Myself. "We don't know. There are various guesses. None of them particularly likely."
Myself. "Oh, some of us believe that the soul or spirit is a special creation made by a higher power we call God, and breathed into the body at birth. And some that the soul or spirit, itself eternal, finds a temporary house in the body, and progresses from one to another with intervals between each incarnation."
Spirit. "Then this being born is what we should call dying?"
Myself. "Quite. It makes no difference. And, as a matter of fact, the overwhelming majority of us--that is to say, all but about one in every million--never bother our heads where we came from, or what's likely to happen to us when we die, or are born, as you would call it."
I have a note here that after this we were both silent for about ten minutes.
Spirit (despondently). "I wish I could get some sort of idea what you do all the time and what you think about. I thought, when I so unexpectedly got into touch with someone in the future state, that I should be able to learn everything. And I have, so far, learnt nothing--absolutely nothing. In fact, except that I have been able to correct my inferences with regard to one or two purely material experiments, I may say that I know less now than I did before. And, by the way, those things over there--he pointed to the washstand--I noticed that at certain times you go through some ceremony with them upstairs, and as I wished to discover if there was any reason why you should not perform the same ceremony downstairs, I moved the things. Well, I noticed that the spirit who was here before you was apparently very annoyed. Can you give me any explanation of that?"
Myself. "Our bodies become soiled by contact with matter, and we wash ourselves in water. We prefer to do it in our bedrooms."
Myself. "We use a certain set of rooms for one purpose and another set for other purposes."
Spirit. "But you are sure of the fact, even if you can give no reason?"
Spirit. "I wish I could prove that. One of my fellow-scientists, who has recently been able to press his investigations even further than I have up to the present time, has recently brought forward good evidence to prove that spirits are all black, wear no coverings on their bodies, live in the simplest of dwellings, and, although they have a few ceremonies, certainly have none which in any way corresponds to that you have just described."