700. From the actions and perceptions of spirits still in the flesh, and concerned with one another, we must now pass on to inquiry into the actions of spirits no longer in the flesh, and into the forms of perception with which men still in the flesh respond to this unfamiliar agency.

701. There has been no clear consensus of opinion as to the kind of evidence which ought to be demanded if human survival is to be proved. My object is to make that evidence at once clear in itself and continuous with knowledge already acquired.

702. Considering in the first place the vague term "ghost," we cannot accept the popular notion of a ghost as "a deceased person permitted by Providence to hold communication with survivors".

703. What we must rather look for is a "manifestation of persistent personal energy," continuing after the shock of death. Such manifestations are not specially likely to correspond with the romances of popular fancy.

704. We ought rather to look for possible analogies to such cases as we already know where communication has been effected between widely different phases of personality - as between wakers and somnambulists, etc.

705. And reviewing both our experiments in automatism and our spontaneous phenomena, we find in each group three main classes of messages - namely, sensory hallucinations, emotional and motor impulses, definite intellectual messages.

706. The same three classes meet us again in our analysis of apparently post-mortem communications also.

707. Yet, though with these analogies in our favour, we need a somewhat close discussion of the conditions which a visual or auditory phantasm is bound to fulfil before it can be regarded as indicating prima facie the influence of a discarnate mind. Such a discussion, based mainly on the time-relation between the death and the apparition, is here quoted from Edmund Gurney.

708. Further inquiry into the limits of possible latency in the percipient's mind of an impression received from a still living agent.

709. Consideration of special cases in which a hallucination occurring shortly after a death already known might possess evidential validity.

710. Cases of recurrence of a phantasm, first about the time of death (the death being unknown to the percipient), and then decidedly after the death had occurred.

711. Cases where the phantasm first occurs some hours after death. Examination of the hypothesis of latency in these cases.

712. It will be seen that we have here no simple problem of time-relations between death and apparition. The ghost is a function of two variables: the incarnate spirit's sensitivity, and the discarnate spirit's capacity of self-manifestation. The latter of these two factors affords the easier method of arrangement; and we may arrange our apparitional communications in a descending series, from cases showing the fullest knowledge or purpose to cases where the indication of intelligence becomes feeblest.

713. We may begin with a case, anomalous and non-evidential, which claims to represent the subjective sensations accompanying the transition from earthly to spiritual life. 713 A. Case of Dr. Wiltse.

714. Repeated apparitions indicating continuous knowledge of the affairs of earth after the spirit's departure; case of Mr. Mamtchitch. 714 A. Case of Miss Adie.

715. Single apparitions indicating knowledge of some post-mortem fact, such as place of burial, etc.

716. Similar apparitions implying knowledge of the affairs of surviving friends. Cases of: 716 A. Mrs. P. 716 B. Mr. D. 716 C. Mrs. V.

717. Cases where a departed spirit seems to show knowledge of the impending death of a survivor; case of Mr. G. Cases of: 717 A. Miss Pearson. 717 B. Mr. Kingsbury. 717 C. Captain Norton.

718. "Peak in Darien" cases; where a dying man perceives as spirits certain persons of whose previous death he was not aware. Cases of: 718 A. Colonel――. 718 B. Colonel Hicks.

719. Cases where departed spirits manifest their knowledge that some friend who survived them has passed into the spirit world; case of Miss Dodson. Cases of: 719 A. Mrs. Smith. 719 B. Mrs. Palliser. 719 C. Miss Hawkins-Dempster.

720. Case of Mrs. Bacchus, in which the apparition of a deceased person is seen in the house where the dead body of his wife is lying.

721. Cases where the deceased person manifests knowledge of some fact connected with his own earth-life, especially his death and events connected therewith; case of Miss Conley.

722. Cases where the deceased person shows knowledge of his previous relations with a survivor (case of Baron von Driesen); or of intentions not fulfilled. Cases of: 722 A. Mrs. Nery. 722 B. Dr. Binns.

723. In the case of Mrs. Storie, previously given, there are indications of an intelligence other than the decedent's as concerned in the presentation of her complex dream.

724. Cases where a compact to appear, if possible, had been made before death; the compact thus forming a definite fact which the deceased person remembers. Possible mode in which such a compact may tend to fulfil itself.

725. Instances of such compacts more or less precisely fulfilled. 725 A. Case of Captain Colt.

726. Case of Mr. Reeves, in which the deceased person's impulse seemed to be the fulfilment of an immediate engagement.

727. Further cases of engagement or compact fulfilled, although in a deflected fashion; that is, by an appearance to some one other than the special person to whom the promise was made; case of Countess Kapnist. Cases of: 727 A. Mr. Bellamy. 727 B. Miss Money.

728. Persistence of effort on the part of the deceased person (728 A. Case of Mr. Cabral); and case where the apparition indicates knowledge of the deceased person's funeral. 728 B. Case of Mrs. B.

729. Cases where a vision presents to a survivor the aspect of the chamber of death.

730. Cases where the condition of the deceased person's body is thus presented; case of Mr. D.

731. Cases where there are successive phantasmal pictures of a death and of the subsequent arrangement of the body. 731 A. Case of Miss Hall.

732. Discussion of a case previously given (Mrs. Green's) where there is apparently a mingled telepathic agency, proceeding both from the departed and from the living, and presenting the scene of death.

733. Cases where the departed spirit seems preoccupied with the spot where his bones are laid. Cases of: 733 A. Miss Atkinson. 733 B. Mr. Tyre.

734. Case of Mr. Tandy, where the departed spirit seems to be aware of the arrival at a friend's house of the news of his own death.

735. In some cases depression is felt by the percipient from the time of his friend's death until the news thereof reaches him; in others a happy vision preludes the news. 735 A. Case of Mr. King.

736. Further cases indicating some knowledge of this kind on the part of the departed spirit; case of Miss Q. Cases of: 736 A. Mrs. Davies. 736 B. Mr. Cameron Grant. 736 C. Miss M.

737. Apparitions which communicate no definite message. These may be subdivided into personal and local, according as they appear to be intended to impress special survivors, or, on the other hand, seem mere recurrences to accustomed haunts.

738. Cases where a spiritual presence appears to seek out a surviving friend.

739. Similar cases where the deceased person's phantasm appears in scenes unfamiliar to him while on earth. Cases of: 739 A. Mr. Elliott. 739 B. Mrs. Clark. 739 C. Mr. Keulemans.

740. Occasional appearance of phantasms of the dead (of all types) to several persons collectively. 740 A. Case of Miss W.

741. Cases where the impulse prompting to appearance may have been at once personal and local; case of Mr. Letts. 741 A. Case of Mrs. Crans.

742. Further cases of appearances to friends in familiar surroundings; case of M. Gore Booth. 742 A. Case of Mrs. Judd.

743. A phantasmal voice giving the news of death. 743 A. Case of Sister Bertha.

744. Cases where the phantasmal figure, although sometimes recognised by acquaintances in a familiar scene, may be thought to have obeyed a local rather than a personal attraction; case of Mr. Bard. Cases of: 744 A. Miss Farquharson. 744 B. Mr. J.

745. Apparitions locally conditioned, or hauntings. Cases of: 745 A. General Becher. 745 B. Mrs. M. 745 C. Mr. Husbands. 745 D. Mrs. Clerke.

746. Such apparitions may possibly be due to the results of past mental action.

747. Phantasmal sounds, non-articulate, but intelligent, apparently ascrib-able to the agency of deceased persons; case of Mr. L. 747 A. Case of Mrs. Horne.

748. These sounds, although apparently analogous to Poltergeist phenomena, rarely appear in connection with them.

749. Apart, however, both from inarticulate sounds and from Poltergeist phenomena, there is much evidence to haunting; - to the fact, that is, that in many houses several persons have independently seen phantasmal figures more or less resembling each other. Hypotheses of interpretation, suggested by Mrs. Sidgwick.

750. In my own view, the phantasm may imply a local modification, not of the material, but of the metetherial world.

751. And the apparent influence of certain houses in generating apparitions may form part of the problem of retrocognition; - of phenomena now occurring which recall and in some unknown way depend upon long-past events; -whether as their sequel or as their residue. Cases of: 751 A. Miss Morton. 751 B. Miss Scott.

752. We have reached a point where our study of sensory automatisms - their time coincidences and their significant details - has taught us for the present nearly all it can; while we crave for some more potent method of analysis, some wider field of induction, if we are to meet the novel problems which arise on every side. Such wider field is offered to us by the study of motor automatisms, to which we must proceed in the next chapter.

753. One lesson of high importance rises so manifestly from the evidence already studied that it calls for mention here. That world-old conception of Evil Spirits, of malevolent Powers, which has been the basis of so much causeless fear, melts from the mind altogether as we study the actual facts.

754. Other ethical indications, of lofty and at the same time evolutionary type, occur incidentally in the course of our independent demonstration of the profoundest cosmical thesis which we can conceive as susceptible of scientific proof.

755. Appeal for further collaboration in this absolutely necessary quest.