Whereas, if you announce the name of a spirit, your hearers may
consider that the address does not come up to the standard of the
ability displayed by that individual before he dies, and may discredit
and discard the good that they might otherwise have found in your
utterances."

Spirit Advice and Counsel.

If spirits voluntarily tender you their advice upon business matters,
especially if they are friends or relatives whom you know and trust, and
who, when here, were capable and experienced business people, you may
well give heed to their counsel, even though you may not feel it wise to
follow it; but do not make a practice of going to the spirits for
information concerning trade or finance. Why should you expect that wise
and enlightened spirits should concern themselves about stocks and
shares, commerce, or manufacturing? Probably they knew but little about
these things when they were here, and have no heed for such knowledge
over there; and it will be well for you to learn to live your own life,
do your business, and accept the ordinary duties and responsibilities
which naturally devolve upon you. Let mediumship be a PART of your
education and development, not the WHOLE.

Impersonating Manifestations.

It will often happen that some spirit will take control of the medium
for the purpose of communicating with a friend present in the circle or
AUDIENCE, and for the purpose of positively identifying himself to that
friend, he may deem it necessary to cause you to impersonate himself as
he was during his earth life. In such cases you will experience a
peculiar feeling of undergoing a complete transformation of personality,
and often a dual-personality for the time being. Another instance of
this kind is where a spirit wishing to communicate with friends, and
this being his first opportunity to manifest in the impersonating phase,
he may yield to that peculiar psychic law which seems to operate in the
direction of causing a spirit, manifesting for the first time, to enact
his dying experiences, and to manifest a pantomimic reproduction of his
last hours preceding death. In such cases, the medium reproduces, in a
most startlingly real manner, the movements, ways of breathing,
coughing, gestures, ejaculations, and may even go so far as to utter the
"last words" of the dying man whose spirit now controls the medium.
Every medium should be prepared for an experience of this kind, for it
will sometimes completely upset