Professor Lodge in 1884 put forth the theory that prakriti
(physical matter) as we call it, was in its atoms but "whirls" of
ether. Since then speculative science has generally accepted the
idea that the physical atom is made up of many cubic feet of
ether in chemical union, as many quarts of oxygen and hydrogen
unite chemically to make a drop of water. This is an old story
to the Hindu sage. He tells his pupils that the great globe of
manasa once filled all space, and there was nothing else.
Precisely as on this earth we have our elementary substances that
change from liquids into solids and gases, so on this manasic
globe there were elementary substances that took the form of
liquids, solids and gases. Its manasic matter was differentiated
and vibrated through one octave, as the prakritic matter does on
the earth. Its substances combined as that does.

One combination produced prana. The prana collected, and formed
globes. On these pranic globes the process was repeated, with
ether as the result, and the etheric globes formed. Then the
process was repeated on the etheric globes, as the modern
scientists have discovered, and prakriti and prakritic globes
came into being.

The true diameter of the earth, the ancient Hindu books say, is
about 50,000 miles. That is to say, the true surface of the
earth is the line of twenty-four-hour axial rotation; the line
where gravity and apergy exactly balance; where a moon would
have to be placed to revolve once in 86,400 seconds. Within that
is prakriti; without is ether. It is also the line of no
friction, which does exist between matter of different planes.
There is friction between prakriti, between ether, between prana;
but not between ether and prana, or ether and prakriti. Friction
is a phenomenon confined to the matter of each plane separately.
We live at the bottom of this gaseous ocean--on its floor
--21,000 miles from the surface and only 4,000 miles from the
center. Here, in a narrow "skin" limited to a few miles above
and below us, is the realm of phenomena, where solid turns into
liquid and liquid into gas, or vice versa. The lesson impressed
upon the pupil's mind by Hindu physics is that he lives far
within the earth, not on it.

There is a comparatively narrow "skin" of and for phenomena
within the etheric sun-globe, say the Eastern teachers, where the
etheric solids, liquids, and gases meet and mingle and
interchange. Within this "skin" ar