eye of
Bigot, just as we have seen the same thing happen in analogous
cases of the projection of the double by sorcerers."

Without endorsing such a view of the case, it may be said that recent
experiments have shown it to be less incredible than might at first
appear. Thus: We read further:

"Innumerable facts, observed from antiquity to our own day,
demonstrate in our being the existence of an internal reality--the
internal man. Analysis of these different manifestations has
permitted us to penetrate its nature. Externally it is the exact
image of the person of whom it is the complement. Internally it
reproduces the mould of all the organs which constitute the
framework of the human body. We see it, in short, move, speak, take
nourishment; perform, in a word, all the great functions of animal
life. The extreme tenuity of these constituent molecules, which
represent the last term of inorganic matter, allows it to pass
through the walls and partitions of apartments. Hence the name of
phantom, by which it is generally designated. Nevertheless, as it
is united with the body from which it emanates by an invisible
vascular plexus, it can, at will, draw to itself, by a sort of
aspiration, the greater part of the living forces which animate the
latter. One sees, then, by a singular inversion, life withdrawn
from the body, which then exhibits a cadaverous rigidity, and
transfers itself entirely to the phantom, which acquires
consistency--sometimes even to the point of struggling with
persons before whom it materializes. It is but exceptionally that
it shows itself in connection with a living person. But as soon as
death has snapped the bonds which attach it to our organism, it
definitely separates itself from the human body and constitutes the
posthumous phantom."

This interpretation of the facts, it will be seen, forms a sort of
connecting link between apparitions, ghosts, materializations,
vampirism, and witchcraft; it is also in accord with the statements of
the theosophists as to the astral body, conforms with certain statements
made through Mrs. Piper and others as to the fluidic or ethereal body,
and accounts for many of the phenomena of "collective hallucination" and
haunted houses. I am far from saying that I think such a theory proved,
but it is at least consistent and plausible; it is