Speaking symbolically the substance of the astral plane is animated by three types of divine force, which, when brought together, produce the great Illusion. These are:
First, the force of selfish desire. This involutionary energy plays a big part in bringing about evolution, for selfishness is the nursery of infant souls. Hence the aspirant refuses to be held by it.
Second, the force of fear. This is the product of ignorance, and in its initial stages it is not the product of wrong thinking. It is basically instinctual and is found dominating in the non-mental animal kingdom as well as in the human kingdom. But in the human, its power is increased potently through the powers of the mind, and through memoryof past pain and grievance and through anticipation of those we foresee, the power of fear is enormously aggravated by the thought-form we ourselves have built of our own individual fears and [239] phobias. This thought form grows in power as we pay attention to it, for "energy follows thought", till we become dominated by it. Second ray people are peculiarly a prey to this. For the majority of them it constitutes the "dweller on the threshold", just as ambition and love of power, backed by frantic desire and unscrupulousness form the "Dweller" for the first ray types. The crystallized thought form of intellectual achievement for selfish ends, and the use of knowledge for personality objectives stand before the portal of the path in the case of the third ray person, and unless broken up and destroyed will dominate him and turn him into a black magician... extract taken from A Treatise On White Magic by A Bailey ...read more>>>...