wonderfully patient law of evolution. Many members of the class we are
considering do not really attain an intelligent appreciation of this
fact at all, but drift through their astral interlude in the same
aimless manner in which they have spent the physical portion of their
lives. Thus in Kamaloka, exactly as on earth, there are the few who
comprehend something of their position and know how to make the best
of it, and the many who have not yet acquired that knowledge; and
there, just as here, the ignorant are rarely ready to profit by the
advice or example of the wise.

But of whatever grade the entity's intellect may be, it is always a
fluctuating and on the whole a gradually diminishing quantity, for the
lower Manas is being drawn in opposite directions by the higher Triad
which acts on it from above its level and the Kama which operates from
below; and therefore it oscillates between the two attractions, with
an ever-increasing tendency towards the former as the kamic forces
wear themselves out. And here comes in the evil of what is called at
_seances_ the "development" of a spirit through a medium--a process
the object of which is to intensify the downward pull of the Kama, to
awaken the lower portion of the entity (that being all that can be
reached) from the natural and desirable unconsciousness into which it
is passing, and thus to prolong unnaturally its existence in the
Kamaloka. The peculiar danger of this will be seen when it is
recollected that the real man is all the while steadily withdrawing
into himself, and is therefore as time goes on less and less able to
influence or guide this lower portion, which nevertheless, until the
separation is complete, has the power to generate Karma, and under the
circumstances is obviously far more likely to add evil than good to
its record. Thus the harm done is threefold: first, the retardation of
the separation between Manas and Kama, and the consequent waste of
time and prolongation of the interval between two incarnations;
secondly, the extreme probability (almost amounting to certainty) that
a large addition will be made to the individual's evil Karma, which
will have to be worked out in future births; thirdly, the terrible
danger that this abnormal intensification of the force of Kama may
eventually enable the latter to entangle the whole of the lower Manas
inextricably, and so cause the entire loss of an incarnation. Though
such a result as this last-mentioned