THE CURTAINS of the big bay window are drawn against the afternoon sun, and a lamp is lighted on the small table in the center of the room. There is a fire in the grate. In a comfortable chair beside the table is the sitter, pencil poised to take down each word that comes from the mouth of the medium.

Gladys Osborne Leonard settles herself in a straight, hard-backed chair, two or three feet in front of the sitter, leans her head back, and prepares to go into a state of trance. There is a brief period of silence. Then she begins to breathe slowly and regularly, as if sleeping. In a few moments sighs are heard, and then whispers come from the medium's mouth.

"What, Bunny? Yes, all right. I tell her then. Yes." Then briskly and clearly the words are spoken aloud, "I coming. Good afternoon!" Feda has arrived.

Feda is one of the most discussed figures in the history of Psychical research; indeed, more has been published about her than about any other control. All mediums have controls; they are the entities in charge of proceedings during most mediumistic trances. To spiritists they are what they profess to be-deceased persons, now in spirit form, who temporarily possess the body of the entranced medium in order to relay messages from other spirits. To other investigators the spiritistic evaluation is not acceptable, and so they try to find other explanations. Some have compared a control to the type of dramatization by the unconscious mind which is observed in certain hypnotized subjects. Other students of Psychical research, as well as some psychologists, have remarked a similarity between controls and the phases of personality produced by dissociation.

Hereward Carrington, who gave his adult lifetime to the study of Psychical research, explains that under certain conditions of great stress, human personality is subject to certain "splits" or disintegrations, resulting in spontaneous or induced cases of dual or multiple personality. As he says,

These personalities may alternate, one or the other coming to the surface, as it were, while the others remain in the background: or one or more such personalities may remain permanently submerged, unless brought up by means of hypnosis, etc. The literature on this subject is voluminous; but one has only to recall to mind the famous Beauchamp and Doris and Hanna cases for examples of the phenomenon.

. . . That these various "selves" represent nothing more than fragments of some larger, primary self has been experimentally shown, e.g., by the fact that they have been ultimately welded together, by means of hypnosis, or by some other method, and the normal, whole personality restored intact.

He points to "Phinuit," the well-known control of the famous Boston medium Mrs. Leonore Piper, as an example. Phinuit claimed to be a Frenchman and a medical man, but when driven into a corner by Dr. Richard Hodgson, he had to admit that he knew very little French and very little medicine.

Carrington goes on:

But the curious thing about it all, was this: that, although the evidence for the existence of these trance personalities was of the slightest, they did nevertheless succeed in bringing through a vast mass of supernormal information which could not be obtained in their absence. . . . The function of such a regular mediumistic control seems to be that of intermediary, and, whether he be a spirit, as he claims to be, or a mere personification of the medium's, this is usually of secondary importance, since it is undoubtedly through "his" instrumentality and presence that veridical messages are often obtained. . . .

In abnormal cases it is rare to find as many as half a dozen sub-personalities; but Mrs. Leonard's communicators run into hundreds, presented instantly in response to each new sitter. Communicators seem to stand, as it were, in the wings of the mediumistic situation, giving messages to the control, who then relays the words or ideas to the sitter, via the medium.

Some of these communicators also undertake, from time to time, personal control of the medium. Were Mrs. Leonard's real personality an actual composite of even the most habitual of her personal controls it would represent the following: a complacent middle-aged housewife who makes her living by her mediumistic talents; an elderly Methodist minister (Drayton Thomas' father John); 45year-old Etta (john's daughter) who has undergone many years of severe illness; several brilliant scientists including Sir William Barrett; 60-year-old A. V. B., who retains all the memories of a life of wealth among the aristocracy; and teen-aged Feda, who recalls a life in India 130 years before.

Dr. William Brown, on the other hand, has pointed out that split personalities are advanced hysterics. After a study of Mrs. Osborne Leonard, he was persuaded that a case of successful mediumship shows very little evidence of hysteria.

In the midst of this controversy, Lady Troubridge has taken the trouble to make an intensive study of Feda on the tentative assumption that she may be a secondary personality. In so doing she has contrasted her to one of the sub-personalities famous in psychological history, Margaret, of the Doris Fischer case reported by Dr. Walter F. Prince. In the process of comparing Feda to Margaret, Lady Troubridge gives what W. H. Salter has called "a brilliant character sketch of Feda" and we will use it almost in its entirety for that reason.

Lady Troubridge begins by stating that she will, for the present, ignore the claim of Dr. Prince that Margaret displayed at times evidence of clairvoyant or supernormal faculty, and restrict herself to the characteristics exclusive of such a claim in both Margaret and Feda. She writes:

Feda and Margaret are both of them very pronounced individualities; there are few semitones to be observed in either of them, a fact which facilitates comparison. It must, however, be recognized that Feda is tame as compared with Margaret. Nevertheless, those characteristics which blaze in Margaret with melodramatic force, are generally observable in a modified degree in Feda.

Margaret, in her early stages, actively hates and maltreats the unfortunate Doris, and even in her later stages of reformation it is clear that Margaret considers Doris a poor thing. Feda, on her part, has not a high opinion of Mrs. Leonard, and though she will conscientiously, if rather obviously against the grain, do her any kindness in her power, she never, in my experience, conveys any impression that she likes her. She frequently, indeed, expresses open scorn of Mrs. Leonard's opinions, likes or dislikes, and speaks of her as of a not very satisfactory and distinctly inferior instrument, who must be protected and humored merely because, such as she is, there is none better to hand. Her instinctive antagonism for Mrs. Leonard is repressed, tempered by a certain recognition of Mrs. Leonard's good qualities which her honesty will not let her deny, but the antagonism is unmistakably there. Mrs. Leonard, on the other hand, while giving Feda full credit for her merits (like Doris, she only learns of the other personality through revelations made to her by other people), undoubtedly bestows upon Feda no more than a rather patronizing liking, often obscured by distinct irritation. She resents actively the suggestion that has been made to her by certain spiritualistic sitters, to the effect that Feda is her higher self, justifiably pointing out that her normal self does not share many of Feda's childish weaknesses and limitations. The attitude of Doris towards Margaret was very similar.

Feda also shares with Margaret a total lack of comprehension and appreciation of the accepted values. Margaret, having been told that a painful corn would improve if cut, attempted with a table knife to amputate Doris's toe. Feda, when a sitter accidentally singes a few hairs of her medium's fringe, suggests that were a bonfire made of [Mrs. Lconard's entire head of hair] the latter might replace it to advantage by a blonde transformation more to Feda's taste. Margaret backed Doris's bed to pieces, making it necessary for Doris to sleep on a chair. Feda, according to Mrs. Leonard, twice presented Mrs. Leonard's wedding ring to casual sitters, and once threw it in the fire, from which a distressed sitter rescued it. On another occasion, she ordered a sitter to give the ring to an itinerant organ grinder-this despite the fact that Mrs. Leonard values the ring and is superstitious regarding its removal from her hand. Woe betide Mrs. Leonard, however, should she by accident or intent dispose of, or even contemplate disposing of, any article which Feda regards as her own. just as Margaret visited with fury any attempt on the part of Doris to tamper with what Margaret considered hcrs, so Feda exhibits the least regenerate aspects of her nature in protecting from any encroachment by the medium any object which she regards particularly as hers.

While I was well aware that Mrs. Leonard went in fear of unpleasant consequences of some sort arising in the event of her displeasing Feda, it did riot strike me till quite lately to ask Mrs. Leonard what exact form those consequences might be expected to take. Mrs. Leonard then informed me that Fcda, if really annoyed, simply did not come; because sittings under these circumstances could not take place, Mrs. Leonard's means of livelihood were thus removed until Feda considered the offense expiated. Sitters frequently present trifles to Feda, during Mrs. Leonard's trance, and it is invariably Feda's habit to remark jealously upon such occasions, "It's Feda's, not hers," or words to this effect. Only if an object really fails to please Feda, is it relegated to Mrs. Leonard as being good enough for her. Mrs. Leonard, on the other hand, on one occasion when I gave her in the normal state a little ornament promised to Feda, explained to me with obvious embarrassment that she must not venture to thank me, lest Feda should interpret her doing so as a claim to the gift.

I have a record of an incident which brought into play conjointly Feda's ignorance of accepted values, and her jealousy regarding any encroachments upon her personal property. One day, prior to a sitting, Mrs. Leonard asked me whether I would beg Feda to allow her to present to a certain poor child, who had seen and longed for it, a shilling toy which had been given to Feda. I undertook the embassy, and obtained from Feda a distinctly cold concession to the effect that the child could have Feda's toy, only on condition that Mrs. Leonard bestowed her own valuable ruby ring upon a certain young woman in domestic service designated by Feda as "the cook girl;" Feda was emphatic that this latter gift should in any case be made. It must also be recorded that on receiving this message, Mrs. Leonard, although at the time she stopped short of acting upon it, was visibly uneasy upon the possible consequences to herself involved in the disregard of Feda's behests. Some months later, on my alluding to the occurrence, Mrs. Leonard.informed me that Feda, having on several occasions sent her further peremptory messages by various sitters regarding the ruby ring, she had thought it unwise to resist, and had therefore bestowed her ring as directed by Feda.

To continue the report of Lady Troubridge:

Another respect in which Feda resembles Margaret is that a certain delayed infantilism of pronunciation is common to both. Dr. Prince tells us in his record that in this respect correction never produced upon Margaret any lasting improvement and during the three years that I have sat with Feda, any attempts made by her at correcting her verbal idiosyncrasics-attempts evoked by the frequent hilarity which they provoke in sitters, an amusement which Feda is far from sharing-have been very transient. I must, however, mention one exception. Up to November 9, 1918, Feda habitually alluded to herself as "Feda" since then she has maintained with few exceptions the use of the first person singular, and in reply to a question put by me, she informed me that this reformation was accomplished with much difficulty in compliance with a sitter's request. Barring this one exception, Feda's English, unless she purports to be quoting the exact words of a communicator, is peculiarly her own. For some reason unknown she seldom fails to substitute an L for an R . . . and the recorder is occasionally put to it to find intelligible spelling for her impromptu creations. At times immediate comprehension is difficult, and it took me-on one occasion which I remember-scveral seconds to interpret the first appearance of Feda's term "asnenemynalien" as applied to a German subject.

Like Margaret, Feda is winsome. Incomprehensible as it may appear, in view of the certain amount of apparently incorrect matter which, in some sittings, fills in the gaps between the good and accurate matter retailed, Feda has a deep respect for the truth, and to the best of my belief conscientiously seeks to be truthful. Nor, in my opinion, are we qualified to ascribe conscious mendacity to Feda until we know more of the manner in which impressions reach her, or of what means are available to her for the disentanglement or classification of the various facts which reach her consciousness. How ever that may be, she very often appears scrupulously anxious to convey only what is strictly accurate, and we may perhaps seek the reason for this in one of her own utterances, when enlarging upon her duties as an honest and conscientious control. "This work is Feda's ploglession, if Feda told lies, Fcda wouldn't plogless." After being as revealing about Feda's faults as only a true friend can be, Lady Troubridge now admits:

I will be quite irrelevant for a moment and make a frank confession. I love Fcda. Neither she nor Margaret would be exactly comfortable folk to live with permanently, but Dr. Prince also loved Margaret. He tells us that her final disappearance left him feeling as though he had lost a loved child . . .

Undoubtedly Margaret possessed and used-not to say misusedthe power to compel Doris, from within, to act sometimes according to her wishes. In some instances Dr. Prince makes it clear that Doris was nonplussed and displeased at finding herself performing actions or using expressions foreign to her conscious inclination. Feda does not claim any extensive power to influence Mrs. Leonard in this way, but I was able to verify that upon one occasion she did so up to a certain point. Feda claimed that having seen and much coveted a yellow air balloon in a Windsor shop, she compelled Mrs. Leonard to purchase it; that on her way home Mrs. Leonard becoming embarrassed at her childish burden, turned aside into a field an(I gave it as a plaything to her Pekinese who, according to Feda, "sat on it with his flont and bursted it." Not long after receiving Feda's account of this affair I obtained spontaneously from Mrs. Leonard a full corroboration of the incident; Mrs. Leonard volunteering that she could not imagine what impulse had led her to buy a silly thing which she was ashamed to walk home with.

Margaret, though affectionate, was inaccessible to sentiment.... Feda also is affectionate, and, when dealing with bereaved sitters, perfunctorily decorous, while discouraging emotion, but this can only thinly veil her entire lack of emotional understanding of or sympathy for human sorrow. Upon one occasion when I visited Feda accompanied by my friend and fellow-worker Miss Radclyffe-Hall, in whose company I have more often than not visited Feda, and whose loss would pain me deeply, Feda ejaculated with a hilarious chuckle that it would indeed be fun for me when, having survived my friend, I should attempt postmortem communication with her through Mrs. Leonard.

There is another aspect in which the two, while dissimilar in attainment, are as one in their desires. Margaret consistently desired to usurp every possible enjoyable moment of Doris's daily life. Avoiding only such periods as were fraught with uninteresting routine, or with the painful consequences of her own misdeeds, she voraciously grabbed the consciousness of every available pleasure, even to the sugar on top of the cake, which she devoured, granting to Doris only the uninteresting remains. Fcda's powers of usurpation arc up to the present very much more circumscribed. Constrained to remain submerged unless the medium consciously invites her to come forth, her enjoyment when in occupation, her reluctance to end her periods of rule, her resentment when asked to abdicate temporarily in favor of another control are closely identical with Margaret's better realized desires.

In the opinion of most of those who knew Feda, there is a decided difference between medium and control. Whereas Mrs. Leonard's normal mood is gentle, sweet, and quiet, Feda is lively, shrewd, and sometimes noisy, her youthful exuberance quite getting the best of her on occasion.

Drayton Thomas, who had known Feda much longer than Lady Troubridge had when she wrote the above paper, regarded her as "an intelligent and kindly young woman" who devoted a large part of her time to helping those less practiced than herself to "make use of the medium's trance condition for communicating with their friends on earth." But in no published discussion did Thomas go deeply into her personality traits.

Neither Drayton Thomas nor Lady Troubridge says what nationality Feda's conversation and actions indicated. Newspaperman Robert Blatchford, however, has said$ that "Feda speaks in a light treble voice, with a foreign accent and quite un-British freedom of gesticulation." As we shall see later, Feda's response words in Whately Carington's Word Association Tests, and her stated reasons for choosing them, seem to have a decidedly Oriental flavor. Yet some sitters, especially those of more recent date, insist that Feda gives the impression of being an ingenuous English girl who might have had British memories and background.

Miss Gertrude Tubby, former secretary of the American Society for Psychical Research, reports that Feda improved her facility in English speech over the years. "She rather grew up in the language," Miss Tubby says, adding that she based this conclusion on both her own observation and the personal experience of her friend Miss Margaret V. Underhill, who knew Feda well for many years. Feda said to Miss Underhill one day, "I'm improving, don't you think?" And indeed, Miss Underhill had noticed a gradual loss of accent. Those who visited Mrs. Leonard in the earlier days had sometimes been bothered by Feda's accent, but those who knew her later did not mention it.

It is Mrs. Leonard's own opinion that Feda grew and developed as a person from the beginning of her activities as a control. She writes that at first Feda, still the young girl she had been at the time of her death, had to discipline herself intensely in order to learn to accomplish the work required of her. But, flighty though her personality was, Feda showed character and determination as she worked hard to become serious and dependable in performance of the obligations she had undertaken.

Because of the conditions inherent in mediumship, Feda's identity as an individual could hardly be expected to carry conviction to all who met her. The major "personal controls," who were allegedly close relatives or friends of the sitters, often conveyed a most convincing sense of identity. W. H. Salter, renowned as an objective investigator 'of psychic phenomena, describes for us the impact of the personal controls:

In characterization of communicators, the Leonard mediumship is particularly strong. By this is meant much more than the lifelike reproduction of tricks of manner and speech, startling as this sometimes is. If, as several of Mrs. Leonard's sitters would affirm, a communicator with a well-marked personality, unknown during life to the medium, in messages continued year after year, never puts the mental or emotional emphasis wrong, and never speaks out of character, it is hard to construct a plausible explanation out of subconscious inference and dramatization on the medium's part, even if amplified by telepathy from the sitter.

"At the end of that period," he says, "I began to observe that there was an occasional change, the effect being exactly as if Feda had retired for the time and another had taken her place." This was explained as an attempt on the part of the communicator to replace Feda in the medium's body and speak to him directly. "At first these efforts were labored, but with practice the apparent difficulties were overcome," Thomas writes. After that Feda talked about an hour, and then one or another of Thomas' deceased relatives-usually his father or his sister Ettawas said to be taking her place as personal control. To Thomas they seemed each to speak in a voice and manner uniformly consistent, rarely showing any tendency to gravitate towards that of the other, of Feda, or of Mrs. Leonard.

It would seem that when the personal control was in the body of the medium, Feda was "dispossessed" and thus had- no contact with the sitter until she returned to the medium's body. Professor C. D. Broad, a former president of the Society for Psychical Research, has noticed6 that Feda seems to know nothing of what the other communicators say, think, feel or perceive while they are in possession of the medium.

As Lady Troubridge has said, "It is difficult to convey an accurate impression of these personal controls to anyone who has never witnessed the production through the agency of a really fine medium, of phenomena of this description." But she and her co-worker made successful efforts to do just this, in describing the experiences they had with the personal control purporting to be their friend A. V. B. Both ladies were intimately acquainted with A. V. B. for many years, up to the actual time of her death. Both were certain that the medium had no knowledge of A. V. B. during her lifetime so that she could have impersonated her.

As A. V. B. began to practice personal control, we are shown just what happens when an entity, unfamiliar with the process of handling the medium, takes over. Miss Radclyffe-Hall gives the account:

The first personal control attempted by A. V. B. took place on January 19, 1917. I was taking the sitting alone, and my attention was first called to the fact that something unusual was about to occur by Feda, who fidgeted uncomfortably, exclaiming at the same time: "What are you trying to do, Ladye, what are you trying to do?" After these words, no more was heard of Feda, the medium remaining perfectly still, and apparently, deeply entranced, for what I should say was the space of a minute or two. When she began to speak again she did so in an almost inaudible whisper, her first words being: "Where are you? Pull me forward." There was nothing evidential in this first A. V. B. control, as speech appeared very difficult and movement almost impossible. A certain amount of emotion was shown, but, on the whole, admirable self-control was maintained on the part of the purporting communicator, which was again very characteristic of A. V. B. who was extremely self-controlled during her life-time. Since January 19, there have been repeated efforts at an A. V. B. control, which has been very slowly growing in power and evidential value.

Whereas Feda (that is, the medium under Feda's control) can sit erect, sway or jerk her body, wave her arms, move her legs, and has even been known to walk about the room, a personal control when first manifesting itself is usually very limited in movement. The medium generally either lies against the chair like a log or flops limply upon the sitter's shoulder. Even a much-practiced personal control seems to achieve only limited command of the medium's body, having especial difficulty in keeping the spine erect.

Where Feda's strident tones are frequently audible outside the seance room, rising if she is so inclined to a vigorous shout, each successive personal control in its early stages struggles to emit a barely audible whisper. As the control gains in practice, it still has problems with the vocal energy, and difficulty maintaining an ordinary conversational volume or tone.

There are always several matters demanding simultaneous attention which are particularly difficult. The care of the medium's body is itself a large preoccupation. Troubridge tells us that once, long after A. V. B. had acquired proper vocal control, she "expressed a desire to learn to sit upright in her chair, instead of, as heretofore, lolling forward on the sitter's shoulder. This upright position did not appear materially to affect the manifestations of the control; she spoke audibly, coherently, and evidentially, as usual. But on several occasions the medium became scarlet in the face, a series of gasps was followed by moments of apparent asphyxia, and finally A. V. B. fell forward into the sitter's arms breathing heavily and proffering the explanation that she had nearly choked the medium because she had forgotten to breathe!"

The power of concentration appears partially wanting in a new control and immense effort is required to produce evidential matter which Feda would be able to give freely. Nevertheless, these communicators seem willing to contend with the complications incident to control for as long as it takes to be able to show their personalities as naturally and in as lifelike a manner as possible. One entity appeared able even to display a severe attack of asthma in order to identify himself. Lady Troubridge writes of "an elderly Scotch gentleman who maintained unusually strong control of the medium for forty minutes . He spoke throughout in robust and fully audible tones of a surprisingly masculine quality, interrupted at intervals by paroxysms of coughing and wheezing characteristic of the bronchial asthma which had afflicted him during his lifetime. The entire effect was unquestionably that of a masculine sufferer. " Except for the wheezing, the voice did not seem strained or forced. Mrs. Leonard awoke with no signs of exhaustion. She entered immediately into conversation without a trace of hoarseness, and appeared as devoid of all cough or chest obstruction as before the sitting.

Miss Radclyffe-Hall tells us that:

During the early A. V. B. controls, A. V. B. complained that she could not make the medium laugh. One day, however, she suddenly succeeded in doing so, and what ensued was extraordinarily reminiscent of A. V. B.'s own laugh, and this characteristic laugh has, since then, often occurred. On several occasions the timbre of Mrs. Leonard's voice has changed, and has become very like A. V. B.'s voice; startlingly so, once or twice. A. V. B. herself has remarked upon this, which appears only to be possible during the earlier part of the personal controls. On one occasion A. V. B. said discontentedly: "Oh! now the power is going, can't you hear my voice getting Mrs. Leonard again?" which statement was correct.

Many little characteristic things have occurred during these A. V. B. controls, which, however, are somewhat difficult to put into words. With regard to the timbre of the voice and laugh, I fully realize that under such circumstances one's own imagination may play a very large part, but fortunately my collaborator, Lady Troubridge, has been present on many occasions when these familiar intonations and the laugh have occurred, and she also considers that they are strongly reminiscent of the purporting communicator.

As the A.V.B. control has developed, it has tended to usurp more and more of the sitting, and indeed for some time past the Feda control has seldom been allowed more than a fleeting appearance of a few minutes duration before making reluctant, very reluctant way indeed, for the usurper A.V.B. The manner of Feda's routing is usually as follows:

Having said "Good morning," and made a few irrelevant remarks, Feda tries to gain time by seeking to obtain from A.V.B. some really evidential matter. Occasionally A.V.B. will apparently humor her, and she will be successful. She will then retain the control sometimes until the topic initiated is exhausted, and some point of value made clear. But sooner or later, generally sooner, she will hesitate, repeat herself, pause, and exhibit futile efforts to "get more" from the communicator. Then will begin the routine complaints: "She wants to come herself-she won't tell Feda any more-she's not even looking at Feda-she's making it impossible for Feda to get anything! . . ." Appeals to A.V.B. as communicator: "Ladye, won't you tell Feda some more?-Wouldn't you like to give a name for Feda to tell them? . . ." Followed by: "It's no use, Mrs. Una, she's just shutting her mouth tight and looking at something else! Feda'll have to go, and Feda did want to talk more!" Occasionally, in desperation Feda will seek to evoke some other communicator. Then it will be: "Ladye, couldn't you bring Mrs. Twain's father?" Or she will even attempt irrelevant conversation with the sitters: the medium's new hat, the sitter's new dress, a present a sitter has promised Feda anything will do in order to retain control a little longer, but information from communicators obtained against their will, at any time, Feda, as far as our experience goes, cannot get; and she is too honest to pretend that she can do so.

The A.V.B. personal control now therefore manifests practically throughout the entire sitting, but the sittings are seldom of more than one hour's to one and a half hour's duration, the control collapsing, usually quite abruptly, within that time, and giving evidence of having held out to the very last gasp. Therefore it cannot be said that even yet A.V.B. possesses the field with quite the same facility as Feda, who has been known to chatter volubly for nearly three hours on end!

I stated formerly that the percentage of evidential matter given by A.V.B. was much inferior to that obtained through Feda, and this I think is no longer the case. In these days A.V.B. certainly equals Feda in the ease with which evidential matter is volunteered and evidential topics initiated, and the manner of giving these by A.V.B. being much more direct than are Feda's methods, more ground is often covered in less time. Feda still retains, either by choice or of necessity, her childish phraseology, and her habit of elaborately describing an object which one would think must be as familiar to her as to the sitter. As it is invariably quicker to call a book a book than to describe it in the Feda manner as "A square thing-no, not quite square, oblong-and flat, or nearly flat-and Feda thinks it's got a hard outside of some shiny stuff-wait a minute, cloth?-And paper, yes paper inside with printing on it-etc., etc., etc.," the A.V.B. personal control, in the course of an hour's work will easily outstrip a two hours' Feda control in the number of evidential points volunteered.

We have [in the past] given a full account of our early investigations with [the] medium, and gone at length into our reasons for believing that no normal knowledge on her part of the living A.V.B. existed, that would account for even the simpler early manifestations. This belief has been consistently strengthened throughout the intervening years. Not only by the corroboration afforded by Mrs. Leonard's untarnished career of integrity, and by the results of the investigation of her phenomena by the Society for Psychical Research, but by the fact that no humanly conceivable system of inquiry, observation, deduction, or of all three put together, could, in our opinion, suffice for the production of the great mass of verifiable utterances regarding matters known to A.V.B. during her lifetime, of facts and incidents regarding ourselves and others that were also known to her, of contemporary events and actions affecting us mentioned during the trances, and above all of a salient and intensely characteristic personality of which the point of view, sense of humor, judgment, prejudices and partialities, the actual voice and laugh; in fine, all those traits and peculiarities which go to make what we call personality are so constantly characteristic of the living A.V.B. as we knew her that they could not fail to be equally recognized as such by anyone who had really known her.

It may be objected that since we ourselves knew her so well it is unnecessary to seek beyond our minds for the source of the phenomena, assuming that Mrs. Leonard possesses when in trance an extensive and almost infallible access to the mind of anyone present. Undoubtedly much of what is uttered by the Feda and personal controls might be obtained in this way, provided that we are justified in assuming an extent of telepathic faculty so far hardly supported, in my opinion, by results obtained in thought-transference experiments between living persons. By stretching our credulity very far beyond our knowledge (perhaps quite as far as would be necessary for the acceptance of the spirit hypothesis?) we can assume that since we have in past years heard and known A.V.B.'s voice and laugh, and have intimately known her character, and since that knowledge must remain subconsciously in us, together with an instinctive knowledge of what would be her comments on and reactions to certain situations or stimuli, all such useful content of our minds can be drawn upon by the entranced Mrs. Leonard, and selected, sifted and dramatized for her purposes.

But I am bound to say that in absence of all proof of such possibility, this theory makes my own personal credulity feel rather like Alice in Wonderland's neck after she had sampled one side of the toadstool.

That a fitful and intermittent telepathy between medium and sitter does operate and account for some of the phenomena produced I am practically convinced, and indeed the fact is admitted by both the Feda and A.V.B. controls; but I cannot bring myself to the belief that it is as extensive as is sometimes suggested by those who are determined on explaining everything without recourse to the spiritistic hypothesis. Even were I to admit it as an explanation of all that occurs during the trance which could by this means be obtained from the mind of someone present, this admission would not dispose of the entire A.V.B. phenomena or account for all the evidence of personality and identity.

We should still be compelled to seek a source for the residuum, and that source is not the medium's own normal knowledge, judgment or personality.