he
peculiar sensation we feel results from the separation of the etheric
body. (Of course a materialistic manner of explanation may here again deny
the invisible behind the visible and say: all this arises merely from the
physical disturbance caused by the pressure.) Clairvoyant vision can see
in such a case, how the corresponding part of the etheric body extends
beyond the physical limb. Now if a man experiences an unusual shock, or
something similar, such a separation of the etheric body from a large part
of the physical body may result, for a short time. That is the case when a
man, for some reason or other, is suddenly brought face to face with
death,--for example when drowning, or threatened by a fatal accident when
mountaineering. What is related by people who have had such experiences
comes, in fact, very near the truth, and can be ratified by clairvoyant
observation. They declare that in such moments their whole lives pass
before their minds as though in a huge memory-picture.

Out of the many examples which might here be adduced, allusion will be
made to one only, because it originates from a man whose mode of thought
would make everything said here about such things seem pure fancy.(5)
Moriz Benedict, the distinguished criminal anthropologist and eminent
investigator in many other realms of natural science, relates in his
_Reminiscences_ an experience of his own,--to the effect that once, when on
the point of drowning in a bath he had seen his whole life pass before his
memory as though in a single picture. If other people describe differently
the pictures seen by them under similar circumstances, and even in such a
way that they seem to have little to do with the events of their past
life, that does not contradict what has been said; for the pictures which
arise in the quiet abnormal condition during the separation from the
physical body are sometimes at first sight, unintelligible in their
relation to life. Correct observation, however, would always recognize
this relationship.

Neither is it an objection if, for example, some one who was once on the
point of drowning did not experience what has been described; for it must
be borne in mind that this can happen only when the etheric body is really
separated from the physical body,--when, moreover, the former is still
united with the astral body. If, through the fright, a loosening of the
etheric and astral bodies also takes place, the experience is not
forth