Psychological Rehabilitation is Vision in Action

By David E. Hopper

We have definitely arrived at a point in evolution where we, collectively as humanity, and regardless of the culture, can turn the tide in our affairs. We have struggled for thousands of years to get to a point in awareness in which we can think for ourselves and understand that our thoughts and actions have an effect upon the various planes of consciousness in which we live. But is that enough to guarantee our survival in the millennia to come? Of course not. But before we can move closer to the manifestation of our essential divinity we must first have a sense of where we are going—we need a map or vision of the future. Without it, we live in chaos, and today’s world reflects this lack of vision.


There are a number of people in our world who have gone a step or two further past the average man, who are aware of themselves as individuals and who take responsibility for their actions. They not only have a sense of where they are and where they are going, but in addition know how to use their energies for the benefit for humanity. Among the set of skills they have is vision. They see what they want to accomplish (in their mind’s eye), allocate the necessary resources, and manifest it. Successful people in all professions and in all cultures are already doing this.

We see that people of vision are driven by certain forces and energies, but what of the mass of humanity that isn’t conscious nor willing to take responsibility for their actions? The answer is that societies in all nations must perform a great deal of damage control to rectify the effects of individual unconscious, selfish behavior. Nations must slowly make progress towards instilling a conscious awareness and a sense of responsibility in all peo­ple. This is an effort to educate the masses and increase the mental awareness of all indi­viduals within each culture or country.

When considering the “Psychological Rehabilitation of the Nations” (Alice Bailey book) it is necessary to have a sense of what this term means. “Rehabilitation” means that a measure of progress towards establishing stability and building unity is already occurring within a society. The process begins with personal self discovery within the individual and is later extended to humanity as a whole. “Psychological Rehabilitation” in this sense means that the individ­ual or group is developing a new mental perspective of itself and its environment. The attitudes of selfishness, bigotry, pride, isolation, and hate must give way to an acknowledgement of one’s neighbors and their needs. This is happening—although with great reluctance—with numerous conflicts in the world, such as Bosnia and Kosovo. In these cases, all of the warring parties have been forced to the negotiating table to accept the terms of mutual cooperation, sharing, and the need to uplift the human condition, i.e. respect human rights. More examples of this type of ongoing “rehabilitation” include Northern Ireland, the Middle East including Israel and their neighbors, North and South Korea, Iraq, South Africa, and Indonesia. So despite themselves, people are learning through cooperation and shared experience.

An interesting point to consider is that every negotiating team, or those who are dedicated towards resolving conflicts, is made up of individuals. Each individual has his or her own ray structure and life experiences that conditions his or her outlook on personal issues, which in turn influence how he or she feels about the issue at hand. Problems from his or her own past psychological condition can directly effect how he or she thinks about broader issues that affect a national group. At the level of national dialog and diplomacy their personal past is usually put aside in favor of the greater needs of the moment. This is unfortunately not always the case with special interests or lobbyists, who exist in all lands. They will fight hard to have their voices heard, especially if their pet project or ideas are not aired. This is often at the expense of the “noble proceedings.” So, at the heart of the negotiations that take place regarding national or local issues within a given country, talks are frequently fraught with numerous conflicting energies and thoughtforms emanating from the astral plane of the individuals’ desire nature.

When discussing the psychological rehabilitation of the nations, the desire nature should be included.

In Esoteric Astrology p. 389, Dwhal Khul the Tibetan Master describes the desire nature in part:

"Desire is the force of the form nature; will is the energy of the soul express­ing itself as direction, progress and conformity to the Plan….The average human being may consider desire as subjective, because he is so completely identified with form life upon the outer planes that the impulses and incentives coming to him along the stream of consciousness are viewed by him as intangible and mys­tical….Gradually the disciple learns to distinguish between these distinctive aspects of energy and force until he knows finally which is an expression of force (coming from the form) and which are energy contacts (coming from the soul)."

Desire is a basic urge or motivation to do something. There is a difference between the personalities’ desire and the soul’s. The difference between these two is that the soul clearly knows what it wants, whereas the personality makes decisions from impulse or desire without understanding its effect upon the environment. The spirit of possession is strongly coupled with greed, selfishness, and a general attitude of “what happens to you is not my concern.” The effect of these limited trains of thought upon human rights from a historical perspective is obvious and tragic. Numerous nations through the centuries have created empires through colonialism and imperialism. They have forced their values upon others and grossly exploited their natural resources for the selfish benefit of the conqueror. These actions cause karmic baggage to be carried from generation to generation.

In A Treatise on White Magic, p. 530, D.K. contrasts the desire nature with the Will:

"Will is desire, formulated so clearly and carried so powerfully to an intelli­gent climax that the mode of materialization is grasped with such accuracy and energized with such intent that the result is inescapable. But pure will is only possible to a coordinated thinker, to truly self-conscious entities. Desire is instinctual or rather inherent in all forms, for all forms and organisms constitute part of some primary thinker and are influenced by the powerful intent of that primary force."

In order for progressive and positive change to take place in a given society, an enlight­ened public opinion must be present. Thanks largely to the Hierarchy moving closer to humanity, the mental plane has been seeded with new ideas and has caused change to be initiated by those who respond to these energies. Numerous groups and individuals today in all countries, all with different interests, are as the result of these ideas contributing to the whole of civilization resulting from these ideas.production of a better world civilization. They hold information and ideas unique to themselves and promulgate their ideas through lectures, seminars, and grassroots organizations. By influencing people to think, take action, and believe and feel along certain lines, whether through coercion or friendly persuasion, the thought energy they express is a powerful force for change. Christ stated that “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he”. Hence, rays 1 and 3 are present and are strongly making their influence felt.

If one person or group holds a thoughtform long enough, and with the use of the Will, then they will influence their environment and ultimately cause powerful changes to take place. In government, turning thought into action happens every day. Ideally, representatives are elected who act as a voice for the public; they carry out the thoughtforms of the people at the local and national levels. They go to their respective council or legislative chambers and create laws to make the government work. This is the ideal. This supports the concept of a free exchange of ideas. Because so many people around the world feel strongly in this way, other nations see it too and are influenced by it—all stemming from the influence of individual and collective thoughtforms.

After WWII, “globalization” has been steadily expanding to reach even the not so wealthy nations, especially since the 1960s. With the power of consumerism driving local and national politics around the world, this has ultimately forced governments to define stan­dards of trade through treaties and agreements between various groups of nations. With the demand for consumer goods strengthened through the exposure of the media, an awareness has emerged of how these nations are treating their own people. Also of con­cern to Western nations is how the multi-national corporations such as the major oil corpo­rations, shoe producers, and computer parts manufacturers are requiring their local workers to perform “sweatshop” labor in areas such as Southeast Asia, China, Indonesia, and Korea. With an increased exposure to Western ideas through trade and modern com­munication, nations are exposed to Western ideas which will inevitably effect local poli­tics. As a case in point, the influence of Western ideas is becoming a worrisome threat to China’s strong-arm government, which has forced them to put severe limitations on the use of FAX machines and the Internet in an attempt to curtail the spread of information from the West.

With the opening of Asian markets, many Western consumers are coming to a new awareness of these problems via the media and through organizations such as Amnesty Interna­tional and the International Red Cross. These groups are revealing the abuse perpetrated on local populations by their own governments. Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Doctors without Borders, and the International Red Cross propose action to counter human rights abuses and foster right human relations. This is done largely through the donations and volunteer efforts of their workers in numerous countries and at all levels of govern­ment and culture. Also, celebrities such as Richard Gere, Steven Segal, Vanessa Redgrave, and others of similar stature work on behalf of these human rights organizations to make the public aware of human rights violations and abuses of the environment in countries in Africa, Central and South America, Tibet, China, Burma, and Asia as a whole.

It has been argued that with the influx of Western ideas and trade, that government’s human rights violations and harmful policies towards their own people have been curtailed or strongly influenced. There are many today who believe that the Pope, with his visits around the world, has been instrumental in causing the East European and Soviet govern­ments to change, and thus create governments with more humanistic policies towards their own people. This has been especially true with the Communist nations. All governments that maintain a policy of isolationism and selfish national politics are doomed to fail in the light of international trade and the influx of new and fresh ideas.

Finally, we recognize that each society has strengths and weaknesses which make up the national psychology in all of the fields which shape human behavior. We know in today’s world that the international trade of consumer goods and sharing of information directly affects national politics, economy, culture, education, and science. Probably the greater obstacle towards creating a lasting peace and security for all is the inability for those in the know and in power to define what we are trying to achieve for humanity and for civilization as a whole. There is constant talk about fixing or reforming this or that, especially when “damage control” is performed in response to a crisis. But virtually every reform is only a temporary Band-Aid measure and doesn’t really fix the more deeply seated problems such as hunger, overpopulation, environmental degradation, and poverty. Today’s reforms only scratches the surface of human need.

Defining “what we are trying to achieve for humanity”, D.K. comments from Esoteric Psychology II, p. 632:

"The objective of the new social order, of the new politics and the new reli­gion is to bring about the unfoldment of the human consciousness, to institute and bring to men’s attention the higher values, and to end the reign of material­ism. It is, after all, the goal which all true knowers and spiritually minded men down the ages have set themselves – to bring in the rule of the Kingdom of God, the control of the soul, whose nature is love, and to carry forward the work which Christ inaugurated—the era of peace on earth, goodwill towards men."

If we were to define where we were going and what it would look like when we got there, what would it look like? An objective or paradigm shift in world consciousness such as bringing in the rule of the Kingdom of God would be an immense achievement. With a common vision, servers in every nation should be able to allocate the necessary energy, manpower, and resources towards making that goal a reality.