In connection with your query anent the photography which concerns itself with departed souls, I would advise you that understanding of process will come from a study of the photographing of thought-forms. A beginning was made in this connection by the great French scientist, d'Arsonval, of Paris. A.A.B. can tell you something of this if you do not already know. Light on the subject will come through this, through the perfecting of the plates of reception and their greatly increased sensitivity, and through the relating of electricity to photography. You may deem it well-nigh impossible to make plates of much greater sensitivity than those in use in the best equipped laboratories. But this is not so. Along this line of thought-photography and electrical equipment, will come the solution. It is the thought of those on the other side, and their ability to project [377] thought-forms of themselves, plus the providing of adequately sensitive plates or their equivalent, which will mark a new era in so-called "spirit photography." People frequently are so preoccupied with the tangible instrument on this side of the veil that they neglect the factor of what must be contributed from the other side by those who have passed over.

The work will be done from there, with the material aid which as yet has not been provided in the outer scientific field.

To bring this about, collaboration of a conscious medium (not a trance medium, but someone who is consciously clairvoyant and clairaudient) will be required. There are many such growing up among the children of today, and the next generation after them will provide still more. The separating veil will disappear through the testimony of the thousands of those who can see phenomena and hear sounds which lie outside the range of the tangible.

It must be remembered that the so-called "spirits" are functioning in the illusory astral body, while advanced "spirits" are only functioning as minds, and can therefore [378] be reached solely by minds and in no other way. It will never be possible to photograph the mental vehicle; only the astral body will be susceptible of photographing. The grosser the person in the body, desire and appetite, the more easily will he be photographed after passing over (if any one wants to photograph him!), and the more advanced the person, the more difficult it will be to get a photograph.

Future scientific discoveries, therefore, hold the secret. This is no evasion on my part, but a simple statement of fact. Electrical discovery is only in the initial stage and all that we have is simply a prelude to the real discovery. The magic of the radio would be completely unbelievable to the man of the eighteenth century. The discoveries and developments lying ahead in the twenty-first century will be equally unbelievable to the man of this century. A great discovery in relation to the use of light by the power and the directive agency of thought will come at the end of this century or the beginning of the next. Two small children - one living in this country (U.S.A.) and one in India - will work out a formula along scientific lines which will fill in some of the existing gaps in the scale of light vibration, carrying on from the high frequency rays and [379] waves as you now have them. This will necessitate instruments hitherto undreamed of but really quite possible. They will be so sensitive that they will be set in motion by the power of the human eye under the focused direction of thought. From then on tangible rapport with the spirit world will be possible. I cannot do more than give you the clue.

February 1944 [380]