the bridge of Death to the brighter realms beyond; in other words, I was connected with two worlds, and the states incident to the residents of both, at one and the same time.
Distinctively and most clearly does memory retain all the marvelous changes from the pre-state of that auspicious afternoon.
What is especially remarkable, is, that the condition was so peculiar, that the freed soul could, and did, after a time, take close notice of material things, even while that same soul-gaze penetrated the surface, and beheld their essences. The vision was not bounded by the obstacles which impede ordinary sight. Every object was, more or less, transparent; and one very singular peculiarity of all bodies, of whatever kind, was this: the trees, stones, hills, mountains, everything, appeared as if composed of absolute fire. A certain object I knew, from its shape, to be a large tree, with brown bark, white wood, and green leaves; yet none of these colors were there now, but instead, the trunk appeared to be a huge cylinder of gray fire, not in one mass, but in interwoven streaks, all actively flaring upward, and bound together by a circle of brighter fire (the inner bark), which in turn was encompassed by a dull brown band of faintly flickering flame. Each leaf was also nothing but a vari-formed disk of purple and orange fire. Thus it was with all that I beheld.
Fire, in some form, constitutes the life of all beings, of whatsoever nature; of this I am firmly convinced. These strange sights caused me to reason in this wise: "If dull matter is so filled with the divine luminescence, what must be the appearance of a human being? Surely a man must present an astonishing sight! Of a
