Following are some excerpts from the book, The Inner Side of History, by Charles DeMotte, Ph.D.:
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Revisions history in the light of those spiritual forces which impel humanity to a grander and more noble destiny.
The Inner Side of History is intended for an audience interested in esoteric matters; people interested in philosophy, history and new ideas. Esoteric is the study of that which is unseen or hidden. It presupposes that there is a realm of being, a realm of consciousness which transcends our own.
The Inner Side of History revisions human history in the light of those spiritual forces which impel humanity to a grander and more noble destiny.
It looks to future historical events in the light of the lofty goals which the Teachers of the Ageless Wisdom envision for our evolution.
It is a vision of a unified humanity that is united by liberty, a common culture, and those concepts of freedom as expressed in the American Bill of Rights, the Atlantic Charter, and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms.
History will ultimately be determined by time and human free will, but the widespread dissemination of the vision of higher possibilities could have a profound effect on the outcome of future historical events.
To provide new insights on the history of Western Civilization, Professor DeMotte combines his knowledge of history with a long-time study of the Ageless Wisdom. Contents include information about:
The Ithaca Times, May 28 - June 3, 1998, p. 16:
"If you’re going to say something original, you have to step outside the norm," says Dr. Charles DeMotte, professor of history. DeMotte has certainly taken just such a step with his recent book The Inner Side of History -- within a densely-packed 300 pages, he revises our standard academic understanding of history by exploring what has come to be known as the Ageless Wisdom, a lineage of thought handed down through the centuries from our most ancient past.
DeMotte looks at history not as a random sequence of human endeavors, but as a unified story determined as much by cosmological cycles as by human will. The Inner Side of History utilizes the literature of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Rudolph Steiner and especially Alice A. Bailey to form a framework for an esoteric view of history.
Empire State College newsletter, Spring 1998:
The book combines historical knowledge with a model derived from the perspective of esoteric thought. What is presented is, essentially, a history of consciousness in light of, what the author calls, the ageless wisdom.
Preface
IntroductionSECTION ONE—AN HISTORICAL AND COSMIC OVERVIEW
Chapter 1—What is Esoteric History?
Chapter 2—Man and Cosmos: A Constitutional Analysis
Chapter 3—Historical Periodicity: Rounds and Root RacesSECTION TWO—THE CENTERS OF PLANETARY HISTORY
Chapter 4—The Expression of Power and Will in History: Shamballa
Chapter 5—Masters, Sages, and Adepts: Their Influence on Human Affairs
Chapter 6—The Evolution of Human ConsciousnessSECTION THREE—SPIRALS AND CYCLES
Chapter 7—The Seven Rays and The Psychological Dimension of History
Chapter 8—Planetary Harmonics: Esoteric Astrology and Historical EventsEpilogue
References and Notes
Bibliography
Several years ago, a student of mine wrote in a paper about going to Germany, the land of her ancestors. Although she was part Irish, she never had a desire to visit Ireland, but was ecstatic when presented with the opportunity to travel to Germany. Arriving there, she felt that she had come home, so familiar was the experience. "That type of feeling, " she said, "can certainly cause one to ponder the possibility of reincarnation."
Windows into the unseen world, such as the one experienced by my student, are not uncommon. Such experiences have helped to fuel a growing interest in psychic phenomenon, mysticism, and the occult. Books on so-called "new age" topics are among the fastest growing body of literature to be found in bookstores. Periodicals and even films devoted to esoteric themes are far more plentiful than they have ever been. So to is the curious, yet often insincere interest taken by the mass media on occult subjects. While many people who are attracted to mysticism and the occult have mixed motives, there is a substantial core of the honest seekers who are often uncomfortable or dissatisfied with conventional explanations of reality and are gallantly looking for greater meaning in life, or a deeper truth, or both.
Such a person was myself who, as a graduate student in history in the mid-1970s, began to read the books of Alice Bailey on that which comes under the general heading of the ancient or Ageless Wisdom, first with casual interest and then with relish. Naturally, my mind soon turned to the question of how the great cosmic overview, as presented in the Bailey material, could be reconciled with the events and developments in my chosen field of study. Initially, few connections were evident. It was not long before I became a student with the School for Esoteric Studies, which set me on a formal path of occult study.
For many years the application of the Ageless Wisdom to the study of history seemed vague and unrelated. However, over time, through the persistence of study, meditation, and inner work in reordering my perceptions and service, the relevance of the teachings to the material world of everyday existence became more apparent. The writing of this book is an attempt to develop some gestating ideas that have been evolving for some time into an esoteric perspective on history.
All serious books have a specific readership in mind and this one is no exception. Although students of esotericism will undoubtedly find it useful, it is my intention to reach out to a broader audience of those who have an interest in history, philosophy, or related subjects, and others who are open to newer ideas. I must first offer a disclaimer. What is presented in this book is not a claim to truth but a perspective on how history might be considered. Since there is no hard evidence to substantiate many of the assertions that are made, the material given must be viewed as a set of hypotheses to be contemplated and tested according to the law of analogy. If the paradigm and the arguments presented in this book are found to be interesting, thought-provoking, useful, or even inspiring, then it will have served its purpose. Certainly, the reader is not asked to accept what is written at face value.
In the same vein, the ideas expressed in this book are far from complete. My purpose in writing this book has never been to present a tour de force of esoteric history, rather to offer some intriguing and useful associations that may provide insights and an impetus for further reflection and research into more specific areas. Some time ago, a physicist, in presenting testimony before a subcommittee of Congress, observed that the essence of science is the dynamic interconnection between facts, and that the more distant the connection, the more highly it is valued. The goal of this book is to make certain connections, many of them speculative, between the inner world of substance and the outer world of form.
We are coming to realize that the realm of objective knowledge is, comparatively, a limited space and most of what we know, or claim to know, emerges from perceptions derived from our experiences and understanding of the wider environment. An historian, like Arnold Toynbee, who views history at the level of a civilization, will have a different picture of the social world than someone who is writing a biography or is studying a particular event, such as a the British General Strike of 1926 or the Kennedy assassination. Similarly, a person who sets out to chart the relationships and correspondences of the inner realm of energies and forces and connect them to events in the tangible world will see things differently from someone who assumes that the totality of existence and physical plane reality are one and the same.
When one sets out to write about things from a spiritual or esoteric perspective, the problem is complicated by not only a lack of familiar territory but also an array of knowledge that seemingly runs counter to conventional wisdom and evidence. A fundamental postulate of esotericism is that all levels of existence are governed by law. One of the masters of the wisdom, the Tibetan Djwhal Khul, who is responsible for the material in most of the Alice Bailey books, which is the major source of ideas for this book, defines a law as the imposition (upon both the lesser and more important) of a greater will or purpose. He goes on to say that all laws in nature have their higher, spiritual counterparts. This points to another basic principle of esotericism, namely that predicates can be based upon correspondence and analogy, which is the primary means of supporting seemingly unprovable statements with evidence. "As above so below" is an esoteric maxim, which is also a key to the essentially scientific nature of spiritual or occult study.
The first chapter relates to the question, "what is esoteric history?" In one sense, esoteric history involves looking at the same data and information only with different eyes. In another sense, it is the recognition that such a history is part of a lineage of the Ageless Wisdom, the essence of which can be found in the deeper mysteries of the world’s religions and the great conundrums of philosophy. The implication here is that the exterior events and processes of history are sustained by a composite stream of thought from deeper or higher levels of consciousness.
Chapters two and three focus on the nature of man within the macrocosmic universe. The question of what constitutes a human being is raised. The answer given involves a brief analysis of the sevenfold levels of consciousness, some of which are known to us and others that are presently beyond our comprehension, which according to the Ageless Wisdom is known as the Constitution of Man. Whereas man within the more visible realms of form, corresponding to the physical, emotional, and concrete mental planes, is recognizable and familiar, by analogy he also exists in archetypal form within a vast scheme of evolution, ordered on what is called the cosmic physical plane by chains, globes, manvantaras, and rounds. Within these grand cycles are micro-cycles consisting of root races, subraces, and branch races. These racial groups, or distinct evolutions of consciousness, overlay the progress of cultures and civilizations in history. In attempting to appreciate these vast schemes and cycles, we are hampered by the poverty of nomenclature that limits our ability to explain that which lies beyond our normal comprehension.
Chapters four, five, and six discuss history in relation to the forces of will, love, and active intelligence. In esoteric parlance, these energies flow from three planetary centers referred to as Shamballa, Hierarchy, and Humanity. The reader must be constantly on guard against the tendency to reduce and materialize concepts which, from our vantage point may be intangible or formless, by use of the concrete mind. Difficulties arise through the lack of a conceptual framework that allows us to put such concepts into context. For this, the cultivation of abstract thought, or the use of the intuition, is required. This is necessary when one seeks to comprehend terms such as Shamballa and Hierarchy.
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Finally, the history of humanity is seen not as the affairs and activity of men and women within the context of nations and civilizations, but rather as the evolution of human consciousness. Insofar as the Ageless Wisdom measures human evolution in millions of years (not thousands of years), human development can be understood in terms of latent patterns of consciousness, conditioned by past and present root races, which influence the ways that men and women respond to their environment. This phenomenon explains, to a large extent, the reason why certain civilizations or cultures flower at particular times while others are fallow and appear to be in a more primitive stage of development. History cannot be fully comprehended without reference to the process of reincarnation and the law of karma, which underscore and explain the human predicament in both an individual and a collective sense.
The last two chapters, seven and eight, further reinforce the point that history, understood esoterically, is a maze of cycles of varying duration. The Alice Bailey books, which contain the teachings of the Tibetan Master, Djwhal Khul, highlight an analysis of the seven rays, which are the seven qualities of energy to be found in the universe. It is this teaching of the seven rays that is the primary contribution of D.K. and separates the Alice Bailey books from the earlier Theosophical writings. As with all things esoteric, the seven rays are part of a hierarchy of graded energy so that corresponding to the primal ray of a solar system, for example, one finds a whole system of rays and subrays and more minute subrays. The seven rays, as they flow in and out of season, can be interpreted as providing an important conditioning element in history. For example, it is said that the influence of the sixth ray of devotion and idealism is presently passing out of manifestation and is being replaced by the seventh ray of ceremonial order. The influence of certain other rays is also present, which adds complexity to the fabric of human history. Our planet is also affected by ray energy that is colored and modified by the planets and constellations. These energies are thought to govern planetary cycles and form the basis for the study of esoteric astrology. Chapter seven deals directly with ray cycles, whereas chapter eight discusses some aspects of astrology as they condition historical events. In both cases, the analysis of these cycles barely scratches the surface of what is a most profound and fathomless subject.
Since history is like a tapeworm that can be cut in any number of ways and still survive, my cut of the worm is to put greater emphasis on Western Civilization, and more specifically, modern European history. Indeed, the history of Asia and the Americas is almost entirely ignored. This is not a political statement but rather a recognition of the fact that European history is the area in which I possess a little knowledge and so feel free to address some comments. Also, Europe has been the center stage of historical development over the past millennium, and therefore has had a greater impact and influence on planetary affairs as a whole than have the nations and peoples of Africa, Asia, South America, or even North America. Within the framework of esoteric history, the present fifth root race, known as the Aryan root race, has culminated in the flowering of European civilization. This offers additional justification for giving the western world a higher profile in this study.
There are many legends surrounding Shamballa, known as the "City of the Gods," which is thought by some to exist in etheric substance (technically, a network of interlacing substance that surrounds and interpenetrates denser matter and corresponds to it). Some legends hold that Shamballa can be pinpointed to an exact location within the region of the Gobi Desert. Wherever and at what level Shamballa is to be found is secondary to the nature of this will energy, which is understood by esoteric students to be a force of great destructiveness and also great synthesis within human and planetary affairs. The effects of Shamballa are reported to be found in the great cataclysms of global upheaval, the forces that initiate new cycles and bring old cycles to a closure, and that which engenders a synthesis of ideas, events, and movements.
The lineage of the Ageless Wisdom refers to a planetary Hierarchy which consists of those groups of spiritually advanced human beings, known as disciples, initiates, and adepts, as well as those who have transcended human form (for the most part), known as the Trans-Himalayan brotherhood, yet work to help guide the affairs of humanity. Known in different religious traditions by other names, the ashrams (spiritual communities) of these evolved beings are said to provide a model for the spiritual government of the planet. Whereas vague references to the impact of these great beings on human affairs can be implied, in no way is the Hierarchy said to intrude on human free will. Therefore, within certain parameters, the events and trends of history are largely an expression of human activity.
A professional historian and professor of history at Empire State College in New York, Charles DeMotte combines his knowledge of history with a long-time study of the evolution of human consciousness to provide a groundbreaking approach to the expanded study of history.
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