And now let us go on to some of the developments of these phenomena manifested by Mrs. Piper.  Unlike the manifestations already given, hers are not from waking dreams, but from dreams in trance.  Moreover, so far the sensitives have manifested impressions of but one personality at a time, but Mrs. Piper has manifested one by speech and, at the same time, another by writing, the expressions of the two apparent personalities progressing independently, with full coherence and consistency.  Moreover, in many of her trances she seemed as if surrounded by a crowd of persons endeavoring, with different degrees of success, to express themselves through her, or she endeavoring to express them.  All this of course, is counter to the impression prevailing during the early years of her career, that her soul had left her body, and the body was “possessed” by a postcarnate soul expressing itself through her.  The present aspect of the facts is more as if she had impressions such as we all have in dreams, of any number of personalities around her.  Some of her typical manifestations may give still further indications of interflowing of mental impressions.

The George “Pelham” famous in the annals of Psychical Research was a friend of the present writer, and his alleged postcarnate self appeared through Mrs. Piper to the following effect.  There could not have been anything cooked up about it; it was my first and only sitting with Mrs. Piper, who knew nothing about me or my friends.  In fact, the old theories of some form of fraud, now, in the light of the vast accumulation of later knowledge, seem ridiculous.  However the phenomena have to be explained, that explanation is out of date.

G.P. speaks.—­“A” [assumed initial.  Ed.] “is in a critical state.  He’s not himself now.  He’s terribly depressed.”  Sitter—­“Can you tell anything [more] about A?” G.P.—­“Friend of yours in body.”  S.—­“Of Hodgson?” [Who was present.  This question and the following were mild “tests”:  I knew the man well.  Ed.] G.P.—­“Yes.”  S.—­“Did I ever know him?” G.P.—­“Yes, you knew him very well.  You’re connected with him.”  S.—­“Through whom?” G.P.—­“Do you know any B——?” [assumed initial.  Ed.] S.—­“Are A. and I connected through B?” G.P.—­“Write to B. and he’ll tell you all about it.”

It turned out later that A. actually was low in his mind, and that B., whom nobody present knew, was trying to get him occupation.  I knew nothing whatever about any such circumstances, nor did Hodgson.  To suppose that Mrs. Piper did, would be absurd. But they were known to other minds “in the body,” and hence the medium’s utterance of them is open to the interpretation of teloteropathy.  Similar instances are not rare, but the interpretation of teloteropathy seems to be rapidly losing probability.

In this instance, I was “connected with” B., but only so far as he had become a professor at Yale long after my graduation:  I did not know him personally.  But my intimate connection with A. was not only direct, but through several persons intimate with us both, including G.P. when living.  Mere telepathy, certainly mere telepathy from my mind, would have “spotted” some one of these connections much more readily than the alleged one with B., which was hardly a connection at all.