Let us continue our examination of the conditions one would find if you could remember your experiences of your nightly sojourn to the Emotional World. People on the emotional plane can and do pass through one another constantly and through fixed emotional objects. There can never be anything like what we mean by a collision, and under ordinary circumstances, two bodies which interpenetrate are not appreciably affected. If, however, the interpenetration lasts for some time, as when two people sit side by side in a church or theatre, a considerable effect may be produced. If a person thought of a mountain as an obstacle, they would not be able to pass through it. Learning that it is not an obstacle is precisely the object of one part of the “test of earth”.
An explosion on the emotional plane might be, temporarily, as disastrous as an explosion of gunpowder on the physical plane, but the emotional fragments would quickly collect themselves again. Thus, there cannot be an accident on the emotional plane in our sense of the word because the emotional body, being fluid in nature, cannot be destroyed or permanently injured as the physical vehicle can.
A purely emotional object could be moved using an emotional hand if one wished, but not the emotional counterpart of a physical object. It would be necessary to materialise a hand and move the physical object connected with it to move the emotional counterpart. The emotional counterpart would then accompany its physical equivalent. The emotional counterpart is there because the physical object is there, just as the scent of a rose fills a room. After all, the rose is there. One could no more move a physical object by moving its emotional counterpart than one could move the rose by moving its perfume.
On the emotional plane, one never touches the surface of anything, so you can not feel if it is hard or soft, rough or smooth, hot or cold. Still, on coming into contact with the interpenetrating substance, one would be conscious of a different rate of vibration, which might, of course, be pleasant or unpleasant, stimulating or depressing. Thus, if one is standing on the ground, part of one’s emotional body interpenetrates the ground under one’s feet. Still, the emotional body would not be conscious of the fact by anything corresponding to a sense of hardness or any difference in the power of movement. On the emotional plane, one does not have the feeling of jumping over a precipice but simply of floating over it.
Although the light of all planes comes from the Sun, its effect on the emotional plane is entirely different from that on the physical. In the emotional world, a diffused luminosity does not come from any specific direction. All emotional matter is luminous, though an emotional body is not like a painted sphere but a sphere of living fire. It is never dark in the Emotional World. The passing of a physical cloud in front of the Sun makes no difference whatever to the emotional plane, nor, of course, does the shadow of the Earth, which we call night. As emotional bodies are transparent, there are no shadows. The Sun always shines.
Atmospheric and climatic conditions make no difference in working on the emotional and mental planes. However, being in a big city makes a significant difference because the masses of thought forms contaminate the environment. On the emotional plane, many currents tend to carry people lacking in will, even those who have the will but do not know how to use it. One thing to remember is that there is no such thing as sleep in the Emotional World. It is possible to forget upon the emotional plane, just as it is on the physical. It is easier to forget on the emotional plane than on the physical because that world is so busy and so crowded. Knowledge of a person in the Emotional World does not necessarily mean knowledge of that person in the physical world.
The emotional plane has often been called the realm of illusion — not that it is any more illusory than the physical world, but because of the extreme unreliability of the impressions brought back by the untrained seer. This can be accounted for mainly by two remarkable characteristics of the Emotional World: (1) many of its inhabitants have a marvellous power of changing their forms with great rapidity and also of casting practically unlimited glamour over those with whom they choose to interact and (2) emotional sight is very different from and much more extended than physical vision. Thus, with emotional vision, an object is seen, as it were, from all sides at once, every particle in the interior of a solid being as plainly open to view as those on the outside and everything entirely free from the distortion of perspective.
Looking at a wristwatch from an emotional perspective, one would see the face and all the wheels and cogs lying separately, but nothing on top of anything else. Looking at a closed book, one would see each page, not through all the other pages before or behind it, but looking straight down upon it as though it were the only page to be seen. It is easy to see that under such conditions, even the most familiar objects may initially be unrecognisable and that an inexperienced visitor may need help understanding what they see. Beyond this, it is difficult to translate their vision into the very inadequate language of ordinary speech. Yet a moment’s consideration will show that emotional vision approximates much more closely to accurate perception than physical sight, which is subject to perspective distortions. In addition to these possible sources of error, matters are still further complicated because this emotional sight understands forms of matter that, while still purely physical, are invisible under ordinary conditions. You see not only the particles but also their etheric counterparts. Furthermore, emotional vision discloses different colours beyond the limits of the ordinary visible spectrum to the viewer, and infrared and ultraviolet rays are visible to emotional sight.
Thus, to take a concrete example, a rock, seen with emotional sight, is not a mere inert mass of stone. With emotional vision: (1) the whole of the physical matter is seen, instead of a tiny part of it; (2) the vibrations of the physical particles are perceptible; (3) the emotional counterpart, composed of various grades of emotional matter, all in constant motion, is visible: (4) the universal life (prana) is seen to be circulating through it and radiating from it: (5) an aura will be seen surrounding it and (6) its appropriate tertiary essence is seen permeating it, ever active but ever fluctuating. The complications of the vegetable, animal, and human kingdoms are more numerous.
A good instance of the sort of mistake likely to occur on the emotional plane is the frequent reversal of any number, which the seer has to record so that they are liable to render, say, 139 as 931, and so on. That is rather like me; my excuse is dyslexia. In the case of a student of esoterics, trained by a capable Master, such a mistake would be impossible, except through a rushed viewing or carelessness, since a pupil has to go through a long and varied course of instruction in the art of seeing correctly. A trained seer, in time, acquires a certainty and confidence in dealing with the phenomena of the emotional plane, far exceeding anything possible in physical life.
It is a mistaken view to speak with scorn of the emotional plane and to think it unworthy of attention. It would, of course, certainly be disastrous for any student to neglect their higher development and to rest satisfied with the attainment of emotional consciousness. In some cases, it is possible to develop the higher mental faculties first to overleap the emotional plane for time. But this is not the ordinary method adopted by the Masters of Wisdom with their pupils. For most, progress by leaps and bounds is not practical; it is necessary to proceed slowly, step by step. In The Voice of the Silence, three halls are spoken of. The first that of ignorance is the physical plane; the second, the Hall of Learning, is the emotional plane and is so called because the opening of the emotional chakras reveals so much more than is visible on the physical plane that the person feels they are much nearer the reality of the thing. Nevertheless, it is still just a place of probationary learning. Still, more accurate and definite knowledge is acquired in the Hall of Wisdom, which can be found on the mental plane.
An essential part of the scenery of the emotional plane consists of what are often, though mistakenly, called the Records of the Emotional Light. These records (which are, in truth, a sort of materialisation of the Divine memory — a living photographic representation of all that has ever happened). They are, in reality, permanently impressed upon a much higher level and are only reflected in a more or less erratic manner on the emotional plane. Consequently, if your power of vision does not rise above that of the Emotional World, you will only get the occasional disconnected pictures of the past instead of a coherent narrative. Nevertheless, these reflected images of all kinds of past events are constantly reproduced in the Emotional World and form an essential part of the surroundings of the investigator there. This is where clairvoyants draw their inspiration from, be warned.
The entity’s knowledge limits communication on the emotional plane, just as in the physical world. One who can use the mind-body can communicate their thoughts to the human entities there more readily and rapidly than on Earth, using mental impressions:- but the ordinary inhabitants of the emotional plane are not usually able to exercise this power; they appear to be restricted by limitations similar to those that prevail on Earth, though perhaps less rigid. Consequently (as previously mentioned), they are found associating, there as here, in groups drawn together by common sympathies, beliefs, and language.
That wraps up a quick tour of the Emotional World. The following presentation will examine miscellaneous phenomena in the Emotional World.