Evening star., 1902-09-13

Geraldne's room In spite of the locked
door. for the child sitting down on my lap
for the bisque head smiling at my buffet,
for Geraldine's ignorance of my presence.
As to the kiss-well, love was the highest
and Roblest sensation, love such as We felt
Tor each other, and as nearly spiritual
ethereal feeling as any human one could
be, so when / had kissed her her spiritual
being had responded to mine. This ex-
planation fell easily In with the rest.
AS far as l was concerned / was, to put
it plainly and simply, only my feelings and
sensations, | was wandering sensation!
Doubtless my spirit took the same form as
my visible body, but it was thing so ut
terly immaterial to be absolutely 1ryisi-
Bile to the human eye. l could talk, walk,
see and hear-because / had all my sensa-
tfons with me, the guiding essence OF my
brain, too; but really my voice, for IN
stance was not audible, because when 1
opened my spiritual mouth it was only with
the sensation of speaking, and no real
sound was made; or, to put another ex-
PLANTATION before you, my voice had become
refined in proportion with the rest of me,
and was pitched in such sound wave
as the human ear was not capable or re-
ceiving and concentrating.
AT that moment this seemed very inter-
esting to- me, and l settled myself com
f0rtably back in my chair and laughed long
and loudly. OF course, could go back INTO
my own body at any time, and matters
would straighten themselves out at once L
sat speculatvely contemplating my body.
1t was an interesting moment
My body was sitting in the chair in ex-
actly the same position | had been when l
left 1t, or rather, l should say, We had been
when | left it. | bent over and touched 1t
or him. He felt warm and natural, but
not as if asleep. There was no beating of
the heart. no rise oNiall of the breast as
in breathing; the eyes were open and fixed,
but not CLASSY; the joints apparently flexible,
though, of course, l could not have moved
one to see-in short, my body presented
every appearance of suspended animation
L resolved not to try to get back into my
body just at present. and was still sitting
there wondering about my double self when
the door opened and my sister, the one who
brought the letter, came in; she was my
fayorite, and we We're great friends. She
glanced at me. and supposing | was asleep,
threw a chair over to the window and
waited for me to awaken.
The fire was burning brightly in the crate,
and, as Hiluck would have it, a bright
little coal sprang out and fell on my lap
that is, the lap of my body. 1t seems that
there was yet some sort of a connection
between US, because While the coal burnt
into the leg of my body it was / who felt
the sensations. / rushed over to myself
and attempted to brush it off. OF course, l
could not. The pain was really unbearable,
and, forgetting my state, | called to Mary,
my sister; of course. she did not hear me.
l decided at once to resume my proper con-
dition, when. horror of horrors, | found
that did not Know how.
1t was true-l had been constantly oc-
cupied in endcavorfng to get out of myself.
as it were, that l had completely omitted
to learn the way to get in! This was worse
than anything previous. l forgot all about
the glowing coal which was still burning
me, in the dreadful possibility which rose
before me. Suppose they should bury me.
would | suffer the pangs of suffOcation for
ever, or at least until my body resolved
itself into its primordaI elements? knew
10 nd
my body did turn to dust, would my spirit
go with those of other departed beings as
the Bible teaches us or would the fact that
had taken my spirit in my own hands, as
1t were, condemn me to wander forever in
my present state?
l certainly felt my spiritual hair turn
gray. What would become of Geraldine?
Would l ever see her again, would she
ever see me? Would she at last forget
me and marry some one else and force me
to stand powerless looking on? 1 ground
my spiritual teeth in rage and anger and
clenched my spiritual hand and swore-but
Wnat was the use of swearing? | could not
do anything. 1 was too utterly ethereal, too
entirely disembodied, to even haunt anyone,
too ephemeral for a ghost event oh, hor-
ror! thought my brain would give way. l
thought of everything l could recall to help
me out.
1 had dabbled little in hypnotism, and
had experimental surreptitiously on various
members of my family, principally nv sis
n
notism Is the controlling Of one will by an
other. The will Is an essential attribute of
the spirit; there Is nothing gross about it.
1t is true that the weakest and most pbysi-
cally imperfect specimens of this twofold
race of ours sometimes possess the most
powerful wills; plainly, then, body physi-
cally considered, had nothing to do with
this Will power which is the secret of hyp-
motto force Apparently l had my will pow
er IN better shape for use than at any time
III my corporate body. l had it separated
under command, and could concentrate IL
more easily and advantageously. [ would
try 1t.
1 got up, made the usual passes and or
dered Mary to come and throw that coal
off my leg. She did SO at once 1 was de-
lighted. She stood abashed and silent in
the presence Of the, to her, hidden force
controlling her 1t flashed upon me in an
instant 1 could cause her to open the VOL
uTne of Archidechus and turn the pages for
me. Joyl No sooner said than done
sat down beside her and wilIed her to
do as directed. l hastily made her turn to
the part which treated of the resumptfon~of
the relationship; new disappointment
awaited me-the learned Archidechus stated
that the individual in the case he studied
had never assumed his normal condition
and that the means of doing so were on,
tirely unknown to him! That took away
my last hope.
Mechanically I released Mary from the
influence and then waited to see what che
would do: Her glance fell upon me and
she looked at me wonderingly
Why" she said. how long Harry
sleeps! She touched him on the shoulder.
she looked IN his face and screamed.
The family, the servants, every one. came
running ln They filled my little room. and
after narrowly escaping being crushed to
death by our fat cook. who hysterica1lv
sank back In the chair in which I was sit
ting, l walked over to the corner of the
room and waited. They picked him up and
lald him on the bed and tried all the simnle
remedies they knew to revive him. One
poured brandy down my physical throat
imagine the sensation of my spiritual one
another one chafed my hands; one Wetted
a towel and struck me repeatedly with 1t:
the old-fashfoned feather was held under
my physical nose-imagine my spiritual SEN
sdtion a thousand times intensified and
judge what l suffered
l wished they would go away and bury
me decently and let me alone; It was too
much to endure quietly | tried to 9hyn-
notize the whole lot, but unavailingly FL
naiiy the futility of their efforts daUned
upon them and they sat down to wait while
one went for doctor
Doctor | thought contemptuously, What
could he do unless, indeed. they might find