Page:Dealings with the dead.djvu/202

 There is a point reachable, quite beyond that of outer consciousness. Well, the man strove to baffle the tendency to somnolence. His brain was one living mass of phosphor-like luminescence; there was a large and brilliant globe, apparently of white fire-mist, encompassing the head. Its center rested exactly on what anatomists call the corpus callosum; and this body—this central cerebral viscus—I affirm to be the seat of consciousness,—Soul! On other occasions I have beheld similar bright globes of what can only be compared to pure fire. Others claim to have witnessed the same; they have described it, and uniformly, nay, invariably locate this ball on the precise spot indicated. The volume of this singular something, varies in different people, from the bulk of a large pea to some three or four inches in mean diameter, in which latter case it, of course, has only its axis in the place indicated, while its body penetrates the circumjacent brain. The effulgence, as the volume, also varies in different persons. In some it is, comparatively speaking, no brighter than the flame of a good candle, while in others it is an infinite intensification of the dazzling radiance of the Drummond or the calcium light. In the man before me this globe was nearly a perfect sphere; in other instances I have observed its shape to be somewhat angular. The better the person, the greater the intelligence (intuitive, not mere memory-learning), the larger, smoother, and rounder is this wondrous Soul-Sun.