DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1173#0073
58
THOUGHT-FORMS
convenient to take them in reverse order. They were
called forth by a terrible accident, and they are instructive
as showing how differently people are affected by sudden
and serious danger. One form shows nothing but an
eruption of the livid grey of fear, rising out of a basis of
utter selfishness : and unfortunately there were many such
as this. The shattered appearance of the thought-form
shows the violence and completeness of the explosion,
which in turn indicates that the whole soul of that person
was possessed with blind, frantic terror, and that the
overpowering sense of personal danger excluded for the
time every higher feeling.
The second form represents at least an attempt at
self-control, and shows the attitude adopted by a person
having a certain amount of religious feeling. The
thinker is seeking solace in prayer, and endeavouring in
this way to overcome her fear. This is indicated by
the point of greyish-blue which lifts itself hesitatingly
upwards ; the colour shows, however, that the effort is
but partially successful, and we see also from the lower
part of the thought-form, with its irregular outline and its
falling fragments, that there is in reality almost as much
fright here as in the other case. But at least this woman
has had presence of mind enough to remember that she
ought to pray, and is trying to imagine that she is not
afraid as she does it, whereas in the other case there was
absolutely no thought beyond selfish terror. The one
retains still some semblance of humanity, and some
possibility of regaining self-control; the other has for
the time cast aside all remnants of decency, and is an
abject slave to overwhelming emotion.
A very striking contrast to the humiliating weakness
THOUGHT-FORMS
convenient to take them in reverse order. They were
called forth by a terrible accident, and they are instructive
as showing how differently people are affected by sudden
and serious danger. One form shows nothing but an
eruption of the livid grey of fear, rising out of a basis of
utter selfishness : and unfortunately there were many such
as this. The shattered appearance of the thought-form
shows the violence and completeness of the explosion,
which in turn indicates that the whole soul of that person
was possessed with blind, frantic terror, and that the
overpowering sense of personal danger excluded for the
time every higher feeling.
The second form represents at least an attempt at
self-control, and shows the attitude adopted by a person
having a certain amount of religious feeling. The
thinker is seeking solace in prayer, and endeavouring in
this way to overcome her fear. This is indicated by
the point of greyish-blue which lifts itself hesitatingly
upwards ; the colour shows, however, that the effort is
but partially successful, and we see also from the lower
part of the thought-form, with its irregular outline and its
falling fragments, that there is in reality almost as much
fright here as in the other case. But at least this woman
has had presence of mind enough to remember that she
ought to pray, and is trying to imagine that she is not
afraid as she does it, whereas in the other case there was
absolutely no thought beyond selfish terror. The one
retains still some semblance of humanity, and some
possibility of regaining self-control; the other has for
the time cast aside all remnants of decency, and is an
abject slave to overwhelming emotion.
A very striking contrast to the humiliating weakness