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 CHAPTER IX ON COMMUNICATION WITH THE DEAD

O far the work of naturalisation has proceeded with smoothness: if we have seen reason to reject any applicants for admission it is on the ground that their credentials are unsatisfactory, not because they lie under any suspicion of an alien allegiance. If the facts of telepathy are admitted it does not yet appear that they carry us beyond the material world, the world which includes alike neural processes and ethereal undulations. The same may be said, with perhaps some reservations, of the alleged physical phenomena of the séance room. The exhibitions of materialisation, spirit photography, and slate-writing which found favour a generation ago have received no scientific endorsement of late years, and are now so generally discredited that they need scarcely be considered seriously. The manifestations which remain, such as raps, movements, and touches,—even if their occurrence apart from fraud should be incontrovertiny established,—would not necessarily involve the assumption of the agency of any "spirit" other than that of the medium herself. As already said, the phenomena, especially as observed in the presence of Eusapia Paladino, have led recent Italian 203