this corresponds very well with what has been said before.
There are always a number of obstacles to clear communication, and the
degree to which these are overcome would represent the degree of
clearness of the communications. The process of transferring a mental
picture to the medium may be attended with all kinds of difficulties of
which we know nothing. Assuming, for the sake of argument, that there is
a sort of etheric body, or double, and that this is in any way involved
in the process, we might have the following "difficulties" to encounter:
The difficulty in picturing the event clearly in the communicator's
mind; difficulty in transferring it to the light; difficulty in getting
this transferred to the medium's physical body; the difficulty of
manipulating the latter. We know that we often have great difficulty in
manipulating our own bodies properly; and, in paralysis and kindred
affections, we are unable to do so at all. Yet we are thoroughly
familiar with our own bodies, and know how they work. How much more
difficult would it be if we were suddenly transplanted in _another_
person's body, and had to manipulate _that_? We should have to "learn
the ropes," so to say; and all the little automatic tricks, and habits,
and slips of speech, and what not, would be liable to slip out without
our consent and before we knew it. We should "inherit," in fact, its
whole psychological and physiological "setting." This being the case, we
may readily see how difficult it would be for a discarnate spirit to
manipulate another organism; and how likely it would be to allow certain
tricks and habits of the medium herself to slip through, without being
able to control them. As one communicator said, through Mrs. Chenoweth:
"I do not like those 'don'ts'; they are hers, not mine." Here is a clear
recognition of the difficulty involved in controlling the organism, and
this is greatly accentuated when we remember that all such
communications must be given when the _soi-disant_ communicator is in a
constrained mental attitude--"gripping the light," "hanging on to the
medium's body," while giving the communications. There is a double
strain involved; and, as Dr. Hyslop said: "With what facility could I
superintend the work of helping a drowning person and talk philosophy at
the same time? How well could I hold a plough in stony ground and
discuss protection and free-trade?" It is small wonder that the messages
should be fragmentary and in