In the previous series of presentations, we examined the etheric envelope in some detail. In those presentations, a description of the Kundalini was given, with special reference to the etheric body and its chakras. Let us quickly remind ourselves what we learnt.
The three known forces which emanate from the Logos are: –
1. Fohat: which shows itself as electricity, heat, light motion, etc.
2. Prana; which shows itself as vitality.
3. Kundalini: which is also known as the Serpent Fire.
It is worth recapping that each of these three forces exists on all planes of which we know anything. So far as is known, no one of the three is convertible into any of the others; they each remain separate and distinct.
Kundalini is called in The Voice of the Silence “the Fiery Power”, and “the World’s Mother”. The first is because it appears like liquid fire as it rushes through the body; and the course it should follow is a spiral one, like the coils of a serpent. It is called the World’s Mother because through it our various vehicles may be vivified, so that the higher worlds may open before us in succession. This is mentioned in passing lest we forget that Kundalini is a force that is linked to all the envelopes and regarding the emotional envelope, there are going to be triggers that pass into the physical-etheric complex that are going to ignite this energy. Beyond this, we need not go into further discussion, so we are going to turn our attention to thought-forms.
The mental and emotional bodies are those chiefly concerned with the production of what are called thought-forms. The term thought-form is not wholly accurate, because the forms produced may be composed of mental matter but in the vast majority of cases, both emotional and mental matter are involved.
Although in this series of presentations, we are dealing primarily with the emotional and not with the mental body, thought-forms, as just said, are, in a vast majority of cases, both emotional and mental. In order, therefore, to make the subject intelligible, it is necessary to deal with the mental as well as the emotional aspects of the subject.
A purely intellectual and impersonal thought – such as one concerned with algebra or geometry – would be confined to mental matter. On the other hand, if the thought has in it something of a selfish or personal desire, it will draw around itself emotional matter in addition to the mental. If, furthermore, the thought was of a spiritual nature and was tinged with love and aspiration or deep and unselfish feeling, then there may also enter in some of the splendour and glory of the 46th or Unity plane.
As a basic definition, it is stated that every definite thought produces two effects: first, a radiating vibration: second, a floating form.
The vibration set up in and radiating from the mental body is accompanied by a play of colour, which has been described as like that in the spray of a waterfall as the sunlight strikes it. This is no ordinary colour, this colour is raised to the nth degree of colour and vivid delicacy. This radiating vibration tends to reproduce its rate of motion in any mental body on which it may impact: i.e., it produces thoughts of the same type as those from which the vibration originated. It should be noted that the radiating vibration carries, not the subject of the thought, but its character. Thus, the waves of thought-emotion radiating from a Hindu sitting rapt in devotion to Shri Krishna would tend to stimulate devotional feeling in any who came under its influence, not necessarily towards Sri Krishna, but, in the case of a Christian, to the Christ, in the case of a Buddhist, to the Lord Buddha and so on. The power of the vibration to produce such effects depends principally upon the clarity and definition of the thought-emotion, as well as upon the amount of force put into it.
These radiating vibrations become less effective in proportion to the distance from their source, though it is probable that the variation is proportional to the cube of the distance instead of (as with gravitation and other physical forces) to the square, because of the additional (fourth) dimension involved. The distance to which a thought-wave can radiate effectively also depends upon the opposition with which it meets. Waves in the lower types of emotional matter are usually soon deflected or overwhelmed by a multitude of other vibrations at the same level, just as a soft sound is drowned in the roar of a city.
The second effect, that of a floating form, is caused by the mental body throwing off a vibrating portion of itself shaped by the nature of the thought, which gathers around itself matter of the corresponding order of fineness from the surrounding pool of elemental essences of the mental plane. This is a thought-form pure and simple, being composed of mental matter only. If made of the finer kinds of matter, it will generate great power and energy and may be used as a potent agent when directed by a strong and steady will.
When a person directs their energy towards external objects of desire or is occupied with passionate or emotional activities, a similar process takes place in their emotional body. A portion of it is thrown off and gathers around itself elemental essence from the emotional plane. Such thought-desire forms are caused by Kama-Manas, the mind under the dominion of the animal nature; Manas is dominated by Kama. Such a thought-desire form has for its body the elemental essence and for its animating soul, as it were, the desire or passion, which threw it forth. Both these thought-desire forms and also purely mental thought-forms, are called artificial elementals or just elementals. The vast majority of ordinary thought-forms are of the type just described, as few thoughts of ordinary men and women are untinged with desire, passion or emotion.
Both mental and emotional elemental essences, which possess a half-intelligent life of their own, respond very readily to the influence of human thought and desire: consequently, every impulse sent out, either from a person’s mental body or from their emotional body, is immediately clothed in a temporary vehicle of elemental essence. These artificial elementals thus become for the time a kind of living creature, entities of intense activity animated by the one idea that generated them. They are, often mistaken by untrained psychics or clairvoyants for real living entities. Why are these elemental essences thought of as being semi-intelligent? Because they are composed of secondary matter and are passively conscious. They are not able to imitate activities, as can tertiary matter, but only faithfully respond to the stimuli they receive from outside and project the will of the transmitter. However, they are life forms of their own and desire more of what you give them and in this way act as a magnet to focus your attention on them and the energies they represent. This is why good habits spawn good habits and bad habits do the reverse.
Thus, when a person thinks of a concrete object – a book, house, landscape, etc. they build a tiny image of the object in the matter of their mental body. This image floats in the upper part of that body, usually in front of the face of the person and at about the level of the eyes. It remains there as long as the person is contemplating the object and usually for a little time afterwards, the length of life depending upon the intensity and the clarity of the thought. The form is quite objective and can be seen by other people who can see into the mental plane, although the number who could pull off this trick is vanishingly small. If a person thinks of another person, they create a tiny portrait in just the same way. Creating these thought forms of people is what we do when we are in our subjective bubbles on our way back to our causal envelope at the ned of an incarnation. We will discuss this further in the next series of presentations on the Mental Envelope.
Thought-forms have been usefully compared to a Leyden jar (a vessel charged with static electricity). In this example, the jar itself corresponds to the elemental essence and the electric charge to the thought-emotion. Just as a Leyden jar, when it touches another object, discharges its stored electricity into that object, so does an artificial elemental, when it strikes a mental or emotional body, discharges its stored mental and emotional energy into that body. Think about this, it means your thoughts and emotions carry karmic consequences with them. A negative thought in your mind could be a murder in the Metal World.
The principles which underlie the production of all (thought-emotion) forms are: –
1. Colour is determined by the quality of the thought or emotion. These colours have already been discussed and are an open book to those who can see and understand their meaning.
2. Form is determined by the nature of the thought or emotion. It is interesting to think of a thought, which to us is subjective, as a shape, not just an abstract idea. In both the emotional and mental planes, our thoughts and emotions are living objects, as just described.
3. Clearness of the Outline is determined by the definite intensity of the thought or emotion. Think of this as trying to get your camera lens to focus on an object.
The life-period of a thought-form depends upon (1) its initial intensity and (2) the energy afterwards supplied to it by a repetition of the thought, either by the generator or by others. Its life may be continually reinforced by this repetition, a thought, which is brooded over acquiring a greater stability of form. So again thought forms of similar character are attracted to and mutually strengthen each other, making a form of great energy and intensity; welcome the egregore.
Furthermore, such a thought-form appears to possess an instinctive desire to prolong its life and will react on its creator, tending to evoke from them a renewal of the feeling, which created it. It will react in a similar, though not so perfect, manner on any others with whom it may come into contact. We have looked at the basic structure and mechanism of a thought form. I the next presentation, we will now look into the component parts of these thought-forms.