Page:A Collection of Esoteric Writings.djvu/196

182 The fact is that the astral fluid only comes into existence when certain kinds of differentiation take place in the original Mulaprakriti.

If the scientists recognize a distinction between "bound ether" and "free ether," it amounts to the same kind of distinction as that between astral fluid and âkâsh, but even as it exists in point of space without any organisms, it differs in its constitution from real cosmic ether.

In the course of ordinary thought-transference there is no mediation of any elemental whatever.

In certain cases we find that a sense of calamity is felt by a person at a distance when his friend is dying; in such instances the impression is actually a picture of the person and sometimes the image is very distinct. But we believe that somehow our mental ideas are connected with the emotions of pleasure and pain; therefore, admitting that some currents are accompanied by feelings without images, we may conceive a case in which the image, being indistinct, is accompanied by a nerve current which is only expressed by an emotion. Sometimes there are variations. It may be that a portion of the picture is lost, or some new elements are introduced, but when there is no picture, but only a kind of vibration, there will be nothing but a vague idea of grief or calamity.

Again, we sometimes find that the recipient has some token transferred to him, such as, for instance, a coffin when a person is dying.

I believe if we take into consideration the results likely to be produced by the laws of psychological association, the case is that particular groups of ideas are connected, as death with a coffin in the mind of a Christian, &c.

One idea has the effect of recalling other ideas which are associated with it. Any of these ideas may be pictured in the brain and be followed by other ideas, and sometimes it happens that the associations become more prominent than the main idea.