feeding came along with it. And if now we hope
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: to write again to eat inic conditions, we must surely
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: commence by abolishing unnecessary slaughter performed in order to supply
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: us with horrible and degrading food. End of section four.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: Recording by Andrea Fiori, Section five of Vegetarianism and Occultism.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: Andrea Fiori. Vegetarianism and Occultism by C. W. Leadbeater, Section
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: five Greater Strength. Fourth, because men are stronger and better
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: on a vegetarian diet. I know that people say you
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: will be so weak if you do not eat dead flesh.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, this is untrue. I do
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: not know whether there may be any people who find
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: themselves weaker on a diet of vegetables. But I do
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: know this that in many athletic contests recently, the vegetarians
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: have proved themselves the strongest and the most enduring, as
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: for example in the recent cycling races in Germany, where
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: all those who took high places in the race were vegetarian.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: There have been many such trials, and they show that
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: other things being equal, the man who takes pure food
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: succeeds better. We have to face facts, and in this
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: case the facts are all ranged on one side as
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: against foolish prejudices and lothsome lust on the other. The
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: reason was plainly given by doctor J. D. Craig, who writes,
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: vigor of the body is often boasted by flesh eaters,
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: particularly if they live mostly in the open air. But
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: there is peculiarity about them, and they have not the
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: endurance of vegetarians. The reason of this is that flesh
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: meat is already on the downward path of retrograde change,
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: and as a consequence, its presence in the tissues is
• 34:10
  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
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: reinforced by another impulse in the second one, and for
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: these reasons what energy it does contain is soon given out,
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: and there are urgent demands for more to take its place.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: The flesh eater then may do a large amount of
• 34:33
  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 lafe,
• 35:01
  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
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: people in Europe who abstain from flesh are of the
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: better and more intelligent class, and the subject of endurance
• 35:16
  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
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: the result that the vegetarian has invariably come off victorious.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: We shall find, if we investigate, that this fact has
• 35:40
  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
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: of common knowledge. Think too of the Greek athletes, those
• 36:05
  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,
• 36:14
  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
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: whose strength depended their life and fame, And yet we
• 36:31
  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
• 36:53
  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
• 37:06
  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,
• 37:25
  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,
• 37:38
  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: weigh on their backs, and the captain one day pointed
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: out to me one of his men who had carried
• 37:53
  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
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: frugal diet, their strength was unusually great. Of these same Turks,
• 38:07
  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
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: simple habits. His abstinence from intoxicating liquors and his normal
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: vegetarian diet enable him to suffer the greatest hardships and
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: to exist on the scantiest and simplest of foods. I
• 38:31
  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
• 38:53
  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
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: that case on board in the docks at London. I
• 39:07
  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,
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: for they live chiefly upon rice and water, with perhaps
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: occasionally a little tamarind for flavoring. On the same subject,
• 39:29
  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
• 39:40
  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
• 39:52
  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 tie
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: hire me, and relatively I believe this is true. This
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: distinguished physician became a vegetarian because from his study of
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: the diseases caused by the presence of uric acid in
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: the system, he discovered that flesh eating was the chief
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: source of this deadly poison. Another interesting point which he
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: mentions is that his change of diet brought about in
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: him a distinct change of disposition, that whereas he found
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: himself constantly nervous and irritable, he now became much steadier
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: and calmer and less angry. He fully realizes that this
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: is due to the change in his food. If we
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: require any further evidence, we have it close to our hand.
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: In the animal kingdom. We shall observe that there the
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: carnivora are not the strongest, but that all the work
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: of 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
• 41:03
  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
• 41:09
  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
• 41:24
  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,
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: Section six less animal passion. Fifth because the eating of
• 41:46
  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 foods, 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
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: nature is undoubtedly intensified by the habit of feeding upon corpses.
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: Even after eating a full meal of such horrible material,
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: a man still feels unsatisfied, for he is still conscious
• 42:39
  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
• 42:48
  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
• 43:00
  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
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: the beginning of intemperance, for in the majority of cases,
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: intemperance began in the attempt to allay with alcoholic stimulants
• 43:31
  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,
• 43:45
  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
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: thought indefinitely. We might speak of the irritability occasionally culminating
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: in insanity, which is now knowledge by all authorities to
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: be a frequent result of erroneous feeding. We might mention
• 44:06
  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
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: influence of a pure diet upon the welfare of the
• 44:23
  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
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: in its favor, giving a list of no less than
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: nineteen good reasons why men should abstain from the eating
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: of flesh. He insists that a vegetarian diet is necessary
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: to purity, to chastity, and to the perfect control of
• 44:52
  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 meet
• 45:00
  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
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: headaches are frequently brought on by flesh diet, and that
• 45:26
  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
• 45:38
  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
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: recording by Andrea Fury Vegetarianism and Occultism by C. W.
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: Lead Beater, Section seven six. Because the vegetable diet is
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: in every way cheaper as well as better than flesh.
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: In the encyclical just mention, mister Booth gives as one
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: of his reasons for advocating it that a vegetarian diet
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: of wheat, oats, maize, and other grains lentils, peas, beans, nuts,
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: and similar food is more than ten times as economical
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: as a flesh diet. Meat contains half its weight in water,
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: which has to be paid for as though it were meat.
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: A vegetable diet, even if we allow cheese, butter and milk,
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: will cost only about a quarter as much as a
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: mixed diet of flesh and vegetables. Tens of thousands of
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: our poor people, who have now the greatest difficulty to
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: make ends meat after buying flesh food, would buy the
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: substitution of fruit and vegetables and other economical foods be
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: able to get along in comfort. There is also an
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: economic side of this question which must not be ignored.
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: Note how many more men could be supported by a
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: certain number of acres of land which were devoted to
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: the growing of wheat than by the same amount of
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: land which was laid out in pasture. Think two, for
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: how many more men healthily work upon the land would
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: be found in the former case than in the latter.
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: And I think you will begin to see that there
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: is a great deal to be said from this point
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: of view. Also end of section seven. Recording by Andrea Fiori.
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: Section eight of Vegetarianism and Occultism. This LibriVox recording is
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: in the public domain. Recording by Andrea Fiori. Vegetarianism and
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: Occultism by C. W. Leadbeater, Section eight The sin on slaughter.
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: Hitherto we have been speaking of what we have called
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: the physical and selfish considerations which should make a man
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: give up the eating of this dead flesh, and turn him,
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: even though only for his own sake, to a purer diet.
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: Let us now think for a few moments of the
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: moral and unselfish considerations connected with his duty towards others.
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: The first of these, and this does seem to me
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: a most terrible thing, is the awful sin of unnecessarily
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: murdering these animals. Those who live in Chicago know well
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: how this ghastly, ceaseless slaughter goes on in their midst,
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: how they feed the greater part of the world by
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: wholesale butchery, and how the money made in this abominable
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: business is stained with blood, every coin of it. I
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: have shown clearly, upon irreproachable testimony, that all this is unnecessary,
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: and if it is uns necessary, it is a crime.
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: The destruction of life is always a crime. There may
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: be certain cases in which it is the lesser of
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: two evils, but here it is needless and without a
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: shadow of justification. For it happens only because of the selfish,
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: unscrupulous greed of those who coin money out of the
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: agonies of the animal kingdom, in order to pander to
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: the perverted tastes of those who are sufficiently depraved to
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: desire such lowsome ailment. Remember, it is not only those
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: who do the obscene work, but those who, by feeding
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: up on this dead flesh, encourage them and make their
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: crime remunerative, who are guilty before God of this awful thing.
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: Every person who partakes of this unclean food has his
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: share in the indescribable guilt and suffering by which it
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: has been obtained. It is universally recognized in law that
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: ca facet per alien facet per se. Whatsoever a man
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: does through another, he does himself. A man will often say,
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: but it would make no difference to all this horror
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: if I alone cease to eat meat that is untrue
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: and disingenious. First, it would make a difference, for although
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: you may consume only a pound or two each day,
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: that would in time amount to the weight of an animal. Secondly,
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: it is not a question of amount, but of complicity
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: in a crime. And if you partake of the results
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: of a crime, you are helping to make it remunerative,
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: and so you share in the guilt. No honest man
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: can fail to see that this is so. But when
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: men's lower lusts are concerned, they are usually dishonest in
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: their view and decline to face the plain facts. There
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: surely can be no difference of opinion as to the
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: proposition that all this horrible, unnecessary slaughter is indeed a
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: terror crime. Another point to be remembered is that there
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: is dreadful cruelty connected with the transport of these miserable animals,
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: both by land and sea, and there is often dreadful
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: cruelty in the slaughtering itself. Those who seek to justify
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: these lowesome crimes will tell you that an endeavor is
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: made to murder the animals as rapidly and painlessly as possible.
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: But you have only to read the reports to see
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: that in many cases these intentions are not carried out,
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: and appalling suffering ensues. End of section eight. Recording by
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: Andrea Fiuri. Section nine of Vegetarianism and Occultism. This LibriVox
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Recording by Andrea Fury.
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: Vegetarianism and Occultism by C. W. Leadbeater, Section nine. The
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: degradation of the slaughter man. Yet another point to be
• 52:06
  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
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: the sickening nature of the task and would soon refuse
• 52:25
  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.
• 52:34
  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
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: to impose upon a fellow citizen work which we ourselves
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: should decline to do. It may be said that we
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: force no one to undertake this abominable means of livelihood,
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: but that is a mere trigivisation, for in eating this
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: horrible food, we are making a demand that someone shall
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: brutalize himself, that some one shall degrade himself below the
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: level of humanity. You know that a class of men
• 53:07
  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,
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: those who are brutalized by such unclean work as this
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: prove themselves brutal and other relations as well. They are
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: savage in their disposition and bloodthirsty in their quarrels. And
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: I have heard it stated that in many a murder case,
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: evidence has been found that the criminal employed the particular
• 53:36
  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,
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: and that if you take any part in this terrible business,
• 53:49
  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
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: your lusts and passions, work that you would, under no circumstances,
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: consent to do yourself. Then we should surely remember that
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: we are all of us hoping for the time of
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: universal peace and kindness, a golden age when war shall
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: be no more, a time when man shall be so
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: far removed from strife and anger that the whole conditions
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: of the world will be different from those which now prevail.
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: Do you not think that the animal kingdom will also
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: have its share in that good time coming, that this
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: horrible nightmare of wholesale slaughter will be removed from it?
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: The really civilized nations of the world know far better
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: than this. It is only that we of the West
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: are as yet a young race, and still have many
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: of the crudities of youth. Otherwise we could not bear
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: these things amongst us even for a day. Beyond all question,
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: the future is with the vegetarian. It seems certain that
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: in the future, and I hope it may be in
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: the near future, we shall be looking back upon this
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: time with disgust and with horror, in spite of all
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: its wonderful discoveries, in spite of its marvelous machinery in
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: spite of the enormous fortunes that had been made in it.
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: I am certain that our descendants will look back upon
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: this age as one of only partial civilization, and in fact,
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: but little removed from savagery. One of the arguments by
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: which they will prove this will assuredly be that we
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: allowed among us this wholesale, unnecessary slaughter of innocent animals,
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: that we actually battened on it and made money out
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: of it, and that we even created a class of
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: beings who did this dirty work for us, And that
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: we are not ashamed to profit by the result of
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: their degradation. All of these are considerations referring only to
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: the physical plane. Now let me tell you something of
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: the occult side of all this. Up to the present,
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: I have made to you many statements, strong and definite,
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: I hope, but every one of them statements which you
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: can prove for yourself. You can read the testimony of
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: well known doctors and scientific men. You may test for
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: yourselves the economic side of the question. You may go
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: and see, if you will, how all these different types
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: of men contrive to live so well upon vegetarian diet.
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: All that I have said, hitherto is thus within your reach.
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: But now I am abandoning the field of ordinary physical
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: reasoning and taking you up to the level where you
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: have naturally to take the word of those who have
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: explored these higher realms. Let us then turn now to
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: the hidden side of all of this, the occult end
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: of section nine recording by Andrea Fiori, Section ten of
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: Vegetarianism and Occultism. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: Recording by Andrea Fiori. Vegetarianism and Occultism by C. W. Leadbeater,
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: Section ten Occult Reasons. Under this heading, also we shall
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: have two sets of reasons, those which refer to ourselves
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: and our own development, and those which refer to the
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: great scheme of evolution and our duty towards it, so
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: that once more we may classify them as selfish and unselfish,
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: although at a much higher level than before. I have
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: I hope clearly shown in the earlier part of this
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: lecture that there is simply no room for discussion in
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: regard to this question of vegetarianism. The whole of the
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: evidence and of the considerations are entirely on one side,
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: and there is absolutely nothing to be said in opposition
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: to them. This is even more strikingly the case when
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: we come to consider the occult part of our agreement.
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: There are some students hovering around the fringes of occultism
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: who are not yet prepared to follow its dictates to
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: the uttermost, and therefore do not accept its teaching when
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: it interferes with their personal habits and desires. Some such
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: have tried to maintain that the question of food can
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: make little difference from the occult standpoint. But the unanimous
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: verdict of all of the great schools of Occultism, both
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: ancient and modern, has been definite on this point, and
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: has asserted that for all true progress, purity is necessary,
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: even on the physical plane and in matters of diet,
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: as well as in far higher matters. In many books
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: and lectures, I have already explained the existence of the
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: different planes of nature and of the vast unseen world
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: all about us, and I have also had occasion to
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: refer often to the fact that man has within himself
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: matter belonging to all these higher planes, so that he
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: is furnished with a vehicle corresponding to each of them,
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: through which he can receive impressions and by means of
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: which he can act. Can these higher bodies of man
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: be in any way affected by the food which enters
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: into the physical body with which they are so closely connected.
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: Assuredly they can, and for this reason, the physical matter
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: in man is in close touch with the astral and
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: mental matter, so much so that each is, to a
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: great extent a counterpart of the other. There are many
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: types and degrees of density among astral matter, for example,
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: so that it is possible for one man to have
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: an astral body built of core and gross particles, while
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: another may have one which is much more delicate and refined.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: As the astral body is the vehicle of the emotions, passions,
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: and sensations, it follows that the man whose astral body
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: is of the grosser type will be chiefly amenable to
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: the grosser varieties of passion and emotion, whereas the man
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: who has a finer astral body will find that its
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: particles most readily vibrate in response to higher and more
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: refined emotions and aspirations. The man, therefore, who builds gross
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: and undesirable matter into his physical body, is thereby drawing
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: into his astral body matter of a coarse and unpleasant
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: type as its counterpart. We all know that on the
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: physical plane, the effect of over indulgence in dead flesh
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: is to produce a coarse, gross appearance in the man.
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: That does not mean that it is only the physical
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: body which is in an unlovely condition. It means also
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: that those parts of the man which are invisible to
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: our ordinary sight, the astral and the mental bodies, are
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: not in good condition either. Thus, a man who is
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: building himself a gross and impure physical body is building
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: for himself at the same time coarse and unclean astral
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: and mental bodies as well. That is visible at once
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: to the eye of the developed clairvoyant. The man who
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: learns to see these higher vehicles sees at once the
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: effects on the higher bodies produced by impurity in the lower.
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: He sees at once the difference between the man who
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: feeds his physical vehicle with pure food and the man
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: who puts into it this loathsome decaying flesh. Let us
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: see how this difference will affect the man's evolution. End
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: of section ten. Recording by Andrea Fiori. Section eleven of
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: Vegetarianism and Occultism. This LibriVox recording is in the public
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: domain recording by Andrea Fiori. Vegetarianism and Occultism by C. W. Leadbeater,
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: Section eleven. Impure vehicles. It is clear that a man's
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: duty with regard to himself is to develop all his
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: different vehicles as far as possible, in order to make
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: them finished instruments for the use of the soul. There
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: is a still higher stage in which that soul itself
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: is being trained to be a fit instrument in the
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: hands of the deity, a perfect channel for the divine grace.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: But the first step towards this high aim is that
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: the soul itself shall learn thoroughly to control the lower bodies,
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: so that there shall be in them no thought or
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: feeling except those which the soul allows. All these vehicles,
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: therefore should be in the highest possible condition of efficiency.
• 1:03:13
  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
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: long as the man absorbs into the physical encasement such
• 1:03:24
  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.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: Any One who adopts vegetarian diet, will speedily begin to
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: notice that his sense of taste or smell is far
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: keener than it was when he fed upon flesh, and
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: that he is now able to discern a delicate difference
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: of flavors in foods which before he had thought of
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: as tasteless, such as rice and wheat. The same thing
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: is true to a still greater extent with regard to
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: the higher bodies. Their senses also cannot be clear if
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: impure in coarse matter is drawn into them. Anything of
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: this nature clogs and dulls them, so that it becomes
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: more difficult for the soul to use them. This is
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: a fact which has always been recognized by the student
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: of occultism. You will find that all those who in
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: ancient days entered upon the mysteries were men of the
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: utmost purity, and of course invariably vegetarian. Carnivorous diet is
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: fatal to anything like real development, and those who adopt
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: it are throwing serious and unnecessary difficulties in their own way.
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: I am well aware that there are other and still
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: higher considerations which are of greater weight than anything upon
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: the physical plane, and that the purity of the heart
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: and of the soul is more important to a man
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: than that of the body. Yet there a we are
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: surely no reason why we should not have both. Indeed,
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: the one suggests the other, and the higher should include
• 1:05:07
  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
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: than foolish to go out of our way to add
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: another and very considerable one to the list. Although it
• 1:05:21
  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
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: do a great deal. And we are none of us
• 1:05:30
  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
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: is emphatically something to be avoided. In all cases. This
• 1:05:46
  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
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: intensifying all the undesirable elements and passions belonging to these
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: lower planes. Nor is this serious effect during physical life
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: the only one of which we have to think. If
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: through introducing losome impurities into the physical body, the man
• 1:06:11
  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
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: he will have to spend the first part of his
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: life after death. Because of the gross matter which he
• 1:06:24
  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
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: vehicles their home, and find a ready response within him
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: to their lower passions. It is not only that his
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: animal passions are more easily stirred here on earth, but
• 1:06:43
  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
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: at even from the selfish point of view, we see
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: that occult considerations confirm the straightforward common sense of the
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: argument on the physical plane. The higher sight, when brought
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: to bear upon this problem, shows us still more vividly
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: how undesirable is the devouring of flesh, since it intensifies
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: within us that from which we need to be free,
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: and therefore, from the point of view of progress, that
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: habit is a thing to be cast out at once
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: and forever. End of Section eleven. Recording by Andrea Fiori.
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: Section twelve of Vegetarianism and Occultism. This LibriVox recording is
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: in the public domain recording by Andrea Fiori. Vegetarianism and
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: Occultism by C. W. Leadbeater, Section twelve. Man's duty towards nature.
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: Then there is the far more important, unselfish side of
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: the question, that of man's duty towards nature. Every religion
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: has taught that man should put himself always on the
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: side of the will of God in the world, on
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: the side of good as against evil, of evolution, as
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: against retrogression. The man who ranges himself on the side
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: of evolution realizes the wickedness of destroying life. He knows
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: that just as he is here in this physical body
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: in order that he may learn the lessons of this plain,
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: so is the animal occupying his body for the same reason,
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: and that through it he may gain experience at his
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: lower stage. He knows that the life behind the animal
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: is the divine life, that all life in the world
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: is divine, That animals, therefore are truly our brothers, even
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: though they may be younger brothers, and we have no
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: sort of right to take their lives for the gratification
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: of our perverted taste, no right to cause them untold
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: agony and suffering merely to satisfy are degraded and detestable us.
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: We have brought things to such a pass with our
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: miscalled sport and our wholesale slaughterings, that all wild creatures
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: fly from the sight of us. Does that seem like
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: the universal brotherhood of God's creatures? Is that your idea
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: of the golden age of the world wide kindliness? That
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: is to come a condition when every living thing flees
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: from the face of man because of his murderous instincts.
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: There is an influence flowing back upon us from all this,
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: an effect which you can hardly realize unless you are
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: able to see how it looks when regarded with the
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: sight of the higher plane. Every one of these creatures
• 1:09:52
  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
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: has horror, pain, and indignation, and an intense but unexpressed
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: feeling of the hideous injustice of it. All. The whole
• 1:10:09
  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
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: aura or surroundings of Chicago, even many miles away from it.
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: Missus Poissant herself told me the same thing years ago
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: in England, that long before she came in sight of Chicago,
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: she felt the horror of it and the deadly pall
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: of depression descending upon her, and asked, where are we
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: and what is the reason that there should be this
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: terrible feeling in the air. To sense the effect as
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: clearly as this is beyond the reach of the person
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: who is not developed. But though all the inhabitants may
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: not be directly conscious of it and recognize it as
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: Missus Beasant did, they may be sure that they are
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: suffering from it unconsciously, and that that terrible vibration of
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: horror and fear and injustice is acting upon every one
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: of them, even though they do not know it. End
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: of section twelve. Recording by Andrea Fiori, Section thirteen of
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: Vegetarianism and Occultism. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: Recording by Andrea Fury. Vegetarianism and Occultism by C. W. Leadbeater,
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: Section thirteen. Ghastly Unseen results. The feelings of nervousness and
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: profound depression which are so common, are largely due to
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: that awful influence which spreads over the city like a
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: plague cloud. I do not know how many thousands of
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: creatures are killed every day, but the number is very large.
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: Remember that every one of these creatures is a definite entity,
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: not a permanent, reincarnating individuality like yours or mine, but
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: still an entity which has its life upon the astral
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: plane and persists there for a considerable time. Remember that
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: every one of these remains to pour out his feelings
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: of indignation and horror at all the injustice and torment
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: which has been afflicted upon him. Realize for yourself the
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: terrible atmosphere which exists about those slaughter houses. Remember that
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: a clairvoyant can see the vast hosts of animal souls,
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: that he knows how strong are their feelings of horror
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: and resentment, and how these recoil at all points upon
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: the human race. They react most of all upon those
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: who are least able to resist them, upon the children,
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: who are more delicate and sensitive than the hardened adult.
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: That city is a terrible place in which to bring
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: up children, a place where the whole atmosphere, both physical
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: and psychic, is charged with fumes of blood and with
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: all that that means. I read an article only the
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: other day in which it was explained that the nauseating
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: stench which rises from those Chicago slaughter houses and settles
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: like a fatal miasma over the city is by no
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: means the most deadly influence that comes up from that
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: Christian hell for animals, though it is the breath of
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: certain death to many a mother's darling. The slaughter houses
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: make not only a pest hole for the bodies of children,
• 1:13:38
  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
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: the whole trend of their thoughts is directed towards killing. Occasionally,
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: one is found too sensitive to endure the sights and
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: sounds of that ceaseless, awful battle between man's cruel lust
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: and the inalienable right of every creature to its own life.
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: I read how one boy for whom a minister had
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: secured a place in the slaughter house, returned day after
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: day pale and sick and unable to eat or sleep,
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: and finally came to that minister of the Gospel of
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: the Compassionate Christ and told him that he was willing
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: to starve if necessary, but that he could not wait
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: in blood another day. The horrors of the slaughter had
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: so affected him that he could no longer sleep. Yet
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: this is what many a boy is doing and seeing
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: from day to day, until he becomes hardened to the
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: taking of life. And then some day, instead of cutting
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: the throat of a lamb or a pig, he kills
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: a man, and straightway we turn our lust for slaughter
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: upon him in turn, and think that we have done justice.
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: I read that a young woman who does much philanthropic
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: work in the neighborhood of these pest houses, declares that
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: what most impressed her about the children is that they
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: seem to have no games except games of killing. That
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: they have no conception of any relation to animals except
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: the relation of the slaughterer to the victim. This is
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: the education which so called Christians are giving to the
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: children of the slaughter house, a daily education and murder.
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: And then they express surprise at the number and brutality
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: of the murders in that district. Yet your Christian public
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: goes on serenely saying its prayers and singing its psalms
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: and listening to its sermons, as if no such outrages
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: were being perpetrated against God's children in that sinkhole of
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: pestilence and crime. Surely the habit of eating dead flesh
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: has produced a moral apathy among us. Are you doing
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: well do you think in rearing your future citizens among
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: surroundings of such utter brutality as this? Even on the
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: physical plane, this is a terribly serious matter, and from
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: the occult point of view, it is unfortunately far more
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: serious still, for the occultists sees the psychic result of
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: all this, sees how these forces are acting upon the people,
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: and how they intensify brutality and unscrupulousness. He sees what
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: a center of vice and of crime you have created,
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: and how from it the infection is gradually spreading until
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: it affects the whole country and even the whole world
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: of what is called civilized humanity. The world is being
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: affected by it in many ways which most people do
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: not in the least realize. There are constant feelings of
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: causeless terror in the air. Many of your children are
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: unnecessarily and inexplicably afraid. They feel terror of They know
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: not what terror of the dark, or when they are
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: alone for a few moments, strong forces are playing about
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: us for which you cannot account. And yet you do
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: not realize that this all comes from the fact that
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: the whole atmosphere is charged with the hostility of these
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: murdered creatures. The stages of evolution are closely interrelated, and
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: you cannot do wholesale murder in this way upon your
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: younger brothers without feeling the effect terribly among your own
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: innocent children. Surely a better time shall come when we
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: shall be free from this horrible blot upon our civilization,
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: this awful reproach upon our compassion and our sympathy. And
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: when that comes, we shall find presently that there will
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: be a vast improvement in these matters, and by degrees
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: we shall all rise to a higher level and be
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: freed from all these instinctive terrors and hatreds. End of
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: section thirteen. Recording by Andrea Fiori. Section fourteen of Vegetarianism
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: and Occultism. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: Recording by Andrea Fiori, Vegetarianism and Occultism by C. W. Leadbeater,
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: Section fourteen. The better time to come. We might all
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: be freed from it very soon, if men and women
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: would only think, for the average man is not, after
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: all a brute, but means to be kind if only
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: he knew how. He does not think. He goes on
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: from day to day and does not realize that he
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: is taking part all the time in an awful crime.
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: But facts are facts, and there is no escape from them.
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: Every One who is partaking of this abomination is helping
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: to make this appalling thing a possibility, and undoubtedly shares
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: the responsibility for it. You know that it is so,
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: and you can see what a terrible thing it is.
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: But you will say, what can we do to improve matters?
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: We who are only tiny units in this mighty, seething
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: mass of humanity. It is only by units rising above
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: the rest and becoming more civilized that we shall finally
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: arrive at a higher civilization of the race as a whole.
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: There is a golden age to come, not only for man,
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: but for the lower kingdoms, a time when humanity will
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: realize its duty to its younger brothers not to destroy them,
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: but to help them and train them, so that we
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: may receive from them not terror and hatred, but love
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: and devotion, and friendship and reasonable co operation. A time
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: will come when all the forces of nature shall be
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: intelligently working together towards the final end, not with constant
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: suspicion and hostility, but with universal recognition of that brotherhood
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: which is ours. Because we are all children of the
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: same almighty Father, let us at least make the experiment.
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: Let us free ourselves from complicity in these awful crimes.
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: Let us set ourselves to try, each in our own
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 1: small circle, to bring nearer that time of peace and love,
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: which is the dream and the earnest desire of every
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: true hearted and thinking man. At least, we ought surely
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: to be willing to do a small thing as this
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: to help the world onward towards that glorious future. We
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: ought to make ourselves pure, our thoughts and our actions,
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: as well as our food, so that by example as
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: well as by precept, we may be doing all that
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: in us lies to spread the gospel of love and
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: of compassion, to put an end to the reign of
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: brutality and terror, and to bring nearer the dawn of
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: the great Kingdom of righteousness and love, when the will
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: of our Father shall be done upon earth, as it
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: is in he end of section fourteen. Recording by Andrea Fiori.
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: End of Vegetarianism and Occultism by C. W. Leadbeater