I have studied these things as quietly as I would have studied a statue or a picture; have not been satisfied with witnessing them once, but have had them repeated many times, that I might feel certain that I had given them a thorough investigation. If I have been mistaken, those who come after me will have small chance of better success. I have stated some things positively, because I know that they are true, and can be scientifically demonstrated.
We may discover and accept the conditions that best enable these beings to reach and communicate with us, thereby extending our knowledge and our association with them, but neither our observation nor what they may tell us will enable us to comprehend what our experience has not fitted us to understand.
At best we have only established our pickets on the other side of the river. The problem of life still remains unsolved.
The erroneous ideas so generally entertained regarding beings of another life render it important that we should fully understand that no one, whether on this or the other side of life, can set aside the laws necessary to our individual growth.
The assimilation of thought; the gestation of ideas, the mental digestion which is analogous to the process of physical growth, must ever remain the source of a healthy development. To abandon this to the dictation of authority, whether real or supposed, or to accept anything in violation of these laws, only leads to disorder and mental dyspepsia.
What we most desire does not always come; but in its place, often, something unexpected and surprising. The power which operates suffers no dictation or control; and, like the reflection of an object in water, the phenomena become distorted the moment the magnetic currents are disturbed.
Forced, by the accumulation of facts that cannot be set aside, to acknowledge the existence of these beings, they are, nevertheless, shrouded in mystery. That they are from the other life is more than probable; no other theory will, in the long run, be found tenable. Whether they are our departed friends and relatives must be determined by the exercise of those faculties which enable us to settle the relations of objects in this life. While they exhibit no feelings of selfishness or jealousy in their associations with us, the same cannot always be said of "the control." For some reason which we do not understand, but which may be a necessity, the controlling spirit of the séance exercises a more or less despotic power over the manifestations; sometimes denying the privilege of manifestation, and forcing back spirits who have been accustomed to appear at other séances. In other words, there seems to be a good deal of human nature in their make-up, and the likes and dislikes of the medium or manager, are often shared by "the control."
While the theory is correct that the medium is nothing but the instrument through which the spirits are evoked, there can be no question that his or her mental and moral atmosphere affects the quality of the manifestations.
Your personal relations with the medium are known to the controlling spirit, and if the medium is prejudiced against you, you are, in most cases, debarred from any satisfactory results. On the other hand, your relations to these beings are known to "the control," but not necessarily to the medium,—never unless the controlling spirit thinks best to communicate them.
What you learn of the character of these beings depends upon your personality,—the magnetic atmosphere that surrounds you. Many of them, if they are able to penetrate your atmosphere, are so exhausted by the effort that they cannot talk much with you; while others, overcoming all obstacles, are able to throw themselves around you with all the abandon of childhood, talking freely, and often so fast that it requires the closest attention to follow them. In such cases, however strong the resemblance may be to the medium in the outward form, the mental characteristics are as different as it is possible to be between any two individuals.