I may mention that this particular method is frequently employed by advanced occultists of all countries, being preferred for various reasons.  Some of the reasons of this preference as follows:  (a) The ability to shift the vision, and to turn around almost as well as in the case of actual astral-body projection—­this gives quite an advantage to this method over the method of ordinary clairvoyance; (b) it does away with certain disadvantages of “going out into the astral” in the astral-body, which only trained occultists realize—­it gives almost the same results as astral-body clairvoyance, without a number of disadvantages and inconveniences.

In India, especially, this form of clairvoyance is comparatively frequent.  This by reason of the fact that the Hindus, as a race, are far more psychic than are those of the Western lands, all else considered; and, besides, there are a much greater number of highly developed occultists there than in the West.  Moreover, there is a certain psychic atmosphere surrounding India, by reason of its thousands of years of deep interest in things psychic and spiritual, all of which renders the production of psychic phenomena far easier than in other lands.

In India, moreover, we find many instances of another form of psychic, or astral phenomena.  I allude to the production of thought-form pictures which are plainly visible to one or more persons.  This phase of psychic phenomena is the real basis for many of the wonder tales which Western travellers bring back with them from India.  The wonderful cases of magical appearance of living creatures and plants, and other objects, out of the clear air are the result of this psychic phenomena.  That is to say, the creatures and objects are not really produced—­they are but astral appearances resulting from the projection of powerful thought-forms from the mind of the magician or other wonder-worker, of whom India has a plentiful supply.  Even the ignorant fakirs (I use the word in its true sense, not in the sense given it by American slang)—­even these itinerant showmen of psychic phenomena, are able to produce phenomena of this kind which seems miraculous to those witnessing them.  As for the trained occultists of India, I may say that their feats (when they deign to produce them) seem to overturn every theory and principle of materialistic philosophy and science.  But in nearly every case the explanation is the same—­the projection of a strong and clear thought-form on a large scale.

Although I have purposely omitted reference to Hindu psychic phenomena in this book (for the reason given in my Introduction), I find it necessary to quote cases in India in this connection, for the simple reason that there are but few counterparts in the Western world.  There are no itinerent wonder-workers of this kind in Western lands, and the trained occultists of the West of course would not consent to perform feats of this kind for the amusement of persons seeking