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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
Again, Jesus might have simply changed his physical body into a subtler one. The power to effect such a change is unhesitatingly claimed by the yogis, and seems to have been exercised by a number of other saints and sages. Some of the passages of the New Testament itself would be meaningless unless on the hypothesis of this power, e.g.,
“And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them,...... but they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit."-(Luke, XXIV. 36 & 37).
It was the phenomenon of materialization' which terrified the apostles. Jesus was already with them, though invisible; his assumption of the physical form in their midst took away their breath, and frightened them all. John also describes a similar phenomenon (Chap. XX. 14 & 15), and records another instance of Jesus' materialization into the physical form from some subtler, invisible, and unknown body. It was this power, apparently, which enabled Jesus to enter rooms and places with closed doors (John, XX. 26). Very naturally, it is not expected that our mere word would suffice to convince materialists of the existence of this great secret. It is not easy to prove it to the satisfaction of the present day man of science; but so far as actual testimony is concerned, no religion is wanting in it. Our ancestors were fully convinced of the existence of a secret which enabled one to change one's body into a finer one. Many instances are given of the phenomena of materialization in the records of occultism. We may, then, take it that the secret of this kind of metamorpho. sis was known to ancient occultists, but has been lost to
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