In meditating further, ignore the body entirely, and place your thought upon the Real “I” that you are beginning to feel to be “you,” and you will find that your identity—­your “I”—­is something entirely apart from the body.  You may now say “my body” with a new meaning.  Divorce the idea of your being a physical being, and realize that you are above body.  But do not let this conception and realization cause you to ignore the body.  You must regard the body as the Temple of the Spirit, and care for it, and make it a fit habitation for the “I.”  Do not be frightened if, during this meditation, you happen to experience the sensation of being out of the body for a few moments, and of returning to it when you are through with the exercise.  The Ego is able (in the case of the advanced Initiate) of soaring above the confines of the body, but it never severs its connection at such times.  It is merely as if one were to look out of the window of a room, seeing what was going on outside, and drawing in his head when he wishes.  He does not leave the room, although he may place his head outside in order to observe what is doing in the street.  We do not advise the Candidate to try to cultivate this sensation—­but if it comes naturally during meditation, do not fear.

REALIZING THE IMMORTALITY AND INVINCIBILITY OF THE EGO.  While the majority accept on faith the belief in the Immortality of the Soul, yet but few are aware that it may be demonstrated by the soul itself.  The Yogi Masters teach the Candidates this lesson, as follows:  The Candidate places himself in the State of Meditation, or at least in a thoughtful frame of mind, and then endeavors to “imagine” himself as “dead”—­that is, he tries to form a mental conception of himself as dead.  This, at first thought, appears a very easy thing to imagine, but as a matter of fact it is impossible to do so, for the Ego refuses to entertain the proposition, and finds it impossible to imagine it.  Try it for yourself.  You will find that you may be able to imagine your body as lying still and lifeless, but the same thought finds that in so doing You are standing and looking at the body.  So you see that You are not dead at all, even in imagination, although the body may be.  Or, if you refuse to disentangle yourself from your body, in imagination, you may think of your body as dead but You who refuse to leave it are still alive and recognize the dead body as a thing apart from your Real Self.  No matter how you may twist it you cannot imagine yourself as dead.  The Ego insists upon being alive in any of these thoughts, and thus finds that it has within itself the sense and assurance of Immortality.  In case of sleep or stupor resulting from a blow, or from narcotics or anaesthetics, the mind is apparently blank, but the “I” is conscious of a continuity of existence.  And so one may imagine himself as being in an unconscious state, or asleep, quite easily, and sees the possibility of such a state, but when it comes to imagining the “I” as dead, the mind utterly refuses to do the work.  This wonderful fact that the soul carries within itself the evidence of its own immortality is a glorious thing, but one must have reached a degree of unfoldment before he is able to grasp its full significance.