ience of Gurus, I
have never yet met one who would consciously tell a lie.

"From time immemorial," says Mr Sinnett's Guru, "there has been a
certain region in Thibet, which to this day is quite unknown to and
unapproachable by any but initiated persons, and inaccessible to the
ordinary people of the country, as to any others, in which adepts have
always congregated. But the country generally was not in Buddha's
time, as it has since become, the chosen habitation of the great
brotherhood. Much more than they are at present, were the _mahatmas_
in former times distributed throughout the world.

"The progress of civilisation engendering the magnetism they find so
trying, had, however, by the date with which we are now dealing--the
fourteenth century--already given rise to a very general movement
towards Thibet on the part of the previously dissociated occultists.
Far more widely than was held to be consistent with the safety of
mankind was occult knowledge and power then found to be disseminated.
To the task of putting it under a rigid system of rule and law did
Tsong-kha-pa address himself."

Of course, before transferring my material body to this region, I was
perfectly familiar with it by reason of the faculty which, as Mr Sinnett
very truly tells us, is common to all adepts, of being able to flit about
the world at will in your astral body; and here I would remark
parenthetically, that I shall use the term "astral body" to save
confusion, though, as Mr Sinnett again properly says, it is not strictly
accurate under the circumstances. In order to make this clear, I will
quote his very lucid observations on the subject:--

"During the last year or two, while hints and scraps of occult science
have been finding their way out into the world, the expression 'astral
body' has been applied to a certain semblance of the human form, fully
inhabited by its higher principles, which can migrate to any distance
from the physical body--projected consciously and with exact intention
by a living adept, or unintentionally by the accidental application of
certain mental forces to his loosened principles by any person at the
moment of death. For ordinary purposes, there is no practical
inconvenience in using the expression 'astral body' for the appearance
so projected--indeed any more strictly accurate expression, as will be
seen directly, would be cu