One of André’s friends has a son named Joop, who has been called up for military service.

His parents want him to take on an administrative task, which also appeals to Joop.

He leaves, but a short time later his parents receive news that Joop was ill.

This seems very strange, because Joop has never been ill before, and now he’s suddenly overwrought.

His father goes to see André.

As soon as he’s inside, he says:

“I think I may need your help. Joop isn’t well.”

“What’s the matter with your boy?” André inquires sympathetically.

“I don’t know everything yet, he’s been put on the sick-list and that worries me.

He writes that he feels overwrought, and that doesn’t sound like him at all.

He leads a steady, quiet, life, doesn’t talk much, and keeps to himself; nothing ever gets him worked up.

And now he’s supposed to be ill.

I just can’t understand it.

What do you think?

I brought a photo of him along, perhaps you can see something.”

André examines the picture.

He tunes himself in to his master and after a little while he hears:

“He is slightly overexerted, wait a bit and see.”

His friend leaves, but returns before long.

The man is very concerned.

He immediately starts to talk:

“I’m scared, André.”

“What are you scared of, my friend?”

“It’s not so much because of Joop, although this concerns him too. The fact is that we’ve had mental cases in our family.”

“So now you think he may also become insane?”

“That’s right.

I’m worried, and so is my wife, because something is wrong here.

We know what he’s like.”

“Shall I tell you something?

He should have been outdoors in the fresh air.

You should have made the boy join the regular troops.”

“I understand, but that can’t be undone now. Besides, he doesn’t want to be transferred.

All the same, it’s constantly on my mind, it robs me of my sleep.”

“Did he actually write to you that it’s that bad?”

“He seldom writes, and when he does, never more than a few words.

He merely mentions that he doesn’t feel well.

But what’s behind this?”

Master Alcar repeats that he must wait, and André passes the message on to his friend.

But the latter persists and asks:

“Can you really do nothing for him, André?”

“Not yet, my master tells me, not until he’s here.

Besides, he gets help over there, doesn’t he?”

“Then I don’t need to worry?”

“No, because there’s no question yet of a severe illness.”

“You scare me when you say ‘not yet’.

Could this illness get worse?”

“You will have to wait and see.”

The man leaves, but he returns a week later.

He lets his head hang, and his shoulders are stooped under the burden of his worries.

“Bad news?” André queries.

“Joop hasn’t improved and he still suffers from nervous exhaustion.

I just don’t understand.

We’re very concerned.”

André tunes in to his master and asks:

“Do you have a message for him, Alcar?”

A moment later he hears: “I will go and examine him to see what is wrong.”

In the meantime, André chats with his friend and gives him strength.

André realizes he’s not a strong personality.

Now that there are troubles in sight, he crumbles, although nothing is really wrong yet.

What a lot of unnecessary misery people create for themselves!

What would happen in case of real trouble, when he would have to prove what he was worth?

Parents may love their children.

But this is weakness.

Now he hears Alcar say:

“Tell him, André, that his son is at odds with himself.

That is the cause of his overexertion, but your friend need not worry yet.”

“Again those words ‘not yet’!

Then something is going to happen?”

André answers: “You shouldn’t always read an ulterior motive in my words; you’ll have to wait and see!”

“But why do you say: ‘not yet’?”

“I didn’t say that, those are my master’s words.

You mustn’t take everything so seriously, try to accept things a little more.”

“So it’s nothing serious?”

“Let me tell you something, my friend.

Now listen carefully.

My master says, ‘The trouble with your son is that he wants to learn, and at the moment that is impossible.

The studies he wants to take up depress him.

He wants everything at once and that is impossible.

He would like to show what he is capable of, but it is too much for him, and as a result, he collapses.

The subject matter gets him overexerted, and he cannot stand up to those stimuli.

He wants to get ahead of the others, and that is his undoing.

If he does not realize in time that this is not the way he should handle things, then he is in for an inferiority complex too, and that will definitely break him.’”

“You really scare me.”

“You should stop being scared all the time, you’re not a little child any more.

Joop must bow his head.

If he can’t, he will sink away and withdraw into himself, but that doesn’t mean that he’ll become insane.”

“Are you sure of that?”

“I’ll stake my life on it.”

“That changes matters a lot, but ...”

“You and your ‘buts’!

The sooner he runs into his own brick wall and knocks himself out, the better for him.

Once again, dear friend, if he won’t bow his head, then I’m not so sure.”

“Not sure of what?”

“He’ll have to prove that he’s really serious about what he wants.

Don’t you feel that?

And if he can’t, then you’ll be hearing a lot more from your Joop.”

The man sits there huddled up as if someone had beaten him, and as if the sorrows of the whole world have been laid on his shoulders.

André lets him brood for a little while, then says:

“I’ll tell you something that could help you.

I received this from my leader.

It may seem rather rough on you and your wife when I say that your son must run himself to ruin, but in fact, it isn’t.

Because if he doesn’t do it now, he’ll have to face these laws later on and then, they could really make a complete wreck out of him.

At the moment, he can still weather the shock.

At an older age, he would break down physically as well as spiritually.

Don’t you realize that he’s suffering from megalomania?

He’s aiming too high and that will get him nowhere!

Many people try the same, but sooner or later they fall back and must accept their own personality.

Joop has feeling enough to learn, but he’s going about it in the wrong way.

Besides, he’s not suited for this subject matter.

He should have become an ordinary soldier.

Now he wants to learn something he can’t.

And even if you believe that he possesses the necessary ability, my master says he does not.

You know your son, but so do I.”

“He was always number one at school.

The boys used to go to him with all their problems.”

“Maybe so, but these problems mean something quite different to his life.

He’s not number one now.

If he can’t accept that, then his day-conscious personality will shut itself off to his life of feeling and simply withdraw.”

“Where to?”

“Where to?

Into the immensity of our Space.”

“That is quite something!”

“That’s the way it is.

That’s no small matter.

We might even get that far, and then I’ll make a few things clear to you.

At the moment, that’s impossible, because my master won’t go a single step further than the problem requires.

Maybe we can talk some more later.

But now, I must tell you that Joop is not suited for those studies.

If he cannot bow his head, his condition will get worse, but I will add that he won’t become insane.

These are the words of my master.”

“What now?”

“Nothing, you must wait.

Also bear in mind that you must think of yourself too.

You must first accept what I tell you before you’re able to receive; there’s no other way you can succeed.

And you’d better know how to stand on your own two feet, because I can’t help you.

After all, he’s no longer a child.

You may love your son, but don’t let that destroy you.

Is that what you intend?

Must you both break down, even before anything has happened, and go crazy for nothing?

To let yourself go like that means physical and spiritual decay.

You will both take ill while Joop gets better!”

His friend left, heavily burdened by his sorrows.

Sorrows, such as even his child knew nothing of.

Where will your path lead you? André thought.

To self-made misery.

What kind of misery will that be?

Begging to be beaten up?

André knew this personality and also that of his son.

He wished he were allowed to give these two people a bit of higher consciousness.

Maybe they would awaken and could consciously begin to live this life that is, after all, full of beauty.

At present, they experienced nothing, they were living dead, and at least that’s what this father proved to be!

If his master wanted so, he would transform this event into a beautiful sculpture, because those means lay within his reach.

He would chop away with a zeal that would make the pieces whiz past his own ears, and past the ears of all the others who were tied up with this life.

When this sculpture was finished they could take it in and place it in their midst, give it as much love as they wanted, because it would be worthy of it.

They were God’s children, but they still had a lot to learn.

These people now faced their Father’s wisdom of life, which was totally incomprehensible to them.

But first they had to show what they really wanted to achieve on earth.

When his friend returned, the moaning started as soon as he crossed the threshold.

“He’s still not well.

There’s no change yet.

Surely you feel how this affects us and gets us upset?”

‘Now what’, André thought.

He fathomed the son’s inner life, because he wanted to feel and know whether these worries were premature or not.

He followed the boy’s spiritual aura, in which he could also read and determine the sorrows and grief of this personality.

He could see that there was very little change.

His son was ill and felt unable to work, but that didn’t mean he was going to die.

There was no question of insanity.

His master had already assured him of that, and he could rely on it.

Master Alcar was never wrong!

However, he had to give Joop’s father an answer and said:

“Don’t you feel that he’s no longer a child?

Do you think that you still can play father over him?

You were no longer able to do so at home, so what are you after now?

Of course, he’s your child, but what did I tell you?

Do you have to ruin yourselves?

Is that why you can’t sleep anymore?

You ought to be ashamed of yourselves.

Can’t you think of something else for a change?

What does a mother do when she sees how her child keeps on going over to a hot stove again and again?

One day that child has to face the facts and then it gets through to him, assuming that the personality possesses sufficient power, because, for a psychopath, such experiences have no meaning.”

“What are you aiming at?”

“I want to shake you awake, my friend, otherwise, you’ll come apart some day, and I definitely want to prevent that from happening.

It’s still worthwhile to raise people to a higher level of consciousness, and I’ll do anything to accomplish that.

You, on the other hand, are a bit too uncomprehending, you worry too much, to put it plainly. You know what I mean.

Your child needs to learn this lesson.

Joop ought to have his hands burnt now, otherwise, he’ll bump into his stove again, and by then it will be burning at full blast!

It would confront him with huge problems, and he wouldn’t know how to handle them.

Nevertheless, there will be no accidents.

I’m telling you for the last time, he will not become insane.

This is what you fear, my good man, you can’t pull the wool over my eyes.

You are wearing yourself out!

And I must try to prevent that.

If I don’t succeed, then you’ll all have to shoulder this misery yourselves.

Nobody is able to help you at the moment, because you are looking for misery!

Even if all your relatives were unconscious and had psychopathic tendencies, Joop doesn’t have them!

These traits are not present in him!

Are you satisfied now, more at ease?”

“How can you be so sure of this?

Do you know him better than we do?”

“It seems so, because I can look much deeper into this life and character than you can, even though you’re his father.

I know the laws of his personality, not only in this world, but also within the immensity I spoke of and which he must face, but in which he will lose himself.”

“First you build up, and then you’re just as fast at tearing everything down again.

In other words, what you hand to me as a support, you take away the next moment and that leaves me standing in-between two worlds.

So now what?”

André smiles and replies.

They’re away playing cat and mouse.

André is now linked up with his master, and is one with him, he feels able to support this life.

Pieces of this personality already fly through the room, but his friend doesn’t notice anything, he doesn’t feel it.

He’s listless; he’s busy acquiring an inferiority complex, and wants to bear someone else’s burden.

However, his child must experience this law himself!

The answer arrives; he will pass it on in clear words.

“I’m not tearing anything down, my friend.

I’m busy opening you up to higher truths, to vital problems, which you will appreciate during your life, providing you can accept them.

Sticking one’s head in the sand like an ostrich is not good for humans.

The main part of your body remains visible and will be hit anyhow, or do you want to go through life like a cripple?

Do you want to impair your inner being?

Are you a family man?

A workaholic, a man who thinks, feels and sees what will happen in society?

You are playing the ostrich.

But then you belong out in the wilderness, not here.

You still possess a rather low attunement and must yet awaken to your conscious human qualities.

Take it easy, I haven’t finished yet, you can ask more questions later.

I build up, but take away what you don’t understand.

Now and then you feel that I move on a bit.

My master tells me that we are facing new aspects, which yesterday filled your boy’s life without being touched.

Your boy doesn’t know what to do with them; otherwise, he would act differently.

This means that we are busy unravelling these phenomena, with the help of my master of course, because we could not do that by ourselves.

Or did that first time appear very earthly to you, when I was allowed to use my gift to help you and then when my master said, ‘I will link up with him, just a moment!’

You didn’t give it any thought.

And yet this is supernatural, because we are not capable of that.

My guide can move around at will, unite with a soul, even if it lives in a faraway country far removed from this place.

You know my books and so you can understand this.

This enables me to show you that you are not using your brains.

Your actions are childish and unconscious, because you ask me the very same thing over and over again.

Is it so hard for you to understand that I must keep on confronting you with varying kinds of hardships if I’m to guide you through your present misery?

But you don’t feel that.

You go on, thinking about the insane members of your family and imagining your Joop in that condition.

You are not getting one step ahead; you can’t accept what I’m telling you and what I’ve received for you.

That’s why you can’t be reached.

And now you are telling me that I first give you everything and then take it all away again.

Is that true?

Stick out your feelers with a little more awareness.

The worst is that you are like a small child, but you want to act like a fully-fledged adult.

However, you are not that child any more.

The truth is that you are living amidst the laws of an immature self and you’ve just left the years of spiritual­ adolescence behind you.

Isn’t that so?

You are swaying back and forth between lots of character-traits, dear fellow, and you look at them as if they were the ghosts that you were scared of as a child.”

“But you’re hiding something.”

“Nothing whatsoever, I tell you. I too must wait.

By the way, is Joop that sick?

And what of it, even if he sinks away a little deeper?

Didn’t I tell you, that he ... but don’t you know already?

He’s not susceptible to insanity.

His personality is not open to it.

He is still far too closed off, shut tight to these laws, and therefore the astral world cannot reach him.

Now, have you calmed down a bit?

Or must I ram it down your soul?

Do I know him better than you do?

Yes!

I see him differently, in a way neither of you have ever seen him.

Or do you doubt that too?

Do I have to tell you that you don’t know yourself?

Your son lives just outside that grade of feeling.

If he possessed more feeling, if he had mediumistic sensitivity – do you hear? – then he would be open to astral impact or influence.

But those are precisely the powers he lacks, they’re not perceptible in him.

Many others on this earth do have them, but he does not!

Whether that is good or bad is irrelevant at the moment.

Who is to be envied; those who are in­sensitive or the sensitive ones?

Those who still have to face insanity or those who are now possessed?

You will not be able to answer that, but perhaps we’ll get that far yet, and you’ll get to know.

I’m telling you: sometimes the insane are further ahead than those who think they possess consciousness, even if they hold an important post within our society.”

“What are you getting at now?”

“At becoming astrally conscious of every personality.

My master tells me that it goes through the grades of life for insanity, and not a single soul can avoid that!

I’m telling you that you are ruining yourself.

The laws tell us: ‘Those who do not want to, do have to feel it’.

Believe me, it may seem hard to you, but it’s the right way.

And you cannot avoid this either!

You and your wife will also have to awaken and bow your heads before this wisdom, because life goes on.”

Three weeks later, André’s friend tells him that his son has written and is back on his feet.

The man is happy again.

“Well”, André says, “then you can breathe a sigh of relief.”

But three days later the son has another breakdown, and again the father comes calling for André.

What now?

Once again André hammers away at this doubting Thomas.

“Didn’t I tell you that he must bow his head?

He certainly doesn’t seem to want to do so, but this is terrible for you, because he’s your child.

I’m telling you once and for all, he will not become insane!

There’s nothing you can do about it, and neither can your wife.

I’m still just as powerless.

He wants to stand on his own two feet.

All right, that’s possible and sometimes it’s necessary.

But not this time, because he must accept these laws.

He must ... bow, because this study does not suit him.

And now it’s a case of bending or breaking.

He won’t bow yet, but in the end, he will!

That’s what your son is like and you’ll have to accept it.

So you see, parents aren’t in touch with their children.

We could treat lots of problems the laws of which have set your life; his problems, and your wife’s and daughter’s too.

You’ve never been a real friend to Joop, because you don’t know yourself.

You’re not in touch with him now, and you never will be.

You lack the necessary feeling and that’s another thing your personality must yet awaken to.

You can’t help it and it’s not your fault either, these are laws!

I’m telling you now, there’s nothing the matter with him, but you’re turning this ‘nothing’ into a king size illness.

We’ll just have to wait; to him this is a learning experience.”

“What do you mean by me not being a real friend to him?”

“Isn’t that clear to you?

It is quite simple, but again, you need to ‘feel’ it.

I’ll add to this that the grade of life for the human, at least parental inner life in relation to their children still has to develop.

That means that parents are not really parents.

Or do you believe that simply playing at father and mother enables you to understand and take care of the soul and personality of your child?

Parents do not know their own children and the children do not give a hoot about their parents, because the latter want to boss them and throw their authority about.

And then the stumbling begins over the acquired character traits, which results in deep rifts that can’t be bridged.

Parents and children are ignorant of each other’s depths and have no notion of the purpose of their life.

They become human stumbling blocks to one another.

And then they start pulling each other to pieces, which is senseless before God and astral space.

Every personality bears its own laws of life and its grade of life that determines how he or she should act.

Fatherhood and motherhood then have no meaning, because the characters do not harmonize.

There’s a lack of love.

Then parents and children face huge problems.

Then what?

Parents with cosmic consciousness are a support to their children.

That kind of father joins up with his children and is a true friend to them.

When the child feels this, it comes closer and closer to the parental order, then the parents descend into their children and vice versa.

Of course, this is only possible when that love is present in the children.

Psychopaths cannot be reached, but that’s not what we’re talking about.

When the link has been made, in other words: when the fundamental base is filled with inspiration, it is then that the father proves himself a true friend to his child. Therefore, he slowly draws the child up into his own life.

The child has been roused to know love and will act accordingly.

In order to reach this, one should follow a course in psychology to get ready for this life, to experience the joy of one’s own development and to completely fulfil the purpose of this life on earth.

Parents of the future will get to know all these laws, that’s what Alcar says, and only then can a lot of disaster be prevented. That is because the parental task has a cosmic attunement and it’s as deep as the Universe; after all, this connects parents and child with life and death!

This will do for now.

Think it over and you will awaken.”

Where are your feelings, André ponders after his friend has left.

Or doesn’t this strike home to you, have you nothing else than misery inside?

Are you now busy attracting lots of troubles through the unconscious, dark astral world?

However, he was not able to perceive any of these powers in him, his friend is free from astral influence.

Yet this influence could well have been present!

Lots of possibilities remain for him to follow and to analyse by his master, if he is to help him and if he wants these hours to bring progress for his friend and his wife.

However, those who seek misery, attract misery.

That’s a law!

Whoever looks for evil, will meet up with darkness.

No-one who craves for misery is able to open himself up to the light of the sun.

These beings experience the darkness they themselves created and live underground, like moles, although they are human beings.

These people attract sadness towards themselves; they have a craving to be beaten, because they cannot accept life.

André senses how they’re full of fear, fear of sickness and misery, and they don’t understand that their child must live his own life.

The laws of karma?

Cause and effect?

Whatever it may be, Master Alcar says: there’s no danger of insanity!

A few days later Joop’s father returns out of breath. He is received by André at the door, sits down, and asks:

“Aren’t you taking it all a bit too lightly, André?”

André’s wife believed she ought to ask him this question too, now that his friend thought he could relax his pent-up nerves by talking about his boy.

André is ready and answers:

“Neither of you have any faith.

You have no feelings.

You are people who act on their own.

Can’t you submit everything for just one moment?

Bow your head before God.

Or do you believe that God wants to punish your son?

Wherever Joop lives, and whatever he’s subjected to, they’re his own laws. This only has to do with his personality, because God does not punish!

You must be able to say, ‘Your will be done!’

But you can’t do that yet.

You will have to learn though.

You must let go of your child!

Joop must do the living himself!

Whatever is intended for him does not belong to you.

And this isn’t love, it’s destruction.

I can see his illness, I feel his illness, and the astral world conveys the word, the diagnosis, to me.

I have passed that truth on to you, but you are too insensitive to take it in.

You must learn to accept.

Your son is stronger than you are, he will experience more than you can, and will presently become conscious.

Your life is now at a standstill, whereas, his continues further and higher, until he realizes what he should do.

And that’s what he’s busy with now.

He’s in the process of awakening.

And they believe he’s going mad?

This is no illness!

He’s merely making himself believe that it is, and has lapsed into a languid frame of mind.

He’s living below his conscious self to a certain extent, that’s all.

This, however, is a temporary condition.”

“Do you know”, his friend says, “that he’s in a very bad state at the moment?

He’s no longer able to think.

What on earth shall we do?”

“Did he write to you?”

“We received a message, he’s unable to write himself.

You persist that he won’t become insane?”

“If I had him here now – which, however, is not possible – he would be cured within three months.”

“What’s that you said?”

“That your son would be better within three months.”

“But then we can bring him over, can’t we?”

“It’s obvious that you were never in the army.

That is impossible, they won’t just let him go.

It takes a lot more to get discharged.”

“But I’m his father!”

“At the moment, your fatherhood doesn’t mean the slightest thing, dear friend.’

“Then what?

Are we expected to allow him to die there?”

“Oh, come on, don’t be so gloomy.

You are going too far again.

He gets plenty of care where he is; they are doing everything they can for him.

He gets the best help available, the highest-ranking medical officer.

What did they write?”

“That he’s no longer able to think, he’s incapable of that.

What do we do now?

Can’t you do anything at all for him?

It will soon be too late, André.”

“It’s never too late for him, my friend.

That’s another thing you must accept.

In a while he will have reached the borderline and then the process will come to an end.

He will not sink any deeper, that’s out of the question.

This is his condition, which only applies to his character because these relapses differ from person to person.

Therefore, he cannot fall any deeper.

Later, you will experience this.

Your next question concerns something else, although it’s related to the first one.

You asked whether he could be helped.

The answer is: ‘Yes, and no!’

‘Yes’ touches upon many possibilities, for him at least. ‘No’ leads us to the depths of his inner life, to his personality and various vital problems, which at present haven’t any meaning for him yet, but will certainly affect him in the future.

I would like to advise you to leave him where he is now!

Let him experience these possibilities; don’t take them away from him.

Let Joop burn his fingers now, and you will do him a great service.

I suppose I’m going too fast for you, aren’t I?

And yet, accept what my master says, so get a good night’s rest and let go of everything.”

“And we’re supposed to look on and see him go crazy?”

“If you mention that word again I’ll send you away.

And if you start being sarcastic then you’re barking up the wrong tree, because the Beyond knows quite well how to handle that.

We are dead serious!

We take your life and that of your child to heart, based on astral power, with a love that is beyond mankind’s understanding.

I cannot turn you upside down to find out what you have in you, and that’s not the intention, but you must begin to accept us.

Your child will get b-e-t-t-e-r!

All right?”

“You mean out there?”

“No, not there, because the doctors don’t know him, and they know even less about his illness.”

“What makes you so sure, André, that he won’t become insane?

You must have a reason for saying that?”

“Man, oh man, when will you grow up?”

It’s Master Alcar who conveys the word to André to continue, so that this personality will awaken.

André says:

“I’ve explained several times already how I know that your son won’t go mad, but it still doesn’t get through to your consciousness.

If you want to know more of this, you must try to follow me.

Put your cares aside for a brief moment and try to listen.

Above all, try to feel what we are aiming at; otherwise, I’ll be talking for nothing again.

Your son isn’t ill.

Your son is a normal person.

But if you were to ask me, and if you got the chance to take him home right now, I would advise you not to do so.

He must definitely undergo this lesson in life at this stage.

Take away this chance and sooner or later he must face these laws again, these character traits which he can’t escape from.

You would cause him twice as much misery and you would not want that.

So my master says: let him be!

He’s not ill!

He’s in a better state than you think, and he’s normal, both physically and mentally.

He has sunk away a few percent below his day-conscious self, that’s all.”

André’s friend thinks for a moment, but then he comes up with yet another problem. He says:

“Isn’t it a shame that my other child acts as if nothing is the matter?”

“Good heavens, man, what a fool you’re making of yourself!” André retorts, “should your little girl ruin herself like you both are doing?

Should she wear herself out by crying over her little brother day and night?

This child has a different character.

She experiences life in a different way than you do, but that doesn’t mean that her brother’s illness doesn’t mean anything to her.

I’ll tell you something that happened to me a few days ago.

The head of a certain family dies and they gather at the cemetery.

Many of them are sad and the children miss their father very much.

However, there’s one boy amongst them who keeps on smiling all the time.

The mother asks me afterwards if her son lacks any feeling.

The boy experiences the death of his father as if it doesn’t concern him.

All the others are upset, but not he; he apparently remains himself.

However, a fortnight later he collapses and his condition is so serious that the doctor has to be called.

Now the boy is a complete wreck.

Was this boy callous or unfeeling?

No, not at all, he experienced his father’s death in a different way.

His mother got to know her boy now and gained deep respect for his feeling and thinking.

He spoke to his mother and made it clear to her that his father is not dead.

To him it was an ordinary material happening.

But a little later, when he began to feel the loss of his presence – he had had a marvellous bond with his father and he understood him completely – he broke down.

This boy is strong and possesses a wonderful faith, but it had much greater impact on him than on all the other children.”

His friend reflects for a moment and then says:

“But my daughter isn’t as religious.”

“This has nothing to do with religion, because she experiences this condition in keeping with her character.

She possesses something which none of you have.

You must still develop the qualities within yourself, which she already possesses.

This is the big difference between your individual characters.

She has personality.

Anyway, you will find this out later.”

“She already says so now.”

“Well then, stop talking such nonsense.

You can learn from her if you want to.”

Joop’s father leaves, but he will return.

André doesn’t hear anything from him for a long time, but one day he turns up again.

He looks aged, and grief is taking its toll.

André’s friend is certain to break down if he goes on like this.

He begins:

“At the moment everything is definitely going wrong.”

“Why is that?”

“They no longer know what to do with him.

Isn’t it awful?

What can we do?

Must I go on accepting this?

Now they want to send him away.

What do you think?”

“That’s excellent, because then you can visit him.”

“Possibly, but can you help him then?”

“No, not yet.

He must first bow his head and he’s not ready to do that yet.

I can’t reach him anyway.

You can ask him to, but you will see that he’ll laugh at you.

I can’t treat him over there, anyway.

He has to go through a bit more misery.

Only then he will open up his character and become a little more flexible.

I know it’s extremely hard on you, but that’s what my master says.

And if he’s not up to it, then I need not even lift a finger.

Medicine doesn’t have any effect on him now and he’s misleading the doctors himself.

At the moment, he should have spiritual help, but he isn’t ready for it.

People like him don’t let themselves be drawn up.

His own will must be broken, and that is what we call ‘bowing one’s head’ before everything that comes our way!

But he’s not yet able to do that.

However, one day it will happen, you’ll see.

Sooner or later all these troubles will cause him to break down, after all, who wants to be ill?

And only after this has dawned on him can I begin to do something for him.

He must clearly realize and feel that the doctors can’t help him.

It will save me half a year’s work, and an enormous amount of energy, trouble, and sorrows, which we can prevent if we are prepared to wait a bit longer for the right moment.

Only after his personality has been struck dumb will he open up his inner dwelling, although there’s nobody whom he would open up to.

That is simply what your son is like, and I don’t see him any differently.

I don’t mean to say that he’s asking for this misery.

Nobody wants to be ill, but I’m familiar with characters of this kind.

These beings make it difficult for themselves.

He must get rid of these traits, and conquer them.

This will immediately make him change his outlook on life, he’ll be more easy-going and his stubbornness will wear off.

Until that time you must have patience.

This is going to cost you a pretty penny, but you had better write that off.

After all, he’s your son.

All the same, he has brought this on himself.

You want my honest opinion what I would do with him? I would give him a proper dressing-down.

He deserves it.

A rude awakening works wonders, especially when it comes unexpectedly.

Around midnight for instance.

That would scare the wits out of him, make him believe in ghosts.

He would be cured at once.

Characters like him need a strong hand now and then.

Tenderness doesn’t work with them because they don’t react to it.

On the other hand, if you know nothing about their inner life, you could easily push them even further into their misery.

You must therefore be able to fathom this unfamiliar character, and definitely know what is possible, because mere guesswork could create even more misery.

And in order to ‘fathom’ him, the help of the Beyond is urgently required, as all the various traits of the personality must be checked.

We therefore have to know for certain whether this kind of treatment may safely be administered.

At the moment, the boy is making a fool of himself, but he isn’t aware of it.

I’m sure you’re beginning to feel how complicated these characters are.

He’s acting the poor soul at the moment, and that has a certain meaning for his life.

All the same, I tell you that it will make him a wiser man, because in the end this will puncture his already withdrawn personality. He will have to plug those holes himself, and later, that’s where we will help him.

But can you also understand that the doctors are unable to make any sense out this; and that they can’t come to a conclusive diagnosis?

The learned men are taking a too serious view of the matter.

I’m not; to me he’s just a big brat.

That’s why I have no qualms in saying that he deserves a good spanking.

I assure you that even a psychologist won’t know what to do with him.

And it’s very likely that one of those will be consulted too, because by no means have we solved the matter yet.”

“You are scaring me again.”

“You’re talking nonsense.

For goodness sake stop this or I’ll tell you to go.

We are treating this condition in spiritual attunement and that could teach you something.

It won’t help us if you kick up a rumpus.

We must see him as he is; otherwise, I can’t help you.

I have already been lenient enough with you as it is; I have slowly been leading you up to this moment if you want to know.

But I’m prepared and can take care of him as well as you.

At the moment, your son is suffering from an inferiority complex.

He has the feeling that he’s a loser, and hasn’t the slightest intention yet to get back to his real self.

Anyway, that isn’t even possible now, because he has been playing with fire.

He didn’t know that one can’t fool around with one’s nerves.

At present he’s sinking deeper and deeper, until he can sink no further, and – as I was already allowed to explain to you – that will serve to protect him.

Otherwise, he would face insanity.

One grade deeper down into himself and the astral doors would open up. You have no idea of the suffering he would then encounter.

Nevertheless, this is why millions of people are locked up.

They are now prisoners within their own bodies, because the dark, astral personalities live within their organisms.

This condition, Master Alcar says, encompasses seven grades.

We are now experiencing the conscious and the unconscious form of insanity.

Those who are consciously insane are still themselves, the unconscious ones are mentally deranged because they are possessed.

Your son is now acting half-consciously.

He doesn’t belong to either category and that means that his personality need sink only one more grade and he’ll open up to spiritual insanity.

I explained to you where his limits lie, so you don’t have to worry, because this is how we will get to know him.

To me this is wisdom, and it’s a marvellous experience for me to be allowed to explain all these laws to you.

It has taught me such a lot.

Since his actions are half-conscious, a psychologist would be unable to reach him as people of his sort accept neither the Beyond nor the continuation of inner life as a personality.

That confronts the learned men with a cosmic problem they cannot fathom.

The psychologist has therefore nothing to hold on to.

Your son is neither mentally deranged, nor is he a psychopath, since he is merely a fraction away from his day-conscious self.

All this was caused by his wish to study.

That’s all there is.”

“You should build yourself a big house, André, where you could receive all these people.

I believe you would be a very busy man.”

“Do you know that I already have an offer from a lady to set up a place like that?

She’s prepared to invest a great deal of money into it.

However, my master has other plans, which I will not get to know about until later.

But it would be worthwhile.

There are enough young doctors to be found who would be willing to cooperate with my master.

Various scholars already come to visit me, because many of them are receptive to this wisdom, especially to the laws of the astral world in relation to the soul as a personality.

My master tells me that this would prevent me from doing other things, and it seems that this is not what’s intended, because the Other Side wants to use me to achieve the maximum that can be accomplished through a medium.

Now, writing has become the main matter.

There are many who will be disappointed when I stop my healing treatments, yet this is in my master’s hands.

Mankind must now awaken, which is also the intention of the Beyond.

This is what I have to devote all my energy to.

The lady I told you about thought it was a terrible pity, because her life had also been touched by the masters of the Beyond.

She became acquainted with all these wonders and now wants to commit her own life to this.

Large amounts of money have been put aside for me, but I must refuse.

I also know that if this were possible, the Beyond would have allowed us to perform wonders.

The infallible diagnoses which are made touch everyone.

It is just not possible to avoid this.

I was able to convince many doctors of this.

A prospect of even greater beauty, my friend, and of much, much greater weight to the masters and me lies ahead; later, we will explain all these laws to the scholars.

They will be lectured by those who live behind the veil of death.

I will speak in trance on those occasions, or through inspiration, and every word will be meaningful.

That is possible too; we must merely practice a little patience.

Man is enormously deep, my friend, and yet when we humans have gained insight into the essence of life, even the biggest question-mark will immediately disappear.

For there is no death!

These problems all arise between this life and alleged death.

People have to experience these problems, and then they are looked upon by society as maniacs.

How I would love to shout it out from the rooftops!

But science is not that far yet.

All the same, this is where the origin is found of all these psychic riddles, the grades of insanity and of psychopathy, which to us are natural astral laws for the soul as a human personality!

These laws are experienced outside of the day-conscious self, so that life on earth changes and becomes unrecognizable to a man of learning.

But not to the Beyond, because those laws pertain to that life; they are the potholes and gaps for the soul during its endeavour to become a more conscious personality.

Moreover, that entails a lot of grief and sorrow, it means bowing your head, which your son has now begun to do.

Should we take this learning process away from him?

How could you suggest such a thing?

For the time being we will let him do as he pleases, but Alcar is following him in his tracks, and there’s nothing he can conceal from my master.

In a while, my friend, you will see what happens.

However, not before all these doctors have spent their energy and their wisdom on him, will we make our appearance.

Joop won’t be able to accept me yet, but he’ll no longer have any say in the matter.

We will force him.

And when we have got to that point – I already foresee this – when he has recovered and become a normal human being, people won’t believe that we were the ones who cured him.

They will laugh and shrug their shoulders.

And that puts us at a standstill, whether we like it or not.

We might as well pack up our tools, because this miracle, which everyone will accept in times to come, is still beyond people’s comprehension.

The scientists aren’t that far yet.

We are at cross-purposes with them and have to get out of their way if we don’t want to be beaten up or made out to be quacks.

Which is something I definitely am not, because my life and my personality are like that of a child.

But now the kind of child that was referred to in early days; the kind of child that Christ talked about, and that the world has forgotten.

I am nothing, my friend, and will never count for anything in this society, because this entire earthly bustle has no meaning to me.

I neither let myself be put on a pedestal, nor do I allow them to kick me into the gutter.

I remain who I am; I’m steering a straight course and I carry out my master’s instructions.

But children can perform wonders.

Those children are akin to the apostles who experienced this.

And I am one of those apostles.

That’s all I want to be, and that’s all I’ll ever be.

Although I dwell between life and death, I won’t let go of my hold on mother earth.

What I mean is, there’ll be no need for them to declare me mentally deranged.

I will remain aware of what I’m saying and of the things I receive through my master.

But just try telling those learned men that Joop will get better nonetheless!

Even if it gets to the point where they have to give up, you can tell them from me that he will be better in three months time.

Just try, they’ll say you’re out of your mind.

This tells us that no matter how great the powers and the word of the Beyond may be, mankind must yet awaken to it.

At the moment, we’re talking to people who are deaf, dumb, and insensitive.

Should I keep on waiting until that happens?

The Beyond is on the move.

The great things we’re erecting can only gain significance if the Beyond and its mediums become accepted.

Do you sense this?

It’s the truth!

What is a human being, dear fellow, if he has no knowledge of these matters and of the next life?

If he’s afraid of a death that doesn’t exist?”

“We are not afraid of death”, says André’s friend, “but it’s frightening to see Joop in his present condition.”

“No, no, that’s not it, I know you.

This is more of your ostrich tactics.

You must show your colours.

If you can’t, you will go on searching and waste away your strength.

That’s not what we’re after.

I would like to make conscious people out of you and all those around you.

However, you are not yet aware of your own assets.

This child appears to you to be a physical object, your life doesn’t yet relate to his inner core.

We human beings must be able to entrust everything to The One who has created us.

You should be able to sense the Space inside of you, only then does life become fully worthwhile, and worth experiencing, above all.

Feel that, and your two legs are solidly planted on the ground and if you wish, you can gain a spiritual grade and go higher.

It scares people when we talk about dying, even though this happening spells true bliss to many.

After all, it’s death that enables us to get to know all these mighty laws, which enrich us within.

In his last moments, a dying person usually has more to tell us than we get to hear from the pulpit. That is because the dying person is on his way between life and death, whereas in general, there’s no soul in the words spoken from the pulpit.

If your inner life is receptive, you gain wisdom that takes your breath away, but which unfortunately very many don’t understand.

The words are most times spoken haltingly and seems improbable, but take a look behind the things that have been said.

These are truths, my friend, and they link us up with Space, with heaven and hell, with grades of life, and spheres that may be entered by those who are spiritually conscious.

Those who cannot submit, close themselves off to it.

Or don’t you believe all these things?

Yet they are meant for you and me, for everyone, and it has always been like that.

Only times and society change.

To millions of people, the coffin signifies the entering of the all-embracing universe in which He lives.

Or did you think we were building castles in the air on earth?

Every thought leads you to His laws, but conscious deeds alone have any meaning on both this and yonder side.

The others drive us into a mental home and this denotes either destruction or a learning process.

Just try to get people to understand this!”

“You have developed that far, but what about us?”

“You will be born again to accomplish that.

However, I know that you do not want to return to such chaos.

But I do, because life is unbelievably beautiful, yes, it’s tremendous.

I enjoy every second of my work and of the life around me.

I cannot get enough of it!

Whereas others go to pieces against life because they do not know the laws and therefore carry out their tasks with sightless eyes.

Every moment I face these enormous laws, and enter the realm encompassing life and death.

You should see how death laughs when you know him and can follow him.

Do you know that death can talk to you?

You are far too scared for that, and you wouldn’t understand his language anyway.

An insane person lives with him under one roof, and he has told this soul: please enter, for I am love.

If you can accept this, you big adult, you grown-up child, you see the completeness of his nature and can go and pick flowers.

Not all of one colour, but thousands of colours, flowers of one kind.

When you present your mother with these flowers on ‘Mother’s Day’, you will make the tears run down her cheeks.

She will call out: ‘But child, you must have gathered these far from home!’

You won’t know what to say.

There’s no sign of a Satan close by, you can only see God’s angels, and they are singing to you in beautiful tones.

If you want to get to know these laws, these angels will weave a halo for your life.

You should now take off your hat and replace it by this halo.

You do this without knowing why and now you are afraid that people will scoff at you.

You are now wondering where this is leading to?

Aren’t you?

I’m busy taking you for a walk through Space, through our natural surroundings in which we live, and now we get to the psychic laws for our existence.

The whole of nature now speaks to our souls.

Would you like to enjoy this bliss on a Sunday morning?

There’s no need here for either a walking stick or your Sunday best.

Those who experience this go naked.

And yet nobody takes offence, because here the garment of the Space is worn.

Do you see how it glitters?

Your son is living in it, but he must first learn to see.

He’s doing that now.

In a while, he will behold it consciously and then tell his father: ‘I would not have missed this for anything in the world!

Look at it, don’t you see?’

And when you look, Joop senior, and see nothing but material space, then once again you will fear that something might, after all, be wrong with his inner life.

But he will tell you.

Now don’t think he will whisper this into your ear. It will come to you from feeling to feeling.

It will seem to you as if you’re a mother and he’s alive within you as your child.

Oh, how I wish you could feel this heartbeat.

Then you would know at once!

If you’re able to unveil all this, you get top score.

I advise you urgently to think this over, because it’s balm for your soul and for your whole personality.”

“In other words, flee?”

“Now we are one in our feelings.

It’s amazing, you’re beginning to awaken.”

Before the door closed behind him, his friend added:

“If it were not for you, I would give up hope.”

“Better watch your step or you’ll fall down the stairs.

For heaven’s sake look what you’re doing, or else I’ll have one job more to fix.”

What a goof, André thinks.

He longs to know more about this, but nothing really gets through to him.

Even so, his friend was beginning to awaken a bit. At least, André was doing his utmost to achieve that.

The sculpture André was busy with was getting on quite well, but the clay was unwilling.

The substance was too languid.

Its vital essence had gone sour.

And those powers needed to be renewed.

Only then could André become creative.

Four days later Joop’s father again faced André, who immediately saw that things were still not going well.

André’s friend started right away and said:

“Do you want to know how he is?”

André wanted to say that he knew that already.

But instead he answered:

“Do they want to make him sleep?”

“How do you know?”

“You just told me yourself.”

“But I didn’t say a word about it.”

“You told me from deep within.

You speak much more clearly inside than with your mouth.

And that was the voice that told me so a moment ago.

Master Alcar wanted me to listen attentively, and at that moment I already knew.”

“What do you think of such a treatment, will it do him good?”

“Another big problem.

What on earth are those learned men searching for?

Did any of the things I told you last time get through to you?”

“No, I’ll tell you honestly, it drove me up the wall.”

“Well, in that case we’ll have to make it a bit plainer.

Listen now to what the conscious astral world has to tell us.

Light yourself a cigarette, it’ll make it easier for you to think.

You are not in a hurry, are you?”

“I’m waiting.”

“Master Alcar says: sleep is good for some, but wrong for thousands of others.

And why?

That again depends on the personality.

It has to do with character traits.

It drives sensitive people round the bend, the insensitive ones experience nothing.

They are spiritually dead, and they’re unable to experience anything.

For them, this induced sleep is meaningless.

But the sensitive ones flutter about like bats, banging against the bars of their physical dwelling, unable to enter as the body has been consciously paralysed.

This sleep is administered to allow the spirit to rest, but above all to relax the nervous system and immobilize the whole organism for a little while, so that the personality can recover.

At least the inner life, because a conscious soul as a personality is still unknown.

Science wants to cure the patient by inducing sleep.

Doctors now want to bring on harmony between spirit and matter.

If they succeed, then their method will be justified.

However, they don’t usually succeed, because the spirit and the body don’t react as expected.

But they don’t know the reason why.

It’s a mystery, and that’s what it will remain for the time being.

The simple answer is that the soul as a personality is insensitive; it can’t possibly experience anything because it’s asleep too.

On the other hand the sensitive spirit usually remains awake and now darts around the body, getting more and more upset.

Or do you imagine that it’s restful to live outside of your body?

This sleep therapy will cause a disturbance between spirit and matter in a person who happens to be sensitive.

The soul as the inner life cannot reach the body and now searches between life and death for an entrance into the body, because the soul as a personality wants to live, but now it has got into disharmony with the material laws.

And all this is caused by induced sleep.

At this stage, there can be absolutely no question of awareness, or of returning to the day-conscious self.

The personality must endure this sleep as long as the narcosis lasts.

Yet it cannot sleep and wanders from one misery into the next.

This is no healing!

It’s spiritual destruction!

A personality in this condition goes through hell.

It’s locked up in its own body.

Now she experiences its own insanity.

A human being who is possessed experiences the same process. However, in this case an unconscious astral personality takes over the conscious self.

While the factual owner of the organism dwells in the cellar of the physical building that is the human body.

Now if somebody happens to be sensitive to the Beyond, the problems involved are entirely different, and may be either beneficial or evil.

The spirit now has the ability to disembody and travel about on the Beyond.

Many people who have been subjected to this induced sleep return with beautiful visions, which they experienced during their sleep.

However, others emerge not only physically broken, they are also spiritually deranged, because the soul as a personality was forced into a fight for life or death.

This life was attacked by dark astral personalities from the world it visited during this sleep.

Numerous nurses and doctors were able to follow their patients during this induced sleep.

It no longer frightens them to hear these patients in that condition using abusive language, curse and swear and shout, because they have come to know these phenomena.

But the cause of this is unknown to them.

What happens is: the soul as a personality is shouting for help, because it realizes that the day-consciousness has been closed off to her.

She wants to return into her own existence but cannot.

The organs are paralysed and the injection must first wear off.

Alone and forlorn the spirit must digest all this.

Is this healing?

I tell you, although it does mean rest and strength to many, for an innumerable amount, it’s horrifying and terribly dangerous.

Your son experiences nothing at all!

This sleep will neither build him up nor break him down, because he’s insensitive to it.

It doesn’t offer him any rest, nor will it ruin him.

First of all, his spirit doesn’t take in any rest because his condition belongs to the day-consciousness.

Second, they send him into the world of the unconscious, which is incomprehensible to him.

If he were sensitive, then you would have to reckon with insanity.

He cannot experience these grades of sensitivity.

His inner life is insensitive and doesn’t possess mediumistic sensitivity.

If it did possess this sensitivity, then he would be on the threshold of a psychopathic grade of life.

You would instantly see him possessed!

So don’t worry, your child will get better.

Did you understand the things I was allowed to receive on your behalf?”

“All of it, and I am very grateful to you.

I will now hand everything over.”

“Then we have both gained something.

So your son is neither of the two, he’s not sensitive enough, nor is he insensitive; he’s somewhere between these two grades of life.

That’s why he’ll get better, he’ll be completely normal again.

Later, he will say: I’m glad I was allowed to experience this ordeal because it has made me conscious.

You’ll have to acknowledge this to be true, because he will tell you so himself.”

Joop has awakened, but it has not helped at all.

Awakened from his sleep, tired and unconscious, he is exactly the same, nor does he say a word.

He mumbles something, seems to imply that the learned doctors are ignorant.

They’re still searching!

“I’ll never get better again ...”, these words finally pass his lips after he has spent quite a while together with his parents, and with that, he believes he has said enough.

“Go on home, I don’t need your help either.”

And there you stand, looking at your own flesh and blood, so unbending, unwilling, and uncompromising, knowing that he cannot be anything else, because he doesn’t possess that pure inspiration that allows life on earth to enter the kingdom of God.

For him there is no kingdom.

To him everything seems dark, equally bad and awkward.

Joop’s father, who is now back with André, asks: “What shall I do now?”

“What are his reactions?”

“He wants to go home right away, he’s had enough.

Get me out of here, he keeps on repeating when his mother visits him. To me he doesn’t utter a word.”

“If you take him home, you’ll be liable for all the expenses, are you aware of that?”

“We’ve discussed that, but we can’t really leave him in the service, can we?

The psychologists who examined him say they, like the other doctors, are just as unable to do anything for him.

So what do we do?

Leave him there?”

“Then you’d better take him home.”

“Are you going to help him?”

“We’ll make a start.

Let me know when he’s back home.

I’ll come over to your place.”

Joop is home again, but he doesn’t want André to help him.

He has started mumbling again, but André understands what he’s saying.

Joop can’t stand any “hocus-pocus”.

If all those doctors are unable to help, then what does this seer think he can contribute?

He’s sitting close by the stove, huddled up and sulking.

He doesn’t even deign to give André a glance and just sits there like a statue.

André tries to exchange a few words with him, but the young man remains obstinate.

He doesn’t want to have any treatment.

“Leave me alone”, he tells his father.

“What do you want of me”, he blurts out and wants to bolt from the room.

“Stay here”, his father tells him, “that will do!

Do you really think we don’t care about your well-being?”

His mother also joins in and tries to act upon his feelings.

But Joop takes no notice of her.

He’ll have nothing to do with that “nonsense”.

Then André cuts in and changes the tune.

His master wants it this way.

“Ma’am”, André addresses Joop’s mother while he goes on as if Joop isn’t there, “you should send your son to a mental home.

It’s the only thing that will help him.”

His father and mother are startled and even Joop suddenly looks attentively in André’s direction.

What do you mean, his dear little mother was going to ask, but André continues in the same tone.

“Your son doesn’t belong here.

Can’t you see that this boy wants to live by himself?

This society is wrong for him.

He’s up in arms against lots of things and he’s the one who has to live in that condition, not us.

Isn’t that so, Joop?”

Joop nods at André, but doesn’t quite know what to make of it.

In any case, he thinks – André feels – that he’s getting help from him.

Yet he doesn’t understand why André wants him in a mental home.

And in this moment of confusion, of doubt, of searching and grasping for the word and its meaning, André acts through his master and tells him in a commanding tone:

“Go and lie down, over here; come on, I’m going to treat you.

We’ve had enough of this!”

Joop lies down, but changes his mind and wants to get up again.

Now his mother goes over to him and says:

“Do this for my sake, won’t you?”

Joop sinks back and lies down.

André concentrates on Joop’s inner life.

He sees his master and hears him say:

“Now he’s in our hands, André.

I am going to link you up with him, as with Lien.

You know these laws and later you must help him too, to think.

At the moment he no longer has any say in this.

Now tune in to his nervous system and I will do the rest.”

André now lets his healing life-aura act on the organism.

This is the inspiration that must and will stimulate the body to function, and thereby force the spirit to return to the day-conscious self.

This process will take three months, but by then the matter will have been solved.

Joop and his parents are about to witness great wonders.

The present treatment takes a quarter of an hour, but in the meantime, André experiences a space.

His master has merged with his life and that of Joop.

The illness is linked up with his day-conscious life.

To those looking on, nothing seems to be happening, but André sees how clouds of power flow from his hands and disappear into Joop’s exhausted organism.

The boy is tensed up inside, his nervous system is also as taut as a bowstring, and his spirit is as hard as nails.

He has erected a wall of power and unwillingness around himself.

He has dug himself in, but André sees that his master has started to excavate this mummified form of life.

Joop is as a living dead.

Nonetheless, Alcar will put new life into him.

The treatment is finished.

“Was this really so unpleasant?

After all, I’m not doing you any harm.

You’ll see, that soon you will be well again.

Honestly, I’m not telling you any nonsense, I have great respect for your personality, but you mustn’t let yourself be intimidated by this trouble.

You’re too good for that.”

André tells the parents: “Look what a robust fellow he is, and what a chest he has got!”

For a little while, André goes on talking about Joop in this way, because his master wants him to give Joop back his self-respect.

“You must have been a smart learner in the early days, weren’t you?”

Joop mumbles something, but a little light flickers in his eyes.

André continues:

“Do you know how I can tell?

Of course you don’t.

I can tell from your personality.

You’re incredibly competent in technical matters.

Are you interested in engines?”

He nods at André, but doesn’t utter a word. André feels that he’s had enough.

“We’ll make an appointment for you to come over on Thursday afternoon at two o’clock.”

André leaves.

The next day Joop’s father comes along.

He has to know how André sees the situation.

“How does he strike you, André?”

“In three months time he’ll be perfectly healthy.”

“Splendid, so you still think so?”

“I won’t take back a word of what I said.”

“Do you know what he said?”

“What?”

“I won’t go.”

“Really, that’s what he said?

In that case you should make sure that you stay at home on Thursday.

You will see him walking then.

He has no more say in this.

He’ll come all right!”

It’s the day of the appointment.

He’s supposed to arrive at two o’clock, but at half past one André begins to focus his concentration on Joop.

The father sees his child come alive.

Suddenly, Joop says he has to leave for a moment and runs out the door.

“Can you understand that?

Where is he off to now?”

“Isn’t he supposed to go over to André’s?” his mother says.

His father is glad and follows him.

He sees how Joop hurries straight to André.

Joop rings the bell and enters.

“I’m a little early, but I was in the neighbourhood and I thought that I might as well come now.

Is that all right with you?”

“Just lie down over there and I’ll treat you.”

Joop gives himself over to André and absorbs the life-magnetism that will soon make him feel well again.

André sees that a link has been established.

After the treatment, he asks Joop:

“The food doesn’t taste very good yet, does it?”

“No, I can’t eat.”

“But that will soon be set right too.”

“If you say so”, he replies curtly.

He leaves.

André doesn’t want to talk to him yet.

His father comes over and wants to know how Joop is doing.

“You must watch closely to see if he eats.”

“He didn’t want to eat for the first days.

Why is that?

Is that an illness too, some phenomenon I mean?”

“This is a physical as well as a spiritual problem, although it’s basically only one condition.

My master says that it’s part of his present condition.

It’s very simple.

Since his personality wasn’t present in the day-conscious, normal balance, none of his physical systems received any inspiration from the personality.

It’s obvious that the body doesn’t require any food either.

When we are asleep, we don’t need any food, for a certain time that is, otherwise, the feeling of hunger awakens us, and then the soul, as a personality has to obey.

This is a natural phenomenon.

Your son also experiences this condition as a natural inherent force.

He’s suffering from a spiritual breakdown, and so his normal appetite has entirely disappeared.

As soon as he returns to his conscious feeling and thinking, this feeling, his appetite or hunger, will inevitably come back to him.”

“I already noticed this, he’s regaining his appetite.”

Two weeks later it’s a pleasure to see how Joop is eating again, and this gives the parents the happy feeling that their child is recovering.

But when they ask him if he’s enjoying his meal, he shivers and shakes and puts up a show.

However, his parents can breathe more freely, because their child is getting better.

André continues the treatment and draws him out.

The bolted vault door of his day-conscious self opens up.

He chats with him and stimulates his personality.

“I suppose it’s been pretty rough going for you, experiencing all those things, hasn’t it?”

“It certainly has. Those gents simply don’t understand.”

“I can well believe that.

How could they ever understand you?

Are you still unable to look at the sun?”

“That’s right, to me everything seems to be in a grey fog.

There’s no sun anymore.”

He’s speaking the truth now, André thinks after having received the explanation of this phenomenon from his master.

The sun doesn’t get through to him because the sun is part of the life of his day-conscious self. However, Joop lives just below that level.

When he looks at the sun he perceives a grey haze.

André knows from Master Alcar that in this condition the personality cannot enjoy the day-conscious life of the self.

The spirit, as far as the body is concerned, has been switched off and that is a natural phenomenon.

This made it possible to diagnose his general condition.

His lack of appetite is a direct consequence.

He was as living dead.

How naturally this all fits together, André reflects.

He can’t understand that the medical profession doesn’t notice this.

How profound their study really is?

It’s such a pity that they have such little knowledge of the day-conscious, specifically the cosmically deep expressions of feeling of the organism; otherwise, they could have solved the problem quickly and preserved this being from a great amount of misery.

However, a tiny dot of light has now appeared in this fog.

Joop doesn’t really want to own up to it, but André has seen the phenomenon and for him this proves that Joop is on the way to recovery.

The boy still locks himself up, but he’ll have to come out, otherwise, André will rattle at the doors of his inner life until they burst open.

His personality must be overcome.

“Your son has buried his old self”, André tells his friend when the latter comes to visit him to find out how Joop is doing.

“You won’t see his old personality again, he has already learned that much.

Other people need twenty years to acquire in personality what he has achieved within a short time, because suffering and grief bring awakening to man.

Take yourself for instance, you are no longer yourself either.

How do you look at things now?

I can assure you that you won’t let yourself go that far again, you’re experiencing life in a different way now.

So we haven’t been building castles in the air, we laid true foundations that you will all greatly profit from.

This is experience, and experience instructs us for the here and now and for the life after death!

It’s spiritual development.

“Didn’t I tell you so beforehand?

Your son finally bowed his head and from that moment on he made progress.

I am now drawing him back to the day-consciousness, and I’m making his nervous system relax.”

Joop is beginning to talk and has now become a friend of André.

He feels at home with André and is fully prepared to accept everything from him.

André puts questions to him and Joop replies.

André wants to check everything he has received from his master through Joop.

When he asks what he felt during his induced sleep, Joop answers:

“I felt nothing, and I could have told them that right away.”

“How did you know that, Joop?”

“I felt it in myself.

Of course I don’t know how or why.”

“Did this begin while you were doing your military service?”

“Yes, one day I was suddenly unable to do any calculations, but I kept trying.

The result was that I could no longer think.

Then I tried harder still until I felt just awful.

The harder I tried the worse I felt and then I had to report for sick parade.

And then they ruined me.”

“How?”

“I can’t say, but I feel it.”

“Would you like me to tell you what it was?”

“Yes I would. What was it?”

“In the first place you mustn’t blame the doctors, because it was you who put them on the wrong track.

From the very start you have known that if you stopped your studies, your illness would immediately disappear too, but you didn’t want to.

Then, when it was too late, you gave up, because you had to.

At that moment you were overworked.

Had you rested for a bit, gone into nature, you would have recovered within three days time.

Didn’t the doctors ask you whether there were any cases of mental illness in your family?”

“They all asked me that.”

“Well then, from that time on you got the wrong treatment.

Had they sent you home immediately on a few days leave, you could have recovered completely.

But you weren’t given that opportunity, and we know only too well what happened then.

You sank deeper and deeper into your self.

Then you were treated as a psychopath, but you’re not insane at all!”

“No, I definitely am not”, Joop tells André and continues:

“I believe that’s what they rather wished me to be.

At least that’s what I suspected when I had to accept their powerlessness.”

“Now that is not quite right either, Joop, because you ought to have told them what you really wanted.

Had those doctors known what was going on inside of you, they would have treated you quite differently.

Then you had dragged in an inferiority complex and you became untraceable.

I’m telling you this to show that I know you.

You will now have to accept that you are better, and that you feel different than you did a few weeks ago.

Let me tell you something, Joop.

You disliked yourself.

If you had taken things a little easier, then you could have finished your studies, because there’s no doubt about your ability to learn.

You wanted to enforce your will and not bow your head, and that became your undoing.”

“Yes, that’s how it was, you know me.

But we can’t alter the past.

I don’t want to be in the Army either.”

“And do you feel that you can no longer gaze at the sun?”

“Yes, it’s crazy, the tears are running down my cheeks now.”

André explained these laws to him and Joop could accept them.

“And do you know what you should do now, Joop?” André asked him unexpectedly.

“What?”

“You should show a bit more love towards your father and mother.

Have you any idea how they suffered on your account?

You should give a little more of yourself.

They can’t reach you.

They go to pieces against your withdrawn personality and that’s not what we’re here for.

You possess enough personality, but the life you’re leading is too introverted, and that won’t work in our society, if you intend to build up a decent life for yourself and for others.

Didn’t you feel how worried they were?

You must talk with them, you are able to.

Your mother in particular needs love.

It robbed your father and mother of their sleep.

They carried this problem around with them day and night.

Please remember that!”

“I promise, André.”

Joop has found himself again.

The three months are nearly over. André has accomplished his task.

The boy has regained perfect health; all the symptoms have disappeared without leaving a trace.

Joop tells him:

“Would you believe it, André, now that everything is over I’m grateful that I went through that experience.

I’ve become a different person.”

“Precisely, that’s how it is.

Suffering and grief cause us to awaken.

Your will to live has grown stronger and a great amount of character traits have developed due to this illness.

It brought on your awakening.”

“Does this happen often, André?”

“Oh yes.

There are many people who reach too high in their life.

The ensuing breakdown causes certain symptoms, some of which have astral significance.

Here’s an example of what I was allowed to experience.

A while ago, a mother came to see me because her son had gone through something similar.

Within a short time he had become a science graduate and had received a doctorate.

He was expected to become a professor soon, which shows how learned the man was.

But one day he began to utter a lot of nonsense, his mother says.

One day he would claim to be Bismarck, the next day he was Napoleon, and on top of that he believed himself to be a genius.

In the end he just spoke gibberish and he was taken away.

He sank deeper and deeper and was then attacked by the astral world.

He ended up in an asylum.

She asked me whether I could do anything for her boy, but I couldn’t reach him anymore.

Master Alcar could have set him free him from this astral influence, but it was impossible for him to change the man’s personality as this is a weakness of character.

This man couldn’t be helped, because I was unable to give him a personality.

He possessed insufficient personality and subsequently broke down.

If this man had approached things in a simpler way, he could have held his own ground.

Vanity now split the personality in two.

Nothing can be done for him was the diagnosis from the Beyond.

It was self-destruction!

And this was what your father feared too.

He thought that you would also become insane.

This doctor had sunk a little deeper than you were able to, otherwise, we could have reached him too and brought him back to his normal state of balance.

Had my Master Alcar not been able to reach you, then we too, could not have done anything for you, and you would have had to spend your whole life on earth in this inhuman condition.

The sun would never again have shone for you, because you simply would no longer have been here.

Deep within, you had a certain spiritual possession, traits that served as a fundamental base that kept the personality in physical and spiritual balance even though serious events occurred.

The doctors’ mother said: ‘If only he had been a labourer, then I would still have my child.

Now I have nothing.’

You must bear this in mind too, Joop.

Take things a little easier in future and you’ll hold on to your normal life of the self.”

“How did I get better, André?

Am I allowed to know?”

“Certainly. You want to know how I treated you, is that it?”

“Yes, can you explain that to me?”

“When you came home you were still in exactly the same condition.

You dwelt in a different world, a world that existed below the day-consciousness.

Had you descended even deeper into yourself, then you would have followed natural sleep, although you would still have been awake.

At that moment I became linked up with your life.

Spiritually we remained one, so that I could help you think.

What you lacked in force of feeling and will power you received from me to prevent you from sinking deeper, but above all to draw you back to normal thinking and feeling.

You absorbed these magnetic powers, and they caused your physical systems to receive more driving force.

When the body reacted, the spirit – you as a personality – received relaxation and the grey haze dissolved before your eyes.

That’s all, there’s nothing else!”

“Could you not have intervened sooner, André?”

“Were you open to me at that time?

Were you willing to accept me in the beginning?

You wanted nothing to do with ‘hocus-pocus’.

Or have you forgotten?”

“I get it, it’s true!

I didn’t believe in it!”

“My master told me, that the more misery you had to experience, the better it was for yourself, and I passed that on to your father who thought you were going to die.

I would actually have let you die if we had been able to determine that this was what you wanted yourself.

Beings of that kind can’t be helped anyway.

One day you would feel you’d had enough, and that moment did come.

Other people however went too far and will never regain their health.

After all, you can’t allow yourself to do that kind of thing more than once.

The next time it destroys you.

Not only physically, but especially spiritually.

That’s asking to be committed to a mental home.

You possessed qualities that made it clear to my master that you, as a personality would not enter those grades of life.

You were called to a spiritual halt. That halt came, but it made the doctors powerless.”

“It’s amazing, André.

But what if I had refused to be treated?”

“You no longer had any say in that, dear fellow.

During the first treatment we already got the better of you.

I drew you to me, and if you had possessed the power to resist me – believe me – we wouldn’t have lifted a finger for you.

You would have had to undergo all that misery on your own.

So it was impossible for you to put up any resistance against us.

I had agreed with your father to be on the alert.

After all, you had no intention of coming over to my place, did you?

At half past one I began to tune in to you and that made you suddenly run out of the house.

However, your father followed you and saw how you went straight to my home.”

“Then there’s no more need for me to tell my old man any tales, is there?”

“Indeed there isn’t, Joop.

He’s entitled to some honesty from you.

So don’t do it again.

He knows from me how you feel and think, and what your inner life is like.

Now build a bridge across the gap and you will enter his life and all his love.

He is yearning to give you all of himself.”

Joop smiles and says: “Not only are you an unbelievably convincing talker, you’re also an exceptional judge of human nature.

It has been worthwhile.

I never knew that people like you had such depth.”

“Go and look for them, Joop.

Start searching and you will find that in our circles there is also spiritual wheat amongst the chaff.

I have had to commit my own life for this wisdom.

I didn’t get anything handed to me on a silver platter and that’s the truth.

I experience reality where a doctor isn’t able to.”

“It strikes me that you keep on anticipating and supporting me, and I suppose you were able to do the same with my father.

I don’t see a chance or any means of beating you to it.”

“If you want to, Joop, try it out some time.

I’m telling you, don’t pull the wool over my eyes.

You can hide any way you want – even behind a pre-historic mask – but with the help of my master, I’ll see right through it.

You could never put him on the wrong track.

Those wanting to do so – I’ve experienced that too – will even get their chance, but they’re outside within five minutes.

Not a finger will he lift for them.

The master says that we won’t let any personality on earth consciously blemish this sanctity!

Those who do so will go to pieces.

It was that power from the Beyond, dear fellow, that cured you.”

“I’m tremendously grateful to you, André, and I would give you anything under the sun, but how could I repay you for my health and my happiness?”

“There’s one thing I would like to ask of you, Joop, and that will repay me for everything.”

“What is it?

Please tell me and I’ll do it.”

“Will you really do what I ask?”

“Upon my oath, André, because you have become a friend and a brother to me.”

“Well then, here it is ... give away all your love, all your kindness in your own sur­roundings, and overwhelm people with it, and you’ll prove yourself worthy of your recovery.

That is my master’s wish, Joop.

That’s all that’s needed!

Remember that we human beings ascend and go on.

Serve mankind and your life will receive everything that has been created for us as human beings.

Feel love and open the doors of your inner life to everyone.”

Joop says good-bye to André, but he would, from time to time, like to discuss these matters with him.

He feels that an occasional refresher would do him good.

He is a changed man!

When his father came over to André’s to thank him for everything, also on behalf of his wife, he remarked:

“You’re not very pleased with me, of course.

I behaved disgracefully, but somehow I couldn’t help myself.”

André replied: “Light yourself a cigarette and forget everything.

Let me tell you that you too have learned.

If I gave you a sound lecturing now and then, please realize that I did it for your own good.

I wanted to turn you into a magnificent sculpture.”

“How do you think it looks?”

“You want me to tell you that too?

Better ask your son.

You’ll get an honest opinion from him now.

He can also analyse your life by now.

Playing shuffleboard is fine if you don’t know what to do during this life, or if you’re in need of some relaxation. However, figuring out the essence of all Our Dear Lord’s matters seems much more useful to me, you will have to bear that in mind too.”

“Are you starting all over again?”

“No fear, so long.

Good-bye, father of Joop.

Give my warmest regards to your son.

This time I’ll bet you that he’ll answer with a smile.

Tell him too that the sun is shining today.

He can see that now.

He will be able to feel a love for the sun that will last forever, because his life will awaken!

Go home and get to know yourself.”

And now André waited, because he was going to disembody to get to know all those mysterious powers of the spirit that are still unknown on earth.