This is absolutely the mere astral corpse in process of
disintegration, every particle of the lower Manas having left it. It
is entirely without any kind of consciousness or intelligence, and is
drifted passively about upon the astral currents just as a cloud might
be swept in any direction by a passing breeze; but even yet it may be
galvanized for a few moments into a ghastly burlesque of life if it
happens to come within reach of a medium's aura. Under such
circumstances it will still exactly resemble its departed personality
in appearance, and may even reproduce to some extent his familiar
expressions or handwriting, but it does so merely by the automatic
action of the cells of which it is composed, which tend under
stimulation to repeat the form of action to which they are most
accustomed, and whatever amount of intelligence may lie behind any
such manifestation has most assuredly no connection with the original
entity, but is lent by the medium or his "guides" for the occasion. It
is, however, more frequently temporarily vitalized in quite another
manner, which will be described under the next head. It has also the
quality of being still blindly responsive to such vibrations--usually
of the lowest order--as were frequently set up in it during its last
stage of existence as a shade, and consequently persons in whom evil
desires or passions are predominant will be very likely, when they
attend physical _séances_, to find these intensified and as it were
thrown back upon them by the unconscious shells.
There is also another variety of corpse which it is necessary to
mention under this head, though it belongs to a much earlier stage of
man's _post-mortem_ history. It has been stated above that after the
death of the physical body the Kâmarûpa is comparatively quickly
formed, and the etheric double cast off--this latter body being
destined to slow disintegration, precisely as is the kâmarûpic shell
at a later stage of the proceedings. This etheric shell, however, is
not to be met with drifting aimlessly about, as is the variety with
which we have hitherto been dealing; on the contrary, it remains
within a few yards of the decaying physical body, and since it is
readily visible to any one even slightly sensitive, it is accountable
for many of the commonly current stories of churchyard ghosts. A
psychically developed person passing one of our great cemeteries will
see hundreds of these bluish-white, misty forms hovering over the
graves where are laid the physical vestures which they have recently
left; and as they, like their lower counterparts, are in various
stages of disintegration, the sight is by no means a pleasant one.
This also, like the other kind of shell, is entirely devoid of
consciousness and intelligence; and though it may under certain
circumstances be galvanized into a very horrible form of temporary
life, this is possible only by means of some of the most loathsome
rites of one of the worst forms of black magic, about which the less
said the better. It will thus be seen that in the successive stages of
his progress from earth-life to Devachan, man casts off and leaves to
slow disintegration no less than three corpses--the physical body,
the etheric double and the Kâmarûpa--all of which are by degrees
resolved into their constituent elements and utilized anew on their
respective planes by the wonderful chemistry of nature.