28 ROSICRUCIANCOSMO-CONCEPTION
which op erate up on us all the time, u nrecognized by mos t of
us, but none the less potent.
The higher Worlds are thus the worlds of causes, of
forces; and we cannot really understand this lower World
unless we know the others and realize the forces and causes
of which all material things are but the effects.
As to the reality of these higher Worlds compared with
that of the Physical World, strange as it may seem, these
higher Worlds, which to the majority appear as mirages, or
even less substantial, are, in truth, much more real and the
objects in them more lasting and indestructible than the
objects in the Physical World. If we take an example we
shall readily see this. An architect does not start to build a
house by procuring the material and setting the workmen to
laying stone upon stone in a haphazard way, without thought
or plan. He “thinks the house out.” Gradually it takes form
in his mind and finally there stands a clear idea of the house
that is to be—a thought-form of a house.
This house is yet invisible to all but the architect. He
makes it objective on paper. He draws the plans and from
this objective image of the thought-form the workmen
construct the house of wood, iron, or stone, accurately
corresponding to the thought-form originated by the
architect.
Thus the thought-form becomes a material reality. The
materialist would assert that it is much more real, lasting and
substantial than the image in the architect's mind. But let us
see. The house could not have been constructed without the
thought-form. The material object can be destroyed by
dynamite, earthquake, fire, or decay, but the thought-form
will remain. It will exist as long as the architect lives and
from it any number of houses similar to the one destroyed