In his mental being man contains traces of all that has gone before—­all the experiences of himself and the great race movement of which he is a part.  And, likewise, his mind contains faculties and mental planes which have not as yet unfolded into consciousness, and of the existence of which he is but imperfectly aware.  All of these mental possessions, however, are useful and valuable to him—­even the lowest.  The lowest may be used to advantage, under proper mastery, and are only dangerous to the man who allows them to master him instead of serving him as they should, considering his present stage of development.

In this consideration of the several mental planes we shall not confine ourselves to the technical occult terms given to these several planes, but will place them in general groups and describe the features and characteristics of each, rather than branch off into long explanations of the growth and reason of the several planes, which would take us far away from the practical consideration of the subject.

Beginning at the lowest point of the scale we see that man has a body.  The body is composed of minute cells of protoplasm.  These cells are built up of countless molecules, atoms and particles of matter—­precisely the same matter that composes the rocks, trees, air, etc., around him.  The Yogi philosophy tells us that even the atoms of matter have life and an elementary manifestation of mind, which causes them to group together according to the law of attraction, forming different elements, combinations, etc.  This law of attraction is a mental operation, and is the first evidence of mental choice, action and response.  Below this is Prana or Force, which, strictly speaking, is also a manifestation of mind, although for convenience we designate it as a separate manifestation of the Absolute.

And therefore we find that this law of attraction between the atoms and particles of matter is a mental action, and that it belongs to man’s mental kingdom, because he has a body and this mental action is continually going on in his body.  So therefore this is the lowest mental plane to be considered in the make-up of the man.  This plane is, of course, far sunken beneath the plane of consciousness, and is scarcely identified with the personality of the man at all, but rather belongs to the life of the whole, manifest in the rock as well as in the man.

But after these atoms have been grouped by the law of attraction and have formed molecules of matter, they are taken possession of by a higher mental activity and built up into cells by the mental action of the plant.  The life impulse of the plant begins by drawing to it certain particles of inorganic matter—­chemical elements—­and then building them into a single cell.  Oh, mystery of the cell!  The intellect of man is unable to duplicate this wonderful process.  The Mind Principle on the Vegetative Plane, however, knows exactly how to go to work to