her. In fact, in the Hindu conception of Jagrat, or "the waking
state," the physical and astral planes are combined, its seven
subdivisions corresponding to the four conditions of physical matter,
and the three broad divisions of astral matter explained above. With
this thought in our minds it is easy to move a step further, and grasp
the idea that astral vision, or rather astral perception, may from one
point of view be defined as the capability of receiving an enormously
increased number of different sets of vibrations. In our physical
bodies one small set of slow vibrations is perceptible to us as sound;
another small set of much more rapid vibrations affects us as light;
and again another set as electric action: but there are immense
numbers of intermediate vibrations which produce no result which our
physical senses can cognize at all. Now it will readily be seen that
if all, or even some only, of these intermediates, with all the
complications producible by differences of wave-length, are
perceptible on the astral plane, our comprehension of nature might be
very greatly increased on that level, and we might be able to acquire
much information which is now hidden from us.

[Sidenote: Clairvoyance.]

[Sidenote: Prevision and Second-sight.]

It is admitted that some of these pass through solid matter with
perfect ease, so that this enables us to account scientifically for
some of the peculiarities of astral vision, though those minds to
which the theory of the fourth dimension commends itself find in it a
neater and more complete explanation. It is clear that the mere
possession of this astral vision by a being would at once account for
his capability to produce many results that seem very wonderful to
us--such, for example, as the reading of a passage from a closed book;
and when we remember, furthermore, that this faculty includes the
power of thought-reading to the fullest extent, and also, when
combined with the knowledge of the projection of currents in the
astral light, that of observing a desired object in almost any part of
the world, we see that a good many of the phenomena of clairvoyance
are explicable even without rising above this level. Of course true,
trained, and absolutely reliable clairvoyance calls into operation an
entirely different set of faculties, but as these belong to a higher
plane than the astral, they form no part of our present subject. The
faculty of accurate prevision, again, appert