"About Douglas!" Alice, with a weary sigh, dropped into the central
chair, near the table where the incense curled upward in faint grey
spirals, not discernible in the half-light. A whiff of the scent made
the girl drowsy, and closing her eyes, she rested her head on the back
of the chair. The action brought her face nearer to the bronze dish, and
with the next breath she inhaled a lung-ful of the burning perfume. With
a choking sensation she strove to open her eyes and lean forward, but
her body would not obey her will, and she rested, inert and powerless,
where she was. There was a momentary struggle between spirit and matter,
a sick sensation of loosened bonds, and then she found herself standing
upright gazing at her motionless body lying in the chair. It was alive
and breathing, for she saw the rise and fall of the breast, but she, in
a similar body, stood apart from her physical vehicle, distinct, and--so
far as she knew--unattached. Before she had time to grasp the situation,
the library vanished, and she was environed by a restless atmosphere of
colour. It was as if she was clothed with the splendour of sunset, for
there was no hard-and-fast outline; no visible form: all was cloud and
colour, materials waiting to be shaped by the will into something which
the soul desired. The silence was like a benediction of peace. "Higher!
Higher!" said the far-away voice of her father. "Seek out the past
where it is to be found. See yourself and those you know, in other
times, in other climes, in other flesh." There was a pause, and then
came the telephonic voice again, repeating the orders of Narvaez. "Use
for the past the names by which you and those you know are called
to-day. Higher! Higher!"
Alice again felt that struggle of spirit and matter, and--no longer
afraid as she had been--passed out of her second body to become
conscious in a third one. Now, as she knew intuitively, she moved in the
sphere of Tone, and everywhere rainbow light spoke in music, though
still she wandered in a cloudy atmosphere as in the heart of a many-hued
opal. Wave after wave of murmuring light rolled over her, but there was
no horizon, no boundaries, no up or down. She was in a dimension about
which, as Alice Enistor, she knew nothing. But her eternal Self knew
that the place was familiar, as she--having stepped behind two veils of
matter--knew the Eternal Self.
"Seek out the Book of Time," commanded the thin voice which directed her
doings, and ghost of a sound as it was, it penetrated to her through the
choral harmonies of the glorious music.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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