in the specific definiteness of the messages through
Mrs. Piper, where the subliminal, if intermediary at all, is
passive and automatic, we lose in the dream-like and disturbed
mental state of the communicator."

22. Another difficulty must be referred to in this place; and that is
the probable loss of control over the stream of thought by spirits, such
as we exercise in this life. Here, the checks and inhibitions are easily
accomplished, unless disease in some manner prevents them; but there are
strong indications that a "spirit"--at least when communicating--cannot
control his stream of thinking to the same extent; and that, if it is
constantly interrupted--by questions, etc., as it usually is--it tends
to break up and become automatic, echolalic, or useless. That even
experienced and careful psychic researchers will interfere with the flow
of consciousness in this manner I know to be a fact; I myself, though I
had been especially warned against doing so, did the same thing in my
Piper sittings! Some of these difficulties I endeavoured to make clear
in a letter, which I wrote to the English _Journal S.P.R._, and which
appeared in March, 1908. In it I said:

"For the sake of argument, let us assume that the intelligences
that communicate through the organism of Mrs. Piper--and perhaps of
some other mediums--are spirits of the departed, and that they
temporarily 'possess' the organism of the medium (at least in part)
during the process of communicating. That is the generally-held
theory, I believe, and the simplest one to account for the facts.
If this be true, it is to be supposed that the normal consciousness
of the medium is in some manner removed, superseded, or withdrawn,
and that only some "vegetable consciousness" remains, as it were,
sufficient to keep the organism going until the return of the
normal consciousness and normal control by the medium. Meanwhile,
the controlling intelligence is, by supposition, influencing the
nervous mechanism of the medium's body--directly or indirectly
through some etheric medium--and influencing it to write out
letters and words by the usual slow and laborious process. That
they _do_ find it slow and laborious is evidenced by the fact that
all possible abbreviations are adopted--'U.D.' being used for
'Understand'; 'M' is frequently written 'N,' and so on. Even in our
no