Lehal Library

FOREWORD THERE always seems to be an inevitable time-lag between the discovery of a new fact and its accepted addition to the sum of human knowledge. This is not surprising where, as in many professions, the fort of ignorance is defended by an organized body of men financially and otherwise concerned to buttress the ideas on which their own reputations have been founded. Unfortunately, though its corporate opposition is not so closely woven, the same embattled front is to be found in the ranks of science; indeed, it is astonishing how averse is even the unprofessional mind from abandoning convictions which it has often only imperfectly acquired. There may be novelty for some in the records which have been collected and classified in this volume, but there is really nothing "new" in the knowledge that a man can leave his body and return to it at will. The West has been aware of that for more than a thousand years, and the Orient for thousands of years longer. But it is only in the present century that the technique of this aerial adventure has been studied, and that attention is being paid to its encouraging disclosure and its disconcerting implications. One is surprised, when investigating the subject, to discover how widespread is this ability of man's slighter self to escape from the imprisonment of the flesh, how easily, in many cases, the prison doors are opened, and how almost as a commonplace the escape is treated. On the other hand, the uncertainty of these etheric travellers as to what has happened, their dread of ridicule, or even of being treated as slightly "wanting", has immured much of their experience behind a veil of secrecy. Even when conscious of the authenticity of their travel, and where it has been checked by "a cloud of witnesses", one meets, over and