ssifications subdivisions have been multiplied
indefinitely by conceiving new combinations of the Primary Powers in
different proportions. But I must now drop this subject, and proceed to
consider the "Fragments of Occult Truth" (since embodied in "Esoteric
Buddhism").

I have carefully examined it, and find that the results arrived at (in
the Buddhist doctrine) do not differ much from the conclusions of our
Aryan philosophy, though our mode of stating the arguments may differ in
form. I shall now discuss the question from my own standpoint, though,
following, for facility of comparison and convenience of discussion, the
sequence of classification of the sevenfold entities or principles
constituting man which is adopted in the "Fragments." The questions
raised for discussion are (1) whether the disembodied spirits of human
beings (as they are called by Spiritualists) appear in the seance-rooms
and elsewhere; and (2) whether the manifestations taking place are
produced wholly or partly through their agency.

It is hardly possible to answer these two questions satisfactorily
unless the meaning intended to be conveyed by the expression
"disembodied spirits of human beings" be accurately defined. The words
spiritualism and spirit are very misleading. Unless English writers in
general, and Spiritualists in particular, first ascertain clearly the
connotation they mean to assign to the word spirit, there will be no end
of confusion, and the real nature of these so-called spiritualistic
phenomena and their modus occurrendi can never be clearly defined.
Christian writers generally speak of only two entities in man--the body,
and the soul or spirit (both seeming to mean the same thing to them).
European philosophers generally speak of body and mind, and argue that
soul or spirit cannot be anything else than mind. They are of opinion
that any belief in lingasariram* is entirely unphilosophical. These
views are certainly incorrect, and are based on unwarranted assumptions
as to the possibilities of Nature, and on an imperfect understanding of
its laws. I shall now examine (from the standpoint of the Brahmanical
esoteric doctrine) the spiritual constitution of man, the various
entities or principles existing in him, and ascertain whether either of
those entities entering into his composition can appear on earth after
his death, and if so, what it is that so appears.

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* The astral body, so called.
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Prof