the physical one, or that the power of thought alone, and without any physical instrument, can operate upon matter. Personally, I prefer to accept the theory that we have a mental body, since this appeals to me as being more reasonable and certainly much more human. If we assume that spirits have the ability to move ponderable objects without physical contact, we are assuming that they have a mental body, or that they operate their thought to produce the phenomena. For, once granted that the phenomena are really produced, it is self-evident that some kind of an explanation must be forthcoming. There are but two possible answers from what is to-day known: either the minds of departed souls or the minds of those present in the flesh produce the phenomena. This eliminates any other possible agency, for the theory of ectoplasm cannot answer all of the facts.
Lesson Six: Psychic Phenomena and Immortality THE MEANING OF IMMORTALITY Immortality means to the average person that man shall persist after the experience of physical death, retaining a full recollection of himself and the ability to recognize others. If his full capacities go with him beyond the grave, he must be able to think consciously, to reason, will, affirm, declare, accept, reject, know and be known, communicate and be communicated with; he must be able to travel about, see and be seen, understand and be understood; he must be able to touch, taste, smell, hear, cognize and realize. In fact, if he is really to continue as a self-conscious personality, he can do so only to the degree that he maintains a continuous stream of consciousness and self-knowingness. This means he must carry with him a complete remembrance; for it is to the remembrance alone that we must look for the link that binds one event to another, making life a constant stream of self-conscious expression. To suppose that man can forget and still remain himself is to suppose that he could cut off the entire past and at this moment be the same personality that he was a moment ago. Remembrance alone guarantees personality. Individuality might remain without remembrance, but not so with personality; for what we are is the result of what we have been, the result of what has gone before.
214