ttled in the
scientific kingdom, becoming almost more than a hypothesis. Mesmerism,
under its new name of hypnotism, is no longer an outcast. Reichenbach's
experiments are still looked at askance, but are not wholly condemned.
Roentgen's rays have rearranged some of the older ideas of matter, while
radium has revolutionised them, and is leading science beyond the
borderland of ether into the astral world. The boundaries between
animate and inanimate matter are broken down. Magnets are found to be
possessed of almost uncanny powers, transferring certain forms of
disease in a way not yet satisfactorily explained. Telepathy,
clairvoyance, movement without contact, though not yet admitted to the
scientific table, are approaching the Cinderella-stage. The fact is
that science has pressed its researches so far, has used such rare
ingenuity in its questionings of nature, has shown such tireless
patience in its investigations, that it is receiving the reward of those
who seek, and forces and beings of the next higher plane of nature are
beginning to show themselves on the outer edge of the physical field.
"Nature makes no leaps," and as the physicist nears the confines of his
kingdom he finds himself bewildered by touches and gleams from another
realm which interpenetrates his own. He finds himself compelled to
speculate on invisible presences, if only to find a rational explanation
for undoubted physical phenomena, and insensibly he slips over the
boundary, and is, although he does not yet realise it, contacting the
astral plane.

One of the most interesting of the highroads from the physical to the
astral is that of the study of thought. The Western scientist,
commencing in the anatomy and physiology of the brain, endeavours to
make these the basis for "a sound psychology." He passes then into the
region of dreams, illusions, hallucinations; and as soon as he
endeavours to elaborate an experimental science which shall classify and
arrange these, he inevitably plunges into the astral plane. Dr Baraduc
of Paris has nearly crossed the barrier, and is well on the way towards
photographing astro-mental images, to obtaining pictures of what from
the materialistic standpoint would be the results of vibrations in the
grey matter of the brain.

It has long been known to those who have given attention to the question
that impressions were produced by the reflection of the ultra-violet
rays from objects not visible by the rays of the