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They too construct for themselves quasi-material surroundings—libraries and laboratories in which they provide themselves with a semi-material expression of the new ideas engendered within their consciousness by the free exercises of their astral senses, and they are not by any means unfamiliar with the current progress of incarnate human thinking, nor indeed unprovided with the astral counterparts of new books and new instruments of research. The intensity of their intellectual life operates to fill up their existence THE ASTRAL PLANE. 195 in a way which they find highly agreeable, but at the same time it has a tendency to retard, to an even greater degree than the pettier avocations of the lower astral sub-divisions, the progress which they might otherwise make towards loftier conditions of existence. Thus we must avoid the impression that regular progress through these various sub-divisions of the astral world up to the highest, is necessarily the pro- gramme reserved for all who pass on from the ordinary physical, to the life in the next world. Already we have seen that all people of decent character slip uncon- sciously through the lower levels and only awaken to consciousness on those with which they have some natural affinity. And from any of the intermediate regions it is possible that eventually any of their denizens may pass directly to truly spiritual levels transcending all sub-divisions of the astral world, without ever coming in contact with the sub-divisions described above as the sixth and seventh. But in truth this comparatively cold and scientific survey of the whole subject still leaves out of account a great deal that has to be appreciated in order to understand the part that the astral plane plays in human evolution, and in order to realise the enormously important aspect which it must wear for the great majority of our companions in life at this stage of evolution. Its importance has to some extent been ignored in earlier theosophical writings because their main purpose was to illuminate the world with a know- ledge of the great truth that paths of evolutionary 196 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL. progress lie open’to mankind with which the normal routine of evolution, so to speak, is not concerned. But the normal routine must, by the necessities of the case, be profoundly interesting to the normal majority and at all events theosophical research enables us to comprehend this with much more satisfactory precision than any previous scheme of theological teaching has provided for. Indeed so hopelessly obscure does the mist which enshrouds the future seem for most of those whose thought has been inspired by nothing better than conventional teaching, that immense relief would be afforded to multitudes still doubtful concerning the fate that awaits them beyond the grave if only, without knowing more of the brighter spiritual possibilities beyond, they were enabled to realise that which for many of us is a familiar territory, the next world in which they will infallibly awaken when the death they dread so needlessly shall overtake them. Many of those with whom occult students are enabled to come into contact after the great change has been accomplished, describe with enthusiasm the delighted surprise with which, when they realise that they are ‘“‘ dead ’”’ in the ordinary acceptation of the word, they find themselves still living and more intensely alive than ever. Apart altogether from the regrettable fact that ordinary mankind at present knows nothing concerning the loftier possibilities of its future spiritual progress, it is grotesquely ridiculous that knowledge really within its reach concerning that which to a circumscribed imagination is all-important,—the condition immediately awaiting the soul after the death of the body,— THE ASTRAL PLANE. 197 should be supposed a mystery beyond the reach of our research. In order to give life to the picture, I will deal with two or three illustrative cases that have come within my own knowledge, showing various aspects of astral plane experience differing from each other not according to any cold scientific classification but representing thrilling experiences of very different kinds, all befalling persons belonging to what we may call ordinary humanity, and thus untouched by the peculiar influ- ences which occult study during life,—had that been their portion,—would have gathered around their course. In one case we have to deal with the experi- ences of a man who passed from the earth plane in middle life with a terrible record of thoroughly mis- spent years behind him; saturated in fact, with the karma of selfishness in all its forms, and of reckless indifference to the suffering he had thus brought upon others. His earlier experiences of the next world for a period equivalent to many years of our time, were intensely miserable. On all but the very lowest levels of astral condition he wandered in gloom and loneliness, and he very gradually learned from the teaching of beings wiser than himself carrying on works of philan- thropy in that forlorn region, the lesson he had so completely ignored during life,—the great principle that only by contributing in some degree to the divine purpose of evolution, by rendering some sort of helpful service to others, is it possible for any human soul to accomplish its own advancement. Stimulated by one pure streak of emotion in his life, genuine love for a 198 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL. woman left behind on earth, the hero of this instructive narrative eventually contrives to work his way onward and on the intermediate planes of astral existence achieves eventually a condition of happiness which to him, in contrast with what he has gone through, seems fairly celestial. Another case which has perhaps more personal interest for most of those of our own race and time endeavouring to forecast the conditions of their owu future, introduces us to the after death experiences of a man of high culture, of ordinarily good life, who, awakening to astral consciousness on one of the inter- mediate planes, soon finds his natural habitat on the 6th (without of course realising the numerical relation- ship of that plane to the others) and describes himself as exhilarated beyond measure when first realising that he had actually passed through that change he had in life regarded with such deep foreboding, and instead of suffering the extinction he had anticipated was in the enjoyment of a brighter and fuller life than any he had previously dreamt of. It was difficult for him to believe at first that the new consciousness was real. He told himself that he was dreaming and would awake to the old life. But it was only by the assurance of friends and relatives he had long supposed to be lost, and who now welcomed him in the region he had reached, that at last he was enabled to comprehend the glorious truth of survival. From him, as indeed from others in similar positions, we gather much inter- esting detail concerning the better kind of astral experi- ence which occult investigation in its broader range THE ASTRAL PLANE. 199 may often fail to supply. The life which our friend is now leading is one of continued mental activity untroubled by fatigue, broken by no intermission of day and night, einbarrassed by none of the ever recurring needs of physical existence, and rich in opportunities for intelligent activity as well as for study concerning infinite possibilities beyond. Such narratives as he supplies would be reductive of incalculable good in the world if the dull stupidity around us did not rule off the majority from appreciat- ing their importance. For incidentally they show by what kind of preparatory life here, happy conditions hereafter are provided for. That such happy condi- tions are not always provided for even by lives that seem blameless on the surface, is illustrated by another case coming within the range of my enquiries, which illustrates yet another of the varied possibilities associ- ated with existence in the next world. In this case, a girl of the upper class. the only and idolised child of wealthy parents, the happy wife for a few years of an adoring husband, passes while still quite young into the next life and is of course vaguely supposed by her mourning devotees on earth to have inherited all the richest blessings that heaven could bestow. Nearly a score of years after her death she finds means of communicating back with a friend endowed with the necessary psychic gifts and tells her somewhat pitiful story. The years had passed under conditions very unlike those she had been credited with enjoying. The blamelessness of her life, in fact, had been due merely to the absolute absence of temptation in any 200 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL. form. Her character below the surface was in reality altogether selfish and undeveloped. For a long period of time her nature was incapable of association with any of the higher conditions of astral life, and thus she was entangled in the very deplorable existence of its lower levels. Again by slow degrees, experience and the teaching of those who came to her aid enabled her by toilsome efforts to win her upward way, and thus her story introduces us to the conception that in some cases the astral plane may actually be a region of moral effort, purification, and progress, to an extent which seems at the first glance to conflict with the broad teachings of occult philosophy that used to recognise the physical life alone as the school of spiritual growth. The conditions, whether astral or devachanic, inter- vening between incarnations were regarded rather as intervals of rest or refreshment than as periods appointed for further activity and struggle.