"I analyzed my state quite calmly, reasoning thus: 'I am dead according to the language of men and nevertheless I am a man more than ever. I am on the point of leaving my body.' I observed the interesting procedure of the soul, as it detaches itself from the body. A power which seemed not to come from within me shook my whole Ego from one side to the other, as one swings a cradle, and that seemed to enable the soul to detach itself from the bond of corporeal tissue.

"At the end of a moment this lateral movement stopped, and I felt, and heard - at least so it seemed to me - innumerable vibrations of little strings in the soles of the feet from the big toe to the heel. After that I began to withdraw gently from my feet towards my head. I saw myself come as far as the thigh, and said, 'Now there is no life below the hips.' I have no memory of having crossed the abdomen and chest, but I remember clearly when all seemed to be concentrated in my head, and to have made the reflection, 'Here I am all intact in my head. I shall soon be detached.' I passed around the brain as if I had been hollow, pressing it all around, with its membranes toward the center, and came through the sutures of the brain, emerging like the thin leaves of a membraneous envelope. As to the form and the color I remember very clearly that I appeared to myself somewhat like a Medusa's head.

"In leaving, I noticed two women seated at my bedside, estimated the distance between the head of my bed and the knees of the woman opposite, and concluded there was sufficient space for me to stand there, but I experienced an extreme embarrassment at the thought that I would have to appear nude before her. Nevertheless, I decided to attempt it, saying to myself that according to all probabilities, she could not see me with the eyes of the body since I was a spirit. As soon as I went out, I floated from the earth upward to right and to left, like a soap bubble which adheres to the pipe, until at length I detached myself from the body, lightly falling to the floor, from which I arose, having taken on again all the appearance of an ordinary man. I was as transparent as a blue flame and completely nude.

With a painful sensation of embarrassment, I glided towards the half-open door in order to escape the glances from those ladies opposite me, also from the other persons whom I knew were around me. But having reached the door, I found myself dressed. Satisfied on this point, I came back to the company. As I was returning, my left elbow touched the arm of one of the two gentlemen who were standing near the door. To my stupefaction the arm passed without resistance through mine, then the divided parts came together without pain, rejoining themselves as if made of air. Quickly I looked at his face to see whether he had felt this contact, but he gave no sign of it. He remained standing, gazing fixedly at the bed which I had just left. I looked in the direction of the bed and saw my own corpse. I was there, lying in the attitude which I had so much trouble to assume, slightly turned on the right side, my feet close together and my hands crossed on the chest. I was surprised at the pallor of my face. I had not seen a mirror for several days and I should have thought myself less pale than the majority of people equally ill. I congratulated myself, for my own part, upon the decent attitude which I had given to my body, hoping that my friends would not be less favorably impressed with it. I saw a number of persons seated or standing around the body, and I noticed particularly two women who seemed to be kneeling at my left. I understood they were shedding tears. I have learned since that they were my wife and my sister, but at this moment I had no consciousness of personality - wife, sister, or friend, all were the same to me. I wished later, to attract the attention of these persons with a view of confirming them in the certainty of their own immortality. I made some joyous bows and saluted the company with my right hand. I placed myself in the very midst of them, but they paid no attention. Then the comedy of the situation struck me and I laughed quite gayly. Nevertheless, I thought, 'They must have heard this,' but it must have been otherwise, for no eyes were turned away from my corpse. I said to myself: 'They only see with the eyes of the body and cannot see the spirits. They examine what they believe to be me, but they are mistaken. It is not I, I am here and I am more alive than ever.'

"I went out of the open door, lowering my head and searching for a place to put my feet in order to go down to the vestibule. I crossed the door-sill, went down the steps, and out into the street. There I stopped to look around me. Never have I seen this street so distinctly as I saw it then: I noticed the redness of the soil and the puddles of water left by the rain. I cast an anxious eye about me as would one who is going to leave his home for a long time. I perceived then that I was taller than I had been in my terrestial life, a fact which gave me much pleasure. I was always too small for my own comfort. 'Now,' thought I, 'in my new existence I shall be according to my desire.' I noticed also that my clothes fitted my greater height exactly, and I wondered with astonishment whence they came, and how I found them on myself. The fabric was a kind of Scotch cloth, a good suit, not luxurious but presentable. 'I feel so well now,' I said to myself, 'and only a few moments ago I was terribly sick and was suffering. Here then is this change, which we call death and which frightened me so greatly. Now it is over and am I still a man full of life and thought? Yes, truly, and with a mind clearer than ever. What a wonderful state of well-being. I shall never more be sick and cannot die again.' In my exultation, I leaped for joy then again continued the contemplation of my figure and my clothes.

"Suddenly I noticed that I could see a thin line down the back of my coat. 'How is it,' said I, 'that I can see my back?' I looked again to reassure myself, at the back of my coat and my legs down to my heels: I put my hand to my face to touch my eyes: yes, they were in their place. 'Am I then, like an owl who can turn his head half-way round?' I tried that, but without success. Then it might be possible, I thought, that though separated from my body for the moment, I may have the ability of seeing with the eyes of my body; and I turned to look back of me. By looking through the half-open door to see if the head of my own body were on a line with myself, I perceived a thin thread like that of a spider's web, starting from behind my shoulders and ending in the body opposite, at the base of the neck.