Part 40 (1/2)

”Certainly. A man would be considered crazy who attempted it,” I answered.

”Notwithstanding your opinion, in time to come, human beings on the surface of the earth will investigate in this very direction,” he replied, ”and in the proper time mental evolution will, by experimentation, prove the fact of this mind and matter connection, and demonstrate that even extraneous matter may be made subservient to mind influences. On earth, mind acts on the matter of one's body to produce motion of matter, and the spirit within, which is a slave to matter, moves with it. Contraries rule here. Mind force acts on pure s.p.a.ce motion, moving itself and matter with it, and that, too, without any exertion of the material body which now is a nonent.i.ty, mind here being the master.”

”How can I believe you?” I replied.

”Know, then,” he said, ”that we are in motion now, propelled by my will power.”

”Prove it.”

”You may prove it yourself,” he said; ”but be careful, or we will separate forever.”

Releasing his grasp, he directed me to wish that I were moving directly to the right. I did so; the distance widened between us.

”Wish intensely that you would move in a circle about me.”

I acquiesced, and at once my body began to circle around him.

”Call for the bar of iron.”

I did as directed, and soon it came floating out of s.p.a.ce into my very hand.

”I am amazed,” I e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed; ”yes, more surprised at these phenomena than at anything that has preceded.”

”You need not be; you move now under the influences of natural laws that are no more obscure or wonderful than those under which you have always existed. Instead of exercising its influence on a brain, and thence indirectly on a material body, your mind force is exerting its action through energy on matter itself. Matter is here subservient. It is nearly the same as vacuity, mind being a comprehensive reality. The positions we have heretofore occupied have been reversed, and mind now dominates. Know, that as your body is now absolutely without weight, and is suspended in a frictionless medium, the most delicate balance of a chemist can not approach in sensitiveness the adjustment herein exemplified. Your body does not weigh the fraction of the millionth part of a grain, and where there is neither material weight nor possible friction, even the attrition that on surface earth results from a needle point that rests on an agate plate is immeasurably greater in comparison. Pure mind energy is capable of disturbing the equilibrium of matter in our situation, as you have seen exemplified by our movements and extraneous materials, 'dead matter' obeys the spiritual.

The bar of iron obeyed your call, the spiritless metal is subservient to the demands of intelligence. But, come, we must continue our journey.”

Grasping me again, he exclaimed: ”Wish with all intensity that we may move forward, and I will do the same.”

I did so.

”We are now uniting our energies in the creation of motion,” he said; ”we are moving rapidly, and with continually accelerated speed; before long we will perceive the earthy border of this chasm.”

And yet it seemed to me that we were at perfect rest.

CHAPTER LI.

IS THAT A MORTAL?--”THE END OF EARTH.”

At length I perceived, in the distance, a crescent-shaped ring of silver l.u.s.ter. It grew broader, expanding beneath my gaze, and appeared to approach rapidly.

”Hold; cease your desire for onward motion,” said the guide; ”we approach too rapidly. Quick, wish with all your mind that you were motionless.”

I did so, and we rested in front of a ridge of brilliant material, that in one direction, towards the earth's outer circle, broadened until it extended upward as far as the eye could reach in the form of a bold precipice, and in the other towards the inner world, shelved gradually away as an ocean beach might do.

”Tell me, what is this barrier?” I asked.

”It is the bisected edge of the earth crevice,” he said. ”That overhanging upright bluff reaches towards the external surface of the earth, the land of your former home. That shelving approach beneath is the entrance to the 'Inner Circle,' the concavity of our world.”