ons
so rare? Why such trouble with proper names? How do the "spirits"
manipulate the nervous organism, and particularly the brain, of the
medium? Upon what cells or centres do they operate? and how? Does the
psychic constitution of the communicator affect the results--and if so,
how? What is the condition of the communicator's mind while
communicating? Is the medium's spirit entirely removed from the body
during the process of communication? and if so, where is it, and what is
it doing? How does the medium's mind affect the content of the
communications--and to what extent? These, and a thousand other
questions of a like nature, immediately present themselves, and call for
solution, as soon as the reality of the facts be granted--as soon as
spirit communication be accepted as a fact. This will constitute the
work of the future--the detailed study of the facts--not merely
regarding them from the point of view of evidence. Real, scientific
psychical research will then begin. The subject will then, for the
first time, become a legitimate branch of human study.

Yet, even now, it may not be altogether unprofitable to adduce a few
reflections which have been suggested by a study of the facts, up to the
present time. If theories and speculations of this nature have in
themselves no value, they often stimulate others to experiment or to
reflect upon the same line--sometimes with strikingly important and
interesting results. It is chiefly with this object in mind that I offer
the following suggestions--the result of some years of thought and
research in this particular field.

(1) Before it is possible for any one to appreciate the importance and
significance of psychical research, it is necessary for him to become
"inoculated," as it were, with materialism! To one who admits, _a
priori_, the reality of a spiritual world, and sees no difficulties in
the way of accepting it, there is, of course, no need to convince him
further. But once admit the position held by modern science
(particularly biological science) that life is a function of the
organism, and that thought is a function of the brain, and the phenomena
assume a very different importance. To state the case in precise terms,
I could not do better than to quote the words of Professor John Lewis
March, when he says "Mind is not found to exist apart from matter" (_A
Theory of Mind_, p. 11). And it must be admitted that--apart from the
facts of psychical research--there i