52 The Spiritual Life.
renewedactivitybymentalImpulseseitherfrom
withinorfromwithout,andlong aftertheman
has ceasedto energiseit, having outgrown the
stageitrepresents,itmaybethrownintoactive
vibration,madetostart up asaliving thought,
byawhollyexternal influence. Forexample:
aman has succeeded in purifyinghisthoughts
fromsensuality,andhismindnolongergenerates
impure ideas nor takes pleasures in contem-
plating impure images. The coarse matter,
which in the mental and astral bodiesvibrates
undersuch impulses,is nolongerbeingvivified
byhim,and the thought-formserstcreated by
him are dying ordead. But he meets some
one in whom these things are active, andthe
vibrations sent out by him revivify the dying
thought-forms, lending them a temporary arti-
ficial life; theystart upas the aspirant's own
thoughts,presenting themselves as the children
of hismind, and he knows not thatthey are
butcorpses from his past, re-animated by the
evil magic of impure propinquity. The very
contrast theyafford to his purified mind adds
to the harassing torture of their presence, as