The existence of something in Man that is not merely corporeal, of powers that can act beyond the reach of any corporeal instruments at his command, or without the range of their application, is not proven; it may be, only because the facts that indicate without proving it have never yet been subject to systematic verification or scientific analysis.

But of such facts there exists a vast accumulation; unsifted, untested, and therefore as yet ineffective for proof, but capable, I can scarcely doubt, of reduction to methodical order and scientific treatment.
There are records and traditions of every degree of value, from utter worthlessness to the worth of the most authentic history, preserving the evidences of powers which may be generally described as spiritual.
Through all ages, among all races, the living have alleged themselves from time to time to have seen the forms and even heard the voices of the dead.

Scientific men have been forced by the actual and public exercise of the power under the most crucial tests--for instance, to produce insensibility in surgical operations--to admit that the will of one man can control the brain, the senses, the physical frame of another without material contact, perhaps at a distance.

There are narratives of marvels wrought by human will, chiefly in remote, but occasionally in recent times, transcending and even contradicting or overruling the known laws of Nature.

All these evidences point to one conclusion; all corroborate and confirm one another.