e famous book by Gurney,
Myers, and Podmore, _Phantasms of the Living_. The telepathic hypothesis
might very well be admitted as an explanation of the facts recorded in
that book, although the spiritualistic hypothesis would explain them as
well, or even better. But when we are considering other facts, such as
those of Mrs Piper's trance, for example, the telepathic hypothesis, in
order to explain them, must be stretched beyond permitted limits.

In the first place, with regard to reading the consciousness of those
present, it would seem that, if we were dealing with telepathy, the
so-called communicator ought generally to bring out the facts of which
the sitters have been thinking most intently. But this hardly ever
happens; in Professor Hyslop's sittings it never happens. Certainly many
of the incidents related were in the consciousness of the sitters, but
the latter were not thinking about them till the communicator recalled
them.

For the same way, if we were dealing with telepathy, it is to be
supposed that the communicators would be the persons whom the sitters
expect. Now this is far from being the case. In the fifteen years during
which Mrs Piper's mediumship has been studied, a great number of
communicators have appeared about whom nobody was thinking. Professor
Hyslop, among others, says that he has met with several communicators
whom he did not in the least expect. Others whom he expected did not
appear. It is a fact worthy of remark that in Professor Hyslop's
sittings only those persons appeared who were capable of telling
something of a nature to prove their identity; the others seem to have
been systematically put aside by Imperator, even when information
concerning them was abundant in the consciousness and subconsciousness
of the sitter.

It would seem that, if we were dealing with telepathy, the self-styled
communicators would most easily utter the least remote ideas of the
sitters' minds; the nearest, most vivid ideas ought to appear first. Now
this is far from being the case. It seems to make no difference to the
communicator whether the idea is familiar or otherwise to the minds of
the living.

When it is a question of facts entirely unknown to the sitters and known
only to persons living at a great distance, this distance might be
expected to affect telepathic mind-reading; nothing in nature authorises
us to neglect this law of distance. We can only conceive the telepathic
process as a propulsi