| The man whose spiritual sight has been awakened is in a similar
                       position with respect to those who do not perceive the Desire World of which he speaks. If
                       the blind man acquires the faculty of sight by an operation, his eyes are opened and he will
                       be compelled to assert the existence of light and[pg 076]color which he formerly denied, and when spiritual sight is acquired by
                       anyone, he also perceives for himself the facts related by others. Neither is it an argument
                       against the existence of spiritual realms that seers are at variance in their descriptions
                       of conditions in the invisible world. We need but to look into books on travel, and compare
                       stories brought home by explorers of China, India or Africa and we shall find them differing
                       widely and often contradictory, because each traveler saw things from his own standpoint,
                       under other conditions than those met by his brother authors, and we maintain that the man
                       who has read most widely these varying tales concerning a certain Countryand wrestled with the contradictions of
                       narrators, will have a more comprehensive idea of the country or people of whom
                       he has read, than the man who has only read one story assented to by all the authors.
                       Similarly, the varying stories of visitors to the Desire World are of value, because giving
                       a fuller view, and more rounded, than if all had seen things from the same angle. In this world matter and force are widely different. The chief
                       characteristic of matter here is inertia: the tendency to remain at[pg 077]rest until acted upon by a force which sets it in motion. In the Desire
                       World, on the contrary, force and matter are almost indistinguishable one from the other. We
                       might almost describe desire-stuff as force-matter, for it is in incessant motion,
                       responsive to the slightest feeling of a vast multitude of beings which populate this
                       wonderful world in nature. We often speak of the “teeming
                       millions” of China and India, even of our vast cities, London, New York, Paris or
                       Chicago, we consider them overcrowded in the extreme, yet even the densest population of any
                       spot upon earth is sparsely inhabited compared with the crowded conditions of the Desire
                       World. No inconvenience is felt by any of the denizens of that realm, however, for, while in
                       this world two things cannot occupy the same space at the same time, it is different there.
                       A number of people and things may exist in the same place at the same time and be engaged in most
                       diverse activities, regardless of what others are doing, such is the wonderful elasticity of
                       desire stuff. As an illustration we may mention a case where the writer while attending
                       religious service, plainly perceived at the altar certain beings interested in furthering
                       that[pg 078]service and working to achieve that end. At the same time there drifted
                       through the room and the altar, a table at which four persons were engaged in playing cards.
                       They were as oblivious to the existence of the beings engaged in furthering our religious
                       service, as though these did not exist. |