The Five Faces of Man

W.B. Smith

When we enter this physical universe we find that there are five relationships to which we are subject. An understanding of these relationships is necessary for a successful sojourn here and progress to higher planes. Not only do the majority of us remain in ignorance of these relationships, but many of us do not even realize their existence. It is true that there are certain ones, which are of interest to us, and we do a little lip service there for purely selfish reasons, but there is almost no recognition of the essential nature of those five relationships.

The first relationship is Religion, which is the relationship of a being to its Creator. Here we have a hodge-podge of superstition dressed up in pageantry giving lip service to something in which very few people actually believe, and practically no one knows anything about. Every great religion says “Love Thy God” but how many understand what this means? We think we know family love, love of country, love of things, but do we know love of God?

Love thy God as Thyself! This is something a bit nearer to our understanding because we are all pretty selfish creatures, but again do we really know what it means? Do those of us who abuse our bodies and minds with the many and varied malpractices have any understanding of what it means to love ourselves.

Love Thy God with all Thy Heart, with all Thy Soul, and with all Thy Mind! Here again we are urged to a course of definite action which is spelled out rather clearly, and again we do little or nothing about it. We must learn to know our hearts, our souls and our minds: to know their capacity and then to use this capacity. There is a tremendous potential here if we but understand it.

The Hierarchy is the relationship of a Being to Others not of its kind. In this universe we know very little about the Hierarchy beyond the few other living things which share this planet with us, and which we regard with distain as being of little or no consequence. We have little knowledge of the vast realms of beings of higher evolution than ourselves, and when we do experience a little impact from them, we ignore and suppress it and hope it will go away because it embarrasses us. There are very few people on this earth who do not feel that somehow they are the Acme of Creation and there are none greater, except possibly a vague and nebulous Deity with which we have little or nothing in common. And yet, knowledge of the Hierarchy obviously is necessary if we are to progress in it; for we are part of it whether we realize it or not. Civilization is the relationship of beings with others of the same kind. This is something about which we know a little, but don’t do very much. We have a civilization of sorts but it isn’t very good, not nearly as good as the civilization developed by the Ants and the Bees. We have a general idea of what civilization should be and we all have dreams of Utopia, but we have not yet mastered even the basic principles upon which a successful civilization must be based.

The many ideologies and “isms” are all attempts to develop a more satisfactory civilization and each much be regarded as a stepping-stone leading towards the ultimate. As long as there is disagreement about how civilization should be set up, just that long will it continue to evolve. When people on this planet are satisfied with their civilization it will crystallize, as has the civilization of the Ants and Bees, and further evolvement will rest entirely with the individuals. Because of the basic restless nature of our branch of mankind we will probably not settle for a civilization pattern in the near future, and our ultimate civilization will bear little resemblance to what we have now. But the important thing is to recognize that what we have isn’t very good, and the ultimate is still far off, and we should work towards it.

Science is the relationship of a Being to the physical world in which it exists. We have evolved a science of sorts by observing Nature and guessing at the causes of the phenomena, which we observe. When we have guessed a plausible explanation we test it by asking Nature a few experimental questions and then fitting the answers into our hypothesis. If they can be made to fit we assume that our original guess was right and we proceed on to the next guess. By following this method we have built up a most magnificent concept of this universe that we live in, all beautifully supported by mathematical analyses, and almost entirely self-consistent.

Although it is not generally admitted in scientific circles, there is a prime Cause for this universe, called the Creator, and this universe was established from Nothing-At-All. What we observe is the end product of this creation, or at least that stage of it which involves us. What we do not see is the mechanism by which this all came about and so long as we insist on inspecting it from our limited point of view we are not likely to find out very much about its inherent structure. However, if we follow the path trodden by the Creator and start as he did, from Nothing-At-All and follow up on the logical sequences, FROM THE BOTTOM UP, checking with Nature by experiment every so often we can get quite a different view of this universe which is ever so much simpler and probably much more accurate than that of our conventional science. By definition Science is the relationship of the Being with the physical world in which it exists, so it is fairly obvious that the viewpoint should be that of the Being, i.e. an emanation of the Creator following the path set by the Creator.

The relationship of the Being to the physical vehicle, which it occupies, is the Tallus, and this is the area where understanding is the most conspicuous by its absence. Unfortunately, many, many people do not even recognize that there is such a relationship, believing that the physical vehicle IS the Being, in spite of the vast amount of evidence which is apparent to all that the Being is quite apart, though intimately associated with the physical vehicle. The subtraction of limbs or organs does not detract from a Being and the retirement of a Being from its physical vehicle is not necessarily related too closely with such subtractions. The transcendental nature of Awareness and impossibility of localizing it within the physical structure indicates that it is something separate.

We are accustomed to living in our physical bodies and to us it feels “normal” and any deviation from this condition results in feeling and sensations, which are unique. If our thresholds are depressed as in sleep or under anesthetic we can alter the relationship of our Beings to our vehicles without undue disturbance, but on the other hand, if out thresholds are raised any such alteration becomes more apparent. These are the Tallic sensations or experiences, and are an essential part of our experience here. Drugs, excitement and many other stimuli simultaneously raise our thresholds and allow alteration of the Tallus relationship. The group of experiences involving sex, birth, death, and mediumship all involves closely related physical sensations caused by the partial (or complete) withdrawal of the Being from the physical vehicle, and some rearrangement in relation thereto.

These then are the five relationships, which make up the experience of the Being in the physical environment. They are part and parcel of our lives and their understanding is an essential part of our evolvement. We have but a scanty appreciation of these relationships, and even to many they do not exist except as philosophies or superstitions. However, we have only to look at what little is apparent of our Brothers from Elsewhere to appreciate the results of Better understanding of these basic relationships;  and they tell us that they too, have a long way to go!