Here I will quote from an English investigator of astral phenomena, who has had much experience on that plane.  He says:  “All students are aware that thought takes form, at any rate upon its own plane, and in the majority of cases upon the astral plane also; but it may not be so generally known that if a man thinks strongly of himself as present at any given place, the form assumed by that particular thought will be a likeness of the thinker himself, which will appear at the place in question.  Essentially this form must be composed of the matter of the mental plane, but in very many cases it would draw round itself matter of the astral plane also, and so would approach much nearer to visibility.  There are, in fact, many instances in which it has been seen by the person thought of—­most probably by means of the unconscious influence emanating from the original thinker.  None of the consciousness of the thinker would, however, be included within this thought-form.  When once sent out from him, it would normally be a quite separate entity—­not indeed absolutely unconnected with its maker, but practically so as far as the possibility of receiving any impression through it is concerned.

“This type of clairvoyance consists, then, in the power to retain so much connection with and so much hold over a newly-created thought-form as will render it possible to receive impressions by means of it.  Such impressions as were made upon the form would in this case be transmitted to the thinker—­not along an astral telegraph line, but by a sympathetic vibration.  In a perfect case of this kind of clairvoyance it is almost as though the seer projected a part of his consciousness into the thought-form, and used it as a kind of outpost, from which observation was possible.  He sees almost as well as he would if he himself stood in the place of his thought-form.  The figures at which he is looking will appear to him as of life-size and close to hand, instead of tiny and at a distance as in the case of some other forms of clairvoyance; and he will find it possible to shift his point of view if he wishes to do so.  Clairaudience is perhaps less frequently associated with this type of clairvoyance than with the others, but its place is to some extent taken by a kind of mental perception of the thoughts and intentions of those who are seen.

“Since the man’s consciousness is still in the physical body, he will be able (even when exercising this faculty) to hear and to speak, in so far as he can do this without any distraction of his attention.  The moment that the intentness of his thought fails, the whole vision is gone, and he will have to construct a fresh thought-form before he can resume it.  Instances in which this kind of sight is possessed with any degree of perfection by untrained people are naturally rarer than in the other types of clairvoyance, because the capacity for mental control required, and the generally finer nature of the forces employed.”