My Library

with reality. Realizing at length that he was not dreaming, he thought he must be dead. Approaching his own body, he found that it was still breathing, that he could see into the interior of his anatomy, and that his heart was still beating though somewhat feebly. Wondering how long this condition was going to last, he went over to the lamp which was burning steadily, but dangerously close to the curtains of his bed. He placed his finger on the lever to extinguish the light, but was unable to move it however hard he pressed. He then examined his Etheric body, which seemed to be clothed in white. He stood in front of the mirror, but instead of seeing his own image reflected, his vision appeared to extend indefinitely, and first the wall, then the backs of the pictures in his next-door neighbour's room, and then its furniture became visible. "I remarked," he says, "the absence of light in my neighbour's apartments, but this caused me no difficulty. I found I could perceive quite plainly by what appeared to be a ray of light emitted from my epigastrium which illuminated the objects in the room." It then occurred to him to enter the room itself "I had hardly conceived the wish," he observes, "when I found myself there. How I did it I do not know, but it seemed to me that I passed through the wall as easily as my sight had penetrated it." It was the first time he had ever been in the room, the owner being absent from Paris. He then took note of everything in the room, even to the titles of books on the library shelves. "I had," he says, "only to will in order to find myself wherever I wanted to be. Accordingly he set off and penetrated, he believed, as far as Italy; but there his memory became confused, and he had no longer any control of his thoughts.