The Open Door

The Open Door by Theon Wright was published in 1970. It's the detailed record of experiments in automatic writing carried out by Wright's parents, Nella and George, and later by Theon's brother Stowell and by Theon himself. The unusual thing about these experiments is that little effort was made to obtain verifiable evidence of identity, the usual procedure in mediumship, particularly in the days when Wright's parents were at work. Instead, the focus was on obtaining wisdom, what the Wrights called the Philosophy of Self, essentially a version of nondualistic mysticism in which the development of one's higher Self contributes to the overall development of Cosmic Consciousness.

Most of the messages were attributed to a nameless entity whom the Wrights called the Master.* These were collected by the Wrights over a period of many years and later incorporated into a long autobiographical account written by Nella Wright in the last decades of her life. Her son Theon has augmented this account with additional background information and with his own experiments, as well as with opening and closing essays intended to place the work in a historical and philosophical context.

The book seems to have been almost entirely forgotten today. A Google search turns up only a handful of references, a couple of which come from this blog, courtesy of our frequent commenter William, who recommended the book. In a way, it's easy to see why the book didn't make more of a splash. There is no hard evidence for postmortem survival here -- at least nothing that would persuade anyone who is skeptical -- and the channeled material is considerably less detailed than than, say, the messages of Seth as received by Jane Roberts, or the writings of Stewart Edward White.

But there are good reasons to seek out a copy of The Open Door, which, though out of print, remains available through online retailers. For one thing, the sincerity of the Wrights shines through on every page. It would take a cynical soul indeed to imagine that this series of experiments, encompassing nearly a century, was carried out as some kind of elaborate hoax. Self-delusion, of course, is always a possibility, but it's impressive to see how the Wrights themselves frequently doubted the source of the information they were receiving and were constantly asking themselves if it simply bubbled up from their own subconscious. (Jane Roberts went through similar periods of self-doubt.) The Wrights, evidently a highly intelligent and intellectually curious couple, never took the messages at face value and were determined to maintain some objectivity about the process throughout. If anything, their doubts and reservations may strike the reader as a bit excessive.

Another interesting feature of the book is the way it weaves together the family's experiments in channeling with the other developments in their lives. The book serves as a fascinating memoir of life from the late 19th century to the middle of the 20th century, and leaves one wondering how many other private communications are being attempted along these lines, even today.

Then there are the messages themselves. The material here may strike some readers as profound; others may dismiss it as puerile. This kind of extreme simplicity, which may seem wise or foolish depending on one's attitude, is a feature of many mystical writings. As an example, here's an excerpt from one message:

... you should value each experience for itself, and endeavor to feel the real and actual joy and pleasure that should be the accompanying factor in each day's experience. Do not look for the seemingly disagreeable facts of life, but emphasize the pleasant ones. So adjust your viewpoint that you will derive a maximum of happiness from every experience. Be ever patient, and strive for Peace and Contentment that is the sure test of a right adjustment and a proper outlook.

It is, after all, the big things that count for happiness, while only trifles and petty inconveniences give rise to the feeling of discontent, worry and annoyance.

Is this profoundly helpful advice or just an inconsequential bromide? From one point of view, "enjoy the moment" is a pretty obvious teaching. But whole books have been written about "being in the now," and the practice of mindfulness meditative exercises is intended to help us achieve this state of mind.

In another excerpt, the Master summarizes the metaphysics of the new philosophy:

My Children, Long ago I taught you to distinguish the Reality from the Appearance -- to look for the Cause back of all manifestational activity. But in no sense did I bid you separate them, for there can be no differences except of state or condition.

The Underlying Reality is that all pervading spiritual Essence that exists, of itself, without cause, containing within itself the possibilities of all experience. In action it gives rise to the phenomenon of Appearance, which is the corresponding entity in the physical or material plane being.

So to your ordinary senses as well as to your conscious mental processes, the phenomenon of Appearance seems to be the Reality, when it is in fact only the representation or concrete and specific expression of that which is back of everything, the Universal Self, the Oversoul, the Spiritual Presence that runs like the thread of a wonderful design through the fabric of the Cosmic Universe.

If, then, the material universe is this representation of a deeper and more fundamental Reality, it is not to be regarded as something in itself, apart from this Reality, and attempting to do so, you fall into error.

The things you see and hear and feel, all that you touch through the senses, have an actual existence in the physical plane, and therefore they must exist, not perhaps as you now know them, but still in reality they must exist on the other plane, as attributes, qualities or functions of the Spirit. This is the Law of their Correspondence.

Then when you shall cease to have a material body and be [word undecipherable] in your expression by the limitations of the physical and the boundaries of sense, the real Ego, or Soul, will be able to perceive more directly the Reality that lies behind all physical phenomena and to see with the eyes of the Spirit, hear with the ears of the Spirit, and to feel and know directly, apart from ordinary sense channels of communication.

It is difficult to convey to your minds any idea of the conditions on the other plane, simply because there are no conditions as you know them. You will see and hear and feel, only in the abstract, as we may now, while in the physical, see and hear and touch and smell mentally. For after all, the functions you call sensations are more psychic than physical, and serve to bring our soul in touch with and make it cognizant of this material environment.

So, Dear Friend, be assured that in ceasing to see material things you will only gain the reality to perceive more clearly the Reality that is before me.

Again, whether or not this is profound or trivial is a judgment that readers must reach on their own. One thing that struck me is the passing similarity to the Platonic idea of Forms (or Ideas) as spiritual equivalents of concrete, physical entities. Plato's theory was that every category of physical things has a perfect archetype existing in the realm of Forms. The idea here seems to be that each individual physical thing has some kind of corresponding spiritual analogue. One might also compare this teaching to the theory of a holographic universe, in which physical things are projections of an underlying nonphysical reality.

Regardless of the value that any particular reader assigns to the messages, there is no doubt that these communications were of great value to the Wrights themselves, assisting them in overcoming many tribulations and giving them courage in the face of considerable adversity. And this perhaps is the greatest lesson of The Open Door. It teaches us that getting in touch with higher powers -- whether they are untapped powers of our own subconscious or higher spiritual entities outside ourselves (and maybe this is a distinction without a difference, as Theon Wright seems to believe) -- can assist in our personal development and help us to find meaning and purpose in the otherwise baffling events of our lives.

The book concludes with the author's own experiments in automatic writing and with his firmly stated opinion that anyone, given patience and discipline and practice, can hone his intuition and obtain valuable insights. My own informal experiments in meditation have tended to bear this out. Rather than seeking the services of professional mediums and psychics, we might be better off developing our own latent abilities in these areas. That would certainly be one way to open the door.

---

*I originally wrote that the entity called itself the Master. Thanks to William for pointing out this mistake.

Comments

[Arthur]

"If, then, the material universe is this representation of a deeper and more fundamental Reality,"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Very similar to Bohm's holographic universe. Almost exact same wording.

[Kevin]

Your last two sentences in this posting echo especially loudly for me. You are right to note that, as Theon speculates, there may well be no distinction between the subconscious and higher spiritual entities "outside" of ourselves, inasmuch as the distinction made would miss the point of the connection. In my own experience, I made a conscious choice to attend what my subconscious was placing into my attention, whether it was the involuntary images of my paintings or the precognitive and/or commentating nature of my dreams. As an example, I recently was musing on how people will often use "wishes" as a emphasizing note to themselves about their desires, good or bad, and I casually "wished" I had a visual symbol I could use in paintings to deal with the theme of "wishes", these thoughts coming as I was settling in for sleep. When I awoke later, I was presented with the symbol I could use, with an attached wry comment to the effect of "now doesn't that seem OBVIOUS". As always, I asked myself "where" this material comes from, and have long entertained the notion of a version of Jung's Collective Unconscious as a source AND as a similar concept equivalent to non-locality and holographic "higher" states. It is one of the personal reasons I am so interested in consciousness studies: seeking insight into my own subjective experiences.

[drew hempel]

Here's a reply to a post I made about spring forest qigong over at taobums.com (the couple typos are not mine):

Thanks for sharing the info. I have been practicing Spring Forest for a month and results are truly noticeable. My first experience with energy was while traveling on a plane fromIndia to LA when I met an Indian Master (http://kamakshi16.tripod.com) who practiced Traditional Tantra. I developed sickness and this guy placed his hands on my stomach. The pain disappeared in a while followed by sensations of deep fiery energy splashing in my spine. The bliss was overpowering though. Unfortunately I could not get in touch with him again. But the sensations continued to occur repeatedly and one night in a dream, the same person appeared and advised me to learn Chi Kung. I was wondering what it was when a neighbor told me she was taking a Chi Kung workshop by Master Chunyi Lin. Chunyi diagnosed the problem as Kundalini awakening and told me if was a powerful shaktipat that had happened to me and gave me specific exercises to balance energy. In a week, the unbearable energy was gone and calmness came back.

[drew hempel]

This new interview with Dr. Bradford Keeney gives excellent meditation secrets.

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/161/story_16144_1.html

[william]

Michael thanks for taking the time to read this book. For me the messages are profound and with each reading I gain new insights.

One correction I think. I don’t think the intelligence that came through ever referred to itself as a master. That was a name the Wrights gave this intelligence. This intelligence only signed with a symbol.

Also I was hoping the ending which I don’t want to give away would have suggested to you that this "master mind" was not the subconscious of George Wright.

You did pick out very important messages to quote thank you for that. One question I have for anyone that reads the book is this "the master states several lessons it taught in these messages and one was the nonexistence of evil. This is a profound statement and my research bears this out. But where in the book does this intelligence teach or explain the nonexistence of evil? If anyone finds it a page number would be helpful.

Thanks again for taking the time to read this book. Now I have another book: just kidding kind of.

[Michael Prescott]

>I don’t think the intelligence that came through ever referred to itself as a master. That was a name the Wrights gave this intelligence. This intelligence only signed with a symbol.

You're right. The Master was their name for the entity.

>where in the book does this intelligence teach or explain the nonexistence of evil?

I didn't find any specific teaching to that effect, although perhaps it is implied in the idea that each being is playing its part in the ongoing evolution of Cosmic Consciousness. But I agree that this point was not made very clearly, yet the author seemed to think that it had been.

>Now I have another book: just kidding kind of.

Feel free to recommend another, though it may be a while before I get to it. I enjoyed The Open Door and got something valuable out of it.

[Matthew C.]

I don't see anything trite about these extracts. Of course, the judgmental mind looks at them and says "that's too simple" and then goes off on a series of thoughts about why "there has to be something more".

That's just what the mind does. But sooner or later we learn that the mind is not capable of understanding the depth of life, which can only be experienced, not analyzed.

[william]

"Feel free to recommend another, though it may be a while before I get to it. I enjoyed The Open Door and got something valuable out of it"

Dr Hora’s books and teachings can be found on the website: http://pagl.org/
May want to start with his book: “beyond the dream”. As a psychiatrist he spent his life studying states of consciousness as they applied to physical and mental healing.

Thanks for the comments on the open door. As far as another book the one I was going to recommend is not available as it was a self-published book. I have been unable to find another copy of gunnels book. He only published 1000 books and I was lucky enough to find one at a local used bookstore.

Without gunnels book I don’t think I would have ever been able to connect the dots between innocence and ignorance as a necessity for formlessness to manifest infinite forms. (i.e. us)

If anyone finds on the net or bookstore this book please let me know. The full title is “ the evolution of the soul” with a subtitle of “the theory that all of creation is relative”. Would love to have another copy to share with others.

After about 60 readings of this book it came to me the necessity of ignorance (i.e. not knowing) for creation/manifestation to occur. Why 60 readings? Many books I read over and over but this small book “something” kept telling me to read it. Who or what that something is or was; your guess is as good as mine. I mean “it” would not let up. Won’t go any farther with this or I will be judged worthy of the loony bin if I have not already. I had already connected the dots between ignorance and suffering with my research into Buddhism, Hinduism and Dr Hora’s books.

It is of interest to me that I have not been able to pass this discovery on to one other human being. The key to this discovery was a revelation I had had on variation over ten years prior to that discovery that I mistakenly thought applied only to my consulting knowledge. Once I connected that revelation on variation to gunnels statement over and over in his book “the theory that all of creation is relative. It hit me like a ton of bricks. So simple, but so profound.

So for all of you out there that cannot get published might want to self publish, as without gunnels book I don’t know if I ever would have made that discovery. Thank you gunnels for taking the time and money to self publish.

[Bill Ingle]

Well, thanks for that, Michael.

(Now maybe I will finish the other Open Door by the other Wright, the wrong Wright (this is a tale set outside of Philadelphia in 1914 or so, the heroine, Kitty Flint, the last survivor of a family descended from a fellow converted to Quakerism by William Penn.)

Per Seth, there are no accidents; maybe my discovery of this scanned on-line (and very obscure) novel while searching Google for the right Open Door is connected by the silence practiced by the Quakers.

Bill I.