In the first place, there is nothing in Le Bon's work to indicate that these dissociation products are capable of being brought into a state of such very stable equilibrium as must be possessed by the constituents of the E.D.
In the second, the hypothesis involves us in all the difficulties which render so unsatisfactory all attempts to account for post-mortem existence on normal physical lines.
For, on either hypothesis, the E.D. is either the post-mortem vehicle itself, as held by the French savants, or it is the connecting link between the two vehicles, as I consider.
If the latter is the case, then in all probability the post-mortem vehicle is to the E.D. as the E.D. is to the physical body. If the E.D. is merely rarified matter then the post-mortem vehicle is probably merely doubly-rarified matter.
For this and other reasons I prefer the idea that the E.D. is composed of matter having an abnormal four-dimensional complexity.
Indeed, as I pointed out at the beginning of this chapter, this view seems to be a necessary corollary of the whole four-dimensional hypothesis I have been advocating.
It is very possible that we shall be compelled to reject the hypothesis in toto in the light of future research, but until this becomes necessary I think that my present view of the nature of the E.D. is the only tenable one.
Whether this abnormal four-dimensional complexity is molecular or atomic in its nature, or whether it is neither, I am not prepared to say.
The points in this chapter which I would wish to emphasise are, first, that if the four-dimensional hypothesis be true, there should exist a connection between the three- and four-dimensional vehicles.