ercise any control. He
could not produce these results at will, nor could he stop them when
they were occurring. Numerous such examples may be cited. While
penning these lines, the writer has on his table two letters upon this
subject, one from Moradabad and the other from Trichinopoly. In short,
all this mischief is due to a misunderstanding of the significance of
contemplation as enjoined upon students by all the schools of Occult
Philosophy. With a view to afford a glimpse of the Reality through the
dense veil that enshrouds the mysteries of this Science of Sciences, an
article, the Elixir of Life, was written. Unfortunately, in too many
instances, the seed seems to have fallen upon barren ground. Some of
its readers pin their faith to the following clause in that paper:--
Reasoning from the known to the unknown meditation must be practiced and
encouraged.

But, alas! their preconceptions have prevented them from comprehending
what is meant by meditation. They forget that the meditation spoken of
"is the inexpressible yearning of the inner Man to 'go out towards the
infinite,' which in the olden time was the real meaning of adoration"--
as the next sentence shows. A good deal of light would be thrown upon
this subject if the reader were to turn to an earlier part of the same
paper, and peruse attentively the following paragraphs:--

So, then, we have arrived at the point where we have determined--
literally, not metaphorically--to crack the outer shell known as the
mortal coil or body, and hatch out of it, clothed in our next. This
'next' is not a spiritual, but only a more ethereal form. Having by a
long training and preparation adapted it for a life in the atmosphere,
during which time we have gradually made the outward shell to die off
through a certain process .... we have to prepare for this physiological
transformation.

How are we to do it? In the first place we have the actual, visible,
material body--Man, so called, though, in fact, but his outer shell--to
deal with. Let us bear in mind that Science teaches us that in about
every seven years we change skin as effectually as any serpent; and
this so gradually and imperceptibly that, had not science after years of
unremitting study and observation assured us of it, no one would have
had the slightest suspicion of the fact.... Hence, if a man, partially
flayed alive, may sometimes survive and be covered with a new skin, so
our astral, vital bod