LIST OF ARTICLES

THE VISIBLE PROJECTION OF THE ASTRAL DOUBLE


 
By Eduard Herrmann
 
We shall never be able to give a rational explanation of the interaction of soul and body, if we regard the soul as a spiritual being and leave out of consideration the astral body. Only when we consider the soul as being the essence of the whole body, which thinks and first organizes the astral and then the physical body, shall we be able to solve the old question: how can an immaterial being have a real connection with a material body?
 
The plastic formative power is in the astral body, which is an envelope of the soul. This formative power remains after its product, the physical body, dissolves. The soul then loses only the organ for sensuous cognition, but the experiences which the soul received while that organ was active, remain in the soul and become faculties and talents. In this way the soul never loses anything through the death of its organ the body. The invisible soul, which is the organizing principle, has the power to reproduce another body as soon as it is necessary for it. Something of the kind takes place when certain animals reproduce lost organs. This power to reproduce is stronger with animals than with men; it seems to decrease with the development of higher organisms.
 
The fact that the astral body is invisible to us does not justify us in believing it to be immaterial, for we know that an immense accumulation and condensation of atoms is necessary to make forms visible to the ordinary eye. But we have positive proofs of the materiality of the astral body; it could not contact and operate on matter if it were not material. Now, if the astral body precedes the formation and survives the physical body, then one is justified in asking the question:
 
Does separation ever occur during physical life?
 
If separation occurs, then a condensation of the astral matter must take place, otherwise we could not see it. Now is this possible, and have we facts which prove the separability of the two bodies?
 
Yes, we have such facts; and the separability of the bodies is possible, in the following ways:
 
 1. In Life:
    a) as involuntary separation; the double.
    b) as voluntary separation; the mayavi-rupa.
    c) separation by another's will; citation.
 2. In the hour of death, through an intense desire of the soul.
 3. After death:
    a) by voluntary representation of the astral body (ghosts, phantoms).
    b) by induced representation, such as materializations, necromancy.
 
These are the causes of the visibility of the astral body. Now let us look for the facts which will verify these assumptions.
 
The double furnishes evident proof of the existence of an astral body and of a transcendental subject. Further, it proves the separability of the astral body from the physical body, which, however, in the case of the double, is an involuntary separation, because it happens usually without the knowledge of the person in question. But there have been cases where men have seen their own doubles and these may also have been visible to other persons at a distance. We do not know how the separation of the two bodies takes place; we should be satisfied if we can find out whether the separated astral body has any consciousness or not.
 
The ancients knew of the double; thus it is said of Pythagoras that he was seen and spoken to in two different places, at the same time. (Iamblichus: Vita Pythag. c. 28.) According to Plinius (hist. nat. 13, 7). Hermotimus, too, had a double. In the Bible, the double is called "Angel"; for instance, when St. Peter was in prison and the damsel Rhoda, saw him before the gate (Acts XII:14-15). Lord Byron's double was seen by Peel, the Secretary of State, and by Byron's brother, when the poet was sick with fever, in Patras, Greece.
 
From many such cases on record it seems certain that the astral body seldom or never shows consciousness, if the physical body is in the normal condition; it is different when the physical body is unconscious or cataleptic. Then the double acts rationally and with consciousness, and the person is sometimes able to remember his experiences made while out of the body.
 
A peculiar circumstance is that phantoms often wear some dress which does not always correspond with the one which the person is wearing at that same moment. There is a case mentioned in the archives of animal magnetism VIII:3, where a man who is just taking communion in his village church, is at the same time seen by his servant in the stable, inspecting the cows and in his ordinary working suit. This case is explained as a hallucination, brought about and made visible by thought transference, and it gives strong support to the supposition (which Schopenhauer entertains) that all such appearances are hallucinations. Now the fact that strong thoughts can become visible is wonderful enough in itself, and no doubt many so called apparitions are nothing else, but to say that all such cases are brought about in this way, namely, through our own conscious or unconscious power of imagination, is manifestly wrong. If a living man is· able to make his projected thought visible, then a disincarnate soul could probably do this as well; so that we may say the origin of a hallucination may be found in us as well as outside of us.
 
It is difficult, almost impossible, to decide just what a hallucination is: to say it is a momentary thought picture by no means disposes of the astral body; or to say that by strong concentration a thought can be made visible, simply means that a picture is formed by accumulating that fine matter (which Paracelsus calls astral matter) and condensing it long enough to make it visible; in other words, it forms an astral body and so we are again at the point from which we started.
 
If I close my eyes and think long enough of the Venus of Milo, I will in due time see that beautiful statue before my mind's eye; that is, I see an astral body of it. This is what we do, and do easily, in dreams, because when we are sleeping, our thoughts are not disturbed by the activity of the senses. Now it is a fact that such a dream-picture can be transmitted to other persons. Materialists will call it a hallucination; we say it is an astral body which is seen.
 
The separation and sending out of one's own astral body is quite different from the sending out of a thought form. The astral body may be seen and even touched by several people at once I the thought form is, as a rule, visible to one person only. A Danish physician who promised his patient to call on her at a certain hour was by her seen at the appointed time, although the physician was in fact prevented from calling on her. He probably thought of his promise so strongly that his thoughts became visible to the patient; and she had, what is called, a hallucination. Another case is mentioned in the same book (Archive III. 3. 123). A man is seen by all his workmen when he was in quite another place, but in an abstract, dreamy state. This I would call an appearance of the double, because all the conditions were favorable for an unconscious separation of the astral body.
 
Somnambulistic persons sometimes correctly describe conditions and things which are happening at a distance. If the questioner knows what the somnambulist relates, then it is probably thought transference from him to the somnambulist, but if he does not know, then it may either be clairvoyance or the sending out of the double. An example of the latter kind is given by Dr. Charpignon of Paris (Charpignon, Physiology 88). A somnambule who was put to sleep in Orleans desired to see her sister in Blois, and went there in Spirit. Passing which is about midway between· the two cities, she declared that she saw a Mr. Iouannean, in his Sunday suit. Some persons who were in the room where the patient was asleep, knew the man she saw, and asked him by letter if he had been at the place indicated at the same hour. He answered that he was.
 
It would not do to explain all these and similar cases by the double; many of them are due to clairvoyance at a distance, of which there are hundreds of well authenticated cases.
 
One of the most interesting and probably rarest experiences, which proves that animals also have the astral body, or double, is told by the Reverend Moericke, one of Germany's finest lyrical poets. He received as a present from a neighboring forester, a little dog; but the faithful animal went from time to time to visit its old master. One evening it did not come home. On this night the mother and sister of Moericke woke up, because the dog crawled from under the bed, trembling and in a state of fear; it quickly hid itself under the bed, as if expecting to be punished. Both ladies went to sleep again, glad to know that the little fellow had come back. But very early in the morning the forester brought the runaway, who had spent the whole night with him. Later we shall see that the double is more easily and frequently sent out when the sensuous consciousness is suppressed; the dog probably felt stronger remorse in his sleep than awake, which caused the appearance of his double at his new home.
 
The principal causes for the unconscious sending out of the double are (1) sickness, (2) approaching death, and (3) somnambulism. It has already been stated that the organizing principle which forms our body, is identical with the principle which forms the products of our thought or spirit; and this principle, common to body and thought, we call soul. The mystical activity of the soul explains all psychic phenomena, because it is the organizing soul which forms the astral body, the source of the double, ghosts, materializations, all of which are in fact identical; they issue from the same cause, namely, the organizing power of the soul; the difference is only the cause of their origin. To find the cause we must inquire into the physical and mental dispositions of the men or women who produce the phenomena.
 
The simplest form of the double is the feeling oneself as a double being; this is not rare among sick people. The physicians Dr. Calmeil and Boismont (Brierre de Boismont: Des hallucinations, 587) report several cases where fever-patients had the fixed idea that their double was lying in the same bed with them. Many physicians confirm this experience, which, however, cannot be regarded as an actual proof of the existence of the double, unless it is seen by other people, as in the case of a woman who saw herself double and at the same time her child called out: "Mother, I see you sitting in the corner." (Eschenmayer: Mysterien, 10.)
 
A peculiar phase is that some patients see and feel only one part of the body. This happens often with people who have lost a hand, a foot, or fingers, by accident or in war; in which case they sometimes even have pain in the lost member. All these well known cases have been and can be explained in different ways — the existence of the astral body is as good as any other explanation. Since the phenomena of transcendental consciousness show their highest manifestations in the state of dying, it is to be supposed that in this state the organizing function of the soul would show its activicy by the visible presentation of the astral body; and, indeed, we find many authentic cases reported in the works of ancient and medieval as well as modern psychologists. If there is a psychic connection between the appearing and the perceiving person, the phenomenon seems to be easier to perform. Sometimes not all the senses are susceptible; instead of the eye, the ear may receive the impression of a presence. The celebrated naturalist, Linne, tells in his Nemesis Divina that one night he and his wife heard somebody walk up and down in his museum; Linne seemed to recognize the walk of his friend but no one was in the museum, and the door was locked. A few days later Linne received the news that his friend had died that same hour. Linne and his wife were probably more susceptible to impressions through the ear than through the eye; with others it may be the reverse takes place. Dr. Werner relates that his dying brother appeared to his mother; he heard his own name called three times, but did not see the appearance. Most of such cases are perceived with the eye; the reason is, we suppose, that the sense of sight is more susceptible than that of touch or hearing.
 
All appearances may be divided into two categories:
 
  1. Appearances which indicate the situation of the dying.
  2. Appearances which leave the situation undecided.
 
If this difference is in the soul of the dying person, then such appearances ought to give evidence that they are in the· foremost place in the consciousness of the dying — and this is exactly the case. Lord Byron was told by Captain Kidd: one night, when sleeping in his cabin, he was awakened by the feeling that something heavy was lying upon him; he recognized his brother in uniform and felt that the latter was entirely wet. Captain Kidd was somewhat frightened and called for his officer; the appearance vanished as soon as he entered. Several months later Kidd received the news that his brother was drowned that same night in the Indian Ocean. (Monthly Review, 1830, 299)
 
In this story, which is vouched for by Lord Byron, we find the thoughts which may have been in the consciousness of the drowning officer and which were transmitted to his brother, with whom he probably was in magnetic rapport; the latter one facilitates thought transference, as between the magnetizer and his subject, for which reason Byron's story might be explained to be a strong case of telepathy. Not so the following story, which Professor Koster of Giessen tells (Perty, Spiritualismus, 298):
 
A very sick lady one morning said that she, on the night before, had been to the native country of her husband, and described the house and his father and sister, whom she had never seen before. Soon after, she died. A few days later her husband received a letter from his father in which he wrote that he and his daughter had seen the apparition, which did not speak and which quickly disappeared. This is a case which cannot be explained by telepathy, because the dying lady described what had happened at a distant place while she was lying in bed, and was at the same time seen by those two persons.
 
In most cases the phantom is passive or irrationally active, as if it were a one-sided product of the organizing faculty of the soul; sometimes it seems to have little consciousness; but there are also cases reported where it acts rationally. We find indeed all the degrees of manifestation, with regard to the outer form, beginning with a nebulous column and ending with a perfectly formed figure, as well as to consciousness and rational behavior. That the double is so often seen by dying persons, may be explained by its releasing of those soul powers which otherwise have to keep the organism alive and in good order. Superstition which often draws false conclusions out of facts, takes it for granted that because many dying persons send out their double, all those appearances are a sure sign of death. In order to show that this is wrong, we will now consider those cases of the double which have nothing to do with death.
 
The state of somnambulism is similar to that of death; therefore during somnambulism we should expect the separation of the astral body from the physical; this is frequently the case, and is nearly always accompanied with a cataleptic condition of the body. Somnambulists themselves describe this condition as similar to that of dying; they claim they see their own double, which sometimes visits distant places which they describe correctly, while entranced. Justinus Kerner, in his "Seeress of Prevorst," gives many such examples, but similar ones can also be found in modern books of psychology.
 
Important for the better understanding of this mysterious faculty of the soul, is the fact that with somnambulists, the sending out of the double is not always an unconscious act. It is sometimes done purposely. Dr. Werner (Die Schutzgeister, 403) tells of his patient: "It was remarkable that she could send out her magnetic body at will; but it always produced a light painless trembling commotion of the whole body".
 
In such cases the phantom can become visible. Another physician, Dr. Meier, confirms this in the following story. "A certain Mr. N. declared to a somnambulist his unbelief in regard to this point; she answered that she would try to convince him. Some time after Mr. N. woke up at 4 o'clock in the morning, seeing the somnambulist standing before him, smiling at him and disappearing again. The next day he visited her, but did not mention the occurrence; where-upon she smilingly asked if he did not now believe, (Archive VI. 34.) Another still more interesting case is told by Dr. Kerner (Magikon IV. 195), of a somnambulist who promised her physician to visit him in her astral body; she was distinctly seen by both the physician and his wife, and a letter of inquiry which the Doctor sent to the parents established the fact that the patient was at that hour in a deep magnetic sleep, resembling a corpse.
 
There are many similar cases recorded, all well attested; so that we have no reason for doubt. Now, if we take it for granted that the astral body can from time to time separate from the physical body and even become visible, where do we find the causes for this strange happening?
 
Undoubtedly, in the soul of those predisposed persons. Moved by certain strong feelings, the soul directs the thought on distant places or persons and by means of her organizing faculty creates there the form, which is called the double; but a subjective susceptibility on the part of the receiver is undoubtedly just as necessary as is physical rapport between both persons, in order to make the appearance visible. It is always a strong desire, a great sorrow, a vehement wish, a decided will, at the bottom of all such happenings, with perhaps the sole exception of mediumistic cases, when the coming out of the astral body has become an unconscious habit. This is the reason why the projection of the double so often takes place at the moment of dying. Schopenhauer tells of such a case. A servant girl died in the Jewish hospital in Frankfort. The next morning the sister and niece of the girl came to the city to inquire about her, because she had appeared to both of them during the night. (Parerga I. 308.)
 
The celebrated magnetizer van Helmont says: "Man has an ecstatic power which enables him to send the spirit to a distant place or person, provided a strong desire or lively imagination urges him to do so." Byron, Goethe and the naturalist Linne testify that they had this power, and it is probable that people with powerful imagination, coupled with a strong will, are more apt to send out their double. If thought transference is a fact, why should this, too, not be a fact?
 
We do not know that our thinking is not always, in some degree, an organizing. At least it seems to be so when we dream, for how could we otherwise account for the dream forms, which are quite as distinct as the physical forms we see when awake?
 
When deeply agitated the soul either liberates our astral body or creates a thought picture similar to the dream forms; and it is either that astral body or the thought picture which can be seen, if the receiver is in magnetic rapport with the sender.
 
It is a mistake to suppose that there are forces without matter, but our thought-forces have to do .with matter which is so fine that our senses can perceive it under exceptional conditions only — one of these conditions is the magnetic rapport between two souls. Given this rapport, it still remains to be decided whether any appearance is an astral body or a thought picture — and this is not always easy. The probability that the appearance is an astral body is greater, if several of our senses are affected by that appearance, that it is not only seen, but also heard, or touched. It is well authenticated that the phantom can speak. The following is one such case. The councilor Schubert told his father he had heard his mother (who lived in another city) call him twice that night, telling him to come quickly if he wanted to see her once more. Soon after, he saw her standing at his bed; she touched his hand, said good-bye to him, and then disappeared. In the following afternoon he received the news that she had died in the morning, expressing the passionate desire to see her son once more. There is not the slightest doubt that it was the astral body of his mother which Mr. Schubert saw, heard and touched. (Perty: Die mystischen Erscheinungen II. 141.)
 
That phantoms are material is proven by photography; but, as before stated, this matter is exceedingly fine, and is as a rule invisible to the human eye. For this reason, many a sceptic, who even concedes the reality of phantoms, may deny the possibility of material effects which are sometimes observed in connection with appearances; because, he argues, matter so rarified as to become invisible, cannot be the carrier of sufficient force to bring about strong blows, knockings, or other manifestations of power, such as those which may be observed at spiritistic sittings. But force is the product of two factors, namely, mass and velocity. Crookes has proven by experiment that in airtight compartments the molecular movements of atoms is greater, and the great velocity produces a raising of the force; so that the rarefying of matter produces greater velocity and consequently greater force. There can be no doubt that future experiments will establish the fact that phantoms do produce powerful effects, just for the reason that they are of extremely rarefied matter.
 
Physics and chemistry would be greatly benefited by an earnest study of mystical problems. Today, of course, representatives of those sciences know little or nothing of transcendental physics and chemistry; but they will soon be in the same straits as was the church when she sneered at the heretical teaching of the existence of the antipodes. Today she cannot find enough missionaries to convert them. Just so our future naturalists will study the facts which they do not get tired of denying today; they will make them their special study, and, if possible, claim the honor of their discovery — for they will have to acknowledge what a German physician, Dr. Schindler, said fifty years ago (Magisches Geistesleben, p. 35):
 
"Without considering the magical powers of man, all psychology is an intelligent everyday life; that other side of the soul's activity does not exist for her; she denies everything that cannot be explained according to her understanding. Thus she neglects the most important half of the human soul, and can therefore not find the true psychology."
 
Well, everything is subject to change and to evolution. What is denied today may be recognized as a truth tomorrow. Let us Theosophists wait for the time when our teaching will be justified by every searcher after the truth.
 
 
(The Word, September 1913, p.326-336)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

No comments:

Post a Comment