Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.  - Ecclesiastes 12:6-7

       One Bible reference suggests that the above Old Testament passage be interpreted by taking the "silver cord" to mean the marrow of the backbone, the "golden bowl" to mean the membrane that covers the brain, the "pitcher" to mean the veins of the body, the "fountain" to mean the liver, the "wheel" to mean the head, and the "cistern" to mean the heart out of which the head draws the power of life.

      I infer from Ecclesiastes that the loosening of the "silver cord" is one of several ways by which the physical body and spirit body separate at the time of death, perhaps referring to old age.   Clairvoyants and out-of-body travelers, however, see the severance of the silver cord involved in every kind of death.

       Frederic W. H. Myers, the Cambridge scholar who became a pioneering psychical researcher, communicated extensively through the mediumship of Geraldine Cummins of Ireland, considered perhaps the most famous and credible automatic writing medium ever, after his death in 1901.  Myers referred to the spirit body as the double, explaining that it is an exact counterpart of the physical shape.  "The two are bound together by many little threads, by two silver cords," Myers explained.  "One of these makes contact with the solar plexus, the other with the brain.  They all may lengthen or extend during sleep or during half-sleep, for they have considerable elasticity.  When a man slowly dies these threads and two cords are gradually broken.  Death occurs when these two principal communicating livens with brain and solar plexus are severed."

       Myers went on to explain that life occasionally lingers in certain cells of the body after the soul has departed.   "The double still adheres to the shell by means of certain of the threads which have not yet been broken," he continued.  "The soul does not suffer in the physical sense if thus delayed in his journey.  He may suffer in the sense that he has, thereby, a greater awareness of the immediate surroundings of his physical body.  It gives him the power to perceive his friends and relations wherever this worn-out garment lies.  As a rule, however, he obtains complete freedom from earth's detaining grasp within an hour - or a few hours - of death."

       The soul slowly rises into the double and for a brief time hovers above the physical shell, Myers further explained, adding that a "little white cloud" or "pale essence" can be discerned by some. 

      Estelle Roberts, one of England's most famous mediums, recalled being at the bedside of her husband, Hugh, as he died.  "I looked again at dear Hugh, recalling the happiness we had enjoyed together, and while I sat there I saw his spirit leave the body.  It emerged from the back of his head and gradually molded itself into an exact replica of his earthly body.  It remained suspended about a foot above the body, lying in the same position, and attached to it by a cord to the head.  Then the cord broke and the spirit form floated away, passing through the wall."

        Roberts also reported hearing strange, terrifying noises as if someone was "rending linen" and occasionally sounding like the cracking of a whip.  This apparently the spirit body breaking loose from the physical body. 

        In his 1929 book, A Curious Life, George Wehner, a trance medium and clairvoyant from Detroit, Michigan, tells of his many mediumistic experiences and other paranormal observations, including the passing of his mother.  "A misty blue-white form, the counterpart of my mother's, but radiant, like a blue-white diamond's flame, was slowly rising from her body on the bed," he wrote.  "This form lifted at an angle, the feet rising higher than the head, which remained attached to the physical head.  The form now seemed to try to free itself, and after several tugs, the misty head separated from the body's head, and the freed form righted itself in the air exactly as a log rights itself after it has been dropped into deep water.  For a second, I saw several arms and hands materialize in the air and reach downward to welcome the new-born soul.  Then, like a shadow, the spirit-form of my beloved mother glided rapidly upward through a corner of the ceiling."

        In his 1916 book, Raymond or Life and Death, Sir Oliver Lodge, the esteemed British physicist and radio pioneer, in a séance with medium Gladys Osborne Leonard, discussed the subject with Raymond, his deceased son who had been killed on the battlefield in France.  Raymond told him that the body doesn't start mortifying until the spirit has left it.  He went on to tell his father that he had witnessed a scene several days earlier in which a man was going to be cremated two days after the doctor pronounced him dead.  "When his relatives on this side heard about it, they brought a certain doctor on our side, and when they saw that the spirit hadn't got really out of the body, they magnetized it, and helped it out," Raymond explained through Feda, Leonard's control.  "But there was still a cord, and it had to be severed rather quickly, and it gave a little shock to the spirit, like as if you had something amputated.  But it had to be done." 

       Raymond suggested that there should be a seven-day waiting period before cremation.  "People are so careless," he said.  "The idea seems to be ‘hurry up and get them out of the way now that they are dead."

       There have been other reports of difficulties in "giving up the ghost."  In Zeitschrift fuer Parapsychologie, a clairvoyant man who preferred to remain anonymous reported  sitting at his dying wife's bedside and seeing an "odic body" take form over his wife's physical body.  It was connected to the physical body by a "cord of od."  The arms and legs of this odic body were flailing and kicking as if struggling to get free and escape.  Finally, after about five hours, the fatal moment came at last.  "There was a sound of gasping," the man reported.  "The odic body writhed to and fro, and my wife's breathing ceased.  To all appearances she was dead, but a few moments later she began to breathe again.  After she had drawn her breath twice, everything became quiet.  At the instant of her last breath, the connecting cord broke and the odic body vanished."

         Communicating through the direct-voice mediumship of Lillian Bailey, Bill Wootton, a World War I victim, described the life cord this way:  "It is a silver cord which is thick.  It glows and glistens. From it we can tell the health of  persons.  When we see their cord getting very thin until it's right down to a hair's breadth, we know that the physical body is not going to be held very long by that spiritual cord."

       Wootton said the cord emerges from the pineal gland in the head and extends to the solar plexus.  "It is the life force that belongs to the spirit YOU,  which pours in through the glands and makes the body work."   When death takes place, the cord is severed as if a rope were snapping at a worn-out point, Wootton added.  

        Wellesley Tudor Pole, another British medium, reported on his experiences as he sat with a dying friend, whom he refers to as "Major P."  Death seemed close at hand as Major P. remained unconscious.  Pole noticed a shadowy form hovering in a horizontal position about two feet above the bed.  "This form is attached to the physical body on the bed by two transparent elastic cords," Pole recorded at 3 p.m.  "One of them appears to be attached to the solar plexus and the other to the brain.  As I watch this form it grows more distinct in outline, until I can see that it is an exact counterpart, so far as the form is concerned, of the body on the bed.  I can see what looks like spiral currents passing up through these two cords, and as the physical body grows more lifeless, the form hovering above seems to become more vital." 

      At 3:40 p.m., Pole noted that the "double" had become more distinct  and that he could see the currents passing through the cords gathering greater momentum.  "The life-force is steadily ebbing out of the body, and is apparently passing into the form above."

       At 3:55 p.m. Pole observed two figures stoop down over the bed and break the cords at points close to the physical body.  "Immediately I see that the form or double rises about two feet from its original position, but remains horizontal, and at this same moment Major P.'s heart stop beating."

         Similar reports come from those who have had a near-death experience (NDE).  Long before Dr. Raymond Moody published his findings on NDEs, Dr. A. S. Wiltse, a Skiddy, Kansas physician, reported a personal experience that was no doubt a NDE, as he suffered from typhoid fever.  He was informed by his attending physician, Dr. S. H. Raynes, that he was without pulse or perceptible heartbeat for about four hours. "Dr. Raynes informs me, however, that by bringing his eyes close to my face, he could perceive an occasional short gasp, so very light as to be barely perceptible, and that he was upon the point, several times of saying, ‘He is dead,' when a gasp would occur in time to check him."

      During the time that he appeared to be dead, Wiltse curiously observed what was going on.  "With all the interest of a physician, I beheld the wonders of my bodily anatomy, intimately interwoven with which, even tissue for tissue, was I, the living soul of that dead body.  I learned that the epidermis was the outside boundary of the ultimate tissues, so to speak, of the soul.  I realized my condition and reasoned calmly thus.  I have died, as men term death, and yet I am as much a man as ever.   I am about to get out of the body.  I watched the interesting process of the separation of soul and body.  By some power, apparently not my own, the Ego was rocked to and fro, laterally, as a cradle is rocked, by which process its connection with the tissues of the body was broken up.  After a little time the lateral motion ceased, and long the soles of the feet beginning at the toes, passing rapidly to the heels, I felt and heard, as it seemed, the snapping of innumerable small cords. When this was accomplished, I began slowly to retreat from the feet, toward the head, as a rubber cord shortens.  I remember reaching the hips and saying to myself, ‘Now, there is no life below the hips.'"  

     Dr. Wiltse could not recall passing through the abdomen or chest, but he recollected that his "whole self" was collected into his head.  He appeared to himself something like a jelly-fish in color and form and remembered thinking that he would soon be free. 

     "As I emerged from the head, I floated up and down and laterally like a soap bubble attached to the bowl of a pipe until I at last broke loose from the body and fell lightly to the floor, where I slowly arose and expanded into the full stature of a man. I seemed to be translucent, of a bluish cast and perfectly naked.  With a painful sense of embarrassment, I fled toward the partially opened door to escape the eyes of the two ladies whom I was facing, as well as others who I knew were about me, but upon reaching the door I found myself clothed, and satisfied upon that point, I turned and faced the company."

       Wiltse recalled being surprised at how pale the body looked but congratulated himself on the way he had composed his body, his hands clasped at his chest. He marveled at how well he was feeling, when only minutes before he was in extreme distress.  He then looked back through the open door, where he could see his body.  "I discovered then a small cord, like a spider's web, running from my shoulders (of the spirit body) back to my body and attaching to it at the base of my neck in front."

       Since Wiltse returned to life, the cord apparently was not severed.

       Much more recently, Dr. Peter Fenwick of England and his wife, Elizabeth Fenwick, quote one NDEr as feeling "like a kite on an endless string."  This "cord" seemed to be attached to the back and the person could feel it pulling her back into her body.

       Another NDEr told the Fenwicks that although he could not see his body, he could see that he was attached by a light grey rope.

       Dr. Sam Parnia, another NDE researcher, was told by an experiencer that she found herself standing beside herself looking at a cord that connected her to her body and thinking how thin and wispy it was. 

      In effect, the silver cord appears to be the counterpart of the umbilical cord.   While the umbilical cord must be severed when we come into the material world, the silver cord must be severed when we return to the real world.  

Notice:  Dark Lore III is now available from Amazon.com  I have contributed one of the 14 stories to this anthology concerning the paranormal. My contribution is on the Glastonbury Scripts, which involved the excavation of the Glastonbury Abbey ruins in England.   Frederick Bligh Bond, the architect and archaeologist hired in 1907 to excavate the ruins, decided to employ a medium and contact long-dead monks who had lived at the abbey for information as to where to dig.  Over a period of some 12 years, interrupted by World War I, Bond received more than 60 messages from the monks directing his excavations.  Many of them were exact to the inch.  Some, however, were a little off due to overlapping construction over the centuries.

       The other 13 stories touch upon a wide variety of paranormal subjects.  Nick Redfern gives a different spin to the Roswell E.T. theory.  Greg Taylor, the editor of the anthology,  discusses some of the pre-Raymond Moody near-death experiences, including that of Dr. George Ritchie, whose NDE inspired Moody's 1975 best-seller.  Greg Bishop presents the very intriguing story of Dr. Mario Tazzaglini, who is said to have channeled aliens. Neil Arnold investigates the monsters of Dutch folklore, while Theo Paijmans gets to the occult roots of Nazi Technology and Robert Bauval searches for the secrets of Menkaure, builder of the third pyramid of Giza.  Other contributors include Mike Jay, Philip Coppens, Blair MacKenzie Blake, Robert Schoch, Geoff Falla, Adam Gorightly, and "The Emperor," with the subjects ranging from the "Philadelphia Experiment" to ancient biblical sites.  Check it out at

     In my years as a competitive long-distance runner, I regularly experienced the phenomenon referred to as the "second wind."   Even for the well-conditioned runner, the first 150 to 200 yards of a race involves some stress and struggle as the heart and lungs are asked to suddenly quicken.  However, after around 30 seconds, the second wind kicks in and the body settles down into a relatively effortless rhythm.   It is like a car going through first and second gears before finally shifting into high gear.

     As I have come to understand it, the "second death" is something akin to the second wind.  That is, immediately after the silver cord breaks and the physical body releases the spirit body, i.e., "gives up the ghost," there is some stress, some confusion, some struggling in the spirit person's attempt to adjust to his or her new condition.    When the adjustment is made, the second death is experienced. 

      The term "second death" is found in the New Testament Book of Revelations four times:

      2:11:  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.

     20:6:    Blessed is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

    20:14:  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.  This is the second death.

    21:8:  But the fearful and unbelieving, and abominable, and murders, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

      Bible scholars don't seem to agree on the meaning of those verses.  They do agree that physical death is the "first" death, but beyond that interpretations become very convoluted. One popular fundamentalist interpretation puts it that he who has accepted Christ has already died the second death - death to sin.  Therefore, it cannot hurt him.  Those who actually experience the second death end up in a "lake of fire."

      While we might infer from the Biblical interpretations that the second death means some kind of condemnation, the more metaphysical interpretations suggest just the opposite - a graduation of some kind from a lower state to a higher state. 

      The predominant theory is that the second death takes place within hours or a few days for the spiritually advanced, but may take months of years in earth time for the spiritually challenged, those who remain "earthbound."   In effect, the second death is an "awakening" to one's condition based on one's spiritual consciousness in the earth life.  The second death might be equated to the now popular expression, "going into the light" at the end of the tunnel as well as to the "Ground Luminosity" of the Buddhist.             

    "We might with justice speak of a first and second death because not only the physical body has to be shed but the next body also," a spirit entity calling himself "Scott" communicated to Jane Sherwood.  "Think of the whole man as being composed of four interpenetrating forms.  The second of these is very near to the physical in substance and is very closely knit to it.  It is the etheric or life-body and gives the power of sensory experience.  It never leaves the physical body, even in sleep, but at death it parts from the physical along with the astral and ego bodies.  It is too closely related to the physical to allow the higher bodies to pass clearly into their proper sphere, so it also has to be shed and this is the second death."

     This transition stage - between the first and second deaths - has been referred to as Hades, which is not synonymous with Hell, as some religions would have us believe.   There may be great confusion, a "fire of the mind," so to speak, by materialistic or spiritually-challenged souls; hence the belief that Hades is the Hell of religion.  In effect, Hades seems to be an intermediate or staging area of sorts where the soul must adjust its vibrations to the spirit world.   It is said that even Jesus needed a period of adjustment, or at least wanted to experience it so that he knew what others were going through.  Thus, he initially spent a day or more in Hades and then on the third day "rose into Heaven."  That is, he apparently experienced the second death on the third day.  Of course, there are many who would argue with such an interpretation.

      The spiritually-challenged souls are frequently referred to as "earthbound" spirits, because they cling to earthly ways.  Referring back to the long-distance runner comparison, it seems appropriate to liken these earthbound spirits to the overweight couch potato who attempts to run a marathon.  He might run for 200 yards, but instead of getting a second wind, he is forced to slow to a trot or just walk, and even surrender in frustration.        

     "The duration of the state of confusion that follows death varies greatly," explained Alan Kardec, the pioneering French psychical researcher of the 19^th Century. "It may be only of a few hours, and it may be of several months, or even years," Kardec wrote.  "Those with whom it lasts the least are they who, during the earthly life, have identified themselves most closely with their future state, because they are soonest able to understand their new situation."

      Kardec went on to say that there is nothing painful in this mental confusion for those who have lived an upright life. "He is calm, and his perceptions are those of a peaceful awakening out of sleep.  But for him whose conscience is not clean, it is full of anxiety and anguish that become more and more poignant in proportion as he recovers consciousness."

      One spirit communicated to Kardec that his state was a very happy one and that he no longer felt the pains he experienced during his final days in the earth life.  "The transition from the terrestrial life to the spirit life was, at first, something that I could not understand, and everything seemed incomprehensible to me; for we sometimes remain for several days without recovering our clearness of thought; but, before I died, I prayed that God would give me the power of speaking to those I love, and my prayer was granted."   He estimated that it took him about eight hours in earth time to regain clearness of thought.

       Silver Birch, the spirit entity who spoke through the entranced Maurice Barbanell, said the same thing.  "This [awakening] depends on the degree of awareness that the newcomer possesses," he explained.  "If completely ignorant of the fact that life continues after earthly death, or if so indoctrinated with false ideas that understanding will take a long time, then there is a process of rest equivalent to sleep."

      Silver Birch went on to say that the time for realization is self-determined.  It can be short or long, as measured by our duration of time.  For the enlightened, at least those whose actions in the physical world were in accordance with their enlightenment, it is a speedy process.

       A very similar message comes from the writings of medium Alice A. Bailey and her teacher, the Tibetan master, Djwhal Khul.   They point out that most people, being focused on the physical plane, experience a semi-consciousness in the period after death, usually one of emotional and mental bewilderment.  The etheric body of the spiritually-undeveloped person can linger for a long time near its discarded physical shell because the pull of the soul is not as potent as the material aspect is. 

      The Tibetan Book of the Dead refers to this period of awakening as the "Ground Luminosity" or "Clear Light," and says that the vast majority of peopledo not immediately recognize the Ground Luminosity and are therefore plunged into a state of unconsciousness.   As explained by Sogyal Rinpoche, the spiritual director of Rigpa, an international network of Buddhist groups and centers, consciousness continues without the body and goes through a series of states called "bardos."   The problem is that in the bardos "most people go on grasping at a false sense of self, with its ghostly grasping at physical solidity, and this continuation of that illusion, which has been at the root of all suffering in life, exposes them in death to more suffering, especially in the ‘bardo of becoming'."

         Communicating through Geraldine Cummins, Frederic W. H. Myers said that he could not generalize as to the conditions in Hades, which he also referred to as the "place of shadows," because conditions varied so much.  However, he stated that the "average man who has led a well-ordered life" may very well experience communion with deceased loved ones and see fragmentary happening of his earthly life, judging himself, before resting, seemingly in a veil while in a state of semi-suspended consciousness.   He added that three or four days of earth time may suffice for the Hades experience, but also pointed out that many souls "linger a long while in Hades and wander to and fro in its grim ways, encountering certain strange beings who hover near the borders of the physical world, who wake old sorrows and troubles in the minds of men, and who play upon the understandings of certain individuals they would possess while still in the flesh, dethroning the reason, stealing from man his birthright."

       Myers had died, at age 57, on January 17, 1901 while in Rome.  The first communication from his came through Rosalie Thompson, a medium, to Professor Oliver Lodge and his wife on February 19, 1901.  However, it was clear that Myers was struggling to communicate.  He told the Lodges that he was confused when he first arrived on the other side, before he realized he was dead.  "I thought I had lost my way in a strange town, and I groped my way along the passage," he said.  "And even when I saw people that I knew were dead, I thought they were only visions.  I have not seen Tennyson yet by the way."   

       Many other spirit communicators have said that awareness or consciousness on that side of the veil is in proportion to the spiritual awareness or consciousness while on earth.  Thus, there are some who immediately recognize that they have departed the earth life, while others are slow to understand their condition.  "I awoke standing by my dead body, thinking I was still alive and in my ordinary physical frame," Julia Ames communicated to William T. Stead.  "It was only when I saw the corpse in the bed that I knew that something had happened."

      Stead, a world renowned author and journalist who was very much involved with Spiritualism, was a victim of the Titanic disaster in 1912.  One survivor recalled Stead sitting calmly in the smoking room while apparently reading a Bible as chaos gripped nearly everyone else on the ship.  Not long after his death, Stead began communicating through a number of mediums in both Great Britain and the United States.    Communicating to his daughter, Estelle, Stead recalled that his first awareness that he had passed over when he found a number of deceased friends with him. "I knew it suddenly and was a trifle alarmed," he communicated. "Practically instantaneously I found myself looking for myself.  Just a moment of agitation, momentarily only, and then the full and glorious realization that all I had learnt was true." 

       All of the victims seemed to gather in one place as their bodies floated in the ocean below.  Some of them were mental wrecks, wondering if they would be taken to meet their Maker and what their sentences would be, while others were more concerned with loved ones left behind.  There were a number, however, who seemed more concerned about their valuables that went down with the ship.

      After all of the victims gathered together, they seemed to rise vertically into the air at a terrific speed, as if they were all standing on a platform.  "I cannot tell how long our journey lasted, nor how far from the earth we were when we arrived, but it was a gloriously beautiful arrival. It was like walking from your own English winter gloom into the radiance of an Indian sky.  There was all brightness and beauty."

      After their arrival, they were greeted by many old friends and relatives and then all parted company.  Stead's father then accompanied him to a temporary rest home, which he was told was for newly-arrived spirit people. "It was nearest to earth conditions and was used because it resembled an earth place in appearance," Stead explained his arrival in what seems to have been the Hades condition, going on to say that the main objective was to get rid of unhappiness at parting from earth ties. 

      "On arriving here there is often much grief," Stead continued.  "Grief that is sometimes incapacitating, and no movement forward can be made until the individual wishes it himself.  Progress cannot be forced upon him."

      A number of spirit communicators suggest a period of conscious confusion, followed by a "sleep" and then an awakening.  A spirit identifying himself as Thomas Dowding, a schoolmaster who joined the British army and was then killed on the battlefield, communicated to Wellesley Tudor Pole that one moment he was alive and the next moment he was helping two of his friends carry his body down the trench labyrinth.  "I did not know whether I had jumped out of my body through shell shock, temporarily or for ever," he told Pole.  "You see what a small thing is death, even the violent death of war!  I seemed in a dream...Death for me was a simple experience - no horror, no long-drawn suffering, no conflict.  It comes to many in the same way."

     Dowding said he experienced no pain when struck by a shell splinter.  After his body was taken to the field mortuary, he remained near it the entire night, expecting to wake up in the body again.  He then lost consciousness.  When he awoke the next morning, his body was gone and he began hunting for it.  He then realized that he must be dead.   Once he recovered from the shock of that realization, he felt as if he were floating in a mist that muffled sound and blurred the vision.  "It was like looking through the wrong end of a telescope.  Everything was distant, minute, misty, unreal.  Guns were being fired.  It might all have been millions of miles away...I think I fell asleep for the second time, and long remained unconscious and in a dreamless condition."

       When he "awoke" the second time, he felt cramped, but this feeling gradually left him.  "I think my new faculties are now in working order," he continued his story.  "I can reason and think and feel and move."

      He was welcomed by his brother, William, who had died three years earlier, and accompanied to a rest hall.  William explained to him that it took some time for him to help him because the atmosphere was so thick.  "He hoped to reach me in time to avert the ‘shock' to which I have referred, but found it impossible."

     It was after reaching the rest hall that things became clearer and he was no longer confused.

       According to those who see more than a single spirit body, there can be a third death and even a fourth death as the spirit sheds the additional bodies or goes to a higher vibration.   I can relate the running experience to this as well.  Although it was a very rare experience, there were several times during my many years of long-distance running when, after acquiring the second wind, I achieved a state of what might be called effortless euphoria.  There was no stress at all, no matter how fast I seemed to be running.  It was if I had no limitations and could go on and on forever.  Unfortunately, however, those few experiences all came during training runs, not during races.   Perhaps the ego was too much involved in the race experience.