For this portion of the Higher Manas actually refracted or incarnated in matter is ourself - the "I am myself of our earthly life. Could it remain simply a portion of the Higher, its functions and fate might be different; but this is impossible. As the pure ray of light is colored by the color of the glass which transmits it until it is indistinguishable from that tint, so is the Lower Manas colored and changed by its contact with Kama (sensuous desire), the chief and ruler of the earthly Quaternary. All the fierce desires, the unrest, the sensuous appetites, the "lusts of the flesh," of the latter at once seize upon it, and impart to it that curious mixture of the animal with the Divine which we name the lower self, or Personality. This could not occur had not the kamic Principle in the lower Quaternary been already evolved to a point where it is not only able to receive the magnetic impress of Manas, but to color this with its own qualities of passion and desire.

* ARMA - the sequence of causes and their effects. Karmically - brought about under the law of cause and effect, etc. Used in this work to avoid cumbersome English phraseology only.

† KAMA - Sanscrit for desire, especially associated with animal or non - intellectualized desire.

It is the opinion of the writer that it must not be inferred from the above that only a portion, as it were, of the Higher Manas incarnates in the lower Quaternary, leaving the rest to enjoy a kind of superior consciousness upon other planes. While the teaching is reserved upon this point, still there is enough given out, in the Secret Doctrine and elsewhere, to make it reasonably certain that each individuality has but one center of consciousness, and that this is not in full activity in two places, nor in two or more states, at the same time. While it is active upon one plane it may have a subconsciousness on others, just as we may be reading and yet be conscious of noise about us. But this is only a subconsciousness, not a splitting of it. Therefore, when once the Higher Manas has perfected its vehicle sufficiently to permit this, it would seem that it only functions through that vehicle when this is active, for its very activity compels its use as a vehicle. In other words, our "I am myself," or individualizing center of consciousness which comes from the Higher Manas and is its distinguishing characteristic, is functioning actively only through the body when this is in the waking state, although its subconsciousness may extend over many higher planes.

When the body ceases its activity, as in sleep or death, then it can of course retire to its own proper spheres, to be dragged down from these by its kamic connection with the body when this awakens. It follows, then, that when awake and occupied by material or sensuous thoughts only, the Higher Manas is simply paralyzed - its consciousness upon this plane a potentiality only, somewhat, perhaps, like that of the lower consciousness when inhibited by hypnotism. This is its daily crucifixion, and the true meaning of all the religious myths of crucified Saviours.

Yet, though the Higher Manas be paralyzed as to conscious functioning, it cannot be said to be wholly or even partially incarnated in the body, nor is it even ever fully conscious upon this plane except when its Higher and Lower aspects have been enabled to unite, through the latter having conquered in its contest with Kama. The oneness and yet the separateness of the Higher and Lower Manas is one of the hardest of mystic teachings to understand. It is another illustration of the "Same and the Other" of which Plato taught that the Universe was constructed. Perhaps the phenomena of an ordinary Faradic electrical battery may help us, by analogy, to a better conception. In this, the current, generated by the zinc and carbon, or other elements, in the presence of an acid or saline solution, is passed through a coil of insulated wire. Around this, in what is technically termed the helix, is coiled another wire, also completely insulated, and entirely disconnected from the first, or "primary," coil. There ought, therefore, to be no current in this latter, or "secondary," coil, yet the instant the current from the chemical cell is passed through the primary coil there is set up in the secondary at each opening and closing of the primary circuit a modified current, known as "induced" electricity.

Because there has been no actual contact between the two coils, this secondary current is thus said to have been produced by "induction" - one of those convenient terms by means of which science seems to explain so much, while really explaining nothing. Without attempting to account for the real origin of this induced current, except to point out that the electro-dynamic waves in the ether, discovered by Prof. Hertz of Bonn, will give all necessary clews, the analogy to the origin of the Lower Manas and its relation to the Higher is very close. The presence of the Higher Manas, overshadowing the body, originates a distinct Thinking Principle in the brain of the latter, in a manner strikingly similar to the induced current of electricity - that is, by imparting to the latter its own essential qualities. Thus it can be at once seen that, while the Lower Manas is caused by and is of the very essence of the Higher, it is yet distinct without being separate. Withdraw the primary current, and the induced will disappear; withdraw the Higher Manas, and the Lower perishes, the chief distinction being in the slower process in the latter case.

Perhaps a closer analogy to the behavior of the Higher and Lower Thinking Principles after death is afforded in the phenomena of transferred magnetism just referred to. For, in the illustration given, when artificial magnetism has been imparted to nonmagnetic iron, upon the withdrawal of the true magnet is seen almost identically that phenomenon which takes place upon the separation of the Higher and Lower Manas. A portion of magnetism remains in the iron, to be slowly or quickly dissipated, as the case may be; it having apparently become entangled, so to speak, in the molecules of the latter, or having, more correctly, caused a polarized arrangement among those molecules whose vibratory ratio exhibits the qualities of magnetism. So, at death, only that portion of the Lower Manas is withdrawn which is untainted by Kama. That portion colored by Kama is left; a residue, having, by virtue of its original Manasic origin, enough still of the unconscious creative power, before referred to, to clothe itself with an astral form; thus constituting the "Kama Rupa," which, senseless and fallen as it is, is still the "guide" of many a poor, obsessed "medium." For while having no center of consciousness capable of feeling and functioning as such, still it is capable again, by virtue of its Manasic origin, of having a false feeling of personality reflected into it by the Lower Manas of a "medium." This reflection may so synthesize its fading consciousness as to enable it to connect itself with its past life, and to relate the leading events of this quite accurately.