THE ASTRAL WORLD/PART 5

 

CHAPTER V.

SOME LOWER SUB-PLANES.

NOW, student, we are entering the vibrations of the lower sub-planes of the Astral. You must nerve yourself to witness some unpleasant sights, but be not afraid for nothing can harm you here while I am with you. Were you alone here, lacking the knowledge of self-protection, you might find the experience very terrifying. But, even then, though you lacked the higher knowledge, if you would but maintain a positive mental state, and deny the power of the Astral inhabitants to harm you, you would still be safe. A firm mental attitude, and the assertion of your own immunity will act as a barrier through which these influences cannot penetrate.

Your first impression is that the material world is still around you, with all its scenes plainly visible. But, as you look you will find that there seems to be a peculiar veil between those scenes and the plane upon which you are temporarily dwelling. This veil, while at least semi-transparent, nevertheless seems to have a peculiar appearance of resistent solidity, and you find yourself instinctively realizing that it would be a barrier to the passage of the astral entities back to the material plane.

I now change our vibrations for a moment to those of a very unpleasant subdivision of the lowest sub-plane. This is the subdivision which the old occultists were wont to call “the Astral cemetery.” We shall stay on this plane of vibrations but for a moment, for it furnishes a ghastly sight, and its atmosphere is most depressing. Now, hold tight to me, and press close up to me, for you will instinctively feel the need of protection. Gazing around you on all sides, you will see what appear to be the disintegrating forms of human beings, and even some animals. These forms seem to be floating in space. They seem real, and yet, some way, not real. You realize that they are not physical bodies, but still they bear too close a resemblance to physical corpses to be pleasant. Take one good look around you, for I shall change our vibrations in a moment. * * * There! we have left that scene behind us! But before proceeding further, we shall pause a moment and consider what we have just witnessed.

These disintegrating astral forms are what occultists know as the “astral shells.” The astral shell is really an astral corpse, just as the physical body in the grave is the material corpse. For, as we shall presently see, the disembodied soul eventually leaves the Astral and moves on to what the occultists know as the mental or spiritual planes of being, which are symbolized by the race conception of “the heavens,” of which all religions teach. When the soul so passes on, it leaves behind it the astral body it has inhabited while on the Astral. This astral body, or form, then begins to disintegrate, and in time disappears altogether, being resolved to its original elements. During this process, it dwells on this particular division of one of the lower subdivisions of the lowest Astral sub-plane. This particular division has no other purpose, and is separate and apart from the other subdivisions.

There is a great difference between the astral shells of different individuals so far as is concerned the duration of the shells in this particular place of disintegration. For instance, the astral of a person of high spirituality and ideals will disintegrate very rapidly indeed, as its atoms have little or no cohesive attraction when once it is discarded. But, on the other hand, the astral shell of a person of earthly ideals and material tendencies will hold

together for a comparatively long time, so strong is the attractive force generated while the shell is occupied by its owner.

Those astral bodies are “dead” and have no consciousness or intelligence, and as a rule cannot even be galvanized into appearing a life as can the class of astral forms known as the “spectres,” or “shades,” which belong to a slightly different category, and which we shall now glance at for a moment. * * * There! gaze on the scene for a moment, before I change the vibrations again. * * *

Our momentary glimpse of the subdivision of the Astral upon which the spectral forms abide, was not a pleasant one, but it is interesting because it explains some peculiar features of psychic or occult phenomena which is often misinterpreted. You noticed that instead of floating about in astral space, as did the shells which we saw a few moments back, these spectres acted like shadowy human beings in a dazed or dreamlike condition. You saw them walking dreamily about, without set object or purpose—a weird, unpleasant sight.

These spectres are really astral shells from which the souls have departed, but which have left in them sufficient power, arising from the former thought vibrations and Will of their owners, to give them a temporary semblance of life and action. This power gradually wears away and the shell then sinks to the subdivision which we saw a little further back. In the meantime it dwells on this particular subdivision.

In the case of the soul with high ideals and spiritual aspirations there are practically no material remaining to “galvanize” the astral body after the soul has withdrawn itself. Its higher nature has neutralized these lower, but strong, vibrations. But in the case of the soul retaining strong material thoughts and desires the power is much stronger. In the latter class, even after the higher nature of the soul has drawn it upward, above the Astral, these lower mental vibrations may persist in the deserted astral form, and thus give to the latter a semblance of life and activity which, though a counterfeit, may manifest considerable power for a time.

The counterfeit power of these spectral forms steadily decreases, but in some cases it persists for a comparatively long time. As a rule, the power disappears in the way stated, but in certain other cases it is used up as a spark is rendered bright by blowing upon it by means of a psychic stimulus from persons  living on the material plane. I am now alluding to the power generated in “circles,” and through mediumistic persons on the material plane or earth life. The psychic power so generated coupled with the strong mental attraction set up between persons in earth life and the spectral form may cause the latter to manifest itself to the former either by more or less complete materialization or by partial manifestation through the physical organism of the medium, or mediums, present.

In such a case, the spectre, reanimated and “galvanized” into seeming life by means of the psychic power of the medium, or those composing the psychic circle, will strive to manifest itself by speech, automatic writing, raps, or otherwise. But, at the best its efforts will be feeble and faulty, and the persons witnessing the phenomena will always remember the same with the dim idea that “there was something wrong about it”—something was found to be lacking. In some cases the vibration of old memories will survive in the spectral form which will enable it to answer questions fairly well and to allude to past experiences. But even then in these cases there will be a shadow of unreality which will impress the careful observer.

Remember, there are many other forms of ‘‘spirit return,” partial or complete, but much that passes for the real phenomena is really but a manifestation of the presence of these spectral forms of whose real nature we have been made acquainted by our glimpse into their region of abode. Moreover, these entities (if they may be called by that name) borrow ideas and impressions from the minds of the mediums or persons in the circle, in addition to their own shadowy memories, and thus doubly become reflections or counterfeits.

These spectres have really no soul. The soul which formerly occupied the form has departed to a higher plane, and is in ignorance of the performance of its discarded shell. It is pathetic to witness cases where these counterfeit spectral form are accepted as the departed soul of the individual by those who loved him in earth life. A lack of knowledge of true occultism often permits of deplorable mistakes of this kind. The true occultist is never deceived in this manner. These spectres are no more “departed souls” or “spirits” than a galvanized physical corpse is the individual which once inhabited it, though the current may cause it to move its muscles and go through the motions of life. It remains a corpse and discarded shell—and that is just what the spectral form is, plus the remaining vibratory echoes of its old mental life.

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Disembodied Souls.