natural that those who have passed over in the war
should, when conditions allow, use this means of establishing their
identity, and many have done so successfully! One case of
particular interest is that of a boy who was blown to pieces in
France last year. His mother wrote in great distress to a friend in
Edinburgh stating that the boy had been killed. This friend had not
seen the boy since his school-days, but being interested in
spiritualism, and able to get in touch with those on the 'other
side,' she asked her father, who had passed over, if it would be
possible for the boy to be photographed. He said it was doubtful,
but they would do their best. She therefore made arrangements to
have a sitting with the Crewe mediums, who possess this power which
enables those on the other side to manifest sufficiently to be
photographed.

[Illustration: "Psychic Photographs" (4, 5)]

"Two plates were exposed, and on one side, beside the photo of the
lady herself, there is an unmistakable photo of the boy. I have
seen it, and a photo of the boy taken before he went to France,
and there is no mistaking the likeness. She sent the pictures to
his parents, who before this had not been believers in the
possibility of communication with those who have passed on--with
the result that they are now convinced of it, and have received
several comforting and assuring messages from their boy."

We see how imperceptibly ordinary psychic photographs shade off into
those more definitely spiritistic in character. This is true in nearly
all phenomena in this realm. It is hard to draw any hard-and-fast line,
and say: "_This_ is due to powers within our own being, and _this_ is
due to external spiritual beings!" They merge one into the other so
gradually that it is extremely difficult to draw any line of demarcation
between the two.

Certainly _some_ of these photographs are due to the thoughts or other
psychic activities of the sitter. Thus we can hardly suppose that the
"spirits" of bottles, walking-sticks and eagles (as in Darget's
experiments) were actually present, and that they impressed themselves
upon the photographic plate! Again, some pictures show us a definite
_face_, which we cannot attribute to any outside influence. The
experimenter merely _thought_ of the face, and it appeared upon the
plate. This being so, how can we _