In this connection another very important psychic phenomenon may be noticed.  Instances are too numerous and too well authenticated to be amenable to dispute, in which an occurrence at a distance—­for instance, the death of a person—­has pictured itself to the mental vision of one interested in the occurrence.  In such cases the double of the dying man appears even at a great distance, and becomes visible usually to his friend only, but instances are not rare when the double is seen by a number of persons.  The former case comes within the class of cases under consideration, as the concentrated thought of the dying man is clairvoyantly seen by the friend, and the incidents correctly reproduced by the operation of the dying man’s will-energy, while the latter is the appearance of the genuine mayavirupa, and therefore not governed by the law under discussion.

—­Mohini M. Chatterji

“Precipitation”

Or all phenomena produced by occult agency in connection with our Society, none have been witnessed by a more extended circle of spectators, or more widely known and commented on through recent Theosophical publications, than the mysterious production of letters.  The phenomenon itself has been so well described in the “Occult World” and elsewhere, that it would be useless to repeat the description here.  Our present purpose is more connected with the process than the phenomenon of the mysterious formation of letters.  Mr. Sinnett sought for an explanation of the process, and elicited the following reply from the revered Mahatma, who corresponds with him:—­“....Bear in mind these letters are not written, but impressed, or precipitated, and then all mistakes corrected ....  I have to think it over, to photograph every word and sentence carefully in my brain, before it can be repeated by precipitation.  As the fixing on chemically-prepared surfaces of the images formed by the camera requires a previous arrangement within the focus of the object to be represented, for, otherwise—­as often found in bad photographs—­the legs of the sitter might appear out of all proportion with the head, and so on—­so we here to first arrange our sentences, and impress every letter to appear on paper in our minds, before it becomes fit to be read.  For the present, it is all I can tell you.”

Since the above was written, the Masters have been pleased to permit the veil to be drawn aside a little more, and the modus operandi can thus be explained now more fully to the outsider.

Those having even a superficial knowledge of the science of mesmerism know how the thoughts of the mesmeriser, though silently formulated in his mind, are instantly transferred to that of the subject.  It is not necessary for the operator, if he is sufficiently powerful, to be present near the subject to produce the above result.  Some celebrated practitioners in this science are known to have been able to put their subjects to sleep even from a distance of several days’