able to produce a perfect
materialization we sometimes get the vaporous-looking form which
constitutes our second class, and in such a case the "spirits" usually
warn their sitters that the forms which appear must not be touched.
In the rarer case of a full materialization there is sufficient power
to hold together, at least for a few moments, a form which can be both
seen and touched.

When an Adept or pupil finds it necessary for any purpose to
materialize his Mayavirupa or his astral body, he does not draw upon
either his own etheric double or any one else's, since he has been
taught how to extract the matter which he requires directly from the
astral light or even from the Akasha.

[Sidenote: Reduplication.]

Another phenomenon closely connected with this part of the subject is
that of reduplication, which is produced by simply forming in the
astral light a perfect mental image of the object to be copied, and
then gathering about that mould the necessary physical matter. Of
course for this purpose it is necessary that every particle, interior
as well as exterior, of the object to be duplicated should be held
accurately in view simultaneously, and consequently the phenomenon is
one which requires considerable power of concentration to perform.
Persons unable to reduce the matter required directly from the astral
light have sometimes borrowed it from the material of the original
article, which in this case would be correspondingly reduced in
weight.

[Sidenote: Precipitation.]

We read a good deal in Theosophical literature about the precipitation
of letters or pictures. This result, like everything else, may be
obtained in several ways. An Adept wishing to communicate with some
one might place a sheet of paper before him, form an image of the
writing which he wished to appear upon it, and draw from the astral
light the matter wherewith to objectify that image; or if he preferred
to do so it would be equally easy for him to produce the same result
upon a sheet of paper lying before his correspondent, whatever might
be the distance between them. A third method which, since it saves
time, is much more frequently adopted, is to impress the whole
substance of the letter on the mind of some pupil, and leave him to do
the mechanical work of precipitation. That pupil would then take his
sheet of paper, and, imagining he saw the letter written thereon in
his Master's hand, would proceed to objectify the writing as befo