her mediumship. Formerly the controls communicated
only by using her voice; then some of them began to write. In some of
the sittings one personality communicated through the voice, while
another, entirely different, and speaking of utterly different matters,
communicated simultaneously in writing. For some years now the controls
have only communicated in writing, and have used the right hand only.
The right arm of the medium is in lively movement, while the rest of her
body lies inert, leaning forward upon cushions.

In a long report which has just appeared,[6] Mr James Hyslop, Professor
of Logic and Ethics at the University of Columbia, in the State of New
York, describes the beginning of the trance in detail as it now takes
place. At the first sitting he had with Mrs Piper he seated himself more
than a yard from her, in a position which enabled him to observe
attentively all that happened.

The medium remained quietly seated in an armchair for three or four
minutes. Then her head shook and her right eyebrow twitched; all this
time she was trimming her nails. She then leant forward on the cushions
which had been placed on the table for her head to rest upon, and closed
and rubbed her eyes; her face was slightly congested for some instants.
She opened her eyes again, and the ocular globes were visible, slightly
upturned; she blew her nose, and began to attend to her nails again. Her
gaze became slightly fixed. Her face once more changed; the redness
disappeared, and she grew slightly pale. The muscles relaxed, the mouth
was a little drawn on one side, and the stare became more fixed. Finally
her mouth opened and the trance came on gently, like a fainting fit,
without struggle. Then Dr Hodgson arranged her head on the cushions with
her right cheek on her left hand, so that her face was turned to the
left, and she was unable to see her right hand, which soon began to
write automatically.

During the trance the sensibility of Mrs Piper's organism to exterior
excitation is much blunted. If her arm is pricked, even severely, it is
withdrawn but slowly; if a bottle of ammonia is put to her nostrils, and
care is taken that it is inhaled, her head does not betray sensation by
the least movement. One day, if I am not mistaken, Dr Hodgson put a
lighted match to her arm, and asked Phinuit if he felt it.[7]

"Yes," replied Phinuit, "but not much, you know. What is it? Something
cold, isn't it?"

These and numerous other expe