er form of desire, but his greed for gold
may be quite as intense as that of the glutton for sensual
gratification. The accumulation of money has been the dominant thought
of his life. He has created in his mind a wholly false value for money
and it gives him real pain to part with a dollar of it. Only dire
necessity forces him to spend any portion of his hoard. It is not
difficult to imagine his emotions when he is obliged to leave it behind
and see others spend it freely.

Any kind of a desire that is related to the physical body is without
means of gratification in the astral world and if such desire has been
cultivated until it becomes strong enough to play an important part in
one's life it will certainly give him more or less trouble after the
loss of the physical body. Whether it grows out of an over-refinement
and excess in a natural appetite, as in the case of the epicure, or is
simply an artificial thing that is unrelated to any natural demand, as
in the case of the smoker, the inability to gratify the desire is
equally distressing. The suffering that results could hardly be judged
by what would follow on the physical plane when desire is thwarted, for
in the astral life emotion expresses itself much more intensely.

All of the suffering in the astral world, of whatever type, is the
natural result of the thoughts, emotions and acts during the life on the
physical plane. The astral world is that part of the mechanism for man's
evolution that brings him up with a sharp turn when he is moving in the
wrong direction. He is not being punished. The injurious forces he has
generated are simply reacting upon him. This reaction, that sets him
right, is as certain as in the case of the infant that picks up a live
coal. It is merely less direct, and not so immediate in result, and it
works itself out in a multiplicity of ways. One of the methods of
reaction that helps to stamp out a fault is the automatic repetition of
the unpleasant consequences of wrong doing. The murderer will serve for
a general illustration. In the case of a deliberate, premeditated and
cruel murder, the assassin is moved by such base motives as revenge or
jealousy. The results of these, so far as their frightful consequences
to the victim are concerned, do not in the least tend to deter the
assassin from further deeds of violence. He feels gratified with his
success and is quite satisfied with himself. Only the possibility of
detection and punishm