Strange Conflict by Dennis Wheatley Page B

to tell Richard that all was well with him but that his night’s journey had again proved fruitless.
    Unlike the previous morning, de Richleau felt unrefreshed by his sleep, as is always the case after a night which one’s astral has been working instead of merely amusing itself. On reaching his room, therefore, he turned in and slept for another couple of hours, this time renewing his strength by idling in those pleasant places which he could reach at will.
    Later that day, after the Duke had recounted his night’s adventures to the others, Richard remarked: ‘How strange it is that the Admiral, who appears to be such a devoted husband in this world, should promptly rush off in his astral for fun and games with a little bit of Chinese nonsense, while the Captain, who is evidently a bright lad here, devotes himself to good works when he’s on the other side.’
    â€˜There’s nothing particularly strange in that,’ replied the Duke. ‘A person may be in a comparatively low state of spiritual development yet through energy and singleness of purpose achieve a position of considerable authority during one of his lives on Earth, just as the Admiral has done. On the other hand, however advanced people may be in their true selves, each time they are born again their knowledge is obscured by the flesh; so until their consciousness about the eternal truths is awakened through some fresh contact they may behave as though they were still inthe lowest form—sometimes they even die without apparently having achieved any further progress.’
    â€˜That sounds an awful waste of time,’ protested Rex.
    â€˜Oh, no, it’s not; because in every life one pays off certain debts and learns something. I once knew an old ploughman who could not even read or write, yet he was in his last Earthly incarnation and due to ascend to the Buddhaic sphere. He had no idea of that at all while in his body, but I knew it because I used to seek guidance from him on the astral. He had only one lesson left to learn—that of humility—and of his own free will he had deliberately elected to be born as a poor peasant to whom all knowledge of the Old Wisdom should be denied during his last life on Earth.’
    â€˜Didn’t realise one could choose the state one would like to be born in,’ Simon commented.
    â€˜You cannot until you’re nearing the end of your Earthly lives and have very little left to learn. It is then granted to you to select such incarnations as will enable you to master those last lessons most rapidly—just as an advanced student at a university is allowed considerable latitude in the choice of the subjects he wishes to take and his hours of work. Our Lord, for example, took the extreme step of electing to bear the pains and penalties of his last three lives in one incarnation. In the short space of thirty years he paid off every remaining debt that he had incurred during his many lives on this, the material plane, and with an unsurpassed display of fortitude supported all the resulting suffering so that he might free himself from the flesh for ever.’
    â€˜He obviously had true memory, though,’ remarked Marie Lou. ‘Any number of his sayings bear witness to it.’
    â€˜Certainly. Most people who are well on the upward path are reawakened some time in each Earthly incarnation. The
chance
of acquiring knowledge comes to many, either through someone they meet or through a book. Those who are not ready refuse to accept it, but those who
are
ready instinctively realise at once that all other faiths contain only a portion of the truth, because every single one of them embodies inconsistencies which cannot be got over; whereas the true wisdom is absolutely logical and completely just. No-one who has knowledge ever endeavours to force it on anyone else, because to do so is sheer wasteof time; but whenever anyone is ready to receive it, steps are taken to