offers itself. From the results so far attained no certain conclusion seems possible. On the one hand, it seems clear that the trance consciousness of Mrs. Piper, as of all other so-called mediums, is apt on very small provocation to personify itself, and that the personification may be shaped by the suggestions of those present. In Mrs. Piper's case we have ground for assuming that such suggestions may often be conveyed telepathically; in short, that the dramatic personalities of the so-called controls may actually be built up out of the material unconsciously supplied by the sitters, and that the intimate personal details revealed in the trance utterances may be telepathically filched from the same source. The limitations of the knowledge displayed, and the occasional disingenuousness, forbid us to accept these communications as authentic and unembarrassed messages from the dead.
On the other hand, the remarkable freedom of the communications at some of the G. P. séances, and the occasional references to matters apparently outside the knowledge of the sitter, suggest that in certain cases, at any rate, we may come somehow into contact with the minds of the dead. Mrs. Sidgwick has suggested[1] that possibly there may be communication with the dead, through the channel of the sitter's mind; that Mrs. Piper may receive telepathically such messages, as she apparently receives the impression of other contents of her
- ↑ Proceedings, S. P. R., vol. xv.. p. 37.
