Then, of their own accord, they are mysteriously if slowly restored to him. During all this time they have preserved matured and perfected themselves through the unconscious workings of mind. Consequently he gains a superior form of them, as it were. Whereas before they were fragmentary fitful and sporadic, now they are ripe and forever to hand; whereas before they were vague and dreamlike, now they are precise and sharp. Nevertheless, the more authentic his possession of them is, the less will he speak of their existence. For several reasons--practical, prudential, and mystical--it is an unwritten law that they shall be owned and used in silence. Another reason for this silence is, however, almost ethical. These perfected powers arise when the ego is sunk, because they are powers belonging to the universal Mind, not to the ego. Hence to the degree that he identifies himself with the universal Mind he begins to manifest these miraculous powers. Because they are pertaining to universal Mind he cannot honestly say they are his. But neither can he honestly deny their presence in him. It is better, therefore, to keep silent about them.
In other cases, where the initial motive is low and unscrupulous but the patience to prolong meditation is high and determined, the loss of these powers comes much later. The man who is interested in merely gaining these powers for his own personal and selfish aggrandizement is entitled to receive what he has worked for. But his motive may not only cause him to injure others and thus bring down the eventual retribution of karma upon him, but also cause him to fall afoul of malignant invisible forces. A Mongolian philosopher with whom I once discussed the topic of developing occult powers dryly remarked that a man who tried deliberately to do so before being prepared by moral, mystical, and metaphysical disciplines was to be compared to an infant lying helplessly on its back liable to all kinds of dangers against which it had no shield.
-- Notebooks Category 16: The Sensitives > Chapter 12 : The Intermediate Zone > # 23
