Because every atom in creation is inextinguishably
dowered with individuality, {FN43-6} an astral friend will be
recognized no matter what costume he may don, even as on earth an
actor's identity is discoverable by close observation despite any
disguise.
"The span of life in the astral world is much longer than on earth.
A normal advanced astral being's average life period is from five
hundred to one thousand years, measured in accordance with earthly
standards of time. As certain redwood trees outlive most trees by
millenniums, or as some yogis live several hundred years though
most men die before the age of sixty, so some astral beings live
much longer than the usual span of astral existence. Visitors
to the astral world dwell there for a longer or shorter period in
accordance with the weight of their physical karma, which draws
them back to earth within a specified time.
"The astral being does not have to contend painfully with death
at the time of shedding his luminous body. Many of these beings
nevertheless feel slightly nervous at the thought of dropping their
astral form for the subtler causal one. The astral world is free
from unwilling death, disease, and old age. These three dreads
are the curse of earth, where man has allowed his consciousness to
identify itself almost wholly with a frail physical body requiring
constant aid from air, food, and sleep in order to exist at all.
"Physical death is attended by the disappearance of breath and
the disintegration of fleshly cells.
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