Page:A Collection of Esoteric Writings.djvu/197

183 A case is mentioned in which a soldier's wife, travelling with the regiment, one night, while her husband was present and seated on a chair, declared she saw her mother appear, that her mother pressed her shoulders and said: "And I have left you the cream-jug, mind you get it." The husband heard and saw nothing. The figure then vanished, and it was afterwards found that the mother had died and left a cream-jug to her daughter.

This was a case of thought-transference. The woman must have been very anxious to give her daughter this information before her death, anxiety must have increased, when she was dying the thought connected itself with her aura, that thought carried with it, at the time of dissolution, the odic aura of the person herself, but it is not a case of the astral body going to a distance. In all cases except those where Adepts are concerned it is the energy of thought-transference which sometimes takes a portion of a person's aura. Generally this takes place in cases of death; in other cases, unless the person is clairvoyant, it will not be possible for the astral body to be seen.

Sometimes it happens that when a portion of the aura is thus brought, it will be visible only to the man to whom the thought refers.

When the thought is transferred, the image is transferred. From a more distinct mental subjective image an objective figure, there may be infinite gradations of clearness and visibility.

Another case was as follows: A lady was going to India to her brother, she died on the voyage, and was seen clad, as at the moment of death, by the brother's wife three hours after the death occurred.

Here there must either have been strong sympathy between the two, or else the sister must have been a seer, or there must have been some other agency, such as an elemental at work. It is a case of thought-transference, but in the absence of further particulars a detailed explanation cannot be given.