guishes the Kamarupa from the astral body is of an
entirely different character from that definiteness which was
described as a sign of progress in the astral of the man before death.
There can never be any possibility of confusion between the two
entities, for while in the case of the man attached to a physical body
the different orders of astral particles are all inextricably mingled
and ceaselessly changing their position, after death their activity is
much more circumscribed, since they then sort themselves according to
their degree of materiality, and become, as it were, a series of
sheaths or shells surrounding him, the grossest being always outside
and so dissipating before the others. This dissipation is not
necessarily complete, the extent to which it is carried being governed
by the power of Manas to free itself from its connection with any
given level; and on this also, as will be seen later, the nature of
the "shade" depends.

The poetic idea of death as a universal leveller is a mere absurdity
born of ignorance, for, as a matter of fact, in the vast majority of
cases the loss of the physical body makes no difference whatever in
the character or intellect of the person, and there are therefore as
many different varieties of intelligence among those whom we usually
call the dead as among the living. The popular religious teaching of
the West as to man's _post-mortem_ adventures has long been so wildly
inaccurate that even intelligent people are often terribly puzzled
when they recover consciousness in Kamaloka after death. The condition
in which the new arrival finds himself differs so radically from what
he has been led to expect that it is no uncommon case for him to
refuse at first to believe that he has passed through the portals of
death at all; indeed, of so little practical value is our much-vaunted
belief in the immortality of the soul that most people consider the
very fact that they are still conscious an absolute proof that they
have not died. The horrible doctrine of eternal punishment, too, is
responsible for a vast amount of most pitiable and entirely groundless
terror among those newly arrived in Kamaloka who in many cases spend
long periods of acute mental suffering before they can free themselves
from the fatal influence of that hideous blasphemy, and realize that
the world is governed not according to the caprice of some demon who
gloats over human anguish, but according to a benevolent and