ates and returns to its own plane, though not to
any individual mind, and thus the shade fades by almost imperceptible
gradations into a member of our next class.

5. _The Shell._

This is absolutely the mere astral corpse in process of
disintegration, every particle of the lower Manas having left it. It
is entirely without any kind of consciousness or intelligence, and is
drifted passively about upon the astral currents just as a cloud might
be swept in any direction by a passing breeze; but even yet it may be
galvanized for a few moments into a ghastly burlesque of life if it
happens to come within reach of a medium's aura. Under such
circumstances it will still exactly resemble its departed personality
in appearance, and may even reproduce to some extent his familiar
expressions or handwriting, but it does so merely by the automatic
action of the cells of which it is composed, which tend under
stimulation to repeat the form of action to which they are most
accustomed, and whatever amount of intelligence may lie behind any
such manifestation has most assuredly no connection with the original
entity, but is lent by the medium or his "guides" for the occasion. It
is, however, more frequently temporarily vitalized in quite another
manner, which will be described under the next head. It has also the
quality of being still blindly responsive to such vibrations--usually
of the lowest order--as were frequently set up in it during its last
stage of existence as a shade, and consequently persons in whom evil
desires or passions are predominant will be very likely, when they
attend physical _seances_, to find these intensified and as it were
thrown back upon them by the unconscious shells.

There is also another variety of corpse which it is necessary to
mention under this head, though it belongs to a much earlier stage of
man's _post-mortem_ history. It has been stated above that after the
death of the physical body the Kamarupa is comparatively quickly
formed, and the etheric double cast off--this latter body being
destined to slow disintegration, precisely as is the kamarupic shell
at a later stage of the proceedings. This etheric shell, however, is
not to be met with drifting aimlessly about, as is the variety with
which we have hitherto been dealing; on the contrary, it remains
within a few yards of the decaying physical body, and since it is
readily visible to any one even slightly sensitive, it is accountable
for man