Theos-Talk Archives (April 2005 Message tt00110)

" A dead man is often aware of the feelings of the family that he has 
left. If you try to think exactly what it is that can be manifested 
through the astral body, you may easily see how much he is likely to 
know. He does not necessarily follow in detail all the events of the 
physical life; he does not necessarily know what his friends are 
eating, or in what occupations they are engaged. But he knows whether 
they are glad or sorry, and he is at once aware of such feelings as 
love or hate, jealousy or envy. 
7.  
When a drunkard hovers about a gin-shop it is only by partial 
materialisation (that is, by drawing round himself a veil of etheric 
matter) that he can draw in the odour of the alcohol. He does not 
smell it in at all the same sense as we do; and that is why he is 
always anxious to force others into the condition of drunkenness, so 
that he may be able partially to enter their physical bodies and 
obsess them, so that through those bodies he can once more directly 
experience the taste and the other sensations which he so ardently 
desires. 

8.  
In the astral body there are exact counterparts of the eyes and the 
nose and the mouth, but we must not therefore think that the astral 
man sees with those eyes, hears with those ears, or can smell or 
taste through the nose or mouth. All the matter of the astral body is 
constantly in rapid motion from one part of it to another, so that it 
is quite impossible for any astral particles to be specialised in the 
same way as certain nerve-ends are specialised in the physical body. 
The senses of the astral body act not through special organs, but 
through every particle of the body, so that with astral sight a man 
can see equally well with any part of his body, and can see all 
around him simultaneously, instead of only in front of him. He could 
grasp at the astral counterpart of the hand of a living man, but as 
the two hands would pass through one another without any sense of 
contact, there would be no object in his doing so. It is, however, 
perfectly possible for him to materialise a hand which, though 
invisible, can be felt just as the ordinary physical hand can be, as 
may often be observed at séances. "

Complete book can be read at

http://www.anandgholap.net/Inner_Life_Vol_II-CWL.htm