Phenomena.--Churchyard Ghosts.--Apparitions of the Dying--Haunted Localities--Family Ghosts--Bell-ringing, Stone-throwing, etc.--Fairies--Communicating Entities--Astral Resources--Clairvoyance--Prevision--Second-Sight--Astral Forces--Etheric Currents--Etheric Pressure--Latent Energy--Sympathetic Vibration--Mantras--Disintegration--Materialization--Why Darkness is required at a _Seance_--Spirit Photographs--Reduplication--Precipitation of Letters and Pictures--Slate-writing--Levitation--Spirit Lights--Handling Fire--Transmutation--Repercussion. Conclusion. * * * * * THE ASTRAL PLANE. INTRODUCTION Reference to the astral plane, or Kamaloka as it is called in Sanskrit, has frequently been made by Theosophical writers, and a good deal of information on the subject of this realm of nature is to be found scattered here and there in our books; but there is not, so far as I am aware, any single volume to which one can turn for a complete summary of the facts at present known to us about this interesting region. The object of this manual is to collect and make some attempt to arrange this scattered information, and also to supplement it slightly in cases where new facts have come to our knowledge. It must be understood that any such additions are only the result of the investigations of a few explorers, and must not, therefore, be taken as in any way authoritative, but are given simply for what they are worth. On the other hand every precaution in our power has been taken to ensure accuracy, no fact, old or new, being admitted to this manual unless it has been confirmed by the testimony of at least two independent trained investigators among ourselves, and has also been passed as correct by older students whose knowledge on these points is necessarily much greater than ours. It is hoped, therefore, that this account of the astral plane, though it cannot be considered as quite complete, may yet be found reliable as far as it goes. The first point which it is necessary to make clear in describing this astral plane is its absolute _reality_. Of course in using that word I am not speaking from that metaphysical standpoint from which all but the One Unmanifested is unreal because impermanent; I am using the word in its plain, every-day sense, and I mean by it that the objects and inhabitants of the astral plane are real in exactly the same way as our own bodies, our furniture, our houses or monuments are real--as real as Charing Cross, to quote an expressive remark from one of the earliest Theosophical works. They will no more endure for ever than will objects on the physical plane, but they are nevertheless realities from our point of view while they last--realities which we cannot afford to ignore merely because the majority of mankind is as yet unconscious, or but vaguely conscious, of their existence.