paper, and peruse attentively the following paragraphs:--

So, then, we have arrived at the point where we have determined--
literally, not metaphorically--to crack the outer shell known as the
mortal coil or body, and hatch out of it, clothed in our next. This
'next' is not a spiritual, but only a more ethereal form. Having by a
long training and preparation adapted it for a life in the atmosphere,
during which time we have gradually made the outward shell to die off
through a certain process .... we have to prepare for this physiological
transformation.

How are we to do it? In the first place we have the actual, visible,
material body--Man, so called, though, in fact, but his outer shell--to
deal with. Let us bear in mind that Science teaches us that in about
every seven years we change skin as effectually as any serpent; and
this so gradually and imperceptibly that, had not science after years of
unremitting study and observation assured us of it, no one would have
had the slightest suspicion of the fact.... Hence, if a man, partially
flayed alive, may sometimes survive and be covered with a new skin, so
our astral, vital body .... may be made to harden its particles to the
atmospheric changes. The whole secret is to succeed in evolving it out,
and separating it from the visible; and while its generally invisible
atoms proceed to concrete themselves into a compact mass, to gradually
get rid of the old particles of our visible frame so as to make them die
and disappear before the new set has had time to evolve and replace
them.... We can say no more.

A correct comprehension of the above scientific process will give a clue
to the esoteric meaning of meditation or contemplation. Science teaches
us that man changes his physical body continually, and this change is so