Now in _kama loka_ this mass of desire and thought exists very definitely until the conclusion of its disintegration, and then the remainder consists of the essence of these _skandhas_, connected, of course, with the being that evolved and had them. They can no more be done away with than we can blot out the universe. Hence they are said to remain until the being comes out of _devachan_, and then at once by the law of attraction they are drawn to the being, who from them as germ or basis builds up a new set of _skandhas_ for the new life. _Kama loka_ therefore is distinguished from the earth plane by reason of the existence therein, uncontrolled and unguided, of the mass of passions and desires; but at the same time earth-life is also a _kama loka_, since it is largely governed by the principle _kama_, and will be so until at a far distant time in the course of evolution the races of men shall have developed the fifth and sixth principles, thus throwing _kama_ into its own sphere and freeing earth-life from its influence. The astral man in _kama loka_ is a mere shell devoid of soul and mind, without conscience and also unable to act unless vivified by forces outside of itself. It has that which seems like an animal or automatic consciousness due wholly to the very recent association with the human Ego. For under the principle laid down in another chapter, every atom going to make up the man has a memory of its own which is capable of lasting a length of time in proportion to the force given it. In the case of a very material and gross or selfish person the force lasts longer than in any other, and hence in that case the automatic consciousness will be more definite and bewildering to one who without knowledge dabbles with necromancy. Its purely astral portion contains and carries the record of all that ever passed before the person when living, for one of the qualities of the astral substance is to absorb all scenes and pictures and the impressions of all thoughts, to keep them, and to throw them forth by reflection when the conditions permit. This astral shell, cast off by every man at death, would be a menace to all men were it not in every case, except one which shall be mentioned, devoid of all the higher principles which are the directors. But those guiding constituents being disjoined from the shell, it wavers and floats about from place to place without any will of its own, but governed wholly by attractions in the astral and magnetic fields.