Theosophical astral cosmology
Vampire
Leadbeater distinguishes the vampire from less dramatic vitality-draining remnants and connects it with a personality cut off from its higher source. He presents the condition as exceptional within his own system. His account describes the body preserved in a trance while an astral form obtains blood. He also cites Carmilla explicitly as fiction, separating a literary example from his assertions about actual beings.
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In the sources
Principal account
ReportedLeadbeater distinguishes the vampire from less dramatic vitality-draining remnants and connects it with a personality cut off from its higher source. He presents the condition as exceptional within his own system.
Further detail
ReportedHis account describes the body preserved in a trance while an astral form obtains blood. He also cites Carmilla explicitly as fiction, separating a literary example from his assertions about actual beings.
Context & interpretation
Leadbeater presents a Theosophical classification based on claimed occult investigation. Its planes, beings, and mechanisms belong to that historical esoteric system; the book’s assurance of reality is an authorial claim rather than independent scientific verification.
Original passages
Source 1
The Astral Plane
: a fairly typical specimen of the vampire story, though it does not profess to be more than the merest fiction, is SheridanOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Theosophical astral cosmology; active reader leaf 59
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0005-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0005-E001-P0059
- Original scan leaf
- 62
- Recorded leaf number
- 62
- Current Reader position
- 55
- Reader verification
- Matches the reviewed Reader
Source 2
The Astral Plane
death in life scarcely less awful -the ghastly existence of the vampire. Since the eighth sphere cannot claim him until after the death of the body,Open this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Theosophical astral cosmology; active reader leaf 60
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0005-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0005-E001-P0060
- Original scan leaf
- 63
- Recorded leaf number
- 63
- Current Reader position
- 56
- Reader verification
- Matches the reviewed Reader