This, the largest class of astral entities, is also much the most
important to man. Being entirely his own creation, it is inter-related
with him by the closest karmic bonds, and its action upon him is
direct and incessant. It is an enormous inchoate mass of
semi-intelligent entities, differing among themselves as human
thoughts differ, and practically incapable of anything like
classification or arrangement. The only division which can be usefully
made is that which distinguishes between the artificial elementals
made by the majority of mankind unconsciously, and those made by
magicians with definite intent; while we may relegate to a third class
the very small number of artificially arranged entities which are not
elementals at all.

1. _Elementals formed unconsciously._

It has already been explained that the elemental essence which
surrounds us on every side is in all its numberless varieties
singularly susceptible to the influence of human thought. The action
of the mere casual wandering thought upon it, causing it to burst into
a cloud of rapidly-moving, evanescent forms, has already been
described; we have now to note how it is affected when the human mind
formulates a definite, purposeful thought or wish. The effect produced
is of the most striking nature. The thought seizes upon the plastic
essence, and moulds it instantly into a living being of appropriate
form--a being which when once thus created is in no way under the
control of its creator, but lives out a life of its own, the length
of which is proportionate to the intensity of the thought or wish
which called it into existence. It lasts, in fact, just as long as the
thought-force holds it together. Most people's thoughts are so
fleeting and indecisive that the elementals created by them last only
a few minutes or a few hours, but an often-repeated thought or an
earnest wish will form an elemental whose existence may extend to many
days. Since the ordinary man's thoughts refer very largely to himself,
the elementals they form remain hovering about him, and constantly
tend to provoke a repetition of the idea they represent, since such
repetitions, instead of forming new elementals, would strengthen the
old one, and give it a fresh lease of life. A man, therefore, who
frequently dwells upon one wish often forms for himself an astral
attendant which, constantly fed by fresh thought, may haunt him for
years, ever gaining more and more strength and influence over him; and
it will easily be seen that if the desire be an evil one the effect
upon his moral nature may be of the most disastrous character.

Still more pregnant of result for good or evil are a man's thoughts
about other people, for in that case they hover not about the thinker,
but about the object of the thought. A kindly thought about any person
or an earnest wish for his good will form and project towards him a
friendly artificial elemental; if the wish be a definite one, as, for
example, that he may recover from some sickness, then the elemental
will be a force ever hovering over him to promote his recovery, or to
ward off any influence that might tend to hinder it, and in doing this
it will display what appears like a very considerable amount of
intelligence and adaptability, though really it is simply a force
acting along the line of least resistance--pressing steadily in one
direction all the time, and taking advantage of any channel that it
can find, just as the water in a cistern would in a moment find the
one open pipe among a dozen closed ones, and proceed to empty itself
through that. If the wish be merely an indefinite one for his general
good, the elemental essence in its wonderful plasticity will respond
exactly to that less distinct idea also, and the creature formed will
expend its force in the direction of whatever action for the man's
advantage comes most readily to hand. Of course in all cases the
amount of such force it has to expend, and the length of time that it
will live to expend it, depend entirely upon the strength of the
original wish or thought which gave it birth; though it must be
remembered that it can be, as it were, fed and strengthened, and its
life-period protracted by other good wishes or friendly thoughts
projected in the same direction.

Furthermore, it appears to be actuated, like most other beings, by an
instinctive desire to prolong its life, and thus reacts on its creator
as a force constantly tending to provoke the renewal of the feeling
which called it into existence. It also influences in a similar manner
others with whom it comes into contact, though its _rapport_ with them
is naturally not so perfect.

All that has been said as to the effect of good wishes and friendly
thoughts is also true in the opposite direction of evil wishes and
angry thoughts; and considering the amount of envy, hatred, malice and
all uncharitableness that exists in the world, it will be readily
understood that among the artificial elementals many terrible
creatures are to be seen. A man whose thoughts or desires are
spiteful, brutal, sensual, avaricious, moves through the world
carrying with him everywhere a pestiferous atmosphere of his own,
peopled with the loathsome beings he has created to be his companions,
and thus is not only in sadly evil case himself, but is a dangerous
nuisance to his fellow-men, subjecting all who have the misfortune to
come into contact with him to the risk of moral contagion from the
influence of the abominations with which he chooses to surround
himself. A feeling of envious or jealous hatred towards another person
will send an evil elemental to hover over him and seek for a weak
point through which it can operate; and if the feeling be a persistent
one, such a creature may be continually nourished by it and thereby
enabled to protract its undesirable activity for a very long period.
It can, however, produce no effect upon the person towards whom it is
directed unless he has himself some tendency which it can foster--some
fulcrum for its lever, as it were; from the aura of a man of pure
thought and good life all such influences at once rebound, finding
nothing upon which they can fasten, and in that case, by a very
curious law, they react in all their force upon their original
creator. In him by the hypothesis they find a very congenial sphere of
action, and thus the Karma of his evil wish works itself out at once
by means of the very entity which he himself has called into
existence. It occasionally happens, however, that an artificial
elemental of this description is for various reasons unable to expend
its force either upon its object or its creator, and in such cases it
becomes a kind of wandering demon, readily attracted by any person who
indulges feelings similar to that which gave it birth, and equally
prepared either to stimulate such feelings in him for the sake of the
strength it may gain from them, or to pour out its store of evil
influence upon him through any opening which he may offer it. If it is
sufficiently powerful to seize upon and inhabit some passing shell it
frequently does so, as the possession of such a temporary home enables
it to husband its dreadful resources more carefully. In this form it
may manifest through a medium, and by masquerading as some well-known
friend may sometimes obtain an influence over people upon whom it
would otherwise have little hold.

What has been written above will serve to enforce the statement
already made as to the importance of maintaining a strict control over
our thoughts. Many a well-meaning man, who is scrupulously careful to
do his duty towards his neighbour in word and deed, is apt to consider
that his thoughts at least are nobody's business but his own, and so
lets them run riot in various directions, utterly unconscious of the
swarms of baleful creatures he is launching upon the world. To such a
man an accurate comprehension of the effect of thought and desire in
producing artificial elementals would come as a horrifying revelation;
on the other hand, it would be the greatest consolation to many
devoted and grateful souls who are oppressed with the feeling that
they are unable to do anything in return for the kindness lavished
upon them by their benefactors. For friendly thoughts and earnest good
wishes are as easily and as effectually formulated by the poorest as
by the richest, and it is within the power of almost any man, if he
will take the trouble, to maintain what is practically a good angel
always at the side of the brother or sister, the friend or the child
whom he loves best, no matter in what part of the world he may be.
Many a time a mother's loving thoughts and prayers have formed
themselves into an angel guardian for the child, and except in the
almost impossible case that the child had in him no instinct
responsive to a good influence, have undoubtedly given him assistance
and protection. Such guardians may often be seen by clairvoyant
vision, and there have even been cases where one of them has had
sufficient strength to materialize and become for the moment visible
to physical sight. A curious fact which deserves mention here is that
even after the passage of the mother into the devachanic condition the
love which she pours out upon the children she thinks of as
surrounding her will react upon the real children still living in this
world, and will often support the guardian elemental which she
created while on earth, until her dear ones themselves pass away in
turn. As Madame Blavatsky remarks, "her love will always be felt by
the children in the flesh; it will manifest in their dreams and often
in various events, in providential protections and escapes--for love
is a strong shield, and is not limited by space or time" (_Key to
Theosophy_, p. 150). All the stories of the intervention of guardian
angels must not, however, be attributed to the action of artificial
elementals, for in many cases such "angels" have been the souls of
either living or recently departed human beings, and they have also
occasionally, though rarely, been Devas.

This power of an earnest desire, especially if frequently repeated, to
create an active elemental which ever presses forcefully in the
direction of its own fulfilment, is the scientific explanation of what
devout but unphilosophical people describe as answers to prayer. There
are occasions, though at present these are rare, when the Karma of the
person so praying is such as to permit of assistance being directly
rendered to him by an Adept or his pupil, and there is also the still
rarer possibility of the intervention of a Deva or some friendly
nature-spirit; but in all these cases the easiest and most obvious
form for such assistance to take would be the strengthening and the
intelligent direction of the elemental already formed by the wish.

A very curious and instructive instance of the extreme persistence of
these artificial elementals under favourable circumstances came under
the notice of one of our investigators quite recently. All readers of
the literature of such subjects are aware that many of our ancient
families are supposed to have associated with them a traditional
death-warning--a phenomenon of one kind or another which foretells,
usually some days beforehand, the approaching decease of the head of
the house. A picturesque example of this is the well-known story of
the white bird of the Oxenhams, whose appearance has ever since the
time of Queen Elizabeth been recognized as a sure presage of the death
of some member of the family; while another is the spectral coach
which is reported to drive up to the door of a certain castle in the
north when a similar calamity is impending. A phenomenon of this order
occurs in connection with the family of one of our members, but it is
of a much commoner and less striking type than either of the above,
consisting only of a solemn and impressive strain of dirge-like music,
which is heard apparently floating in the air three days before the
death takes place. Our member, having himself twice heard this mystic
sound, finding its warning in both cases quite accurate, and knowing
also that according to family tradition the same thing had been
happening for several centuries, set himself to seek by occult methods
for the cause underlying so strange a phenomenon. The result was
unexpected but interesting. It appeared that somewhere in the twelfth
century the head of the family went to the crusades, like many another
valiant man, and took with him to win his spurs in the sacred cause
his youngest and favourite son, a promising youth whose success in
life was the dearest wish of his father's heart. Unhappily, however,
the young man was killed in battle, and the father was plunged into
the depths of despair, lamenting not only the loss of his son, but
still more the fact that he was cut off so suddenly in the full flush
of careless and not altogether blameless youth. So poignant, indeed,
were the old man's feelings that he cast off his knightly armour and
joined one of the great monastic orders, vowing to devote all the
remainder of his life to prayer, first for the soul of his son, and
secondly that henceforward no descendant of his might ever again
encounter what seemed to his simple and pious mind the terrible danger
of meeting death unprepared. Day after day for many a year he poured
all the energy of his soul into the channel of that one intense wish,
firmly believing that somehow or other the result he so earnestly
desired would be brought about. A student of occultism will have
little difficulty in deciding what would be the effect of such a
definite and long-continued stream of thought; our knightly monk
created an artificial elemental of immense power and resourcefulness
for its own particular object, and accumulated within it a store of
force which would enable it to carry out his wishes for an indefinite
period. An elemental is a perfect storage-battery--one from which
there is practically no leakage; and when we remember what its
original strength must have been, and how comparatively rarely it
would be called upon to put it forth, we shall scarcely wonder that
even now it exhibits unimpaired vitality, and still warns the direct
descendants of the old crusader of their approaching doom by repeating
in their ears the strange wailing music which was the dirge of a young
and valiant soldier seven hundred years ago in Palestine.

2. _Elementals formed consciously._

Since such results as have been described above have been achieved by
the thought-force of men who were entirely in the dark as to what they
were doing, it will readily be imagined that a magician who
understands the subject, and can see exactly what effect he is
producing, may wield immense power along these lines. As a matter of
fact occultists of both the white and dark schools frequently use
artificial elementals in their work, and few tasks are beyond the
powers of such creatures when scientifically prepared and directed
with knowledge and skill; for one who knows how to do so can maintain
a connection with his elemental and guide it, no matter at what
distance it may be working, so that it will practically act as though
endowed with the full intelligence of its master. Very definite and
very efficient guardian angels have sometimes been supplied in this
way, though it is probably very rarely that Karma permits such a
decided interference in a person's life as that would be. In such a
case, however, as that of a pupil of the Adepts, who might have in the
course of his work for them to run the risk of attack from forces with
which his unaided strength would be entirely insufficient to cope,
guardians of this description have been given, and have fully proved
their sleepless vigilance and their tremendous power. By some of the
more advanced processes of black magic, also, artificial elementals of
great power may be called into existence, and much evil has been
worked in various ways by such entities. But it is true of them, as of
the previous class, that if they are aimed at a person whom by reason
of his purity of character they are unable to influence they react
with terrible force upon their creator; so that the mediæval story of
the magician being torn to pieces by the fiends he himself had raised
is no mere fable, but may well have an awful foundation in fact.

Such creatures occasionally, for various reasons, escape from the
control of those who are trying to make use of them, and become
wandering and aimless demons, as do some of those mentioned under the
previous heading under similar circumstances; but those that we are
considering, having much more intelligence and power, and a much
longer existence, are proportionately more dangerous. They invariably
seek for means of prolonging their life either by feeding like
vampires upon the vitality of human beings, or by influencing them to
make offerings to them; and among simple half-savage tribes they have
frequently succeeded by judicious management in getting themselves
recognized as village or family gods. Any deity which demands
sacrifices involving the shedding of blood may always be set down as
belonging to the lowest and most loathsome class of this order; other
less objectionable types are sometimes content with offerings of rice
and cooked food of various kinds. There are parts of India where both
these varieties may be found flourishing even at the present day, and
in Africa they are probably comparatively numerous. By means of
whatever nourishment they can obtain from the offerings, and still
more by the vitality they draw from their devotees, they may continue
to prolong their existence for many years, or even centuries,
retaining sufficient strength to perform occasional phenomena of a
mild type in order to stimulate the faith and zeal of their followers,
and invariably making themselves unpleasant in some way or other if
the accustomed sacrifices are neglected. For example, it was asserted
recently that in one Indian village the inhabitants had found that
whenever for any reason the local deity did not get his or her regular
meals, spontaneous fires began to break out with alarming frequency
among the cottages, sometimes three or four simultaneously, in cases
where they declared it was impossible to suspect human agency; and
other stories of a more or less similar nature will no doubt recur to
the memory of any reader who knows something of the out-of-the-way
corners of that most wonderful of all countries.

The art of manufacturing artificial elementals of extreme virulence
and power seems to have been one of the specialities of the magicians
of Atlantis--"the lords of the dark face". One example of their
capabilities in this line is given in _The Secret Doctrine_ (vol. ii.,
p. 427), where we read of the wonderful speaking animals who had to be
quieted by an offering of blood, lest they should awaken their masters
and warn them of the impending destruction. But apart from these
strange beasts they created other artificial entities of power and
energy so tremendous, that it is darkly hinted that some of them have
kept themselves in existence even to this day, though it is more than
eleven thousand years since the cataclysm which overwhelmed their
original masters. The terrible Indian goddess whose devotees were
impelled to commit in her name the awful crimes of Thuggee--the
ghastly Kâlî, worshipped even to this day with rites too abominable to
be described--might well be a relic of a system which had to be swept
away even at the cost of the submergence of a continent, and the loss
of sixty-five million human lives.

3. _Human Artificials._

We have now to consider a class of entities which, though it contains
but very few individuals, has acquired from its intimate connection
with one of the great movements of modern times an importance entirely
out of proportion to its numbers. It seems doubtful whether it should
appear under the first or third of our main divisions; but, though
certainly human, it is so far removed from the course of ordinary
evolution, so entirely the product of a will outside of its own, that
it perhaps falls most naturally into place among the artificial
beings. The easiest way of describing it will be to commence with its
history, and to do that we must once more look back to the great
Atlantean race. In thinking of the Adepts and schools of occultism of
that remarkable people our minds instinctively revert to the evil
practices of which we hear so much in connection with their latter
days; but we must not forget that before that age of selfishness and
degradation the mighty civilization of Atlantis had brought forth much
that was noble and worthy of admiration, and that among its leaders
were some who now stand upon the loftiest pinnacles as yet attained by
man. Among the lodges for occult study preliminary to initiation
formed by the Adepts of the good Law was one in a certain part of
America which was then tributary to one of the great Atlantean
monarchs--"the Divine Rulers of the Golden Gate"; and though it has
passed through many and strange vicissitudes, though it has had to
move its headquarters from country to country as each in turn was
invaded by the jarring elements of a later civilization, that lodge
still exists even at the present day, observing still the same
old-world ritual even teaching as a sacred and hidden language the
same Atlantean tongue which was used at its foundation so many
thousands of years ago. It still remains what it was from the first--a
lodge of occultists of pure and philanthropic aims, which can lead
those students whom it finds worthy no inconsiderable distance on the
road to knowledge, and confers such psychic powers as are in its gift
only after the most searching tests as to the fitness of the
candidate. Its teachers do not stand upon the Adept level, yet
hundreds have learnt through it how to set their feet upon the Path
which has led them to Adeptship in later lives; and though it is not
in direct communication with the Brotherhood of the Himalayas, there
are some among the latter who have themselves been connected with it
in former incarnations, and therefore retain a more than ordinarily
friendly interest in its proceedings.

The chiefs of this lodge, though they have always kept themselves and
their society strictly in the background, have nevertheless done what
they could from time to time to assist the progress of truth in the
world, and some half-century ago, in despair at the rampant
materialism which seemed to be stifling all spirituality in Europe and
America, they determined to make an attempt to combat it by somewhat
novel methods--in point of fact to offer opportunities by which any
reasonable man could acquire absolute proof of that life apart from
the physical body which it was the tendency of science to deny. The
phenomena exhibited were not in themselves absolutely new, since in
some form or other we may hear of them all through history; but their
definite organization--their production as it were to order--these
were features distinctly new to the modern world. The movement they
thus set on foot gradually grew into the vast fabric of modern
spiritualism, and though it would perhaps be unfair to hold the
originators of the scheme directly responsible for many of the results
which have followed, we must admit that they have achieved their
purpose to the extent of converting vast numbers of people from a
belief in nothing in particular to a firm faith in at any rate some
kind of future life. This is undoubtedly a magnificent result, though,
in the opinion of many of those whose power and knowledge enable them
to take a wider view of such matters than we can, it has been attained
at too great a cost, since it seems to them that on the whole the harm
done outweighs the good. The method adopted was to take some ordinary
person after death, arouse him thoroughly upon the astral plane,
instruct him to a certain extent in the powers and possibilities
belonging to it, and then put him in charge of a spiritualistic
circle. He in his turn "developed" other departed personalities along
the same line, they all acted upon those who sat at their _séances_,
and "developed" them as mediums; and so spiritualism grew and
flourished. No doubt living members of the original lodge occasionally
manifested themselves in astral form at some of the circles--perhaps
they may do so even now; but in most cases they simply gave such
direction and guidance as they considered necessary to the persons
they had put in charge. There is little doubt that the movement
increased so much more rapidly than they had expected that it soon got
quite beyond their control, so that, as has been said, for many of the
later developments they can only be held indirectly responsible.

Of course the intensification of the astral-plane life in those
persons who were thus put in charge of circles distinctly delayed
their natural progress; and though the idea had been that anything
lost in this way would be fully atoned for by the good Karma gained
by helping to lead others to the truth, it was soon found that it was
impossible to make use of a "spirit-guide" for any length of time
without doing him serious and permanent injury. In some cases such
"guides" were therefore withdrawn, and others substituted for them; in
others it was considered for various reasons undesirable to make such
a change, and then a very remarkable expedient was adopted which gave
rise to the curious class of creatures we have called "human
artificials". The higher principles of the original "guide" were
allowed to pass on their long delayed evolution into the devachanic
condition, but the shade he left behind him was taken possession of,
sustained, and operated upon so that it might appear to its admiring
circle practically just as before. This seems at first to have been
done by members of the lodge themselves, but apparently that
arrangement was found irksome or unsuitable, or perhaps was considered
a waste of force, and the same objection applied to the use for this
purpose of an artificial elemental; so it was eventually decided that
the departed person who would have been appointed to succeed the late
"spirit-guide" should still do so, but should take possession of the
latter's shade or shell, and in fact simply wear his appearance. It is
said that some members of the lodge objected to this on the ground
that though the purpose might be entirely good a certain amount of
deception was involved; but the general opinion seems to have been
that as the shade really was the same, and contained something at any
rate of the original lower Manas, there was nothing that could be
called deception in the matter. This, then, was the genesis of the
human artificial entity, and it is understood that in some cases more
than one such change has been made without arousing suspicion, though
on the other hand some investigators of spiritualism have remarked on
the fact that after a considerable lapse of time certain differences
suddenly became observable in the manner and disposition of a
"spirit". It is needless to say that none of the Adept Brotherhood has
ever approved of the formation of an artificial entity of this sort,
though they could not interfere with any one who thought it right to
take such a course. A weak point in the arrangement is that many
others besides the original lodge may adopt this plan, and there is
nothing whatever to prevent black magicians from supplying
communicating "spirits"--as, indeed, they have been known to do.

With this class we conclude our survey of the inhabitants of the
astral plane. With the reservations specially made some few pages
back, the catalogue may be taken as a fairly complete one; but it must
once more be emphasized that this treatise claims only to sketch the
merest outline of a very vast subject, the detailed elaboration of
which would need a lifetime of study and hard work.

PHENOMENA.

Though in the course of this paper various superphysical phenomena
have been mentioned and to some extent explained, it will perhaps
before concluding be desirable so far to recapitulate as to give a
list of those which are most frequently met with by the student of
these subjects, and to show by which of the agencies we have attempted
to describe they are usually caused. The resources of the astral
world, however, are so varied that almost any phenomenon with which we
are acquainted can be produced in several different ways, so that it
is only possible to lay down general rules in the matter.

Apparitions or ghosts furnish a very good instance of the remark just
made, for in the loose manner in which the words are ordinarily used
they may stand for almost any inhabitant of the astral plane. Of
course psychically developed people are constantly seeing such things,
but for an ordinary person to "see a ghost," as the common expression
runs, one of two things must happen: either that ghost must
materialize, or that person must have a temporary flash of psychic
perception. But for the fact that neither of these events is a common
one, ghosts would be met with in our streets as frequently as living
people.

[Sidenote: Churchyard Ghosts.]

If the ghost is seen hovering about a grave it is probably the etheric
shell of a newly-buried person, though it _may_ be the astral body of
a living man haunting in sleep the tomb of a friend; or again, it may
be a materialized thought-form--that is, an artificial elemental
created by the energy with which a man thinks of himself as present at
that particular spot. These varieties would be easily distinguishable
one from the other by any one accustomed to use astral vision, but an
unpractised person would be quite likely to call them all vaguely
"ghosts".

[Sidenote: Apparitions of the Dying.]

Apparitions at the time of death are by no means uncommon, and are
very often really visits paid by the astral form of the dying man just
before what we elect to call the moment of dissolution; though here
again they are quite likely to be thought-forms called into being by
his earnest wish to see some friend once more before he passes into an
unfamiliar condition.

[Sidenote: Haunted Localities.]

Apparitions at the spot where some crime was committed are usually
thought-forms projected by the criminal, who, whether living or dead,
but most especially when dead, is perpetually thinking over again and
again the circumstances of his action; and since these thoughts are
naturally specially vivid in his mind on the anniversary of the
original crime, it is often only on that occasion that the artificial
elementals he creates are strong enough to materialize themselves to
ordinary sight--a fact which accounts for the periodicity of some
manifestations of this class. Another point in reference to such
phenomena is, that wherever any tremendous mental disturbance has
taken place, wherever overwhelming terror, pain, sorrow, hatred, or
indeed any kind of intense passion has been felt, an impression of so
very marked a character has been made upon the astral light that a
person with even the faintest glimmer of psychic faculty cannot but be
deeply impressed by it, and it would need but a slight temporary
increase of sensibility to enable him to visualize the entire
scene--to see the event in all its detail apparently taking place
before his eyes--and in such a case he would of course report that
the place was haunted, and that he had seen a ghost. Indeed, people
who are as yet unable to see psychically under any circumstances are
frequently very unpleasantly impressed when visiting such places as we
have mentioned; there are many, for example, who feel uncomfortable
when passing the site of Tyburn Tree, or cannot stay in the Chamber of
Horrors at Madame Tussaud's, though they may not be in the least aware
that their discomfort is due to the dreadful impressions in the astral
light which surround places and objects redolent of horror and crime,
and to the presence of the loathsome astral entities which always
swarm about such centres.

[Sidenote: Family Ghosts.]

The family ghost, whom we generally find in the stock stories of the
supernatural as an appanage of the feudal castle, may be either a
thought-form or an unusually vivid impression in the astral light, or
again he may really be an earth-bound ancestor still haunting the
scenes in which his thoughts and hopes centred during life.

[Sidenote: Bell-ringing, stone-throwing, etc.]

Another class of hauntings which take the form of bell-ringing,
stone-throwing, or the breaking of crockery, has already been referred
to, and is almost invariably the work of elemental forces, either set
blindly in motion by the clumsy efforts of an ignorant person trying
to attract the attention of his surviving friends, or intentionally
employed by some childishly mischievous nature-spirit.

[Sidenote: Fairies.]

The nature-spirits are also responsible for whatever of truth there
may be in all the strange fairy stories which are so common in certain
parts of the country. Sometimes a temporary accession of clairvoyance,
which is by no means uncommon among the inhabitants of lonely
mountainous regions, enables some belated wayfarer to watch their
joyous gambols; sometimes strange tricks are played upon some
terrified victim, and a glamour is cast over him, making him, for
example, see houses and people where he knows none really exist. And
this is frequently no mere momentary delusion, for a man will
sometimes go through quite a long series of imaginary but most
striking adventures, and then suddenly find that all his brilliant
surroundings have vanished in a moment, leaving him standing in some
lonely valley or on some wind-swept plain. On the other hand, it is by
no means safe to accept as founded on fact all the popular legends on
the subject, for the grossest superstition is often mingled with the
theories of the peasantry about these beings, as was shown by a recent
terrible murder case in Ireland.

To the same entities must be attributed a large portion of what are
called physical phenomena at spiritualistic _séances_--indeed, many a
_séance_ has been given entirely by these mischievous creatures; and
such a performance might easily include many very striking items, such
as the answering of questions and delivery of pretended messages by
raps or tilts, the exhibition of "spirit lights," the apport of
objects from a distance, the reading of thoughts which were in the
mind of any person present, the precipitation of writings or drawings,
and even materializations. In fact, the nature-spirits alone, if any
of them happened to be disposed to take the trouble, could give a
_séance_ equal to the most wonderful of which we read; for though
there may be certain phenomena which they would not find it easy to
reproduce, their marvellous power of glamour would enable them without
difficulty to persuade the entire circle that these phenomena also had
duly occurred, unless, indeed, there were present a trained observer
who understood their arts and knew how to defeat them. As a general
rule, whenever silly tricks or practical jokes are played at a
_séance_, we may infer the presence either of low-class
nature-spirits, or of human beings who were of a sufficiently degraded
type to find pleasure in such idiotic performances during life.

[Sidenote: Communicating Entities.]

As to the entities who may "communicate" at a _séance_, or may obsess
and speak through an entranced medium, their name is simply legion;
there is hardly a single class among all the varied inhabitants of the
astral plane from whose ranks they may not be drawn, though after the
explanations given it will be readily understood that the chances are
very much against their coming from a high one. A manifesting "spirit"
_may_ be exactly what it professes to be, but on the whole the
probabilities are that it is nothing of the kind; and for the ordinary
sitter there is absolutely no means of distinguishing the true from
the false, since the extent to which a being having all the resources
of the astral plane at his command can delude a person on the physical
plane is so great that no reliance can be placed even on what seems
the most convincing proof. If something manifests which announces
itself as a man's long-lost brother, he can have no certainty that its
claim is a just one; if it tells him of some fact known only to that
brother and to himself, he remains unconvinced, for he knows that it
might easily have read the information from his own mind, or from his
surroundings in the astral light; even if it goes still further and
tells him something connected with his brother, of which he himself is
unaware, but which he afterwards verifies, he still realizes that even
this may have been read from the astral record, or that what he sees
before him may be only the shade of his brother, and so possess his
memory without in any way being himself. It is not for one moment
denied that important communications have sometimes been made at
_séances_ by entities who in such cases have been precisely what they
said they were; all that is claimed is that it is quite impossible
for the ordinary person who visits a _séance_ ever to be certain that
he is not being cruelly deceived in one or other of half a dozen
different ways.

There have been a few cases in which members of the lodge of
occultists referred to above as originating the spiritualistic
movement have themselves given, through a medium, a series of valuable
teachings on deeply interesting subjects, but this has invariably been
at strictly private family _séances_, not at public performances for
which money has been paid.

[Sidenote: Astral Resources.]

To understand the methods by which a large class of physical phenomena
are produced, it is necessary to have some comprehension of the
various resources mentioned above, which a person functioning on the
astral plane finds at his command; and this is a branch of the subject
which it is by no means easy to make clear, especially as it is hedged
about with certain obviously necessary restrictions. It may perhaps
help us if we remember that the astral plane may be regarded as in
many ways only an extension of the physical, and the idea that matter
may assume the etheric state (in which, though intangible to us, it is
yet purely physical) may serve to show us how the one melts into the
other. In fact, in the Hindu conception of Jagrat, or "the waking
state," the physical and astral planes are combined, its seven
subdivisions corresponding to the four conditions of physical matter,
and the three broad divisions of astral matter explained above. With
this thought in our minds it is easy to move a step further, and grasp
the idea that astral vision, or rather astral perception, may from one
point of view be defined as the capability of receiving an enormously
increased number of different sets of vibrations. In our physical
bodies one small set of slow vibrations is perceptible to us as sound;
another small set of much more rapid vibrations affects us as light;
and again another set as electric action: but there are immense
numbers of intermediate vibrations which produce no result which our
physical senses can cognize at all. Now it will readily be seen that
if all, or even some only, of these intermediates, with all the
complications producible by differences of wave-length, are
perceptible on the astral plane, our comprehension of nature might be
very greatly increased on that level, and we might be able to acquire
much information which is now hidden from us.

[Sidenote: Clairvoyance.]

[Sidenote: Prevision and Second-sight.]

It is admitted that some of these pass through solid matter with
perfect ease, so that this enables us to account scientifically for
some of the peculiarities of astral vision, though those minds to
which the theory of the fourth dimension commends itself find in it a
neater and more complete explanation. It is clear that the mere
possession of this astral vision by a being would at once account for
his capability to produce many results that seem very wonderful to
us--such, for example, as the reading of a passage from a closed book;
and when we remember, furthermore, that this faculty includes the
power of thought-reading to the fullest extent, and also, when
combined with the knowledge of the projection of currents in the
astral light, that of observing a desired object in almost any part of
the world, we see that a good many of the phenomena of clairvoyance
are explicable even without rising above this level. Of course true,
trained, and absolutely reliable clairvoyance calls into operation an
entirely different set of faculties, but as these belong to a higher
plane than the astral, they form no part of our present subject. The
faculty of accurate prevision, again, appertains altogether to that
higher plane, yet flashes or reflections of it frequently show
themselves to purely astral sight, more especially among simple-minded
people who live under suitable conditions--what is called
"second-sight" among the Highlanders of Scotland being a well-known
example.

Another fact which must not be forgotten is that any intelligent
inhabitant of the astral plane is not only able to perceive these
etheric vibrations, but can also--if he has learnt how it is
done--adapt them to his own ends or himself set them in motion.

[Sidenote: Astral Forces.]

[Sidenote: Etheric Currents.]

[Sidenote: Etheric Pressure.]

[Sidenote: Latent Energy.]

[Sidenote: Sympathetic Vibration.]

It will be readily understood that superphysical forces and the methods of
managing them are not subjects about which much can be written for
publication at present, though there is reason to suppose that it may not
be very long before at any rate some applications of one or two of them
come to be known to the world at large: but it may perhaps be possible,
without transgressing the limits of the permissible, to give so much of an
idea of them as shall be sufficient to show in outline how certain
phenomena are performed. All who have much experience of spiritualistic
_séances_ at which physical results are produced must at one time or
another have seen evidence of the employment of practically resistless
force in, for example, the instantaneous movement of enormous weights, and
so on; and if of a scientific turn of mind, they may perhaps have wondered
whence this force was obtained, and what was the leverage employed. As
usual in connection with astral phenomena, there are several ways in which
such work may have been done, but it will be enough for the moment to hint
at four. First, there are great etheric currents constantly sweeping over
the surface of the earth from pole to pole in volume which makes their
power as irresistible as that of the rising tide, and there are methods by
which this stupendous force may be safely utilized, though unskilful
attempts to control it would be fraught with frightful danger. Secondly,
there is what can best be described as an etheric pressure, somewhat
corresponding to, though immensely greater than, the atmospheric pressure.
In ordinary life we are as little conscious of one of these pressures as we
are of the other, but nevertheless they both exist, and if science were
able to exhaust the ether from a given space, as it can exhaust the air,
the one could be proved as readily as the other. The difficulty of doing
that lies in the fact that matter in the etheric condition freely
inter-penetrates matter in all states below it, so that there is as yet no
means within the knowledge of our physicists by which any given body of
ether can be isolated from the rest. Practical Occultism, however, teaches
how this can be done, and thus the tremendous force of etheric pressure can
be brought into play. Thirdly, there is a vast store of potential energy
which has become dormant in matter during the involution of the subtle into
the gross, and by changing the condition of the matter some of this may be
liberated and utilized, somewhat as latent energy in the form of heat may
be liberated by a change in the condition of visible matter. Fourthly, many
striking results, both great and small, may be produced by an extension of
a principle which may be described as that of sympathetic vibration.
Illustrations taken from the physical plane seem generally to misrepresent
rather than elucidate astral phenomena, because they can never be more than
partially applicable; but the recollection of two simple facts of ordinary
life may help to make this important branch of our subject clearer, if we
are careful not to push the analogy further than it will hold good. It is
well known that if one of the wires of a harp be made to vibrate
vigorously, its movement will call forth sympathetic vibrations in the
corresponding strings of any number of harps placed round it, if they are
tuned to exactly the same pitch. It is also well known that when a large
body of soldiers crosses a suspension bridge it is necessary for them to
break step, since the perfect regularity of their ordinary march would set
up a vibration in the bridge which would be intensified by every step they
took, until the point of resistance of the iron was passed, when the whole
structure would fly to pieces. With these two analogies in our minds (never
forgetting that they are only partial ones) it may seem more comprehensible
that one who knows exactly at what rate to start his vibrations--knows, so
to speak, the keynote of the class of matter he wishes to affect--should be
able by sounding that keynote to call forth an immense number of
sympathetic vibrations. When this is done on the physical plane no
additional energy is developed; but on the astral plane there is this
difference, that the matter with which we are dealing is far less inert,
and so when called into action by these sympathetic vibrations it adds its
own living force to the original impulse, which may thus be multiplied
many-fold; and then by further rhythmic repetition of the original impulse,
as in the case of the soldiers marching over the bridge, the vibrations may
be so intensified that the result is out of all apparent proportion to the
cause. Indeed, it may be said that there is scarcely any limit to the
conceivable achievements of this force in the hands of a great Adept Who
fully comprehends its possibilities; for the very building of the Universe
itself was but the result of the vibrations set up by the Spoken Word.

[Sidenote: Mantras.]

The class of mantras or spells which produce their result not by
controlling some elemental, but merely by the repetition of certain
sounds, also depend for their efficacy upon this action of sympathetic
vibration.

[Sidenote: Disintegration.]

The phenomenon of disintegration also may be brought about by the
action of extremely rapid vibrations, which overcome the cohesion of
the molecules of the object operated upon. A still higher rate of
vibrations of a somewhat different type will separate these molecules
into their constituent atoms. A body reduced by these means to the
etheric condition can be moved by an astral current from one place to
another with very great rapidity; and the moment that the force which
has been exerted to put it into that condition is withdrawn it will be
forced by the etheric pressure to resume its original form. It is in
this way that objects are sometimes brought almost instantaneously
from great distances at spiritualistic _séances_, and it is obvious
that when disintegrated they could be passed with perfect ease through
any solid substance, such, for example, as the wall of a house or the
side of a locked box, so that what is commonly called "the passage of
matter through matter" is seen, when properly understood, to be as
simple as the passage of water through a sieve, or of a gas through a
liquid in some chemical experiment.

[Sidenote: Materialization.]

Since it is possible by an alteration of vibrations to change matter
from the solid to the etheric condition, it will be comprehended that
it is also possible to reverse the process and to bring etheric matter
into the solid state. As the one process explains the phenomenon of
disintegration, so does the other that of materialization; and just as
in the former case a continued effort of will is necessary to prevent
the object from resuming its original form, so in exactly the same way
in the latter phenomenon a continued effort is necessary to prevent
the materialized matter from relapsing into the etheric condition. In
the materializations seen at an ordinary _séance_, such matter as may
be required is borrowed as far as possible from the medium's etheric
double--an operation which is prejudicial to his health, and also
undesirable in various other ways; and this explains the fact that the
materialized form is usually strictly confined to the immediate
neighbourhood of the medium, and is subject to an attraction which is
constantly drawing it back to the body from which it came, so that if
kept away from the medium too long the figure collapses, and the
matter which composed it, returning to the etheric condition, rushes
back instantly to its source.

[Sidenote: Why Darkness is required.]

[Sidenote: Spirit Photographs.]

The reason why the beings directing a _séance_ find it easier to
operate in darkness or in very subdued light will now be manifest,
since their power would usually be insufficient to hold together a
materialized form or even a "spirit hand" for more than a very few
seconds amidst the intense vibrations set up by brilliant light. The
_habitués_ of _séances_ will no doubt have noticed that
materializations are of three kinds:--First, those which are tangible
but not visible; second, those which are visible but not tangible; and
third, those which are both visible and tangible. To the first kind,
which is much the most common, belong the invisible spirit hands which
so frequently stroke the faces of the sitters or carry small objects
about the room, and the vocal organs from which the "direct voice"
proceeds. In this case, an order of matter is being used which can
neither reflect nor obstruct light, but which is capable under certain
conditions of setting up vibrations in the atmosphere which affect us
as sound. A variation of this class is that kind of partial
materialization which, though incapable of reflecting any light that
we can see, is yet able to affect some of the ultra-violet rays, and
can therefore make a more or less definite impression upon the camera,
and so provide us with what are known as "spirit photographs". When
there is not sufficient power available to produce a perfect
materialization we sometimes get the vaporous-looking form which
constitutes our second class, and in such a case the "spirits" usually
warn their sitters that the forms which appear must not be touched.
In the rarer case of a full materialization there is sufficient power
to hold together, at least for a few moments, a form which can be both
seen and touched.

When an Adept or pupil finds it necessary for any purpose to
materialize his Mâyâvirûpa or his astral body, he does not draw upon
either his own etheric double or any one else's, since he has been
taught how to extract the matter which he requires directly from the
astral light or even from the Âkâsha.

[Sidenote: Reduplication.]

Another phenomenon closely connected with this part of the subject is
that of reduplication, which is produced by simply forming in the
astral light a perfect mental image of the object to be copied, and
then gathering about that mould the necessary physical matter. Of
course for this purpose it is necessary that every particle, interior
as well as exterior, of the object to be duplicated should be held
accurately in view simultaneously, and consequently the phenomenon is
one which requires considerable power of concentration to perform.
Persons unable to reduce the matter required directly from the astral
light have sometimes borrowed it from the material of the original
article, which in this case would be correspondingly reduced in
weight.

[Sidenote: Precipitation.]

We read a good deal in Theosophical literature about the precipitation
of letters or pictures. This result, like everything else, may be
obtained in several ways. An Adept wishing to communicate with some
one might place a sheet of paper before him, form an image of the
writing which he wished to appear upon it, and draw from the astral
light the matter wherewith to objectify that image; or if he preferred
to do so it would be equally easy for him to produce the same result
upon a sheet of paper lying before his correspondent, whatever might
be the distance between them. A third method which, since it saves
time, is much more frequently adopted, is to impress the whole
substance of the letter on the mind of some pupil, and leave him to do
the mechanical work of precipitation. That pupil would then take his
sheet of paper, and, imagining he saw the letter written thereon in
his Master's hand, would proceed to objectify the writing as before
described. If he found it difficult to perform simultaneously the two
operations of drawing his material from the astral light and
precipitating the writing on the paper, he might have either ordinary
ink or a small quantity of coloured powder on the table beside him,
which, being already physical matter, could be drawn upon more
readily.

It is of course obvious that the possession of this power would be a
very dangerous weapon in the hands of an unscrupulous person, since it
is just as easy to imitate one man's handwriting as another's, and it
would be impossible to detect by any ordinary means a forgery
committed in this manner. A pupil definitely connected with any Master
has always an infallible test by which he knows whether any message
really emanates from that Master or not, but for others the proof of
its origin must always lie solely in the contents of the letter and
the spirit breathing through it, as the handwriting, however cleverly
imitated, is of absolutely no value as evidence.

As to speed, a pupil new to the work of precipitation would probably
be able to image only a few words at a time, and would, therefore, get
on hardly more rapidly than if he wrote his letter in the ordinary
way, but a more experienced individual who could visualize a whole
page or perhaps the entire letter at once would get through his work
with greater facility. It is in this manner that quite long letters
are sometimes produced in a few seconds at a _séance_.

When a picture has to be precipitated the method is precisely the
same, except that here it is absolutely necessary that the entire
scene should he visualized at once, and if many colours are required
there is of course the additional complication of manufacturing them,
keeping them separate, and reproducing accurately the exact tints of
the scene to be represented. Evidently there is scope here for the
exercise of the artistic faculty, and it must not be supposed that
every inhabitant of the astral plane could by this method produce an
equally good picture; a man who had been a great artist in life, and
had therefore learnt how to see and what to look for, would certainly
be very much more successful than the ordinary person if he attempted
precipitation when on the astral plane after death.

[Sidenote: Slate-writing.]

The slate-writing, for the production of which under test conditions
some of the greatest mediums have been so famous, is sometimes
produced by precipitation, though more frequently the fragment of
pencil enclosed between the slates is guided by a spirit hand, of
which only just the tiny points sufficient to grasp it are
materialized.

[Sidenote: Levitation.]

An occurrence which occasionally takes place at _séances_, and more
frequently among eastern Yógîs, is what is called levitation--that is,
the floating of a human body in the air. No doubt when this takes
place in the case of a medium, he is often simply upborne by "spirit
hands," but there is another and more scientific method of
accomplishing this feat which is always used in the East, and
occasionally here also. Occult science is acquainted with a means of
neutralizing or even entirely reversing the attraction of gravity, and
it is obvious that by the judicious use of this power all the
phenomena of levitation may be easily produced. It was no doubt by a
knowledge of this secret that some of the air-ships of ancient India
and Atlantis were raised from the earth and made light enough to be
readily moved and directed; and not improbably the same acquaintance
with nature's finer forces greatly facilitated the labours of those
who raised the enormous blocks of stone sometimes used in cyclopean
architecture, or in the building of the Pyramids and Stonehenge.

[Sidenote: Spirit Lights.]

With the knowledge of the forces of nature which the resources of the
astral plane place at the command its inhabitants the production of
what are called "spirit lights" is a very easy matter, whether they be
of the mildly phosphorescent or the dazzling electrical variety, or
those curious dancing globules of light into which a certain class of
fire elementals so readily transform themselves. Since all light
consists simply of vibrations of the ether, it is obvious that any one
who knows how to set up these vibrations can readily produce any kind
of light that he wishes.

[Sidenote: Handling Fire.]

It is by the aid of the etheric elemental essence also that the
remarkable feat of handling fire unharmed is generally performed,
though there are as usual other ways in which it can be done. The
thinnest layer of etheric substance can be so manipulated as to be
absolutely impervious to heat, and when the hand of a medium or sitter
is covered with this he may pick up burning coal or red-hot iron with
perfect safety.

[Sidenote: Transmutation.]

Most of the occurrences of the _séance_-room have now been referred
to, but there are one or two of the rarer phenomena of the outer world
which must not be left quite without mention in our list. The
transmutation of metals is commonly supposed to be a mere dream of the
mediæval alchemists, and no doubt in most cases the description of the
phenomenon was merely a symbol of the purification of the soul; yet
there seems to be some evidence that it was really accomplished by
them on several occasions, and there are petty magicians in the East
who profess to do it under test conditions even now. Be that as it
may, it is evident that since the ultimate atom is one and the same in
all substances, and it is only the methods of its combination that
differ, any one who possessed the power of reducing a piece of metal
to the atomic condition and of re-arranging its atoms in some other
form would have no difficulty in effecting transmutation to any extent
that he wished.

[Sidenote: Repercussion.]

The principle of sympathetic vibration mentioned above also provides
the explanation of that strange and little-known phenomenon called
repercussion, by means of which any injury done to, or any mark made
upon, the astral body in the course of its wanderings will be
reproduced in the physical body. We find traces of this in some of the
evidence given at trials for witchcraft in the middle ages, in which
it is not infrequently stated that some wound given to the witch when
in the form of a dog or a wolf was found to have appeared in the
corresponding part of her human body. The same strange law has
sometimes led to an entirely unjust accusation of fraud against a
medium, because, for example, some colouring matter rubbed upon the
hand of a materialized "spirit" was afterwards found upon his
hand--the explanation being that in that case, as so often happens,
the "spirit" was simply the medium's astral body or perhaps even his
etheric double, forced by the guiding influences to take some form
other than his own. In fact the astral and physical bodies are so
intimately connected that it is impossible to touch the keynote of one
without immediately setting up exactly corresponding vibrations in the
other.

CONCLUSION.

It is hoped that any reader who has been sufficiently interested to
follow this treatise thus far, may by this time have a general idea of
the astral plane and its possibilities, such as will enable him to
understand and fit into their proper places in its scheme any facts in
connection with it which he may pick up in his reading. Though only
the roughest sketch has been given of a very great subject, enough has
perhaps been said to show the extreme importance of astral perception
in the study of biology, physics, chemistry, astronomy, medicine and
history, and the great impulse which might be given by its development
to all these sciences. Yet its attainment should never be regarded as
an end in itself, since any means adopted with that object in view
would inevitably lead to what is called in the East the _laukika_
method of development--a system by which certain psychic powers are
indeed acquired, but only for the present personality; and since their
acquisition is surrounded by no safeguards, the student is extremely
likely to misuse them. To this class belong all systems which involve
the use of drugs, invocation of elementals, or the practices of Hatha
Yoga. The other method, which is called the _lokottara_, consists of
Raj Yoga or spiritual progress, and though it may be somewhat slower
than the other, whatever is acquired along this line is gained for the
permanent individuality, and never lost again, while the guiding care
of a Master ensures perfect safety from misuse of power as long as
his orders are scrupulously obeyed. The opening of astral vision must
be regarded then only as a stage in the development of something
infinitely nobler--merely as a step, and a very small step, on that
great Upward Path which leads men to the sublime heights of Adeptship,
and beyond even that through glorious vistas of wisdom and power such
as our finite minds cannot now conceive.

Yet let no one think it an unmixed blessing to have the wider sight of
the astral plane, for upon one in whom that vision is opened the
sorrow and misery, the evil and the greed of the world press as an
ever-present burden, until he often feels inclined to echo the
passionate adjuration of Schiller: "Why hast thou cast me thus into
the town of the ever-blind, to proclaim thine oracle with the opened
sense? Take back this sad clear-sightedness; take from mine eyes this
cruel light! Give me back my blindness--the happy darkness of my
senses; take back thy dreadful gift!" This feeling is perhaps not an
unnatural one in the earlier stages of the Path, yet higher sight and
deeper knowledge soon bring to the student the perfect certainty that
all things are working together for the eventual good of all--that

    Hour after hour, like an opening flower,
      Shall truth after truth expand;
    For the sun may pale, and the stars may fail,
      But the LAW of GOOD shall stand.
    Its splendour glows and its influence grows
      As Nature's slow work appears,
    From the zoophyte small to the LORDS of all,
      Through kalpas and crores of years.