The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-09-26
In THE ASTRAL BODY.
A Dead Man Gives Some Points on
His Recent Demise.

lates to commonplace experiences which
are not often elaborated, and which are
possibly curious enough to warrant pub
location.
AS to the existence of astral bodies there
is unquestionably a general unbelief.
Still, there are thousands of men and
women of high culture and intelligence
who are firm in the faith that eachhuman
life is composed of at least two entities,
the physical body and an astral body,
which is semi-physical and semi-spirit-
ual, and which is very like the ordinary
frame of flesh-blood, nerve, muscle and
tissue-and which differs from the other
in being more attenuated in fiber. 1t is
an etherealized quality. with human ele-
ments and the capability, at times, of
separation from the corporal frame and
an independent existence. At death it
does not lose its individuality, and con-
tinues to live either for an indefinite
period or, possibly, forever.
1t is in the nature of a vitalized sentient
shadow of the body, and yet with aspecies
Of tangibility that permits it, under GER
tain favorable conditions, to become per-
ceptible to, and hold converse with, some
In the flesh. Such are the beliefs in re-
gard to this double of the human being
that are held by someof the most eminent
thinkers of the day.
/ who write this am the astral body of
a man who lies dead before me. AS his
double, although l am living, I am, in a
sense, also the dead man, and as if I
were he, I shall speak.
The gradual approach of dissolution,
the illness, the physical, mental, moral
and emotional disturbances which pre-
cede and accompany it, are rarely re-
lated with exactness. What is often
presented as characteristic of the MORT
bund is a perversion of the facts.
My life, including its course and eat
ing, was not especially remarkable. I
was of robust youth; was r~eligiously ed
ucated in the straightest fashion; had a
fair education in the schools and bust
ness, and pursued an occupation which
without overexertion furnished me with
a moderate competence. I enjoyed, as
a rule, superb health, and also enjoyed
an almost total exemption from injuries.
Life thus passed equally and unevent-
fully until l had reached a half century.
twas at this period that slight ripples
began to disturb the level of the hitherto
pacific surface of the sea of life. Sleep,
always undisturbed and refreshing, be-
gan to be broken. Always had I fallen
asleep when my head touched the pillow
and the rest would last for hours without
interruption. Now it would be hours
before l would drop into q ftful and
restless slumber, which would be haunt
ed by frightful visions of demoniac forms,
bottomless chasms and towering heights,
adown which | was hurled like Lucifer
from the battlements of heaven.
My splendid appetite began to fail; my
disposition for physical and mental ex-
ertion lessened; my average good nature
became tainted; my nerves, always
sheathed in impenetrable defenses, be-
came barred, as age wears the enamel
from a tooth, leaving its tender fbers
exposed to incessant and painful contact.
Irritation took the place of the ordinary
endurance of my nature. Strange and
violent pains at times seized me with
ferocity.
All these changes did not come in a
month, or a year, or in five years. They
were almost imperceptible in their APP
proach. 1t was a half score of years be-
fore all these changes forced = enselves
on my attention, and ! discovered that I
had grown thin and was losing my
strength.
Well meaning friends contributed to
the fastening of my awakening from the
Inconsistencies of failing health.
"What in the world ails you? Have you
been sick?'
"No, l never felt better in my life," I
would reply, at the time a chill shudder-
ing along my nerves as their remarks
forced themselves on me as deadly por-
tent. "What makes you think I am not
looking well?"
"Oh, you're so thin and pale. You
want to see a doctor"
Another ELUSIVE acquaintance: "Why,
old boy, you're getting old. Anything
the matter with you?"
Then l suddenly began to notice the
deaths among my acquaintance. 1t
came to me with the s~uddenness and
pang of o dagger thrust that So and So,
who were younger than l, were dead. /
glanced about among the people / knew,
searching for those who were my chums
and companions ten and twenty years
before, and / discovered with a throb of
pain that only here and there mi re-
manned.
/ began unconsciously taking an alb
sorbing interest in the death notices.
younger than If' was the sinking com
ment when such was the fact, and for a
moment l came to the verge of hating
those who had thus set an example of
death at their age. When the deoease
of the ~octogenarian and those who climb
ed to the very SUBMITS of the century
was announced, | warmed to their men,
cries as those who afforded examples Of
the capacity of men for long life.
Igrew weaker in health and democrat
lied in temperament. The slightest OBJ
stacle rufiled me, | fell into respondent
moods, and lost my taste for society,
amusement, labor and study. The ine-
vitable burdens of life became unendur-
able and I lost all ambition. The once
populous future changed into a waste in
which there was nothing save gray arid
ity and a lowering sky.
AT-.-sIz - E.. I.-- 100