THEOSOPHICAL MANUALS
NO, 5
THE ASTRAL PLANE
ITS SCENERY, INHABITANTS,
AND
PHENOMENA
BY
C[harles]. W[ebster]. LEADBEATER
[1847-1934]
THIRD EDITION
(REVISED)
London:
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 only 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.
CONTENTS.
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 his Pupil— The
Psychically Developed Person—The Ordinary Person—The Black Magician
Dead:— The
Nirmanakaya—The Pupil 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
Non-human:— The
Elemental Essence—The Astral Bodies of Animals—Various Classes of
Nature-Spirits, commonly called Fairies—Kamadevas—Rupadevas—Arupadevas—The
Devarajas
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,
Stonethrowing, etc.—Fairies—Communicating Entities—Astral
Resources—Clairvoyance—Prevision—Second-Sight—Astral Force—Etheric
Currents—Etheric Pressure—Latent Energy— Sympathetic
Vibration—Mantras—Disintegration— Materialization—Why Darkness is
Required at a Seance—Spirit
Photographs—Reduplication—Precipitation of Letters and
Pictures—Slate-writing—Levitation—Spirit Lights—Handling
Fire—Transmutation—Repercussion
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