like itself in fineness from the elemental essence of the mental world.
We have then a thought-form pure and simple, and it is a living entity
of intense activity animated by the one idea that generated it. If made
of the finer kinds of matter, it will be of great power and energy, and
may be used as a most potent agent when directed by a strong and steady
will. Into the details of such use we will enter later.

When the man's energy flows outwards towards external objects of desire,
or is occupied in passional and emotional activities, this energy works
in a less subtle order of matter than the mental, in that of the astral
world. What is called his desire-body is composed of this matter, and it
forms the most prominent part of the aura in the undeveloped man. Where
the man is of a gross type, the desire-body is of the denser matter of
the astral plane, and is dull in hue, browns and dirty greens and reds
playing a great part in it. Through this will flash various
characteristic colours, as his passions are excited. A man of a higher
type has his desire-body composed of the finer qualities of astral
matter, with the colours, rippling over and flashing through it, fine
and clear in hue. While less delicate and less radiant than the mental
body, it forms a beautiful object, and as selfishness is eliminated all
the duller and heavier shades disappear.

This desire (or astral) body gives rise to a second class of entities,
similar in their general constitution to the thought-forms already
described, but limited to the astral plane, and generated by the mind
under the dominion of the animal nature.

These are caused by the activity of the lower mind, throwing itself out
through the astral body--the activity of Kâma-Manas in theosophical
terminology, or the mind dominated by desire. Vibrations in the body of