_Q._ "_What is meant by 'lap mason'?_" _A._ "Lapidator ... stonemason." Having this signature "Johannes" now again repeated, F.B.B. felt curious to know how far this dramatisation or memory of a personality might be developed. _Q. by F.F.B._ "_Tell us more about yourself._" _A._ "I ... died in 1533." (_Repeated because almost illegible._) "Yn 1533 obitus ... curator capellae et laborans in mea ecclesia pro amore ecclesiae Dei ... sculptans et supervisor ... yn Henricum septem[13] ... anno 1497 et defunctus anno 1533." [13] _I.e._, in the reign of Henry VII. NOTE ON THE FIRST THREE SITTINGS. We observe in these communications an individual tone, as of a directing influence, at first manifesting without intermediate links, but almost immediately yielding place to the monkish elements introducing themselves as "Gulielmus Monachus," "Rolf Monachus," and "Johannes Bryant." There appears something like a clash of intention, a strain which reacts on the physical condition of the sitters, and which seems to account for the rapid exhaustion of power towards the end of the first sitting, and the consequent lack of clearness and consistency in the results. In the second sitting the directive agency speaks of the monks as "active influences"--an expression to be noted. And it is explained that "the material influences were at fault." Then in the third sitting we get, "I think I am wrong in some things. Other influences cross my own." It seems very much like a man trying to make a trunk call on a telephone, who is worried because the local office will either persist in switching him off at critical moments, or else because the wires are out of order and imperfectly isolated, so that fragments of other conversation are interjected. When we come to consider the matter of the monkish communications, under the name Johannes, we are at once confronted by the question, "Is this a piece of actual experience transmitted by a real personality, or are we in contact with a larger field of memory, a cosmic record latent, yet living (the "eternal knowledge" of the first writing we record), and able to find expression in human terms related to the subject before us, by the aid of something furnished by the culture of our own minds, and by the aid of a certain power of mental sympathy which allows such records to be sensed and articulated? As to this, it is too early to dogmatise, but in either case room must be left for the presence of a Directive Power accessible to man, capable of stimulating and energising dormant consciousness, and directing it into such channels as man has developed for its reception and expression. SITTING IV. 19th November, 1907. The result was interesting, but contained nothing important as regards the Abbey. SITTING V. 22nd November, 1907. A further plan was produced of the general range of Abbey buildings, signed "Johannes." This was followed by a short script as here given: