ASPR Journal, V14 - Iapsop.com

136 Journal of the American Society f()l' Psychical Research.
he said, "it was more dreamlike." There was evidence to one
familiar with communications that he was this, but the fact could
not be proved here. But this earthbound condition simply meant
that he was still under the influence of his earthly memories to
such an extent that he was leading a dream life and the reality
to him was only a mental reality like our dreams and this based
upon his terrestrial memories, not upon a perfectly normal life
in the spiritual world. He would take only the earthly view of
the situation and seeing the distress of his wife would naturally
resort to methods adjusted to earthly ideals and such ideals as
he himself had.
Now it should ·be noticed that the commtmicator showed not
the slightest knowledge or interest in a spiritual life or world.
He lrad no other conception of things than the financial one and
he was willing to risk his wife's health and life at the age when
child-bearing .is dangerous and especially so when an operation
had made it doubly dangerous. He frankly said what I knew
to be a fact from the lady's own statement, namely, that it was
not a matter of love, but of financial advantages to carry out
some plans which she had and that required money for the purpose.
He was a well-to-do man himself and had he lived ten
years longer would have been much wealthier. He could see
things only in the light of money and what it would bring. He
had never led a spiritual life and had no inkling of it after death.
His earthbound condition was not merely the continuation of his
earthly ideals, but the manifestation of them in the form of a
dream life with its sensory hallucinations and inability to realize
or appreciate a really spiritual life. This his living wife did not
see or suspect, and being attached to him and always following
his judgment while living, was disposed to do the same after
his death when she could get into communication with him. She
had no realization of his earthbound condition and what it meant.
He could only counsel her in the direction of money making and
child-bearing at a dangerous period of her life.
Knowing this fact, I deliberately asked him if it was not
dangerous to her at her age to undertake m"otherhood and his
answer showed that he had not suspected this and as a consequence
changed his mind on the matter and finally advised remaining
unmarried. Jennie P. told him he could help her from
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