First, the boy must be convinced; next, he must be attached to the cause; thirdly, his religion must be knocked out of him; fourthly, he must be trained and developed. But for the present he must not be allowed to go into trance if it could be prevented. It was plain, he thought, that Laurie had a very strong “affinity,” as he would have said, with the disembodied spirit of a certain “Amy Nugent.” His communication with her had been of a very startling nature in its rapidity and perfection. Real progress might be made, then, through this channel.
(Yes; I am aware that this sounds grotesque nonsense.)