MYSTICAL BUDDHISM. Q7 
the intermediate celestial body belonging to departed spirits, 
called Bhoga-deha, which is of an ethereal character, though 
it is composed of sufficiently gross (sthula) material particles 
to be capable of experiencing happiness in heaven. 
The third body is the Nirmana-kaya, “ body of visible shapes 
and transformations,” that is to say, those visible concrete 
material forms in which every Buddha who exists as an in- 
visible and eternal essence, is manifested on the earth or 
elsewhere for the propagation of the true doctrine. ‘The 
Brahmanical analogue of this third body appears to be the 
earthly gross body, called Sthila-sarira. 
There is a well-known legend which relates how the great 
Brahman sage Sankaracarya entranced his gross body, and 
then, having forced out his soul along with his subtle body, 
entered the dead body of a recently deceased king, which he 
occupied for several weeks. 
Jn connexion with these mystical ideas, I may here allude 
to the belief that certain modern Hastern sages, skilled in 
occult science, have the power of throwing their gross bodies 
into a state of mesmeric trance, and then by a determined 
effort of will projecting or forcing out the ethereal body 
through the pores of the skin, and making this phantasmal 
form visible in distant places.* 
We learn from Mr. Sinnett that a community of Buddhist 
“ Brothers”? called Mahatmas, are now living in secluded 
spots in the deserts of Tibet, who have emancipated their 
interior selves from physical bondage by meditation, and are 
believed to possess “ astral” or ethereal bodies (distinct from 
their gross bodies), with which they are able to rise in the 
air, or move through space, by the mere exercise of will. 
I am not aware whether the Psychical Research Society has 
extended its researches to the deserts of Tibet, where these 
phenomena are said to take place. 
In curious agreement with these notions, are the beliefs 
of various uncivilised races. Dr. Tylor, in his Primitive 
Culture (i. 440), relates how the North American Indians 
and others believe that their souls quit their bodies during 
sleep, and go about hunting, dancing, visiting, etc. 
Old legends relate how Simon Magus made statues walk ; 
‘how he flew in the air; changed his shape; assumed two 
faces ; made the vessels in a house seem to move of them- 
selves (Yule’s Marco Polo, i. 306). Friar Ricold relates that 
“a man from India was said to fly. The truth was that he 
* Colonel Olcott and Mr. Sinnett mention this faculty as characteristic of 
Asiatic occultism. 
