Reincarnation | Page 9

to a distance.
An examination into the conditions under which most of these cases
took place has convinced several students of the existence of the finer
body which we are here endeavouring to demonstrate, as well as of the
possibility of its instantaneous transference to a great distance. As the
proofs afforded by apparitions are not mathematical, i.e., indisputable,
and as they give room for a variety of opinions, we will make no
attempt to detail them, preferring to pass on to a final proof--the least
important, perhaps, from a general point of view, since it is limited to
the individual possessing it; the only absolute and mathematical one,
however, to the man who has obtained it:--the personal proof.
There are persons--few in number, true--who, under divers influences,
have been able to leave the physical body and see it sleeping on a
couch. They have freely moved in an environment--the astral
world--similar to our physical one in some respects, though different in
many others, and have returned again to the body, bringing back the
memory of their wanderings. These accounts have been given by
persons deserving of credence and not subject to hallucinations.
There are other individuals, though not so numerous--of whom we have
the pleasure of knowing some personally--who are able to leave their
physical bodies and return at will. They travel to great distances with
the utmost rapidity and bring back a complete memory of their
journeyings. D'Assier gives a typical case in his work. (L'Humanité
posthume, p. 59.)
Such is the proof we look upon as irrefutable, as complete and perfect.
The man who can thus travel freely in his finer body knows that the
physical body is only a vehicle adapted to the physical world and
necessary for life in this world; he knows that consciousness does not
cease to function, and that the universe by no means provides the

conditions for a state of nothingness, once this body of flesh is laid
aside.
At this stage of his evolution man can, in addition, make use of his
astral body at will, and obtain on the astral plane, first by reason and
intuition, afterwards by personal experience, proof of another vehicle of
consciousness--the mental body. At a further stage he obtains the
certainty of possession of the causal body, then of higher bodies, and
from that time he can no longer doubt the teachings of the Elder
Brothers, those who have entered the higher evolution, the worlds that
are divine. He knows, beyond all possibility of doubt, that what the
ordinary man expresses in such childish language regarding these lofty
problems, what he calls the Absolute and the Manifested, God and the
Universe, the soul and the body, are more vitally true than he imagined;
he sees that these words are dense veils that conceal the supreme,
ineffable, infinite Being, of whom manifested beings are illusory
"aspects," facets of the divine Jewel.[9]
With this introduction, we will plunge at once into the heart of the
subject.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 2: Which is nothing but an unknown "aspect" of abstract
Divinity.]
[Footnote 3: Present-day man possesses four bodies of increasing
fineness, the elements of which interpenetrate. Proceeding from the
most dense, these are: The physical, the astral, the mental, and the
causal body. In certain conditions they are capable of dissociation, and
they last for a longer or a shorter time. The astral body, also called the
body of desire, animal soul (Kâmarûpa, in Sanskrit) is the seat of
sensation. Evolution has in store for us higher bodies stilt--the buddhic
body, the atmic body, &c.... but these need only be mentioned at this
point.
Yoga--Sanskrit, union--is a training of the different bodies of man by
the will; its object is to make of those bodies complete and perfect

instruments, capable of responding to the vibrations of the outer
universe as well as to those of the individual soul. When this process is
accomplished, man can receive, consciously and at will, in any one of
his bodies, vibrations received by the soul primarily in one of the others;
for instance, he may feel in the physical brain the direct action of his
astral or higher bodies; he may also leave the physical, and feel directly
in his astral body the action of the mental body, and so on.
Yoga can be practised only under the guidance of a Master, i.e., a
highly developed being, capable of guiding the student safely through
the dangers incidental to this training.]
[Footnote 4: When the astral body is externalised, the subject cannot
speak; he must await its return; when only partially externalised or not
at all, and consciousness is centred in it, the subject can speak and
relate what he sees afar off, for astral vision is possible at enormous
distances. Such cases as these