To the trained occult observer, it is as if humanity - as a whole - is walking partly in a dense shadow which engulfs the race, and some part of which involves an area of the body of every human being. One of the aims of the New Age will be "to lighten this shadow and bring people out into the fitness of true health." This same shadow penetrates also into the mineral kingdom, affects the vegetable kingdom, and involves also the animals; it is one of the major causes of all that can be considered under the name of "sin," which may surprise you. It is also the fertile seed of crime. This is a fact to be accepted, to be properly considered and dealt with rationally, sanely, intelligently and [226] spiritually; it will require all the factors mentioned to lift humanity out of the darkness of disease into established and radiant health. Certain of the Masters are dealing with this problem in relation to the other kingdoms in nature, for there will be no true escape for man whilst his environment is still under the shadow of disease.

Much that I could tell you in this connection would sound fanciful and would call forth the scoffing amusement of the hard-boiled scientist. The theories held by mankind as to the origin of diseases, and the recognition of bacteria and germs and similar intruding organisms are largely correct, but this is so only if you bear in mind that they are in reality effects of causes upon which the investigator has not touched and which are hidden in the very history of the planet itself and also in the racial history of the past - of which little or practically nothing is known. Surmise and conjecture rule here.