30 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



expression in the measured words of this gifted young Brahmin which 

 is beyond any effort of mine. 



He began by an account of the five usually accepted planes of 

 existence, the physical, the astral, the devachanic, the shushuptic and 

 the nirvanic. But to limit these planes to five was, he said, ' a great 

 error,' introduced into our philosophy by the too practical British mind 

 which even in esoteric matters is crowding to the wall the finer under- 

 standing of the Hindu. The sole perfect number is seven and there 

 must be seven planes and in his own experience as a wayfarer to 

 Devachan and Shushup, he had always and ever found it so. Above 

 the astral plane, already familiar to us at Alcalde lay the etheric plane, 

 as the ether lies beyond the stars, while still beyond is the omnic plane, 

 the Loka of the Perfect Silence. 



Of the etheric plane, he chose to speak to us. He first emphasized 

 the fact that all these planes and the things they contained are real, 

 4 as real,' he said, ' as the American Hotel on the main street of Alcalde.' 

 As all dreams came from emanations or excursions into these higher 

 planes, all dreams and their contents are real also. In fact, there is 

 no apparition which is false or illusory. The only illusion is the 

 denial, and denial is the essential characteristic of that western phi- 

 losophy, which is blighting the earth and changing it from a sphere of 

 dreams and happiness to a world of war and commerce washed by a sea 

 of aimless discontent. This is the natural effect of life on a physical 

 plane. It leads to idle strife and constant struggle, as its greatest 

 exponents have freely admitted, and its only hope of progress is in the 

 killing off of all those who are useless in war and unskillful in making 

 trades. 



The scenery, inhabitants and actions in each of these seven planes are 

 in part peculiar, each to its plane. In part they are the doubles or 

 phantoms of the objects found in the plane next lower. For the finer 

 matter of the higher planes permeates and penetrates the coarser ob- 

 jects of the planes below. Hence it transpires that to one in the plane 

 below, the higher object, if he is aware of it, seems like a shadow or a 

 phantom. Because he can pass through it is his argument for its un- 

 reality. But in like measure, to the astral or ethereal being the 

 physical man seems quite as unreal, for with equal ease the being can 

 walk through and through him, injuring him or helping him, just as he 

 may elect to choose. By such means an evil-minded shadow may work 

 dire revenge for injury done in another plane. 



The higher the plane the more illusory the impressions we derive 

 from it, not because of their unreality, but because of our own lack 

 of training. For on the higher planes, objects change their forms with 

 protean swiftness, casting a dazzling glamour from their aura as they 

 change ; again, sight on the higher plane is very unlike physical vision. 

 Even so low as the astral plane the inside of any solid object is as 



