impossible except through great hurry or carelessness, since such a
pupil has to go through a long and varied course of instruction in
this art of seeing correctly, the Master, or perhaps some more
advanced pupil, bringing before him again and again all possible forms
of illusion, and asking him "What do you see?" Any errors in his
answers are then corrected and their reasons explained, until by
degrees the neophyte acquires a certainty and confidence in dealing
with the phenomena of the astral plane which far exceeds anything
possible in physical life. But he has to learn not only to see
correctly but to translate the memory of what he has seen accurately
from one plane to the other; and to assist him in this he is trained
to carry his consciousness without break from the physical plane to
the astral or devachanic and back again, for until that can be done
there is always a possibility that his recollections may be partially
lost or distorted during the blank interval which separates his
periods of consciousness on the various planes. When the power of
bringing over the consciousness is perfectly acquired the pupil will
have the advantage of the use of all the astral faculties, not only
while out of his body during sleep or trance, but also while fully
awake in ordinary physical life.

It has been the custom of some Theosophists to speak with scorn of
the astral plane, and treat it as entirely unworthy of attention; but
that seems to me a somewhat mistaken view. Most assuredly that at
which we have to aim is the purely spiritual plane, and it would be
most disastrous for any student to neglect that higher development and
rest satisfied with the attainment of astral consciousness. There are
some whose Karma is such as to enable them to develop the purely
spiritual faculties first of all--to over-leap the astral plane for
the time, as it were; and when afterwards they make its acquaintance
they have, if their spiritual development has been perfect, the
immense advantage of dipping into it from above, with the aid of a
spiritual insight which cannot be deceived and a spiritual strength
which nothing can resist. It is, however, a mistake to suppose, as
some writers have done, that this is the only, or even the ordinary
method adopted by the Masters of Wisdom with their pupils. Where it is
possible it saves much trouble, but for most of us such progress by
leaps and bounds has been forbidden by our own faults or follies in