is endeavour to reproduce a
three-dimensional landscape on a flat surface--that is, practically in
two dimensions. Just as the artist needs long and careful training of
eye and hand before he can produce a satisfactory representation of
nature, so does the clairvoyant need long and careful training before he
can describe accurately on a lower plane what he sees on a higher one;
and the probability of getting an exact description from an untrained
person is about equal to that of getting a perfectly-finished landscape
from one who has never learnt how to draw.

It must be remembered, too, that the most perfect picture is in
reality infinitely far from being a reproduction of the scene which it
represents, for hardly a single line or angle in it can ever be the
same as those in the object copied. It is simply a very ingenious
attempt to make upon one only of our five senses, by means of lines
and colours on a flat surface, an impression similar to that which
would have been made if we had actually had before us the scene
depicted. Except by a suggestion dependent entirely on our own
previous experience, it can convey to us nothing of the roar of the
sea, of the scent of the flowers, of the taste of the fruit, or of the
softness or hardness of the surface drawn.

Of exactly similar nature, though far greater in degree, are the
difficulties experienced by a clairvoyant in his attempt to describe
upon the physical plane what he has seen upon the astral; and they are
furthermore greatly enhanced by the fact that, instead of having
merely to recall to the minds of his hearers conceptions with which
they are already familiar, as the artist does when he paints men or
animals, fields or trees, he has to endeavour by the very imperfect
means at his disposal to suggest to them conceptions which in most
cases are absolutely new to them.

Small wonder then that, however vivid and striking his descriptions
may seem to his audience, he himself should constantly be impressed
with their total inadequacy, and should feel that his best efforts
have entirely failed to convey any idea of what he really sees. And we
must remember that in the case of the report given down here of a
record read on the mental plane, this difficult operation of
transference from the higher to the lower has taken place not once but
twice, since the memory has been brought through the intervening
astral plane. Even in a case where the investigator has the advant