Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death

Chapter IX

Appendices to

Scheme of Vital Faculty.

IX. A. The following scheme231 is not put forth as expressing deliberate convictions, supported by adequate evidence. Its speculative character has, in fact, excluded it from my text, yet I hope that it may not be without its use. For many men the difficulty of belief is not so much in defect of trustworthy evidence as in the unintelligibility, the incoherence of the phenomena described, which prevents them from being retained in the mind or assimilated with previous knowledge.

I have felt myself the full force of this objection, and I believe that some effort to meet it has become absolutely needful. Undoubtedly a record of facts without theories is the first essential. But the facts individually are like “stones that fall down from Jupiter,”—isolated marvels, each of which seems incredible until we have made shift to colligate them all.

Let us begin, then, by taking the most generalised view possible of all these phenomena. They appear, at any rate, to depend upon the presence of living human beings; and they are therefore in some sense phenomena of life. If, then, they are phenomena of life, they must be in some way derived from, or must bear some analogy to, the vital phenomena, the faculties and functions with which we are familiar in the experience of every day. Yet to say this brings us little nearer to our aim. Spirits may have ruled Mr. Moses’ mind and body just as truly as our own conscious will rules our mind and body.232 But the results which they produced were so different from any results which we can produce that it is hard to know where to begin the comparison. Is there not some middle term, some intermediate series, with which both these extreme series may have points of resemblance?

It is here that we ought to feel the advantage of previous discussions on man’s own supernormal faculties,—on the powers of the Self below the threshold of ordinary consciousness. We have traced these powers in detail; we have noted the extension of the normal spectrum of consciousness beyond both red and violet ends, in response to subliminal control. Perhaps the profounder conception of the Self thus gained may help us to bridge over that gulf between the performances of the ordinary man and those of the so-called medium which heretofore has involved so difficult a leap. We may find that the spirit’s power over the organism which it controls or “possesses,”—while possibly going much further than any subliminal power in the organism itself, as known to us,—may yet advance along similar lines, and receive explanation from hypnotic or telepathic phenomena. I will endeavour, then, to set side by side, in tabular form, the main heads of vital process or faculty as exercised (1) under normal or supraliminal control; (2) under subliminal and telepathic control; (3) under what is claimed as disembodied or spiritual control.

In arranging this scheme my first object is to bring all such phenomena as we actually have before us into intelligible connection; introducing by the way a few of the explanations given to Mr. Moses by his guides. Those explanations, however, are for the most part slight and vague, and our experimental knowledge of the phenomena is, of course, merely nascent and fragmentary. My scheme, therefore, cannot aim at complete logical arrangement. It must involve both repetitions and lacunæ; nor can it be such as the physiologist would care to sanction. But it will, at least, be a first attempt at a connected schedule or rational index of phenomena apparently so disparate that the very possibility of their interdependence b even now constantly denied.

SYNOPSIS OF VITAL FACULTY

I

First Series:—Phenomena Supraliminally Controlled, or Occurring in Ordinary Life.

1. Supraliminal or empirical consciousness; aware only of the material world through sensory impressions.

2. Physical nutrition, including respiration.
(a) Physiological and pathological processes and products.

3. Physical expenditure; action on material and etherial environment.
(a) Mechanical work done at the expense of food assimilated.
(b) Production of heat, odour, sound, chemical changes, as the result of protoplasmic metabolism.
(c) Production of etherial disturbances; as emission of light and generation of electrical energy.

4. Action on the incarnation of life on the planet.
(a) Reproduction, as physiological division.

5. Mental nutrition; sensory receptivity.
(a) Ordinary sense-perception.
(b) Memory.

6. Mental expenditure; response to stimuli.
(a) Intra-cerebral response; ideation.
(b) Emotion; will; voluntary innervation.

7. Modifications of supraliminal personality.
(a) Birth; as physiological individuation.
(b) Sleep; with dreams, as oscillations of the conscious threshold.
(c) Metamorphoses; as of insects and amphibians; and polymorphism, as of hydrozoa; multiplex personality.
(d) Death; as physiological dissolution.

II

Second Series:—Phenomena Subliminally Controlled.

1. Subliminal consciousness; obscurely aware of the transcendental world, through telepathic and telæsthetic impressions.

2. Physical nutrition modified by subliminal control.
(a) Suggestion, self-suggestion, psycho-therapeutics.
(b) Stigmatisation.

3. Physical expenditure modified by subliminal control.
(a) Mechanical work modified by psychical integration or disintegration; hysteria.
(b) Production of heat, and other specific effects upon matter, subliminally modified.
(c) Emission of light, and generation of electrical energy modified.

4. Action on the incarnation of life on the planet.
(a) Prenatal suggestion through intermediate organism of parent.

5. Mental nutrition (sensory and supersensory receptivity) subliminally controlled.
(a) Hyperæsthesia; anæsthesia; analgesia.
(b) Hypermnesia, manifested in dreams or automatisms.
(c) Telepathy; veridical hallucinations; sensory automatism.
(d) Telæsthesia or clairvoyance; perception of distant scenes; retrocognition; precognition.

6. Mental expenditure; response to stimuli modified by subliminal control.
(a) Subliminal ideation; the inspirations of genius.
(b) Motor automatism; concurrent consciousness; hyperboulia.
(c) Extradition of will-power beyond the organism; telergy; self-projection.

7. Modifications of subliminal personality.
(a) Birth; as spiritual individuation.
(b) Sleep and trance; self-suggested or telepathically suggested; with clairvoyant visions.
(c) Ecstasy.
(d) Death; as irrevocable self-projection of the spirit.

III

Third Series:—Phenomena Claimed as Spiritually Controlled.

1. Subliminal consciousness, discerning and influenced by disembodied spirits in a spiritual world, who co-operate in producing objective phenomena.

2. Physical nutrition modified by spirit-control.
(a) Spirit-suggestion; psycho-therapeutics.
(b) Stigmatisation.
(c) Novel and purposive metastasis of secretion.

3. Physical expenditure modified by spirit-control.
(a) Mechanical efficiency increased and fulcrum displaced.
(b) Control over individual material molecules; resulting in abrogation of ordinary thermal laws, and in aggregation and disaggregation of matter.
(c) Control over etherial manifestations; with possible effects in the domains of light, electricity, gravitation, and cohesion.

4. Action on the incarnation of life on the planet.
(a) Pre-conceptual suggestion or self-suggestion.
(b) Ectoplasy or Materialisation; temporary extradition or concentration of vital energy.

5. Mental nutrition modified by spirit-control.
(a) Ordinary sensory perception spiritually controlled.
(b) Memory controlled; retrocognition spiritually given.
(c) Sensory automatism spiritually controlled; phantasms of the dead, etc.
(d) Telæsthesia developed into perception of spiritual environment; precognition.

6. Response to stimuli spiritually controlled.
(a) Ideation inspired by spirits.
(b) Motor automatism spiritually controlled; possession.
(c) Extension of will-power into the spiritual world; prayer.

7. Modifications of personality from spiritual standpoint.
(a) Birth; as descent into generation.
(b) Sleep and trance induced, and visions inspired, by spirits.
(c) Precursory emergence into completer personality; ecstasy with perception of spiritual world.
(d) Death; as birth into completer personality.
(e) Vital faculty fully exercised in spiritual world.

IX. B. (1) The following case is quoted from the Journal S.P.R., vol. v. p. 253. Professor Luther writes:—

Hartford, Conn., March 2nd, 1892.

...Miss C. is often in my study and consults my books freely, so that her dream was not remarkable. The dream of Mrs. L. (my wife) was also ordinary in character. The coincidence in time of the dreams may have been merely a coincidence. But that after these occurrences Mrs. L. should suddenly, without the least premeditation and without hesitation, take the right book and open it at the right page with the certainty of a somnambulist, seems to me strange....

These events took place yesterday, last night, and this morning.

F. S. Luther
(Prof. Math., Trinity College).

Mrs. L. and Miss C. live at the same hotel and meet daily. Miss C. is engaged in writing an essay upon Emerson, and expresses to Mrs. L. her wish to obtain some particulars as to Emerson’s private life. Mrs. L. regrets that she has no book treating of the subject. During the night following this conversation Mrs. L. dreams of handing Miss C. a book containing an article such as is desired, and Miss C. dreams of telling Mrs. L. that she had procured just the information which she had been looking for. Each lady relates to the other her dream when they meet at breakfast the next morning. Mrs. L. returns to her room, and, while certainly not consciously thinking of Emerson, suddenly finds in her mind the thought, “There is the book which Miss C. needs.” She goes directly to a bookcase, takes down vol. xvii. of the Century Magazine, and opens immediately at the article, “The Homes and Haunts of Emerson.” Mrs. L. had undoubtedly read this article in 1879, but she had never studied Emerson or his works, nor had she made any special effort to assist Miss C. in her search, though feeling a friend’s interest in the proposed essay.

After receiving the book and hearing how it was selected, Miss C. relates her dream more fully, it appearing that she had seemed to be standing in front of Mrs. L.’s shelves with a large, illustrated book in her hands, and that in the book was something about Emerson.

Still later it is found that Miss C. had actually noticed the article in question while actually in the position reproduced in her dream. This, however, had happened about a month previous to the events just narrated, and before she had thought of looking up authorities as to Emerson, so that she had entirely forgotten the occurrence and the article. Neither did she, at that time, call Mrs. L.’s attention to the article, or mention Emerson.

According to the best information attainable, Miss C. was not thinking of her essay at the time when Mrs. L. felt the sudden impulse to take down a certain book. And perhaps it should be added that the volume is one of a complete set of the Century variously disposed upon Mrs. L.’s shelves.

[This account is signed by Professor Luther, Mrs. L., and Miss C.]

Of special interest are a few cases where the actual mechanism of some brief communication from the spiritual world seems to suggest and lead up to the mechanism which we shall afterwards describe either as ecstasy or as possession.

(2) I give here a case which suggests such knowledge as may be learnt in ecstasy;—as though a message had been communicated to a sleeper during some brief excursion into the spiritual world,—which message was remembered for a few moments, in symbolic form, and then rapidly forgotten, as the sleeper returned fully into the normal waking state. What is to be noted is that the personality of sleep, to which I attribute the spiritual excursion, seems at first to have been “controlling” the awakened organism. In other words, Professor Thoulet was partially entranced or possessed by his own spirit or subliminal self.

I quote from Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xi. pp. 503-5, a translation of the original account of the case in the Annales des Sciences Psychiques (September-October, 1891).

Professor Thoulet writes to Professor Richet as follows:—

April 17th, 1891.

...During the summer of 1867, I was officially the assistant, but in reality the friend, in spite of difference in age, of M. F., a former officer in the navy, who had gone into business. We were trying to set on foot again the exploitation of an old sulphur mine at Rivanazzaro, near Voghera, in Piedmont, which had been long abandoned on account of a falling in.

We occupied the same rooms, and our relations were those of father and son, or of elder and younger brother....

I knew that Madame F., who lived at Toulon, and with whom I was slightly acquainted, would soon be confined. I cannot say I was indifferent about this fact, for it concerned M. F.; but it certainly caused me no profound emotion; it was a second child, all was going well, and M. F. was not anxious. I myself was well and calm. It is true that a few days before, in Burgundy, my mother had fallen out of a carriage; but the fall had no bad consequences, and the letter which informed me of it also told me there was no harm done.

M. F. and I slept in adjoining rooms, and as it was hot we left the door between them open. One morning I sprang suddenly out of bed, crossed my room, entered that of M. F., and awakened him by crying out, “You have just got a little girl; the telegram says...” Upon this I began to read the telegram. M. F. sat up and listened; but all at once I understood that I had been asleep, and that consequently my telegram was only a dream, not to be believed; and then, at the same time, this telegram, which was somehow in my hand and of which I had read about three lines aloud, word for word, seemed to withdraw from my eyes as if some one were carrying it off open; the words disappeared, though their image still remained; those which I had pronounced remained in my memory, while the rest of the telegram was only a form.

I stammered something; M. F. got up and led me into the dining-room, and made me write down the words I had pronounced; when I came to the lines which, though they had disappeared from my memory, still remained pictured in my eye, I replaced them by dots, making a sort of drawing of them. Remark that the telegram was not written in common terms; there were about six lines of it, and I had read more than two of them. Then, becoming aware of our rather incorrect costume, M. F. and I began to laugh, and went back to our beds.

Two or three days after I left for Torée; I tried in vain to remember the rest of the telegram; I went on to Turin, and eight or ten days after my dream I received the following telegram from M. F., “Come directly, you were right.”

I returned to Rivanazzaro and M. F. showed me a telegram which he had received the evening before; I recognised it as the one I had seen in my dream; the beginning was exactly what I had written, and the end, which was exactly like my drawing, enabled me to read again the words which I saw again. Please remark that the confinement had taken place the evening before, and therefore the fact was not that I, being in Italy, had seen a telegram which already existed in France—this I might with some difficulty have understood—but that I had seen it ten days before it existed or could have existed; since the event it announced had not yet taken place. I have turned this phenomenon over in my memory and reasoned about it many times, trying to explain it, to connect it with something, with a previous conversation, with some mental tension, with an analogy, a wish,—and all in vain. M. F. is dead, and the paper I wrote has disappeared. If I were called before a court of justice about it, I could not furnish the shadow of a material proof, and again the two personalities which exist in me, the animal and the savant, have disputed on this subject so often that sometimes I doubt it myself. However, the animal, obstinate as an animal usually is, repeats incessantly that I have seen, and I have read, and it is useless for me to tell myself that if any one else told me such a story I should not believe it. I am obliged to admit that it happened.

J. Thoulet,
Professor at the Faculté des Sciences at Nancy.

Professor Richet adds:—

M. Thoulet has lately confirmed all the details contained in his letter. He has no longer any written trace of this old story, but the recollection of it is perfectly clear. He assured me that he had seen and read the telegram like a real object....

(3) And now I quote a case where a kind of conversation is indicated between the sleeper and some communicating spirit;—recalling the scraps of conversation sometimes overheard (as it were) between Mrs. Piper and some “control” when she is in the act of awaking from trance. These moments “between two worlds” are often, as will be seen, of high significance. In the case here cited we seem to see Mr. Goodall at first misapprehending a message, and himself automatically uttering the misapprehension, and then receiving the needed correction from his invisible interlocutor.

From Proceedings S.P.R., vol. v. pp. 453-5. The following narrative was communicated by Mr. Edward A. Goodall, of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours, London:—

May 1888.

At Midsummer, 1869, I left London for Naples. The heat being excessive, people were leaving for Ischia, and I thought it best to go there myself.

Crossing by steamer, I slept one night at Casamicciola, on the coast, and walked next morning into the town of Ischia.

Liking the hotel there better than my quarters of the previous night, I fetched my small amount of luggage by help of a man, who returned with me on foot beside an animal which I rode—one of the fine, sure-footed, big donkeys of the country. Arrived at the hotel, and while sitting perfectly still in my saddle talking to the landlady, the donkey went down upon his knees as if he had been shot or struck by lightning, throwing me over his head upon the lava pavement. In endeavouring to save myself my right hand was badly injured. It soon became much swollen and very painful. A Neapolitan doctor on the spot said no bones were broken, but perfect rest would be needful, with my arm in a sling. Sketching, of course, was impossible, and with neither books, newspapers, nor letters I felt my inactivity keenly.

It must have been on my third or fourth night, and about the middle of it, when I awoke, as it seemed at the sound of my own voice, saying, “I know I have lost my dearest little May.” Another voice, which I in no way recognised, answered, “No, not May, but your youngest boy.”

The distinctness and solemnity of the voice made such a distressing impression upon me that I slept no more. I got up at daybreak, and went out, noticing for the first time telegraph-poles and wires.

Without delay I communicated with the postmaster at Naples, and by next boat received two letters from home. I opened them according to dates outside. The first told me that my youngest boy was taken suddenly ill; the second, that he was dead.

Neither on his account nor on that of any of my family had I any cause for uneasiness. All were quite well on my taking leave of them so lately. My impression ever since has been that the time of the death coincided as nearly as we could judge with the time of my accident.233

In writing to Mrs. Goodall, I called the incident of the voice a dream, as less likely perhaps to disturb her than the details which I gave on reaching home, and which I have now repeated.

My letters happen to have been preserved.

I have never had any hallucination of any kind, nor am I in the habit of talking in my sleep. I do remember once waking with some words of mere nonsense upon my lips, but the experience of the voice speaking to me was absolutely unique.

Edward A. Goodall.

Extracts from letters to Mrs. E. A. Goodall from Ischia:—

Wednesday, August 11th, 1869.

The postman brought me two letters containing sad news indeed. Poor little Percy. I dreamt some nights since the poor little fellow was taken from us....

August 14th.

I did not tell you, dear, the particulars of my dream about poor little Percy.

I had been for several days very fidgety and wretched at getting no letters from home, and had gone to bed in worse spirits than usual, and in my dream I fancied I said: “I have lost my dearest little May.” A strange voice seemed to say: “No, not May but your youngest boy,” not mentioning his name....

Mr. Goodall gave me verbally a concordant account of the affair, and several members of his family, who were present at our interview, recollected the strong impression made on him and them at the time.

(4) The next case is precisely a miniature case of possession.

From the Journal S.P.R., vol. viii. pp. 278-280.

“The following account” (writes Dr. Hodgson) “was sent to me by Mr. John E. Wilkie at the suggestion of one of our American members who is well known to me, and who speaks in the highest terms of Mr. Wilkie as a witness:”—

Washington, D. C., April 11th, 1898.

In October 1895, while living in London, England, I was attacked by bronchitis in rather a severe form, and on the advice of my physician, Dr. Oscar C. De Wolf, went to his residence in 6 Grenville Place, Cromwell Road, where I could be under his immediate care. For two days I was confined to my bed, and about five o’clock in the afternoon of the third day, feeling somewhat better, I partially dressed myself, slipped on a heavy bath robe, and went down to the sitting-room on the main floor, where my friend, the doctor, usually spent a part of the afternoon in reading. A steamer chair was placed before the fire by one of the servants, and I was made comfortable with pillows. The doctor was present, and sat immediately behind me reading. I dropped off into a light doze, and slept for perhaps thirty minutes. Suddenly I became conscious of the fact that I was about to awaken; I was in a condition where I was neither awake nor asleep. I realised fully that I had been asleep, and I was equally conscious of the fact that I was not wide awake. While in this peculiar mental condition I suddenly said to myself: “Wait a minute. Here is a message for the doctor.” At the moment I fancied that I had upon my lap a pad of paper, and I thought I wrote upon this pad with a pencil the following words:—

“Dear Doctor,—Do you remember Katy McGuire, who used to live with you in Chester? She died in 1872. She hopes you are having a good time in London.”

Instantly thereafter I found myself wide awake, felt no surprise at not finding the pad of paper on my knees, bcause I then realised that that was but the hallucination of a dream, but impressed with that feature of my thought which related to the message, I partly turned my head, and, speaking over my shoulder to the doctor, said: “Doctor, I have a message for you.”

The doctor looked up from the British Medical Journal which he was reading, and said: “What’s that?”

“I have a message for you,” I repeated. “It is this: ‘Dear Doctor: Do you remember Katy McGuire, who used to live with you in Chester? She died in 1872. She hopes you are having a good time in London.’”

The doctor looked at me with amazement written all over his face, and said: “Why,—— what the devil do you mean?”

“I don’t know anything about it except that just before I woke up I was impelled to receive this message which I have just delivered to you.”

“Did you ever hear of Katy McGuire?” asked the doctor.

“Never in my life.”

“Well,” said the doctor, “that’s one of the most remarkable things I ever heard of. My father for a great many years lived at Chester, Mass. There was a neighbouring family named McGuire, and Katy McGuire, a daughter of this neighbour, frequently came over to our house, as the younger people in a country village will visit their neighbours, and used to assist my mother in the lighter duties about the house. I was absent from Chester from about 1869 to about 1873. I had known Katy, however, as a daughter of our neighbour and knew that she used to visit the house. She died some time during the absence I speak of, but as to the exact date of her death I am not informed.”

That closed the incident, and although the doctor told me that he would write to his old home to ascertain the exact date of Katy’s death, I have never heard from him further in the matter. I questioned him at the time as to whether he had recently thought of Katy McGuire, and he told me that her name had not occurred to him for twenty years, and that he might never have recalled it had it not been for the rather curious incident which had occurred. In my own mind I could only explain the occurrence as a rather unusual coincidence. I was personally aware of the fact that the doctor’s old home had been Chester, Mass., and had frequently talked with him of his earlier experiences in life when he began practice in that city, but never at any time during these conversations had the name of this neighbour’s daughter been mentioned, nor had the name of the neighbour been mentioned, our conversation relating entirely to the immediate members of the family, particularly the doctor’s father, who was a noted practitioner in that district.

John E. Wilkie.

Dr. De Wolf, in reply to Dr. Hodgson’s first inquiry, wrote:—

6 Grenville Place, Cromwell Road, S.W., April 29th, 1898.

Dear Sir,—In reply to your letter of the 27th inst., I regret that I cannot recall with any definite recollection the incident to which Mr. Wilkie refers.

I do remember that he told me one morning he had had a remarkable dream—or conference with some one who knew me when a young lad.—Very truly yours,

Oscar C. De Wolf.

Dr. Hodgson then sent Mr. Wilkie’s account to Dr. De Wolf, with further inquiries, to which Dr. De Wolf replied as follows:—

6 Grenville Place, Cromwell Road, S.W., May 4th, 1898.

Dear Sir,—Mr. Wilkie’s statement is correct except as to unimportant detail. My father practised his profession of medicine, in Chester, Mass., for sixty years—dying in 1890. I was born in Chester and lived there until 1857, when I was in Paris studying medicine for four years. In 1861 I returned to America and immediately entered the army as surgeon and served until the close of the war in 1865. In 1866 I located in Northampton, Mass., where I practised my profession until 1873, when I removed to Chicago.

Chester is a hill town in Western Mass., and Northampton is seventeen miles distant. While in Northampton I was often at my father’s house—probably every week—and during some of the years from 1866 to 1873 I knew Katy McGuire as a servant assisting my mother.

She was an obliging and pleasant girl and always glad to see me. She had no family in Chester (as Mr. Wilkie says) and I do not know where she came from. Neither do I know where or when she died—but I know she is dead. There is nothing left of my family in Chester. The old homestead still remains with me, and I visit it every year.

The strange feature (to me) of this incident is the fact that I had not thought of this girl for many years, and Mr. Wilkie was never within 500 miles of Chester.

We had been warm friends since soon after my location in Chicago, where he was connected with a department of the Chicago Tribune. I came to London in 1892 and Mr. Wilkie followed the next year as the manager of Low’s American Exchange, 3 Northumberland Avenue. His family did not join him until 1895, which explains his being in my house when ill.

Mr. Wilkie is a very straightforward man and not given to illusions of any kind. He is now the chief of the Secret Service Department of the U.S. Government, Washington, D. C.

Neither of us were believers in spiritual manifestations of this character, and this event so impressed us that we did not like to talk about it, and it has been very seldom referred to when we met.—Very truly yours,

Oscar C. De Wolf.

Footnotes

1 See glossary.

2 I have ventured to coin the word “supernormal” to be applied to phenomena which are beyond what usually happens—beyond, that is, in the sense of suggesting unknown psychical laws. It is thus formed on the analogy of abnormal. When we speak of an abnormal phenomenon we do not mean one which contravenes natural laws, but one which exhibits them in an unusual or inexplicable form. Similarly by a supernormal phenomenon I mean, not one which overrides natural laws, for I believe no such phenomenon to exist, but one which exhibits the action of laws higher, in a psychical aspect, than are discerned in action in everyday life. By higher (either in a psychical or physiological sense) I mean “apparently belonging to a more advanced stage of evolution.”

3 Other savants of eminence—the great name of Alfred Russel Wallace will occur to all—had also satisfied themselves of the reality of these strange phenomena; but they had not tested or demonstrated that reality with equal care. I am not able in this brief sketch to allude to distinguished men of earlier date—Richard Glanvil, John Wesley, Samuel Johnson, etc., who discerned the importance of phenomena which they had no adequate means of investigating.

4 The Society for Psychical Research was founded in 1882, Professor W. F. Barrett taking a leading part in its promotion. Henry Sidgwick was its first President, and Edmund Gurney was its first Honorary Secretary—he and I being joint Honorary Secretaries of its Literary Committee, whose business was the collection of evidence.

5 See, for instance, Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research (henceforth in this book referred to as the S.P.R.), vol. iv. p. 256, Jan. 1887.

6 See, however, an article in Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xi. pp. 317 to 325, entitled “Subliminal Self or Unconscious Cerebration,” by Mr. A. H. Pierce, of Harvard University, with a reply by Mr. F. Podmore.

7 The difficulty of conceiving any cellular focus, either fixed or shifting, has actually led some psychologists to demand a unifying principle which is not cellular, and yet is not a soul.

8 Stanley Hall’s “Study of Fears,” American Journal of Psychology, vol. viii., No. 2, January, 1897. See also “The Use of Hypnotism in the First Degree,” by Dr. Russell Sturgis (Boston, 1894).

9 For instances of such cures see Drs. Raymond and Janet’s Névroses et Idées fixes.

10 See vol. vii. p. 309.

11 See “Studien über Hysterie” (Leipsic, 1895), by Drs. Breuer and Freud. An account of two of these cases is given in the original edition. Vol. i. pp. 51-6.

12 On this subject see Du Prel, Philosophy of Mysticism, Eng. trans., vol. i., passim.

13 An old case of Dr. Dyce’s (see The Zoist, vol. iv. p. 158) forms a simple example of this type. Dr. Mesnet’s case (De l’Automatisme de la Mémoire, etc. Par le Dr. Ernest Mesnet, Paris, 1874, p. 18, seq.) should also be referred to here. In these instances the secondary state is manifestly a degeneration of the primary state, even when certain traces of supernormal faculty are discernible in the narrowed psychical field.

14 See The Zoist, vol. iv. pp. 172-79, for a case showing the inevitable accomplishment of a post-epileptic crime in such a way as to bring out its analogy with the inevitable working out of a post-hypnotic suggestion.

15 See Proceedings S.P.R., vol. vii. pp. 221-258 [225 A].

16 See Revue de l’Hypnotisme, March 1890, p. 267 [226 A].

17 See the Annales Médico-Psychologiques for January 1892 [226 B].

18 For full details of this, see Dr. Boris Sidis’s work, The Psychology of Suggestion: a Research into the Subconscious Nature of Man and Society (New York, 1898), and Multiple Personality by Drs. Boris Sidis and S. P. Goodhart. London, 1905.

19 Zoist vol. iv. p. 185 [229 A].

20 See Professor W. James’s Principles of Psychology, vol. I. pp. 381-84 [232 A].

21 For Dr. Camuset’s account see Annales Médico-Psychologiques, 1882, p. 75; for Dr. Voisin’s, Archives de Neurologie, September 1885. The observations at Rochefort have been carefully recorded by Dr. Berjon, La Grande Hystérie chez l’Homme, Paris, 1886, and by Drs. Bourru and Burot in a treatise, De la suggestion mentale, &c. (Bibl. scientifique contemporaine), Paris, 1887 [233 A].

22 See Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xv. pp. 466-483 [234 A] and the more complete account given in Dr. Morton Prince’s Dissociation of a Personality. New York and London, 1906.

23 Besides the cases mentioned above see a remarkable recent case recorded by Dr. Bramwell in Brain, Summer Number, 1900, on the authority of Dr. Albert Wilson, of Leytonstone. Dr. Wilson has given a detailed account of his patient, Mary Barnes, in Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xviii. pp. 352-416, where a full discussion of the case will also be found. Mary Barnes developed sixteen different personalities with distinct memories and different characteristics.

24 Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xiv. 396-398 [236 A].

25 Proceedings of American S.P.R., vol. i. p. 552 [237 A].

26 For a detailed record of this case see the Religio-Philosophical Journal for 1879. An abridgment is given in [238 A]. See also Journal S.P.R., vol. x. p. 99.

27 Revue de l’Hypnotisme, July 1889.

28 Professor Scripture in the American Journal of Psychology, vol. iv., No. 1, April 1891; Professor Binet in the Revue Philosophique, 1895. Professor Binet’s article deals largely with Jacques Inaudi, the most recent prodigy, who appears to differ from the rest in that his gift is auditile rather than visual. His gift was first observed in childhood. His general intelligence is below the average. Another recent prodigy, Diamanti, seems, on the other hand, to be in other ways quick-witted.

29 Scripture, op. cit., p. 54.

30 Proceedings of American S.P.R., vol. i. No. 4, p. 360.

31 See Proceedings S.P.R., vol. viii. p. 337 [§ 311].

32 On this point see Professor James’s Principles of Psychology, vol. ii. p. 84, note. Goethe’s well-known phantasmal flower was clearly no mere representation of retinal structure. A near analogy to these patterns lies in the so-called “spirit-drawings,” or automatic arabesques, discussed elsewhere in this chapter.

[33] See Professor Ladd’s paper on this subject in Mind, April 1892.

34 “Le Subconscient chez les Artistes, les Savantes, et les Ecrivains,” par le Dr. Paul Chabaneix, Paris, 1897.

35 Instances of this form of automatism are described in a book called Spirit Drawings: a Personal Narrative, by W. M. Wilkinson, some account of which is given in Appendix 811 A (Vol. II.) of the unabridged edition.

36 L’Année Psychologique, i. 1894, p. 124, F. de Curel, par A. Binet [§ 330].

37 In Wordsworth’s Prelude we find introspective passages of extreme psychological interest as being deliberate attempts to tell the truth about exactly those emotions and intuitions which differentiate the poet from common men.

38 In the passage which follows some use has been made of Jowett’s translation. It is noticeable that this utterance, unsurpassed among the utterances of antiquity, has been placed by Plato in the mouth of a woman—the prophetess Diotima—with the express intention, as I think, of generalising it, and of raising it above the region of sexual passion. There is nothing else in antiquity resembling the position thus ascribed to Diotima in reference to Socrates,—the woman being represented as capable of raising the highest and of illumining the wisest soul.

39 Iliad, xxii. 199; Æneid, xii. 908.

40 See Dr. Féré in Brain for January 1887.

41 De l’Intelligence, vol. i. p. 119.

42 Archives de Médecine, vol. i. 1876, p. 554.

43 An Experimental Study in Hypnotism, by Dr. R. von Krafft-Ebing, translated by Dr. C. G. Chaddock, p. 91.

44 Revue de l’Hypnotisme, June 1891, p. 302.

45 Les Rêves, p. 135. This remarkable patient afforded examples of many forms of communication of memory between different states of personality. See pp. 192-200 for a conspectus of these complex recollections.

46 Revue de Médecine, February 1892. A full account and discussion of the same case is contained in Dr. P. Janet’s Névroses et Idées fixes, vol. i. pp. 116 et seq. [§413].

47 See also Journal S.P.R., vol. iv. p. 142 (October 1889), and Proceedings of the American S.P.R., vol. i. No. 4, p. 363 [415 A and B].

48 Proceedings S.P.R., vol. v. p. 507.

49 Cædmon’s poem was traditionally said to have come to him in like fashion.

50 The reader will find many similar cases in the Journal and Proceedings of the S.P.R. Several are quoted in Appendices to Section 421 in the unabridged edition.

51 The case of Mr. Boyle, investigated by Edmund Gurney and printed in S.P.R. Journal, vol. iii. pp. 265, 266 [§423], is interesting in this connection. In this case the vision, which recurred twice, was of a simple kind, and might be interpreted as an impression transferred from the mind of one waking to the mind of one asleep.
Again, the single dream which a man has noted down in all his life stands evidentially in almost as good a position as a single waking hallucination. For cases of this kind see Journal S.P.R., vol. iii. p. 267 [§424]; ibid. vol. v. p. 61 [424 A]; ibid. vol. v. p. 252 [424 C]; and Phantasms of the Living, vol. i. p. 443 [424 B].

52 Phantasms of the Living, vol. ii. p. 105 [428 A].

53 Phantasms of the Living, vol. ii. p. 154 [428 D].
The cases of Mrs. Manning (Journal S.P.R., vol. xii. p. 100 [428 B]) and Mr. Newnham (Phantasms of the Living, vol. i. p. 225 [428 C]) are somewhat similar. See also Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xi. p. 444 [428 E] and Journal S.P.R., vol viii. p. 128 [428 F].

54 Phantasms of the Living, vol. i. p. 365; ibid., p. 453 [429 A and B].

55 See, for example, Journal S.P.R., vol. viii. p. 123 [429 F].

56 Long ago Solon had said, apparently of mesmeric cure—
Τὁν δἑ κακαἱς νοὑσοισι κυκὡμενον ργαλαλἑαις τε
ἁφἁυενος χειροἱν αἱφα τἱθησ’ ὑγιἡ

57 Recherches Physiologiques sur l’Homme (Paris, 1811); Mémoires pour servir à l’Histoire et à l’Establissement du Magnétisme Animal; Du Magnétisme Animal considéré dans ses Rapports avec diverses branches de la Physique Générale; etc.

58 See Nasse’s Zeitschrift für Hypnoitsmus, passim.

59 This later work of Braid’s has been generally overlooked, and his theories were stated again as new discoveries by recent observers who ignored what he had already accomplished. See Dr. Bramwell’s paper on “James Braid, his Work and Writings,” in Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xii. pp. 127-166. This contains a complete list of Braid’s writings, and references to his work by other writers. See also the references to Braid’s work and theories in Dr. Bramwell’s Hypnotism.

60 See also the Zoist (Vol. viii. pp. 156, 297-299) for cases of mesmerisation of animals. In his Thérapeutique Suggestive, 1891 (pp. 246-68), Dr. Liébeault gives an account of his experiments with infants [513 B and C].

61 See Dr. Bramwell’s discussion of the subject. (Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xii. p. 213) [513 A].

62 This view unfortunately dominates Professor M’Kendrick’s article on “Hypnotism” in the Encyclopædia Britannica.

63 See Dr. Bramwell’s discussion of the inadequacy of this explanation in his article “What is Hypnotism?” in Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xii. p. 224, also in his book on Hypnotism pp. 337-8.

64 See Dr. Bramwell’s Hypnotism, p. 274.

65 I am inclined to think that this is always the case. For a long time the lethargic state was supposed at the Salpêtrière to preclude all knowledge of what was going on; and I have heard Charcot speak before a deeply-entranced subject as if there were no danger of her gathering hints as to what he expected her to do. I believe that his patients did subliminally receive such hints, and work them out in their own hypnotic behaviour. On the other hand, I have heard the late Dr. Auguste Voisin, one of the most persistent and successful of hypnotisers, make suggestion after suggestion to a subject apparently almost comatose,—which suggestions, nevertheless, she obeyed as soon as she awoke.

66 According to Dr. Edgar Bérillon, who was the first systematically to apply the hypnotic method to the education of children (see his paper, “De la Suggestion envisagée au point de vue pédagogique” in the Revue de l’Hypnotisme, vol. i. (1887), p. 84), the percentage of those who can be hypnotised is more than 80, and he asserts that suggestibility varies directly as the intellectual development of the subject. He classes under four heads the affections which can be successfully treated by hypnotic suggestion. (See the Revue de l’Hypnotisme, July 1895.)
(1) Psychical derangements caused by acute diseases; in particular, insomnia, restlessness, nocturnal delirium, incontrollable vomiting, incontinence of urine and of fæces.
(2) Functional affections connected with nervous disease: chorea, tics, convulsions, anæsthesiæ, contractures and hysterical paresis, hysterical hiccough, blepharospasm.
(3) Psychical derangements, such as habit of biting nails, precocious impulsive tendencies, nocturnal terrors, speaking in sleep, kleptomania, nervousness, shyness.
(4) Chorea, hysteria, epilepsy, or mental derangements considered as resulting from the combination of several nervous diseases.
Scattered about in the Revue de l’Hypnotisme the reader will find numerous illustrative cases. Specially characteristic are those recorded in the number for July 1893, p. 11, and April 1895, p. 306.
For reports of hypnotic cure of onychophagy, see Bérillon, the articles already quoted; Bourdon, Revue de l’Hypnotisme, November 1895, p. 134; Bouffé, Revue de l’Hypnotisme, September 1898, p. 76.
For reports of hypnotic cure of even graver habits, see Van Renterghem and Van Eeden, Psycho-Thérapie, p. 250; Bernheim, Revue de l’Hypnotisme, December 1891, a case in which the habit had become quite automatic and irresistible, and where every other method of treatment had failed; also De la Suggestion; Schrenck-Notzing, Die Suggestions-Therapie bei krankhaften Erscheinungen des Geschlechtssinnes; Bérillon, Revue de l’Hypnotisme, July 1893, pp. 12, 14, 15; Bourdon, Revue de l’Hypnotisme, November 1895, pp. 136, 139, 140; Auguste Voisin, Revue de l’Hypnotisme, November 1887, p. 151.
For cures of enuresis nocturna, see Liébeault, Revue de l’Hypnotisme, September 1886, p. 71; Bérillon, Revue de l’Hypnotisme, June 1894, p. 359; Van Renterghem and Van Eeden, Psycho-thérapie; Paul Farez, Revue de l’Hypnotisme, August 1899, p. 53. This author recommends the method of suggestion in normal sleep.
Liébeault, in the Revue de l’Hypnotisme for January 1889, gives twenty-two cases in which hypnotic suggestion was used in the moral education of children from the age of fourteen months upwards, with the aim of curing, e.g. the habit of lying, excessive developments of emotions, such as fear and anger, and precocious or depraved appetites; and of improving the normal faculties of attention and memory. He reports ten cures, eight improvements, and four failures.
For other cases of moral education, see Bérillon, De la suggestion et de ses applications à la pédagogie (1887); L’Hypnotisme et l’Orthopédie morale (1898); Revue de l’Hypnotisme, December 1887, pp. 169-180, and December 1897, p. 162; Bernheim, Revue de l’Hypnotisme, November 1886, p. 129; Ladame, the same, June and July 1887; Voisin, the same, November 1888; De Jong, the same, September 1891; Bourdon, the same, August 1896; Van Renterghem and Van Eeden, Psycho-thérapie, p. 215. Nervous troubles in adults have often been cured by the same means. Thus, in the Revue de l’Hypnotisme, September 1899, p. 73, Dr. Vlavianos records a case of tic convulsif cured by hypnotic suggestion. Wetterstrand has used the same method with success (loc. cit., p. 76). See also Janet, Névroses et Idées Fixes, vol. ii., part ii., chapter iii., “Les. Tics.”

67 See Bérillon, Revue de l’Hypnotisme, September 1890, p. 75, and February 1896, p. 237; Regis, the same, May 1896; De Jong, the same, September 1891, p. 82; and Auguste Voisin, the same, November 1888, p. 130.

68 See Otto Wetterstrand, Der Hypnotismus und seine Anwendung in der praktischen Medicin; Georg Ringier, Erfolge des therapeutischen Hypnotismus in der Landpraxis; Van Renterghem and Van Eeden, Psycho-thérapie; Auguste Forel, Einige therapeutische Versuche mit dem Hypnotismus bei Geisteskranken; Lloyd Tuckey, Revue de l’Hypnotisme, January 1897, p. 207; Ladame, Revue de l’Hypnotisme, November 1887, p. 131, and December 1887, p. 165; A. Voisin, Revue de l’Hypnotisme, vol. ii. (1888), p. 69, and vol. iii. (1889), p. 353; Vlavianos, Revue de l’Hypnotisme, June 1899, p. 361; Neilson, Revue de l’Hypnotisme, vol. vi. (1892), p. 17. Bérillon, Le traitement psychologique de L’Alcoolisme. Paris 1906. See also the works of Liébeault, Bernheim, and Milne Bramwell.

69 There are many instances of the cure of morphinomania. See especially the case recorded by Dr. Marot in the Revue de l’Hypnotisme, February 1893, on account of the psychological interest of the patient’s own remarks.
Wetterstrand, out of fourteen cases, records eleven cures of morphinomania. In a paper in the Revue de l’Hypnotisme, November 1890, he discusses the benefit of prolonged hypnosis—causing the patient to sleep for a week or more at a time—which he tried in one case. See also Voisin, Revue de l’Hypnotisme, December 1886, p. 163.

70 See Dr. A. Dorez, Revue de l’Hypnotisme, May 1899, p. 345; and Dr. Bourdon, the same, November 1893, p. 141 [557 A].

71 Dr. Hill, British Medical Journal, July 4th, 1891.

72 In some articles in the Revue Philosophique, published in 1886 and 1887, Delbœuf describes some experiments which suggest that in many of the remarkable hypnotic cures recorded in the Zoist (as well as in modern cases) the removal of pain was probably an important element in the cure; see e.g. cures of inflammation (Zoist, vol. x. p. 347); of neuralgia and chronic rheumatism (vol. ix. pp. 76-79); of abdominal pains (vol. ix. p. 155); of tic douloureux (vol. viii. p. 186); of severe headaches (vol. x. p. 369); of eczema impetiginodes (vol. x. p. 96).
The general subject of hypnotic analgesia is strikingly illustrated by Esdaile’s well-known work in the Indian hospitals; see his books, Mesmerism in India (London, 1846); The Introduction of Mesmerism with Sanction of Government into the Public Hospitals of India (2nd edit. London, 1856); Natural and Mesmeric Clairvoyance (London, 1852); and constant references to him in the Zoist.
For later cases see British Medical Journal, April 5th, 1890, p. 801; the same, February 28th, 1891, pp. 460-468.
See also Van Renterghem and Van Eeden’s Psycho-thérapie, pp. 262-280.
See also the Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xii. p. 21, and the Revue de l’Hypnotisme, November 1891, p. 132; the same, 1895, p. 300; and for the discussion of a very interesting recent case of the cure of sycosis menti, see Bérillon, Revue de l’Hypnotisme, January 1896, p. 195; Delbœuf, Revue de l’Hypnotisme, February 1896, p. 225; Durand (de Gros), Revue de l’Hypnotisme, 1896, p. 37. It was also quoted in the British Medical Journal for November 16th, 1895.

73 See the Revue de l’Hypnotisme, August 1887.

74 See the Journal S.P.R., vol. vi. p. 209 [535 A].

75 See the Revue Philosophique, 1886.

76 See the Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xii. p. 193 [535 B].

77 For cases bearing on this subject see Dr. Liébeault’s Thérapeutique Suggestive, pp. 64 et seq.; the Revue de l’Hypnotisme, January 1893; and Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xii. p. 177 [538 A and B].

78 Thérapeutique Suggestive, pp. 64 et seq.

79 See the Revue Philosophique, November 1886. The same case is discussed in Mind for January 1887 [539 A].

80 Nagel suggests that there may have been at a certain stage mixed sense-organs, by means of which two or three sensations were perceived simultaneously.

81 For a circumstantial English account of the well-known case of Louise Lateau, see Macmillan’s Magazine, vol. xxiii. p. 488 et seq.
Three cases of the production of cruciform marks reported by Dr. Biggs, of Lima, appeared in the Journal S.P.R., vol. iii. p. 100.
Another remarkable American case of stigmatisation was reported in the Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky., December 7th, 1891, on the authority of Dr. M. F. Coomes and several other physicians.
See also the case of Ilma S. recorded in Dr. R. von Krafft-Ebing’s Experimental Study in Hypnotism.
Dr. P. Janet describes somewhat similar experiments in L’Automatisme Psychologique (see p. 166 et seq.).
Again, somewhat similar is a case recorded by Dr. J. Rybalkin in the Revue de l’Hypnotisme, June 1890 (p. 361), in which a post-hypnotic suggestion to the subject to burn his arm at a stove—really unlighted—produced blisters as of a burn.
Hæmorrhage and bleeding stigmata were several times produced in the famous subject, Louis Vivé, by verbal suggestion alone. (Drs. Bourru and Burot, Comptes Rendus de la Société de Biologie, July 12th, 1885; and Dr. Mabille, Progrès Médical, August 29th, 1885.)
Professor Beaunis (Recherches Expérimentales, etc., Paris, 1886, p. 29) produced redness and cutaneous congestion in his subject, Mlle. A. E., by suggestion, and the experiment was repeated on the same subject by the present writer and Edmund Gurney in September 1885 (see Proceedings S.P.R., vol. iv. p. 167).
It appears that there is at present at the Salpêtrière a stigmatisée, the development of whose stigmata has been watched by Dr. Janet under copper shields with glass windows inserted in them (Revue de l’Hypnotisme, December 1900, p. 190).
Other cases are recorded in the Revue de l’Hypnotisme, June 1890, p. 353; the same February 1892, p. 251 [543 A to H].

82 See Proceedings S.P.R., vol. iv. pp. 268-323 [551 A].

83 Professor Fontan’s experiments described in the Revue Philosophique, August 1887, cannot lightly be set aside. An account of his experiments is given in Proceedings S. P. R. vol. ii. p. 263-268. [549 D]. See also the works of Pététin, Durand, Foissac, and Despine, especially Observations de Médecine Pratique, pp. 45, 62, and Étude Scientifique sur Somnambulisme, p. 167.

84 See Journal S.P.R., vol. iii. p. 100 [543 B].

85 See Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xii. pp. 176-203 [551 C].

86 Revue Philosophique, September 1888 [552 A].

87 Revue de l’Hypnotisme, vol. vi. p. 357 [553 A].

88 For illustrative instances see Brain, Summer Number 1900, p. 207, Revue de l’ Hypnotisme, January 1889, and Bérillon, De la suggestion et de ses applications à la pédagogie (1887) [553 B]. See also Bérillon, La Psychologie du Courage et l’Éducation du Caractère. Paris 1905.

89 Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xii. pp. 204-58 [555 B]. See also his book on Hypnotism, pp. 425-32.

90 See also the Revue de l’Hypnotisme, January 1889, September 1890, November 1886, November 1888, for cases reported by Liébeault, Bérillon, Bernheim, and Voisin.

91 See Mr. Fryer’s paper on “The Welsh Revival of 1904-5,” in Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xix. p. 80.

92 See Puységur, Recherches sur l’Homme dans le Somnambulisme (Paris, 1811); Pététin, Electricité Animale (Paris, 1808); Despine, Observations de Médecine Pratique (1838), and Journal S.P.R., vol. ix. p. 333.

93 Natural and Mesmeric Clairvoyance, pp. 227-28; quoted in Phantasms of the Living, vol. i. p. 88.

94 See Proceedings S.P.R., vol. v. (1888), pp. 14-17. [569 A.]

95 See Proceedings S.P.R., vol. viii. pp. 536-596. [569 B.]

96 Beginning with cases partly retrocognitive, the leader is referred to Proceedings S.P.R., vol. vii. pp. 30-99; Zoist, vol. vii. pp. 95-101 [572 A and B].

97 The longest and most important series of experiments in thought-transference with hypnotised subjects, carried out by members of the S.P.R., are those of Professor and Mrs. Sidgwick. Proceedings S.P.R., vol. vi. pp. 128-70; and vol. viii. pp. 536-96 [573 A].

98 Proceedings S.P.R., vol. vii. pp. 199-220; Dr. Fahnestock’s Statuvolism, pp. 117-35, 221-32 [573 B, C and D].

99 Zoist, vol. xii. pp. 249-52 [573 F].

100 See “Mind-Cure, Faith-Cure, and the Miracles of Lourdes,” by A. T. Myers, M.D., F.R.C.P., and F. W. H. Myers, Proceedings S.P.R., vol. ix. pp. 160-210.

101 For a true synæsthetic or “sound-seer,”—to take the commonest form of these central repercussions of sensory shock,—there is a connection between sight and sound which is instinctive, complex, and yet for our intelligence altogether arbitrary.
But sound-seeing is only a conspicuous example of synæsthesiæ which exist in as yet unexplored variety. When we find that there are gradated, peremptory, inexplicable associations connecting sensations of light and colour with sensations of temperature, smell, taste, muscular resistance, etc., we are led to conclude that we are dealing, not with the casual associations of childish experience, but with some reflection or irradiation of specialised sensations which must depend upon the connate structure of the brain itself.
This view is consistent with the results of an Enquête sur l’audition colorée recently conducted by Professor Flournoy, from which it appears that of 213 persons presenting these associations only 48 could assign the date of their origin; and is supported by a case described in the Revue de l’Hypnotisme, December 1892, p. 185, where a man who had long exhibited a limited form of audition colorée developed gustation colorée in addition when in a low state of health.
See also the “Report of the International Congress of Experimental Psychology, Second Session, London, 1892,” pp. 10-20 (Williams & Norgate, London, 1892), and the American Journal of Psychology for April 1900 (vol. xi. pp. 377-404).

102 See Proceedings S.P.R., vol. viii. p. 480 [610 A].

103 The “Census of Hallucinations” was undertaken in 1889, by a Committee of the S.P.R., under the direction of Professor Sidgwick, and consisting of himself and Mrs. Sidgwick, Dr. A. T. Myers, Mr. F. Podmore, Miss A. Johnson, and the present writer. The full report of the committee was published in 1894. (Proceedings S.P.R., vol. x. pp. 25-422.) A summary of the report is given in the original edition. [612 A.]

104 For prehistoric and historic crystal-gazing see Mr. Andrew Lang’s Making of Religion, and Miss Goodrich-Freer’s “Recent Experiments in Crystal-Vision,” Proceedings S.P.R., vol. v. p. 486 [620 A].

105 It is right also to state, although I cannot here discuss the problems involved, that I believe these visions to be sometimes seen by more than one person, simultaneously or successively.

106 See also Proceedings S.P.R., vol. i. pp. 263-283; vol. ii. pp. 1-5, 24-42, 189-200; vol. iii. pp. 424-452, where a full record will be found of Mr. Malcolm Guthrie’s experiments [630 B]. Also Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xi. pp. 2-17 [630 C], for Mr. Henry G. Rawson’s experiments. Others are recorded in the Proceedings S.P.R., vol. i. pp. 161-167 and 174-215. See also those of Herr Max Dessoir (Proceedings S.P.R., vol. iv. p. 111, and vol. v. p. 355); Herr Anton Schmoll and M. Etienne Mabire (ibid. vol. iv. p. 324 and vol. v. p. 169); Mr. J. W. Smith (ibid. vol. ii. p. 207); Sir Oliver Lodge (ibid. vol. vii. p. 374); Dr. A. Blair Thaw (ibid. vol. viii. p. 422); Dr. von Schrenck-Notzing (ibid. vol. vii. p. 3); Professor Richet (ibid. vol. v. p. 18). See also Phantasms of the Living, vol. i. pp. 32-34, and vol. ii. pp. 653-654. Also the experiments of Professor and Mrs. Sidgwick (Proceedings, vol. vi. and vol. viii.) already referred to in Chapter V.

107 See Mr. F. Podmore’s Apparitions and Thought-transference, Chapter V. [630 D, etc.]; also Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xi. p. 455 [630 F]; and Journal S.P.R., vol. vii. pp. 325-329 [630 E]: ibid. pp. 234-237, pp. 299-306 and pp. 311-319; and vol. xii. p. 223 (March 1906).

108 It is plain that on this view there is no theoretical reason for limiting telepathy to human beings. For aught we can say, the impulse may pass between man and the lower animals, or between the lower animals themselves. See Journal S.P.R., vol. xi. pp. 278-290 and pp. 323-4; the same, vol. xii. pp. 21-3; the same, vol. iv. p. 289; and Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xiv. p. 285.

109 See Proceedings S.P.R., vol. x. pp. 25-422.

110 See also Phantasms of the Living vol. ii. p. 96 [§ 653], and for an auditory case, ibid. p. 100 [§ 655].

111 Phantasms of the Living, vol. ii. p. 78 [§ 645]. See also op. cit., p. 82 et seq.

112 Proceedings S.P.R., vol. x. p. 306 [§ 646]. See also the case in Phantasms of the Living (vol. ii. p. 217) [§ 647], where an apparition was seen by its original and by others at the same time.

113 See Phantasms of the Living, vol. ii. p. 144 [651 A] and ibid. p. 61 [§ 651].

114 Phantasms of the Living, vol. ii. p. 97 [654 A].

115 Phantasms of the Living, vol. ii. p. 194 [654 B].

116 See Chapter IX., passim.

117 See Proceedings S.P.R., vol. vii. pp. 30-99 [572 A and 573 B]; op. cit., 199-220 [573 C]; Zoist, vol. vii. pp. 95-101, vol. ix. p. 234, vol. xii. pp. 249-52; and Dr. Fahnestock’s Statuvolism, especially pp. 127-35 and 221-32.

118 Phantasms of the Living, vol. ii. p. 31 [662 B].

119 Phantasms of the Living, vol. ii. p. 37 [662 D].

120 See Journal S.P.R., vol. vii. p. 25 [665 A].

121 Phantasms of the Living, vol. ii. p. 35 [662 C].

122 See Phantasms of the Living, vol. i. p. 265 [§ 664].

123 For examples of various types see Journal S.P.R., vol. vii. p. 25; vol. v. p. 68, and op. cit., p. 147 [665 A, B and C].

124 See Phantasms of the Living, vol. ii. p. 162; op. cit., p. 164; Proceedings S.P.R., vol. vii. p. 41 [666 A, B and C].

125 See Phantasms of the Living, vol. i. p. 527, for example [667 A].

126 For cases see the second edition of Phantasms of the Living, vol. i. p. lxxxi; Proceedings S.P.R., vol. x. pp. 270, 273, and 418; Forum, March 1900; Journal S.P.R., vol. iv. p. 217; vol. vii. p. 99 [668 A to G]. See also Phantasms of the Living, vol. i. p. 103 and vol. ii. p. 675; and the Journal S.P.R., vol. iii. p. 307.

127 Some such power as this is frequently claimed in oriental books as attainable by mystic practices. We have not thus far been fortunate enough to discover any performances corresponding to these promises.

128 See Proceedings S.P.R., vol. vii. pp. 199-220 [573 C].

129 See Phantasms of the Living, vol. i. p. 231.

130 Some word is much needed to express communications between one state and another, e.g. between the somnambulic and the waking state, or, in hypnotism, the cataleptic and the somnambulic, etc. The word “methectic” (μεθεκτὁς) seems to me the most suitable, especially since μἑθεξις happens to be the word used by Plato (Parm. 132 D.) for participation between ideas and concrete objects. Or the word “inter-state” might be pressed into this new duty.

131 See for example Mr. Cameron Grant’s case. (Proceedings S.P.R., vol. viii. p. 202.)

132 Proceedings S.P.R., vol. v. pp. 404-408.

133 In some experimental cases, it will be remembered, the impression takes effect through the motor, not the sensory, system of the recipient, as by automatic writing, so that he is never directly aware of it at all.

134 See, for instance, case 500, Phantasms of the Living, vol. ii. p. 462.

135 I mean by “ordinary” the classes which are recognised and treated of in Phantasms of the Living. But if the departed survive, the possibility of thought-transference between them and those who remain is of course a perfectly tenable hypothesis. “As our telepathic theory is a psychical one, and makes no physical assumptions, it would be perfectly applicable (though the name perhaps would be inappropriate) to the conditions of disembodied existence.”—Phantasms, vol. i. p. 512.

136 Certain statistics as to these time-relations are given by Edmund Gurney as follows (Proceedings S.P.R., vol. v. p. 408): “The statistics drawn from the first-hand records in Phantasms of the Living as to the time-relation of appearances, etc., occurring in close proximity to deaths, are as follows:—In 134 cases the coincidence is represented as having been exact, or, when times are specifically stated, close to within an hour. In 104 cases it is not known whether the percipient’s experience preceded or followed the death; such cases cannot be taken account of for our present purpose. There remain 78 cases where it appears that there was an interval of more than an hour; and of these 38 preceded and 40 followed the death. Of the 38 cases where the percipient’s experience preceded the death (all of which, of course, took place during a time when the “agent” was seriously ill), 19 fell within twenty-four hours of the death. Of the 40 cases where the percipient’s experience followed the death, all followed within an interval of twenty-four hours, and in only one (included by mistake) was the twelve hours’ interval certainly exceeded, though there are one or two others where it is possible that it was slightly exceeded.”

137 The Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research (vol. i. p. 405) contain a case where a physician and his wife, sleeping in separate but adjoining rooms, are both of them awakened by a bright light. The physician sees a figure standing in the light; his wife, who gets up to see what the light in her husband’s room may be, does not reach that room till the figure has disappeared. The figure is not clearly identified, but has some resemblance to a patient of the physician’s, who has died suddenly (from hemorrhage) about three hours before, calling for her doctor, who did not anticipate this sudden end. Even this resemblance did not strike the percipient until after he knew of the death, and the defect in recognition weakens the case evidentially.

138 The references in this and the two following pages are to Phantasms of the Living.

139 See the cases of Major Moncrieff (i. p. 415); of Mr. Keulemans (i. p. 444), where the second phantasm was held by the percipient to convey a fresh veridical picture; of Mr. Hernaman (i. p. 561), where, however, the agent was alive, though dying, at the time of the appearance; see also the cases of Mrs. Ellis (ii. p. 59); of Mrs. D. (ii. p. 467); of Mrs. Fairman (ii. p. 482), and of Mr. F. J. Jones (ii. p. 500), where the death was again due to drowning, and the act of dying cannot, therefore, have been very prolonged. We may note also Mrs. Reed’s case (ii. p. 237), Captain Ayre’s (ii. p. 256) and Mrs. Cox’s (ii. p. 235). In the case of Miss Harriss (ii. p. 117) a hallucinatory voice, about the time of the death, but not suggesting the decedent, is followed by a dream the next night, which presents the dead person as in the act of dying. One or two other cases might be added to this list, and it is plain that the matter is one towards which observation should be specially directed.

140 See Phantasms of the Living, vol. ii. p. 305; Proceedings S.P.R., vol. viii. p. 180; ibid. p. 194.

141 See Proceedings S.P.R., vol. viii p. 236 [716 B].

142 See for instance Proceedings S.P.R., vol. vi. p. 20; the same, vol. xi p. 429 and Phantasms of the Living, vol ii. p. 208 [717 A, B and C].

143 Proceedings S.P.R., vol. x. p. 214 [719 A].

144 Phantasms of the Living, vol. i. p. 449 [719 B].

145 See Proceedings S.P.R., vol. v. pp. 422-26 [§ 720].

146 The cases recorded in Phantasms of the Living, vol. ii. p. 216, and Proceedings S.P.R., vol. x. p. 263 [727 A and B] may be regarded as deflected fulfilments.

147 Proceedings S.P.R., vol. x. p. 383. See also ibid. p. 371 and vol. viii. p. 214 [728 A and B and § 726].

148 For the other case see Phantasms of the Living, vol. i. p. 265.

149 For cases illustrating this, see Proceedings S.P.R., vol. v. p. 409 [§ 734]; also Proceedings S.P.R., vol. viii. p. 220; ibid. p. 218; Phantasms of the Living, vol. ii. p. 690; and Proceedings S.P.R., vol. x. p. 373 [§ 736 and 736 A, B and C].

150 See for instance Journal S.P.R., vol. vii. p. 173.

151 This analogy suggests itself still more forcibly in the remarkable case recorded in Journal S.P.R., vol. xii. p. 17. Here the visions, seen in a mirror, were perceived simultaneously, though not quite in the same way, by four witnesses, and lasted for an appreciable length of time.

152 See the Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research, vol. i. p. 446 [741 A].

153 In the case recorded in Proceedings S.P.R., vol. viii. p. 173 [§ 742], the decedent would appear to be satisfying both a local and a personal attraction. See also the cases given in Proceedings S.P.R., vol. iii. p. 93, and vol. v. p. 437 [742 A], which are somewhat similar.

154 See, however, Sir Arthur Beecher’s case (Proceedings S.P.R., vol. iii. p. 110) where there was at least a rumour of some crime. In Mrs. M.’s case, too (Proceedings S.P.R., vol. viii. p. 178) and Mrs. Pennée’s (Proceedings S.P.R., vol. vi. p. 60) there is some indication of past troubles in which the percipients, of course, were in no way concerned. But in no other cases has there been anything, as far as we know, which could trouble the departed spirit with importunate memories of his earthly home.

155 For a discussion of this problem, illustrated by a large number of cases, see my article on “Retrocognition and Precognition” in the Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xi. pp. 334-593.

156 See, however, Mrs. Sidgwick’s remarks (Proceedings S.P.R., vol. iii. pp. 79-80), as to the rarity of any indication of intelligence in such sounds, and the possibility of reading more intelligence into them than they really possess. There is now, of course, more evidence as to these sounds than there was at the date of Mrs. Sidgwick’s paper (1885).

157 Thus Mrs. Sidgwick, even as far back as 1885 (Proceedings S.P.R., vol. iii. p. 142), writes: “I can only say that having made every effort—as my paper will, I hope, have shown—to exercise a reasonable scepticism, I yet do not feel equal to the degree of unbelief in human testimony necessary to avoid accepting, at least provisionally, the conclusion that there are, in a certain sense, haunted houses, i.e., that there are houses in which similar quasi-human apparitions have occurred at different times to different inhabitants, under circumstances which exclude the hypothesis of suggestion or expectation.”

158 This case is given in Appendix VII. G.

159 In an earlier part of this paper, I mentioned cases of haunted houses where the apparitions are various, and might therefore all of them be merely subjective hallucinations, sometimes, perhaps, caused by expectancy. It is, of course, also possible to explain these cases by the hypothesis we are now discussing. Another class of cases is, perhaps, worth mentioning in this connection. We have in the collection two cases of what was believed by the narrators to be a quite peculiar feeling of discomfort, in houses where concealed and long since decomposed bodies were subsequently found. Such feelings are seldom dearly defined enough to have much evidential value, for others, at any rate, than the percipient; even though mentioned beforehand, and definitely connected with the place where the skeleton was. But if there be really any connection between the skeleton and the feeling, it may possibly be a subtle physical influence such as I am suggesting.—E. M. S.

160 To avoid misconception, I may point out that this view in no way negatives the possibility that telepathy (or its correlative telergy) may be in some of its aspects commoner, or more powerful, among savages than among ourselves. Evolutionary processes are not necessarily continuous. The acquirement by our lowly-organised ancestors of the sense of smell (for instance) was a step in evolution. But the sense of smell probably reached its highest energy in races earlier than man; and it has perceptibly declined even in the short space which separates civilised man from existing savages. Yet if, with some change in our environment, the sense of smell again became useful, and we reacquired it, this would be none the less an evolutionary process because the evolution had been interrupted.

161 I do not wish to assert that all unfamiliar psychical states are necessarily evolutive or dissolutive in any assignable manner. I should prefer to suppose that there are states which may better be styled allotropic;—modifications of the arrangements of nervous elements on which our conscious identity depends, but with no more conspicuous superiority of the one state over the other than (for instance) charcoal possesses over graphite or graphite over charcoal. But there may also be states in which the (metaphorical) carbon becomes diamond;—with so much at least of advance on previous states as is involved in the substitution of the crystalline for the amorphous structure.

162 See, for instance, Proceedings S.P.R., vol. i. p. 291.

163 Sensation et Mouvement, par Ch. Féré. Paris: Alcan, 1887.

164 La Suggestion Mentale (see Proceedings S.P.R., vol. ii. pp. 239 sqq.).

165 See Proceedings S.P.R., vol. ii. pp. 226-31 [830 A].

166 See Mr. Wilkinson’s book Spirit Drawings: a Personal Narrative. But, of course, like other automatic impulses, this impulse to decorative or symbolical drawing is sometimes seen at its maximum in insane patients. Some drawings of an insane patient, reproduced in the American Journal of Psychology, June 1888, show a noticeable analogy (in my view a predictable analogy) with some of the “spirit-drawings” above discussed. See also the Martian landscapes of Hélène Smith, in Professor Flournoy’s Des Indes à la planète Mars.

167 An account of recorded instances of Socratic monitions and some discussion of them is given in the original edition [§ 813, 814].

168 Du Démon de Socrate, etc., by L. F. Lélut, Membre de l’Institut. Nouvelle édition, 1856.

169 For other authorities see Mr. Andrew Lang’s paper in Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xi. pp. 198-212.

170 On this point, see Mr. Lang’s paper referred to above.

171 See Plutarch’s De genio Socratis.

172 See Phantasms of the Living, vol. i., Chapter VII, passim.

173 See Proceedings of the American S.P.R., vol. i. p. 397; Proceedings S.P.R., vol. ix. pp. 33 and 35 [817 A, B, and C].

174 The case is recorded in Journal S.P.R., vol. v. p. 136 [817 D].

175 For a somewhat similar case, possibly due to hyperæsthesia of hearing, see American Journal of Psychology, vol. iii. p. 435 (September 1890).

176 See Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xi. pp. 419 and 421 [821 A].

177 See Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xi. p. 422 and 423 [§§ 822 and 823]; also a case given in Proceedings S.P.R., vol. viii. p. 345, where a lady hurrying up to the door of a lift, is stopped by seeing a figure of a man standing in front of it, and then finds that the door is open, leaving the well exposed, so that she would probably have fallen down it, if she had not been checked by the apparition.

178 Revue de l’Hypnotisme, March 1893, p. 268.

179 When the automatic drawings have any telepathic or other supernormal content, they are usually associated with automatic writing. Compare the case of Mr. Cameron Grant (Phantasms of the Living, vol. ii. p. 690).

180 See James’s Psychology, vol. i. p. 394: “One curious thing about trance utterances is their generic similarity in different individuals.... It seems exactly as if one author composed more than half of the trance messages, no matter by whom they are uttered. Whether all sub-conscious selves are peculiarly susceptible to a certain stratum of the Zeitgeist, and get their inspiration from it, I know not.” See the account of automatic and impressional script, by Mr. Sidney Dean, which Professor James goes on to quote, and which is closely parallel to (for instance) Miss A.’s case, to be referred to below, although the one series of messages comes from the hand of a late member of Congress, “all his life a robust and active journalist, author, and man of affairs,” and the other from a young lady with so different a history and entourage.

181 Some other cases of Mr. Smith’s will be found in this volume. See also Proceedings S.P.R., vol. iii. p. 25 [§ 831] for a case of Prof. Sidgwick’s, and Proceedings S.P.R., vol. ii. pp. 226-231 for the complex “Clelia” case. Other cases of imaginary personalities are to be found in the accounts of possession which have come down to us from the “Ages of Faith.” See for example the autobiography of Sœur Jeanne des Anges (Bibliothèque Diabolique [collection Bourneville] Paris, 1886).

182 For the description of a curious case combining various motor automatisms in a very unusual way, see Proceedings S.P.R., vol. ix. p. 182 [§ 833].

183 For Mlle. Smith’s later history, see Professor Flournoy’s Nouvelles Observations sur un cas de Somnambulisme, Geneva, 1902.

184 We have already printed several incidents of this type in our Proceedings and Journal. (See, for instance, Proceedings S.P.R., vol. viii. p. 344 [818 A].)

185 A somewhat similar but less complex set of experiments by Mr. G. M. Smith is given in the Journal S.P.R., vol. v. pp. 318-320 [843 B].

186 For further cases see Proceedings S.P.R., vol. iii. pp. 2 and 5 [§§ 845 and 847].

187 See Proceedings S.P.R., vol. iii. pp. 8-23 [849 A]. For a series of experiments on a smaller scale but analogous to these see Proceedings S.P.R., vol. ix. (1893), pp. 61-64.

188 Mr. Newnham procured for me two autograph letters from eye-witnesses of some of the experiments, who do not, however, wish their names to be published. One writer says: “You wrote the question on a slip of paper and put it under one of the ornaments of the chimney-piece—no one seeing what you had written. Mrs. Newnham sat apart at a small table. I recollect you kept a book of the questions asked and answers given, as you thought some new power might be discovered, and you read me from it some of the results. I remember particularly questions and answers relating to the selection of a curate for B. My wife and her sister saw experiments conducted in this manner. Mrs. Newnham and you were sitting at different tables.” Another eye-witness writes: “I and my sister were staying at——, and were present at many of the Planchette experiments of Mr. and Mrs. Newnham. Mr. and Mrs. Newnham sat at different tables some distance apart, and in such a position that it was quite impossible Mrs. Newnham could see what question was written down. The subject of the questions was never mentioned even in a whisper. Mr. Newnham wrote them down in pencil and sometimes passed them to me and my sister to see, but not often. Mrs. Newnham immediately answered the questions. Though not always correct, they (the answers) always referred to the questions. Mr. Newnham copied out the pencil questions and answers verbatim each day into a diary.”

189 For further cases see Proceedings S.P.R., vol. ix. p. 44 [851 A]; ibid. p. 48 [§ 852]; ibid. p. 64 [§ 853]; ibid. p. 65 [§ 854]. Also Proceedings S.P.R., vol. ii. p. 236; vol. vi. pp. 112-115 [§ 855 and 856]; vol. xi. pp. 477-481 [852 B]; vol. ix. pp. 67-70 [857 A and 858 A].

190 See Proceedings S.P.R., vol. ix. (1893) pp. 73-92 [839 A and 625 C].

191 For another series of messages which afford an interesting field for the discussion of the rival hypotheses of “cryptomnesia” and spirit-control, see Journal S.P.R., vol. iv. p. 319; op. cit. p. 174; and Proceedings S.P.R., vol. ix. p. 92 [§§ 860, 861 and 862 A].

192 For further examples see the cases given in Proceedings S.P.R., vol. vi. pp. 355-57; vol. viii. pp. 242-48; Journal S.P.R., vol. iii. pp. 216-19; vol. ix. pp. 65-8; vol. ix. pp. 280-84 [868 A and B, 869 A and B, § 873].

193 See the “Report of Dr. Ira Barrows on the case of Miss Anna Winsor.” An account of Professor James’ inquiry into the case will be found in Proceedings of the American S.P.R., vol. i. p. 552 [237 A].

194 The cases of Swedenborg, Cahagnet’s subject, D. D. Home, and Stainton Moses will be discussed in the course of this chapter.

[195] Bibliothèque Diabolique (Collection Bourneville). Paris: Aux Bureaux du Progrès Medical, 1886 [832 B].

196 See Professor Janet’s paper in the Revue Philosophique, March, 1888. The case is also constantly referred to in his L’Automatisme Psychologique.

197 See page 49.

198 See page 288.

199 One important point of similarity is the concurrence in some savage ceremonies of utterance through an invading spirit and travelling clairvoyance exercised meantime by the man whose organism is thus invaded. The uncouth spirit shouts and bellows, presumably with the lungs of the medicine-man, hidden from view in profound slumber. Then the medicine-man awakes,—and tells the listening tribe the news which his sleep-wanderings, among gods or men, have won.
If this indeed be thus, it fits in strangely with the experience of our modern seers,—with the spiritual interchange which takes place when a discarnate intelligence occupies the organism and meantime the incarnate intelligence, temporarily freed, awakes to wider percipience,—in this or in another world.

200 See Modern Spiritualism; a History and a Criticism, by Frank Podmore (Methuen and Co., London, 1902).

201 In this edition the Synopsis alone is given. See Appendix IX. A.

202 The asterisks indicate the end of the part of this chapter which was consecutively composed by the author. The rest of the chapter consists chiefly of fragments written by him at different times.

203 This as well as the next two cases mentioned are given in Appendix IX. B.

204 See X + Y = Z; or, The Sleeping Preacher of North Alabama. Containing an account of most wonderful mysterious mental phenomena, fully authenticated by living witnesses. By the Rev. G. W. Mitchell. (New York: W. C. Smith, 67 John Street, 1876) [934 A].

205 For Kant’s evidence in regard to the supernormal powers of Swedenborg, see “Dreams of a Spirit Seer,” by Immanuel Kant, translated by E. F. Goerwitz; edited by Frank Sewall (London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co.; New York: The Macmillan Co., 1900) [936 A].

206 See also an account of the “Seeress of Prevorst,” translated from the German by Mrs. Crowe, and published in London in 1845 [936 B].

207 See Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xi. p. 560 [936 C].

208 The chief sources of information as to D. D. Home’s life and experiences are the following works:—
Incidents in my Life, by D. D. Home (1st edition, London, 1863; 2nd edition, 1864; second series, 1872).
D. D. Home: His Life and Mission, by Madame Dunglas Home (London, 1888).
The Gift of D. D. Home, by Madame Dunglas Home (London, 1890).
Report on Spiritualism of the Committee of the London Dialectical Society (London, 1871). This contains the evidence of the Master of Lindsay,—now Earl of Crawford and Balcarres,—and others.
Experiences in Spiritualism with Mr. D. D. Home, by Viscount Adare (now Lord Dunraven; privately printed).
Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism, by William Crookes, F.R.S. Reprinted from the Quarterly Journal of Science (London, 1874).
Notes of Séances with D. D. Home, by William Crookes, F.R.S. (Proceedings S.P.R., vol. vi. p. 98.)
See also a review by Professor Barrett and the present writer of Madame Home’s first book, D. D. Home: His Life and Mission, in the Journal S.P.R., vol. iv. pp. 101-136; a briefer review of her second book, The Gift of D. D. Home, in the Journal S.P.R., vol. iv. p. 249; and a note on “The Character of D. D. Home” in the Journal S.P.R., vol. vi. p. 176; also an article by Mr. Hamilton Aidé, “Was I hypnotised?” in the Nineteenth Century for April 1890.

209 See Proceedings S.P.R., vol. vi. pp. 436-659; vol. viii. pp. 1-167; vol. xiii. pp. 284-582; vol. xiv. pp. 6-78; vol. xv. pp. 16-52; vol. xvi. pp. 1-649.

210 For a discussion of Professor Hyslop’s report see Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xvii. pp. 331-388.

211 The original unabridged edition was published in two volumes.

212 The Synthetic Society, before which these pages were first read as a paper in March 1899.

213 Enn. vi. 4, 14.

214 Enn. iv. 3, 27.

215 Enn. v. 2-3. The World-Soul is supra grammaticam; and Plotinus sometimes uses a personal, sometimes an impersonal, locution to express what is infinitely beyond the conception of personality, as it is infinitely beyond any human conception whatsoever.

216 For the fullest account of Félida, see Hypnotisme, Double Conscience, etc., par le Dr. Azam. Paris, 1887.

217 Revue Scientifique, 3^e série, xxxii. p. 167.

218 An apparent discrepancy between Professor Hilprecht’s account and that of Mrs. Hilprecht calls for explanation. Professor Hilprecht states that he verified his dream on Sunday morning at the University; Mrs. Hilprecht that he verified it immediately upon awaking, in his library. Both statements are correct. He had a working copy in his library which he examined at once, but hurried to the University next morning to verify it by comparison with the authorised copy made from the originals.—W. R. N.

219 This appendix has been greatly abridged.

220 See Annales Médico-Psychologiques, 1882, p. 75, and Dr. Berjon, La grande Hystéric chez l’Homme, Paris, 1886.

221 Annales Médico-Psychologiques, 1884, vol. ii. p. 289 seqq.

222 Dr. E. Dufour, médecin en chef de l’asile Saint-Robert (Isère). See Annales Médico-Psychologiques, September 1886, p. 238, and Contribution à l’étude de l’hypnotisme, par le Dr. Dufour, Grenoble, 1887.

223 It was not unusual for her to sit in the salon in the evening, after the day’s occupations were over.

224 I noted on this narrative at the time I received it: “This account is entirely concordant with the account written by Mrs. Ramsay before reading Mrs. Elgee’s account in 1888, and abstracted by me for an article in Murray’s Magazine. There was this discrepancy between Mrs. Elgee and Mrs. Ramsay,—that Mrs. Ramsay thought that the figure wore a beard, whereas Mrs. Elgee saw him as she knew him—with whiskers only. He certainly had no beard at the time.”

225 A plan enclosed shows a suite of four rooms, M. Potolof’s study, the ante-room, the drawing-room, and M. Mamtchitch’s study, all opening into one another, the three doors between them being in one straight line.

226 See “Phantasms of the Dead from another point of view,” Proceedings S.P.R., vol. vi. p. 291.

227 We have ascertained that this date was a Sunday.

228 Some of the correspondence about the case given in the Proceedings is omitted here for want of space.

229 A dream in which a message of somewhat the same kind is given is recorded in the Journal S.P.R., vol. vii. p. 188. See also the old case of Dr. Binns, given in his Anatomy of Sleep, p. 462.

230 An account of this case appeared in an article by Herman Snow in the Religio-Philosophical Journal for January 31st, 1891, and Mr. Snow also sent us an earlier article on the subject which he had written in 1881, and of which his second account was a mere repetition. The facts were related to him by the Unitarian minister of the place where Mrs. Finney lived; and this third-hand account recorded by Mr. Snow fifteen years after the event closely coincides with Mrs. Finney’s first-hand one, recorded twenty-five years after the event.

231 In this edition the synopsis of the scheme alone is given.

232 This appendix was written originally with a special view to the phenomena alleged to occur in the case of Mr. W. Stainton Moses.

233 Mr. Goodall thinks that the mule’s sudden fall, otherwise unexplainable, may have been due to terror at some apparition of the dying child.