The Astral Plane

The Astral Plane, by C. W. Leadbeater

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Title: The Astral Plane Its Scenery, Inhabitants and Phenomena
Author: C. W. Leadbeater
Release Date: April 15, 2007 [EBook #21080]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THEOSOPHICAL MANUALS. No. 5

THE ASTRAL PLANE
ITS SCENERY, INHABITANTS AND
PHENOMENA

C. W. LEADBEATER

London:
Theosophical Publishing Society
7 Duke Street, Adelphi, W.C.
BENARES: THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY,
MADRAS: The Theosophist OFFICE, ADYAR.
1895
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PREFACE.
Few words are needed in sending this little book out into the world. It is the fifth of a series of Manuals designed to meet the public demand for a simple exposition of Theosophical teachings. Some have complained that our literature is at once too abstruse, too technical, and too expensive for the ordinary reader, and it is our hope that the present series may succeed in supplying what is a very real want. Theosophy is not only for the learned; it is for all. Perhaps among those who in these little books catch their first glimpse of its teachings, there may be a few who will be led by them to penetrate more deeply into its philosophy, its science and its religion, facing its abstruser problems with the student's zeal and the neophyte's ardour. But these Manuals are not written for the eager student, whom no initial difficulties can daunt; they are written for the busy men and women of the work-a-day world, and seek to make plain some of the great truths that render life easier to bear and death easier to face. Written by servants of the Masters who are the Elder Brothers of our race, they can have no other object than to serve our fellow-men.
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CONTENTS.
Introduction.
Scenery.--The Seven Subdivisions--Degrees of Materiality--Characteristics of Astral Vision--The Aura--The Etheric Double--Power of Magnifying Minute Objects--The "Summerland"--Records of the Astral Light.
Inhabitants.--I. Human. (1) Living:--The Adept or Chela in Mayavir?pa--The Psychically Developed Person--The Ordinary Person in Astral Body--The Black Magician. (2) Dead:--The Nirmanakaya--The Chela awaiting Reincarnation--The Ordinary Person after Death--The Shade--The Shell--The Vitalized Shell--The Suicide--The Victim of Sudden Death--The Vampire--The Werewolf--The Black Magician after Death. II. Non-human:--The Elemental Essence--The Kamar?pas of Animals--Various Classes of Nature-Spirits, commonly called Fairies--Kamadevas--R?padevas--Ar?padevas--The Devarajahs. III. Artificial:--Elementals formed Unconsciously--Guardian Angels--Elementals formed Consciously--Human Artificials--The True Origin of Spiritualism.
Phenomena.--Churchyard Ghosts.--Apparitions of the Dying--Haunted Localities--Family Ghosts--Bell-ringing, Stone-throwing, etc.--Fairies--Communicating Entities--Astral Resources--Clairvoyance--Prevision--Second-Sight--Astral Forces--Etheric Currents--Etheric Pressure--Latent Energy--Sympathetic Vibration--Mantras--Disintegration--Materialization--Why Darkness is required at a S��ance--Spirit Photographs--Reduplication--Precipitation of Letters and Pictures--Slate-writing--Levitation--Spirit Lights--Handling Fire--Transmutation--Repercussion.
Conclusion.
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THE ASTRAL PLANE.
INTRODUCTION
Reference to the astral plane, or Kamaloka as it is called in Sanskrit, has frequently been made by Theosophical writers, and a good deal of information on the subject of this realm of nature is to be found scattered here and there in our books; but there is not, so far as I am aware, any single volume to which one can turn for a complete summary of the facts at present known to us about this interesting region. The object of this manual is to collect and make some attempt to arrange this scattered information, and also to supplement it slightly in cases where new facts have come to our knowledge. It must be understood that any such additions are only the result of the investigations of a few explorers, and must not, therefore, be taken as in any way authoritative, but are given simply for what they are worth. On the other hand every precaution in our power has been taken to ensure accuracy, no fact, old or new, being admitted to this manual unless it has been confirmed by the testimony of at least two independent trained investigators among ourselves, and has also been passed as correct by older students whose knowledge on these points is necessarily much greater than ours. It is hoped, therefore, that this account of the astral plane, though it cannot be considered as quite complete, may yet be found reliable as far as it goes.
The first point which it is necessary to make clear in describing this astral plane is its absolute reality. Of course in using that word I am not speaking from that metaphysical standpoint from which all but the One Unmanifested is unreal because impermanent; I am using the word in its plain, every-day sense, and I mean by it that the objects and inhabitants of the astral plane are real in exactly the same way as our own bodies, our furniture, our houses or monuments are real--as real as Charing Cross,