Chris's family contacts a medium who can see but not hear Chris, and they conduct a séance. Chris tries to communicate with them, but tires and goes off to sleep. When he awakens, he is horrified to find himself staring at a figure of himself conversing with the family. The psychic is unknowingly feeding this figure some answers he expects to hear, unaware that he's not conversing with the real Chris. The novel later explains that the figure is the shedding of Chris's etheric body to release his spirit body, enabling him to ascend to Heaven, or Summerland.