Experiments such as these could be multiplied _ad infinitum_. There are cases on record in which the astral form has been pricked with needles, while the "sensitive" felt the prick, and so on. These experiments are suggestive, and if they should prove an etheric body, or anything corresponding to it, that would be at least one great step in advance in psychic research. It would also enable us to understand many of the phenomena of witchcraft, which are at present looked upon as mere superstitions. A word, finally, as to the phenomena of "exteriorization of sensibility," to which reference was made in the last paragraph. Many French observers have, apparently, obtained these phenomena; but there seems to be much scepticism regarding them in England and America, where they are generally considered to be due entirely to "suggestion." For my own part--while I do not uphold past experiments in this direction as being particularly convincing--I must confess that I see no inherent improbability in the facts themselves. If we have an etheric body, this is doubtless more or less detachable, at times--indeed, the ingenious author of _The Maniac_ suggests that the premature loosening of this body is the cause of much insanity. (See also my own remarks along the same general lines in the _Annals of Psychical Science_, October-December 1909, pp. 657-67; "Concerning Abnormal Mental Life.") This etheric body is doubtless highly sensitive to external forces and energies acting upon it, and would also feel physical pressure, etc., when applied. If this were true, we should have a ready explanation for these cases of exteriorized sensibility. But it would not even be necessary for us to assume this! If the phenomena of exteriorization of _motivity_ be true (the phenomena produced by Eusapia Palladino, for example) then we have here nervous energy or "fluid" existing beyond the periphery of the body--that is, in space, detached from the nerves. And if a motor current can exist and travel in this manner, why not a sensory current? It would only have to travel in the opposite direction. For these reasons, therefore, I am disposed to regard the phenomena of exteriorized sensibility as highly probable, if not actually proved. FOOTNOTES: [48] See the article on "Witches' Unguents" in the _Occult Review_, April 1912, pp. 275-77. CHAPTER XII SCIENTIFIC TRUTHS CONTAINED IN FAIRY STORIES