Occultism and Spiritualism

...tists account for visions and actions at a distance, presentiments, prophetic ecstasy, dreams, madness, and other phenomena classified by philosophers under special psychology and in the chapter on coincidences or hallucinations.

We cannot emphasize too strongly the physiological side of the demonstration of the existence of the astral body; we shall therefore dwell at length upon this important subject.

Generally, all the organs constituting the human being appear to us in a state of full activity. All this functions, moves, and manifests itself to us under a thousand aspects, and it is only with the greatest difficulty that one can determine the few causes amidst the multiplicity of effects.

But now evening has come: the limbs fail, the eyes close, the external world no longer has any action upon the human being, and he himself no longer has any action upon the external world; he sleeps. Let us take advantage of this sleep to begin our study.

The man sleeps, and yet his arteries beat, his heart functions, and the blood circulates; his digestive organs continue their work, and his lungs rhythmically inhale and exhale the vivifying air. During this sleep, that which we call the man is capable neither of movement, nor sensation, nor thought; he can neither love nor hate, neither be happy nor suffer; his limbs rest inert, his face is motionless, and yet his organism functions as if nothing new had occurred (1).

We are therefore inevitably led to consider

(1) The phenomenon of dreaming barely disturbs this rest or recalls the existence of the higher principle.