cular lines at right angles to the others,
to denote types which differ in quality as well as in density. There are
thus many varieties of this mental matter, and it is found that each one
of these has its own especial and appropriate rate of vibration, to
which it seems most accustomed, so that it very readily responds to it,
and tends to return to it as soon as possible when it has been forced
away from it by some strong rush of thought or feeling. When a sudden
wave of some emotion sweeps over a man, for example, his astral body is
thrown into violent agitation, and its original colours are or the time
almost obscured by the flush of carmine, of blue, or of scarlet which
corresponds with the rate of vibration of that particular emotion. This
change is only temporary; it passes off in a few seconds, and the astral
body rapidly resumes its usual condition. Yet every such rush of feeling
produces a permanent effect: it always adds a little of its hue to the
normal colouring of the astral body, so that every time that the man
yields himself to a certain emotion it becomes easier for him to yield
himself to it again, because his astral body is getting into the habit
of vibrating at that especial rate.

The majority of human thoughts, however, are by no means simple.
Absolutely pure affection of course exists; but we very often find it
tinged with pride or with selfishness, with jealousy or with animal
passion. This means that at least two separate vibrations appear both in
the mental and astral bodies--frequently more than two. The radiating
vibration, therefore, will be a complex one, and the resultant
thought-form will show several colours instead of only one.

HOW THE VIBRATION ACTS

These radiating vibrations, like all others in nature, become less
powerful in proportion to the distance from their source, though it is
probable that the variation is in proportion to the cube of the distance
instead of to the square, because of the additional dimension involved.
Again, like all other vibrations, these tend to reproduce themselves
whenever opportunity is offered to them; and so whenever they strike
upon another mental body they tend to provoke in it their own rate of
motion. That is--from the point of view of the man whose mental body is
touched by these waves--they tend to produce in his mind thoughts of the
same type as that which had previously arisen in the mind of the thinker
who sent forth the waves. The