Some are not yet, in my opinion, sufficiently well authenticated to necessitate consideration, and those which are, some—such as Telekinesis, Prevision, and certain aspects of unconsciousness—are more conveniently treated in later chapters; others are so mysterious as to render any attempt at explanation premature until we have a wider and firmer foundation of fact on which to build; others again, such as thought transference or Telepathy, will probably prove explicable without introducing the Higher Space hypothesis in any direct connection.
There are some, however, which may well be considered here.
The first, and by far the most important problem which confronts us in attempting to form an idea of post-mortem conditions, or of the existence of personality apart from the physical body, lies in the fact that we cannot conceive of personality as absolutely disembodied—as pure essence. Yet we know that if personality does in fact survive physical death, it must do so in some form, completely non-material in the ordinary sense of the word, which is invisible, impalpable, in short entirely imperceptible, to our normal senses.
Probably it is the difficulty of conceiving such a mode of existence which has chiefly prevented physical scientists, as a whole, from accepting the obvious interpretation of the evidence for Survival offered by various Psychic phenomena.
Few people, I think, who have studied the literature of the subject, would be prepared to deny that Survival is, at least, strongly indicated by the evidence in question.
But this difficulty of conceiving a state of existence, at once real and non-physical, has induced scientists to prefer to seek an explanation of the observed facts in terms of Thought transference, Secondary personality and so forth.[1]
But as soon as we introduce the concept of the Fourth Dimension this difficulty disappears.
We have but to suppose that after physical death the Individual consciousness is embodied in a vehicle organised, not from physical matter, but from Four-dimensional matter, i.e., that which, in four space, corresponds to what we call "Matter" in three space.
Such a vehicle fulfills the required conditions in every way. It is scientifically real—that is to say, it has its habitat in a region as subject to law and as susceptible to mathematical analysis as the three dimensional world in which we at present live.
And yet it must be supposed to be, of its very nature, inapprehensible by our normal physical senses.