My Library

He had passed out through the closed doors of his house, and had walked on for about a hundred yards, when he was caught up by a strong current and borne away with great velocity, coming to rest on a beautiful but unknown common, where, under a magnificent amber sunset, a school treat was in full swing. He walked on till opposite a row of red brick houses, and entered by the front door of one of them which was half-open, to see if the inhabitants would become aware of his intrusion. He went up a flight of richly carpeted stairs, and seeing a door ajar on the first landing, entered and found himself in a comfortably furnished bedroom. "A young lady," he continues, "dressed in claret-coloured velvet, was standing with her back to me, tidying her hair before a mirror. I could see that radiant amber sky through the window by the dressing-table, and the girl's rich auburn tresses were gleaming redly in this glamorous light." He stood behind her, looking over her shoulder into the mirror, to see if it reflected his face. He was close enough to enjoy the fragrance of her hair, and could see her face in the mirror, but not a trace of his own. He laid a hand on her shoulder. "I distinctly felt the softness of her velvet dress," he says, "and then she gave a violent start—so violent that I in my turn was startled too. Instantly my body drew me back and I was awake, my condition being immediately normal—no duration of trance or cataleptic sensations. No bad after-effects. The western sky was blue when I lay down,* but on breaking the trance I saw that it was actually the same glorious amber colour it had been in my out-of-the-body experience." He has found since that, though he may be invisible to the people he encounters in his dream-travelling, they respond readily to touch; which suggests that something independent of his spirit fingers has been induced by the contact.