Opening Remarks
Here upon earth we depend upon matter and material processes and senses for everything. In the vital world however the means and the instruments are both adapted to the needs of that world. It is the playground meant to express the vital forces and energies without hindrance.
Matter is result not cause
There Matter is soul’s result and not its cause.
The beings of the vital world can create forms out of inner state and dissolve it as well.
Contrary balance
In a contrary balance to earth’s truth of things
The gross weighs less, the subtle counts for more;
On inner values hangs the outer plan.
The values and truths of the vital world are very different from those of the earth. Subtle things and inner truths have a greater value than gross. The subtle is more concrete there while the earthly concrete appears comparatively inert and unreal.
Interior might
As quivers with the thought the expressive word,
As yearns the act with the passion of the soul
This world’s apparent sensible design
Looks vibrant back to some interior might.
Here we ordinarily become conscious of our thoughts and feelings only when they find expression in speech or take the form of words or manifests in action. But always behind the word there is the power of thought that remains hidden; behind the act the power of some inmost soul-state is concealed that gives the sanction. So also So also behind all that we sense in the world there is a complex play of powers and forces that vibrate to build perceptible and conceivable forms.
Not limited by external sense
A Mind not limited by external sense
Gave figures to the spirit’s imponderables,
The world’s impacts without channels registered
And turned into the body’s concrete thrill
The vivid workings of a bodiless Force;
Powers here subliminal that act unseen
Or in ambush crouch waiting behind the wall
Came out in front uncovering their face.
These hidden forces and powers that our outer senses cannot register find a free and open expression in the vital world. The mind tries to bind the free Spirit in predictable patterns whereas the vital body perceived the forces directly, as if in the open without cover or wall.
The occult grew covert
The occult grew there overt, the obvious kept
A covert turn and shouldered the unknown;
The unseen was felt and jostled visible shapes.
What we call as occult here is simply because our senses cannot perceive certain vibrations and frequencies that belong to other worlds. But these forces can be felt naturally by means native to these worlds. Hence what is occult here grows covert there. But there ere many depths in creation and the play of vital forces in this domain conceals yet other layers that remain unknown to the beings there.
The law of vital interchange
In the communion of two meeting minds
Thought looked at thought and had no need of speech;
Emotion clasped emotion in two hearts,
They felt each other’s thrill in the flesh and nerves
Or melted each in each and grew immense
As when two houses burn and fire joins fire:
Hate grappled hate and love broke in on love,
Will wrestled with will on mind’s invisible ground;
Others’ sensations passing through like waves
Left quivering the subtle body’s frame,
Their anger rushed galloping in brute attack,
A charge of trampling hooves on shaken soil;
One felt another’s grief invade the breast,
Another’s joy exulting ran through the blood:
Hearts could draw close through distance, voices near
That spoke upon the shore of alien seas.
The vital world can communicate itself through a subtle interchange of energy without necessarily using the bodily instruments. It can reach out to a distance when we think fondly of someone; it can attract or repel, bring two beings close or draw them apart by a direct exchange of their energies. The will burdened with vital energies can trigger a similar or contrary response in other hearts, goodwill and bad-will affect other lives directly thereby helping or harming without visible means of interchange. The forces of anger and lust, joy and grief can all spread rapidly and swiftly from one to another as if by diffusion and contagion. Such is the law of vital interchange whose impact upon our lives is enormous though seldom recognised.
Consciousness replied to consciousness
There beat a throb of living interchange:
Being felt being even when afar
And consciousness replied to consciousness.
The vital forces can not only reach out easily to another but also induce similar states of consciousness by contamination. In fact all vital forces such as joy and sorrow are infectious and can spread from one to another. Such is the nature of these energies as they play freely in the Life-worlds and whose impact one can also experience here.
Closing Remarks
Unlike the physical world, the vital worlds and its beings are not closed containers. They can readily and rapidly diffuse and melt and change from one to the other.
