The Astral Plane | Page 9

and faculties of this higher
condition, which enable him to carry on far more easily and far more
efficiently on that plane during sleep the Theosophical work which
occupies so much of his thought in his waking hours. Whether he will

remember fully and accurately on the physical plane what he has done
or learnt on the other depends largely, as before stated, upon whether
he is able to carry his consciousness without intermission from the one
state to the other.
2. The Psychically-developed Person who is not under the guidance of
a Master. Such a person may or may not be spiritually developed, for
the two forms of advancement do not necessarily go together, and when
a man is born with psychic powers it is simply the result of efforts
made during a previous incarnation, which may have been of the
noblest and most unselfish character, or on the other hand may have
been ignorant and ill-directed or even entirely unworthy. Such an one
will usually be perfectly conscious when out of the body, but for want
of proper training is liable to be greatly deceived as to what he sees. He
will often be able to range through the different subdivisions of the
astral plane almost as fully as persons belonging to the last class; but
sometimes he is especially attracted to some one division and rarely
travels beyond its influences. His recollection of what he has seen may
vary according to the degree of his development through all the stages
from perfect clearness to utter distortion or blank oblivion. He will
appear always in the astral body, since by the hypothesis he does not
know how to form the Mâyâvirûpa.
3. The Ordinary Person--that is, the person without any psychic
development--floating about in his astral body in a more or less
unconscious condition. In deep slumber the higher principles in their
astral vehicle almost invariably withdraw from the body, and hover in
its immediate neighbourhood, practically almost as much asleep as the
latter. In some cases, however, this astral vehicle is less lethargic, and
floats dreamily about on the various astral currents, occasionally
recognizing other people in a similar condition, and meeting with
experiences of all sorts, pleasant and unpleasant, the memory of which,
hopelessly confused and often travestied into a grotesque caricature of
what really happened, will cause the man to think next morning what a
remarkable dream he has had. These extruded astral bodies are almost
shapeless and very indefinite in outline in the case of the more
backward races and individuals, but as the man develops in intellect

and spirituality his floating astral becomes better defined and more
closely resembles his physical encasement. Since the psychical
faculties of mankind are in course of evolution, and individuals are at
all stages of their development, this class naturally melts by
imperceptible gradations into the former one.
4. The Black Magician or his pupil. This class corresponds closely to
the first, except that the development has been for evil instead of good,
and the powers acquired are used for purely selfish purposes instead of
for the benefit of humanity. Among its lower ranks come members of
the negro race who practise the ghastly rites of the Obeah or Voodoo
schools, and the medicine-men of many a savage tribe; while higher in
intellect, and therefore the more blame-worthy, stand the Tibetan black
magicians, who are often, though incorrectly, called by Europeans
Dûgpas--a title properly belonging, as is quite correctly explained by
Surgeon-Major Waddell in his recent work on The Buddhism of Tibet,
only to the Bhotanese subdivision of the great Kargyu sect, which is
part of what may be called the semi-reformed school of Tibetan
Buddhism. The Dûgpas no doubt deal in Tântrik magic to a
considerable extent, but the real red-hatted entirely unreformed sect is
that of the Ñin-mâ-pa, though far beyond them in a still lower depth lie
the Bön-pa--the votaries of the aboriginal religion, who have never
accepted any form of Buddhism at all. It must not, however, be
supposed that all Tibetan sects except the Gelûgpa are necessarily and
altogether evil; a truer view would be that as the rules of other sects
permit considerably greater laxity of life and practice, the proportion of
self-seekers among them is likely to be much larger than among the
stricter reformers. The investigator will occasionally meet on the astral
plane students of occultism from all parts of the world (belonging to
lodges quite unconnected with the Masters of whom Theosophists
know most) who are in many cases most earnest and self-sacrificing
seekers after truth. It is noteworthy, however, that all such lodges are at
least aware of the existence of the great Himalayan Brotherhood, and
acknowledge it as containing among its members the highest Adepts
now known on earth.