My Library

luminosity, a phosphorescence of its own. The ground seems to be quite solid to the feet; men and angels settle and “walk” upon it. Each object has a glass-like prismatic translucency, but is relatively motionless. Waves of colour sweep over the whole landscape, like the changes of a sunset sky, though far more luminous and brilliant with hues of ethereal delicacy. The first impression of utter silence is, however, an illusion. In reality the whole mental world is pervaded by sound—one might almost say is sound. Hearing is a means of cognition by which the whole plane may be observed. On earth hearing relates only to sound. Mental hearing is a general means of cognition, and the complete phenomena of the mental plane may be observed in term of sound, as well as of form and colour. Mentally the three are one. All objects have a clearly discernible sound expression and formula. In addition, there is an undercurrent of sound which pervades the whole. It somewhat resembles the distant roar of the sea or the sweep of a high wind through a pine forest. Waves of this fundamental and basic sound-phenomena sweep over the mental world and through one’s mental consciousness. Each wave is part of a septenary rhythmic system of waves, which sweep continually through and over the whole solar system. Their origin and source is as unknown to the dweller on the mental plane as is the source of water to the fish. They are not external to the plane, but rather its basic form of existence, as are the waves of the sea or the ripples of the running stream. They appear to come from an immense distance, to pass over and through one’s body and consciousness, and to disappear into immeasurable space. If we could imagine waves of colour and of sound originating in the sun, and sweeping continuously and rhythmically in unbroken succession throughout all space, producing and maintaining all the stars and planets, we could realize a little of the grandeur and immensity of these great mental waves of power, of colour and of sound. Variations are observable, for somewhere behind their rhythmic flow there is a master wave, a seventh, which is greater than the rest; an overwhelming wave which follows, yet includes the preceding and succeeding six.