I recall a whirling sensation, and an involuntary attempt at
self-preservation, in which I threw my arms wildly about with a vain
endeavor to clutch some form of solid body, which movement naturally
ended by a tight clasping of my guide in my arms, and locked together we
continued to speed down into the seven thousand miles of vacancy.
Instinctively I murmured a prayer of supplication, and awaited the
approaching hereafter, which, as I believed, would quickly witness the
extinction of my unhappy life, the end of my material existence; but the
moments (if time can be so divided when no sun marks the division)
multiplied without bodily shock or physical pain of any description; I
retained my consciousness.
"Open your eyes," said my guide, "you have no cause for fear."
I acquiesced in an incredulous, dazed manner.
"This unusual experience is sufficient to unnerve you, but you need have
no fear, for you are not in corporal danger, and can relax your grasp on
my person."
I cautiously obeyed him, misgivingly, and slowly loosened my hold, then
gazed about to find that we were in a sea of light, and that only light
was visible, that form of light which I have before said is an entity
without source of radiation. In one direction, however, a great gray
cloud hung suspended and gloomy, dark in the center, and shading
therefrom in a circle, to disappear entirely at an angle of about
forty-five degrees.
"This is the earth-shelf from which we sprung," said the guide; "it will
soon disappear."
Wherever I glanced this radiant exhalation, a peaceful, luminous
envelope, this rich, soft, beautiful white light appeared. The power of
bodily motion I found still a factor in my frame, obedient, as before,
to my will. I could move my limbs freely, and my intellect seemed to be
intact. Finally I became impressed with the idea that I must be at
perfect rest, but if so what could be the nature of the substance, or
material, upon which I was resting so complacently? No; this could not
be true. Then I thought: "I have been instantly killed by a painless
shock, and my spirit is in heaven;" but my earthly body and coarse,
ragged garments were palpable realities; the sense of touch, sight, and
hearing surely were normal, and a consideration of these facts dispelled
my first conception.
"Where are we now?"
"Moving into earth's central space."
"I comprehend that a rushing wind surrounds us which is not
uncomfortable, but otherwise I experience no unusual sensation, and can
not realize but that I am at rest."
"The sensation, as of a blowing wind, is in consequence of our rapid
motion, and results from the friction between our bodies and the
quiescent, attenuated atmosphere which exists even here, but this
atmosphere becomes less and less in amount until it will disappear
altogether at a short distance below us. Soon we will be in a perfect
calm, and although moving rapidly, to all appearances will be at
absolute rest."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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