Is Darkness Necessary?

From the above it is seen that not only is the trance condition not

absolutely necessary for the production of striking mediumistic

phenomena, but that, also, there is no absolute necessity for the

condition of darkness to be maintained as an essential feature of such

phenomena. While many mediums insist upon the condition of darkness at

seances, it is thought by some careful thinkers that this arises from

the fact tha such mediums have been accustomed to such conditions from

their earliest days of mediumship, and have grown to believe that the

same are absolutely necessary. It is thought that if such mediums would

begin over again, practicing in full light in the company of a few

sympathetic friends, they would before long grow accustomed to the new

conditions, and would then be able to reproduce all of their most

important phenomena in full light. Using the terms of modern psychology,

it would seem that such mediums are the victims of their own

"auto-suggestion," and fixed beliefs; and, as all students of the

subject well know, the mental states of the medium have a most important

bearing of the quality of the phenomena produced, and form a very

important factor of the conditions governing the success of the seance.