an of spiritual truth or moral duty if
he were not a spirit possessing the capabilities of receiving and
comprehending, of interpreting and applying, the revelations and
inspirations which appeal to and quicken the inner (and higher) self."

The Mediumistic Character.

The following quotations from eminent modern spiritualists will further
serve to illustrate the accepted general principles of "spirit
communication" on the part of western spiritualism. E. W. Wallis says:
"Spiritualism deals with a higher range and a wider field of
supersensuous phenomena than mesmerism, hypnotism, telepathic
psychometry, clairvoyance, etc., because the natural susceptibility of
man in these directions is increased and intensified, and exercised upon
a superior plane, when it is utilized by intelligent spirit operators.
It is not true that sensitiveness is confined to those who are diseased,
weak of will, neurotic, or hysterical. Those who are susceptible to
psychic influence may be impulsive, warm-hearted, spontaneous, sociable,
and not by any means, or of necessity, weak-minded or vicious." Dr. Dean
Clake says: "The word mediumship, as understood and used by
spiritualists, technically speaking, means a susceptibility to the
influence, and more or less control, of decarnated spirits.
Physiologically, it means a peculiar nervous susceptibility to what may
be termed the 'psychic force,' which spirits use to move the mind or
body or both, of their mortal instrument. Psychologically, it signifies
a passive or negative state of mind and body which renders a person
subject to the positive will-power of spirits who influence him or her."
The spirit control who employed the hand of Stainton Moses, M.A., to
write his thoughts, said: "The mediumistic peculiarity is one of spirit
solely, and not of body, seeing that it occurs in all varieties of
physical frames, in the male and in the female; in the magnetic and in
the electric; in the stout and robust as well as in the puny and thin of
body; in the old and in the young; in all conditions and under all
circumstances. This alone would lead you to see that it is not a
physical matter; and that conclusion is strengthened for you by the fact
that the gift is perpetuated even after death of the earth body. Those
who on your earth have been mediums retain the gift and use it with us.
They are the most frequent visitors to your world; they communicate most
readily; and it is through them that spirits