It seems that at the present
stage of human evolution a considerable development of psychic faculties is
taking place in Europe and America.
Persons who never heard of spiritualism or occultism find themselves to their
own surprise in possession of occult powers, and while the scientists quarrel
about the theory which admits the existence of an astral body the number of
people increases who are capable of leaving their physical forms and making
excursions in an “astral body” or “dream body,” of whose existence they never
heard.
Thus, for instance, a lady of my
acquaintance writes to me from Berlin as follows:
« The gentleman to whom I am
engaged to be married has been an officer, but he has left the army. Shortly before
that event, having retired at night, he found himself suddenly standing in the
midst of his room, while his physical body was in his bed.
The situation seemed rather
strange to him, as he had never heard of such things; he walked about in the
room, looked at the different objects for the purpose of convincing himself
that he was still in possession of his reason; he went to his desk and read in
a book that was lying open upon it, but in spite of his efforts to turn a page,
he was unable to turn it.
He then went to the window,
looked out in the street, saw the lanterns and the gaslights flickering; in
short, he saw in this condition everything just the same as it appeared to him
in his usual state.
It then occurred to him that he
was in a spiritual body, and he wondered whether it would be possible for him
to pass through a solid wall. He tried
it and found himself in the adjoining room, where he saw one of his comrades
sitting at a table and making a drawing.
In vain he tried to call his
attention; he touched him, spoke to him, breathed upon him; but his friend
continued his work without taking notice of all this.
My betrothed felt very sorry
because he could not make his presence known and returned to his room, where he
saw his body still lying in bed, immovable as before.
He then went through the closed
window out into the street and went to the railway station, where he saw the
people and the shifting of trains.
Finally he came to a tunnel, which he entered, and saw some workmen at their
labor. He had never been in that tunnel
and did not know of its existence.
Returning to his room, he saw his
servant opening the door and entering.
The servant seemed to sniff the air and hurriedly went to the bed,
shaking the body of his master, while the latter stood by the side of it,
looking at the procedure. The servant
then tore open the window.
The officer awoke, owing to a
sensation of cold, and asked the servant what was the matter. The servant replied that there was coal gas
in the room and that it had seemed to him that the Herr Lieutenant was
dead. Upon being asked what caused him
to return to the sleeping room at that hour, he said that he had suddenly been
overcome by a feeling that he ought to return, to look once more after the
stove.
It is clear that, if the servant
had not returned, the officer would have died, and the spirit could not have
returned into the body. The next day he went to the tunnel, where he found
everything as he had seen it during the night, and he also convinced himself
that his friend in the adjoining room was making the drawing; but with all this
he still does not believe in a continuation of conscious individual existence
after death. »
~ * ~
To this I may be permitted to add
a similar experience of my own which I had at Colombo (Ceylon) in 1884. I went with a friend to a dentist, to have a
tooth extracted. I took chloroform, and
after getting under its influence I soon saw myself standing beside the
dentist’s chair in which my body was lying.
I appeared to myself just the
same person as when in my normal state.
I saw all the objects in the room, heard all that was spoken; but when I
tried to lift one of the instruments on a little table next to the chair, I
could not do so, as my fingers passed through it.
Since then I have occasionally
seen myself stepping out of my physical form, and this occurs in two ways;
namely, if, while this separation takes place my consciousness is centred in
the physical body, I see myself in the astral body standing before me at the
side of my bed, and if my consciousness is centred in the astral body, I see my
physical form lying in bed.
I have never made consciously any
astral excursions to distant places, but such experiences may be sufficient to
convince one that man has an astral body capable of existing independently of
the physical form, and to those who have experienced such things the doubts of
those who have experienced nothing may appear quite as unworthy of
consideration, as would the arguments of one who had never seen railways and
were in consequence to deny their existence.
(The Occult Review, March 1908,
vol. 7, p.159-160)
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