pes of atoms that
exist in the world, for every vibration is an atomic movement, and the
nature of the vibration depends on the quality of the atoms in motion.
Now, the first part of evolution consists in condensing round vital
centres[60] (_souls_) atoms aggregated in combinations of a
progressively increasing density, on to those that make up the
physical plane; when the soul has thus clothed itself with the
elements of all the planes, the resulting form is called a
"microcosm"--a small Cosmos--for it contains, in reality, all the
elements contained in the Universe. During this progressive
development, the soul, which thus effects its "fall" into matter,
receives from all the planes through which it passes and from all the
forms in which it incarnates, varied vibrations which awake within it
correspondingly responsive powers and develop a non-centred, diffused,
non-individualised consciousness.

In the second phase of evolution, the forms are limited, the
vibrations they receive are transmitted by specialised sensorial
groups, and the soul, hitherto endowed with a diffused consciousness,
begins to feel varieties of vibrations that grow ever more numerous,
to be distinguished from the surrounding world, to separate itself, so
to speak, from everything around; in a word, to develop
self-consciousness. This separation first takes place on the physical
plane; it is made easier by hard, violent contacts, and the forms, in
their turn, become more complex, varied, and specialised in proportion
as the soul is the more perfectly individualised. When it has
developed all the self-conscious responsive powers in the physical
body, it begins to develop those faculties which have as their organs
of transmission the finer bodies, and as planes of vibration the
invisible worlds.

In our planetary system the number of the invisible planes is
seven.[61] Each of them in turn supplies the soul with a form; thus,
when evolution--which in its second phase successively dematerialises
matter, _i.e._, disassociates the atoms from their combinations,
beginning with the denser ones--has dissolved the physical plane, the
human soul will utilise, as its normal body, a finer one which it is
at present using as a link between the mental and the physical
bodies. Before this dissolution is effected, however, human beings
will have developed, to some extent, several finer bodies, already
existing, though hitherto not completely organised.

The fi