Part I. of the "Annales des Sciences Psychiques" for 1919.

It is far too early yet to say that the extrusion of this sensitive substance is an invariable concomitant of insensibility; but at present the evidence--assuming it to be reliable--does seem to point that way. When we have made an exhaustive study of what happens to the "aura" during sleep, in various states of hypnosis, in local and general anæsthesia and in death we shall be able to draw more definite conclusions on the subject.

I shall now turn to evidence of a more general type which deals with the existence of this mysterious substance viewed as a whole rather than with this or that indication of its presence or properties as did the previous experiments.

There are many references in Psychic literature which bear on the point and the general trend of them seems to be that the substance we have been considering is not, normally, entirely formless and distributed fortuitously through the body but that it forms an exact counterpart of the latter or, to be more strictly accurate, of the nervous system.

Lombroso states that Durville has succeeded in separating this "replica" experimentally from the physical body.

("After Death--What?").

He says that it seemed to be connected with the body by a sort of cord and that the patient under observation was able to see through opaque objects and to discern events at a distance. The apparent sense organs of the replica worked, while those of the physical body were put out of action. When approached, it excited a sensation "like that produced by cold, by blowing air, by shivering," and if the hand were placed in it a cold, clammy sensation was experienced. Compare with this last statement the remarks of Crawford on the sensations produced by inserting the hand into the midst of the levitating structure.

M. Leon Denis in "Christianity and Spiritualism" quotes experiments from the "Revue Spirite" for November 1894, and alleges that de Rochas and Barlemont obtained simultaneous photographs of the body of a medium and of the exteriorised "double."

A long account of experiments on these lines by Durville appears in the "Journal de Magnetisme" for 1907 and 1908 but although they tend to confirm the ideas at which we have already arrived, there is nothing to be gained by going into their details here.

A very interesting case which has a considerable bearing on the subject is given in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, Vol. VIII, pp. 180-193.

The following is an abbreviated account:

The narrator is a physician and the case seems to have been singularly well attested and was carefully scrutinised by no less a critic than Dr. R.H. Hodgson.

"I passed some four hours in all without pulse or perceptible heart beat, as I am informed by Dr. S.H. Raynes, who was the only physician present. During a portion of this time several of the bystanders thought I was dead, and, such a report being carried outside, the village church bell was tolled. Dr. Raynes informs me, however, that by bringing his eyes close to my face, he could perceive an occasional short gasp, so very light as to be hardly perceptible, and that he was several times on the point of saying, 'He is dead,' when a gasp would occur in time to check him. He thrust a needle deep into the flesh at different points from the feet to the hips, but got no response.[5] Although I was pulseless for four hours, the state of apparent death lasted only about half an hour. I lost, I believe, all power of thought or knowledge of existence in absolute unconsciousness. I came again into a state of conscious existence, and discovered that I was still in the body, but the body and I had no longer any interests in common. I looked with astonishment and joy for the first time upon myself--the _me_, the real Ego, while the not-me closed upon all sides like a sepulchre of clay. With all the interest of a physician I beheld the wonders of my bodily anatomy, intimately interwoven with which, even tissue for tissue, was I, the living soul of that dead body. I realised my condition and calmly reasoned thus: I have died, as man terms death, and yet I am as much a man as ever. I am about to get out of the body. I watched the interesting process of the separation of soul and body. By some power, apparently not my own, the Ego was rocked to and fro, laterally as the cradle is rocked, by which process its connection with the tissues of the body was broken up. After a little while the lateral motions ceased, and along the soles of the feet, beginning at the toes, passing rapidly to the heels, I felt and heard, as it seemed the snapping of innumerable small cords. When this was accomplished, I began slowly to retreat from the feet, toward the head, as a rubber cord shortens. I remember reaching the hips and saying to myself, 'Now there is no life below the hips.' I can recall no memory of passing through the abdomen and chest, but recollect distinctly when my whole self was collected in the head, when I reflected thus: 'I am all the head now, and I shall soon be free.' I passed around the brain as if it were hollow, compressing it and its membranes slightly on all sides towards the centre, and peeped out between the sutures of the skull, emerging like the flattened edges of a bag of membranes! I recollect distinctly how I appeared to myself something like a jelly fish as regards colour and form! As I emerged, I saw two ladies sitting at my head. I measured the distance between the head of my cot and the knees of the lady opposite the head and concluded there was room for me to stand, but felt considerable embarrassment as I reflected that I was about to emerge naked before her, but comforted myself with the thought that in all probability she would not see me with her bodily eyes, as I was a spirit. As I emerged from the head I floated up laterally like a soap bubble attached to the bowl of a pipe, until I at last broke loose from the body and fell lightly to the floor, where I slowly rose and expanded to the full stature of a man. I seemed to be translucent, of a bluish cast and perfectly naked. With a painful sense of embarrassment, I fled toward the partially open door to escape the eyes of the two ladies whom I was facing, as well as others who I knew were about me, but upon reaching the door I found myself clothed, and satisfied upon that point, I turned and faced the company. As I turned, my left elbow came in contact with the arm of one of two gentlemen, who were standing in the door. To my surprise, his arm passed _through_ mine without apparent resistance, the several parts closing again without pain, as air reunites. I looked quickly up at his face to see if he had noticed the contact, but he gave me no sign--only stood and gazed toward the couch I had just left. I directed my gaze in the direction of his, and saw my dead body. Suddenly I discovered that I was looking at the straight seam down the back of my coat. 'How is this, I thought, how do I see my back?' and I looked again, to reassure myself, down the back of my coat, or down the back of my legs to the very heels. I put my hand to my face and felt for my eyes. They were where they should be: I thought 'Am I like an owl that I can turn my head half way round' I tried the experiment and failed. No! Then it must be that, having been out of the body but a few moments, I have yet the power to use the eyes of the body, and I turned about and looked back in at the open door where I could see the head of my body in a line with me. I discovered then a small cord, like a spider's web, running from my shoulders back to my body and attaching to it at the base of the neck, in front. I was satisfied with the conclusion that by means of that cord, I was using the eyes of the body and, turning, walked down the street. A small densely black cloud appeared in front of me and advanced towards my face. I knew that I was to be stopped. I felt the power to move or to think leaving me. My hands fell powerless at my side, my shoulders and my head dropped forward and I knew no more. Without previous thought and without effort on my part, my eyes opened. I looked at my hands and then at the little white cot upon which I was lying, and, realising that I was in the body, in astonishment and disappointment, I exclaimed; 'What in the world has happened to me? Must I die again?..."

Now, if this case stood alone we should, perhaps, be right to explain it all as a dream. But it does not stand alone for there are numerous other cases to be found in the Proceedings of the S.P.R. and in Meyer's "Human Personality." In my opinion, therefore, it merits the most careful consideration and contains many points of the greatest interest and significance.

I think it will be found to work in remarkably well with the whole idea of the detachable quasi-physical replica, towards which hypothesis the whole of the observations in this chapter have been tending.

The narrator of the experience seems to think that the vehicle which he observed to become detached from the body and in which he was apparently functioning throughout the period in question, was actually the "Soul" itself, the permanent and immortal post-mortem embodiment of consciousness.

On the whole this seems to be the view taken by Mr. Carrington, who quotes the case, and to be that commonly held in France on the authority of MM. Leon Denis, Delanne and other writers. These latter refer to the organism in question as the "perisprit" and it is represented as being the vehicle by virtue of which the Consciousness persists after Death.

With this view I cannot agree.

I suggest rather, provisionally of course, that the Consciousness persists embodied in a four-dimensional vehicle to which the word "physical" as commonly understood cannot be applied at all. The replica, perisprit or "Etheric Double" as the Theosophists call it, is only the connecting link between the three and four-dimensional vehicles which, as we saw at the beginning of this chapter, must be supposed to exist if the four-dimensional hypothesis is to hold good at all. It seems likely that it is no more permanent than the physical body, and that it disintegrates after death in the same way that the bodily tissues do.

It is interesting to compare and contrast this case with the somewhat similar one of which a brief resumé was given on page 58. In each case the consciousness of the narrator was separated from the physical body but the conditions after separation seem to have been notably different.

In the first case the patient seems to have been independent of space in that he was able to pay a visit to a friend at a distance of about a thousand miles and to return in the space of a few minutes; while in the second he seems to have been tethered to his physical body by the "cord" to which he refers.

This is perhaps the most important point, but others are easy to find--notably in the apparent constitution of the temporary vehicle of consciousness.

It seems probable that in the first case the vehicle was four-dimensional while in the second it was the "quasi-physical replica" which we have been discussing.

It is with this supposition in mind that I shall examine the second case.

First then we notice that the narrator seems to have been in error in referring to what he saw interwoven, tissue for tissue, with the physical body, as the Ego. But this error was clearly a very natural one.

Although the point is not brought out with precision, the record seems to suggest that the narrator was viewing things with that internal or four-dimensional vision which I discussed in my remarks on Clairvoyance in Chapter III.

The process which is described as the separation of soul and body, I should prefer to describe as the exteriorisation of the "Etheric Double."[6]

As it happens, this exteriorisation does result in the separation of the Consciousness from the body, but to say that it _is_ the separation would be liable to confuse the Consciousness and the four-dimensional vehicle with the Etheric double.

That exteriorisation should begin at the feet is only what one would expect from the known fact that the extremities are the first parts of the body to grow cold at the approach of death.

Throughout the account we notice the extreme plasticity of the vehicle in which the narrator functioned. It seems to have squeezed out of the body in a formless condition and then to have recovered its normal shape as soon as the deforming stresses were removed.

This is entirely in accord with the properties we must postulate for a substance which can, apparently, be moved and shaped by mere volition or at least by "mental forces," whatever that may mean, set in motion by the will. At first, that is to say during the process of extrusion, the Etheric Double seems to have been under the influence of some repulsive force acting between it and the body. This is admirably suggested by the analogy of the soap bubble.

When extrusion was complete, however, the E.D. "fell lightly to the floor." It was therefore composed of more or less ponderable matter, which is what we would expect from MacDougal's experiments.

The translucency and bluish colour are entirely consonant with the observations of Kilner on the aura, which, as already mentioned, I believe to be closely associated with the E.D.

The part about the clothes is curious and I am not prepared to hazard any explanation about it, beyond a very tentative proposal of auto-suggested hallucination.

Scarcely less odd is the apparent ability to use both the physical eyes and those belonging to the E.D.

But the fact that the latter were in operation is concordant with the observation of Durville that the sense organs of the exteriorised E.D. were operative in his experiments.

The small cord connecting the E.D. with the physical body is also in accordance with his observations.

On the whole then I think it fair to claim that this case fits in admirably with the experimental work I have quoted.

There is one other source of information which may profitably be considered here, namely the statements of the clairvoyants and of the Occultists.

I hope that the criticisms which I have been moved to make about the Occultists in preceding passages have been sufficiently stringent to clear me of any suspicion of being unduly credulous or over-ready to accept their statements as authoritative.

There are many things in their methods and their teachings which excite my distrust and antipathy.

None the less I think it foolish to ignore every statement which happens to be supported by, or to form part of, Occult doctrine.

I think it highly probable for instance that clairvoyant descriptions of facts concerning the Etheric Double are often reliable.

We have seen that the whole question of its study is probably a matter of observing, directly or indirectly, by ultra-violet light. We also have reason to suppose that the retina of the eye can be rendered abnormally sensitive to light of this frequency by artificial means.

But if such abnormal retinal sensibility can be induced artificially, it is very probable that it may sometimes occur naturally.

Hence, if the E.D. actually exists, as the evidence undeniably suggests, it is not only possible but probable that certain people will be able to see it without invoking artificial aid.

It must be remembered that observations of this kind contain, in themselves, no sort of "supernatural" element, although they may, of course, receive the most strange and erroneous interpretations at the hands of the uninformed.

When we turn to Occult literature we find that the theory of the E.D. is worked out in considerable detail. It is said to be violet-grey or blue-grey in colour and to interpenetrate the physical body. The "health aura," _i.e._, the physical aura dealt with by Dr. Kilner, is said to be that part of the E.D. which projects beyond the physical body.

It is stated that the physical body and the E.D. are not normally separated during life, although in certain nervous conditions the E.D. may be more or less extruded from the physical body. (Compare this with the diagnostic researches of Kilner.)

"Anæsthetics drive out the greater part of the E.D., so that consciousness cannot either affect or be affected by the dense (physical) body. In the abnormally organised persons called mediums, dislocation of the etheric and dense bodies easily occurs, and the E.D., when extruded, largely supplies the physical basis for 'materialisations' (and for Crawford's structure. W.W.S.)."

"In sleep, when the consciousness leaves the physical vehicle which it uses during waking life, the dense and etheric bodies remain together.... At what is called death the etheric double is drawn away from its dense counterpart by the escaping consciousness; the magnetic tie existing between them during earth life is snapped asunder...."

(Taken from "The Ancient Wisdom.")

In other passages it is stated that the E.D. is connected with the physical body by a filamentary structure, "The silver cord," and that so long as this is unbroken it is possible for connection between Consciousness and the physical body to be re-established, but that when it is broken as occurs in death, the separation is final.

Finally it is definitely stated that this E.D. is a quasi-physical structure, disintegrates in the same way as the physical body and is perceived by a mere heightening of the ordinary visual faculty.

Let it be clearly understood that I do not wish one whit more importance to be attached to this last-quoted evidence than each individual reader may choose to assign to it and I fully sympathise with those who prefer to allow it no weight at all.

I have myself a strong penchant in favour of good hard scientific experiments with apparatus and, if the clairvoyant testimony stood by itself without any experimental evidence to support it, I should make no mention of it here. But I think that in common justice we ought to admit that the statements of the clairvoyants are, in the main, in close agreement with what we should expect from the indications afforded us by the experimental work which has at present been done. In continuing the latter we shall be well advised to keep the former in our minds as furnishing, at least, useful hints for our guidance.

On the strength of the various considerations discussed above, I am disposed to extend the four dimensional hypothesis as follows:

"Connection between the three- and four-dimensional vehicles is maintained by means of a substance of peculiar properties, which is intimately connected with the nervous system in the conscious functioning of which it is an essential factor. States of partial or total anæsthesia or insensibility are accompanied and probably caused by the extrusion of this substance from the body."

We are now faced by the problem of the constitution of this substance.

To this there would appear to be two possible solutions.

The first of these is that favoured, apparently, by the occultists and the exponents of the "perisprit" doctrine. The second is that to which I am personally inclined at present.

According to the former of these two hypotheses, the E.D. is composed of a sort of "rarified matter" by which, I take it, is meant matter possessing a smaller complexity of organisation than that with which we are normally acquainted. This would appear to be more especially the Occult view; although on technical details of this kind there is a somewhat unfortunate lack of precision and even of unanimity among Occult authorities.

A variation on this is the idea that whereas ordinary matter is the result of vibratory, or other periodic, disturbances in the ether of a certain frequency, the "matter" of which the E.D. is composed is the result of similar disturbances of a greater frequency; that it is matter transposed into a higher key so to speak.

The experiments of Le Bon, who claims to have obtained a temporary condition of equilibrium in the dissociation products of matter, are sometimes adduced as supporting this hypothesis.

For my part I have grave doubts as to the correctness of this view.

In the first place, there is nothing in Le Bon's work to indicate that these dissociation products are capable of being brought into a state of such very stable equilibrium as must be possessed by the constituents of the E.D.

In the second, the hypothesis involves us in all the difficulties which render so unsatisfactory all attempts to account for post-mortem existence on normal physical lines.

For, on either hypothesis, the E.D. is either the post-mortem vehicle itself, as held by the French savants, or it is the connecting link between the two vehicles, as I consider.

If the latter is the case, then in all probability the post-mortem vehicle is to the E.D. as the E.D. is to the physical body. If the E.D. is merely rarified matter then the post-mortem vehicle is probably merely doubly-rarified matter.

For this and other reasons I prefer the idea that the E.D. is composed of matter having an abnormal four-dimensional complexity.

Indeed, as I pointed out at the beginning of this chapter, this view seems to be a necessary corollary of the whole four-dimensional hypothesis I have been advocating.

It is very possible that we shall be compelled to reject the hypothesis _in toto_ in the light of future research, but until this becomes necessary I think that my present view of the nature of the E.D. is the only tenable one.

Whether this abnormal four-dimensional complexity is molecular or atomic in its nature, or whether it is neither, I am not prepared to say.

The points in this chapter which I would wish to emphasise are, first, that if the four-dimensional hypothesis be true, there should exist a connection between the three- and four-dimensional vehicles.

Secondly, that this link should possess properties of a peculiar nature distinguishing it from ordinary physical substances.

Thirdly, that there are distinct evidences to be found in very independent quarters which strongly indicate that such a connecting link or substance does in fact exist.

Fourthly, that this substance does present unusual features, as for instance, susceptibility to volitional control and to forces which appear to be applied from some direction unknown to us (vide my remarks on the theory of Crawford's structure in Chapter III).

Finally, that, as it appears to be intermediate between the physical body and the post-mortem vehicle, it is well worthy of the closest study.

It will be very evident to my readers that this chapter is "extrapolatory" and speculative in the highest degree. The ideas discussed are based on experiments which are very far from being conclusive. I should be sorry indeed to guarantee them all as being of cast-iron reliability and I have no doubt that comparatively few will ever receive the amount of confirmation which is necessary before we can accept such things as proven facts.

Still, tenuous as the evidence is, it all seems to point in the same sort of direction and I have therefore thought it worth while to give it the benefit of the doubt and see what could be made of it on the temporary assumption that it is really reliable.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 5: Note the insensibility.--W.W.S.]

[Footnote 6: NOTE.--In future I shall borrow the term "Etheric Double" from the Theosophists and use it instead of the rather cumbrous phrase "Quasi-physical replica." I do not think that the term Etheric Double is a good one, but it is in common use, and I will adopt it until some better word is suggested.]