A Journey in Other Worlds [103]
next morning they concentrated their minds
simultaneously on the spirit, wishing with all their strength
that he should reappear.
"Whether he be far or near," said Ayrault, "he must feel that,
for we are using the entire force of our
minds."
Shadows began to form, and dancing prismatic colours appeared,
but as yet there was no sign of the deceased bishop, when
suddenly he took shape among them, his appearance and
disappearance being much like that of stereopticon views on the
sheet before a lantern. He held himself erect, and his
thoughtful, dignified face had the same calm expression it had
worn before.
"We attracted your attention," said Ayrault, "in the way you said
we might, because we longed so to see you."
"Yes," added Bearwarden and Cortlandt, "we felt we MUST see you
again."
"I am always at your service," replied the spirit, "and will
answer your questions. With regard to my visibility and
invisibility"--he continued, with a smile, "for I will not wait
for you to ask the explanation of what is in your minds--it is
very simple. A man's soul can never die; a manifestation of the
soul is the spirit; this has entity, consciousness, and will, and
these also live forever. As in the natural or material life, as
I shall call it, will affects the material first. Thus, a child
has power to move its hand or a material object, as a toy, before
it can become the medium in a psychological seance. So it is
here. Before becoming visible to your eyes, I, by my will, draw
certain material substances in the form of gases from the ground,
water, or air around me. These take any shape I wish--not
necessarily that of man, though it is more natural to appear as
we did on earth--and may absorb a portion of light, and so be
able to cast a shadow or break up the white rays into prismatic
colours, or they may be wholly invisible. By an effort of the
will, then, I combine and condense these gases--which consist
principally of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon--into
flesh, blood, water, or anything else. You have already learned
on earth that, by the application of heat, every solid and every
liquid substance, which is solid or liquid simply because of the
temperature at which you find it, can be expanded into gas or
gases; and that by cold and pressure every gas can be reduced to
a liquid or a solid. On earth the state of a substance, whether
solid, liquid, or gaseous, depends simply upon those two
conditions. Here neither thermal nor barometric changes are
required, for, by mastering the new natural laws that at death
become patent to our senses, we have all the necessary control.
It requires but an effort of my will to be almost instantly
clothed in human form, and but another effort to rearrange the
molecules in such a way as to make the envelope visible. Some
who have been dead longer, or had a greater natural aptitude than
I, have advanced further, and all are learning; but the
difference in the rate at which spirits acquire control of
previously unknown natural laws varies far more than among
individuals on earth.
"These forms of organic life do not disintegrate till after
death; here in the natural state they break down and dissolve
into their structural elements in full bloom, as was done by the
fungi. The poisonous element in the deadly gust, against which I
warned you, came from the gaseous ingredients of toadstools,
which but seldom, and then only when the atmosphere has the
greatest affinity for them, dissolve automatically, producing a
death-spreading wave, against which your meteorological
instruments in future can warn you. The slight fall you noticed
in temperature was because the specific heat of these gases is
high, and to become gas while in the solid state they had to
withdraw some warmth from the air. The fatal breath of the
winged lizards--or dragons, as you call them--results from the
same cause, the action of their digestion breaking up the fungus,
which does not kill them, because they exhale the poisonous
simultaneously on the spirit, wishing with all their strength
that he should reappear.
"Whether he be far or near," said Ayrault, "he must feel that,
for we are using the entire force of our
minds."
Shadows began to form, and dancing prismatic colours appeared,
but as yet there was no sign of the deceased bishop, when
suddenly he took shape among them, his appearance and
disappearance being much like that of stereopticon views on the
sheet before a lantern. He held himself erect, and his
thoughtful, dignified face had the same calm expression it had
worn before.
"We attracted your attention," said Ayrault, "in the way you said
we might, because we longed so to see you."
"Yes," added Bearwarden and Cortlandt, "we felt we MUST see you
again."
"I am always at your service," replied the spirit, "and will
answer your questions. With regard to my visibility and
invisibility"--he continued, with a smile, "for I will not wait
for you to ask the explanation of what is in your minds--it is
very simple. A man's soul can never die; a manifestation of the
soul is the spirit; this has entity, consciousness, and will, and
these also live forever. As in the natural or material life, as
I shall call it, will affects the material first. Thus, a child
has power to move its hand or a material object, as a toy, before
it can become the medium in a psychological seance. So it is
here. Before becoming visible to your eyes, I, by my will, draw
certain material substances in the form of gases from the ground,
water, or air around me. These take any shape I wish--not
necessarily that of man, though it is more natural to appear as
we did on earth--and may absorb a portion of light, and so be
able to cast a shadow or break up the white rays into prismatic
colours, or they may be wholly invisible. By an effort of the
will, then, I combine and condense these gases--which consist
principally of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon--into
flesh, blood, water, or anything else. You have already learned
on earth that, by the application of heat, every solid and every
liquid substance, which is solid or liquid simply because of the
temperature at which you find it, can be expanded into gas or
gases; and that by cold and pressure every gas can be reduced to
a liquid or a solid. On earth the state of a substance, whether
solid, liquid, or gaseous, depends simply upon those two
conditions. Here neither thermal nor barometric changes are
required, for, by mastering the new natural laws that at death
become patent to our senses, we have all the necessary control.
It requires but an effort of my will to be almost instantly
clothed in human form, and but another effort to rearrange the
molecules in such a way as to make the envelope visible. Some
who have been dead longer, or had a greater natural aptitude than
I, have advanced further, and all are learning; but the
difference in the rate at which spirits acquire control of
previously unknown natural laws varies far more than among
individuals on earth.
"These forms of organic life do not disintegrate till after
death; here in the natural state they break down and dissolve
into their structural elements in full bloom, as was done by the
fungi. The poisonous element in the deadly gust, against which I
warned you, came from the gaseous ingredients of toadstools,
which but seldom, and then only when the atmosphere has the
greatest affinity for them, dissolve automatically, producing a
death-spreading wave, against which your meteorological
instruments in future can warn you. The slight fall you noticed
in temperature was because the specific heat of these gases is
high, and to become gas while in the solid state they had to
withdraw some warmth from the air. The fatal breath of the
winged lizards--or dragons, as you call them--results from the
same cause, the action of their digestion breaking up the fungus,
which does not kill them, because they exhale the poisonous