ny way authoritative, but are given simply for what they are
worth. On the other hand every precaution in our power has been taken
to ensure accuracy, no fact, old or new, being admitted to this manual
unless it has been confirmed by the testimony of at least two
independent trained investigators among ourselves, and has also been
passed as correct by older students whose knowledge on these points is
necessarily much greater than ours. It is hoped, therefore, that this
account of the astral plane, though it cannot be considered as quite
complete, may yet be found reliable as far as it goes.

The first point which it is necessary to make clear in describing this
astral plane is its absolute _reality_. Of course in using that word I
am not speaking from that metaphysical standpoint from which all but
the One Unmanifested is unreal because impermanent; I am using the
word in its plain, every-day sense, and I mean by it that the objects
and inhabitants of the astral plane are real in exactly the same way
as our own bodies, our furniture, our houses or monuments are real--as
real as Charing Cross, to quote an expressive remark from one of the
earliest Theosophical works. They will no more endure for ever than
will objects on the physical plane, but they are nevertheless
realities from our point of view while they last--realities which we
cannot afford to ignore merely because the majority of mankind is as
yet unconscious, or but vaguely conscious, of their existence.

There appears to be considerable misunderstanding even among
Theosophical students upon this question of the reality of the various
planes of the universe. This may perhaps be partly due to the fact
that the word "plane" has occasionally been very loosely used in our
literature--writers speaking vaguely of the mental plane, the moral
plane, and so on; and this vagueness has led many people to suppose
that the information on the subject which is to be found in
Theosophical books is inexact and speculative--a mere hypothesis
incapable of definite proof. No one can get a clear conception of the
teachings of the Wisdom-Religion until he has at any rate an
intellectual grasp of the fact that in our solar system there exist
perfectly definite planes, each with its own matter of different
degrees of density, and that some of these planes can be visited and
observed by persons who have qualified themselves for the work,
exactly as a foreign country might be visited an