Theos-Talk Archives (April 2001 Message tt00149)

Friday, April 27, 2001
Since there have been a number of inquiries concerning Devachan
and Kamaloka here are some quotations on the subject which might
be of use to students.

Best wishes,

DTB

----------------------------------

KAMALOKA


KAMA - DESIRE AND PASSIONS


Kama (Sk.). Evil desire, lust, volition; the
cleaving to existence [tanha]. Kama is generally identified with
Mara the tempter." (See SD II 578-9) GLOS 170



"...the brute in us is made of the passions and the astral body.
The development of the germs of Mind made man because it
constituted the great differentiation. The God within begins
with Manas or Mind, and it is the struggle between this God and
the brute below which Theosophy speaks of and warns about. The
lower principle is called "bad" because by comparison with the
higher it is so, but still, it is the basis for action. We
cannot rise unless self first asserts itself in the desire to do
better. In this aspect it is called rajas or the active and
"bad" quality, as distinguished from tamas, or the quality of
darkness and indifference...rajas [gives] the impulse, and by the
use of this principle of passion all the higher qualities are
brought to at last so refine and elevate our desires that they
may be continually placed upon truth and spirit...Theosophy does
not teach that the passions are to be pandered to or satiated,
for a more pernicious doctrine was never taught, but the
injunction is to make use of the activity given by the 4th
principle so as to rise and not to fall under the dominion of the
dark quality that ends with annihilation, after having begun is
selfishness and indifference..." OCEAN 49-50



KAMARUPA


Kamarupa (Sk.). Metaphysically...in esoteric philosophy,
it is the subjective form created through the mental and physical
desires and thoughts in connection with things of matter, by all
sentient beings, a form which survives the death of their bodies.
After death 3 of the 7 "principles"--or let us say planes of
senses and consciousness on which the human instincts and
ideation act in turn--viz., the body, its astral prototype and
physical vitality,--being of no further use, remain on earth;
the 3 higher principles, grouped into one, merge into the state
of Devachan, in which state the Higher Ego [Higher Manas] will
remain until the hour for a new incarnation arrives; and the
eidolon of the ex-Personality is left alone in its new abode.
Here the pale copy of the man that was, vegetates for a period of
time, the duration of which is variable and according to the
element of materiality which is left in it, and which is
determined by the past life of the defunct. Bereft as it is of
its higher mind, spirit and physical senses, if left alone to its
own senseless devices, it will gradually fade out and
disintegrate. But, if forcibly drawn back into the terrestrial
sphere whether by the passionate desires and appeals of the
surviving friends or by regular necromantic practices--one of the
most pernicious of which is mediumship--the "spook" may prevail
for a period greatly exceeding the span of the natural life of
its body. One the Kamarupa has learnt the way back to living
human bodies, it becomes a vampire, feeding on the vitality of
those who are so anxious for its company..."
GLOS 172 (see KEY p. 143-4, ML 108-9 112
118 198) A to Q 65 240)(see SD I 334 260 337fn VOICE 12fn)


"...the word Kama...means "desire,"...the 4th principle was the
"body or mass of desires and passions." [GITA NOTES, p. 197: --
"Western psychology in classifications refers solely to mental
states...[Eastern} and the ancient sages classifies the moral
states, treating the mental states as mere effects produced by
moral conditions...It lays bare unsuspected bases of error; it
discloses the most subtle forms of self-delusion; it marks out
the true course so painstakingly that the dullest mind cannot
fail to grasp a clear perception of the path to true knowledge."]
...The west divides man into intellect, will and feeling, but it
is not understood whether the passions and desires constitute a
principle in themselves or are due entirely to the
body..."desires of the flesh"..."fleshly appetites." OCEAN 45


"The passions and desires are not produced by the body...on the
contrary, the body is caused by the former. it is desire and
passion which caused us to be born, and will bring us to birth
again and again in some body on this earth...[it] is the balance
principle of the whole 7. It stands in the middle, and from it
the ways go up or down. It is the basis of action, and the mover
of the will..."Behind will stands desire." OCEAN 46


"The astral man in kama loca is a mere shell devoid of soul
[Higher Mind] and mind [Kama Manas], 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...every atom...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...devoid
of all the higher guiding principles which are the directors.
But those guiding principles 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...Soulless and conscienceless, these in no sense
are the spirits of our deceased ones. They are the clothing
thrown off by the inner man, the brutal earthly portion discarded
in the flight to devachan, and so have always been considered by
the ancients as devils...because essentially astral earthy and
passional...[they] retain an automatic memory and consciousness
[after being for so long the vehicle of the real man on
earth]..."
OCEAN 103-104


[Low desires] the constant placing of the consciousness entirely
below in the body or astral body... [High desires] the
influence of and aspiration to the trinity above, of Mind, Buddhi
and Spirit...

[During life] the emplacement of the desires and passions
is...throughout the entire lower man...it may be added to or
diminished, made weak or increased in strength, debased or
purified.

[After death] it (Kama) informs the astral body, which then
becomes a mere shell; for when a man dies his astral body and
principle of passion and desire leave the physical in company and
coalesce, It is then that the term Kamarupa may be applied, as
Kamarupa is really made of astral body and Kama in conjunction,
and this joining of the two makes a shape or form which though
ordinarily invisible is material and may be brought into
visibility.

Although it is empty of mind and conscience, it has powers of its
own that can be exercised whenever the conditions permit. These
conditions are furnished by the medium of the spiritualists, and
in every seance room the astral shells of deceased persons are
always present to delude the sitters... For the astral spook--or
Kamarupa--is but the mass of the desires and passions abandoned
by the real person who has fled to "heaven and has no concern
with the people left behind, least of all with seances and
mediums.

Hence, being devoid of the nobler soul, these desires and
passions work only on the very lowest part of the medium's nature
and stir up no good elements, but always the lower leanings of
the being...

The Kamarupa spook is the enemy of our civilization, which
permits us to execute men for crimes committed and thus throws
out into the ether the mass of passion and desire free from the
weight of the body and liable at any moment to be attracted to
any sensitive person. Being thus attracted, the deplorable
images of crimes committed and also the picture of the execution
and all the accompanying curses and wishes for revenge are
implanted in living persons, who, not seeing the evil, are unable
to throw it off. Thus crimes and new ideas of crimes are
willfully propagated every day by those countries where capital
punishment prevails." OCEAN 47-48


"The astral shells together with the still living astral body of
the medium, helped by...forces of nature ... [called]
"elementals" produce nearly all the phenomena of non-fraudulent
spiritualism...[examples given]...in all this using and being
used by the shells of suicides, executed murderers, and all such
spooks as are naturally near to this plane of life...the astral
shells of suicides and executed criminals are the most coherent,
longest lived, and nearest to us of all the shades of Hades, and
hence must, out of the necessity of the case, be the real
"controls" of the seance room." OCEAN 48-49


KAMA LOKA


Kamaloka (Sk.). The semi-material plane, to us subjective
and invisible, where the disembodied "personalities," the astral
forms, called kamarupa remain, until they fade out from it by the
complete exhaustion of the effects of the mental impulses that
created these eidolons of human and animal passions and
desires...It is the Hades of the ancient Greeks and Amenti of the
Egyptians, the land of Silent Shadows; a division of the first
group of the Trailokya. (see Kamadhatu T. Glossary. 171) GLOS
171-2
(See ML 108-9 112 198 187- a few hours to a few years -
LUCIFER III 174 - muddy torrents of K L -


Trailokya (Sk.). The 3 regions or worlds...of post mortem
states....Kamaloka or Kamadhatu, the region of Mara, is...the
world of astral light, and the "world of shells." [it] has 7
divisions, the lowest of which begins on earth or invisibly in
its atmosphere...the highest being the abode of those who have
died owing to accident, or suicide in a fit of temporary
insanity, or were otherwise victims of external forces. It is a
place where all those who have died before the end of the term
allotted to them, and whose higher principles do not, therefore,
go at once into Devachanic state--sleep a dreamless sleep of
oblivion, at the termination of which they are either reborn
immediately, or pass gradually into the Devachanic state.
Rupadhatu [2nd state of Trailokya] is the celestial world of
form, or what we call Devachan...the Esoteric Philosophy teaches
that though for the Egos for the time being, everything or every
one preserves its form (as in a dream), yet as Rupadhatu is a
purely mental region, and a state, the Egos themselves have no
form outside of their own consciousness. Esotericism divides
this "region" into 7 Dhyanas, "regions," or states of
contemplation, which are not localities, but mental
representations of these. Arupadhatu [3rd state]...is again
divided into 7 Dhyanas, still more abstract and formless, for
this "World" is without any form or desire whatever. It is the
highest region...the abode of those who are almost ready for
Nirvana..." T. GLOS. 236-7


Kama loka--or the place of desire--is the astral region
penetrating and surrounding the earth. As a place it is and on
and about the earth. Its extent is to a measurable distance from
the earth, but the ordinary laws obtaining here do not obtain
there, and entities therein are not under the same conditions as
to space and time as we are. As a state it is
metaphysical...[relating] to the astral plane...in it the ruling
force is desire devoid of and divorced from intelligence. It is
an astral sphere intermediate between earthly and heavenly
life...the origin of purgatory....the soul may be detained in
kamaloca by the enormous force of some unsatisfied desire, and
cannot get rid of the astral and kamic clothing until that desire
is satisfied by someone on earth or by the soul itself.

But if the person was pure minded and of high aspirations, the
separation of the principles on that plane is soon completed,
permitting the higher triad to go into devachan.

Being the purely astral sphere, it partakes of the nature of
astral matter which is essentially earthly and devilish, and in
it all the forces work undirected by soul or conscience. It is
the slag-pit...of the great furnace of life, where nature
provides for the sloughing off of elements which have no place in
devachan...it must have many degrees...lokas or places in a
metaphysical sense....in kama loca all the hidden desires and
passions are let loose in consequence of the absence of the body,
and for that reason the state is more diversified than the life
plane." OCEAN 100-1


"...in kama-loca this mass of desire and thoughts exists very
definitely until the conclusion of its disintegration, and then
the remainder consists of the essence of those skandhas,
connected...with the being that evolved and had them...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 a germ or basis builds up a new set of skandhas for
the new life." OCEAN 103


"A rough classification of these shells that visit mediums would
be as follows:

1. Those of the recently deceased, whose place of burial is
not far away [ Protestant Christian Churches are often located
in or near a burial field or persons buried in the Church
itself ] This class will be quite coherent in accordance with the
life and thought of the former owner. An unmaterial, good, and
spiritualized person leaves a shell that will soon disintegrate.
A gross, mean, selfish, material person's shell will be heavy,
consistent, and long lived...

2. Those of persons who died far away from the place where
the medium is. Lapse of time permits such to escape from the
vicinity of their old bodies, and at the same time brings on a
greater degree of disintegration which corresponds on the astral
plane to putrefaction of the physical. These are vague, shadowy,
incoherent; respond but briefly to the psychic stimulus, and are
whirled off by any magnetic current. They are galvanized for a
moment by the astral currents of the medium and of those persons
present who were related to the deceased.

3. Purely shadowy remains which can hardly be given a
place...the mere mold or impress left in the astral substance by
the once coherent shell long since disintegrated...[almost]
fictitious...such shadowy photographs ...are enlarged, decorated,
and given an imaginary life by the thoughts, desires, hopes and
imaginings of medium and sitters at the seance.

4. ( see description of "Elementaries" under that heading in
this paper )

"...suicides and those who are suddenly shot out of life by
accident or murder, legal or illegal, pass a term almost equal to
the length life would have been but for the sudden termination.
These are not really dead. To bring on a normal death, a factor
not recognized by medical science must be present. That is, the
principles of the being...have their own term of cohesion, at the
natural end of which they separate from each other under their
own laws...before that natural end the principles are unable to
separate...the normal destruction of the cohesive force cannot be
brought about by mechanical processes except in respect to the
physical body. Hence a suicide, or person killed in an accident
or murdered by man or by order of human law, has not come to the
natural termination of the cohesion among the other constituents,
and is hurled into the kamaloca state only partly dead. There
the remaining principles have to wait until the actual natural
life term is reached, whether it be one month or sixty years."
OCEAN p. 105-108

[End of kama loca] After a certain time in kama loca the being
falls into a state of unconsciousness which precedes the change
into the next state. It is like the birth into life, preluded by
a term of darkness and heavy sleep. It then wakes to the joys of
devachan." OCEAN p. 108



SKANDHAS - THE VEHICLES OF KARMA


[kama]...the 4th principle in the classification of man's
constitution...they are not merely inherent in the individual nor
are they due to the body per se. While man is living in the
world the desires and passions--kama--have no separate life apart
from the astral and inner man, being...diffused throughout his
being. But...they coalesce with the astral body after death and
thus form an entity with its own term of life, though without
soul...During mortal life the desires and passions are guided by
the mind and soul [Higher Manas]; after death they work without
guidance from the former master; while we live we are
responsible for them and their effects, and when we have left
this life we are still responsible, although they go on working
and making effects on others while they last as the sort of
entity...without our direct guidance. In this is seen the
continuance of responsibility. They are a portion of the
skandhas...which are the aggregates that make up man. The body
includes on set of the skandhas, the astral man another, the kama
principle is another set, and still others pertain to other
parts. In kama are the really active and important ones which
control rebirths and lead to all the varieties of life and
circumstances upon each rebirth, They are being made from day to
day under the great law that every thought combines instantly
with one of the elemental forces of nature, becoming to that
extent an entity which will endure in accordance with the
strength of the thought as it leaves the brain, and all of these
are inseparably connected with the being [man] who evolved
them...all we can do is to have thoughts of good quality...the
Masters are not exempt from this law, but they "people their
current in space" with thoughts powerful for good alone."
OCEAN 101-102


ELEMENTARIES - SOULLESS ENTITIES


Elementary/ies Disembodied souls of the
depraved; these souls having at some time prior to death
separated from themselves their divine spirits, and so lost their
chance for immortality...these souls remain in their Kama-rupic
envelopes, and are irresistibly drawn to the earth amid elements
congenial to their gross natures. Their stay in the Kamaloka
varies as to its duration; but ends invariably in
disintegration, dissolving like a column of mist, atom by atom,
in the surrounding elements." GLOS 112



"In certain cases [seances, mediumship, etc...] to be noted there
is an intelligence at work that is wholly and intensely bad, to
which every medium is subject, and which will explain why so many
of them have succumbed to evil, as they have
confessed...Definite, coherent entities, human souls bereft of
the spiritual tie, now tending down to the worst state of all,
avitchi, where annihilation of the personality is the end.

BLACK MAGICIANS

They are known as black magicians. Having centered the
consciousness in the principle kama, preserved intellect,
divorced themselves from spirit, they are the only damned beings
we know. In life they had human bodies and reached their awful
state by persistent lives of evil for its own sake; some of such
are already doomed to become what I have described are among us
on earth to-day. These are not ordinary shells, for they have
centered their force in kama, thrown out every spark of good
thought or aspiration, and have a complete mastery of the astral
sphere...[they are classified as shells] because they are such in
the sense that they are doomed to disintegration consciously as
the others are to the same end mechanically only. They may and
do last for centuries, gratifying their lusts through any
sensitive they can lay hold of where bad thought gives then an
opening. They preside at nearly all seances, assuming high names
and taking the direction so as to keep the control and continue
the delusion of the medium, thus enabling themselves to have a
convenient channel for their own evil purposes.

Indeed, with the shells of suicides, of those poor wretches who
die at the hand of the law, of drunkards and gluttons, these
black magicians living in the astral world hold the field of
physical mediumship and are liable to invade the sphere of any
medium no matter how good. The door once open, it is open to
all.

This class of shell has lost higher manas, but in the struggle
not only after death but as well in life the lower portion of
manas which should have been raised up to godlike excellence was
torn away from its lord and now gives this entity intelligence
which is devoid of spirit but has power to suffer as it will
when its final day shall come." OCEAN p. 105-107


ELEMENTALS - NATURE SPRITES AND FORCES


Elemental/s Spirits of the Elements. The creatures evolved
in the 4 Kingdoms or Elements--earth, air, fire, and water. They
are called by the Kabalists, Gnomes (of the earth), Sylphs (of
the air), Salamanders (of the fire), and Undines (of the water).
Except a few of the higher kind and their rulers they are rather
forces of nature than ethereal men and women...as the servile
agents of the Occultists, may produce various effects; but if
employed by the "Elmentaries" --in which case they enslave the
mediums--they will deceive the credulous. All the lower beings
generated on the 5th, 6th and 7th planes of our terrestrial
atmosphere, are called Elementals..." GLOS 111-112


"Existing in the sphere of kama loka, as...also in all
parts of the globe and the solar system, are the elementals or
nature forces. They are innumerable, and their divisions are
almost infinite...they are...the nerves of nature. Each class has
its own work just as has every natural element or thing...the
elementals act under law, but being higher in the scale than
gross fire or water their action seems guided by mind. Some of
them have a special relation to mental operations and to mental
operations and to the action of the astral organs, whether these
be joined to a body or not. When a medium forms the channel, and
also from other natural coordinations, these elementals make an
artificial connection with the shell of a deceased person, aided
by the nervous fluid of the medium and others near, and then the
shell is galvanized into an artificial life. Through the medium
connection is made with the physical and psychical forces of all
present. The old impressions of the astral body given up their
images to the mind of the medium, the old passions are set on
fire. Various messages and reports are then obtained from it,
but not one of them is original, not one is from the spirit. By
their strangeness...this is mistaken for the work of the spirit,
but it is all from the living when it is not the mere picking out
from the astral light of the images of what has been in the
past." OCEAN p. 104-5



CHANNELING - MEDIUMSHIP - SEANCES - PSYCHIC PHENOMENA


"...psychical phenomena...related to spiritualism...has
been well known in India where it is properly designated "bhuta
worship," meaning the attempt to communicate with the devil or
Astral remnants of deceased persons...by it the gross and
devilish, or earthly, parts of men are excited, appealed to, and
communicated with." OCEAN 146


"Do mediums communicate with the spirits of the dead ? Do our
departed friends perceive the state of life they have left, and
do they sometimes return to speak to and with us? ....Our
departed do not see us here. They are relieved from the terrible
pang such a sight would inflict.

Once in a while a pure-minded, unpaid medium may ascend in trance
to the state in which a deceased soul is, and may remember some
bits of what was there heard; but this is rare.

Now and then in the course of decades some high human spirit may
for a moment return and by unmistakable means communicate with
mortals.

At the moment of death the soul may speak to some friend on earth
before the door is finally shut.

But the mass of communications alleged as made day after day
through mediums are from the astral unintelligent remains of men,
or in many cases entirely the production of, invention,
compilation, discovery and collocation by the loosely attached
Astral body of the living medium." OCEAN 147


"Materialization of a form out of the air...is a fact...one way
to produce this...is by the accretion of electrical and magnetic
particles into one mass upon which matter is aggregated and an
image reflected out of the astral sphere...the second method is
by the use of the astral body of the living medium...[it] exudes
from the side of the medium, gradually collects upon itself
particles extracted from the air and the bodies of the sitters
present until at last it becomes visible...in almost every
instance dimness of light is requisite because a high light would
disturb the astral substance in a violent manner and render the
projection difficult. Some so-called materializations are hollow
mockeries, as they are but flat plates of electrical and magnetic
substance on which pictures from the astral light are reflected.
These seem to be the faces of the dead, but they are simply
pictured illusions." OCEAN 149




ASTRAL LIGHT - ASTRAL BODY - MEDIUMSHIP - SEANCES


"...the intermediary between mind and body--the astral body--is
thrown off at death and left in the astral light to fade away;
and...the real man goes to Devachan.

The existence, nature, power and function of the astral light and
its place as a register in Nature. That it contains, retains,
and reflects pictures of each and every thing that happened to
anyone, and also every thought; that it permeates the globe and
the atmosphere around it; that the transmission of vibration
through it is practically instantaneous, since the rate is much
quicker than that of electricity as now known.

The existence in the astral light of beings not using bodies like
ours, but not human in their nature, having powers, faculties,
and a sort of consciousness of their own; these include the
elemental forces or nature sprites divided into many degrees, and
which have to do with every operation of Nature and every motion
of the mind of man. That these elementals act at seances
automatically in their various departments, one class presenting
pictures, another producing sounds, and others depolarizing
objects for the purposes of apportation. Acting with them in the
astral sphere are the soulless men who live in it. To these are
ascribed the phenomenon, among others, of the "independent
voice," always sounding like a voice in a barrel just because it
is made in a vacuum which is absolutely necessary for an entity
so far removed from spirit...

The astral body of the medium...extended from the physical body,
may also extrude at times any portion of itself such as hand,
arm, or leg and thereby move objects, indite letters, produce
touches on the body, and so on...and the astral body of any
person may be made to feel sensation...transmitted to the brain,
causes the person to think he is touched on the outside or has
heard a sound.

Mediumship is dangerous because the astral part of the man is now
only normal in action when joined to the body...to become a
medium means that you have to become disorganized physiologically
and in the nervous system, because through the latter is the
connection between the two worlds. The moment the door is opened
all the unknown forces rush in, and, as the grosser part of
nature is nearest to us it is that part which affects us most;
the lower nature is also first affected and inflamed because the
forces used are from that part of us. We are then at the mercy
of the vile thoughts or all men, and subject to the influence of
the shells in Kama Loka...

To attempt to acquire the use of the psychic powers for mere
curiosity or for selfish ends is also dangerous for the same
reasons as in the case of mediumship. As the...present day is
selfish to the last degree and built on the personal element, the
rules for these powers in the right way have not been given out,
but the Masters of Wisdom have said that philosophy and ethics
must first be learned and practiced before any development of the
other department [psychism] is indulged in...

Equally improper is the manner of the scientific schools
which...indulge in experiments in hypnotism in which the subjects
are injured for life... For this reason, those who know all about
the psychical world, its denizens and laws, are proceeding with a
reform in morals and philosophy before any great attention will
be accorded to the strange and seductive phenomena possible for
the inner powers of man." OCEAN 150 - 152


[ In chapter 16 of The Ocean of Theosophy, Mr. Judge gives
explanations for the various types of psychic phenomena, e.g.:
clairvoyance, Clairaudience, thought-transference, prophecy,
dream and vision, levitation, apparitional appearances. In
chapter 17 he gives facts that relate to Psychic Phenomena and
Spiritualism.]


[ In The Key to Theosophy Mme. Blavatsky gives the same general
facts relating to Kama-loca and to Devachan, and traces the
progress of the principles of man after the death of the body.
Skandhas are considered by her as the "carriers" of man's karma.
KEY pp. 143 - 226 ]