Hazrat Inayat Khan now explains that it is the change of vibration which is responsible for what we perceive as the difference between life and death. The first post in the series is here.
What we call life and death are both a recognized existence within a certain degree of vibrations. For instance when a person says, ‘This leaf is dead,’ what has made it dead is a change in vibrations. It has no longer the same vibrations that it had when it was on the tree, and yet it has not lost its vibrations; it still has them. Thus, according to the vibrations it is not dead; it has only changed to a different rhythm of vibrations. If that leaf were [dead], then herbs would not have any effect upon man when he takes them as medicine.
And so it is with the dead body of an animal or a man. We may say that life has gone out of it, but it is only the life which we recognize as life that has gone out of it, for we recognize as life only a certain pitch of vibration; anything beyond it or below it we do not recognize as living. Yet it has not died; it is still vibrating. It is still going on, for nothing can exist and not vibrate, and nothing can vibrate and not be living in the real sense of the word. One might say that there is no movement in a dead body, that there is no heat in it, but do we not use fish and flesh of slaughtered animals as food? If these did not possess any life we would not be benefited by eating them, for it is only life, which can help life go on. If they were really dead, if all the property which is called life were gone from them, they would do us harm instead of good. This shows that though we call them dead there is some life left in them, and that this change is only a question of degree in the vibrations.
When a fruit has decayed, when a flower has faded, there has been a change of vibrations. It is wonderful to watch a flower when it is still a bud and to see how it grows every day, how it vibrates differently every moment of the day, until it comes to such a culmination that it begins to radiate, reflecting the sun. Besides its color and form we can see something living in the flower, something sparkling. It can best be seen when the flower is still on the plant. And then, when it has reached its culmination, it begins gradually to fade, and that again is according to the law of vibrations. But even when its petals have dropped there is still a form of life left, for even in the dry leaves [petals] of the rose there is a fragrance, and from the dried rose leaves an effective medicine can be made. This medicine has a certain action on the blood and it also nourishes the intestines; it is most purifying. In ancient Greek medicine the rose was used in many ways. It is very cooling, it cools the blood as well as being very strengthening.
There is great difference between the eating of fresh vegetables and of preserved vegetables, a difference of vibrations. The former are nearer to our life, and the latter, which have gone further from our life, have less influence on us. And so it is with everything. When we begin to see life from this point of view it will appear that birth and death are only our conceptions of life, that there is no such thing as death and that all is living. It only changes from one form to the other, subject to the law of vibrations. The difference in the vibrations of dead and living bodies is a difference of their speed; it is a difference of rhythm.
Furthermore, the different stages of life such as infancy, childhood, youth, and old age and the different tendencies arising naturally out of them, are all phenomena of vibration. Strength and weakness, the tendencies to action and repose, all come from the different speed of the vibrations. And it is no exaggeration to say that hidden behind every illness are wrong vibrations which are its cause. Vibrations are the cause and they are also the effect. It is interesting that a scientist* should have reached this conclusion too and tried his best to use it in medical science. He did not live long, but if he had he would have surely have accomplished something wonderful. By this system he tried to discover the nature and character of diseases, and to treat them according to the law of vibrations. No doubt its development will be the work of perhaps hundreds of years of experiment, but even to initiate such a method is a step forward. The greater a thing is, the longer it takes to develop. Some people are already benefiting from this system, though it will be a long time before it is brought to that perfection which will make it the way of treatment surpassing anything else.
*Hazrat Inayat Khan is referring to Dr. Albert Abrams of San Francisco, who passed away in 1924. He attempted to diagnose and treat illness through the use of electrical vibrations.
To be continued…