447. Is there any connection between the phenomena of what is designated as second-sight and those of dreaming and somnambulism?

"They are all the same thing. What you call second-sight is also a state in which the spirit is partially free, although the body is not asleep. Second-sight is soul-sight."

448. Is the faculty of second-sight a permanent one?

"The faculty of second-sight is permanent, but its exercise is not. In worlds less material than yours, spirits free themselves from matter more easily, and enter into communication with one another simply by thought, without, however, excluding the use of articulate speech. In those worlds, second-sight is, for the greater part of their inhabitants, a permanent faculty. Their normal state may be compared to that of lucid somnambulism among you; and it is for this reason that they manifest themselves to you more easily than those who are incarnated in bodies of a grosser nature."

449. Does second-sight occur spontaneously, or through an exertion of the will of those who possess that faculty?

"It generally occurs spontaneously; but the will, nevertheless, often plays an important part in producing this phenomenon. Take, for example, the persons who are called fortune-tellers – and some of whom really have that power – and you will find that the action of their will helps them to this second-sight, and to what you call vision."

450. Is second-sight susceptible of being developed by exercise?

"Yes; effort always leads to progress, and the veil which covers things becomes more transparent."

– Is this faculty a result of physical organisation?

"Organisation has undoubtedly a great deal to do with it; there are organisations with which it is incompatible."

451. How is it that second-sight appears to be hereditary in certain families?

"This proceeds from similarity of organisation, which is transmitted, like other physical

qualities; and also from the development of the faculty through a sort of education, which, also, is transmitted from one generation to another."

452. is it true that circumstances develop second-sight?

"Illness, the approach of danger, any great commotion, may develop it. The body is sometimes in a state which allows of the spirit's seeing what cannot be seen with the fleshly eye."

Times of crisis and of calamity, powerful emotions, all the causes, in short, which excite the moral nature, may develop second-sight. It would seem as though Providence gave us, when in the presence of danger, the means of escaping it. All sects and all parties subjected to persecution have offered numerous instances of this fact.

453. Are the persons who are gifted with second-sight always conscious of their faculty?

"Not always; it appears to them to be altogether natural, and many of them suppose that, if everybody observed their own impressions, they would find themselves to be possessed of the same power."

454. May we attribute to a sort of second-sight the perspicacity of those persons who, without being remarkably gifted in other ways, possess an unusually clear judgement in relation to the things of everyday life?

"Such clearness of judgement is always due to a freer radiation of the soul, enabling the man to see more correctly than those whose perceptions are more densely veiled by matter."

– Can this lucidity of judgement, in some cases, give the foreknowledge of future events?

"Yes, it may give presentiments; for there are many degrees in this faculty, and the same person may possess all those degrees, as he may possess only some of them."