In July, 1914, Mr. Paul Tyner, who acquired his interest in the New Thought from the publications of Helen Wilmans, in 1893, became the leader of the New Thought Centre, 85 Hanover Street, Edinburgh. Mr. Tyner, author of The Living Christ, editor of The Temple, Denver, Colorado, and in 1898-99 editor of The Arena, was associated with Mr. Patterson in the Alliance School of Applied Metaphysics, in New York; and, in cooperation with Mr. Eugene Del Mar, author of Spiritual and Mental Attraction, and The Divinity of Desire, organized the first Mental Science Temple in New York. He was minister of the New Thought Temple, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1909-10, and of the Dayton, Ohio, Truth Centre, 1910-11. Later, while in New York, Mr. Tyner organized in connection with the New Thought Magazine, edited by W. W. Atkinson, Chicago, Illinois., 140 New Thought reading rooms in different parts of the country. A History of the New Thought Movement By Horatio W. Dresser - Page 118
Tyner was brought to America at the age of four, educated in the public schools of Albany, N.Y., afterwards taking Law in the Columbia College, New York City, exchanging Law for journalism at the age of twenty, at which time he joined the staff of The New York World. In 1887, Tyner went to Central America and engaged in mining. After a year in Honduras he went to Costa Rica, where he published a daily paper, called El Comercio, an English-Spanish paper. After six months of this, Tyner returned to New York and it was at this time that, as a result of studying Dr. J. C. Street’s Hidden Way Across the Threshold he became interested in the Arcane.
In his desire to contact the Fraternity, he visited Boston and sought out Dr. Street. Dr. Street was not an accredited instructor, but was an accepted author. Dr. Street gave Tyner an introduction to Dowd and he was enrolled, Sorona being selected as his instructor and guide. Tyner was of a nature readily able to concentrate on any one subject and by 1895 had attained to Philosophic Initiation, and a year later became a member of the Council of Three.
Tyner became an enthusiastic worker in the field of the Rosy Cross. His first work was The Living Christ, an Exposition of the Immortality of Man in Soul and Body. As a theme for this work he took Ruskin’s Immortal words:
“The direct manifestation of Deity to Man is Deity’s own image in Man .... We are not made now in any other image than God’s. There are, indeed, the two states of this image—the earthly and the heavenly, but both Adamite, both human, both the same likeness; one defiled and one pure. The Soul of man is a mirror, wherein may be seen, darkly, the image of the mind of God. These may seem daring words. I am sorry that they do; but I am helpless to soften them. Discover any other meaning in the text, if you are able . . . . The flesh-bound volume is the only revelation that is, that was, or that can be. In that is the image of God painted; in that is the Law of God written; in that is the promise of God revealed. Know thyself; for through thyself only canst thou know God.”
His other work, Through the Invisible, a story of Initiation through love, after the theme of Eulis, must be esoterically understood.
For a time Tyner lived in Denver, Colorado. Here he published The Temple, a magazine devoted to Higher Human Culture and metaphysics. This was issued by the Temple Publishing Company. In addition to teaching and writing, he established and conducted the Church of the Risen Christ.
In later years Tyner resided in New York City and conducted lectures. When he was sent on a mission to Europe, he predicted that he would never return, but pass into the Unknown unknown. He remained a member of the Council of Three until the end of life.
"The Metaphysical Movement" - PDF - In The Literary Digest, March 29, 1902 [Tyner, Paul. "The Metaphysical Movement," The
American Monthly Review of Reviews, XXV (March, 1902),
312-20 ]
The
Living Christ(1923) by Paul Tyner; An Exposition of the Immortality of
Man in Soul and Body
Through the Invisible:
A Love Story (1897) by
Paul Tyner; a story of Initiation through love, after the theme of
Eulis, must be esoterically understood.
CHAPTER 34.
The Case of Paul Tyner, in His Own Words.
I was born March 7,
1860, about midnight, in the city of Cork, Ireland. My mother being Irish, of
an old family, the Sarfields, one of whom is celebrated by Macaulay in his
account of the conflict in Ireland between the Stuart forces and those under
William of Orange. My father was the representative in Ireland of an important
London publishing house. He used to say that one of his ancestors fought under
William of Orange, and I believe came over with him from Holland.
I was brought to
America at the age of four, educated in the public schools of Albany, N. Y.,
afterwards taking the law course in Columbia College, New York City, but
exchanging law for journalism at the age of twenty, when I joined the staff of
the New York "World," in which service I remained about eight years,
uninterruptedly. In 1887 I went to Central America, to engage in silver mining,
exploration and travel. After a year in Honduras, I went to Costa Rica, where I
edited and published a daily paper, called "El Comercio," in English
and Spanish, for about six months, when I returned to New York and re-engaged
in journalistic work there, as editorial writer on the staff of the New York
"Press."
The bent of my mind
in the direction of mysticism, which has so largely influenced my later work,
probably had its beginnings during a year's retirement in the Shaker community, at Mt. Lebanon, N. Y.
(1891–2). This experience was followed by a special course of study in social
economics and history with Professor
Richard T. Ely, of the University of Wisconsin. In the early morning of the
11th of May, 1895, came the crowning experience of my life. On the evening of
that day I set down in my diary an exact and full account of the whole episode,
as then seen by me. This memorandum I here transcribe:
"With
this day's dawn come the great revelation and the great charge. 'Crowned with
thorns' was the waking thought; then buffeted and spat upon, mocked, insulted,
scourged and in the pillory, 'a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief,'
nailed to the cross, pierced in the side, utterly 'despised and rejected of
men,' killed as a malefactor, buried; and then the great thought—the truth
which maketh free; the absolute demonstration of man's mastery of fate and
command of all conditions—the victory of man—all men in this racial man,
this elder brother of mankind in his triumph over sin, fear and death!
"But one thing
had remained in my mind as necessary to prove to the mass of men to-day man's
absolute supremacy over death in all its forms as an at tribute of his oneness
with God, with Eternal Life, Perfect Love, Perfect Justice,
Omniscience and Omnipotence, the visible appearance of a man who
living longer than the recorded years of any man who had seen death still lived
in the flesh without shadow of change or decay. And I said to myself, this
would be worth waiting and watching and working a thousand years for! Yet I
wished the greater emancipation were not so far off. And lo! in the dawning of
this day I know—know absolutely as a fact—a truth nothing can
destroy, that the man who triumphed ever death on Calvary nearly two thousand
years ago lives—lives on earth in a body of flesh made perfect, a man
among men, sharing our struggles and sorrows, our joys and griefs, working with
us heart to heart and shoulder to shoulder—inspiring, guiding, leading,
supporting, as may be, in every human advance.
"The glory of
this truth, the grandeur of this character, the supreme nobility, patience,
wisdom and love of this life, thrilled me with ecstasy and awe unspeakable—filled
me, possessed me. He lives, not in some distant heaven on a great white throne,
but here and now; is not coming, but is here with us, loving, helping, living,
cheering and inspiring the race to which he belongs, as wholly and as truly as
the race belongs to him. Now, indeed, it is plain, that being lifted up he
shall lift all men with him—has lifted, is lifting and must ever continue to
lift out of the very essence of his transcendent humanity. Immortality
is no longer an hypothesis of the theologian, a figment of the imagination, a
dream of the poet. Men shall live forever, because man, invincible to all
effects of time and change, and even of murderous violence, lives to-day in the
fullness of life and power that he enjoyed in his thirty-third year, with only
added glory of goodness and greatness and beauty—although the world counts 1895
years since his last birth upon this earth.
"This is the
truth given age upon age to all men in all lands, and persistently
misunderstood—the truth at last to be seen of all men in its fullness and
purity. Man is to know himself, and with full command of his conditions and
unlimited time for action, is not only to soar toward, but absolutely attain to
heights of being and of beauty hitherto undreamed of, and bringing fairly
within his realization a heaven on earth, in true grandeur and happiness as far
transcending the heaven of the orthodox Christian as that heaven transcends the
heaven of the savage.
"This is the fact
I am given to know; the proof must come in good time. My mission is to bear
witness to it—to be the voice crying in the wilderness, 'Prepare ye the way of the Lord! make straight his
paths.'
"And in the
light of this truth I live anew; I rise up vitalized and energized in every
nerve and fibre. Soul and body, no longer strained apart, are linked and
glorified. I will be worthy of the great charge of Truth Bearer to my kind, and
will manifest in my body, in my thought and words, my life and actions, the
truth that has become part of me—the truth of man's oneness with eternal life.
. . .
"With these
thoughts filling me and dissolving me in happy tears, I sprang from my bed
about five o'clock and walked up and down the room in a fervor of adoration and
love, for what love is like unto this man's? All this time the atmosphere of
the room was vibrant with an intense white light. The presence which had been
revealed in the first waking moments seemed now diffused and continuing through
the universe. After bathing and dressing I went out for an early walk. The
morning was chilly, cloudy, raw and gusty, but the sweet-scented, light-filled
air, full of vivid, tender green of spring and vibrant with life, seemed to
share my sensation of joy and uplift."
I may add, that my
mind, being naturally analytical, I have been able to trace as distinct factors
in the mental evolution here indicated, first (and perhaps most of all),
Wagner's "Lohengrin" and "Parsifal";
second, "The Venus of Milo"; third, Munkacsy's "Christ Before Pilate "; all of them, however, blended,
expanded and illumined by the grand soul of Walt Whitman.
In reply to your
question: I do not know whether any change in my physical appearance followed
what may be called my illumination and would rather some one else would speak
of that. I have been told, however, that my face was that of one aflame, and
that is distinctly my own feeling as to the change physically. There is a
consciousness of a steady glow which is light and warmth in all my being. It is
certain that ever since that morning I have had a larger and surer hold on life
and have been able to work with clearer and more active brain and body.
Being asked to
explain more fully the continuous life of Christ on earth in a human body, Paul
Tyner answered as follows[From: Cosmic Consciousness, by Richard
Maurice Bucke, [1901], at sacred-texts.com http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/cc/cc57.htm]:
In asserting the
continued existence on earth of the man Jesus, in the body of flesh and blood,
it is by no means intended to deny the law demonstrated throughout the universe
in all forms of life, simple or complex, of the passage from birth to maturity,
and maturity to decay, so far as outer form is concerned. What this continued
existence of Jesus in a body of flesh and blood means is dominion and control
over the law of construction, destruction and reconstruction going on in all
forms, its deliberate and conscious direction at all times. As a matter of
fact, flexibility is the very essence of form, and this is especially true in
regard to the human form. The spirit, which is the man himself, formless and
unsubstantial, is continually building and rebuilding, calling to himself out
of the universal ocean of matter and force all the elements he needs, and
rejecting and expelling that which he has used, when it no longer serves his
purpose, or when he has taken from it all that he requires.
In the true sense,
there is no such thing as disembodied spirit. Spirit must embody itself for
manifestation and expression. Jesus, having attained to spiritual self
consciousness, deliberately and consciously chose and chooses his embodiment,
molding it from day to day, into greater and greater responsiveness to his
will—in his case the Cosmic will, the will of the Father. He is able to pass
through closed doors and stone walls in this body, because of his power to
change its vibrations. That is to say, he passes through stone walls, as ethers
or gases pass through substances of lower vibrations or greater density. The
component elements of his body, while governed to some extent by normal human
anatomical structure and organization, is in what might be called a state of
flux. The old Greeks considered the universe in a state of flux, as indeed it
is.
Fully aware, as I
am, of the difficulties in the way of describing a phenomenon, not merely
unfamiliar, but unthinkable by most men, I can only ask the reader who desires
a keener comprehension of what is meant by this "immortalization of the
flesh," to imagine by way of analogy, and yet an analogy conveying a very
close approximate to the actuality—to imagine an architect who has planned a
very beautiful and perfect dwelling, whose mind holds the plan very distinctly
and completely, and who is himself a master builder, with unlimited command of
the materials needed to embody his plan, and unerring knowledge of the best
method of building. Imagine, further, that this architect, standing in the
midst of the dwelling he has planned and built, should find that the materials
he used, by some chance. or rather law, burned up every night without, however,
burning him, or in the least injuring his powers. Remember that the plan
remains intact. Remember that the builder's skill is not consumed; that his
command of material, sufficient to his needs and instantaneous in supply,
remains with him. What would happen? He would reproduce this dwelling as
quickly as it was destroyed; in fact, there would be no apparent break in the
continuity of the dwelling. The only possible changes would be that, with
experience and growth, the material part of the building would become ever
finer and finer, the adjustments of its various parts one to another more and
more exact. This in a rough way, conveys an idea of what is meant by the
immortal man in an immortal embodiment.
No difficulty
appears to be found in conceiving of the immortal principle in man embodying
itself in a succession of bodies, on an ascending or descending scale, any more
than we find it difficult to conceive of the universal principle of life
embodying itself in a variety of forms in an ascending or descending scale. And
yet, any such process must be considered complex and uncertain, compared to the
simple and definite processes of the cosmically conscious man consciously and
deliberately rebuilding, from day to day, that embodiment which best expresses
his thought and answers to his requirements. In this, as in other things,
evolution of forms and of processes are all in the direction of increased
simplicity—of economy and efficiency in the doing of our work. It is not the
personal Jesus that is immortalized, or that has the power of immortalizing the
flesh, but the Christ principle clothed in that personality, embodied in it and
using it simply as one of its modes of motion, so to speak. The Christ in
Jesus, however, came into such fullness and plainness of manifestation that his
personality is indeed made the Light of the world that lighteth every man that
cometh into the world.
As regards the
appearance of Paul Tyner at the time of illumination, I am informed by H. C. as
follows: "I am in a position to give a positive statement as to the
appearance of Mr. Paul Tyner on the morning of the 11th of May, 1895. His color
was unaltered, his flesh warm and natural, his expression peculiarly sweet and
bright. His face had at the time and retained for days afterwards, the
illuminated look we see at times on the face of the dying, a look of ecstasy,
bright, uplifted—it was as if lit up with a glow from some unseen source. No
lapse of the ordinary faculties, no failure of full health, both mental and
bodily, but on the contrary apparently superabundant health. His day's work (a
very large one) was done that day as usual."
It only
remains to quote two short passages from a book written and published before
Paul Tyner had ever heard of the present editor or his theories[From: Cosmic Consciousness, by Richard
Maurice Bucke, [1901], at sacred-texts.com http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/cc/cc57.htm]:
At daybreak of
Friday, the 11th of May, 1895, I woke into full and absolute knowledge of the great
fact which to me proves man's immortality here and now, and in the body of
flesh we know. I know that a man had lived nearly nineteen hundred years, and,
knowing only fuller and fuller life with the passing of the years, had lived
and still lives in the same body in which, in the beginning of that period, he
walked the earth a man of flesh and blood. This man, in whom humanity came to
full flower with the conscious manifestation of his oneness with eternal life
in the thirty-third year of his present incarnation, has really destroyed the
last enemy, which is death.
To-day, in Europe
and America, Australia and Africa, India and the isles of the sea, wherever the
Father is worshiped in spirit and in truth—as in the Judea of Herod the
Great—Jesus the Christ, Son of God and Son of Man, lives in the midst of us!
For this cause came he into the world; that he might be a witness to the truth;
a living, unimpeachable witness of the truth that shall make us free—the truth
of man's religion (reunion) with God, through absolute spiritual self
consciousness—with God—with the Eternal, Omnipotent and Omniscient Source and
Fountain of Life, "in whom we live and move and have our being,"
without whom we are not!
I have said I knew
this greatest fact in the history of humanity in a moment; that what before was
as unknown to me as was the Western continent to Columbus before he sighted
land, became in an instant a known reality, as much a part of my consciousness
as was the air I breathed; a truth as yet faintly comprehended in its fullness,
but a truth firmly grasped, irrevocable and indestructible; an eternal verity
written in the letters of fire on my brain and in my heart—and so on the mind
and in the heart of this age, and of all future ages.
Opening my eyes on
the first rays of morning light illuminating my room, I thought of the oneness
of Eternal Light and Life in a vague way, when my attention was seemingly
diverted by the image of a monk's tonsured head; and I thought of the crown of
thorns it symbolized. Then the whole sublime tragedy of the passion moved
vividly and rapidly before my eyes; the scourging, the pillory, the cuffs and
blows, the jibes and jeers, the mockery and derision of that crowning with
thorns; the painful progress of Golgotha, hooted by the blind and cruel mob;
the torture and ignominy of the nailing to the cross, the cry of agony telling
that the last dregs of the cup had been drained; the shout of victory that
proclaimed "It is finished!" I saw then the spear thrust;
I saw the burial,
the sublime temple of the Divine thus laid low, and I saw—the resurrection on
the third day.
At this point my
mind opened to the great fact, as to a flood of life. He rose from the dead. He
never died again! He lives! The air in my room seemed to vibrate with a more
intense light than was ever seen on land or sea. My brain and nerves, my blood
and muscles, all my being vibrated in sympathetic unison with this light, and
in the midst of its shining glory I beheld the Divine Man, the Undying
Man—beheld him face to face, and knew that it was he in very flesh and bones,
as in flesh-transcending soul; knew that it was he and not another [187: 4].
"Verily,
verily, I say unto you that he that believeth on me hath everlasting life"
[John vi, 47]. In these words Jesus announced a scientific principle of the
utmost importance. Belief is essential to the attainment of immortality (in or
out of the body). Belief in what? Belief in immortality—a state of
consciousness of the fact of immortality. Belief in Jesus, in any real sense,
is belief in the immortality of man. It is a belief in him who is "the
way, the truth and the life"—in body and soul together; and with belief, a
realization of oneness with him [187:97–8].
I offer no
criticism of the specific belief of Paul Tyner as to "The Living
Christ." It is simply a question as to how the words are understood.
Christ (as Paul named the Cosmic Sense) is of course living and will always
live.
From the point
of view of this present book Paul Tyner is almost a typical case of Cosmic Consciousness.
a. The subjective light was well marked.
b. There was the characteristic moral elevation.
c. Also the usual intellectual illumination.
d. The sense of immortality.
e. The suddenness of the onset, the
instantaneousness of the awakening.
f. The previous mental life of the man was such as
is likely to lead to illumination.
g. His age of illumination, thirty-five years and
two months.
h. He attained Cosmic Consciousness in the spring,
11th of May.
i. There was the characteristic change in appearance
upon illumination.
[From: Cosmic Consciousness, by Richard
Maurice Bucke, [1901], at sacred-texts.com http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/cc/cc57.htm]
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