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Chapter VII: The Soul’s Awakening2199
Chapter VII: The Soul’s Awakening
There is a great difference in the time required for the development
in soul-slumber by different souls. Some dwell in this state for a very
short time, while souls of a higher degree of attainment require a much
longer time in the soul-slumber state. Here, too, we find a remarkable
correspondence with the phenomenon of gestation and birth on the
material plane, which should be considered by the student. For instance, in
the case of these animals whose natural life period is short, we find, as a rule,
that their period of gestation in the womb is correspondingly short; on the
other hand, animals of a natural long life spend a much longer period in the
womb before birth. Thus, the elephant has twenty or twenty-one months in
the womb; man, nine months; rabbits, one month; guinea-pigs, three weeks;
the natural life of each bearing a relation to the period of gestation. In the
same way, the gestation period on the Astral Plane—the period of the soulslumber
is found to vary in proportion to the time the awakened soul is
to pass on the Astral Plane. An apparent exception to this rule is found in
the case of persons of highly advanced spiritual power and knowledge, in
which the soul is able, by its knowledge and power, to largely control the
natural processes instead of being under their general control.