Page:Weird Tales Volume 5 Number 3 (1925-03).djvu/40



HY mortals cannot be content to remain mortals; why they crave to loose souls from bodies and go wandering about in planes other than their own—these are puzzling questions. Yet many people are subject to such desires, and eagerly consult mediums and magicians, and delve within pages of spiritualistic volumes with the hope of thus realizing their abnormal ambitions.

Did most persons know what I, Edward Grant Thompson, know, or experience what I have experienced, then I feel convinced they would be satisfied to dwell in natural spheres, and not go aimlessly rambling about the universe as star-rovers.

I must admit, however, there is a certain fascination connected with the astralizing process which brings with it very pleasurable sensations. Doubtless this is one reason why so many seek to become proficient in the art, even though it often requires years of arduous study and unswerving determination and perseverance to master it.

But I myself, having been reared by a maiden aunt who continually dipped her bucket in the lore of spiritism, was well versed in occult subjects, and at an early age learned to perform successfully the astralizing act.

Between the ages of eighteen and twenty-six, scarcely a week passed during which I did not astralize myself at least one night. Gradually it became an easy process, for the longer one practises it, the more adept one becomes.

Just before my twenty-sixth birthday, I married. Then my troubles began.

Now I do not wish you to think that my wife was ill-natured, for she was not. Lucetta Greyes, the girl I married, was in every way but one an ideal mate. Yet that single fault was most annoying. Lucetta was strongly opposed to astralizing, and considered all people who dealt in such matters directly allied with demoniac spirits.

Before marriage, I did not tell Lucetta I possessed astralizing power. Had she known, it is unlikely she would have taken me as husband. But she had not, for I had met her at her home in England, far from my native America, and she had had no opportunity to learn in what environment I had been brought up.

Being well acquainted with her views, you can be sure I said little to her upon such subjects prior to our marriage, thinking I should be better able to win her to my beliefs after the ceremony had taken place.

two full months after marriage, I refrained from my secret pleasure. Then the longing to return to an astral state became so intense that I told Lucetta just how matters stood, and entreated her to allow me to instruct her in the psychic art.

The effect of my disclosure was most startling. Upon hearing me state coolly that I, the man she had married, was a frequent visitor to the