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Fourthly, we require the presence of a specially organised man or woman, termed The Sensitive, one from whom it is alleged a portion of the matter used by the entity in the building up of its temporary body can be drawn, with but little chance of injury to their health. This point is one of vital importance, we are told, for it has been proved by means of a self-registering weighing-machine on which he was seated, and to which he was securely fastened with an electrical apparatus secretly hidden beneath the seat, which would at once ring a bell in an anteroom if he endeavoured to rise from his seat during the experiment, that the actual loss in weight to the Sensitive, when a fully materialised entity was standing in our midst, was no less than sixty five pounds !

Before employing any person, then, as a Sensitive for these delicate, not to say dangerous, experiments, he or she should be medically examined, in the interests of both the investigator and the Sensitive, and should their health prove to be in any way below par, they should not be permitted to take part in the experiment until their health is fully restored.

I have been permitted to examine the Sensitive at the moment when an entity, clad in a fully-formed temporary body, was walking amongst the experimenters ; and the distorted features, the shrivelled-up limbs and contorted trunk of the Sensitive at that moment proclaimed the danger connected with the production of this special form of phenomena far louder than any words of mine could do.

Needless to say. Sensitives for materialisations are extremely rare, not more than two or three being found to-day amidst the teeming millions who inhabit the British Islands ; although a few are to be found on the European continent, and several in North America, where the climatic conditions are said to be more favourable for the development of such persons.

Now, what constitutes a Sensitive, and why are they necessary ?

Sensitives through whom physical phenomena (including materialisations) can be produced have been described, firstly, as persons in whom certain forces are stored up, either far in excess of the amcyamJt possessed by the normal man or woman, or else differing in quality from the forces stored up by the normal man or woman ; and secondly, as persons who are able to attract from those in close proximity to them — provided that the conditions are favourable — still more of the force, which thus becomes centred in them for the time being. In other words, a Sensitive for physical phenomena is said to be A Storage Battery for the force which is used in the production of physical phenomena — including materialisations—although it is by no means improbable that such highly developed Sensitives as those required for this special purpose may be found to possess extra nerve-centres as compared with those possessed by normal human beings.

But whether this hypothesis be eventually proved or not, there seems to be but very little doubt that whatever the force may be which constitutes the difference between a Sensitive and a non-Sensitive, it is certainly of a mental or magnetic character, i.e. a combination of the subtle elements of mind and magnetism, and therefore of a psychological, and not of a purely physical character

But why is a Sensitive necessary ? you Think of a telephone for a moment. You wish to communicate with a person who is holding only the end of the wire in his hand, the result being that he cannot hear a single word.

Why is  this? Because he has forgotten to fit a " receiver '' at his end of the wire, a " receiver " in which the vibrations set up by your voice may be centralised, focussed; a " receiver '' which he can place to his ear, and in doing so will at once hear your voice distinctly ; but without this your message to him is lost.

And it is said that this is exactly the use of the Sensitives during our experiments, for they act as "receivers " in which the forces employed in the production of the phenomena may be centralised, focussed: their varying degrees of sensitiveness enabling them to be used by the entities in other spheres for the successful production of such phenomena, we are told.