eems highly probable that
a medium is born and not made, that the gift is hereditary, and that it
depends but little, if at all, upon physical, mental, or moral
characteristics, but rather upon a peculiar and innate make-up which is
independent of all of these. A person is a good psychic or medium just
as another is a good painter or sculptor or pianist. It can be
cultivated by training, but the "germ" must be latent within the
individual, in order that its development may be possible at all.

Granting all this, it seems to me very natural to suppose that some
similar characteristic might be essential to the one on the "other
side," in order that _he_ might be a good communicator. Only a few might
possess this special gift--without which communication would be
impossible--no matter how gifted or clever the individual might be, in
other respects, or how much he longed to communicate. Further, it might
be that this deceased person could only get _en rapport_ with our world
when some one on this side was also and simultaneously endeavouring to
reach him. Neither alone could effect the communication, could bridge
the chasm.

Let me make the theory clearer by means of an analogy. One theory of
consciousness contends that it depends for its existence altogether upon
the touching or inter-connection of certain nervous fibres, without
which consciousness would be impossible, and is, in fact, abolished--as
in sleep. When these "dendrites" touch, communication is established;
when this contact is broken, it is non-existent.

To apply the analogy. When a medium goes into a trance, she throws out
(symbolically) psychic "arms," or pseudopodia, much as an octopus might
feel about him with his tentacled arms. On the other side, a
communicator would also stretch out these mental arms, feeling about for
something to grasp and cling to, something capable of receiving and
transmitting the messages he desired to send. Only when these two
groping arms find each other "in the dark," as it were, would
communication become possible. If only _one_ thus sought, nothing would
result. The rare combination of good sender and good recipient must be
found before this communication is possible at all, and even then, they
must both be striving to communicate at the same moment before any
results follow. It is because of the rarity of this combination and this
coincidence that mediumistic messages are so scarce. In addition to the
earnest desire and