Rosicrucian Psychic Training

Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, San Jose, California

The Rosicrucian Order (AMORC) [From Chapter Three of Psi Development Systems]
"The Ancient, Mystical Order Rosae Crucis" is an institution offering correspondence course instruction. The Rosicrucian training course offers the mystique of a tradition which claims to date back to ancient Atlantis. Scholars trace the origins of the Rosicrucian movement back to the 17th-century (Yates 1972).

The Rosicrucians promise to open the vast untapped potentials of the human mind-seeing auras, premonitions, telepathy and the "mastery of life." The organization itself is huge, handling millions of pieces of mail each year. In addition the AMORC operates both an Egyptian Museum and a planetarium in San Jose, California.

The Rosicrucians claim that service and loyalty to the Order greatly aids in psychic development. The Rosicrucian Manual states that being "Always ready to render some service to the Order, through the Order, or because of the Order, is a form of devotion that pays each member the greatest dividends in development; for by such service he obligates the Order and the Cosmic to him, and from the Cosmic he can expect compensation. That is why the Keynote of the Rosicrucian Order is SERVICE." The manual goes on to state that the officers of the Order may, from time to time, ask a member to engage in a special project "without anything said as to why." These requests may be related to the philanthropical and humanitarian functions of the Rosicrucian Order. The fate of the psychic progress of the member is said to hang on the responses, made to such requests,

The Rosicrucians claim that their teachings are eclectic and constantly evolving. "To believe that some mystic of India, or Persia, or some other land, possesses secret knowledge known only to his cult, knowledge that is not to be found in the Rosicrucian teachings, yet which he has offered to students for years at a commercial price, is to believe that the Order is unmindful of its obligations to members, unacquainted with all sources of real wisdom, and inconsiderate of its own best interests. If any real knowledge of truly practical help to sincere students of occultism or mysticism is known to any group of students anywhere, it soon becomes a part of the Rosicrucian teachings, IF IT IS NOT ALREADY A PART OF THEM." The Order urges its members not to purchase books or private lessons from other teachers of occult techniques.

The Rosicrucian Manual lists a code of 30 rules for daily life, in its chapter on psychic development. Members are urged to adopt as many of these rules as possible. They include prayers upon awaking in the morning and retiring at night, before meals, and upon receiving gifts or material blessings. Other rules pertain to honesty, humility, charity, and support of the Rosicrucian Order.

The Rosicrucian Supply Bureau, affiliated with the AMORC, advertises books on healing, concentration and memorizing, ancient Egypt, herbalism, the lost continent of Lemuria, and the mystical life of Jesus. Other supplies available include ritual implements, candles, jewelry, herbs, incense, as well as phonograph records with prayers, mantras, and meditational music.

While the exercises in the lessons are not specified, the manual does give some indications as to their conceptual framework. The lessons provide instruction for rituals and ceremonies involving the use of symbolism, secret alphabets, numerology, metaphysical philosophy, and what seem to be basic scientific notions. The techniques for psychic training taught in the correspondence courses of the AMORC are kept secret. Neophytes in the order sign a pledge promising to keep this material confidential. Some information about Rosicrucian training is available in the Rosicrucian Manual written by the founder Of AMORC, Harvey Spencer Lewis, in 1918. The text states that the purpose of the Rosicrucian lessons is to prepare the student for communication with a "Cosmic Master" who will appear when the student is ready. The Cosmic Masters initiate the neophyte into the Great White Brotherhood, an invisible association on the "higher planes," and instruct the neophyte through "cosmic illumination." The Rosicrucian lessons themselves have two stated functions: first, to "Train the brain and augment the knowledge of the mind in regard to fundamental laws and principles leading up to a comprehension of the higher laws"; and second, to "Give and suggest certain experiments and tests which will consciously and unconsciously develop certain psychic centers in the member that will quicken his psychic powers and abilities for more complete Mastership and control of natural forces. "

The manual states that the exercises must be practiced each week, or even each day, and that mere reading will not suffice. The manual stresses that success in these experiments may not be immediately apparent to the objective mind of the student. Even if no success has been attained with a given exercise after a full week's trial, the student is urged to move on to the next lesson "as though success had been attained." Later on when the student reviews all of the lessons, there will be some success with the previously difficult earlier exercises. "Three different exercises in three successive weekly monographs may appear to be unrelated, yet each of them may pertain to the same end in view; and by going on to the second or third one, when the others did not show any success, one will aid in continuing the development started by the first."

The manual claims that once a particular principle is applied in an exercise, a process of psychic development is started that will continue for weeks and months.

The length of time required for psychic development, states the Rosicrucian Manual, will vary with each student according to the accomplishments of his or her previous incarnations. A specific admonition is given stating that it is not possible for the Officers of the Rosicrucian Order to determine how long it will take a candidate to begin to manifest any particular psychic abilities. However, once some abilities do begin to manifest, it is then possible to judge the level of development of the neophyte.

The manual also states that the "most rapid development is made by the student who is least concerned, during the first few Degrees of study, about his or her psychic status." Students who have engaged in training with other non-Rosicrucian programs are particularly difficult, since extra time is required to unlearn previous doctrines and beliefs.

Individuals who come to the Rosicrucians with spontaneously manifesting psi abilities may complain that their abilities have stopped after beginning the Rosicrucian lessons. The manual states that it is sometimes necessary, in order to gain conscious control over psi abilities, that the "spasmodic action of these faculties must cease for a time; and nature stops them until the time comes to use them UNDER CONTROL after the laws and principles have been learned."

The Rosicrucian Manual outlines 12 degrees of training. The lessons of the third degree contain exercises for developing psychic consciousness. The exercises of the fifth degree are primarily devoted to psychic experimentation. The exercises in the seventh degree include "methods of projecting the psychic body out into space at any point or place there to be made visible to others without affecting the continuous functioning of the physical body." This exercise is continued in the eighth degree with further exercises "to cause material things to move or respond as he directs, including the production of sounds from musical instruments, from his own voice, or from things he may psychically touch." The manual states that instructions and initiations into the higher degrees are given psychically to worthy members. The manual states that of every 1000 persons who respond to Rosicrucian public notices, 402 are admitted to the preliminary grades and 224 reach the ninth degree.

Lewis, H.S. Rosicrucian manual. San Jose, Calif. Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, 1959. (Originally published, 1918.)

Yates, F.A. The Rosicrucian Enlightenment. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972.