lexity exists, and that only when
it is fully perceived and scientifically unravelled is there perfect
security against deception or mistake.

For the seventh or lowest subdivision of the astral plane also this
physical world of ours may be said to be the background, though what
is seen is only a distorted and partial view of it, since all that is
light and good and beautiful seems invisible. It was thus described
four thousand years ago in the Egyptian papyrus of the Scribe Ani:
"What manner of place is this unto which I have come? It hath no
water, it hath no air; it is deep, unfathomable; it is black as the
blackest night, and men wander helplessly about therein; in it a man
may not live in quietness of heart." For the unfortunate entity on
that level it is indeed true that "all the earth is full of darkness
and cruel habitations," but it is darkness which radiates from within
himself and causes his existence to be passed in a perpetual night of
evil and horror--a very real hell, though, like all other hells,
entirely of man's own creation.

Most students find the investigation of this section an extremely
unpleasant task, for there appears to be a sense of density and gross
materiality about it which is indescribably loathsome to the liberated
astral body, causing it the sense of pushing its way through some
black, viscous fluid, while the inhabitants and influences
encountered there are also usually exceedingly undesirable.

The first, second, and third subdivisions seem much further removed
from this physical world, and correspondingly less material. Entities
inhabiting these levels lose sight of the earth and its belongings;
they are usually deeply self-absorbed, and to a large extent create
their own surroundings, though these are not purely subjective, as in
Devachan, but on the contrary sufficiently objective to be perceptible
to other entities and also to clairvoyant vision. This region is
beyond doubt the "summerland" of which we hear so much at
spiritualistic _seances_, and the entities who descend from and
describe it are probably often speaking the truth as far as their
knowledge extends. It is on these planes that "spirits" call into
temporary existence their houses, schools, and cities, for these
objects are often real enough for the time, though to a clearer sight
they may sometimes be pitiably unlike what their delighted creators
suppose them to be. Nevertheless, many of the imaginations that take