How far I have ever written, independent of these higher influences, I cannot say; I only know that all the poems under my own name have come from the deep places of my “Inner Life;” and in that self-same sacred retreat--which I have entered either by the intense concentration of all my intellectual powers, or a passive surrender to the inspirations that moved upon me--I have held conscious communion with disembodied spirits. At such times it has been said I was “entranced;” and although that term does not exactly express my idea, perhaps it is the best which can yet be found in our language. The avenues of external sense, if not entirely closed, were at least disused, in order that the spiritual perceptions might be quickened to the required degree, and also that the world of causes, of which earth and its experiences are but the passing effects, might be disclosed to my vision. Certain it is that a physical change took place, affecting both my breathing and circulation, and my clairvoyant powers were so strengthened that I could dimly perceive external objects from the frontal portion of my brain, even with my eyes closed and bandaged; also, in that state, any excess of light was far more painful than under ordinary conditions. If the communications given through my instrumentality have been weak, erroneous, and imperfect, it is no fault of my spirit-teachers, but arises rather from my own inability to understand or clearly express what was communicated to me.
In relation to the poems given under direct spirit-influence I would say, that there has been a mistake existing in many minds concerning them, which I take the present opportunity, as far as possible, to correct. They were not like lightning flashes, coming unheralded, and vanishing without leaving a trace behind. Several days before they were given, I would receive intimations of them. Oftentimes, and particularly under the influence of Poe, I would awake in the night from a deep slumber, and detached fragments of those poems would be floating through my mind, though in a few moments after they would vanish like a dream. I have sometimes awakened myself by repeating them aloud. I have been informed, also, by these influences, that all their poems are as complete and finished in spirit-life as they are in this, and the only reason why they cannot be repeated again and again is because of the difficulty of bringing a human organism always into the same state of exaltation--a state in which mediums readily receive inspiration, and render the poems with the least interference of their own intellect.