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CHAPTER X.— The Two Brothers · Invisible Helpers

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  Chapter ten of Invisible Helpers. This is a LibriVox according all liberyvox accordings are
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  in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox
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  dot org. Read by KBHD. Invisible Helpers by C. W. Leadbetter,
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  Chapter ten, The Two Brothers. This story has been told by a
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  pen of far greater dramatic capability than mine, and with a wealth of detail
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  for which I have here no space in the Theosophical Review of November eighteen,
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  ninety seven, page two hundred and twenty nine. To that account, I
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  would refer the reader, since my own description of the case will be a
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  mere outline, as brief as is consistent with clearness. The names given are
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  of course fictitious, but the incidences are related with scrupulous accuracy of dramates.
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  Personnaire or two brothers, the sons of a country gentleman Lancelot aged fourteen and
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  Walter, aged eleven, very good boys of the ordinary, healthy, manly
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  type, like hundreds of others in this fair realm, with no obvious psychic
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  qualifications of any sort except the place possession of a good deal of Celtic blood.
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  Perhaps the most remarkable feature about them was the intensity of the affection that
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  existed between them, for they were simply inseparable. Neither would go anywhere without
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  the other, and the younger idolized the elder as only a younger boy can.
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  One unlucky day, Launcelot was thrown from his pony and killed, and
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  for Walter the world became empty. The child's grief was so real and terrible
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  that he could neither eat nor sleep, and his mother and nurse were at
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  their wits end as to what to do for him. He seemed deaf,
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  alike to persuasion and blame. When they told him that grief was wicked and
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  that his brother was in heaven, he simply answered that he could not be
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  certain of that, and that even if it were true, he knew that
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  Launcelot could no more be happy in heaven without him than he could on earth
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  without Launcelot. Incredible as it may sound, the poor child was actually dying
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  of grief, and what made the case even more pathetic was the fact that,
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  all unknown to him, his brother stood at his side all the time,
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  fully conscious of his misery, and himself half distracted at the failure of
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  his repeated attempts to touch him. Or speak to him. Affairs were still
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  in this most pitiable condition on the third evening after the accident, when Cyril's
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  attention was drawn to the two brothers. He cannot tell how he just happened
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  to be passing, he says, yet surely the will of the lords of
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  compassion guided him to the scene. Poor Walter lay exhausted yet seepless, alone
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  in his desolation, so far as he knew, though all the time his
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  sorrowing brother stood beside him. Launcelot, free from the chains of flesh,
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  could see and hear Cyril, so obviously the first thing to do was to
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  soothe his pain with the promise of friendship and help in communicating with his brother.
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  As soon as the dead boy's mind was thus cheered with hope, Cyril
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  turned to the living one and tried with all his strength to impress upon his
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  brain the knowledge that his brother stood beside him, not dead, but living
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  and loving as of Yow. But all his efforts were in vain. The
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  dull apathy of grief so filled poor Walter's mind that no suggestion from without could
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  enter. And Cyril knew not what to do, Yet so deeply was he
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  moved by the sad sight. So intense was his sympathy and so firm his
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  determination to help in some way or the other at any cost of strength to
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  himself, that somehow, even to this day, he cannot tell how he
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  found himself able to touch and speak to the heart broken child. Putting aside
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  Walter's questions as to who he was and how he came there, he went
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  straight to the point, telling him that his brother stood beside him, trying
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  hard to make him hear his constant, repeated assurances that he was not dead,
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  but living and yearning to help and comfort him. Little Walter longed to
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  believe, yet hardly dared to hope. But Cyril's eager insistence vanquished his doubts
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  at last, and he said, Oh, I do believe you, because
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  you are so kind. But if I could only see him, then I
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  should know. Then I should be quite sure. And if I could only
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  hear his voice telling me he was happy, I shouldn't mind a bid his
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  going away again afterwards. Young though he was at work, Cyril knew enough
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  to be aware that Walter's wish was not one ordinarily granted, and was beginning
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  regretfully to tell him so when suddenly he felt a presence that all the helpers
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  know, and though no word was spoken, it was borne upon in his
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  mind that instead of what he had meant to say, he was to promise
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  Walter the boon his heart desired. Wait till I come back, he said,
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  and you shall see him then. And then he vanished that one touch
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  from the Master had shown him what to do and how to do it,
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  and he rushed to fetch the older friend who had so often helped him before.
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  This older man had not yet retired for the night, but on hearing
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  Cyril's hurried summons, he lost no time in accompanying him, and in a
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  few minutes they were back at Walter's bedside. The poor child was just beginning
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  to believe it was all a lovely dream, and his delight and relief when
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  Cyril reappeared were beautiful to see. Yet how much more beautiful was the scene
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  a moment later, when, in obedience to a word from the Master,
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  the elder man materialized the eager Launcelot, and the living and the dead stood
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  hand in hand once more, now in very truth, for both the brothers
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  had sorrow been turned into joy unspeakable, and again, and again. They
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  both declared that now they should never feel sad any more, because they knew
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  that death had no power to part them. Nor was their gladness dampened even
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  when Cyril explained carefully to them at his older friend's suggestion, that his strange
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  physical reunion would not be repeated, but that all day long Launcelot would be
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  near Walter, even though the latter could not see him, and every night
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  Walter would slip out of his body and be consciously with his brother once more.
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  Hearing this, poor weary Walter sank to sleep at once and proved its
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  truth, and was amazed to find, with what hitherto unknown rapidity, he
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  and his brother could fly together from one to another of their old familiar haunts.
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  Cyril thoughtfully warned him that he would probably forget most of his freer life
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  when he awoke next day, But by rare good fortune, he did not
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  forget, as so many of us do. Perhaps the shock of the great
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  joy had somewhat aroused the latent psychic faculty which belongs to the Celtic blood.
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  At any rate, he forgot no single detail of all that had happened,
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  and next morning he burst upon the house of mourning with a wondrous tale which
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  suited it. But ill his parents thought that grief had turned his brain,
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  and since he is now the heir, they have been watching long and anxiously
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  for further symptoms of insanity, which happily they have not found. They still
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  think him a monomaniac on this point, though they fully recognize that this delusion
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  has saved his life. But his old nurse, who is a Catholic,
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  is phone in her belief that all he says is true. That the Lord
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  Jesus, who was once a child himself, took pity on that other child
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  as he lay dying of grief, and sent one of his angels to bring
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  his brother back to him from the dead as a reward for a love which
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  is stronger than death. Sometimes popular superstition gets a good deal nearer to the
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  heart of things than does educate a skepticism. Nor does the story end here,
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  for the good work begun that night is still progressing, and none can
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  say how far the influence of that one act may ramify. Walter's astral consciousness,
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  once having been thus thoroughly awakened, remains in activity. Every morning he
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  brings back into his physical brain the memory of his knight's adventures with his brother.
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  Every night they meet their dear friend Cyril, from whom they have learnt
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  so much about the wonderful new world that is opened before them, and the
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  other worlds to come that lie higher. Yet, under Cyril's guidance, they
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  also the living and the dead alike, have become eager and earnest members of
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  the Band of Helpers, and probably for years to come, until Lancelot's vigorous,
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  young astral body disintegrates, many a dying child will have course to be
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  grateful to these three, who are trying to pass onto others something of the
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  joy that they have themselves received. Nor is it to the dead alone that
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  these new converts have been of use, For they have sought and found some
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  other living children who show consciousness on the astral plane doing sleep, And one
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  at least of those whom they have thus brought to Cerrel has already proved a
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  valuable little recruit to the children's band, as well as a very kind little
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  friend down here on the physical plane. Those to whom all these ideas are
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  new sometimes find it very difficult to understand how children can be of any use
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  in the astral world, seeing they would say that the astral body of a
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  child must be undeveloped, and the ego thus limited by childhood on the astral
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  as well as the physical plane. In what way could such an ego be
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  of use or be able to help towards the spiritual, mental, and moral
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  evolution of humanity, which we are told is the chief concern of the helpers.
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  When first such a question was asked, shortly after the publication of one
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  of these stories in our magazine, I sent it to Cyril himself to see
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  what he would say to it, and his answer was this. It is
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  quite true, as the writer says, that I'm only a boy and know
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  very little yet, and that I shall be much more useful when I have
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  learned more. But I am able to do a little even now, because
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  there are so many people who have learnt nothing about theosophy yet, though they
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  may know very much more than I do about everything else. And you see,
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  when you want to get to a certain place, a little boy who
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  knows the way can do more for you than a hundred wise men who don't
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  know it. It may be added that when even a child had been awakened
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  upon the astral plane. The development of the astral body would proceed so rapidly
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  that he would very soon be in a position upon that plane, but little
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  inferior to that of the awakened adult, and would of course be much in
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  advance so far as usefulness is concerned of the wisest man who was yet unawakened.
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  But unless the ego expressing himself through that child body possessed the necessary qualification
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  of a determined yet loving disposition, and had clearly manifested it in his previous
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  lives, no occultists would take the very serious responsibility of awakening him upon the
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  astral plane, When, however, their karma is such that it is possible
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  for them to thus be aroused. Children often improve most efficient helpers and throw
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  themselves into their work with a whole solt devotion, which is very beautiful to
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  see, and so it is fulfilled once more the ancient prophecy a little child
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  shall lead them. Another question that suggests itself to one's mind in reading this
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  last story of the two brothers, is this, since Cyril was somehow able
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  to materialize himself by sheer force of love and pity and strength of will,
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  is it not strange that Launcelot, who had been trying so much longer to
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  communicate, had not succeeded in doing the same thing. For there is of
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  course no difficulty in seeing why poor Launcelot was unable to communicate with his brother,
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  for that inability is simply the normal condition of affairs. The wonder is
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  that Cyril was able to materialize himself, not that Launcelot was not. Not
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  only, however, was the feeling probably stronger in Cyril's case, but he
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  also knew exactly what he wanted to do, knew that such a thing as
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  materialization was a possibility, and had some general idea as to how it was
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  done, while Launcelot naturally knew nothing of all this then, though he does
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  now. End of Chapter ten read by k BHC.