979. “_My dear Aunt_: This is the first time that I have communicated. When I left the rudimental sphere, I was so young I did not know what it meant to die; I now know. It was the beginning of life! I will come again soon and talk with you. Your niece, ALMIRA BARNES.” 980. It was some moments before Mrs. W. could recall to mind the fact that her sister had lost a child, of the above name, about twenty-three years since, aged three months. Here is intelligence so clearly independent of our minds, that it is, in my opinion, entirely fatal to the theory of “_mental reflection_” so often adduced by the unbelievers in Spiritualism. At the close of this communication the following was received: 981. “_Dear Mother_: I am happy to have this opportunity to send you a kind message. Although I am often with you, I cannot speak to you through your own mediumship. Oh mother! what delight it would give me could I make myself visible to you. What would you say if you should see me sitting in the chair I so long occupied when an invalid? I often sit in that chair, but you cannot yet see me. Have you not heard me rap to you? I have tried in various ways to make myself manifest. I think you had better go South this winter. I think father’s health would be better there. I will visit you, if you go. The climate where you now live is too bracing for father’s lungs. When the warm weather returns, you can bid farewell to the sunny South and seek your Northern home. I wish I could speak to you through your own dear hand, but that I cannot yet do. 982. “_Dear mother_, you will become a medium; then we shall have good times. Good-by, blessed mother! I look forward to a happy reunion with all your loved ones here. ELIZABETH ADAMS.” 983. The above, as may be seen, was from the spirit that Mrs. W. called for, and the communication was designed for the spirit’s mother, who lived in the State of New York. The message was subsequently forwarded to her address. E. A., Mrs. Wightman, informed me, died after a lingering illness of consumption. She occupied the arm-chair alluded to during the greater part of her sickness, and she promised her mother she would come back and sit in it after her death, if she could. Her step-father, whose indisposition she refers to, is affected with a chronic disease of the lungs. The loved ones are Elizabeth’s brothers and sisters, all of whom, five or six, are in the spirit world. These facts were unknown to me at the time. 984. Last January, my friend Mrs. Wightman brought two ladies to witness, for the first time, some of the phenomena of our beautiful philosophy. Their names were suppressed, to be disclosed by the communications that might come from their spirit friends, in order to strengthen the evidences of spiritual intercourse. My hand being applied to the disk, the index spelled out the following: