rround them, by the circumstances in which they are
placed."

And Dr. A. E. Fletcher, in _The Other World and This_, says:

"Trance mediums, more than any others, are the victims of the
embodied and the disembodied. If the medium is subject to the
influence of a spirit, how much more likely is he to be affected by
the character of those around him! Strong minds in the body may
take control of his brain, instead of spirit intelligences. Such
persons must be of a highly sensitive order, and cannot come under
the same line of human criticism and judgment as might be applied
to those in everyday life."

Even Maudsley, in his _Pathology of Mind_ (p. 77), says:

"The main feature which the abnormal states (trance, etc.) present
in common are: first, that coincident with a partial mental
activity there is more or less inhibition, which may be complete,
of all other mental action; secondly, that the individual in such
condition of limited mental activity _is susceptible only to
impressions which are in relation with his character and are
consequently assimilated by it_...."[1]

These passages illustrate, at least, the delicate and often-times
suggestible nature of the trance; and how inconclusive, to say the
least, are such experiments as those of Drs. Tanner and Hall!

6. On the other hand, it may be asked: If the messages we receive at
seances really _do_ come from the departed, why should they be so
fleeting and so uncertain as they are? And why should not many more
messages be received from the hundreds and thousands who die yearly, and
who are doubtless longing to communicate?

Answers to these questions are manifold. In the first place, it may be
pointed out that the ability to communicate may be rare indeed, and not
a universal possibility, as is generally supposed. As Dr. Hodgson
expressed it (_Proceedings_, xiii., p. 362): "It may be a completely
erroneous assumption that all persons, young or old, good or evil,
vigorous or sickly, and whatever their lives or deaths may have been,
are at all comparable with one another in their capacity to convey clear
statements from the other world to this." Further, it must not be
supposed that all "messages" received by mediums (even granting their
complete honesty) really issue from the "Great Beyond." Many mediums
simply tell their sitters the ideas, impressions, and "messages" which
come into