- 80 - In a case of this kind, we cannot accept the "Ego" of the person in question as the bearer of such messages and are driven to assume the presence of some other thinking entity that employs the unconscious person's body as an instrument for speech and writing. This conclusion is inescapable, even if we apply the principles of the exact sciences. If, furthermore, these thinking entities, invisible to our eyes, assure us again and again that they are discarnate spirits, and if they explain to us the laws enabling them to communicate with mankind, we have the means of testing the truth of their statements. We need only to fulfill the conditions that are, according to the spirit world, required for them to communicate with us. If it then develops that, subject to the observance of the said conditions, communication with the spirits actually does occur, and, what is more, everywhere and in every case – then spirit communication is as undeniable as the fact that by the observance of the laws of radio transmission we can receive radio messages from points at a far distance from us. The validity of the laws is the same in both instances. The laws governing transmission by radio were not created today; they are as old as the universe, but they have been discovered only recently. • So, too, the laws governing communication between the spirit world and mankind have always existed. They are not even a recent discovery, but people of every country and of every age have known these laws and used them for communicating with the Beyond. My own experiences in this field, and the experiences of a thousand others, among whom were numerous scientific investigators, are not illusions, hallucinations or similar deceptions of the senses. They are purely objective events. I was in full possession of my senses while observing and testing the things I witnessed. I have no mediumistic gifts, being neither clairvoyant, clairaudient, nor a sensitive in any way. I know nothing of trance states in myself. Blessed with good health and steady nerves, I observed these things at the age of 50, after 25 years of service as a Catholic priest had familiarized me with the highs and lows of human life. I had seen innumerable cases of hysteria, extreme nervousness, insanity, epilepsy, and similar mental conditions in the daily discharge of my clerical duties, but what I saw in connection with spirit communication as related in this book was something utterly different. It did not bear even the remotest resemblance to abnormal occurrences in the domain of the psyche. The reflection that I had everything at stake was in itself enough to compel me to conduct my observations with the utmost seriousness and conscientiousness. As a clergyman, I held a position that relieved me of all worldly care for the rest of my life, and obviously no one surrenders such a position to face the world without a means of support except for reasons of the weightiest kind. But surrender it I must, if the things that I had learned through what I took to be communication with the spirit world should prove to be true, for these were in conflict with the doctrines that I, as a Catholic priest, was called upon to preach to my fellow Catholics, and to apply in ministering to their souls. • If the messages brought to me by the spirit world were based upon the truth, I would have to relinquish my position as a Catholic clergyman.
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