This World and That – An Analytical Study of Psychic Communication
By Laurence J. Bendit and Phoebe D. Bendit.
192 Pages | First published in1950, Quest edition 1969 | Paperback | Quest Books, U.S.A. | No ISBN.
Is it possible to have genuine communication between the living and the dead and what are the obstacles, which stand in the way? Can we find some rational explanation for the phenomena of spiritualism and the seance room? These are some of the questions discussed in this book, written by a British psychiatrist, Dr. L.J. Bendit and his wife Phoebe D. Bendit-Payne, a natural clairvoyant. Her personal experience and his medical training uniquely qualified them to consider together these and other subjects, viewing them in the wider context of man’s nature and capacities. No pat answers are offered but rather the reader is encouraged to think for himself about the mystery of existence in this world and the next.
From the ‘Personal Forewords’ (p 21/22):
“ This book is an attempt to clear up some of that confusion. To some it may seem that it is not suffficiently scientific and takes too much for granted. To others it may appear too much so, and too destructive of comfortable beliefs. That cannot be helped. We have tried to keep an objective, scientific attitude to the subject, and to carry this attitude into realms where the scientific experimental method cannot be applied. But we have not hesitated to go beyond the point to which objectivity can take us, and have expressed something of our own beliefs. That we have done this does not weaken our position. Even scientists must be permitted to have beliefs based on inner knowledge and experience, and all that can legitimately be demanded of them in this realm is that they shall be tentative and suggestive, not dogmatic. “
The Yoga of Beauty
24 Pages | First edition, third reprint 2004 | Softcover | Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar | ISBN: 817059281X.
Here Dr. Laurence J. Bendit has dealt with the subject of beauty from the Theosophical point of view, principally to say that beauty transforms consciousness. It links the spiritual with the psychical. In his words, ‘ takes down shutters in the mind‘, and the real artist must be open to the inner world of Nature, who is the greatest creative artist, being unconditioned by past experiences. The search for beauty is a form of yoga.
From page 19:
” The discipline of the seeker after God as Beauty, here consists, as in all other forms of seeking, in removing the factors which stand between him and what he seeks. Patañjali tells us that if we want to find Truth, we do not have to move from where we are, but simply to take down the shutters in our minds, to stop letting the mind interfere with our perceptions. We then see what has been within reach of us all of the time. So it is with the aesthetic: a matter of allowing the vision of the Beautiful to flow into us freely and without obstruction. “
The Transforming Mind
By Laurence J. Bendit and Phoebe D. Bendit.
160 Pages | Second Quest printing 1983 | Softcover | Quest Books, U.S.A. | ISBN: 0835600122.
Many seers, mystics, artists and poets seem to have an inkling about the purpose of life – the mystery of creation. Such an experience is something each of us must seek and find for ourselves. Such an experience can happen ‘in a moment’, in the twinkling of an eye. We must come upon such a transformative vision of reality, declare the authors, we must, or we die.
Clairvoyant, Phoebe Bendit, has ‘seen’ our potential for undoing the harm we have done, and are doing, to our personhood and to our planet. With her Jungian trained psychiatrist husband, Laurence, they have written this, sometimes frightening, but essentially optimistic, spiritual/psychological study of the mind and the supermind of man. Attractive in its simplicity, extra-ordinary in its potential. The Transforming Mind suggests that once man looks inward to encompass the whole of Nature, he will automatically re-order his world and save it for peaceful use by his children and their children.
From Chapter VII ‘Jacob’s Ladder’:
” Jacob dreamt, and behold, a ladder set up on earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold, the Angels of God ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, ‘I am the Lord, the God of Abraham . . . And behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee withersoever thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land, for I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of . . . ” – From: Genesis 28.23.
The Etheric Body of Man – The Bridge of Consciousness
By Laurence J. Bendit and Phoebe D. Bendit.
124 Pages | 1977, third Quest printing 1989 | Softcover | Quest Books, U.S.A. | ISBN: 0835604896.
A clairvoyant and a psychiatrist pool their talents in a study of the human health aura! No other work can speak to this subject with such confidence. Imagine:
- Taking one of the most respected clairvoyants in the world.
- A psychiatrist recognized for his fine contributions to his field.
- Having the clairvoyant study the aura of a human subject using her unusual talents.
- Having the psychiatrist study the psyche of the same subject.
- Then finally integrating their observations to arrive at new and startling conclusions concerning the subtle (physically invisible) human bodies. It has never been done before. It may never be done again.
From page 20:
” A particular feature of the aura, which stands out to the vision of every competent clairvoyant is a series of quickly moving vortices of energy situated at certain points of the body. These were known of old, and are often found represented in ancient diagrams, whether of East or West, on statues or carvings, and so on. Sometimes – as in the halo of Christian saints, or in the caste-marks of Hindus – a particular one of these centers is emphasized and the rest left out. But in any case they appear pretty constant both in ancient traditions and in the perceptions of modern sensitives. Moreover, it is not by any means essential to be able to see to realize their existence, and many people become aware of them through their hands when examining a person with an extra-sensory touch. “
Our Psychic Sense – A Clairvoyant and a Psychiatrist Explain How It Develops
By Laurence J. Bendit and Phoebe D. Bendit.
225 Pages | First Quest book edition, 1967 | Softcover | Quest Books, U.S.A. | ISBN: 0835600343.
If we are ever to become knowledgeable about the ‘whole man’ we must learn to understand his deeper invisible nature. This book, authored by a Jungian psychiatrist and his clairvoyant wife, helps us to do just that. Combining their talents, the Bendits provide us with a unique and enthralling overview of man’s latent powers.
Our Psychic Sense has also been referred to as the ‘sixth sense’. It can be considered as a window opening onto the real world of our inner consciousness; not just a valuable adjunct to our personality, but our actual ground of being. Together, the Bendits describe this mysterious power within us, then explain how it manifests, and finally evaluate its uselfullness to humanity.
From page 223:
” Many people are extremely frightened of psychic invasion or, as it is commonly called, possession or obesession. There is no need for this: no psychic force or entity can invade the aura of a human being unless he himself opens the door to it. That is to say, in principle, that if a person’s mind is positive, he is perfectly safe. If he becomes frightened, however, he is in a negative state, and he may then feel himself to be a prey to forces, which do not seem to belong to him. But the ‘entity’ or force is almost certain to be really only an unconscious part of himself: something which psychological re-education can help him to deal with. […] In any case, if one realizes that one is master in one’s own house, and that any intruder can be dealt with by positive thought and self-assertion, there is no need for fear. “
The Mirror of Life and Death
By Laurence J. Bendit (1898-1974).
199 Pages | Published in 2004, third reprint | Softcover | Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar | ISBN: 0835675548.
The book suggests according to its author, that the basis of life is in timeless and universal Being, which becomes projected for evolutionairy purposes into the space-time world of existence. Existence can only be significant when seen against its root in pure Being. Birth, growth, decay, death and, if tradition be true, rebirth, are part of a single process. They are moreover, not separate parts, but each one co-exists all the time with the others, even when one aspect predominates.
The Mysteries Today – And Other Essays
By Laurence J. Bendit and Phoebe D. Bendit.
154 Pages | First printed in 1973 | Hardcover | Quest Books, U.S.A. | ISBN: 0722950241.
Theosophy in the true sense is the perennial and unchanging philosophy of mankind, but its presentation needs to be adapted to the times. In these essays an attempt is made to discuss some of the principles of this philosophy in modern terms, and especially related to the presentation of it as set out by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831 – 1891) and others. It can safely be assumed that, were these older writers doing their work today, they would do so in quite other language than in that of the nineteenth and earlier twentieth centuries. They would have to take into account the vast mental revolution which has been taking place in the last thirty or forty years, which has altered our views on so many things, and in particular in our knowledge. These collected articles rest very much on the modern – and probably temporary – mental climate of the second half of the twentieth century.
From the Introduction:
” Theosophy, the Wisdom of the enlightened mind, is unchanging for ever. It existed before history began – for man was already inhabitant of the earth – and it will endure lonf after history had ended as a record of events in time: when it will, in some form, remain as part of the heritage of the universe. It is the Pearl of Great Price fo the Gnostic Christian, it is the Jewel in the Lotus, the Clear Light of the Buddhist, the Tao of the mind; it is known by many names, yet it is always the same Wisdom . . . “