ated, it is given a glimpse of
its past lives, and its present character, that it may realize the
Karmic relations between the cause and effect, to the end that its new
life may be improved upon--then it sinks into a state of unconsciousness
and passes on to rebirth.

The Western school of the Yogi Philosophy gives an idea of the state
between incarnations, somewhat eclectic in its origin, agreeing with the
Theosophical teaching in some respects, and differing from it in others.
Let us take a hasty glance at it. In the first place it does not use the
terms "Kama Loca" and "Devachan" respectively, but instead treats the
whole series of planes as the great "Astral World" containing many
planes, divisions, and subdivisions--many sub-planes, and divisions of
the same. The teaching is that the soul passes out of the body, leaving
behind its physical form, together with its Prana or Vital Energy, and
taking with it the Astral Body, the Instructive Mind, and the higher
principles. The "last vision" of the past life, in which the events of
that life are impressed upon the soul just as it leaves the body, is
held to be a fact--the soul sees the past life as a whole, and in all of
its minutest details at the moment of death, and it is urged that the
dying person should be left undisturbed in his last moments for this
reason, and that the soul may become calm and peaceful when starting on
its journey. On one of the Astral Planes the soul gradually discards its
Astral Body and its Instinctive Mind, but retains its higher vehicles or
sheaths. But it is taught that this discarding of the lower sheaths
occurs after the soul has passed into a "soul-slumber" on a sub-plane of
the Astral World, from which it awakens to find itself clothed only in
its higher mental and spiritual garments of being, and free from the
grosser coverings and burdens. The teachings say: "When the soul has
cast off the confining sheaths, and has reached the state for which it
is prepared, it passes to the plane in the Astral World for which it is
fitted, and to which it is drawn by the Law of Attraction. The planes of
the Astral World interpenetrate, and souls dwelling on one plane are not
conscious of those dwelling on another, nor can they pass from one plane
to another, with this exception--that those dwelling on a higher plane
are able to see (if they so desire) the planes below them in the order
of development, and are also able to visit these lower planes i