At a later stage even this fragment of consciousness dies out of the astral body, but does not return to the ego to whom it originally belonged.  Even then the astral corpse still remains, but when it is quite without any trace of its former life we call it a “shell”.  Of itself a shell cannot communicate at a seance, or take any action of any sort; but such shells are frequently seized upon by sportive nature-spirits and used as temporary habitations.  A shell so occupied can communicate at a seance and masquerade as its original owner, since some of his characteristics and certain portions of his memory can be evoked by the nature-spirit from his astral corpse.

When a man falls asleep, he withdraws in his astral body, leaving the whole of the physical vehicle behind him.  When he dies, he draws out with him the etheric part of the physical body, and consequently has usually at least a moment of unconsciousness while he is freeing himself from it.  The etheric double is not a vehicle and cannot be used as such; so when the man is surrounded by it, he is for the moment able to function neither in the physical world nor the astral.  Some men succeed in shaking themselves free of this etheric envelope in a few moments; others rest within it for hours, days or even weeks.

Nor is it certain that, when the man is free from this, he will at once become conscious of the astral world.  For there is in him a good deal of the lowest kind of astral matter, so that a shell of this may be made around him.  But he may be quite unable to use that matter.  If he has lived a reasonably decent life he is little in the habit of employing it or responding to its vibrations, and he cannot instantly acquire this habit.  For that reason, he may remain unconscious until that matter gradually wears away, and some matter which he is in the habit of using comes on the surface.  Such an occlusion, however, is scarcely ever complete, for even in the most carefully made shell some particles of the finer matter occasionally find their way to the surface, and give him fleeting glimpses of his surroundings.

There are some men who cling so desperately to their physical vehicles that they will not relax their hold upon the etheric double, but strive with all their might to retain it.  They may be successful in doing so for a considerable time, but only at the cost of great discomfort to themselves.  They are shut out from both worlds, and find themselves surrounded by a dense grey mist, through which they see very dimly the things of the physical world, but with all the colour gone from them.  It is a terrible struggle for them to maintain their position in this miserable condition, and yet they will not relax their hold upon the etheric double, feeling that that is at least some sort of link with the only world that they know.  Thus they drift about in a condition of loneliness and misery until from sheer fatigue their hold fails them, and they slip into the comparative