MAN AND THEMETHOD OFEVOLUTION 113
much longer than almost anyone else. Besides, they have
scarcely any life in the Heaven world, where the building of
bodies for future use is taught, so they put all their
crystallizing thoughts into whatsoever body they build for a
future life, and thus a body is built that has the hardening
tendencies we see, for instance, in consumption. Sometimes
the suffering incident to such decrepit bodies will turn the
thoughts of the entities ensouling them to God, and their
evolution can proceed; but in the materialistic mind lies the
greatest danger of losing touch with the spirit and becoming
an outcast. Therefore the Elder Brothers have been very
seriously concerned for the last century regarding the fate of
the Western World and were it not for their special
beneficent action in its behalf, we should have had a social
cataclysm compared with which the French Revolution were
child's play. The trained clairvoyant can see how narrowly
humanity has escaped disasters of a nature so devastating
that continents would have been swept into the sea. The
reader will find a more extended and thorough exposition of
the connection of materialism with volcanic outbursts in
Chapter XVIII, where the list of the eruptions of Vesuvius
would seem to corroborate the statement of such a
connection, unless it is credited to “coincidence,” as the
skeptic generally does when confronted with facts and
figures he cannot explain.
THE FIRST HEAVENWhen the purgatorial existence is over the purified spirit
rises into the first heaven, which is located in the three
highest Regions of the Des ir e World, wher e t he resu lts of its
sufferings are incorporated in the seed atom of the desire
body, thus imparting to it the quality of right feeling, which