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William Gerhardie - Resurrection

I was awed and not a little frightened that I was in the body of my resurrection. So that's-what it is like ? How completely unforeseen ! I staggered uncertainly, and full of fear, to the door. I felt the handle, but to my discomfiture, I could not turn it : there was no grip in my hand ; it seemed unreaI.

Then my body turned round. And turning, I became aware for the first time of a strange appendage. At the back of me was a coil of light, like a luminous garden hose resembling the strong broad ray of dusty light at the back of a dark cinema projecting on the screen in front. To my utter
astonishment, that broad cable of light at the back of me illumined the face on the pillow, as if attached to the brow of the sleeper. The sleeper was myself, not dead, but breathing peacefuIly, my mouth slightly open. My cheeks were flushed, as if I must have felt hot under those blankets and eiderdown drawn over my shoulders. My hair lifted by the pressure of the pillow presented an aspect of my face not familiar to me, since I had never before seen myself asleep. The face, lying sideways and deeply sunk into the pillow, was pathetic and touching in its vacant innocence of expression; and here was I, outside it, watching it with a thrill of joy and fear.

So that's what it's like ? And we had been splitting hairs about the personal and impersonal, the soul and the body, the miracle of disembodied life, the survival of the body, doubtful enough, the survival of the disembodied spirit, more dubious still : and who would have thought that I had a spare body at my disposal adapted to the new conditions ? Too good to be true. But I was not dead, I consoled myself ; my physical body was sleeping peacefully under the blankets, while I was apparently on my feet and as good as before. Yet it wasn't my accustomed self, it was as if my
mould was walking through a murky heavy space which, however gave way easily before my emptiness.

'Now how will I get out ?' I thought with sadness more than fear, as if I felt somebody had done me down, taken all the strength out of my wrist. The same moment I was pushed forward, the door passed through rne, or I through the door, with an absence of resistance remarkable after wading through the heavy space. I was in the corridor, dark but illumined by a subdued light which seemed to emanate from my own body, and the next instant I had entered my bathroom, affecting from habit to switch on the light, indeed feeling the familiar resistance of the switch,-but unable to press it down, the bathroom, however, being sufficiently lighted by my own presence.

I was interested to note that humour did not evaporate in my ghostly rnode. I did not think of anything wildly funny, but my spirits were distinctly high, especially when I reached the maximum state of consciousness, in the bathroom.