Astral Substance

By Jeroen van Valkenburg - Gallery of Jeroen van Valkenburg - Gods gallery - The Astral Sleep, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2146214

PHYSICAL science has now moved to a position where it fully endorses the dictum of the old alchemists that all existence is composed of the “first matter.” Mass and energy are convertible, each into the other. To quote from The Evolution of Physics (1938), by Albert Einstein and Leopold Infeld: “Mass is energy and energy has mass. The two conservation laws of mass and energy are combined by the relativity theory into one, the conservation law of mass-energy.” The conversion of matter into energy provides a tremendous force which, as so-called atomic energy, may in the future be used to destroy much of mankind, or harnessed by industry may provide many necessities and luxuries of a new and higher civilization.

In addition to matter, which is one aspect of energy, physics also must deal with field. There are, for instance, the gravitational field between material particles, and electric fields and magnetic fields. To quote further from The Evolution of Physics:

“Field represents energy, matter represents mass. . . . We could therefore say: Matter is where the concentration of energy is great, field where the concentration of energy is small. But if this is the case, then the difference between matter and field is a quantitative rather than a qualitative one. There is no sense in regarding matter and field as two qualities quite different from each other. We cannot imagine a definite surface separating distinctly field and matter.

“What impresses our senses as matter is really a great concentration of energy into comparatively small space.” The energy thus concentrated has the properties of positive and negative charges of electricity. The positive electric charge, or particle, having a mass equal to that of the electron, and a charge of the same magnitude but differing in sign, is called a positron. The negative electric charge, or particle, having a mass equal to that of the positron, and a charge of the same magnitude but differing in sign, is called an electron. These two electrical particles are the bricks from which all matter is built.

A positron and an electron when united have weight, but are electrically neutral. The prevalent theory at the present time is that the nucleus of an atom contains heavy neutral pieces of matter, formed by the union of positrons and electrons held together by the interaction of the attraction between the negative electrons and the positive positrons—about 1848 units of weight—tied up closely with a positron whose weight is one unit and whose electrical charge is plus one. Such a combination of positive and negative charges constitute a proton. All atoms of matter have at their core one or more protons.

In 1932, Chadwick discovered that in addition to protons at the nucleus of an atom, there may be other particles built up of positrons and electrons much as are the protons, but containing an additional electron, so that they are electrically neutral and weigh 1849 units. These are neutrons, which because they bear no electrical charge, when they are used to bombard other atoms easily penetrate to their nuclei. Atoms having the same number of free electrons, and thus the same chemical properties, may have in their nuclei a different number of neutrons, and thus a different atomic mass. Such atomic twins are called isotopes.

The positive charge on the proton of an atom is balanced by the negative charge on an electron which revolves in an elliptical orbit around the nucleus of which the proton forms a part. Each atom has an equal number of protons and free revolving electrons, and thus is electrically neutral.

The electrons that revolve around the nucleus of an atom—which contains protons and may contain neutrons—much as the planets revolve around the sun, are arranged in zones. There are not more than two electrons revolving in the zone next to the nucleus, not more than eight in the second zone, and not more than eight in the third zone. Zones farther out may have more than eight electrons. It is the arrangement of these revolving electrons which determines the chemical properties of an atom.

Although two of the chemical elements had not been isolated until 1947, the atomic table listed 92 different elements. Hydrogen, the lightest element, and number 1 in the table, has one free electron revolving in an orbit about its nucleus. The next heaviest element, helium, has two free electrons revolving around its nucleus; lithium, the third heaviest has three; beryllium, the fourth heaviest element has four, and uranium, the heaviest element found in a natural state, with an atomic weight of 238.5, has 92 electrons revolving in its outer region. The synthetically produced neptunium has 93, the synthetically produced plutonium has 94, the synthetically produced americuim has 95, and the synthetically produced curium has 96.

By bombarding ordinary uranium with neutrons it is possible to produce neptunium and plutonium. Plutonium and the uranium isotope U235 have a tendency to fission. Bombarding ordinary uranium (U238) gives the uranium isotope U239 plus energy. This isotope is radioactive, and one-half the quantity thus obtained will change into neptunium in 23 minutes. Neptunium is also radioactive, and one half of it will then change into plutonium in 2.3 days. In the fission of either uranium 235 or plutonium, a chain reaction results through the release of other neutrons which bombard other nuclei. Once the process is started, it continues until the whole mass is broken down into other elements. The sum of the separate weights of the resulting particles is different than the weight of the parent particle. This means that matter is converted into energy. In the explosion of U235 or plutonium, only one-tenth of one percent of matter is thus converted into what is commonly called atomic energy. The problem at this writing is to find a method of controlling the fission of plutonium, so its energy may be released slowly and provide power for the wheels of industry.

In addition to field, where energy concentration is so great that it is commonly called matter, science has observed that energy moves across vast regions of space and exerts an influence. Just how the sun holds the earth in its orbit, and with the moon influences the tides, has so far not been explained. The law of gravitation discovered by Newton states that any particle of matter attracts any other particle with a force proportional inversely to the square of the distance between them, and directly to the product of their masses. But the process by which one particle thus reaches out across space, or through some material obstacle, to attract the other particle is as yet unknown.

Not only do the sun, planets and stars reach across empty space to influence the earth and other orbs through gravitational pull, but they radiate light and radiant heat and other forms of electromagnetism which in some manner traverse vast space. How does the sun reach across 93 million empty miles to light our days? How does its warmth traverse 93 million miles to keep earth’s temperature genial enough to encourage vegetable and animal growth?

To account for these and other electromagnetic phenomena science invented the ether. The ether was frictionless, it penetrated everything. It sheared into positive and negative electrical particles. It carried, by means of its waves, radiant heat, light, radio waves, and other electromagnetic energy across space, and in the case of radio waves through the walls of your home where they are picked up and the modulations they carry are amplified by your radio set to give you information and enjoyment.

The tendency of advanced physics now is to forget the ether and try to explain all phenomena, including matter, gravitation and electromagnetic waves in terms of field. All are supposed to be characteristic distortions of space. Space takes the place of the ether. However, this new conception still holds unsolved problems. To quote once more from The Evolution of Physics:

“The theory of relativity stresses the importance of the field concept in physics. But we have not yet succeeded in formulating a pure field physics. For the present we must still assume the existence of both: field and matter.”

It is not unlikely that in due course of time radio waves will be commonly mentioned as distortions of space. But in common parlance radio programs come over the ether.

Not only so, but recent text books on physics still refer to the ether. The most recent such text book to which I have access is Simplified Physics, by Sidney Aylmer Small and Charles Ramsey Clark, published in 1943. It gives the prevailing present view:

“When things take place in presumably empty space we must assume that empty space is not empty, that a vacuum has something in it. To this material that our senses cannot detect but that our intellects demand in order that we may think about light and wireless we give the name of the ether or simply ether.

“The ether, then, is something pervading all materials and space, even that space which to our senses seems empty. It transmits heat, light, chemical energy and wireless waves. It when stressed or strained produces magnetism and when sheared (sliced) forms positive and negative charges of electricity.”

Because electromagnetism transmits energy from the outer plane to the inner plane, and from the inner plane to the outer plane, the ether will repeatedly be referred to throughout Brotherhood of Light lessons. It would be awkward each time to speak instead of distortions of space, and confusing to most readers who are unfamiliar with relativity and the field theory. But the reader who is familiar with relativity and the field theory can substitute certain warpings of space when etheric energy is mentioned, and different warpings of space when astral substance is mentioned. And his conceptions will probably be more precise. But for most it is easier to think of matter, not as space distorted in one way, radio waves as space distorted in another way, and the mental image of a cow as space distorted in still another manner. It is much easier for the ordinary individual to think of any existence in terms of substance.

Even the relativists and those most enthusiastic about the field theory of existence still sanction the use of the word ether as it will be employed in Brotherhood of Light lessons. To quote once again from The Evolution of Physics:

“Our only way out seems to be to take for granted the fact that space has the physical property of transmitting electromagnetic waves, and not to bother too much about the meaning of this statement. We may still use the word ether, but only to express some physical property of space. The word ether has changed its meanings many times in the development of science. At the moment it no longer stands for a medium built up of particles. Its story, by no means finished, is continued by the relativity theory.”

The most essential difference between that which is commonly referred to as etheric energy and physical energy is its velocity. Things having low velocities have the properties of physical things. But as velocities increase these properties undergo marked change. As velocities increase, time slows down, the length of an object decreases in the direction of its movement, and its mass increases. These results postulated by the Special Theory of Relativity have been tested experimentally and are now universally accepted by those highest in the ranks of physical science.

At the velocity of light an object or an energy acquires some remarkable properties. Commonly, for instance, the walls of our homes keep objects out; but radio waves having their origin a thousand miles away have no difficulty in coming into the room in which we sit. In empty space they have the velocity of light, 186,284 miles per second (1942).

But there is another group of commonly observed phenomena which cannot be explained either by the properties of physical substance or by the properties of electromagnetic energies. Scientists term these the psi phenomena. Psi phenomena embrace all the phenomena covered by the terms extrasensory perception and all the phenomena covered by the term psychokinetic effect.

Extrasensory perception embraces all means of acquiring information in which the physical senses or reason are not involved, such as clairvoyance, clairaudience, telepathy, precognition and postcognition. The psychokinetic effect, or psychokinesis, embraces those phenomena in which physical things are moved or influenced without any physical or electromagnetic contact with them. The influencing of mechanically released dice to come to rest with the faces up which had been decided upon, which is the test commonly used in university experiments to prove the existence of this phenomenon, and the influence of planetary energies over human life and other life are examples of psychokinesis. All psi phenomena are due to inner-plane energies.

It was the Special Theory of Relativity, followed to its practical and logical conclusions which led to the discovery of releasing and utilizing atomic energy. And it is this same Special Theory of Relativity followed to its practical and logical conclusions which indicates both how inner-plane energies operate and what can be done to cause them to work more to the individual’s advantage.

This theory postulates that at the velocity of light an object loses all its length, time stands still, and gravitation loses its power. Therefore, on the inner plane where velocity is greater than light, time, distance and gravitation are of a quite different order than they are on the physical plane. And innumerable experiments carried out in various universities prove that this is actually the case.

By 1947, Duke University Laboratory alone had conducted over one million trials of extrasensory perception; other university laboratories, following similar methods had reported over two million trials, and there were something over a million trials, with responses from over 46,000 subjects made by the Zenith radio program in the winter of 1937-38.

These experiments indicate that, as the Special Theory of Relativity carried to its logical conclusion indicates, on the inner plane where velocities are greater than that of light, not only the Now can be perceived, but consciousness can move either forward or backward along world lines. Moving backward, it can perceive happenings of the past. Moving forward it can perceive happenings of the future.

One of the serious difficulties now confronting university experimenters is to devise methods by which precognitive clairvoyance can be separated from pure telepathy. It is recognized that perceiving things as they will exist in the future is relatively common. Therefore, if a record is made of the sender’s thought at the time the subject makes his call, there is no proof that the information was not obtained through clairvoyantly seeing this record, rather than through telepathy. And if any objective record is ever made of the sender’s thought after it is sent, there is no proof that the information was not obtained through perceiving this record as it will exist in the future.

The university experiments indicate also, as the Special Theory of Relativity carried to its logical conclusion indicates, that distance has no effect upon inner-plane perception. Both clairvoyance and telepathy experiments indicate that, other things being equal, it is as easy to get a telepathic message, or to witness an event clairvoyantly, when the distance is a hundred miles or a thousand miles, as when the distance is only that separating two rooms in the same building.

Furthermore, as the Special Theory of Relativity carried to its logical conclusion indicates, on the inner plane where velocities are greater than that of light, gravitation loses its influence on things. Along with the experiments on extrasensory perception, various universities have been conducting experiments also with the psychokinetic effect. And they have proved by exhaustive experiments that the mind, operating through space, can influence physical objects, such as the fall of mechanically released dice, in a predetermined way.

The mind and thoughts of the individual exerting this influence are not physical. They belong to the inner, or astral, plane. If one thinks of a cloud or of a star, no effort need be made to overcome the influence of gravitation on the thoughts. Nor does it take longer to think of a star which is light years away than to think of a cloud a few hundred feet above the earth. Yet mind and thought have an existence, and possess energy, or they could not influence physical objects, such as the fall of dice in the psychokinetic tests.

Although the field conception of electromagnetic energies is making the old conceptions of the ether obsolete, it is convenient to refer to ether waves in connection with both light and radio. And if the field conception could be carried far enough, it would probably reveal that mental images, astrological energies, disembodied human beings, and the high velocity counterparts of all physical things, are other elastic distortions of space. But because people are familiar with substance, and are not familiar with elastic distortions of space, they will be able to grasp the function of electromagnetism better if they think of it as lines of force or waves in etheric substance. And they will be better able to grasp the functions and the properties of the inner plane, where velocities are greater than light, if they think of that region as being composed of astral substance, which is frictionless and which penetrates and moves freely through physical and etheric substances.

This brings us to an extremely important fact confirmed by ample observation. For an inner-plane energy to influence a physical object, or for a physical energy to influence inner-plane conditions, electromagnetic energies—which have approximately the velocity of light—must be present to transmit the energies of one plane to the other. Such electromagnetic energies are generated by every cell of the body, especially by the nerve and brain cells, and constitute both the nerve currents and the life of the human form. All psychic phenomena in which there are physical manifestations are produced through the utilization of electromagnetic energies by an intelligence operating from the inner plane.

Even the most orthodox psychology now embraces the idea that man has a subconscious, or unconscious mind. This unconscious mind, which exists and functions on the inner plane, is composed of the thoughts, emotions and other states of consciousness which the individual has experienced in his past. These thoughts, energized by emotion, have been organized in the unconscious mind according to the Law of Association. And, as modern psychiatry and psychoanalysis demonstrate, at all times they exercise a powerful influence over the conscious thoughts, emotions and behavior.

Not only do the desires of the thought cells and thought-cell groups of the unconscious mind largely determine the individual’s thoughts, emotions and actions, but they also exert psychokinetic power to mold his physical environment to bring into his life the conditions and events they desire. The events and conditions some of these thought-cell groups desire are beneficial to the individual, but unfortunately the desires of other thought-cell groups are for conditions and events which are detrimental to the individual.

So long as the individual is unaware of the desires of the various thought-cell groups within his unconscious mind his power to direct his own destiny is sadly limited. Even though he has a brilliant intellect and exercises excellent reasoning power, the desires of certain groups of thought cells within his unconscious mind, exercising psychokinetic power may, and often do, attract into his life misfortune. Some of the thought-cell groups may have been so organized in his unconscious mind that they work for, and bring him unusual good fortune where business, or honor or speculation is concerned, and other thought-cell groups may have been so organized that they work for, and bring him miserable health, unhappiness in marriage, and repeated difficulty with his friends.

All Physical Things Have an Astral Counterpart

Even as all physical objects possess mass, so also do they have an astral, or inner-plane counterpart. As material scientists are not agreed on the structure of matter, it would be presumptuous to go further and describe in detail that of which things on the inner, or astral, plane are composed. It is simpler merely to state they are composed of astral substance, and to state the observed properties of this substance.

While all physical things have an astral counterpart, there are innumerable objects, energies and intelligences on the astral plane which have no physical counterpart. So long as the astral counterpart of any object is bound to it by etheric, or electromagnetic energies there is an exchange of energies between the physical counterpart and the astral counterpart. The energies, having approximately the velocity of light, make contact with the low velocities of physical substance and also make contact with the high velocities of astral substance. Through them the physical object transmits energy to, and influences, its astral counterpart, and the astral object transmits energy to, and influences, its physical counterpart.

While the physical also tends to shape the astral counterpart, the most significant relation which commonly exists between physical substance and its astral counterpart is that the astral interpenetrates and has a molding power over the physical.

This astral counterpart also records and retains in its frictionless substance every experience of a life form. The most outstanding characteristic of astral substance is its responsiveness to the molding power of thought. All life forms react to environment through an awareness which is recorded in their astral forms. And this record of experiences not only persists and continues to influence the destiny of the life form, but the strongest such recorded energies impress the astral counterpart of the germ cells, and through this association hand down to subsequent generations racial memories which express as instinct and racial habits and racial physical characteristics.

The astral counterpart exerts a formative influence over all life. It seems quite certain, for instance, that the force which causes a seed to grow into an organism of a certain form and with certain functions does not lie merely in its chemical properties. Nor does it appear to lie in any particular arrangement of its cells; for two vegetable seeds of the same size and apparently of the same chemical and molecular composition, when planted in the same soil may produce plants whose forms and properties are totally dissimilar. Likewise there is very little observable difference in the chemical composition and molecular structure of sperms and germs that generate animals of entirely different species. Though as yet beyond the view of physical science, this formative power that molds every living thing to its proper shape and structure must lie somewhere.

It is now commonly recognized by psychologists that all memory resides in the subconscious, or unconscious mind. This means that memory is recorded in astral substance, and to be recalled by physical consciousness it must utilize electromagnetic energies to impress the physical cells of the brain.

Every theory based upon a material foundation that has so far been advanced to account for memory has been found inadequate. But if we consider that accompanying and interpenetrating the physical brain is another brain of finer substance, an astral brain, the whole mechanism becomes explainable.

Anything Once Known is Never Forgotten

We know something of the way physical sensations are transmitted to the physical brain, namely, by nerve currents that follow the nerves much as electricity follows a wire. These nerve currents actually are electrical in nature and communicate movements to the brain that result in setting up a state of consciousness. But such motions in time die away; yet memory shows that in some manner they are preserved. What preserves them, and how? The sensations thus recorded on the physical brain may be entirely forgotten for years—showing that the motions in the physical brain have ceased—and then be suddenly recalled. How does this happen? Or sensations may be completely forgotten by the objective consciousness, and entirely beyond recall by any objective process, yet be recovered when the person is in a state of hypnotic trance.

It is by experiments with subjects under such hypnotic influence that we know nothing felt or known is ever forgotten. What substance is fine and strong enough to preserve the most delicate impressions for an indefinite period? Scarcely the nerve currents, which are constantly changing, rippling along the fine wires of the nerves and hurrying one sensation on top of another as a telephone wire carries the sound of voices. The telephone does not remember; the phonograph, in a way, does. Connect the telephone to a phonographic blank disc and the impressions made are comparatively permanent. What is the phonographic disc attached to the human brain? It is evident that the motions transmitted through the nerves to the brain are retained permanently in some substance which is capable under proper conditions of again imparting them to the brain in something closely resembling their original form and intensity. Whatever this substance may be, it certainly is something not subject to physical or chemical change.

But if we consider that accompanying and interpenetrating the physical brain is an astral brain, composed of frictionless substance with the property of permanently recording impressions, the matter is cleared up. As every motion imparted to astral substance is retained indefinitely, every sensation which imparts motion to the astral brain is registered in a comparatively ineffaceable manner. It is not retained by the physical brain, because the physical substance is constantly removed and replenished, and any movement in its parts is retarded by friction, even its molecular motion, which expresses as heat, being subject to retardation through cooling. But even as space offers imperceptible resistance to rays of light, or to the planetary bodies passing through it, so astral substance retains permanently, or practically so, all motions imparted to it. Under proper conditions these motions residing in the astral brain can be focused on the electromagnetism of the physical brain and impart motions to it in such a manner that it is recognized objectively; and the resultant consciousness is then called memory.

The astral brain in which memory resides is commonly called the Subjective Mind, the Subliminal Mind, the Subconscious Mind, or the Unconscious Mind. The better and more recent works on psychology call it the Unconscious Mind. It is constituted of those motions derived from experience that reside—organized in a manner later to be explained—in the astral form and do not at the time transmit their motions to the physical brain, remaining below the threshold of objective consciousness; while the Objective Mind, on the other hand, is constituted of those motions derived from experiences that reside in the astral form which at the time are able to communicate their energies to electromagnetism in sufficient power to transmit their motions to the physical brain and thus impress Objective Consciousness.

As an iceberg largely remains submerged below the surface of the sea, so man has one mind, or soul, but the major portion of it, the unconscious mind, remains below the surface of objective consciousness. It is only that small, keen, bright clever reasoning peak of his mind, or soul, which emerges above the surface of objective consciousness which is designated as the objective mind.

Psychologists recognize that comparatively few of the actions of man or of other forms of life result from the direction of the objective mind. Many of the physiological processes, for instance, such as assimilation, secretion and circulation, are carried on during sleep. They are wholly directed by the unconscious mind. And the unconscious mind in turn is influenced about equally by the physical environment and the astral environment.

Humans Are About Equally Influenced by Two Environments

Man has a physical body, and he has an astral body. The physical body, and through its nerve currents, which are electrical in nature, his mind, or soul, which resides on the inner plane—the small emergent part being the Objective Mind and the submerged part the Unconscious Mind—are influenced by his outer-plane environment. His astral body and his mind, or soul, are influenced by his inner-plane environment; and the thought cells so affected in turn influence his physical body. Thus does man live in, and is influenced by, both an outer-plane world and an inner-plane world.

From the outer world he is influenced by the objects and people he contacts, by what people say—either vocally or through screen portrayal or the printed page—and by the weather. Objects and people also influence him from the inner plane, but instead of through physical contact chiefly through their character vibrations. From the inner plane he is also influenced, not by what people say, but by their thoughts and the thoughts of other life forms. From the inner plane he is also influenced by the weather; but this weather is not physical, it is the impact of astrological energies.

As to the degree in which man while still on earth is influenced by each of his two environments, there has been a vast amount of observation, carefully checked, which indicates that if we consider man to consist of his physical body, his astral body, his mind, or soul, and the thoughts he thinks, the inner-plane environment—which includes objects, the actions and thoughts of intelligent entities, and astrological energies—has as much influence over his thoughts, feelings and behavior as do all outer-plane conditions and energies, including the influence of his associates.

This being true, it behooves people to gain as much knowledge as possible about their inner-plane environment in addition to knowledge of the outer-plane environment. While they usually think of it in different terms, almost everyone realizes that his survival depends upon his ability to adapt himself to his environment, and that the more perfectly he adapts himself to his environment the more successful he becomes. His ability to adapt himself to his environment depends upon his knowledge of himself and that environment and the extent to which he makes application of that knowledge. Consequently, the individual ignorant of the astral world and its energies can live only half as successfully as if he understood and used knowledge of both planes.

Inner-Plane Senses

Relative to physical sensations, biologists hold that at first there was only one diffused primal sensitivity or irritability in response to stimulus. It is assumed that this diffused primal sensitivity was the sense of touch. In ameboid life, for instance, it is assumed that there is only the world of tangible objects accessible through actual physical contact which is apprehended through the sense of touch and possibly a rudimentary sense of temperature. Then as evolution took place, through a vast amount of trial and error, the other senses slowly and gradually developed from this sense of touch. Taste is one specialization of this sense of touch. Smell is the sense of touch developed in a slightly different direction so that things can be touched a bit more remotely. Another canalization of this sense of touch is the ability to apprehend and interpret vibrations of air by the faculty of hearing.

It is common also to include the sense of sight as one of the five physical senses. It is the ability to sense and interpret waves of energy called light. But as light is not material, strictly speaking the ability to reach out, not merely feet or miles as with the sense of hearing, but also across light years of empty space, as we do with sight, is hardly physical unless we interpret all common perception as physical. In that case, because animals commonly apprehend conditions through intuition, and telepathy is a common means of communication among them, we are justified in adopting the classification of the ancients and considering all seven as physical senses.

As already mentioned, university experiments have proved the existence also of an inner-plane faculty of apprehending information. It is called the faculty of extrasensory perception. It embraces all inner-plane means of gaining information. And undoubtedly animals other than man possess this faculty in some degree.

But even as the diffused primal sense of touch became canalized and specialized, so extrasensory perception by which the unconscious mind of creatures apprehends things on the inner plane, through exercise and effort at discrimination becomes specialized and more serviceable. We may assume that this sensitivity to inner-plane entities and their vibrations, to the thoughts of intelligent entities, and to astrological energies is universal in some degree with life forms. But ability in selection and interpretation of inner-plane conditions by this universal sense varies widely.

An artist may take his dog to an art gallery. If it happens to be a greyhound, it has keener sight than its master. The dog can see all the pictures in the gallery as easily as can the artist. But the effect upon his consciousness is vastly different. The dog simply sees flat surfaces daubed with color. If a bone is pictured, he pays no attention to it. He has neither the power to select a picture which conveys information or emotional appeal, nor the power to give it interpretation.

Nor is it because they cannot look about them on the inner plane with the senses of the astral form that people fail to gain more information through extrasensory perception. In some degree at least all people have the faculty of extrasensory perception. But more often than not they cannot focus the attention of their unconscious mind on the information sought, and even when they do, they often are unable to interpret it correctly. And in addition—the most formidable barrier of all—when their unconscious mind perceives something important correctly, it is unable to compete with cerebral activity and sense impressions which monopolize the electrical energies of the brain and nervous system which must be used to impress a thought or sensation on the brain and thus bring it into objective consciousness.

Even as on the physical plane the general sense of touch has been specialized into different types of perception, so also on the inner plane the general extrasensory faculty has been specialized. Corresponding to touch is the astral sense of psychometry. Corresponding to taste is the astral sense of energy absorption. Corresponding to smell is the astral sense of aroma detection. Corresponding to hearing is the astral sense of clairaudience. Corresponding to sight is the astral sense of clairvoyance. Corresponding to intuition is the astral faculty of inspiration. Corresponding to telepathy is the astral faculty of spiritual communion.

On the inner plane all things and thoughts in the universe seem to be related to each other in precisely the same manner that all experiences and thoughts which the individual has ever had persist and are related to each other in his own unconscious mind. And for the individual to contact those he desires to contact with the appropriate astral sense and bring them before the attention of objective consciousness the same laws are operative and must be used that enable him to contact and bring to the attention of objective consciousness the memory of thoughts and experiences he has forgotten.

In Course V, Esoteric Psychology, it is pointed out that all mental processes are governed by the LAW OF ASSOCIATION. Among the most powerful associations by Resemblance is that of identical or similar resonance. This is the key to making contact with things or thoughts, past, present or future, on the inner plane; for there thoughts and things having the same vibration are together. Distance on the inner plane is of a different order than in the physical world; there it is measured by disparity in vibratory rates.

On the physical plane the visibility of things and the audibility of sounds diminish with distance, and thus the number of objects it is possible to see or the number of sounds that can be heard is narrowly limited. But virtually all experimenters in ESP are agreed that distance has no effect on extrasensory perception. That which is on the other side of the earth is as easily seen as that which is in the same room, and the thought of a person on the other side of the earth is as easily apprehended as the thought of a person in the same room. If the pronouncements of university scientists who have experimented exhaustively with extrasensory perception are to be taken seriously, nothing in the universe is beyond the range of extrasensory perception, and thus the number of things which it is possible to see clairvoyantly is infinite.

Furthermore, on the inner plane time is of a different order, and consciousness can direct its attention either forward or backward and by means of the appropriate astral sense perceive objects, life forms and thoughts as they existed in the past or as they will exist in the future.

These are the potentialities of the astral senses; potentialities meagerly employed as yet by man on earth. But for that matter man has only recently begun to utilize the potentialities of his own outer-plane senses and reason. Potentially they make accessible incalculable knowledge of physics, chemistry and electricity; yet it is only in late years we have used them to acquire that knowledge on which is founded modern science and industry.

Most people, however, at some time in their lives, have observed authentic instances of the operation of one of the astral senses. Spontaneous information has come to them, or to one of their acquaintances, in a manner that precludes its acquisition through reason and the outer-plane senses. And there are others, usually unaware of the source or manner of their inspiration, who employ their astral senses in making contact with information on the inner plane, and bring this information up into objective consciousness in the course of their creative work. These are the people to whom we apply the title genius.

All genius draws upon information acquired by its unconscious mind which is less accessible to the objective minds of others. Whether it is the great poet, the great artist, the musical prodigy, the mathematical wizard or the most outstanding personalities in science and invention, they each and all, as their biographies reveal, either in dreams, in states of exhaustion resulting from concentration on their problems, while in semi-reverie, or other states which favor the unconscious impressing the information it has gained on the brain, have experienced uprushes from the unconscious mind which have given them knowledge or ability beyond that of those to whom the term genius cannot be applied.

While those who train their psychic faculties, and those who have outstanding spontaneous extrasensory experiences, usually know the information is coming through from the inner plane, most people are unable to distinguish between their normal thoughts and opinions and those derived from extrasensory sources. In the university experiments it is reported that those who give good performances are unable to determine at the time whether extrasensory perception is operating and therefore whether or not what they are doing is directed by anything but chance. Even of those who employ extrasensory perception most successfully, it is only the rare individual who can be sure when he is or is not using it.

But merely the ability to employ the astral senses does not confer genius. Genius must have a brain which can, and does, utilize the information and power which uprushes from the unconscious. It requires the harmonious cooperation of the Unconscious Mind and the Objective Mind.

Personal Survival After Death

As demonstrated under hypnosis and in psychoanalysis, nothing known by the individual is ever forgotten. His experiences, including his thoughts and the expression of personal traits, are organized and retained in frictionless astral substance. That this inner-plane organization, which expresses as an identifiable personality, survives beyond the tomb is attested by a vast and steadily increasing mass of evidence, as set forth in the writings of Dr. John King, Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Rev. G. Vale Owen, J. Arthur Hill, Horace Leaf, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, W. T. Stead, Dr. A. D. Watson, William O. Stevens, Stewart Edward White, and a score of others.

Those who have passed to the inner plane may, or may not, have acquired information of value. In psychic work, when information comes through in a continuous stream of intelligence, one may be sure it is coming from some inner-plane entity. It is the opinion of this inner-plane entity which is being received. When information arrives in messages which are continuous, they are not merely the conclusions of the individual himself derived from his own inner-plane observations. Conclusions reached by the unconscious from its own inner-plane observations, and information acquired through the independent use of its astral senses, do not come through as a continuous stream of intelligence, or a well-formulated message, but as uprushes from the unconscious, as flash after flash of relevant information, which only when pieced together gives complete knowledge of the matter about which knowledge is sought.

https://www.light.org/Astral-Substance-SL040.cfm