dium and can readily be
utilized as a sort of telephone between the visible and the invisible
planes. A medium is an abnormal person and is a good medium in
proportion to the degree of abnormality. If the etheric matter of the
body is easily extruded the physical body readily falls into the trance
condition and the mechanism of conversation can be operated by the
so-called "dead" person who has temporarily taken possession of it. In
such cases it is not the medium who speaks for the living-dead
communicator. He is speaking directly himself, but he may often do it
with great difficulty and not always succeed in accurately expressing
the thought he has in mind. He may have to contend with other thoughts,
moods and emotions than his own and to those who understand something of
his difficulties it is not strange that such communications are
frequently unsatisfactory. It is not often that an analogy can be found
that will give a physical plane comprehension of a superphysical
condition, but perhaps a faint understanding may be had by thinking of a
"party line" telephone that any one of a dozen people may use at any
moment he can succeed in getting possession of it. A listener attempting
to communicate with one of them may find that several others are
constantly "switching in," much to his confusion. If distinction of
voices due to sound were eliminated and then a stenographic record were
to be made of all words reaching the listener he would find that it
would often be fragmentary and trivial. That would not, however, prove
that the conversation did not come from living beings nor that there
was not at least one intelligent person among them. That scientists
engaged in psychic research have similar experiences proves nothing
more.

It seems to be a common opinion that the evidential value of such
psychic communications, even under the direction of a skilful scientist,
cannot be very great. But there are ways of knowing. It is not at all
difficult for the investigator to confine his work, not only to
incidents unknown to the medium, but to scientific facts which the
medium can not possibly comprehend. It is a matter of common knowledge
that mediums are usually people without technical scientific knowledge.
Some of them have some degree of education and some of them are
illiterate. Some of the most celebrated belong to the peasant class of
Europe.

Let us suppose that Sir Oliver Lodge is about to attempt to communicate
with