Published on 10 June 2019

• Introduction
• How Our Thought Forms Sometimes Travel to Other People, and Sometimes Stay in Our Own Heads
• How Other People’s Thought Forms May Drift Through Our Heads
• How Our Thoughts Create Mental Filters Through Which We View the World
• How the Stored Energy of Other People’s Thought Forms May Abide in Our Own Minds and Not Discharge Until Our Minds Are Still
• How Our Samskaras, or Latent Tendencies, May Abide in Our Own Minds, and Not Discharge Until Our Minds Are Still
• How These Samskaras May Seem to Take on a Life of Their Own
• On the Nature of the Astral Body, and the Importance of Resisting its Urges
• Are Humans Evil? Does the Devil Tempt Us?

Dear Ones,

INTRODUCTION

Here are passages from “A Textbook of Theosophy” by C.W. Leadbeater, to do with thought-forms, and how they operate within our own minds, and what happens when we send thought-forms to other people’s minds.

Mention is made of how our thoughts create what in my work is termed ‘mental filters’ that blind us to true reality, until we make the conscious effort to clear our minds and elevate our thoughts.

Also addressed are what I term ‘samskaras’, or latent mental tendencies; the importance of overcoming them; and how samskaras may seem to take on a life of their own.

After that are passages from the same book explaining the nature of the astral body, whose urges may make it seem as if there is a devil tempting us, or may lead us to mistake the ‘shadow of the personality’ (as I term it) for the man himself, when in fact these urges are ours to curb and subdue. 

In my own work, these last passages on the astral body might be said to apply to the gut brain, the lower triangle and the Lower Mental Body; and to the life of the Martian bacterial colonists of the human colon …

HOW OUR THOUGHT FORMS SOMETIMES TRAVEL TO OTHER PEOPLE, AND SOMETIMES STAY IN OUR OWN HEADS

“Every thought builds a form; if the thought be directed to another person it travels to him; if it be distinctly selfish it remains in the immediate neighbourhood of the thinker; if it belongs to neither of these categories it floats for awhile in space and then slowly disintegrates. Every man therefore is leaving behind him wherever he goes a trail of thought forms; as we go along the street we are walking all the time amidst a sea of other men’s thoughts.”

HOW OTHER PEOPLE’S THOUGHT FORMS MAY DRIFT THROUGH OUR HEADS

“If a man leaves his mind blank for a time, these residual thoughts of others drift through it, making in most cases but little impression upon him. Sometimes one arrives which attracts his attention, so that his mind seizes upon it and makes it its own, strengthens it by the addition of its force, and then casts it out again to affect somebody else. A man therefore, is not responsible for a thought which floats into his mind, because it may be not his, but someone else’s; but he is responsible if he takes it up, dwells upon it and then sends it out strengthened.”

HOW OUR THOUGHTS CREATE MENTAL FILTERS THROUGH WHICH WE VIEW THE WORLD

“Self-centred thought of any kind hangs about the thinker, and most men surround their mental bodies with a shell of such thoughts. Such a shell obscures the mental vision and facilitates the formation of prejudice.”

HOW THE STORED ENERGY OF OTHER PEOPLE’S THOUGHT FORMS MAY ABIDE IN OUR OWN MINDS AND NOT DISCHARGE UNTIL OUR MINDS ARE STILL

“Each thought-form is a temporary entity. It resembles a charged battery, awaiting an opportunity to discharge itself. Its tendency is always to reproduce its own rate of vibration in the mental body upon which it fastens itself, and so to arouse in it a like thought. If the person at whom it is aimed happens to be busy or already engaged in some definite train of thought, the particles of his mental body are already swinging at a certain determinate rate, and cannot for the moment be affected from without. In that case the thought-form bides its time, hanging about its object until he is sufficiently at rest to permit its entrance; then it discharges itself upon him, and in the act ceases to exist.

HOW OUR SAMSKARAS, OR LATENT TENDENCIES, MAY ABIDE IN OUR OWN MINDS, AND NOT DISCHARGE UNTIL OUR MINDS ARE STILL

“The self-centred thought behaves in exactly the same way with regard to its generator, and discharges itself upon him when opportunity offers. If it be an evil thought, he generally regards it as the suggestion of a tempting demon, whereas in truth he tempts himself.”

HOW THESE SAMSKARAS MAY SEEM TO TAKE ON A LIFE OF THEIR OWN

“Usually each definite thought creates a new thought-form; but if a thought-form of the same nature is already hovering round the thinker, under certain circumstances a new thought on the same subject, instead of creating a new form, coalesces with and strengthens, the old one, so that by long brooding over the same subject a man may sometimes create a thought-form of tremendous power. If the thought be a wicked one, such a thought-form may become a veritable evil influence, lasting perhaps for many years, and having for a time all the appearance and powers of a real living entity.”

–The above six sections are from Citation: “A Textbook of Theosophy,” by C. W. Leadbeater, 1912, Chapter V. The Constitution of Man, paragraphs 25-28 [Subheadings and paragraphing are my own. –Alice]. In Project Gutenberg … http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12902 … This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net ..

Here are other passages from a different chapter of the same book …

ON THE NATURE OF THE ASTRAL BODY, AND THE IMPORTANCE OF RESISTING ITS URGES

This passage might be said to apply to the Gut Brain and the Lower Triangle, and to the life of the Martian colonists of the Human Colon …

“The molecules of the astral body are constantly changing, as are those of the physical body, but nevertheless the life in the mass of those astral molecules has a sense, though a very vague sense, of itself as a whole—as a kind of temporary entity. It does not know that it is part of a man’s astral body; it is quite incapable of understanding what a man is; but it realizes in a blind way that under its present conditions it receives many more waves, and much stronger ones, than it would receive if floating at large in the atmosphere. It would then only occasionally catch, as from a distance, the radiation of man’s passions and emotions; now it is in the very heart of them, it can miss none, and it gets them at their strongest.

“Therefore it feels itself in a good position, and it makes an effort to retain that position. It finds itself in contact with something finer than itself—the matter of the man’s mental body; and it comes to feel that if it can contrive to involve that finer something in its own undulations, they will be greatly intensified and prolonged.”

ARE HUMANS EVIL? DOES THE DEVIL TEMPT US?

“Since astral matter is the vehicle of desire and mental matter is the vehicle of thought, this instinct, when translated into our language, means that if the astral body can induce us to think that we want what it wants, it is much more likely to get it. Thus it exercises a slow steady pressure upon the man—a kind of hunger on its side, but for him a temptation to what is coarse and undesirable. If he be a passionate man there is a gentle but ceaseless pressure in the direction of irritability; if he be a sensual man, an equally steady pressure in the direction of impurity.”

“A man who does not understand this usually makes one of two mistakes with regard to it: either he supposes it to be the prompting of his own nature, and therefore regards that nature as inherently evil, or he thinks of the pressure as coming from outside—as a temptation of an imaginary devil. The truth lies between the two.

“The pressure is natural, not to the man but to the vehicle which he is using; its desire is natural and right for it, but harmful to the man, and therefore it is necessary that he should resist it. If he does so resist, if he declines to yield himself to the feelings suggested to him, the particles within him which need those vibrations become apathetic for lack of nourishment, and eventually atrophy and fall out from his astral body, and are replaced by other particles, whose natural wave-rate is more nearly in accordance with that which the man habitually permits within his astral body.”

–The above two sections are from … Citation: “A Textbook of Theosophy,” by C.W. Leadbeater, 1912, Chapter VI. After Death … paragraphs 8-10 [Subheadings and paragraphing are mine. –Alice] … from Project Gutenberg … http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12902 …This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net …

In love, light and joy,
I Am of the Stars

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Except where otherwise noted, “Awakening with Planet Earth” by Alice B. Clagett … https://awakeningwithplanetearth.com … is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0) … https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ ..

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