"That is a mere assumption on the part of materialists," answered
Ah Ben. "Not only two things, but ten million things, can occupy the
same space at the same time; for what is space, and what is time?
They are mental conditions, as are all the phenomena of nature.
Even your scientist will tell you that the infinite ether penetrates
all substances, and that cast-steel or a diamond contains as much
of this mysterious element as any other space of equal size. The
varying vibrations of this ether, or universal akasa, make the world
and all that is in it; and these vibrations are interpenetrable and
non-obstructive. Even on the material plane we see how the vibrations
of light and heat penetrate those of visible and tangible substance,
and how, in your more recent discoveries, light rays penetrate solid
metals formerly called opaque. When I say that these vibrations are
interpenetrable and non-obstructive, the statement must be taken as
approximating the truth, and not as a finality, independent of all
conditions; for by the power of the will, or as a result of mental
habit, a man may either exclude or admit to his consciousness the
thought vibrations of others. But you may set it down as a fundamental
fact that there is nothing or no condition of which the mind can
conceive that may not become an objective reality, which is the
creative faculty in all of us. This city is here to us just as really
and actually as were the trees of Guir forest a short time ago. By
opening our inward sight, and putting ourselves in accord with another
vibratory plane of existence, we are in full rapport with a condition
that makes no impression upon the members of the sleeping world not so
impressed."
"But we left the house at midnight, and here we are in the broad
light of day. Do you mean to tell me that the mind controls the sun
itself? The thing is so astounding that I feel as if I were losing my
reason."
"And did I not tell you that it was unwise to gratify curiosity in
this realm when unprepared by a long course of training? But let me
quote you a few words from one of our greatest philosophers"; and Ah
Ben quoted the following from Franz Hartman's "Magic, White and
Black": "Visible man is not all there is of man, but is surrounded by an
invisible mental atmosphere, comparable to the pulp surrounding the
seed in a fruit; but this light, or atmosphere, or pulp, is the
mind of man, an organized ocean of spiritual substance, wherein all
things exist. If man were conscious of his own greatness, he would
know that within himself exist the sun and the moon and the starry
sky and every object in space, because his true self is God; and
God is without limits."