normal faculties, and the appearance of new ones,
which are often inexplicable and extraordinary and the more remarkable
in proportion as sleep is more profound, the brain calmer, or the
physiological state more abnormal.

How can we explain the paradox that faculties shown by a brain in a
state of inactivity cover an extent of ground which the brain in a
state of activity cannot approach? The reason is that the brain, in
this case, is not an instrument moved directly by the cause of
consciousness, _the soul_, but a simple recipient, which the soul,
then centred in the astral body, impresses _on returning to the
physical body_ (if it has been far away) or impresses directly when,
whilst acting in the finer vehicle, the latter has not left the
body.[4]

In other words, the brain, by reason of its functional inactivity,
vibrates little or not at all in its higher centres; it plays the part
of a sounding-board at rest, capable of vibrating sympathetically
under the influence of a similar board placed by its side.

The necessity of cerebral quiet, if the higher consciousness is to
make an impression, is now easy to understand; the finer vibration of
the astral body cannot be impressed upon the brain when the latter is
already strongly vibrating under the action of normal consciousness.
For this reason also, the deeper the sleep of the physical body the
better the higher consciousness manifests itself.

In ordinary man, organic quiet is scarcely ever complete during sleep;
the brain, as we shall see shortly, automatically repeats the
vibrations which normal consciousness has called forth during the
waking state; this, together with an habitual density of the nervous
elements, too great to respond to the higher vibration, explains the
rarity and the confused state of the impression of astral
consciousness on the brain.

The facts relating to the higher consciousness are as numerous as they
are varied. We shall not enter into full details, but choose only a
few phenomena quoted in well-known works.

MANIFESTATIONS OF THE HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS DURING THE DIFFERENT KINDS
OF SLEEP.

_Normal dream._ During normal sleep there exists a special
consciousness which must not be confounded either with waking
consciousness or with that of the astral body. It is due to the
automatic, cerebral vibration which continues during sleep, and which
the soul examines on its return to the body--when awake. This dream is
generally an abs