88. Have souls a determinate, circumscribed, and unvarying form?

"Not for eyes such as yours; but, for us, they have a form, though one only to be vaguely imagined by you as a flame, a gleam, or an ethereal spark."

– Is this flame or spark of any colour?

"If you could see it, it would appear to you to vary from a dull grey to the brilliancy of the ruby, according to the degree of the spirit's purity."

Genii are usually represented with a flame or a star above their foreheads – a sort of allegorical allusion to the essential nature of spirits. The flame or star is placed upon the head because the head is the seat of intelligence.

89 Do spirits employ any time in transporting themselves through space?

"Yes; but their motion is as rapid as that of thought."

– Is not thought the movement of the soul itself, a transportation of the soul itself to the place or the object thought of by it?

"Wherever the thought is, there the soul is, since it is the soul that thinks. Thought is an attribute."

90. When a spirit travels from one place to another, is he conscious of the distance he traverses and of the extent of space through which he passes; or is he suddenly transported to the place to which he wishes to go?

"A spirit can travel in either way. He can, if he will, take cognisance of the distance he passes through, or he can rid himself entirely of the sense of distance. This depends on the spirit's will, and also on his degree of purity."

91. Does matter constitute an obstacle to the movement of a spirit?

"No; spirits pass through everything; the air, the earth, water, fire even, are equally accessible to them."

92. Have spirits the gift of ubiquity? In other words, can a spirit divide itself, or exist at

several points of space at the same time?

"There can be no division of any given spirit; but every spirit is a centre which radiates in all directions, and it is thus that a spirit may appear to be in several places at once. The sun is only one body, yet it radiates in all directions, and sends out its rays to great distances; but it is not divided."

– Have all spirits the same power of radiation?

"There is a great difference between them in this respect: it depends on the degree of their purity."

Each spirit is an indivisible unity, but each spirit has the power of extending his thought on all sides without thereby dividing himself. It is only in this sense that the gift of ubiquity attributed to spirits is to be understood. It is thus that a spark sends out its brightness far and wide, and may be perceived from every point of the horizon. It is thus, also, that a man, without changing his place, and without dividing himself, may transmit orders, signals, etc., to many distant points in many different directions.