He has again entered the world of material formation. He is sunk and hidden in the flesh of earth. He awaits birth. He will come out with great force, by reason of his former rest. He might even become a “captain of industry,” if he is a strong unit. But I began by saying “he or she.” Let me change the figure. The man would be almost certain to awake first, by reason of his positive polarity. Now, in drawing this imaginary picture of my lovers, I am not making a dogma of the way in which all souls return to earth. I am merely guessing how these two will return (for she would probably follow him speedily when she awoke and found herself alone). And the reason why I fancy they will return in that way is because they are indulging themselves in too much subjective bliss. When will they go back? I cannot say. Perhaps next year, perhaps in a hundred years. Not knowing the numerical value of their unit of force, I cannot guess how much subjective bliss they can endure without a violent reaction. I am sure that you are wondering if some day I shall myself sink into that state of bliss which I have described. Perhaps. I should enjoy it--but not for long, and not yet. However, I have no sweetheart out here to enjoy it with me. LETTER XXXII A CHANGE OF FOCUS WITH the guidance of the Teacher, during the last few weeks I have been going to and fro in the earth and walking up and down in it. You smile at the veiled reference. But have not certain friends of yours actually feared me, as if I were the devil of the Book of Job? Now, to be serious, I have been visiting those lands and cities where in former lives I lived and worked among men. One of the many advantages of travel is that it helps a man to remember his former existences. There is certainly a magic in places. I have been in Egypt, in India, in Persia, in Spain, in Italy; I have been in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Greece, Turkey, and many other lands. The Dardanelles were not closed to me recently, when by reason of the war you could not have passed through. There are advantages to almost every condition, even my present one; for the law of compensation holds good. In certain lives of the past I was a wide traveller. Now you may wonder how it is that I pass easily from this world to yours, seeing into both. But you must remember that your world and mine occupy about the same space; that the plane of the earth’s surface is one of the lower and more material planes of our world, using the word “plane” as you would use the word “layer.” As I have said before, there are also places accessible to us which lie at some distance above the earth’s surface. “Mansions in the skies” are more than figurative.