al body which
does give the power. We can say no more. To the clairvoyant the new
spirit seems like a filmy outline. To the ordinary man it is
invisible. To another spirit it would, no doubt, seem as normal and
substantial as we appear to each other. There is some evidence that it
refines with time, and is therefore nearer to the material at the
moment of death or closely after it, than after a lapse of months or
years. Hence, it is that apparitions of the dead are most clear and
most common about the time of death, and hence also, no doubt, the fact
that the cataleptic physician already quoted was seen and recognised by
his friend. The meshes of his ether, if the phrase be permitted, were
still heavy with the matter from which they had only just been
disentangled.

Having disengaged itself from grosser matter, what happens to this
spirit body, the precious bark which bears our all in all upon this
voyage into unknown seas? Very many accounts have come back to us,
verbal and written, detailing the experiences of those who have passed
on. The verbal are by trance mediums, whose utterances appear to be
controlled by outside intelligences. The written from automatic
writers whose script is produced in the same way. At these words the
critic naturally and reasonably shies, with a "What nonsense! How can
you control the statement of this medium who is consciously or
unconsciously pretending to inspiration?" This is a healthy
scepticism, and should animate every experimenter who tests a new
medium. The proofs must lie in the communication itself. If they are
not present, then, as always, we must accept natural rather than
unknown explanations. But they are continually present, and in such
obvious forms that no one can deny them. There is a certain
professional medium to whom I have sent many, mothers who were in need
of consolation. I always ask the applicants to report the result to
me, and I have their letters of surprise and gratitude before me as I
write. "Thank you for this beautiful and interesting experience. She
did not make a single mistake about their names, and everything she
said was correct." In this case there was a rift between husband and
wife before death, but the medium was able, unaided, to explain and
clear up the whole matter, mentioning the correct circumstances, and
names of everyone concerned, and showing the reasons for the
non-arrival of certain letters, which had been the cause