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rumor accuses, perhaps not without some reason, of being "were-wolves," and "mediums in
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cabinets," whose own "Plastic Bodies" play the part of materialized grandmothers and "John
Kings." Otherwise, why the invariable custom of the "dear departed angels" to come out but little
further than arm's length from the medium, whether entranced or not? Mind, I do not at all deny
foreign influences in this kind of phenomena. But I do affirm that foreign interference is rare,
and that the materialized form is always that of the medium's Astral, or Protean body.
M. C. How is this astral body created?
H. P. B. It is not created; it grows, as I told you, with the man and exists in the rudimentary
condition even before the child is born.
M. C. And what about the second?
H. P. B. The second is the "Thought" body, or Dream body, rather; known among Occultists as
the Mayavi-rupa, or "Illusion-body." During life this image is the vehicle both of thought and of
the animal passions and desires, drawing at one and the same time from the lowest terrestrial
manas (mind) and Kama, the element of desire. It is dual in its potentiality, and after death forms
what is called in the East Bhut, or Kama-rupa, but which is better known to Theosophists as the
"Spook."
M. C. And the third?
H. P. B. The third is the true Ego, called in the East by a name meaning "causal-body," but
which in the trans-Himalayan schools is always called the "Karmic body," which is the same.
For Karma, or action, is the cause which produces incessant rebirths or "reincarnations." It is not
the Monad, nor is it Manas proper; but is, in a way, indissolubly connected with and a compound
of the Monad and Manas in Devachan.
M. C. Then there are three doubles?
H. P. B. If you call the Christian and other Trinities "three Gods," then there are three doubles.
But in truth there is only one under three aspects or phases: the most material portion
disappearing with the body; the middle one surviving both as an independent but temporary
entity in the land of shadows; the third, immortal throughout the Manvantara, unless Nirvana
puts an end to it before.
M. C. But shall not we be asked what difference there is between the Mayavi and Kama-rupa, or
as you propose to call them the "Dream body" and the "Spook"?
H. P. B. Most likely, and we shall answer, in addition to what has been said, that the "thought-
power" or aspect of the Mayavi or "Illusion-body," merges after death entirely into the causal
body or the conscious, thinking Ego. The animal elements, or power of desire of the "Dream
body," absorbing after death that which it has collected (through its insatiable desire to live)
during life; i.e., all the astral vitality as well as all the impressions of its material acts and
thoughts while it lived in possession of the body, forms the "Spook" or Kama-rupa. Our
Theosophists know well enough that after death the higher Manas unites with the Monad and
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passes into Devachan, while the dregs of the lower Manas or animal mind go to form this Spook.
This has life in it, but hardly any consciousness, except, as it were, by proxy; when it is drawn
into the current of a medium.
M. C. Is it all that can be said upon the subject?
H. P. B. For the present this is enough metaphysics, I guess. Let us hold to the "Double" in its
earthly phase. What would you know?
M. C. Every country in the world believes more or less in the "double" or doppelganger. The
simplest form of this is the appearance of a man's phantom the moment after his death, or at the
instant of death, to his dearest friend. Is this appearance the mayavi-rupa?
H. P. B. It is; because produced by the thought of the dying man.
M. C. Is it unconscious?
H. P. B. It is unconscious to the extent that the dying man does not generally do it knowingly;
nor is he aware that he so appears. What happens is this. If he thinks very intently at the moment
of death of the person he either is very anxious to see, or loves best, he may appear to that
person. The thought becomes objective; the double, or shadow of a man, being nothing but the
faithful reproduction of him, like a reflection in a mirror: that which the man does, even in
thought, that the double repeats. This is why the phantoms are often seen in such cases in the
clothes they wear at the particular moment, and the image reproduces even the expression on the
dying man's face. If the double of a man bathing were seen it would seem to be immersed in
water; so when a man who has been drowned appears to his friend, the image will be seen to be
dripping with water. The cause for the apparition may also be reversed; i.e., the dying man may
or may not be thinking at all of the particular person his image appears to, but it is that person
who is sensitive. Or perhaps his sympathy or his hatred for the individual whose wraith is thus
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