Another feature, equally worthy of attention, is the apparent absence of spirits who can properly be regarded as diabolical. Sittings for the purpose of communication with “surviving” souls are not attended by devils or by beings occupied mainly in the pursuit of evil. It may, of course, be the case that the published records and the verbal accounts that are current suppress all mention of occurrences deemed to be demoniacal, in the same way that, according to Sir Oliver Lodge, spiritualists “usually either discourage or suppress” statements “about the nature of things ‘on the other side.’” The eminent authority here quoted goes on, indeed, to say-- “These are what we call the ‘unverifiable’ communications; for we cannot bring them to book by subsequent terrestrial inquiry in the same way as we can test information concerning personal or mundane affairs. _Information of the higher kind has often been received but has seldom been published_; and it is difficult to know what value to put upon it, or how far it is really trustworthy.” This very frank confession of the reports of _séances_ being systematically garbled is a little disconcerting, especially when coming from one of the shining lights of the scientific world; but it probably means no more than that the champions of spiritualism do not desire to arouse antagonism that can be avoided. In the same way it may well be that those persons who, whether as mediums or sitters or in the privacy of individual attempts at communication, happen to come into contact with evil spirits do not feel disposed to subject themselves to the hostility of the religious world by detailing their experiences. But, however this may be, the fact remains that, so far as common knowledge and common repute are concerned, the devilish element is not likely to be encountered by those persons who seek to speak with the dead. If, now, the particulars set forth in the present chapter be summarised we find the state of things to be as follows:-- 1. Disembodied souls do not depart from this world when “death” occurs. 2. They remain for a time free from bodily environment of an ordinary material kind. 3. Sooner or later they enter into new human bodies, and perhaps, also, in some cases, into new bodies of the lower animals. 4. During the period of their free existence while awaiting transmigration, many of them make a practice of haunting localities and living human beings. 5. They possess in themselves the equivalent of bodies constructed of something analogous to matter and having organisms by which they perceive and act. 6. Each disembodied soul is an individual entity existing permanently apart from all others and not distinguished by any racial or sexual characteristics.