Clairvoyance In Space: Intentional
We have defined this as the capacity to see events or scenes removed
from the seer in space and too far distant for ordinary observation.
The instances of this are so numerous and so various that we shall
find it desirable to attempt a somewhat more detailed classification
of them. It does not much matter what particular arrangement we adopt,
so long as it is comprehensive enough to include all our cases;
perhaps a con
enient one will be to group them under the broad
divisions of intentional and unintentional clairvoyance in space, with
an intermediate class that might be described as semi-intentional--a
curious title, but I will explain it later.
As before, I will begin by stating what is possible along this line
for the fully-trained seer, and endeavouring to explain how his
faculty works and under what limitations it acts. After that we shall
find ourselves in a better position to try to understand the manifold
examples of partial and untrained sight. Let us then in the first
place discuss intentional clairvoyance.
It will be obvious from what has previously been said as to the power
of astral vision that any one possessing it in its fulness will be
able to see by its means practically anything in this world that he
wishes to see. The most secret places are open to his gaze, and
intervening obstacles have no existence for him, because of the change
in his point of view; so that if we grant him the power of moving
about in the astral body he can without difficulty go anywhere and see
anything within the limits of the planet. Indeed this is to a large
extent possible to him even without the necessity of moving the astral
body at all, as we shall presently see.
Let us consider a little more closely the methods by which this
super-physical sight may be used to observe events taking place at a
distance. When, for example, a man here in England sees in minutest
detail something which is happening at the same moment in India or
America, how is it done?
A very ingenious hypothesis has been offered to account for the
phenomenon. It has been suggested that every object is perpetually
throwing off radiations in all directions, similar in some respects
to, though infinitely finer than, rays of light, and that clairvoyance
is nothing but the power to see by means of these finer radiations.
Distance would in that case be no bar to the sight, all intervening
objects would be penetrable by these rays, and they would be able to
cross one another to infinity in all directions without entanglement,
precisely as the vibrations of ordinary light do.
Now though this is not exactly the way in which clairvoyance works,
the theory is nevertheless quite true in most of its premises. Every
object undoubtedly is throwing off radiations in all directions, and
it is precisely in this way, though on a higher plane, that the
akashic records seem to be formed. Of them it will be necessary to say
something under our next heading, so we will do no more than mention
them for the moment. The phenomena of psychometry are also dependent
upon these radiations, as will presently be explained.
There are, however, certain practical difficulties in the way of using
these etheric vibrations (for that is, of course, what they are) as
the medium by means of which one may see anything taking place at a
distance. Intervening objects are not entirely transparent, and as the
actors in the scene which the experimenter tried to observe would
probably be at least equally transparent, it is obvious that serious
confusion would be quite likely to result.
The additional dimension which would come into play if astral
radiations were sensed instead of etheric would obviate some of the
difficulties, but would on the other hand introduce some fresh
complications of its own; so that for practical purposes, in
endeavouring to understand clairvoyance, we may dismiss this
hypothesis of radiations from our minds, and turn to the methods of
seeing at a distance which are actually at the disposal of the
student. It will be found that there are five, four of them being
really varieties of clairvoyance, while the fifth does not properly
come under that head at all, but belongs to the domain of magic. Let
us take this last one first, and get it out of our way.
1. By the assistance of a nature-spirit.--This method does not
necessarily involve the possession of any psychic faculty at all on
the part of the experimenter; he need only know how to induce some
denizen of the astral world to undertake the investigation for him.
This may be done either by invocation or by evocation; that is to say,
the operator may either persuade his astral coadjutor by prayers and
offerings to give him the help he desires, or he may compel his aid by
the determined exercise of a highly-developed will.
This method has been largely practised in the East (where the entity
employed is usually a nature-spirit) and in old Atlantis, where "the
lords of the dark face" used a highly-specialized and peculiarly
venomous variety of artificial elemental for this purpose. Information
is sometimes obtained in the same sort of way at the spiritualistic
seance of modern days, but in that case the messenger employed is
more likely to be a recently-deceased human being functioning more or
less freely on the astral plane--though even here also it is sometimes
an obliging nature-spirit, who is amusing himself by posing as
somebody's departed relative. In any case, as I have said, this method
is not clairvoyant at all, but magical; and it is mentioned here only
in order that the reader may not become confused in the endeavour to
classify cases of its use under some of the following headings.
2. By means of an astral current.--This is a phrase frequently and
rather loosely employed in some of our Theosophical literature to
cover a considerable variety of phenomena, and among others that which
I wish to explain. What is really done by the student who adopts this
method is not so much the setting in motion of a current in astral
matter, as the erection of a kind of temporary telephone through it.
It is impossible here to give an exhaustive disquisition on astral
physics, even had I the requisite knowledge to write it; all I need
say is that it is possible to make in astral matter a definite
connecting-line that shall act as a telegraph-wire to convey
vibrations by means of which all that is going on at the other end of
it may be seen. Such a line is established, be it understood, not by a
direct projection through space of astral matter, but by such action
upon a line (or rather many lines) of particles of that matter as
will render them capable of forming a conductor for vibrations of the
character required.
This preliminary action can be set up in two ways--either by the
transmission of energy from particle to particle, until the line is
formed, or by the use of a force from a higher plane which is capable
of acting upon the whole line simultaneously. Of course this latter
method implies far greater development, since it involves the
knowledge of (and the power to use) forces of a considerably higher
level; so that the man who could make his line in this way would not,
for his own use, need a line at all, since he could see far more
easily and completely by means of an altogether higher faculty.
Even the simpler and purely astral operation is a difficult one to
describe, though quite an easy one to perform. It may be said to
partake somewhat of the nature of the magnetization of a bar of steel;
for it consists in what we might call the polarization, by an effort
of the human will, of a number of parallel lines of astral atoms
reaching from the operator to the scene which he wishes to observe.
All the atoms thus affected are held for the time with their axes
rigidly parallel to one another, so that they form a kind of temporary
tube along which the clairvoyant may look. This method has the
disadvantage that the telegraph line is liable to disarrangement or
even destruction by any sufficiently strong astral current which
happens to cross its path; but if the original effort of will were
fairly definite, this would be a contingency of only infrequent
occurrence.
The view of a distant scene obtained by means of this "astral current"
is in many ways not unlike that seen through a telescope. Human
figures usually appear very small, like those on a distant stage, but
in spite of their diminutive size they are as clear as though they
were close by. Sometimes it is possible by this means to hear what is
said as well as to see what is done; but as in the majority of cases
this does not happen, we must consider it rather as the manifestation
of an additional power than as a necessary corollary of the faculty of
sight.
It will be observed that in this case the seer does not usually leave
his physical body at all; there is no sort of projection of his astral
vehicle or of any part of himself towards that at which he is looking,
but he simply manufactures for himself a temporary astral telescope.
Consequently he has, to a certain extent, the use of his physical
powers even while he is examining the distant scene; for example, his
voice would usually still be under his control, so that he could
describe what he saw even while he was in the act of making his
observations. The consciousness of the man is, in fact, distinctly
still at this end of the line.
This fact, however, has its limitations as well as its advantages,
and these again largely resemble the limitations of the man using a
telescope on the physical plane. The experimenter, for example, has no
power to shift this point of view; his telescope, so to speak, has a
particular field of view which cannot be enlarged or altered; he is
looking at his scene from a certain direction, and he cannot suddenly
turn it all round and see how it looks from the other side. If he has
sufficient psychic energy to spare, he may drop altogether the
telescope that he is using and manufacture an entirely new one for
himself which will approach his objective somewhat differently; but
this is not a course at all likely to be adopted in practice.
But, it may be said, the mere fact that he is using astral sight ought
to enable him to see it from all sides at once. So it would if he were
using that sight in the normal way upon an object which was fairly
near him--within his astral reach, as it were; but at a distance of
hundreds or thousands of miles the case is very different. Astral
sight gives us the advantage of an additional dimension, but there is
still such a thing as position in that dimension, and it is naturally
a potent factor in limiting the use of the powers of its plane. Our
ordinary three-dimensional sight enables us to see at once every point
of the interior of a two-dimensional figure, such as a square, but in
order to do that the square must be within a reasonable distance from
our eyes; the mere additional dimension will avail a man in London
but little in his endeavour to examine a square in Calcutta.
Astral sight, when it is cramped by being directed along what is
practically a tube, is limited very much as physical sight would be
under similar circumstances; though if possessed in perfection it will
still continue to show, even at that distance, the auras, and
therefore all the emotions and most of the thoughts of the people
under observation.
There are many people for whom this type of clairvoyance is very much
facilitated if they have at hand some physical object which can be
used as a starting-point for their astral tube--a convenient focus for
their will-power. A ball of crystal is the commonest and most
effectual of such foci, since it has the additional advantage of
possessing within itself qualities which stimulate psychic faculty;
but other objects are also employed, to which we shall find it
necessary to refer more particularly when we come to consider
semi-intentional clairvoyance.
In connection with this astral-current form of clairvoyance, as with
others, we find that there are some psychics who are unable to use it
except when under the influence of mesmerism. The peculiarity in this
case is that among such psychics there are two varieties--one in which
by being thus set free the man is enabled to make a telescope for
himself, and another in which the magnetizer himself makes the
telescope and the subject is simply enabled to see through it. In this
latter case obviously the subject has not enough will to form a tube
for himself, and the operator, though possessed of the necessary
will-power, is not clairvoyant, or he could see through his own tube
without needing help.
Occasionally, though rarely, the tube which is formed possesses
another of the attributes of a telescope--that of magnifying the
objects at which it is directed until they seem of life-size. Of
course the objects must always be magnified to some extent, or they
would be absolutely invisible, but usually the extent is determined by
the size of the astral tube, and the whole thing is simply a tiny
moving picture. In the few cases where the figures are seen as of
life-size by this method, it is probable that an altogether new power
is beginning to dawn; but when this happens, careful observation is
needed in order to distinguish them from examples of our next class.
3. By the projection of a thought-form.--The ability to use this
method of clairvoyance implies a development somewhat more advanced
than the last, since it necessitates a certain amount of control upon
the mental plane. All students of Theosophy are aware that thought
takes form, at any rate upon its own plane, and in the vast majority
of cases upon the astral plane also; but it may not be quite so
generally known that if a man thinks strongly of himself as present
at any given place, the form assumed by that particular thought will
be a likeness of the thinker himself, which will appear at the place
in question.
Essentially this form must be composed of the matter of the mental
plane, but in very many cases it would draw round itself matter of the
astral plane also, and so would approach much nearer to visibility.
There are, in fact, many instances in which it has been seen by the
person thought of--most probably by means of the unconscious mesmeric
influence emanating from the original thinker. None of the
consciousness of the thinker would, however, be included within this
thought-form. When once sent out from him, it would normally be a
quite separate entity--not indeed absolutely unconnected with its
maker, but practically so as far as the possibility of receiving any
impression through it is concerned.
This third type of clairvoyance consists, then, in the power to retain
so much connection with and so much hold over a newly-erected
thought-form as will render it possible to receive impressions by
means of it. Such impressions as were made upon the form would in this
case be transmitted to the thinker--not along an astral telegraph
line, as before, but by sympathetic vibration. In a perfect case of
this kind of clairvoyance it is almost as though the seer projected a
part of his consciousness into the thought-form, and used it as a kind
of outpost, from which observation was possible. He sees almost as
well as he would if he himself stood in the place of his thought-form.
The figures at which he is looking will appear to him as of life-size
and close at hand, instead of tiny and at a distance, as in the
previous case; and he will find it possible to shift his point of view
if he wishes to do so. Clairaudience is perhaps less frequently
associated with this type of clairvoyance than with the last, but its
place is to some extent taken by a kind of mental perception of the
thoughts and intentions of those who are seen.
Since the man's consciousness is still in the physical body, he will
be able (even while exercising the faculty) to hear and to speak, in
so far as he can do this without any distraction of his attention. The
moment that the intentness of his thought fails the whole vision is
gone, and he will have to construct a fresh thought-form before he can
resume it. Instances in which this kind of sight is possessed with any
degree of perfection by untrained people are naturally rarer than in
the case of the previous type, because of the capacity for mental
control required, and the generally finer nature of the forces
employed.
4. By travelling in the astral body.--We enter here upon an entirely
new variety of clairvoyance, in which the consciousness of the seer no
longer remains in or closely connected with his physical body, but is
definitely transferred to the scene which he is examining. Though it
has no doubt greater dangers for the untrained seer than either of the
methods previously described, it is yet quite the most satisfactory
form of clairvoyance open to him, for the immensely superior variety
which we shall consider under our fifth head is not available except
for specially trained students.
In this case the man's body is either asleep or in trance, and its
organs are consequently not available for use while the vision is
going on, so that all description of what is seen, and all questioning
as to further particulars, must be postponed until the wanderer
returns to this plane. On the other hand the sight is much fuller and
more perfect; the man hears as well as sees everything which passes
before him, and can move about freely at will within the very wide
limits of the astral plane. He can see and study at leisure all the
other inhabitants of that plane, so that the great world of the
nature-spirits (of which the traditional fairy-land is but a very
small part) lies open before him, and even that of some of the lower
devas.
He has also the immense advantage of being able to take part, as it
were, in the scenes which come before his eyes--of conversing at will
with these various astral entities, from whom so much information that
is curious and interesting may be obtained. If in addition he can
learn how to materialize himself (a matter of no great difficulty for
him when once the knack is acquired), he will be able to take part in
physical events or conversations at a distance, and to show himself to
an absent friend at will.
Again, he has the additional power of being able to hunt about for
what he wants. By means of the varieties of clairvoyance previously
described, for all practical purposes he could find a person or a
place only when he was already acquainted with it, or when he was put
en rapport with it by touching something physically connected with
it, as in psychometry. It is true that by the third method a certain
amount of motion is possible, but the process is a tedious one except
for quite short distances.
By the use of the astral body, however, a man can move about quite
freely and rapidly in any direction, and can (for example) find
without difficulty any place pointed out upon a map, without either
any previous knowledge of the spot or any object to establish a
connection with it. He can also readily rise high into the air so as
to gain a bird's-eye view of the country which he is examining, so as
to observe its extent, the contour of its coast-line, or its general
character. Indeed, in every way his power and freedom are far greater
when he uses this method than they have been in any of the previous
cases.
A good example of the full possession of this power is given, on the
authority of the German writer Jung Stilling, by Mrs. Crowe in The
Night Side of Nature (p. 127). The story is related of a seer who is
stated to have resided in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia, in
America. His habits were retired, and he spoke little; he was grave,
benevolent and pious, and nothing was known against his character
except that he had the reputation of possessing some secrets that were
considered not altogether lawful. Many extraordinary stories were
told of him, and amongst the rest the following:--
"The wife of a ship captain (whose husband was on a voyage to Europe
and Africa, and from whom she had been long without tidings), being
overwhelmed with anxiety for his safety, was induced to address
herself to this person. Having listened to her story he begged her to
excuse him for a while, when he would bring her the intelligence she
required. He then passed into an inner room and she sat herself down
to wait; but his absence continuing longer than she expected, she
became impatient, thinking he had forgotten her, and softly
approaching the door she peeped through some aperture, and to her
surprise beheld him lying on a sofa as motionless as if he were dead.
She of course did not think it advisable to disturb him, but waited
his return, when he told her that her husband had not been able to
write to her for such and such reasons, but that he was then in a
coffee-house in London and would very shortly be home again.
"Accordingly he arrived, and as the lady learnt from him that the
causes of his unusual silence had been precisely those alleged by the
man, she felt extremely desirous of ascertaining the truth of the rest
of the information. In this she was gratified, for he no sooner set
his eyes on the magician than he said that he had seen him before on a
certain day in a coffee-house in London, and that he told him that his
wife was extremely uneasy about him, and that he, the captain, had
thereon mentioned how he had been prevented writing, adding that he
was on the eve of embarking for America. He had then lost sight of the
stranger amongst the throng, and knew nothing more about him."
We have of course no means now of knowing what evidence Jung Stilling
had of the truth of this story, though he declares himself to have
been quite satisfied with the authority on which he relates it; but so
many similar things have happened that there is no reason to doubt its
accuracy. The seer, however, must either have developed his faculty
for himself or learnt it in some school other than that from which
most of our Theosophical information is derived; for in our case there
is a well-understood regulation expressly forbidding the pupils from
giving any manifestation of such power which can be definitely proved
at both ends in that way, and so constitute what is called "a
phenomenon." That this regulation is emphatically a wise one is
proved to all who know anything of the history of our Society by the
disastrous results which followed from a very slight temporary
relaxation of it.
I have given some quite modern cases almost exactly parallel to the
above in my little book on Invisible Helpers. An instance of a lady
well-known to myself, who frequently thus appears to friends at a
distance, is given by Mr. Stead in Real Ghost Stories (p. 27); and
Mr. Andrew Lang gives, in his Dreams and Ghosts (p. 89), an account
of how Mr. Cleave, then at Portsmouth, appeared intentionally on two
occasions to a young lady in London, and alarmed her considerably.
There is any amount of evidence to be had on the subject by any one
who cares to study it seriously.
This paying of intentional astral visits seems very often to become
possible when the principles are loosened at the approach of death for
people who were unable to perform such a feat at any other time. There
are even more examples of this class than of the other; I epitomize a
good one given by Mr. Andrew Lang on p. 100 of the book last
cited--one of which he himself says, "Not many stories have such good
evidence in their favour."
"Mary, the wife of John Goffe of Rochester, being afflicted with a
long illness, removed to her father's house at West Malling, about
nine miles from her own.
"The day before her death she grew very impatiently desirous to see
her two children, whom she had left at home to the care of a nurse.
She was too ill to be moved, and between one and two o'clock in the
morning she fell into a trance. One widow Turner, who watched with her
that night, says that her eyes were open and fixed, and her jaw
fallen. Mrs. Turner put her hand upon her mouth, but could perceive no
breath. She thought her to be in a fit, and doubted whether she were
dead or alive.
"The next morning the dying woman told her mother that she had been at
home with her children, saying, I was with them last night when I was
asleep.'
"The nurse at Rochester, widow Alexander by name, affirms that a
little before two o'clock that morning she saw the likeness of the
said Mary Goffe come out of the next chamber (where the elder child
lay in a bed by itself), the door being left open, and stood by her
bedside for about a quarter of an hour; the younger child was there
lying by her. Her eyes moved and her mouth went, but she said nothing.
The nurse, moreover, says that she was perfectly awake; it was then
daylight, being one of the longest days in the year. She sat up in bed
and looked steadfastly on the apparition. In that time she heard the
bridge clock strike two, and a while after said: 'In the name of the
Father, Son and Holy Ghost, what art thou?' Thereupon the apparition
removed and went away; she slipped on her clothes and followed, but
what became on't, she cannot tell."
The nurse apparently was more frightened by its disappearance than its
presence, for after this she was afraid to stay in the house, and so
spent the rest of the time until six o'clock in walking up and down
outside. When the neighbours were awake she told her tale to them, and
they of course said she had dreamt it all; she naturally enough warmly
repudiated that idea, but could obtain no credence until the news of
the other side of the story arrived from West Malling, when people had
to admit that there might have been something in it.
A noteworthy circumstance in this story is that the mother found it
necessary to pass from ordinary sleep into the profounder trance
condition before she could consciously visit her children; it can,
however, be paralleled here and there among the large number of
similar accounts which may be found in the literature of the subject.
Two other stories of precisely the same type--in which a dying mother,
earnestly desiring to see her children, falls into a deep sleep,
visits them and returns to say that she has done so--are given by Dr.
F. G. Lee. In one of them the mother, when dying in Egypt, appears to
her children at Torquay, and is clearly seen in broad daylight by all
five of the children and also by the nursemaid. (Glimpses of the
Supernatural, vol. ii., p. 64.) In the other a Quaker lady dying at
Cockermouth is clearly seen and recognized in daylight by her three
children at Settle, the remainder of the story being practically
identical with the one given above. (Glimpses in the Twilight, p.
94.) Though these cases appear to be less widely known than that of
Mary Goffe, the evidence of their authenticity seems to be quite as
good, as will be seen by the attestations obtained by the reverend
author of the works from which they are quoted.
The man who fully possesses this fourth type of clairvoyance has many
and great advantages at his disposal, even in addition to those already
mentioned. Not only can he visit without trouble or expense all the
beautiful and famous places of the earth, but if he happens to be a
scholar, think what it must mean to him that he has access to all the
libraries of the world! What must it be for the scientifically-minded
man to see taking place before his eyes so many of the processes of the
secret chemistry of nature, or for the philosopher to have revealed to
him so much more than ever before of the working of the great mysteries
of life and death? To him those who are gone from this plane are dead no
longer, but living and within reach for a long time to come; for him
many of the conceptions of religion are no longer matters of faith, but
of knowledge. Above all, he can join the army of invisible helpers, and
really be of use on a large scale. Undoubtedly clairvoyance, even when
confined to the astral plane, is a great boon to the student.
Certainly it has its dangers also, especially for the untrained;
danger from evil entities of various kinds, which may terrify or
injure those who allow themselves to lose the courage to face them
boldly; danger of deception of all sorts, of misconceiving and
mis-interpreting what is seen; greatest of all, the danger of becoming
conceited about the thing and of thinking it impossible to make a
mistake. But a little common-sense and a little experience should
easily guard a man against these.
5. By travelling in the mental body.--This is simply a higher and,
as it were, glorified form of the last type. The vehicle employed is
no longer the astral body, but the mind-body--a vehicle, therefore,
belonging to the mental plane, and having within it all the
potentialities of the wonderful sense of that plane, so transcendent
in its action yet so impossible to describe. A man functioning in this
leaves his astral body behind him along with the physical, and if he
wishes to show himself upon the astral plane for any reason, he does
not send for his own astral vehicle, but just by a single action of
his will materializes one for his temporary need. Such an astral
materialization is sometimes called the mayavirupa, and to form it
for the first time usually needs the assistance of a qualified Master.
The enormous advantages given by the possession of this power are the
capacity of entering upon all the glory and the beauty of the higher
land of bliss, and the possession, even when working on the astral
plane, of the far more comprehensive mental sense which opens up to
the student such marvellous vistas of knowledge, and practically
renders error all but impossible. This higher flight, however, is
possible for the trained man only, since only under definite training
can a man at this stage of evolution learn to employ his mental body
as a vehicle.
Before leaving the subject of full and intentional clairvoyance, it
may be well to devote a few words to answering one or two questions as
to its limitations, which constantly occur to students. Is it
possible, we are often asked, for the seer to find any person with
whom he wishes to communicate, anywhere in the world, whether he be
living or dead?
To this reply must be a conditional affirmative. Yes, it is possible
to find any person if the experimenter can, in some way or other, put
himself en rapport with that person. It would be hopeless to plunge
vaguely into space to find a total stranger among all the millions
around us without any kind of clue; but, on the other hand, a very
slight clue would usually be sufficient.
If the clairvoyant knows anything of the man whom he seeks, he will
have no difficulty in finding him, for every man has what may be
called a kind of musical chord of his own--a chord which is the
expression of him as a whole, produced perhaps by a sort of average of
the rates of vibration of all his different vehicles on their
respective planes. If the operator knows how to discern that chord and
to strike it, it will by sympathetic vibration attract the attention
of the man instantly wherever he may be, and will evoke an immediate
response from him.
Whether the man were living or recently dead would make no difference
at all, and clairvoyance of the fifth class could at once find him
even among the countless millions in the heaven-world, though in that
case the man himself would be unconscious that he was under
observation. Naturally a seer whose consciousness did not range higher
than the astral plane--who employed therefore one of the earlier
methods of seeing--would not be able to find a person upon the mental
plane at all; yet even he would at least be able to tell that the man
sought for was upon that plane, from the mere fact that the striking
of the chord as far up as the astral level produced no response.
If the man sought be a stranger to the seeker, the latter will need
something connected with him to act as a clue--a photograph, a letter
written by him, an article which has belonged to him, and is
impregnated with his personal magnetism; any of these would do in the
hands of a practised seer.
Again I say, it must not therefore be supposed that pupils who have
been taught how to use this art are at liberty to set up a kind of
intelligence office through which communication can be had with
missing or dead relatives. A message given from this side to such an
one might or might not be handed on, according to circumstances, but
even if it were, no reply might be brought, lest the transaction
should partake of the nature of a phenomenon--something which could be
proved on the physical plane to have been an act of magic.
Another question often raised is as to whether, in the action of
psychic vision, there is any limitation as to distance. The reply
would seem to be that there should be no limit but that of the
respective planes. It must be remembered that the astral and mental
planes of our earth are as definitely its own as its atmosphere,
though they extend considerably further from it even in our
three-dimensional space than does the physical air. Consequently the
passage to, or the detailed sight of, other planets would not be
possible for any system of clairvoyance connected with these planes.
It is quite possible and easy for the man who can raise his
consciousness to the buddhic plane to pass to any other globe
belonging to our chain of worlds, but that is outside our present
subject.
Still a good deal of additional information about other planets can be
obtained by the use of such clairvoyant faculties as we have been
describing. It is possible to make sight enormously clearer by passing
outside of the constant disturbances of the earth's atmosphere, and it
is also not difficult to learn how to put on an exceedingly high
magnifying power, so that even by ordinary clairvoyance a good deal of
very interesting astronomical knowledge may be gained. But as far as
this earth and its immediate surroundings are concerned, there is
practically no limitation.