The Bright Spot of Light

H.P. Blavatsky, Damodar K. Mavalankar · Down to Earth Series · 9 pages

From The Theosophist of November 1881, reprinted in Blavatsky Collected Writings III as The Bright Spot of Light. A correspondent writes in response to an earlier query from a New York member about a bright spot of light often seen in meditation. He is equally curious, attributes it to the highest concentration of the soul, and reports that as soon as he places himself in the prescribed attitude the spot appears and fills his heart with delight — this being regarded by the Indian devotee as a special sign that he is on the right path and blessed by the grace of the Almighty.

He then describes something more elaborate: sitting cross-legged one evening in that state of concentration in which the soul soars, he was blessed with a shower of flowers, a most brilliant sight he longs to see again; he moved to catch at them but they eluded his grasp and vanished, and when two finally fell on him, one touching his head and the other his right shoulder, the attempt to seize those failed too. His question is whether this can be anything but a response that God is pleased with his worshipper. The replies from Blavatsky and Damodar are the substance of the file, and they redirect the phenomenon from divine approval to the astral light — with the caution the title implies, that a dazzled glimpse is not the same as sight.

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