Now mental activity apart from the body is of the essence of the spiritistic hypothesis : and there would be no reason to object to the idea that deceased people can communicate informa tion provided the great and fundamental step is taken of assum ing that they still continue to exist. Conversely, the fact, so frequently testified to, that such communications are actually received, whether in the form of apparition or audition, or of automatic writing, or trance speech, or any other way, would, when established, also strongly support or even demonstrate the continued activity of the apparently operating personality. Hence it may be held that the discovery of telepathy rationalises and renders more acceptable many of the asserted occurrences which otherwise would seem absurd and incredible. If an apparition were regarded as an objective reality, all manner of difficulties would arise about the details. But if it is only a mental impres sion, perhaps roughly analogous to an image in a looking-glass, although produced in some obscure and not in a simply optical manner, difficulties tend to disappear. The image can then be thought of as something not "seen" at all, but mentally recon structed in accordance with a telepathic impulse which, indirectly through the mind, influences that part of the brain which is accustomed to receive an optical, or it may be an auditory, impres sion through the nerves. For, on any hypothesis, the brain and mind are closely interrelated ; and a mental impression cannot be testified to or realised without the operation of the brain-nerve muscle system.
On the spiritistic view—that is to say granted the working hypothesis that individuals once generated and isolated from a cosmic reservoir of life and mind, by means of their association with matter, shall continue to function as mental or psychic entities—it is fairly easy to suppose that they may be able to influence other minds, especially now that telepathy is fairly established as a vera causa, and can thus presumably cause inspira tion, and convey ideas or information. For it may reasonably be assumed that they have a wider outlook than when limited by the flesh; and, being also less restricted in time, that they may be in occasional touch with greater and higher intelligences on their side. Thus not only could ordinary lucidity and clairvoyance and even premonition be accounted for, but also the more valuable inspirations of genius.
It is not difficult to suppose that the organisms of people thus acted upon could be stimulated to produce such muscular move ments as speaking and writing, or any other familiar bodily activ ity. The influence exerted on such people might still be con sidered purely mental, and might be thought likely to operate most freely on the recipient organism when the medium or possessor of that organism is normally in a state of unconsciousness or par tially suspended mental activity; but it would hardly be expected that the influence would be such as to produce physical phenomena beyond the capacity of the ordinary unstimulated organism. Nevertheless there is a large and growing body of evidence for the occurrence of even physically supernormal phenomena. Un doubtedly this evidence must be scrutinised with extreme care because of its unusual character; so that the further question whether in some cases these phenomena are produced by the latent power of the normal individual, or whether it is dependent on a stimulus received from some other intelligence, may remain an open one, to be considered and classified later when the facts are thoroughly established.
The physical phenomena which have thus been seriously vouched for are such as the following. First, movement of objects without apparent contact ; in other words, the displacement of matter at some distance from the boundary of the normal organ ism, with no perceptible link, and therefore out of the normal reach of the muscles. This is known as telekinesis or locomotion of objects at a distance. A modification of this phenomenon is the moulding or rearrangement of matter so as to produce an imitation of known objects, after the manner of a sculptor or a painter, so as to produce simulacra of hands and faces and other parts of the human organism out of any material available. An other fact which is testified to is the rearrangement of the par ticles on a photographic plate, so that when the plate is developed in the ordinary way a supernormal image of some kind appears upon it, whether it be writing or a human or animal figure. It is further asserted that if no suitable material is provided, or can not be collected, some organized material can be drawn, either from the medium or from any of those present, of apparently a living or protoplasmic nature, remaining still associated or con nected with the organism from which it is drawn ; and that this externalised protoplasm is then independently manipulated so as to display a likeness of some departed person, more or less unsatis factory and incomplete, but far beyond the normal power of the medium from which the material is drawn. Such exteriorised protoplasm is now generally known as ectoplasm. It only lasts a short time, and has to be returned to the body whence it came. But meanwhile it is said that it can achieve many odd results, among others that it is able to produce "direct voice," to move about, and also to exert considerable muscular force, thus effect ing the locomotion of objects already spoken of as telekinesis.
The testimony of investigators suggests the idea that this extraneous material is worked by an intelligent mind, much in the same fashion as our own bodily organisms are normally worked by our own minds, and that its activities show will and intention analogous to the will and intention of our own movements. We know too little about the relation between mind and matter to stigmatise such an hypothesis as intrinsically absurd : we must be guided by the facts. But the asserted facts are so extraordinary, and physiologically so incredible, that the evidence will have to be of a strong and cumulative character before such an idea can be accepted. Nevertheless it is mainly by physiologists well acquainted with the difficulties of such an hypothesis that it has been most responsibly put forward. And there is considerable testimony from some physiologists in Europe that, however odd they may be, phenomena which suggest this kind of activity are definitely found to occur. The ectoplasm appears to have vary ing consistency, sometimes being visible only, sometimes tangible only, sometimes neither, and occasionally both. Ectoplasmic formations have been photographed, though it is said that they can sometimes only be photographed in ultra violet light, and with the use of a quartz lens.