the past: all that we can hope for is to win our way slowly step by
step, and since this astral plane lies next to our world of denser
matter, it is usually in connection with it that our earliest
superphysical experiences take place. It is therefore by no means
without interest to those of us who are but beginners in these
studies, and a clear comprehension of its mysteries may often be of
the greatest importance to us, not only by enabling us to understand
many of the phenomena of the _seance_-room, of haunted houses, etc.,
which would otherwise be inexplicable, but also to guard ourselves and
others from possible dangers.

The first introduction to this remarkable region comes to people in
various ways. Some only once in their whole lives under some unusual
influence become sensitive enough to recognize the presence of one of
its inhabitants, and perhaps, because the experience does not repeat
itself, come in time to believe that on that occasion they must have
been the victims of hallucination: others find themselves with
increasing frequency seeing and hearing something to which those
around them are blind and deaf; others again--and perhaps this is the
commonest experience of all--begin to recollect with greater and
greater clearness that which they have seen or heard on that other
plane during sleep. Among those who make a study of these subjects,
some try to develop the astral sight by crystal-gazing or other
methods, while those who have the inestimable advantage of the direct
guidance of a qualified teacher will probably be placed upon that
plane for the first time under his special protection, which will be
continued until, by the application of various tests, he has satisfied
himself that the pupil is proof against any danger or terror that he
is likely to encounter. But, however it may occur, the first actual
realization that we are all the while in the midst of a great world
full of active life, of which most of us are nevertheless entirely
unconscious, cannot but be to some extent a memorable epoch in a man's
existence.

So abundant and so manifold is this life of the astral plane that at
first it is absolutely bewildering to the neophyte; and even for the
more practised investigator it is no easy task to attempt to classify
and to catalogue it. If the explorer of some unknown tropical forest
were asked not only to give a full account of the country through
which he had passed, with accurate details of