This work, first published in the 19th century, was the culmination of more than 20 years of research into the survival of consciousness after death. Declaring the soul able to survive the death of the body was extremely daring at a time when the scientific community's leaning toward materialism made it risky to even express the belief that man possesses a soul. The author's fascination with spiritualism and mediumship led him to examine mediumistic communications in particular and psychic functioning in general.