Chapter I 1 Mrs Piper's mediumship--Is mediumship a neurosis? Chapter II 7 Dr Richard Hodgson--Description of the trance--Mrs Piper not a good hypnotic subject. Chapter III 13 Early trances--Careful first observations by Professor William James of Harvard University, Massachusetts, U.S.A. Chapter IV 20 The hypothesis of fraud--The hypothesis of muscle-reading--"Influence." Chapter V 27 A sitting with Mrs Piper--The hypothesis of thought-transference--Incidents. Chapter VI 39 Phinuit--His probable origin--His character--What he says of himself--His French--His medical diagnosis--Is he merely a secondary personality of Mrs Piper? Chapter VII 52 Miss Hannah Wild's letter--The first text given by Phinuit--Mrs Blodgett's sitting--Thought-reading explains the case. Chapter VIII 65 Communications from persons having suffered in their mental faculties--Unexpected communications from unknown persons--The respect due to the communicators--Predictions--Communications from children. Chapter IX 77 Further consideration of the difficulties of the problem--George Pelham--Development of the automatic writing. Chapter X 87 How George Pelham has proved his identity--He recognises his friends and alludes to their opinions--He recognises objects which have belonged to him--Asks that certain things should be done for him--Very rarely makes an erroneous statement. Chapter XI 99 George Pelham's philosophy--The nature of the soul--The first moments after death--Life in the next world--George Pelham contradicts Stainton Moses--Space and time in the next world--How spirits see us--Means of communication. Chapter XII 117 William Stainton Moses--What George Pelham thinks of him--How Imperator and his assistants have replaced Phinuit. Chapter XIII 126 Professor Hyslop and the journalists--The so-called "confession" of Mrs Piper--Precautions taken by Professor Hyslop during his experiments--Impressions of the sittings. Chapter XIV 134 The communications of Mr Robert Hyslop--Peculiar expressions--Incidents. Chapter XV 147 The "influence" again--Other incidents--Statistics.