HO W T O S PE A K

W IT H T HE DEA D
A PRA C TI CA L HA N D B O OK

w
as? met

O F RE COGNI SED S CIE NT IFI E -

C T 'T BOO KS

N EW YORK
E . P DU TTON
.
-
CO .

6 8 1 FIFT H A VENU E
 PUB LI SHE D 19 1 8
BY E . P D U TTO N
. CO .

Pri n te d i n th e U ni t e d S t ates o f A m eri c a

 CON TE N T S
PA GE

I . D O TH E D E AD S T I LL L I VE ?

S OU L A ND LI FE

T E LE PA THY A ND T E LE MN E MO N I KY
-

D I S CAR NA T E S PI R I T S

V ME D I U MS
.

C O MMU NI CA T I NG
PRA C T I CA L I N S T R U CT I ONS FO R S PE A K ~

IN G W I TH THE DE A D

S PI RI TU ALI SM AND RA T I O NA L I S M
 P RE F A C E

P RACTI C AL instru ctions for sp e aking with the

dead are given in Ch ap ter VII of this b ook
Inasmu ch h ow
.

, ev er as rational m e n and w
, o

m en do not care to enter upon systemati c pro

c e e d in s of any kind withou t having som e
g
reasonable assurance that a commensurate re
sult will follow it has been thought desirable
,

to add in C hapters I to IV a general outline

, ,

of th e scientific facts and arguments on which

th e certainties of su rvw
“ ” “
al and commu ni ca
”
tion are b ase d I n Chapter s V and V I some
.

n ecessary information as to m ediums and com

mu ni cating is given And in C hapter V III
.
, ,

the di stinction between S peaking with the

D ead on the one h and a nd S piritualism fac e d
,

by Rati onali sm on the oth er i s made clear

, .

The book is str i ctly im partial from all p ol nts

—
of view whether Religious S cientific Agnos
, ,

tic S piritual i stic or Rationalistic I t 18 Im

, , .

'
’
personal I t sets aside th e writer s own occult
.

experience w hi ch in the cou rse of a long life

,

devoted mainl y to scientific p u rsuits has h ap ,

vi ii P R E FACE

p ened to be very con siderable I t is a mere .

cold neutral text book T h hard fa cts of th e

-
,
f
.

case are alone responsibl e for the circum stance

that it shows S cience to be a sponsor for th e ‘

reali ty of speaking with the dead

A few
.

—
words which many persons will re a d
with amazement must be added here on th e
—
s ubj e ct of CM b ono ? Mul titudinou s vials of
scorn h ave been p ou red out on the inanit ies of
ordinary spiritu alistic séances; and all resear ch
into such matters is rigidly boycotte d in scien
tifi c circles as ng u nworthy of any i ntelli

notice E ven when th e

.

P resident of the Royal S ociety himself an d

other s w
,

h o are entitled to write F R S or . . .

D Sc afte r their names have been known to

. .
,

touch the accursed and d egr ad mg thing they ,

have bee n either ostracised or half pardoned

-

contemptuo u sly Thi s attitude is based on the

.

belie f that occ ultism I S an idle and v am form

of mental activity and cann ot with any reason
, , ,

be expected to add anything to the stock of

human knowledge or to produ ce results of
service to mankind Cu i b one ? Why waste
.

th e in tom fool ery that can nev er be useful

’

an d may possibly l ead f eeb l e p erson s into the

abyss of ins anity ?

 P R EFACE x

T he defect o f the atti tude 1 s that it is u n

s ci entifi c The proudest cl aim of S cience is

.

that she deal s with the F acts of the uni vers e

and gives h er allegi anc e to Truth rather than
to O p ini on But the se features are the char
.

acteri sti cs of every well conducted sitting f o r

-

the development of psychi cal manifestations .

The search i s for facts ; and the obj ect pursued

i s the attainm ent of tru th . I f then a l eader
, ,

of science denounce the sitting as bein g ne ces

saril y futi le he does one of two things : either

he di sallows the proudest claim o f S cience ; or

he declares the limits of his own personal
knowledge to be those of F act and Tru th .

I t h as often happened that researches which

appeared at the outset to be a mere waste of
time have in the end been found produ ctive
of much prac tical and useful knowledge T h e .

modern inquiries into the feasibility of sp e ak

i ng wi th the dead are a case in point .They
have already brought th e world of S cienc e and
I ndustry face to face with the possibility and
near prosp ect o f a command over Matter and
P hys i cal F orc e su ch as men have never hi th
erto enJoyed and such as mu st lead inevitably
to the greate st advance of material prosperity
that mankind has ever exp erienced Thi s may
.
x P R E FACE
best b e made clear by d ealing with some con
crete example .

T h e lessons of th e Great War t h e u tt er

,

ance s of exper t au thorities like L ord Mon

tagu of Beaulieu and the newspapers gener

,

ally have taught the public that the naviga

,

tion of the air will be the great and dominat

’
ing factor of the world s progress in future .

This need not be enlarge d upon here E very .

‘

one admits that the comm and of the air wil l

solve the probl em of intercourse betwe en all
the regions 0 globe and will bring in its
,

train a vast r ov em en t in all the arts of

living and a greatly widene d distrib ution of

-

natural wealth .

N ow the whole qu estion of ae rial navigation

hinges absolutely and compl etely on that of
gravitation . The great des i deratum is a
y weightless weightless in e ff ect ) aero
i plane with of course a virtua l ly weightless
( , ;
crew virtually weightless passenge rs and a
, ,

virtually we ightless cargo ) whi ch can move

fast or slowly as required which can come
,

to a stop in the air and wh i ch cann ot fall .

S ci ence an d indu stry are now wi thin meas

u r abl e di stance of s u ch virtu ally weightless al r

craft ,
th anks to th e inve stigators who have
 P R EFAC E xi

not been d eterred by obloquy and ostracism

from spe aking with the dead .

I t i s usually assumed in sel entifi c cir cles

that gravity is a n unsolved mystery and is en
tir ely beyond the scope of human control in
the present state of knowledge The assu m p
.

“ ”
tion 13 well founded if by knowledge is
meant merely that which is p o sse se sd by liv
mg hum an beings and derived solely from nor
mal sources B ut if there be in reality cer
.
, ,

tain i ntelligences other than ordinary men and

women they may poss ibly be better informed
,

wi th regard to the facts of the u mverse ; an d

if intelligent commu m catl on be feasible as be
tween the better informed personalities an d
their cou sm s In this life it is conceivable that
,

some of the latter may thus ac qu ir e informa

tio n which would otherwi se be unattainable .

This has actually happened wi th regard to

gravitation Sir Wi lli am C rooke s more than
.

forty years ago entered i nto communication

certain laboratory experiments that showed

the control and modificat i on of gravity to li e
within the co mpass of human ability when
guided by the i ntelligences in questio n And.

many mor e e xper i e nces of a similar or of an

xii PR E FA C E

analogo us kind are on record The facts are

.

w ell established and cannot b e successfull y de

n ied or e xplain e d away .

Mo re r ecent r e s earch e s have led to some

elu ci dation of the knowledge at which discar
nate sp irits have arrived with regard to gravi
tation They hold that human s mence is crip
.

-
pl ed needl essly by its non r ecognition of Mo
tion as being in itself an entity distinc t from
Mass They hold that Matter is j u st as mu ch
.

a compoun d of Mass and Motio n as co mm on

a con p ou n d of sodium an d chl orine
g
.

en furth er that gravitation is du e

to th e fact that Motion like heat may wher e
, , ,

human observation is conc erned exist in either

,

a latent or a s ensible form ; and they assert the

practicability of adding to or subtractin g from
the quantity of Motion in any gl ven bulk of
Matter I n p r oof of the truth of this assertion
.

th ey p om t to the phenomena of what is by ,

“
psychic al enqui rers call ed levitation
,
”
—p h e

n ome n a which have been obs erve d and record

e d ove r an d over again an d may b e se en by

any person who t akes the troubl e to attend
-
ev en an ordin ar y table s i tting . And they oc
c as1 0nal ly rally the h u man personalitie s with

whom they are communi cating upon the dull

 PR EFA C E x iii

ness of appreh ension which has hitherto stoo d

i n the way of a broad in du ction from the myri
ad everyday facts o f weight coiled springs
, ,

drawn bows artifici al jumping frogs j acks

, ,

in boxes c losely touching billiard balls in a

-
,
-

row proj ectiles at the moment of terminating

,

their upward flight cricket b al ls at the mo

,
-

ment of meeting the stroke of the bat an d all

,

other examples of latent and sensible Motion .

These views entertained by spirits who have

been spoken to on the sub j ect have of lat e been
’
borne ou t very markedly by D r C rawford s
.

experiments referred to in Chapter I of the

,

present book D r C rawford himself s eems to

. .

be regardin g his tes ts from the point of view of

Mass alone and to be thinking that h e is on the
track of a n ewkind of Matter ; but his results
-
fit in still better with the long established fact s
of levitation and with th e new doctrine of Mo
tion that is fast being accepted in P rogressive
C ircles I t is difficult to believe that a living
.

woman can be deprive d of a considerabl e por

tion of her Mass withou t s u staini ng s erious
physiological inj ury I t is also di fficult to b e
.

lieve that the removed Mass when laid on the

fl oor or on the draw ing board can b e invisible
- .

B ut there is not any difficulty at all in su p

xiv P R EFAC E

posing Motion to have been remove d from the

medium the chair the drawing bo ar d and the
, ,
-

platform without any change of either vi sib il

,

ity or appearance in any of the entities con

cerned When water at 7 0 F ahr i s cooled
.
°
.

down to 5 0 F ahr it loses a something we call

°
.

heat but the human eye cannot detect any dif

,

ference in the liquid When a bowled cricket

.

ball is arrested by the bat it loses a something

we call sensible motion but its outward ap,

p e a r a n c e r e m aIn s unvaried We . nee d not

therefore e x p é ct a hum an body or a chair to
look otherwise than as usual simply becau s e it
loses some or all of its latent Motion .

That the knowledge here discussed may be

a pplied practica ll y an d th at Amateri al s u b
stances may thus be rendere d weightless and
so removed from the infl uence of gravitation is

not a mere theory I t is an actual fact : levi

.

tation occu rs What now remains to be done

.

i s to harne ss the ac quir e d knowledge an d ex

p e r i e n c e into the service of aerial navigation .

C ertain P rogressive C ircles are at work s

Whether success will be achieved first by D r .

C rawford in h i s Goligh er laborat or y or by ,

“ ”
Mr E dison In h is spook factory where th e
.

workm en agree to b ecome reclu ses for a p erio d

 P R EFACE xv

of many months or by the capable director of

,

the still more mysterious establishments in

Florence where many a medium has been
passed under revi ew during the last two years ,

or by haply s ome other investigator of whom

, ,

the present wr iter has not yet heard is a matter

,

that must for the time being be allowed to rest

on the knees of the gods What has already
.

been accomplished in p ublic and th e remark

able advances now taking place privately are
a suffi cient answer to the question Cu z b ono ?
'

S peaking with th e dead is a pr actice that is

provi ng of benefit to E ngland and the worl d
at large .

ScIEN s
.
HO W T O SPE A K W IT H
T HE D E A D

C HA P T E R I

DO T H E DE A D STI LL L IVE ?

IF survival after what is called death be not

a fact the idea of communicati on with the dead
,

becomes n onsen srcal The first question there

.
,

fore that h as to be asked in any cons ideration

,

—
of the subj ec t i s D o the D ead still l ive Th is
?

enquiry may be addressed both to Religion and

to S cience ; and in both c ases it will be fou nd
that an affirmative reply i s given .

S o far as Religi on is concerned the case is

simple enough I t I s a matter of common
.

knowledge that ne arly all the inhab i tants of

the world in cluding a great maj ori ty of its
,

sci entific m en accept and p rofess some form

,

of religion I t is also a matter of common

.

kno wledge that all rel igi ons teach the doctrine
2 H OW TO S PEAK W I TH TH E DEAD
of survival ; that is to say they teach that in
,

every individual h uman be ing there exists a

soul which becomes separated from the body at
death and continues to live on i n som e form
of ex 1sten ce while the body decays The b e .

lief accordingly o f the great maj ority of man

, ,

kind i s now and always h as been in h i storl cal

,
“ ”
t imes that the answer Yes must be given
,

—
to the question D o the D ead still l ive ?

This is a hard fact t h at cannot be glossed

over or explained away Where a belief is
.

practically uni e rsal reasonable men may well

infer th at it is not altogether unfounded S uch .

an inference however falls a good deal short

, ,

of actual proof ; and when Rel igion is asked to

supply such proof the response though satis ,

factory enough to religiousbelievers is not ac

c e tab l e from a scient i fic poi nt of Vie w The
,

p .

Bible for example and the sacre d books of

, ,

religi ons other than the J ewi sh and Christian

faiths contain an abundance of te stl m ony to
,

show that life after death is a reality ; an d his

tory in general both ecclesiastical and secular
, ,

narrates many occurrences of such survival .

The body of evi dence thus avail ab le I S equal in

“

quantity and quality to that which i s com

mo nl y accepted as suffi cient to establ i sh h i stor
4: H O W T O S P E AK WI TH TH E D EAD

speeches and books that the doctrine of sur

v iv al is a mistaken one it becomes necessary
,

to make the Case clear by an appeal to fully

recogni sed facts that no one whether survival ,

—
i st or non survivalist can dispute , .

The first of these facts I s that S cience adm its

the existence of living individual personalities .

Whe n a man is made a F ellow of the Royal

S o ciety or when a Pr e si dent of the British
,
.

A ssoc i ation for the A dvancement of S cienc e is

elected the choi ce falls upon more than a mere
,

bulk of matter d with a certain amount

of force and e ed to these there is
a something characterised by know led ge ,

memory conscio u sness will cons cience moral

, , , ,

ity a perception of goo d and evil a capab i lity

, ,

of lo ve and hatred and al l the other qualities

,

that go to the making up of what people m ean

“
when they speak of a soul I f non su r
-
”
viv ali sts prefer to u se s ome other word well ,

and good D isputes about names are a mere

.

beating of the air Wh at is o f moment is that

.

all parties are agreed as to the real existence

of the something to which reference has here
been made .

The second fact is that S cience admit s the

”
soul and body of a human being to be dis
 DO THE DEAD ST ILL LIVE ? 5

tinct and separate entities even though they ,

may be closely assoc iated Th is is not so clear .

ly obvi ous as the first fact ; and some though —

—
not many sc i entists may feel di sposed to
challenge the accu racy of the assertion I t is .

necessary therefore to substant i ate it in a de

, ,

tailed fash ion .

I t i s a matter of common knowledge that i f

a man s body be deprived of an arm a leg an
’
, ,
“ ”
eye etc the soul is not a ffected thereby in
, .
,

any essenti al way O u r hai r may be shaved

.

o ff
, our nails cut our teeth extracted and our
, ,
“ ”
souls are none the worse for the operations .

A lung may be put out of action by tu b er cu

“ ”
l o si s and the soul l ives on unaff ected A .

“ ”
hum an being may be apparently drowned
or may become ent ranced H is breath ing may .

cease his very heart may stop be ating The

, .

w
ordinary bodi ly mechani sm by means of which
“ ”
the soul makes its presence kno n may
—
cease to be operative and as actually hap ,

—
p ens now and again the indivi dual may be so
”
de ad in the judgment of physicians that he
or sh e is lai d out for buri al aye and is some , ,

times bur ied in real earnest wh ile all the t ime ,

the soul i s as full of li fe as ever it was E very .

p er so n o f e duc at i on i s aware that these are

6 H O W T O S PEAK WI T H T HE DEAD
matters of frequent observation and e x p eri
ence They cannot be denied They are not
. .

cons i stent with the idea of th e ex i stence of

“ ”
the soul being limited by the existence of
the body .

The case may b e put even more strongly I n .

war it often happens that a man 1 s shot through

the arm in such a way that a part of a nerve
controlling the muscles of certain fingers is
destroyed The fingers thereupon become
.

paralysed ; b u t when a s u rgeon fills up the gap

in the nerve by nser ting a p iece of nerve taken
°

g
freshly from a l au ghtere d calf the brain finds
i tself once more able to send its messages to
the muscles and the man finds he can move his
,

fingers Absolute proof thus exists that the

.

brain and the fingers are dist inct and separate

entities ; an d it would be utterly u nscient ific
to infer th at the observed paralysis indicates
necessarily any di sappearance of or change in , ,

the brain What really occurs is merely that

.

the brain is deprived for the time b e m g of

, ,

one of the tools it i s in the habit of using for

the purpose of exercising its authority over the
body .

C onsider too what takes plac e when a man

’

, ,
“ ”
—
has a stroke as it is termed an apoplecti c
,
 DO T HE DEAD ST ILL LIVE ? 7

fit the breaking of a small blood vessel in the

,
-

brain T h e exuded blood forms a clot wh i ch

.

—
presses upon some of the b r aIn cells and i nt er
feres wi th the normality of th e n act ion I n .

some cases the cells a ff ected are those that

influence the organs of speech The man b e .

comes dumb or cannot pronounce correctly .

He has the will to speak in h i s ordinary m

ner and he makes desperate e ff orts to do so .

These remain un avail ing unt il the blood clot -

becomes absorbed and ce ases to i nterfere with

the brain cells ; and then the man s will i s once
-
’

more able to exert its authority over the lat

ter whi ch in the ir turn are once more able
, , ,

to organise and send forw ard the desired i m

pulses to the to n gue l ips etc Absolute proof

, , .

thus ex Ists that the w il l and the brai n are di s

tinct and separate ent iti es ; and i t w ould b e u t
terly unscient i fic to Infer that the observed
pressure on and p aralys1 s of the brain cells
, ,
-

i n di cates any d l sap p e ar an ce of or change in

, ,

the wil l .

But the Wl ll i s comprise d in the something

“ ”
that 1 s commonly called the soul We se e
.
,

then that the ex I sten ce of the soul an d body

,

as dist i n c t an d s e
p ar a t e ent it i es i s a d mi t ted
8 H O W T O S PEAK WI TH TH E DEAD
b y S cience and demonstrated by the everyday
e xper i ence of manki nd .

I t is desir able however to add a word or

, ,

two respecting a phrase and an I dea correlated

thereto which have long exercised a m i sch iev
o u s i nfl uence in psychics and psychology The .

“
phras e is that thought may poss ibly be a se
”
cretion of the brain The idea is that althou gh
.

body and ml nd ( or soul ) are separate entiti es

neither of them can exist separately from th e
other.

To speak 0 thought as a secretion of the

“ ”
brain is to m the word secretion and
to render it meaningless in which case the
,

famous phrase becomes nonsens i cal A secre .

tion 1 s a material substance organised from ,

and by some other par e nt material substance

, , , .

I t belongs to the domain of phy s i cs and can

b e expressed in terms of statics a n d d yn am l cs .

N othing of all this is possible with regard to

thought which belon gs to the domai n of meta
,

physics and 1 s Immateri al To speak of some

.

thing immateri al being organised from some

th ing ma teri al i s an abuse of language and ,

reduces discu ssmn to an i dle j angle of articu

late sou nds .

There IS not anyth ing similarly nonsensical

 DO T HE DEAD ST ILL LIVE ? 9

In the idea of body and soul being interdepend

e nt ent it i es The question i s one of sim pl e fact
.

and observati on I t i s a matter of common

.

knowledge that human bodi es continue to ex i st

long after thei r separation from the something
“ ”
that is called soul Th i s conti nued existence
.

may even be unaccompanied ( as in the case of

mum mies ) by ordinary decay and in some ,

c ases may involve a prolong ation of partial

vitality such as for instance the well known

, ,
-
,

phenomenon of the growth of hair and na ils

“ ”
after d eath But that the soul has ceased
.

to be u ni ted as before with the body i s in all ,

cases a matter of certainty Hence the idea

, .

now being discussed obviously requires amend

ment I t is not permi ssible to say that body
.

is per petually dependent upon soul And the .

quest ion remains whether it is permi ss ibl e to

say that the ex i stence of an in d i vi du al soul 1 s

dependent upon its r emai ni ng attached to the

body it accompanied d ur ing li fe .

Thi s leads to the third of the facts to be

c ons i dered — the fact namely that S cience ad
, ,
“
mits th e possib ility of soul s continu ing to
ex i st when detached from the bodies with
whi ch they ar e usually asso cl ate d The word .

“ ”
d etached do es not mean necessarily separ a
10 HO W T O S PEAK WI TH TH E DEAD
tion by any considerable interval of space or ,

the complete absence of every means of com

m u nic atio n .A man who speaks and a man
who hears are Spoken of as being detached
from each other notwithstanding that they
ar e connected together by a sound conveying
-

atmosphere . Bricks stacked in a p ile are de

tach e d separate entit i es even though in pop ,
” “
ular language they are sai d to be touch ing
,

one another S o in the case of a paralysed

.
,

man the a ff ected port ion of h i s brain is no

,

longer under the control of h i s will and to that

,

extent there is a severance of hi s body from his

soul ; while in cases of complete trance the de
tach me nt in qu est i on extends to the ent ire ma
teri al organism and also to the ent ire p sy
chical ent ity The soul b ecom
,

. es fo r the time
,

being wholly separated from the body which

, ,

no longer is actuated by consc iousness sensa ,

ti on memory thought or volition All th at

, , .

serves to distinguish the state of things from

“
death is the absence of bodily decomposi
t ion together with one or two other physical
,

peculiar ities such as the response of the

,

muscle s to electri cal exc iteme n t and the oph

th alm o scop i c appearances o f the fundus oculi .

Yet when th e tranc e comes to an end the

, ,
12 HOW T O S PEAK WI TH TH E DEAD

is al so hel d that in natural de ep sleep all the

h igher brain centres are mo re or less o u t of
-

action together with the sense s of sight to u ch

, , ,

tast e smell and hearing though in varying de

, ,

”
grees .A n d with regard to dreaming th e
, ,
“
explanation g iven is that the gradual passing
- —
of the h igher nerve centres a fi th e highest
'

—
centres of the cerebral matter from normal to
subnormal activity or rest removes from the
, ,

lower centres a certain inhibition and these ,

respond more readily both to external stimuli

and to alt er internal stimuli or tension of
- ?
the blood ve sels A ccompanying this func
.

ti onal dissolution of the h igher centres ther e

i s in varyi ng degrees dissociation of con
, ,

sci o u sn e ss or obstructed assoc iat i o n The .

re sult of such di ssociation 1 s Interference with

judgment resulting I n false perception illu
, ,

sion hallucination and perpetually altering

,

variations of these .

What is meant by the phrase dissociation of

”
c on scmu sn e ss ? I t cannot very well signi fy
anything other than that consc i ousness du ring
sleep becomes detached from the brain some ,

t imes to a parti al extent and sometimes com

p l e te l y Th i s.is the same th i ng as saying that
soul i s found by u niversal exper i ence to ex i st ,
 DO TH E DEAD ST ILL LIVE ? 13

time an d agai n in a state of independence To

, .

that extent the scientific viewis well founded -

and acceptable When however dreams are

.
, ,

stated to be nothing more than mere phys i cal

states of the lower br ain centres a doubt
-

creeps in D reams are not materi al They

. .

a r e intangible thoughts and b elong to the do

“
mam of consciousness Where the removal
w
.

”
of a certain inh ibition from the lo er centres
comes in is by way of explaining that owi ng
to temporary physi cal condit ions attending
-
sleep var ious brain cells are out of gear as
, ,

i t were and work I rr egu l arly th e c aSe being

,
m

analogous to that of the m an who i s dumb or

speaks badly o w m g to a blood clot i n h i s brain
- .

But at the back of the fantasti c or imperfect

appearance are the consc i ous n ess and other

e lements of the soul marshalled i n r egu l ar co

ordination I t is more prob able therefore

.
, ,

that dreams are di stort i ons of real it i es p er

c e l v e d by the so ul th an that they or i ginate in

disorder ed cerebral matter .

W e see then that S ci ence i s faced by and

, , ,

a dmits three fundamental facts namely

, ,

1 . The existenc e in this world of human

, ,

souls as well as human bodies .

1 49 H OW T O S PEAK WI TH TH E D E AD

2 . The existence of such souls and bodie s as

separate entiti es .

3 . The poss ibil ity of souls continu ing to

exist when separated from human
bodi es .

What has next to be consi dere d I S whether

s u ch separate existence is lim ited to the case of
temp orary detachment du rmg the life of the
body or whether it is also poss ible when th e
,
“ ”
separat ion is brought about by de ath .

Reasoni ng by analogy may not be tanta

mou nt to direct proof but it is none the less , ,

cogent When we refle ct that the loss of an

.

arm a leg etc is really the happening of

, , .
,

death to the missing parts of the body and yet

that the soul is not thereby a ff ecte d we are
entitled to i nfer that the loss of the rest of
the body will leave the soul unscathed And .

when we add the refl ection th at in cases of

trance apparent drowning deep sleep etc
—
, , , .
,

the Whole body is detached from the s oul a

separation that o ccasw nally lasts many days
—
or weeks the inference is greatly strength
ened E veryone knows moreover th at m
.
, ,

many instances of natural death the soul re

m ain s in v igorou s ex i stence ri ght up to the mo
 DO TH E DEAD S T ILL LIVE ? 15

ment of dissolu tion ; and where death o ccurs

from external causes as in warfare both body , ,

and soul maintain their full normality until

the stroke of F ate has been dealt Why then .
, ,

should it be assumed that the soul ceases su d

d e nl y to exist ? The body is seen to continue ,

an d as regards its matter to be imperishable

, , .

The soul is not seen ; but as it never had been

seen though known to ex ist during life no
, , ,

re ason can be assigned for expecting it to be

vis ible at death N ot even the flim sie st foun
.

dation can be discov ered for the doctrine of

non survival which i s merely the arb itrary as
-
,

sertion of a most patent nn p r ob ab ility I t is .

,

therefore unscientific in the h ighest degree

, .

I n addition however to this analogi cal ar

, ,

g u m e n t wh i
, ch mos t scient i fic men regard as
conclusive there ex i sts a sol i d basis of scien
,

tifi cally observ e d facts demonstrating very

c learly the survi val of souls after death The .

facts it i s true are psychi cal rather than phys

, ,

ical ; but thi s does not impair their validity .

Modern men of sc ience are beginni ng to re

gard matter force and energy as less im
,

portant i n the scheme of the universe than are

the entities that cannot be expressed in
dynamical terms ; and the b i ologi sts are fast
16 H OW TO S P EAK WI TH TH E DEAD
conc eding priority to will an d conscio u s p u r
pose over the hitherto accepted su preme au
th ority of E volutionary L ife S till the o b ser .
,

v atio n s above alluded to ar ein part of a phys

,

ical character and have been made within th e

sacred precincts of scl entifi c laboratori es '

D ealing first with the latter it suffic e s b y , ,

way of example to mention the researches con

,

ducted by Mr W J C rawfor d D S c a gen

. . .
, . .
,

tl em an who is L ectu rer in Mechanical E ngi

neeri ng in the Belfast Municipal Techni cal
—
f
I nst itut e E ra Mural L ecturer in Mechan
x
,

ical E ngm ee i ng in the 'ueen s U niversity of ’

Belfast etc I t is a matter of common knowl

, .

edge in scientific circles and to a large extent

,

in popular circles as well that he has with re

, ,
“ ”
spect to the survival question carried out a ,

series of experiments and tests under the most

rigid co nditions fo r ensuring accuracy of ob
—
servation and correctness of results ex p en
ments and tests that have been witnessed by
competent persons and carefully recorded in a
manner to which no vali d excepti on can be
taken I n the ordinary way of scient ific work
.

the co nclus ions arrived at by such a trained

—
and emi nently well qu al ifi e d observer would

be assented to by the scientific world as a mat

 D O TH E DEAD S T ILL LIVE ? 17

ter of course ; and such assent shoul d not b e

withheld merely because the field of inve stiga
tion lay outside the beaten tracks of S cienc e .

’
D r C rawford s observations and ex p eri
.

ments are of quite recent date They hav e im .

pressed greatly the scientific world They are .

“
regarded as proving the exist ence of the i n
”
vi sible intelligent beings mentioned by S ir
W illiam C rookes in 1 8 7 4 and as also proving ,

that these beings are enco untered and com

mu ni cate d with here m this world B u t th e .

knowledge of the work done by D r C rawford .

i s not yet very wi dely spread and it is qu ite ,

possible that many scientific men as well as a

good portion of the p ublic at large are still
unacquainted with its character and the re
su lts attai ned I t may be w
. ell therefor e to , ,

cite an illustrative instance of one of the meth

’
ods employed This is done in the sci entist s
.

own words
A d rawin g -b o a r d w pl c
as pl at fo rm
a e d on th e
of a w e i gh i n g m a ch i ne a nd a ch a i r w
-
a s pl a c e d o n

th e top o f th e b o a r d T h e m e d i u m ( M i ss Go li gh e r )
.

sat o n th e ch ai r w i th h e r fe t r e st i ng o n th e b o a r d
, e .

E xp e rime n t 1 — I sa i d t th e o p e r at o r s
. o to
th e sp i r i t s' Y o u say th l e vi t a tin g c an t il eve r c o n
,
‘
e

t ai n s ma t t e r f r om th e b o d y o f th e med i u m Iw ant .
18 H O W T O S PEAK W I TH THE D EAD

y ou to ta ke ou t fr o m h e r b o d y th e m att er y o u u se
i n th e c onst ru c t i on o f th e c a n t il e v e r
y o u empl o y to

levi t a t e thi s t ab le ( w e i ght 1 2 41 lb s ) a nd t o pl ace .

—
t h i s m a tt e r l o o sely o n th e flo o r n o t to b uil d u p
th e c an t i l e ve r b u t s1 mp ly to pl a c e th e m a tt e r r e
qu i r e d fo r i t o n th e fl o o r Gi ve t h r ee r a p s w . he n
o u h av e d o n e t h i s
’
y .

“
T h e med i um s w e i gh t b e g an to d e c re a se a nd i n
’

a fewse c o n d s b e c am e f a i rly st e a d y Then I he ar d .

th e th ree r ap s si gni fy i n g t h a t th e o pe r a t i o n w
, as

c omplete .

RE S U LT

Wei gh t o f m ed i u m ch ai r
b o ar d , b e fo r e th e e x p e ri m e n t st. lb s.

F a i rly st e ad y w ei ght o f m d i u m e

ch ai r b o ard a ft er th r ap s , e
’

wre gi ven
e 8 st lb s . .

D e c r e a se i n W i gh t o f m d i u m
e st e 16 .

I t i s no t w o r thy th a t w
“
e h en I c a rri e d o u t the
sa m e t e st a b o u t i gh t ee n m nth s p r evi o u sly I oh
e o ,

tai n d th e sam e r e su lt w
e i thi n a p o u n d o r tw o
( S ee .

‘
R ali ty o f P sychi c P henomena E xp erimen t 63 p
e ,
’
, .

E xp e rime n t 2 —I a sk ed th e o p e r a t o r s to p u t th e
.

m a t t e r th e y sai d th ey ab st r a ct e d i n E x p e ri men t 1 ,

not on th e flo o r b u t on th e d r a wng b
1 oar d un d e r th e
me d i u m ’
s ch ai r ( th e d r aw —
m g bo a r d was re st i ng o n
20 HOW TO S PE A K WI TH TH E DEAD
the machine or to report them correctly Y et .

his spoken instructions to something invisible

and intangible were followed by results that
indicated intelligent heari ng and careful obe
d i en ce
. To deny that this was strict scientific
’
proof of the presence in D r C rawford s lab
.

oratory o f some kind of consciousness percep ,

tion and Wil l of some soul“ ”

—that was
separate and distinct from any sou l in normal
associ ation with a human body would be to
speak as perversely as though one wer e to deny
that two and t 0 make four .

S o much for the physical category of the

observations that have been made in the seien
tifi c world respecting s u rv ival after death W e .

can now turn to the psychical category .

The investigati ons i n this direction have

been carried on for so many years and by so
many observers both scient ific and lay that a
, ,

vast mass of material h as accumulated in the

shape of evidence which for the greater part
, ,

is in favour of an affirmat ive answer being

—
gi ven to the question D o the D ead still live ?
N one of the evidence is i n fact s uggestive of
, ,

a negative reply ; but some i s not of a tru st

worthy character wh ile in other c ases the
,

requisit e corroboration is lacking T h IS IS a

.
 DO TH E DEAD STILL LIVE ?
trap for the u nwary of both schoo ls of thought
the sceptic al and the credulous The former
- .

are struck by instances of fraud deceit and ,

i gnorant gullibility ; and they neglect to con

sider and weigh what i s brought forward of a
seri ous and genuine character The latter are .

carried away by their emoti ons and wi shes and ,

prefer the sensational rubbish to the calm and

balanced testimony of honest an d carefu l oh
servers .

A typical collection o f the evidence here re

— —
ferred to good bad an d indi ff erent 1 s to be
,
“ ”
found in the pages of Raymond the recent ,

ly publ i shed book wr i tten by S ir O li ver L odge ,

F R S The author who has for very many

. . .
,

years been an eminent investigator of p sy

chical phenomena in addit ion to having at
,

tai ne d the h ighest rank m the sc i ent ific world

in respect of h i s electr i cal and other work was ,

affli cted by the loss of a son Raymond in the , ,

Great War and m accordance with w

, , hat he
consi dered to be poss ible he endeavoured to,

open up c ommuni cation with the di scarnate

sp ir it of the dece ased young man He de .

scr ibes his exper iments and the ir result in the

book he has wr itten He does not hesitate to
.

“
r eJect much of what he observed as being non
22 H OW T O S PEAK WI TH TH E DEAD
sense , and a good deal more he describes as
“ ”
u nv e ri fi ab le and doubtful But he also .

brings forward an abu ndance of what h e

”
terms evidenti al matter which he deems to ,

—
be genuine and convincing a conclu smn fully
accepted by serious readers who are not ‘

swayed by prej u dic e He makes many ref .

e r e n ce s to what has been done by other investi

gators and he expresses himself on the gener al

,

question as follows
H ow
e ve r it b e cc o mpli sh ed and w
a h a t ever re
,

c e ti o n th e
p p r e -
d a
y sc i e n t i fic w o r l d m a
y g i v e t o

th e a sser t a re m a n y n o ww h o kn o w b y ,

r st h and ewe r z en c e t h a t c o mmu n i c a t i o n i s p o ssib l e

—
fi p ,

a c r o ss th e b o u n d a r y — i f th er e i s a b o u nd a r y b e m ~

t w n th e w
e e o r l d a pp r e h e n d e d b
y o u r fe wan i mal d e -

riv d se n se s a n d th e l a r ge r e x i st e n c e c o n c e r ni ng
‘

whi ch o u r kn owled ge i s still mo re limit ed Com .

mu ni c a ti o n i s n o t e a sy b u t i t o cc u r s
, Th e
.

m r e r e c e n t d e vel o p m e n t o f a n el ab o r a t e sch em e o f
o

c ro ss c o r r e sp o n d en c e en t er ed u p on si n ce the d eath o f
-

sp e c i ally ex p e r i e n c e d a n d c r i t i c a l i nv e st i g a t o r s o f

th e S o c i e ty f o r P sy c h i c al R e se a r ch w ho w e re fa
,

mil i a r w i th all th e se d iffic u l t i e s an d w h o h a v e t a ke n

,

st r o n g a n d m o st i n gen o u s m e a n s t o o v er c o me th m
l e ,

h a s m a d e th e p r o o f al r e a d y v er y st r o n g n o wa l
, ,
e

mo st c r u c i al . T h e chi e f th i n g t h a t th e e p so d e i

e st ab l i sh e s t o m m i n d and a thi ng th a t w as w o r th
, y ,
 DO TH E DEAD STILL LIVE ? 23

es at bli shing , i s th e genu i ne ch ar a c t e r o f th e si mple

d o me st i c tti ngs w
si i th o u t a me di w
,
m w hi ch a r e o c
t
,

c a si o n all
y h eld b
y th e f ami ly c i r cl e a t M a r i em o n t .

Fo r i t i s th r o u gh th se ch i efly th at R aym o n d r e
e

m ai ns a s mu ch a m mb e r o f th e f ami ly gr o u p as
e

ev e r . I n t h e o ld d ay s i f I sa t w ,i th a me d i u m ,

Iw a s n ev e r t o l d o f an
y se r i o u s i m a
g m a
y b e r e av e r

me n t w —
hi ch h a d b e falle n my self b e y o nd th e n a t u r al
a n d in evi t ab l e l o sse s f r m a n o l d er ge n er a t i n w
o hi h o c

f all to th e l o t o f eve ry so n o f m an B u t n wi f I . o ,

o r an
y m emb e r o f m
y f ami ly g o e s a n o ny m o u sly t o
,

a gen u i n m d i u m gl vm g n o t th e sl i ght st n o r m al
e e , e

c l u my so n i s qu i ckly to th e f o r e and c o ntinu s hi s

e, e

c le a r and c nvin cin g seri s o f evi d n c e s ; so me tim s

o e e e

givin g t e stim o ny o f a r it i c ally sel ct ed ki nd so m e

c e ,

t im s o nt en ti n g himself w
e c
a nd r emi ni sc e n c es
i th fr i en dly f ami ly ch aff
b u t al w
, a y s a t i n g i n a m an n e r
c .

c on si st en t w i t h h i s p e r so n ali ty a n d mem o ri e s a nd
v a ry in g m o o ds . I n e ver y w a
y h e h a s sh o w n

h im s lf a nx i o u s to give c onvin c in g evi d en c e M o r e

e .

o ve r h e w
, a n t s m e t o sp e a k o u t ; a n d I sh a ll I am .

a s c o nvi n c e d o f c o nt i n u e d e x i st n c e o n th e o th e r
e ,

si d e o f d e a th a s I am o f e x i st e n c e h e r e
, .

These personal utterances represent much

more than the opinion of a single individual .

They are in e ff ect a summary of what has been

established by the labori ous investigations of
many hundreds of edu c ated and capable eu
2 4a H O W TO S PE A K WI TH T HE DEAD

qu ir e r s —inclu ding highly-honoured lead ers of

—
sci ence du ring the last half century
- The .

S oc i ety of P sychical Research for examp le,

mentioned by Sir O liver Lodge comprises— ,

and has comprised many of the foremost sci

,

e ntists and ph i losoph i cal thinkers of E ngland ,

America F rance I taly and other countries

, , .

I t entered upon the investigation and stu dy of

psychical phenomena from a strictly scientific
p o m t of vie w without
, any tendency to be
guid ed by reli gi ou s teachings and desirou s of
-
stamping ou t the i nfl u ence of so called S pirit
u ali sm upon p t b lic credulity I ts work was
‘

y
.

condu cted with the utmost care and caution i n

every detail I ts Reports from year to year
.

were welcomed as sound and tru stworthy text

books in a little known r egig n of science They
- .

are collections of demonstrated facts rather

than the presentation of inferences and sp ecu
lative views S o when it is found that the fore
.

most psychologists and psychi cal investigators

work in harmony with th e results attai ned by
the S ociety for P sychic al Res earch and that ,

the conclu sions announced by authoritie s like

S ir O liver L odge are largely based upon su ch
results the case for the acceptance of these
,

con clusions b ecomes ver y strong indeed .

 DO TH E DEAD ST ILL LIVE ? 25

I t has no wbeen proved beyond all p o ssi b il

ity of reasonable refutati on that both Religion

“ ”
and S ci ence answer Yes when they are asked
—
the question D o the D ead still live ?

There is an allied question whi ch should not

be altogether i gnored E ucl i d somet imes
.

proves a proposition by sh ow m g that i ts denial

n ecessarily involve s an absurdity I n like
.

manner we may ask whether the de ni al of the

propos i ti on that souls live on after death drives
u s into a position that the comm on sense and

conscience of mankind know to be untenable .

I f this life be the whole measure of the ex

i sten ce of a so ul if b irth mean its b egi nning
,

and death its end the someth ing that i s called

,
“ ”
soul is seen to be merely a temporary eva
n e sce nt a ff ection of the matter that consti

tu te s the body .But it i s an abuse of language

to speak of matter as being either morally good
o r morally bad E ven i f it be admitted that
.

matter can l ive and be endowed with consc ious

ness and volition there would still be a mani
,

fest absurdity in attributing to it a knowledge

of good and evil I t follows therefore that
.
, ,

any person who i s a thorough going material

-

ist is logi cally debarred from speaking o f good

n ess benevolence honour i nt egr it y charity
, , , , ,
26 H O W T O S PEAK WI TH TH E DEAD
truth piety patriotism p rofligacy fraud
, , , , ,

crime or wickedness The masses of matter

.

“ ”
to which he gives the name human beings
are non moral just as much as his table or h is
-

boots He talks nonsense when he praises

.

them for acting in a manner which he calls

“ ”
right or wh en he blames them for acting in
,

“
a mann er which he calls wrong .N or is the
case bettered by conceding that good con
“ ”
du ct may be beneficial and bad condu ct
harmful to the mass of matter in action and ,

may therefore in an analogical way be de

scribed as m erf
,

ting commendation and rep roof

respectively The mass of matter will know
.

well enough that succ e ss prosperity and

,

worldly enj oyment are attained much more

frequently by bad men than by the righteous ,

an d he w ill laugh at the idea of a sat i sfied

conscience being preferred to a sat isfied body .

He wi ll know that when death comes the good

—
will not be any better o ff than the bad they“

—
will both be ann ihilated and he wil l also know ?

that du ring life the bad are mu ch better o ff

than the good D oes this doctrine commend it
.

self to any sane man ? D oes any leader of sci

ence exist who will say deliberatel y that h e re s
 C H AP T E R I I

SOU L AND L IFE

THE phras e that the dead still live d oes not

mean the same th ing as when it is said that a
human body l ives I n the former c ase the
.

“ “ ”
word live merely means exist ; in the latter
“ ”
the word liv s connotes together with the ,

idea of exist nc e a part icular concrete form

,

of living which is di ff erentiated markedly from

“ ”
living in the abstract This distinction is
.

frequently overlooked and as the oversight

,

leads to much con fu sion o f thought and lies

e

at the root of much of the opposition that is

“
here and there o ff ered to the doctrine of su r
viva it seems well to d evote a few pages to
its di scussi on
.

“ ”
The life that is found in human bodie s
and throu ghout the organi c world is imper
sonal I t is materi al or r ather physical in
.
, , , ,

the sense that it h as not any existence apart

fi c m the organic m atter of which it cons ti tutes
an a ff ection or attrib u te The cas e i s analo
.

28
 S OUL AND LIFE 9

gous to th at of gravitat ion According to the

.

accepted N ewtonian philosophy every p arti cle

of matter i n the uni verse attracts and i s at ,

tracted by every other particle : it gravitates

,

it is ponderab le B ut there i s no such thing as

’

gravi tation p er se though there may be an

,

entity that causes gravitat ion I t is conv eni .

ent for th e purposes of langu age and the

,

orderly express ion of thought to speak of it ,

separately just as colour temperature il lu m i

, , ,

nation form structure and other aff ections are

, ,

referred to ; the understandi ng however be ing , ,

always that they are not in themselves entities

and are not characteri sed by anything i n the
nature of self ex i stence
- .

S ci ence does not at present hold that l i fe is

an attribute of all matter M inerals and other
.

forms of what i s called inorgani c matter are

cons i dered to be devoi d of l ife and the same ,

“ ”
destitution is asserted with respect to dead ,
“ ”
inanimate organi c matter L ife is met with .

“ “ ”
onl y in liv m g , animate organi c matter ;
j ust as crystalli s at ion is found only in crystal
” “ ”
line and not i n amorphous matter ; and to —
—
p ursu e the simile it may be pointed out that
the s ame matter which i s crystalline under some
conditions becomes amorphous under others ,
30 H OW T O SPE A K WI TH T HE DEAD
as i n the case of carbon which is sometime s
,

diamond and sometimes charcoal I n like man .

ner living matter may change into dead mat

te r — a change which is called
“ ”
death ; an d
dead matter may change into living matter ,

as for example when food is assimilate d by

, ,

ani mals and vegetables

The tru e nature of the life met with in
living organic matter is not yet understood .

Modern science h as shown indisputably that

, ,

the doctrine of the conservation of energy ap

y
plies without no difi cation to living beings just
a s much as to i nani mate substances The idea
.

“ ” “
of there being any specific vital force vital ,

material or vital energy h as long ago been

abandone d A ll the particular phenomena ob
.

served by morphologists ,phys i ologi sts embry ,

ologists p alseo n tol o gi sts and aeti ologists t e-

—
, . .

by the whole world of biologists can be satis

fac torily explained in terms of chemistry ,

physical force energy an d dynamics But b i

, .

ology cann ot as yet gi ve an e qually clear ac

c o u nt o f the c o ordinated v ital i ty of anyth i ng
-

that lives I t cannot even state the h owand

.

“
why of the Si mplest u nicellul ar organi sm We .

” “
are forc ed says a leading authority to the
, ,

conclu sion that a living organi sm i s a partie

 S OUL A ND LIFE 1

ular synthesis of matter and energy the secret ,

”
of whose organisation r emains hi dden .

We know however that li fe di splays the

, ,

same kind of uniformity that characterises

heat light motion and other imponderables
, , .

The somethi n g that appears as the temperature

of bo iling water is sim ilar in all respects to the
someth ing that appears as the equal tempera
ture of hot o il and can be interchange d there
with I ndeed the fundamental Theory of E x
.
,

changes upon wh ich a great part of thermo

dynamics is based depends for its vali dity on
the absence of any di stinction between the
heats of various masses of matter The o nl y .

variation of heat i s that of degree : the kind is

alw ays the same ; heat never becomes indivi d
u ali se d Th i s i s seen by everyday observation
.

to be equally true of life an d is frequently ,

demonstrated b y specific exp eri me nt Graft .

ing for example whether it consist in the

, ,

union of a sc ion of one tree with the stock of

another or whether it take the form of trans
,
’
f erring a p i ece of J ohn S mi th s sk in to a fl ayed
part of Robert Green s arm is the migrati on
’
,

of a vitali ty that remains unchanged in sp ite

of the change of environm ent and that inter
mingl es harmoniously and homogeneou sly with
32 H O W T O S PEAK W I TH TH E DEAD
the vitality of its new abode N either the in
.

d ivi du alitie s of the two trees nor the personali

t i es of the two men ap p ear i n or accompany
, ,
“ ”
their stocks of life any more than they are
,

to be found in their stocks of heat or weight .

The vari ous stocks may be more or less abun

dant in quantity but they do not di ff er in kind
,

We knowalso that li fe is capable of indefi

.

nite increase by reproduc tion provide d only ,

that th e means of sustenance be available A .

s ingle pair of rabbits for instance if allowed

, ,

to breed cke d and not killed o ff will in a , ,

short time become represente d

,

by two m ill ions of Si milar animals This .

”
means of course th at the quantity of life
, ,

corresponding to two rabbits has been aug

m en te d a million fold- .The increase has not
been derived from the food consumed the to ,

tal amount of which is accounte d for by the

bodies and excreta of the conies A similar .

phenomenon is observable throughou t th e

whole su m of living beings whether human
, ,
“ ” “ ”
anim al or vegetabl e I t di st ingu i shes life
.

very e ff ectually from matter and energy both ,

of which are by the doctr ine of c onservation

, ,

as i ncapable of increase as of d ecreas e T h e .

onl y hypothesis that appears possible by way

 S OUL AND LIFE 33

“
of explanati on i s to hold th at life is one of
the protean modes of energy in the same way
that heat i s understood ( by those persons who
are content to accept the B aco ni an and mod ,

ern scient ific view ) to be a mode of motion .

Th i s hypothesis however does not rest on any

, ,

secure foundat ion The only energy that is

.

known to be practi cally avail able for tran sm u

tati o n into l i fe is heat ( l ight and electricity
seem to be negligible ) and reproduction ,

wh ich often takes place on a very large scale ,

h as never been observed to invol ve the ab sorp

tion and di sappearance of heat .

Again we know by observation and e x p eri

,
“ ”
ment that th e funct ion of l i fe is to organi se
matter ; that i s to say to arrange material par
,

ti cl e s into d i ff erent i ated groups and aggr e

gates marked by varying complexities o f com
pos ition suitable for certai n specific actions .

I t i s sometimes contended that th i s systemati c

c o or di nation and appar ent d i splay of purpose
-

i s to be foun d also i n the inanimate world The .

phenomenon of crystalli sation for example is

, ,

here an d there regarded as an i nstance of l ife .

I t is attended by growth I t exh ib its both d if

.

f er enti ation and i ntegration becoming on th e

,

o ne hand more complex and on the other mor e

3 44 H OW TO S PEAK W I TH TH E D EAD

u ni fie d L ost parts are seen to be r egenerate d

. .

S ome degree of adj ustment to surroundings

l s noticeable ; and reproduction may even be

sai d t o occur to some extent But when the .

crystal is formed it does not d iff er either in ,

su bstance or in fu nction from the raw material

,

out o f wh ich it has been constructed I t re .

mai ns i nert and destitute of any approach to

vitality I t may be de stroyed by crush ing
.
,

“
fusion solution : it never dies
, To speak of
.

it as being a living c reature is therefore inept

, , .

h ow e ve great irnp o rtance be still at

f
tach e d to the o cc asi on al regenerations and r e
produc tions observed in the case of inani mate
matter it should be borne in mind that these
,

di ff er very greatly from th e corresponding

henomena where life i s c on c ern e d The re
p
t

pairs e ff ected by chemi cal affinity an d other

non vital infl uences are l im ited to restorati on
-

and replacement without alteration of stru c

ture or change of adaptation ; and where re
p roduct i on takes place i t is lim i ted to repet i
t i on V ery di ff erent results are met with w
. h en
“
L ife is in control Take any horny han ded
.
-
”
son of to il The skin of hi s hands when he
was a child and until he began to work w
.

as

soft and tender I t became injured by fri c

.
36 HOW T O S PE AK WI T H TH E D EAD

change d C erebral matter is like the sensory

.
,

mechanism a mere p i ece of apparatus a gram

, ,

o p h on e , as it were which in a certain sense

, ,

of the words may be sai d to hear and to speak

, ,

but which has not any inner consciousness of

what goes on .

Th i s view which no man of sci enc e will con

,

test and which is a tenet of modern natural

,

ph ilosophy is established by the everyday ex

,

ri e n ce of every man N ot only does he know

p e .

that his bones hair blood etc are not con

, , , .
,

scious entities thou gh they are full of life ; he

,

also knows th t he remains as alive as ever dur

‘

ing h i s sleep w hich is frequently dreamless and

,

free from all indi cations of consciousness He .

kn ows that chloroform and other anaesthetics

are constantly employe d o n thousands of o c
casions with resulting insensibility and u ncon
sci ou sn e ss but w i th no di ff erence in the life
,

that animates the bodies of the persons oper

ated upon He knows that a man may be
.

stunned by a severe blow on the head and

may become for the t ime being bereft of con
, ,

sci ou sne ss wh ile st ill reta i ning h i s full vital ity .

The truth of the matter i n fact is so plain as , ,

not to be O pen to any ser i ous discuss i on even ,

though as is the case with every doctrine u m

,
 S OUL AND L IFE 37

der the sun it may in appearanc e be argu ed

,

about in words and phrases that are ingeniou s

ly diverted from thei r normal meanings .

I t is furthermore to be borne in mind that

L i fe h as not any conscience and is utterly non
moral F rom a stri ctly sc ientific point of view
.

th i s is not a matter of any consequence ; for

S c i ence i sconcerned merely with ex i stence qu d
exi stence and di sregards th e whole subj ect of
eth i cal good and evi l S c ientific men how.
,

ever have consc i ences and the knowledge of

,

right and wrong an d are able whenever they

, .
,

may feel so di sposed to judge of L i fe from

,

the moral po int of view They se e for ex .

,

ample that the vitality of a l iving human b e

,

ing is just as act i ve efficient and exquis itely

,

adaptative in the development of a painful

di sease as in the producti on of enj oyable
health They se e that the fatal microbe is fos
.

te re d and sent on its murderous way re j o i c ing ,

“
j ust as much as the ph agocytes ( the blood
”
scavengers ) and other defensive organi sms
are in li ke manner protected and caused to

multiply The cow i s m ade to yield milk whi le

.
,

the cobra i s e qu ally aided to prepare a store of

deadly po ison The bee i s set to the b ene fi cent
.

work of honey making ; an d the mosquito is

-
38 HOW T O SPEA K W I TH T H E DEAD
granted a letter -o f —
marque for the dissemina
t ion of malaria E verywhere in nature the
.

same blindness to moral considerations and the

same absence of ethical purpose are met with
“

in the activities of L ife .

The question of how L ife ori gi nates should

also receive attent i on Modern science re j ect s
.

the idea of its being derived from inanimate

matter or from any combinat ion o f matter with
physical force or energy The experiments of .

the late D r H Charlton B astian

. . and ,

others with r sp ect to the demonstration of

f ”
spontaneous generation are held to be in
validated by various sou rces o f error ; and th e
almost unanimous verdict of the scientific
world is that every occurrenc e of li fe proceeds
from some antecedent parent life This d o c
, , .

trine i nvolves naturally the referring back of

the entire amount of life now existing in the
world to a long line of ancestry And as S ci .

ence teac hes furthermore that a time di d once

exist when th e world was altogether inorganic
and inani mate there emerges the probl em of
,

when and how L i fe made its first appearance ~

on thi s mundane sphere Th i s problem is as .

,

yet i nsoluble ; and fau te d e mi eu m certain

, , ,

scientists as for examp le Helmholz Tynd all

, , ,
 S OUL AND LIFE 39

l
and L or d K elvi n have found thems elves re

d u ce d to the necess ity of suggesting that pos

specimen of life on the earth was
introduce in the form of some organism borne
hither by ameteor ite But such a suggestion
.

does not sdlv e the problem of L ife ; it merely

th rows back the solution by yet another stage .

And in the meant ime the remarks already made

in the present chapter with regard to the capac
i ty of indefinite i ncre ase di splayed by L i fe are
emphasi sed and confirmed i n a prodigi ous de
gree I t i s surely a mo st marvellous thing that
.

the whole vast volume of ex i sting li fe should

be the product of some minute primordi al
quant ity w ithout there ever h avm g been added
any growth mater ial from the outs i de Thi s
- .

difficulty was felt by D r Bastian and his fel

.

low exper i menters ; and even the stoutest u p

-

holders of Harvey s doctr ine omn e ow

’
, u m are

o ne as for i nstance Huxley H aeckel N ageli

, , , , , ,

Pfl ii ge r and Ray L ankester have not hes itated

to adm it the poss ib ility of protoplasm having
been syntheti cally deri ved from i nanimate
matter at some early per i od of the earth s h i s ’

tory w , hen phys ical conditions were very d if

f e r en t from those of the present tIm e and when
“ ”
so many thin gs were in the making . S om e
 H O W T O S PEAK WI TH TH E DEAD
scientists indeed hold that heterogenesis may
, ,

even now be taking place in localities or under

circumstances th at are shielded from observa
tion ; and others b asm g their j udgment upon
,

the triumphs of modern chemistry i n the syn

the sis o f sugar in di go alizar ine urea and
, , ,

other organic substances think it probable that ,

men may yet succeed in putting together a

combination of matter that shall exh ib it vital
ity as one of its attr ibutes The bearing of all .

this upon the problems dealt with in the pres

ent volume co sists of course in the support
dt
, ,

given to the e enti ally physical and non p sy

-

chical nature of L ife .

I f a comparison be now made between what

has here been stated with regard to L i fe and
what was stated i n C hapter I with regard to
S oul we shall find ourselves in presence of
,

certain marked contrasts as follows :

L I FE L S OU
1 . I s i mp r s n l
e o Ita . h as 1 I s p r son l
. I n d ivi d al
e a . u

not a ny i nd ivi du liti s a e or s ul s

o i st s s p arat nti
ex a e e e

i di r i
osync as es . t i es and e a h
c h as i ts o wn d i s
ti ngu i sh i n g c h ar act e r .

2 . Is h omo ge ne ou s I t i s . 2 ° Is h et e r o ge ne ou s Sou ls .

d ivi sib l e i nto sep ar ate p or are di st i nct fr om e ach oth e r

t i ons only i n th e sam e se nse and do n ot co al e sce .

th at th e sam e is t ru e of h eat,
 S OUL AND LIFE
LIFE ( con ti nu ed ) . S OU L ( c onti nu ed ) .

l i ght , e ecl t
ri i t y c , and o ther
f rms
o of
‘

ph y si c a l e ne r gy .

Th e se vari oii
s p ar l s ce coa

l wh
e sce i t n
en b fo u gh t n o co

t a t wi th a h th r
c d f rm e c
‘
o e an o

a wh l th at i s u i f rm with
o e n o

ou t y d i ff
anr nt i t i e e a on .

3 . I s th e o r ga ni se r of m at 3 . I s th e e m lop y r of e

te r and th e co n t r oll in g in o rg ans f rm

o e d by Li fe .

fl u e nc e th at r
d e t e m i n e s th e
mo rp h l gy p hy i l gy
o o , so o , e m
b ry l gy p al t l gy
o o , aeo n o o an d

aeti l gy f th
o o r gani o e o sm s

pr d d o u ce .

4 . Is -
non consc i s ou , non 4 . Is consc o i us; p r e cep tive ,

senso ry and i nc ap bl a e Of se n s i ti ve , e m t i nal

o o , i ntell i
th o u ght 01
’
m em o ry .
g en t th i nki n g
, , an d m ne m on i c .

5 . I s non mo
- ral . It i s co n 5 .h aract e ri se d by
Is c vo li
sci e nc el e ss with ut o a n y t i on a ccomp ani e d by a
, f ll
u

kno wl d g e e of g oo d an d evi l .
und e r st andi n g o f good and

I ts fun c t i on s ar e p r f rm
e o e d ev il .ap abl f ting It i s c e o ac

me ch a i ally with n c o ut ny a re r i ghtly d wr gly d f an on an o

g ar d t wh at r ult o es s may en a p pr iati g th r sult f

ec n e e s o

su e .
i t a ti
s c on s .

6 . bl o f i nd fi nit
Is c ap a e e e 6 . Is r pr i nca p bl a e of e o

in r as by r p r du ti
c e e It e o c on .
d u t i n E a h indi i d al s l
c o . c v u ou

m y p ssi bly b
a ri gi at d by
o e o n e i s a s lf- nt a i n d s lf-s f
e co e , e u

a p arti ul ar gr up i ng f m fi i n g s lf- nt i n u i n g nt i ty
‘

c o o a c , e co e

t i l
er a t ms in m b i n at i n
a o co o th at h s n t ri gi n at d fr m
a o o e o

wi th p arti ul ar p hysi al c c a ny th r s ul fr m ny
o e o or o a

f r s nd und p arti ul r
o ce a er c a matt r o f p hysi l f r c
e ca o e.

p hysi al ndi ti ns c co o .
 42 H OW TO S PE A K WI TH T H E DEAD
These contrasts necessitate a duality of sig
“ ”
n ifi c ati o n of the word death When the death
.

of an organic being is spoken of the phrase ,

implies that the matter of wh ich it i s composed

has lost its attribute of vitality ( an analogo u s
cas e being the reduction of th e tem p er atu re
.

of a body to absolute zero ) A n d where the

.
f

organic b eing is a member of the human race

( the question of the souls of an i mals and veg
etables does not lie with i n the scope o f thi s
book ) th e phrase also implies that the soul
an d body have become separated so completely

as to terminate the employment of the latter

by the former .

The very pith of the arguments that are

sometimes advanced against the i dea of su r
”
viv al is to be found in th i s double meaning of
“ ”
the word death . When the belief is asserte d
“ ”
that death i s the end and that there is not
”
any future life the statements are reason
,

able and well founded if regard be had solely

-

to the phenomena of L ife and to th e relations

‘

of L i fe with the body The knight who con

.

tended that the sh ield was of silver maintained

a true enough view ; as also did the knight who ,

adv anced from the oppos ite direction and hav ,

ing seen the other side of the suspended buck

 C HAP T E R III

TE LE PAT H Y A N D -
TE LE M N E M ON I K Y

S C IE NCE has not yet cc epted definitely the

a

existence of telepathy and can hardly be sai d

-
to have even begun the study of tele mnemon
iky B u t the idea of these matters is so inter
.

“ ”
mingled with he sub j ects of s u rvivals and
“ ”
—
commu nications and as regards telepathy
,

—
at least appears so frequently in psych ical
literature that it is desirable fo r those who
,

contemplate speaking with the dead to become

acquainted with the general nat u re of the
pro blems and facts involved therein .

—
Many people are aware and indeed have , ,

—
themselves tried the experiment that mind
can in flu ence mind without the intervention of
matter s u ch as the organs of speech and hear
,

ing op erating in a sound conveying atmos

-

p h e r.e A common phenomeno n i s the mental

impression of a person being pres ent who has
approached without being seen or heard A .

somewhat less frequent but st ill suffi ciently

,

44
 TELEPA THY AND T ELE MN E MON IKY -

familiar instance of the same order of things

,

i s to be found in the fact that persons who are

looked at intently ( even behind the ir backs )
often become uneasy and turn to meet the gaze .

S o also i t is found that cases occur of persons

, ,

suddenly and wi thout any apparent cause

, ,

finding themselves th inking earnestly of cer

tain other persons and learning subsequently
that those other persons were at or a l ittle b e ,

fore the time of the impress ion th inking of the

,

persons impressed .

—
F acts such as these wh ich are positive and
—
undi sputed have led to experimental tests ,

conducted scientifically for the purpo se of de

,

term i n in g whether i t i s poss ible at will to e s , ,

tab li sh i ntell igent communications between

transmitters and perc i pients who are at a d is
tance from each other ; and the name telep
”
athy has been given to the kind o f i nter course
in quest i on The work has been conducted
.

ch iefly by the S oci ety for P sych ical Research ,

whose Reports on the subj ect have become

class ics Telepathy i s recogni sed in so far as
.

it i s a grouping of observed facts ; but i t has

not h itherto adv anced beyond the status of a
“ ”
working hypothes is wh i ch however still
, , ,

awaits preci se formulation Thus S ir O liver

.
,
46 HOW T O S PEAK W I TH TH E DEAD
L o dge , his Raymond in , first p ub
li sh e d in N ovember 1 9 1 6 says , ,

T he fa c t o f t elep athy p r o v e s th a t b o d ily or gans

a re not a b so ul t ely e sse n t i al
c omm u n i c a ti o n o f
to
i d ea s. M i n d t u rn s ou t to b e ab le to a c t di r e ctly
o n mi n d a n d st i m u l a t e i t i n t o r e sp o n se b th e r th an
, y o

ma t e r i a l m an s e Th o u ght d o s n o t b elo n g to th e
. e

m a t e ri al r e gi o n a lth o u gh i t i s a b l e to ex e r t a n i n
,

flu en c e o n th a t r gi o n th r o u gh m e ch ani sm p r o vi d d
e e

b y vi t ali ty . Y e t th e m e a n s w h r eb y i t a c c o m e

l i h e s th e f e a t a r e e ss n t i a lly u n k n o w n n d t h
p s e a e ,

fa c t th a t su ch i n t e r a cti o n i s p o ssib l e w
) o u ld be
st r an ge a nd su r p r i si n g i f w w e r e n o t t o o m u ch a c
e

c u st o me d to i t I t i s r e a so n ab l e t o su pp o se th a t
.

th e mi n d c an b e m o r e a t h o m e an d m o r e d i r e ctly an d ,

mo r e e x u b e r an tly a ct iv e w h e n th e n ee d f o r su ch i n
,

ter a c ti on b e t w e e n p sy hi a l an d phy s c a l
c c — o r le t u s i

mo r e sa fely an d sp e c i fic ally sa y b e t w e e n m n t a l a nd e

—
m a t e ri a l n o l o n ge r ex i st s w h en th e r e st r ai ni n g in
,

flu e n c e o f b r ai n a n d n e r v e m e chan i sm i s r em o v e d an d ,

wh en some o f th e li mit a ti o ns c o nn e ct e d wi t h b o di ly
l o c a t i o n i n sp a c e a r e e n d e d .

“
E x p eri en c e mu st b e ou r gui de T o shu t th e .

d o o r o n a ct u al o b ser v a t i o n an d x p e r me n t i n thi s e i

p ar t i c u l a r r e g on b e a u se f p c o n c ived i de a s an d
i , c o re e

o b st i n a t e p r e u di c e i an a ttitu d c mm o n e n o u gh
j s , e o ,

e v en a m o n g sc i en ti fi m en ; b u t i t i s a n a tt i t u d m a r k
c e

e dly u n sc i e nt i fic C e r t ain p e opl e have d e ci de d tha t

.
 —
TELEPATHY AND TELE MN E MON IKY
i nqu i r y i n t o th e a ct ivi t i es o f d i sc a rn at e mi n d i s fu
t il ;e so m e fe wc on si de rp e r h i t i m p i o u s ; m an y ,
a p s

w i s ly d i st r u st i n g th i r o w
e n p wr s sh r i n k f r o m e u
e o e ,

t r in g o n su h a n i nqu i r y B u t i f th r e a r e any
e c . e

fa ct s to be a sc e r t ain d i t mu st b e th e d u ty o f some e ,

v lu n t e e r s t o a sc e t a i n th m : an d f o r p o pl e h avi n g
o r e e

an a qu a i n t a n e w i th c i n t i fic hi t r y t o sh u t th ei r
y c s c s o e

ey e s to fa t s w hen d efi ni t ely ann o u n e d and to fo r

c c ,

b i d i n ve st i ga t i n o r r ep o r t c o n c r ni n g th em o n p ai n
o e

o f o st a ci sm r — i s t o i mi t a t e a b y go n e th e o l o gi c al
, e

a tt i t u d e in a sp i r i t —
f u ni n t e n d e d fl a tte r y a fl a tt e r y
o

whi h fr om eve r y p oin t o f Vi ewi s e cc ent ri c ; an d like

c

wi se to d i splay a n ex tr a o r dina r y l a k o f humou r ”

c .

I t must however be added that a little fur

, , ,

ther on i n the same book S ir O liver Speaks ,

somewhat less positively He says .

M a tt r i s an in di r e c t med iu m o f c ommuni c a
e

t i o n b e twe n m i n d a n d m i nd
e Th a t di re c t t ele .

p a thi i n t r u se h u l d b ab l e to o cc u r b e twen
c e co r S o e e

m i n d a n d mi n d w i th t all thi s i n t rm e d i a t e phy

,
ou e

i al m e h a ni sm i s th r e f r n t r ally su rp ri sm g
c c , e o e o e .

I t h as to b e p r o ve d n o d o b t b u t th e f a ct i s i n , u ,

t i n si ally l ss p
r c li ng th an man y o f th o se o the r
e uz z

fa ct s to w hi ch w h av e gr ow n h a r d ne d b y u sage
e
”
e .

This account of telepathy i s vague and a ,

s imil ar v agueness also ch aracteri ses the utter

48 H O W T O S PEAK WI TH TH E DEAD
au ces of other au thorities on the same subj ect .

But no good reason ex i sts why the matter

Should not be dealt with in a manner very
much more clear and precise .

We should consider in the first place that

, ,
“ ” “ ”
the word mi nd really means soul and is ,

u sed merely for the sake of convenience as

’
concentrating attention upon the soul s faculty
of intelligence apart from its sentient emotion ,

al vol itional and eth i cal attributes

, A ccord .

i ngly when a telepath i st Speaks of mind com

,

mu n icating wi th m ind it is the same ,

thing as sayin at soul communicates direct

ly with soul ; and this in its turn impli es the
, ,

corollary that whether Sp iri ts be incarnate or

,

discarnate the idea of telepathic intercourse is

,

admiss ible .

I n the next place it is to be born e in mind

,

that as shown in C hapter I of thi s book every

, ,

soul has always some definite location in space .

N othing certain is kn own as to whether the

Shape an d volume of a soul correspond ex
actly in form and s i ze w i th those of the h uman

body that is associ ated with the soul during li fe

on earth I t is sometimes thought in a sp e cu
.
,

lative way tha t the soul extend s b eyond the

,

confines of the body which thus becomes in

,
 TELEPATHY A ND T ELE MN E MON IKY
- 49

vested with an aura as it i s termed an d can

, ,

come into contact with other souls even when

the respective bodies are mo re or less apart in
space ; but no facts have been observed that
gi ve serious support to this view The proba .

b ilitie s indeed are in favour of the something

-w
, ,

hi ch may or may not be aki n to ordinary

physical m atter that constitutes a soul having
-

a volume approx imating to the space occup i ed

by its earthly body .

A thi rd fundamental cons i der at i on is that

the actual experiences of every day consist in
a large measure of the most astounding i n
stances o f communication betw een widely sep
ar ated bodies — o r bulks of matter — and souls .

The su n is distant some mil es from

th e earth an d yet it can im part sensations of
,

illumination and warmth to a soul on the

’
earth s surface to say nothing of more subtle
,

influences conveyed by what are known as

“ ”
dark rays .The fact is indisputable bu t it ,

i s not y et clearly understood P hys i cists have

.

fe lt them selves compelled to form the hypoth

“ ”
esis of an E ther pervading i nterstellar sp ace
and serving as a medium or vehicle for the
passage of radi ant energy from place to place .

This E ther has to b e con ceived of as possessing

50 HOW T O SP EAK W I TH TH E DEAD
a natur e an d attrib utes quite as wonderful and
i nc omprehensible as anything narrated in the
“ ”
A rabian N ights o r set forth in the C hurch
doctrine of the Holy Tr inity I t is under.

stood to be the means by which the marvels

of wireless telegraphy become possible by ,

which glances are exchanged between human

eyes by w
, hich newspapers are read and by ,

wh i ch an artillery observer at the front b e

comes aware whether the g u nners are or are
not hitti ng their mark Yet there is not any
.

c ertainty th e the particular E ther imagined

?
by modern s i en ce exists at all F or anything
.

that is known and prove d the medium of com

mu n ication may i n the end turn out to be
something quite diff erent When therefore
.
, ,

telepathy is spoken of no scientific man is en

,

titled to re j ect the i dea m erely because it in

volves the ex i stence o f some as yet unknown
means of interacti on I f the fact of telepathy
.

be establi shed he must accept it even thoug h,

it may be as yet inexpli cable The knowl .

edge possessed by S cience from time to time

does not set limits to the real iti es of the uni
verse .

A soul that formu lates a thought is obvious

ly not in qu i te the same stat e as was the c ase
52 H OW TO SPE A K W IT H T HE DEAD
happ ened in th e case of the transmitting disk ,

so that the air impinging on the list ening ear

'

is shaken in th e same way as the air afl e cte d

’
by th e original speaker s voice I t all seems
.

“
S i mple enough u ntil the charact er of the vi
” “ ”
b r ation s and flu ctuations is looke d into .

They are so varied complex and m ultitudinou s

,

as to defy analys i s or even comprehen s ion The .

human mind desists from the attempt to real

l y u nderstand them But telephony remains
.

an acknowledged fact ; and its e xistenc e lends

a high degr e e of probabili ty to the reality of
telepathy .
f
T h e term tho ught reading i s often em
-

p loyed to indicate telep athic co mm unication ,

and is very convenient by reason of its associa

tion with what i s understo od by the common
“
action of perusal I n so called spiritu alistic
.
-
”
sittings a mediu m sometimes mentions a name
o r a circ um stance known only to the sitter ;

and this is frequently consider ed to be a com

p l e te proof of information derived by the me
di u m from some spirit But it may just as
.

-
well be a case of thought reading T h e sitter s
.
’

soul thinking of the name or c i rcumstance dis

, ,

tu rb s th e ' accordingly
’
The medium s soul
.
,

which is in c ontact with the ' i s aff ected b y

,
 TELEPATHY AND T ELE MN E MON IKY - 53

the distu rbance and becomes consci ou s of the

name or circumstance I n simpler less cum
.
,

brous langu age the medium reads the sitter s

,
’

I t i s not however merely a qu estion of

, ,
”
mediums . Telepathy is im portant through
out the whole range of communicati on with
the sp irit world Whenever and wherever a
- .

—
soul whether still invested with a hum an body
—
or di scarnate is thinking it is a ff ecting the
,

' and thereby render i ng it poss ible for other

souls to be im pressed with the thou ghts F or .

the most part the phenomena are of so faint a

character an d the minds to be communicated
“ ”
with so u ntuned that the i nci p i ent telepathy
remai ns u nnoticed an d di sregarde d ; but occa
si on ally it commands attention Thi s Vi ew of
.

the case is borne out by ample evidence S ec .

“
ond s ight dreams p resentiments
-
, , inspira
,
”
tion and such mental impulses as are com
,

moul y cons i dered i nexpl icable are undoubted

facts that fall wi thin the scop e of telepathy .

I n sayi ng thi s it is not asser ted that the phe

h omena i n quest i on are always real They are
.

frequently delus ions due to an overwrought

nervous system to cerebral di sorder or to emo
,

tion al d is tu rbance ; but in other cases they are

5 4i H OW T O SPE A K WIT H TH E DEAD
as actual and genu ine as th e common occur
renees of hum an life .

Tur ni ng now to tele m nem oniky or

, ,
-
,
”
-
memory reading it is to be remarked that
,

although everyone is fam iliar w i th the fact

that memory exists and though everyone qu ite

,

u nderstands the signi fi cation of the word no ,

one as yet has succeeded in giving even a rudi

mentary explanation of the faculty of remem
brance The most eminent psychologists have
.

found the matter to be quite beyond the limi ts

of their under tanding ; as indeed is e ssentially
the ca se with every faculty of the soul and ,

—
it may be added with every attribute of mat
ter T h e old saying remains as true as ever
.

“
A child can ask questi ons whi ch a wise man
”
cannot answer .

F or practical purpo se s however partial , ,

knowledge suffices Thus the ex i stenc e of

.

memory as a faculty of the soul is known and ,

it is also known that this impli es th e possess ion

by each soul of a store of informat ion What .

ever may be the nature o f the storehouse the ,

doors can be opened and th e information se t

free or rendered subj ect to inspect i on I t is .

conceivable there fore that a soul other than

, ,

the memory owner may under certain u n

-
 TELEPATHY AND T E LE MN E MON IKY
-
55

known conditi ons have access to the store .

This is what is meant by tele m nem oniky

-

the state of thi ngs that exists when not only

current thoughts but also the accumulated
knowledge resulting from past experience and
observation are read by some outs i de soul And .

as every memory contains much that is

“ ”
pigeon holed and out of u se for the t ime b e
-

ing a very notable result is occas ionally met

w
,

i th I nformati on i s eli cited as to facts and

.

circumstances of wh ich the person subj ected

to tele m nem oni ky i s no longer conscious ; and
-

he or sh e becomes firmly and genuinely con

, ,

v in ce d that the p art i culars ment i oned must

have been derived from some supernormal

source .

A word remains to be said regar di ng the

speed of communi cation in telep athy and tele
m n em on iky Many persons hes itate to credit
.

the reports of ex per im ents showing that two

persons at a cons i derable di stance from each
—
oth er located say i n L ondon and Man
, ,

—
chester respect ively are able to exchange
thoughts without any appreci able delay .

When however i t i s r emembered that the

, ,

velocity with wh ich light travels is

miles per second there should not be any di f
,
fi cu lty in su pp osmg that thought vibratio ns
-
,

o r what ev e r they may be ,are propagated

th ro ugh spac e at an equal or eve n greate r r at e
of spe ed I t is not a question in either cas e
.
, ,

of any s ubstance being transmitte d or of th e

,

absolute Si multanei ty of emission an d rec ep

tion And to believe that thoughts may b e
.

communicated from sou l to sou l with the veloc

ity of light does not compel th e b elief tha t souls
are able to travel from p lace to p lace in an
equ ally sp eedy mann er .
 C HAP T E R IV:

DI S A C RN ATE SPI RITS

T HE existence of di scarnat e spirits has been

proved in C hapter I I t is desir able now to
.

state w hat is known as to the conditions in

whi ch they exist .

Th ese conditions have been for thousand s of

y ear s the sub j e c t-matter of positiv e stat e

ments The sacred writi ngs and inscriptions

. ,

and the tradi tions of the variou s r eligions that

have fl o u rished in olden times or are still pro

fessed are full of descriptions of th e religions
in which di scarnate spirits pass their time an d
-
of the manner of their lives in the Spirit worl d .

Magi ci ans Wi zards witches and necromanc ers

, ,

of all kinds have it i s said received cop i ous

, ,

information to the same e ffect And during .

the l ast seventy years S piritualisti c literature

has added abundantly to the common stock .

I n Sp i te however of all th i s great u ncer

, , ,

tainty prevails The statements to which ref

.

erence has been m ade are in we ,

57
58 HOW T O SPEA K WIT H TH E DEAD
cases of what is called an u nverifi ab le char
,

acter ; that is to say they are not capable of

,

test and confirmation by any mundane meth

ods of enqu iry But althou gh an u nv erifi ab le
.

assertion is incapable of normal proof it may

still be capable of disproof I f for example
.
, ,

it be self contradictory it must of course be

-
, ,

re j ected And if two separate u nv er ifi ab le

.

statements contradi ct each other i t is obviou s

that they cann ot both be tru e : one of them at ,

least must be false while the other remains

, ,

doubtful Fu therm ore if an u nv erifl ab le

Z
.
,

piece of in foru ation be O pposed to some clear

ly establi she d fact or well proved doctrine no
- -

reasonable person will regard it as worthy of

credence .

This book is not concerne d with the qu es

tion of whether the accounts of miracles and
other supernormal details in the B ible are or
ar e not to be believed The p urely religious
.

vi ewof the matter need not b e dwelt upon .

N or will it be of any practi cal u tility to take

into consideration the h istory of magic an d th e
doings of magici ans as distinguish e d in the
po p ular idea from religi on and its ministers .

Wh at is alone needful to be menti oned is th e

e vidence that has be en more or less scientifically
60 HOW T O S PE AK WI TH THE DEAD
ou t and from year s end to year s end w
,
’
e are
’
,

forced to regard this world as being still the

habitat o f many a discarnate spirit The con .

clu sio n th u s arrived at i s confirmed by the less

systematic phenomena of dreams phantoms , ,

”
hau nting possession second sight clairvoy
,
-
, ,

ance au tomatic speech and writi ng th e Spon

, ,

tan eou s movements of material ob j ects and

other like occurrences ; merely however to , ,

the extent of their being really du e to the

deniz ens of the sp irit world which is acknow
-
, l
edged to be th case in many instanc es
?
.

y
certain thus aris ing that great num
“

bers of Spirits do not leave the earth when they

become separated from the human bodies they
have inhabited suggests a doubt as to whether
any spirits at all go to some other spher e The .

evidence available does not remove the doubt .

I t is tru e that di scarnate spirits sometimes vol

u n te er s tatements w i th regard to anoth er
world and sometimes in reply to questions gi ve
,

particul ars as to their residence in s u ch a re

gion B u t this informati on is of th e u nveri
.

“ ”
fi ab le kin d is often nonsense
, as S ir O liver
,

L odge has said and is frequently demonstra

,

bly false ; whi le it i s always di scredite d by th e

fact that the spirit who claims to be a r e sident
 DIS CAR NATE SPIRI T S 61

i n a f ar- distant sphere of being is n everth el e ss

-
self admi ttedly present in a L ondon room or
wherever else the s itting may take place T h e .

contradiction is never explained away in any

reasonable manner I t may be said therefore
.
, ,

to be h ighly probable that death merely opens

the way to a fu rther term of existence in this
world and that the spirits of the departed re
,

main for the period of such term in the mor e

or l ess near neighbourhood of the relatives and
friend s they have left behind them .

-
The idea of su ch post mortem exist enc e b e
ing als o limited in time arises naturally an d ,

is to be reasonably inferred from th e evidenc e

,

now b eing considered A l though di scarnat e

.

spirits are very numerou s their number so

, ,

far as they mani fest themselves is altogether

,

i n Si gm fi cant when compared w ith that of th e

deaths that o ccur from day to day ; while if
we take into account th e consideration that the
entire soul population o f the e arth becomes dis
-

carnat e from generation to generation that is ,

to say every thirty ye ars or so we are faced

, ,

by th e fact that living person s are but as a

drop in the ocean of poss ible individu al exist
e n ce s
. We have also to bear in mind that each
of thes e exist ences is separat e from the rest ,
62 HOW T O S PE AK WI TH TH E DEAD
and does not originate e ither from nothing or
from inanimate matter or from i nani mate
energy as may possibly be the case w
, i th L i fe .

I f then souls wh en d i sembodied remai n p er

, ,

petu ally ln this worl d it follows first that

, , ,

there mu st be a continu al supply of fresh souls

coming in from some other region of the uni
v erse ; and secondly that of all these milli ons
, ,

of m illions of active intelligences only one here ,

and there is able or willing to make its pre s

,

ence known to mankind These conclusion s .

are of so ex tr vagant a character as to be u n

accept able ; a d if it be possible to frame an
hypo thesis that avoids the difficulties they ih
volve it wo uld be a reasonab le proceeding to
,

adopt su ch an alternative view .

P sychi cal philosophy ha s i n all ages been

“
furni shed with at least on e workin g h yp othe
”
si s o f the kind requ ired I ts scientific name
.

”
is metempsychosis which in more popular
,
“ ”
langu age is known as transmigration It .

t eaches that after death the spirit enters into

some other human body which happens to be
living and u nprovided with a soul ; and the
doctrine is frequently extended to include the
idea that the new hab itat may even be the body
of one of th e low er animal s Many of the
'

.
 DI S CA R NATE S PI RIT S 3

most famous thinkers of Greece and the O rient

were associated with the belief in qu estion .

I t is to be found in the Bible and other sacred

writings and forms a part of the reli gi ons of
,

many races throughout the world I t cannot .

,

therefore be l ightly disregarded as a mer e fan

,

tasy u nworthy of consi der ation by civi lised

people i n the twentieth century .

A s a matter of fact the theory of transmi

,

g r ati o n fits in with modern observations I t .

does away with th e necess ity of a perpetual

supply of fresh souls from extra mundane re
-

gions I t also is consistent with and explains

.
, ,

the absence of any vast overwhelming spirit

population Moreover it i s the logical con
.
,

comitant of our common everyday exp eri ence

, .

We are familiar with th e occurrence of what

“ ”
we call b irths that is the coming into exist
, ,

ence of newhuman bodies We know also .

that these new bodies become in some w ay or ,

—
other the temporary abodes of souls the ten
,

ancy being sometimes a matter of minutes only

and sometimes enduring for rather more than
one hundred years We see for ourselves that
.

the habitation su its the tenant and that th e

t enant s uits the hab itation What then can.
, ,

be mor e natur al and fitting than that when the ,

64s H O W TO SP E AK WI T H TH E DEA D
tenant for som e r e ason or anoth er has to qu it
, ,

his dwelling h e looks o u t for anoth er abo de of

,

?
mu ch th e same kind S o far from this cou rs e
of action being fantastic an d improbable it i s ,

pre emm ently likely The play of mere im

- .

agin ation is to be fo u nd altogeth e r with thos e

mental Sp ecul ators w h o talk of th e supposed

d epartur e of di scarnat e Spirits to s up pos ed
spher e s of exist e nc e beyond the e arth .

I t is quite c onc eivable and probable enou gh

, ,
“ ”
that some littl e time elapses betwe en de ath
“ ”
an d r ei n car ation Henc e it is to b e ex
ff
.

p e ct e d that i e r e is a lways a gr e at e r or l e s s

numb e r of di scarnate spirits dwelling temp o

rarily and a little d is c onsolately perhaps in
, , ,

-
th e air occu pie d spac e surrounding th e earth ;
an d this expectation i s b orne o u t by act u al

observation I t is to be su rmise d furth er

.
,

mor e that Spirits awaiting re embo dim ent will

,
-

feel thems el ve s more at home as it were if , ,

they remain in the imm ediat e proximity of th e

localities th ey inhabite d an d th e persons they
knew befor e death “ ”
.Here again w
, e find
,

the s urmise to accord with experi enc e S ome .

“ ”
places are u ndoubte dly haunted ; and it is
equally c ertain that some persons are haunte d
also ; for it would otherwis e b e irnp o ssib l e to
 DI S CAR NATE S PI R ITS 65

that sitters at seances habitu ally open u p com - v

mu n ication s with their deceased relatives and

friends who have always been perfect strangers
to the mediums with whom the sitti ngs take
place T h e sp i rits are not brought by the me
.

diu m s; they are introdu ced by the sitters them

selves who are qu ite unconscious of being thus
,

hum an bei ng . The soul of a medi um is not

of o rdinary sou ls ; any more than a discarnate

Spirit is able to know and do very much beyond

ing life I f either mediums or Sp i ri ts were

capable of really marvellou s achievements w
.

may be sure that now and agai n some dari ng

soul would contri ve to startle mankind ; and as
no su ch feat has been recorded through the
ages religi ous and otherwise are ,

not here referred to ) it is a fair inference that

,

o ur deceased fri ends are not vastly di ff erent

to, what th ey were when we knew th m her e

e .
66 H OW T O S PE AK W ITH TH E DEAD
C oming now to the qu estion of the form in
which discarnate sp i ri ts exist all the available ,

evidence of a verifiable or logically acceptable

-

character goes to Show that in the spirit world

-
'

there are not any difl ere n ce s of type corre

sp on d i ng to what ar e found am ong h um an

beings S pirits are not whi te black brown

.
, , ,

yellow and red ; they are not Anglo S axon -

,

Teutonic S candinavian Gaelic Arab negro

, , , , ,

Mongolian or P olynesian I f the contrary ,

were the case it would by this time have b e

, ,

come appare t S omething of this lack of

n .

evidence may perhaps be due to the fact that

modern psychical research has for the most
part been conducted by E ngli sh and American
i nvestigators while most of the com mu ni ca
,

tions with Spirits have involved the use of the

E ngli sh language and have been recor ded in
that tongue Hence it i s to be supposed that
.

the sp irits who have taken part in the proce e d

i ngs have been onl y those possessing a knowl
edge o f E ngli sh ; yet even in that cas e sou ls
, ,

of many earthly races might have been ex

cte d to come forward A nd as the same
p e .

argum e n t applies to the less num erous in

stances o f psychical investigations by F rench ,

I tal ian S panish German S wedish Russ i an

, , , , ,
68 HOW TO SP E AK WI TH TH E DEAD
and shelter and from th e maintenance of
,

health They are not divide d by sex di ff er

.

e nc e s an d they are not characterised by any

form of reproduction : they have neither an

ce str y nor posterity These various features
.

lend force to the theory of transmigration .

They Show the possibility of an ordinary h u

man body being permeated so to say by a , ,
’
Spirit s body which can enter or leave at any
time and which always maintains its separate
existence Here again th er e are facts of com
.
, ,

mon know le d e and experience that sup port

the doctrine o met empsychosis Most persons .

are now and then consc iou s of memories or

, ,

remi ni scent impressions that cannot be traced

to any events of the present life I t occasion
.

ally happens that when a person first visits

some particular locality he finds himself in
s u rroundings with which his mind is already
familiar The only reasonable explanation is
.

that the so u l remembers somewhat of its ex

ri e nce s in a previous earthly l i fe
p e .

Another line of thought leading in th e same

direction is that suggested by the marked and
well known phenomena of mental heredity
- .

F amily peculi arit ies of mind and character are

commonly suppos e d to be transmitted from
 DI S CARN A TE S PI R I TS 69

parents to children in the form of mate rial

germs which are imagined but have never been
,

proved to exist And yet in many cases

, .

as also happens with physical peculiarities

an intervening generation is skipped and it is ,

the mental characteristic of a grandparent or

great grandparent that reappears in the de
-

sce n d an t .I t would therefore seem more

, ,

reasonable to infer that the true cause of hered

ity is to be found in the preference manifested
by discarnate Spirits for reincarnation in the
direct posterity of the human bodi es they have
at one time or another inhabited N or I s it .

-
a far fetched suppos ition to hold that in the ,

spirit world as in this l ife souls of Sim ilar

-
, ,

charac ters associate together an d to whatever ,

extent may be possible seek to be reincarnated

,

in the same earthly families : a suppositi on that

accounts for more than one ch ild of a family
presenting what are consider e d to be th e heredi
tary character i stics .

I t Should not however b e conclud ed that

, ,

soul and body are wi thout reaction on each

other We know as a fact that mental habits
.
, ,

and emotional indulgences gradually afl e ct a

'

’
person s features and di sturb the func ti oning
of v ariou s organs We also know that bodily
.
70 H OW TO S PEAK W I TH TH E DEAD
peculiarities warp the mind and infl u ence the
thoughts The phrenological mapp i ng of th e
.

brain has some foundation in reality ; and

probably there does not exist a Single person
of mature age w h o is not to some extent a
phys iogn omist I ntelligent capacity sen
.
,

Sitiv e n e ss and moral character do most u n ,

doubte dl y depend a good deal upon th e size

, ,

form and texture of the brain I n other .

words a soul when in the body is fettered and

,

guided and is not fully able to reveal its true

self F rom his it follows that when a soul
.

t
becomes separated from the body it cannot
logically be expected to have exactly the same
character that it appar ently posses sed in life .

P sychical exp erience in sp iritu ali stic Sittings

l

and otherwise is to this e ff ect I t is c us .

’

tom ary indeed for Sitters to say

, ,
— an d emo ,

tio n ally to bel i eve —that the Spirits of their

,

deceas e d relat ives and friends behave and

speak exactly as they used to do in l ife ; b u t
thi s i s n ot quite borne out by the recorded evi
dence I t is custom ary also where the di s
.
,

c r e an c i e s are of too gl ar i ng a nat u re to be

p
glozed over or hushed up t o put them down
‘

to the interference of misch i evous sp irits who

personate the spirits called for ; but th i s i s a
 DI S CAR NATE S PIR I TS 1

very lam method of explanat ion The best

l
.

plan in al cases of d iffi culty i s to face boldly

the fact s A di sembodi ed Sp irit is les s cribbed
.
,

cab ined and confined than when it w as attached

to a living body ; i t i s more free for both good

and evil We are familiar enough with good
.
,

bad and indi ff erent souls in th i s world : why

should we expect the same souls to be other
wise Si mply because o f a change in their eu
v i r o nm e nt ? All that we can reasonably look
-
for is a certain degree o f revelat ion a certain ,

mani festation of what before was more or less

hi dden and whi ch may be estim able or the re
verse.

A feature that deserves noti ce as related to

thi s view of the matter i s the consensus of
testimony to the e ffect th at communicating
sp ir its whether those who are sought f or or
,

those who are what may be termed casual and

errant have hab itually a less regard for truth
,

than i s the case with h ighly educated hum an

-

beings ; though i f an average be struck of man

,

kind in ge neral it does not seem that there is

,

much to choose between the trustworthiness

of statements made by the livi ng inhabitants of
the earth and the truth of what i s said by d is
embodied s p ir its S till the matter i s o f some
.
,
72 HOW T O S PEAK W I TH TH E DEAD
‘

importance seeing that it bears very mat erially

,

upon the question of whether indivi dual spirits

ar e always the partic u lar disembodied so u ls

they profess to be .

A nother feature e qu ally worthy of atten ,

tion is th e apparent absence of sp irits who

,

can properly be r egard ed as diabolical S it .

tings for the purpose of communication with

“
s urviving souls are not attended by devils
”

or by beings occ upied mainly in the p u rsu it of

evil I t may of course b e the case that the
.
, ,

published reco and the verbal accounts that

are c u rren e ss al l m ent i on o f occurrences

deemed to be de m oniacal in the same way that , ,

according to S ir O liver L odge sp iritual i sts ,

“ ”
usually either discourage or suppress state
“
ments about the nature of things on th e other ‘

’
s i de . The eminent au thority her e quoted
goes on inde ed to say
, ,

The se are w
h t wc a e all th e
‘
v l
u n e ri fi ab e
’
co m
mu ni c ati ons ; f
or w e c an no t b ri ng them to b o o k by
su b se qu ent t er rest ri al inqui ry i n th e same Way as we

c an te st i n fo rmat i on c o n c e rn i n g p e r son al o r mu n
d an e aff ai rs . I nformu -
ti on o f the h ighe r kind h a
s
o f ten b e en re c ei ved b u t h as seld o m b een p u b li sh ed ;
a nd i t i s di ffic u l t to kn owWh a t valu e to p u t u p on
wf re ally t ru stw
i t, or ho ar it i s or t hy
” .
 D IS CAR NAT E S P I R I TS 73

This very frank confession of the r epo rts of

Sean ces be ing systemat i cally garbled is a little

disc o ncerting esp eci ally when c oming from

,

one of the sh ining l ights of the sci entific world ;

but it probably means no more than that the
ch am
m on s of sp i r i tual i sm do not des i re to
arouse antagoni sm that can be avo i ded I n .

the same way it may well be that those persons

who whether as mediums or Sitters or in the
,

privacy of individual attempts at comm u ni ca

tion happen to come i nto contact with evil
,

spirits do not feel d isposed to subj ect them

selves to the hostil ity of the religiou s world
by detailing the ir experiences But however.
,

thi s m ay be the fact remai ns that so far as

, ,

comm on knowledge and common repute are

concerned the devili sh element is not l ikely to
,

be encountered by those persons who seek to

speak with th e dead .

I f now the particulars set forth in the pres

, ,

ent chapter be summarised we find the state of

things to be as foll ows
1 . D i sembodi ed souls do not depar t from
“ ”
th i s world when de ath occurs .

2 . They remai n for a time free from bo dily

e nviro nment of an ordinary mat erial
7 4s H O W T O S PE AK WI TH TH E DEAD
3 . S ooner or later they enter into new h u
man bodies an d perhaps also in some
, , ,

cases into new bodies of the lower

,

animals .

4 . D ur ing the period of their free ex i stence

while awaiti ng transmigration many ,

of them make a practice of haunting

localities an d living human beings .

5 . They possess in themselves th e e qu iv a

lent o f bodies constructed of something
analogous to matter and having or
gani s by wh i ch they perceive and
act.
a
6 . E ach disemb o died soul is an individual
entity existing permanently apart
from all others and not distinguish ed
by any racial o r S exual charact eristics .

7 . E ach i ndividual soul has its own i di o syn

cr aSi e s Of i ntellect sense emotion
, , ,

conscience and volition . These idio

sync rasi e s are sub j ect to at le ast tem

p o r ary modification by the ass o ciation

of the soul with a human body .

8 . The charact er and conduct of a disem

bodi ed so u l are not necessarily the
same in all respects as were apparent
during life an d do not necessarily r e
,
s
76 H OW T O S P EAK WI TH TH E DEA D
r d ; the new life may be higher or lowe r
c ee

than th e preceding l i fe accor dm g to whether

,

the latt er w a s turned to good or bad account .

The number of transmigrat ions of any parti e

ular soul may be limited ; and metempsych osis
may thus correspond to the doctr ine of Purga
—
tory an evoluti onary period at the conclusion
of w hich the soul is transferred to a Heaven
or Hell beyond the co nfi nes of th e earth .

E ven the i dea of a Holy Ghost that continu

ally appeals o the mind and will is not ex
cluded from the psychical summary above
given ; nor is there there i n anything that con
tr ad i cts the theory of a C h ris t or a B u ddha
.

What the truth i s with regard to s u ch matters

as these must be deter mined by each person

for himself or herself .The readers of the

present volume are not addressed as C h ristians
or as non C hristians as D eists or as Atheists
-
, .

They are considered merely as being interested

in th e subj ect of speaking w ith the dead and
,

as being des irous of re ce 1vm g i nformation with

regard to th e ascertaine d facts and admitted
logic of the matter .
 C HAP T E R V

M E DI UM S

INE 'UAL ITY is the r ule of the universe I t is .

particularly observable in the characters and

capacities of human be ings Many persons .

are mus icians ; others are incapable of playing

the simplest mu s1cal instrument A few indi .

v i du al s here and there

, are mathematicians ;
,

the gr eat maj ority of mankind are not even

good arithmeti ci ans Artists exist in con
.

si d er ab l e n um bers ; but they are Sparse com

pared with the duller souls Chess players are

- .

rarities Really good u nselfish high prin

.
,
-
,

c ip le d souls steadfast in the practice of r ight

,

e ou sn e ss an d u nswayed by prej udice co nv en ,

tion and dogma are seldom met with

, .

I t i s not to be wondered at therefore that , ,

the possession of minds and brains capable of

being aff ected by external psychi cal influences
i s not found to be a common characteri sti c of
people in general I n past ages magici ans
.
, ,

seers wizards witches and the like have been

, , ,

the exception not the rule ; and in modern

,

77
78 H OW T O S P EAK WI TH TH E DEAD
tim es when these smg ularly constituted beings
,
-
“ ”
are called mediums their nu mbers still r e ,

main very restricted That re al mediu ms do .

,

m p omt of fact exist to some extent is cert ain

, .

“ ”
T hu s S ir O liver L odge says in Raymond
, ,

Do w
e un d e r st and ho w [ a mi n d
l ' 2 c an so u

wi th difficu lt y and imp er fe c tly op e r a t e ano the r b o dy

su b mi tt e d t o i ts t e mp o r ar y gu i d a n c e an d c o n t r o l ?

No . Do w e kn o w f o r a f a c t t h a t i t d o e s? A y e th a t ,

—
i s th e qu e st i o n a qu e st i on o f evi d en c e I my self .

a n sw e r th e q u e ti o n a ffi rm a t i v ely ; n o t o n t h e o re t i c a l

— ? —
gr o u nd s fa r f o m th a t b u t o n a b asi s o f strai ght
f o r w a rd e x p e r i e n c e O
. th e r s i f th e y , a ll o w t h m e

selv e s to t a k e th e t ro u b l e t o e t th e e x p e r i e n c e w i ll
g ,

c o me to th e same c on cl u sio ns Le t u s b e as c a u
.

ti o n s an d c r i t i c al aye a nd a s sc e pt i c al a s w
, , e li k e ,
x

b u t le t u s al so b e p a t i e n t and p er sever in g and fai r ;

d o n o t l e t u s st a r t w i t h a p r e c o n c ei v e d n o t i o n o f
w h at i s p o ssib le and w h a t i s imp o ssib le i n thi s al
m o st u nex pl o re d u n i ve r se ; l e t u s o n ly b e w i ll i n g to
le a rn and be gu i d e d b y fact s and n o t d o gma s : and ,

gr ad u ally th e t ru th w ill p e rm e a t e o u r u n d e r st a n d
i n g and m ak e fo r i t self a pl a c e in o u r mi n d s a s se
c u r e a s i n an
y o t h e r b r an ch o f ob se rv at i o n al sc i
”
en c e .

He says moreover when allu ding to sp eak

, ,

ing with th e dead

 M EDIUMS 79

C o mmuni c a ti o n i s y b u t i t o ccu rs; and

no t e as ,

hu mani ty h as r e a so n to b e gr a t e ful to th o se fewi n

d iv idu al s w h o fi nd i n g th em selv es p o sse sse d o f th e
,

fa cu lty o f med iu msh ip a nd the r e fo r e ab l e to a c t

,

a s i n t r m e di a r i e s
e all o wt h e m se lv e s to b e u se d fo r
,

thi s p u rp o se ”
.

The nature of the peculiarities anatomi cal -

,

phys i ologi cal or psychi cal or perhaps al l three

,

c om b m e d — that di stingui sh a medium from

other human beings is not yet kn ow n and no ,

means of inspecti on as yet exist by which to

be certain that any part icular person is Or is
not a medium Actual experience is the onl y
.

guide This of course leaves th e door open

.
, ,

to the fraudulent assumpt ion of mediumship .

But the occurrence of fr aud and imposture

does not aff ect th e ex istence of genu ine medi
I n eve ry profes sion are to be found
similar examples of deceit Have not all e du .

“ ”
cate d person s heard of pious frauds p erp e
tr ate d by th e holders of high religi ous o ffice ?
A r e there not many instances of ignorant ,

venal and deliberately unjust j udges ? D o

statesmen and p olit icians always rej ect bribes
an d act solely for the good of their countr i es ?

D o es a physic ian mv ari ab ly adm i t his inabil ity

to u nder stand a complaint ; and do general
80 HOW T O S P EAK WI TH T HE DEAD
practition er s in every case administe r r e al
“
medicines instead of the proverbial bread
” “ ”
pills and coloured water ? D o m anu fac
tu r e r s and traders deal solely in u nadu lterated
goods ? When these questions can be sati sfac
torily answered it w i ll be time enough to put
the entire profession of mediums in the pillory ;
and unt il then all reasonable men and w omen
will be c ontent to recogni se that in medium
ship as in other p ursuits we must expect to
, ,

meet with both the worthy and the u nworthy .

Wh at perhaps is not yet fully recognised

, ,

mediums are mu ch more numerous than

wo uld appear to be the case if regard be ha d
sol ely to the professional class that is to th e
, ,

persons who pract i se mediumship as a means

“
of livelihood There are many amateur me
.

”
d iu m s ; and there are also many other indi
vi du al s who are co n scmu s of p o sse ssm g what
“ ”
are spoken of as psych i c powers and yet ,

e ither do not allow th e fact to become known

or confine the exercise of their powers to the
development of commu ni cation s in their own
private surroundings Hence if every pro
.
,

f e ssio n al medium without exception were

—
shown to be a fraud wh i ch is not the case
now and never h as been the case at any time
,
 M EDIUM S 81

—there woul d still r emain an abu ndance of

trustworthy experiential and experimental
evidence establi shing the reality of Speaking
with the dead F or in stance the M rs Ken
.
, .

n e dy who plays such an 1mp o rtan t part m the

“ ”
story of Raymond is not a profess ional me
d iu m at all ; sh e is the wife of a L ondon physi
ci an
, leads the life of an ordinary private
E ngl i sh lady moving m good society and is ,

not pai d for any aid sh e may render to friends

“
who are desirous of commun icating S o too .
, ,

the medium Mi ss Go ligh er who assists D r

, , .

C rawford is a young lady of private social

posit ion who gi ves her services with the ap
,

proval and aid of her family and without fee

or reward except of course such moral satis
, , ,

fact ion as may ari se from the consci ousness of

being engaged m a work likely to benefit man
kind.

I t often happens that mediums are ignorant

and ill iterate ; and there is not any case on
record where a medium whether educated or
,

u neducated has been able to give an intelligible

,

account of the way in wh ich comm unications

with disembodied souls become possible A s a .

general rule real medium s do not claim a

greater knowledge of psychical phenomena
82 HOW T O S P EAK W I TH TH E DEAD
than i s possessed by the sitter s themselv es .

They are aware that communications take

place and they find by actual experienc e that
,

they themselves serve as intermediaries B e .

yond th i s they do not seek to enquire ; and th ey

refrain from attempting in any way to control
the proceedings They are p assive i nstru
.

“
ments in the hands of the powe rs from the
”
other side ; much as was the c ase we read , ,

with those persons who gave voice to the ora

cles of ol d I n view o f these fact s it seems to
.

“ ”
follow that t e common practice of testing
the mediums nd putting constraint upon them
is a mere waste o f time and attention I f they
,
.

be genu ine they ar e virtually mere pieces of

, ,

mechani sm ; and all that can be done usefully

i s to observe the work ing I f they be fr au du
.

lent th l s w ill quickly enough become s -

elf evl
dent All that the sitter need do is to b rmg
.

a l ittle common sense to bear .

I t is a vexed question whe ther profession al

mediums are or are not b anded together in a
secret craft or guild for th e purpose of collect
ing and interchanging in formation with regard
to sitters an d the ir families The suggestion
.

of such a combination apparently implies a

d oubt as to the good faith of med ium s in gen
,
8 4i HOW T O S P EAK W I TH TH E DEAD
s ion of th e information conveye d in th e allege d
utterances o f the spirits is v ery much mo r e
,

credulou s than th e most gullible sitt er .

A l tho ugh it is correct to regard the m e dium

as a mechanism by means of wh i ch the s p irits
are able to comm unicat e with living persons it ,

would be a mistak e to overl ook the fact that

the mechani sm possess es an individuality which
to some extent qual ifies the communications .

E very man knows that his handwriting varies

with every change of p en D eli cate emb roi d .

-
ery is not p acticab le with d arning needles .

A discarnate oul that finds itself compelled to

use a mediu m s han d for wr iting or a medium s
’ ’

vocal app aratus f or Speaking has to actu ate

’
these organs by means of the medium s brain ,

wh ich may be so to speak either coarse or

, ,

fine an d in every case is attuned by the ex p en

,

e n ces of its normal li fe The medium s h abit s

.
’

of thought an d expression thu s become inter

mingled with and sometimes quite override
thos e of the commu m cating spirit ; and this
“ ”
s0p h i sti cati on as it i s termed lead s fre
, ,

quently to much confu s i on and many errors

of statement I t also serves to accentu ate in
.

appearance the change of character already ,

m entioned in these pages that is often observe d

,
 M EDIUMS 85

in di sembodied spirits w hen compared with

their demeanour during life Great care is .

necessary therefore in j udging how far com

, ,

mu ni cation s through mediums are to be taken

at their face values I t is not a question of
.

good or bad faith The point involved is

.

whether any and what allowance should be

, ,

made for the imperfection of the instrum ents

employe d .

—
Many medium s the great maj ority in fact ,

-
assert an d are genuinely convinced that
, ,

they work under the control of certain individ

u al spirits Th i s has always been claim ed in
.

magi cal c i rcles ; and a good de al of evi dence

exists to support a belief in the real ity of
“ ”
familiar spirits At the same time it is diffi
.

c ult for unprejudiced observers to accept the

idea of there being any spirits who are content

to dance attendance d ay and night and year
aft er year upon human beings of a very ord i

nary type and undi stingui shed by any great

qualiti es of soul Th i s difficulty i s increased
.

when considerati on i s given to what i s said with

“ ”
respect to the controls themselves They .

adopt names that are fantasti c and arb itrarily

assumed ; they never give any confi rm ab le in
formation as to the ir i dentities and abode s
 86 H OW TO S P EAK W I TH TH E DEAD
when in life ; their professe d individualities — w

little I ndian girls I ndian yogic I ndian chiefs

, , ,
“
u nknown doctors ”
e tc —
, ar e constantly in

p alpable contradi ction with their own utter

an ce s and doings ; and they remain in evidence

only so long as their respective mediu ms con

tinu e in professional work The theory is
.

“
sometimes advanced that a control is a se c
”
ond personality of the medium a supposi -

t i on that meets the d ifficulties to whi ch allu

“
sion has been made B u t a second person
.

'

al ity is in fi e ct a second soul no matter

, , ,

what attem p s may be made to wh ittl e down

“
its meaning by t alk of su b consciousness
“
”
— ,

subliminal indivi duality and the l ike A .

person who h as a second soul i s a person who

“ ”
is possessed by a sp irit entering into the
b ody from the outside and sh arl ng the habitat
with its original tenant I t is not necessary
[

to infer that the brain and other bodily organs

are u sed Si multaneously by the two souls : the

trend of the available evidence is on the con ,

tr ary to show th at the normal soul is com

,

mou ly in sole control and th at it is only occa

si o n al ly that th e supernormal occ upant takes

the reins But th e theor y in question does

.

u ndoubtedly compel a modification of the vi ew

88 HOW T O S P EAK WI TH T HE DEAD
Bu t how
ev e r mu c h , y s Si r Olive r L o d ge c an
”
sa ,

b e a n d h a s b ee n w ri tt en o n thi s sub j e c t a nd w
, h at
eve r d i ff er en t o p i ni o ns m ay b e h el d i t i s u ni ve r sally
,

a dmi tted th a t the d ram a ti c semb lanc e o f th e co n

t r ol i s u nd ou b t edly t ha t o f a sep a rat e p e rson
a so u l d i st in c t f r o m th e n o r m a l so u l o f th e me

—
d imm ' a pe r son a sse r t e d to b e p e rm anently ex
i sti ng o n th e o th er si d e a nd to b e o cc u p i e d o n th a t
si d e i n mu c h th e same fu n c t i o n s a s th e m e d iu m i s o n

thi s T h e d u t y o f c on t r o lli n g and t r ansmi t tin g

.

me ssa ge s seems to b e l ai d u p on su ch a o ne i t i s hi s —
sp e c i a l w ork
. T h e d r ama t i c ch a r a c t e r o f m ost o f
—
th e c o n t r o l s i s so vi vi d a nd self c o n si sten t , t h at
w h at e ve r any ven si tte r o r e xp e rimen te r may fee l
i s th e p r o b ab l e t r u th c o n c e r ni ng thei r r e al n at u r e ,

th e si mpl e st w a
y i s t o h u m o u r th em b
y t a k i n g t h em
a t t h e i r f a c e v a l u e an d t r e a t i ng the m a s se p a r a t e

an d r e sp o n si b l e a n d r e al i nd i vi d u al s
. I t i s t ru e t ha t
i n th e c a se o f so me me d i u ms e sp e c i ally w
, hen o ver
d one o r t i re d t h e re a re e vane sc en t and ab su r d i n
,

tr u si o n s e v e r y n o wand t he n w hi c h c ann o t b e seri

,

o u sly r e ga r d e d . Th ose h ave to b e elimi nat e d ; a nd

for an y o ne t o t re a t th em a s r e al p e o ple w ou ld b e

lu di c r o u s ; b u t u n d o u b tedly th e se ri ous c o nt rols show

a c h a r a c t e r an d p e r so n ali t y an d m em o r y o f the i r

ow n a nd th e y a pp e a r t o c a r r y o n a s c o n t inu o u s an
,

e x i st e n c e a s a ny o n e el se w h om one only meet s o c

”
c a si o n ally fo r a c onve r sat i o n .
 M EDIUMS 89

1
1
There is not anyth ing in this weighty ex
p ression of Opinion that really clashes with
“ ”
th e p ossess i on theory except indeed the
, , ,

“
suggestion that the controls are persons per
”
manen tly existi ng on the other s i de a sug
-

gestion wh ich is in obvious confl ict with the

adm ission that controls are in constant atten
dance o n medium s in this world What S ir
.

“
O liver means b y evanescent and absurd in
” “ ”
tru si ons that cannot be seri ously regarded
”
or treated as real people is also not clear ,
“
but probably refers to some form of soph isti
”
cation resulti ng from a derangement of the
transmitting mechani sm I n any case the con
.

elu s i on remai ns that the transmission takes

place through a comb inat ion of medium cu m -

control ; and thi s may in great measure explain

the apparent psychical sensitiveness of medi
um s That i s to say the reason why med iums
.
,

are parti cularly subj ect to sp i ri tual i nfl uence

from the outs i de may be due to the fact of their
possess ing or being possessed by a secondary
, ,

semi attached soul wh ich i s comparatively free

-
'

to perceive and attend to the e fi orts made by

external sp irits to open up communicat ion .
 C H APT E R V I

C O M M U N I C ATI N G

VE RY many methods have been discovered of

communicating with discarnate Sp irits ; but it
i s not needful in the present volume to deal
“ ”
with any syst em of incantation or magical
rites
. What is proposed is to describe such
practices as lfav e in modern times been fou nd
to yield good results an d have become cus

l . E ' PE C TAN CY

This i s suitable where an individual p erson

desires to ascertain whether he o r sh e i s en
dowed with any psych i c powers By sitt ing
.

in some place qu ite alone and free from inter

rupti on and by a dopting a mental attitude of
,

pass ive receptivity and expect ancy the soul,

becomes ready to perceive and be aff ected by

any spirits that may be in its vicinity and that
may attempt to open up communications A .

90
92 HOW TO S P EAK WI TH T HE DEAD
that as explai ned in a previou s p art of thi s
,

book discarnate spirits tend to remain ne ar

,

the places and persons with whom they were

—
famil iar during l i fe perhaps in the h 0pe of
being able to make their presenc e known .

2 . AU TO M ATI C WRITIN G

I t is very rarely that the resu lts of ex

”
p ec tan cy go beyond thought -impression and
subs i diary physical manifestations neither of ,

which can be regarde d as in the nature of prac

y
tical commu i i cations F or the gi vm g of a
.

m essage or the carryi ng on of a conversation

-

something more is requi red A ccordingly .

,

when an enquirer sits alone it is customary to

have at hand a penc il and p aper or some ap
paratus as for example a planchette b y
-
, ,
—
means of wh ich writing is possible I t i s then
’
frequently found that the si tter s hand with ,

out any consc ious guidance by the sitter will ,

manipulate the pencil or the apparatus so as

“ ”
to produce a script on the paper This i s
r ead and may be followed up by w
.

i nd voce com
ments and questions and thu s a regular verbal
,

interview takes place .

Automati c writing d o es not d epend u pon

 C OMM UNICA T IN G 93

solitu de I t may take place in the presence of

.

any number of observers and is frequently

,

employed by mediums as being an expeditious

method of communi cation .

3 . T RANC E WRIT IN G AND S PE A K I N G

I n cases wh ere the sitter is marke dl y p sy

”
ch i c and a dopts the method of E xpectancy
it frequently happens that normal control over
the b ody is lost A condition of trance super
.

venes and while thi s continues the Spirit

,
“ ”
wh ich may be either a second personality or
—
a soul from the outside that has gai ned the
upper hand makes use to a greater or less ex
tent o f the brain and other organs subj ect to
i ts mastery The hand may wr ite : the mouth
.

may speak : the whole body may be engaged in

some impersonation ; and al l this may take
’
place beyond the scope of the s itter s normal
consciousness When the trance is over the
.

s itter is not able to recall anyth ing that has

been written or sai d or enacted The services .

of some recording observer are therefore n e ces

sary i f any practi cal result i s to be obtained .

The trance condition is particularly likely

to occur when the sitter or one of the sitters is
, ,
94s HOW T O S P EAK W I TH TH E DEAD
a genui ne medium or in other words a p er
, , ,

son who either is naturally endowed with spe

ci al susceptib i lity to psychical infl u ences or is
“
the habitat of two souls normal and sublim
,

inal respectively A ccordingly in the maj or

.

i ty o f séan ces with professional mediums the

commu ni cations from discarnate spirits are r e
ce iv e d during trance and take the form of
,

script executed by the mediums hand or words

’

spoken by the medium F requently more .

,

over the medium is not completely entrance d

,

but retains p rtial consci ousness ; th e result b e

ing that w h may be described as a dazed con
“
dition ensues and the u tterances from the
,
”
other side become mixed with and qualifie d ,

by various halt ing and imperfect statements

,
’
emanating from the medium s own mind .

This is why so many of the publi shed reports

of spiritualistic séances contain what appear
to be merely such erroneous and i gnorant r e
marks a s might be expected from compara
tiv ely uneducated persons who have become
acquainted with th e tricks of a tr ade And as .

the simulation of a partiall y entranc ed and

-

semi consci ous state is a very easy matter for

-

persons who have any dramatic turn it is often ,

difficult to know how far a communication is

96 H OW T O S PE AK WI TH TH E DE AD
pronou nc e the letters of th e alphab e t in their
due order and for the Spirit to give a rap or tilt
when the right letter is reached .

I t must not however b e supposed that the

, ,

employment of a table is in any way necessary .

The metho d has come into vogu e merely b e

cause people assembling together for inter
course with discarnate Spirits have found it
convenient to sit rou nd a table Any i dea .

that spirits have a predilection for or an at ,

tachm e n t to a table or any other ar ticle of

,

furniture is a popular d elusion and is most

h
assur e dly c ntrary t o common sens e A l l .

available evidence goes to Show that spirit s fin d

much greater difficu lty in operating on matter
than on mind The setting of any physic al
.

mass in moti on is a par ticularly arduou s task ;

and the work becomes lighter in proportion as
the mass to be moved is smaller and les s
wei ghty To expect a spirit to set a bu lky
.

article l ike a table in movem ent is unreason

able ; and the fact that tables are moved by
Spirits is not an argument to the contr ary .

S p irits ar e som etimes asked h owthey contrive

to d o s u ch physical work and a conventional
,

reply has become current namely that the

, ,

“
s itters supply magnetism whi ch is gathered
 CO MM UNICA TING 97

in the m edi u m and goes into the table F rom .

a scientific po int of view this answer is non

“
sensical I t is in all probability a soph i sti
.
, ,
”
cati on rep e ated witt ingly or u nwittingly by
, ,

medium after medium Another explanation

.

wh i ch is p u t forward occasionally se ems to be

nearer the mark that w
,here h eavy articles
are moved the work is done by a number of
spir its acting together .

However all this may be it is clear that

,

those sitters who use less cumbrous means than

tables for signall ing are more likely to be satis
fi ed. And it is also clear that the customary
“ ” “ ”
onc e for N o and three times for Yes are
not imperative Any other code may be
.

adopted C ommunicati ons are not sub j ect to

.

any arbitrary regulation s They have all th e

.

freedom of ordinary personal intercou rse .

5 . D IRE C T ME SSAGE S

These have already been mentioned under

the heading of E xpectancy ; but they are occa
si o n ally f ound to occur in conj unction w i th

other methods of communi cating A pencil .

i s sometimes seen to be apparently wr iting of

its own ac cor d on a Sheet of paper ; no human
98 HOW T O S PE A K WITH TH E DEAD
h and b eing near it S ometimes it is s een to
.

—
be guide d by the sim u lacrum of a hand a phe
n ome non that takes place mor e frequ ently

when th e sitting is held in a dimly lighted

-

locality or even in the dark I n the latter .

case the visibi lity i s due to th e obj ect se en

being self luminous T h e scrip t pro du ced by
- .

such dire ct writing is of cours e the mess age

, ,

to be recei ved .

I n like manner a messag e is sometim es con

v eye d by a voice which is unconnected with

any person at the Sitting ; and th e

utterance m from a whisper addressed
to some individual ear to a lou d discourse audi
ble by the whole company .

6 . MATE RIAL I SATI O N

This is a development of direct communie s
tion The spirit becomes either visible or
.

tangible and sometimes i s both I ts form and

, .

appearance are akin to those of a clo thed hu

man be ing ; though the S imilarity is not in any

way complete The substance of which such
“

w
.

p hantasms are composed is as yet u nkno n to

sc i ence ; but i ts percept ib ility by normal S ight
and touch suggests a material character with ,
1 00 H O W T O S PE AK WI TH TH E DEAD
-
money making or for other motives pose as ,

me diums withou t having any real qu alifi ca

tions for the w ork ; and it is unquestionable
that many instances of sham materialisations
have from tim e to time taken place O n the .

other hand the well evidenced instances of real

,
-

materi alisations and of many other analogou s

kinds of psycho physical phenomena are mu ch
-

more numerous We mu st cons i der more

.
,

o ver that a good reason exists for dim l ight

,

and darkness in conn ect i on with attempts to

communi cate Wi th d iscarnat e Sp i rits When
th e eyes are ah
.

tiv e the mind receives continu al

impress i ons of numerous ob j ects and occur
rene es that engage its attent ion and render it
much less receptive of o ccult influences .

Hence by m i m mi sing or shu ttin g out the dis

e

tracti ons of S ight the soul of a S itter becomes

very mu ch more attuned to whatever telepathy
may exist in connection w ith su ch external
spirits as are present .

With regard to communi cating in general

“ ”
th e old proverb P ractice makes perfect
, ,

holds good Mediums it is true are born not

.
, , ,

made ; but as is the case with all h uman beings

, ,

their powers ar e at first i mmature and have ,

to be d eveloped by long continued exerci se

-
 COMM UNICAT IN G 1 01

and more or less ski lled training before th e

best results become attainable E very person
.

wh o wi shes to speak with the dead is as is—

—
also every other person in the world at least
a potent ial medium so far as he or She knows
at the outset I f it be found on trial that
.

psych ic powers exist to an appreci able extent

it may be taken for granted that they are
capable o f very great increase by perseveri ng
e ffort and systemati c employment ; and the
grow th may be such as to lead throu gh the
lower to the h igher forms of communicating .

I f however after repeated experi ments it ap

, ,

pears that a susceptibili ty to psychical infl u

e n ce s is lacking or very moderate in degree ,

or if for any other reason a continuance of

, ,

personal e ff ort be not desirable then it b e ,

comes necessary to have r ecourse to the serv

ices o f mediums These latter may be e ither
.

amateur or profess ional ; but w h ichever they

,

ar e , the ir ut ility depends u pon the stage of

development th ey have reached .

”
The term development as here used means
an increased sensitiveness of th e per cept ive
fac ul ty by wh ich the me di um becomes aware
of an d influenced by the proximity of di scar
nate spir its I t means also an intensified
.
1 02 HOW T O SPEA K WIT H TH E DEAD

p assivity of the normal so u l th u,s facilitating

control by the secondary mind or by external
spirits And it Si gnifi e s fur th ermore the plac
.

’
ing of a larger proport ion of the medium s sub
stance and physical powers at the disposal of
the controlling beings thereby enabling th ese
,

existences to produc e manifestations which

otherwise w ou ld be impossible The actu al
.

m odu s op erandi of the u se b y a control of a

’
medium s body and vitality is not yet under
stood ; but the fact of such u se has been a mat
ter of observation and experiment in all ages
of which we c any record .Hence the com
mu ni cati on a discarn at e spirit will be
fuller freer and more extended in proportion
,

to the better adaptation of the intermediate

psychical mechani sm .
1 043 H OW T O SPEAK WI T H TH E DEAD
preferab le to a sitting in any ou t o f
-
door s -
locality
The thought s need not take any religio u s
turn and prayer is quite unnecessary I t is
, .

des i rable i n fact to think as little as possible

, ,

abou t anything except in the event of the

,

presence of some particular Spirit being hoped

for When that is the case th e mi nd may with
.

a dvant age be occup i ed by reminiscences con

n e cte d with the spirit in question -
a situation

being thus created which much facilitates

telepathy and is analogou s to the hoisting of
a Signal callir gf or response
y
The evening is the most suitable time for an
E xpectancy Sitting which is to be h eld in the
,

ligh t or in semi obscurity ; the bustle and tur

-

moil of the day having then given place more

or less to quietude and tranquillity But if .
,

darkness does not inspire fear a sitting i n a ,

be dr oom ( or other apartment ) during the hours

’
from midnigh t to say two o clock i n the morn
, ,

in
g i s preferable S i lence
. i s then more su

preme than at any o ther time and the maj or ity

,

of the human beings in the locality are asl eep .

“
This acc ounts for the traditional not ion of the
”
Witching hour , which is not based as is su p ,

p osed erroneo u sly o u some

, d i v m e or d iabo li ca l
 P RA C T I CAL IN S TRUC T ION S
limitation of certain hours as the free time for
errant spirits I t refers to the fact that sleep
.

is a kind of trance dur ing w h ich the hold of

the body on the soul is Slackened thus facili
,

tating the task of any outs i de sp irit who may

wi sh to communicate ; the point in issue be ing
well exempli fied by the old Romans ( and
others of the ancients ) who taught that dream s
,

are the apparit ions of supernormal beings .

D eal ing first with the case of a midnight sit

ting i t should be noted that absolute darkness
,

is not imperative The room may be illu mi

.

n ate d in any way that is c onveni ent ; but for ,

reasons already given the less light the better

, .

I f the nerves of the sitter will bear the strai n

the sitting should take place quit e in the dark .

I n that event s ome apparatus for Si gnalling

by sound should be provi ded such as for i n
, ,

stance a small key susp e nded by a thread i n

,

s i de a glass tumbler i n su ch a manner that a

very slight movement is ac compani ed by a

A fter remaining quiet an d expectant for a

few minute s the sitter Should speak alou d and
“ ”
ask, A re there any Spir its prese n t ? Thi s r e
quires a l ittle c ourage both phys ical and mor
,

al ; the former because of the darkness the ,

1 06 H OW T O S P E AK WI TH TH E DEAD
’
Wit ching hour and the sound of one s voic e
i n the stillness ; and the latter b e cause one is

tempted to r egard both the S ituation and the

question as absurd and because one does not
,

relish the idea of possibly making a fool of

’
one s self But it i s merely a question of break
.

ing the ice When once the sitter has spoken

.

alou d the difficulty of speaking d oes not re

cur .

’
To ask in one s mind whether there are any
spirits present is not as e ff ective as actual
speech There is a greater psy chical coneen
.

tr atio n when ) thought i s focussed as it w ere

7 , ,

by spoken words ; bes i des which there is som e

—
reason to believe that sp irits the bodily su b
s tance and organs of whom are analogous to
—
those of living persons fi n d it eas ier to r e
’

ce iv e impressions by phys ical sounds than by

telepathy .

I f no answer be given to the question this ,

should be repeated with a request that the

spirit or spirits will reply by causing the su s
pended key to move in such a manner as to
—
produce three distin ct tinklings or words to
the same general e ff ect i n the case of some
other S ignall ing apparatus being employed I f .

there still be Silence it may b e conclu ded either

,
1 08 H OW T O S PEAK WI T H TH E DEAD
take place accor di ngly I f on the other hand
.
, ,

there be no Sign at all duri ng the period of ,

say half an hour from the commencement of

,

the Sitting this latter should terminate and the

,

enquirer should renew the attempt on some fu

t ure occasion N o disappointment need be felt
.

at a negative result wheth er at the outset of

,

the experiments or at any particular sitting .

C ondi tions are not always favourable even ,

with the same sitter and in the same room ; and

in Spite of widely prevalent ideas and the rec
-

ords of spiritualistic séan ces it is quite idle to

,

suppos e that disembodied souls do in fact , ,

cater for the arbitrary wishes and personal

conv enience of human beings N othing of th e .

kind can be taken for granted except indeed , , ,

that mat ter void Space has i tS inh ab itants j u st

- '

as m u ch as is the case with any matter o ccu

-

pied locality and that any room in any house

,

just as likely to be visited from time to time

by di scarnate spirits as by living persons .

C oming now to what may be termed ordi

nary E xp ectancy sitt ings that is to say eve
, ,

ning sittings in a lighted or semi l ighted room

-
,

the conditi ons of vi sibility a dmit of more elab

orat e manifestati ons than are poss ib le in dark
ness Au tomatic writing in particul ar b e
.
 P RAC T ICAL IN STRUC T ION S 1 09

comes practicable Prow smn should b e made

.

for th i s by placing a pencil an d one or more

sheets of paper on a table or desk And of .
,

course s ignalling apparatus should be fur

,

ni sh e d of ei ther an aud ible or a vi s ible kind .

When these matters are attended to the pro

ce e din s at the S i tt i n should follow th e
g g
course descr ibed a s suitable for the mi dni ght
séan ce ; but naturally both eyes and ear s
, ,

should be a cti ve i n the detection of s igns indi

cating the presence of sp irits And every now .

an d then the penc i l Should be t aken in the hand

an d held close to the paper in a wr i t i ng pos i

ti on the result frequently being th at a strong

,

impulse to wr i te i s felt Th i s Should not be re

.

s i sted The hand Should be gi ven free play ;

.

but of course there shoul d n ot b e any con

, ,

scious gu i dance by the S itter At first the script .

i s in the maj ority of i nstances found to be a

, ,

c onfused scr ibble or a meani ngless sequence

of words L ater on if the s itter b e patient and

.
,

persevering order begi ns to take the place of

,

chaos and i ntelligible messages are obtai ned ;

always suppos in g that the enqui rer i s really
gifted with an appreciable degree of psychi c
power .

S elf deception and the imaginations bre d of

-
110 HOW T O S PEAK WI TH TH E DEAD
wishes and emotions are to be g u arded gainst a .

Th is is an add iti onal reason for cultivating a

tranquil habit of mind and a l evel headed habit
-

of j udgment I t should be remembered that

.

in s olitary E xpectancy fraud and trickery are

completely absent and that all manifestations
,

are matters of the most simple per sonal oh

servat ion the accuracy of wh i ch can be con
,

—
fi rm e d as in an ordinary scientifi c laboratory
—b the test of repet ition F or the friends
y .

and a cquai ntances of the sitter the only evi

'
dence availab e is the latter s personal and u m
’
~

corroborated statements wh i ch from a scien

,

tifi c point of view are worthless ; but for the sit

ter himself or herself the very same evidence
i s in the h ighest degree conclusive a n d rightly
T h e facts are kn ow
,

so. n to h ave occurre d .

B '
.
—
The next step after solitary E xp e ctancy
’
has been tried i s to arrange wi th one s friends
for E xpe ctancy Ci rcles ; th at is to say for ,

groups of persons to meet together at appoint

ed t imes and i n appo inted plac es for the pur “

pose o f j oint sittings There are marked ad

.

vantages i n proceeding thu s .

F i rst the probab ilit ies of success are multi

,

plied I t i s frequently the ca se that living i n

.
112 HOW T O SP EAK WI TH T H E DE AD
I t shou l d b e a matter of common u n der
standing and agr eement that the sitters in an
E xpectancy C ircle are all animated by a seri
ou s p u rpos e and have not come together for
“
mer e amusement or for the fun of tri cking
each other There is no obj ection to their b e
.

“ ”
in
g as scepti c al as they please
. A Sitter may
“ ”
b e of opinion that all occult i sm is tomfoolery
“ ”
and p iffie . O p i nions do not alter facts . If
psychical phenomena do really occu r all the
scepticism in the world is of no moment ; and
no good evi d u ce h as ever been brought for
ward to sh o that sp i rits are in any way em
h arrassed by the presence of doubters and re
si sters ; though it i s true enough that passivity

on the part of the sitters favours commu ni ca

tion A sceptic may happen to be a good me
.

d ium without be i ng aware o f the fact ; in which

c ase h i s or her mental prejudice wi ll not h inder

a Spirit from making use of the psychic p ower

thu s brought into the C ircle At the same time
.

practical j oking and the surrept itious imita

tion of phenomena are quite out o f place They .

cannot d o any good : they are productive of

confusion ; and seeing that di scarnate Spirits
,

have not changed thei r m inds at death there ,

doe s not exist any reason for su p p osmg su ch

 P RAC T ICAL IN STRUC T ION S 113

b eings to have become incapable of taking of

fence and going away in h igh dudgeon when
sitters attempt to make fools of them i n —
wh ich case of course the sitting i s a failure
, , .

With regard to the arrangement of the Sit

ters this is entirely a matter of convenience
, .

S eats may be provided round a table or scat

ter e d about a room And not the least atten
.

ti on need be paid to the s itters j o ining hands

or being otherwise in contact with each other
the supp o sed necessity of this being a popular
delu sion based upon some vagu e and erroneous
“ ”
notion of electri c ity .

The use of a table is however to be re com

, ,

mended I t is desirable for each si tter to h ave

.

a pencil and paper in readiness ; for it cannot

be know n in advance wh ich parti cul ar indivi d
n al s are capable of autom at i c writ i ng ; and a
table facilitates the manifestation as well as
pro vi ding a convenient standing place for Sig
-

n alli ng apparatus etc , .

The s itting may if desired take place at

, ,

h igh noonti de and in the very fullest daylight ;

though for reasons already stated it is better
,

to sit in the eve n ing and in semi obscur ity The

- .

“
S i ngi ng of hymns praying and other relig
,

”
ious features are to be deprecat ed They do .
1 1 4i H OW T O S PEAK WI TH TH E DEAD
not aff ect the actual phenomena ; but th eir ten
deney i s to produce a morbid and emoti onal
frame of mind wh ich in its turn facilitates self
deception and the im aginary perception of
happeni ngs that do not really occur C onver .

sation also should not be indulged in to any

extent that engrosses the attention of the sit
ters By far the best plan is for the C ircle to
.

sit Silently each indi vidual be i ng on the alert

,

to perceive and announce the slightest indica

tion of anything external .

At the ation of a fewmi nutes ass um

—
in g n o m tati o n to hav e happened — some
“
Sitter sh o ask aloud the question I S ,
”
any spirit present and if no answer be re
?

c e iv e d the quest i on Should be repeated turn ,

by turn by all the other s itt ers I n th i s way

, .

i t is often possible to d iSco v e r those of the C ir

cle w h o are natural med iums ; a fact that is
also made evident by the ability to write auto
“
m atic ally or by the suscept ibility to impres
”
s i ons such as touches wh i spers the sensati on
, , ,

of a cool breeze tremblings twitches and in

, , ,

rar e cases var i ous forms of clairvoyance

, ,

tranc e and insens ibility .

I f the first round of quest i on i ng produce no

res ul t the silent s itting should b eresumed for
,
116 HOW TO S PEA K W I TH TH E DEAD
as littlelikely as i s any r ea sonable man or
woman to trou ble themselve s with p ersonating
their fello wsouls at random What are they
- .

to Hecuba or Hecuba to them

,
? When a
spirit cla ims to be some specified disembodied
soul th e probabilities are greatly in favour of
the claim being true ; j ust as in common life
people are fou nd to b e as a rule the persons
they assert themselves to be That som e of th e
.

spirits in circumterrestrial sp ace are in a sense , ,

v agabonds wi thou t kith kin or any specific

, ,

identity conne cte d with humanity may well be ,

the case and i gnow and then a matter of oh

,

servation ; but this is not any reason why th ey

shou ld find any satisfaction in m asqu erading
as Tom D ick and Harry There is probably
, .

some amusement to be e xtracted fr om p er

son ati ng a great figure of history such as ,

J ulius C msar L uther N apoleon D israeli or

, , ,

Gladstone and indu cing both mediums and

,

sitters to accept with reverence the pompous

utterance of ridi cul ou s banal itie s ; and the his
tory of S pirituali sm shows that something of
the kind does really happ e n now an d then .

But no evidence exi sts to Show that the aver

age s itter who seeks to s eak with the average
p
d e ce ased relative or friend is ever duped by
 P RAC T ICAL I N STRUC T ION S 117

any impersonation of the latter I t may not .

always be possible to prove the genuinene ss

o f the communi cation to the sat i sfact i on of an

outside sco ff er or criti c Thi s however is not

.
, ,

a need of the case The S itter hears and knows

.

f o r himself or herself at fi r st hand What does

- .

i t matter i f outsiders who have not been pres

ent at the manifestations and merely hear of
-
them at second hand choose to evolve from
their own inner consciousness the theory that
“
the Sp irit intervi ewed was not the rea s ainted
b i ari a but w
” ”
, as merely a m i schievous Spook
“ ”
or more probably the fake of some me
, ,
“
d iu m ? The old proverb remai ns good The ,
”
p roof of the pudd ing is in the eating thereof .

Any person of ordinary good sense is quite

c apable of d isting ui shing between sham and
reality even when speaking with th e dead i s
in qu esti on .

4 . When an E xpectancy Ci rcle has had

-

several succes sful s ittings and h as established

communicati o n s with spirits those latter
,

should be asked to collect together a group of

beings on the other S ide who are willing to
cc operate act ively wi th the C ir cle by re u lar
-
g
att en d an ce and th e product i on of mani festa
118 HOW TO S PEAK W IT H THE D EAD

tions on a -
continually developing
scale I n .

past tim es there ha s been by far too little of

such c o operat ion E ach p ro fe ssmn al medium
- .

“ ”
has had h i s or her alleged controls who in an ,

incidental way have occasionally introduced

—
Spirits wh ile the sitters have also without any
,

—
des i gn of so d om g brought di sembodied souls
f
.
—
to the sé a nces And Sittings especially of th e
“ ”
—
table kind have taken place i n private
homes where the enqu i rers have usually been
restricted to a fewmembers of a Single family ,

and where th e p irits communi cated with have

d
been recently eceased relatives and other i n
-

exper i enced be ings U nder such circumstanc e s

.

i t is surpris ing that so much progress has b een

made .

I t i s found however that spirits are j ust

‘

, ,
“ ”
as keen and interested in p sychical ph enom
e n a a n d the extens i on of communicat i o n across

—
the border line as are the Cr ooke se s Lodges , ,

Barretts C rawfords and other investigators in

,

the ranks of the living I t i s not difficult for

.

an E xpectancy Circle of sitters to develop into

3 P rogress ive C ircle of c o operating S itters and

.
-

spirits A request for co operation is usually

.
-

complied with and it almost always happens

/
,

th at th e sp ir its who are asked to act s ucceed

1 20 HOW TO S P EAK WI TH TH E DEAD
l ess ambitio us and -
far re achingthan is that of
the E xpe ctancy and P rogressive C ir cles
method ; and th e resul ts are correspondingly
imperfect The system most generally adopt
.

e d is what in early and mid V ictorian days was

-
“ ” “ ”
known as table turning or raps
- and con
,

sisted in a number of persons sitting ro und a

table on which their hands were placed the ,

right hand of each sitt er resting on or some ,

tim e s only touching his neighbour s left hand

’
.

A fter a little while a tapp ing or rapp i ng noise

would be heard on the table or the table would
,

ti lt u p a little at intervals or it would turn

,

round and rou nd or it would move about the

,

room A n y of these occurrences admitted of

.

u tilisation for signalling purposes and in that

,

way it was found possibl e to enter into intelli

gent communic at ion with the sp i rit or Sp ir its
acting on the table — i t being generally the case
that the communicator was a deceased relat ive
of one of the sitters
I n a T ab le sitting the termnow comm on
.

~ -

—
l y employed it l s desirable for the hands of
the sitters to be placed on the table ( though
the reason for this is not yet clear ) b ut it i s not
,

necessary for any sitter s hands to be in actiJ al

’

—
contact with those of his neighbours there not
 P RAC T ICAL I N S TR UC T I ON S 1 21

being any electric or other c urrent in circula

tion And it is not necessary for the sitters
.

to engage in any form of incantation whether ,

sung spoken or thought They should how

, .
,

ever be serious and attentive and should be

, ,

careful not to spoil the s itting by any foolery

or conscious attempts to tilt or move the table .

I t is best for some one of the s itters to act as

spokesman and for some outs i der a per
son not sitt ing at the table — to offici ate as the
recorder of all that i s sai d and done The sim
.

p l e st system of co mm u n l catio n to adopt is that

of the alphabet ; the letters being called ou t by

the spokesman in regular order and the table
giving a rap or making a movement whenever
the right letter is reached I t must not how
.
,

ever be taken for granted that words will be

,

spelt correctly or that the letters will be

grouped in regular sequ ences of wo rds Many .

a message has b een put aside as a mere

hazard u nmeaning jumble of letters and has ,

subsequently been fo und perfectly intelligible

and intelligent when the key to the arrange
ment of the letters has been hit upon Why .

such puzzles shou l d b e set with seeming delib

crat i on by the spirits is not un derstood ; all we

know i s that the phenome non sometimes oc ,

1 22 HOW T O S PEAK W ITH TH E DEAD
curs and its possibility mu st therefore be taken

6 . The s ittings referred to in the foregoing

-

fi ve I nstructions are such a s may tak e place

without the aid of professional mediums and ,

for that reason are commonly regard e d as b e

“ ”
ing particularly satisfactory and evi dential .

Thi s however is a View born of prej udice I t

, , .

ass umes that professional mediums are all

more or less untrustworthy P ersons who are .

broad mi nde d enough to rise superior to

-

prej udice and who choose to weigh seriously

the p ros and cons of the whole matter are
,

bound to recognise the advantage in all kinds ,

of enquir y of seeki ng the assistance of indi

,

vi du al s possessing natural qual i fications who

have become expert in the ir own province A c .

c or d ingly in speaking with the dead a rat i onal

,

person will not deem it needful to keep aloof

from professional mediums Rather will he .

seek their aid whenever opportunity serves

provided always that no good reason exists for
d oubting the good faith of any individu al me
d iu m so met with .

The proceedings at a S i tting conducted by a

medium are of much th e same general char
1 24 H O W T O S PE AK WI TH T H E D E A D
writes utom atically or sp eaks un der control
a

there must alway s exist a doubt as to how mu ch

is genuine and how m uch is sophisti cation ,

either intentional or of an unconscious charac

ter The sitter therefore who thinks p rOp er
.
, ,

to consult a professional medium will do well

to ask for a Table sitting in preference to a
-

Trance sitting ; as when a Table sitting take s

- -

place the medium remains normal and the ,

communication i sconveyed thr ough the i nstru

mentality o f the m animate table instead of
making its way amid the disturbing infl uence s
of the m e dirim s brain and personality I f the
,

’
.

medium cannot or will not give a Table sit

(
, ,
-

ting it is not worth wh ile for the sitter to ex

press any dissatisfacti on : the situation must be
ac cepted with as goo d a grace as possible
tr anquillity and harmony being the proper at
m o sp h ere where mental phenomena are m 1 s
su e .

I n the case of Trance sittings where the

-
,

medium is l ikely to be strongly controlled and

made to speak or act in the guise of some other
individuality ( it being sometimes the case that
“

a decided mod ifi c ation of facial expression ,

features and vo rce becomes noticeable ) a fra ,

qu ent pract i ce i s to arrange for a subdu ed light

 P RAC T ICAL IN STRUC T ION S 25

- as for example by pulling down the win

, ,

-
dow blind s and using a lamp with red glass .

This i s qu ite unnecessary ; it i s a mere co nv en

tion al usage based upon a trad ition to the e ff ect
that spiri ts are more powerful in darkness than
in light ; but the procee di ng need not be oh
j e cte d to I t.is as harmless as is the colour or
the pattern of the wall paper
- .

S ome p ro fe ss1on al mediums adopt the meth

o d of C lairvoyance and C la iraud i ence ; that i s

to say the communications take the form of an

,

oral descr iption by the mediu m of what he or

sh e sees and hears in the v i cinity of the s itters

-the underlying supposit i on be i ng that the

latter bring with them certai n haunting sp irits

or that certain sp l rits make their way into the
room from the outs ide in order to be near th e
sitters Th i s kind of a s itting is perhaps th e
.
, ,

least sat i sfactory of any from an intellectual

point of view The medium may be labouring
.

under some delusion or may even be deliberat e

ly inventing the alleged appearances and u t
te ran ce s N o method has yet been di scovered
.

of cle arly distinguishing between genu m e and

unreal Clairvoyance ( a word wh ich also ln
eludes crystal g az m g and the l ike )
- . S itters
1 26 HOW T O S PE AK WI TH TH E DEAD
mu st j udge for themselves Wh at to believe and
what to re j ect .

7 —M ater1 ali sation sittings

.
- with the assist
ance of professional mediums form a distinct
category of phenomena They cannot be .

“ ”
classed under the head of communications ,

and they are j ust as mu ch physical a s psychi

cal Thei r chief defect is that they are not
.

“
open and above board as is the case with
-
,

“
the analogous proceed ings of ordinary table
”
turning i privat e circles where very
fh
,

asto u n di n g ov em e n ts e tc take place m full

, .
,

.
—
light F or some reason or ano ther good bad ,

—
or indi ff erent but never on account of any
real necess ity materi alising mediums in the
,

maj ori ty of cases insi st u p on the sittings tak

ing place in darkness and upon the use of
,

“ ”
cabinets and screens in the shelter of wh ich
.

the Spiri ts are understood to make their pre

p ar ati on s for the show the y are about to giv e .

The sitters of course cannot interfere : a p a

, ,

tient does not instruct th e physician with re

spect to what prescription is needfu l E ach .

medium must be allowed to go about his bus y

ness in his ow n way ; and e ach sitter is equally
1 28 HOW T O S PEA K WI TH THE D EAD

ne ss o f th e manife statio ns ; an d this can best

be attaine d by gl vmg the medium and the
Spirits the freest of free play .

L et it be granted for argument s sake that

,
’
,

trickery i s possible L et it be admitted as a

.
,

matter of fact that many medium s have b een

,

detecte d an d exposed in various instances of

i mpostu re . This shows merely that some al
l e ge d materialisations are not g enu ine ; it does
not p rove that no materialisation ever t akes
place Here also the sitter mu st j udge for
.
, ,

himself Where it is possible to adopt both a

.

normal a d a s upernormal explanation of any

observe d mani festati on the rules of scientific
e n qu l ry un o se upon us the obligation of post
p
“ ”
u lating a natural cause in preference to as
”
su m ing that some supernatural power is in
o peration ; we are bo u nd for exampl e in cases , ,

adm itting of tri ckery to hold that the medium

,

is a cheat rather than to infer the intervention

o f an
y spirit B
. u t when a normal explanation
is not possible or so highly improbable as to
,

be outside the confines of go od sense we act ,

f ool ishly if we insist upon declining to recog

nise a patent fact merely because it does not
fit in with ou r pre conceived Opinions The
- .

mu tatzs mu tand zs to
' ’

same rem ark appli es , ,

 P RAC T ICA L IN STRUC T ION S 1 29

”
many of the normal explanations in them
selves I t i s for example sai d sometimes that
.
, ,

the voi ces heard in the course of dark s ittings

are produced ventriloqu i ally by the medium .

Th i s leaves out of view the consideration that

ventriloquy i s in itself an illusion depending
upon the sense of s ight as well as upon that of
hearing N o ventriloquist however clever
.
, ,

can produ ce the impress i on of there being a

sound emanating from some specific locality
when the b e arer is in the dark ; a fact that is
evi dent to any person who tries the experiment
of shutting his eyes when at a ventriloquial
entertainm ent And if we refl ect that in a
.

materialisation sé amce several distinct voices

are often heard simultaneously the explana ,

ti on of the medium being a ventriloquist is

“
seen to be ludicrously inadequate The nor .

”
mal theory does not fare any better in su g
g e stin g that the medi u m manages to vacate his
chair in the darkness and to pick up the trum
pet or the tambourine etc from which he
, .
,

forthwith proceeds to extract som e sounds .

This might be feas ible m the cas e o f a single

instrument in a single lo cality ; but it often
happens th at several instruments of variou s
kinds are being played s imul taneously and are
1 30 H O W T O S PEAK W I TH THE DEAD
hear d in diff erent parts of the room at the
same time A nd when it i s remembered that
.

the sittm g where such facts occur may and ,

’
does frequently tak e place in a sitter s own
,

house where the medium has not been able to

,

make any preparations and where no confed

“
c rate is available the fut ility o f the
, natu ra
way of accounting for the manifestations b e
comes still fu rther evident S o after all we
.
, ,

come round once more to the recommendati on

that the sitter should not interfere should
,

merely observe should keep an open mind

,

d
and should b e gu i d e d by facts quite irre sPe c
tiv ely of whether the facts b e normal or sup er
1 32 H O W T O S PEA K WI TH TH E DE A D
of the rationalists and w hen they at the same
,

time discover statements by eminent ration

ali sts that are equally d estr u ctive o f the posi

tions o ccu p 1e d by the sp iritualists it becomes ,

d ifi i cul t for persons who are not clos e stu

'

ver
y
d ents of the matters in disp u te to arrive at a
settled j udgment A ccordingly the following
.
,

obs erv ations may prove of some s ervice .

The tru e natu re of art i cles in the new sp a

pers magazines and reviews should be borne

,

in mind These articles are writ ten p ro fe s

.

smn ally that i s fo r pay an d they have to pro

, , ,

vide comm erc al valu e for the remuneration

'

received by t eir writers Th ey have to b e .

readable and pop ul ar which means that they ,

must be smart and sensational and penned

with much literary ability T h e authors have .

also their own futu re s to thin k of ; they mu st

ple ase their respective editors and they must
show o ff to the best advantage such stores of
knowledge such di alectic al powers and s u ch
, ,

cap abilities in the arts o f sarcasm and abus e as

/

they may p o ssess They are like the barristers

.

in the courts of law They are not concerned

.

for either j u stic e or truth Their business is to .

snatch a verdict if they can ; and to do this they

find their b e st plan i s to fasten up on the we ak
 “
S P IRI T UALI SM ”
AND RA T IONA LI SM ”
1 33

points of their adversaries and ignor e the

strong ones ; while as regards the i r o w
, n cases ,

they make the most of every favourable fea

ture and keep all doubtful points in the back
ground S o the reader should be on hi s or her
.

guard and should not accept meekly as a mat

, ,

ter of cou rs e anything that appears in pr int

, .

A goo d example of what is here referred to

may be found in the S trand M agaz i nc of J uly ,

“
1 9 1 7 under the titl e of I S Sir O liver L od ge
,

Right Y e s by S ir A C onan D oyle N o

? ‘

,
’
. .
‘
,
’

”
by E dward Clo dd .

P ersons who wish to pursue the stu dy of

di alectics and partisan literature in connection
with psychical phenomena may be recomm end
ed to read Ligh t and T he I n ternational Psy
chi c Gaz e tte wh i ch are the two leading organs
,

of the S piritualists in E ngland and th e Li t ,

crary Gu i de ( the su b title b e ing T he R ation

-

alist R evi ew ) wh ic,h is publ i shed by the R a

tionali st P ress A ssociation and is th e recog ,

n i se d mouthpi e ce of the most d i stingu ished ex

o ne n ts of Rat i onal i sm i n the U ni ted K ing

p
dom All three o f the publi cations referred to
.

are ch aracter i sed by much lear ni ng and v ery

g re a t a b i l i ty. The facts they record are select

e d carefully from partisan points of view an d
1 341 H O W T O S PEAK W I TH TH E DEAD
th e comm ents and arguments that app ear m
-
their pages are admirably one sided an d cor
r e sp o n d i ngly conclus ive
. But the reader is
thu s enabled to se e both sides of the shield ,

and h as himself only to blame if he become the

champion of e ither gold or silver .

C urrent literature however is not the only

, ,

danger in the path of persons who desire to

walk in the company of Reason C urrent .

teaching is perhaps even more formidable and ,

especially so where S cience is concerned The .

pop ular idea of s cientific men is that they are

votaries of T and are deaf to the voice of
every other d Henc e the authority W1eld
ed by the leaders of S cience and the willing
,

obedience r endered to their behests I t is rarely

.

remembered that scientific men are simple h u

man beings subj ect to th e same weaknesses
,

and possess ed of the same foibles as the rest

of the race History has shown that if power
.

be placed in the hands of any professional set

of men it will inevitably be abused ; and S ci
ence does not provide an exception to the rule .

Ther e is every whit as mu ch b igotry b lind d og

fi

ma and savage intolerance in sci entific circles

as ever ther e was in any ecclesiasti cal or puri
tanical organisations . S ir Wil liam C rooke s ,
1 36 H O W T O S PE AK WI TH THE DEAD
from the surviva l of th e souls by whom they
ar e accomplished.

S u rsu m cord a
. L et us s p e ak to the dead
and let u s add their knowledge and counsel to
common store .
De ac rd med us mg th e Boo kk ee pe r proc e ss
e
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e e e
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