Besant, Annie; Leadbeater, Charles W.: Thought-Forms (London, 1905)

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THOUGHT-FORMS

course, a necessary step in our evolution. This ought to
be universally known among Christian nations, but it is
not, and therefore on this point, as on so many others,
Theosophy has a gospel for the Western world. It has
to announce that there is no gloomy impenetrable abyss
beyond the grave, but instead of that a world of life and
light which may be known to us as clearly and fully
and accurately as this physical world in which we live
now. We have created the gloom and the horror for
ourselves, like children who frighten themselves with
ghastly stories, and we have only to study the facts of the
case, and all these artificial clouds will roll away at once.
We have an evil heredity behind us in this matter,
for we have inherited all kinds of funereal horrors from
our forefathers, and so we are used to them, and we do
not see the absurdity and the monstrosity of them.
The ancients were in this respect wiser than we, for they
did not associate all this phantasmagoria of gloom with
the death of the body—partly perhaps because they had
a much more rational method of disposing of the body—
a method which was not only infinitely better for the dead
man and more healthy for the living, but was also free
from the gruesome suggestions connected with slow
decay. They knew much more about death in those
days, and because they knew more they mourned less.
On Meeting a Friend.—Fig. 35 gives us an example
of a good, clearly-defined and expressive thought-form,
with each colour well marked off from the others. It
represents the feeling of a man upon meeting a friend
from whom he has been long separated. The convex
surface of the crescent is nearest to the thinker, and its
two arms stretch out towards the approaching friend as