1. The idea is seen by the mind, "held steady in the light of the soul."
2. It descends to the higher levels of the mental plane and there clothes itself with the substance of those levels. It remains still an abstraction, from the angle of the lower mind. This point should be carefully noted by the would-be intuitive. [56]
3. The soul throws its light upward and outward, and the idea, nebulous and faint, emerges into the consciousness of the man. It stands revealed, much as an object stands revealed when the bright beam of a powerful searchlight is thrown upon it. The mind, endeavoring to remain in constant steady conscious contact with the soul, seeing into the higher world through the medium of the "soul's wide-opened eye," registers the idea with increasing clarity.
4. The idea, revealed, becomes then an ideal to the attentive mind and eventually something to be desired and materialized. The thought-form-making faculty of the mind then comes into play; the "mind-stuff" becomes actuated by the energy of the idea, vitalized by the recognition of the soul, and the idea then takes its first real step towards embodiment. An ideal is only an embodied idea.

These are the first steps towards materialization. Embodiment becomes possible. Thus illusion is produced.

5. Distortion now sets in. This is brought about by various causes. These might be enumerated as follows:
   1. The ray type of the ego colors the man's interpretation of the idea. It colors the emerging thought-form. Symbolically speaking, the pure light is changed into colored light. The idea is then "clothed with color, and thereby the first veil descends."
   2. The point in evolution which the man has reached has also its effect, plus the quality of the [57] integration existing between the three aspects of the personality, and the alignment established between soul-mind-brain. This, being necessarily imperfect, produces indefiniteness of outline and consequently of the final form. Therefore we have:
      1. Imperfect integration of the personality.
      2. Indefiniteness of the proposed thought-form.
      3. The wrong material consequently attracted for the building of the thought-form.
      4. A shifting focus of attention, owing to the dimness of the seen ideal.
      5. The rapport of the mind, with the sensed idea, is not stable.
   3. The quality of the development of the mental body of the disciple produces the next "veiling" of the idea, as it is called. The idea has become changed through the ray coloring of the soul, and now a still more distorting change is brought about by the ray type of the mental body itself, which may be, and usually is, different to that of the soul ray.

These are the second steps towards materialization. The form of the embodiment is qualified. Thus illusion is produced.