Greed for Drink.—­In Fig. 29 we have another variant of the same passion, perhaps at an even more degraded and animal level.  This specimen was taken from the astral body of a man just as he entered at the door of a drinking-shop; the expectation of and the keen desire for the liquor which he was about to absorb showed itself in the projection in front of him of this very unpleasant appearance.  Once more the hooked protrusions show the craving, while the colour and the coarse mottled texture show the low and sensual nature of the appetite.  Sexual desires frequently show themselves in an exactly similar manner.  Men who give birth to forms such as this are as yet but little removed from the animal; as they rise in the scale of evolution the place of this form will gradually be taken by something resembling that shown in Fig. 13, and very slowly, as development advances, that in turn will pass through the stages indicated in Figs. 9 and 8, until at last all selfishness is cast out, and the desire to have has been transmuted into the desire to give, and we arrive at the splendid results shown in Figs. 11 and 10.

[Illustration:  FIG. 29.  GREED FOR DRINK]

VARIOUS EMOTIONS

At a Shipwreck.—­Very serious is the panic which has occasioned the very interesting group of thought-forms which are depicted in Fig. 30.  They were seen simultaneously, arranged exactly as represented, though in the midst of indescribable confusion, so their relative positions have been retained, though in explaining them it will be 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.

[Illustration:  FIG. 30.  AT A SHIPWRECK]

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.