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inconceivable capacity for extension without sacrificing the least atom of its function as a communicating link. At close quarters it can dump the Double back into its sheath with electric vigour, and, from a thousand miles away, 102 when reduced to an invisible thread of vapour, it seems just as competent to control and to retrieve the wandering phantom. That would seem to be the most remarkable achievement in the whole business. Mr. Muldoon describes the thickness of the cable, when the etheric and physical bodies are side by side, as having the diameter of a silver dollar, though, owing to the surrounding aura, it gives the impression of being about six inches through. He calls the distance between the physical body and the point at which the cord reaches its minimum thickness the range of cord activity", an interval which may vary from eight to fifteen feet. Beyond this it seems capable of indefinite extension, and the h rojector ceases to be conscious of it unless something untoward appens, or he thoughtlessly yields to an emotional impulse. Also any shock or surprise will bring the Etheric back into "coincidence", and when this is violent the physical body receives a blow, especially if the distance travelled is great and the return precipitate. Again, a common cause of bodily repercussion is the awakening to consciousness following unconscious projection in sleep. The consciousness returns, or seems to return, before the Etheric is re-established in the physical. "When thrust back into coincidence in this manner," says Mr. Muldoon, "the entire physical mechanism is jolted throughout as though every muscle in the body contracted at the same moment and the body gives a spasmodic jerk, more noticeable in the limbs than elsewhere." Most people have experienced this jerk, on a small scale, 103 just after dropping off to sleep, and have attributed its unpleasant jar to a dream or a supper. It is really caused by a too sudden return of the Double. In order to recuperate, the etheric part of us moves in sleep slightly out of its physical envelope, a matter, it may be, of a few inches. Any shock or noise which sends it back too hurriedly will produce that feeling, as if something had been slammed into us, and the discomfort is increased if the Double is on a journey. A cataleptic condition may also be induced on re-entry. This will be studied more fully when dealing with Mr. Fox's narrative; but it seems to be a fairly common experience that if the Double, while cataleptic, re-enters without disturbing the physical body, the whole organism is temporarily paralysed Mr. Muldoon's theory is that catalepsy of all kinds is subconscious control of the astral body, and that when a person is physically cataleptic he is so because he is primarily astrally cataleptic. There is agreement among the pioneers that most projections obtain their impulse from a dream, and that the gate is opened from the dream by a challenge as to its reality. That merely wakes most of us, but helps others to slip into a new dimension. Mr. Muldoon narrates a dream in which, shut into a room with only a small opening in the ceiling, he wondered suddenly if he could fly through it. "I began to rise into the air," he says, "but as I was passing through the hole I became caught fast in it. Half my body remained inside the room, and the upper half was outside. There I was stuck fast! At this point I began to awaken, and realize what was taking place. I found myself projected! Yes, it was the same old story, awakening from a 104 dream and finding myself exteriorized. But the interesting thing was that the position of the astral body corresponded with the position it held in the dream. I was just half-way through the ceiling of the room when I became conscious." He adds: "When the dream corresponds to the action of the astral body it will always cause that body to exteriorize... the astral body has well been termed the dream body, for it is in that body that we dream." He offers, as the fundamental law of projection: "When the subconscious will becomes possessed of the idea to move the body (coinciding bodies), and the physical body is incapacitated, the astral body will move out of the physical." Lying on the back is, he insists, the best attitude for projection. That, it may be remembered, was the pose adopted by that most notable projector in fiction, Peter Ibbetson, as depicted by George du Maurier, who was, probably, himself a projector. But this attitude is by no means in universal use; by some it is even eschewed: but a determination to do something definite, something which involves upward flight, seems essential, and must be held till the last moment before falling asleep. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |