orm shows nothing but an
eruption of the livid grey of fear, rising out of a basis of utter
selfishness: and unfortunately there were many such as this. The
shattered appearance of the thought-form shows the violence and
completeness of the explosion, which in turn indicates that the whole
soul of that person was possessed with blind, frantic terror, and that
the overpowering sense of personal danger excluded for the time every
higher feeling.

[Illustration: FIG. 30. AT A SHIPWRECK]

The second form represents at least an attempt at self-control, and
shows the attitude adopted by a person having a certain amount of
religious feeling. The thinker is seeking solace in prayer, and
endeavouring in this way to overcome her fear. This is indicated by the
point of greyish-blue which lifts itself hesitatingly upwards; the
colour shows, however, that the effort is but partially successful, and
we see also from the lower part of the thought-form, with its irregular
outline and its falling fragments, that there is in reality almost as
much fright here as in the other case. But at least this woman has had
presence of mind enough to remember that she ought to pray, and is
trying to imagine that she is not afraid as she does it, whereas in the
other case there was absolutely no thought beyond selfish terror. The
one retains still some semblance of humanity, and some possibility of
regaining self-control; the other has for the time cast aside all
remnants of decency, and is an abject slave to overwhelming emotion.

A very striking contrast to the humiliating weakness shown in these two
forms is the splendid strength and decision of the third. Here we have
no amorphous mass with quivering lines and explosive fragments, but a
powerful, clear-cut and definite thought, obviously full of force and
resolution. For this is the thought of the officer in charge--the man
responsible for the lives and the safety of the passengers, and he rises
to the emergency in a most satisfactory manner. It does not even occur
to him to feel the least shadow of fear; he has no time for that. Though
the scarlet of the sharp point of his weapon-like thought-form shows
anger that the accident should have happened, the bold curve of orange
immediately above it betokens perfect self-confidence and certainty of
his power to deal with the difficulty. The brilliant yellow implies that
his intellect is already at work upon the problem, while the green which
runs s