BT THE SAME AUTHORS

THE PRoJEcmoN oF THB ASTRAL BoDy (Ridil)

PHEhKffiNA-OF
By Hcrcward Canhglon
THE rNvrsrBLE woRLD (Ridcrl
: ASTRAL PROJECTION

by

SYLVAN MULDOON
and
HEREWARD CARRINGTON

RIDER & COMPANY

Lonht
 CONTENTS
Rider & ComPanY INTRODUOTION lx
An Imprint of the Hutchinson Publishing Group PART I
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6. TIrE NATURE oF THE ASTRAL woRLD 43

First Published t95l
Reissued as a Rider Pocket Edition 1984 7. TrrE PROBLEM quEsTroN oF MULTIPLE BODIES 50
@ SYlvan Muldoon 1969 8. A rorrNDATroN roR FAITH AND FUTURE {ESEARCH 53
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without the publisher's prior consent in any $r. 55
form of binding or cover other than that in The Landa Casc-The Porter Case-The Schmid Case-
The Cole Case-The Parker Case-The Ludlow Case-
which it is publiJhed and without a similar con- The Hartmann Case-The Smith Case-The Varley Case
dition incllding this condition being imposed Sollier C,ase-The Hout Case (No' z)'
on thelubsequent Purchaser -The
Printed and bound in Great Britain $2. pRoJEcrIoNs AT THE TIME oE AocIDENT oR ILLNESs 72

by The Guernsey Press Compauy Ltd, Guernsey, Channel Islands

The Geddes Case-The Johnson Case-The Dribbell Case
' Mattiesen Casc (No. 33)-The Riggs Case-The Kelley
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data -The
Case-The D'Esperance Casc-The Jame! Martin Case-
ISBN 0 09 154001 I Thc Laufrnann Case-The Ramel Case-The Marcinowski
Casc-The Griggs Case-The Swoboda Case-The Man-
stead Case-T'IiC Rosseau Case-The Marls Case-The
Royes Case-The Rogers Case-The Vera Rogers Case
Ed. Morrell Case.
-I'he
$S. pRoJEcrroNs AT TrrE TIME or DEATII r03
The Turban Case-The Burnitt Case-The Snell Case-
The Monk Casc-The De Morgan Case-The Hoftnann
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$+. pRoJECTroNs DUE To SUPPRESSED DESIRE AND orHER
SPONTANEOT'SFACTORS II2
The Minnick Case-The Denham Case-The Owen Case
Rule Case.
-The
w CONTENTS
pRoJBcrIoNs rN wHlcrr 'sPIRrrs' WERE INvoLvED oR sEEN
[s. S.ailc Case-
The- Hout Casc--The Einar$on Case-The
iii; b;;i" 6r"-rn" Rins casc--The-Go{ard casc-
iiil i',il.,"i c;t"-rn;
:1r;"R;;ur Cr""-The
Pif"'"t" casc-The Brittain case
Fo[ard Case--The McDaniel
C#:fr:-"$;"i]*i"-g C'*-rue Llandaff casc--The
Hoffsetz Case. I LLUSTRATIONS
r+4
$6. EXPERIMENTAL AND EYPNOTTC PROJBCTIONS
The Marv Parker Case-The Garcia C'ase-Thc Sidncy
-Cn'"-ru' Pagc
a#"-fia {;;t t,C's'M' o" Yram'ssegrjoSrol carc-The
b6ok' Prutitat Astrat Violent exteriorization, astral ascends spirally 56
;;";y'd;t":N;;"
Projution. suture
SLEEP t5+ Exteriorization and interiorization through the sagittal
SPoNTANEOUS PROJECTIONS-DURING
$2.
Casc-TheI:[aldey Case on the crown of tJre head 77

iil"t -C.t.-Tttt Wilcox

^"il;'Watson Case-The
The
Kuchyn}a S-prenger
-Case-The-Lilly- Case case I33'
CJ:rh;'iL"" Cut Sirions Casc-The Illustration of the Reynolds
]iil" ^rr."tn -mt
ia-dat"-The He!4. Case-The Johnson
costa
Invisible helpers often assist in the exteriorization r37
*im: **i* ":r*""3nl,li',*"ffi *3e THE wAlqNG srATE r86 Illustration of the Hoffsetz case r4r
$8. SPoNTANEOUS PROJECTToNS-IN
Connelly Case-The Frallic Case
The McBride Case-The-st"'"t forms I45
:td^'ilif-Case-Th" Cise-The. Hendry^ Case- Artist's conception of the projected
C.t*-fr'"- S* Cutt-tt'e Annenkof Case-
A;'"Stoie- -c*"-rttt
Instead of seeing the spirit of her daughter Mme Annenkof
I'auter Case'
Napier Case-The saw-
ii: J;i;tk*
205 r99
$g. cAsEs IN Anrrr: wos' r-36 her own
zr6
CONCLUSION
221
BIBLIOCRAPHY
i.il'
,{,

,;,].
,dl
irill;
il:,

ltir
'#.

il[r'
,il{,:
l'.

vu
 INTRODUCTION
ll ft is now more than twenty yean since our book Thc Ptojection oJ
ii, thc Astral Bod2 was first pubiished, and since then a number of
l worls have bCen issued on the subject, as well at numerous magazine
,: articles. The latter contained, very often, the personal experiences
" of the author-constituting a number of additional out-of-the-body
H cases. Many of these havJalso been sent in from individuals living
;,1 ln all parts of the world, and it has been interesting to comPare
these, ind to see the extraordinary similarity between them. To be
;.' gure,
':l! there have been poinr of minor difference, but on the whole
'l, i[; h;;;;; t*; ; t"r\ ;d utt on thi first fundamental
dl premise, viz. that it is seemingly "g'i"possible to live and function
ionsciously outside the physical body. The majority of these cgses-
, as one might expect-hive been spontaneous, but some of them
have been-noted while under the influence of an anaesthetic or
I when in a state resembling coma. All our corresPondents were
evidently sincere.
In our first book on the astral body, above mentioned, details
werc given of the process, as well as- certain formulae, -based on
, persorr-ul experiencei. Sections were devoted to such subjects as:
iTow the phintom is projected, its mode of egress from the
ilow th€ physical
body, its-modes of lbcomotion, its various travelling--speeds, the
unitins the two bodies,
cord uniting bodies. the ,cataleptic state following and
preceding p,-rojection, cord-activity range, the zone of quietude,
incapaci[,'et6.,
incapacity, methods of obtaining projection:
etc., and gave two method-s
'i metlod. The'crypto'
the dream-control method and the passive-will method. The'crypto'
eonscious' mind was also described, and it was told how this might
bc tdynamized'. These and many other topics were covered in this
, fint volume.
,'it In a second book, issued some ten years later, Thc Case fm Astral
Projcction, additional data was supplied, and a number of fint'hand
,tt uYlevr.v..t
[i anii other cases were given.
[, siven. Still further cases are given in the present
i,* volume-and a fairly detailed discussion of the scientific and
fi,r' *.o.",'"ul issues involved. It is hoped that this may Prove of value
to students of the subject.
It is interesting (and.in a scnsc amusing) to note that our former
;ill Uoofr-tt ough considered highly significant and important to many
$il.$udents in ihis field-were never reviewed in a single journal
devoted to ttre more scientific side of psychical reseaich' Not a
.

word was said about them in the Journal of the British Society for
''lhychical Research. Why should this be so? Is it because the
1officials of this society really did not know what to say about
X INTRODUCTION
them? To deny theevidence off-hand wouldbe to ignore a.great
body of seemingly well-verified casc-history material, which would
bc something of a scandal; furthermore, it would indirectly cast
reflections upon the judgment of that grcat maestro of psychical
research, Frederic Myers-for as we know he defended the
theoretical possibility in his Human Pcrsonaliy, as well as in his
earlier writings, and adduced cases in support of his belief. This,
assuredly would be little less than heresy! On the other hand, if
the possibility were acceptcd. ! Whole new vistas would be
opened up: the possibility of sirrvival, the actuality.of some sort
of spiritual body, the ability to live and think outside the human
brain, and heaven knows what else besides. A fearful step to take!
The 'easiest way', evidently, was to say nothing-and that was
apparcntly the policy pursued. How long this ostrich philosophy
can be maintained is another matter. It will be interestirrg to
gee...;
And now a few words regarding some misunderstandings which
have seemingly arisen in the minds of ccrtain students of these
subjects.
Many times, in talking to people about psychic phenomena
and the nature of phantoms especially, we have been surprised to
find that they confuse in their minds such entirely different mani-
festations as e.g., apparitions and materializations, and will say,
"I saw a mateialization", when what they really mean is that they
saw an appaition. Of course this is a great mistake. One is a semi-
solid or solid form, while the other is usually subjective, having no
space-occupying quality.. . . We have been even more surprised to
find that such people seem almost offended when we point this
fact out to them-as though we were in some way trying to belittle
their experience! Yet both are psychic phenomena, only of a differ-
cnt charaqter, Aside from sianccs, materializations ane so rafi as
to be almost non-existent-save in those few cases where an astral
body becomes for the time being palpable to the senses. . We
have tried to show, in several places in this book, how it is that
phantom forms may oary greatly in the degree of their objectivity,
and that the degree of this objectivity may even vary from moment
to moment. That is why a phantom may be visible one moment
and vanish the next. It is, in our estimation, a mistake on the part
of psychical researchers to think that phantasnr may bc placed
into certain water-tight compartments or categories, and stay there
good littlc boys! Thc evanescent and fluidic character of all
-like
these manifestations should ever be kept in mind; and if this were
done, much of the controveny regarding the degree of objectivity
of phantasms worild be done away with.
This question---of the relative objectivity or subjectivity of
phantasmr-is one of the most intereting of all, to the expcrienced
INTRODUCTION XI
rprojcctor. So-called 'thought forms' constitute a sort of half-way
lhouse between t}e two; in one sense they are subjective, whilc in
ir another sense they are not! The medieval magicians made use of
; a good analoga in this connection. They said, "Here is a magic
i,I l^-.---
lantern and
^-l L^-^:^
here is a slide. 'f'L^
^ -t:l^ li-L+
The light passes
--^^^^
rL-----L:L^
through the glirss
-ll-- -til-
slide
,' and creates an image upon the screen. In one sense this image
is objective, in that it can be seen by the physical sense of sight;
' in another sense it is not objective, since notling is actually oz
, the screen, and a chemical inalysii would revea"l no differincc
. when images were thrown upon it and when they were not. There-
fore these images are both subjective and objective, at the same
1- time!" The movies would, of course, give us an even better example;
,li for here we can not only see the characters in action, but they
lif also convey to us, by these actions (and quite apart from words),
:,, their thoughts, feelings and emotions, and these we too experience
,^, as they are aroused within us, so that we may cry or laugh at the
' picture before us. . This, really, is an extraordinary thing, when
'. one stops to think of it, for these emotions and ideas are conveyed
.,'. By analogy, much the samc sort of thing seems to occur in the cases
to us by a series of fleeting phantoms, which have no actual reality!
i of apparitions and similar phenomena. They too often seem to be
; objective in one sense, and not in another.
Years ago this point struck Mr. Myers, and he in fact coined
a term to cover such special modifications in space: he called such
. a point a 'phantasmogenetic centre'. This point-in-space is some-
',.how modified or influenced by the invading presence, without
i being actually occrpied by it, in the traditional sense. And, as he
', cmphasized in his "Note on a Suggested Mode of Psychical
fnteraction", in Phantastns of thc Lioing:
, ". . . The line between the 'material' and the 'immaterial',
i . as these words are commonly used, means little more than the
' line betweeh the phenomena which our senses or our instruments
,,, can detect or register, and the phenomena which they can not.
,,' And the whole problem of the relation of the psychical to the
$1 physical-of thought and will to space and'matter-is'forced
upon our attention with startling vividness from the very begin-
r ning glhi: inquiry. At every step.we find that familiar spcquJl-
, tivJaimculties-assume a new reility; and that dilemmai whibh
i the metaphysician can evade, and the physicist ignore, present
. to the psychical researcher an imperative choice of one or the
,, other horn." (II, p. z9o.)
," These difficulties are perhaps realized by the astral projector
I more than by anyone else in this field of inquiry. For he is con-
, rtantly confronted by the difficulty-not only of prqoing the objec-
;rtivity of his own projected form, but also of distinguishing the
lidegree of this objectivity himself! This may sound strange to the
xll INTRODUCTION

reader who has not exPerienced an actual proje.ction; he :'u{',i' PART I

fact. feel that this should be a matter_very casily determrned Dy
th.'r"^o" undergoing the experience'-But, ofo-nce Projected' he wlll ; r. THE DOCTRINE OF ASTRAL PROJECTION
the
i.ifl* ir"itn" firo"Et t-creaii.,g Uttlaos-"9pic changes
faculties mind are so tre'
are taking
rn..rao"t that a constlnt series of ii l"or.o studcnts of the occult it is generally held that man, in
;i.f"_not only aroundhim but hinself well-as exemplihed,
within as
l', eddition to his physical body, -Possesses also another, I"t^l"-tl!1:
f";;;;i.-.-il th; creating of the clothing of tlre fact
plojected form'
that the mrnd ,, [iau.-rrtr*uuv'"oi"aJi"tand ;itli t]re physical, which is F" hdy
*ni"f, *i have elsewhere drscussed. The mere
hc inhabits after death, which he is capable ot detachrag
;f ih" ;G"ted form can undergo illusions and hallucinations of : from his physical ,bo4y .t will,'physi.cal under, c3rtlin circumstances-' or
;i"-ki"['d;;ttorptor., by any ireans, thatargued' the mind itself is not
tiiliiu ri""Ji"io*ty liaves the body,^more ot" lttt-:91'
;;";iU p..*"i.ia iniaci-ai mg"vbyh.1v9 st"! tll"tl.t: j. oletelv.
^t-t-I-
'i-
in o1.".
sleep, tmnc.-
trancc, coma-
coma, or under the
ttre ol arl
influence or
rnnuence an luracE
anae3-
living human.beingp, who. and feeling,.-a.nd.ig thc
."a f,itrl"i"ations are experienced
Snhsh ;, ,'fi{;:'It ir-tf,,i u.av bf doii., emotion
are otherwise sane and healthy, as the famous L;ensus. 0J
:l vehicle of consciousness. It is normally invisible, intangible, tmPl-
iiiUiii"iiii-.*pty showed usjand these were. experienced whe_n
;iii['i;- td;;;;; ;nd hencethectnt'ot be discovere]d uPon tle
tfri ;"ai"ia"ah in question were occupying their own physrcal
It is no a-rgument [".i"tiir" t tt"l ft constitutes human 'double',- and- is somc
t"ii.r ""a inhabitin! a familiar physical-world! therefore' r Hr- "ii"Utt" LJy, which_we-normally inhabit and utilize. It is
;;;i;;Jii;; ;;Jity oi the p.ojecftd'astral consciousness, *-pi[.rr;th;k;a"nce
i: thc 'spiritual body' of St. Paul.
i,i pfr*'o*inu take place within that mind i, of such a body have admittedly bccn
"ir..
*ii* inl errri"6nment is so^"y
"a*fiiilJri*1f". piastic ind fluidic, and easily ', difl"j;-io-obt"in. However, therc are many personr who asscrt
bv the activity of thought. Indeed, when -one- stoPs to on certain found themselves inbabttulS
-Ltita"a Lr
I that thcy have, occasions,
think of it,'it would seem quite natural that this should be so- .ili;-6J; ;d, on looking back, iecn their own physical body
;;e;Li;e milht e*pect, in the circumstances, whe-n tE t ;Gt"d tt"Irca. Thcy irc convinced that thJy are posscssed
":ild
and unfamiliar
Iiir,. *Li."to. Is fu.rclioning under such strange
t}te relatrve drmculty
r"fu i body bccause thiy can see and feel and handle f.t' M.grc-
conditiins. These phenomena indicate, merely, ;;. t#;; a"ttv conscibus at the timc,body,
"f and realize that thcy
of completelv con[rolling the mind, when experiencing a-pro.;ectron ;;;"-fiser
*" funchonins in the
ir" iohg"t funchoning matcrial b9{v, but in this more
the .matcriat
_and do ,rot prove thai this mind has been somehow miraculously *utt. . ...
":: Tllf":-'li:y^",t]Y:^::jl'i;
dupficate. Tf,esc
t.*rior-"a irito a dream-consciousness! This distinction is this
il-;;;ry conscious projector, and we have emphasized
realized
dis- #;J,i Jfi;;;;;.'fi;;;tv r,ir,";;s certain p'o6"a"r&, it
possible to project this body exp.erimentall.y and,
i, ho U".r, fo-und
tinction'over and over again, in our various wrrttngs' No one wno i so to speak, 'at will'. Ihe-se^are the-cases ol controued' orivglllnlall
i;;;;". had an experierice of the kind rylll.gra-nt lol g."t moment iit A-iiri""tio". Methods for producing this rcsult we detailed in
that he is dreaming, for he knows--very well that he is fully consclous
that consciousness ,Vi, piiiiit**ii tt" ,4t o1 Bod2, and, we-have disculed this whole
-various
;;;; though-.heinay find it difficuit to control o"otioi from viewp6ints in the present volume'
] . But'is it not true that we frequently experience , i;-h..-- been contended,'of counte, thit orthodox science has
"a..""t"iu.
this iame'difficulty in our daily lives, and that true concentratron
.T.tii"ti"" is comparatively raie, while the .mind tends to'wander'
al thi slightert opio.t,rrrity? yet-no one thinks of contending that
',,ny-"a'u;;l+9.1"_+:..1':i":i^q:-.:::il":"",*:l,i:i:l
, *Utf. [Jv. a"a furthermore that the idea itself is 'incrediblc'.
proof required, we- have dealt with this at somc
' ,c;; th" o'ujectivcaird
thir when carried to the point 9f '$ty dream- wodd here only stoP to point-out that,.on
"t "ri.t.risti6l+ven
that the subject is asleep and dreaming,.in the 9lt"""y
i.""tf, ebewicre, -is
i11g'-proves iil;ffi,-A;';;t-6rd, (obviously) composed of
.,.,the6ry, the astral body is not (obviduslvi
ot phvsical
physical
*"ise 6f the word! Yet this is precisely the sort of criticism whrch one matter. but of more subtle elements, being essenuauy etnenc ln
iri.* [*U.a at Projecton,' whel they are .tellingagarn, of. their own to the
;;;;: The Yons expound a whole doctrine as existence
in tht Uody-which are not found Uy tf" *d:,7
We emphasize this point over and b.eca3s:
, ,i".ti"i"
experienccs. -ovcr
it is after all the cni of the matter, and the only se-emingly lo$cal i ;r;;;;. The replv is that ihit is ,te""t.arily so, since the centres
"intre.i
obiection which can be raised to the reality of such astral exPen- ',
'in iuestion repreient more nearly aila/ centres, which are co^nnected
;;'";. :-: . rt i, -r a logical objection-as everyone knows- who
. dti ;iir.
Gti 'matter'. The anatomist is far
rafuer than with 'mitter'.
'life' to-&"t tar from
has experienced a real, conscigus projection of the astrat 99oy' fiil6"S-"tt Oi r."r"t" of life--as even the biologist can tell him!
Atai" Le say to oo, 'ExpMc it, thcn -rou will know!'
"iiti"t, 13
l4 THE PHENOIIENA OF ASTR\'IL PROJECTION THE DOCTRINE Or ASTRAL PROJECTION 15

Does it not seem ccrtain that the science of the future will know-of intact, is no more mysterious than the unknown forces
;."y ilbtdi."to"t in the human body which are unknown at the r hold the atom together--or even the unrfying principle
present day? r makes the.physical body function teleologically--constituting
'--e"-to iUe 'inconceivability' of the idea, this seems far more organism as a whole'. These forces are all mysterious, all
duUio"t-."a dogmatic. As grcat-a scientist as Sir OliveT I-4go rolin, and this being so, there is certainly no reason to doubt
in etheric body, and contended that
the elxistcnce of other unknown forces may well exist, such as those constitutiug
"o.t"iut.a
;;;;;-;;;;ttv intrauitants of the etheric-world, rather than-.of Z-system of Mrs. Gaskell--or, in more popular phraseology,
,|i;h;i;"t.-iiir qrit" feasiblc to show the theoretical possibility 'the astral body !
f,}-r"';;-lb; of etlieric body, using only analogies acceptable to ! However, we admit that it is one. thing !9 g.at t the theoretical
rcienceitsclf,'...
---ta; iry ;i'J;i;-#y, il." ivith"a prryti""r rti""itt",
:gnd quite another-to grant its""o"iated
; ordinary glass tumbler,- for-instance' Fill it wittr round existence separate and apart from
.3he latter. . However, any funial of this posibility is a mere
lcad bullcts, u q,r.tt i of an inch in diameter' When thesc reach
il; d;;atire sl'ass, it is said to be 'full'. But it is qur-tg possible to begging of the question. For, to deny it, we should have to assume
po.rr i. a considerable quantity of buckshot, which filter into thc thti tlri astral body was in some way 'depmdart upon the physical
i"*;;il; t*""t. t itt orrt o.ut i.rg thc glass any 'fuller'' Aftcr bodv- orsanicallv
1, either organically or functionallv.
functionally. Of this
this we have no
this, sand"may be-added, with like result' Finally,,water.may be ence. Indeed, the evidence, so
iFvidence. lar as it
far rt goes, seerns
t to Pornt
ooured in. beifore the glass may be said to be really 'ltrll" way, and indicate that the phvsical
'the other wav. body is dependent
physical bod'
' What all this amounis to is really this: That between- 41 P1*rclcs Jupon the presence of the astral body, and that, when the latter is
,1'5I,vM
of .nJi.t therc is room for still imaller particles, which fill .the ,l withdrawr, at death, the material body ceases to function and
;;;;;d; tui-- So far as we can see, this is truc of everYthing' i tapidly disintegrates! If, on the other hand, the astral body is
down to the atoms themselves. [, independent of the physical body, then there is no reason why it
-''it" n"r""" Uoay, in the last analysis, is comPosed of atoms i rhould not continue to exist and function in the absence of the
also. But modern phylics has shown us that the distanccs or sPaccs
latter....
betwcen thcsc atdmi is relativcly enormous' No two atoms ever iri So much for theoretical possibilities. The only question is:
i".tt tou"n onc another, o. "o*. anywhere near touching' Thil 6Does it in fact do so? For- proof of this.we must fall back. upon
L.t"i ;;: ;hat is to pievent other 'intra'atomic' elements or ic phenomena and the evidence they afford us, and par-
iirffti,r"l fro*-o"iupyiig such spaces-jgst in the-same yay.th11 rly upon cases of conscious astral projection, in which the
tfrc sand and watcr &cupied the spaces between tlre leaden strotr imenter sees and feels his own (subtle) body, and knows that
i1i"-#i;ua ,tiu co'ntain srch elemerrts without increase in retains full consciousness within it, at considerable distances
sizc or appearance, and theoretically thert is no reason wh'y such bm his physical envelope. It is with a view to help in providing
not exht' rch proof that the present book is written, and the cases it contains
'-*rnir-ia"" factors should
intra-atoffic
l* b."" *orked out ingeniously and at-great length This idea of an etheric body is, however, becoming more and
by Augusta Gaskell, in hcr book What i$ l''r?. (with,.i"gtd::u-91:
bi' Pr;f. KarI T. Compton and Prof. Raymond Pearl)' She- trrerern rre 'respectable' as time pass$, and the idea of an 'etheric brain'
#stulates the existence of two systems: the Y'system, which repre' being discussed in high
scientific quarters very seriously! This
ienr the material body, and tle Z-system, which fePrerc-nr tr€ not becauge such an idea would account for a variety of psychic
i*-"toia or intra'atornic body. Thi unification of thc elements renomena-which are only incidentally mentioned-but because
;f[;-2-td;;;;id :h a theory seerns necessary in order to explain the phenomena
constituie a duplicate, lmlate;{ !9;; memory. . . . It rnwt be understood that mechanistic psychology
which sur6ly amounts to an 'astral body', as the term rs used rn 'traces- relt
iil[-b*L, ri,ttio"t spliiti"g hairs over- thi.particular terminology rumes tnat
$umes that memory dePends upon certain
depends uPon certarn 'traces' left uPon
upon tne
the
fr. iit'it"i"t""d.d6 "8nu"y, merely,. the idea of some subtle rain (or in the brain), much as a record is cut upon the disc of
bodv. unl,nown to modern sciince, and'is only employed because ronograph, and that, when memories are revived and recalled,
iiili" seneral use and commonly understood'),- is due to the restimulation of these cells-just as the music on
--
vicwid in this light, there is nothing at all 'increclrble', or le record is replayed when the needle runs over the disc. In other
cven improbable in t"?n theory. It seerns-in fact highly probable' ords, this physiological theory of memory is purcly materialistic
The thdoretical 'binding" force', which would serve to keeP tne is based upon analogy only.
16 THE PHENoMENA or ASTRAL PRoJEcTIoN
It was against this theory that Bergson and . otlcrs protested
n."*.no--*Entending that it-was altogether too simple, too crude,
irrd reilv incapable-of explaining the facts. And this view has
bI; ;;;1"" wiher and widir acceitance. one of the most striking
;i the.s; neier attacks upon the 6lder view is W' R' Bousfield's
tlcrni int Basis of Memory, appearing in-the New Science Series'
Di. Bousfield is in F.R.S.- arid a psychologist of standing' Yet in
his chapter on 'Psychoplasm' he writes:
". . . The basis of rnemory is not in protoplasmic structure'
but in an immaterial 'psychical structure'. Such a structure
involvcs the conceptiot 6f a substance of which it is built' Wc
h.u. ,."r, that theie are many phenomena which the hypothesis
of engrams in protoplasm will not explain. Yet.engrams or
mnemonic traces of a sort t}ere must be ti sotnc substance, ano
tlis substance we shall call 'psychoplasm', a substa-nce which
we postulate as consisting not bf'ma-terial protons and electrons,
but'of gome other mo&fication of the ether' This substance
*fli"ft t i psychoplasrn is as hypoth€tical as the ether, and
rro *o." so.""UEie6trons and, protoni are ethereal but material,
a" nor satisfi the requirid conditions'- P-sych-oplasm f"Y b.'
""a
resarded as a modification of the ether, and therefore as physical,
thEush immaterial. . For the congeries of cells which make-
;;; il;;" brain, the psychoplasliic organization would be
corresoondinslv complex, and we may relbr to lt luncuonauy
material
i; ;; ; trr| "ptychii brain', in contradistinction to the with
brui". . . . The irotion of a psychic brain co-operating th€
material brain-the material brain responsive to sensory -strmull
;; th; psychic brain responsive to ihe ideas into dew which the
,""rorv-.tl"i"ti are transmuied-appears to furnish a to the
' ' On the
;;fii"" of some difEcult psycholilical problems' 'lasting
;h;i;, t}rc theory that engram'traces are fugitive,the resulting
lons enoush to'provide iesidual images, whilst
,only
,trEhost.r;, furnish the cnduring basis of memory, seems con-
iiri""t iuitt all the facts, and not inconsistent with 1ny of th9
ohenomena. Tte corporeal organization of brain and nerves is
i."i-i"i".if* all its'f.nctioni without being encumbered and^
de'bilitated by permanent changes, due to lh9.pg4t"Fnce. ol
those functions.-The storage of memory and habit is the tunction
of the psychical structure. . . ."
Here, surely, we havc an astounding admission! An etheric brain
ir to account for ihc facts.of *:TW! 1"9 if
.th.ti"'brain is possible, why-not an e'heric body? Surely it is
or,";;Lti;'-d";
but a short steP, o; the part of science, from the accePtance. ot
the one to the acceptance- ol the other; and, once the theoretical
THE DOCTRINE OF ASTRAL PROJECTION 17
posibility be granted, there is surely a wealth of facts which support '!
ruch a contention-all the way from the common or garden variety
:r of 'ghosts' to the most complicated cases of astral projection. The
i
, first steps have assuredly been taken by official science towards
acceptance of this idea of a subtle body !
''the Undoubtedly
"
the main, classic objection against the reality
of certain psychic phenomena-and especially against the idea of of
in the absence of a physical
,an astral body, capable of functioning
lvehicle, in some spiritual world-lies in the currently held view
i
jl''that 'thought is a tunction of the brain' and inseparable from it. l
i Yet there are many cases on record in which great areas of the brain
,have been destroyed, either by accident'or some pathological pro-
tess of degeneration, and yet the mental life of the subject has
remained intact and seemingly quite normal. The destruction of
large portions of the brain, and the very portions which were thought
gssential, may be followed by no grave psychic disturbance, and
ff', no
restriction of personality. One or two exarnples will suffice to
F;prove the statements made. They are taken from Dr. Gustave
1 Geley's work From the Unconscious to the Corccious, who in turn quoted
I, them from the official records.
"M. Edmond Perrier brought before the French Academy
of Sciences, at the session of zend December, rgr3, a case observed
by Dr. R. Robinson; of a man who lived ayear, nearly without
pain, and without any mental disturbance, with a brain reduced
to pulp by a huge purulent abscess. InJuly rgr4 Dr. Hallopeau
rgical Society an operation at the Necker
,t being a young girl who had fallen out of
.r: a carriage on the Metropolitan Railway. After trephining, it
' was observed that a considerable portion of cerebral substance
had been reduced literally to puli. The wound was cleansed,
drained and closed, and the patient completely recovered.
' The second case is not less unusual. It is that of a native
'.aged
1,1 forty-five years, suffering from cerebral contusion at the level
i Broca's convolution. . . . The autoDsv
':i: of Brocats autopsy revealed aalarse
large abscess
i occupying nearly the whole left ceie6ral hemispherel In this
case also we must ask, how did this man manage to think?
,. What organ was used for thought after the destruction of
,: the region which, according to physiologists, is the seat of
',lntelligence
?
i' A third case, coming from the same clinic, is that of a young
I agricultural labourer, eighteen years of age. The post-mortem
r,'revealed three communicating abscesses, each as large as a
Itangerine orange, occupying
irf^--^-:-- ^^^.,^-,:-^ +L^ posterior
the -^^+^-:^- portion ^f L^.L cerebral
-^-+:^- ofboth ^^-^L-^l
hemispheres, and part of the cerebellum. In spite of these, the
;,patient thought as do other men, so much so that one day he
 IE THE PHENOMENA OF ASTRAL PROJECTION TllE DOCTRINE OF ATTRAL PROJECTToN
asked for leave to settle his private affairs. He died on re_entering
the hospital.,'
Dr.Celey sunT gp his conclusions on the above
Hi1*";i:#?";:flfi ["::,LH:]ii,ffi 1?,'H$H,J:t"fl.jd
cases as follows: amply testifies!
" l he materiarist hypotheses which made thought
'a secretion Charles ni"-tSt, in writing of .bilocation' cases, said, in oart:
of the brain', al{ wouid. assign centres to menta"l fu""lti;r;-;;
erroneous. . . . This cerebral mythology must be given upj
our
- "It would be very usefu"l to be able t" air".iii.i"li" ;"i;;;
less accurately between what is
d.ocs not obey locat divinitier....t"i Uy.r.iifou.
and what i. li
:q:1,^y{
sctentrsts "..rility
vtsual phenomenon might be termed "U.;i"iir" "ot.
subjective when it
in the different corners of their cerebral schcmes. . . .', not or would not affeci a photographic p"late. But u, tnir-tJ does
seldom- be_ applied, a
,II, therefore, thought is not a direct function of the brain_as :an yery
rouno; -6re'pra.iical criterion ,"rrt-[.
and we shall call a phenomenon obiective only when all
:? l:"F'etheric
laugtrl-1n$ science is now being driven to the acceptance the present receive'the ,u*" ,.r,ro'ri"i rr"p."fu."I" --
ol an brain', in order to explain memory and other dsvchic ^per"ons
yetthere
, . fn-a are_grades of objectivity; for wheniw, ,""ritiu.,
1!t,-r-r,1*.,
rt certainly seems but a short srep to the acceptince of tnrnl(.that they see th,e same phantom, there must be some kind
an etherlc body, separate and apart from thl phvsical. *liich
bodl, though the phantom might not impress a
w9 T1y rnhabit at death, and which constituies the vehicle of thl :rr^".?J_"_"^,l"JlI,
pnotographrc plate. :u:r,
y9 'rl astral projections. Science itself is U.ing arir., ;;-r;;h; I[, however, several persons see the same apparition at the
conclusron; and when we add to this the greit weight of' well_
evidenced psychic phenomena the.e see*s ono lorrg"i any
same-.time; if cats and'dogs show fear; ii,
valid are displaced, it is then imlpossible to d.,ry "fiJ*-"ff.'"fi.""
.Ui*1i"iii, il il;
1:1:l_1
r.tusrng to accept
lol,the .(cven from the strictly iientifii point usual sense of the word. '. .,, giiry' iiii-'i''piit,iii
ol vler,v) reality of a subtle or astral bodv ! Research.)
_,^!i!ot_:ri.o,n.
By this is meant the appareni ability to be in two
places at the same tinre: that is, cases in which a number
of sane
and reputable wirnesses testify to the fact thai a certain individuar ,From the above, i-t is evident that Richet was forced to con-
cede that some sort of ohjectivity exists in such casesl
is in one place at a certain time,- while urroit.. equally *pr;;bi; a".l if ii i
group te_stifies that he is in anoiher place at ttut';aeritlcai
timei :Pj::,y:t ,!e,1why b.ossig ovei the t".- ,.rtrui-L;e/tlf'.;;;
quasr-material lbrm exists, that is all that is required,
Inasmuch as a man obviously..lrrrrot U" i" Uoif, o'ou. th;;;l
d.;;;-;; ;;;
rational explanation'is-that his physical Uiay *rr-1" onJ . It is doubtless true, as Richet contends,
-tt til;{h;;;;;;;:;
ll: ryrl
prace, wnlle hts astral body was in another. However,
of objectivity". Few researchers ..utri ui A.i; Uri ,. ;;;;*;
1Tpr..*- it upon our readers from ihe very first. The
ihis explana- survrng
tion seems rather inadequut. to covgr-the facis, ,r, many rnstances_ lo
degree ol objectivity of a phantom may fluctuate_ilt
since a physical body was seen and felt in boih tfri *."
tg"r:,.{y distinguishable thought-forrn to a complete material'-
accountrng lor such stories! "ur.riru.r.-;rio I:T-l
rzauon. ln ulJs subject, we cannot provide two water-iieht
One of the most famous of these, of course, is the case ofAlphonsus comoart-
ments, one for the sheep and tie other for tt.
Liguori who, on the morning of zrst S.pii*U.r, 1774, was at his e.li;l--iJJi"
monastery in , q|9, origg. 1e porg subtle qrd n"iat" tr,"" ih;;. d;;ti"r; ;;;;
-Arienzo-four-days, journey f.om ncjrire__aorr.rirru
tne vestments in
oJ the difficulty in,the past has bee" aui-io this vervltte;;;:;;
preparation for Mass. Suddenly he fel into a deei the part ot-researchers, to place a certain phenomenon
catafeptrc sleep. He remained in this for two hours. On cominL ucular ____ov.r. 'Irr.L-rL
_'-_-_- category.
il ; ;;;:
,mutations,_in
to, he srated thar he had just returned from the bedside of thE here 4rc
are Lu4rt6cs_-__rven
changes_-__even- mutaUons._ln tLese
these
Pop.e, in Rome, and that the pope naa j"siai.a. At
first tfri, *",
dream, and then'-wh..r'r,e*, of the pojet;.;th
.{fi:':ffi ii.'T'.L::'::,,i:',i:,"L'^1l::-"*ll^'Yils,o..-c,"xto*,.
lhe .example we have quoted elsiwhere, of the han? ffidi;;;
TlPi.q toaa coincidence.
arrfved-to Then the amazing lunlh _o-l tlowers, at one of Sir rvilriam crookes' siances w"ith
informition was D. D. Home, is illustrative of this.
received-that all those in attendance at the bEaside of ttre a'l.rJ Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, again, in her article on .Haunted Houses,-
ppntif had, not.only seen but ?lked to Liguori,-andlti".a-,i"iifi . h: frocecdings of the- S.P.R., after advancing several
nrm as he led the prayers for the dvins! lil
thcones m turn, conc-luded by pointing
tentative
This is.a typical example.of bilocaiioil stories. They are of course out that-such houses misht
nave,to be explalned by a combination of a// these theories__or"at
entirely different from ordinary_ case! of astral p.6,;..tio".-.-.-. oy combmtng twoor-more of them on any particular
The former are purely historic;I, so far as orr. "air"ou., j
tfr. *3:
r nts warnrng rs particularly applicable in
occasion.
"i., casei irf astral projection,
20 THE PHENOMENA OF ASTRAL PROJECTION
where the inner and outer characteristics of the phenomcnon slide
into each other so indetectablY.
To the average Person this'may,-of c-ourse, sound incrcdiblc-
that objective foini can be created by ttre power of thought'-Yet
tlrer" #. a variety of psychic phenomena *hich. apPlY testi$ to
this fact. In discussing tire clothing of the astral form, we drcw
attention to this thou"$ht-creating power, and in this connection
we should. Iike to t"itit d the leader that Archdeacon Colley
published h Light (IgI3, P. 35o) a photograph which seems to bear
init orri to . ririt i.r[ dig.ei.'Misi Felicia Scatcherd consented to
bi photographed foriimibut at the moment of posing, remembercd
thal she ir.t'i" her everyday clothes, and thought how much better
it would have been naa sn6 put on a certain lace'trimmed blousc'
When the platc was developdd, the diaphanous outline of the non-
oirt""t blduse was distinctly viiible----over the one she was wearing!
H;;; th. ;.dding and organizing Power of thought is evidcntly
manifest--even though on a limited scale.
Wtiti"g of this p"ot,e., in connection with.the young mcdium.
Rudi Schieider, Di. Osty sap (supcnormal Asputs of Entg and
Matta, p. 3g):
". . . Like the paranormal knowledge of reality.in time'and
in space, the paranbrmal krror,vledge of the organizing^ processes
of life rel eals that, behind the uie of the mind in feeling, in
tt irrtitr* and in actins on matter, there is another intelligent
plane oT being, usuall/not manifest, which very probably rePre-
ients the fun[amentai reality of ourselves, and forms part of a
;[;" ;f life quite different hom that in which we exercise our
brdinary inteliigence. . . ."
A further extension of this view-extending even to materializa-
tions-was formulated by the noted psychiatrist, Ivlorselli, in his
enorrnous two-volume stuly of the mediumship of Eusapia Palladino.
Endeavouring to formulate some theory -which would account lbr
th" f""tr-"rri which would at the same time avoid the spiritualistic
theory-Morselli worked out at considerable length his famous
'!ry"[oay"umic' theory, which, very briefly, may be expressed
thus:
becomes a creative
"With mediums the imagination frequently
nower of the first order. .-. . The mEdium has the faculty ot
'i*t..io.irit g a force capable of plastically moglding, in space,
iti-hp."r -produced in ier imagination. - ' . The plastic force,
in otlier words, is exteriorized in such a manner as to grve brrtlr
io i.i.ff.rti" phunto,,,r, or materializations-whose substance is
F;rtd;d bt ile medium, and whose aPPearance is shaped by
THE DoCTRINE or AsrR.{L PRoJEcrtoN 2l
the spectators" (by means of telepathy, aia thle subconsciousness
of the medium).
To express this in more concrete form: (I) Th9 subconscious
memories'of the sitter are communicated to the medium by means
of telepathy, and (z) these thoughts, shaping themselves in.lhe
mind. o'f the'medium, i:rint their chiractcristics upon the exteriorized
force, which thus gradually takes on the appearance ofthe departed
-'
spirit.
Ir, t*o words, tclepathy and, teleplast2. The peculial power. of
the medium to produie p-hysical effects,- and parlicularly material-
izations, consisti in giving an objective reality to the creations of
her imagination, whi"ch, ir their iurn. may only be the reflections I
of the thoughts of those around her. 1i
1
It is trui that this psychodynamic theory of Morselli's would I
:i
be violently rejected by orthodox science-the very same -screnc.e- I.
which Moiselliis tryinfi to defend! But, having coavinced himself f
of the reality of the hcts, he was merely endeavouring to formulate
some theory which presented the least sitain upol accePted^science,
and the principles bf Uiotogy and psychology. Once tJre facts are
accepted, some'theory is riiiessitat6di and,-as we have seen, the
theoi, advanced., by a cautious scientist and - a, non--spiritualist,
involved the acceptance of the. creative power of though-t-even on
our own physical fhne. How much more effective must this creative
po*.t,UJot the astral plane, when free of the inertia of solid matter?
' It -"y be objectedjust here, perhaps, that what was said above
refers to'specially end6wed individuali (mediums), and that most
of us are iot mediums-apparently possessing no rudiments of the
extraordinary Powers above mentioned. But it must be remembered
ihit a tubjeit:undergoing an astral projection, and a medium^in
trance, undoubtedly Possess many points in comm.on-at'least lor
iir. ti*.l.ing-anil ihat the mind-may be almost
suCh times-though the o.le.m?y b:
cqually operatire in.both, at-"ryptd-"otr"iogs
a sDontaneous expenence and the other an experimentally induced
;#-i; both. thi creative power of mind may be very great; and
orri. In ilah;thi-..."tirre
it is this creative power of mind which plays such an.important
iole in astral projictions. . It is not i'dream consciousness'-
., *"ny seem'to-think; it merely Proves the dyrramic power ofwith the
deeoer *itd-ptor"d obiectively ih the cases of mediums, but
-the
far'greate, didiculty in cases of projectors. Nevertheless, -the
fund'amental mind utilized is the same in 6oth cases-one function-
ing upon the physical plane and the other upon the astral' '
Bozzano, in his extensive work on 'bilocation' (by which, how-
22 THE PHENOMENA Or ASTRAL PROJECTTON
ever, he means astral projection) begins his argument for the
existence of the human double by referring to a number of curious
cases in which the subject felt an amputated limb, long after its
severance from the body. His contention, of course, was that such
cases seemed to indicate lhe existence of an 'etheric limb', which
remained intact, after the physical limb had been scvered.
Years ago, William James published an articic on "The Con-
sciousness of Lost Limbs" in the Proceedings of the (Old) Amcrican
Society for Psychicai Research. He adduced a number of such
cases, some readily explicable by nerue-reactions or contractions
in the stump, but others presenting curious and bizarre phenomen:r,
which could with difficulty be explained in any such orthodox
manner. Writing of such cases, he said:
". My final observations are on a matter which ought
to interest students of'psychic research'. Surely if there be any
distant material object with which a man might bc supposed
to have clairvoyant or telepathic relations, that object ought to
be his own cut-off arm or leg. Accordingly, a very widespread
belief will have it, that rvhen the cut-off limb is maltreated irr
any way, the man, no matter where he is, will feel the injury.
I have nearly a score of communications on this point, some
believing, more incredulous. One man tells ol experiments of
warming, etc., r,rrhich the doctor in an adjoining room made on
the freshly cut-off leg, without his knowledge, and rif r.r.hich his
feelings gave him no suspicion. Of course, did such telepathic
rapport exist, it need not necessarily be found in every case.
One man writes me that he has dug-up his buried leg eight times,
and changed its position. He asks me to advise him whether to
dig it up again, saying he 'dreads to!' "
James, naturally, refused to commit himself in any way as to
the reality of such phenomena. Hnwever, newer psychic facts,
otlrerwise obtained, tend to prove rnore effectively the reality of ari
etheric body, and it must be remembered also that clairvoyants
have on various occasions claimed to have 'seen' the missing limb,
still intact and apparently attached to the physical body. A case
given by Dr. Kerner, in his .Seerass of Preaorst, is a classic example
of this. Experiments in the 'exteriorization of sensibility' also throw
an interesting light upon such curious cases,
Bozzano regards as intermediate or transition phenomena those
cases in which the subject, normal and conscious, sees a phantom
of himself-observing it with his own physical eyes, and knowing
that his consciousness still resides in his ordinary body. Thc case
of Gethe is, of course, classic, in this connection. . f.'hen we
have a few instances in which there is a curious shifting track and
THE DOCTRTNE OF ASTRAL PROJECAION 23
forth of consciousness, between the two bodies---€ach seeing the
other in turn. . . Finally, we come to complete projections, in
which the consciousness is transfemed to t}e astral body, while
the physical body is unconscious and inert, and in these cases the
lattei is seen lying upon the bed (in most instances)-the mental
principle being completely carried over into the astral. These
ionstitute the majority of the reported cases, and especially the
spontaneous
- cases.
We have just spoken of clairvoyants. It must not be forgotten.
that these specially endowed individuals have frequently observed
the departure of the astral body from the physical-at death-
and have described it at length. Even normal individuals have done
so at times, and the testimony of several doctors and nurses is
included in the present volume, These descriptions tally to a remark-
able degree-despite the fact that the witnesses are separated from
one another by thousands of miles of space and centuries of time.
. . . Surely it is extraordinary that the Lamas of Tibet, the Shamans
of Siberia,.the Zulu witcb doctors of Africa and the Yogis of India
should agree with the spontaneous observations and experiencgs of
ladies and gentlemen living in London, Paris and New York! If
tlere is no btsic truth in these phenomena, ho-rv are we to account
for this similar testimony? Yet, as $'e have said, it agrees not only
in gcneral outline but in the most minute detail!
Take, for example, the following account, given by a missionary
on the istand of Tahiti, and published in Thc Mctaph2sical Magazine,
October 1896:
"Prophets were supposed to speak under the influence of
departed spirits, and these were thought still to retain t}e human
form. et &eath the soul was believEd to be drawn out of the
head, whence it was borni away, to be slowly and gradually
united to the god from whom it had emanated. It had to p,ass
t}rough nine conditions in order to reach the tenth-everlasting
rest. .- . . It is most interesting to know that the Tahitians have
concluded t}rat a substance, taking human form, issued from the
head of the coipse, because among the privileged few who have
the blessed gift bf clairvoyance, some affirm that,-shortly after a
human body ceases to breathe, a vaPour arises from the head,
hovering a iittle way above it, but attached by a vapoury cord.
The substance, it is said, gradually increases in bulk and assumes
the form of the inert body. When this has become quite cold,
the connecting cord disappearc and the disentangled soul'form
floats away as if borne by invisible carrien."
How could S.M., for instance, living in a small town in Wisconsin
(and having read nothing of the subject) have made these identical l
il
u THE PHENOMENA OF ASTRAL PROJBCTION
obscrvations in his early '166ns-n61ing the form and method of
egress of t}e body, the cord attaching the astral to the. physical,
the mode of travel and his reception on the other side, when pro-
jected, and all the rest-if he had not undergone identical projec-
tion experiences? It is preposterous to assume that these were mere
coincidences, or hallucinations, or that they had dream experiences
which were so exactly similar. What had he in common with a
Zulu witch doctor which would make them think or dream alike
in all these respects? No! It is only logical to assume tlat they had
similar experiences, which they each noted in their own way; and
these exlieriences were the phenomena of astral projection-which
are far more common than is generally believed.
It is all very well for the sceptic to maintain that all men are
basically alike, and that, when they sleep and dream, they should
all imagine that they left their bodies and travelled hither and
yon-whereas these 'astral flights' were in reality but vivid dream
experiences! Such arguments entirely fail to take into account the
numerous well-verified cases where the witch doctor, let us say,
brings back information (as to events actually transpiring at the
time) which are only verified hours, days or weeks later. Anyone
who cares to read books written by explorers or resident magistrates
or missionaries can ascertain for himself that such things occur
not occasionally but frequently. A number of such cases may be
found in Carrington's book, The Ps2chic World, and herein also may
be found a quotation from J. Shepley Part, M.D., late assistant to
the Gold Coast Colony, where he says:
". . . I have repeatedly been told by well-educated and
broadminded natives (and such do exist) that it is possible for
certain trained individuals to 'project their consciousness' to a
distance, irrespective of time and space . and it is not an
uncommon remark to hear that so-and-so has been to such-and-
such a place 'during the night', or
'yesterday afternoon', or
'this morning', such journey being out of all possibility by
ordinarymeans....
The stages of developing this power may be divided as undcr:
r. Simple clairvoyance.
z. The payrng of'astral visits', or projection of consciousness
only.
3. The same as two, with power to materialize the entity
projected, or to affect material objects. . . ."
Here, then, we find a clear-cut distinction, on the part of the
native medicine men, between simple clairvoyant dreams and real
astral projections. They fully realize that both occur, but they dis-
tinguish between them, and even insist that the method of training
THE DOCTRTNE Or ASTRAL PROJECTION 25
and initiatipn be different in the two cases! Could anything indicate
more clearly the difference between these two types-of phenomena?
Of courie, everyone realizes that the ordinary dream is a. mere
subiective construciion----capable, often, of interpretation. Only the
moit primitive minds would imagine that all dreams rePresent the
journiyings of the soul-in another sphergr-. Most dreams are
vague, ummpressrve and easily forgotien. When a-genuinely 'super-
noimal' dream occurs, howevlr, iiis usually vivid, impressive, and
rarely forgotten by the dreamer. It may''veridical',
be telepathic, clairvoyant
or pioph""tic, but'if the dream proves or truth-telling'
the'su6ject rlmembers the dream, and often speaks.of it f91^m1ny
yEaiIS. ile
years. may have
[G rll4y rr4u only
lr4vt had urE such
uruy oza Juvrr v^H
-experience-
in his. lif.e, .but
ih^t o* made a deep impresiion upon him, and burnt itself into
his memory.
If this tre true of a simple telepathic or clairvoyant dream, how
, much more true is it of in expirience involving conscious astral
' proiection! These are even more rare-and more impressive! They
Pe$on ]3d",lqoi:,C tB*
. i.u[. an.indelible impression upon the -whole
an experience*sometimes refoniring his life (cf. the Ed'
Morreil Case, Tlu Twenty-ffth Man).Would' a dream experrience-
even a clairvoyant dreari Liperience-be likely to accomplish such
a result? No! The subiect who has had a genuine astral projection
is profoundlv impressid by its reality, its uniqueness, and usually
*iih its profortd significance. For'he realize-s-perhaps for. the
-not merely part of his body, but is a spiritual
first timei-that he is
entity, capable of existing and'{irnctioning apart from his phy-sical
body-"rri hence potenti-ally immortal. Ii is-tl'e immensity of this
thoright which often ptorrei so overwhelming!-
W" crt t ot do betier perhaps than to conclude this portion of
our argument in the wordi of Prbfessor Bozzano, when he says:
'
".. . Everything concurs to demonstrate that the mystery of
: existence, corr"".rrirrg which so many philosophical sys.l9Ts,
built up-in thirty centuries, have striven for in vain, will be
experinientally cllared upon the day when the existence of an
exiernalizableletheric bodv within the somatic body is scientifically
demonstrated. In.other'words: the phenomena of bilocation
alone suffice for the solving of the immense mystery which has
remained impenetrable to all philosophies. . ' ."

2. MAN'S SPIRITUAL BODY
'f Hs belief that man possesses a 'double' or spiritual body of some
*rd dut"r back to the veriest antiquity. In ihe EgyPtian noo! in .of
tlu Dcad, this idea is already fully developed, and illustrated
considerible detail, where the Ka is shown returning to,its-mum-
mified body. In China and Tibet the same doctrine held sway
from time 'immemorial, and ancient Chinese prints show the
emergence of such a body, when a victim is being subjected to
tortuie. The ancient writings of Tibet enter into the question at
prreat leneth. Among primi[ves, this belief has always been held
l-that fi"r,, durin{his sleep, leaves his physiErl body and ya.n{e.rs
" Anthropoiogists, of course (such as Jy-ler, in.his Pimitioc^
far afield.
Culturc\. have invariablv attributed such beliefs to the realm of
i^rrt..*r1-"ot tending that dreams would have given rise to such
beliefs in primitiveininds. . But then, anthropologists. as a class
refuse to acknowledge the reality of az2 genuine p^sych-ic phenomena
believed in by 'saviges', despite the absurdity of such an attitude,
as pointed out by Aidiew Lang and other competent critics' The
serieral attitude seems to be that, just because primitive people-s
iielieve in certain unusual phenomena, that therefore these beliefs
of theirs are erroneous, and that such phenomena do not occur!
Boi, of course, few if-any anthropolofists accept thc- reality. of
pwihi" phenomena. If thiy did, they might see that these beliefs
'".1tr"r.h upon actual experiences, and-that, .when Primitive.peoples
contended tirat they actually left their bodies at night, and visited
dista.rt places, they'actually-did so-as proved by subsequent veri-
fication'of their slatements, which turned out to be true' Such
verifications have as a rule either been ignored, or treated
,coincidences'. The unscientific character of this attitude should be
obvious to any serious student of these problems.
The belief in some sort of spiritual body has doubtless been
maintained and fortified, throughout history, by constantly reported
cases of appaitions; or, more-popularly speaking,-'ghosts'. It is
Derhaps triidlv necessary to emphasize the fact that such cases
ira.re 6e.t recounted from the earliest times, and lrom every country
in the world. Until our own times, 'ghosts' were unceremoniously
classified under one of two categories: they were dismissed as
hallucinations and the disordered imaginations of credulous minds,
or they were accepted as real, outstanding entities-that is, space'
occrrpyirrg forms.'Holding such diametrically opposite views, it is
smali *oid.r that believers and disbelievers could find no common
ground on which to me€t. Such ground was only provided by the
26
MAN's sPIRITUAL BoDY 27
progress of psychic science, and the later and more rational inter'
Lrefation of the maioritv of such phantoms.
' Briefly, the moiern view is that the majority of apparitions are
indeed subjective, rather than objective,'but that, in many instances,
they are m'ore than this. If the appearance of the phantom coincides
witir the death or illness of its origjnator, $'e seem forced to the
conclusion that some causal connection exists between the death
and the appearance of the phantasm; and this factor is low tho'rght
to be telejith2. Accordingly, such cases are now generally.reg"ld..d,
for the mosi pa.t, as 'telipathic hallucinations'. The mind of the
dvins oerson iru. in to-. *"ttt influenced the mind of the seer,
"t picture of that p-erson, which
.i*iirg it to conjure up the'visual
becomis 'externalized' in the form ola hallucination. In some such
way, doubtless, the vast majority of 'apparitions of the dying' may
be explained.
Bui not ali of them! Obstinate cases keep cropping up which
seemingly cannot be accounted for in this simple.manner. Some
'ghostsi ire reported to have opened_ and closed doors, or pulled
a"side curtains,'or produced rapi, or been seen by animals, ^o-r by
several people at ihe same time. Occasionally, such 'ghosts' have
been photolraphed. A hallucination cannot snuff a candle or oPen
a door, or*aliect the emulsion on a photograp}ic plate! That
requires some semi-material body, capllle of influcncing matter.
It was cases such as these which forced Mr. Andrew Lang to write,
in his Coct Lane and Common Sense (p. zo6); "Some apparitions are
.'ghosts'-real obiective entities, fllling space". Thus the traditional
'ihost' comes inio his own again: the- majority of them may be
sirbiective, but a srnall minority of them sr:em to be objective in
the most iiteral sensc ofthe term: theY are space-occuPying phan-
toms. If this be true, we can see that (as usual) both sides in this
dispute were right, and both of thcm were wrong! Their fault
lay in trying to classify and explain ail such phenomena in one
as
way, place them under a single heading. . . .
'it and
ir .,'ot the province of thii book to deal with apparitions of
the subjectiv. typ"; this subject has already been covered in several
excelleit works,'of which Flank Podmore's' Appaitions and Thought
Trarcfe.renre may servc as an exanrple' We desire to deal with those
r.u." Lur.t wheie there seem.s to be evidence of the objectivity of
the phantom observed; or, mol'c specifically, of those instances in
whiih the projector has not only been seaz-but has Seez the phantom !
These arc'thi cases of so-called 'astral projection', in rvhich the
subject is actually conscious of his presence, and arvare of the fact
thai he has left his physical body' In such cases, he does r.ot see
thc ghost, he is the ghost !
Y.u.t' ugo, studints of psychic science pointed out the fact
that the m-ajority of apparitions rvere fleeting and evanescentl
 , t.,,
rHE PHENoMENA OF ASTRAL PROJECTION
2g
they merely appeared and disappea,red without rhyme or re.uton,
conlr"y.d irb information of ihportance. Thi, ,t pre-cisely what
"n,ishould'expect if the phantasms were merely'telepathic halluci-
we
nations'. Sinie they have no intrinsic reality, they have no mind
of their own. As Homer said, "there is no luart in them".
But, in cases of astral projection, all this is completely-reversed.
The phantom is then intinsely aware-of its own personal identity
and ictive consciousness. It has a mind of its own, and realizes
very fully that it is there in person-its main difEculty being in
*"i.i.rg others sense its presence. Here, then, is one^of the main
distins-uishing characterislics between these two types of phenomena.
The a'verage"'ghost' has no mind of its own, seeming to-be a mere
unconscioG prijection of the mind of another' The astral phantom,
on the othef ha;d, ias a mind of its own, and possesses an active,
wide-awake consciousness which-to those who have experienced
astral proiection-is certain, and in no wise resembles dream'
This fact is emphasized over and over again by our
correspondents, and is fully borne out by *y own Personal experi-
"onscio,rs.iess.
ences.'The consciousness which one maintains in astral projection
is the same as the waking consciousness, and is entirely different
from the sort of consciousness one has. in dreams. . . .
So much for the mind animating the phantom. What about the
composition of the spiritual body itself? Certainly it is not composed
of oidinary matter, for if it weri it would be Ral-pabl-g to our senses'
and differ'in no essential way from our physical bodies. Nor can it
be entirely immaterial or spiritrlal, in the usual meaning of the
word, for if it *ere it would be incapable of being seen or sensed
by any of our normal sensory faculties-as it certainly is when the
phurrto* form is perceived. This being granted, we can only assume
ihat the astral body is composed of some semi-material constituents,
too subtle for ordinary iense-registration, of a nature termed
'fluidic' by the magnetiats and by many students of the occult.
It is true that this is, in a way, very vague and in a scnse
'unscientific'. Traditional science does not recognize the existence of
any such half-way-house substance; a body must be either material
or non-material!'However, late discoveries in physics have made
scientific men far more cautious and far less dogmatic than they
were a few years ago. They are now inclined to believe that matter
possesses many mysterious properties hitherto undreamed oll and
ihat, in the list analysis, it- represents nothing more than bundles
of energy. . . . Furthermore, it is quite possible for ur to suPPose
that thE'degree of materiality of such a body varies from time to
time, and under different conditions; that i1 may become more
solid, as it were, for a brief time, whlle ma!'ifestin-g, becoming less
mat;rial immediately afterwards' We have the analogy- of material'
izations to guide us here, which have been observed in sCanccs.
uAN's spIRITUAt BoDy 29
In thcsc casqt a hand (for cxample) bccomes sufficicntly material
to be seen and even toushed by those present, for a few seconds,
and immediately tlereafter impalpable to the senses of sight and
touch. We have other analogies to guide us here too.
A fog, for example, is caused by the adhesion oftiny particles of soot
to_ tlre droplets of water suspended in a moisture-laden atmosphere.
., When this occurs the fog becomes very noticeable, and may becomc
p_dcnqe as to shut off the view of distant and even near-by objects.
With $e evaporation of the wat€r the 'fog' disappears. Experiments
have been tried by certain occult students in the creation and
,i. projection of so-called 'thought-forms', which are ordinarily invisible
(Fo"Sh real) but which can be made visible by means of steam or
i, smoke rising from burning incense. The picture we might
$e
form in our minds here is that the hand, say normally impalpable,
;' becomes visible when plunged into material whiih rindirs it
,, vfuible for the time being-much as the fog becomes visible under
i suitable conditions. As soon as these condi-tions cease to exist, thc
invading substance immediately becomes invisible again.
T{r is, of course, a crude analogy, but may pJrhaps help- us
I'
r' to understand what happens
haooens at suah times. ind
such times, and how-to
[61ay-{6 our
6s1
, senses-the same essential constituents may be at the same time
matenial and immaterial. . . . To illustrate this point more clearly,
we may refer to an incident in one of Sir William Crookes's sCances
with D. D. Home, in which some spectators saw a bunch of flowers
. being ransported frbm one side oT the room to the other; some
sitters saw a cloud-like mass attached to the flowers, while others
saw a 4istinct hand, which was seemingly carrying the flowerr
across the room. Here, obviously, the hand was just on t}e border-
line of visibility, perceived by ihose most scnsiltive, partially per-
. ceived by those less so, and totally unperceived by those whosc
r, sensitivity was wholly lacking. We mighi justly conilude, it seems
i to us, that many astral bodies and phantom forms fall into this
same
-category; and t}tis seems to be further borne out by the
i:,
varia4 testimonies of people residing in 'haunted houses'. Some see
the forms while others do not!
As to the actual composition of the astral ,body, assuming it
Ii: to exist, w9 _a{e, of course, on very debatable grorrrd,- since no "one
in the world knows in what this ionsists. Yeais aeo. Dr. Zaalbers
VanZelst, of The Hague, published (in Dutch) uil irro.mous fiuel
volume work, fully illustlated, in which he claimed to have
established certain facts with regard to the astral body, as the
rcsult
-of his laboratory investigations. It was said by him to be
capable o[_contraction and expansion, under the influence ofwill,
, arlq to_weigh 6g.S SI._ epproximately z| oz. This agrees roughly
Dr. L,uncan
with -ljr.
wrth Duncan McDougall's weighing experiments, at the
experim-ents, at th;
moment of death, wherein he also reported-sudden losses of weight
 l:^;
-l
30 THE pHENoMENA oF ASTRAL pRoJEcTroN
!y ,th. dying patient of between z and z.[ oz. These experimcntal
!n{in$ were, however, summarized in The Projcction oj thc Astrat
Bodl (pp. zo7-B), and we need do no more than refer to them here-
elpecially_sjnce, other invcstigators have failed to duplicate Dr.
McDougall's fintngs. G." Hereward Carrington's- Laborator2
Inocstigations into Psychic Phenomena, pp. 243-5.) These are almoit
the only experiments along these lines which we havc been able
to find-illustrating tle nccessity of properly endowed and equipped
psychic laboratories, in which such investigations could be mad-e-
as many of us have long stressed !
- If matter,, in the last analysis, is energy, and if thought is
dynamic, so that it too must be an expresiion of energy (in the
psyclro-physical sense-that is, as the 'correlate' of thoughi; then
it may be that the creative energy of the mind may have much to
do with the degree ofsubstantiality of such a body, during the
time of its actual manifestation. We have already called atte-ntion
to the fact that the clothes of the astral form seem to be materialized
by the unconscious power of thought (Projcction, pp.
or
-'created'
eo&-lr), and it seems not without the bounds of possibility fof us
to suppose that the astral body itself is to some degree rendered
visible and semi-material by the same temporary creative mental
process. The degree of materiality of the astral body would thus
vary and fluctuate according to the density of the visualized will
of the subject-just as the famous medium Eusapia Palladino was
wont to say that she could move material obiects in her environ-
ment if hei will were sufficiently solid. It is undoubtedly difficult
for us to understand precisely what is meant by theie cryptic'
statements,but we are dealing here with subtle problems, and
must do the best we can to read between the lines-trusting that
the psychic science of the future will throw an increasing light
upon these difficult questions ! a living soul, and that death is nothing, no lonser holdins the
The existence of man's spiritual body is confirmed by a variety
of psychic phenomena-varying greatly in the degree of their
cogency. I'irst, there is the massive weight of human belief and
testimony, from the earliest times to our own day, in all parts of
the world, and among civilized and uncivilized peoples. Second
we have those cases of apparitions in which the phantom-form
seems to exhibit a mind and will of its own-often imparting.
information unknown to the seer at the time, but afterwards verified.
Third, wb have those cases in which material effects are apparently
produced by the phantom, or its image appears upon photographic
plates. Fourth, we have instances of materialization, at sCances,
witnessed in the presence of reputable mediums, such as Home,
MAN,s sPIRITUAL BoDY
falla{ino' .T$ q*v others. Fifth, we have cases of astral projec-
tion, in which the subject sees his own phantom body, L"a is
occasionally seen by_others. In these last iirstances, espeiia[y, wc
have evidence that the^phantom form possesses a mind'of its'own,
separate and distinct from the p_hfqiiat brain and body, which
latter may be seen re$ting upon ihi bed. The cumulativi mass of
such testimony is,- we submit, most impressive, and gire, th;
,spiritual'body' exists_is St.",paul
$ght to believe that such a
long ago stated.
successful astral projection is based upon this fundamental con-
ceptron: that the 'double'-the etherii counterpart of man_is
capable at times of being detached from the phvsicll bodv- carrvins
with it the consciousneis of the subject, .d tir"t il;;-li;J, ;;
bod.y, and is often enabled to "loof .back upon hi*-"hfi";i
$ra,t
body, asleep upon the bed, and observe it as ari ,outsiddr'.'.
Connecting these two bodies-the astral and the physical_is an
cord,.usually emerging-from the forehead'of'the physical
:th,ereal
and. entering tl-r-e astral at the back of the neck. So long ai this
cord is intact, life is present, and the astral body *.nt"uti!;;;
to reanimate the physical organism. When, however, this cord is
severed.(as it is at death) then the astral body can ,roiorrg.r r.tu.r,
to reanimate the body, which then disintegrates.
Such detachments or projections are usually spontaneous or
lnvgtuntlV-especially at' fiist. But later tt.',"[.;..1- ;ay ;;
enabled to prod.rrge such projections experimentally, a-nd then ihere
ts opened u.p to-him a vast field lor study, fascinating in the extreme!
Once one has had an experience of thii kind, he f.nows that he is
terrors which were formally associated i"itt ;t. F"or does nE not
know that he is able to live.and. function, quite.p..i f"o* ifr"
gross plrysic$
.body? Death is nothing more than'the permancit
separatian of the two bodi_es, which he has temporaril7 separated
many ti-mes before; or, as NIyers expressed it, .iDeat( is Lut the
rrrevocable projection of the human spirit".
We live in an intensely sceptir.al, prictical age, and the average
man in the street would probably'ridicule a-ny such notion is
'sheer nonsens€'. . . . Once he has'had ur, .*p.ii.rrce of th. t irri,
however, his,opinion_changes! But it is true, of tfr"t if,i
aacrage man does not have any such experienie, and "orrr.,
he is inclined
to ac-cept and believe only what his senses confirm. If he can see
and feel and touch a thing, he believes in its.reality,; if he;;;""t,
-inclined to put it down to illusion and haliuiination.
he is
OI-course such an attitude typifies a closed mind, and is exactly
 : I
32 THE pHENOMENA Or ASTRAL pROJECTION
the revene of the truth. Modern Science has brought home to us
the fact that tlu inaisibh is thc rcal; that whatever-the genses can
perceive are plunomma, merely, and that all the energies and realities
of the univene are and for'ever remain invisible] consciousness
is the greatest reality there is; yet it has never been perceived
Fy .gy of the -ordinary sensei. The average man ihir*s of
himself as a body,
possessing a temporary riind; the truth of
the matter is that man is a spirit, possessing a temporary body.
The importance of this realization nied hard-ly be erirphadized. it
grves us a true perspective of man, in his relation to the Cosmos.
And it is important to emphasize the point that this realization
has been brought in- ryany instairces, by the experience of
"Frl.t, which
conscious astral projection, then assumeil the saiae relative
importance in his life as a 'cosmic conscious' experience would in
the life of a mystic. . . . Many regard it as too sacred to be dis-
cussed. Fortunately,. are others who regard such an experi-
^there
ence from the scientific point of view, and are-profoundly inter6sted
in ascertaining what has happened. It is from individuals of this
type that our case histories are drawn, and from them much
valuable information has been gleaned.
.book$ ontutt. Ralph Shirley stated, in his preface to Oliver Fox,s
Astral Projcction:
"It is . to the silent work of the scientific researcher on
the more subtle planes of consciousness, rather than to the more
widely advertised efforts of the politician, that we must turn in
this hour of the world's most urgent need, if we would rescue
civilization from the flood of materialistic ruthlessness which
threatens to engulf all that is highest and'noblest in the achieve-
ments of the human race. . . ."
r,rir:r.il
3. A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DISCOVERY
(By s.M.)
At the time when I had my first astral projection, I, of course,
knew. nothing of psychic phenomena or th; signihcance of the
experience I was then undergoing. I was but tw-elve years of age
at the time,. ryd ryy projection *as entirely spontanebus. I knelw
nothing gltil I suddenly found myself detaihed from my physical
body-which I could see lying upon the bed. . . . tt is haia to
s^oe how any form of 'suggestion' iould have been operative here,
for, as_I-havesaid, I had never read or heard of a similar experi-
ence. My main emotions were those of amazement and teiror.
In this Ty initial experiences tally with those of nearly all pro-
jectors. They too experienced a irrojection quite sponianeously,
without knowing anything about it, urid it was'orrly tliis experienii
which stimulated their interest, so that they begin to deive into
!!e syPject-to see if anyone else lrad ever had a similar experience.
Usually, they were amazed to discover that scores and hundreds
of people had undergone similar phenomena. Aftmoards they experi-
mented; but, as I have said, nearly all init]ial projections were
unexpected and bewildering.
my own case,. many years elapsed (during which time I
-had-Inscores
of projections) before I came ac"oss aiy literature on
the subject, or realized its importance. I encountered a ferv scattered
references, but it was not until I read Dr, Hereward Carrinston's
book Modern Ps2chital Phcnomena that I realized the charactei and
importance of my own experiences*and at the same time how
(relatively) Iittle was generally known concerning it. The result
yq th" publication- o{ -y first book, Thc Projeciion of thc Astrat
Bod2,-to be-follor,ved by The Casc for Aaral Projectdoziand other
booklets and articles.
It I began to read psychic and occult literature
was only when
that Idiscovered the immense amount'of factual material which
existed and the antiguity of tfre doctrine. I found that, in ancient
Egypt, in China, Tibet, India and throughout the orient generally,
this idea was almost universally accepte,i, and had been" for cerij
turies past. I found that primitive,p-eoples of our own day held
similar views, and that much actual- experimental work had been
undertak-en by scientific plychic investigators, in their attempts to
secure adequate evid.ence for the existence ofsuch a body. I iound
that many cases of apparitions could only with difhculty be
explained- by any other assumption----chief among these difficulties,
perhaps, being those cases in-which the phantjm form was seen
33
tl THE PHENoMENA oF ASTRAL PRoJEcTIoN
bv several persons at the salrre time, or when it had moved material
o61..tr, oi produced raps, or been photographed, or. presented
chiracieristiis unknown to the seer at the time, but subsequently
verified. . Then, on the publication of my book, I began to
receive accounts from others, detailing their own similar experi-
4. rHE APP*I)i?H.?rrCIENCE ro
ences, and these I decided to collect and collate-with the result
that my second book saw the light of d1f. The present volume- Tnr term ,science, is one which is fluidicmajority,
and uncertain. Just
it represents
detailing more than Ioo cases of the kind-is in a way a sequel to *f,x a" *. mean by it? In the opinio.n of the
the first two. the study of astronomy, physics, chemistry,geology, and the physlcal
In a sense, then, itis true that my discovery of the projection ;;i;;;;;1n;;;;ally. oniy within the pa-st iwo or three hundred.ve.ar:
of the astral body was only a rediscovery-a personal verification has biol6cv-the science of life-been recognlzed- and rnctuoeo
of older doctrinei'and experiences. But I believe that, as the result *itf.i" it," and then only from the standpoint ot' anatomy and
of mv manv conscious proiections, I have discoaered a number of tt is only wiitrin the past generation or two thlt psy-
inter6sting and hitherto ,i-,kt o*n facts regar{ing this phase of "i"ri"f"*.
5i7f.* "("r-t*, e'."dSingly reiognii.d ,lso-and then largely
osvchic p"h.no-.t Some of these I have detailed in my previous ;;;;;"rt il-;;- ;;#d.d ni :phvsioiogical^p-svcholosv'-that is' a
Lo'ok, tit il. some".of them are given here. . . . What scientific branch of physiology, in the last analysis'.Of late y^earl' psycho-l9ql
osvchic investiqators have discovered in this field we have snm- has been *oi. o.-[.t. recognized, as a branch ot'science' whtch
ir'r*r.d in the" section of the book which follows. ri"ai.t-if,. mind; but itrr"fut academic psychology. has r.efused
to acknowledge the existence of a 'soui' in man, or the. realrty oI
;;;hi. phen6mena. For this reason' 'psychicgainin-g science' is still not
5i{uirv"*..ilir.d-t}t."gh"to it ut
is doubtedly ground' and
;h;;;;" be"little doubt, ,r,",,y of us, ttrat-it will be included
*iiiri"tii"-;charmed ciicle, in the near future. To those of us
*iio U"ii.u. in the reality of psychic phenomena, such recognition
---
seems a little belated!
W. onlv mention the above to bring out the poin-t that q$ci.al
science is often hostile to new facts, which do not ht
in wlth lts
pf,llosophy. Yet this should not be the case! After all'
-""ir""ft,f" mcthod' The
science consiits not io'much in a body of facts, as in a
facts of science are constantly changing; the method never' r[rrs
;;;t.,i ;h;;1.1 be the impariial, faii-niinded examination of new
or new facts--no matter how strange they may appear'
"fr."o*."u
ir how ditficult to reconcile with existing science. f'ortunately'
;;";;*; ilt; and there, individual scientific men and women
*fr"-fr"".j taken this ti"na, u"a it is from this 'circle of the elect'
*-iffi';;'hi;;-;;;;t
that psvchical researchers emerge!
has rilade substantial prosress' during
the pait hecades, it is largely because scientific men have turnecl
iir.ii"ii.rii"" i" ttis direttibn, and have studiedown the-pherromena
.i-n.ri t ""a, and, whenever possible, in their laboratories.
il tr-;;;;h;;evel th;; many'important contributions have bee,n
;;. ;;';at.u..'*ho have iakeir the- proper (scientific) attitude
toward
'these
facts, or have contributed their- own expenences.' rt
is our hope that we have contributed somewhat in thrs curectlon'
by o.r. studies in the field of astral projection'-before
Courageous *.n u"J *o*.,,, t"it' the foundation of
35

36 THE PHENoMENA or A8TRAL PRoJEcTIoN
thc Socicty for Psychical Research (S.P.R.), in 188e, turned their
attention to psychic phenomena, and wrote extensively upon it.
However, the society undoubtedly has made a deep impression upon
the scientific world, and its publications have become classic.
Nearly all forms of psychic phenomena were studied; but one type
seems to have been curiously neglected, viz. astral projection!
F. W. H. Myers, it is true, published several instances of the kind,
mainly drawn from his papers in the S.P.R. Proceedings----cases
which he designated 'self-projection'. But, with these exceptions,
as we have said, the subject has hardly ever been discussed-which
to many of us constitutes an odd omissibn.
Why should this be so? Perhaps it is because of the relative
rareness of the reported cases. Instances of the kind are compara-
tively hard to find-though the collection in the present boo!,
plus tlrose which we have hitherto published, shows that they are
far more plentiful than the average person would suspect.
Is it because the subject is so vitally important? If out of the body
experiences arc real-if only one such case be scientifically estab-
lished-then the existence of mind separate and apart from the
physical brain is proved once and for all, and the probability of
survival becomes apparent. 'Immortality' would thus be proved at
one fell swoop! For if the human mind can live and function for
oru mitutc orrtside the physical brain, what is to prevent it from living
and functioning indefinitely, when that physical brain is no more?
Science naturally wants proofofany specific fact before accept-
ing it. In the physical sciences, this 'proof is usually provided by
a single criterion: repctition at will. If one man performs an experi-
ment and reports his results, he may be mistaken; but if a hundred
men repeat his experiment, under identical conditions, and obtain
the same results, then his discovery is accepted and welcomed within
the portals of science.
However, there are certain phenomena, now generally accepted,
which do not fall within this category. Meteors, tidal waves, fire-
balls, peculiar lightning flashes, are today accepted as realities,
though they cannot be repeated at will. The best that can be done
is to observe them as carefully as possible while they are occurring,
and, if possible, register them by means of suitable instruments.
There are, therefore, at least two ways by means of which some
unusual phenomenon may ultimately be established: by rcpctition
and by obscraation. Many psychic phenomena, unfortunately, being
sporadic and unpredictable, fall into the latter category. They must
be observed when they occur. Whenever life and mind enter into
our equation, this is often the case. As Henri Bergson said, many
years ago: "You can predict an eclipse a thousand years hence,
but you cannot predict what will happen when you pull a bull-
dog's tail!"
THE APPROACH OF SCIENCE TO THIS PROBLEM 37
It is because of this fact, naturally, that many psychic phenomena
have been so slow in gaining accePtance. Whenever the experi-
ence is inner, or purelyinental, this difficulty is greatly enhanced.
It is next to impoisible to Prove objectively a subjective experience-
real as that eiperience may bg io yo-u. It is because of this very
fact that mysti;s have such'difficulty in conveying to the scientific
world the ieality of their ecstatic experiences. There is no m€ans
of outwardly delecting them and, unless the observer experiences
some such phenomen-on himself, he usually remains profoundly
scepucal of
^the reality of such an experience-vivid and real as
it 'may be to the one wtro has undirgone it. . Y-ogis have
encouitered. the same difficulty, when trfng to Prove the-reality
t,f samadhi. William Jarnes wroie sympathetically of such difficulties,
in his great book, 1hc Varieties of Religious Expeience'
Noi, it is much this same difficulty which the astral projector
encounters when trying to prove the actuality of his own.experiences.
Personally, he knois t[at ire is out of his body,.and fully consciorrs
at the time. But how prove this to another? We have repeatedly
stressed the fact that, if the sceptic had had one s.,,ch experience
himsell he would doubt no longir; but he fails-to have ^the- experi'
"'objective
ence! fohat he .demands is proof'-p1oo-{ that the
experiences undergone are not purily subjective and hallucinatory,
oklo to vivid dreims. This is ttre iruciit question and the main
ri"rorr, doubtless, why such experiences aie not more generally
---I'"
recognized.
pt."i"us books we have stressed the-extreme difficulty.of
oUt"i"il! this evidence, falting back upon the oft-repeated reply:
"Experieice it, then you will know!" Buf 9f course, we recognrze
the'fact that such s6ientific evidence is highly desirable, and per-
haps even necessary, if the tact of astral projection is to gain any
sori of general acceptance. Have any such experiments been macte,
and wiih what resuits? Has any laboratory work been undertaken
uio"g th.t" lines? All too little,'it is true-; itill some work has been
place- in which to refer to it'
- ;;d this'would seem the suitable
a;;;:
Fk of all, we should like to refef to the experiments under-
taken by the late Dr. R' A. Watters, following the^suggestions
given him by Hereward Carrington,- some years belore' r hese^
Eonsisted in attempts to photogtaph the escaping astral bodies ol
certain smaller aniinals-mice, ihiikens, frogs, etc'-a.t the.motnent
of death. Special forms of vacuum chambers were built,- filled with
*.i".o" oil'vapour, and photographed at the instant of the animal's
J"tupiiatio". Some striking reiulis were obtained in this series of
hovering over the animal's body^
6;Iil;;;;ro"a-rit. -?tt.t As the result of
U.irrg air"..nible on the photographic"plates'
f"tin-.. hbwevei, ii seerired probable tltt lh:*
normally explained, and the most that can be said ol-this
iould be"*p.rimentation,
 3E THE PHENOMENA OF ASTR.AL PROJECTION
series.of experiments is that the results are still sub judice. Eight
years'. work were devoted to these experiments, and -hundreds"of
ingenious tests were tried. The interested reader may find the details
gf .t!e.se_,inyestigations summarized in Carrington,s book Thc
Inoisiblc World-
Coming now to human subjects, nearly all the work which
hasleen done ll_ong these lines was undertaken by French researchers
and Henri Durville, Charles Lancelin, Albert de Rochas,
-Hector
Paul Joire, Dr. H. Baraduc, and others. De Rochas experimented
at great. 1.1rg$ in what he termed 'exteriorization of'sensibility'
(or.sensitivity), Fy-which he meant the extension, beyond the
periphery. of the body, of the sense of touch and feeling-just as, in
'the exteriorization of motivity', the motor energies areixtlernalized,
producing telekinetic and other phenomena.
.beenAll'magnetized',
these
^experiments
that is,
were ionducted on subjects who had
entranced by using the 6lder mesmeric
methods. This French school believes that ihere is a difference
between hypnotism ar_rd mesmerism, and that the ordinary hypnotic
trance will not'do. They believe in the 'fluidic' theory oi Mesmer,
and-that both sensory and motor currents can be projbcted beyond
the limits of the body-astounding facts,- if true,'esiecially t6 the
physiologist I Howeve r, well-established telekinetic 'phenomena-
such as those produbed by Palladino-would seem to indicate
ve_ry strongly that such motor exteriorizations, at least, do in fact
take place. And, if these are true, may it not be possible that
sc-nsor7 phenomena of an
-ex-traordinary and hitherto'unsuspected
cltaracter may be true also?
These experimenters claim to have
established the reality of such phenomena.
One such method \ilas as foilows: lVhile the entranced subject
sat in a chair, the experimenter (after suggesting the exteriorizalion
phenomena required) would prick the air with a pin, at some dis-
tance.from^the subj_ect's body, and the subject would frequently
complain of pain in her own physical body, ai a spot correspirndin[
with the pin-prick some inches above ii. A disiant pin-irict< ii
some other area would produce a like result; and io 6n. . . .
Now, these plenomena aie- curious, and have never been actually
disproaed; at the same time they have not been generally accepted-l
partly because other investigators have failed to obtairi like iesults,
and partly bec-ause adequate allowance was not perhaps made foi
suggestion and coincidence. We must, therefore, set-aside these
expe_riments for the time being, partly because of these reasons and
partly because, even if true, they seemingly indicate merely the
supernormal exteriorization and sensibility, and not the projection
of the astral body.
Aside from instrumental tests, three others have been proposed.
These are (r) the visibility of the phantom-it is seen 6y do" o,
THE APPROACH OF SCIENCE TO THIS PROBLEM 39
more persons at t}re same timel (z) the phantom may touch some
individual in its immediate environment, and this touch may be
felt; and (3) it may be photographed. The first two of these have
frequently been noted in the cases of apparitions; they too have
been seen collectively, and their touches have been felt. But it
has been contended, in such cases, that these facts do not in them-
selves prove the objectivity of the phantasm-though, of course,
the astral body theory would explain them adequately, and far more
simply than the current theories, which are cumbersome and com-
plicated. As to the photographs of the figure, this leads us into the
highly debatable subject of 'spirit photography', to be mentioned
presently.
T-hese tests, then, taken by themsclves, cannot be said to prove
the existence of the astral body--though some of them are strongly
indicative of it. . . But other tests have been devised (again by
French experimenters) which aim at proving the existence of thp
astral body by instrumental means. Chief among these are the teste
described at some length by Hector Durville, in his book Lc Fantdme
dcs.Vioants. He tells us that he has obtained positive results in the
following ways: (r) by inducing the astral body to rap at a distance
'from the entranced subject; (z) by placing its hands upon photo-
graphic plates-strange markings being found upon these plates
upon dcvelopment; (g) by affecting certain psychic instruments,
such as the biometer, the sthenometer, etc.; and (4) by causing
calcium sulphide screens to glow with added brilliance when thc
astral body approaches them upon request. Somewhat unconvincing
photographs of some of these effects were published in his book,
above referred to.
Personally, of course, we are rather inclined to believe that
some of M. Durville's results are valid-inasmuch as we feel that
we know that the projection ofthe astral body is a fact, and partly
because one of us (S.M.) has seemingly succeeded in producing raps
himself while projected. But we must also admit that M. Durville's
results are for the most part questionable-at least by the sceptic,
who does not believe in the reality of projection. What we need is
a large number of such tests, under stringent scientific conditions,
utilizing for the purposes all the resources of modern science-
special lenses, infra-red and ultra-violet light, delicate fluorescent
substances, instruments of the utmost sensitivity, and so on, It is
our belief that, could such experiments be undertaken, in a properly
equipped psychic laboratory, positive results might be obtained,
and the objective existence of the projected astral body thus be
proved. It is our hope that, some day in the near future, such tests
may be made; but thus far, it must be admitted, they have more
or less failed in their objective-ih proving the objective existence
of the astral body by these methods. . . But then, as we have
0 THE PHENoMENA oF ASTRAL PRoJEcTIoN
indicated, experiments in this direction have been few and far
between,'and have never been undertaken systematically. We- are
certainly inclined to believe that, when they are, some positive
results will be obtained in this direction. The objective nature of
will then be proved--thus confirming the subjective
the astral body'those
conviction of who have experienced this phenomenon, that
astral proiection is indeed a fact.
psv'cnii science is as yet in its infancy. Who can tell what may
be proved and generally accepted a hundred or a thousand yeLre
from now? Ir{ay not aitral projection be one of these generally
accepted phenomena? It is our opinion that it will be!
5. THE KEY TO AGE-OLD ENIGMAS
N{n. G. R. S. Mreo, in his work entitled Thc Subtle BodT says:
". . . In my opinion, it is this doctrine of a subtle !ody,
which for so miny centuries has playe! the dominant role- in
the uaditional psychotogy of both-the East and the West, that
is most deserving irf U"irr"g retried, reviewed and revised, to serve
as a working hy-pothesis [o co-ordinate and explain a.very large
number of thd; puzzling psychic phenomena. . . ."
There are many who feel that this is true; it certainly explains,
in a manner no other theory can' many otherwise baffiing cases of
apparitions and haunted houses; it milht well account for certain
r-ffies of clairvoyance and dreamsl it might account for instances
Aia uz-the iense of the already seen ;1t might serve to exPlain
"f
*rn'y typ.t of physical phenomena as well as poltergeists, and be
in c6r,foimity iuiih ceriait experimertal . resuits thit have been
obtained. .'. Certainlv'thoroughly
such-manifestations as materializations
and plastic moulds-if verified---could be accounted
for oir this theory, while they-are extremely diffic}lt to explain
on any other. . . eI i., all, therefore, as Mr. Mead has contended,
there are many types of psychic phenomena which fall readily into
line on such a'basis, which musf remain relatively unexplained on
anv other theorv.
'Two other fictors must not be lost sight of. First, there is the-
weight of historic radition, dating bagllo the-Eglptian Book of
thc bead and before. The completl belief of primitive peo-ples in
such a 'body' must also be given its due weight. . - ' Second,
there is the'first-hand testimony of projectors themselves, who,
despite all adverse criticism, remain fully convinced that they have
left'their physical bodies, and have carried their consciousness with
them, to ihiir new bodies, which they now inhabit.
Ghosts have stalked through the pages of history, and have
been reported from time immemorial. In many of these cases,.it
is difficirlt to see how anv ordinary 'telepathic' theory could
inteiligible- to us on the basis of
suffice, but would become readily'Again,
some iorm of subtle body. . . in reading through many
of the older 'Initiation Ceremoniesi, one is struck by the fact t}rat
many of their observed results might well be accounted for in this
*urril., also. . All this is truJ even if we decide to disregard
entirely the suggestive, indirect evidence furnished us by certain
cur"r of witchifift, lycanthropy, wer-wolves, and so on-which
have figured in the traditions of many races.
41
12 THE PHENoMENA oF ASTRAL PRoJEcTIoN .,

Take again those puzzling cases. of

.objectified..'thought-forms',
been reported io us in books dealing with Tibet.
",ti"U-t"u?
Accordins to these, a iertain degree ofsubstantiality hasundoubtedly 6. THE NATURE OF THE ASTRAL WORLD
been atta"ined by'such forms, once projected' ' ' Or agarn' ln have come to us regarding 'the
th;;;;o"ies 6f the medieval maficiit's, is therebynotthem at times Mexv are the descriptions which
i"r;t""i"" that the entitieJ conjured were spirit world', and veiy different are the concePtions ilgaf$ng,tt rne
i; "vidence
degree
'P.
objective? All these curious, outlying phenomena r"hi.h ,.. entertained by differing races and lndlvrduatsl grounds"
Ar";;i";; Indian looked fo.wurd tJ his 'happy hunting
could readiiv be eiplained, once we consented to accept the Possl-
";;.of some sort'of subtle, astral body'
bilitv the Mohammedan to his inexhaustible harem,..the.medr€val ol
---
th"r"a"r" certain types of well-authenticated modern phenomena chri.tiun to the eternal tortures of hell or the endless dellghts
h.;;. Catholic doctrine provided an intermediate state' a- sort
which also point stro;Aly in this direction' Take, for example' the Ideas of the after-life' as
case reportid by Captain A' W. Monckton,,.r'R':'s.', "'1t'!,u1 ;i h;lf-*;i iio,rr", kt o*n u. putgutory'
" '
and the African
reportedinhis.bookSomeExp.erienlesofaNewGulneall.esulenl by the i:hit u*ln, the Eskimo
Itiasistratc. Here. not only was ihe phat'tom form seen and heard'
""t.it"i""i ' ' ' The
il;h-;;;;-t".i"d .ro.*Lutly, at we know' differ Celestial
'b;;"il; S;il-;;;;.-;t depicted bv Swederrborg, certainlyfrom thq
Ib;.G*,' *t ." *J,1urg acrois -the room, depres ed lhe,lnatting
s 9o1-
It ls
on the floor ai though a man were walking across'tt, Can hallucrna- c6otiorrs enteriained by most men and women ol today,,and.
Or take o.tb.bl. that every man and woman has his own lndrvrdual loeas
Iio.-*"o,r't for that? (It was witncsscd by t*o inpersons') [;;;; if he stoPs to consider.it
;;;;; of tr,. .r,.t-life-that is,,,fout
the case reported by the Rev. D' W' Qwynne, Phanlasms-01
to homines, tot scntcntNae"l
l.iuing (Yoi. II, pp. 2c,2-3), wherein the phantom lorm actuauy
-tnc- .i .ilr As the old Romans used say..
are
as there men!
--Tf,it -*.it.. of coirtradictory opinions and beliefs- *."t!. Plou:
extinguished' Can a purely there are as many opinions
r"rf?a'the candlli which"#as actually
subiective creation thus produce effects in the materral worlcti
y-et numerous such
il"ir."ia u. aiin."rt i"a"'.a to think so-and of-many'.tru"t ouzzline to the average person-and even more so to the rndrvroual
cases have been reported which, in the opinion P::1 ffiffi;|i;;];;;;?;'iir.. wnu, is one to make of this seeminglv
all too lishtlv paised over when considering the questlon ot the ort^Jr-i""f hodg.-podg"? All of these mutually exclusive ideas'
possible oUs"itiilty of the ghostly folm' ffi;il;;i;"e'l ;il'"i-;i';
-u
dr.urnf i *... t*ptE
.ilr,ir
sion
o..is tfris whore idea of
of the will to believe?
"-"eri-i" hr, th.i.fo.e, the"rc is huch to-.be said in favour of the "., and the avelqg.e
."uiii, oi an'astral bJy, ,epotate and distinct from the physical
^it..-Uf. it
it";:-;i;;.r.t.. "] -. tfre opinion
-io 6f the sceptic
*#iinf ;;. il"t ot. who believes, bv .reason of his
ffi;i; trr. o* r,.na, ura from subjective hallucination on the .

;;hJ;. ilo;; thitil.; were accepted,ihere is no doubt but that convictions, or because of some personal. experience, .lhtt ?.:P]"1111
ano
ii-;;"ld t.*" to throw much tifht upon certain gb-scur.e psych.ic world of some sort exists, the question is not so .easrly settled'
phenomena, and constitute the key to many age-old enlgmas' ln becomes a most perplexing-not to say annoylng-p,toDlg1'^,1-o
irc f.rrout there is the testimony of all conscious ProJectors---sucll
as osvchic and spiritualistic phenomena, or cases of astral proJecuon'
the cases recorded.in the present volume-who marntarn that
mey [hio* .tv lisht upon thii enigma, and help- us- to understand.rt oI tne
il;;;;ty well that su.h'a body exists' verifyIt seems hardly too much more fully? eun they furnish us with any cleaner- Prcture
i" n.p. il., ttre-uoi.t.. of the future will this belief'
instruments ot !l :-:tt
precrslon'
"*'i;;*;; world?
soiritual
understood, here,
'
that'we are assuming.tFt.F:
of suitable laboratory tests, employing
tfUl-*ifi-U" ;- i;r^i day indeed! Let-us not forget, in this co_n-. world of which we speak is thc same world (or one Part ol lt)"wluctl
we visit in astral piojections. lVe {o- so for two re'ulons' rn
tne
n.*io", the woids when he wrote (Thc lltill
lo Bclian, p. 3oz):"fVifii"t" James, ' nr., immaterial or mental world, as distinct
,' "i.t..-itis'eeraini;-;;
il;;"il;-;li;;i"I: secondlv, because we frequently encounter
". . Whenever a debate between the mystics and the ^"a projected into this world, who state. tnat
spiritual intities, while
scientists has been once for all decided, it is- the mystic.s
who and who assert tnat tnrt
tn: tirev are the 'spirits' of departed penons'
.greet' -astral projectors, as they
have usually been proved to .be.
right about the Ja:,'s: y-htte tr';,hff,h;;.i-Trr.y r."i.times just died'
scientists had the better of it in respect to the ffieoncs' ' penions who have
ones, is devoted nrainly to proving -"Ut^ia to greet
-"
-"t,3f "ouit",-L.-t.ui that thi astral world' visited during
This book, like the previous
13
the factsl
 THE PI{ENOMENA OF ASTRAL PRoJECTTON
projcctions, is only lower stratum or the spiritual world,
which embodies much.sonre
higher realms-as stated in ui.ior* oru.,.rrl
It.is possible. that there-may be ,spheres,, u, J.r..iU.Jl;-;;il"
spiritualistic Iiterature-though the tendency of lat. r.u.r. .."r"i"ni.i-
is to disregard such teachingi-the^y
mental spheres. As to the tiuth ol all !.eing iegurd"d ;;;; ffi;i,
th'is we cannot say.
In^some respects, the teachings of spiritualism differ'in manv
ways from the older theology, aid we'cannot ao L.ti". ti."
-i6
qu<.rte,.just
!eg9, lhe statements made by Alfred Russel WJi";;
in his book Mirades and Modern Spiritualiim, as illustrative ;i;i;
viewpoint. He says: "f
"Th. hypothesis of spiritualism not only accounts for all the
^ (and is the only
lacts one which does so), but it is further
remarkable as being associated with a theory of u frtr.. .iuie
of existence which ii the onry one given to the world that can
at all commend itself to the moderi philosophicat *ma. rnii.
is a general agrcement and tone of haimonyl" tt. *"*
and communications termed .spiritual', whi.h hus lea "fa"i, to tle
growth of a new literature and thl estabriihment of a new relision.
The main docrrines of this rerigion are: That urt.. a."ttr riunt
spirit survives in an.-ethereal bJdy, gifted with
il;;"r, b;;
".* .to*ia i"
mentally and morally the same ind"ividual as when'
flesh. That he commences from that momerlt a course of aooar-
ently endless progressiou,_ which is rapid just i., p.opo.ti6ri as
his mental and moral facurties have been exlrcised ind cultivated
when on earth. That his comparative happines o.
-ir.ry *iti
$epend entireJy upon himself.'Just in proiortion as his liishi;
numan laculties have taken part in all his pleasures here, -will
he find himself contented and happy in a state of existence in
which-they will have the fullest'iiercise; while he who has
depended more on the body than the mind for his pleasuris
will,, when that body is no more, feel a grievous want, jnd must
slowly and painfully develop trii intette'iiual and moral nature
till its exercise shall become easy and pleasurable. . . . Life
in the higher spheres has beautiei and ileasures of which wi
have. no con-ception, but of God they ,eaily know no more than
wedo...."
Mr. Wallace may have been somewhat optimistic in his con-
tention that these teachings show a compleie harmony, for we
seem to find in them man difficulties and contradictidns_some
of the.m minor,-but some of'them fundamental. Is there ."y *^y oi
explaining such differences? Spiritualistic books are fi[td with
descriptions of the after-life, and to these we must refer the reader
for detailed information on this subject. Our purpose here is io
discover, if possible, some sort of bisic truth in these Gchi"gs,
TI{E NATURE OT THE ASTRAL WORLD
and to see how far they coincide with the actual experiences of
iprojectors'.
There are obviously two main methods of experimentally
obtaining evidence as to the nature of the spiritual world. One of
t}ese is to secure 'communications' from entities who have already
died, and note what they tell us. The second method is to explorl
the other world, by means of trips, visions and. excursiorrs, *hich
carry^the spirt of the experimenter into the Great Beyond. . . .
The former of these we must disregard for the time'being, for
r-easons.we have just given. The latter is the method employ6d by
the clairvoya-nl s-eer-and by the astral projector. Again, for thi
purposes of this book, we must confine bu*elves to -the evidence
obtained by the latter group. What light have such astral projection
expeli-ences to throw upon the nature of the astral oi sfiritual
world?
firere are some,-it is_true, who claim to have had astral experi-
ences,
-who assert that they have visited distant planets, travilled
vast dist-ances through space and time, read the iAkasic'Records,,
3Id freely converted -with great masters.or supreme spiritual beings.
lV" a1. not casting doubtJ upon the sincerity of such p".sorrs, aid
for all we know some of their accounts may be true. Wi are
inclined- to believe,-however, that many such'accounts represent
*".r.ly imaginary yrsr_ots: -or the expressions of some deepei .wish
to believe'. Certainly S.-M.'s experiences, while projected, have been
entirely different, and-he does not claim to hive-experienccd a.ny
of these marvels. As he wrote in the Astral Body 1p. xtil:
"I
have never had a conscious out-of-the-body experience
when I
was r-rot here on the eartl plane, just as much is I am
lght now. f w_ouldn't know where tb look for the higher planes!
Curious indeed,-how some urstral projectors c.r, g.i into thcse
TSh"1 planes, whgn maly spirits'ori the lower"planes assert
that they cannot do so! I have never seen anyone'or anvthine
but the earthly things I have always seen. I'have seen'astraf
phantoms among the earthly, but none whom I would choose
for a guide!"
He-elsewher" ,tr.rr"d the fact that, in the majority of his astral
projections, he w_as alone, and saw no one. ft wai oriy on relatively
rare occasions that he met and conversed with ijpirit peoplet
This^is also-the experience_ of many other astral p.63"ctoir. '
[Some of those i meet in my piojections are ptopt. known to
me, wlro.plsged o-versome-time ago. Olhers are compleie strangers-
some helpful and spiritual, others distinctly evil. The places i visit
during my astral excursiong are almost invariably placei well known
to mc, though I have occasionally been transportcd to distant
 THE PHENOMENA OF ASTRAL PROJECTION
scenes and even distant lands. But all these are on the earth-plane,
and my projections carry me along streets and into houses which
are certainly material and existent. It is rarely indeed that I am
transported into any ofthe astral realms, entirely disconnected from
the earth-plane.-S.M.]
We realize that the experiences of others have been different
in this respect, and that some of these have brought back detailed
descriptions of the spiritual world. Clairvoyant descriptions ol'such
realms are also available. From them we gather that the next
rlorld is in many respects similar to our own, in that ethereal
duplicates seem to exist of lands and scencry, trees, flowers and
houses, or great temples, which are original, vast and imposing. . . .
Some critics have insisted that this Would be a very materiil 'heiven',
but we must remember that we have the analogy of ordinary
dreams to guide us here. In them, we see houses, lakes, riverj,
mountains, chairs, tables, and all the rest, which certainly seem
very real to us at the time, though ttrey are only mental constructions,
in a-mental world; and this fact has led certain psychic investigatorr
to define the next life as a 'rationalized dream world'. Al[ this,
howev_er, we admit, is very unsatisfactory, and bascd on analogy
only. We a-re unable, unfortunately, to throw much light upon
srrch debatable questions, because, as we have said, our own experi-
t nces in these directions have been limited. We are for the most
pa-rt compelled to rely upon the literature of the subjcct for our
information upon such topics; and, inasmuch as this litcrature is
also availablc to our readers, the wisest course, perhaps, is to call
their attention to such published material, and peimit them to form
-concerning
their own conclusions much of it.-
Upon one or two aspects of the astral world, however, we feel
that we can throw very definite light. For one thing, we are con-
vinced of the very great influence of the mind in shaping and mould-
in-g one's environment. What .one sees on such astral flights, may
often exist as realities, in and of themselves; but we arelho cc,n-
vinced that much that one apparently perceives represents merely
mental constructs. In the projection book S.N{. discusscd at some
length the question of the clothing of the phantom, and he then
said:
". . -. O1". thing is clear to rne-the clothing of the phantom
is created, and is not a counterpart of the physicll clothing. . . .
Thought creates in the astral, arrd one appears to others as he is
in mind. In fact, the whole astral world is governed by thought.
. . As I have observed it, the clothing seems to form oul of
the coloured aura which surrounds the astral body; that is,
when one sees the clothing form . it seems to form by' the
aura growing very dense, close to the body."
THE NATURE OF THE ASTRAL WORLD
Now this illustrates the point we wish to make. Mind (the
crypto-conscious mind, for it is not a conscious process, any more
than materializations are) creates part of one's environment (the
clothing) which t}en seems very real and 'material', not only to
the projector, but to others as well. Similarly, S.M. seemingly
perceived objects on his astral trips, which-when he approached
them-were not there. They were evidently mental constructs. If
this is true on a lesser scale, it may be true on a greater scale also,
and much that is seen (and subsequently described) on the astral
plane, by projectors and clairvoyants, may be mental creations
also. . If this is the case, it would account in large part for the
varying descriptions, seemingly so contradictory, which have been
given us as to the nature of the astral world. The projector has
gained only a vague and somewhat confused impression of the
world around him, which only partially corresponds with reality,
and has also carried back with him impressions which are uncon-
sciously self-created. We should thus have a certain fundamcntal
similarity, with great diversity of details-which is precisely what
we /o find.
We have certain analogies to guide us here. Suppose, for example,
three or four men were to spend a short time in some great foreign
city-such as London or Paris. One of them would be interested
in the great buildings, the historic edifices, the shops and the main
thoroughfares; another in the museums and art galleries; another
in the city's night life-cafds, bars and theatres; another in thc
poor and the city's underworld. If you asked each of these men,
on his return, to 'describe London', or 'describe Paris' to you,
you would surely receive very different impressions, and be inclined
to say to yourself: "Are they in truth describing the same city?"
Yes, they were describing the same city, but the city as seen through
their own eyes and minds. They have seen only those parts of the
city which most interested them, and not the whole city. They
partially the London or the Paris which they saw-
constructed
. . . If this be true of a material
sensing only a part of the reality.
city, which is obviously existent for all of them in its totality,
when utilizing their normal physical senses, how .much more true
may it be in t}e astfal realm, when time is short, the consciousness
often confused, and the mind free to create its own environment
to an extent undreamed of on tfiis physical plane! On this view,
it is hardly to be wondered at that such descriptions should vary
greatly in their vividness and their character, and one can begin
to understand why it is that such descriptions should differ from
one another to the extent that they do.
One other factor must be considered. Time and space, on the
astral plane, are greatly modified, and differ from our normal
conceptions here. Neither time nor space becomes non-existcnt,beit
 THE PHENOMENA OF ASTRAL PROJECTION
luoted-as some writers have contended-they merely become
changed or modified. Such modificationi have ?reouentlv
bern observed in mystical states, or in abstract thought, wh'en thl
thinker is wrapped up in his own mental world, to-thi exclusion
of the physical. Then, time and space become gfeatly changed too.
lVe become unaware of the passige of time, aiil hare tittti lf anv
sense of space. Ouspensky, in hi{ Tertium Organum, has discussed
such at _ considerable length, when dealing with th6
-questions.
'fourth djmensional world'. . . . If the human brain] instead of
being a thotght-creatizg machine (as modern psycholo.qy contends).
is a thought-regulating machine-tempcring the'flow Jf thought io
the sequelce ol-events in the physical world, we can well b-elieve
that this in itself constitutes a sort of marking of the passase oi
time, which the mind-when freed from the bod!--does ,,ot ooir.rr.
3nd py which it is not governed. This would'surely u..ornt, ui
least-in part, for the temporal and spacial modifications of thoueht
which are observed on-ihe_ as.tral plane, and-constirute a logiZal
reply to the oft-repeated criticism that astral experiences so ne"arlv
resemble dreams that they must in fact be dieams! Thev ofteir
resemble dreams in some of t}eir characteristics, it is true, but
every astral projector knows that they also difa from them in many
essentials-chief among them being, of coirse, the fact that thl
projector carries with him his full waking ionsciousness-to u
greater or- lesser degree-which he knows to -be very different from
ordinary-dream consciousness. . . . We have dwelt'upon this point
at considerable length in former books, however, ind need not
emphasize it again now, beyond reiterating the fact that the con-
scious astral projector knows that the consciousness he carries with
him is his normal, waking consciousness, and not any sort of dream
consciousness. To those who doubt this, we can'only repeat-
experience such a projection yourselfi, and then you will 'know!
Our assurance may not convince him, but his own experience
undoubtedly uill- . . . This is the tesrimony of all conscious astral
projectors.
-holdsOne,thing seems certain, and that is, that the astral world
infinite possibilities ofexploration. The trouble is that mosi
projectors arein that world only a few fleeting minutes, and even
then they a-re largely in a statb of confusiori and bewilderment,
because of the strangeness of their experience, and fearful that thev
fTr:.l*. their physical bodies for good-that is, that they havl
'died'. ThSy are often_ swamped by their own feelings and emotions,
in which fear plays a large part. Under the circumsiances it is smali
wonder that they are incapable of calmly and judicially observing
therr en-\'rronment, and noting with any degree of clarity what i-t
looks_like, or its essential constituentsi On'iy an ,old timer', an
cxperienced projector, can be expected to do this; and, evei hc
I
THE NATURE OP THE AS,TRAL WORLD
is oftcn handicapped by the shortness of time and the confusins
thoughts and emotions which surge through him. He is conscious]
in possession of his faculties, bui \ot in-Jtull possession ;a tt."ni:
consciousness has doubtless experienced i ceitain shock. merelv
by reason of the ,projection, and-by
the sudden transfer .l;;;i.;;'_
ness to the new body and the new environment-just as ionscious-
-experiences a certain shock when one is hit,6ver the head, or
ness
one is joked suddenly; but this does not mean that consciousress
is non-existent, or that it has_ been suddenly tranbformed, by some
mysterious process, into a dream consciousness! That ;fuJ b;
quite illogical. And it is equally illogical to contend that the mind
which one has, in astral projection,-is a dream consciousness. iusi
because it is confused and perturbed, for the time beins, d;A;;
of its unusual experience. if th_ese simpre reasonings
i"uGio
are-borne. in mind, it is easy for us tb understanf why"f,i the mlnd
of the projector should function as it does, and why tl. i"rUptio*
of the astral world should differ from one another io tt . ot."i irr.i
they do.
The spiritual world is doubtless far vaster and more comolicated
and extensive than the glimpsed corner of it which ast.al p.tiectors
-perceive, and it seems to us that it is not only p"ossible
sense and
but probable
that such higher spiritual realms exist. Wh'at thev
may ultimatay
-!e we have, of cbune, no conception. Into thiri
ye Tay eventually pass; as our individual evolution progresses. . . .
In the present book, we are only concerned with tlie riature of t}re
astral world as one of us has perceived it, and above all i" o",
central theme-tlat conscio-us astral projection is a
by sc-ores and hundreds of reliable '*iiresses, a"d fact,
attesteA
"which S.ivI.
himself has experienced, during the last
ore,
and over again. From such experiences, -quartei
biut one "f " ""rrt".y,
conclusio" t"" U.
$raw1:.ma.n is a.spiritual being, and can function, in spirit, apari
from his physical body!

7. THE PROBLEM QUESTION OF
MULTIPLE BODIES
Oun western science of physiology has tacitly assurned that man
has but oze body-the physical. This it studics, and asserts that
it is the only body of man of which it has any evidence. .
Oriental science, on the other hand, maintains that man has a
number of bodies, normally coinciding with one another, but all
of them, wit[ the single exception of the physical, being invisible
to our normal senses. Theosophical writers-following these oriental
doctrines-have written about them at great length, and a sinrple
epitome of their teachings rnay be found in, for example, Annie
Besant's Man and His Bodits. According to their teachings we are
told that man has:
(r) A ph2sical bod2. This again consists of the body of dense
matter, and the Linga Sharira, or 'etheric double', which is still
physical, but impalpable to the senses. This body is composed of
'the four ethers'.
(z) Thc astral body. This is said to dwell upon the astral plane,
and be composed of 'the seven sub-states of astral matter'.
(g) Thc mental bod2. This constitutes the vehicle oiconsciousness.
It functions on the lower 'devachanic plane'.
($ The causal bod2. This is the higher mental body, functioning
on the upper realms of the same plane.
$) The spiitual body.
(6) Thc buddhic bodl.
These six, together with the etheric body, make up 'the seven
bodies of man'. So far as one can discover from their writings,
however, it is hardly correct to call the last two of these 'bodies'
at all, in the strict sensc; being more nearly states of consciousness.
It is very evident, from the above, that there is an enormous
difference in point ofview between oriental and occidental science,
in regard to the ultimate constitution of man. Nlodern physiology
refuses to accept the reality of any 'body' which cannot be seen
or registered by means of physical instruments; occult and oriental
students contend, on tlr.e other hand, that this is a very circum-
scribed and short-sighted policy, and that such higher bodies may
be sensed and proved in other ways-by the development of clair-
voyance, or by learning to function in such higher bodies-thereby
becoming convinced of their reality.
It will be observed that, in this book, as in our previous volumes
on this subject, lve have refused to distinguish between these various
bodies-much as this procedure may shock our theosophical friends!
50
THE gUESTION OF MULTIPLE BODIES 5l
We have classed them one and all under the simple, generic term,
'the astral body'. By this we mean a 'double' of some kind, which
is projectcd from the physical body, either spont_aneously or experi-
mentilty. Our reason for doing so is simply this: modern psyqho-
locical science maintains that the mind and soul of man are the
.d.rlt"rrt of certain physical changes within the living brain, and
that, when that brain ccases to function, its mental life ceases, just
as surely as the electric light ceases to burn wlren the switch is
turned. This is the mechanistic psychology of todav-a 'psychology
without a soul'. The main thing to be proved, in order to confute
rhis theory, is that an1 kind of a body exists apart from the phy-sical
body, and that an2 kind of a mind exists and functions- apart from
the'physical brain. If that one simple, fundamental fact were
established, it would, at one fell swoop, upset tlre whole theory
underlying the mechanistic psychology of today. That,-surely, is
thc firit and most fundamental point to prove: and it is difficult
enoush to Drove even that!
H"orre'*rei, it is undoubtedly true that, for one who believes
in the reality of astral projection, other problems arise-and one
of these is the question of multiple bodies. Is there any evidence,
verifiable from personal expeience, which seems to bear out this
I, doctrine of higher bodies? Have they been sensed or Proved in any
way,
rf
'It during astral projections?
is moit difficu-tt to answer this question in any positive way.
iil
The majority of astral excursions certainly do not furnish us with
any sucL evidence. Occasionally, however, incidents occur which
$ are strongly suggestioe of the existence of some such higher body.
'fr Let us quote, t5y way of illustration, an instance givqn y9 by Mr.
Horace G. Hutchinson, in his book Drcams and Theit Mcanings-
tr asking the reader to bear in mind the fact that this is only a drcam-
;q'
,ffr and not given as an example of astral projection. Mr. Hutchinson
quotes one correspondent as follows (p. rI8):
". . . You say you have never heard of any one falling who
has arrived at the bottom. I have 'arrived' with a cnash, have
broken up into pieces, and glued them together again. . . ."
This certainly suggests that some third body stuck the fragments
of the broken dream-body together again, and, getting into it,
walked off as happily as before! Of course, in this case, the third-
entity was the dieamer herself; but the incident is illustrative of
the sort of thing we mean.
The Reynolds Case, recorded in this book, is another example
tI of the indirect evidence which may sometimes be obtained by astral
projectors. We have already referred, in the Astral Bod2 book (p,
r57), to the possibility of 'a more refined body', which watches
s2 ' ,", PHENoMENA or esr"ner. PRoJEcTIoN
the movements of, and then slips into, the astral bodn during- itr
flisht. However, we must admit-that the evidence for such a higher
Uo?v. Uat"a upon the expericnces of others, which have been
i"il.t.a to us, is both sianty and ambiguous, and we should
m'rit.t" to advince any of this as evidence f6r the existence of such
; bJ;. Some such hiiher bodies may well exist, and seem to bc
indicated by certain ra"re phenomena, but^this-is a.question which
we must bi content to leive as unsettled for the time being, until
evidence be forthcoming.
-
further
One suggestive factor, however,- w€ cannot help. referring to
lrv way cjf c"oiclusion. The astral body itself docs ttot fiiz*-does not
oiigi"it" thought-any more than the-physical body does! It is
meielv the ochiclc of the mind, functioning on lts own Plane' lnrs
beins'so. it should be obvious that some higher mental principle
(call"it spirit, soul, or what you will) functions thtough the astral
iuch 6eing the tase, it'must represcnt a still morc
i-ar,
"ia. elemeniof our being. This conclusion, it seems to
transcendental
ui -".t be forced uPon every -thoughtful- Person who has experi-
enced a conscious piojection of the astral body.
B. A FOUNDATION FOR FAITH AND
FUTURE RESEARCH
u the present book we have presented a considerable numbcr of
I
case histories which, in the opinion of those who experienced them
(and in the opinion ofthe preient authors), prove bqyond-reasonable
ioubt that asiral projectioi is afact-that man can leavehis physical
body spontat.ously, or at will, and- travel considerable distances
in liis ^ethereal counterpart, retaining his normal consciousness
throughout. Of that central fact all experienced projectors are
ouite assured.
^ Yet if this Da a fact, what a tremendously important truth it
represents! For it proves to us that man is not his material brain,
rroi is h" a product of its functional activities. The brain must
represent on'this view some sort of instrument,-lrtrough which thc
mind functions-as William James postulated, in tis Human IyT '
tality, and. as William McD-ougall erypha1i19{ in his- great.book,
Boiy' and Mind. And, if he be-capable of livin-g.and functioning
ou6ide his body, what is to prevent him from doing so. whcn that
material brain is no more? IT he is hac and noa; a spiritual being,
the nindeed is another life in some spiritual
-For world rendered not
only possible but practically certain. why otherwise should
*"i, 'porr.rt thesi facultiei, and Da a spiritual being, if not
ultimalely destined to utilize them in some such wodd as this?
If man is indeed a spiritual being, then the props will havc
been knocked out from'under materialism, at qne fell swoop!
Faith in some form of future life will have been vindicated, and
some mconing will have been given to lifc, which it would not
otherwise haie. In short, as Fred-eric Myert expressed it, in speaking
of psychic phenomena, they will be found to constirute "the
oreimble to all reliEions".
' In ,uying this, hSwever' we wish it to be distinctly understood
f hat this dois t ot mean that we shall again be forced to accede
to
all the dogmas of orthodox theology' Indeed-as we have tried to
indicate o"n several occasions, throughout this book-these tradi-
tional teachings receive but little sulport fro-m- the experierces of
those who haie visited the astral piine, and know something of
the conditions "on the other side".-Instead ofan orthodox heaven
and hell, they meet spiritual beings like themselves, who meet and
conversewith them, in a mental environment not unlike our own;
and these beings siate that they have- entered |Pon. a seemingly
endless processlof evolution; thit freedom and happines-s prevail,
and tha't their ultimate destiny and happiness depend entirely
53
 THE PHENOMENA OF ASTRAL PROJECTION
uDon thenuielves-iust as they do here! AIr acceptance of this
o'hilosophv. therefo-re, in no way forces us back into the narrou',
ltreotosic^t'doctrines-of the lr{iddle Ages (as many seem to think)
but lea:ves us as free moral agents, free to work out our own salvation.
S""t i* the gist of this new-philosophical outlook-which is one of
consolation, hoPe and trust'
From ttre point of view ofscientific psychic research, this questiolr
of astral projection assuredly holds -enormous possibilities' '. ' '
First, the fact-itself must be eitablished-leadin-g to the conclusions
indicated above. Then, when it is established, a whole series of
fascinating problems will present themselves, calling for-solution.
Instrumeital tests and checks must be devised, to register the nature
of the astral body, its strlrcture and-d-ensity, -its composition, the
forces at play witiiin it, thc nature of the cord connecting the two
bod.ies, ttie aura, its ability to influence and affect delicate instru-
;f;tq its ability to affeci photographic plates, the men-talitywill of
the oiantom-.i d r thousand and ohe other problems which
at o'nce suggest themselves, once the central fact be established.
It is this ti,r*dy, *"t y of us feel, which will constitute to a great
-
extent the science of the future.
The reader may have begun this bo-ok rvith the fe^eling that he
was-merely underiaking thJperusal of-a number of bizarre and
."iio", caies, akin to t]he traiitional'ghost stories'..lVe_can only
lopi tfrut he has by now changed his-mind, re-alizing.itthat there
i, i ,.ui science "r,d u.t to astr;l projection, and that is indeed
o fu",, which science is one day bound to accept' He may have
io realize its scientific and philosophical importance, and to
"or".that it constitutes, if viewed aright, a key to many enigmas
see
which have puzzled man throughout the ages' - .
Our coniluding advice to the reader is this: .expeiment lor
yorrtrlf; follow the ?irections which have been given in our earlier
i".lr" and endeavour to achieve one or more actual, conscious
oroiections of your own. If you succeed in doing so, you will undergo
lni*pe.ietce'you will never forget-one which will convince you
il";;'d doubt ihat there is, in tiuth, a spiritual world-and that
astral proiection is a fact!
PART II
gr. PROJECTIONS PRODUCED BY DRUGS
AND ANAESTHETICS
Ixesuucn as the astral body is the vehicle of consciousne$s,
whenever this body withdraws from the physical, for any reason,
the latter becomes unconscious; in fact that is what unconscious-
$ess mcans. Ihis may occur during natural sleep, or during trance,
coma, fainting, syncope, etc. The degree of severance of the two
bodies varies according to the depth of unconsciousness attained.
Thus, it would normally be mqch greater in coma than during a
faint, or in natural sleep. There is, however, the disadvantage that
it is also far more djfficult to bring back consciousness, in these
I
pathological states-to that, althoufh the subject may be further
;
from his body, and actually undergo more striking experiences, he
is unable to remember them, when he returns to animate his
t!"li: physical body.
Anaesthetics, producing deep unconsciousness, are, as the reader
may well imagine, ideal for producing astral projection-though
fri
ft
'iI attended by the drawback just mentioned. Furthermore, since the
i astral body is the body of feeling and sensation, when it is fully
driven 'out', as it is by the anaesthetic, the subject feels no pain,
until he again ieturns to re-animate his body-when he feels the
pain nf the operation, and also that of receiving the doctor's
fl bill!
Since it is possible to 'drive out' the mind by means of an
anaesthetic, there should theoretically be somc drug or other
method of 'drawing back' the mind into the physical body again.
The Hindus have long employed a drug of this nature, known as
Sanjiaani, which they assert has the effect or property of'bringing
it
back' the consciousness, after has been 'driven out', by an
anaesthetic or otherwise.
{ At all events, it is true that anaesthetics produce a state of
1
deep unconsciousness-represented by a complete blank in most
people. However, there are many cases on record in which,
k
iii
ft1 seemingly, more or less complete consciousness has been retained
I by the patient, and he has afterwards been enabled to describe
all that'went on in the operating room,. the conversation of the
physicians and nurses, and any unusual details which may have
developed.
Ihe number of such cases is by no means small, and several new
ones are included in this book. Incredible as such accounts are to
the average doctor, they are nevertheless true, and are highly
lmpresslve.
s5
ii-.-'
":li.
 pRoJECTroNs pRoDUcED By ANAESTHETICS s7
THE PTIENOIIENA OF ASTRAL PROJECTION
tion on the right side of my body, see the doctor with an instru-
ment in his hand, which I cannot more closely describe.
All this I observed very clearly. I tried to hinder it all. It
was so real, I can still hear i}e words I kept calling out: 'Stop
it-what are you doing there?'
As suddenly as this picture which I have just described was
seen and experienced by me, it also vanished again . . but
to mc the experience will never be forgotten."r
The case which follows is also a simple one of this type.

;i:"'X;":; '"Si'''
Professor James H. Hyslop was given the following report by
an acquaintance of his, Mrs.J- P-, who had the explrience.
She said:
. "At the age of twenty-four I underwent a surgical operation.
An anaesthetic was administered to me. . . . At the instant
when I would have come to myself again, it seemed to me as if
Extcriorizcd violcntty, e.g., anaesthesia, astral arcends rpirally' I found myself free in the room, wholly mysel{, although without
(outside) my body.
Let us begin with a czue typical of .many in this cateSory' It I felt- myself transformed into a spirit, and thought that by
is simple and- illustrative. We have entitled it means of.pain I hid attained the peace for which I had yearned
so earnestly.
I bchcld ryt bodl strctched out bclow mc on the bed. ln the room
were bot} sisters of my mother-in-law, one of whom sat on the
sa,, ;i;':i;;A;|,) upo,.
bed
-warming
my hands, while the other, on the opposite side,
stood looking at me.
I had not the least desire to enter my body again, yet felt
Dr. Herman Wolf, of Amsterdam, Holland, a member of the myself impelled against my will to return into it.-. .
'

National Board of Education, originally recorded this case just as The most remarkable part of my experience, however, was
ithad been furnished to him by the subject, B. Landa, who wa" a th_is: th,at I, while hardly awake, aslied ihe question: 'Where is
school janitor. As the result ofl an accident, Landa was forced to Mrs. K_?,
seek th"e services of a surgeon, and during the operation had the
:,.
li. fuf6. (-, in fact, had not been present when J went to
following experience: slee-p, but first came into the room aftei I had closed my eyes
"I"fouird that I was fearfully nervous up to the time that- I tlt
a\d. uas asleep. To my mother-in-law's question, I replied:-'I
was anaesthetized for the operation. For some time, I do
i1

saw her standing there'."

not know how long, I was unconscious. . . . Suddenly a violent
reaction, which wis combined with violent inner resistance-as
if I were being torn apart-gripped me. . . . Just as suddenly
and as briefly as the reaction, calmness came.
I saw myielf-my physical self--lying there. I- saw a sharPly
outlined view of thi 6piratins table. I=myself, freely hovering
and looking downward frorn- above, sa-vv [Y physical body,
lying on the",rperating table, I could see the uiound of the opera-
Mrs. J- P- added that after her expcrience it was easy
fi
rThe following experience occurrcd to the present writer. I was having an operation
- appcndicitis
for a fcw years ago, Gr was being administered. to bc fo[dwed bv ether.
As I took deep inhalations, hoping to 'go undei' quickly, I found myself spinniirg, like
en. airplme .propeller, llng horiiontal to the oferating table. I iose ipward",- still
spinning, and at the momeni ofpasing through thc ceilini lost consciousnai. It reimed
only a scond- latcr that I awokc in my bed, ihe nurec sta-ncling over me, the operation
long over. S,M.

li,
s8 THE PHENoMENA oF ASTRAL PRoJEcrroN
for her to comprehend the survival of the soul. -.. .. ' [I merely
;;; th" title "The Porter Case" here as a means of identification'l
THE SCHMID CASE
Lying Down Physirally, Sitting Up Astralfi'
In most of the cases of proiection during anaesthesia, the subject
,"".t r of beins entirelv butiide his body, but in this case the
e'*iiriorirution i"s described as being only partial' The subject, Mrs'
H. Schmid, of Daytona Beach, Florida, says:
"About ten ylars ago I was operated upon in a hospital here
uit.. the oferatioi, but during the anaestlresia, part of my
"na
[nan *ut proieited . .'. I had goie through the operation and
*as'dcspeiat"-ty itt. . . . After tLe-operation I was placcd.in a
my husband and.i special nurse were sitting
;;;"i;.;;"; ind I was still uncon-
Leside me, one on eich side of the bed.
scious from the ether and my body seemed lifeless' ' ' ' Suddenly
I saw the family physician siep ot tip-toe up to th-e open doorway
oi-1' .oorn. gthia not say i *o.d but put his finger to.his lips
io tr.qg"rt silence, then made a motion with his hand, indicating
he would go again.
When fre cime,rp to the door, I sat up and spoke.to him!
. But, of course, lie did not hear me. . ' Afterwards, wtrcn
i U"""-" physically awake and my normal self, ryy husband'
ih" ,,rrrr" doctor could not understand how I had knot'n
had stood in the doorwlY,.or how I had known
"'rd'th"
that anyone
J"n"ii.fv ,r'hn i, was, since I was physically unconsciotrs and
-',, .u., werc closed and focused the other way, and he
(thc
doctoi) had made tto troisc.
Bui this is what I really expericnced: when the doctor came
up to the d.oor, I su*,tny."lf ,ii crect in bed and raise my right
h'and and arm toward him. I rnean that it was the real'seeing'.
*lii[*W"i raiscd itself up; I did not see this from TY-physical
U'oJi. Wtt"n I sat up thus'f watched him as he stood there and
,a*'the motions he went through and said to him: 'Don't
t^"r.y t,"uy Dr. . . . I want to thank you .PI saving my
life'.'. . . i still -remember this as distinctly as if it happcned
yesterd.ay. My physical body was flat in .bcd rvhen I sat up in
i"y b"iyi .'. . In fact I was unable to raise myself up
"tfr.'. for 6re. two weeks, and then had to be assisted' ' .''
;iiyti;"lly
" '-iri."a..,
Note b7 S.M.
of my former books will recall the fact that, while
in tii"..na.jorit1, of 'my projections I have.forrnd mvself alone, there
were a nttmber nr timL '*ft." r met sPirit 1""p[t a.d conversed
pRoJEcrloNs pRoDUcED By ANAEsrHETrcs 59
with them at some length. Some of these encounters were pleasant,
others unpleasant, and in some instances I was given information
which I only afterwards was able to verify. . -. . Here and there,
throughout this book, will be found instances of this character,
where spirit people were encountered, and these cases are noted
also when projection has occurred as the result of some anaesthetic.
For, after all, the process is fundamentally the same!]
M ct His c"Tii ;f "ii,f,\Ynu, Projutcd.
This case, furnishcd me by Mr. Percy Cole, of 42 Ramsay
Avenue, Melbourne, Australia, formerly of England, furnishes
strong evidence of the interest of spirit guides in the welllare of
mortals. Some time ago it was necessary for Mr. Cole to
have a large number of his teeth extracted, and, having very little
time to spare, he decided to take a general anaesthetic and have
all of them removed at one timc.
While deciding upon a convenient time, he had, one night, a
peculiar dream in which he saw a lady who was dressed like a nun.
Ncar her was a doctor, dressed in the regular army uniform.
"I had seen this same lady several times before in dreams,"
said Mr. Cole, who is a pharmacist. "But in this particular dream
she handed me r,r,hat I thought was a prescription, written on a
piece of khaki-coloured paper. It was a queer prescription, I
thought, in that it contained only one word-'wawn'. Being
very puzzled, I turned to t}re doctor who was standing beside
the lady.
'What does this mean?' I asked him.
'It
means,' said the doctor, 'that you have mitral regurgita-
tion.'
'But why,' I questioned, 'is that written as wawn?'
The doctor made no reply; so, in my dream, I picked up
the medical dictionary and started to look up the definition of
the word waun. Finally, I interpreted it as meaning warn by its
relative sound.
This dream was so vivid that it persisted and annoyed me
after awakenit g. . . . I felt that it was some kind of warning,
I so decided to see my doctor and have a medical examination
i
before consulting the dentist.
{
Usually I consulted my friend, Dr. Pace, who was a nearby
neighbour, and I ordinarily would not have gone elsewhere. . . .
But itso happened that a few days later, Dr. Bender, with whom
I was also well acquainted, chanced to be talking to me. Q,uite
on the spur of thc moment I changed my mind about consulting
60 THE PHENOITIENA OF ASTRAL PROJECTION
Dr. Pace and decided to consult Dr. Bender' The latter was a
-Dr.strong man, whercas Dr. Paceaside
large, was of slight, Ilagile build.
from a slight murmur
Bender examined me, but
detected nothing wrong, and said it would be safe to go ahead
with the anaesthetic. He agreed to administer the ether and
have the operation take place at his surgery whenever I was
ready.
I-said nothing to my wife about all this. That night she had
a very disturbing dream. It was that she saw me lying in_ bed,
appaiently dead, with a peculiar triangular stream of blood
runnirrg zp the side of my cheek. It occurred to her in the dream
that blood could not run uphill in such a marlner.
When I told her of my intention to have all my teeth extracted,
she at once associated the dream with that, suggesting that there
was a possible connection between the dream -an-d the- pending
dental bperation. This was'about three weeks before the actual
operation, day of which eventually arrived.
' After thetheusual
preliminaries, not fceling the least bit trervous,
I lay on the opcrafing table and had the ether sprinkled on the
.nuri . I had been pit on the table before the two men-Dr.
Bender, and the deniist, Dr. I{. N.Johtrson, now of the University-
t,f Melboume-had placed their instruments alrd the bottle of
ether on the stand beside me. So I did not see those.
After inhaling a fclv moments I could feel myself strugg-li-ng,
so I let myself go and shortly was completely unconsciotts.. Whcn
I awoke ogiio I itas standing in the corner d thc room, near-the doorwal,
with twdother people wtiom I at once recognized. One was the
Iady of my dream, dressed like a nun! The other rvas the doctor
I hid formerly secn with her in the dream! But I was zol dreaming
now. . We cannot help youf you must fight to get back yoglsclfr'
Looking around the room I found that the walls were as if
transparenf.
-I I could see through them and also through the closed door!
. . . saw my own unconscious body on the table and went
over and looked at the operation. Both Dr. Bender and I)r.
- Then were
Johnson unconscious of my preselce.__
the lady turned to me and said: 'You ought never to
have had a geneial anaesthetic' You have mitral regurgitationl
We warned you about that'.
'Yes,' I ieplied, 'I understand now, but I- went to Dr, Bender
and he said ihat my heart was quite all right.'
'I know all about that,' she ieplied. '\de sent you to Dr.
Bender because he has immense physical vitality, which we are
drawing upon right now to keep^you alive. Your heart trouble
is mask-ed. We iiad hoped he would find it, but even if you
went to a specialist he might not have discovered the fact, unless
he knerv what to look forl . . However, you are on this side of
PROJECTIONS PRODUCED BY ANAESTITETICS 6l
life now-and we are not certain you will get back. But, of course,
if you really want to, you can stay here.'
'During
all this I had no feiling of alarm, but was quite-calm
and detached. . . . I could hear the conversation of the doctor
and dentist. Strangely enough, I was also aware of their thoughts
before they spoke, so that the spoken word appeared like an
echo. I noted the conversation, which concerned the probable
price which the owner of a house, known to us all, would get
for his property.
'He wants three thousand five hundred for it,' Dr. Bender
said.
'He'll never get it,' answered Dr. Johnson.
. . . The moit comforting thought of all was that I still had
a body. . . . I looked into the mouth of my physical self and
saw that the dentist was leaving the front teeth in the lower jaw.
Dr. Bender then pointed to them and said: 'What about these?'
before he had
-sawwas quite lengthy, and
Dr. Johnson's- reply
finished speaking, I Dr. Bender looking very anxiously ,at
my body-on the table. Then he said: 'He looks as though he
has had enough'.
I must have stopped brcathing, for just then the doctor
seemed quite alarmed and shouted: 'Breathe--breathe!'
Somehow, althotrgh I cannot explain it, I managed to make
my chest lift in the physical, although I was standing bcside it-
. . . Then I noticed the blue-tinted ether bottle on the stand
behind my body and saw that there was very little left. I thought
they seemed to have used a large amount. . At this point
the lady (spirit) who had been besidc me said:
'You wiil have to go baqk now-that is, if you can get back.
On my left there was a bright light, while on my right therc
was a dark tunnel of swirling ihadows, into which, after I had
said, 'I will go back,' I turned. There was a tiny light at the
far end of this tunnel of shadows, and I struggled instinctively
toward it, while shadows rushed past me. . . . It seemed a
d long time before I managed to reach the light at the end .
$,
then I was physically awake again.
,$;,
I was ill-.foi several days after this, and, while Dr. Bender
was visiting, I took the opportunity of checking up on the con--
versation and other detaili which I had observed while out of
my body. I also got Dr. Johnson at a later date to corroborate
this. Everything had occurred just as I had experienced it, quite
consciously, while exterior to my physical self.
The whole expeilence was one of calm detachment. I knew
that whatever I chose to do--return, or stay in the spirit world-
I could have done, and that no harm would have befallen me.

THE PHENOMENA OT ASTRAL PROJECTION
. . . A few days after the occurrence, my wife reminded me of
her dream and told me how she had gone into the room. iust
after the doctors had finished, and saui me in exactlv the sim.
position, as in the dream several weeks before! The'triansular
blood streak which had puzzled her so much was caused "by a
bloody fold in the sheet which lay against my cheek. .'
Some months later, when undergoing a medical examination
by a prominent medical specialist, he iemarked that the beat
of my heart was masked by a portion of the lung overlapping
it.. This _confirmed, in part, at least, what I wal told by'thE
spirit lady when out of my body."
- T!"I.
-Mr.
was a _very interesting aftermath to the experience of
Cole. Several months later, while on a visit to England, he
had a sitting with the noted clairvoyant and artist, Mr. Fiank
Leah. During the course of the sitting, Mr. Leah made a sketch
and. gave it to Mr. Cole, informing him that it was a sketch o[ his
spirit guide whom he could sce clairvoyantly.
On looking at the picture, Mr. Cole discovered it was an exact
Iikeness of the nun-like lady!
"I learned," said Mr. Cole, "that she is an Italian, who lived
just
_prior to- the time of Dante, and while not actually a nun,
lle belonged to a religious order of noble ladies of thai period.
She is a friend who is closely artached to me, and usually'comes
at some critical time to warn me of danger and try to help me
in some way."
Here is another case in which relatives who had long passed
over were encountered during a projection experienced when under
the influence of gas.
r n t,, ; o,fzX t7o n: ";; ;*W a B a g.
Mrs. Devota Parker, of Baltimore, Md., tells of a peculiar
sensation accompanying interiorization:
"My first experience was of very short duration and occurred
many years ago. I simply awoke early one morning and found
myself standing in my room, looking at my own physical body
lying upon the bed in front of me, fast asleep.
-the
Before I had time to consider my situation apprehension
seized me that it was the usual tirne for my youngtst son to
come to my room and awaken me. Instantly the intense desire
to get back into my body surged through me.
'I must hurry and get back,' I said to myself, 'before son
gets here. I must be alioe when he calls.'
Then followed the most peculiar sensation, as I started
l
PROJECTTONS .pRODUCED By ANAESTHETTCS 63
moving back into it. . . . It was as if a bag were beins nulled
from my head, dowrr over my body to m-y feet, andl is the
sensetion passed off at the latter point, I awakened.
'Mother-it's time to get up,'-I heard my son call.
The noct experience I f,ad was in 1916, when I went to have
some teeth extracted.-. . .As they administered the gas, I found
myself passing out of my body--out of the buildin[-and into
open space. . Soon I encountered what I can Gst describe
as a tunnel or pzusageway through dark clouds at the end of
which I could see light-. . .- . Jusi thtn a surprise met my eyes.
There was one of my loved ones! There was my husbanh ivho
had died the year, before! I was elated with j6y. Eagerly we
advanced toward each other, our hands outst;et;hed,"thrillins
with -emotion-only to be disappointed, for at that -o-"rri
something stopped my advance fforward and began to draw me
backward.
The strange sensation which I mentioned formerlv-as if a
bag were being pulled down over my head and onwird to my
.leet--{ame over me. . . . I knew what it meant, that I was
rejoining my physical body and would awaken when the sensa-
f. tion re,ached the tips of my toes. . . . As the enaeloping sensation
ilr
I went downward I could hear a man's voice:
.'ln"u1 to me! _Can't you hear me?'He kept calling. ,Wake
up! Speak to me!'
I tri.gd_ to cry out and kept struggling without success to do
so--until final_ly the scnsation pxsed off at my feet and I managed
to mutter a few words.
'Now she is coming out of it,' I heard a voice say, and in
another moment I opened- my eyes and looked up. Tlii dentist
and several others were there, inxiously working on me. . . .
He informed me that I had almost pajsed u*^i. . .,,
Mrs. Parker related another experilnce of projection d.uring
anaesthesia which took place in the hospital at th; time she ha8
her. tonsils removed, blrt-on account of is similarity to many other
such cases I omit the bulk of the account here, mentioning'only a
few details.
Her exteriorization was associated with rcaohting, which, by the
way, is very common in cases of projection b6"elrt Uv
"Uo"t
an?:sjh:sia, being occasioned by the-spiral spin of ti'e astral bodj,
as rt rs hrst lorced out of'the physical counterpart. . ,,ft besan
with a wlucl spinning," said Mrs. parker. ,,Tlien I moved ,"*?.J
and outward, through the- very walls of the place, thinkin! as I
did so, this is surcl2 fuath."
Mrs. Parker tells of meeting an exalted .spirit master' who spoke
in a language_ far Feyond hei understandiirg; how all th; ;hil;
the thought that she was dead persisted iriher mind; how she
64 THE PHENoMENA or ASTRAL PRoJEcTIoN PRoJECTIoNS PRODUCED BY ANAESTHETICS 65

'worried over leaving her little five-year-old son alone in the world';
and eventually how ihe was drawn back dorvn through the hospital
again and into her old physical body.
- The lbregoing case having been written from my notes Mrs.
-of
Parker's intCrview, I submitted the same to her for verification.
Her signed statement follows:
"Mr. Sylvan Muldoon, z3rd JanuarY, 1939.
Darlington, Wisconsin.
Dear Mr. Muldoon,
I have read the foregoing document and it is true and
correct'
Mns. Dnvora Penrnn.
zeg S. llilton Street,
Baltimore, N{d."
For purposes of comparison we quote the following much older
account, where the 'inner experience' was much the same, w-hile
the subject was under the influence of hashish, with which drug
he was experimenting.
A v,;T, ;;,iii h,i,'," *n'*.
The reader will recall many instances, not only in this volume,
but elsewhere, in which the projected
-by phantom was $ent b-ack,
into its physical counterpart, a command -or sug-gestion from
some unie..r entity. The- case oi Fitzhugh Ludlow, the author of
that remarkable book The Hasheesh Eatn, is another such instance.
NIr. Ludlow tells how, one day during delirium brought about
by the taking of the drug, he noticed that "his soul had left his
physical self," and he continues:
"From where I was hovering in the air I could look down
upon my former container. . . . The breast rose and sank.
The temples were pulsing and the cheeks coloured. . . . Filled
with amizement, i exariined the body carefully. . . To.me
it seemed nothing more than a stranger would seem. . . ."
Mr. Ludlow staies that although he was outside his body, he
\^'as possessed of all his human ficulties of ryif! se-nsibility,.and
inteilLct. It seemed so strange to him that he could be thus conscious,
and yet standing by the side of his physical self and completely
indeoendcnt of it.
' "In this prcfarcd condition," he goes on, "I was hindered^by
none of the'o6jects of the world of matter. . . . To mysel{,-I
was visible and tangible, yet I knew that no ph-ysical eyc could
see me. . . . I cotild go'through the walls of the room and
come back again. I could look up through the ceiling and see
the undimmed stan shining in the night. . . . This was neither
an illusion of the senses nor a dream. . . ."
Mr. Ludlow finally states that he went back into his physicat
body after a ooicc directed him, although he mentions nothing of
seeing a presence, which is very typical:
"A voice commanded me to return into the body. . . . It
said: 'The time is not yet' . and I returned. . . ."
THE HARTMANN CASE
S hifting Couciotutuss.
il Many of the readers of Thc Projcction of tlu Astral Bod2 will
recall that we explained therein how consciousness c,rn shift from
one body to the other, within cord-activity range, and how the
subject may sometimes see his asral body from his physical body
at one moment, and later see his physical body from his astral
point of view. The case of Dr. Franz Hartmann, as recorded by
him in Tlu Occult Rcaicw (rgo8, p. 16o) may have been of this
nature. Says Dr. Hartmann:
"In 1884, when I happened to be in Colombo, Ceylon, I
was one day in the company of my friend B-, at the office
of a dentist, for the extractitrn of a tooth. I inhaled chloroform,
and was hardly under its influence when I found myself standing
behind the arm-chair in which my body was reclining.
I saw myself and felt precisely the same person as when in
the normal state. I saw everything about me, and heard what was
being said. But when I tried to touch the instruments on the little
table near the arm-chair, I saw my fingen pass through them.
After this incident, I succeeded some other times in separating
myself from my physical body, which happened in two different
ways. When in the condition in which the 'doubling' happened,
the conscious faculties continued to reside in the (physical)
organism. Then I saw my phantom body in front of me and at
the side of the bed.
On the other hand, and to the contrary, the conscious faculties
were concentrated in the phantom body. Then I saw my physical
body lying upon the bed, inert.
I have made no excursions at a distance, or at least, I do not
remember them. But tlre facts convince me that man has an
astral body capable of existing independently of his physical
body. For one who has had personal experience of this, the
a Pior; denials of those who have had no personal evidence to
bring forward seem so specious that one cannot admit them."
Here is anothcr all-round interesting case involving projections:
tl

,i.1^

THE PI{r:NoMENA OF ASTRAI. pR.OJE.CTION
viiited iX,|,'# iiiufi" "r ru**r.
Enid S. Smith, who is best known for her many articles in
national educational journals-world traveller and Doctor of
Philosophy-who until recently was Professor of English at Bethel
College, Kansas (and now serves in the same capacity at Staunton,
\/irginia), .tells me that she has been subject al[ her life to various
psychical-experiences, among them many astral projections.
"Of course I do not seek these out-of-the-bodylxperiences,"
Dr. Smith points out, "and they do not occur very 6ften. . . .
Usually when I leave the body it is in the semi-conscious state,
between waking and sleeping, and at times I seem to be living
in two worlds simultaneously. I can see my body lying upon the
bed and I can hear the voices in this world, and in the other
state of existence. . . . It is most interesting."
Dr. Smith enumerates several of her experiCnces at length, but
I here merely abbreviate her account of one of them, wliich she
lad in 1934, while at the Booth Memorial Hospital in New
York:
"The anaesthetic, because of an unanticipated idiosyncrasy
on my part, quickly freed my soul from my physical body. . . .
A radiantly beautiful angel stood guard at my head, and anotlrer
at the -feet gf my body lying . . . in the hospital. I was
delightfully free from all pain and limitation, and tried hard to
tell those who were anxious about me (because my breath, heart,
and pulse had stopped) that I was out of mysel$ perfectly safe
and natural. . .
Then, contrary to my own sense of consideration for those
who were trying their best, as they thought, to save my lifc,
I suddenly did not seem to care that they were frightened about
me. . . . My whole being seemed filled with the thought of pity
that they did not know these spiritual facts. Out of my
body and above it; I tried to tell them that I was in no hurry
to return. . . . I had had such experiences before. . . .
Leaving my physical shell lying in the hospital, I proceeded
to take various journeys, guided by spiritual beings. . I was
taken to. realms of great Shekinah brilliancy where all was
d,azzling light. I felt myself bathed in wondering awe, as I
approached the realms of love and wisdom. . . . I came into
the heightened intensity of beautiful vibrant colours, many times
more varied and brilliant than the brightest of our colours under
tropicalskies. . It was of the same kind of beauty and radiance
as I had once before observed when at the point of death in a
sanatorium in California, when I had also passed out of my
body, as I supposed in death, and I had seemed to sint
.:.
PROJECTT.ONF pRODUCED By ANAESTHETTCs 67
momentarily in some dark river I was crossing, that separated
'ilil the physical from the spiritual world. . . .
.,{
rl1 That God-given exptrience completely removed anv fear I
might Erve had in regald to the pasiing from my phvsiial body
to the Father's house-of many mansioris. . . . Were'I to die-i
thousand deaths,. each would'be like the calm, joyous stepping
trom one room in a happy household to anoth6r, better fiitcI
and -more appropriate tb-*y needs. . . I am certain thi
guardian angels will ever be at my side to guide and to
direct. . . -
,
But to return jo the. present experience. [n such a
qonsciousness . . . much t uppe" i" a
-state of
heightened
second of time . . . just ,Is one may dream a-"y lifetime'between
the.opening and closing of a_ dq9r. .'. . Before I retu.ned to my
body, I visited two friinds in Los Angeles, one of whom is thl
renowned artist who painted thc fanious Christ Head from a
'so-called' vision.
Vpon the occasion of which I write, the artist and his wife
to.\f,hom I appeared did not know that I was in the hospital
betng operated upon. . . . But I had awakened them'and
appeared to them in California at exactly the time of mv oassins
out of
TI b"dy in New York, ailowing, bf cor.se, for the'differl
ence o, tlme between the two sections of the country. . . .
At times I half floated out of my body momentarily during
the month in the ward at-the hospital, afier the operation; ani
at such times I contacted hidderi resources of the spirit.'. . .
And again and again the channcls of my being *.." fill.h . . . .rj
so my strength returned. .,,
Dr. lmith adds, Uy way of conclusion:
"The artist I visittd is Mr. Charles Sindelar and his wife. . . .
They will remember tfie incident and will ao"Utt..s
"Ufy ii
it,
you care to write to them. . .,,
the above is a statement which I secured from Mn.
Sirrdv.i:i"?i"g
.
. "Everythirrg
clunng Q.. Smith told you concerning the experience
her operation in the New york Hospital in 1934 is truc.
Prenr STNDELAR."
(Signcd)
The
- n€xt case is again- o1der, but is one of great interest in
view of the prominencf of the narrator.
THE VARLEY CASE
. Did Cromwcll VarlEr Haoc Two hojcctions?
[Although.I related the case of Cromwell Varley, the famous
-English scientist, in my book Ttu Casc for Astrat pni;tiol, f have
 THE PHENoMENA oF ASTRAL PRoJE'crIoN pRoJEcrIoNs PRoDUoED BY ANAEsTHETIcS 69
68
aDDears to have been
since come across another exPerience which THE SOLLIER CA$E.
an exteriorizauon. I accordingly rellte them 66th here'-S'M'] MorPhine Produces a Doublc.
'" i;;46;G6;" the Diale"ctical Societv,- Mr' Varl.ev narrated
the fint eiporiencc. . . . It seems that hi naa been ill, suffering We title this "The Sollier Case" because it is recorded by Dr.
il;'.;..;-s oi,t" throat, which had been brought on from the Sollicr in the Bulletin of the Institut Cincral Psychologiquc. In several
fumes if fluoric acid which he had used cxtensively rn- Iussclentlllc French publications one may find many rePorts, by eminent
It was recolnmended that he had sulphuric ether handy at researchers and medical authorities, of their observations of certain
work.
trir-U"Jtia" to assist breathing in case of a throat lPasm' patients during the phenomenon of 'doubling', as- they term it
".' g" .*"ffins the ether he Jbtained ilrstant relief, but the odour it is interesting to note, in rnany ofthese cases, that the exteriorized
*^t";;;;i;;:uti-tt"t he turned to usi*g chloroform' one- night portion (of the double) which the patient observes corresponds to
h;;;ll.d ilio t it Uu"t , the sponge-satura-ted with chloroform- ihat po.iion of the physical body which is, at the timc, insensible.
r;;il;s in his mouth. His'wife, N{rs' Varley'.was in a.ro9m Bizzano, the Italian researcher, states that he feels justified in
;;i;il;'il;;"f . ti"t child. Savs Mr' Varlev in his account before concluding that something exteriorizes from the body 1vhe1 a Patient
t6e Diatectici experiences lassitude and coldness, while observing his double, or
tffi:ttl;"came unconscious. I saw m1 .wife upstairs a iart of it. We relate an example, the_ case of a young womalr of
,oa i-iii iEsrlf on m1 back with the sponge in f) mo:tth', but I was eiehteen. a Dronounced morphine addict'
" Some time after the dose (of morphine) she seemed to be normal,
utterlv powirliss to cause my body'brain, to move' I made' by nJy wltl'
;;itiii"; it";;;t.in" upon'her that I was in dangcr' but was actually in a slightly cataleptic condition, as could be.seen
Th;;-;;;Gdi th" iu-i do""ttairs and immediately removed by modiSing tlie position of the limbs. All at o^nce she complained,
----iit.i
the sponge and was greatly alarmed' aird mad-e tLe geiture of repulsing someone. She then stated that
used my b#y to'speak to her and said: 'I shall forget she had beside-her a person who was exactly like herself, lyin-g
.ff .Uo"i tf,ti, trd no*'it came about unle-ss you remind me in beside her, and that she had to move to make room for her. "[t
tf,"-*.i"i"i, but ne sure and tell me what made you come is tiresomer" she said, "to be double, like this."
d;;;;e l'shall then be able to recall the circumstances.' Dr. Sollier goes on to say:
-- it foltowing mor.,ing she did-so, but I could not remember "After several minutes of this scene, I had the idea of blowing
" about It. i tried'hard all day, however' and at Ienglh
,.rr,t irn upon her eyes, which were open, and ordering her-to awaken.
I succeJded in rernembering first a part and ultlmately the wnole 'Why-have you been here?' she asked me. . . . She became
less conscious of her double. I closed her eyes and blew upon
"il;;';;;.;d . . ."
exDerience.
ir,r,ur.. Mr' Varlev tells us that once' while the hc them, ordering her to awaken., She was still conscious of her
was makins a iorr.r.y, he decided he'would awaken very early doubie, but siw neither its arms nor its feet. At the same time
ili#;ff;i"g:il'ir.; thc timc of morning came' continues the she began to recover the sensibility of her own arms and.legs,
**""1:;
scientist: when [rey were pinched. But the trunk and head were still in
fast asleep in bed' " ' I tried
saw mlself to become awake a condition of anaesthesia.
but could fti"" f .o# a nnttt where lay a largc-pile of lumber' Next day, after a spasmodic contraction of the, muscles, I
Two men "ot.
were aPproaching thc pile' Thev climbed up on the forced her io awaken, Lnd only the upper part of the breast
pile and heaved a,i*" .-n"]ty biam' In fhat instant it was as and the head remained insensible, at which time she was con-
iiifi;ij',h";; that b;;t,t.tt'n"a struck just before me'..' ' '" scious only of a double which floated like a vaPour in front of
Mr. Varley states the noise awakened him phystcalyl^L1 her. . . Next day sensibility completely returned to her physical
the position he had been in (physically) his. eyes-could,,not
have body, and she could no longer see her double. . . ."
seen out, through the window' But now, betng
phystc""Y-'"lu11il
l; l";";d and looked out through the window and' saw the Prle In addition to the experiences of those who have undergone
of lumber and the men! conscious astral projection, while under the influence of an anaes-
"- ---llwh"r, before it had thetic, there are-qulte a number of instances on record in which
I had l"iet.d this town the eveningyard there' ' '
been dark, and I did not even know there was a doctors or nurses have noted the emergence of cloud-like masses,
or complete forms, fi'om the physical body of the patient, when he
The next case is one of projection under the influence of a drug' was aclually dying-or rather immediately after death. In the
70 THE PHENoMENA oF ASTRAL PRoJEcTIoN PRoJEcrIoNs PBoDUCED BY ANAESTHETICS 7l
soirit bodv became greater. For the spirit form floated more
narrative. which follows we have several such instances, togetheJ from the"physical counterpirt during the height of
*iif, "".i.ty of' other miscellaneous psychic experiences, which ii""iv
" from tle projection exPerience ltsell. the
---- "*.ry
anaesthetic.
are really seplrate and apart
. . . Wepreient the entire narrative, however, because ot rts general ti w", then that I was free to study this spirit form closely,
for now I could see the outlines more clearly' The patilnt w-as
interest.
an elderlv ladv as I could see from the features presented by thc
spirit fact. . . . tte spirit was quiet, as though it also *al i'l
THE HOUT CASE NO. 2 dieo peaceful sleep. I knew that the direct process ol surgtcal
Saw Paticnts Exuriorized Duing Anaathcia'
not a'ffecting
-- ei'tt"wasfinish it. . . .
-operation, while the wound was being
"ctiiri[r, of this
closed., the spirit came iloser to the body b-ut had^not yet
Suoolementing the testimony of those who assert they have
is the,account re-ent;red its vehicle when the paticnt was wheeled from the
.""" i[J etheric b"ody pass out of the physical body,(see "'I'he Hout theatrc. ."
L; b.. Hout, menti6nid elsewhere in this volume -i-"rit"O..
ooeratins
Hout's description of the otlrer two instances of
C'ase"). in w'hich the doctor tells of seeing the exteriorized etherlc.
;;dt"J;i1h;1"-Jif..."t persons, while thi latter were undergoing wliih he was the percipient'that day. While the .spirit activities
of these three pati6nr were uniqge .?nd.individual in each case,
;fr;i d;;ions. The'account appeared in Prcdiction' Says Dr' he tells us, "yit each presented iimilarities that I noticed"'
Hout:
""*",,I was attending surgical clinics in a certain large hospital "In eacir case I was able to see, at least part of the- time,
room as observers' All the astral cord that united these spirit bodies with their physical
i" Cr,i""sl.-O"ty tr,i.. o"f ,r, *." in the proccdures' courrie.parts. This was representid to me as--a silvery-shaft of
of the otf,ers weie actively engaged in the^operating
Dt{ Dare light wliich wound around through the room in much the same
Ihe room was compact and stripped ol everythlng. *i*, ut a curl of smoke will drift indifferently in still atmosphere'
essentials. . . . Therc was a gerleral hushas each' sltently ano
enacted his duties' Wlien the magnetic force would draw the spirit -close- to the
efficientlv.
"" f;;J *v p.ititig. physical body,"this cord was more aPParent, as though-more
'tt on this day to-witness,.in this particular -was
indistinguishable to
loncet trated. At oth." times this force
t..-ii.'f"t ni operations on three patients' Ii ftt "-I:: me. . . .tt
of th! surgeons and assistants this was merely t?3ult-
"U"i., ljli;
tbT,:"1q:il Dr. Hout further tells us that:
But, to me] this day represented something greater
"Besides the earthlv doctors and nurses so nobly doing their
skid and eificiency. .- . There passed -U9fo :.[Y 9svcn1c,t9,1:t1 bcst for sick humanity that day, there also looked on, unseen
the vivid drama of both physical and spiritual llle' I was pnuugta.
'tf thc patieits^undugo.ing and unrecognizcd, otlrcr minds ind other persons . ' working
i-rri tnt spirit-count-e)i;lft
was:p!:f:!:!,
'1" in the invisible. ."
I became aware of this when t}e first Pauent the influence
wneeleq
ol the Anaesthetics act as an artificial method of producing astral
into t}re oPerating room, partially under in projection, and as such are less desirable than the normal or natural
.-"."t1fl,.ti"1 Abovi, and. niar the patient, y-ho. lay swathed. 'pto"".tt resulting from sleep, etc. However, the itself is
vague, Eusty
sterile sheets on the cart, there hovered in mid-air a -process
iimilar! The su6ject leaves-his physical body, and journeys away
;;ai".; il;"ing the- le"eral development and contour of the from it, while reiaining full coniciousness in his astral-b-dy. ..' :
human bodY. We have now to recou"nt a number of experiences which resulted
With my attention thus dramatically called to this unusu:tl from other causes. These will bc found in the section which follows'
ohenomenon. I *uicn.a with interest the developments
during
Ii;;;;;;;i,.-. . . tt. entire personnel in the surgery that
dav were unaware oi it e pttetto'*tt'ott that I saw before me'
i;,h;;; ,h;P;i["i was inetetv unconscious from- deep=ether
irh"l."til. , .'. n"i-tn me rhe'picture. was errtirely different.
--'--
i ,r. rhc spiit bod2 of the pati.cnt foating f:n if t!*tout oI :y-
:bo:: tne
obnatinp taDlc,-resting supine and inert, and-entrrely
deld oi mental activity. .
' ' As the anaesthetrc cleePeneq^ano
;ii;r^;y;i;;i uoay u"i,.*e more relaxed, the freedom of thc

+.

!,:. PROJECTIONS AT THE TIME OF
ACCIDENT OR ILLNESS
Rcaders of psychic literature will realizc that many $trange
occurrences take place during illness, or coincidentally with some
accident, and these may manifest themselves quite unexpectedly,
and even many miles from the scene itself. A lowering of the vital
forces seems to be a factor in the production of such sPontaneous
phenomena; and it is probably true that this is also a factor in
istral projection, as S.M. intimated many years ago, when writing
of bodily'incapacity'. The following cases, which we have grouped
together undei this general title, seem to bear this out. The first
caie is highly important and has the advantage of being relatively
new. t "Gradually I realized that I could see not only my body
co*,ilu!';o",i,"iii,f ff,"**r*.
It
would be ignoring the testimony put forward by scientifically
rained minds to omit the case related by Sir Auckland Geddes
before the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh, on z6th February,
rg37. While the case is fairly well known in England, having
appeared in several journals there, it is comparatively unknown to
American readers.
Sir Auckland, himself a medical doctor and former Professor
of Anatomy, was not relating an experience of his own, but one of
another doctilr, a friend ofhis, who, for professional reasons, desired
anonymity, but was known by many present. Introducing his paper,
Sir Auckland explained that it concerned the experience of a man
who had passed into the very portals of death and had been con-
scious whiie out of his body and who, after treatment had restored
him to normal, immediately dictated his experience to an exPert
secretary. It was that record which Sir Auckland read:
"On Saturday, gth November, a few minutes after midnight,
I began to feel very ill, and by two o'clock was definitely-suffering
from acute gastro-enteritis, which kept me vorniting and purging
until about-eight o'clock. By ten o'clock I had developed all
the symptoms of very acute poisoning, intense gastro-intestinal
pain,' diirrhoea, pulse and respi ration becomin g q uit_e impo-ssible
io count. I'wanted to ring for assistance,.but found I could not,
and so quite placidly gave up the attemPt.
72
PROJECTIONS AT THE TrME OF ACCIDENT 73
I realized I was very ill and quickly reviewed my whole
financial position; thereafter at no time did my consciousness
appear to me to be in any way dimmed, but I suddenly realized
that my consciousness was separating from another consciousness,
which was also 'me'. For the purpose of description we could
call these the A and B consciousness, and throughout what foll,ows
the ego attached itself to the A consciousness. The B personality
I recognized as belonging to the body.
At *y physical condition grew worse and the heart was
fibrillating rather than beating, I realized that the B conscious-
nessbelonging to the body was beginning to show signs of becoming
composite, that is, built up of consciousness from the head, the
heart, the viscera, etc. These components became more individual,
and the B consciousness began to disintegrate, while the A con-
sciousness which was now me, seemed to be altogether outsidc of
my body, uhich I could scc.
and the bed in which it was, but everything in the whole house
and garden, and then I realized that I was seeing not only things
at home, but in London and in Scotland, in fact wherever my
attention was directed. . . . And the explanation which I
received (from what source I do not know, but which I found
myself calling to myself m2 mentar) was that I was free in a time
dimension of space, wherein nau was equivalent to hete in the
rl, ordinary three-dimensional space of everyday life.
ilr
,(, I next realized that my vision included not only things in
lt1
#,
the ordinary three-dimensional world, but also things in these
il:,' '
four or more dimensional places that I was in.
tli
nl
From now on the description is and must be entirely meta-
phorical, because there are no words which really describe what
I saw, or rather, appreciated. Alt hough I had no body I had
what appeared to be perfect two-eyed vision, and what, I saw
can only be described in this way, that I was conscious of a
psychic stream flowing with life ihrough time, and this gave me
the impression of being visible, and it seemed to me to have
particularly intense iridescence.
I understood from m2 mcntor that all our brains are just end-
organs projecting as it were from the three-dimensional universe
into the psychic stream, and flowing with it into the fourth and
fifth dimensions. Around each brain, as I saw it, there seemed to
be . . a condensation of the psychic stream, which fonned in
each case as though it were a cloud, only it was not a cloud.
-
While I was appreciating this, thc mentor, who was conveying
information to me explained that the fourth dimension was in
everythine existing in the three-dimensional space, and at the
same time everything in the thrce-dimensional space existed in
 THB PHBNOMENA Or ASTRAL PROJECTION
the fourth dimension, and also in the fifth dimension, and I, at
thc time, quite clearly understood what was meant; and quite
understood hsw ww in the fourth-dimensional universe was just
the same . . . as hae in the three-dimensional universe. That is
to say, a four-dimensional being was coa2whcrc in the zoat. Just
ar one is cotrywhac in. the herc in a three-dimensional view of
things.
I then realized that I myself was a condensation, as it were,
in the psychic stream, a sort of cloud that was not a cloud, and
the visual impression I had of myself was blue. Gradually I
began to rccognize people and I saw the psychic condensation
attached to many . . and saw quite a number that had very
little. . . . In addition to those just mentioned, I saw 'I' very
clearly and she also gave a visual impression of blueness. 'A' gave
blue and dark red; 'B' pink; 'D' rather definitely grey-brownl
'E' pearly, €tc. . . Each of these condensations varied from all
othCrs in bulk, sharpncss of outline, and apparent solidity.
Just as I was beginning to grasp all these, I saw 'A' enter
my bedroom. I realized she got a terrible shock and I saw her
hurry to the telephone. I saw my doctor leave his patients and
come very quickly and heard him say and saw him think, 'He
is nearly gone'. I heard him quite clcarly speaking to me on the
bed, but I was not in touch with the body and could not answer
him.
I was really cross when he took a syringe and rapidly injected
my body with something which I afterward learned was camphor.
Ai my heart began to beat more suongly, I was dra*'n back,
and f was intenicly annoyed, because I was so interested and
rvas just beginning to understand where I was and what I was
seeing. I came baik into my body, really angry at being pulled
back, and once back, all the clarity of vision of anything and
everything disappeared, and I was just possessed of a glimmer
of consciousness which was suffused with pain.
This . . . experience has shown no tendency to fade- a no knowledge of this subject, and only thought of the occurrence
dream would fade . nor grow or to rationalize itself-like
as a
dream would do. I think that fhe whole thing simply tneans that
but for medical treatment of a peculiarly prompt and vigorous
kind, I was dead to the three-dimensional world. Since
my return with the injections there has been,ro repetition . . -
ol the experience or 5f the clear understanding that I seemed
to have while I was free from the body."
"Thus ended the record," said Sir Auckland. "What are we
to make of it? Of one thing only can we be quite sure-it was not
fake. Without that certainty I should not have brought it to your
notice. . . . It has helped me to define the idea of a psychic
continuum, spread out in timc like a plasmic nct. . ' . It brings
pRoJEcTtoNs AT THE TIME oF AcciDENT 75
tr:lepathy, clairvoyance, spiritualism, and indeed all the para-
psychic manifestations.into the domain of the picturable.n
In the case which follows, it would seem that pain was the main
factor in producing a conscious projection.
;:; t:,il::"i,ii,iii
- Yt, M. J. Johnson of Stockport, England, furnishes me with
the following case:
"One night I awakened with severe cramps in my legs. I got
out of bed, but, do what I would, I could n-ot ease ttre pain."tt
was so intense that I fear I must have fallen to thl floor,
unconscious.
The noise of the fall awakened my wife who called out to
my two daughters in the next room. . . Now this is the peculiar
par.t-while my corporeal body was lying prone, and my wife
and daughters- were trying to raise me, m2 cionscious self wis look-
ing on at them from or;er the shoulder of m2 wife! And I waismiling at
their apparent ineflectual effortsi
In a little while the two bodies seemed to unite or merge
again, and soon I was able to speak, move, and arise, but I wis
terribly^ weak. I told my wife and daughters what had happened,
but, of course, they could not understand anything Uk; thai
occurring. ."
I asked Mr. Johnson if it would be possible for him to furnish
me with any corroborative evidence foi his case, in the way of
dates,..etc., to which he replied (9th March, rg3'B) :
"I am unable to recall the exact date ofthe experience, ot]rer
than to say-that it was early in r933. At that time I had absolutely
as very curio.-us, and out of reason. While I knew l, happened, it
was rrot until I read of a similar experience, described by Sir
Arth.ur Conan Doyle, that I realizld whai the explanation
was."
At my request, tr,[r. Johnson's two daughters furnished a state-
mcnt to verify the incident:
"I remember the occasion when my father fell unconscious
on the bedroom floor and I assisted him.'He did tell us of a queer
experience he had at the time, of being outside his body- and
watching us over Mother's shoulder. I could not understand
what he meant."
(Signcd) Auv JouNsor.
 TIIE PHENOMENA OF ASTRAL PROJECTION
"I can confirm tlre above as written by my sister, as I also
helped, and recall the details stated."
(Signcd) Ernnr" JonNsox.
Mr. Johnson states that he had a second. experience, which he
wrote down immediately after it occurred, which was on I Tth March,
1935. He did have some knowledge of the subject, h9y9ve1 at this
tiina. It is interesting to notice that, in the case of NIr. Johnson,
ltain aupears to be the causative factor. In the second case, as well
Ls i" ttie first, he was suffering great pain. He begins his second
account by saying:
"I must have gone to sleep and partially awakened as the
clock in the hall stiuck lrao. . . . At the same time / was conscious
of sharp pain in my abdomen, for which -I could not account . . .
ind momentarily I had the sensation of--oh, how can I describe
it to you?-the sensation that I was two persons, or in -two parts,
that both were myself in separate parts, one, conscious of its
surroundings, and having knowledge that t}le other Part was
suffering the pain. . ."
Mr. Johnson tells how he found himself unable to move or
speak, a-nd quite aware that the conscious P-alt of him left the
suffering pari, and ffavelled in a 'pea-souPY' fog, always aware
of the piri left behind. He could not explain howhe moved, whethe-r
by flyiirg or floating, but it was by "qome queer form of locomotion".
Theie iere no sounds of any kind. . . . He saw many shadowy
forms, which "seemed to sail Past". Then:
"Immediately in front of me, but a long way ofi -I saw -a
spot of light, Ii grew rapidly nearer and. -nearer and shortly
risolved ilsell into a vision of my dear wife (who had passed
away 3rdJanuary, Ig34). My joy was great. I flew to meet her.
et the- mo'ment of contict, everything went void. My grief and
consternation was intense, and I was aware of my pain-racked
body; I was returning to it-holv, or in what manner, I do not
knoiv. . . There seeined to be tremendous difficulty in entering
the earthly form, so much so that I tried to c-ry out. . . .'Then
all seemed to merge, and I was physically alive an-d. trembling.
I then came t; the conclusion that she (my wife) is waiting
for me, and that eventually we shall be togethet-ag-ainr -. -.-."
The present writer knowj exactly what the critic is thinking
and whJt he is justified in thinking.' It is this: "Why is it, -in so
many of these caies, when the projelted entity-is 1b9u1 t9 embrace
a loved one, the experience comes to an end?" I feel the answer
to this quesiio' is tliat the intensity of emotio' incites the. process
of interibrization. This has been fuily discussed in Thc Projcction of
thc Astral Bo@.-S M.
Here is an odd case, fairly recent and well authenticated'
pRoJEcrIoNs AT THE TIUE oF AcurDE,NT 77
THE DRIBBELL CASE
,|,
Interioized Through Holc in Skull.
i,
A short time before his death, in February rg38, Mr. Alexander
I,. Dribbell, of Carshalton, Surrey, sent me a copy of an experience
hc had and had written down at the time. Mr. Dribbell was so
well known in psychical research circles, being
a close friend of Harry Price, that he needs
no introduction to many readerr. He wrote:
"Been ill nearly three weeks, very weak
and fcverish. . . . Fclt mpelf dropping out
of bed on the left side. . . . Seemed to be
wrapped in cotton-wool. . . . Got up, took
two $teps forward to reach electric light
switches and turn them on. To my great
surprise no lights appeared. Saw plainly the
door in front of me; the silver mottled paint
on green background. Reached out for stick
standing next to bed (or its etheric-counter-
.part) and knocked at the door. No sound
resulted.
Becami alarmed. Tried again; same
result. Swung back the stick as far as I could
and banged at the door with all my might,
but tremendous force seemed to neutralize
my efforts. By this time I realized what had
happened, but vaguely. I did not want togo
yet; too much work to be done. . Now
was thoroughly alarmed.
Shouted my wife's name-no sound came.
Tried several times more; no result. Had
A moct derirable point an overwhelming desire to get back to
of cxtc riorization md
aPia$ int r;oizalior. is bed. All of a sudden was pulled, or rather
thc ragittal suturc on thc sucked, back into my body through (as it
crown of thc head whcre
the two parictal seemed to me) two holes on top of my head.r
boncs
articulatc. This point qF., Woke up shouting for my wife and with
pcos lilrc a holc to thc
a terrible pain in my
head, which lasted
proJcctor.
for about ten
seconds. Then felt quite
normal again. . Not a very interesting experience, perhaps,
to others, but a plain statement of fact. . . . Made up my mind,
if I am ever again out of my body, not to get panicky, but to
asl! my guides to take care of me. I'll write you further if there
isasequel...."
rlt may bc rccallcd that Dr. Beth saw a clcft in his skull, through which he re-cntcrcd
his body.
78 TIIE PHENOMENA Or ASTRAL PROJECTION
. THE MATTIESEN CASE, NO. 33
A ComPlcx Carc.
In presenting the following complex case., I originally intended
to oflei a few clomments, insErt a few words parenthetically, and
break up the material into paragraphs, in order to make it morc
to the reader. Buionsecond thought I have decided
"o-orehensible
to piesent it word for word from the pen of the translator, and not
risf the possibility of giving what may perhaps be a misconcePtion
on my part.
Th"'"ut. is recorded by Dr. Emil Mattiesen, the well-known
German researcher, which he labels Case Number 33'
The subject who, according to the- painter P. E' Cornillier,
was both iritical and iudicious in obsen'ation and judgment'
describes the following itrange occurrenc€: At the age of eleven,
durine a state of 'uncdnscious=ness', caused by a blow on the head,
he exJerienced the distinct sensation of an'excursion', or emergence,
*t i"ti nua occurred to him during his earliest childhood-at the
-i'feighteen months. He
-o- of
ase saYs:
f,ad become a very smatl child again, a baby; and this
baby was lying on a bed in a room which was unfamiliar to me'
But, strange t6 say: although this baby w7s m2se-lf, I saw it and
looked upin it as an objeci outsidr oJ m1seff and down below me'
That which IT saw and perceived was anothtr self--in the room,
near the ceiling-but anithn m2selJ, wit}^-consciousness-and per-
."ftior,, whicti'knew that thii liitle body on the bed was his
own.tt
-The
narrator then describes a band or 'cord', consisting- of
luminous points betwee. the body and- the ego outside it; his noting
tti frrt"itite in the room; his consciousness of the fact that the
*Af*, and doors would be no hindrance for this'mlself';
the f,erception of two Person-s in the room: an unknown
""ifi"g
n""ffy'und
mar, the obslrver's mothei' As the latter approa+d. th9 q9i
and snatched the body of the child into her arms, he lelt urestshba
iro*n bv this child-body, and-his consciousness of the scene faded
;;;t. fi. felt somethi.,g similar to--a violent drscharge along.the
spinil cord and--opened his eyes. The memor-t 9f th!s- memllv.atstln
had not grown dimmer with time but remained vivid and distinct
i" lfi-a.i'riL. euestions put to the father had brought information
;i;il; ;t; tirii the boy was eigh,teen months old, in
the familv had
;;;.lly i"t uUit.a . too* ..reniblit g th-at seen the vision; the
bov had had a severe attack of croup-the laryngotomy had teen
uniuccess{irl and the physician had given him up' He told the
mother so, and that wis the scene which had been re-enacted ancl
*t i"t tt. boy had seen and the man remembered'
.l'
PRoTECTIoNS AT THE TIME oF AoCIDENT 79
e,,i,i'wiiti?i,i,tii.o.
This is another simple case, but t}re very circumstances under
i which it was sent to me force me to class it as valuable testimony.
'Ihe subject knows nothing.whatever-about the phenomenon. She
was given my name and address, and was asked to write and tell
me of her experience by a second party to whom she had told it
at the time of its occurrence. She refers to the present writer as
'madam', indicating further that she has not read 1ny literature on
this subject. We have omitted the names of places from her letter,
and w^e Tay c4l her Mrs. Katheryn Riggs. Actually the lady lives
near Sydney, Gloucester, Erg. She writes:
"Dear Madam,
I have received a letter from a sister who lives at B-,
and is a member of the G- Order there. She gave me youi
address and asked me to write you and tell you of my experience.
. . . Some few yean ago, I was a patient it G--, 1-, and
was _prepared to undergo a very serious operation. I was flat on
my back and could not move*-{ould not help myself in any
way....
-O1e d1y another- patient was brought in, operated upon,
and placed in a ward iome distance from me. . . . Her mLans
were pitiful and during the night I fett I wanted to go to her
31d 1ay something to- comfort her I felt mywlf haoc iy body. I
left that body in the bed and went down tle ward to her iide.
I spoke to her for a ,I
little while, and then said: must leave you
now or my bgdy will be cold.' I then went up to my own bed
and saw .my body lying upon it. . . . I cnterid m2 Sody through
m1 mouth!
I told the sister about it later on, and she was very interested
and said she would take me to see the other patient when I
was able to go. . . . When she did so, as soon as we saw each
other we both knew we had met before. . Then the woman
said: 'Oh-now I know you-you are the one who came in here
to cheer me up that night after the operation when I was so ill.,
),
'I
The sister was so interested in all this, because she knew I had
been too ill to move at the time. I was about fifty years old. then.
It seems so very strange. I hope my letter is of interest to you. . . ."
TIIE KELLEY OASE
The folloraring account, entitled "My Rendezvous With Death,,,
was.originally sent to Th1
-Aqlyarian
z{ga'monthly magazine by Mrs.
ir
Kelley, wifc of George W. Kelley, na.o. "Every stitement in the
itl
\!
ii

80 THE PHENOMENA OF ASTRAL PROJECTION
narative occurred exactly as the doctor related it." The experience
is necessarily summarized here. He says in part:
"I was living in Cleveland, Ohio, during the winter of Igoe-3.
Early in January I became a victim of typhoid. On a Friday
afternoon, with the weather registering zero and my temperature
reaching Io4 degrees, I contracted a chill. My wife put me to
bed. . . . I had been ill about three weeks, when I had a most
peculiar experience. Before I go further into this, however, I
want to make it clear I had not entered the field of investigation
ofpsychic research, although I had always been intensely interested
in anything that had a tendency to give me a better under-
standing of things spiritual. This experience did not come to me
by a process of concentration. I was perfectly conscious at the time
it occurred. . . . Early one morning my temperature suddenly
dropped from ro4 to 95 degrees. The doctor and the nurse were
present at the time. They saw me draw what they supposed to
be my last breath; tests for Iife were made. The doctor then
pronounced me dead.
There was a momentary darkness, a void, then I became
aware of another presence in the room. Beside me stood a beautiful
young girl, whom I recognized as my wife's sister. I was certain
of her identity, although I was seeing her for the first time. She
had passed away several years before.
'Come with me, George,' she requested, and started from the
room.
I followed, passing close to the nurse and the doctor, who
were working over my body. I tried to inform my wife of my
safety while absent, and to assure her that I would return. I found
communication impossible. I touched her, but she seemed
unconscious of my presence.
Suddenly I realized that she thought I still occupied that
inert body which was lying on the bed.
All this took but a moment's time as I was following my
companion from the room,
Then an amazing thing happened. I became aware of a
sudden, swift movement. I knew, t}en, beyond the shadow of a
doubt, that my soul, free from the physical body, was about to
enter another existence, entirely different from its existence on
earth. I was experiencing what is known as death, but what, in
reality is transition.
At this time, I realized that death was no longer a thing of
fear and mystery to me. . . All this did not come to me slowly,
but burst upon me suddenly, bringing me conscious knowledge
and genuine relief.
It was a brightness without glare. I halted artd looked about
me. 'It is exquisite,' I said.
:ll
pRoJEcrIoNs AT THE TIME oF ACCIDENT g1
'Yes,' my companion answered. We entered a park, whcre
men and women stood about, singly and in groups. They were
beautiful in their glistening-soul-5odies. I found myself face to
face with strange people, of whom I was one, yet quite apart
from the.m. In this park the trees, shrubs, and flowers wire periect.
Not a dead or dried leaf among thcm. I cannot describe the
feeling I had at that time, any inore than I can describe that
bright,^yet ethereal light-intense, yet without the glare or the
heat of the sun.
For a time the exquisite beauty of my surroundings held me
enthralled, and I paid little attention to my companiSn. I stood
looking about me, eagerly drinking in all tliis ethlreal loveliness.
. . : _My -companion immediately led me across the lake, but
avoided the park, which could be dimly seen in the distance.
As we entered the room where my body lay, my companion
slipped quietly away.
Darkness and oblivion claimed me once more. When I awoke,
I was in my bed, with the nurse bending over me, testing my
breathing. I had been out of the body twelvl hours. I immedi"ately
related my experienge t9 my wife, and to the mystified nursi,
fl,
,ii going over every detail of my mysterious experience-.My
i, Rendezvous With Death'. . After weighing ali the evidencl
il,t.
of this most unusual experience, I can say thai it is, perhaps, as
incom-prehensible to me as it is to you. But t}le kiowleige I
gained at that time asured me of a future life."
Tgr o'EsprRANcE \cAsE
"I Know That It Was Not a, Dr€ant.',
This account was recorded by the remarkable medium Mme
d'Esperance. She was lying.upon a sofa, one Sunday morrring,
during a convalescence, reading a book. Her thoughti wanderet
from Jrer- reading and centred upon an entirely different matter,
and stre felt a, curious sensation of fainting.
_ Then-"the pages of the book became strangely indistinct.
Everything grew dark and I was sure within myielf that I was
about to be ill again. . But the weakness pass'ed away almost
at once. . . . I looked at my book-1ueer how far away and
indistinct it seemed. I had moved away from the sofa! But'there
was someone else upon it who was holding the book ! Who
could it be? How wonderfully light and strong I felt! For the
first time I knew what it means io LIVE. . . . How strange-
the room looked so small, so shrunken, so dark. And the pale
form on the sofa-who was she?
82 THE PHENoMENA oF ASTRAL PRoJEcTIoN
There was something about thc woman lying there so quiet;
I thoushtI recognized as though I remembered having knorvn
her. . ].I mov-ed toward the window. The wirlls seemed to
aooroach-to disappear-but whither, I could not say. . . . I
tidr, ,u* 'a friendi and was removed into a strange region, and
lone seeminsly symbolic experiences and conversations cleared
up luestio.rs" *t itt Ura previously occupied my.-mind. -
I had a strange feeling-like a strong pull-and in vain
I sought to free myself from its Power' . -. . The walls of the
room"again seemed'to approach-and recede. I walked th^rough
what se-emed like a sort of ha4, then stood with the same feeling
of unreality, r'hite I observed the woman -who still-lay there
with the b6ok in her hand-sleeping or dead. . I knew now
that this was m) form, that it was a prison out of which I had
escaped, and that I was now returning to c.aptivity.
the'earlier feeling of pain, faintness, and weary oppression
took possession of me-and then I was again conscious of lying
upon the sofa with the book in my h_ands. )Vbg" I opened-my
eyes everything around me was unchanged. How lo-ng I had
been 'away' I do not know. . . . Some mitl say that I dreamed
this; that is of no importance to me, for I know that it was not
adream...."
THE JAMES MARTIN CASE
Projuted b1 an Accidcnt.
When I first recorded this account the subject was living, and
I did not use his name for several personal reasons. However, he
has now passed away, and I here state the real trame of the man
involved-James Martin, who for many years was ,a prominent
figure in iiris cott muttity, having held several positio-ns of trust,
and was at one time chief of police. I repeat the case, however, as
given formerly:
- "A neighbour, a man of seventy, whose Present home is
-
within sighl of where I write this account' related an event to
me. . . .-He had hitched his team, one vvintry day, and gone
into the country after a load of firewood. On his return he was
sitting atop the loaded sleigh. A light snow was falling-. Without
*arning, i hunter (who happened to be near the road) discharged
his gun at a rabbit. The horses jumped, jerking the sleigh and
thro-wing the driver to the ground, head.first.
He iaid, when he told me of the accident, that no sooner
had he landed ,upon the ground than he was conscious of stand-
ing up, and of seeing another 'himself',lying mo-tionless -nea-r the
roid,-face down in the snow. He saw the snorv falling all about,
pRoJEcTIoNs AT THE TtuB oF ACCTDENT g3
saw the steam rising from the horses, saw the hunter runnins
toward him. All this was very exact; but his great bemuddlemeni
was that there were two of him, for'he belieied at the time thai
he was observing all that occurred from another phvsical LJ".
As the hunter came near, things seemed to giow dim. iie
next conscious impression he had was of findini himself uoon
the ground, with the hunter trying to revive him] What he [aJ
seen from his astral body was io ieal that he could not be[;;;
that there were not two physical bodies, and he *.rrt-*o
"r"r, he-tnew
far as to look for tracks-in-th'e snow, at the place wtrere
he had been standing."
_ __[In this connection I call the reader,s attention to the case of
8.K.,. related elsewhere in the book, who had u ,o-"*h.i ,i-if".
experience as a result of falling upon his head._S.M.l . -
Thc following case presints several points of interest-
n;;,.i;";#H,,";a
For almost two days Mr. W. A. Laufmann was aDDarentlv
dead. He was staying at the time in Omaha. beine a ffi;dli;;
1i
'1 salesman. He states that he was conscious of somithing like i
il^' fleecv ball releasing itself from his physical form. When .*ieft";;d,
:,
the 'fleecy ball' exp_anded into the'shape of a man, Uut i *"ri
almost three fect taller than his physicil form!
"f was standing there in ttri miaate of the room." savs Mr.
Laufmann, "and distinctJy saw my dead body llng up6n the
bed. . . I started to leave the room and 'mit 6n"' oi tt
physicians, a-nd was surprised that he said nothing to *., b,ri"
since he made no effort to stop me I walked out iito tf,"lt*ei
*h1* -I met an acquaintance of mine, Mr. Milton Blose.
I tried t_o greet IUr. Blose by hitting him o., the back, but my
arm went.through him. . . . It was impossible for me to attraci
tus attention. . . . I saw that he went across the street and
looked into a shop window where a miniature .Ferris wheeii
was on display.
- Returning to the hospital, Mr. Laufmann went throush the
.Jii
door ofthe room where his physical selflay, and there he siw the
doctors standing over his corpse discussine the case.
One of the doctors tried thi experiment 6f applying an electric
t, current, to my feet, and althoufh I was standing "outside mv
qti physical body, in the centre of the room, I felt it" (the etectril
li; currenQ with intense agony .. . and I knew *orrr.rrt"rily th"t
I was back in my body again."-.
84 TlrE PHENoMENA oF ASTRAL pRoJEcTIoN PROJECTTONS AT TrrD TrME oF ACCTDENT
Mr. Laufmann claimed to possess a testimonial letter from Mr. first, an experience.which-occurred to Dr. Marcinowski,
Blose verifying the fact that the latter actually had been in Omaha known nerve specialist, followed by two ottre;;h;;i;;;; the wcll-
at the time, and had walked down the street and stopped to look told to him by other persons. ilA
at a 'Ferris wheel' in a shop window. Dr. Marcinowski tllb of his experience in astral bodv dis_
l' engagement durins the of a bicycle ;;#;i-r" ;;,
The following case, though simple, is direct and impresrive. ridi..lc. A-ttention lhourd._overrurning
be given'to- trr" d"t trr"t ii.'rn*r.'"r
the
:llH1q .ground, as the cy"cle overturned, l"ur-rrliil"
rne exrenorrzatlon, ,f
?q one would naturally suppose. The"i"* doctor
was ex_teriorized, looking on,
.as the accident t.ioi pf*., ."Jr",
hin:self in it; that is,.he"saw hi, ;;;Lyrl.a rii filh; *"ia.ii.
A c":,";,,:,il"i fri"l,i*,n*. .the Itdoctor
appears that the exteriorizatio; ;; inauced ;y
dfi"';
was riding along-, he suddenly saw that his bicycle
.t
was
Camille Flammarion recorded the case which follows. It was il about.to collide wit[, an o6rtu"t..-iii;'ril;.h ;;;. ;rh:'J;
furnished to the great French astronomer, in writing, by thc subjcct, .lj. "seenjusr too late,,. Instantaneous frighir;;;J;',";a ; #; ---" ;l:
Mr. M. J. Ramel, on rst Novembe-r, r9zo. Mr. Ramel was a fi time he "noticed something very stiange;;. rr.
financier living in Geneva, who severil times had been the victim t "o.rtirril'-
l'My-consciousness-forind iiserf oufiidc *y pr,yri"uf body and
of heart attacks, at which times he fell into a peculiar stupor. Said remained about two feet distant from tle spot at
'i'i
which I was
Mr. Ramel: iir at the moment when the terror seized rne. G
"Once during such a stupor, I heard all my folks talking around
;t.
l'i and ";p;;;ii;.;;i;II_
distinctly I saw my physicat ;",' ft;;'.;;;;i
me, but I was not /-that is, I was not in my physical self. . . just -quite
behind. I saw-my back an& ,h. b;"k;i'il #;";dift
I myself was standing at one side, erect and in a white fluidJike rear wheel of the bicyile, saw the whote
on the bicycle) pitching over headlono]'
(thail;;fidrtJ;if,
body!
I could see the sorrow of those who were exerting themselves As Dr' Marcinow-ski, from his exteriori'zed position, was
to awaken.me. What I mean is, they were trying to awaken my observing the accident--in process, t#l;;;;;iiy";;#;Tt actualv
physical body. fu I stood there, observing this, I had this thought: physical seJf going headlon! he:
'Of what use is this miserable, outworn shell, which they are now "realized that iserious fricture of the stulr was inevitabre.
.
trying to bring back to life?' And.yet,_at the same moment, in my cons"iousness
But as I realized the deep sorow they were experiencing over physical body, the idea was given mL th;; ;hfu;;ffi;;
.;Lid.';;
my condition, I became possessed of a strong determination to be and would not be. . Out of t*s ctear ;;i
return to them, and arouse life in that physical body . and and feelin-g the overturning. (of.the Ui"y.f.l ".r;;ir;r;h;;il;
*".';;fid.d ;ff;
with that thought, I did so, and became physically active again. o}11 a splitting of the peliii ring at ii . ,v^pt vris ensued.,,
And yet it seems to me that, had I desired to do so, to have rr rs evrctent rrom the foregoing that Dr. Mircinowski personauy
rvilled not to return to the physical, I could have remained in believed that his thought-tiiat i rt"ir n..ture must
not result-
the Beyond. . Yes, I have scen the door open just a little was instrumental in sd guiding the fall as io avert
it. Some of us
way, but I cannot say what was behind it."r might questio-n thi1, erJn it to imasi;ation; butTe;;;
it may, the fact that Dr."..dt Marcinowski rias exteriori;.e-fp.;
evident.
into this of exteriorization further, Dr. Mar_
.I-HE MARCINOlVSKI CASE *_^I_l_qf3lq
crnowskr -matter
had a report from.a
-lady -whg was nearly aro"md,-lt*,
Nora Alexander. She stated thar'st.-f.ft
Fright Produces Exteriorization.
of golden li9l t .
* if #"g ir;A; i.;
:tT."T and the next moment she shot futh
Although I have captioned this "The Marcinowski Case", ,{1r^.!.ni3r!: tiom which position she could see
her o"," pfryli"J
actually the experiences of three different persons are recounted: her,. being tossed about by the waves . . . 'bui ,hi
fly,faow
nenetr was.somethlng quite apart from that physical body
tlt is interesting to obserue that the second cxperience rclated in thc casc of Mr. and had
Hvmans is creditcd to }eart failure. and hoth srrbjects saw, while projccted, anrious
no sympathy for it. . . .
mortels worhing orrcr their physical counterparts. In the other case reported to Dr. Marcinowski a padent had
i{.1
.[i
86 THE PHENoIIIENA oF ASTRAL PRoJECTIoN pRoJEcTIoNs AT THE TrME o? A0CTDENT tt
to have some teeth extractcd, rvhile conlined to her bed' After imagined that I came near 'passing away'. . . . I nevcr was
i*ot."rrirrg from the anaesthesia she told the bystandcrs that. she able to undcrstand how the &pericnce occurred. . . .,'
[;J r"; b"een asleep, but consci.us, and outsidc her body, watching
-,ii-.
o.o"i* of extiaction. She had felt no pain until coming back
into her physical bodY again.
ff,it i.tni.rat ,t of t[. account by J' A' Hill, concer-ning- a
tvliss ffi^i"". The young lady had been -chloroformed for the H,;,f ",,iYfr"*"Ft,ii'f,,or.
DurDosc of havine some tlceth ;xtracted. Delay in recovering con-
i"iolr.ress caused"great alarm, but whcn s1.e did.awaken, she said This is one of several experiences related by Friiulein Sophie
that she had beerirtouering aboae her ph,sical botl,, and that she, had Swoboda, which I have translated from the German. One'dav
tried in vain to speak to those present. . I '-SuPPoslng herseu oeaq' !gpt_ti" ha! a vlolent headache and, lying down upon the sofq
she wondered why she was not being Judged'! fell fast asleep. While in the sleep state she bicame awaki and noticed
that her mother was quietly leavinp; thc room; in fact it was the
The next case is very sin"rilar in general content' mother's leaving whicL seemed to irvaken hei.
Sophie noticed that she no longer had the headache, ancl that
she was feeling quite light. . . . Arising from the sofa, she followed
her mother to tell her of the improvement in her condition. Reach-
l'UE GRIGGS CASE ing her mother-who was now sitting, knitting, beside her father,
Proiccted During Childhood lllness' who-was reading aloud-Sophie observed that ihey did not see her.
She stood there beside her mother and father'quite unneticed,
Underrlateofe6thNfarch,rg3S-afewwecksbeforeherdeath_ althou-gh she could see.everything that they were ioing. After a
the well-known Pearl F. Griggi, of Daytona Beach, Flo^rida'- sent time, her mother set aside her knltting, arose and went*back into
methisaccount.Itappears,"tobea.bonafideout-of.the-body the room where the,sofa stood, being somewhat anxious about her
experience: daughter's condition.
' "Th" first occurred when I was eight years ofage' I was very Sophie tried, she could not make herself pcrceptiblc
ill with measles at the time. . ' ' The family atbedroom was a to -Although
her mother. . . . Thcn she sau herself lying ut on the sofa, Hei eyes
-f;A;;'and
lorts roorn. n'ith my bed at one end of it, and the other end u,ere closed and she was pale and corpse-1ikl.
iil ;l-;'y mother, and-th'e oadle of -y .p1by In another moment Sophie felt hCrself actually thrown back
brother. . . . I ."*.*ber how m)t mother ga!'e-mc rny.rnedicine rrpon the sofa, into her physical body. She said it was as if she had
and sat besidc me until I dozed off . in thc mrddle of tne been thrown or hurled back with a blow. It was with great effort
---th. .
night. . .
that she was able to open her eyes.
next thing I knew I was ttst'de au'ake and t found. yrye-{ She tells how she amazed her parents by repeating word for
ub near the ceiline." . . I was in the air over my parcnts'. becl word the very text which her father had been reiding, ind giving
upg.n tl.tT: them an accurate account of their conversation-although phyiicatly
&'iil ,,it ",'-riaE .r the room) and was looking.do''vn Irqnt
that uicturc is stili ctchcd clearly ufton my mrnd: the ctlm in.their
she had been asleep-three rooms away, with the dJori b"tn.en
#;;'k;;;;;; i;;;; i;.n.d do"n; mothcr and daddv them closed.
-rvell in his cradle beside her
(mother's) place, Frlulein Swoboda tells of being exteriorized
;;Jl ;t little sickitoir,". I felt at - In-another
bed. . . . I can so retnetnbcr the rvonderment {om hgr physica! sel[, and of being seen by a piicipient who
upo,, them like that' 'Oh my-poor little
^
l.irn utte to look ,low, obsenred, not only t}te inert material body, buf the projected
;;,fr.;,;-i irr."ehr' iyo, J," $o exhitustcd (\Iy.little
liom your houscwork
brother' in
double at the same time.
and the care of yu,'i;;;';J thiltlttn" The account states that Friulein Swoboda was sitting on a sofa
tle at the time') bcside- a friend, Frau 4--. They were listening to I'ima (Frau
' tiii Ic.udle, .
also had measles :-. -well,r
sloruiy recovcrcd mv health zrnd vias in tllne qult'J B--'s-daughter). pEyrng the piano, which was-on the opposite
rhil-tl3.e.i:il::'
again, trut ,o *urry ti,ir", ti'''te have I thougi:'t,of llr
side of the room. As Friiulein S*aboda leaned back and cloied her
llke- tllal'
F'o. vcat* I wondered how I could be up near lhe celung !!esr she had the cxperience of crossing the room and standing
*;i;;;;.ything below'rne' ' " I have alwavs' bcside Irma at the piano.
'"'lJ;;;k;
88 THE PHENoMENA oF ASTRAL pRoJEcrIoN pRoJEcrroNs AT THE TrME
I or AqoIDENT g9
She noticed that the hostess, Frau B-, was looking at her in
amazement. . . . Then, to her own amazement, Friiulein Swoboda
saw that her own physical self was still sitting on the sofa witb closed
eyes. . . While standing there, Frdulein Swoboda noticed that
Frau B- kept looking first at the body beside her on the sofa,
f
m
k#.{ illibillirf,:lr :'i:'lll';,
Ibegan to think over my predicament. . .
my mother-who hud pais6J
";."Yx"il.1.*:"r
. While I dicl not
then at the double standing at the piano, as if in great bewilderment. tr see
nrt..r, v.'u".r^u}"'..-
Friiulein Swoboda hurried back to her physical self and, as her
eyes opened, she began to tell ofher experienie, which was verified $ i"tiil'ifi:ff X."Xol',i.' #;r;,n1,!*;:k,
"*u/"uo"t
i'';::ff;T'i :::X:
by Frau B-, who told her how she had seen both Friiulein
Swoboda's bodies simultaneously-the one upon the sofa and thc
onc standing beside the piano.
tr ;:I."*,T:
fi.
1"fr',1Y,;?IiiH.,:,rn::;l;l;;i:XL.:*jtk,,il$
from school, ,h;;'i';;;ead for
kept leetrng my. arms.and saying to myselfi, ,itsure,, . . and r
!:, is so ,,."r*_t
i crrr 4rrrr:;-y... rI am
am dead_vlt iI am Jri;;'^;';ili"-"s'-
u_ alive and solid,.
iiA "'nj-live-yet -oead-yet
rne rnousht.ol what a shock it would be for my little family
T}IE }IANSTEAD CAST]
W to find me dlad., and the *;"ry;fh;*.t}"y would get along
$, without ,i;k ;;;il'.". . .oh why did this have
Aslral Somnanbulisrn,
i ^:,^Tu*.Tj
to happen? oh, I did not want to so vetr pr.*"
I I wailed. . rlt irl i"'i"it,,
ln such thoughff-lip, crow_ding throlgh
Tlu Projection of the Aslral Bodlt, writtcn some twenty years . ll]
mind. . Then I rememberel- ailiri my
ago, we said:
'Just as there is somnambulism (commonly called sleep- ;" ::i=gil; ,"';;,back
rntoacase...
into my body,;iirf i,Trt,iill'.1+;tl
walking) of the physical being, there are also persons who, while
asleep, walk about in the astral body. This I term 'Astral Tlre next is a war
Somnambulism'. It is a state of unconscious projection more case:
advanced than the unconscious, immotive state. It is the state
where the phantom is liberated from catalepsy but remains
unconscious, and is far more common than is generally supposed.
During sleep . many travel in the astral body, but never
tr sou;n,'Ein,X?;X; ;;;lr, ,,inu.
become conscious while doing so, consequently they never realize The name of the.subject in this case was
the fact. . When consciousness does intervene, it comes, in "The Rosseau Case,'.*;."1y not given. [.captron it
most cases, while the subject is either standing cataleptic or is b.;;;riJ,"*., translated for me from
astrally somnambulating. ." :t:"ffi1'Lll
mv rriend' tfr" il;;, vi",o. [o.,J"l'ii"',,i;.",,
The case of Mrs. Manstead illustrates what we have just said. "We left Monchiet in- thg afternoon, and, after a
'Mrs. Manstead' lives in England, but asks anonymity: march atons a mu{dy,oua, ,rri*ia ,nii[ dreadful
"I had not been feeling well and was taking a few days' rest Beaumetz ii the n_igirt. A ;il;i;;'"ra
_triffir"r*, ,i"]."lir.a
in bed. . . Early in the afternoon I awoke tofnd myself walking *.ltuii.i 6"'ri"irry,
through thc hall which adjoined m7 bcdroom. . I was half-way down
on the firingJine. W. ."t"r.a u ;;;;th
,i.;;;;idrris,
seemed to us interminable. fn" fiq"id'mud ,,"Ii"h
the hall whcn I woke up. . . 'Of all things!' I said to myself, '1 The frozen rain made it ;rrprrritsi"L was up to our knees.
have been ualking in m2 sleep! I surely will catch more cold. I'll Finallv. we reached tt.ip.i-*f,.re,.".
have to get back to bed right away! . . . French biitarion.-w" *.* i""r'".l?'tn. we were to relieve a
I turned around and went back, and as I passed into m)' H-- and I were orr" t. gi;ijiury at worst of the trcnches.
bedroom through the open door, I was shaken *"ith amazement were so fatieued "t the same time. We
I was still lying in bed! . . . Naturally, I had supposed that we- naa f,ot tfre strength to curse our bad
-there luck. We we".e p1e5112t.a a.r.r-t" the bones, starving with
until this moment that I had been walking in my natural physical "
body while in sleep. . I can never tell you the wonderment
hunger u"a *i[n-"o,hi;l;;;."""
""a
which came over me on viewing myself there in bed. . . .
I was so real that I kept feeling myself to make sure that i
ff
:#ir!iT,tffiil'?:yi::;:lr.:,::",tT#iii:
ptpe, to stave off the pangs of hunger.
Neitfrer ff'__-
iffn.j
'X..
f
 a

pRoJEcrIoNs AT THE TIME otr ACqIDENT

90 THE PHENoMENA oF ASTRAL PRoJEcTIoN 9t

\t'ould have thought before this time that human beings

could it was it cxtended all over my body. I actually thought I was
suffer so much' dead. My feet were turned downward and my hands Curled up.
Several hours passed for me in this horrible situation'- and I wondered what would become of me-if I might be buriCd
tfr.t G in an unforeseen manner ' I was alive, or rather while conscious.
k,'rtuirty"iu"g.d
"t..Vtt
,'iili;*t, toiitiit, of fndins mrsel,f .outside ^4,b'!-:-\k::y , Then | floated out of n7 body and started turning round, end
that this was I-la real and conscious spir-it-ltte-ralty
lreec,Irom for end. I looked down at my body and it appearEd dead. For
it. .otpo..ul organism. From without' I examtned my pyse[ I was floating horizontally, in a similar position to the
;;;; ;ffi ;A; ;;B,rt;;JiI looked
i-i ; s'." sre v,
n - the bodv ,vh
i
th ll*,i:I 1l"ll
at it with complete- lLlliltilll;il
body on the bed, but at least eight feet away from it and three
feet higher. . . I rested easily in the air. - . . At one side of
b.., *y o*n. me was a great sea of whiteness which seemed to be rolling in
if it belonged to another. ' I kncw that my bc'dy l*l-l:,:"Ti:
in an atricious manner, but I, that is to say, my sprrlt' Ielt to wash over me. . . . I felt icy cold.
nothing. Presently I heard words spoken, but no sound. It was more
"";;j;"g
as I remained in this state of existence' it
seemcd to like hearing without ears, but that does not clearly explain it,
me that it was P.;i;;dt
a -body natural happening' It yt :.It :l:: I saw no one, but heard the words: 'Now you have your Choice-
I re-entered my that I was- convinced ot havlng gorre you may go, or you may stay'.
'experience' No.thing could destroy my I thought over the cruelty I suffered every day and ofall my
ihrorgh the stiange
'certuin,
;;d;;, Ind iritimate conviction that on this night sorrows and why I would as soon go. . . Then I thought of
my spirit *o, a.-poiutiir; ttpotottcl from my body' .'' my mother; she might need me! My sister had died a short time
before, and I feared that mother would not be able to bear it.
. In a short time I floated over my physical body and sank
down into it. I seemed to 61o in through the poics of the skin.
'THE MARKS CASE . In a little while I grew \,varmer, my jaws loosed. In
Rigor Mortis and Thought Forms! about three days I began to feel better and the peculiar illness
disappeared. . . ."
The subject of this case requests that I keep her her unhappy
identity- from
as
- fupstion: "You were clearly conscious while out ofyour physical
body,andyounowrecalltheexperienceclearly?l'
the public, fo, ,."rorrr"ilti.t-"it tutious,--suth among
a small town
;;.I#'iii.,'ir," i".i ,t rl'tt "littt inthercfore, .coffe3' RepQ: "l was wide awake, before, during, ancl after the
;;;:'Th.-;;*., ir'r.;. \{il--M;tkt,in a Nebraska is fictitious' but thc occurrence. I wrote it all down in my diary afterward."
villagc' She states foustion: "How long did the experience last?"
;;i;.;;-; ;iJ..ty tuav,-no'* livesproJectlons' Repl2: "About half an hour."
thit
"'-' she has had several astral
";i *"' riurj i" il;;;j;
r*?t+, in tclling me. or her first'
' ,;
A few other items of interest may be mentioned in connection
with other dissociation experiences of Mrs. Marks: She once found
"I was t*u.r,ty-fo'ur years old'and married, -b"t "9Y ol
itl and lying at the ooiut ^"."r111fY'
deatll' herself in a state of catalepsy, at which time nrultitudes of, events
At the timc I was seiiously
illness?" Mrs'
To my question: "Wftit was the nature oi yo"t in }er life passed in reviewl events long forgotten passed vividly
Marks replied: before her. She states that she has seen people in the qpiritual world
.,The thought I had an abscess in my stomach,
but I while exteriorized. Sometirnes they talkid io her and it other tinres
doctor
the nurse went
believe-I had been po'iso"td' ' One afternoon been left alone ignored her presence. Once, while ozl, she heard her dead brother
to her room to rest, ;il^;;il;J iime aftet I had call her by a name he used when she was a child, and "a great
I was certain that I was dYing"' on account of your unhappi- light came in front of me and I saw lrim there alive . . but as
you desi."1l d"i",
"Did he spoke a Jolt' came in my right ear."
fotestion:
ness?"
The present author's opinion, after years of experience, is that
Rcpty: was involuntary' the sensa-
"\f6-nqf at the time-it in many of these instancei the forms scen are thought forrns, or
tion of dying came ;;";-;; on its own account' ' ' ' I could rcprcscntations of spirits, common to and generated by soroe unknown
feel my feet grow Jd' ' ' ' I began 'locking' up' " ' process, in this etheric area surrounding the material rvorld, but
Mv iaws set. ... ";;
I'",Lri tp""t tnai could noi move' but I cannot go into that matter at present, except to relate an example
""i
i"i"'J;id;;*;k". . :-'i;;;vi've been rigor mortis; whatever firom the testimony of Mrs. Marks, while we are studying her case.

THE PHENOMENA OF ASTRAL PROJECTION
On one occasion, while ozf, one of the fbrms which Mrs. Marks
calls spirits appeared to notice her presence ' but eventually
"a spirit *iir"t kept following me-and trying-to Slnoy me. She
appeared weak and trail. . . . Growing tired, of her annoying
nie I saia,'I'm going to get rid of you'. . . . I made-a sigz and
gave a command which I had been taught to ward off evil.
She shrivelled up like an old apple, first collapsing and- falling
over at the waiitline. . ' . The last I saw of her was that she
looked like a few ashes."
It may be rnerely coincidence, but the day when .Mrs..-Marks
had the piojcction and banished t\efyr1n-t9
-thinkingasias, -wasAsh^Wednes-
of the significance of
day, and sfie had been persistently
thif day. There is thc frobability that Mrs. Marks w-as annoyed
by some thoueh,t (desire--derision-repentance, or the like) associ-
aied with Asfr WLdnesday, and a thoight lforz persisted to annoy
her while she was in a sphere of psychic activity where it could
be seen; and, when banisired, it turned into ashes. That, of course,
is rrrerely speculation.
I conclude the Marks account with another of those curious
cases in which the subiect claims to have been exteriorized and
corrscious, while the p-hysical counterPart is active and uncon-
scious, as in the Hendry Case and the Sione Case related elsewhere.
i'One afternoot i hud to go to town," Mrs. Marks continued'
"and I suddenly realized that my physical self was no longer a
part of me, but was walking along in front of me, and l,.in my
tonscious oiherbody,was coipelled to walk along a-short distance
behind. lvly physiial self kept right -on going, and my thinking
self followerl,' observing everythi;g from behind. . , . We went
into the grocery store.-My physical self, in front of me, stood at
the counier and ordered the list of goods
I saw it reach down and open my pume and pay the grocer
and sarv him get the change, and many other details, as well as
hearing eteryihitg which-was sald by each of ,them,- though I
was apart from tf,e myself which was doing -the talking. ' '
I fotlowed behind mv phvsical self all the way home, as someone
apart fronr it. . . . I'sweir it happened, but I cannot explain it.''
The next case is ofan entirely different character:
P^i, t;;; k?"r",i,,'iif,, o*.
Ir{rs. S. Royes, who resides in West Haven, Connecticut, states
that she has hid experiences out of her body all her life, but "it
is not something which tr lcarned to practise as an art. In fact I
pRoJEcTroNs AT THE ?IME oF ACCTDENT
93
doubt if it would work for me that way. . . I just take it simply
as.something which occurs, just as anyihing else"that o""urr. . I '.
I have had- such experiencei from time tj time u, f.. t."t u, i
can remember."
- O.9 of the questions I asked Mrs. Royes was: ,,How far from
home.do you remember having projected?'' To which she replied:
.
"I once felt very anxious about a friend of mine *h; h;:i;;;
written to me as regularly as usual. . . . I concentrated on her-
and in a few momelrrtr roir"a;r*trir;kt"g;ilffi;:. to#:
all of four hundred miles awa)2. I saw shJ was in good healthl
but worried and overworked. . . I returned to *"y,o.-
b_{f.-a1d wrote and told her not to worry so much.""ri
-later
While I feel there is the possibility this experience could Lave
becn a type of clairvoyance, it could arso havi t."" inrtu"i"""o"s
distant-point projection, as described elsewhere. I astJ Mrs.
Royes:,-"How did you know your friend was overworked and
worried?" I knew the answer but wanted to see what she would
reply.
"I
knewr" she went on, "because when I am out of mv bodv
l. lhkk ylth n7 spiit bot2-7 sensc things zaith m7 spiit4 iii
lhings with ryr spiit. . . . I see my phvsical bodv i., the chair-
or lying on the bed. That body is io'all intenti ."d pr"pori,
dead, there is no feeling in it. , . . My entire feeling i, ;ri tfr.
real ME which is outside, and that is the ME that Fnows things
institutiuclT."
Mrs. Royes tells of an experience apparently caused by great
.
Patn:
"In a hospital bed . . . I was flot under the influence of an
anaesthetic, and was conscious of intense pain,
I sousht
comfort in. p1ay.e1. After a few moments I found that I had
ou1 of my body, left il l2ing on thc bed, and -'gor
foatcd up into oo, ,rfrn
oJf tha room.
I
remember thinking to myself, ,Well, at last I have escaped
from that awful pain'. Iiaw a nurse come in and look at *tt"d)"
She ran out of the room again, returning soon with an intein
and another nurse. . . . I seemed to feel iemorre at the anxiety
they were going thro-ugh. . . .. I came back and they werl
apparently satisfied, after working on me for some time, that I
was well again. . ."
Three of the subsequent questions I asked Mrs. Royes were:
How did you.re-enter your liody? Did you have pain Lgai, on
g-e"t-e.ryS?- Did you have any knowledge 6f spirituali'sm in [eneral?
To which she answered:
"I was in pain up to the time I left my body. I felt ouite haoov
and at rest when I found myself outside my'body. Wtren t ii*
the excitement of the nursei orrer my limp form I thought to
94 THE PHENoMENA oF ASTRAL PRoJEcTIoN PROJECTIONS AT THE TIME oF ACCTDENT
myseli 'I wish I could get back and relieve their anxiety,' and "The intensity gr€w to the point where I thought I would
with that thought I did move back again. . . . This was before I .nave_to gnp the bedding to hold myself in bed. .-. I recall
had any knorvledge of spiritualism in general, aside from my per- now I reasoned at the time that I was going through a sensation
sonal experiences, which I did not connect with spiritualism. ' . ." which must be similar to a man beirig elEctrocuied- . ::-i;
when I-th_ought I could stand it no longfr, the ,ensaii.n ,"ai!"f"
stopped! Inr!!17 I shotforuard into spie. . . .I t"ne,ur;.nJ.f
there. . . . I had the most peacefui and carefree r.ErGT'.r.i
THE ROGERS CASE had in my llt. . . . All wis semi-darkness arouna ,r,i, U,rt -i
Projection Associated lfith Flealing. sensed everything as it was. . .
AII around me suspended an{ floating in nothinp,were the
It is generally thought that many of our famous healers, such most beautiful symboli imaginable, and "although
i';;a; ;;
as. W. T. Parish, Schlatter, and several others, visit their patients eflort to remember them, my memory retained bilt four or five.
spiritually, although in many instances both patient and healer . Some were diamond shap_ed, tht outer pu.t of o""
ale unaware of the faet. That, I say, is generally believed. Recently and the centre of another colour. Others *ere round,"oior-,'i
while
Mr. George H. Bruce, of Johannesburg, South Africa, himself a several smaller ones were differently coloured i" tt. .."irl. .-l
healer, informed this writer that his predecessor in the mission, In my effort .consciously to register everything '";j .-
M. R. Zeederberg, claimed to have been aware of leaving his body "b";;-;;. th;
at the same time figure out whit I was doing"srrp.;dJil
and projecting to patients, while many of the latter claimed to have arr and wondering what was the meaning of it all, I, all at once.
seen him. Decame v-ery nervous. Then I felt somethins'pullins me
The theory is not that the projected healer goes consciously downward and when I hit my physical body, I see-id to boince.
to work, manipulating his patient, or speaks magic words, or makes , . . It seemed to me as thdu-gh'I bounced several;;ilr.1-.':
rriagic gestures, but that his spiritual body--charged with some Then, to my amazement, I tu;ned completely around i"ria.
subtle healing force-when projected into the presence of the bocly-revolved from head to foot. . Ttrij unique experiencl -"
patient, imparts that essence to the spiritual body of the patient, and sensation so startled me that I was actualty pi";rs';d ;ri
which in turn affects the physical body. of breath when I raised myself physically. Mv h6..t *u', b.^ti-rrn
In the following case, at least, there is strong evidence that like a hammer. . . . It wai the sti"rrg.ri r."otio" i ;;;;;;:
projection of the spiritual body rc,as associated with a cure. 'f}:re enced in all my life, but passed oflin a f.* *o*.rri;. -fl;..
iubject, Mr. Garth Rogers, of Stevens Point, Wisconsin, is not and own tiouble . . . and from that
does not claim to be a healer. Said Mr. Rogers: :1-. "9" 1..:.
wlte's ?l mJ
health improved and she has never had a".ry
ii-i
"My wife had been ailing for several years. On this Ty siik dav
since, . I want something besides a cold-blood.alr"-i*rfr?'
particular night I had retired with a feeling of fullness in rny explanation for what happeied to rne! . . .,,
lungs and throat and was quite concerned that it might develop lVhile we are on this su'bject- of projection and healing, I quote
into a bad cold. . I awoke in the early hours of the morning from an article by Mr. Brucg whoni I inentioned at the bZgirriid:
and heard my wife E;roaning in her sleep. I started praying for "I knew Mr. Ferneyhough of Maritzburg, a man seventv
her health, using a prayer I had used before. As I was praying years of a-ge, who used to Ieave his body at nigft. . . . O;"i;hl
that she be made well something happened to me. . he vrsrted a woman who was dangerously il-I. . . . She saw"an
I felt a tingling sensation coming over my entire body. It old man entering by the doorway aia ne .rp t" fr.. UeaslJe.
started lightly and grew more and more intense until my whole . . . Offering a prayer, he laid his hand.s "u-.
upon her. He" o.i*
body fairly 'buzzed'. Soon a roaring sound came in my head. went away and she fell fast asleep . . aird she was
. . . I began to shake inside. . . . I thought I would shake A few months later, at a little assembly of people, ,h" "ir..al
;;il_
apart, that my teeth would be loose the bed felt to me nized this oldman as he entered the room t .rt..,Ja ;"g*"i;#.
ai if it were shaking so much from the vibration of my bod! ,who ^"i to me and h"ealed mi
that I would awaken everyone in the house. . . ." . 'Yo_u are the one,' she said,
when I was so ill!'
came
[I will interrupt Mr. Rogers's account momentarily to state that the one,' answered Mr. Ferneyhough ,whom
you_ are
tbe iubject usually imagines this vibration is in his physical body, I_visited
.'S"4
in the watches of the night and wonderid *i"r. t o*.
although that body usually is motionless.] I had been to.'"
96 THE PHENOMENA Otr' ASTRAL PROJECTIOI\i
The case which follows*though somewhat morbid and dramatic
contains several points of great intcrest.
-nevertheless
THE VERA RO.GERS CASE
In presenting this case, I
realize that many m-ay object to such
testimony on th; ground that a subject in her abuormal state of
mind cannot be rigarded as a reliable rvitness. But Mrs' Rogers
tells what occurred-to het from within, and' I feel that the case is
not cnly of interest, but valuable, and in many respects enl.ightening-
Those desirous of making further studies along this lirtc should
read (although in parts it is gruesome reading) .Thc Maniac-a
realistic study of madness from the maniac's point,of-vieY-(^t
American edition of which was recently brought out by Dr. Here-
ward Carrington). Two other admirable works along this line are
Tha Mind Tiat Found hte\, by Clifford W' Beers, and As2lum, by
William Seabrook. Mrs. Rogers gives me permission to use her
name, and statcs that the other Persons hcrein mentioned are real
persons; however, I have had to abbreviate her account greatly.
' "This, is the first timc I have tried to explain my expcriences
in writing" says Mrs. Rogers, "and it seems difficult to do' ' . -
It is so much iasier to tellit. . In fact there.are many details
I canlot evcn now form into words. . Since you have asked
me to confine my story as much as possible to the details when
I was out of the body, I am forced to omit much of what hap-
pened. . . . NIy experience lasted five weeks. -
It rvas on 2oth January, tgz4, after I had spent most
the day attending services at the Congregational Church in
r-,f
Ventlor City, New Jersey. . . . The only sign of illness at that
time lvas a rather run-down condition. . At three o'clock on
the follovvilrg Monday morning . . . I awoke from sleep. t
In a moment imcthing snapped inside m2 brain. . . . I walked around
the bedroom trying at intervals to sleep again, but could not.
My first thought was that I had a nervous breakdor,r'n'
That condition lasted three days and each morning, :rt three
o'clock, awoke with the same peculiar feeling. . Finally, after
I Dr. Ritter pronounced my condition, mania and. hysteria. All
nothing more could be done for me at home, I was taken to the
home of my sister and her husband, Dr. and Mrs. Henry -Ritter.
. . . They lived about five blocks from our home in Ventnor
'Dr.. . .
City.
Ritter was a graduate of Jefferson Medical College,-
Philadelphia. Later he-became a neurologist, and was one of
the faculty at the Battle Creek Sanatorium for about seventeen
PROJECTTONS AT THE TIME Or ACCTDENT 97
years. His wife was a graduate Dietitian of the same Institution
and also was on the faculty for a number of years. . . . After
that they lived in Atlantic City. . . . Then Dr. Ritter becamc
il interested in psycho-analysis and later in psychiatry. He was
also a member of the faculty of the psychopathic hospital at
Ann Arbor University, Michigan. . . . With all his experience,
Dr. Ritter told me (later) that he had never witnessed such a
','\ remarkable case as mine.
li' My husband engaged a trained nurse to attend me during
,,|
the five weeks. . . . She was a Miss Cornish, who had been
I superintendent of a government hospital during the First World
War. My husband was an electrical contractor at the time,
I having his own business and office in Atlantic City. . . I have
'[, told you all this, so you will know that I was in competent hands,
so far as material and medical aid were concerned . . but my
condition perplexed them all. . .
The most tragic part of it was that I was conscious most of
the time-knq\,v-sa\/-hgard-everything through which I was
passing. . . . Yet I was often powerless to talk. . . . Often they
thought I was dead; my body had no feeling. . . . At times they
thought .I ** paralysed. . . . But I knew what I was
exPerlencrng. .
One of my astral projections, as you call them, came while
I was lying on the bed, in a room on the second floor of Dr.
Ritter's home . and suddenly I found myself in their kitchen
. . . on the first floor. A stairway and two closed doors were
between the kitchen and my bedroom. . . . It was night. I could
plainly see the electric light burning in the kitchen. . . Dr.
and Mrs. Ritter were standing by the gas stove. I stood
about four feet away from them. My sister said to him: 'The
poor girl; what will we ever do with her? I guess we'll have to
send her to a hospital.' .
Of course they could not see me standing there. . . Yet
I wondered how they could say such things. . . I saw and heard
everything so clearly that I could hardly believe I was not there
in my material body. . . . At hearing that I was horror-stricken.
. . . I knewif I were putin ahospital I should be there along
time.
their observations were from 'a medical standpoint'. . . . I was
so sickand disgusted at hearing those two words all the time.
I wanted to tell them what really was the matter with me-
that I was passing in and out of tran-ces, having-all kinds o{
experiences, some pleasant, some horrible. Many times I
was powerless to move my physical body. . . .
Strange to say I was not always confined to bed. . . . Every
9E THE PHENoMENA oF ASTRAL pRoJBcrIoN
rnovc I made . . . I was watched and followed by the nune.
. . . That annoyed me, for I thought, 'how silly of ttrem to watch
rRe . . . they think I'm going to commit suicide'. I had no
intention of doing so. . . . I Lnew they did not understand my
case. At times I tricd to tell them I could be cured if they could
get someone who could only see tlte spirit entities around me
and rnake them leave. . . ."
Itrere Mrs. Rogers explained that she was not then a spiritualist:
"Up until this time I did not believe in spiritualism. No one
in my family believed in spiritualism. I was at the timc a member
of the Congregational Church. . . .
Another time, when I was 'out' in my spirit body I saw
objccts like buildings in beautiful colours . . . all soft and pastel
shad€s. . . . But I did not see any one else around. . . . At
another time I felt myself ascending swiftly through space. .
It was dark and I was in a transparent white robe, but without
any cover on my head. . . . I seemed to be alone this time, too.
Suddenly I entered a blinding light. . . . When I did so, I
found myself being hurled swiftly downward . . and I knew
when I passed tlrough the window glass . . . I re-entered my
body with a thump.
I turned my head to the right, only to see Dr. and Mrs.
Ritter, standing in the doorway of the bedroom, and heard my
sister saying: 'Such monkey-shines'. . . . That was an expression
she used when people acted foolishly. I was thoroughly disgusted
to find myself in my coarse physical self on the bed, after being
in a light spiritual body. . . .
On another adventure out I was enabled to grasp, or rather
link arms with, my mother and my husband's first wife, Kitty.
They both are, and were, in the spirit world. . . . The three
of us were alike . . . with our arms embracing one another's.
I looked at their arms and at my arms to see thlt they were all
alike. . . . I was between my mother and Kitty. . . . We were
very happy together. . . . Each of us wore a white, silky, gauze-
like robe. I knew I was in the spirit land and yet I was fully
conscious. . . . The only'sensation' I felt was one of floating. . . .
I am not certain, but I think it was about the middle of the
third week, while lying on the bed, I turned my head to the
lcft and saw Kitty standing there. She said, in a commanding
tone: 'Vera-this is Kitty. You must get well! You must live for
Fred and Virginia. Fred will not get married again. Take good
care of Virginia, for she is the only child you will ever have. I
ient you to Fred-you and I are one!' . . . I saw her spiritual
body so plainly. Her blonde hair was hanging loosely over her
shoulders. . . Her lovely white arms could be seen througb
thc white spirit robes. . . . I said nothing. . . . Slowly the
pRoJEcrroNs AT THE TrME oF ACoTDBNT 99
thought came to me, 'If she wants me to get well, I must get well'.
Later I was lying on the bed . . . and a very powerful and
lustrous light encircled my head. . . . In fact my head was lying
in the light. . . . The colour was golden, so brilliant that it was
almost blinding. It was about two feet round, bright as the
sun. . . The thought came to me that it was God healing me.
.. . . I silently prayed to God to free me from this imprisonment
. and from these spirits, .
The spirit obsession phases of the case were most miserable.
. . . I rcalized that I was at times controlled by evil spirits who
made me act as if I were insane. Sometimes they talked
through me.
The appearance and feeling of my spiritual body was white
and tangible. I could see my arms through my robe, which was
like chiffon. IUy arms seemed to be solid, yet not as coa$e an
my physical arms. . . It is really very difficult to explain. . . .
Sometimes when outside my physical body, I felt so well and
h"ppy and my mind was alert. . . But the time out was not
so long.
From the time when Kitty visited me at my bedside I
struggled to pull myself together. But my recovery came
as suddenly as my illness had started. I walked to my home
with the nurse following me. As soon as I entered it I went into
the kitchen and began to prepare the evening meal. I
remember that the first thing I did u,as wash a head of lettuce.
. . . The nurse sat and watched me. . . . The next afternoon
she came to'me and said:'Mrs. Rogers, you do not require my
services any longer,' and she discharged herself. . . ."
Although it has nothing to do with the experience, Mrs. Rogers
tells how she took up the study of spiritualism shortly afterward:
"I confided some of my experience to my pastor. , .
Shortly after that he preached a sermon in which he said: 'There
are people here in this assembly who say that they have -seen
and been with spirits of the dead. . . . That is the work of the
devil. . . . They are suffering from hallucinations,' etc. I knew
that was meant for me. . . . I felt great resentment in my heart,
and when I walked home after the service . .. . I determined
to go ahead and investigate this subject for myself. . ."
THE ED. MORRELL CASE
Ed. Morrell, the author of The Twenty-Fifth Man, gives in that
book an accurate account of his many psychic experiences, rvhich
included a series of astral projections. The extraordinary nature of
t00 THE PHENoMENA oF ASTRAL pRoJEcTroN
his case makes it an invaluable contribution to the subject. The
truth of these experiences is verified by the Governor of the State
of Arizona, George W. P. Hunt. Also, Jack London knew Ed.
Morrell intimately, and based his book Thc Star Rozar upon his
experiences. His case may bc summarized thus:
Confined in a State prison, Ed. Morrell was subjected to severe
and terrible punishments, which few if any of the inmates ever
withstood. One horrible torture, the 'bloody strait-jacket', con-
sisted of fioo such jackets, one tightly laced outside the other, to
prevent any possible movements or expansion. Water was then
poured over the jackets, which were allowed to shrink. After a
Ibw minutes a tingling sensation was experienced all over the body,
which rapidly developed into the most terrible torture one could
imagine. "One seldom sunrived this treatment for long. . . . A
victim being slowly squeezed to death by a boa-constrictor can
alone appreciate the suffering and anguish of that awful
torment."
Morrell was trussed up so tightly in the jacket that the canvrur
casing nearly stretched asunder. For halfan hour his heart pounded
incessantly. The cords in his neck seemed ready to burst. The
breath was forced from his body. His eyes seemed to emit sparks
of fire; flashes of light ilanced before them. He experienced a
scnsation of smothering.
And then a strange stillness swept over his body. He ceased to
feel the pain. He was conscious of the detachment of his mind from
his body. There was an expansion in time and space. The walls
of the prison seemed to recede to fade, and the next instant he found
himself outside the prison walls, roaming the countryside-free,
free!
In this and in subsequent 'projection' experiences, when his
mind seemed to leave his body and wander by itself in outer space,
Morrell witnessed and subsequently described many things which
were actually happening at the time. He saw a shipwreck in the
harbour, which really occurred-though, of course, he had no
means of knowing it. He saw people whom he subsequently met
in life. He saw the girl who was later destined to become his wife.
He encountered the Governor of the State, and predicted the
cxact day and hour of his release. He seemed to inhabit another
'mind body', completely detached from his physical envelope,
which lay crushed and racked in pain upon the floor of his prison
cell. He was separate frdm that, and thenceforth, whenever the
torture was applied, as it was frequently, in an effort to break his
spirit, he merely left his bodn sensed no pain, and lived a life
outside himself, in the outer world.
His jailon were infuriated and baffied. Time after time they
would come into his cell, flash the light on his face, and see him
.PROJECTIONS
AT THE TrME Otr ACCTDENT 101
apparently sleeping soundly. Aside from a white foam which
covered his mouth, they could detect nothing unusual. Hour after
hour he was kept in the jacket, until more than three days had
elapsed since the time he was placed h itt Nonplusred, the ropes
were ordered cut, and Morrell rvas rolled out of lis jacket upon
the floor.
Alone, consciousness of his surroundings slowly returned. . . .
He was utterly helpless and nothing but a mass of bruised flesh and
bone. Then a feeling of strength seemed to well up within him. He
stirred, and in another moment was feebly crawling to the back
of the cell, feeling for his water bucket. . He drained its con-
tents, crawled back to his old straw tick, and within a few mlnutes
was enjoying a perfectly normal slumber!
These were but the first of his many experiences, for after that
the attempts to 'break' him were too numerous and terrible to
relate. On one occasion he remained for onc hundred and twenty-s'ix
continuous hours under constriction! And always, after the first few
terrible minutes, Morrell felt that he was leaving his physical body,
that he could look down upon it, fe€l no pain, and awaken with
a smile upon his lips. During these periods he underwent what
Jack London so aptly described as 'the little death'. On one occasion
he felt convinced that the jackets were being stretched by some force
outside himself. They became positively loose-so much so that
Morrell could move his arms and hands quite freely within
them.
On other occasions he seemed to"visit distant scenes: the rolling
countryside, churches, homes, the streets of San Francisco itselfl,
For hours he seemed to roam its througMares, Occasionally he
would see desert islands, rivers, flashes of the tropics and of black
slaves, only to return in a moment, to scenes more like home, and
to people whom he knew in the world of living realities. Many
of the scenes he witnessed were actually transpiring at the time,
as he was enabled to verify later.
The interesting and vitally evidential thing about Morrell's
experiences, from the psychic point of view, is that his 'end of the
line', so to speak, was so hermetically sealed. Imprisoned in an
underground cell, with no window, unable to converse with any
one save his brutal jailors, he had no normal means of knowing
what was transpiring in the world beyond his prison walls. And
yet many of his visions were convincingly accurate, and proved
to be so upon subsequent investigation. . . Ifhe did not actually
leave his body and travel outr,r'ards into space, as he believed,
how are we to account for these astounding revelations of
his?...
It took four years for Ed. Morrell to gain his full release, but
during those peaceful months he tried on many occasions to 'pro.
 THE pHENOtdENA OF ASTRAL PRoJECTION
ject' himself
rry-s nc. would,leyo-nd his _prison lr,allq; but hc never succeeded!
he courd never detach himserf and see the outcr
world. His astral proiections were given him only in the aeoth
of his misery. . . .. \ryLicrwo"i[;d;l; id";;;',h;, Hoil"Ji
stres is ofteir a trcmendouslyFi;; ["t"; i"il;"prdil;;; $3. PRoJECTIONS
as we have so often emphasizcd'. AT THE TIME OF DEATH
I_x- the investigations un4ertaken by the various societies for psy-
chical. researcf,, it will be recalled that the greatest numbei 6f
lpparitions coincide with the death of the person so indicated.
Psychic phenomena seem to cluster about the'moment of death in
a most interesting manner-which fact in itself is surelv stronelv
suggestive! We hlave been able to collect a few cases'in whi"ch
projections at the time of death were clearly indicated-though
evidence in this connection is hard to obtain. .
The first case of this kind we have entitled:

A, A, :,:,r ;,y,i;i\r" ;;l*o,;oo.

,rl,
There are instances without number in which percipients claim
ft
to have seen phantasms of the living. I doubt that projection of the
astral body was involved in many of these instancei, and while
ffi
,& it may have_been, I consider testimony from the viewpoint of the
percipient alone to have very little Lvidential value in proving
fl projection. Such a vision could be apparitional; howevea when
the agent-the subject-appears to havl had a knowledge of having
been at !h9 place where the percipient saw him, the plojection oT
the astral body seems a plausible explanation.
$ Such is the following-case. The iubject fell into a cataleptic
,9i
state,.during which she claimed to have sien and hcard the percipiint,
,!t
who in turn thought he saw her at the time. The instance is'from
T,
Aulour de la Mort by the noted French astronomer, Camille Flam-
m-arion,- who states that his good friend, Mme. Victor Dobelman,
of Strasbourg,^a-_member of the Soci6t6 Astronomique de France,
told him the following:
- "My f.t."4 Mme. Turban, was watching over her sister
who was sick. Her father's house, belonging to a frinter, M. Heitz,
was situated at the corner of the PlaCe Templi-Neuf. . . Her
sick sister told her that she could see all of-the persons of her
acquain_tance who passed the street at the opfosite angle-
although she could "bed!
not see them from where ilie lay in
Soon it became evident that her case was hopeless. One
Sunday- afternoon she expressed to her sister her great regret
,i at not having heard her fianci preach. . . . Soon Jhe fell i-nto
,i
103
104 THE PHENoMENA or ASTRAL pRoJECTToN
catalepsy and. remained like a dead perron for two hours. When
she awoke again_she said that she hid seen her fianci, a"d had
heard him preach, in such and such a manner. After the burial
of the girl, Mme. Turban asked her dead sisterls n"""e ii fr"
really had preached in such and such a manner on the pr.rio",
Sunday.
:Jlgw dld you Inow that?, he exclaimed in surprise.
'{hy, sister told me,' I informed him, telling'him of her
experience.
is very strange,, he reflected, .but, in the middle of my
'It
se*n-onI thought I saw a white figure enterthe church, resemblini
my fiancie. She sat in an empty place and disappellrei
-down
toward the end of the service.' ,,
TIIE BURNITT CASE
Lqminifnowt Extniorization at Death,
- .In this instance, three percipients saw the luminiferous mass
which exteriorized from the physical body of the dyine pemon.
The.case was. reported by R6v.'Charles t. Tweiaatl, irifro.-oi
Man's Survioal After Death:,
*Fifteen years
ago," writes Dr. Tweedale, in Lisht. ,,mv
mother-in-Iaw,, Mrs. Mary Burnitt, died after a ,troit ittnisJ.
11 th.e ni_ght of eSth or zgih;-uly, my wife, -y dauglier, ;J;
frien$, Mrs. Proud, were in ih" a"uth chimber. I,fiaright h";
struck, the room was brilliantly lit by a good l"mp. ffr" ,i.[
woman was tn a coma.
,A!l 2nce ml dgughtcr-Itlarj9rye saw a sort of gre2 oapour condcnsc
!
and flo.at abooc.thc b.odl
.o.f
the d2ing u)oman, soirclt{ng like the smokc
oJ a-ctgarettc that might be concentrated at this point. Iluas about thrcc
orfo.ur incha in diameter, and foatcd about .foir inchcs aboac thc coais
at th.c middle of the d2ing utoman,s body. "
Astonished at what she saw, my daughter drew the attention
of.my wife and Mrs. Proud to it. . . ."ffrey in tu.n;6r;;a
this strange phenomenon with great attention. The cloud e.adrr_
ally- spread _until it attained the dimensions of a large "table_
cloth. . . . H^oryeyer, to- the great astonishment ,f tf,1
-
"i "fi, red
up_per part of this cloud cleaied and assumed a brillian[
colouring.
, It remained thus, suspenrljd in the air, in the shape of a disc,
always at. the same distance from the body of the dying *orrruo.
After which, to the constantly increasing astonislime'nt ;a th;
three observers, a magnitcent-luminous iureole began to form
around the body of Mrs. Burnitt. At fir:t
it appearei white, but
pRoJEcrroNs AT THE TIME oF DEATH t05
it slowly thickened and again took on a vivid red tint. It sur-
rounded the head at a distance of about three inches, and had a
thickness of about four inches. The red colouring appeared vivid
at the exterior, but it was pale and more transparent in the
interior.
lVhen the aureole was definitely formed, another red light
began to appear around the eyes. It descended and enveloped
the nose and mouth. Meanwhile the disc, which had been located
over the abdomen, continued to float, and remained visible for
about twenty minutes, during which time the watchers could see
it rvith complete clarity.
NIy wife closed her cyes, and discovered that, with her eyelids
closed, she could see nothing, a proof that she was looking at an
objective phenomenon. But that was evident, because it was
witnessed by three spectators. Mrs. Burnitt died sixteen
hours later. During thc rvhole time she remained in a coma. . . ."
Assuming that the phe4omenon witnessed in the foregoing
I
actually n'as objective, calf attention to the fact that often some
percipients such a phenomenon, while others present see nothing.
see
I have numerous such instances, but will abbreviate only one
short one, taken from the book From lltlatter to Spirit. The percipient,
a very ignorant woman, knerv nothing about spiritistic phenomena,
but says:
"I was watching over a sick child, two and a half years old,
in company rvith the mother. . . . The mother put her hand
under the child's head. . I was assisting her from the side
of the bed. . . . A bright fire rvas burning in the little chimney
in front of me and at the mother's side. . . . Suddenly I saw the
fre obscured b7 some opaque substance which interltosed itself betwecn
the liule chimnq and myself. . . . lt moued backward and forward,
continuousl2. ...I pointed out this strange phenomenon to the
. .
mother, but she could see nothing. . The child's convulsions
ceased, he lay inanimate for a moment, when, toward ten o'clock,
. . The phenomenon only lasted until
he died. . he drew his
lastbreath...."
A Habituat ;iil:r,'i"iir,foii"r-teriorizations.
[Although this account contains a remarkable instance, in which
a ghost of the living appeared to the percipient and gave the latter
a premonitory message, this is not my reason for including it here.
My main concern is to set forth evidence of the exteriorization of
something vital from the physical body at the moment of death.
106 TIIE PITENOMBNA Or ASTRAL PROJECTTON
So, interesting as the-premonitory vision was, and regardless of
w-hether it in nature or actually the projcction
-was _apparitional
of the astral body at the time, we need not concern ounilv& with
that just now. . . . Our immediate interest is in what the percipient
saw at the time of the subject's death. The account is'extricted
from 4 little book by Mn. Joy Snell, entitled Thc Ministrl qf Anscts.l
-_- "9r. night, awakening from deep sleep, I founi iny rloni
illuminated, thorrgh there was no lamp. . . . f saw at my side
the phantom of my good friend Maggie.
'I have a secret to tell- you,' the phantom of Maggie said.
'I know that I have only a few days to iive. I want you id remain
with me until the last moment, and to console my mother after
my death.'
After I had somewhat recovered from my fear, the phantom
4isappeared, and the light immediately vanished. . . . A week
later the family of my friend Maggre came to visit me. I found
Maggie to be without even a fever, with no sign of anything
serio-us troubling-her, and there was no evidence of approichin[
death. It was evident that she had not the least recoliection oT
the visit that she had paid to me in spirit.
_ That is a mystery which I can neveiexplain, any more than
I can explail ryhy the other innumerable -apparitions of living
persons which I have seen and spoken to, have never had.thE
slightest memory of having communicated with me. . . ."
To get,back on our subject again, Mrs. Snell states that she had
been with her friend Maggie for three or four days, when
"one evening she was taken with convulsions, and died in my
arms before the doctor had time to arrive. . . . That was the
first death at which I had ever assisted. Her hcart had hardll
ccascd to beat when I distinctly saw something likc a wpour discngagc
ilsclf fron lur, risefrom her body, and stop ai a short diitanccfroi thc
corpsc,. whcrc it condenscd into a form absolutell ifuntical witi that of
ryt ficnd.
This figure, at first shadowy in outline, became more and more
precise and distinct. It was wrapped in a sort of white veil, with
a faint reflection. The face was that of my friend, but spiritual,
and without any trace of the last agony. . . .
Later, when I became a nurse, an occupation which I followed
fo-r twenty years, I assisted at numerous dlaths, and immediately
after death I always observed the condensation of the etherit
form above the body, always identical with the living body,
and after condensing, it would vanish before my eyes-. . . ."
- f!: sam-e- author, Mrs. Snell, gives further testimony along
these lines. She goes on to say:
"One of my friends was attacked by pneumonia and was
takcn to the hospital, where he died shortly afterward. He was
PROJECTTONS AT TrrE TIME OF DEATH '',O7
a good and religious man. . . . His wife, equally religious,
watched over him constantly, awaiting the end with rcsignation.
About an hour before death, the dying man turned toward his
wife, and, indicating somebody u,hom he appeared to see float-
ing in the air, said: 'Oh look! 'There is Bennie! He has come
to look for me. He is stretching out his hands and smiling. Do
you s€e him?'
'No, my dear,' replied his wife, 'I do not sce him; but I know
that hc is there, since you see him.'
Bennie was their only son who had died a year before, at
the age of six. I myself saw the form distinctly. . . . It was that
of a pretty little angel with curly black hair and blue eyes, clothed
rn the traditional white robes of spirits" His face was as expressive
as a normal child's, but spiritualized.
Shortly afterward the father lapsed into tranquil sleep, in
which he remained for about an hour, the little spirit remaining,
at his side. . From time to time he gave an affectionate glance
at the mothcr, who saw notling. . . . The respiration of the father
became fainter, then ceased. I was thcn a witncss of tlu habinal
phcnomcnon whbh has becomc so familiar to mc, of ucing thc formation
oJ thc cthoic bodl aboae the physical body.
:ti
i. When the etheric form appeared to be perfect and animated,
ii|
the little angel took the hand of his father, changed likewise
X, into a being of light, and I saw them look at each other and
ft
t, smile with the utmost tenderness and joy. . Ihen they rose
and disappeared. This was a sublime spectacle. . . . After I
left the hospital to take up private nursing, not a single one of
my patients died without my perceiving about his bed onc or
more angelic forms which came to receive the spirit and conduct
it to its new home. . . ."
.
The next case, though less pretentious, is similar to thc fore-
golng.
Eisht Po,;i;; {;\il,; t:- Death-bcd.
In Igzz, Miss Dorothy Monk wrote the following account to
Mr. David Gow, then editor of Zlgit, telling how eight percipients
saw a cloud-likc formation which was apparently generated out of
the physical body of her mother, who was passing away. Miss
Monk wrote:
"In our family circle we were witnesses to an extraordinary
phenomenon at the death-bed of our beloved mother, and it
imprcssed us deeply. . After a long illness, aggravatcd by a
 PRoJEcrIoNs AT THE TIME or DEATH 109
108 THE PHENOMENA Otr ASTRAL PROJECTION
of death. At the moment when the respiration of the dying
case of Eastric influenza, our mother died from heart failure' person changed to a rattle, I saw a white cloud emerge from the body
About seien o'clock on the evening of that day, the sick woman-, ind come to a halt two or three inches arvay' I also noticed that
while in coma, oPened her mouth, and at that moment we all my companion was observing the same fact attentiv.ly. . : .
obserocd a tittte ihilk white cloud forming oan her head. Although-we ' Her eyes, which always shone with a strange light when she
observed no movement in it, its density varied ceaselessly' Five observed things normally invisible, turned for a moment to the
of mv sisters were with me, and all saw this. . . ' My brother contemplation of the sufferer, then looked toward the head of
and.'brother-in-law entered the room and also saw the Phe- the bed. Then they stared into the void for a moment. I noticed
no*..ron. . . . A blue light lighted the cloud and it was shot that she was about to speak, but she remained silent.
through
__- with blue scintillations. , Later, she explained- to me what she had been observing,
W? sav/ that the lower jaw of the dying woman- continued saying: 'I saw a uhite nebvlous light surging ooer the bcd'coaers, some-
to open slowly. For several-hours there was no notable change thins- that I had observed before under similar circumstances
in tliis phenomenon, with the exception of -an aureole d-luminous. . . ." then my attention was drawn to the head qf the bed, where
rays of b yellow tint about the head of the sufner' ' ' ' Wc countcd. the lisht condensed into a little column about three or four feet
sitco"of tfresc ralts wluse length contiiuall, uaried bctween lwelac and high."From this column there radiated a luminosity which w-as
twentl inches. soirething like a cross between the light of the sun and the
fowatd midnight the whole thing disappeared from our vision, moon. In the interior of this column I could see a still greater
ultho"gh or.r. *otir"t actually did not dii-until seven o'clock in luminosity. This became more and more brilliant in the centre,
themorning...." while (the same centre) was agitated by a turning mov-ement.
A";t.; pii"t *ottlry of mention in-the account of Miss Monk
expeiience of one of her sisters. She continues:
. . . I saw this phenomenon again at the moment when the sick
i, tti-i"a"pindent person breathed his last. . Then the luminous column secmcd to
"At i quarter past six on the same nrorning, one of my sisters, . . ."'
who was resting in another room, hgard a voice: 'isc and disappcar,
'One hour ib [ve,' it said, 'one hour longer''
Impressed by this, my sister got up, and came to asslst at
the las'i *o*.rrdt of our mother. . . . Ivlother actually died. one TI{D HOFTMANN CASE
iio"r-u"J t*o minutes after my sister had heard the premonitory Buial Alioc,
Dream Phanton After
voice. . . ."
[Here is a story told to me by a very dear friend of-mine, in
fact-a close friend of my entire family, and a man who is known to
thousands of spiritualists throughout the United States, Rev. Max
THB DE MORGAN CASI Hoffmann. 'Max,' as we call him, related the incident while I was
Saw Passing of Luminous BodT at Dcath' having lunch with him some time ago, and the same story,rras,one
of the prize-winning personal experiences recently published in
Ihis is another instance related by- a pelcipient,.and not.by. True Mystic Sciencc Magalrza--S.Ivl.]
the Droiector. but which furnishes evidence for the passing out ol "When I was five years of age," Max said, "I was living in
ttu s'Oirii from'the body at the time of death. I have collected several Coslin, Germany, and was suffering from cholera, running a
;;i;'.-;;'.";;ts'of tf,is nature, and any interested reader willDavis' find
hieh fever. I finally succumbed to the illness and was buried.
u io"tip,io" of passing as sc?n by Andrew Jac}son
the death
TEat was in the spring of lBB5. I must have been in some peculiar
;;h;il;k Tic irojution'oJ the"Astral Bod,, together withtaken. an artist's
lrom state of suspended animation or trance, fot I immediately wcnt
conception of the hescription. The following. case .is in m1 astral body to my mothcr's bcdside and begged her to have my
Mrs. de Morgan's book From tr'Iattn to Spt'nt, and tells -\flnat a body dug uP.
tuiu .t the time of a person's death, Mrs' de Morgan 'physical
'Aft..*"rd, mymother told me how she began to dream con-
"l.i*o*"t
being present
-----o"'I with the clairvoyant at the time' cerning my true situation. In her dreams she said that I kept
was one day in with a friend," s.ays Mrs'.de reneatidly telling her of my plight, and how my right hand had
N{orsan. .,whom I knew"o*puny to be endowed with a special senslblllty
struggled-up uniler my right cheek (of my buried physical self).
for p"syciric vision. We were at the bedside of one on the verge
 THE PSENOMENA OF ASTRAL PROJECTION
110
But my father would not listen to anything like ttris, and refused
to allow mother to have my body exhumed. After three days,
mother finally had her way and my body was d,ug up.-A physician
was called. I was brought back to life by first-aid treatment.
,ds indicating the trulh of my message to my mother in her
dream, the righi side of my cheek bore the marks of the fingers
of my'right -hand which had struggled uP to my fage' . -
That'waJmy first psychical experience; but two years late-r, at
the age of seven, full' power of mediumship came' to- me. Since
then i have been a practising medium. . . . I still have the
handles of the coffin in which I was buried alive."l
tThc praent witer would add that 'Max' is a clairvoyant, clairaudicnt, trancc
and pletfbm worker, and I can vouch for his sinccrity.
tur;t ,,i,i\ffi;::;; ;;:; Pcrson.
In this I again depart from my custom of narrating.the
case
experience as told by the-subject having it. Ilere^a-percipicnt
cdims to have actually witnessed the projection of the subject
from her physical body, while a second percipient- (shall we say)
felt a blow on his shoulder when the projected phantom passed
him! The case was testified to by the two witnesses and appeared
in the Journal of the American S'P.R. in-rgr5. I call this "The
Sargeni Case" because it was narrated by Mrs. Margaret Sargent,
whd was a certified nurse, and the principal percipient. She said:
"Some years ago, at Augusta, Georgia, I was taking care.of
a sick young womln v"'ith in obstinate fever. I was with
the docior aithe sick womatl's side. Toward eleven in the evening,
disquieting symptoms devcloped. However, we did not want to
distirrb tlie iicti girl's mother, because the doctor was afraid
that she too would become ill if she lost too much sleep.
We knew, however, that the sick woman ardently desired the
presence of her mother, but since she had become unconscious,
ive ctid not think it necessary to satisfy that desire. . . . The final
symptoms were not long in beginning, and we were awaiting
death. . . . The doctor and I, long since familiar with the scenes
of death, nevertheless, felt a sense of solemn mystery, which kept
us, as it were, nailed to our Places.
I was sitting at the foot of the bed, silently watching the
poor dying young woman, whose breast had now ceased to move.
'.
. . SuAainiy, frim the head of the bed, I saw a white form aduancing,
a robed form, although t could not see the face, because it was
turned in the opposite direction. The form remained for a
PROJECTTONS AT THE TIME OF DEATIT ltt
moment by the inert physical bod.y, then passed swiftly part the
doctor and glided toward me, but always turning its face in the
opposite direction.
It entered the room of the sick woman's mother. I was stupe-
fied, and at the same time had an inhibition that kept me from
moving or speaking, I could not underiland how thc Jorm passcd
through thc wall as if thac had been no door. . . . At the moment
.
the phantom passed the doctor he exclaimed: 'Somcthing struck
me on the shoulder!'
I replied: 'Yes-the woman just went past you.'
'What woman?' he answered. 'I saw no one. But someone
struck me. What does this rnean?'
We looked at each other in utter stupefaction. But we werc
both recalled to reality by the feeble voicc of the sick girl, who,
now, to our astonishment, was still alive, and had recovered
her senses.
She lived twenty-four hours longer, dying completely con-
scious, with her head affectionately resting on the arm of her
mother. . . . It is our absolute conviction that, at the time when
death was imminent, the soul of the young girl, who idolized
her mother, left its own body for the moment to make its last
adieux and then returned to its own body again.
If one refuses to grant us that much, one must at least admit
that a spiit was manifested to us that night, that it was visible
to my eyes, and that it signalled its presence to the doctor by
striking him upon the shoulder. . . ."
The present writer's theory is that the desire of the dying girl to
be with her mother, caused her to be projected to her, and that
the blow which the doctor received was in vengeance for his refusal
to summon the mother at the girl's request. That is, I say, my
thcory.
The doctor in question is of the highest standing in Augusta,
and adds his confirmation of the foregoing: "I am the doctor referred
to in the above story and I certify without hesitation that it is
absolutely correct." For professional reasons the name is withl
held. .. .

$a. PROJECTIONS DUE TO SUPPRESSED DESIRE
AND OTHER SPONTANEOUS FACTORS
l1,t Thc Projation of the Astral Bod2 we stressed over and over again
the great importance of suppressed desire, emphasizing the part
this plays in astral projection. Even in those cases where it is-not
stressed, it. doubtless exists in a greater or lesser degree. In the
following instances, however, which we have groupid together,
this factor is very evident, being stressed by the nairators of the
cases throughout. . . . The impressiveness of the cases varies con-
siderably, but they possess a fundamental similarity, and we present
them in every case just as they were sent to us. . . .
.THE MINNICK CASF.
'Tick' In Head and He Could Not Moae.
The name used in this case is fictitious, merely resembling the
real- name of the subject, who states that he is on the supervising
staffof one of the largest concerns in London. Mr. Minnicli believei
that his adventure was the answer to an earnest desire which he
had, to know what lies beyond the veil of death. As he himself puts
it: "Fantastic and ridiculous as my desire was, I nevertheless
ipplo1gd__Providence to grant me one look past the gateway of
death." However, he had no idea as to how such a 'look' could
possibly be accomplished. Nothing immediately followed this
.unprecedented desire, until-
"One night shortly afterward I went to bcd very tired and
nothing but a good night's rest. I retired at r a.m.,
' wanted
and awoke in the early morning about two-thirty, suddenly,
out of sound sleep. I felt that someone woke me. I opened my
eyes,-saw my,wife and her two brothers looking at me-with very
sad faces, standing at the foot of my bed.
Somehow I immediately realized that they thought I was
dying, and I assured them that I felt no pains or discomfort,
apart from feeling very hot round my necli and in my head.
I told them I would have a good sleep and then I would feel all
right again. I closed my eyes, and as I did so, I felt a tick in my
head, like the tick of a watch. I wondered what happened and
wanted to ask them but could not do so, nor could- I open my
eyes. My Ao-uth and,eyelids seemed paralysed. I attempted to
raise myself but could not move.
The idea came into my head that something was going to
tt2
PRoJEcTloNs DUE To SUPPRESSED DESIRE 113
happen. I felt myself gently raised, floating upwards in the dark.
I fl6ated torvard the right side of n-ry bed and then felt myself
floating dorvn on nry feet. On reaching the floor I could open
,i' my eyes. It was light. I stretchcd m1'sclf and.rvas very astonished^
l:.
at'my condition. I had gone to bed tircd, but was now full of
vim and felt very daring.
I walked up to my wife and told her to look at mei but -she
was unaware of my preset ce, nor could she hear me. I tried to
touch hcr shoulder, brt t,.di no imprcssion upon her. I said to
myselt 'Pcrhaps later on things may chauge,' and walked toward
the door, intending to €fo out.
As reached the door everything u'ent black' . Gently I
I
was raised into the air again and floated towards my bed and
when reaching the position ovcr my physical body I stopped
still. . . . I feared I would go back into mv body again and felt
my heart bcating and had an uncomfortable feeling in my throat.
I was scarcd.
I wanted to know my exact position but could not raise a
limb or move a muscle. . . . I waited longer, wondering if I
were still in the air or lying upon somethirg. . The thought
of being buried alive made me very uncomfortable. I tried to
press my head backwards to feel, but could not do so. .
Then I'felt 'lifc' trickling into my physical head again, then
through my shoulders, then into my arms . and soon I was
physically awake again. . . ."
'Eiri,fri,"i,U,",ii."
We will rate this case at a minimum and assume that both
subjects ma2 have experienced projection; although the out-of-the-
body state is not extensively described, both cases bear the earmarks
of the phenomenon. N{r. A. H. Denham, of Tulsa, Oklahoma,
-
says:
"On the morning of rst October, tg37, my wife suddenly
; awakened. Taking the flashlight and thrcwing the beam on the
t' clock, she saw it was exactly 2 a.m. She fclt very nervous and
thought there was someone in the living-room. She wanted to go
ir
l in there and see, but was afraid to go by hersclf and did not want
to awaken me.
t:
After lying there in bed, wide awake and uishing she was in thc
lioing-room-well, all of a sudden shefound huself there. Everything
T.
was light and plain and there was no one there but herself. She
said she seemed to float around. Then all at once a
 lt1 THE PHENOI,ENA OF ASTRAL pRoJECTTON
PB.OJECTTONS DUE TO SUppRESsED DESTRE 115
lqop' came and she was back in bed and, still widc awakc. . ,
Slre said she fairly jumped with a i;;d ip;;;-Oir{'iiti i* In tlre case which follows the evidence is more conclusive, though
slnn. the case is old.
she had never heard of astrat projection,
,...1{g:S: }rappened
Dur rmmedrately atterward I inquired, and purchased
vou"r book.
The Casefor.Asiral projut A;T;;; il,1,'i.""ffi-,JH
rr. #;?
the.time, about ten years ago, when I';;il;J
all intents.and purposes- dea7-,with th. .;;p;i;; ";".';i"il;';;
;i;;;.;;ll ,,ru ili,o'iii, fii,? n ,r.
spot near.the top-of my head. Working from ihat orre
small sooi
(mentally) r graduaily worked liG and feeling into the
rest' of , "One nigh-t in June 1857,,' writes R. D. Owen, the well_
5go*1 researcher, in telling of a subiect whom he iefers to as
-
my body."
Many of mv readers. will recall how I pointed out, in Thc Mrs. A-, the wife- of an English colonel in Woolwich, .,Mrs.
Projectioi oJ the Astral aoay, ti"t-itiirr"ira)au^;oation A-_ suddenly awoke standin]g beside her bed, lookins down
are factors
qromotive of projection. I[ will be observed above that tvtrr. oentram upon her own- bod-y which lay beside her sleeping husbi"d. --
dflrld to ,J,Io tI. living-room and in what follo*i Her first thought was that she had died ind-this idea was
obvrous
.go
that Mr. Denham had a determination to project. . .ill;
.j
strengthened by the pallor and lifeless appearance of the bodv.
'fhere_rvas
it clear, however, that NIr. Denham tra'a ,iot ..ud if," no sign of life in it rvhatever,'and the countenance
fu.,t
book, "p,k.
'I.he Projection of the Aslral Bod2, and was unaware of anv was__wholly devoid of exprcssion
precrsc rnstructlons as set forth in that book, but merely was folfow- 'I gaz.e{ at.my body iuriously,' Iryfrs. A- continued, ,and
compared it with the freshness oi the faces of my husbaoi unJ
TB.ou1 a fe_w hints rvhich he had Ipicked -- ri;l;'ii;"i;;7r;;;;;
-r
Projution._He goes on to say: $-f c!!ld vvho was in a cradle near by. . . . For an instanf i
b6ok I determined to project my astral felt.relief at having escaped the suffering of the dyin!; t;, ,i;
,^^,-'.{{:r_l:3$i1S four next thingJ thought of was the erief which my death w6uld cause
Dody one.nr_ght. tg was a night during the latter
1937, and I realized.that I iari of Novembei those left behind. . . . I wished that I couid tell them g.rrily
was-driaming.
me that I had read in y-our book that this *o, a go&
ff.ifr""gf,1';;k ti,'
what had happened.
experiment. . . So I decided_w;tUout consia;ff;";';;;:
ti_. io t.
\-,:, 'I found T.y...lf moving toward the wall and. supposed that
sequences, as one does in a dream_to pay a visit ii ^,
the wall would halt me, but_passed right through it'into open
r--l to my parents air. Outside stood a tree and.'I purr.d'thro"gfr''it without lnv
who live r44 miles from Tulsa.
No sooner had I made this decision than I was determincd [:]' resistance. All this occurred without any wish"on,rry pu.t. . .-'.
carry it out. I was aware at once of being gently rocked. as to li ,1'
{l,so without any suggestion on my pait I found -yrlf on tle
I were. once. again a baby in my l',', srde ot. the square, opposite m1' house, rrear the entrance to the
suoqenly r plunged rnto open space ^otr,&,i-u.rir:".-:":'Til"; magazrne,
and whirled over and over f ii,,
anct over wrth sensations I shall never forget. . . . I can remembi {;
.
,nrs 'I 13* a sentinel posted ttrere as usual, and closely observed
being but the trip itsji I unrlorm and-appearance, His unobserving*rrerrt
manner convinced
ln m2 parents'_ home,
. . . Later I awakened and remembered very """rrot
,"*.-6"r. t.
me that he could not see me. I next to the arsenal
clearly what i where I saw another sentinel, then turned back to the barracks
have just related to you, and I lay a*aki the'.eri"firr. *rlr
,t

thinking about it. . . "iir,i !,1 and then heard the clock strike three.
It is true that Mr. Denham does not make it plain that he was ::1,
, 'NextinIGreenrvich,
found .ryyself in the bedroom of my friend, Miss
qwak,e, and indicates that he was dreaming, but that aoo"oi_.J l--, three miles or so from Woolwich. . . .
I seemed to starr a conversation with her, just how I cannot
that he did not have the trip "#
_to his pa'ients, h;;;. Ti;i, ;ffi; recall, for I found that I cot'ld no lonser's"ee or hear.'
have been a semi-conscious piojectio".'HuJ it been a f;ii{J;;; ', i,

dream, he should ha'e dreimid of making-ih;il il";;;;; f When ]t(rs. A- awoke her first w"ords were: ,Then f am
he would not remembEr ih. ;;ii; h-;;"b:;
11,', not dead after all! .' Two days later Mrs. A- met her
1,11i_y ::S- tg,-Uut
a proJectron. T1"y,
I cannot go into explanations on thii point here. ,ii, friend,-.Miss L-_, and without any suggestion to tf,. iutt.i
As stated, I will merely raie the .r.. she (Miss L--) that at threL o,iioct the night beioie
has the 'earmarks' of projection. . . . "t
;;ri;;;;iJ'r;';; j:r

Iast, she had seen -stated

\{rs. A-- appear to her. . . . Shortly after,
Colonel A- was transfcrrcd t'o'India, and was thus separatej
1t6 THE pHEI\IoMENA oF ASTRAL pRoJacTroN pRoJEcTroNs DUE To suppREssED DESTRE 117
from his wife for a time; but although the latter tried most The above is one of those 'borderline' cases which may have
ardently to oisit him during her sleep, she was never ablc to been merely a clairvoyant dream, coupled with healing, or it may
do go." have been a case of genuine astral projection. . We shall not
press the point unduly, however, since we have such an abundance
of evidence for genuine astral projection otherwise. . . Healing
cases are alwal,s interesting, and we cannot doubt that this 'phase'
,,sn iiia 1i,*,," hY sbcp.- will be greatly developed in the near futurc. . In the following
section we come to a number of cases in which spiritual beings were
encountered on the astral plane, during projection, and we shall
An item under the ab-ove caption appeared in Prediction Magazint.
see what happens during such experiences. . . .
several y€ars
-ago,
which. suggests, ai least, that the 'ageni ma2
have projected to the paticnt in her dream body, inasmuih as thi
agent's dry3* coincided with the vision of the percipient. The
narrator, Florence Rule, tells the story:
"I was staying at the house of my grandmother. . . At
this point I must explain that the man in ihJcase was an extremely
practical_young man, who did not believe in any kind of psychit
powers. However, he suffered from violent headaches at iimes
and I had been in the habit of curing him by laying my hands
on his head-a gift inherited from riy fathei.
This particular night we had retired to bed, he to sleep in
a bedroom occupied by another man, and myself to sharj the
same room with my grandmother. . . . My companion was
attending to her toilet at the dressing-table when f fell asleep.
. . . It must have been instantly that I had a peculiar dream.
I dreamt that F- had a headache-a frightful one-and I
felt that I must go to cure it for him.
I
Somehow aplcgr( in his room. He was $kg awakc and wos ocgt
.
phoscd-to scc mc._l held out my hands to him aird h" put his handr
toward me and tried to catch hold of me. . . . As I woke un
the clock struck twelve. Thc drcam was so aivid that I could hardit
it hadn't happencd.... . I told srandmother about it. . .-.
belicoc
She said: 'Well, it didn't happen, because you've never been out
of the room.' So we forgot ibout the matier and went to sleep.
- N-ext-morning F- came down when we were having breair-
l"rt; lrt !1ving seen no one in the meantime. During b-reakfast
he said: 'A. most-peculiar thing happened to me last-night; the
most peculiar thing tlrat has ever happened in my whole iife.,
He.went on to,expl.ain what it was,-iaying:
'As soon as I got'into bed I had the'mo"st a*ful headache I
have ever had. . . . As I lay there I was wishing that you were
t}rere to cure it for me. I was certainly not asteeplwhen suddenly
a light came and I saw- it was you, and I was' jolly glad to sel
you. You hcld out your hands and I wasjust goiig to [rasp them
when you disappeared. Then I heard the-clock strike t#elvi. . . .
My headache was gone. . . ."

$s. PROJECTIONS IN WHICH 'SPIRITS'
. WERE INVOLVED OR SEEN
EvE,nv projector has had experiences in which he met spirit
people, while out of the body, and accompanied them or con-
versed with them at some length. . . . Some write that they have
contacted their guides in this manner; others that they have talked
to their relatives and friends, long since passed over; still others
that they have met strangers-perhaps afterwards meeting these
identical people in real life. These cases are especially interesting,
since they afford a certain verification of the astral experiences
themselves. . . , In the following section we have grouped together
a number of cases of this kind, fundamentally alike and yet differing
widely in their essential details. We shall call the first one-
v;;',!a"ni'"Biro'iiir*.
Several years ago I received a long communication from Riblct
Brisbane Hout, medical doctor and lecturer, of Goshen, Indiana,
cxpressing congratulations for my rcsearches into the phenomenon
of astral projection, and stating that he himself had undergone
such experiences. At the risk of underestimating the story, I make
$ome excerpts, epitomize and rearrange some paragraph.s, from the
original account, in order to shorten the case for presentation here.
... Since writing me, Dr. Hout has published this particular
story in Thc National Spiitualist, rst July, 1937, where anyone
desiring to read it in its entirety may do so. He says:
"Today I got'out' again. . . I had placed myself in a com-
fortable position in an easy chair in my locked study and sank
back for a few minutes of reverie and relaxation. . . . George,
my trusted etheric friend, appeared at my side. . . He asked
whether or not I would be willing to go where they took me.
Of course I acquiesced to this willingly. . . Almost suddenly,
but still imperceptibly, I felt myself drawn out of my body. . . .
No force was needed to jerk me free from my physical bounds.
I just stepped away from the reclining physical form, turned to
view it a brief moment, and then resolutely and easily floated
upward, out, and away from the material room. . .
"After a brief sensation of drifting upward, I found myself
in a new, but very natural,environment-in a grove or park
118
pRoJECTIoNs rN wI{IcH 'sprRITS' wE.RE INvoLvEt, t19
which seemed to extend as far as I could s'ee. I was in the centre
of a circle of trees, sitting in a comfortable chair and placed
before me was a table covered with a dainty white cloti,
evidently set for party refreshments. And there was Georgc,
seated opposite me, grinning in a'very amiable manner. . . .
I saw a group of figures approaching. . . . They came closer
and Iwas both surprised and elated rvhen I recognized them.
Old, almost forgotten friends from my home town were coming
to greet me. The first lvas a gentleman who had died a year or
two ago. With hirn was his son whom I had known well and his
wifc lvhom I had never met. .
'D-- C-, do vou remember me?, I asked him. ,I never
dreamed of meeting y'ou here.'
'I knew you were coming,' he replied, 'and I brought along
my son whom you know and my wife whom you do not know.
. . Herc are some others, perhaps you would like to talk to
them rather than to us.'
Turninc, he made :r little rnotion to two ladies coming up
the path at rny sidc. I turned and joyously met my grandmother,
passed over about two years. With her was her friend whom she
knew beforc her 'passing'. This friend and neighbour had made
her transition a short rvhile previously. . . .
I could only tell them again and again my extreme happiness
to €freet them. , Gcorge, I saw, was enjoying all this im-
mcnscly. Now the others, seemingly with one accord, fell
back away from me a few steps. I felt a quickening of the spiritual
atmosohere in this peaceful quiet setting. My glance instinctively
took me dorvn the path toward which all of the others were
looking. And there, coming radiantly toward me, in all the beauty
of hcr truc etheric presencc, walked my arisen mother. Toward
her I sprang with outstretched arms and such a joyous
reunion took place there! My being fairly blended with hers,
and this moment seemed the supreme happiness of my existence.
It was a triumph of spirit, as side by side we stood there
toscther. She rvls in the glory of her magnetic spirit body, free
and attuned to the plane of life upon which she was living.
Thus we were together for a time, reunited on one plane of life.
Here wcre my friends and loved ones gone to the fourth dimension
through death, and here also was myself, able to function actively
there for a limited time and in a feeble manner."
Dr. Hout goes on in this manner to describe his meeting with
spirit friends, and other things which he experienced, and finally
continues:
"I knew that the time of my departure was drawing near.
George arose and stood by my side, signing me to make my
adieux. I greeted all my assembled friends and then allowed the
 :]
120 THE PHIINoMENA oF ASTRAL PRoJEcTIoN
null back to earth to take me there. I made this observation on
i.ir.rrire, when I commenced to leave my mothcr and friends
and the"etheric plane, I know thcir reaction !o my going was
itrat I simply and definitely faded from their sight, mu.'h,as. ice
mieht meft in bright sunlight. I simply slowly grew indistinct
and then finally invisible to them' . .
This is the same actiou in reverse as when we tune iz to spirit
entiiies. George explained it deftly by- dcscribing it as a 'definite
change in rates of vibration'. . . . -My -personal reaction was
that i simply felt thc pull back to the physical bocl,v again too
stiong to tLsist. So whit can I say other than to state that I was
L"tt"f, oUtio,relv downward out oi the etheric realm which exists
[.orrr.*h...^ in space' back through the walls, into the confines
of my physical studY,
fil"'" is the pull'of the body became strong^er and lcss easily
soverned. I suddenly stiffencd in my astral form, assumcd a
counter-
f,osition parallel to and immediately above thc^physical
oart and drorrped into it. The reassociation of the two vehtcles
bccasioned u'tiight jolt, almost as though I had fallen a foot or
two, a sharp srlddin intake of breath, a wave of involuntary
tf"-J."oai" ctntraction-and I was back in the physical again
' I would like to emphasize the fact that these out-of-the-body'
.*p".i"".., are real, in -.- objective- aud tangible,.wherein I
meet people living in a real rvorld, doinu Iratural things' '
Until'aftir my firlt visit I could not possibly_ ha'e undcrstood
the actuality and objectivity of the plane of lilc upon whtch
dwelt my diad friendi' Now'I knorv thcy arc living sorncwhere
in this gi.ut ,rrriu.tse of ours, it an otherplare existing beyt'nd the
limits ol our feeble little earth plane, out somervhere ln Gocl s
great cosmos."
THE EINARSSON CASE
An lcelandic Citizen Visits thc Beyond'
This case was sent to me by Gudmundur J' Einarsson, of
was translatcd from ihe Icelandic for me b1' Profcssor
'Bick,
Iceland, and
n-i"fr"td of the University of North Dakota' Says - I{r' jrrst
Einarsson: "I am taking the liberty of sending you a record
as it came from the perion concerned. .He is a hi.qhly intelllgent
man. . . . His uc.ount of S6lfarir-rvhich 1'ou call pr<icction oi
the astral body-runs as follows:"
Mr. Einarsson states-that the subject was about forty years. of
ug. ,iifr. time (r9ro) anrl was living it Alftafirdi on Isafiardardjup
fwestern Iceland).
' "I was engaged in fishing, that summer," the subject states'
PROJECTIONS rN WHrcH 'SPIRTTS' WERE INVOLVED 121
"with a man who lived next door to me. My wife had hired out,
and I was alone in the house during the summer.
Late one evening in July I went to bed. . . . I somehow
could not sleep, andTelt sirarigely weak so that I could not move
at all; nevertdiless, I was fully awake, saw a1d heard everything
me. . . . i heard the song of the birds (snow-buntings)
outside the house. . . . I heard the tick of the clock on the
"rorrrrd
table beside me. I saw, for my eyes were open, how the hands
moved slowly over the face (of the clock). . . . I heard the
whistling sound of the breeze and saw the straws move on thc
window-'sill. In a word, I sau and heard, but could zo!
move, and I was in this condition for three-quarters of an hour.
Tire next feeling I had was that someone was-coming. I say
I felt it, but could ;ot s€e or hear anyone. . . . Yet I kncw that
someone was comlng. . . . And then I saw a man come into the
room, dressed in c'ireckered travelling clothe-s and -wearing a
hat. . . . He greeted me and stopped on the Soor -right in front
of me. I lookld at him thoughtfully and liked him at once,
because he seemed so kindly' Yet it was as if I felt a vague
apprehension. The man seemed to read my thoughts like an open
book, becarrse he said outright:
'You need not fear me. . . . I am one of those sent only-for
a good purpose to you who dwell upon the earth. . . My
prJsent irru"a is to'invite you to come and see those places
intended for you after death.'
'That cannot be,' I answered, 'for no one ever come3 back
after death-from death no one ever returns---or--or-are you
DEATH?'
'No, I am not,' said the stranger, 'death does not look like me.'
'Then i canhot go with you,' I said, 'or do you mean that I
am to die? I do not wish to die now-I am so young.
ril 'You will not die,' the man assured me. 'You can leave your
,l,i body without dying and you can return to it ^again. Believe me
I am telling you the truth, and come along"
i1.,.
;irl I was undicided. I wanted to try it; but I was afraid I would
,i'
:t{'
not return. My curiosity finally conquered,- and all at once I
'
found that I *as standing upon the floor, looking at my own
'ilrl
material body lying in the bed. I saw that the eyes -were oPen
"lr
{,,:,!
and one arm liy irpon the coverlet and the other hung limp
1;,
'llr
over the side of'the bed. The .I who stood there on the floor
1
looking at the I upon the bed was so strangely light. I felt that
III
.}i
it would be no effort to move.
';i 'Now we will start off,' said the man, and no sooner-had he
said it than we were off. . . . I saw how the fjord was shiny
black, for the mountains were reflected in the sea. . . . It seemed
to mi that we ascended, slantingl2 into thc air. . . . What I saw
.:l
it1r:
i1,i

122 THE PHENOMENA OF ASTRAL PROJECTION
I shall not attempt to describe, because- I lack words for that,
I ft o* if I did so everyone would think it was nothing but
o"r" f.n"v. . . . I shall mlrely describe the return again.
"nd
' W. glid"d ot until we stopped at .the door of my house'
'Now vo-u must return to ),our body again,' said my companion'
. . . Great fear seized me-that I would not be able to enter
mv-phvsical body again. . . . My companion seemed to read
-i, it o"nt t and iaid-: 'Do not be afraid, no harm will come to
,Jrr.' He" then said farewell to me and disappeared from my
iigt t. . . I entered the house and when I saw myself lying in
UIa witn eves oDen and arms still in the same position as when I
lefq I reuliy was afraid. I said.to-myself,'I am. deail My body 'ir
mlved even a tiny bit from the position in which I
r,l:r
t ud
"ot
left it. . . . I tried to tell if my physical heart was beating but
I then tried to tell if-ttre body was still warm, and
"o"fa "ot.
kneu that it was.
,11,,
All of a sudden I entered my body again, and as I did so
I co"ld feel the life blood begin to flow-through my veins' I
1l
1,il
found, that I could move physically and stretched myself' ' ':'
r;\l
lThe account states thaf the subject also had another out-o[-- i;i
the-body experience later, but has had none.since'] ,i,
"fhere you have the story as i! was written down tbr me,"
..rr. Mr. Einarsson. "I want to add that it is impossible that the
i:
*1" *f,o had the experience could anywhere have readafter about
;;h occurrences which might have influenced him boot ina
frrhi";, I know this becausJ there positively was no
icelantic on the subject in r9ro, and the man could not have
itelsewhere beca.rt., while intelligent, he had no access
read of
to such literature from a foreign land, and could only read
Icelantic. . . ."
-Mi.-
adds a short account of an experience [e once
ni"".tton
had, which he feels may have been a. primary stage ot-projectton
and'which I pass on nbw for whlt-it may-be worth:
---- ;;O;; mirrning last February I lay aw-ake on my bed., having
iust been readin{ the paper. I felt tired, so put out thc light'
ilt was still dark.) I crossed my arms on my ches-t anct
-closeo
*rn .'*r"t. Thus I iay for a short time. . ' All of a sudden I
Jii"oi...a that I could see out through the wall of the house.
. . . I next felt that I was sitting up in bed' I became aware
that my arms were not resting uclosi my chest, as when I w.as
lvine dbwn. but were reachine outward. ' I pondered, while
ii, tfiis how it was that I was both keeping my arms
across my chest lying down, and at th^e same time sltttng up
"onditiot,
over and I
*iif, ^"'^.*s .eachilng outward. . Soon it was experienced
*url" ,iry "r"al conditiSn. I have never before or since
anything like that. ."
pRoJEcrIoNs lN llrHIcH 'sPIRITS' wERE INvoLvED t23
u,. s o;f EX,,' iiif*"i' i* c citkg.
A book such as this may not be the place fot tongac-twista tillcs
or comical captions, but aicording to the simple testimony ofiVlr'
Martin Saile,'he aitually did go iailing on the ceiling'- Mr' Saile
now lives at Wauwatosi, Wisionsin' Some tim-e ago he. learned
that I was interested in such cases and wrote to tell me ol hts expen-
:--- ;IHe said:
cnce.
wanted to find out'if there was such a thing as a spirit
and I think that is whv I had the experience. . ' ' I was sitling
in mv chair in the evening, as I usuilly do. . . . Well, while I
*ai Jitti"g there, all at oiie I started feeling.light and happy'
. . . Then I felt myself being pulled upward and saw myseli
going up out of my'body! I liept going up until I was near the
E;ttfig.'. - . I was so dumb wittr- surpriie, that I -was sailing
up therc. . . . I didn't know what to think about
it....
"rorrr,?
- Hcrc I was, floating around on the-ceiling''-.and' thcrc. l
was sitting down therJ in my chair asleep! ' Then a voice
spoke to mc:
' 'Do not be afraid,' it said, 'You do not need to worry.-
yor, ,ritt lct back there again.i I did not see who it was that
l,
-'-I-t.r,. . .
spoke.
I thought,
-I 'I wonder if I can leave this roomr' and
almost instantly sailed along and outside into the street' ' ' '
Then L,,ant d to get back
-again quickly, and back I went;
almost as fast as I could think I would act, but not by myselt'
. . . This was the most astonishing experience I ever had in
mylife...."
Mr. Saile states that he wanted to have the experience again
and practised sitting in the chair every evening making his mind
a'blink', because hE remembered that that had-been-the. prevailing
state at ih. ti*. of his first experience. He later had a similar
exnerience. and. findins himself up near the ceiling again, with
tis^ ohvsical bodv sittini in the chiir below, he asked the unseen
i,iti ii"th.y "orld tuk""-e to the place called hcaocn"' There was
no reply from the voice, but
---""iilltiiostantly
Lna. in a wonderlul country : ' '.yith beauti-
ful flowers and'birds, and a silvery river in the distance ' '
and I met and talked to many of hy friends who had gone a
io"l ti*. ago. . . . I hated to come'back from this place '
but-they mide me come back. . . ."
M.. Siit" continued that he sat in his chair one errening and
"no sooner was I pulled up out of my tod-y than I discovered
I was in my old hoine in Germany, which I had not visited since
124 THE PHENoMENA oF ASTRAL PRoJEcTIoN
rqro. when I left. . . . The first thing I saw there was one of
niv aunts laid out in a coffin. . . . When I came back I wrote
mv mother a letter and said old aunt was dead. . Then one
dav mv mother got a ietter from Germany saying old aunt was
a"ia. Sfre wantei to know how ^I wrote that my old aunt was
dead ten days before the2 (in GerrnalY) wrote that she was
dead. . . . I was sorry I iouid tot tell her, as I knew she would
say I was 'crazy'. . . . ttris happened when I was living at
Fort Wayne, Indiana. '"
I asked'Mr. Saile a number of questions regarding certain
poi.rts con.rected with his experience. Omitting these I epitomize
his replies:
first experienci happened about twenty years ago' ' ' '
' The"The
first sensatibn was that I felt light, then very h"Ppy'''-'
All at once it seemed as though someone was pulling me uPward'
. . . I was very conscious of what was going 91. . . ' It.was
funnv that I wis not frightened. . . . I was sailing around on
the ceiling, face down. I lnew when- up there that my body was
iust someiirins to use. . I was about twenty-eight years old'
i . . fn" voife seemed like that of someone I had known for a
long, long time. .. Not like thatof astranger.... 'I know
*."*iU 'i".p ot, going' with much greater happiness than we
do bere on Larth,-when we pass away. . . ."
-Si*pt"
expressions' these staiements of Mr. Saile, but after all
they ca'rry fai more significance than high-sounding opinions from
perio.rs unqualified to talk on tJie matter!
THS DOYLE CASE
Lady Doylc Yisits Her Famous Husband.
In the December 1936 issue of Predhtion Magazinc, the following
item appeared underlfie title "Messages from Conan Doyle":
;'i"dy Conan Doyle, who discloied in the March issue of
this magizine the mesiagls she has had from Sir A. Conan Doyle,
has noi confirmed in i press interview her continued contact
*ith th" great novelist. . . . Readers will recall tha-t Lady Doyle
has iust iecovered from 4 very serious illness. While she was
dan{erously ill, her family wlre warned that they must be
orepared for the worst.
' biscussit g her experience at this time Lady Doyle said to
an Empirc.lfTars repoiter: 'My etheric body separated from my
corporial body, which I saw as iflying dead upon the table'
Th6n mv eth6ric bodv moved away from this plane to a region
of light and calm, the portals of a marvellous othcr world'
pRoJEcrIoNs IN \/Hlclt 'sPrRITs' wERE INvoLvED 125
'I saw my beloved husband, his features radiant with love
and understanding, and close to him was another figure, whom
I knew to be of importance on that plane of existence, though
I could not discern who he was.
'He it was who held out a symbolic representation of the
marvellous happiness
-.-
I was being offered if I chose to stay on
that sphere. . . But at that moment I remembered my three
childrin and decided that I must go back to help them in their
"iournev on our olane of life.'
Deicribing this vision, Lady Doyle writes to the editor of
Prediction:'I iaw my son Dennis, sitting in my bedroom, a! mY
boudoir door, praying for me, and saw other members -of my
family in a roorn neai by, all concentrating in a prayer for_ my
recovery. Dennis and the others afterward confirmed to
me the exact positions they held during the time of my -operation,
and proved tb me that all I had seen was correct.'"
'""r},!,Xi,f,ro'"
Mr. John W. Ring, of Berkeley, California, is so well l<nown
as a spiiitualist organizer and writer that no further inroduction
is necissary. One lvening, while at the home of his sister and
brother-in-iaw, the latter iuggested that they have a 'sitting'. The
sitting was held in the dining-room of the house-a typical -'h9P.
circlei, and several members-of the family were present, including
his sister's little daughter. Mr. Ring continues:
"After a while-t}le little girl aiose, wishing to retire for the
night, as she was tired. She did so, just as the hired man entered
thE room. Upon being solicited to take part, he took the place
vacated by th.e little girl.
Very soon after the hired man sat down,- I began 1o feel
sleepy ind in a short time something unusual llappened. It was
as ii I had been struck a blow in the back of the neck. That is
the best way I can describe it and that description is very fitting.
Immediitely after this blow, I found myself standing- in- one
corner of the ioom, looking on at the people gathered
about
the table. I
clearly saw my physical body sitting in its place there.
.' . . The spirit of a woman stepped bact of my physical body,
Ieaned o*rei it and seemed to melt into it. . Then my hand
(physical) tenderly stroked the hand of the hired man. My lips
',' moved, but I could not distinguish what they said.- . ..-.
I wondered if I had passed from my body for good-if-I were
dead-the experience was so unfamiliar to me. . . . Soon I
.J.{
126 THE PHENOTIIENA OF ASTRAL PROJECTION
experienced the same sensation, as if I had been struck across
thi back of the neck . . and instantly I was back in my
physical body at the table again. . . . The hired man was
iniazed, and stated, in tears, that I had spoken to him as if I
were his mother who had died long before, sayrng that I had
called him by the pet name she used to use during earthly lifc,
and that I had related many incidents ofa close, personal nature.
. . . I felt very weak after the occurrence and was damp with
perspiration. . . ."
- THE GOODARD CASE
Saw Astral Cablc and SPiit.
The subject of this case is a business man in Norfolk, England,
so the name used herein is fictitious: 'Mr. Godfrey Goodard'. Some
time ago Mr. Goodard sent me a treatise on out-of-the-body
adventures which he says he has experienced. The account, forty
typewritten pages in all, is far too lengthy for inclusion here.
'- However, since most of the material related is typical of other
cases, such as floating in the air, astral catalepsy, cracking sounds
in the head, etc., and does not supersede anything given in the
booh, The Projection of thc Astral Body, nothins vital is being lcept
from the reader by *y failure to reproduce the complete document
here. Regretting that lack of space prevents my doing so, I do,
neverthelEss, make a couple of excerpts from the text, which may
be of interest, inasmuch as the subject claims to have observed
the astral cable, and also to have seen himself in a mirror. [It will
be recalled Mrs. Larsen told a similar story.]
Mr. Goodard tells how he usually swayed and rocked when
first finding himself projected. . .
"But this time, when I awoke, I was standing firmly on my
feet at the end of the bed, looking into the big mirror which
hangs on the wall. . In this manner I had a perfect view-of
-whole room behind me. The room was dimly lighted, for
the
at the time I was leaving the lamp turned low; but that did not
make any diflerence; I could see anyhow. I saw, attached to the
back of my head a band, like a cord. This stretched over the
foot of the'bed and joined, as far as I could see, the forehead
of my physical counterpart. Jfre actual connection there was
not easy to see, as I had half sat up in bed, propped a,gainst
the pillows, and my head was bent forward toward my knees.
Thif cord explained what I lrrad fclt many times in previous
oroiections but had never seen before.
' hft.. viewing this connection . . . and noticing the p<isition
pRoJECTIONS rN lryHrCH 'sPTRITS' IiERE INVOLVED t27
of my son in his cot, I moved away from the mirror. . . . Then
I was suddenly jerked upward and quickly withdrawn, finding
myself in a helpless state . . . which was followed by awakening
physically
-
once more. . . ."
I epitomize another instance from the document of Mr. Goodard,
which furnishes evidence for survival and spirit interest in con-
ncction with the case:
"This happened in June 1935," Mr. Goodard continues.
"Wc visited my brother-in-law and my sister at St. Albans, in
Herts, and at their suggestion I attended (for thc first time) a
sdance held in Watford. I will now quote extracts from my notes
written directly after my return to Berkshire. I will not go into
details of the s6ance, as this is not relevant to the account. Suffice
it to say that amongst others who spoke by 'direct voice' was a
girl who usually manifests through this medium.
The girl (spirit) remarked that there were two newcomers
present and, with an exclamation of surprise, added, 'One of
them flies!' She then addrcssed me directly and continued: 'I
mean you have visited our world'. After talking to me at some
length she promised that next time I left my body she would be
present and I could then explain to the othersjust what shc looked
like. This was on the night of r4th June.
Neither my brother-inJaw nor I mentioned this particular
point when we arrived home late that night. . . Early next
morning I experienced another projection . . and when I
awoke from my physical body, and found myself being supported
by others present, I was, at first, frightened. I had never pre-
viously met a spirit in the earth conditions. I recognized the
girl as being present and (mentally) conversed with her and was
calmed by her.
When I got up in the morning, I did not mention this
occurrence to anyone, in view of the fact that we were going to
hold a siance again that night, and I wanted to see what sequel
would dcvelop. . During the meeting the spirit girl spoke
;i
w, again by direct voice. 'You saw me last night,' she said, 'I was
v
at the bottom of your bed'.
i:1
'Exactly what happened last night?' I asked, and as a test
added, 'Did you hold my hand?'
'No,' she replied, 'you know I did not hold your hand. But
someone else did. . . . They were helping you out of your body.'
I have detailed this particular experience as it is linked with
my projection experiences. I want to state here, however, that
tlrese two meetings are the only siances so far I have ever attended.
. . . But the fact of survival has already been proved to me by
my visits outside my body . . . although in those visits I have
always seen the material world. . , ."

128 THE PTIENOMENA OF ASTRAL PROJECTION
THE ATHERTON CASE
Not Drcaming Bccau"rc She Was Awake.
Mrs. Vernice Atherton, of St. Louis, Missouri, in a document
signed and dated Igth February, rg37, for this author states that
slie is a comparative novice in her knowledge of spiritualism-
having only recently begun to study the subject.
During the two years preceding the date of her document, she
had four different out-of-the-body experiences, but did not know
what they were (until reading an article by the Present writer)
and believed the occurrences to be something peculiar to herselfi,
"The first oner" says Mrs, Atherton, "happened like this:
I was lying on the bed, resting, in mid-afternoon. I dropped
into a semi-sleep; I knew I was not awake, yet not asleep either.
A series of electlical sensations started flowing through my body.
They became so intense I seemed to be shaking violently; yet I
seemed to know my physical body was perfectly still.
I next heard my name being called: 'Vernice-Vernice' it
was repeated distinctly, several times.
Tuining, I saw my beloved f;ather standing beside my bed!
Although he had died two and a half years ago, there he stood
alive! I was overjoyed. . . . He continued to talk to. me but I
could not undersiand what he was saying. . . ."
Mrs. Atherton states that the reason she could not understand
what her spirit father was saying was that she was too confused
and frightened, for she knew she was outside her body and was
"trying to reason out what was happening to me and I was
frightened too much to hear what he was saying."
- "I could see myself lying on the bed, and yet I knew I was
not in that body. I was standing outside it, and my father, who
was standing beside me, was as real as he had been in his earth
life. . . . While, as I explained, I was overjoyed at seeing him,
yet frigbtened at the same time, I do not just recall how long
I stood there. Soon everything went black and in a few
moments I was back in my physical body again. . . . I knew
I had been awake outside my physical self; I knew it was not a
dream, for I had been awakE, and yet, knowing nothing of
psychical phenomena, I did not really know what had happened
to me."
On account of the many typical aspects involved; I omit the
subiect's second account, and merely mention a few brief excerpts
froir her third experience which did not prove satisfactory. While
Mrs. Atherton was projected and conscious, outside her body, for
the third time, she was still obsessed with the same "unexplainable
fear which surged through me, and as it did so, something seemed-
to pull me baikward, as though my physical self had a 'hold' of
pRoJEcTIoNs rN wIrIcH 'splRrrs' wERE INvoLvED 129
some kind on my spirituat sel{, and would not let me go".
Mrs. Atherton says that her next experience was t}re first in
which she ever left the bedroom where lay her physical body; that
she was clothed in something "whitb as mist", resembling a long
trailing garment of white chiffon, which was very beautiful and
radiant; that, as she walked, she seemOd to float in the. air, rather
than step along by 6ffqrt-"a sensation which was marvellous".
"That experience was one of the most beautiful of my entire
life. I had retired
for the night and my husband was lying beside
me in bed, reading. I dropped into the usual half-asleep, half-
awake state, experienced the same sensations as before, as if
electric currents were passing through me, and finally arose from
my physical body.
This time my father was standing at the foot of my bed,
laughing at me. He was laughing so heartily at something he
thought funny, that I too started to laugh and started to look
for the cause of his mirth. . . . I found myself presently standing
beside him, and we both stood there laughing and iooking ai
my bgdy asleep on the bed and my husband lying there reading.
. . . My father took hold of my hand and we started out of the
room.
He took me to the room of my mother, and f saw her lying
there on her bed, sound asleep. He advanced toward her and
lay down beside her. I interpreted this to mean that he came
and rested beside mother, just as formerly, although she could
not see him. . . . Finally he led me back to my own room again,
where I once more saw myself lying in bed and my husband
beside me reading, just as when we left. . . . As I approached
the bed, everything became dark and it seemed only a few
seconds before I was physically awake again. My husband was
still reading, unaware of all that had been going on. . . ."
THE PFIRMAN CASE
Spiril Hclper Demonstrates Projection.
I have accumulated considerable testimony which indicates
that, under certain conditions, spirit helpers may be able to cause,
or at least to assist, exteriorization and interiorization ofthe subtle
body, although, as I have repeatedly pointed out, this is not the
rule. One recalls the expressions of the Rev. Cora L, V. Richmond,
Daniel D. Home, and others, on this point: and I now pass on the
testimony of Corrinne M. Pfirman, of Los Angeles, California, who
says:
"One evening in the spring of 1936, before retiring, I had
130 TrrE PHENoMENA or A'srRAL PRoJEcrloN
becn reading Misccllantous Writings, by Emile Cady. . . .- Af^tcr
retiring, I im sure that I weni sound a.slee-p . . . .and after
awakeiing, a short time later, I was .completely rested. from my
tired phyJical feeling. I lay there widc aw-ake- meditating as to
what i iittle rest can do for one-for I had not slept long-
when suddenly'I became conscious of the fact that I was not in
my physical body at alM was floating outside of it! I noticed
hdw'frle and easy I felt and that I was entirely-separated from
the body (physicil) which I had first thought I was in.
I was [uiie composefl until the, thought er-rtered my. mind
that I miglit
"I not be able to get back again.
I kgPt wondering,
'how did get out of my body? just how did- I get out? and
how am I going to get back?' I am rather ashamed to admit
that I becaire i tittti nervous as to the outcome. 'I wonder if
I have died?' I asked myself. 'I must be dead or I couldn't be
outside my body.'
I did irot know what to do about it, so stayed right there
trying to reason out the matter, but I do -n-ot know y-et.how. I
gdt bick; it was accomplished in such a- twinkling. ' . . I thought
ibout this occurrence much during the next few weeks, -when
one night I had the same awakening. pu-t this time I could see
ligh* ind spirit-workers around me. I believe my continuou$
w"ondering aboui the matter, after the first experience, was the
reason foi this second one, that I was being shown how it was-
done to satisfy my mind. I believe this because I heard one of
the soirits sav:
'See how'easy it is to do? Now you are out.'
And immediaiely I found myself separated from my -physical
body. The separation lasted for-a few moments, when the spirit
said:
'And nolv you are in!'
And I went back into my body again. This performance was
repeated twice in succession-'now you are out, now you are in
--now you are out, now you are in'-and truly I went out and
in two d.ifferent times thaf night, just as the spirit teacher- d-emqn-
strated. . . . I noted in both initances that my mental faculty
was with me whether separated or whether in the physic-al
form. , . . I am sorry I do not know how this was all brought
-add to me. . . ."
about, but I do know that it happened
It will not be amiss here to a few statements from the
author of Practical Astral Projution, who tells of going out and l:z
at will, without mention of spirit influence:
'iI came back close to-my physical body, and, without,com--
pletely incorporating myself, found myself at the exact Point ot
Lalante where the lnatomical sensitivity passes into the next
body. . . . By mere act of will I found myself able to incline the
pRoJEcaloNs rN wHIcH tsPIRrrst wERE rNvoLvED t31
balance, toward one point or the other. As soon as I favoured
the idea of projection into a fourth dimensio-n,-.I-beg1n- to fecl
lighter, withbut- any physical movement at all. W-hen I brought
niv mind back to my physical body the intensity of the projection
diminished, my body was heavy and breathing slowed down."
[By merely wilting at this particular point, he could repeatedly
irilc tti*i.tf
feel- light or fua07, and move outward or inward,f
THE BRITTAIN CASE
Mrs. Biuain Tclls of Ha Entranccment.
We must assume from an account by Mrs. Annie Brittain, the
well-known medium, that exteriorization of the etheric body, some--
times at least, accompanies her entrancement. I quote a- portion of
Mrs. Brittain's testimony as it appeared in Ps2chic News (trth
September, Ig37), referring the reaier to thatjouinal for the entire
Savs Mrs. Brittain:
aciorrnt- Says
aciount.
..lf,- C-^.
'The hrst -^-^^r.i^-^
sensations which
.. came to me when my trance
mediumship started were cold shivers which passed all over my
body, but '*... *ort intense down the spinC. These continued
for iborrt a quarter of an hour and were followed by a trembling
feeling at the solar Plexus.
Tfiis trembling bicame more intense and gradually,travelled
up the body unlil it reacheci my. head'. Accompanying these
tiemblings *u, *rt.rlar contraciion which I can only desc.ribe
as similai " which we feel when connected to a shocking
to that
coil, but without the stinging and jarring efect of the latter. .
Sinie this first experienie of Uei"g enlranced,-I have-not felt
these sensatio.rt ro powerfully. I t[ink this is due to the mind
resistance being ovircome as the avenues and channels were
opened.
'
When giving a reading to a strange sitter and-Belle (one. of
mv controis) dJcides to c6ntrol, I am oflten cohscious of a link
wiih my boily. I do not know what is being said, there seems.no
mind conneciiot, o. mental activity, yet I im conscious of being
near to my body.
There is a piculiar nerve trembling which seems to come in
waves from thi physical body to the attalhed one; sometimes its
intensity produies'a pain very much like neuritis. . . . The
rpur*odii;.rk, which is the lasi sensation of Physical conscious-
ness, seemi to start in operation a power o! ejection. -
A few moments earliei I-the thinkins I-was a heavy body,
but I rcalize I am now gliding foruard. I am onllt corucious d elnnging
from tlu forchcad, and as 6 ,rthn clear of the body, I risc and float ooer
132 THE PHENoMENA or ASTRAL PRoJFcrroN pRoJEcrroNs IN wHrcH 'sPrRITs' wERE INvoLVED 133

my head barkwards. There is no sensation when this detachment bc together. . . . I had my left- arm-aro]lnd her shoulders and
ir't"f.i"g- pi"ie-no pain or nervous tension---only a -freedom. of she feit iust as firm and nitural as she did in this life'
;;;;;"'"1 i h"rr.lo'st all touch with the physical body and with -'- i-itii* one side, watchi'ng ry.as u! walked;'
m,)nlf, standing at
the sitter. I seem to be in a bright mist'-My *i"{.f quite clear Mr. Rey"olai is" a spiritiralist and was attending developing
iia-ii* ro*tious of a bod2 quitc-separatc from and difncnt-from m2 classes
----*-f at the time, and he goes on to say:
iii;iol *r. . . . T"ime ar,-d ipace do not seem to exist in this state. it t next night, at m"y class, while I was communicating
'''-'ffrriiri i., this detached state, I often see spirit people connected with her as usual] through'the medium, I asked her about our
with the sitter, and they will glve- m9 a- message to pass on to 'f. ;rli;i; "ight u"fo.., #ondering-how- thathad lIen you possible'
the sitter when I return to my physical body' B 'Whv vo"u left vourphysical body,'she told me''But were
I was once put into a hypnotic sleep at a s6ance and dlrected # not il afiJ real spi'rituai world-I had to come down to be in the
to n"Jl Uto*rlt ofone ofihe people present who had not been x
'- ;ftiit
same sohere with You''
.long time. In this case I liad no sensation of leaving
ir,
ir;;;;if.. rl ,l
*"st expiain why I did not see any spiritual surround-
ilfr"-f.ay, Uut I"evettually fo.nd.myself standing on board a v ings," continrr.t Mt. Reynolds.-... . "This may not be of m.uch
vessel in an eastern harbour. My body appeared as real to me i.rieiest to you . . . but one thing that- .puzzled. ^'"e .Y."t thll
;ilh;;;f ,h"-man beside whom i was itandiog' My evesight was $
thic wcrc tiru of me and that I was watching myn-f walking with
.nd I could see all the physical surroundings of the Rcynolds, ihrn I was aware of walking with hn'"
;;; #,
Mrs.
-
harbour.
----
and I i ust.itvt.. ileynolds if he could give me a more conc-rete picture
ft " *otion of the boat gave me a feeling of sickness, replo' and description of his experience, to which he replied:
9],

!
r"oUv feti that I was going to be sick' This condition.Ya{ "Repiyiug to yours ofthe 7th. . . . First I draw you a rough
d;;;'d i" ttre sCance iooni, and the sitters were afraid that tle ht, sketch:
;;i-l;Jb.;" too strenuous-there was every symPtom of sickness lii
*+o-b"the hypnotist recalled me to consciousness' ,l
tfrit'6""asion, although I appeared to myself to be morc i
subsia.rtial in the eiheric bddy and absolutely free.of .any."ol-
necting cord, there certainly was resPonse in my Physlcal Dooy '[
|@
o\
Dlrectlon of ralk
to the feeling." :i'
?$'
1i

fl
ro ------)

'"" i?;I3;rT,.""" .l:,

k'l
di.
lHere is a case which may furnish some evidence for the theo- T
.."fii;;i;i; that man is composed of several sheaths of subtlc ;4

I little of # have indicated where I was, that is, the three different
I
l"ll*,-*ti"h I, though claim knowledg.e theosophy,
cases in my
fl" At (l) I saw only Mrs. Reynolds; she was real and I
locations.
;;k;; to be the case."I have recorded otherthesimilar the astral,
$
-
had my arm around her shoulders.
Ib;;; ;;tk", *hi.h indi""te the existence,of etheric,- I. At ?c) I had no sensation whatever; that was my physical
iil" *."t"t, etc., bodies-although in this book any of those terms $ sel[, sirirlly being observed there from point (z).
are being used, along with many others, to.d-eslgnate 4 Dooy-wnrcn .1.
At bi'th (r) and (3) I presented my everyday appearance to
I-i.ti"#.t fti* thE physical. Mr. Reynolds, lor of Miami, Florida, ri

is not a theosophist, but I give his experience what rt may De

tu'
;:.r , - from point (z).
mrsclf
po'int (zi i saw Mrs. Reynolds and myself l3lking
fro*
i;,
worth.-s.M.l
"**':'Not ro"B ago," says Mr' RgryroJ{s, "I-** conscious, during ii' alons at ptint 1i)'as well as my physical self at point (3)'
r!''
F=rom point (z) Mrs. Reynolds appeared the same to me as
,t,

-" tt;;;:-;F #"li.ing'along wiih Mrs' Reynolds, who pas-sed :i'' '
she did ai poini (I). From'neither pbint (r) nor (3) did I see
ariav about three years ago, We were talking about how wonder- myself at point (z).
n f i"a beautiful it was that, although she had died, we could 'I aftcrwards d"ine to the conclusion that my mind must have
13.+ TrtE PHENoMENA oF ASTRAL pRoJEcrroN
becn inert at point (g), *y physical body, or not there at all.
That it (my mind) must have been at both point (z) and (r)
at the same time, or else two minds, or else the same mind
divided, or, to make it more clear, a duplicate mind, one at (z)
and one at (r).
The distance between point (r) and point (z) and point (z)
and (3) was about fifteen feet.
It seems to me that my spirit, I will say, was at point (r),
that some intermediary body of mine was at point (z) and that
my physical self was at point (3).
I know it all sounds complicated, but I have given you a
vague picture of what to me was very clear when it happened. . . ."
THE POLLARD CASE
The following case, nearly a century old, is from Black Diamonds,
by Edward A. Pollard, New York, 186o,
". . But to return to the story I startcd to tell: One day
Aunt Matilda told me, not unusual, that she had a message
as r,vas
for me from my angel sister. It was a curious message, unlike
former ones of love and encouragement. The old woman delivered
it with an ominous look, refusing to explain by a single word
'its
meaning, which was hidden to my boyish sens'e, and fet awful
in its implication. It was that'she was comingfor me'. Coming for
me! What did it mean? Should I indeed again see my precious
little sister, as the old slave had described her, with her golden
locks clothing her in glittering beauty, and with 'silver slippers
on her feet?' For a long time my. imagination dwelt upon the
promise.
And now, dear friend, believe me when I tell you solemnly,
and speaking from all the heart can feel of truth, that thc promisc
hos been keptt
Many, many years after the message had been given me by
Aunt Matilda, when I had grown up to manhood, and entered
upon its serious years, I was taken down by a memorable sickness.
It was a long, weary sickness, to which my memory reverts with
a shudder. I had lain for many weeks in a slow fever, and was
reduced to a very critical state ofweakness. Everything was kept
still and solemn about my room.
One night I was lying in restless, broken reveries. The lights,
which had been withdrawn by my nurse into an adjoining room,
left mine in a distinct gloom, a darkness filled with shadows. I
rras in an uncertain state, neither asleep nor awakel but in an
indescribable sort of stupor. . . . Suddenly, I felt myself curiously
PRoJECTTONS rN wrrrcH 'sPIRrrS' \^IERE INVOLVED 135
failins.I can describe my sensation only as tfral 9f--1 sinking,
lif" ih" running-down oi mechanism; my mind falling away
ioto u sort of li"ghtness; then with unutterable terror
grasping
- then falling away deeper and deeper int-o
1 "i-io"r"iousness,"and
th. vagueness. I felt that I wa1 {y-rn-g.-.But I had no strength
'l to call "out. Farther and farther, I felt fallilg away, still grasping,
',: clutching at consciousness. One terrible effort, one more wrestle
of aeoni and I felt a sudden, boundless freedom, a sense of an
, rr.rrit".oble expanse around me-an aeialness that human words
I cannot I was still in my chamber, but-I seemed to touch
"*p..tt.
i f"tt an irrepressible iightness, and yet I w.as 1o keenly
' nothing;
conscio"us that I could hear sounds that seemed to be far away
. over the hills, and floating up to the skies.
' A slisht rustle at mY side attracted me. I turned my eyes
:' MercifufGod! it was my angel, Rosalie, who stood there' Father
. in Heaven. it was mv *Lsseng... There she stood in the darkened
room, witir a corrttenutce-as white and calm as death; no
yet a thousand times more beautiful
, earthiy beauty there, andheav-cn-sealed
..1 in the deep, passioniess, peace of God's beloved'
f,i I could not si:eak to my darling. An awful restraint was-uPon
"': me: and when she beckoned to me, I followed, as if on air' All
things seemed dissolving from mel earth appeared to be
^the
faUiis away into shadows. I felt as if encompassed by darkness,
and ireadirig through it to an illimitable-Beyond.- -
; Oh, thetarknesi is breaking at last! The angel form before
r me, never turning as I followed her, is now growing b.righter
., and more glorioui. I see the great white radiance, to -rvhich her
' path leads"up through the daikness. Oh, Gracious Father, is this
, ih" home of Thy biloved? I see dimly as through a glass. But
' amid myriads oi figures peopling this everlasting light, - where
5: no shadow ever fallq and no itorms, no rent banners in the sky,
' or wars, or 'garments rolled in blood,' are ever known-amid
t}em ali I dis-tinguish white figures advancing to meet me. Who
# comes on in the Lright raiment of glory so swiftlyupon and happily?
'& that comes to meet me? It is m7 motht that comes, it is myher
is she with the everlasting seal of peace
[' Who brow
mother,
tri' reachins out her hands to the son that was lost.
I ari standing in the confines of darkness, with one step from
it into unutterable happiness. My darling, my angel Rosalie,
:r turns to mc. A smile of heaven now lights up her face; a scarce
I rcpressed song seems to tremble on her lips. She stretches her
].1r tiriy hand toiard me. I seek to grasp it. But as I touch it she
, staits; the whole scene rocks and falls before me into nothingness;
,t.' and i hear the voice of Rosalie sweetly, sadly, saying,'Alas, I
tlought ltou wcrc dtad!'
!' Wa; it a dream, you ask-a nightmare broken and changing
 PROJECTIONS IN WHICH .SPIR.ITS' WERE INVOLVED I37
136 TrrE PHENoMENA oF ASTRAL PRoJacrroN
into a dreamer's ecstasy? Calt it what you will; let the world
use its cold, sneering term of 'a dream,' to conceal its ignorance
of the mysterious cbmmunings of the soul, let it c-ongratulate
itself upoh the easy explanations of the wonders of Him who
worketh visions in the night. But the day comes when the dream
' of life itself shall pass away, and we shall stand, as I solemnly
believe, in the reality of what was revealed to me in the night,
and-in the darkened hours of my life on earth. . . .
No, my Rosalie, not dead yet; not ready yet t-9 c,rgss into the
life everlaiting! But struggling on, considering all things of this
world lightly, bearing its insults and its -goads, putting away its
quarreh]looking up iver at the better day, suffering, worn and
*eary, I pray that i broken family may be united, and that there,
as o., earih,'my beloved and I may praise Him together. . . ."
lnvisible helpcrs often assist in thc *teriorization'
experience was undergone, when the
In the follorving case, the
subject was.feeling-melancholy and despondent,-to the degree that
The grass was full of white daisies, tike little stars, -and I could
she'was seriously-contemplatingsuicide. Underthecircum- hear"the grass grow. After a little-while, I-realized that I was
stances, orre may well beiieve ihat the 'figure' seen in her astral
-experiencewas more symbolic than actual-a thought form created ;tm; i" i "fett
eoldEn lieht. I could see it on my lap and close around
me, Ind t its liealing rays. Then-a voice spoke out ol tht
by her own mind, thus impelled by the will -to believe. . . . With light saying: 'My child, why have you been weePrngi'
this in mind, we may see what Doris McD', of Oakland, California, solden
wrote on z4jh August, 1944, in a letter from which we quote the
I kne', in a moment was Jesus who spoke' I wanted to see hlm,
it
following:
*-i-tti"a to raise *y.y""r, but I could not do upon so' Then the
it t struck me that of I could not look his face'
;;;t"t could. Then he"ou.t"
ii;""ut spoke again: 'There is a place herc
THE MCDANIEL CASE for even you; don't be discouraged and remember" ' Atter
Gently Lifted By a Guide.
. *frlrc ahother voice spoke awaly from me and said: 'Now yo-u
*rri tuke her back,' ind then'a voice right beside me
-said:
'She does not want to go'. I wondered how the voice beside knew
"one night, very late, I felt tired and- decided to lie down that I did not want to"leave, as I had not spoken' I h14- thought
and try to rist.'As I'lay down on my bed, -I glanced at my clock
to see ihe time. In jusi a few moments I felt strange3nd n-uLb
that I was here to stay. Then the first voice said: 'You must
and couldn't move.- It sruck me that I was dying. Then I felt take her back. It has been thirty minutes and she cannot-stay
anv lonser'. Then the hands pic(ed me up and guided me-back
a pair of hands gently slide under my bo{l (I was lying on my
thiorsfspace into mv bedroom. How I did hate to come back!
!aik) and felt myself being raised up. I wondered what was There" lav mv still bodv, and the hands gently placed me over
happe"ing. I did not then kiow anythihg about astral projection.
mv bodvindi sank into'it. At first I had some difficulty in moving,
Whin I liat nea. the ceiling, the hands moved me into an upright
position. Then I looked back at my !oqY, and there -it lay s.o U.it nnittv did so. I looked again at my clock and it had been
itill, and my face was so white that I felt it was really. de.ad, i"ri fr"ff 'an hour since I had left, although it seemed longer'
I thoucht how easv it is to diel I had the house securely locked brrri.rg all this trip I never spoke a word or saw anyone,..only
.rp I wondered who would find my body and how they felt thiir presence-and heard their voices. For sometime atter I
"rrEget in.
would i.ii to .fut"a and good, and now when events in my life seem
ThJ hands then had me by the arm and they guided -me hard to bear I remember my experience."
through the ceiling and out into sPace. We travelled on, and at
She adds she has an Indian Chief who is her 'guide', and-that
last I"was gently l6wered into a field or meadow of grass o" S:
banks of a" tiny brook. Everything was so quiet and peaceful. she thinls he is the one who guided her that night, although he
138 THE pHE,NoMENA or ASTRAL pRoJEcrroN
is silent when she asks him. He has promised to care for her when
shedies....
THE SPAULDING CASE
The following case is from the Magaline of Mystcies (October
rgor), and is given by a lr{rs. A. Spaulding. She had been mourning
the death of a beloved aunt, who had passed away six months
before. Again, under the influence of a 'guide' she could hear,
but could not see, she felt herself pass from her body, which she
saw lying on the bed, noticed the astral cord between the two
bodies, and, rising upward, finally came to a 'seemingly gauze
curtain' which parted, revealing 'solid ground and beautiful
scenery'. She noticed, too, the peculiar light of the atmosphere,
pearl-likc and restful, but so clear the smallest object could be
vividly seen.
Her aunt appeared, looking younger, and took her to a small
cottage, where she noticed that her aunt had an arbor ofher favourite
roses. "Most of my desires have been gratified," the aunt said.
"The ability to satisfy your desires is gained by kindness to others
while on the earth plane. You have hands with which to do kind
deeds:. your lips can speak loving words. Make good use o[ your
time and talents, that you may come to your final home rich with
the harvest of your sowing." The aunt also told her that they were
actually at a half-way point between the earth plane and the realms
where live the dead.
Later, Mrs. Spaulding passed downward to earth, saw her body
again on the bed, entered it, and instantly awakened.
t'This experiencer" she wrote,
"for me has been ever a beacon
light. I know for myself that the other world is a counterpart of
this, minus the shadows. I know that mountains and valleys,
rivers and lakes, trees and flowers, are more real there than here,
and, best of all, our loved ones live to love and welcome us home
when we are called upon to change to a higher life."
THE LLANDATF CASE
Carricd Awal b7 a Spirit.
Writing under the name of John of Llandafl a contributor to
Light relates some personal experiences, from which we extract a
portion only, as the complete account may be found in thc ard
Novcmber, 1938, issue:
pRoJEcrroNs rN wHIcH tsPIRITs' wERE INvoLvED . 139
"Up to twenty-six years of age I led a somewhat aimless
existence. Being very popular, fond of sport and gay company,
I had a very jol-ly time, by no means the accepted preparation for
psychic adventures. But the circumstances chalrged, after a family
lrigedy, and I forsook my old companions and lived quietly.
One evening when sitting by the fireside . . . I felt hands work-
ing on the forepart of my skull, particularly at the root of thc
noie. . . This was repeated every evening even while I was
at work.
One night when in bed and wide awake I was suddenl2 seizcd
b2 hands and gently raised up out of m2 bod2, although this is a_very
inadequate description of the process of transmutation involved.
All I could see was a blue light which gradually became so
intensely bright as to be unbearable. A hand was placei - to
shield my eyes and I was laid on the bed. . . . A few nights
later a repetition was attempted. Expectation of the results over-
excited me. There was a gtishing of'something from my mouth.
A hand was clapped on it and I was immediately laid on lhe
bed. A voice infoimed me that I was not to be afraid and that
I was to control my feelings.
A few weeks later a magnificent being suddenly appeared at
it; my bedside, an eastern, cxciptionally tall, in gorgeous raiment,
tti: and wearing an immense diamond in his turban. I was widc
ffi: awakc at thclime. He took me in his arms at though I wne a bab2 and
adoanced toward the ctosed door. 'People will see me if you take me
,$,
out,' I sairl. . 'Not they, John,' he replied, and went right
through the closed door with me, and then into the street. ."
dL,i
If
Ji. The-narrator then tells how he was taken before an asembly
ili! in a large room, told to stand behind a .girl and place his^hands
upon her head . and "she began to speak under an influence
lransmitted through myself and iry companion. . ." Later he
awoke in his own bed.
THE HOFTSETZ CASE
Medium Describcs Her Entraneement.
[The original document, written exclusively for me, from which
I eitract this case, is so lengthy (containing almost sixty pagcs)
lhat I have purposely omitted niuch of the tixt entirely, valuable
as it is, and have atridged the remainder to present here. The
subject, Mrs.J. P. Hoffseti of Indiana, does not disire.to be annoyed
-communifations
by from curiosity seekers or inquiring scoffers'
Mrs. Hoffsrtz states that she has had out-of-the-body experiences
for many years, spontaneously, the first occurring in I9o9, when
110 THE PHENOMENA OF ASTRAL PROJECTTON pRoJEcrroNs rN wHIcH 'sPIRrrs' WERE rNvoLvED 141
she was a devout Campbellite, and many yean before she knew body my eya remain open in that body, and the spirit uses the
anything about spiritualism, although she is now a medium. She eveinaturallv. , I db not go to sleeP when I go into trance;
related many of those projection experiences to me, but I am not I'am wide 'awake, but am disengaged from my body' ' t '
passing them on here. Instead, I am concentrating upon her trance When I come back'in, after services, I simply walk around to the
fhenomena, inasmuch as they relate directly to exteriorization. back of the body and walk into it through a^door and' Rev' Simpson
I ask the reader to compare what is said here, for example, with *"fL froht door. There is no discorrifort or struggling'. '.'.
"The Sim Case" and "The Ring Case", and others which suggest [The""ilrt,
preceling material was in the first document which Mrs' "'
that exteriorization of the spiritual body may take place during Hoffsetz iurnished- me, together with some twenty. ordinary pro'
entrancement. AIso, do not try to visualize too realistically what iection experiencbs, which,ls I have said, I am omitting, on acco-unt
Mrs. Hoffsetz refers to as 'clamps', 'doors', 'slates', €tc., for it must ;itht i*'po.tut". of hei particular tranc-e-phen-omena, which I
{i,'
be remembered these are things conceived subjectively, which the ir wish to concentrate upon. Realizing that if. Mrs. Hoffsetz is aware
'and
subject experiences, but which are beyond the grasp of the five i of her entrancement, is awake at the time, she should-bc able
senses of the onlooker or reader.-S.M.J s. to nir" me more details of what she experiences, I askcd her- to
$.
i"t" the subiect further, explaining thi sensations and- anything
Says Mrs. Hoffsetz: ""
ivtrich would throw light upon the process. The next document,
"I have this experience every Sunday evening at church. .. . $ J"i"a gth March, Ig3"8, finilty- was iurnished to me, from which
I am the medium . and it is through me that the sermons Iq;
i .s.iri;.1. isking ihe reader to pardon any repetition
are preached by a spirit, the Rev. P. J. Simpson. . . . I move H of
-- ---;;.
statements.] "*"ltp"ti,
out of my body. . I know when I leave and know when I s, . . i'will try to make myself ctear, since it is dctail you
you
come back in. tr are most interested in. . . . I do not know if I can make
I am also the organist of the church. . . . As I play thc H know iust how I feel when I am being entranced or not' ' ' '
preludc-'Angels Whisper Love to Me', I first see a light in front *. First f can see the blue-gold light in front of me just as the sensa-
of me . . . the most beautiful of all blues, crusted with gold. rli ,iion besint. The sensatfon (I-have when the- control begins to
;;;r;;; me) is that it feels'as if he.puts a clamp-or oic-c
{,!)
. . . This light is m2 main control, Rco. Simpsoa. . . . Then I feel on-the
my music control, the Rev. John W. Dykes, behind me. . . . Ar $,, ;;;k ;a-, ireck at the base of the biain. -. . ' flttt c-lamp feelt
he walls in . . . from behind, I walk out the front of my body to be about four inches long and extends from behind one ear,.
and I am fully conscious all the time this is going on. Rev. Dyles # over acro$s to behind the other ear'
uses the hands and goes ahead playing the organ as started by #
,A
Then it feels as if a stap, a strip of strong leather about two
myself without any hitch in the programme. . . . Then the inches wide was extendine fiom the back of one ear, down under
audience notices that the voice which was alto (my natural Y, my chin and acrQss my thioat, and back up behind the other ear'
voice) changes to a second tenor. . . . t'
Ihe music control, Rev. Dykes, lets other singers come in *T
and control me, i.e. my vocal organs, while he still uses the hands HI
to play the accompaniment. . . . AU of this rtne m1 spirit is stand-
ing- jut outida m2-bod1. . . . A cord connects bctwecn me-my spirit "Thc clamp feels as
though it looks like
and body. . . When the songs are over, Rev. Dykes leaves my this."
body, and Rw. Simpson then comes into my body to give the
sermon. . . . He picks out his own topic, and uses the Bible. . . . "In the centrc of thc "The chin strap fccls
clamo is a door-it as though it lools
All the time he is preaching I am standing outside my body feels'like a door." like this."
fully awake at all times. . . . I see what goes on in the room,
see the audience, and sec things the audience does not see. For I do not see my control as he puts this 'control clamp on the
example, once while Rev. Simpson was preaching, a spirit walke! back of my neck af the base of the Lrain. . . . But I feel his vibra-
up tome and said: 'Why Flosiie, what are you doing over here?' iio", u"a sometimes he talks to me as he is doing it' Just h.ow h9
I-talked with her, as I stood there out of my bodn and missed does it, which you seem so persistent upon learning, I do not
what was said in the sermon while doing so. know.
----I
All the while Rev. Simpson, or any other spirit,.is using my have asked other mediums about this, and they have said
142 THE pHENOMENA OF ASTnAL PROJECTION
they do not know either, and have never heard of a medium
going through anything such as I describe. . - . All this time I
have a tingling sensation all over my body, but especially in
my face and the top of the head. . . . And I feel as if I am
going back and forth-back and forth-sort of a swinging sensa-
tion from front to back of my head. . But there is no outward
demonstration of this.
If there were any physical pains in my body-say a headache-
at the time, after the process takes place it leaves me. . . .
After this takes place (the clamp is put on) I have usually played
about four lines of my organ prelude. . . . I still see in front of
me the blue, gold-crusted, light which is Rev. Simpson, because
sometimes the light turns into him.
Rev. Simpson then says, 'All right, Rev. Dykes, I am ready,
come in now,'
Then I feel Rev. Dykes, my muslc control, approaching from
behind. He has entirely different vibrations from those of Rev.
Simpson. . I am able to tell which one of them it is, could
tell even if I could not see. . When Rev. Dykes comes in, I
begin to feel a drawing sensation as if I am being drawn toward
my main control who is standing in front of me. . . The easiest
way to explain it is to say I walk right out the front of ry body
torvard my main control. . Sometimes I hear a swirhing sowrd
as I leave the body and feel a strong current which feels like
air. . The only sensation I feel, when I first get out, is that
I am light-hcad.ed, that is, my spirit is what feels this . . . but it
soon Passes away. . . .
It is pretty difficult to tell you more about the door. That
little door is in the back of that clamp-control. lt opens and closes
just like a door. It opens as the spirit goes in . then closes.
When I was first developing I often felt or thought it felt as though
the hinges cracked; I could hear the feeling of them (shall I say
squeaking because they needed oil, or would you call that
'ctazy'?).
When my control puts me in trance for writing a message
(the music control does not enter as in the church service).
Control Rev. Simpson enters directly. . Instead of feeling the
door open in the back of the clamp-control (.1 am sorry I have to
call it that), I feel an opening about six inches long and only a
fraction of an inch wide.
I feel a slide inserted into this opening, like an old-time
glass slide inserted into a magic lantern or film projector.
The slide looks like a slate of very thin proportions as near as I
can describe it. . . . I see it as it goes in, in some mysterious way,
for at this time I am not yet out of my body. It is as if it were
inserted right into the brain. . . . I see it inside my head-as
PROJECTTONS rN WrrtcH 'sPlRtrs' wERE INVOLVED 143
plainly as if my physical eyes were looking at it . but I see
it without my ihysital eyei. . . . No, I do not know how I see
it. . . . I do linow I see it as well as feel it distinctly.
When I Eo out this way I do not stand outside my body, as
during churir services, bud I am up above my body, although
near i-t. . . . I can see and hear, only if the control wants me to
when above like this. . . . If he doesn't want me to see what is
written, even if I see it while he is writing it, he will stop and a
control'behind my body will take something-like a white.spolg:
(it is not a sponge, bui looks like one) w'hich seems moist with
huid . . . uria w'ipes it across the slide or slate, which is in the
slot . . and aftei that, when I come back I cannot remember
for the life of me u'hat was written on the paper.
I can see the spirit writing the message. on the paper, when
he goes out, I cai see Rev. Simpson go--in again. Sometimes
'wheln he is letting me come back, he talks to- me, or f,"1nt 1
tune. . . I come 6ack into the slot on my head. . . My head
. has a queer tingling sensation in it as the clamp is released from
the baik of my neck. . In this kind of entrancement I never
talk to any spirits but hover n€ar my bod-y, above it. . I see
only whaf ii below me, my body and the ones using it. . .
The control acts like a manager. When some spirit is-
allowed to enter, the opening behind is closed aeain. . . . If
I know what the spirit his written on the paper and the control
wipes the slate, which is inserted in my brain, I do not know
what it says on the paper, but the eontrol does. . . ."
[In conclusion, I wish to state that I -questioned Mrs. Hoffsetz
at lingth regarding the extent of her reading on -the subj.ect unde.r
discusiio.r, forind that she has read practically nothing which
would suggest"1.,dany of the conditions she relates. Nor has she ever
met anyJrie who' claims to have had a similar experience.. She
states that many of her friends do not believe this, takes place,
because they cannot see it, and that many mediums have told her
thev have never heard of such a form of mediumship. Be that as
it may, it seems remarkable to me that Mrs. Hoffsetz has set down
so much evidence for exteriorization of the astral body, and men'
tioned so many peculiarities which coincide with peculiaritiesexperi-
enced by persot s who have projected; for example, the astral cable,
cracking iounds in the heid,-hovering above her body, passing
through a door, etc., etc.-S.M.]
 EXPERTMENTAL AND HYPNOTTC PROJBCTTONS
t;

ll Littl" fl"-" -itu f.ot". I I l,

$6. EXPERIMENTAL AND HYPNOTIC

PROJECTIONS Pretty little sun with raYs.

In an earlier chapter in this book we mentioned the experi-

mental work which had been undertaken by French researchers
(for the most part) in their attemPts to Prove the objectivity of the Sort ofiron spcar gyrating, cnritting branching flamea'
istral body, oi to project that body by means of magnetic, mesmeric
o. hyprrotiC metho'ds.-tn the present section we have placed together
a fe# cases, where such experiments have been combined with the
projection process. . . . The first one is entitled- Globc of dazzling sParlc.
j,

Flamc upon toP fu lct in a shining helo. I

THE MARY PARKER' CASE
, Artifuial Somnambulism,
Here is an account which ablears to involve hypnotism, psy-
chometry, and projection. The-narrator, Mrs. Mary Parker, of Luminous aura with brilliant ball.
Charleston, S.C., tells me that she is now seventy-seven years- ol
age, and had the experiences when she was a young girl in .her
't"ecns. I am well awari of the objections which certain critics might
raise against such.accounts, i.e. that they are often distorted in
the su6ject's memory as time marches on. Richet, for instance,
often aivanced suctr an argument. Yet it is interesting to -note
that the same Richet (in OuiSixth Sezse) when telling ofa psychical
experience he himself had over fifty. years before (and which.he
offett us evidence to support a certain theory) saysl "I remember
it as though it happenef yesterday"._ And that is- exactly.what
Mrs. Parkir says of ier experiences: "I remember them as clearly
as if
thev happened vesterday".
ar't.ul p.6jection is not evident in Mrs' Parker's first
Corccious
experience. Rather, thi account seems to be one of a (we will say)
'dieam state' induced by suggestions from the operator, Dr. Fane- -Human
form with slight
stock. Interestingly enough- the suggestions and induced dream . variations, colour-whitc,
parallel the (self) iuggestions and consequent dream used for pro- slightly bluish, luminous.
ducine exteriorizatio--n" which I set forttr- in "The Dream Control
Meth6d of Projection," detailed in the book Thc Projection of thc Aslral bluc on left,
Body. -Humanform,
-A subjects had the
orange on right.
remarkable point of interest is that two
same dream simultineously-in fact were together in the dream-
which was ingtuced by the operator's suggestionsl and both remem- I A"titt'r conccption of projected forms decribcd by subject undcr hlpnoris, according
bered it clearly! I abbreviate Mrs. Parker's story: to French orpcrimcnts.-(By courtcsy of Dr. von Goot).
"About iBTg I had a friend whose name was W. M' Baker-
146 THE PHENoMENA oF ASTRAL pRoJEcrIoN i,l EXpERTMENTAL AND HypNorrc pRoJEcTroNs 147
FanestocJ<, y.p. Hg induced in me the ability to go into a con- ] f entered the condition . . . soon I was standins lookinp at
dition which he called Artifcial Somnambulism: . . : I then could , my Ay mother who was lying sick in bed. Shc had a baI bai headaEh"-
headaEhe.
go into this condition myself and go to any distant place which There-was.a.girl .in ttie neighb_ourhood there, nursing her. . . .
was familiar to me. . . . On thC other hand, I i,ou\d fnd a She (the girl) split two podi of red pepper, idd.d tio bunches
strangc placeif I had a letter or anything that had come from that of catnip and bound it on mother's lieid. .- . . Some time after-
place. . I could take the letter or article in my hand. so into ward I had a chance to go back home and visit my mother and
the condition and follow it back to the place it came f.;;. . . . f-r rolo
told ner
her- ot
of my splnt visit to her bedside. . . .. 'Everything
spirit vrslt Everything I
The first experience I had was at th; home of Dr. Fanestock. had-se_en that nighf was true, my mother assured *.. .'. .,iod
. . . I went tlere to consult him regarding my illness. While I while I was sittin_g there talking to her, the girl I had seen came
was there a lady friend of his came in who had learned artificial in. I rercognized her at once, ilthough I hald never before seen
somnambulism some time before. She said she had lost the ability hg1 witlr my physical eyes. . ."
to do so and wanted him to give it to her again. . . . The doctoi Mrs. Parker tells how on one occasion she was with a friend
asked me if I wanted to learn artificial somnambulism too, and ,, who had been forced to leave his child with his parents in a distant
I told him that I did. . . . gi!y. She-told him she would go there and ree ho* the child was,
After arran-ging us comfortably he told us we were going to if he would direct her-to the hduse, starting at the point where they
go to a-star-that we were going to go up-up-up into the air.
He said:.'Now if you.feel yoursetf gettin$ gidiy oi feel that you r 1gre- and taking bq+-the
directions, landmarkf turns iln tii" ,o.a, ii".',
to the house in which tire child was being'kept.
are. floating. in the air do not become alarmed but keep calm I; d!.th9
This hc"?y- did while she was in the condition, as she calls it. Sf,e ias
and keep.right on going.' . . . The first thing I knew f found of the house in due course, but .,found that ttre
myself-going along with the lady. . . . We wire going upward , baby was entering
aw-are
not in the downstairs room", as her friend had stated-
through-
!h. _qrf. . . Soon we found ourselves goi'r,g ip i lorrg i,i ro
so shc went
-she
went.upstairs
upstairs and found the baby
babv in the back ronm on the
hack room, rhc
sloping hill. We could see a strange-looking hous-e faiuf the hili right; and "while no one told me I knew that the man and woman
3h9a{ of us,-and advanced towird it. Finally, we reiched it. i:, tl:ll were my friend's parents, and that they had changed the
It looked as if it were made of poles but was terrl-Arhion, the roof room to the upstairs, to iake it away fr<jm the noisei of the
coming.almost down to the ground. Going in we saw a 'i; child's
front street. . . . Weeks later he verified what I told him, after he
room full of people; they were dancing and haviig a good time had gone home and asled his parents. . . .,'
to the music. . . . When we entered they stopped daicing and
all began to look at us. Finally, one of'them'came fortfr' and
said: 'I will go with you'. (The doctor had told us we would
find someone who would go'with us and would take us to an THE CARCIA CASE
orchard, and help us find a tree that had healing fruit on it.)
The three of us then started out and went int-o an orchard Sat Hcr Own Intcraal Orgaw.
where we found the tree with the healing fruit on it. . . . The
girl that came with us from the house picked some of the fruit "The connection between the phenomenon of doubting and
and gave us some to eat. I ate one and it was bitter. . Then that of clairvoyance had not escapld the magnetizos of th"e last
we returned. . . . The doctor asked the lady what she saw and century," says Bozzano in Lcs P-Mnomdncs
P-henomdncs dl ,.They
di Bilocation. ,.Thev
she told him, and everything she told him was the truth, because noted that often their subjects have a period oflucidity,declarini
I was with her. I felt all right when we got back.,, that they left the body, ,.rd hud scen il stretctreJ oJil;-b;6;:
i\{rs. Parker states that aftei that she had ieveral similar exoeri- them. . . . This case is ci_ted by Durville. Madame Eugenia
ences, Once she was wondering how her mother was and rI Garcia- put into
Garcia, nut info a
a state
siatp nf cnm-o-h,,lio-
of somnambulism, it-,," describei
,l-.^-il.-J her
r.--
"the doctor asked me wh2 I did not go in m2 spirit bodl and sec her. ' sensations during her first doubling experiente.thus . . .,'
'But I do not know just where to go,, I said io him. .My [Before-relating the case of Mmi. Gircia, I draw attention to
mother has moved since the last time I was at home.' a v:If $r-nfla1 case which f set down in Thc C'ase for Astral projection,
'You have a letter from her,' he said. ,Now you take that entitled "A Parallel in Mesmerism" (pp. z8-3ei in which a"na"e*
lettcr and hold it in your hand and follow it baik to where it
,.f1g,kson Davis tells of his experienc6'when"first mesmerized by
came from.' William Livingston. There art *u"y poi"t" ,i ri*l..lty i" tfrl
148 THE PHENOMENA OF ASTRAL PROJECTION
two cases. . However, now for the Garcia account; the subject,
having been put in a state of somnambulism, tells what- shc
experienced.-S.M.]
"I suddenly perceived myself standing about the middle of
the couch on which I had been put to sleep. For a moment I
seemed to be seated, and then I was raised without my knowledge.
I lookcd at m2selJ. I was luminous, transparent, light as a feather.
I saw rny body stretched out molionless.
Three or four persons were around me, looking attentively at
my body. Why were they looking at me likc that? I approached
and looked at myself too. I could distinguish the interior of my
body perfectly! I saw my heart beating and the blood circulating,
the veins, the musclesl in a word as if I were made of glass.
I approached my magnetizer, put one hand on his arm, and
said: 'Will it not be said that I am dead?' . . . But to my sur-
prise it was the hand of my material body and tongue that played
the role, and not my second self. . . . At the same moment I
heard, or rather, read in his brain the answer: 'You think nowr'
before his lips formed the words!
I looked about me, but instead of encountering an opaque
and non-transparent surface, such as one sees in ordinary objects,
I saw everything as in a glass! I saw the people in the apartments
of my neighbours as if we were living in a house of crystal. . . ."
Mme. Garcia states that during another instance when she was
under the spell of the mesmerist, and could see everything and every-
one as if transparent, she had a strange experience:
"Without letting my physical body out of sight, I was trans-
ported from one end of Paris to the other just as quickly as one
directs his thoughts from one place to .another. I saw
houses, people, carriages,but all were transparent as glass. . .
Suddenly I felt a violent shock and again found mpelf in the
middle of the room which I had left. . . I could still distinguish,
though less distinctly now, my two separate bodies. . . . Gradu-
ally things grew heavy and misty. . I saw nothing more. . . .
I had been awakened. . . ."
The next case is an example of projection brought about by
repeated experiment:
A'ff,;:;"iT',e:i;;,.
"In the summer of 1938," writcs "Mr. Charles Sidney", of
Plymouth, England, who requests that his real name be with-
held, "I had been reading about astral projection, and it seemed
EXPERIMENTAL AND HypNoTIC PRoJECTIONS 149
to me that.to have such an experience-would be very interesting
and_ give me definite proof of survival.
I decided that I would attempt to gain such practical exoeri-
ence for myself. . . . I had various ideis at first of where I w'ould
go and what I would do, if successful . . . but after eettins rishi
down to the matter I decided that the only thing"I to
would be to concentrate on one simple fact, whici was "oita
that i
would visualize myself being outsidc my body, and keep every-
thing else out of my mind.- I imagined *yjitf as beirig ,oui,,
and looking
-at
my physical body-ieeing it'as others wo"uld sec
lt. As I say, that was what I tried to keep entirely in mv mind. . . -
On retiring to bed at night, I worild lie upon niv back (as
described in Thc Plojection of rtc Astral Bod), witi,ro piilo* orrd",
my head, my body-legs and arms-straigLt in line.'. . . I then
made a mental effort to take my mind tompletely away from
my body. . . . I deliberately tried to imasine'mrr.if o"t ia.--"
physical body, as I have mentioned. . .". t did ,rot i^""i"L
qyj"{.".r going anywhere or doing anythirrg. . . ."
. _Mr.,Sidney tells tha-the tried to bui'id ui the Ystress', as explained
in the above-mentioned book, concentrating nightly on'his viiualiza-
tion. He says:
_. '1I-.[iSIt- after night, night after night . .I continued. .. .
.t rnally, I
began to doubt t}at you knew what vou were tallins
about, and decided that I was i+,asting my timei . . . Th.;;;:
night-about a fortnigtrt
Sfter I started"thij routinejrh;rp."a!
I suddenly discovered that
I wiu up above mv bodv.'l^ookins
directly down upon it! It was lyrni on the b6d as cle""Iv i
9"y. I had a good searching loo[ at"the face in particular,'and
tilgught how rtrange. it was to be now Iooking at mysc[, jrist as
other people see me. Lggli.g .t mlsclf this wai was viry ditr"rer,t
trom looking at myself in a mirror. . . .
Ile .experience wrur very clear and definite indeed . . .
nothtng rmaglnary about it . . . far more real than I had errer
anticip-ated. . . . I then thought that I would see if I could move
somewhere else. . . Immediately I found myself ,rrru"o U""n.
down into my phpical body . . . striking n.Jrtt" t."a-,"rr,f,.iJ
I entered and went right through the fuli-lensth of my phvsical
body . . . with a violint shuddering serrsatioi. -. . :-\1vf,;;-iil
was g.one (tJre-sensation) I. was once"more physically ;"k; ;;J
remained so for a short time. -
I know that the experience was an actual fact. . . . I[, on
the other ha.n{,.ryhile
ftioking down at mysel{, I t ."t.rt"i"iJ
any dnubts (yhich I did nott that it was ltre ieat thi"s.
"a th; thc
experiencc of re-entering wourd most certainry have fi-i*t"a
them entirefy. . . . I havc not tried to repeit the exoerience.
. . . I nced no further proof that I am a fpirit . . . 6ut I am

,50 THa PHENoMBNA oF ASTRAL PRoJEcrroN
not especiallv fond of the sensation, and feel that I should learn
more 'about the subject before trying it again, . . . As I am in
business,.please use-a name which no one will recoplnize. . . '"
\]
BXPERIMENTAL AND HYPNorrc PRoJEcrloNs 151
partially spontaneous, it embodies some experimental elements also,
ind for'thlat reason is included in the presint section. . . In part,
the account rcads:

rt '1
I;;p,X"ili*Z"t'"*)'3'
tns nBNf c. cAsE
Made Tests Whilc Projuted.
M. Semjonov is credited with very good judgme-nt b^y. Co-rnillier,
This case, translated from the German, appeared in The National and seems io have appeared at a sCance held by his friends while
of rst FebruarY, 1939. T'he author, Palmer Emerson,
Sbiritualist his own physical body was wrapped in slumberl yet afterward he
savs: "This case is distinzuished by the exactness with which the had no iecollection of his appearance there. He says:
rrlL;."t seems to have olserved his -own psychic processes. and "Latu during the night, I awake suddenly; I am in the mir\lle
exp"eriences; morcover we again meet here an effort to assure him- of the room. I-have an indescribable feeling; at once comfort
seli of his own actualitl by the handling of objects." The case and oppression! Moving forward I notice with terror that-I. pass
follows: throufli the chairs! I look at my bed and behold myself in it!
M. Rin6 C, passed throug,h polytechnical higLr school. and I am-sleeping on my right arm, myldy is drawn PP. -
attainecl the deerel of fjoctor oT Nitural Sciences. The experience look-int-o the mirror and there I see two Alexeis: the one
I
if consciors selfie.rrtrn , has been his repeatedly. One of these standing clothed, but cloudy; the other corporeal, lying down in
exneriences he describes as follows: the niglrt-shirt. The only thought that stirs me, and which- I
' ". . . The feeling of dizziness increased; my consciousness repeat-is this: 'It is ten minutes after twelve. I {9 not}now-why
dim for a morirent, then cleared itself again rapidly' this is.' Immediately, without cause, I think of Trocadero Place.
"erewI *ut standing erect in the room and kne',r'that I was seParated Incredible as it sounds, I am there, right at the entrance to the
from my physicai body' My thinking attained the utmost.clarity' Avenue Henri Martin! Ihe appearance of the square, cold and
I u..ourr'ted to myself completcly"regarding my -condition' I dark under a rainy sky, impresses me painfully.
carefully analyscd my feeling-s and my thoughts and
-was
consc.ious . . . I am in my room again. I think of you (Cornillier) and
of the fict that I was anal\sing them--yes, and r+'as also conscrous instantly I am in your studio. Once back in my room; a strange,
horribli feeling overcomes me, a kind of oppression, with dizzi-
- tfrii consciousness
of itself.
ness. The bod-y in bed seems no\ / more drawn up. . . The
eftf,."gr, it was night, I was seeing distinctly, but not quite
in the sam-e way in which one, during waking- hours, perceives room grows hazy. . , ."
the davlieht. I was wearing no clothing on m,v fluidic body' ' ' ' M. Simjonov sees forms about him; has a radiant vision; sees
I stood Erect and could move forth either by walking or by his (obviouily deceased) grandfather and someone unknown, who
slidine over the floor. are working over him and falls, as if into a hole.
"-?-iru ith pnf*t distinctness rU .fllsb body wlic-h lay..stretched
-out liferless on thc ied, like a corpsC
iyin[ upon its back"'
id; C. lt." a"t.tfues some br ni! teReitions and the experi' THE TURVEY CASE
*.r,t, t " tried while in this condition, for examplewas the voluntary
'obiectivation' of mental images, or concePts. fle never able In his book Thc Bcgimings of Scnship (with an introduction by
t.rio... his phvsical body to move, while out of it. Hc tried to turn W. T. Stcad) Mr. Vincent Turvey tells of some of his out-of-the-
on th. electiic'switch sei.eral times but saw no illurnination occur. body experiences, and comments at length concerning them. His
g; u",o-t"ecestion he rryoke hirnself gradirally and without agitation 'trips' aie of the ordinary varietli but some of his comments are,
; th;;k;#;i" ao*., his experiencE, then went to sleep again for it seems to us well worth quoting. He sap in part:
two hours longer. ". . . In the mental-body-travelling, the 'I' aPpean to leavc
the 'me', and to fly through space at a velocity that renden the
The following odd case is from the French, and-is the,exPed-tn:e view of [h. p"s.d" or.. very indistinct and blurred. The
'I' "oorrtry
bc about two miles above the earth, and can only
of Vtl-ai.*"i Sirnjonov, a writer, as given by Corniliier' While appean to
 152 THE PHENoMENA OF ASTRAL pRoJEcTIoN
barely distinguish water from land, or forest from city; and only
then.-if the tracts perceived be faiily large in u"... Sir"U .i"id
or utlages would not be distinguishable. . . .
-seeing-with
. lY-h.1, besides hearing-or the mental body.
the ihen the ,I,"makes use of thi *.a;"#i
'I' also moves matter, ,I,
psychic force, which the appears to draw from the ,r"air-',
wrists or knees as a sort of red, iticky matter (a part of his energy
or 'vitality' body?). At any rate, thai is what ipbeared to haooEi
when, on one occasion, the .f'lifted a bed witiitwo peoot" iriit-
and spoke to them in the .direct, voice. physically'I liave noi
strength, in myself to raise_ a small child. (The peopl6 in bed werc
lour miles away from Mr-- Turvey's physicat boiy.)
,I; ii actually'on the soot.
-In mental-body travelling, th;
,and- sees, and hears, and smells, and uses all thl senses of'the
'me', which remains at home;-although, if physical Ibr;; b;
needed, this is as a rule borrowed frori i tfriia party.
A cord connecting the two bodies is apparent'whenever the
'I' leaves the 'me'. It seems to ioin one body to the other. oassing
from the solar plexus of the olne to the back of the neik'of ttrE
other. It.ir y.y like a spider's cord; but in colour it is silver;
tinged with heliotrope; and it extends itself and contracts in thi
same way as does elastic cord. . . .,,
Mr. Turvey claimed to have controlled mediums in sCances
on.many oc-casions, manifesting through them, and his references
to.'the psyjlic force supplied 5-y the iredium,' were prompted by
this fact. The medium-was, of'course, in trance, his onin spiril
having left his body; but it is interesting to note fh"t *. fra{ in
such case_s, a series of manifestations 5y a liaing communicaior,
,posresi
instead of a dead one. Mr.-Turvey descri'bes this
flrocess of
sion' at some length, and his booki though curious, is worth riadirqg
on that account.
[As to this author's statement that the astral cord leaves uia
the sola-r plexus: I stated in my first book that there may be various
tlpes of proj-ection, but that, in my own case, I had nbt observed
this to be a fact. certain French experimenteis also claim that thi
c.ord emerges from the physical body at the point of the solar plexus.
Be that as it may, I am convinced ihat the cord does not terininate
at the surface of the body, but proceeds inwards to some vital
centre-perhaps the solar ple-xus, p-erhaps the pineal gland, varying
according to^ the nature ol the projectibn. It is quiti potritt" it
"i
the details of th_e-process vary with individuals, .rrd ,r.rh., differing
circumstances, I have stated merely my own impressions and obser'-
vations,.after experiencing-many hundieds ofasiral projections. . . .
I- should be very glad to-hear from any of my readers" on some of
these difficult points.-S.M.l
E,xpERTMENTAL AND HypNoTIc pRoJEcTIoNs t53
Note by S.M. on Yram's book Pradical Asbat projcction.
, Despite the title of this book, and the fact that the maior portion
of- it is devoted to 'the experimental bases' of astral pioieition. I
iiriust confess that tJre net'result of its pe.,rrai i, t" fi.r'" ."'iil"
)imind a certain state of mental confusion and uncertairrtu-ii ,rot
irritation! There is very_ little that is .."tLy ;.*p.ri-."ii: fi ;il
,P:j-::[ y*i,,1:.i1,I:i might have been precise, h; ;"Je.;,
wanders far afield into the realfis or*o.utr u",i-;;;phyril-. ^:''.
there is.much of interest in Ie book, irl riluny *"y,
S:y:::ll
i' ;p#
";;;u".r a-. *i,i,' il;il il;;:' ;;:;:
""a ilil':'#lH
n how,to distinguish between thought forms and' living bein& is
of the most interesting. At the colnclusion of this chalte; i?;;
.
. ". . . After a few experiments it is easy to distinguish between
,' thought forms and living beings who are'already i.u"fopla.-i"
' the maj.ority of cases thought -forms are less vibiant, f"ri u"ti""
, !Il" beings in ewolution. Their magnetism is far t.r, po*".f"i. . . .
When we-dissolve a th-ogg-ht formlthe nrrt tf,i"f ,,i.
; slowing down in the whirling movement of its atloms. ".ii".'ir'"
The shape
loses definition and seems t6 go out of focus. Th" dil;;;i;;;
change, the, image grows smallEr and loses cohesion,
disappears." ""J
nouUy
i,l'.
I Again, in his chapter devoted to the distinctions between dreams
'End true astral projections*and the possibility of illusions on thc
;istral plane-our author has this to say:
i . "Experience-,has^shown.us that the human being is a con-
sciousness capable of living in extremely subtle mattei, in which
-.
he has access to the energy which underlies phe"omena. .:
In.order that he may.keep fiis equilibrium in thii r"pim". *utt.i
ii; tt is necessary to build.up a.syst€m of oscillating energy, capable
of synchronizing with th6 vibiation of the highei pt""E(, i" '"rJ.i
I that the consciousness may discern their iharjcteristics . . .i'
', (p. rr5).
Yram has doubtless. experimented with himself considerably,
luring projection, and.has iom. interesting thiil.
in-gs. As to the objective
indings. "he
i;i;ii ;r-"f ii;
methods of proofl,'he
iroof, warns us that
wurns
tte. sc-gpg_c ..
this kind of experiment gives rise to too many
culties". He is speaking particulirly of the"work u"d.;t"k;;6i
Durvilles (I^e Fint6nc^ici aiaants). .'. . i=n=ir'*uy be t.ue of thl
-nevertiieless it is my'personal beliii
undertaken thus far;
new and positive results
will be obtained'in this manner
; and when this is so, the whole world will believc!
 r spoNTANEous pRoJEcrroNs-DURrNc sLEEp lss
practical in&rmation as to how one might possibly acquire
:ult powers for himself.
z. sPoNrANEous fi, ^ - ely time I -thought I had come upon a book that, by its
$
i title, had thc information which I sought, disillusionment inevit-
ttBJr?"rroNS_DURrNc lably claimed me in the end. It was always the same old story,
I nothing but a narration of, to me,
enviable experiences, with a
conclusion of warnings .about the dangers of tampering with
'fri,{,ii'fii,i,#! psychical powers. Rel"ative to the no s"mall numbir ofbooks
I concerned with the description of occult phenomena, the paucity
1 of p_yctical information is hardly less than appalling.
[This valuable and interesting account, as furnished by Mr. i If it had not been for the undoubtedly-slncere works of
John . H. Watson, of . S_an FranEisco, Cut1fo..rru, rs reproduced
acrbatim-not one word being chang.a. lf.. -W"ii", a.ri*#itl lHereward _Carrington, I feel sure that my scepticism woulcl have
prais_e of all concerned for liis feariessly p.erent.a testimonv. ;ihardened into dogmatic disbelief. As it was, I persisted in my
Naturatly, I have more than tt. ,irriol-lii;;;;i;"'di.,;""" |:reading.and finally came upon your trury
,irca(]rng .an{l Irnauy truly enlrgntenlng
enlightening booli,
Doox,
.
slnce rt verrhes statements formerry made by myself The Projution oJ the Astral Body. Sincerely,'my idmiratiin and
and pubrishli gratitude are boundless.
twenty years_ago. When I asked Mr. lVatson fo. p".riirri."',i
reproduce his letter. which was origina[y it t..ra.d i' I obtained this book from the main branch of the San Francisco
i" uJ.""ni.""irri, ;,Public.Library during the first week of January of this year.
he replied:
rr Your description of tLe cataleptic state ionnected with asffal
, "If you have found my previous letter to be of anv Darticular projectio_n, which- you term astral catalcpslt astonished rne. From
value whatsoever, you.gqe-plrfectly f.ee to ao *;ttr
il;r;;'ffih: my ninth or tenth year, to the present, I have awakened in a
f l::
to Tg. ::qs:rj
usg
the possibiliiy orit, i"tit.oiio'n, r r,uu.
name, since what is written therein
;;;;l.r;;;;; condition absolrrtely analogous to this on the average of, once a
-ol _my
truth."-S.M.] ii ,t.i.i week.

i;
, Many a time have I told my mother and friends of the fact,
but because of my apparent good health (I have never been sick
Here is the original document:
since my sixth year, and then I had but a siight fever) I never
"4rB Hayes Street, sought medical aid, although when this condition first came upon
San Francisco, Cal. me I often wondered if I was developing a form of paralysis.
zoth June, ry38. But the main reason lbr not requiring the iervices of a ihysician
Mr. Sylvan Muldoon.
Darlington, Wisconsin. " was that my mother is a devout Christian Scientist, coniequently
I wgrs told'to forget about it and it would pus urruy oi itsetf"
Dear Mr. Muldoon, . it
never passed away, and in time I'began to accept it
But
Having recently completed the reading of your very interestine as a matter of course, and attributed it to some slight derange-
-book, Thi Case foi Astrit projection,-7-8""t"-'or.d ' ment of the nervous system. So far as I was aware, no ill-effeits
";i ;];;;;:
to your prefactory request thai suchlnformation i.."-*""i"I# , In werg consequent to my physical organization.
connection with the foregoing I will also mention that
to you, to write you concerning my experiences pertaining ir' ilyrng
_
the little credited phenomenon of urt.ll prii.il;...
to
Ii [;;i;;:r;; il flying dreams invariably preceded this
thi-s cataleptic condition. I do
ro wnre or such a matter to one who, becausi of , not recall ever having a frightful falling dreim, however.
his own kntwledge Four nights after reading Thc Projection oJ thc Astral Bodl
of the truth of the subiect, can lencl v'iI"'rerr^r'
,yrrrp"ih"ti. utt."tio. to it.
perusal of the detailr'to h.ri"*.'-e (IIth January) Iawoke in an absolute rigid condition, and
Although I am b-ut twenty-six years old, I have for the jmmediltely I recalled your statements concerning astral cata^
^rwelve years been deeply interested in subiccts of last Iepsy, of how this condition was,.conducive, if noi essential, t.r
nature. But despite my-interest, I had no dehnite
an occult i astral projection. But for some reason or other, I became fearful
the veracity-of what t h"a ,.ra] N;; i, .ii,fr. "*"i.,i""]i ; of aggravating a condition r,r'hich, I reasoned to mysel$ may
that I *".., ;H;;i; not have been astral catalepsy, and so within a few moments
searched through with such h;;;; Jid t was restcred to my normal condition.
154
"r,"o.rnt..llii
156 THE pHENoMENA oF ASTRAL pRoJEcTIoN
All the follorving day I vowed to myself that, come what
m-ay, the _next time I became cataleptic I
would avail myself of
what might be an opportunity for istral proiection. Six'nights
passed and on the seventh I awoke at what-I imagined to- be
about two or three o'clock,in the morning. I was cat;leptic once
more, and although the fanciful thouglit of rigor moriis flitted.
across my mind, I did not besitate for more than a second or
two. I steeled my determination and thought of myself as leaving
my physical body. And as surelt as I wrile these lines I moaed oit
"f19^
*7 bodl and uprighted in the hallwal adjoining m7 bcdroom! A
distance of about fourteen paswd righi through thc wall
that partitioned the hallway
-feer .I had
fron the bedroom.
Exactly as you have dgscribed the process of projection, I
was astrally cataleptic until I was upri[hted. Aftei tfris, I was
Ii"ee to move. I immediately proceeded to do so and passed out
of the house into the back yald, when I suddenly forind myself
being drawn back to the physical body. I experienced no'dis-
agreeab-le repercussion, just a gentle settling down into the
physical organism.
Although my physical eyes could discern nothing in the dark-
ness that surrounded me, when I was projected I could sce
clearly in a sort of silvery light. My astral visi6n easily penetrated
the physical matter that constituted the walls, but'there still
seemed to be the lines of form at points where the walls
terminated.
I haae expeimced thirtcen conscious projutions, and with-
{" -ull,
out being more prolix than I cannot avoid, in-order to be clear,
I describe one or two more of them, before giving a gerrerai
summary of the physical sensations I experienced fiillowing the
projections.
^ My sixth projection occurred during the latter part of March.
before_retiring that night, I had-been reading Carrington,s
llr.ortty
Tour- Ps2chic
.Pow3rs and Howlo Deuclop Tham, and ivas impiessed
by the warning in the chapter on astial projection. The warning
was, to forego any projection experiment if things go black. -
I went to bed witlr the hope of projecting, and, is I always
do when- this though-t is uppermost in my mint, Iay'on my back,
breathed- deeply a few times, relaxed, and imagined a double
of myself floating !'ngitudinally above my physicil body, as you
have pictured it. Soon I went to sleep. I awakened some time
later in complete darkness, was catalCptic, and at once desired
to leave my body.
This time, instead of floating out slowly, as in all preceding
exp_ericnces, there was a startling 'click' in the region ofhy head,
and- I was projected with amazlng velocity directly throigh thi
ceiling and out into vast space. As fantastic as it'may sound it
SPoNTANEOUS PROJECTIONS-DURII{G SLEEP 157
' seemed I actually felt the rushing of the air in my face for the
moment. For a few seconds there seemed to be a tremendous
shower of scintillating silvery light around me. Then a heavy
darkness began to envelop me, at which time I recalled the
warning of Carrington and at once desired intensely to return to
my body. This is the only time I ever experienced an unpleasant
sensation on re-entering my physical bodn but even then it was
by no means unbearable-a sensation like a shock of electricity,
followed by a veritable fireworks of shooting stars.
In all my projections, sleep preceded the catalePtic .state,,
and that no doubt enabled me to project, with the exception of
the two which were induced without the interval of slumber.
I conceived the idea of closing my eyes and visualizing some
object in my bedroom, such as the bedroom door, then, in my
imagination, I attempted to identi$ myself with it, by_drawing
-door
the closer and iloser until I seemed to be merged into it.
By this method I was twice able to produce astral^catalepsy,
and in each instance I felt an odd clirk in the region of my heart,
identical with the click that preceded the projection described
above, but, unlike that singular projection, I floated out slowly
in these two instances.
Now to describe the physiological effects that followed my
proiections, which, if others have described their experiences
icc-urately and completely, I feel must differ in certain details
from most others.
In most instances, immediately after recoinciding with my
physical body, I experience a powerful influx of s-exual energy.
j\na i., connection with this I ian well understand the warning
of many theosophical writers that if one be not continent, and
vet attimpt occult development, he is liable to excessive sexual
indulgencis. Perhaps, and it seems quite li\gty 1o my-mind,
there-may be moie than the elements of Hindu mythology
behind thi: Yoga concept ofthe psychic centres known as chakras.
May I not] quite ,n.onsciousiy, have stimulated the region
correspbnding to the Svadisthana chakra? Profuse perspiration
has foilowed in seven cases out of my thirteen conscious projec'
tions, and in all, the beating of my heart became so audible, so
definitely pronounced, thatlt was startlingl there seemed to be
no acceieration or retardation of action. I especially mention
this, because normally I find it difficult to detect the pulsation
unless I place my hand over that region.
Althoirgh I hive always possessed an abundanc-e of vitality,
a noticeabi=e increase generally follows a projection- In fact, once
I became so chargedlo the point of exaltation, I felt as if the
oossibiliw of levitation were not far remote.
' You iecall. that I mentioned two instances of catalepsy with'
158 THE PHENOMENA oF ASTRAL PROJECTION sPoNTANEOUS PROJECTIONs-DURTNG SLEEP 159

out the intervention of sleep. The physical sensations accomPany- I tried (mentally) as hard as I could to 'throw myself' to move
ing the gradual growth of, or more-aPtly,-ascendehcy of this hei phv,i."r bodv.,.arter.three
.oilditior,] *et. s6 striking that I feel the desire to describe it 'ffif:tl;'l;l""illlr""i'llii*ri;,;
more'fully: a tensity of feeling seeme-d to run along my back, --:;.
conscious eiterLrizatiois and interiorizations, Mrs. Wilcox heard
from the posterior portion of my h-ead, down to the extremities . . . like the rushing of wind' ' ' ' It seemed to start
of my feei. Then, iimultaneously, from all posterior portions of ' "oit.
ti"
ut the
at ilotio* of my lbet
bottom feet and gd stralght
ancl go up tnrougn
straight uP myhead' ' ' '
through my-neaq'
my body, this tensity seemed to Pass throughout the bulk of And. after some fuither effort, Mrs. Wilcox managed,to move "'
illrriff ft".rying nervously downstairs she told her mother what
*v fo.r"'and rise to the anterior, thus encompassing my entire
Uodv in a most rieorous sensation. il;J h"ppen.lt. St" told me: "I had been dreaming; but I knew
the slightest b6dily movement was utterly impossible while I- had been awake. . . ."
----"Si*
in this stite-nature's perfect strait-jacket. On projecting, months later the same thing happened again, and-when
I told my mother she told me-my. 'head was bad', or I had
aside from the very noticeable click in the region of the heart, I was taken
the most conspicuous points of,departure were felt to be at the 6.." atii*ing too much. . Duiing this 'attack'
-. -.
frontal bone ind the centre of the chest, where the fecling of onlv as far as"the ceiling of the room . ' but 'they' took me
t-t ri" tirn"r and returned me three times before I could
move,
being drawn out was very pronounce4. I
AU that I have writtbn in this letter is as emulative, in descrip- ohvsicallv. or could call out' wondered both times
Ifi;.;;'i.;ng for good and if I-would get.back again',' ' .''
tion, of the facts of my experiences in astral projection, as my rn ls'ent' lnd-: ' '
power of mental transcriptio,n , Years passed' Mrs. Wilcox moved to
rl*.,irl*j,lti;s truly, "o"" aiv a lady invited me to attend -,a-meeting of.the Theo-
JouN H, WersoN." ro"ti"ui'societvl I went with her, but I did not even know what
;#^;;;Jih;;'rophy meu',t. At-the h{1, 1fte.r the meeting, {
Here follow several spontaneous cases which are typical, and iirpp.".d to too[ tLrough your book, Thc, Projection '1'*l 4:!::l
'at the same time iliustrative of varying points of interest' in the Body, and to my utte,r- amazement I read, and saw t*y l-l'-lY
course of the narrative. . . . The titles are merely intended to give ;;7.'d. ;it" ihad mvself experienced! I was so surprised
a general idea of the main theme of the projection experience. ;.;;'this ".*irrit-
that I cJuld hardiy expriss myself for days, because
-The first we have entitled- ; I could not Eet it out of my mind' ' ' ' As I hadsuch my projections
matters'.it
;.f";; I-tu*'tt" book, or Lnew anything about about by
i cannot be said that my experiences were brought
. suggestion...."
-Si?r.1fv
after this, Ir{rs. Wilc-ox had another brief.projection
* i If nf,ii,!,,,,, .*";;;;;;.
;'-aih-i;;tt
.(ih-i b;a find'ing herself outside of her bodv she gasped:
'Yiifr?i eet";back intlo
*,rtt g.t intlo my dangerous' I must
my body. This is too dangerous'
"Thirty-six years ago, when I was twenty-seven I left my
#r g*-Luct.
gcf uacK. Myihildren.".g+
lYry llllrurLrr T:. . . .: she sensed a Presence
A"S:T".',:T:9,,1_!
body for the first time and retained consciousness " writes Mrs. i-,rri.r, rp.t. io herand said: "Do not be afraid. 1:,: yiil g:t-P:},
A. W. Wilcox 6f --, Chichester, England. "I knew nothing i;;;r.'il n"ished with your time on earth yet' We have brought
about spiritualism at that time and being the breadwinner # ;;;;;; h;;;: ;rd if vou want to meet vour husband.vou-"
of the family, it was a case of work all day and get right to bed t '- B"l-6.f*e'the voic6 had finished, Mrs' Wilcox was "w-orrying
at night. I was always tired out. . . . .".;;i ;hild...t-"tdrvas afraid to ieave themand l j 3id l^h:ii$
I went
' I was so fatigued that finally I was obliged to give up and ;il;; ;;il;;it; like uir going through me back
rest in the afternoon. . Almost as soon as I reclined I found into my bodY. ."
--'-Aii(.;tt'Mrs.
myself foating right up out of m2 bob. . . . I thought I was dying Wilcox does not mtntion it, the *tiltt .1lT::
and begged so hard to get back, on account of my children. ,. . . f.o* fr.. .1"o.r.rt that she must have been subject occasionally to
soells of suspended animation, and that during some ot those sPelts
I was terribly frightened and gradually saw myself coming back
into my body . . but I could not move and presently found sire e*peti.itced projection. She tells horv, on several :cc,aslon:3
myself going out again. . Then I went back a second time she "slEpt for as long as three days and three nlghts, as lI oeao' ' ' '
but wai still helpless to move. . . . The third time I went back In another Place she goes on to say:
ili
l:,i
I
160 THE PHENOMENA oF ASTRAL PROJECTTON
"One day a friend asked me !o 8o to the 'Pictures', which
were nearly'opposite my place of business. I did not want to
go . f 6ia'not feel weli enough, and my doctor had warned
ire to keep quiet and get plenty ofrest. . . . But I went and felt
verv ill ali tLe time. .-. . When we came out I fell over on the
strett, pulling my friend over. . . . I felt my-se-lf going- out-of
my bociy buicould do nothing about it. . . . My first thoughts
lwtrite ii this state) were of my little son who was ill and could
not get along without me. . .
A policeman came up and a crowd collected about my body.
A lady pushed through saying 'I am a doctor,'and began to
feel mv'pulse. She ihook her head and said, 'Send for an
ambulinc'e-she is dead'. . After some minutes I saw my little
son pushing through the crowd to see what wa!-ggl!-g on, as
little boys wiU. Wfrin he saw my body there he said; 'Oh-!hat's
my mother!'
' And
at that very moment I went back into my physical body
again. . The doctor said: 'This is certainly-a-mir-acle'.-I had
bien thinking of my son, and it was as though his love for me
had called me back. . . . They put me in the ambulance and
took me home. . . Most of the people who were there are still
living and can verify this account. ' . ."
THE HALDEY CASE
Projuts to Placp Latcr Yisited Physically.
Mrs. H. F. Haldey, who lives some distance from London at
Dresent. states in her account that she has had several out-of-the'
Lody e*periences, and from it we quote a few paraglaPlrs:-
' "I'had an experience about seven years ago I will
-which
explain as best I ian. . . . I lived some distanc-e from London,
ag \.{-, I went to bed and was resting peacefully when I had
a fceling as 'f somcone were tr2ing to push up n7 led frgm underncath.
This aioused me and I looked under the bed, but found no one.
. . . I could not understand it and went back to bed again. . .
When I was about half asleep I felt the same pushing upward
from beneath . and the next thing I knew -f was fioating thrg-uSh
ihe air. . . . I did not have wings though. . Then I realized
soon that I was in London. . . ."
Mrs. Haldey states that she saw people along the streets and
gives other details, then tells how she went into a certain-strange
f,ouse which she had never seen before. While there she took notice
of the varioug rooms, walls, furniture, and its general aPpearance.
She goes on to say:
''"Several
months afterward I had the pleasure of going to
sPoNTANEOUS PROJECTTONS-DURTNO SLEEP 161
London on a special mission which required that I go t9 a. certain
house. . . . Imigine my amazement whe-n they op-ened the. door
and I walked iito the'very room I had been in while out in my
spirit that night. Everything was just as I had seen it while out
of my body!
I'have since had several more of those experiences and I
find that, no matter how long afterward it is, I sometime later
visit the place materially where I project to. . . . Sometimes it
is many months afterward. . . ."
The iubject adds the following interesting information in a
oostscriot to her letter:
^ "fuot many weeks ago I had an awful experience. After tr
had been out I got frightened. I wartgd to ,return. I saw my
body lying on th; bed ind was afraid' I stood at the bottom of
the bed aid *as reaching at my body, trying to get back, but did
not seem to move eithir way. I was so frightened. . . . Just
then I heard a voice which said: 'Don't be afraid,' and in'a
moment everything was well and I returned ir,rto myself. . . .
But I never want-to get caught with that 'feeling' again. . .,.
At another time I moved upward and it seemed as thouglr
I were bouncing against the ceiling of my bedroorn,-just as though
I were a balloon foating about, and all the time I could see my
body lyins in the bed- below. . . . Sometimes the experiences
... ro .ricJ that I do not want to come back, but at other times
thev are terrible. . . . From the bottom of my heart, eyery word
I till vou here is true. . . ."
fAside from my own experiences of this same nature (that is,
visit'ins places duiing projection, later visited physically) I have
in mv"retords many s-iniitai reports. Those who have read my book
Thc'Case for Astral'Proiection will recall the instance in which Mrs.
Lenora Biewster, of New Hampshire, projected and visited a house
which her cousin later purchased, and which she had ncver seen'
until two years later, when she visited her cousin and discovercd
she was physically in the house where formerly she had been
astrallv. th6se reiorts verify claims made by me years ago. For
furthei information on thii subject I refer my readers to Thc
Proiectionof the Astral Bod2 (pp. zzz-5) "Enacting Future Events
in ihe Astral Body".-S.M.]
'iir7r6;,Y",;r;
':r,
Mrs. Catherine Fisher, who lives in a town in New South
Wales, Australia, apparently has had a number of projections
which usually occurrli during a state resembling suspended anima-

162 THE PHENoMENA oF ASTRAL PRoJEcTIoN
tion. It{rs. Fisher often found herself in this 'corldition' after a
period of sleep.
' "I had the experience repeatedly for a number of years,"
says Mrs. Fisher, "and I can best describe it as 'inability to
physically awaken'. . . . It
was very alarming. . . . My distress
was'terrible. . I knew all that was going on around me but
could not move (when inside my body) or control my physical
faculties. Often after failing to 'arouse physically' in my
terror / would get up out of m2 body, leaoc it l2ing thcre, and Jollow
membus oJ the fanily through thc house, cr2ing and shouting at thcm
to arouse mc from my condition . . . but thcl could neur hcar mc. . . ,
It was tenifying to bc locked outsidc of m2scf likc this. . . .
As a rule, when I did gain control of my body it was because
my husband, son, or daughter, would discover the 'spell', and
bring me back by quietly talking to my physical self. . . . They
were used to my having these spells and never aroused me sud-
denly. . . . They always told me that I could not have been
going through the house screaming, because while I claimed to
have been doing so, my physical body was lying still, that I.was
asleep. . . . I know that, but I was awake going about the
house while I was physically asleep! They could always tell by
my breathing and general physical appearances when I was in
the 'condition' . , . and they would at once assist me. . . .
If it was during the night, would gently keep calling my name.
Often they would have to unlock me, as we called it. To do so
they would gently turn me over and unfold and open my arms
. . . I would then gasp a deep breath and slowly recover. . .
I would feel ill all day after oni of these experiences. . . ."
Mrs. Fisher states that she discovered a method of eliminating
this 'inability to physically awaken' as she calls it, by suggesting
to herself the exact time she wanted to awaken, prior to going to
sleep.
"It was very easy to do this. .'. . I would look at the clock
and state just when I was to wake up, or how long I was to
stay out. . . . When that time arrived I would awaken without
difficulty. . . . The clock did not necessarily have to be in my
bedroom or even within hearing distance . . . I tested this out
time and again and had good results. . . .
But," continues Mrs. Fisher, "if I did not get up at once,
after arvakening, I would often drowse off into the cataleptic
spell. . . . No one could ever tell me what this was I experienced.
. . . The 'state' would often come upon me when awakening,
if I laid down for a while in the afternoon, and sometimes Dalora
I got to sleep. . . I consulted doctors and got no satisfaction.
. . . Finally, an osteopath whom I consulted told mc that my
ffi--'.;'t,.,
spoNTANEOUS PROJECTIONS-DURINC SLEEP 163
trouble was that my spirit could not get back into my body
orooerlv. . That wis the first time I ever talked to anyone
irt 6 t"i*.a to have light on the subject' ' '"
Mrs. Fisher states thatl at the time she is about to exteriorize,
rt"-fiiJ feels a gentle rocking scnsation. . and "from the.just
rocking
f""1i"g to findin[ myself ,rpot my feet, -I can never.tell how
io"s ih" time is;. Sire tooi< uP tIe study of spiritualism,. because
of[", i*p"riences out of the body; the latter were not the result
tri.iristic study, and were not therefore broug\ about-by
"i-t"i
sue;.sti6" from someihing she read or was told' She further
;;??;i;h"*, one night, *hil. h.t husband was aw'-ay, she was left
in charee ol a conslderable sum of money, and Gared someone
misht a"ttempt to rob her.
----'-_-"5o
I'decided to remain awake all night," she continues,
"and be on the alert. . About + a.m'I started to fall asleep,
.rrd tit zututlv enough I knew I was going to sleep-that I was
asleep I. . and thal at the same time I was awake and floating
in the room over that sleeping body ' ' ' at'q try as I
could to get back it was imp-ossible-... . . I knew-pY trody was
"rorira
i" ttre 'c6ndition' and that-I would never be able to awaken
it ii mvsetf. At the same time I remember thinking, 'you tired
U.ay, you don't seem to care ifwe have burglars or not!'
I knew iroh experience that if I could get someone to call
""i"fa
me I could get baik. But my two children were fast- asleep in
their cots in"the same room. . . . I was in a terrible state of
. . I tho,,rght, 'Oh-if I could o-nly get my so.n to.call
-i"a.for .me
out I could"gei back'. And then the most amazing thing
i .rit t"* happenedl my boy sat up in his bed and said: 'Mother''
. . . Atot i 'went tacki, and anslvered him' ' '
"i adds:
Mrs. Fisher "'
"When I am travelling about out of my body like this, the
walls and doors are rrassed through as through oPen space; but
I iollow my habits too, and if I approach a door, I reach- out to
t* to o"""i it. and whiie'I do not db so, *y desire to get through
,.1-, 6 take me through before I can oPen it' ' ' .''
THE KUCHYNKA CASE
"A Sccptic is Coruinccd,"
Professor B__-, of Ledec, Bohemia, had the followiag experience
which was reportei by Dr. Kuchynka. The latter tells us that one
wt itl P.ofessor B- was in his studio, he was -reading
""""i"g,
f.o*,iloot which explained how to project the astral body; an9'
;ii[ h; hud t o belief'whatever in such i phenomenon, he thought
164 THE PHENoMENA oF ASTRAL pRoJEcrroN
it would be amusing to- try.som-e of the prescribed instructions,
p:1ell as a pastime. So he tried them, withbut success, and finaily
laid the book aside. . .
.."I .entered my^sleeping r-oo1n, began reading another ,.The
while in bed, and fell asleep," Professor B-
book
c6ntinued..
next moment I awoke, if from a heavy dream. My eyes *ere
closed and I felt that -as
I was not in my'former posiiion or, *,
back, but that I was hovcring in a hoiizontal p6sition *itn *{,
face turned downward.
I am a painter, and in consequence of my trained memorv
for images, can afterward recall into my'consciousness thl
-I I have- seen, and I can remember,
details of what
as if I h;d
just seen it today, the following picture: a plain, brfehtlv lish;;J
slecping room; beside the bed i imall tablti with . sLsr'of ;r.tl"
and a.ticking timepiece; a carpet; and on the bcd ryt iwn countcnaic
with-closed q-as, with-the features of a corpse and teeth clenched
in the death struggle.
My first thought was that I had slipped out of the endless
stream of life and death. This feeling thit I could not dic at all,
called forth in me an infinite horror.-The thought came t; ;;
of how my physical body would be found and b"uried and ver i
would not be dead and unable to tell anyone!
Superhumanly, I strained my will-power to the uttermost:
then I
saw the familiar ceiling and was lying in bed. . . .
According. to my habit, I tried to it ail logically. At firsi
I reasoned thus: I -explain
had probably falien asleep and had a severe
dreamr- but three reasoni convinced me that iuch could not havi
been the explanation:
-. First, never before had I been able to picture myself with
closed eyes.
Scgond, while still in _the first position after waking, I was
conscious thatfron abooe I had seen beside the bed a faiiin book
with one leaf pinched together. It had fallen down after I had
lost consciousness. From my position in the bed I could not have
seen it, but in the above destribed position, I could see it_that
is, from above, looking downward.'(I afterward found that the
book actually did lie in the place and in the condition I had
seen it.) Moreover, I endeavoured to obtain the view of the bcd
and the slfeping room as I had seen them during exteriorization,
and found that this was completely possible, oo[, it t laid mvseli
on.a board hung horizo^ntally-aboutihree-fourtlis of a metre (not
quite two and a half feet) above the bed.
Third, in fear of falling asleep again, I made a drawins of
m.lself fr.om- m-err.rory, that is, I made a drawing of my phyfical
self as it had been shortly before the exteiiorizatioir. 'And
in so doing I remembered that I had seen a small rpeck in
spoNTANEous PRoJECTIoNS-DURTNG SLEEP 165
one of my clenched teeth. I thought, 'I know nothing of a defect
or ofa fiiling that had dropped out. I did not see it before going
-I
to bed'. So looked in the mirror and saw that thc speck was
actual$ thae. lt was no defect in the tooth, however, but a kernel
from a seed-cake I had eaten before going to sleep, and which
had adhered there.
Neither before this nor since has anything suPernatural
occurred to me or to anyone in my family; nor wcre there any
nerve-ailments or tendencies present. . . ."
,i
,fi
s
fi
.$t
Some Odd Obsenatiotts.
#, Under date of zTth June, 1938, I received a communication
{,,
f from Miss Jocelyn Pierson, editor of the Journal of the American
p. Society for Psychical Research, in which she said, in Part:
fl "In our March issue we discussed your work in astral pro-
jection. . . . The enclosed letter appears to be a projection case
*,
j!, . . . so I am sending it on to you. . . . The man in question,
Fred Sprenger, is a German, about thirty-two, who was a baker
$,1 by profession, until he came to this country, where he developed
i9)
an occupational disease and had to give up his baking. . . .
fft He does-not believe in spiritualism and is opposed to the study
'il''
from that point of view. . . He came to us through reading
our discusiion of your work. . . . He has since questioned his
children on the 'ghosts' that they think they saw, and reported
to me. . . . Should you be interested further, let me know. . . .
I am just off to Europe for two montls to study the situation of
psychical research abioad, so if I do not reply at once you will
know it is because I am away. . . ."
The remainder of Miss Pierson's communication is not relevant
to the matter here under consideration, so I omit it; but in t}re
paragraphs which follow, I make excerpts from the letter which
Mr. Sprenger sent to her, and which she sent on to me:
"Certain things have sometimes happened to me which I
would like to have told a doctor about," saye Mr. Sprenger,
"to find out what was the matter wit} me . . . but I thought
it would sound so ridiculous that I never have done so. . . .
But the reading of sometling like this in your Journal promPtr
me to tell it to you.
I am a great believer in science and scientific thought and
have thought much about things like space, time, ethics, and so
forth. . . . I am also a composer of chess problems, and several
of my compositions took prizes. . . . My experiences consist of
166 THE PHENOMENA Or ASTRAL PROJECTTON
the following: I feel tired and lie down on the bed. . . . After
a while something seems to happen to my head and body.
It seems to me that my body gets sort of stiff. . . . What
happens to (or in) my head is hard to describe. . . The inside
seems to be held as if in a vice, and a feeling of fear takes hold
of me... . . I.try- to get r1p from my bed, brlt only succeed if I
do so after f notice these symptoms. . . .
If -immediately
I wait a little longer I find it impoisi6le to do so (get up
out of bed) no matter how hard I try. .-. . And I try uery"ha.d,
because I want to get rid of the ieeling and the fear ihat is
gnppingme...."
- No doubt Mr. Sprenger refers to his 'astral head' and self in
the next paragraph, although he does not say so:
'14"d l,try so hard to fet up .
-be able and ufie. u while I seem to
to first lift my head and then get up from the bed entirely.
. . . I then can and do walk throueh the apartment, but it
does not seem like walking, and it is-more as though ldo not
have to walk at all to get iound the apartment. . . ] This seems
always to be the case. . . . What happens after that I do not
know, because I have no recollection of going back to bed
agaln. .. .
I seem to knowthat my body is lying on the bed when I am
walking through the apartment, or ii is- as though for a second
I am going IIie lightriin_g to lie on the bed, uid th.r, am up
193n.-. . Or perhaps I am in both places at once! . . . It ii
difficult to explain. .
.Anyhow, {! this starts at the moment when I finally seem
to b-e.able to lift-my head, and if that did, not happen I know I
would get up (physically). . . I can't say how'f know, but I
know. . Another thing which might be connected with this
it *?l ."y wife and two sons have seei a 'ghost' standing by their
bedsides. .
I am thirty-two vears old now. The first time I ever had
this experienc.e was when I was seventeen. . . . Last night I
had. the experience a-gain, and today I feel tired and lazy, ihich
is always the case alter it happens. . Sometimes I have the
experience v-ery. often, and at other times not very often. . . .
I surely would-like to know what it all means and will appreciate
l!_r..y much if you will give me your opinion. .. . i'do rrot
to tell all thii, as-you might think theie is something wrong
like.
with my mind. . . ."
subsequent statements made to Miss Pierson and myself
- IIo--Sprenger,
Fy Y,.. I quote a few additional interesting points here,
ln aoDrevratecl torm:
"I fell asleep about twelve-thirty. Itseemed to me to be
about three-quarters of an hour later when I experienced thc
spoNTANEous pRoJEcrroNS-DURrNc sLEEp 167
fecling_of {""t. ._. .I was half awake. . . .I tried to move my
hcad. (This I alwaystry to do because of the fear; it seems i
am tryrr1g to move my _head to a point where I can open my
eyes, so f_can^see.around the room and find out if there ire any
grounds for_fear.)_ I always do this when I project my astral
body. . . . [Mr. Sprenger explains his sudderi uie of the term
'pr9:.9t my astral body' by saying: "You see I have already
picked up_ sg1ng technical names hom the literature yor, reni
me. . _. .l'] "It is at this point that l', leaves the body and moves
around the room, seeing with its eyes. .. .,'
He continues:
"It is always with great exertion that I am able to. move
my hcad _ever a little, or any other part of my body, which
seems to be in a cataleptic $tate. . . .-"
He observes further that he thinks he is in his physical body
when he gets up from,the bed, but he really is in his istrat bod|
and his physical body has not moved at all.
. In another place
he says:
"I tried to move my head. . . . This broke the spell, so to say.
. . . I was able to note two things. First, that I did not move
my (physical) head at all. . . . The feeling I have had when
loving my head. is like the sensation of a wooden peg, tightly
fitted into a hole in a plecg of wood, which, when one po*eiiutly
turns the peg aroun_d in the hole a little at a time, produces a
grating-noir". , . . This noise is produced by strong-little jerks
at the back of my head and neck. . . .
_. .The second thing I noticed was that my mouth was open.
This was a surprise to me as I always thouf.ht that I had ilept
yth my mouth closed. . . . And I was brEathing deeply . . .
there was a vlry fine mist-like material which seeired tb go out
about a yard from my mouth and rise two or three feet with each
breath. . . ."
Another excerpt from Mr. Sprenger's records:
"On lst July, for the firsd timE, I consciously went out of
my oy1t apartment. . . . My spiritual self had been going
around inside my apartment. . . .-I walked back to my bedioori
door. I wondered to myself if I could go through the door, when
instandy_the door ru.shed right up to me and I went through
it. . . . I saw the light in the hall and a man coming up t[e
steps. . . Immed,'ately I rushed back again, this time loing
-.
through the door backwards.
It does not necessarily have to be night when I project my
astral_body. It has happened to me many times in the daytimi.
. . But I cannot do it any time, I want to. I always have to get
tired. . . . Then when I lie down it happens by itself. . . .
ve-ry
I havc never seen a spirit guiding me in theie projections, but
 J
168 THE pHENoMENA oF ASTRAL pRoJEcTroN
spoNTANEous pRoJEcTIoNs_DrrRrNc sLEEp
once it to me that there was sorneone present. . . I have
secmcd
169

had many flying dreams: . . . I want io say that f . absolutelv possession of the property, Lady B- was still inhabitinE the
Know when I am dreaming, and when I am projected.
ii place. She told me that if I
had no objection, she wouldgive
is-as different as sleeping urrt b.;ng u*utJ. . . .',
. -. me a room which she herself had been occupvinE and whlch
- Mr. Sprenger statei tiiat on or.'o.""rlon, r{hen he awoke
night, he iatt i" ,electric p.i"[tir;;';;;s ;ir"."rs], his body, at
had,. for some time past, been haunted by' a iuoman who
continued to appear there.
which
increased until the 'full power was turned on'.
. . . He found himself B.ejn-g q_ui1e- sceptical about such matters, I replied that I
in the.first stages of projection u.,d ionil;;;, should be delighted to mak-e the. acquaintance of tlie ghort, . . .
"I seemed to see somebo{y in front of me. . . . This form I went to sleep in the room, but did not ree any ghost.
retreated and I wanted to follow it. I did, and very Later, when my wife arrived, she was ait6nished when she
were rushins through space, the form always-i, i.Jr;;;.';;
rho.tlr-*. recognized the house as the one ofhcr dreams! She went all over
tne same drstance.... Suddenly I stoppeil; this was u.;;;: it; all the details corresponded with those she had so often seen
panied in sleep. But.wherr she-went back, down into the drawing room
-by 91" of those shocks I'get tfi.i'.,gr,'the
--"-' head.:.;;;
in a little while I awoke again in dJ.,i again, she said: 'But still, this cannot be the house Lor""i"
-"
dreams, _because there ought to be a succession of rooms tha't
. .[These are some of the hi[hlights from Mr. Sprenger,s testimonv
which he has tried to explain"in r"sti.h,-""J';tlil i;;;;;#;;tl are missing here', She wal told that the rooms actually existcd,
ated. This accounts for'the disharirony l"1fr" p..r.rrtutior, but that one could not reach them through the drawing-roo-.
fr"i..1 When they were shown to her, she remlmbered .uch'orre oi
them clearly
She said, however, that it
seemed to her that one of the
i"Xi,r"6"ir;',ili,, bedrooms was not used- for
ft was.again explained to -this
purpose when she oisited it in slup.
her fhat this room had not former'ly
_^_-!Hltl:
possrDle
it is my major.purpose
to rnstances
to confine myself as much as
in which the subjects themsirves have had -a
been a bedroom, but had been changed into one.
Two or three days later my wile and I visited Lady B-.
consciousness of being outside-tir.i. Since they were unknown to each other, I introducJd them.
!,tyriJ bodies, l-f..i'ii"i
th.e following case is, t"o_say the t".rt, .irg!.riive Lady_ B- c,ried out in amazement: ,Wiry-you are the lady
of thc fact that the
,* y"y^have hel'nled the dwellin'S i;'h.; p.oiected ;;r;;'b;;; who has been haunting my bedroom!",
wnrcn, oI course, rs the- astral body in a semi-conscious
conditio"n.
The case is from the Reaue dis Etudu ir*rn;qirr-iJi;l:'Th; The case of Mrs. Brewster, given on pp. 70, 7r, 7z of Thc Case
narra_tor_(fictitiously called George p. Hare, ui,a
trro*i ;;;(;r;i" for Astral Projection,.is similar io the foregoing, 'except that Mrs.
Py M.- Cisar de Vesme) ..po.t?d 1t.-."r1,-*i,f,'i'""ri-nr_""',# Brewster was conscious of being outside [.. 6-oav ,iritine o
from the other person concerned. Again i;;;; dwelling later.-oc-cupied. And o; pp. r 13, r r4 of th."ird
lellelto accept this
not *y
as bona fde evidence oT projection ;ilir;;;;i
ffi:J ,urn.
is the usual "Wilmot Case" in *hi.h-dreoin-bodv proiection "oir'*"is
body..It miy.not ha"e be"e", u"i-i'r.p-a[". the case as bossibr, obvious: Mrs. Wilmot believed she left her body an<i visited her
rnvorvrng semr-conscious (dream) projection._S.M.]. r husband on board a ship a thousand miles away, *hile ai ihi
same time Mr. Wilmot dleamed she was visiting Lim; while Mr.
Says Mr. Hare: William Tait saw her at the spot while fully iwake'and at thi
"Some time ago, my wife dreamed on several occasions identical time.-S.M.
,-
nouse wnose rnterlor-ar-ran_gement she was able to describe
of a
all its details, although-she i'ad no idea *trere ttis h.;r;;;ilJ: in
..,. Later, in 1883, -I leased f.om Lady B , for tf,"
a nouse ln the mountain-s of Scotland, surrounded by "uir-I
-S."ti#,';;;i
hunting a,a;,, C#|,,)iX; :;, ffii;, p0,,,, .,
I1d_::* j:hing.takes..Irfy ro.,, *ho *L, ii.." i"
the matter, without my wife or f ever ,..i"g th. iiour; -had-In-January r89o, at the age of twenty three, Dr. C. E. Simons
::11-C.:l
rn questron. the enperience which follows. It is given in his own words, as
W"hen I went there alone later, to sign the contract and take . t&c thc discussion of the astral cord in Iiz pniccrion of Asbal Body. and ajso
ia conncction with Mrr. piper,s mcdiumship ia Tii-Casci; the Arl;;"p;r;Xi;.:s:tr.
170 TtrE ptTENoMENA oF ASTRAL PRoJEcTIoN
rccorded in the S.P.R. Journal for 1894. At the time he was studying
medicine.
"I felt in the condition of one who is suffering from a night-
mare," said Dr. Simons. "I was incapable of moving in any
direction and my hands and,feet seemed tied. I could move-my
eyes on all sides, but was unable to oPen or close my eyelids.
I'was fully conscious of what wuut Passing around me.
I saw ihe clock. It was three foity-nine in the afternoon. I
looked at the desk at which my friend H- was writing, observ-
ing that he was taking not€s on ttre treatise Mcdical Mattcr. For
ab*out three rninutes I remained in this condition, while I felt
that an unknown power was paralysing my movements. This
force appeared to be concentraled behind me-,,at a distance of
about a-yard, and at the height of my shoulders.
I asked myself whether I wis dreaming or not. I had a suddcn
consciousness d being diuided into two distinct beings. The second of
these was free andraas able to look atmysclf 'fastened'in my seat.
. . There was an clastic force between thc two which prcocntcd the
bond between them from bcing broken. When the distance between
the two reached a"certain limit, the clastic force which united them
stretched.
Beyond this limit-about two yards-no voluntary.effort on
my pirt could Iengthen the distance between my fluidic body
and my physical body, and when that limit was reached, I felt
a strong sensation of resistance in the two bodies'
This- phenomenon of 'doubling' -lasted about five minutes.
Then the fusion began. I fought against it, finding that I could
hinder it by an effolt of will. Finally, curious to know what was
happening,- I,permitted the fusion, which was rapid, and the
same force which had paralysed my movements, now prevented
me from repeating the 'doubling'. . Some time ago I received a long letter from the ex-medrum,
I had n6 feeliqg of dreaming. The condition in which I found
myself was dissipaied bit by bit-. During the period of.the 'dorrb-
ling', I never ceased to ask myself what was- happeljng, taking
cai'also to observe what was happening about tnc."
"\+ x*T,,ii:"
One of the Inost common convictions which a subject has, when
first awakcning outside his body, is the belief that he is 'dead'.
This is only a iatural reaction-tttly the natural human reaction-
which one should have when suddenly viewing his apparently
lifeless physical self before him.
sPoNTANE,OUS PROJECTTONS-DURINC SLEEP l7l
It is interesting to note that in most instances the subject is
as much concerned over the grief his supposed death will cause
his loved ones, as what he himself will encounter in the land of
the dead. The reader may find many examples which illustrate
this fact. Here is another:
"I was visiting relatives in Long Island," Miss Anna Lilly,
of Massachusetts, told me, "and on this particular night I was
rooming with a cousin. . We talked rather late . . finally
I suggested that we go to sleep.
I had hardly closed my eyes when / felt nyselJ' leaaing mlt
bod2. I saw that I was looking down upon it from up near the
ceiling! I noticed that the eyes were open and staring. . . .
I wanted to get back so badiy. . Then I suddenly realized
what had happened to me-I was dead! I began to struggle.
I kept repeating:
'Oh, I did not want to die! I cannot believe it! I am dead!
There is my body and here I am a spirit and dead!'
Just then my thoughts turned to a sister who was staying in
the next house. , . . I thought what a dreadful shock it will bc
when she comes over here tomorrow morning and finds me dead.
. . Then, all of a sudden, I went back down into my body,
and was alive again. . . . It was an experience I never shall
forget as long as I live. . . ."
As I stated above, it is natural that under such circumstances
the subject should believe himself dead; but it seems paradoxical
that his thoughts are of those left behind, instead of what he has
been taught-that he will enter heaven or hell!
THE MANSTIELD CASE
Ernest Mansfield, dealing with his. own psychic experiences, and
from it I extract those portions of his letter which deal with his
astral projections. I abbreviate all this, however, so as to include
only the essentials. He writes in part:
". . . When about twenty-two years of age, I had a chum
named Jack. We were inseparable. He went to the war as a
volunteer. . . .One night I went to bed at the usual hour.
I had neither eaten nor drunk anything unusual that night. I
was in perfect health. At that time I had not heard of spiritualism
or psychical research.
Suddenly I awoke and found myself standing by the side of
my bed. I looked down and saw my body curled up, asleep.
Then I sensed someone standing on my left side. I turned and
saw my friend and pal, Jack. He looked.vev, vey sad. He said:
112 ?HE pHENotdENA oF ASTRAL pRoJEcrroN
'Dear Ernie, I am dying'. He then asked me to do something for
him. Upon awakening, I could not remember what he had asked
metodo,...
When I saw myself asleep on the bed, there was a mist or fog
ali around me, which prevented me from seeing more than about
three feet ahead of me. . . Subsequently I learned that Jack
had died just about the time he appeared to me, while out of
thebody....
On another occasion, I found myself floating out of the door
of my bedroom. There was a beautiful blue mist or fog all around
the room. I could not see anything in the room except my bed
and my body lying on it. The thought occurred to me that I
was 'dead', and I made a terrific mental effort to get back into
my body, saying,'I don't want to go now; I have work to do!'
The next thing I knew I was back in my body again, and slept
peacefully until morning. . . .
One night, some years later, Mrs. N-, the landlady of
the boarding-house r.r'here I then lived, swears that she distinctly
saw me come out of the front door, on to the porch, then turn
round and re-enter the house. I was at the time upstairs in my
room, sound asleep. A little later I awoke and went downstairs.
Mrs. N- said to me, 'Never come out on to the porch again
without speaking to me !' I told her I had been sound asleep all
the time; but it was evident she didn't believe me. I Iooked up
my 'Psychic Diary', wherein I record some of the psychic experi-
ences that come to me, and verified the details arrd date of the
foregoing occurrence. . . ."
THE HELM CASE
Ascension Prcaented B7'A Slight Cord'.
f-Noteby S.M.] Mr. Theodore Dufur, of Nevada City, California,
has undertaken the colossal task of compiling a compiete study
of religious phenomena. In this project, which will require years,
he welcomes any collaboration from members of the various sects
who desire to read and summarize certain religious works for him.
Naturally Mr. Dufur is compelled to do much research in
little-known religious volumes and tracts. I have known Mr. Dufur
for a number of years, and recently in a communication to me
he said:
"I am sending you a case of astral projection which I came
acrossin a book entitled Thc Isrc of Dioine Looc,by Mrs. Katheryn
E. Helm, a very religious woman now living at Los Angeles,
California. . . These astral projections can be found on P. 535
of the book. . ."
spoNTANEous pRoJEcrroNS-DURING SLEEp 173
One of the two cases sent to me by Mr. Dufur follows:
"There were times when I seemed to leaoc m1 bodl and start
upward . and then find myself back again. . . . Once I got
across the room and started to ascend, but a slight cord hcld me. . . .
I saw them with white apprehensive faces working over my
seemingly lifeless body, and vaguely wondered why they did not
let it rest, and I would just go on. . . .
I can see it all in my memory as a picture yet-the room-
the helpless form on the cot-the dark hair-the deathJike pallor
of the face of my vacated tenement-the anxiety of friends-and
the untiring efforts of the nurse. . . . And I soon found myself
back in the suffering body again. ...
I was faintly surprised that they seemed to'be so glad. . .
but I just closed my eyes wearily, and left it all with the Lord. . . ."
Ttre case which follows is a 'borderline' example:
TlrE_ JOH}iISOIiI CASE
'Dreaming Truc."
"Last winter I had a very queer experience. I had met a
man who made a deep impression on me. . . . One night, soon
after I went to bed, I arose and stood by the side of the bed for
several minutes, gaziog down at mysclf lying there. Now this
was no dream! I, the real I, actually got out of bed and saw
my own physical body still on the bed. . . . I then walked
through the door and took a 'journey'-how or why, or even
where, I cannot say. I only know that for some two hours I
walked and talked with the man who had been on my mind.
We were in some tropical country, and we were both deeply
content. Then I returned and stood by my bedside, looking at
my physical self as I had seen it last. Everything then grew
dark, and the next thing I knew my daughter was calling me.
She was a little frightened as she said she had been trying for
ten or fifteen minutes to awaken me. . . The next time I saw
this man he said, 'I had a queer dream the other night'. I asked
him what it was, but he only laughed and said, 'Oh, nothing'.
Shortly afterwards he asked me if I had ever been in a certain
valley in Mexico, and described the very place I had visited.
Now he did not say so, but I am convinced he had the same
experience to a certain degree that I had. Since then I have on
one occasion sent myself on a journey, leaving my physical self
at home. Can we in some manner, at will, separate our two
selves?
VERA M. Jonusox,"
 SPoNTANEOUS PROJECTIONS-DURING SLEEP 175
174 TIrE. PITENoMENA or ASTRAL PRoJEcTIoN
inclination for psychical study or experiences, according to Dr'
We next quote seve-ral -cases of foreign origin-rcported from was a talented engraver.
France and eliewhere. In the first- - O.i. and
Gibier,
day the subject, J-, felt v-ery-tired, and, on returning
home from'his worli, reclined upon his bed. J-. co-ntinues:
"I felt dizzy and things siemed to whirl around At me' ' ' '
first I
:,Eki;f ;,t:;'ni:;!, Suddenlv I fouhd mvself in the middle of the room'
saw my'body stretched out on-the be-d, perfec.tly- comfortable
of Paris, recently furnished me with the ."a rigih . . only my left hand wis raised, the elbow
Dr. H. Jaworski, beine",jt
propied up, and'my hand held a lighted cigar the-glow
fo[;;i"g ac"count *iti"h I have translated from lvere
the French:
in Biarritz' *-niit iui, "isible in thi half-shadow cast by the lamp shade'
"Ii the year 1936," says Dr' Jaworski, "we
cause, my wifr
"r
I had the feeling that nothing in my whole life before had ever
... f.r inl fit"t"[itt., withouiany aPParentnext so real.
aiuiti n"ri"lf. . . . She found herself iir the room with ---i tno"ght
been
I had died, that-I wps now a- spirit,.and recalled
thc hairdtesser who lives there. Then, turning around, she was withregreimany tasks Ihadleft-uncompleted. . . ' I approached
surorised to see herself still lying in her bed! She is coquetttsh mv boiv and saw mvself breathing, but more than that, I saw
often into the miiror-. . . . The remarks she made *i i"tiiiot. and notited that my -heart was beating slowly and
"if,-i..f.
t., appearance when she looked into the mirror were
"uo"t iig she had ever said about herself before' ' *.i"f.ii, bu[ regularly. I saw my'blood streaming redly through
" ""ytt large arteries.
""iit
Sfri *ot .'up irddenly with a terrible pain in the neck' i tried to turn out the lamp' which stood dangerously near the
I $tudied thi matter and explained this t6 her later in Paris and bed. . . . I could distinctly fiel the little disk u'ith notched edge,
save her some advice.
'--e t."o"a time she found herself in the street' ' She saw but mv finsers were unable to turn it. . . . I stepped in front
of the mirro"r and looked into it, and found that my glance pene-
tt.-".oote passing by, and could hear them talking and knew trated the wall and I could see the rear side of the Pictures an{
*t ifr'.v tiia. . ] . Stt" could see the time by the clock and saw furniture in my neighbour's room. . ' I desired to enter his
that"[ it *.s lo a.m. ' ' . She noticed something unusual, that a
roo*, u.ra at once iound myself transfer-red thither for the first
certain store was closed, and she had never seen the store closed
timi i" my life, where I obseived many things and especially the^
bifo"" ut that hour. . . . Aft". the experience we verified the titles of t.t.t"i books on the bookshelf. . . . The remainder of
exactness of this observation. the experience was very vague. . . . At five o'clock in the morn-
The third time she doublcd, she found herself in a room' ' -' -' ins I lwoke. still lvind ot
-the bed, cold and stiff'
' ' .''
She said she felt very hearry (f.o- hostile environment which
f,re subjeci stated t[at t]re next d1l he found an excuse to
;;d; ih. utmotphe.e in the ioom feel " hearry)' ' '. ' There werc
two old ladies sitting in the room. ' When she came back
ent; his neighbour's room, and found that what he had observed
not was correct in every detail.
itla to awakeri me she found that her hands would
""a
,nukt with my face, and every time she tried to touch
*; th;t ih.. hands) passed througtr. .' . ' Shc read the number
"orrt""t THE COSTA CASE
of
-- a pigi from a 6ook on the table' ' ' Projection Duing Sufiocalion.
Sfi" ifto"gt t that I had given her some suggestions wtich. !3d
caused her t"o leave her bo-dy. . . After these few-'flights' the In his book L' Au deld de la Vie, Professor Ernest Bozzano, the
Dhenomenon never occurred'again. I recall that she was vcry furno.s Italiarl psychical investi gator, tells the .experienle- of a friend
iired after each occurrence. . . ." of nit, u., gitt.'"t, named Joieph Costa. Since the Eon' Ralph
Sfriil.v has"t already detailed the case in The Occult Reaiew, July
roq8.'we ouote his words verbatim:
-'u-"'lt
THE GIBIER CASE
X-ray Vision."
lias," said Mr. Costa, "one stifling night in a. torrid
" Posscsscd
Iune. and I was engaged in preparing to pass an examrnatron
io. tir. work which"ii involvld and for which I had allowed
Dr. Gibier reports this case as it was told to him by- the patient mpelf all too short a period of time. . . ."
.*p".i""ceri it and sought his advice. The subject had no
",fro
 ,76 THE PHENOMENA Or ASTRAL pRoJECTToN
spoNTANEous pRoJEcrroNs_DURING sLEEp 171
The strain on the neryous system through overwork proved ,
great, and Mr. too THE HERBERT CASE
Costa qT t" a"riii-r..; i;i, ;"t";;;;J;; From England to Africa-and Back!
".oq,pt1t.a
i,lifdii'tH:hlllTt,nlfl n::,T*f T;"T.,,3j
him. An aciidental ,irou.*."i oi. ilr;;*rpset $,:,?x: _ - fMo.te
b;r S.M.] In the January issue of True fu$tstic Science
the Iamp which Magaline.,l -r93g
published an ariicre in whlili
to burn, emitting uot"*", oir*oi", I pointed out thit instances
;:f:,,il:a on the floor by his which the double of a living person ippears to a percipient_
-in
cannot always be. credited to thi ilhenon.r'or of astrai p.oj."tiorr,
.[oseph Costa came to, if that expression may be used, in the middle
of tlc lioy at a distancc Jroi, nii as many spiritualists believe.
on the bed.
inirrii'|*miwn;rh rcmaincd. stretched The article was commented upon favourably by Mr. Lethem,
saw," he says, of L.ight, in his z6rh January ediiorial. About two weeks later I
light penetrated 'tt.
of^ -t'f. -,,the furniture around me as if a radiation received a communication from a London man, whom I will here
*oii""i., 1f'tfr. .U;ects to which mv call W. P. Ilerbert, which resembles his real name. He said:
attention was direc.r:d,_as if matter, in-rto.tl
the contact of thought. Lu*, *or.L'u...,;f,
airr"il.i'i,*ff 'rrt "My attention has been drawn to the editorial in Lisht. of
*y i" ay, ." .; ;i), the phys i c a I ror* itr. t rt uo,lt' :ll;:; J i 5,T:Xfl z6th January,.i1 wh-i9! I noticed what you claim regarJfigili;
i1
ot nerves and "; identity or origin of 'doubles, which are seen. . . . i hur."hud
veins in a siate of luminous ,ibr"iior.
"The room itself was nl^u1S9d ;"to tfr. most complete several out-of-the-body. experiences, in which others have seen
as the overturned darkness me at the time. . . ."
lamp'failEd t" tfr."*' , lighi ;;;;;il;
blackened chim.ne.y. In spite oi.tf,ig, i'""La the objects around .Mr. Herbert goes on to. say.that once, while living in England,
.he had
me, or rather their contour., glowing an astral excursion in which he went to a houle i,, N;t;bi;
in-phosphor.i;;;tl;;;: Kenya,.which was entirely
osity. These gradua,y melted ;*^y ;i f'*Ircr,da
,h;;; ;rd ;;; .,rnfamiliar to him, and, appeared t" tfri
the walls of the room themselves, 'ro tfrli two little daughters of a_fi.iend of his, who lived in'ihe house, a
perceive,
i ro";a i"vrlri"ii. il
in the same manner,' trr.-ouj.",;-i" iiil"""a:.rrr.s bridging-engineer on the Kenya and Uganda Railway u.,d Harborirs.
apartments.,, "While projecle.d there," Mr. Ilerbert says, ,iI could see ihe
,house
Mr. Costa felt his body light a.nd and everything about it. . . . lVhen'the two little sirls
but quite unable to act on
physical.objects, and he-wai ,.i;;ifree,
*i,il-i.]. and were obsefving me their mother called and asked what they #ere
rescue his phvsical form from the ,;tratlor,l;;hi;; an anxietv to doing.
His mind ihen turned to the,h;Gh;;;;r";;,h*; i;'#;;;lJ: "'Looking at Nunkie,' was the reply.
a room next door. ;#:JJ;i.t _. "And-they certainly were. They'*ere looking right at rne.
"I saw her.,, he says, .,through They could not seem to understand'how I got thire. I. . Wfr""
the wall, sleeping tranquilly I later wrote to my friends, I described the"house into which i
in her bed. But tr.. tloay,--,r;ilil
------ ;il,'upp.u..a
--"r'v'
phosphorescent radiance,,,'
(to emit a had been projected and had seen the little girls; they wrote back
Hil-wish to rouse her-to come to his herp had the that my description of the arrangements of" the .oo*r, the win-
desired effect. dows, etc,, was very accurate. T[ey even sent me a pirotograph
"I saw her,,' he tells .us, ,,t r..l.aty-g;t orrt of bed, run to the to show me the unusual window over the veranda wtlcf f
. window, thrcw it open, then go ort oi,-tr. j,
*.o;.-il;;;; ;; "#; room a-nd ,r"ra '
described. . . ."
eyes of "r..',i|til::JT,lff:?,*.,?
horror. Her contact seemed to have Mr. Herbert has the Ietter and attached photograph as primary
the effect of makinE evidence ofthe truth ofwhat he says. and he addJ
my psychic self re-enter its physical tb;. i-;;i;:";;'ffi;1f;
parched, my temples thumping uior.nit-1-'*yT.I;t "The family will -be coming'to England in the near future
gasps. . . ." "J*l'r*i; i I w.ill try tir_get-them to fuinisfr their side oitfr",to.y, *ti"f,
"T,q veri$ what I told you.',
*iU
Mr. Costa adds more weight to his experience by saying: i
"{t thg. time, I had nEver t . Mr. Herbert also tells of another experience which he had while
as spiritualism, nor he_ard ,u"f,,gi;;;;ir"rght such matters to
fi lying ill in Bulawayo Hospital, S. Rhodesia . . . and the nurses
nothing in the nature of a dream -itt.r.-"a]'r"urr.a.
*y.-p*f.n"..
There was
$ were unable to awakel}.im for tea. They shook him, rolled, slapped,
!"
had the sensation of being so much aliie as at I h;;;;;;; fi u"4 shouted at him. They were afraid he was dead and could hnd
I was conscious of bei ns i.pu.utia -f.o;-y the moment when
[ .o indication of his breathing. He says that at that time too he had
;it;i";i";;;i",,"'"" i an out-of-the-body experience. . . . and went back to England.
 179
178 THE PHENOMENA OF ASTRAL PROJECTION jl
sPoNTANEOUS PROJECTTONS-DURINC SLEEP
"My guide showed me a lady-and told me to remember her. nieht. The heavens were an astonishing revelation to me' Not
. . . I did so. . . . That was inJanuary 1927. When I came to aia j see with oerfectly clear vision, but there seemed to
England on 3lst.August, r93r, I met her family, and later ""i"
ili ri"1tt"ting, a far"reaching quality to my sight which doubled
desiribed to her where I had seen her, what she was wearing, th" ,iu-bet of"glistening lights ibovi me-, and the spectacle was
in detail, and also her lady friend with whom she had been - marvellous,
so io beaut-iful-, that I stood entranced' ' ' '
standing. . . ." Th." I stepped back into the room -to get another Sl-impse
-his sirbject further claims that he has on threc diffetent
[The occasions oftt" U"ay. It rias still in the chair, and I noticed that the breast
."* f"it at regular intervals. 'Ii is not dead,' I said to TY9ell
;""i"."a
,t'..
left bod|, travelled to some distant place, and has. been seen
i" some mv"sterious way I have stepped out of it' I shall
;.,
at that olacl'bv others at the time. One of those occasions I have
already ielated, although the final verification is yet to comc.. The
rrl
h;;; to return to'it by and by,' and at that thought-I shuddered'
o*rer lwo carei, he says, are at Present being investigated by a tl it seemed such an rindesirable home to live in that Iforalmost
hooed thc heart would cease to beat, that I might be
r9

researcher in his own country.] ever

tl
Iil, frel I
and go where Pleased.
--Wtit""f
stood theie my dog Leo awoke from a long nap,
/, stretched. vawned. and tlren lolked about the room' He aP-
THE HEPWORTH CASE ,t3: ;;;;;h;d ,iu uoav in the usual way, with a wag of the and
tail,
ilhr
inuffed at niy legi and then appeared to be confused dis-
The following case was reported by the well-known nMsler, ff:
Sot"eihi"s was not ai he expected to find it, and I
tlre Rev. Georgi H. Hepworih, author of Hiram Golf\ Relig.ion, $L'
ri
"""oint.a. at the tim"e what it could bi. He then deliberately,
*'J"a.r.J
Herald Sermons, ltc. It is contained in his book Brown Studies (pp. i but it seemed to me rather disconsolately, walked around the
2+S-7g), and is entitled "Was It a Vision?" D1 llepwolth asserts ,ii,' to the point from which he started,-and snuffed at my
tliit'ii''is a genuine personal experience, which made a deep *,:
"t.it
l"E, . ,""ond iilr". Not satisfied, he sat on his haunches for a full
' ". . .upon
impression him. It runs in part as follows: lr
il -?r"t.-g"r.i"g into the face, and I thought that perhaps lris
and the
Wtrit. sittine with my right hand resting on the arm ;;;fr;i"; aros"e from the fact-that the eyeiwere closedwhen
of the chair I seemedlo steP out of my body, and stand beside
.J'.
rl
r

Lodr, to be asleep. On ordinary occasions, he

it, Iooking upon it with miirgled curiosity and astonishment. I iil
'i,
"oo..red
*i.n.a ii *ake me from a'doze, he put his paws on my knees,
feit as lig'irt is air, and said io myself, 'This must be what St. rli
illi and gave a quick, sharp bark, as though-to say,'Come, master,
Paul calls the spiritual body'. It is true that I looked on what rorr.r.li'. tiut this time he must have concluded that a
sat in the chair with a kind oftenderness, but the sense offreedom "orr."
;;;;r' rnirr,up must have occurred,- f91 he exhibited signs. of
fi
which I soon became conscious of was almost ecstatic, and it i.tto., ttit torlr"
hung out of his mouth, his eyes had an expression
seemed as though I would notgo back into those narrow quarters $ of agony in thim, and"he uttered a prolonged but low and mourn-
again for worldi. The body was sg clumsy, -so heavy, so uncomely, Itll
-- howl.
ful
sd uncouth and ungraceful, while this other body, on. the con- $i S".t".ly had it ended, howeveq.-when he apparently caught
trary, was a delight, a dream, a Poem. , il1
sisht of me standins bv the door. lVith a single leap he reached
'''Then someth'ing happened which perhaps you may -explain; il
li
m"v side. but turned instantly, took his place between me and
but I confess it puzzled me at the time and has continued to ,)
ih; b"Jy, looked first at one and then at the other, and trembled
puzzle me ever since. I moved away from ryV body. towa.rd the ,li
l in evident agony.
door, thinking to open it and go out into the starligt-rt; but to 'i: I have heird ihat animals can see spirits. How far the testimony
suooortine such a statement can be irusted I am unable to say,
ii,
my surprise Ilound-that the door was no obstruction whatsoever. :]

passed through it as the,sun's rays pass throu-8h a Palg

I iimply 'When i. L"i'i" it ii i"rtance I am sure that Leo saw what was in the chair
of glais. I stood in front of the camp- I knew that a co-ld i and also what stood bY the door.
- -frfy
wirid *as blowing, and that it came from the snow-banks far o"ti'ant esitation lies in the fact that I do not know whether
Ir

away to the north of us; but I was not chilled. I could feel its all this is hallucination, and whether this most marvellous
is to be relied upon or not. I can only declarc that it
:1,

impict and hear it whistling through the forest, but was not
affected by it in the least degree. rll appeared to be real at the time, and that I have not been able
"*o.rierrc.
"I shail never be able to tell you how the stars looked that sin'ce then to make it appear otherwise. . .
'.\

I
tk
tm TIrE PHENOMENA Or ASTnAL pROJECTTON
J"t!- then the thought of my lost love, lost to me for crrer,
.but,still
dear, came inio my mind. The most intense desire t6
see her seized me. ft was a longing so poignant, so sharp, that
was painful.
This ardour seemed to be an impelling force, and I flew
with incredible speed through the darkness. "The ca-p, the lake,
the mountains_, _were lost to view almost instantly, i,vhile othei
mountains and lakes came within range of my astonished vision.
What gave direction to my flight I cannot teli, unless it was that
wonderful instinct which enables the homing pigeon to fly back
point, however distant, without the"pbsiibitity of .*or.
lr9*-"
I had no doubt as to the route I should take, but became so con-
fused while journeying that I hardly noticed the landscape that
lay far below me.
When I came to myself again I was walking along a country
iere wild flowers iil rare ibundancJ.
road, on either side of *hich
Only a few minqtes before I was in the midst of March cold,
snow, ice, and a dead vegetation, but now tlre air was filled with
fragrance, and f wai almost oppressed by the perfume of orange
blossoms.
Passing house after house, I began to wonder how I
could
discover whcrc she lived. My surfrise was greatest, however,
when, as f came to a certain point bn the road, I stood still and
found it impossible to.proceed. Something held me to the spot.
_ Th., I looked up at the house. It was beautifully situa'ted,
back some hundred ibet from the road-an old-fashioired housci
rather dilapid466, but surr-o_unded by trees of exquisite foliage.
fn one window was a feeble light shining througf, the curtaiis,
which had been carefirlly drawi.
Strange thoughts came to me as I stood with one hand resting
9n the gate-post, covered with blossoming creepers. 'She is therc,l
I_ said under my breath, 'and is suffering. Will'she know me, wiil
she even be able to see me? Can I do anything to relievi her
distress; can I help her bear her great burden?'
There was no selfishness in my heart at that moment. I did
not think of the disappointment which had broken my life, nor
of the love I still bore her. A pure emotion filled my whole being,
sorrow for her grief unmingled with a single reference to mysel-f.
It was a holy love, such as the angels have for one anothir in
heaven, where there is neither marriage nor giving in marriage.
_ At Iength I summoned courage to enter. I found my way up
the stairs without difficulty. Turning to the right, I noiiced'thai
the chamber door was ajar, and I heard the irregular and painful
breathing of a sick man.
The next moment I was in the room. Standing close by the
window I was comparativcly in shadow, for the iandle oir thc
|$- sPoNrANEous pRoJEcrr"-:,
mantelpiece had in front of it a large book to keep the light from
t. falling
\. on the sleeper's face. This was a great- relie{, -because
it .t. [aning
I
relief.
looked upon an intruder. A sairedness hedges-in a
,. sick-room which must needs be .always
myself as
respected, and under
i, ordinary circumstances I should have felt no inclinition to cross
;r,, that threshold. I confess, however, to a certain curiosity which
i: impelled me, since I could not be observed, to note the surround-
', ings in which she had livcd so many years.
It was evident, at a glance, that the household had need to
,'
, practise a rigid economy, but there was everywhere a simplicity
and refinement of taste. The pictures on the walls were few,
and their frames were in a worn condition, but the engravings
were of the best-old, to be sure, and somewhat soiled by time,
but still quite worth hanging in any gentleman's house. On the
table between the windows, and on another table at the foot of
the bed, were bunches of wild flowers, while in one corner was
a small bookcase containing a score or two of.the classics of
English literature, with another score of French and German
novels.
Sitting at the bedside of the poor sufferer, with her back
loward me, was Margaret; and when I first caught sight of that
familiar form, now bent with sad experiences, I hid fofan instant
a- strong desire to get away, for memories of the past rushed
through my mind with such impetuous fury that I could hardly
contain myself,
I cannot tell you how I was affecte.d, but I am certain that
it wirs by a different kind of feeling from what I should have
had if I had brought my body with me. It is true that I suffered
pain at the sight of her, but it was the kind of pain which a
spirit might suffer, and there was nothing physical or even
earthly in it. . . .
Overcome by *y emotions, I
strode across the room, deter-
mined to declare myself. I stood at the footof the bed, and
called out, in tones which seemed as loud as those of a church
bell,'Margaret, Margarct!'
For an instant I thought she hcard me, for she raised her
head as though in the act of listening, but immediately afterward
resumed her old position and fixed her eyes on the dying
man.
I suffered tortures in the thought that I was invisible and
could not make her recognize me. I even went to her side and
placed my hand on hers, hoping that by contact she would feel
me near.
Perhaps she did. At any rate, she Iooked up, then rose from
her chair, went to the other side of the room, and stood there
for about thirty seconds looking at a little, old, framed photo-
182 TI{E pItENoMENA oF ASTRAL pRoJEcrroN
graph orl the wall. I followed and, peering over her shoulder,
saw a picture of myself.
. At
it.
that I knelt, took her,hand in mine, and reverently kissed
But she took no notice of the act, and soon went bacli to her
place by the sick man's side. Just before twelve Edward roused
once more, and it was clear that the last moments had arrived.
His. breathing- was slow a-nd short, and there was the exprcssion
in his eyes which only death can put there.
He looked steadily at Margaret, drew his poor, wan hand
from under the coverlet, placed-it in hers, and tiied io say some-
thing, trut failed.
Then he turned as though to take a last look at the room,
and..while doing so- his eyes rested on me. A kind of surprisi
kindled in them, and with'all his remaining strength he stretihed
Loth arms in my direction, whispered- hoarsely,
,Clarence!
.Clarence!'
' I am sure and then fell back in a icind of stupoi.'
he saw me. It could not have been a coincidence.
I can-not explain it, and will not attempt to, but that man,s soul,
half freed from his body, saw my soul itanding at the foot of the
bed, and, recognizing me, called me by naine. I have never
had a doubt of that, and never shall have.
I admit that it is incredible, but are there not instances of'
a similar nature in the history of nearly every family which has
made the acq_uaintance of death? Who ahall say that'they do not
mean what they seem to. mean?
You may be enmeshed in scepticism, and summon a formid-
able array of arguments against ihe immortal life; but one such
experience as that seals your lips, and debate becomes an impossi-
bility. There stands the fact, which you can no more deny-than
you c.an deny any other patent fact in your daily life. It is vivid,
sta-rtling, thrilling, but still it is a fact, and no amount of thinking
will brush it aside without brushing aside at the same time every
other event which you have always regarded as reality. . .
At the end ol about ten minutes Edward slowly opened his
eyes and gazed about in a dazed sort of way, as one dbes when
he has been in a bright light and then falls'upon sudden dark-
ness. At Iength he seemed to gather himself together, making, as
it was plain to me, a mighty effort.
He whispered, 'Paper and pencil'.
Margaret too was bewildered, and for a moment thought
-.
his mind was wandering. But his voice grew more imperati-ve,
and a second time he cried, feebly:
llupg. and pencil! Quick! I have no time to spare!'
It
She brought him a pad and a pencil. :4'
He wrote about two pages, I judged, signed the note, and
folded it. .41
.:rl
JI
,1,r
f,
fit spoNTANsous pRoJEcrroNs-DURrNo sLEEp t83
t was curious to know tlre contents of that letter, for the
,i'
i situation and the circumstances were rather remarkablel but
thgugh I was only a spirit, and apparently invisible, it struck
me that the incident was not one for me to inquire into, and so
, I maintained my position.
A moment later he said, 'Margaret!'
tYes, dear.'
'An envelope!'
He placed the note in the envelope, sealed it, wrote some-
one's name on it, and handcd it to his wife.
She read the superscription and heaved a deep sigh.
It
'In good time,' said the dying man, 'you will find him.
is your fate. Deliver it to him personally.'
She shook her head, as though the task would be an unwelcome
one, but he answered her gesture by saying, 'It is right. I
wish it.'
With that he turned his head to one side, breathed heavily
for a few moments, and then all was still.
Margaret was alone with her dead--or at least thought she
was. She was not alone though, for I was there with her. . . .
I looked at the clock, and it was just three minutes past twelve.
What happened immediately afterward I do not remember.
I can only recall in very dim fashion that I had orders from
.some source-though whence they came I cannot say-to return
at once to my camp. . . . I suppose I must have crawled back
int6 my body on my arrival, but have no recollection whatevcr
of doing so.
I only know that I was roused by John, who had put his
hand on my shoulder in rather rough f;ashion.
'You were so sound asleep I could hardly wake you, sir.'
'Ah! Is that you, John? I believe f am a bit dazed.'
'I called, sir, and you didn't answer. Then I thought it best
to wake you in any way I could, but had to shake you with all
my might.'
'Yes, yesl thank you, John. I never slept so in my life before.
l!
Is it late?'
ii 'Time for bed, sir.'
'What is the hour?'
ri Just three minutes and a half past trvelve, sir.'
Had I really made the journey from Florida to the Adiron-
dacks in thirty seconds?
But I was in no frame of mind to think the problem out, for
I
tri
was confused and perplexed, dazed and bewildered.
'Come, Leo, let's to bed.'
,tr
I ought to add to this chapter a very remarkable verification
1of tle apparent fact that in some way or other I was actually
: ill':

sPoNTANEOUS PROJECTIONS-DURING SLEEP lES

t84 THE PHENoMENA oF ASTRAL PRoJlcrIoN
On the eighth day I received a letter from my cousin in
present and witn€ssed that death-bed scene a thousand miles 'Ah,'I said to myself,'Now I shall discover how I have
Florida.
-. eft.tfrom
distant these woods,
f nua ..tit.a
-on
that eventful night I was naturally
been deceived.'
. Still I hesitated to open the letter, partly because what had
unable to sleep. I constantly said to myselt 'It was an unusually happened had come to be rather sacred to me, and I did not wish
more; and whln you take. your family
vivid dream-nothins"confidence to hive the delusion destroyed, and partly because, ifthe delusion
physician into your he will explain it. on purely were desroyed, I should feel that I had fallen into an abnormal
lcientific g.orndt, and show you, first,. that the soul can never
condition both of mind and body, rvhich was an intensely
ieaue the'body except when it leaves'it for.good, and, second' disagreeable thought.
that this apparcnt journey over so great a distance in so short a
.]udge, therefoie, of my surprise when I read these paragraphs:
soace o[ time is ,6t onlv incredib[e, but impossible"
' But though I argrred'with myself in this YlY,. i
"'d, T39" 'Edward Waring has been a great sufferer since I last
determined eiTott to*d.op asleep, I was not satisfied,-and dld not
wrote you. We all did what we could, but fate was,against
become even drowsy. I tbssed restlessly, Iistening to the measured the poor fellow. The disease had worked insidiously, ani
tick of the clock, wondering if I had gone mad' remefial agents lvere too late in their arrival. . . . Let it
The clock ,t.r.k- orr., b"ut I was wider awake than ever' I suffice that Edward died quietly, peacefully, and with a calm
could hcar the laboured Lreathing of the two guides in the next submission to the will of God. He breathed his last on the
room, and the suppressed growl or moan-of the dog, who was night of 5th March, at threc minutes past twelve o'clock. . . .'
oerhaps chasing some imagi-nary game, and these drove me wrld'
"--'iil* li]o"r. ttt".t
"two.'I"sat up in bed and watched the
ih; I was so astonished at all this that the letter dropped from
flick.;i;g nu*.t in the fireplace. They-shot across the dark room mv hands and mv eves filled with tears.
in a ghJstly r,v"y, unJ paihted fantaitic figures 91, th" 9pf:t]:: ' The theory of haliucination was appalently dispos-gd ol.-My
wall. the air seemed too heavy to breathe, and through sheer nervous systerir was not out of order, and I had not suffered from
nervousness I found myself gasping' My heart went hke a
trlP-
temporary aberration of mind! It became clear'to me as the
hammer, and my head was hot. dayiight that, on thar night, I was by the bedside of Edward
I could t or,"'t*oir, that there were in that room invisible
beyond Waring and saw him die. I can account for the facts in no other
beinst,-f.,; I ielt tt e*, and their presence oppressed me
way.
the power of words to dcscribe' But how I accomplished the feat, by what means it became
"'"i,"i"ti, ;Ji;;iut t[.t demoniac clock struck three,. r cried possible for me to defy the laws of time and space-that is beyond
't lu" ttlta this no longer. Unless I getbedrelief to.l,r:
.i",hastrly my reckoning, and I dare not even attemPt to explain it. . . ."
"fo"a,i shall die.'
*"v -i, \Vith that I sprang out of and
i;.'r; *vr.rr. o..rt..J to *L tnit it might be well to jo-t
down my'impressions, and the.date, and the exact hour when
i s"* Eit*u.il Wu.i"; ai.. fnit was not a difficult task, for it
has always been my liabit to keeP- a journal'
The riental l^boit .o.rn.cted with tfris gave me great c-omfort'
and when I had finished' iust as the clock struck four,.l louncl
;;;r;;; a.iigr'f tti"i i *"t- positivelv drowsv, and in less
'---it -*"t
than-fifieen minutes was fast asleep.
on the 5if, Vfr."ft that itris strange thing happened
to me, and during ih. t"*t few days I managed to^regain toltlgl
of myself and loo( upon the whole affair as one of those curlous
hallutinations of which medical books are so full. My nervous
system, I concluded, had received a sudden shock, and these
;'tr;;;;';.;-;;"4;;;a Ly the imagination,.which g'g qp. f'^o,-
my brain-cel[s an odd lot of impressions and wove them lnto the
shape of a vision.
 . sPoNTANEous PRoJEcrIoNs 187

Going to the bedroom (by pas-sing through the.walls) I stood

at thc fo"ot of the bed in wtiict'r I siw Father reclining'
--
'f.if,..,' I said to him, 'Father!' But I did not seem to makc
PROJECTIONS* f,it" f,i.t my voice. Yet I thought he was watching, me, for l.ris
J-- SPoNTANEOUS
s8-
IN THE WAKING STATB eye$ wcre fixed upon me and there seemed to be a look ol-surpnse
upon his face."
i must insert here that Mr. Mc Bride informed me that he had
been wondering about his father during the entire day-p-rec-eding
it. ..p.t1."".?"a *.. under the imprission fa.t.he might be ill'
s,^fffi,,"3l,iii'i.'r'biii**' AIso that there seemed to be someone with him on the trlP,
althouth he could see no one, which explains the follo-wing state-
lMote Here is a very unusual case, inasmuch.as the
bv S.M.l-have *.nt,:'fn" knowledge came to me as i stood there that he was
projected to a distance in his astrat bocty' well". Mr. McBride then goes on to say:
subiict claims to "A moment late; I "found myself leaving again' Nothing
ffii1ft11";;;r;io;; ";e to'hu,r. been seen at theseen bv a mortal'
place
by.that mortal haooened on the trip back. although I was still aware ol the
f"ttt l. to have had full knowledge of being
""a
;; the time. As all psychical students know, there are hundreds ot iiirtr.. . . L,o* p..t,r*e it muit have been 3 guide' ' ' '
;;r;;;i;h;";*t 6rttt.-ri"ing having been seen, but few in which heaching my bedroom once more,-the first ,Fl"g I saw was my
about it' own body, slitt tying on the bed where-I had left it' ' r was
*"ffil;.;;i;*,it
th. claims to know
clearly tcio,rJ aii the time and did not awaken slowly on
"s"rit .o.i from my article, "In the Land of-Living "bt my physical self, but was instantly alert with no
re-enttring
ch;;; (i;'Mvstic Siiic Mag";ine)' ' '' ' south-eastMr' Walter E' IvtcBride
a'few'miles of the little feeling
-- of drowsiness. . . .
;;;;"i.;il-r;';;i living
f'"o*i"g-exactly what had happened .to me' I got up and
i;;;i1ili;ttsfti"[t, Indlan-a, Route No' t, and will corroborate
made a lighi and wrote down the iiine and the account of what
every statement made herein'l I had juit experienced, just.as I-have told it to. y.ou' '- '. '
""" Jfr;;;;isil;;;"b;f on the evening of z3rd D.ttt*P:l: I
Then I"went back to bed-again and slept the remainder of the
went to my b-edroom which is on the lower floor ot my house' night. . .
i';i;""i tti u*f and retired, in the usual manner' &eling 'i*o .
days later, on Christmas pay,-I paid^Father a.visit'
il;;;;"f i"."r."y *aY:' '.'Thenext thing I.\ity,l-I:1 Mrs. J. E. fires and her son, Earl G. Wires, of Shoals, Indiana,
;reDosterous as it sounds, floating in the room, but. tn a
ngnteo
it The light was not were "also there visiting at the same time' Father verified
I;J"r;h;;;. i was wide awake the time'
my experience by statiig that had nz, just I- had stood
ir;; ; material source because I had blown out the lamP ancl hc seen
-as
at the'foot of hii bed. Coincidentally, he too had written down
i:h";; h;d been dark when I was went to bed' Th-e light^w.as
not like the light of thc the time of his vision, and it tallied with the time as I had written
rvhitish and cast ,,o ,'h"do*t; it itdown...."
t", [ei I stated at the beginning of this case, the unique
asPect.of
,"* that I was floating upward through the building ' ' ,' it is'that Mr. McBride cliims tJ ha.rebeen seen as a ghost at the
the ceilins and upper floor failed to stoP me' ' -' ' I Passecl
througn
height I hapPenecl to identical time that he was consciously aware of having been s^een
ifri* *itL ."t".^ Aft"t reaching a certain mv amazemenq I saw as such. . . . His father having passed away a short time before
turn upright, and, looking downward, to the experience was turned over-to me, it wai impossible to obtain
;;'i,d;'i;;,q' iiq;'tt" iii:*i *t"i' I had retired, cxccpt that
"' his peisonal statement. I here append, however, the statement ol
tiere ieri threi Jorms beside il. the two witnesses present when the matter was discussed on
Almost at once, .it.t ,"ti"g this, I realized that I was'moving
Christmas Day, 1935:
throueh the air to*"ri the nJrth, and while I was not 6ying
to
;;;,ti't;;;. ["r* tr,"t I was goingto mv old home' several "I can
"b"ctii[.t
the above-described meeting and discussion
ttitit't*uy; an impression which proved correct' ' ' Imotion'
moved did take place."
uro"i i" p.i"l[iiashiot', *itha sort of wave-like
ilwiJ.J "'ti"tyhJ*"**a, io*"td Father's housc' where I used Signed,-
" Eenl G. Wrnes, z5lh Fe]ryary, t938.^
M*r. J. E. Wrnis,-z5th Fcbruary, ry38.'J
to live'
lE6
 r88 THE PHENOMENA OF ASTRAL PROJECTION
SPoNTANEOUS PROJECTToNs
THE CONNELLY CASE 189
body, like a letter slips
Another Tcstimonial. .into an envelope. . . After a stranpe
of The projection oJ'the Astral
sensation I lay. wide awake fuJly ,utirn.iit ut
out to do had been accomplished.,, ;t;;'i-ffi ffi,T;
,--lY:.:,:le.publication Bodl,in
which Mrs. Connellv had.a. f.*'."or" ,i*ilar experiences
Iengthy directions for producing tie pheiomenon mav be found-
one, during one of which she ;;r- """"-' ' after this
:.:1u:-:...y.$
were 3 lu.g. number of testimonials from pc.so.,s whi
successtul in carryilg out the instructions. Some "seized with the thought that
and quicker than one"could think i;.;;"b";kout-*i*[
of tnir" she had been too lons .
testimonial cases were puniisnea i" ii;-'c;,
for Astrar prr;ii-t;--
I-may also refer the r.ud., to ,,rn.-lvuir;6".,r;;,,'i;'irrri an-d_ fear overtook me that I
i':8"_";
"'"'r
i,"jffil. u.l"i".J. .' .-.,,*
Here is another testimonial.-S.M.l [I\{rs. Connellv states that of "rifi;
lui.-rf,.-fr"r' not had the time to
*_"t h* mind up'on trre praiiice ;; ;;;r.q.ntty the experiences
.tr['rs.
_,,,'f ^ty- yeX:s,}taaag-o,l' wrires E. C. Connelly,, of Herne
the great pleasure o[reading yor" *orra.rfri have ceased.]
l]111Tldll .'t
Doo.R I he I'ro.lection oJ the Astral Bod\. The
rearo'n I had such a
rnnlr.on readrng-the volume was because it verified several
expenences ol the kind which
J.myself had rnany years ago. . .
the question or ttoi i g-"_t
}:jli.jllle,
scemeo vrtal. . . . I knew I got out and had
;y-;;j,-'";;.;
"tan"fexcursionr'several
CONSCIOUS DUAL ASTRAL VISION
81 Mary Ellen Fratiic.
times.
-The book seemed to wake me up to a great understandinc "I had been a student of metaphysics in my life, but
and I decided to try and.reprodu""'tt.;-i.;i;;;;i";iifi: not until several vears late_r did I';,ke-it early
up,seriousiy. i,o"I"
at that time I was id'lc and ..irta pri *y u'tt.rrtion to the mention this fact 'b..urr. I *u, .o.rui.r..i tfr^t this particular
. . . First of all I determincd to io orlti . -. .,, matter. experience
"ilrariJy;; fftil#:
was brought about direcity
clesrre,on.my part to und_erstand ceriain statements,
- .[{Ie1e Mrs. Connelly reGrs to" thi-insiructions
----- in the book metaphysics, such as: ,Man is as made in
which she followed and'which I o."ii-f *".'i;;;l;;;i;:
"After concentrating in.th.is way eJerynight after retiring. . . "ot -ut.tut;
The_*uth of this I was det.imin.a-'i"' nrt'.";il;;";".1i:*'
Lll?tlt b:qarl to
Dut I cleclded not 1ktorfrysetf if r .;;
;;;ld iccomptish tr,"ir"i; From the time r_read this stateml.,;-I
about
dil;; ".r""rl'i.rr,
it, and honed for some ;r,gh.;;;;;t_iir;i.;"h
worry or become too anxious over the
matter and persisted in my nightly concentratio". . . . it.". idea how this would oc9u1, *."ii;;;ie ;'iffi';;
time of this experience, I aia-I it cleu. that, at the
orte night, about r2.3o p.q., i tl,u.d a-*i".-&.ii""ify l"o-*'.iviirirs
'Now-you are readyl-g6 atrlaa'. ,"yi rsm, nor had I ever heard of"oi ,ir.ri*r-
astral projilii"5,I ."b.ri
. . eria i-t *,
. Y.y I add that i[ seined to me that I not only had to know one.evening-,
-while taking _my usual
'*"it, 6.for. *i;iiri, *iaJ
the-instructions, awake and fullv
!1t I had.to. beft as *"tt. fy tfiiti **" iir"i
rroubte, and it is my belief that'those in spirit had
consciou{ I underwentl-iemarkable e*p8ii.r.l,
which I subseouentlv ascertained *";;;;;;.uai
1.3T l:rlt
purposely clelayed my- success until I was in good projg:tion of dhe asiral bodl -- example of the
heilth. . . .
Well, when I heard ihe voice ,uy, il.{o*_you are readv_so This,proje-ction took phle so unobtrusively
that I did not
ahead,' out I went, consciously,'i.lelrt li.rii th;'l"iil'r;rf""" even realize what was hapfening. . . ,I f.ii;
utyarls, thca oocr m7 body. ...I loolied down and could see ii ft.;-;;d';;il*",i['' griairg srnoothty ;::fl5;l:'*L":g;
p?lnly. . lhen turning I the. grou_nd. I was con"sci"rr';a;i;;; ""d
started to travel throush sDacc at .tevitatee; il;.h.er and higher, with
each gliding step, until.I ;b;;",'ii" h.ighi;i-; ;;;-
t high rate of speqd. . . .-I *as qrit.
close to me. . I was directed to my"*"r"
.i-r;;";;#G;; storey buildinE.
-I
,". u.o""J *.,
mother's home. detaili was able to u, . 6i.a
of which I will not rerate now, u"t in flight. I irimediatety *o"a...J-;;;ilt.: coutd possibly
^iJfrirl.
it seemed that I had no more tfrr" *ri."-i."Jy-t.-.#";".h
tt o"girt oi returnins th;
I hesitated somewhat be!
;"y fr.,f,.r in thjs unusual
I was there in mv bedroom, Iooking ;t;r-b.d;;Uiil:";; manner, because of a"tio"t "t"u*irg
strong urge iad'to ioot b""k;;i;[h'-i
bed. . . could not resist. Upon^dgiig .3, -I U tholdr I was dumb-
arose in_my mind: 'How shall I go back?' and stru-ck to see 'myseri'reft betiinJi.rJiirir..-at
""a
t, -was
}:,q"::tion
thrnking of this when suddenly I slipped iight irrto _y or so. Ieast a brock
Looking down at my physical body (a pale,
sad creature,
 SPoNTANEOUS PROJECTTONS 191
190 THE PHENoMENA or ASTRAL PRoJEcTIoN
body exteriorized. (I stress this point again by quoting the
standing there) I had a great pity.for it'-I,could not understand
iould 6e so far iway,-and yet I knew definitely-I- was *--;il#
uanslation.)
iir"t.'I t*.
fr"*
This puzzled me very much'.Although .I corrld, not condition (of being awake after the nap) became -like
see any cord or jit k between myself and my physical b,ody, I a semi-wakefulness, accompanied by the desire to €o to sleeP
that some such connection must have existed' I was, asain: then, instead of going to sleep, complcle auahcncs-s camc'"
"$.r-a fully conscious in my astral body, -suspended in.space,
ho*.u.., buring that period of wakefulness Dr' Beth was distrnctly awar€
;;J;";'the Lyes in my physical body. m.oving and scrutinizing that (whit he ialls) his 'innermost', and what we here call his
ime' with a look of wonderment-and that look I have never astral'body, emerged from his physical body'
My physical behaved as normally as any one's would' "Mi'in ermisr-that is myseif-passed' entirely outside my
ohvsicai bodv and separated from it at a distance ln space'
fo.nott.".
-- 'A
-o*.t t' tat.r my consciousness suddenly shifted !o my 'lfhere was no feelirig or awareness in the physical body' r1
ohvsical bodv and, looking through its eyes, endeavouring to
hr,lre out the situation, I saw my astral body in sPace-an exact fact, the translation continues, "all the awareness ol what looK
diolicate of the physical body standing in the middle ot the ola.e was experienced excJusively in the body which, was-outsid:
ihc physical,'that is, in the individual, Dr' Beth himselt' ' "'
;;iJ:-Thir;."r..Ja scveral times, until i was satisfied that what -physical
body was- wholty inactivi and Dr' Beth was filled
i-fr"a ti"" was really true. . . At this point it struck me that The rniir-
ffii lb. it, 'i" itt insigriificance, even with disdain at its
i ;; ;;p;."ted from my physical body'grippedRealizing m-y predica-
-., urd, is this feai me, I stretched -*'D;-]i;il
helolessness.
-."1 u fear seized
I was quickly drawn towards was greatly interested in thc particular way 11 lvttqn
out my arms and, leaning. forward, his-physital body.again-. In each case he distllcuy
r"v pfiyti"tt body to which I was anxious to return' I did so hc re-entered
-hit
;* phtti"uf Utay lying as'if iead upon the bed (1t l]^ b-:t1
i"i-'"ai^t.fv, but without any.'repercussion'. of--11Y kind' ' ' ' stated). iti in each'caie he approached and uent botk thrlugh 4
ihis att ha'ppened within a brief time, but it did happeR'extra-
''' ;i;i;ir' iii-niia.-Iust before cnteritg his bodv again the do-clor
Bv soine thiough this unique, and what was to me an ol the
.*f.tiEn"" I undeistood myself.better' '.' ' It proved "slaw with perfecl clearness this s/it, exac^tly in the middle
tt"ti, ."J ixtending ,.-t.."t centimltres foiward from the back'"
i"-*. ifr"i'man is not alone a malerial being, but a mental
"iaii..f
principle." Th.r. *r, a differEnce in interiorization in each case,^ however.
Ot. S"tt states that he slipped right iz, in his first exPirience' But
in his second, re-entry was more difficult. lnstead ol sllpPlng" tn

THE BETH CASE easilv. he found that ire had to make three distinct pushcs,
_belore
Unionsity Professot Proiuts' Uc couta pass through the crevice, into his physical body'l

Dr. Beth, a well-known professor at the University-of Vienna'

tels J t*o-J"l-of-tt e-body e'*perierrces which he had. The account
in a book publishei in Germany, and we give it .Lrere THE SLATER CASB
"""."..a
;i'i;;;;|";a ,.,J r,-,tiitt.d bv a researchei in that country' Both
Can Project at l$ill.
ilr.-il;,ht ;rojections o..urr.d at -night,.while he was in bed, in
frir'fr"*" irr'Vi.rr.tu, the first near thJend of September r9e7' and Mr. Bert A. Slater is a huntsman who lives alone, in
-an
isolated
the
'-- second on I2th MaY, t9z9'
";fh;t;--potiii".tv'had area under the Tonto Basin, about thirty miles from the town ol
6e.n nothing itt 'Y daily life to plvto", A.irona, and does his hunting and trapPing. in the sur-
'for the experiences,tt said Dr' Beth' "The
oDerate as a cause
and wholly without rounding vicinity. Mr. Slater has had many.out-ol-the-bocly-exPen-
;;;;";;t;u"i "u*"
with great suddenness
lJlt,'*"r,iir,l ,i .o.rtt., we cannot relate'in.detail here' In-Qgt'
anticioation."
-i;H;h-;;ses Dr. Beth states that he first had a brief nap' t i ctii-s to have t.".rla to project his astral self at will' Of this'
first adventure
*"r. i"i... first, let the subjict-himself tell of his fifteen
fnit-tfr"ti period of sleep was followed by a short pe{od of wake- years of
fulness and' in turn the period of wakefulness was lollowed -agaln
;i thd;;d", ,t i"rt """".ia'a
when he was about
a8e:
Lv an inclination to go tL rl.cp, which he didnot do, but.suddenly on our homestead in the Arkansas
;4";;;';;;-*ia" i*ur. thln before, at which time his astral "At that time we were living
192 THE PHENoMENA ot ASTRAL pRoJECTIoN
Valley in eastern Colorado," explained Mr. Slater. .,Father
contracted to break ten acres of prairie sod for a man then living
in town, and I was doing the work for him. The land was abou"t
five miles fi'om our home, and I used to drive the team of horses,
hitched to the wagon, to the place every morning, and plough
until sunset.
.Mother would put up _a lunch for me and I would take grain
and a keg of water for the horses. . . . As the days were Iong,
I always started early and would take about two hours ,nooninY.
After the horses had been fed and watered, I would eat my lunch
and then usually lie down under the wagon, in the shade, for a
rest; sometimes going to sleep.
One noon I was resting as stated, but was aof asleep. As I
lay there, on -my back, my old felt hat under my head .'. . first
my feet and^then my legs became numb, as if the very lilb were
going out of them, and a sensation came over me which was
exactly as if I were being drawn upward, head first, The sensation
was so strang_e that it is a wonder I was not frightened, but for
some reason I was not.
I remember that at tlle time the thought came to me that
I was going through about the same proc-edure as I had once
watched a snake go through as it drew itself out of its old skin.
.-... My-eyes were closed and I had not as yet seen anything
during this .process. When I could see, I found myr"tT
floating_in the air! I was some distance from the *agon ,rrdet
which I-my material self*was lying. I looked doin at the
surrounding prairie,and could see where I had been ploughing. I was no sun, no moon, no stars; yet as I stood on what seemed
To !" sure, off to the left stood the wagon, and off to thJrig[t solid ground, carpeted with green, my visibility was perfect."
the horses were contentedly grazing. I. .' It seemed I ias Mr. Slater tells us how he started toward the lake where he
enabled to see things even more clelrly than ever before. . . . saw a long row of houses, similar to houses on earth, but that this
Slowly, I settled to the ground and started walking toward the was a much different atmosphere from anything he had seen on
wagon. earth. He tells of wandering about the place, and looking over
I looked at myself as I walked along, and to my surprise I. things, but of never once seeing a human being or spirit, a fact
saw that a bad cut which I had had on my hand wai noithere! which he has never been able to understand. His departure was
It did not then occur to me that the cut was on the hand of my much like his entry into the place;
other body. : . . As I neared the wagon, some strange forcl . "After spending, I would say, about halfan hour there, dark-
-
took hold of me, turning me compleiely around. Wf,at that I ness came over everything and I felt myself spinning through
force was I do not know. I only know that, at the moment it . space again and presently struck my physical body, hearing the
struck, I was in a whirl, and confused, and before I could get my i same 'crack' which was accompanied with a pain in my head."
bearings I was thrown back into my physical body. Yet i trr.* ; Mr. Slater's third experience came about as the result of an
exactly when my head went into my physical heid . . . at that I accident, while hunting in the Canyon country of north-eastern
moment I was conscious and distinctly heard, and felt, a sharp i Arizona. While ascending a clifl his foot slipped, and he fell on to
crack,_like that made by a steel trap when sprung." I a rocky ledge below, rendering himself unconscious from the jolt.
Mr. Slater states that his second'experierice olcurred when he , He awakened to find himself outside his body. During this experi-
was about twenty-two, at which time he was working as a cowboy , ence, he saw not only persons in the materiaf world, 6'ut sojouined
for a large cattle outfit south of Denver. Dismountiig and lettin! and visited persons whom he had known in life-who had long
 19+ TIIE PTIENoMENA oF ASTRAL pRoJEcrroN
since passed- away, as well as with .spirits, who
wcre strangers to
hiry. li"g" Mr. Siater has himsiti toie-ili, story in full detait in
*H"#:t*ti,Iil::":ff;',9;,.:::rlii:*1.*i*1".#l:l
h,,\?_N."1:r-nbe,r 1937 ir.ul oi-iar-brii"b;erri --------
lMr' slater has recentry informed the pre-sent writer that he
is now- abJe, at times,
.to 6d;;;- th" f,t"fo-".ron at witl. The
method which he usesis u'rtighi-uu.iuli5"
r."- that described bv
SPONTANEOUS PROJECTIONS tgs
[The foregoing account was sent to the present writer in.]anuary
1938, by Miss Hendry. Although I have in-my records a feri similai
cases-such as that of Mr. Alex Sim-I wanted to make certain
that Miss Hendry had stated exactly what she intended to say,
a! hgr case (simple as it was), is very unique, inasmuch as hii
,
physical self apparently was 'carrying on' in a natural manner.
t/'
So,_r,vhen I interview"d her on z5th_February, 1938, the first thing
rl.

I did was to review her statemint.]

me in.the book Thc projcction it tn, iii-aoa; ffii"h ,il'i"iliJ"l
is to imasine himself L"i"g.iiri.a-;;;fi:1il'ffi;Jd,
l')
"As I understand you," I said to Miss Hendry, ',you were
mo-ment of entering sleep-ietail, of *t i"t, Yr&: '.r''
li: assisting the doctor with the operation. You suddenly found yourseh
can be ld*i i" th; on the other side of the operating table, looking over the doctor,i
before-men tioned p"ubliciti.;='.-nii
sho-ulder. From that_ point, yoq could also see your own physical
body across the table, working away on iti own accord and
in the usual manner. That.when the operation was finished you
floated over to your physical body and re-entered it. Is that
r*i,,x' ik ;t :,b Tii,,, *r. correct?"
"That is exactly correct," Miss Hendry assured me.
. Usually when-one reads of an astral projection I next asked: "Were you in a body while you were ozl, or did
rn connection with a surgical operation,',rrr&a. .r, which occurred it seem .t9 yo, that you were just_ doz sciousl2 obsirving the operation
anaesthetic, one
assumes at once that the patierit was the
subject *il;;;;a;;;
from without, with no perceptible body or vehicli for ihe con-
.sciousness?"

$i::rH;:f
'd**:ff :";i,:,'it,*;i::,,*".:,y*"1,,,"f : . "I wasin a body while I was separated from my physical body,,,
intelligence,. other than ifr" *U:."L she replied.
Pl,:e
abte
own mind, may be
to take possession of.the p_hysical Uiray, a"ri"g you completely unconscious in your physical
-fou-stion: "Were
.body?"
exteriorizatioir of the sub5eci.il-thir Juil'ir,rt."a i-fr. t"".ii"[,
coming from the patient, "it of the report Rcply: "l was."
do^ ,-t i nurse *ho assisted in
the operation. Wd abbrevi"t""o-ir
tt.-ri.i.r."l'rirrrirr'Hffi;; d'; *lestion: "Did it
-back?" occur to you that you might not get
nurse:
Rcply: "T\at thought never entered my mind.,'
A,;;.;I,:"iif $,:Lrrf risx*"ji,l"il",l"tf ffi H:ij; Acsdon:_"Do you have-any idea what caused the phenomenon?,'
spiritualism. . . . I aq ? graduate nurse and the experience . RlPb: "I cannot 1ay what caused the separation. I have always
occurred whileI was assistin{with an imaginef since, that I concentrated too muih on my work and thit
"p;;;t;;";lt,rl.1lil;;
hospital where there. was nlo docto",r'a.si;;;'.
. :-i il";J* I had thus gone into a trance and perhaps was tontrolled b., a
know how or when I did. go o,rr. .-: . d;"il; spirit. I base this conclusion on the fict that whenever f am near
tr,i"g f ,IJnrJ
I found I was on ttre.othEr ;id; ;i trrJ t ur., rootfi;;r* that particular doctor, I seem to become light-headed if I con-
doctor's. shoulder, tookinq iriyiZrii"*
fi; centrate on him. He is an old family doctor and I have
yt *a
any volition of my ownl_t co"uld9ii ;;"y-;i,h;; -helping
known him for years. I noticed this spell of .lightheadedness' come
we were through | floated upiii i;i"ii;:;n
it.
"oi"'na..rtundto and. a. .littte
When over me time after time, when near-himl bu[ candidly, I do not
one side of. niv body-thln r *."t b;;['i",."riy-u1#?; to know what caused the occurrence."
suddenly. fucstion: "On this particular occasion, did you notice that you
It was this exoerience which started me on my pursuit of fclt iU or abnormal in any way prior to the irrojection?',
knowledge of spiiituatis;; ;-';;'t"l*i"ag" Rcply: 'ol was in good health and felt the simi as usual before
which prompted--the experience. . .' . I did of spiritualism and after the projection."
not enjoy the experi-
ence and it reallv *"ared me, .u." *Sh I nei; il;; il;;
v'v" ttqrvgEr' Qustion: "Did the doctor mention that you acted differentlv
vcry easily frightened. :-. .;;' than usual, durin-g--the operation; did he notice anything wronf
with your actions?"
 '1',7,-{:i l.til

196 THE PHENOMENA Or ASTRAL PROJECTToN

spoNTANEous pRoJEcTrgNs . lg?-
R ?bt "If he did,. he did not
did not notice
mention to me.it
anvthi"_g, y;onf *ith'*]i'pnyri""l
f am sure he unlpoyvn. to the subject, le-aving that physical body poiscd or
: everycnrng
self.,, actrve ts apparerrtu normal, yet unconscious, state, instead of in
rn_
Sycs.tion" i,.,,Did appear nr h a r.,r,, the usual state of incapacity' which accompanies piojection. Said
Eii$-i ni"i1tiri., g *ui
t" ."r"u.,J?i'""ii,tj:t;
i.i..'"^fi :L:l.ft r::il:;
q,i i Mrs. Stone:
centred upon th6 d
"* I was sent to school in
#titifi:"."".H.j;,:1?,itx;:f
,,When
liil'",ldli:'f il#:*i:i "When about nine or ten years old,
Dorchester g a _day border. Ir was there I had my first curious
experience that I ca-n remember. . . . I wai in an upper
Ql,ustion: did the.
occurrence take place?,, -cJggly
room in the school building, standing with some otlrers in a ilass
,r!!nb,
"when I *"r ir,1.ty-n*-iil"i';la::;;ur nine years opposite our teacher, Miss Mary Lock.
,,Did vo.u
foustion:
Swldml2 !
"f!""d rylclf U tur side, and, looking toward thc clnss,
feel any connection between your physical saw-ml PLI;bal bod|_distinrtl2-a slim pale girlln a white frocl
and subtle bodies-that i;,IiiJ;;;
had^any control
ttl,rgLtr, white seiaiated. and pinafore.- . . .. I felt a strong anxiity to get back, as it were,
or., youi pr,yrrJ"j-"r.rlf*.r,,re,, but it seemed a violent and painful effort-ilmost i struggle-
:,,N o_r was c'omplJteit-;;;;ffi ;'irimy
Rcp g -
That body. was as if physical bodv. before accomplished. . . .!'
someone else.', ".*pi;;ii #a-ri.il; me, just as if it weie We would call attention here to the fact that the two cases
i just related are in no ya1 !o be confused with what some students,
E:S i,
Qjustion: "Then no question in your mind about the
gbjectivity of your conscrousness while vou were
, especially in-_France, label 'Self Vision'. Miss Hendry and Mrs.
dilil'iffi i."#',ril*..,r*r" ' out of your body Sto-ne each
{sqi1_cgfy state that they saw their physicai body from
without; in 'Self Vision' thc double is seen froi the physical body.
"Absolutely none,,' replied. Miss Hendry. .,I
was so convinced
that what I realtv *ir. that
ll#;.P*"
a spiiitualisi. B;rbilh";';il.0i, knew from then on
"iirr"li;;;;il;irit, what spiituati*
[It is quite oossible.that_ there are theories which might be wnifrilf*itfr*,
advanced [o exilri., Mi;
E.rJ;t-"lpli"n..,
writer does not Lare to mention tfr"*.-d. l,
but the Dresent
Mr. Alex Sim, of Essex, chairman and organizer of the Christian
l*l*ru;'d*f*v*r:li:iiiil1iffi i'di'i,i.?rffi :i,mt Spiritualist Church Union,_needs no introd"uction to many of our
readers, so we turn immediately to his account:
p,."."10i,ffi - -- "irlll"lfi :.,"::TL,i1#"i "I was greatly interested in your book when I read it a couple
her physical "illl*rg.x#1.",ffi
body.-S.il{.1 of- years ago-indeed it was 'fascinatins. . . . I had seveial
,dotIy' ones until reading
lxperiences which I thought were
tlrat book made me real{ze that my own were undoubtedli
true. The first was at the age of twenty-five. I was kneeling bi
. .sa, ,,rifi il|;"W upright.
my. bed- at evening_ pray_er,_ iired out in'every sense of the w"ord,
and suddenly found mys_clf foating up agaiut tic ceiling. I felt quit;
Ihe detached, and was able to note my body slumpcd bv the -side
case which follows might-well have
been included in the of the bgd. Suddenly came the realiiation of thd situafion and I
iiii.:l${.
keep each l'XirHT:,t! n* "kE;ffia,-$"ff.1"yH
i* ;i.
was immediately back in my body with a shock of fear which soou
passrd. For months I was puzzied over this.
individuar i"oLiJ
However, since trre """.
--casi' ;il;;;;f;#;;."d;i.:: - The rest, about six in ill, spread over a number of years
Hendrv
appropriate at this time-
il"#;il"'t; *i"il'ii"*l['i'. from twenty-five. I was organisi at a local church, and'also
lo'r"tutr o".- o]'" ,"ry similar nature.
which was reported by Myers accompanied at times a 7oo male voice choir at vaiious large
in- iii"nirri, pasonalitt- grgajls- in London. . . . Three experiences took place at tie
-'iff *ff r"'rf r?idlf l#'tr*:'1il'r'lJ,*#fr,f
consctousness, may,
local church, two at the Leysian Hill, and one at the Northern
,Pjlytechnic Hall, and oni (partly io) at the Royal Atbcri
at times, actualty stip oui, ifr ,'::i,:;:H Hall.
 THE PHENOMENA OF ASTRAL PROJECTION
They ggcurred whilst I was engaged in playing, and always
lnexpectedly-. I could never command them, and wls disgrunddd
for months afterwards at not being able to produce the exferience
at will. It consisted in myself fioating up iito thc organ ldt, about
a dozen feet or_ more, a_mongst the brgan pipes, whilst my body
continued to play the keys.
, I could sec m1 body quite clearl2, playing like an automaton,
with a bright shape linked with it. But my interest was not con-
cerned with what my body was doing, but in the fact that I
seemed made of gossamer. My body seemed to stream out in
thc flowing chords of music as a pennant streams out in the
wind. I do not mean that it lengihened and attenuated, but
the chords of music seemed to comb it with an enjoyable fluttcring
effect, the etheric form lying out horizontally, facing my ptryricit
body at the keys. My mind did not work analyticaliy-i was
just given up to the enjoyment of the occasion.
Time consciousness was peculiar, for it seemed that I was
out of my body for hours, whereas it was but a few minutes in
each case. Looking back now, it would appear that someonc
bc2ond must have taken control of my body to produce tlle
marvellous music, whilst I was either ousted, or permitted to
experience t}te event.
No one in the physical was near enough to notice anything
peculiar concerning me, but on every occasion (except one when
I was practising alone) all hearers asked me the name of the
splendid piece of music I had played, and would hardly credit
the fact that I had 'made it up' as I went along. But,that is the
only explanation I can give. . . I had no notion of spiritualism
or psychic matters in those days and never have revealed my
experience to anyone except my wife, for fear of being thought
a bit 'touched'.
Just as I could not control the experience, neither could I
control the absence. I could never remember separating or note
the return. I would be just away, listen awhile, and then suddenly
be back. I
would strive for months afterward to repeat the
experience, without success, and then suddenly have it happen
again without warning, always when I was tired out. . . .
Those experiences were concrete and definite to my con-
sciousness. I have not left my body in that sam€ way since I
left organ playing in rglg. . There have been times when
I have been conscious whilst out of the body, of scenes other
than the earthly. Recently, whilst a healer occupied my
body, I was conscious of standing about five feet away, watching
the movements of the bright aura of a fellow-healer, working
upon my physical body, but even as I watched, the link og
consciousnc$ ended. . . ."
SPoNTANEOUS PROJECTIONS t99
THE ANNANKOT CASE
A Casc Ruorded Bt Asl.
On 3rd May, r93o, Mme. Nathalie Annenkof gave to Dr.
E. Osty, the well-known French researcher, the following account
of her experiences, which we quote from The Metapsychir Rcaicw:
"You ask me to tell vou of the two occasions when I left
my body which I have aiready mentioned. . . . The first time
was four years ago. At that time I ignored the matter. . .
In the spring of r9e6, one fine warm day, I was seated in the
cemetery, on the edge of the tomb of my little daughter, whom
I had just lost. . . ."
[The authors of the present book cannot resist a comment, at
this point, that if this were an ordinary 'ghost sdory', which the
subject had concocted, she would probably have told of sccing thc
i1'
il
.tr
tiii
1
t1t
,f,
;l
'li:rr
Instead ofrecing the spirit ofhcr daughtcr Mme, Annentof saw her own!
spiit of her daughttr, for she had a perfect mental and physical
setting. But this is not an ordinary ghost story!]
"I was sad and depressed, but still in good health. I remember
well that, while watching the bees making honey from the flowers
that I had planted, I felt myself become more and more weak,
physically and morally. My first impression was that my legs
and arms had no more weight, then my stomach, then my breast.
Soon I found myself beside my body, which I perceived on the
edge of the tomb. I looked at my tired figure and even remarked
that my mantle was a little soiled. I had the sensation of soaring
above my body in complete beatitude. I felt a grand and luminous
 \

?N THE PHENoMBNA oF ASTRAL PRoJEcTIoN SPoNTANEoUS PROJECTTONS 2Ol

joy in being
complete
{ive, as if.I lived a thousan&lives at once, and a
restfulness.
along this line but want to say that . . about a year ago, or
q little longer, while I was sitting down with some other people,
I could not rouse, myself and had not the desire. But I corild I felt this liuing part of mc leaoe m€. . . . The leaving wai quite
see, unders-tand, and have the sentiment i"t..ior-fi-;]
or definite. I felt that I was held by a force which seemed very
w-as like a rag, something ""
I had abandoned. powerful. . . . I wanted to scream or do something about it,
I thought, l{I
lapprness. 'this loay
is death,. And yet I experienied the joy of being but did not, or could not. I concentrated on the thing at hand
alive.
then.
I saw the cemetery guardian approach my body, touch it. This 'spirit'-would I say?-left me and stopped about eight
feel it, call me, and ciepirt on the'iun. rr.i6rJ-i'd;".;h;i feet away from where I was sitting, . . , I was not very nervous;
ne hact go-ne lor an ambulance, and that my hands and face
g-rown cold. When I saw him depart, I'understood ih;t-h;
had in fact it all happened so unexpectedly. . . . I had no control
over the situation. I realized the'power'of some otherforce....
$ought_ me dead, and suddenly I'grew afraid. This ,;;;ir]; After some time the 'other self' went back into my body, and I
death, I_ th-ought. How will my husband live without me?'
was all right again and none the worse for my amazingly new
tlut I telt so alive that I said, ,I must return into mv bodv'. exPenence.
I tried to re-enter it and was afraid it ;ild
I began ll.feeling the weight, then the puir,, ;;;;;#;"r#i.:
ifr. fiti[';;;;
If I remember correctly, several weeks after that I had a
similar experience. . . . This time the 'spirit' left my body again
lortable teeling-s to which we are so accustomed that we no and stopped only about half as far from it as it did the first time.
longer notice them, Then came sadness and a desire to weep.
I,re-entered my body through my feet. . . .
. . . Again I wanted to scieam, or try to get back and get up,
or do anything-as I felt so helpless. I have never felt anything
Mme. Annenkof staies that" two weeks later she had another like it since that time, but I have since gona into tranccs, . . . It
experience:
was only recently that I ever mentioned this experience to any-
"Iwas alone in bed one night, readins. I was lauEhins at one, but it caused me to do a lot of thinking. . . When out
am"u;ing.stupidities of the bJor<. Sudderilyl h;dih;il;".";: there, I knew everything that was taking place and could hear
]J1
oj leaving. myself. and saw myself lying, book in hinds, the other people in the room talking, but they sounded far away.
-,?l
wnue I was up rn the air, very happy with a sensation of interioi
life.... ' ...I had no control over the condition. . . ."
._.__I watched my body....I found it all rieht. and I said-
'what a pity if one should die so young!, . . . iapproached mv
Dody and tned to re-enter it. . . . I felt it ibsorbing mi
immediately, like a sheet of blotting paper, or as a sponge .f,rorl,
water. . . ."
" o'iii,i i.;l;ihiti,n ;'
This case is from the writings of J. A. Hill, concerning the
experiences of Mrs. Mabel Napier, who usually underwent her
THE SCHLANSKER CASE projections while in her bed, but in a state which differed greatly
A Sinple, Valuablc Testimonial. from normal sleep.
Mr. Hill tells us that:
very simple case which was sent to me by Mrs. Nellie
. , [Thir is aot
Dcilansker,
Schlansker, of Scotra, york; but I consider teqtimony
Ir[ew York;
Scotia, New
"Mrs. Napier would first feel a 'sort of prickling sensation
testimonv .,f
of thi*
this throughout her body, from head to foot,' a sensation resembling
rrn-(l, lvhen
km-d, tvnen comrng
coming lrom
from one quite unlamiliar
unfamiliar with the subiect.
lar more value than complex
or rar
oI
a slight electric current. Then there would follow a state of
comolex .descriptions
comprex descriptions firr.ioh.'l by
deqcrintinns furnished L- peisons
per'soni
--,.'"^-l c6taleptic rigidity and, at timcs, the feeling of leaving the body
familiar with th^e-pherrom..rorr, since iri the former ,"gg.'rti;" would become painful, followed further by the opposite sensation
play_ no part.-S.M.l
play "u; of a acry pleasant fight through spacc to some distant point. From
ays Mrs.
Says Mrs. Schlansker: the place to which Mrs. Napier apparently projects, in her
. "foT9 time ago I happened to hear that you wished anyone
who had had any experiences_with the spirit leaving the body to
astral body, she often brings back truthful information, which
cannot be explained away by the statement that she had previously
Iet you have the facts. . . I am quite a strangei to anything been to the place.
 202 TrrB pHENoItENA oF ASTRAL pRoJEcrroN spoNTANEous pRoJECTroNs 203
.her9r.- morning, about ten o,clock, Mrs. Napier was lvine in France, Lina was living with her stepmother, an ill-tempered
bed when she experienced -described'ab"ove-
the sensatbns woman who made many unreasonable demands upon her, a-nd of
and after the usual.,r.'nift flight,'i.;;eT.";;;ii il"'i"', lIa'iJJ,?
which was sixty.miles away.*Mrs. Napier had ,wil-tld,-ih";;il; whom Lina says, "had no love for me, nor I fof her".
maKe the excursion because she 'had a feeling' that her.father,s
Like many who have contacted me, Miss Lauter did not know
condition was worse. until recently that any other person in the world had ever had such
experiences and was elated to find it out. . . . We now relate her
-arrived at the house, she said she found. herself
Having
case, just as she told it a short time ago:
ascendin-g the stairs where she entered her fatherk
soon as I went through the doorway I saw him sittinE;;
;;.-H; "One night I lay stretched out on my bed, but I could zot
i; ii;
bed, and he._appeared'to be worse. ir. i"r".J[ir-rri""a .Iri'r"* sleep. I noticed that my limbs were growing stiff that my breath
me, and called out: ..ft's Mabel!" , was starting to come in gasps. . . - Following this, a ti:rrifying
At this moment M"s. Napier sound reached my ears; it was like the rushing of water ovlr i
overcome by weakness and falls, and seemed very close to my bed.
pf a feeling of'being drawn'back_was tt rough space to her phvsical I grew frightened, and more so when I discovered that I
Dooy, where she became awake again'. She-immediatelv
slnt a
le_tter to her father,s home, tellirig tt.'n *fr"i--fr-.JilJI.,;i could not move. I wanted to call out for help, but could not
Her letter crossed in the maii on. *ti.h utter a sound. I tried in vain to open my eyes-. . . . A terrible
"*u.J Ct " "";;IJ;;;
from her stepmo-ther, in which the latter-wro;h;i pain shot through my chest, and I was helpliss to resist or wince
Iril.'iv;il;f;
rarner was much worse, that during an attack he had th6usht from it. It seemed as if I,were going to 6e fiterally torn apart
that he had seen his..daughter (M;s. N;pi"d ;;;e;il'i;':h; as I. lay there, hopelessly powerless but nevertheless c/iarl7
con:tct0us.
doorway and had called h"er name.,i
_ - Then, like a flash, it dawned upon me that I was dying.
- Mr. Hill states that, as far as could be determined, the
when the father saw and calred to tdr J""gtrt". iririii.J time I knew Iwas experi_encing death and I kept wailing over'an?
the-time when the daughter -., *itr,' ov.g-r my m-ind, 'I am dying-I am dying-tom6rrow they
ofh;;td;;;;,'tr,;
"*ur.
-in my dead body heie'.-
will find
Prace.
fn another moment, all pain and breath left me. My body
grew_light, as if it weighed nothing, and slowly ascended into
the air, until finally I rested in a hoiizontal posilion, several feet
above my bed. Then slowly I turned upright, my feet and legs
co*,;,l,,f, 'r,liif,"i*iEir^,or. movin-g downward and my head upwald and presently foun-d
myself standing on the floor in the middle of niy bedr6om.
I saw that I had left my physical body behinci-saw it lying
- - We call the reader,s
following
sp-ecial attention to the fact that in
-6ht_
the there upon the bed in froni bf me-but lhat fact caused *6
case the subject,'Miss Lina i.ft.r, of Cleveland.
was entirely conscious?om the very U.sil"i,is regret, for I was ove{oyed at finding myself wide awake and "6 in
;h.;;;j::;;:
tlg ty-pe ot occurrence which is compiratively"frare. At"no time possession of a new and magnificent body which seemed bubbling
did the sl^eep o_g-dream state figure il ih; experience, over with buoyance.
I tried to think of the many things I should have done, and
unknown force-(X-forc-e, which I iong ago a.iig,it.a
conscrous mrnd) was the controlring factor, and
; it. ""a-iii.
;;;;: perceived with wonder how clearly my thoughts came. I was
not Miss Lauier,s conscious of all my surroundings. I thought of my friends and
volition-
While Miss Lauter is at present an American citizen, and was famlly,-and was giad that fath"er had diid shortty before and
for more than eleven years thl onty *o,,"n-o'" trr. staffof popular would be spared the ordeal of conducting my furieral.
a During the entire experience it never once occurred to me
y:y.fnd newspaper, the exp_erience took place in lgr4. At'that that I had not really diid. That fact was self-evident. I knew
tw:nty,years_otd.,.a subject of Kaiser Wilhelm, and
111...:1:,y1s
was workrng as a teacher at v/ardpadagagium-a schoor for I was a spirit, for I was standin g there pnJectl2 conscious and could
chiidren
-in_the
village of Bad Berka, districi 3f-it,r.i.,sio, i" G;;r";;;- *e-my- physical_body, which I had .iust vaCated, lying there as
fler rather, a Lutheran minister, if dfad, which I thougth it was.
and her brothers having been drifted lrayiqg died a ihort time beforl, Ihere was a very strange kind ol'light aU about me, not
iito-ite s"*inj-io bright, but rather Hte thc l-ight of early-dawa, yet there'were
"r*y,
'( ,.ri7''

D+ TIIE PHENOMENA OF ASTRAL PROJECTToN

no^shaiows and everything
in the.oo- rtooj out cleirly. .
A feeling of sreat catri,r
and f stretched out my arms
seeiriail,"k;;;;r;d;f ff;liljt . .
ro" my loved
. . . Just then I was itruck with
""d;"id;f,li.r,r,g
irr.r.qtl9f-sr;.;h;.'L
ones.
so silly now, tut as f_ stood tfr...l--U."fi"*ng
" *ffi; 0g. CASES IN BRIEF
enter heaven. I was still so human til myself about to
my U&.1i""r-nii;;fi
glee to think'that I *orla ilh;;;';;'jrJ.".ry THr purpose of^thjs book has not been to gather togethcr
all the
and.prepar_e breakfast for my ,tip-"til.i."a,,il
in the mornins
available of the projection of the astral body. Gat would be
cases
to
-think of her having to prepare her'own. . . .,,
-*. a"ii.ili# impossible. This is not a collection, it is a seleition-a selection
Miss Lauter's stateme"nt i"ei..i;; th;;."* intended to set forth many, factors incident to the phenomenon,
is sweet', and that one does ;;;-irr1;;ii; a the spirit .revenge not only as a reference for future investigators but f6r their valui
moment of passing out!
i"i" ,n,o an angel at the
to-present-day readers seeking evidence ofthe transcendental nature
But _I mrist rroi b.irrg her tes-timony to of man and his survival of physical death. So, to avoid repetition
an end. . She sub-
sequently made a short irrvey of the tiouse]'and and save space, we shall draw our presentation of cases to a close
henelf moving back again lirt" f,., pf^yrit"f lrery soon found. by relating the following thirty-six iases in very condensed form.
entering the sleep or dream state. form, never once
The cases are numbered.
,*"i ;
I"i had-?t"tr#
J
"I
oI
L.new. just
1 rl:irFk#:;iq[H
conscrous resurrec
bodn and that I |,rfrffi' tt
BRIErst'
"o* ilprir;;;;;
was ;h. flesh again. .. .,, r.
Miss Daisy M-, of London, writes me as follows:
"f
have been requested by Mr. Leigh, editor of prcdittion,
to write -tg you direct concerning somJ strange experiences i
have had."
.haveOl. of the experiences related by Daisy M-
been an astral projection, for she continues:
appears to
f'On this occasion I was ill in a London hospital and I stood
by my bcdsidc and saw m2 bodl in bed. My face was flushed and I
seemed to be terribly distressed, almoit crying."
. 1I"- subject also mentions seeing her own louble, from her
physrcal eyes:
'lAbout six months later, I had iust arrived home from the
office and sat down in a chair to res-t. Looking across the room,
to my surprise, I saw anothcr myself sittine orithe chair! It (thi
1t!.1"1_y:r
a lew moments. 1l'y. p"t"
..
and sad-looking. I'he vision tasted dnly
z. Miss Phyllis H-, of Bucls, tells me tlat:
"One night, while my physical body was asleep in bed. I
-became a\lrare, all of a sudden, that my spirit was oirt of it, and
that I was standing on my feet in my b.iroom. . . . I thousht
of looking at myself in the mirror, and it (the mirror)
front of me somehow. .-.. . Everything except my dr6ss""*"-ir,
looked
the same as in earthly life. . . .'I wai not nervous, but haJ'a
feeling-of great-exhilaration. . . . As I was looking i"i;thu
glass, the thought came to me tlat I must set baci into mv
body, and with that thought, the skin of my phfrical body,..-ei
ms
 206. TrrE nHENoMENA oF AsTRAL pRoJEbTroN
slowly to creep over me, and all at once I was in bed and
conscious. . . ."
3. Abbi Meurice related to the well-known Alphonse Cahacnet
an-exteriorization- experience during the course of a high fe"ver.
-Cahagnet states that-for several da-ys the subject *ur oit of his
body and could see it stretched oui beside him.
4. Professor Hyslop's report on Mrs. Qyentin stat$:
"Four or five times I have experienced, while lying in my bed.
the indescribable feeling of being apparently r.pi.uiid froin m"
body. I then have the feeling tiat'i am hoieiig in thc air, aboic
\y bod), which I ga4 upon, while fully conscious oJ m) surroundinps.
I then experience the glorious feeling of unlimited freedom, fet
a slight effort on my part seems neclssary to prolong it. Aftc,
a few moments, a strange feeling comes over me, w[ich causes
me to think: 'I must go back into my body again'. I am convinccd
that I have succeeded in prolongin g thi ti;ne of freedom by my
effort of will, but only by-a few moments. Then something olcuis
within me which compels me gradually to re-enter the-body.,,
5. Mr. E. B., of Solvay, New York, writes me as follows:'
"{bout five years ago I ran across a magazine in which was
an article by yoq on _the astral body. . . . I then read your book,
and made a study of it. In about a month I was gettins results.
.-. . 4! first, semi-conscious, which did not aff6ct m-y heart;
then fully conscious. . . . But I found that, on awakening from
the latter, I had pains in the heart. . . . Once, when prdiected
and conscious for a few minutes, I was surprised to set dthers,
like myse[,-walking q.lrrgugh the--place, acting as though theyi
were in a dazed condition. . . ."
D.. !9gl -states th-at his-wife had just gone to bed one night,
-6.
and was still wide awake, when
"a feeling came over her as if something heavy were passing over
her from her feet upward. Her limbs- became rigid, she" said,
and she wanted to cali me but was unable to do so. fhen suddenlv
she saw her own material body lying in bed, and she thought
to herself that she had died. ."
7. K.8., of Cassadaga, Florida, states that he went to bed one
night and "began floating upward", at which time he saw his
father, who had been dead for several years. His father took him
on a trip into "a strange place which is difficult to describe,'.
When the time to return iame, K.B. states that he began to
hesitate,
"having a dread of slipping back into my body. . . . Then
came the command, 'ft is your duty to return,' and with that I
did slip into my body. . . . I had a feeling of great elation for
several days after this.. . . and.-I am hoping I can have the
experience again someday. , . ."
CASES IN BRIEF 207
8. I was talking to Mr. Britton, the materialization med.ium of
Seattle, Washington, a few days ago, after a siance with him, at
which time I asked him several questions, such as: "How do you
feel wh_en going into your trance?" etc. To which he replied:-
"I hear the voices of the sitters growing dimmer anddimmer,
as if I were moving away from th-em, oi as if the voices were
moving far away from me. . . When I come out of the trance,
the past two hours seems but a few minutes. . . When I frst
startcd titting I ofun found rytself moaed outide m7 body and caught
manl glimpses of it siuing in the chair entrarced. . . There was a
magnetic connection between the two bodies. . . . No, I did
not- see any spirits at the time . . and I do not see myself from
without any more. . . . I am just unconscious of everything."
9. Qn-e of the subjects with whom Colonel A. de Rochai experi-
mented, Mademoiselle Hammerle, wrotq that one evening- she
retired to bed and felt herself capable of leaving her body volun-
tarily. -She tried to do so, and at-a distancc of sii paces shc- saw hcr
plrysical bod2 lying upon thc bcd.
ro. Another incident recorded by de Rochas: In rBB3, Captain
Volpi .inhaled chloroform to relieve cramps resulting from an
operation for stone.
"I noticed," said Captain Volpi, "that my ego-that is my
soul, my thinking mind----clothed ln a bodily foim of its owrl
was about two metres distant from my physical body . . .
stretched out motionless upon the bed. . ."
r r.
Doctor E. von Krasnicki had an out-of-the-body experience
and tried to prove it to himself at the time. . . 56 he- walked
about the room and tried to strike the stove to find out ifhe really
was awake. He struck it, he says, and felt almost nothing. . . . So
again he struck, with great vigour, and felt no pain whatever.
12. Mrs. B.F. states that in the year 19o6 she was living in
northern Minnesota when her only son, a boy of fourteen yJars,
passed away, leaving her stricken with deep grief which she endured
for years. Then
"in the summer of rg38, at sunrise in the morning, I was lying
in my bed, upstairs. The room was large, with two windows, anil
I was looking out of one of them, when in came the most lovely
person I have ever seen. She had golden hair, tied in a knob
at the back of her head, and the iest of her being was semi-
transparent and blue. The Being said to me: 'You are grieved
and want to know where the soul is-you are coming with me-
I am going to take you out of your body and shoi you.' And
I.se-parated from my body! She took me with her thiough the
air!"
The subject tells how she visited beautiful gardens, unequalled
-by anything
on earth, saw beautiful and happy people, and'heard
 208 THE pHENoniENA or ASTRAL pRoJEcTIoN
I cAsEs rN BRrEF 2pg
wonderful music to which everything seemed to move ofmy condition", and experienced a period ofclairvoyance.
in rhythm.
. . . lyent;r|fr ttre Being saidl ,,XE*, li. you satisfied?,, aware
, 6:,#Js. Iv,f .B., of Decatur,'
r rolq ner that_ I was, and at once she said: .Come then., Illinoi{-wri tes :
"When I was sixteen .
my mother -..""i..a
,.rii-rrr" to town_some
and took me thro.sh-rp"ci. L"*
once more. As I was looking at it, -y-uJy
ryi"? , ^^
urrlLu miles a\/ay_to
fifteen- rrurcs away-to nave *-. i."it
have some
"i.r'ir,ll'[.i
shl said': .yori J. ;.;-;;;;
yet,' and disaooeared. . . .'i u*o[. ir"*.ai"r.f"y-;';;h;:ii
teeth repaired by
: . , I was unaciustomed to b.irg;;;y d;;"il.;;';il;;:"
hw thc
the rtan*ic+
dentist.

body. . . . Niy mother t"fJ"r."ilrt'i'must have back, I *."iJo'uloise, took a room, and sat
dreamed it. I:l:t:lin Tl,,:1"
down a chair. ... . i startea t"!.-t. ,i.;;;;;;ilil:,fr;"i
but-I know it was no a..u-. i-n.ul; ilili':;ilffi':'idt:
sort before and knew nothing about sfi.itualir*. ,. -.-.R
found mvself floating,. and could'r.. *y--fia1'riiurii""in"
13. H. Ernest Hunt, ir.r an irticle o.r-if,. subjeci *1t..:,;,1-: I,fett so'itgtr;-"il-i;..'l voice spoke to me and
of projection, said: 'Where do you wa-nt to go?' I repliedl';i;:;;r";#'";: ,
says:
-by a"one of the most curious cases r know was tord -to me recentlv T-g- lllh*ch
instantly;
r
i.outd_ no; ;;"";;y;;;"i r"l"a',r,"; i
Then Lu* *y ,ioiir.. i" u.a .-.'.-r"j"r'i".,
1. : i;, il;t
lady^ r''h^o now.lives in St.
#;i:,7 walked into the room where '-t ;i;;;. wcre
upon in St. George,s Ho:pl*.I, Jot ";r-lV#.'Sh.";;:
FI1.de park, ond *^ dui;;t";; asleep. .- . :,;-"'
Mrs. M.B. states that she had'*.i f,.u.a of ,flitr"tir*
an anaesthetic in the.ward. \Vhc.,,lr. *u, supposedly ur",.o,r.,,?o,r, ., the
urr time of ure
urrlE or the expertence.
experience.
ut
she saw her body being wheelea iir.
;il;#;, ", Fort..ii':rdff",lff."li:Ji,# ,7:.I".John liarker, of Cleveland, Ohio, writes:
had nevcr sccn. "In r gz8, six months uft.. tn. a."lh oi qv *jQ, I was working
".nr.il?r,i
saw it, with its tiers of .students studying t,t. op..utionl .ii alone in a machine shop. At t*.f*
apparently she was herserf standing .o-.irh".. u!ria.-rr.i were runninC, I lly down upon ,o-.-to*.,
*rr,L1t.;;;l-il,
";.L.r., to relax
body, for she tclls me that she note? 1ui'*f,i.f, "*i and
."J-ih;;';g;;';
and when thev firrished^she saw tt ut tfr.y had put if""';.rl.i,
,r"::lr"r:^:Tf^r!-r_lq i"
,r,y..t'f floatinj around
tf," ,frop.' .-.".
clips an-d no ititches,. Sh. ;[; ,r.,,'
l" I coutd see the machines' ru1"*'1",,j'-r.t:il'ffi;1"',i,.
student. for did not seem.to b; .:*"i;; a'dout it. . . . r had a
whom she felt a very.strong dislike, U..t"r.a'.i;E;il;,i*;
"'i3a_r,eaded L:Tf-': l1t_I
to siudy ihe caie . . .'and furthe. a.t'"iir-"*f,i3fr"i
feelins peac.e
voice of^ofmv wife,""a
*L"a.r. .".":"i;;"'ff:,ih'"',o,"l'h:
lRecial{f
the reader. . Subsequently she narrated *t saying: ,Come it, i._T Jir,ir
"r :"i,lri
spare
saaz under these circumstance-s to tiie "t
,t.-t
operati"g ,rrg.o";il;; "J
it,'^ . : .
".ra
I went'bick i"io- -y"ritoay.,,
, ..r8: An honour graduate of u *.ti-t"o*n academv srarer rhat.
,rurn:. I.. h.ave, and all he replied to hlr wasi ;On,-
psychic!"'
l4..Ilhe same author, Ernest Hunt, goes on to say that:
rt, i;;?" ;';*:;.""#t"-ff
(or February) yT
I
. and consciously lrlis
f ii,'Ji:';f TJ:fr i*,TIif i?,,ll"i;
aw3r.e.-i" ,"h. dark'err'oi-#;';;;;
l'eft my body. The process may be com-
"Dr. ovcrcnd Rose, of Chel tcnha;; ;h;'"L-.oid, .rrli'Utt, pared to a sudden'ttretching o"i'oi'ordr.tf
a severe accide*t whilc riding. As a consequence he *",
u..., I found mvself in full dayffi roiai'.ny b.e. il;il;#. ...
inspection of th. ,oorrr. . . ."lt *u, ur r.u"r. ::".'i';;; ;"
heavily thrown, and
_his horse"fcll rp"; hi;l ;;;;;;;ri;.;:;1
rng. nrm. rmmecliarcly, he tells us, he found . The thought_
him-self oul of his that it would be to
l.ee -y
body, intensely conscious, but feeling nt pui". H.,u* o*.r.booy_"ame to me, and f
body being piiked up by, thrce men ind ;;;;t;a^t";';
frirlfruri"li ?ueer
looked, confidently_expecting to see it but all I saw was
.?rliitl',lll a hazy, vaporous- light, of ?pf..U*ut.fy 'rfr.
size. . . . Suddenry sink i"id a".r".rs ana ptirf;"i';"j;,
rng house, where trvo doctors rvere called,r, etc.
in Johannesburg, Nfrs. paitfr'arcfrdale, author of was awake in the
,r-r1!.. Hhilg physical again. . .' .,,.I
AJrrcan ttarcls, under\4-ent some dental surgery. When the chloro_
form had been administered for ro^. ,i.n..',"1r". a.lrrJ.r. . ,9._I-.[.C., of London, writes me that she is a clairvoyant and
also believes in reincarnaton,
fo,r more, claiming that she was not uri""f.-;:Sr6denly,,, "rl.i
she writes. "nJlrru;';I"i.';;ry
"the.spirit Ieaves the U"ay',tgr"ri.fr- ;;;1.:[i;
I rouno mysell standing ercct beside the chair on which not the case with me,. . . tvta jii;i, Joi., "f tlil il."I,i#;:
in'"'rrp
mv iorn.tf,idt;;;;;;-
material body lay. I felt aitrong wish zot to *t., tfrui
f.au'ur.i".i ,
head; immediatetv,there is.-!.lgh; ii[ilt,
lne doctor had rerused to increase the strength of tte .tiro.'ofol- another wortd. fully conscious. .-. . f una I find mysetf in
at first, and Mrs. Archdale awoke and *"r"pf"."i- by h;;';.;;';il,J:H1;
guide'"ra. gr9*-. . '. 'ul,^,rnii r;.;;;, 't#Ufit
In a short time the anaesthetic *u, "p;;";^r"lb:
asain. and ,.I
-y
d5:gqrption, spirit childre"
was again outside my body, hovering"a-i.,lrtered pt.v-i-JtJ.
ulo"t ln tnT .;,1*,'irffy' N.U. does not wish her namL "t tb'appear in
irrint, and states
 2to THE PITENOUENA Or ASTRAL PROJECTION
CAsEs TN BRIEtr 2II
that her experiences.last..only a few moments..
has them only occasionally. ' . and that she . ri* t.l.yp in th^g air, looking down upon everything, from above
eo. H. G.'Cloete-Noaiilg *.ite, me from Cape
Town, South
, :l:_q"-q'-:,. i .say
grandmother)
Sh:.:,"w.and'heard. trei mother'(thaiir-M;.J.i.',
Africa, saying: "the baby is alive',. etc.
"Some vears ago . . . I practised projection as Friulein
. ?.3. IfLXho Dr. Mattiesen- tells us. is an enereetic-
D.B.,
in your bo6*., rn'noioilr; ,7:;;;'";;;i-iira, exrrlained has built up her o*_" rir.-i'"a.p;ft;r;:;;;
control melhod.
*rrs
. . : I slcceed_ei i" froi."tr"g, but ;t{i;;k i1:ttlq.,ll
f[^,:g"l-: ::iltthe:gl_l and director of an impo-ia;ffirhi"s-
my immediate vicinity. . ..I was, hoiir"., never out of
,. house in one of largest resorts on the coast 'of tni r"rti" s...
quite satisfied with Dhe sard:
the results at the time. ... . But
engaged in other work of fatiguing.work and.worry, 1nd littte sleep,
I was deprived of practisi"g;;;J"r:i;;;
fi";l+ gave it up, intending . r,-ll!!:l $31s
lard my,sell-down
later to tike up th"'rt;dt;A Ibecause I was too upon my bed toward midnight, fully dresseil,
now arrived and to my regret ir"'.,iffi"in.
. . . The time hai exhausted to prepare mysirf ior
i nna tt it t .unrro, ;il;;
dream. (I used to create tf,. ,rui..i ;i;.^ ##'#"'r:::':i:: th; Very gradrrally *y-nerves gr.*'"ai-, u".i ifr.n -tfr"."'"'""*"
t'he nieht.
over me a feeling irf delicioui rest, and suadenlv,-I *r..fit-u,
hovering.high up near the ceiling, and I siw i,iv ULt,
-i""it,
f;,l:f ^F$iTffi
tion, and
;r;",*r"i:Tl:1#rlfu il,#fi-*:l*f
so far, onci *" t*i[., *fr."-iil'rt..r, (desire)
ctothrng,lyrng wholly quie-t
.below me. Weary as'I had been,
was very. .t.olg, I have had a ,cracking i" to escaDe I now l-elt
equally light and joyous! Again anci again I s.azed in
_
repercusions (although
tir.- h.;a;-UriT. amazement at my body lying there ber-ow me. Bui this c6ndition
before, when I u'sed the .i;;;; ;;;,;;i not last long and'I iblidistinctty that
lethod-clim^bing ai ordina*tuirr_i *o"ra .o*.1i;;;'l;
-;;;h,
gi_g
downward againl A certain calmness
i ;;; Grs^d;;;"
'r.-i".a,
thrown out for some distanci, fully conscious,
;; I u"Ji'"i"i'?"a
i ii.d:^,*y twice .nightl.f prep-arations- I have'experienced this
.,rl.r"l since.then_alyays
ii concutton after great physical tension,
i"If"i{fr :rr,,"*itiH[ffiH[H,:ffi ffi ,h*; :" but never again so distinctly.,,
24..A
conscious." -co-rrespondent of Misi Dallas told the latter of an experi-
Th! f^oregoing : which happened to her cousin at the time of transition.'The
account from lgin-q a recent report, I have had no further . "r9g
paUent. already un-conscious, had received the last anointing. and
Mr. Nod-ing regarding his'success or failure.
the physician in charge^ pronounced that she could not ,'r*irr"
r the night, since rcspiritioln w:u' very *iat a"a tfr" -U"tv ;lr;y
il'i-iif,$"fr:#1:;Tfri".i*ff
the sun shone uoon it. .
,'.,,
t;**y-;*ll*
H;;;;;;;*'iii, pr,vri.ur'ilil;il;
growin-g cold_. . . ,.y.j after a peaceful ,lumt; ,f,.'"io"ia,
somewhat refreshed, : and demandei food in
get strength- enough to communicate somethi"s _order thJ ,rr. ,iigr,i
.upo.r, hi,,,t .ud .il;;;.1;;;:.;;
"or"r-.J;,il ;'.rtirr;i,- ^"i ;;iJlir:
operated
uhe stated that she had been dcad, and. that sh6 had nioved
to a
"The surseon,s a1ry passed through me! I felt an urse from her ptyri-""i-bod; i;ilg';,"erged from the feet.
fi;1ancg
lnen she had stood at the foot ofthe bed and iooked down uoon
look
The 'rpe,,
thJ"onc.Jea ,[;r;u ;;t;fi
thought came to me that
rh;il.; ;.:: ::to her.physical body, within which she h"a ;;;"-;; trei;'lil:";
b.dy l;i";;j i;
tt at pilv.i"la small flickering flame. She herself seemed to be like ;[i;;;;ir;
me, that I was its lord and mart.r. iri, ia..,oor, il..u.i;"li;i; rlght..She-telt-.strong and very h"ppy and knew that " evervthini
"ffi f
seemed
qiTf i{::,,,,1J,:",:":**tx1ii}:hf
to me that il:;ixli was all nght,- "and they must not weep for her for
nave escaped lrom her physical body,,. Again and aEa'in she
she was EIad tE

my s enses ; ;-,I JeX,l!' if fi: i,lil ;i.Tn:: TF"*.[y qnlRhaticallf -repeated ttrai ii was she, h...1f, *fro-fr"a l""l,,
eyes, and I_rer,
lost consciousn-ess. . . . When i
i;il;;;il'i #l _o-, ,l.t.physical.body,
:11: really
was l,-I myselfi, my oyn person, just I.i' . .-.
.,ft
and not only just a part of ht. . . .";;:
,rj:* terrible pui"- u,.r"r, 1?'ii.'.fi ,'",i.I i: Twenty-four
- 22. Mrs. ir*:11s
i?"P.9J.l(. states that ^,
her mother Ieft a wrrtten account of
hours later she finally passed awav.
how she had passed out of her body during-tt
e ri.tt oiii.. a-""*i,., . 25. Last winter I-jtlierelatives
present ,ir.it.r1 was at the .wake, of one
(M.rs. J.R.).river sixty ycars.ago.'Tt" stated that
durins S *y d-evout Catholic when one of those present. Mr.
a man of sixty-five and very heavy, *trom I'trave
and immediatery after ihe birilr, tt; r"uJ""t'r"ffi;#ii
^8.o,rnt
%dili f-,
rsrown tor years, began to tell of an accident he had
= had, about a
 212 TH& rHENoMENA or AsTRAL pRoJEcrroN
month before. At the time he had slipped upon CASES IN ERIET
and fell backwards upon his t -;;iiiir' the icy sidewalk
29.
hi;;;j q, i;:'.Tf,:',r. "ua-.
+u, r was outside or:h:[frm];:*; . "Your book, Thc Projation ol thc Astral Bod2, solved, for me
at my body which was lyinf.upon tdrl;rli.;;iri;;;;";t:
scar upon his head. he--coritinired, ,,anJ-f
the case of the appearante of a-,double' which-aooeared to mv
pgther, a most matter-of-fact person, in broad"daylight_shl
running out of this-gash i" ,nv fr.ua;."* ' "o,rtd-;;;-th? il#; being unaware until later that il was not the actual'peison she
had seen. What puzzles me is that the ,proiector' ;d;;;;;;;
,"#*:#'i',Hl,liill,*;f j1.*?[':l1i?H j,,qr"iB of.the projection.- . . The book also cliarjd up for me a diffi-
-.
which one of the men present
"t,L:xr,
replied-i;W;ii, I,d say you have a culty regardlng the theory of survival which I had always felt,
you ceitairily t"oni th";-;t;; ;;;:; because of the numerous cases one reads of regarding
:-r:l.:!t _rmagination;
unconscrous you can't see yourself.,, ' qh9 hgye been 'dead' for shorter or longer pfuoar,'uia f..ro.ri
I could not but be impressed by the irony of
the situation when revived. by doctors. Some- of them report f,?ri.g t ih;;;;;:".i .
ten minutes later the latier was a;;;-;;" tion of being o't of their bodies, while others rep'ort"J havinq been
entirely unconscious during the whole period.'. . .
ilx,,:r$.l*r;*:llllm:w#itrH[i:#ri*,"ffi
the parties mentioned h;;; rb;'i"i;;i,
I once heard Sir Olivei Lodge stati in a lecture that every
object had- its ethereal double. ihe thing .bo,rt frychi"A -pfr"'-
attended the 'wake'. i'r'u#"uuy every one who nomena which impresses me most is thJmanner^in which'one
26. I have read of an Austrian general in the Iact supports another, as is the case with all true science. and in
army who was
:ilre6;lgiPgU*q*** this case all supporting the theory of survival. . . . T6 il ;;
least the conviction which a study of psychical research has
illtt4ffiti:rfr
the room. "Near trie ria" oitrr"-il4';ffiil;rii;i
given me, of tJre fact of
faith cou-ld ever be, and lurvival, is more rltirfyi"g tt ortfroa*
it wili be a good tfrin[ fo,""tt^i-.-*ia
lay, f saw n1y brott-r-er and the pf,yri"i.n' ," chargei;i,yrt.ii;;a"i wnen rt ts generally accepted.
of my case: H. Huxrlry.,,
*
yet.nothing-else so fi[ed m-e with'utilrrrilov
trr. L"ri"ulr#i"J
th;
entirely- welt, stronger a1d. youngel ;u;.;J#iii:""lliiii
a terrible pain andfound himsefi b""f i" U.a again, .
tng:
30. My mother in London wrote on r3th December the follow-
old misery . . . rhe frrt:t"il.r*; in ttre same
;;;; itu" "ili,li.l_r#"r,i iiiii "I had a funny experience last night. I had been reading.
I said to f,rvr"ft ;i ["J f.it.i?'i"
[Xl';r':?f fnf f,.'fL#y;*irri:X j""l#{#'fl:tr1,
The hall clock struck ohr, so
bed'. As I turned to thi bed I saw nintf lvirni it ir..-t"'
._ -27. Sheila Arclerj;;;i s;il;;"Ail;e, chirk, N. Wrenham back. I wondered if I were dead, but ih"' ."6.pi"; ;o;.d;;"i-"
(May 1944) writes: then the bed was emPty' '
"For some vears I have occasionally gone ''
-rvr*
out of my bodv. F. Gorrsc,.q,Lr.,,
This r1e.l1 I i# fi;ri 3r.
J 1ngn_tion-no one believei it.
l,::'^*:tIITtJ,J:$:i.i:r:.p;[:r$:mml*:xli , "I was discussing the astral body book witll my father not
Iong ago, and he gave me some inteiestin.q details of some of his
and have just read thi preface.- Vor'"rt ,, get own experiences. He said that he usually .iakes uD'exoeriencins
you-hence this letter. Even if it doesnt g"ttotolou,in touch with a-whirling sensation, and then realizes ihat he is Llevaled il t-h;
fceling to realize there are o61.j;;:- 'o
i,1r;;;.ir air, perhaps head or horizontal, or normally vertical.
He then lands and9-ownward,
^ -28. Margaret
Oakland,
Foley, Minister of the Spiritualist Church. of
Cilifornia, iic-errtly t"ia ,r" ti"t';-h;;;e h;T',.?;i
becomes completely and apparentlv normallv
conscious. He has always .landid, eiiher in'lii, o*n home, o'r
astral excursions. once ror a-"irit t"lr,il" i"ffi
t. y"r t.te";;i;"e in the same block. Onie he landed in a strange ho,rr", ii"ni
spirit world, she said, and.afterwari it ,err"J iili; ;;;: out of it and found himself on his own street-lient to his own
On several occasions.she had ,G." ;;;#;i';;il-ni"tii) home and spent some time there. . . When he ,starts backi
rt.o*.!t" top of h9r head,,. And, ut o"ilirn"-i-..iiu* my physical body he invariably goes into a long and weird dream, and these latter
ltorrdrry across the room, fr_om where
how
p.oj"ct.a;;;e;;d";;
I was going to git back into fit.*"s. -.?
are always.like
.an- ordinary dieam, unreal, and ilearly differenti-
ated in his mind and memory hom the other ex'peri.n"o-
though they are usually very vivid.
 211 THE PHENoMENA oF AgtRAL pRoJEcTIoN
While these 'visits' last, the most prominent sensation is
complete independence of matter. He takis great slee in walkino
through walls to get from one room to anJther. "He states tha;
he apparently_'walks', and yet he seems to be a fcw inches above
the ground! His mother has never seen him, though he has
kissed her and stood in front of her for some timel . . . H;
notices details around the house, such as the remains
-H"-h;,
"i;
which was served to company earlier in the ";k;
-;
tried to read over my mo-thei,s shoulder, Uut "r"ni"s.
,e.-s ii";bl.
focus
_his, eyes on the iype-which aggravates him . s.."t d.J
... He is now on the look-out fori'uch incidents, ia ifl"y
occur I shall let you know. . .
G. Bucx.,,
32. _lvlf. Samuel Blakely, of Cincinnati, Ohio, tells ho* she
was prrlled out of her body by the spirit of her dead brother! on
-rrth.December, rg4r, she'wai deprissed, as she had to no-to tfr.
ho-sprtal ,the next day for a major operation. She had aliavs had
a lea.r of hospitals. In the middle of the morning, while lying on a
couch in her semi-darkened parlour, in a consci6u, *ooa'of'r,or*
about forthcoming events, she was startled to ,.. tr"i ;;";;;;e
brother, Oscar Pattemon, of Muncie, Indiana, who had died in
1935, at the-a_ge of fifty-three, appear. He seemed to float into thi
room toward her from the dooriviy. Although in some p"irr, Mrs.
Blakely-insists she was pcrfectly conscious andawake.
it i pt i"t-ii
of the brother was nuie and she heard no sounds. He inade no
statement to her..
$pproachin-g her on the couch, he suddeniy
leaned over her, picked her up Ey placing his arms aiound her necf
and hnlctng hrs two rbet around her legs, and she felt herself lifted
trom her physical body, floating up into the air, their two bodies
tight together. As they drifted-away, she observed herut*i".i
body on- the couch. Near the doorway, about sixteen f.;i fil# til
c-ouch, she lost consciousness, and remembered nothing
she awakened later. -o." u"tii
g?. M..r. MaryJane Nugent,-of.Cincinnati, Ohio, reports that
one day she was lying on a sofa drying her haii. her head hansinp
down at one end of the sofa. In a hlFawake state she had"thE
sensation.of floating, and suddenly became completely cons"iors,
as she felt herself drifting slowly- down into hei phvsical bJv]
Her consciousness of entriinto her physical body;;;;d.-. .':
,34..
The ability of thi mind- to froject an image in the asrai
realm is revealed in the story of M*. katherine Rllev, of Fairfax.
Ohio, who became conscioui of being above hercf..iing ;tit;;;;i
body n-ight several years ago. Sh; felt herself driftin; s'id;wa;;
-one
IiomJrer physical body, over her husband who was aslEep besi<ie
her. she was near the ceiling of the room as consciousness came.
As her rubtle body started to iurn and settle to tne floor, fear sazid
CASES IN BRIEF 2ts
her. .She started c4ri-ng out: "Stop! Stop!,' and suddenly, in large
letters, th-
flaming-red letters, the word.'stop' appiared
appeared in the air
air before hir
eyes. She was instantly pulled back inio her phpical body with a
strong repercussion, which was like "being
"beins liit-with
fiit'with aa club,,.
- 35. Blanche Henderson, of Windham,
Windham, Ontario,
Ontario, Canada, a
crippled bedridden old lady, now deceased, wrote down her out-
of-the-body experience several years before her death. She
states that at a critical period of her life, due to great physical
suffering, she no longer-wished to live, and whilJ this ihought
occ-upigd her mind she found herself exteriorized from her physiial
body.- She strolled with relatives and friends who had pars6d iway
long before, amid beautiful trees, flowers, and soft dvilisht. Hei
pleasant visit in the spirit world was terminated when 6ne who
said he was her guide finally told her to bid farewell to her spirit
friends for she mirst now .eturn to the physical world. "I r"* rny
body lying on the bed, crippled, and in- gieat contrast to my new-
found spirit body and wept to think thai I had to return into it.
My husband and friends were standing around my body on the
bed and my husband was crying. VIy giiae said three timls: ,Now
you^wo_n't forget,' and I replied to him, safng: 'No, I will not for-
get.' Mrs. I{enderson's husband and friends hid supposed that she
had passed away. The guide escorted her to the fbot of her bed
, where she was drawn into her physical body again and from that
day unti-l !re1 passing Mrs. Hendlrson had griat peace of mind
with unshakable faith in a new and happy lifeln the future beyond
the physical world.
_- 3p.
Commander Campbell, in his book Bring Tourself to Archor;
tells how he 'died' and got out of his physical body. -He looked
d9ry1 ypon it and even noticed the length of the itubby beard
which had grown during his illness. . . . He went outside where
he joined a great number of persons (spirits) who seemed to be all
going in the same direction.
"Where are they all going?" he asked one of the men.
"\,Vhy, this is death," the man replied.
Said Commander Campbell to himselft 'I must get back into
my body,' and he subsequently did so. The doctor.-had believed
him dead and had already signed a death certificate!
 i, &l
fi,
i:
I

r' CONCLUSION 217

' phantTmal forms, i.e. app,aritions. In the latter,
usually there is
i T::*i: :I:-f!13 sellconscious"*tppt il6il;;
CONCLUSION fq.Ti"l"gr the subject not only
;;d#;"
,;pp;;;-b;;'f;;H;r;;h;
:1":lil:,It^'s,3P.Pea"l,lci in other words he rs the 'ghost'. Many
people iail to disti-r-rguish between astral body phenori;".
Trrr.cases.published. in-the present volume, ";;;-
trons and materializations; but there is a uirf difference'b;ffi;;;
mentioned in the earrier book.', urru..dit;ir"* together with those
ences are far from being as rare as,
us that such exoeri-
most p."pr. il"fi";;ffifii;
fL:t ^Y:-lt,.lq^d
d.?,p ire pu rely hafu t".y_6.;;h
""i" " are to some extent
;;;;;
.rnsugatecl telepathically. Materializations
ress
no more rare than othei psychic .*p..i."i., .oi;;;;il;;
This fact in itsctf should 6;i'i#;;.rghJ. .ffiffi. solrcr, space-occupying bodies-usually seen in s€ances.
oooy may. De to some extent objective also, but it is certainly
rne astrat
?iG;; . .-rf quantity not
of evidence brinss convlct,_"r, irrir-ir";#;*,; rt.rrs.rlpiil:i,
while the quality'of this evidente-rr, i" ...,i
a materialization. The distinguislring .]r".""ioirii"l"
r,iiri.-J
t:Xilltil"T,: as we have qaid,.
is that self-c6nsciouiness is retained; ;;;;;;;; "ii
th;
t t rr
.*p"r't.a-' Jt lrrt-r,u n a by competen r TiIr},|-* ii.j":-.::1d,1*,j.:lil.,t as opposed to objective, ii, r"
and in manv cases by medilal ;"'J-;i;", scientific men. ThJ the. present boo[, we have iicordingly-cited ,i,fv-t[rr. "r,"r"lii..- i"
cumulative eiTcct of trr1,
It is, of course.
*"rr-.i;;.;;; is impressive. "*otimc,
y^"1"_1 ,l_., subJectJ are auarc of their externalization at the
;;g;;r-ih;;'tn. s..i,d-W-ortd War :-:tt.:f_19 which th-ey merety rappeared, to ,o_. otf,.,
blocked progrrss ii., ^.-1ttgl "f p;;ilftvestigation.
tr,. fi.iJ ;i 9a1es-in
person or persons. From the subjective poini
ol personal psychic Many cases ,hto,j:I.: to distinguish the tw"o typ*-;i ph;";;;;.
-of
ui"*; p;;i-i."ily,
'""-'-"
w,;ki"w;;;";'";'l;.'ll,T'il'.**y,T,"ffi*'X.,*':X-r,ffi thJRev. C. Draytdriflo-'", r,* L""rfnt forward
Iike, and verv few Lri[. ,*fi :
r.i"a'."er reached the reading
.^j*ff:ently
some strrkrng evidence ,non-material
"*p..i.-r"",
public. Probably huridreds ;i ;.h .in favour of a b6dy'. as he
6;;.'."", o."u.red, but thev f:y:.';:ji::,:-*:1"-,entitled.,..A.N:* nyp.tr,.rr, c"l,i#i"g
were never reported. It^is- to be hoped
may yet see the Iisht of day_inctuhi"g
that at l*r;-;;.;,ilr: Trance communicatio"s, i I uliirh;-' i ;;1" rt;;;d;;"b:'i:ii..:
rer-63. In this d. ai"ir-*itlr,"'thl phenomer,i-.ut"i.J
Perhaps the pubtiiatio"_oi iti"io;k';:";;*e
.rr., ,f ;.;i';;#.;i"J Y,ol.+9,pP.
through Mrs. Osborne
individuals to send in their expe;;;;;' to stimulate these phenom.ena,^and a^special .r,eonard, ;nctuain!',i;;;;;;I;";-;;
section i" a""oiEa t" tri" f*
fn revier,v.ing the*fri.t, i"".'hitherto been published.
cases rne rearrty or some form of spirit body. The evidence ""ial";"
he pr"r.rrt"l,
- cannot
one fa, to be struck bv tr,. *u"y poin* certainly impressive and. cannot
lighily f .-a;.",irr.J,';-"5' ;;'e;;
them. To enumerate urt r.*-Li;il.i;;-;;;;:l#;"":i "irr-ir"ir,i #iil'.? l*.T :. f:.: o^*lished i n the. o ffi cial ;,s;, ;i th. r;;ili
tffi
the cases we find mention" surgly.; the evidence seems to swing mori and ;;;:
the body and lookine, down"in""iirg ";a^r""a"sl.f
upon it,%inouurg
t;il;";;; :rr:*,rl_ !:,,
ule orrecuon ot the acceptance of an astral b-ody_which, inore in
o.l beins suspeided in t'h;;i;: Ii iiJ
above the physical
accepted, would prove of enormous import.nce'
if once
fod4, urtr"r cord uniiins the
two-bod-ies, of craiking for psychical reseirch.
""a ,,umbne"ss*"."ti."r
.rr"pfi.ig ,ii: ""a-rigrrifi"";".
l:11,
oI
of catalepsy, pfrfsical
the momentarv brankin-g of consciousness
";J'ilffiifiir^.i1,
."J tf,. fr"Ufirti',, . In-defending the reality of such a body, it
that the autho* have been in any;;t *h;.;; not be thoueht
must
when ."i..i"u'-lof, il.t.;iifi;
Ieavin g the body.'or tn. r..rLi
of the feelins of ,r.oercrrrio# ;6;;t*J,,,; ili# i.rj...,ffi:
"i*rr.ri-;;;i;'entering
believ-e', or even the wish to i"ii*.;?6.';;;
i,
have been governed solely by tt i *ir""f.U"e mass""iir,. "*".'wI
the h-eli6f 6u"s orr. ir'a."a,-.i.. fii.r.
ff;;,
the body, of trs ravour, plus the numerou$ personal experiencesof evid,ence in
Ib"'d ;h;G;;;; ;i." cases reported, and,.'lllliii.il,,Iir,TTjll of one of ui
(s.tut.).-To. hip, indeed,_ th"id; ;f ;"i'rlt ,,"u., seemed creat
that. they a.re seemingty
.ro ,ri.,irr.rrui ;;';, identical. This fact
(as emphasized in former'b9oks), brt h" ;;;il;"li,I,rii'"l'#rfii#
surely requires some [xplanuiio;! -- bv the weight of the acts ttremiil;;r.
fore, that his ultimate conviction i;;;;;y
ii;;;;i
u"
"""t""i"alirr"*-
depended upon his
*9i':rlj'.1*:'.:',?"'"H]'i:i.'::,::"fffi :,rff l}::J;,il*:: {esirys or wishes; it was r.th", fo."J-il; h#. *ill; ;fiil. ;;
gorng rt must know that he.is projected. This
all such e*perieni"s'r."-'ti.p"thic
distinguishes
basic.cir;;;;;;i" the facts themsetves. tt is pe.rials l6;;t#;;;;;il, ;iilr;#I,. :1
or clairvoyant
dreams, and atso aitre"i"tiutes ir,.-.r,i"iT;; ;il'tlY#;: yd'[t:fr?.',t'[Tft iT:fiin ihe fiit]T:,#fr*;$,fi iltnrffi L
may at lcast take comforr a"i *r"t trr8 Je;;;; Ib. i'il
216
 218 coNcl.usroN
coNcLusroN 2lg
i:trffi;:ffi Hll.i::,1g*:tfrJl,,B*,*,.,:::i"#o:l,r,x$
rn nature, and there_is.assuredly u ,r".ro* g"riil;;I'til;
t 7oo when Swedenborg gave his testimony on astral projection
and its analogy- to aea-th.- It *u, tf,. ,"..' story then il;;;:-i
phenomena and death itself. As'Mr;"; quole frgm.the boo-k, ps2chic Expcinus oj ioro* peoblc (bv S.M.):
Dwedenbors te,s how he left his body and visitld
''J;;th'l;;,ilt";;;";k.'p'-j#H;r1ffi l,,liIiT.Xt"; called the hnd of th; dead,
in,r"Uat L
:,&t1{iitffi?&'+H:i:i:,ff tT?il*Xij:"1"#ii:ff#:I "I have not only Ueen ;i;i,hr;;;..,
t'ota how'man is raised, but it has
and we have seen that, in -uny-of tt.r. ."i.i, tt. experience proved also been shown me'by tiving exfiri.""".'n. o".ri."i
so d.elightful that the'subj.-.t hia r"i ,,iii,, was granted me in oider tf,at i might frnv ".l"ui
return to earth rifc
at all! The transition intoihe
$i.ii""i *i.ia p.or.a both easy and "o_pr.f^[il-il;
process of death. . ... Angels from tf,e ."f.rh.i-ffi;;;;;;
pl.".oEq!, white the experience' t; th;i';;d ;;;1fi;'r"irr,f,"I first seen, some at a distanJe, i*o n."r my head'*t e.. tt.J
'blissful'. were seated. (Note here thai ""ain many cases .'f
example,.is a typical case of this character. "ir*f "r"i."',#
rne suDJect stated tlat 'spirits' assisted him in getting 'oui
under Q.
I1:.:, of his
the heading .,Death Was Delightful,, the frlrn;r-Otrooo
physical bodv.)
p!hlished the experiJn:., ;ij9il'c]"Wrr".r"., The .angels' who sat near my head were silent. onlv com_
of Grand Rapids. mu{cafng
Y,11*_u",
tetl i n g them t i r- hir-.;;
"rg-.ly"
;il;.fi,iy ;;;.^#::t their- thoughts with' mirr", ara ;i;;'til;a ;;;;
the angels knew that the spirit was in such a state that
::.#}ilf,,Hffi #UX j',il3*f,l:;dt:tH..**;*iy;"T.:tr I:.:ryqd,
coulo De drawn lrom,the b$I. . . ii
revivin€ the next day) Iie -' , _Especially it,a."*iie
me, to perceive, and also to feei, that
was given to
thert was ;rrt{
"' . . It wiis noi the "ontinuoi---
fact that I regained consciousness after 111_1t ]1 yele,
a 'pulling out, of the interiors of "my mindlthui
so long a time that_ is remarkable, Uit trri oI my spl.t lrom my body. . . . when a man dies he
was apDarentlv dead, I never wai so much
lnilG;,'iltili rrom one world to another. Angcls arc mm, and live orrtv o.rr.,
alive i., _r'iief tositlier i
But I nlas apait from'mv bodv. i
*" l.'ii';r,"'i*.iiirr'iLiliri society. like men on earth. ThEy
and other things of the same tini, in
havc-iffi-A;"d"til;;
Ry:_yftil,S
""ria I-was .rribled t.
that had happened when $.ui., pE.fection, b;;;;;;
they are in a more perfect state. . .
It rr"ri. tto"r"'na-iim.l
Lrunn.q those hours
I -*i, many things. . . ".i".".
discovered .- O;;
thr3s I do remember.airq""iry
se.gp tlat angels are hen-human for*, oi
,i? ,.rrr"tion of dvins. *";. i h;;;;;;";
.some-
Beins-dead i ;';;-..:-A[;;'i fu-il:";
is delishtfur; of tLui wrrn ulem as man to man, sometimes with one
alone, and
times with manv in company,^and I havi ,.." i;;ht;';"ili;;
engulfed in the witerst ,".*La ;;;";-,
"r[ r.o"i.a;; the waters or tr,e r.*.]Tr"i[".r f;L]""l'd different in form from that 'of .n"n.,'---'-
could see mv bodv._I-watched th.;;;;; n"a-ii-"Joili;
on the bant<. Ttreri I noutlau"J;;I;i i.."r""1'r#
- Iq I little booLlet entitled fh, Biii; of.Dcath,Miss H. A. Dallas
has. this to say-and we cannot perhaps
Jiril conclude in words more
fl eeti ng momen
-
t between tle t."rir J,ii-i,ii',#"',ir['"'"'- fitting than hers. In part she savs:
J-l ll. state, the
sctous "When the lishi of reality'reaches us and we begin to see
thought of returning_to -i'*as
I knew that I didn,t- want to tirre.-gut life wasforced
repugnant, and
to and I
that death is onl} an-inciderit, -,;'*1;';.
;;-;"ii-"*; that it does not
returned. . . . p"tJ.u! -of our reich the il;il'. are closely bound
Up to the time of that experience I_ had been an thful a ffec ti on un a ry-p ih ;;' ;; fi
by
disbelieving in a hereafter, or a spiritual -ri"t. agnostic,
of existence, but
-fai
to face with a olain and yigdrt"ir,y, iliy:-if;; "; ;";:?Jr"i#
k""*,;;-;;;; ti;;
think it is brob;btc- that thJy ;d;-;;d
1ny _whole-outlook onlife was .harigea. i-";ver since h";;ii"e; near to us, we must
help them.'by bracing orrselue, ".. to u"t on this beliefl, We must
-regard i" i-rpiiiir"r ,t"t" ,i".rri.ii*
gh-adoy of doubt with
Man is dual and the phyiicai .i not abandon ourselvEs to the kind of
b;dt ;I;il-i.r;;; ;; ;i'il;. them sorrow and unrest,.*"_tirt tfrlii-"ip..u"f, Sri.f *hi"h';;;;;
don't lpeak of a futurl ,iate us to
me it is knowledge.' " irorri[iiity, buf as a fact. To to them, or even impossjble. w"'ir"ri rroi'otrrr"trr". raise "l-i,i:".i",
a barrier
This experience is rupical between them and'us by ,""ki;g;;;iiei' ,rnnt
9f -many, and similar changes in view_ to hotd com-
f:1-,.^L1I._
been e*pe'.Ie.;;J
exPenences. . . .
by ,il;;;;il;"; il.."#;;';; munion; we must act as ihose *ti t.rriitli. love andlr;.;;;
to welcome their oresence and to r.."iu. a;.'tfi;;#;iilt
For example, let us jump way back in time to approximately they can make on our r"i";;;h;;. uli"rti"e and at Deace.
It mav be, I think it often ir, GJ"*" "i.
tilffi;'"#H"irrrtif,lii
2m corcLugroN
work (cut abruptly short) through thosg on earth, they can make
us unde$tand what they want us to do, they can heip us to do
it, th".y- can livc with us and learn *iti, *, *itt oui'",." Luitl
*: yjl
anq rr we"tlllase,
ii; il-;orii;
to their spiritual prog;ess
realrze our duty towards them. . . .
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Thc of death spans a nnrrow interval between two
statcs ot^bridge
being; not only can thoughts traverce it easilv. but
tnat more subtre energy which we call 'influence' can makl'itseu Tlu Projcaion of tlu Astrar Body. By sylvan Muldoon and Hercward
powerfully fclt. The spiritual conditions of our friend, ;tr;"l; Carrington. 19e9.
they c.an make us
-partakers of tieir influence, and our conditions *77u C-y, for Astral Projcction. Sylvan Muldoon. 1936.
!,T!lbly 1|tect.thgm in a similar way, in
closeness ot'the tie that binds one soul
proportion to the Mykry of tlu Human Doudle. Ralph Shirley. N.D.
to-another: it is profoundlv Asttal Projcction. Oliver Fox. N.D.
true that 'they without us shall not be *ude pirf"ci':-Tfi-l;;1 Rcsancction. William Gerhardi. N.D.
Iays upon us an urgent obligation to allow nohorbid influence.
O_ut Bod2- John and Erica Oxenham. 1945.
no exaggerated melancholyf no preoccupation with the ptirri.j t llu
Practical Astral Projection. ,1yram.', N.D.
circumstances of their p*"ls o"l of tnJUoay, t, t*" p5#rrifr
of our minds. If we deiire thit those we rove'shourd orirr"" tinr {t lraacls h tlu Spbil World. Caroline D. Larsen. tg27.
Lt
aims and do noble senrice in their Fantdnc dts Viuank. H. Durville. 19o9.
not drag them down to a lower level ""* ,"rro""ai.,Ig.;;;"";
by contaci ,itf, .r,
Mithodt dt Didoubtenent personul. Cha;l; Lancclin. N.D.
Litth Journeys Into tlu Inuisible. M. Gifford Shine. rgrr.
depression."
Scwn_Miruttcs_in Etzrnity. Wm. Dudley pelley. 1929.
..r,#1f #!rffi.o,".- J*,or1' Into Etcrniu. Beta Clare. t93o.
\t I"!or"S
the B9@. Sylvester A. West.-r9or.
?l
Man Outsidc Himsclf. H. F. p.revost Battersby. N.D.
Thc Aetral Light. Nizida. 1889.
TP /-ouryO of tha Soul. E. Ruder Drollinger. r9r9.
T_lu Subtlc Bod2. G. R. S. Mead. rgr9.
Luminous Bodits. Charles Hallock. 19o6.
M2 Etpcrimccs While Out of thc Body. Cora L. V. Richmond.
ry25.
llu Story of M2 Lifc, etc. Gabriel b'Orelli. r9rg.
TJU Ttxnt2-F1fth Man. Ed.. Morrell. rgz4.
Ttu SY Roan. Jack London. rgr4.
Intra Muros. Rebecca Rutei Springer. rggg.
Tlu Plunonna of Bilocation, Ernesto Bozzano. N,D.
Tlu Minisfit of Angdk. Joy Snell. N.D.
Tlu Etluric Body\
Tlu Astral Boaj I Uaior Arthur E. powell. (r9e5, r9e6 and 1927.)
Tlu Mantal Bidj
Astral Traocls. "Helen." N.D.
Tlu lfustcU of Daath. Dr.J. G. Zaalberg van Zelst. (Dutch and French
Editions.)
casc histories and a discussion of the subject may also be found in:
Human Pcrsonalil2. F. W. H. Myers. rgo3. "
Phantasms of thc Lfuing. Gurney, MyerJ and podmore. rgg6.
Ercyclopcdia oJ Psychh Scianaa. Nandor Fodor. N.D.
Mo&ra Pslchical Plunomana. Hereward Carrington, r9r9.
221
 222 BIBLIO6RApHy
Aigho fsrlhyal Daoclopmnt Hereward Carrington. r9eo.
Tlu Astral Plane. C. W. Leadbeater. rgoo.
Man and Hb Bodics. Annie Besant. lgoS.
Discartata kffucncc in Human lfr. Ern-esio Bozzano, N.D.
P_osthuyous Humanit2: A Stud2 of phantons, A. D,Assier. rgg7.
S:yu
luult _Elpcicnces. Johan van Manen. r9r3.
Tfu Astral World. Swami Panchadasi. N.D.
.Bcginnings of Surship. Vincent Turvey. lgo9.
Thc
Articles of interest, and case histories, have apteared in the procccdiws
and. Jouraals of the S.P.R,.and the A.S.p.R.; ii'ThcOccuh Rcricw,L,igii,
flu_fry W-ylds, Psychic Sciaw, Prcdiction, Azoth, Mind D;gril, fhi irna'i
of Pgnhic Scictuc, etc., etc.
rsBN 0-01-1,5q001,-1,

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