Clairvoyance and Occult Powers, William Walker Atkinson [best book clubs TXT] 📗

reputation for truthfulness and reliability. The story is as follows: "One morning in December, 1836, A. had the following dream, or he would prefer to call it, revelation. He found himself suddenly at the gate of Major N.M.'s avenue, many miles from his home. Close to him was a group of persons, one of whom was a woman with a basket on her arm, the rest were men, four of whom were tenants of his own, while the others were unknown to him. Some of the strangers seemed to be assaulting H.W., one of his tenants, and he interfered. A. says, 'I struck violently at the man on my left, and then with greater violence at the man's face on my right. Finding, to my surprise, that I had not knocked down either, I struck again and again with all the violence of a man frenzied at the sight of my poor friend's murder. To my great amazement I saw my arms, although visible to my eye, were without substance, and the bodies of the men I struck at and my own came close together after each blow, through the shadowy arms I struck with. My blows were delivered with more extreme violence than I ever think I exerted, but I became painfully convinced of my incompetency. I have no consciousness of what happened after this feeling of unsubstantiality came upon me.'

"Next morning, A. experienced the stiffness and soreness of violent bodily exercise, and was informed by his wife that in the course of the night he had much alarmed her by striking out again and again in a terrific manner, 'as if fighting for his life.' He, in turn, informed her of his dream, and begged her to remember the names of those actors in it who were known to him. On the morning of the following day (Wednesday) A. received a letter from his agent, who resided in the town close to the scene of the dream, informing him that his tenant had been found on Tuesday morning at Major N.M.'s gate, speechless and apparently dying from a fracture of the skull, and that there was no trace of the murderers.

"That night A. started for the town, and arrived there on Thursday morning. On his way to a meeting of magistrates, he met the senior magistrate of that part of the country, and requested him to give orders for the arrest of the three men whom, besides H.W., he had recognized in his dream, and to have them examined separately. This was at once done. The three men gave identical accounts of the occurrence, and all named the woman who was with them. She was then arrested and gave precisely similar testimony. They said that between eleven and twelve on the Monday night they had been walking homewards altogether along the road, when they were overtaken by three strangers, two of whom savagely assaulted H.W., while the other prevented his friends from interfering. H.W. did not die, but was never the same man afterwards; he subsequently emigrated."

Stead, the English editor and psychical researcher, relates the following case, which he accepts as truthful and correct, after careful investigation of the circumstances and of the character and reputation of the person relating it. The story proceeds as follows:

"St. Eglos is situated about ten miles from the Atlantic, and not quite so far from the old market town of Trebodwina. Hart and George Northey were brothers, and from childhood their lives had been marked by the strongest brotherly affection. Hart and George Northey had never been separated from their birth until George became a sailor, Hart meantime joining his father in business. On the 8th of February, 1840, while George Northey's ship was lying in port at St. Helena, he had the following strange dream:

"Last night I dreamt that my brother was at Trebodwina Market, and that I was with him, quite close by his side, during the whole of the market transactions. Although I could see and hear which passed around me, I felt sure that it was not my bodily presence which thus accompanied him, but my shadow or rather my spiritual presence, for he seemed quite unconscious that I was near him. I felt that my being thus present in this strange way betokened some hidden danger which he was destined to meet, and which I know my presence could not avert, for I could not speak to warn him of his peril."

The story then proceeds to relate how Hart collected considerable money at Trebodwina Market, and then started to ride homeward. George tells what happened to his brother on the way, as follows:

"My terror gradually increased as Hart approached the hamlet of Polkerrow, until I was in a perfect frenzy, frantically desirous, yet unable to warn my brother in some way and prevent him from going further. I suddenly became aware of two dark shadows thrown across the road. I felt that my brother's hour had come, and I was powerless to aid him! Two men appeared, whom I instantly recognized as notorious poachers who lived in a lonely wood near St. Eglos. They wished him 'Good night, mister!' civilly enough. He replied, and entered into conversation with them about some work he had promised them. After a few minutes they asked him for some money. The elder of the two brothers, who was standing near the horse's head, said: 'Mr. Northey, we know you have just come from Trebodwina Market with plenty of money in your pockets; we are desperate men, and you bean't going to leave this place until we've got that money; so hand over!' My brother made no reply except to slash at him with the whip, and spur the horse at him.

"The younger of the ruffians instantly drew a pistol, and fired. Hart dropped lifeless from the saddle, and one of the villains held him by the throat with a grip of iron for some minutes, as thought to make assurance doubly sure, and crush out any particle of life my poor brother might have left. The murderers secured the horse to a tree in the orchard, and, having rifled the corpse, they dragged it up the stream, concealing it under the overhanging banks of the water-course. Then they carefully covered over all marks of blood on the road, and hid the pistol in the thatch of a disused hut close to the roadside; then, setting the horse free to gallop home alone, they decamped across the country to their own cottage."

The story then relates how George Northey's vessel left St. Helena the next day after the dream, and reached Plymouth in due time. George carried with him a very vivid recollection of his vision on the return voyage, and never doubted for an instant that his brother had been actually murdered in the manner and by the persons named, as seen in the vision. He carried with him the determination to bring the villains to justice and was filled with the conviction that through his efforts retribution would fall upon the murderers.

In England, justice was at work—but the missing link was needed. The crime aroused universal horror and indignation, and the authorities left nothing undone in the direction of discovering the murderers and bringing them to justice. Two brothers named Hightwood were suspected, and in their cottage were found blood-stained garments. But no pistol was found, although the younger brother admitted having owned but lost one. They were arrested and brought before the magistrates. The evidence against them was purely circumstantial, and not any too strong at that; but their actions were those of guilty men. They were committed for trial. Each confessed, in hopes of saving his life and obtaining imprisonment instead. But both were convicted and sentenced to be hanged. There was doubt in the minds of some, however, about the pistol. The story continues:

"Before the execution, George Northey arrived from St. Helena, and declared that the pistol was in the thatch of the old cottage close by the place where they had murdered Hart Northey, and where they had hid it. 'How do you know?' he was asked. George replied: 'I saw the foul deed committed in a dream I had the night of the murder, when at St. Helena.' The pistol was found, as George Northey had predicted, in the thatch of the ruined cottage." Investigation revealed that the details of the crime were identical with those seen in the vision.

It is a fact known to all occultists that many persons frequently travel in the astral body during sleep; and in many cases retain a faint recollection of some of the things they have seen and heard during their travels in the astral. Nearly everyone knows the experience of waking up in the morning feeling physically tired and "used up;" in some cases a dim recollection of walking or working during the dream being had. Who among us has not had the experience of "walking on the air," or in the air, without the feet touching the ground, being propelled simply by the effort of the will? And who of us has had not experienced that dreadful—"falling through space" sensation, in dreams, with the sudden awakening just before we actually struck earth? And who has not had the mortifying dream experience of walking along the street, or in some public place, and being suddenly overcome by the consciousness that we were in our night-clothes, or perhaps without any clothing at all? All of these things are more or less distorted recollection of astral journeyings.

But while these dream excursions in the astral are harmless, the conscious "going out in the astral" is not so. There are many planes of the astral into which it is dangerous and unpleasant for the uninstructed person to travel; unless accompanied by a capable occultist as guide. Therefore, I caution all students against trying to force development in that direction. Nature surrounds you with safeguards, and interposes obstacles for your own protection and good. Do not try to break through these obstacles without knowledge of what you are doing. "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread," remember; and "a little learning is a dangerous thing." When you have reached the stage of development in which it will be safe for you to undertake conscious astral explorations, then will your guide be at hand, and the instruction furnished you by those capable of giving it to you. Do not try to break into the astral without due preparation, and full knowledge, lest you find yourself in the state of the fish who leaped out of the water onto the banks of the stream. Your dream trips are safe; they will increase in variety and clearness, and you will remember more about them—all this before you may begin to try to consciously "go out into the astral" as do the occultists. Be content to crawl before you may walk. Learn to add, multiply, subtract and divide, before you undertake the higher mathematics, algebra, geometry, etc., of occultism.

LESSON XV.

STRANGE ASTRAL PHENOMENA.

There are several phases of astral phenomena other than those mentioned in the preceding chapters, which it will be better for the student to become acquainted with in order to round out his general knowledge of the subject, although the manifestations are comparatively rare, and not so generally recognized in works on this subject.

One of the first of these several phases of astral phenomena is that which may be called Thought-Form Projection. This manifestation comes in the place on the psychic scale just between ordinary clairvoyance on the one hand, and astral body projection on the other. It has some of the characteristics of each, and is often mistaken for one or the other of these phases.

To understand this phenomena, the student should know something regarding the fact that thought frequently takes on astral form, and that these manifestations are known as thought-forms. I have spoken of these in some of the