The Vital Message
By SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

CHAPTER  III
THE GREAT ARGUMENT

  
The physical basis of all psychic belief is that the soul is
a complete duplicate of the body, resembling it in the smallest
particular, although constructed in some far more tenuous
material.  In ordinary conditions these two bodies are
intermingled so that the identity of the finer one is entirely
obscured.  At death, however, and under certain conditions in the
course of life, the two divide and can be seen separately.  Death
differs from the conditions of separation before death in that
there is a complete break between the two bodies, and life is
carried on entirely by the lighter of the two, while the heavier,
like a cocoon from which the living occupant has escaped,
degenerates and disappears, the world burying the cocoon with
much solemnity by taking little pains to ascertain what has
become of its nobler contents.  It is a vain thing to
urge that science has not admitted this contention, and that the
statement is pure dogmatism.  The science which has not examined
the facts has, it is true, not admitted the contention, but its
opinion is manifestly worthless, or at the best of less weight
than that of the humblest student of psychic phenomena.  The real
science which has examined the facts is the only valid authority,
and it is practically unanimous.  I have made personal appeals to
at least one great leader of science to examine the facts,
however superficially, without any success, while Sir William
Crookes appealed to Sir George Stokes, the Secretary of the Royal
Society, one of the most bitter opponents of the movement, to
come down to his laboratory and see the psychic force at work,
but he took no notice.  What weight has science of that sort?  It
can only be compared to that theological prejudice which caused
the Ecclesiastics in the days of Galileo to refuse to look
through the telescope which he held out to them.
  
It is possible to write down the names of fifty professors in
great seats of learning who have examined and endorsed these
facts, and the list would include many of the greatest
intellects which the world has produced in our time--Flammarion
and Lombroso, Charles Richet and Russel Wallace, Willie Reichel,
Myers, Zollner, James, Lodge, and Crookes.  Therefore the facts
HAVE been endorsed by the only science that has the right to
express an opinion.  I have never, in my thirty years of
experience, known one single scientific man who went thoroughly
into this matter and did not end by accepting the Spiritual
solution.  Such may exist, but I repeat that I have never heard
of him.  Let us, then, with confidence examine this matter of the
"spiritual body," to use the term made classical by Saint Paul.
There are many signs in his writings that Paul was deeply versed
in psychic matters, and one of these is his exact definition of
the natural and spiritual bodies in the service which is the
final farewell to life of every Christian.  Paul picked his
words, and if he had meant that man consisted of a natural body
and a spirit he would have said so.  When he said "a spiritual
body" he meant a body which contained the spirit and yet was
distinct from the ordinary natural body.  That is exactly
what psychic science has now shown to be true.
  
When a man has taken hashish or certain other drugs, he not
infrequently has the experience that he is standing or floating
beside his own body, which he can see stretched senseless upon
the couch.  So also under anaesthetics, particularly under
laughing gas, many people are conscious of a detachment from
their bodies, and of experiences at a distance.  I have myself
seen very clearly my wife and children inside a cab while I was
senseless in the dentist's chair.  Again, when a man is fainting
or dying, and his system in an unstable condition, it is asserted
in very many definite instances that he can, and does, manifest
himself to others at a distance.  These phantasms of the living,
which have been so carefully explored and docketed by Messrs.
Myers and Gurney, ran into hundreds of cases.  Some people claim
that by an effort of will they can, after going to sleep, propel
their own doubles in the direction which they desire, and visit
those whom they wish to see.  Thus there is a great volume of
evidence--how great no man can say who has not spent diligent
years in exploring it--which vouches for the existence of
this finer body containing the precious jewels of the mind and
spirit, and leaving only gross confused animal functions in its
heavier companion.
  
Mr. Funk, who is a critical student of psychic phenomena, and
also the joint compiler of the standard American dictionary,
narrates a story in point which could be matched from other
sources.  He tells of an American doctor of his acquaintance, and
he vouches personally for the truth of the incident.  This
doctor, in the course of a cataleptic seizure in Florida, was
aware that he had left his body, which he saw lying beside him.
He had none the less preserved his figure and his identity.  The
thought of some friend at a distance came into his mind, and
after an appreciable interval he found himself in that friend's
room, half way across the continent.  He saw his friend, and was
conscious that his friend saw him.  He afterwards returned to his
own room, stood beside his own senseless body, argued within
himself whether he should re-occupy it or not, and finally, duty
overcoming inclination, he merged his two frames together and
continued his life.  A letter from him to his friend
explaining matters crossed a letter from the friend, in which he
told how he also had been aware of his presence.  The incident is
narrated in detail in Mr. Funk's "Psychic Riddle."
  
I do not understand how any man can examine the many
instances coming from various angles of approach without
recognising that there really is a second body of this sort,
which incidentally goes far to account for all stories, sacred or
profane, of ghosts, apparitions and visions.  Now, what is this
second body, and how does it fit into modern religious
revelation?
  
What it is, is a difficult question, and yet when science and
imagination unite, as Tyndall said they should unite, to throw a
searchlight into the unknown, they may produce a beam sufficient
to outline vaguely what will become clearer with the future
advance of our race.  Science has demonstrated that while ether
pervades everything the ether which is actually in a body is
different from the ether outside it.  "Bound" ether is the name
given to this, which Fresnel and others have shown to be denser.
Now, if this fact be applied to the human body, the result
would be that, if all that is visible of that body were removed,
there would still remain a complete and absolute mould of the
body, formed in bound ether which would be different from the
ether around it.  This argument is more solid than mere
speculation, and it shows that even the soul may come to be
defined in terms of matter and is not altogether "such stuff as
dreams are made of."
  
It has been shown that there is some good evidence for the
existence of this second body apart from psychic religion, but to
those who have examined that religion it is the centre of the
whole system, sufficiently real to be recognised by clairvoyants,
to be heard by clairaudients, and even to make an exact
impression upon a photographic plate.  Of the latter phenomenon,
of which I have had some very particular opportunities of
judging, I have no more doubt than I have of the ordinary
photography of commerce.  It had already been shown by the
astronomers that the sensitized plate is a more delicate
recording instrument than the human retina, and that it can show
stars upon a long exposure which the eye has never seen.  It
would appear that the spirit world is really so near to us that a
very little extra help under correct conditions of mediumship
will make all the difference.  Thus the plate, instead of the
eye, may bring the loved face within the range of vision, while
the trumpet, acting as a megaphone, may bring back the familiar
voice where the spirit whisper with no mechanical aid was still
inaudible.  So loud may the latter phenomenon be that in one
case, of which I have the record, the dead man's dog was so
excited at hearing once more his master's voice that he broke his
chain, and deeply scarred the outside of the seance room door in
his efforts to force an entrance.
  
Now, having said so much of the spirit body, and having
indicated that its presence is not vouched for by only one line
of evidence or school of thought, let us turn to what happens at
the time of death, according to the observation of clairvoyants
on this side and the posthumous accounts of the dead upon the
other.  It is exactly what we should expect to happen, granted
the double identity.  In a painless and natural process the
lighter disengages itself from the heavier, and slowly draws
itself off until it stands with the same mind, the same emotions,
and an exactly similar body, beside the couch of death, aware of
those around and yet unable to make them aware of it, save where
that finer spiritual eyesight called clairvoyance exists.  How,
we may well ask, can it see without the natural organs?  How did
the hashish victim see his own unconscious body?  How did the
Florida doctor see his friend?  There is a power of perception in
the spiritual body which does give the power.  We can say no
more.  To the clairvoyant the new spirit seems like a filmy
outline.  To the ordinary man it is invisible.  To another spirit
it would, no doubt, seem as normal and substantial as we appear
to each other.  There is some evidence that it refines with time,
and is therefore nearer to the material at the moment of death or
closely after it, than after a lapse of months or years.  Hence,
it is that apparitions of the dead are most clear and most common
about the time of death, and hence also, no doubt, the fact that
the cataleptic physician already quoted was seen and
recognised by his friend.  The meshes of his ether, if the phrase
be permitted, were still heavy with the matter from which they
had only just been disentangled.
  
Having disengaged itself from grosser matter, what happens to
this spirit body, the precious bark which bears our all in all
upon this voyage into unknown seas?  Very many accounts have come
back to us, verbal and written, detailing the experiences of
those who have passed on.  The verbal are by trance mediums,
whose utterances appear to be controlled by outside
intelligences.  The written from automatic writers whose script
is produced in the same way.  At these words the critic naturally
and reasonably shies, with a "What nonsense!  How can you control
the statement of this medium who is consciously or unconsciously
pretending to inspiration?"  This is a healthy scepticism, and
should animate every experimenter who tests a new medium.  The
proofs must lie in the communication itself.  If they are not
present, then, as always, we must accept natural rather than
unknown explanations.  But they are continually present, and in
such obvious forms that no one can deny them.  There is a
certain professional medium to whom I have sent many, mothers who
were in need of consolation.  I always ask the applicants to
report the result to me, and I have their letters of surprise and
gratitude before me as I write.  "Thank you for this beautiful
and interesting experience.  She did not make a single mistake
about their names, and everything she said was correct."  In this
case there was a rift between husband and wife before death, but
the medium was able, unaided, to explain and clear up the whole
matter, mentioning the correct circumstances, and names of
everyone concerned, and showing the reasons for the non-arrival
of certain letters, which had been the cause of the
misunderstanding.  The next case was also one of husband and
wife, but it is the husband who is the survivor.  He says:  "It
was a most successful sitting.  Among other things, I addressed a
remark in Danish to my wife (who is a Danish girl), and the
answer came back in English without the least hesitation."  The
next case was again of a man who had lost a very dear male
friend.  "I have had the most wonderful results with Mrs.
---- to-day.  I cannot tell you the joy it has been to me.  Many
grateful thanks for your help."  The next one says:  "Mrs. ----
was simply wonderful.  If only more people knew, what agony they
would be spared."  In this case the wife got in touch with the
husband, and the medium mentioned correctly five dead relatives
who were in his company.  The next is a case of mother and son.
"I saw Mrs. ---- to-day, and obtained very wonderful results.
She told me nearly everything quite correctly--a very few
mistakes."  The next is similar.  "We were quite successful.  My
boy even reminded me of something that only he and I knew."  Says
another:  "My boy reminded me of the day when he sowed turnip
seed upon the lawn.  Only he could have known of this."  These
are fair samples of the letters, of which I hold a large number.
They are from people who present themselves from among the
millions living in London, or the provinces, and about whose
affairs the medium had no possible normal way of knowing.  Of all
the very numerous cases which I have sent to this medium I have
only had a few which have been complete failures.  On quoting
my results to Sir Oliver Lodge, he remarked that his own
experience with another medium had been almost identical.  It is
no exaggeration to say that our British telephone systems would
probably give a larger proportion of useless calls.  How is any
critic to get beyond these facts save by ignoring or
misrepresenting them?  Healthy, scepticism is the basis of all
accurate observation, but there comes a time when incredulity
means either culpable ignorance or else imbecility, and this time
has been long past in the matter of spirit intercourse.
  
In my own case, this medium mentioned correctly the first
name of a lady who had died in our house, gave several very
characteristic messages from her, described the only two dogs
which we have ever kept, and ended by saying that a young officer
was holding up a gold coin by which I would recognise him.  I had
lost my brother-in-law, an army doctor, in the war, and I had
given him a spade guinea for his first fee, which he always wore
on his chain.  There were not more than two or three close
relatives who knew about this incident, so that the test was a
particularly good one.  She made no incorrect statements,
though some were vague.  After I had revealed the identity of
this medium several pressmen attempted to have test seances with
her--a test seance being, in most cases, a seance which begins by
breaking every psychic condition and making success most
improbable.  One of these gentlemen, Mr. Ulyss Rogers, had very
fair results.  Another sent from "Truth" had complete failure.
It must be understood that these powers do not work from the
medium, but through the medium, and that the forces in the beyond
have not the least sympathy with a smart young pressman in search
of clever copy, while they have a very different feeling to a
bereaved mother who prays with all her broken heart that some
assurance may be given her that the child of her love is not gone
from her for ever.  When this fact is mastered, and it is
understood that "Stand and deliver" methods only excite gentle
derision on the other side, we shall find some more intelligent
manner of putting things of the spirit to the proof.[3]


[3]  See Appendix D.

  
I have dwelt upon these results, which could be matched
by other mediums, to show that we have solid and certain reasons
to say that the verbal reports are not from the mediums
themselves.  Readers of Arthur Hill's "Psychical Investigations"
will find many even more convincing cases.  So in the written
communications, I have in a previous paper pointed to the "Gate
of Remembrance" case, but there is a great mass of material which
proves that, in spite of mistakes and failures, there really is a
channel of communication, fitful and evasive sometimes, but
entirely beyond coincidence or fraud.  These, then, are the usual
means by which we receive psychic messages, though table tilting,
ouija boards, glasses upon a smooth surface, or anything which
can be moved by the vital animal-magnetic force already discussed
will equally serve the purpose.  Often information is conveyed
orally or by writing which could not have been known to anyone
concerned.  Mr. Wilkinson has given details of the case where his
dead son drew attention to the fact that a curio (a coin bent by
a bullet) had been overlooked among his effects.  Sir William
Barrett has narrated how a young officer sent a message
leaving a pearl tie-pin to a friend.  No one knew that such a pin
existed, but it was found among his things.  The death of Sir
Hugh Lane was given at a private seance in Dublin before the
details of the Lusitania disaster had been published.[4]  On that
morning we ourselves, in a small seance, got the message "It is
terrible, terrible, and will greatly affect the war," at a time
when we were convinced that no great loss of life could have
occurred.  Such examples are very numerous, and are only quoted
here to show how impossible it is to invoke telepathy as the
origin of such messages.  There is only one explanation which
covers the facts.  They are what they say they are, messages from
those who have passed on, from the spiritual body which was seen
to rise from the deathbed, which has been so often photographed,
which pervades all religion in every age, and which has been
able, under proper circumstances, to materialise back into a
temporary solidity so that it could walk and talk like a mortal,
whether in Jerusalem two thousand years ago, or in the
laboratory of Mr. Crookes, in Mornington Road, London.


[4]  The details of both these latter cases are to be found in
"Voices from the Void" by Mrs. Travers Smith, a book containing
some well weighed evidence.


  
Let us for a moment examine the facts in this Crookes'
episode.  A small book exists which describes them, though it is
not as accessible as it should be.  In these wonderful
experiments, which extended over several years, Miss Florrie
Cook, who was a young lady of from 16 to 18 years of age, was
repeatedly confined in Prof. Crookes' study, the door being
locked on the inside.  Here she lay unconscious upon a couch.
The spectators assembled in the laboratory, which was separated
by a curtained opening from the study.  After a short interval,
through this opening there emerged a lady who was in all ways
different from Miss Cook.  She gave her earth name as Katie King,
and she proclaimed herself to be a materialised spirit, whose
mission it was "to carry the knowledge of immortality to mortals.

She was of great beauty of face, figure, and manner.  She was
four and a half inches taller than Miss Cook, fair, whereas the
latter was dark, and as different from her as one woman could be
from another.  Her pulse rate was markedly slower.  She became
for the time entirely one of the company, walking about,
addressing each person present, and taking delight in the
children.  She made no objection to photography or any other
test.  Forty-eight photographs of different degrees of excellence
were made of her.  She was seen at the same time as the medium on
several occasions.  Finally she departed, saying that her mission
was over and that she had other work to do.  When she vanished
materialism should have vanished also, if mankind had taken
adequate notice of the facts.
  
Now, what can the fair-minded inquirer say to such a story as
that--one of many, but for the moment we are concentrating upon
it?  Was Mr. Crookes a blasphemous liar?  But there were very
many witnesses, as many sometimes as eight at a single sitting.
And there are the photographs which include Miss Cook and show
that the two women were quite different.  Was he honestly
mistaken?  But that is inconceivable.  Read the original
narrative and see if you can find any solution save that it is
true.  If a man can read that sober, cautious statement and not
be convinced, then assuredly his brain, is out of gear.
Finally, ask yourself whether any religious manifestation in the
world has had anything like the absolute proof which lies in this
one.  Cannot the orthodox see that instead of combating such a
story, or talking nonsense about devils, they should hail that
which is indeed the final answer to that materialism which is
their really dangerous enemy.  Even as I write, my eye falls upon
a letter on my desk from an officer who had lost all faith in
immortality and become an absolute materialist.  "I came to dread
my return home, for I cannot stand hypocrisy, and I knew well my
attitude would cause some members of my family deep grief.  Your
book has now brought me untold comfort, and I can face the future
cheerfully."  Are these fruits from the Devil's tree, you timid
orthodox critic?
  
Having then got in touch with our dead, we proceed,
naturally, to ask them how it is with them, and under what
conditions they exist.  It is a very vital question, since what
has befallen them yesterday will surely befall us to-morrow.  But
the answer is tidings of great joy.  Of the new vital message
to humanity nothing is more important than that.  It rolls away
all those horrible man-bred fears and fancies, founded upon
morbid imaginations and the wild phrases of the oriental.  We
come upon what is sane, what is moderate, what is reasonable,
what is consistent with gradual evolution and with the
benevolence of God.  Were there ever any conscious blasphemers
upon earth who have insulted the Deity so deeply as those
extremists, be they Calvinist, Roman Catholic, Anglican, or Jew,
who pictured with their distorted minds an implacable torturer as
the Ruler of the Universe!
  
The truth of what is told us as to the life beyond can in its
very nature never be absolutely established.  It is far nearer to
complete proof, however, than any religious revelation which has
ever preceded it.  We have the fact that these accounts are mixed
up with others concerning our present life which are often
absolutely true.  If a spirit can tell the truth about our
sphere, it is difficult to suppose that he is entirely false
about his own.  Then, again, there is a very great similarity
about such accounts, though their origin may be from people very
far apart.  Thus though "non-veridical," to use the modern
jargon, they do conform to all our canons of evidence.  A series
of books which have attracted far less attention than they
deserve have drawn the coming life in very close detail.  These
books are not found on railway bookstalls or in popular
libraries, but the successive editions through which they pass
show that there is a deeper public which gets what it wants in
spite of artificial obstacles.
  
Looking over the list of my reading I find, besides nearly a
dozen very interesting and detailed manuscript accounts, such
published narratives as "Claude's Book," purporting to come from
a young British  aviator; "Thy Son Liveth," from an American
soldier, "Private Dowding"; "Raymond," from a British soldier;
"Do Thoughts Perish?" which contains accounts from several
British soldiers and others; "I Heard a Voice," where a well-
known K.C., through the mediumship of his two young daughters,
has a very full revelation of the life beyond; "After Death,"
with the alleged experiences of the famous Miss Julia Ames; "The
Seven Purposes," from an American pressman, and many others.
They differ much in literary skill and are not all equally
impressive, but the point which must strike any impartial mind is
the general agreement of these various accounts as to the
conditions of spirit life.  An examination would show that some
of them must have been in the press at the same time, so that
they could not have each inspired the other.  "Claude's Book" and
"Thy Son Liveth" appeared at nearly the same time on different
sides of the Atlantic, but they agree very closely.  "Raymond"
and "Do Thoughts Perish?" must also have been in the press
together, but the scheme of things is exactly the same.  Surely
the agreement of witnesses must here, as in all cases, be
accounted as a test of truth.  They differ mainly, as it seems to
me, when they deal with their own future including speculations
as to reincarnation, etc., which may well be as foggy to them as
it is to us, or systems of philosophy where again individual
opinion is apparent.
  
Of all these accounts the one which is most deserving of
study is "Raymond."  This is so because it has been compiled from
several famous mediums working independently of each other,
and has been checked and chronicled by a man who is not only one
of the foremost scientists of the world, and probably the leading
intellectual force in Europe, but one who has also had a unique
experience of the precautions necessary for the observation of
psychic phenomena.  The bright and sweet nature of the young
soldier upon the other side, and his eagerness to tell of his
experience is also a factor which will appeal to those who are
already satisfied as to the truth of the communications.  For all
these reasons it is a most important document--indeed it would be
no exaggeration to say that it is one of the most important in
recent literature.  It is, as I believe, an authentic account of
the life in the beyond, and it is often more interesting from its
sidelights and reservations than for its actual assertions,
though the latter bear the stamp of absolute frankness and
sincerity.  The compilation is in some ways faulty.  Sir Oliver
has not always the art of writing so as to be understanded of the
people, and his deeper and more weighty thoughts get in the way
of the clear utterances of his son.  Then again, in his anxiety
to be absolutely accurate, Sir Oliver has reproduced the fact
that sometimes Raymond is speaking direct, and sometimes the
control is reporting what Raymond is saying, so that the same
paragraph may turn several times from the first person to the
third in a manner which must be utterly unintelligible to those
who are not versed in the subject.  Sir Oliver will, I am sure,
not be offended if I say that, having satisfied his conscience by
the present edition, he should now leave it for reference, and
put forth a new one which should contain nothing but the words of
Raymond and his spirit friends.  Such a book, published at a low
price, would, I think, have an amazing effect, and get all this
new teaching to the spot that God has marked for it--the minds
and hearts of the people.
  
So much has been said here about mediumship that perhaps it
would be well to consider this curious condition a little more
closely.  The question of mediumship, what it is and how it acts,
is one of the most mysterious in the whole range of science.  It
is a common objection to say if our dead are there why should we
only hear of them through people by no means remarkable for
moral or mental gifts, who are often paid for their
ministration.  It is a plausible argument, and yet when we
receive a telegram from a brother in Australia we do not say:
"It is strange that Tom should not communicate with me direct,
but that the presence of that half-educated fellow in the
telegraph office should be necessary."  The medium is in truth a
mere passive machine, clerk and telegraph in one.  Nothing comes
FROM him.  Every message is THROUGH him.  Why he or she
should have the power more than anyone else is a very interesting
problem.  This power may best be defined as the capacity for
allowing the bodily powers, physical or mental, to be used by an
outside influence.  In its higher forms there is temporary
extinction of personality and the substitution of some other
controlling spirit.  At such times the medium may entirely lose
consciousness, or he may retain it and be aware of some external
experience which has been enjoyed by his own entity while his
bodily house has been filled by the temporary tenant.  Or the
medium may retain consciousness, and with eyes and ears attuned
to a higher key than the normal man can attain, he may see
and hear what is beyond our senses.  Or in writing mediumship, a
motor centre of the brain regulating the nerves and muscles of
the arm may be controlled while all else seems to be normal.  Or
it may take the more material form of the exudation of a strange
white evanescent dough-like substance called the ectoplasm, which
has been frequently photographed by scientific enquirers in
different stages of its evolution, and which seems to possess an
inherent quality of shaping itself into parts or the whole of a
body, beginning in a putty-like mould and ending in a resemblance
to perfect human members.  Or the ectoplasm, which seems to be an
emanation of the medium to the extent that whatever it may weigh
is so much subtracted from his substance, may be used as
projections or rods which can convey objects or lift weights.  A
friend, in whose judgment and veracity I have absolute
confidence, was present at one of Dr. Crawford's experiments with
Kathleen Goligher, who is, it may be remarked, an unpaid medium.
My friend touched the column of force, and found it could be felt
by the hand though invisible to the eye.  It is clear that we
are in touch with some entirely new form both of matter and of
energy.  We know little of the properties of this extraordinary
substance save that in its materialising form it seems extremely
sensitive to the action of light.  A figure built up in it and
detached from the medium dissolves in light quicker than a snow
image under a tropical sun, so that two successive flash-light
photographs would show the one a perfect figure, and the next an
amorphous mass.  When still attached to the medium the ectoplasm
flies back with great force on exposure to light, and, in spite
of the laughter of the scoffers, there is none the less good
evidence that several mediums have been badly injured by the
recoil after a light has suddenly been struck by some amateur
detective.  Professor Geley has, in his recent experiments,
described the ectoplasm as appearing outside the black dress of
his medium as if a hoar frost had descended upon her, then
coalescing into a continuous sheet of white substance, and oozing
down until it formed a sort of apron in front of her.[5]
This process he has illustrated by a very complete series of
photographs.


[5]  For Geley's Experiments,  Appendix A.

  
These are a few of the properties of mediumship.  There are
also the beautiful phenomena of the production of lights, and the
rarer, but for evidential purposes even more valuable,
manifestations of spirit photography.  The fact that the
photograph does not correspond in many cases with any which
existed in life, must surely silence the scoffer, though there is
a class of bigoted sceptic who would still be sneering if an
Archangel alighted in Trafalgar Square.  Mr. Hope and Mrs.
Buxton, of Crewe, have brought this phase of mediumship to great
perfection, though others have powers in that direction.  Indeed,
in some cases it is difficult to say who the medium may have
been, for in one collective family group which was taken in the
ordinary way, and was sent me by a master in a well known public
school, the young son who died has appeared in the plate seated
between his two little brothers.
  
As to the personality of mediums, they have seemed to me to
be very average specimens of the community, neither markedly
better nor markedly worse.  I know many, and I have never met
anything in the least like "Sludge," a poem which Browning might
be excused for writing in some crisis of domestic disagreement,
but which it was inexcusable to republish since it is admitted to
be a concoction, and the exposure described to have been
imaginary.  The critic often uses the term medium as if it
necessarily meant a professional, whereas every investigator has
found some of his best results among amateurs.  In the two finest
seances I ever attended, the psychic, in each case a man of
moderate means, was resolutely determined never directly or
indirectly to profit by his gift, though it entailed very
exhausting physical conditions.  I have not heard of a clergyman
of any denomination who has attained such a pitch of altruism--
nor is it reasonable to expect it.  As to professional mediums,
Mr. Vout Peters, one of the most famous, is a diligent collector
of old books and an authority upon the Elizabethan drama; while
Mr. Dickinson, another very remarkable discerner of spirits, who
named twenty-four correctly during two meetings held on the same
day, is employed in loading canal barges.  This man is one
gifted clairvoyants in  England, though Tom Tyrrell the
weaver, Aaron Wilkinson, and others are very marvellous.
Tyrrell, who is a man of the Anthony of Padua type, a walking
saint, beloved of animals and children, is a figure who might
have stepped out of some legend of the church.  Thomas, the
powerful physical medium, is a working coal miner.  Most mediums
take their responsibilities very seriously and view their work in
a religious light.  There is no denying that they are exposed to
very particular temptations, for the gift is, as I have explained
elsewhere, an intermittent one, and to admit its temporary
absence, and so discourage one's clients, needs greater moral
principle than all men possess.  Another temptation to which
several great mediums have succumbed is that of drink.  This
comes about in a very natural way, for overworking the power
leaves them in a state of physical prostration, and the stimulus
of alcohol affords a welcome relief, and may tend at last to
become a custom and finally a curse.  Alcoholism always weakens
the moral sense, so that these degenerate mediums yield
themselves more readily to fraud, with the result that
several who had deservedly won honoured names and met all hostile
criticism have, in their later years, been detected in the most
contemptible tricks.  It is a thousand pities that it should be
so, but if the Court of Arches were to give up its secrets, it
would be found that tippling and moral degeneration were by no
means confined to psychics.  At the same time, a psychic is so
peculiarly sensitive that I think he or she would always be well
advised to be a life long abstainer--as many actually are.
  
As to the method by which they attain their results they
have, when in the trance state, no recollection.  In the case of
normal clairvoyants and clairaudients, the information comes in
different ways.  Sometimes it is no more than a strong mental
impression which gives a name or an address.  Sometimes they say
that they see it written up before them.  Sometimes the spirit
figures seem to call it to them.  "They yell it at me," said one.

We need more first-hand accounts of these matters before we can
formulate laws.
  
It has been stated in a previous book by the author, but it
will bear repetition, that the use of the seance should, in
his opinion, be carefully regulated as well as reverently
conducted.  Having once satisfied himself of the absolute
existence of the unseen world, and of its proximity to our own,
the inquirer has got the great gift which psychical investigation
can give him, and thenceforth he can regulate his life upon the
lines which the teaching from beyond has shown to be the best.
There is much force in the criticism that too constant
intercourse with the affairs of another world may distract our
attention and weaken our powers in dealing with our obvious
duties in this one.  A seance, with the object of satisfying
curiosity or of rousing interest, cannot be an elevating
influence, and the mere sensation-monger can make this holy and
wonderful thing as base as the over-indulgence in a stimulant.
On the other hand, where the seance is used for the purpose of
satisfying ourselves as to the condition of those whom we have
lost, or of giving comfort to others who crave for a word from
beyond, then it is, indeed, a blessed gift from God to be used
with moderation and with thankfulness.  Our loved ones have their
own pleasant tasks in their new surroundings, and though they
assure us that they love to clasp the hands which we stretch out
to them, we should still have some hesitation in intruding to an
unreasonable extent upon the routine of their lives.
  
A word should be said as to that fear of fiends and evil
spirits which appears to have so much weight with some of the
critics of this subject.  When one looks more closely at this
emotion it seems somewhat selfish and cowardly.  These creatures
are in truth our own backward brothers, bound for the same
ultimate destination as ourselves, but retarded by causes for
which our earth conditions may have been partly responsible.  Our
pity and sympathy should go out to them, and if they do indeed
manifest at a seance, the proper Christian attitude is, as it
seems to me, that we should reason with them and pray for them in
order to help them upon their difficult way.  Those who have
treated them in this way have found a very marked difference in
the subsequent communications.  In Admiral Usborne Moore's
"Glimpses of the Next State" there will be found some records
of an American circle which devoted itself entirely to missionary
work of this sort.  There is some reason to believe that there
are forms of imperfect development which can be helped more by
earthly than by purely spiritual influences, for the reason,
perhaps, that they are closer to the material.
  
In a recent case I was called in to endeavour to check a very
noisy entity which frequented an old house in which there were
strong reasons to believe that crime had been committed, and also
that the criminal was earth-bound.  Names were given by the
unhappy spirit which proved to be correct, and a cupboard was
described, which was duly found, though it had never before been
suspected.  On getting into touch with the spirit I endeavoured
to reason with it and to explain how selfish it was to cause
misery to others in order to satisfy any feelings of revenge
which it might have carried over from earth life.  We then prayed
for its welfare, exhorted it to rise higher, and received a very
solemn assurance, tilted out at the table, that it would mend its
ways.  I have very gratifying reports that it has done so,
and that all is now quiet in the old house.
  
Let us now consider the life in the Beyond as it is shown to
us by the new revelation.
 

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