As it happens, this exteriorisation does result in the separation of the Consciousness from the body, but to say that it is the separation would be liable to confuse the Consciousness and the four-dimensional vehicle with the Etheric double.
That exteriorisation should begin at the feet is only what one would expect from the known fact that the extremities are the first parts of the body to grow cold at the approach of death.
Throughout the account we notice the extreme plasticity of the vehicle in which the narrator functioned. It seems to have squeezed out of the body in a formless condition and then to have recovered its normal shape as soon as the deforming stresses were removed.
This is entirely in accord with the properties we must postulate for a substance which can, apparently, be moved and shaped by mere volition or at least by "mental forces," whatever that may mean, set in motion by the will. At first, that is to say during the process of extrusion, the Etheric Double seems to have been under the influence of some repulsive force acting between it and the body. This is admirably suggested by the analogy of the soap bubble.
When extrusion was complete, however, the E.D. "fell lightly to the floor." It was therefore composed of more or less ponderable matter, which is what we would expect from MacDougal's experiments.
The translucency and bluish colour are entirely consonant with the observations of Kilner on the aura, which, as already mentioned, I believe to be closely associated with the E.D.
The part about the clothes is curious and I am not prepared to hazard any explanation about it, beyond a very tentative proposal of auto-suggested hallucination.
Scarcely less odd is the apparent ability to use both the physical eyes and those belonging to the E.D.
But the fact that the latter were in operation is concordant with the observation of Durville that the sense organs of the exteriorised E.D. were operative in his experiments.