Research source

So that the questions often arise when Spirits communicate with external language, How are we to know that they…

Date of account: Published 1910 from earlier writings
Source: The Astral World—Higher Occult Powers Clairvoyance, Spiritism, Mediumship, and Spirit-Healing Fully Explained
Reference: The Astral World—Higher Occult Powers Clairvoyance, Spiritism, Mediumship, and Spirit-Healing Fully Explained · selected passage 27
Rights: public_domain
Language: English
Record updated: 2026-08-24

Record summary

So that the questions often arise when Spirits communicate with external language, How are we to know that they tell the truth, How are we to know that they are the ones they purport to be?

Published source text

Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.

Source passage

Source text · mention only

So that the questions often arise when Spirits communicate with external language, How are we to know that they tell the truth, How are we to know that they are the ones they purport to be? When a Spirit raps out on the table, or speaks or writes through a medium, that he is such a Spirit, and that such and such things are transpiring at some distant place, how are we to know that he tells the truth? We are not to know it, and can not know it. If we are to be accurately informed on that subject, that which is addressed to our understanding must come more interiorly into our consciousness than it can come through the ear, the eye, or the sense of feeling. It may be true; and give me time enough to investigate, and I can determine whether it be true or not. But if I am to act upon it without investigation, I can not know.

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

This is a historical account assembled under the reporting and publishing conventions of its period. It may preserve testimony, hearsay, retelling and editorial interpretation together.

Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

A modern comparison can identify recurring descriptions and possible explanations, but the account is not treated as independently verified evidence merely because it appeared in print.

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