It is in these varied
forms of proof that the impregnable strength of the evidence
lies, for how absurd do explanations of telepathy, unconscious
cerebration or cosmic memory become when faced by such phenomena
as spirit photography, materialisation, or the direct voice.
Only one hypothesis can cover every branch of these
manifestations, and that is the system of extraneous life and
action which has always, for seventy years, held the field for
any reasonable mind which had impartially considered the
facts.
[2] See Appendix.
I have spoken of the need for careful and cool-headed
analysis in judging the evidence where automatic writing is
concerned. One is bound to exclude spirit explanations until all
natural ones have been exhausted, though I do not include among
natural ones the extreme claims of far-fetched telepathy such as
that another person can read in your thoughts things of which you
were never yourself aware. Such explanations are not
explanations, but mystifications and absurdities, though they
seem to have a special attraction for a certain sort of psychical
researcher, who is obviously destined to go on researching to the
end of time, without ever reaching any conclusion save that of
the patience of those who try to follow his reasoning. To give a
good example of valid automatic script, chosen out of many which
I could quote, I would draw the reader's attention to the facts
as to the excavations at Glastonbury, as detailed in "The Gate of
Remembrance" by Mr.
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