59. Mediums possess the faculty of communication, but effective communication depends on the will of spirits. If spirits do not want to manifest, mediums obtain nothing and are like instruments without musicians.
Spirits communicate only when they want to or when they are able to, and are not at anyone's beck and call; no medium has the ability to make them come whenever desired and against their will.
This explains the intermittence of the faculty in the best mediums, in addition to its suspension, which they sometimes must bear for several months.
Consequently, it would be erroneous to liken mediumship to a talent. Talents are acquired by work, and those who possess them are always master over them; mediums are never master of their faculty, because it depends on an outside will.
