My Library

Thereafter I performed a feat of childish magic. When the empty circles came, I would give the command, 'Let it be inkstands!' for I confused the pot with the stand in those days. Sure enough the little glass pots would appear and there would bs no nightmare. But I had to be very quick about it, or the grinning faces would get in first, I would hear their nonsensical words, and the nightmare would follow in due course. "This queer incident forms a good illustration of the power of suggestion, but it has a deeper significance also; for in my out-of-the-body exporiences I have noted on several occasions, beneath the golden glow suffusing the room, this barely visible vibrating curtain of circular cells. I do not know what it is, but I believe it is always present at the back of things, if one concentrates upon it, though it will often remain unnoticed because of the more arresting nature of the phenomena. But in my projection experiences these vibrating circles remain empty. It was only in my early childhood that impish faces or friendly ink-pots appeared in them." That pale golden glow of which some, but not all, projectors speak seems to be an illumination which is always there, but can only be discerned by etheric vision. The character of that vision may also be responsible for the apparent dimming of lamp and firelight. Mr. Fox explains that, for the sake of his Theosophical readers, he employs the definition of "astral" instead of "etheric". I have in an earlier chapter given my reasons for preferring the latter term, and quoted Theosophical authority for its use. In 1902, between his sixteenth and seventeenth birthdays, Mr. Fox made, all unwittingly, his first projection, and, which