79

1908
Nov 16
1.i. 3

some departed souls are said to pour forth, although minor
difficulties are lamented, this one is not mentioned. But that, I think, merely shows that those spirits in their over-haste to give early news from their new abode, have begun talking about it before they had any real experience of it themselves. The only alternative is to suppose the other world to be nearer a duplicate of this one than I should have supposed it would be. Certainly, the phenomena instanced affor[d] no argument whatever against the need of a considerable ποῦ στῶ of common familiar knowledge to render possible any communication of ideas, since they plainly show such ποῦ στῶ ; and yet, in spite of it, one occasionally in long communications from the dead come across statements of which one can make neither head nor tail, except by supposing that departed spirits delight in practising mystifications

1908
Nov 16
1.i. 3

some departed souls are said to pour forth, although minor
difficulties are lamented, this one is not mentioned. But that, I think, merely shows that those spirits in their over-haste to give early news from their new abode, have begun talking about it before they had any real experience of it themselves. The only alternative is to suppose the other world to be nearer a duplicate of this one than I should have supposed it would be. Certainly, the phenomena instanced affor[d] no argument whatever against the need of a considerable ποῦ στῶ of common familiar knowledge to render possible any communication of ideas, since they plainly show such ποῦ σ?ῶ; and yet, in spite of it, one occasionally in long communications from the dead come across statements of which one can make neither head nor tail, except by supposing that departed spirits delight in practising mystifications