A.

Different types of death

pp. 509-554

B.

Process of separating spirit & body during death

pp. 555-582

D.

Indirect apparition of ghost after death

pp. 614-658

"Naciketas said : ‘... No man can be made happy by wealth. ...’ ...

{Capitalism is for fools.}

Death said : ‘... the fool chooses ... greed and avarice. ...’."

"Death involves not a mere projection of the astral body but a withdrawal of the unifying double ..., with gradual severance of the links which have bound the aetheric husk to the physical during life. Subjectively, the soul is then resting in a quiescent, sleepy, detached state within the aetheric husk. ... An average time spent in this state may be two or three days. The process which takes place during this time is a severing of the cords joining the aetheric husk and the astral body, and a loosening and casting off of the former which is no longer required. The astral body frees itself and grows in strength. One might almost compare it to the emergence of a butterfly from the chrysalis stage. At the termination of this phase, the dreamy state of the soul changes into one of clear and growing awareness of the beauties of the astral plane. ... the soul may experience what Myers calls the "Play of the Shadow Show." Fragments of the memory of his past life float before the mind."

... Then he saw the Judge of Hades who held the record of life and death."

"Bakoubin, the governor of Urumuchi, said, "... I had a dream in which I came to ... a governor in Hades to register the different soldiers. Seeing that there were yellow, red, purple, and black lists on the tea table, I asked how these lists were classified. ... He said that ... men die but their spirits still exist, and

those on the yellow lists are those whose spirits are lively and are as energetic as the flowing fire;

those on the red lists have spirits like a rising smoke that can’t be dispersed;

those on the purple lists, have spirits like a thunder bolt ripping the clouds with flashes of lightning. ...""

p. 555

The physical body grows ... cold as the elements of the spiritual body grow warm ... . The feet first begin to grow cold. Over the head there is a ... halo, an ethereal emanation, in appearance golden, and throbbing as though conscious. By the time the body is cold up to the knees and elbows,

The physical body grows ... cold as

the elements of the spiritual body grow warm ... .

The feet first begin to grow cold.

Over the head there is a ... halo, an ethereal emanation, in appearance golden, and throbbing as though conscious.

By the time the body is cold up to the knees and elbows,

the emanation has ascended higher into the air.

The legs are now cold to the hips, the arms to the shoulders, and

although the emanation has not risen higher in the room, it appears larger.

pp. 555-6

The death coldness steals over the breast. ... Then just before death, all feeling ... is lost, and the body ... has ceased to breathe, the pulse has stopped and

p. 556

The head of the person is internally throbbing – a slow, deep throb, ... like the beat of the sea.

The soul, or what is called the emanation, which usually extends about halfway between the body and the ceiling, is connected with the brain by a very thin thread which ... can be plainly seen by the clairvoyant.

The celestial attraction soon draw[s] it to its new plane. There it is surrounded by a beautiful assemblage of guardian friends."

p. 557

Now the head of the body became suddenly enveloped in a fine, soft, mellow, luminous atmosphere; and, as instantly,

I saw the cerebrum and the cerebellum expand their most interior portions ... ...

{"on that account is His brain extended" (ThQ, p. 99 : quoting Matthews, p. 119, translation of Zohar 6:62)} .

The brain began to attract the elements ... of motion, of life, of sensation, into its various and numerous departments. The head became intensely brilliant; and I particularly remarked that

just in the same proportion as the extremities grew dark and cold,

the brain appeared light and glowing.

Now I saw, in the mellow, spiritual atmosphere, which emanated from and encircled the head, the indistinct outlines of the formation of another head! ... This new head unfolded more and more distinctly : and so indescribably compact and intensely brilliant did it become that I could neither see through it nor

{"Three Heads are ... each within the other, and each above ... the other." (SYG, p. 370)}

p. 558

gaze upon it as steadily as I desired. While this spiritual head was being eliminated and organized from out of, and above, the material head, I saw that the surrounding aromal atmostphere which had emanated from the material head was in great commotion; but, as the new head became more distinct and more perfect, this brilliant atmosphere disappeared. ...

The spirit rose at right angles over the head or brain of the deserted body. But ... I saw – playing energetically between the feet of the elevated spiritual body and the head of the prostrate physical body – a bright stream or current of vital electricity. ... And here I perceived ...

p. 559

that a small portion of this vital electrical element returned to the deserted body, immediately subsequent to the separation of the umbilical cord".

Later, when I became a nurse, an occupation which I followed for twenty years, I assisted at numerous deaths, and immediately after death I always observed the condensation of the etheric form above the body, always identical with the living body, and after condensing, it would vanish before my eyes."

Her granddaughter "saw a sort of grey vapour condense and float above the body of the dying woman ... . It was about three or four inches in diameter, and floated about four inches above ... the middle of the dying woman’s body. ... The cloud gradually spread ... . ... However ..., the upper part of this cloud cleared and assumed a brilliant red colouring. ... It remained thus, suspended in the air, in the shape of a disk ... . After which ..., a magnificent luminous aureole began to form around the body of [the dying woman]. At first it appeared white, but it slowly thickened and again

took on a vivid red tint. It surround the head at a distance of about three inches, and had a thickness of about four inches. The red colouring appeared vivid at the exterior, but it was pale and more transparent in the interior. When the aureole was definitely formed, another red light began to appear around the eyes. It descended and enveloped the nose and mouth.

{Is this why red ochre is so often found in Palaiolithic graves? Were the Palaiolithic funeral-directors clairvoyant seers?}

Meanwhile the disk, which had been located over the abdomen, continued to float, and remained visible".

p. 560

"at the death-bed ... we all observed a little thick white cloud forming over her head. Although we observed no movement

p. 561

in it, its density varied ceaselessly. ... A blue light lighted the cloud and it was shot through with blue scintillations. ... For several hours there was no notable change in this phenomenon, with the exception of an aureole of luminous rays of yellow tint about the head of the [dying woman]. ... We counted seven of these rays whose length continually varied between twelve and twenty inches."

p. 564

[near-death experience by a Dr. Wiltse :] "Then I discovered that I had become larger than I was in earth life ... . ... My clothes ... had accommodated themselves to my increased stature ... . ... I discovered then a small cord, like a spider’s web, running from my {non-material} shoulders back to my {material} body and attaching to it at the base of the neck in front. ...

p. 565

I again lost my consciousness, and when I again awoke found myself in the air, where I was upheld by a pair of hands, which I could feel ... against my sides. The owner of the hands ... was behind me, and was shoving me through the air at a swift ... speed. ... I was pitched away and floated own easily a few feet, alighting gently upon the beginning of a narrow, but wellbuilt roadway, inclined upward at an angle ... . ...

As I walked up the road, I seemed to face nearly north.

{Taoists consider the abode for the dead to be to the north.}

I looked over the side edge of the road and under it could see the forest, but discovered naught to support the roadway ... . It was built of milky quartz ... . ... I again reverted to {should be "adverted to" (remembered)} my late condition of illness and rejoiced in my perfect health ... . ...

p. 566

Suddenly I saw at some distance ahead of the {read "me"} three prodigious rocks blocking the road ... . ... a great and dark cloud ... became filled with living, moving bolts of fire ... . ... The cloud became concave on the undersurface ... and began slowly to revolve upon its-perpendicular axis. ... Then from the right side and from the left side of the cloud a tongue of black vapour shot forth and rested lightly upon either side of my head, and as they touched me thoughts not my own entered ... . .. "This is the road to the eternal land. Yonder rocks are the boundary between the two worlds and the two lives. Once you pass them, you can no more return into the body. ...

p. 567

I stood close to and in front of the three rocks ... to look into the next world. There were four entrances ... . ... I knelt at each of the low archways and looked through. .. Beyond the rocks, the roadway, the valley, and the mountain range curved gently to the left, thus shutting off the view at a short distance."

p. 616

"Finger-lending ... is the easiest way for communication to be made between a man and a ghost. ... "Saucer God" is the most widely used method in the East, whereas the "Ouija board" is the most widely used method in the West. In "Saucer God" one puts a saucer upside down in the middle of a sheet of cardboard, draws a circle according to the shape of the saucer, draws a line on the saucer to be used as a pointer, and writes a lot of characters around it. Three [to] eight persons may join in, and it is better to have both male and female ones. ... burn incense and kneel down ... to the gods to show sincerity. At first two persons ... having the powers of a medium put their fingers on the bottom of the saucer ... . When the finger begins to move, one follows it and notes where it stops; then one records the character pointed to by the pointer. If it is the name of a god or a man, one may start to ask questions ... . ... Those who have supernatural powers need not use the fingers, for the saucer would move automatically. ... This method is popular with overseas Chinese in Nan Yang (South-east Asia) ... .

p. 617

In the periods of Czarist Russia "Saucer God" was very popular. ... most of the Russians would cover the eyes of the man who would use the fingers."

"Apparition through direct voicing ... occurs when the spiritual operator makes a mask with the prana sent by the medium ... .The spirit, after putting on the mask, can speak and cause vibrations in the air so as to let living persons hear it."

That was my first introduction to John C. Sloan and the Direct Voice ... . ... I was so impressed with my strange experience that I went home that night, and wrote till the small hours of the next morning a careful account of all that occurred at this my first se’ance, and this practice I have constantly adopted".

"One night he is awakened by a voice ... . He got up, ... but there was no-one in the room. ... Eventually, one day, ... suceeded in over coming his reluctance ... into taking part in a seance. The first word of the controlling spirit" was what the voice which had awakened him had uttered.

"the spirit of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle came through ... to ask to speak with me. I ... asked the spirit to prove that he was really Conan Doyle by telling me where he and I had last met. This was correctly given."