Thus we can well suppose that during those long periods
when Florrie Cook lay in the laboratory in the dark, periods
which lasted an hour or more upon some occasions, the ectoplasm
was flowing from her as from Eva. Then it was gathering itself
into a viscous cloud or pillar close to her frame; then the form
of Katie King was evolved from this cloud, in the manner already
described, and finally the nexus was broken and the completed
body advanced to present itself at the door of communication,
showing a person different in every possible attribute save that
of sex from the medium, and yet composed wholly or in part from
elements extracted from her senseless body. So far, Geley's
experiments throw a strong explanatory light upon those of
Crookes. And here the Spiritualist must, as it seems to me, be
prepared to meet an objection more formidable than the absurd
ones of fraud or optical delusion. It is this. If the body of
Katie King the spirit is derived from the body of Florrie
Cook the psychic, then what assurance have we that the life
therein is not really one of the personalities out of which the
complex being named Florrie Cook is constructed? It is a thesis
which requires careful handling. It is not enough to say that
the nature is manifestly superior, for supposing that Florrie
Cook represented the average of a number of conflicting
personalities, then a single one of these personalities might be
far higher than the total effect.
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