"The Theosophical Explanation. We endorse the theory that the soul leaves the body; but we are perhaps a little more definite in our explanation of what we mean by the soul than are many religious people. Our statement is not that man possesses a soul, but that man is a soul, and that the body is merely a vestment which he casts off when it is worn out. For many of us this statement, which may seem startling to some, is not a matter of belief but of direct knowledge. To explain how such knowledge is attained will mean a certain amount of apparent' digression from, our subject; but in the course of that digression we may perhaps arrive at a clearer conception of what is meant by the word "soul" .. Man is a far more complex being than to physical sight he appears to be; and the only way in which we can thoroughly understand him is by raising our consciousness to altogether higher planes, where we can see much more...[than] one who has not previously studied the subject."