These phantasms of the living,
which have been so carefully explored and docketed by Messrs.
Myers and Gurney, ran into hundreds of cases. Some people claim
that by an effort of will they can, after going to sleep, propel
their own doubles in the direction which they desire, and visit
those whom they wish to see. Thus there is a great volume of
evidence--how great no man can say who has not spent diligent
years in exploring it--which vouches for the existence of
this finer body containing the precious jewels of the mind and
spirit, and leaving only gross confused animal functions in its
heavier companion.
Mr. Funk, who is a critical student of psychic phenomena, and
also the joint compiler of the standard American dictionary,
narrates a story in point which could be matched from other
sources. He tells of an American doctor of his acquaintance, and
he vouches personally for the truth of the incident. This
doctor, in the course of a cataleptic seizure in Florida, was
aware that he had left his body, which he saw lying beside him.
He had none the less preserved his figure and his identity. The
thought of some friend at a distance came into his mind, and
after an appreciable interval he found himself in that friend's
room, half way across the continent. He saw his friend, and was
conscious that his friend saw him. He afterwards returned to his
own room, stood beside his own senseless body, argued within
himself whether he should re-occupy it or not, and finally, duty
overcoming inclination, he merged his two frames together and
continued his life.
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