The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-06-13
MESSAGES FROM THE DEAD.
The Posthumous Letter Scientific Test
 of Possibility,

The Posthumous Letter Scientific Test
 of Possibility.
 What is really important, in regard to this very interesting question of possible communications from the dead IS not to ask whether they are good or bad for mankind, but simply whether they acn be shown to take place. And of this we are still awaiting definite and irrefragable proof. There are, of course, countless alleged cases in which a message has been received from deceased friend or relative, whether through a medium" or by automatic Writing-with planchette or otherwise or in dream or a walking vision. But as vet none of these has satisfied the scientific inquirer, although many peo- ple-llke Archdeacon Colley-are quite honestly convinced that have received such communications
 In order to satisfy the test of science such a communication must fulfil two or three simple conditions. In the first place, there must be a definite message, capable of permanent record. The mere apparition of a dead friend is not suf- ficient, because we can never be sure that it is not of an hallucination due to to some abnormal state of the witness's s neverous system. Secondly, the message thus received must state some fact which (firsD is capable of proof, (se- cond) was within the knowledge of the alleged sender, (third) can be demon strated not to have been known to the receiver Or to be probably within the scope of a fortunate guess.
 This at once rules out all the com- munications as to the future state of disembodied spirits which form by far the great part of the recorded mes- sages received by mediums, and as yet there is no absolutely convincing case in which such a message has been re- ceived, thoughough Mrs Piper's com munications from e. P" are under- stood to have been satisfactory to many investigators.
 The late F. W. H. Myers was the first to point out that the time was ripe for experiments to be made on these lines.
 Why should not every deathbed," he asked, be made the starting point of ft lCilS GADEIlIIlGllL. GlC SLSGSLCu- lldL every one who was interested in this question should leave behind him the materials for satisfactory test of his future ability to communicate with his surviving friends.
 "The simpest plan," he said, is to write down some sentence embodying an idea or name which you feel it Y,rnb 1,1a +1o xtn,1 will I,or if xyNIl remember anything, and then to seal this sentence up in and envelope, with out communicating 1t to any person whatever. Then label the envelope 'Posthumous Letter, and send it, ac- companied by a letter giving name and address, to the secretary, Society for Psychical Research 20 Hanaver Square, London, w. The secretary will acknow- ledge receipt and store the letter safe- ly, with others of the same kind, If then, the writer Git may be many years afterWard) finds himself capable of sending a message from the other world, let him mention this test sen- tence, and try to reproduce it. The seal ed envelope can then be opened, and if the spirits message should be found to coincide with the words written therein there will be as good proof as we can get that message has at any rate not emanated from any living mind, and has emanated, therefore, from some un- limited source of knowledge, or--which will seem, to most persons more prob able-from the surviving mind of the original writer
 It is understood that MT, Myers him self carried out this plan, which might be usefully initiated by all who take an interest in the subject, As yet, he has not been able to reproduce his test mes- sage. We shall wait with interest to hear whether D. Hodgson has been more succesful-as the rumors afioat seem to indicate to be the case. A single successful effort of this would outweigh all the mass of vague and us- ually uncheckable statements which form the bulk of "spirtualistic" litera- ture.--London Mail,