TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Text in italics is shown in _underscores_.
Footnotes have been moved to the end of the book.
A detailed list of changes made to the text can be found at the end.
HOW TO THOUGHT-READ:
_A MANUAL OF INSTRUCTION_
IN THE
STRANGE AND MYSTIC IN DAILY LIFE,
PSYCHIC PHENOMENA,
INCLUDING
_Hypnotic, Mesmeric, and Psychic States, Mind and Muscle
Reading, Thought Transference, Psychometry, Clairvoyance,
and Phenomenal Spiritualism_.
BY
JAMES COATES, Ph.D., F.A.S.,
_Lecturer on Mental Science and Hygiene, Author of “How to Mesmerise,”
“How to Read Heads,” “How to Read Faces,” “The Social
Problem,” “The Antiquity of Man,” etc. etc._
PRICE ONE SHILLING.
LONDON: HAY NISBET & CO., 169, FLEET STREET.
GLASGOW: 25 JAMAICA STREET.
1893.
HAY NISBET AND CO., 26 JAMAICA STREET, GLASGOW,
AND
169, FLEET STREET, LONDON.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Introduction, 5
Chapter I.--Somnambulism and Psychic Phenomena, 9
The Hypnotic, Mesmeric, and the Psychic States. Hypnotism
a Curative Agent; the Sixth Sense; Dreams, Premonitions;
Double and Psychic Consciousness. Evidences of the
Soul within us.
Chapter II.--Clairvoyance, 23
Psychoscopy, or Soul Sight. Spiritual Faculty, exhibited by
religious ecstatics, not a common possession. How Cultivated.
The Opinions and Evidence of Men of Science.
Second Sight. The Utility of Soul-Sight.
Chapter III.--Clairvoyance Illustrated, 33
Classified. Strange Story of the Chicago Water Supply.
Lost Goods Restored. An Aid to the Physician. Experiments
in Rothesay. Remarkable Clairvoyants. Clairvoyance
in Mesmerism and in Spiritualism.
Chapter IV.--Psychometry, 53
Soul-Measuring and Soul-Measurers. Dr. Buchanan’s Discoveries.
Professor Denton’s Experiments. Detective’s
Clues; what Psychometry can do. Testimony of Mr. Stead
and the Rev. Minot J. Savage. Disease Detected, and
Character Gauged by this Faculty.
Chapter V.--Thought-Transference and Telepathy, 69
Explained and Defined. Transference of Taste in Mesmerism.
Thought-Transference, in Dreams, from the Dying to
the Living; the Dead to the Living; in Prayer; in ordinary
Experience. Incidents and Experiences, etc. Mark Twain,
Hudson Tuttle, and Dr. Hilden.
Chapter VI.--Thought-Reading Experiments, 88
Thought and Muscle-Reading Distinguished. Projecting
Mental Pictures. Normal Experiments, without contact, by
Professor Lodge, Mr. Guthrie, and Professor Barrett. Some
Practical Suggestions. Muscle-Reading Entertainments.
Directions.
Chapter VII.--Spiritualism, 102
“How to Thought-Read” and Phenomenal Spiritualism.
The Spirit within us. The rejection of the Psychic. The
Fraudulent in Spiritualism. Spiritualism without Spirits.
Thought-Reading by Spirits and Mediums.
Chapter VIII.--Spiritualism.--_Continued_, 115
Automatic Writing. A Test Medium. Trance Addresses.
A Direct Spirit-Painting. Reflections and Speculations.
Testimony of Cromwell F. Varley, F.R.S., the Electrician.
Theosophy a Revised Version of Hindoo Metempsychosis,
etc. etc.
INTRODUCTION.
The first book of this series, “How to Mesmerise,” gave so much
satisfaction to the reading public, and having passed into several
editions, my publishers have asked me to write another work on similar
lines. This _brochure_ is my response. Clairvoyance, Psychometry, and
Thought Transference--briefly referred to in the former--are more
fully gone into in this. Consequently, I have little doubt “How to
Thought-Read” will meet with acceptance.
Thought-reading is duly considered and explained. A clear distinction
is drawn between Musculation, or Muscle and Mind-Reading; and although
these pages are not confined to Thought-Reading, as generally
understood by the public, the subject itself, and as an entertainment,
have been pretty fully dealt with.
During the past decade, psychological subjects have, in a remarkable
way, arrested public attention. “New Mesmerism” and “New Spiritualism”
are popular subjects with editors and magazine writers. Whatever the
real causes--a greater influx of the spiritual from “the state of the
dead,” or from a reaction in the minds of men against the purblind
materialism of our scientific leaders--it is hard to say. Possibly
these and other causes have been at work. One thing is certain, for
good or ill, the majority of thinking men and women of the age are
not only interested in, but are actually searching for evidence of
“embodied spirit.” Hence we find men of science, journalists, and even
professed materialists and secularists, who, a few years ago, could
scarcely speak of these subjects in the ordinary language of courtesy,
confess now not only their belief, but are going to the other extreme
of advocating, what as yet, they have failed to fully grasp.
A few years ago “The British Parliament of Science” was nothing if
not materialistic. The leading _savants_ of the day declared “all was
matter, no matter what.” Consequently, man was the highest product
of protoplasm, and his _only_ destiny the grave. The change has been
great indeed, when one of its most brilliant members (Professor
Oliver Lodge, D.Sc., F.R.S., British Association at Cardiff, 1891)
in his address said: “It is familiar that a thought may be excited
on the brain of another person, transferred thither from our brain
by pulling a suitable trigger; by liberating energy in the form of
sound, for instance, or by the mechanical act of writing, or in other
ways. A pre-arranged code, called language, and a material medium of
communication, are recognised methods. May there not, also, be an
_immaterial_ (perhaps an ethereal) medium of communication? Is it
possible that an idea can be transferred from one person to another
by a process such as we have not yet grown accustomed to, and know
practically nothing about? _In this case I have evidence. I assert I
have seen it done, and am perfectly convinced of the fact; many others
are satisfied of the truth, too._ It is, perhaps, a natural consequence
of the community of life or family relationship running through all
living beings. The transmission of life may be likened in some ways
to the transmission of magnetism, and all magnets are sympathetically
connected, so that, if suitably suspended, a vibration from one
disturbs others, even though they be distant 92,000,000 miles. It is
sometimes objected that, granting thought-transference or telepathy to
be a fact, it belongs more especially to lower forms of life, and that
as the cerebral hemispheres develop we become independent of it; that
what we notice is the relic of a decaying faculty, not the germ of a
new and fruitful sense, and that progress is not to be made by studying
or alluding to it. As well might the objection be urged against a study
of embryology. _It may, on the other hand, be an indication of a higher
mode of communication, which shall survive our temporary connection
with ordinary matter._ The whole region is unexplored territory, and it
is conceivable that matter may react on mind in a way we can at present
only dimly imagine.” The italics are mine.
Thought-Transference and Telepathy may, indeed, be an indication of a
higher mode of communication between human beings after we have severed
our temporary connection with matter. Whether or not, the hope should
repay our study. I have sought in the following pages to briefly define
and illustrate what these phases of communication are.
Double and Psychic Consciousness, Clairvoyance, natural and induced;
Psychometry, its natural and leading features as a spiritual faculty;
Thought-Transference, visions, dreams, and their _portents_, are in
turn briefly dealt with, in order to extract therefrom some evidence of
_soul_.
Modern Spiritualism is referred to, in so far as Thought-Reading is
likely to throw any light upon its psychological phases, as well as on
its physical phenomena.
While attempting to cover so much ground my difficulty was not
what to write, but what not to write, the materials at my disposal
being so abundant. Much has been cut down to get the whole within
reasonable compass. Nevertheless, I hope my readers will find “How to
Thought-Read” a readable contribution to the science of soul.
JAMES COATES.
Glenbeg,
Ardbeg, Rothesay, N. B.
[Illustration: EXPERIMENT IN PSYCHOMETRY.--See Page 60.
MR. and MRS. COATES.]
HOW TO THOUGHT-READ.
CHAPTER I.
Somnambulism and Psychic Phenomena.
Before entering upon the subject of “How to Thought Read”--or rather,
range of interesting subjects grouped under this title--it is proposed
to deal briefly with the key to the whole, which is to be found in the
revelations of man’s inner life, soul-life and character, presented by
somnambulism and trance, whether natural or induced.
The use of a few simple terms having a well-defined meaning will help
the reader and prepare him for the more careful study of the psychic
side of human life.
The somnambulistic and trance states may be divided, for the
convenience of examination, into the Hypnotic, or state of hypnosis;
the Mesmeric, or somnambulistic; and the Psychic, or lucid
somnambulistic--or briefly, the Hypnotic, Mesmeric, and Psychic states.
The operator is the controlling agent, hypnotist, or mesmerist; in
spiritualism, the guide or control.
The sensitive is the subject, the percipient, psychic, patient, or
person who passes into the hypnotic, mesmeric, or trance states, etc.
Hypnosis is the term used for the hypnotic state artificially induced
by the agent. Hypnosis is the lowest rung of the ladder; the psychic
or soul state the highest. The intermediate phases, as indicated in
conscious or sub-conscious conditions of life, are innumerable and not
readily classified. Still, the states mentioned will give a favourable
insight to the whole. In hypnosis, physical rather than mental
phenomena are evolved; _anæsthesia_, or non-sensitiveness to pain, is
more or less present. The senses of smell and hearing are partially
exalted, and the sensitive may be partially or wholly unconscious.
The mesmeric state is the term frequently used to denote ordinary
artificial somnambulism. It is actually the higher or more perfect form
of hypnosis. The senses in this state are more fully submerged, and the
mental faculties are more fully exalted, than in hypnosis.
The psychic state, as the mesmeric, relates to the mental, and hypnosis
to the more physical, so does the psychic state refer to that class of
extraordinary somnambulism in which the mental and the spiritual gifts
transcend in character and power those of the foregoing states. In this
state the higher phenomena of lucid somnambulism, clairvoyance, and
thought-transference are manifested more perfectly than in any other.
The hypnotic, the mesmeric, and the psychic states indicated are
frequently interlinked in manifestation. The sensitive may pass from
the first to the last without apparent gradation. It is well to
keep these divisions in thought, so that in practice no one will be
content with the _lower_ where it is possible, by wise and judicious
observations and operations, to induce the higher.
To make the matter still more clear, in hypnosis and in the mesmeric
state all phenomena may be said to be induced through and by the
influence and the direction of the operator. Not that he produces the
effects as they are exhibited by the sensitive, but they are brought
about through the agency of his suggestions or operations.
In the psychic state this is not always the case. The influence of
the operator may at times be almost _nil_. The operator will find
it best--when the sensitive is in a high lucid state--to become an
observer and a learner, and no longer continue the _rôle_ of director.
In the psychic state, the soul-powers, so often submerged in ordinary
life, transcend in a remarkable manner. The senses are completely
suspended and the mind exalted to such a degree, a clearly defined
super-sensuous condition is reached. Whether this stage or condition is
induced by fasting, prayer, disease, or by mesmeric agencies, matters
little. In it we find the key to the seership, and the clairvoyance,
and the prophetic utterance, and the mystic powers attributed to
and exercised by prophet, and seer, and sybil in the past. By the
investigation of the phenomena evolved by the psychic state we are
enabled to understand something of man’s soul or spiritual nature,
apart from the phenomena induced by pathological conditions of brain
and body.
The foregoing view presented of mesmeric conditions may be very
different from that which medical men may glean from hypnotic practice
with hysterical and lobsided patients, and certainly not the views
which the general public are likely to gather from seeing a number of
paid “subjects” knocked about a music hall stage by an ignorant showman.
From the roughest to the finest, from matter to spirit, from hypnosis
to the psychic state, we find enough to arrest attention and give
a high degree of seriousness and earnestness to our investigation.
We stand on the threshold of soul, and the place where we stand is
holy ground. We find, as is the physical, mental, and spiritual
characteristics of the operator, _plus_ those of the sensitive or
sensitives, so will be the nature of the phenomena evolved.
It will be observed some subjects never get beyond the first state, or
hypnosis; others that of the second, or mesmeric. All sensitives, in
keeping with their temperamental and mental developments (as revealed
by phrenology and psychometry), are better adapted for one class of
phenomena than that of others.
It may be further observed that the foregoing states may be
self-induced or, directly and indirectly, the product of
“spirit-control,” drugs, or bodily disease. Hypnosis, we must bear in
mind, although not unlike the mesmeric state, has no more relation to
that condition than sleep produced by an exhaustive walk or a dose of
laudanum is like natural or healthy sleep. Indeed, hypnosis is not
properly a condition of sleep. In the majority of cases the sensitive
is never wholly unconscious. It is rather a state in which there is a
temporary perversion or subordination between brain impressions and
consciousness. The sensitive in hypnosis is often less intelligent than
in the normal or waking state.
For various reasons the state of hypnosis may be recognised as that
state in which the mind is subjected to certain abnormal conditions
of the body, notably of the brain, spinal cord, and indirectly of the
circulation, induced by certain means determined upon by the operator.
The mental condition in this state is one of almost pure automatism, in
which hallucination or sense illusions are more or less present.
Great and serious are the responsibilities of those who bring about the
state of hypnosis. Every thought and feeling, of whatever kind, infused
in this state, like seed, will take root and germinate, and finally
bud into action in the daily or waking consciousness, and determine
unconsciously for the sensitive the character of his life. Hypnotism
is neither for indiscriminate use, nor is hypnosis to be induced as a
plaything for the thoughtless--medical or lay. At the same time, in the
hands of the thoughtful, its educative value is most important, for,
if the operator is well poised, and feels that, he can impart higher
thoughts and strengthen the will[A] of the sensitives by the twofold
agencies of impressionability and suggestion. This is something not to
be despised. It is surely no degradation to be saved from evils one
cannot overcome or resist, unless assisted by external aid, even though
that help can only come by submitting to hypnotism.
In hypnosis the outer brain of convoluted grey matter is most affected,
being more or less denuded of arterial and nervous stimuli. The power
of conscious, intellectual, and abstract thought is reduced to a
minimum. The organs of the central brain are differently influenced,
as in inverse ratio the stimulation is increased. The eye is more
susceptible to light, or the pupils may become dilated and fixed.
The auditory sense is rendered more keen. The olfactory powers are
intensified, and there is more or less insensibility of feeling. The
powers of co-ordination and locomotion are preserved up to a certain
stage, when these functions are disturbed, all power of voluntary
movement ceases, lethargic and cataleptic symptoms supervene.
It was by observing, more particularly, hypnosis, Professor Heidenhain
was led to aver “inhibition” actually accounted for all phases of
hypnotism. This opinion has evidently been based on a limited number
of cases. “No inhibition,” says Dr. Drayton, “however ingeniously
applied, will explain all the phenomena of magnetism. If the personal
consciousness, the individuality, of the subject has been lost, and
his state is that of automatism, or rather that of an involuntary
actor, certainly his cerebral functions operate in a manner entirely
distinct from that which is characteristic in his ordinary state.
The inhibition relates to his common order of conduct mentally, while
the super-sensitivity and extraordinary play of faculty that he may
exhibit, indicate a higher phase of sensory activity, more free or
harmonious co-ordination of the cerebral functions. The brakes are off,
hence the phenomena that are frequently observed in the somnambulist,
and awaken wonder, because so much out of keeping with what is known of
his common life.”
Here we find doctors--experts in hypnotism or mesmerism--agree to
differ. They agree in this, albeit not expressly stated, they are alike
positive and decided in their views, and certainly _without being
positive, there is no possible success as an operator_.
The mistake they make evidently arises in confounding the two
states (hypnosis and the mesmeric), one with the other. There is no
super-sensitivity, or extraordinary play of faculty in hypnosis,
whatever there may be in the mesmeric state. They are similar, in
that they may be both induced by the reduction of the activity of the
cerebral cortex.
In hypnosis the mind slumbers and dreams. The dream-life appears as
substantial to the sensitive as the waking life. The life creations,
thus dreamed of, are acted upon, whether they arise from suggestion or
other causes.
In the mesmeric state the senses slumber, and the mind awakens to a
fuller enfranchisement of existence, and to the exhibition of mental
and spiritual powers not hitherto suspected.
In the lower stages the increased power of the senses is to be found
in the _intense concentration_ of effort, brought about from the fact
that the subject’s attention is, and his whole energies are, directed
in one line of action or thought, to the exclusion of mind or brain
activity in other directions. Hence all efforts are centred in the
direction suggested by the operator, or self-induced, as suggested by
the “dominant idea.”
The sensitive exhibits powers of mind and ability of thought which
were not noticeable in the ordinary waking condition. Not because he
really possesses greater powers of mind or body, but because of the
lack of concentration in the waking state. By this concentration of
direction, so called abnormal feats of strength are performed, rigidity
of structure brought about, and other characteristics not peculiar
to common life. In a higher sense, we see the sensitive passing
from this condition of concentration of one-idea-ism to a spiritual
state, in which the phenomena exhibited are no longer the product of
self-dethronement and of suggestion. Higher still, we see the soul
reign supreme. The sensitive possesses a clear consciousness of what
is transpiring at home and abroad, according to the direction of his
psychic powers.
In the psychic state--the more perfect trance state or control--the
whole mind becomes illumined; past, present, and future become
presentable to the mind of the lucid somnambulist as one great whole.
This higher stage may be reached through the simple processes of
manipulation, and passes as suggested in my little work, “How to
Mesmerise.”
In the mesmeric state the sensitive passes from the mere automatism of
the earlier stages of hypnosis to the distinct individuality indicated
above, although still more or less influenced or directed by his
controller or operator into the line of thought and train of actions
most desired.
The difference between the hypnotic and mesmeric states should now be
very clear. In the former the sensitive has no identity, in the latter
his identity is preserved in a clearly individualised form throughout
the whole series of abnormal acts. Whenever the sensitive enters this
condition his personal consciousness is most apparent in the middle and
higher stages.
In fact, in the mesmeric state, it is very stupid for some operators
to ask the sensitive, “Are you asleep?” It may be understood what is
meant, yet the question is absurd from the standpoint of an intelligent
observer. The sensitive is never more awake. The higher the state the
greater the wakefulness and lucidity of the inner or soul life.
THE SIXTH SENSE.
In the mesmeric state we see developed what Lord Kelvin (Professor
Thomson, of Glasgow University), Drs. Baird, Hammond, and
Drayton call the magnetic sense--or “sixth sense.” It is a gift
of super-sensitiveness. To my mind it is something more, the
enfranchisement of the soul, the human ego--in proportion as the
dominance of the senses is arrested.
In blindness, it has been noticed how keen the sense of touch becomes.
I have also noticed the keen sensitiveness of facial perception enjoyed
by some of the blind, by which they are enabled to perceive objects in
the absence of physical sight. In the mesmeric state we see a somewhat
analogous mental condition. As the peculiar sense of the blind is
developed by extra concentration of the mind in the direction of facial
perception, so is “the sixth sense” developed by concentration of
direction, as well as by the condition of sensitiveness induced by the
mesmeric state.
This newly recognised sense, “the sixth sense,” not only answers the
purpose of sight and hearing, but transcends all senses in vividness
and power. Materialists, no longer able to ignore the phenomena of
somnambulism and trance, and compelled to admit man’s avenues of
knowledge in this life were not confined to the recognised five senses,
are good enough to give him a “sixth sense,” even while they deny
him a soul. In the same way, no longer able to deny the existence
of mesmerism, they now admit it to consideration--re-baptised as
hypnotism. The phenomena being admitted, we will not quarrel over the
names by which they are called.
PSYCHIC-CONSCIOUSNESS.
As we advance in our investigations we find in the higher conditions
of these states a double or treble consciousness or memory. The higher
including and overlapping the lower. Thus the consciousness of the
hypnotic state includes that of the waking state, while the memory
of the waking state possesses no conscious recollection of what has
taken place in hypnosis, and so on, each stage has its own phases
of consciousness. The memory of the sensitive, under influence,
overlapping and including the memory of ordinary or normal life.
Strange as it may appear, there are no phenomena which have been
evolved in any of these abnormal conditions of life, which have not
been observed again and again in ordinary or normal life, as well
authenticated instances of dreams, warnings, and telepathy testify.
Dr. Richardson notwithstanding, “in dreams and visions of the night”
God has manifested himself to man in all ages. In other words, the
soul (in sleep and analogous states to somnambulism and trance) comes
more in touch with the sub-conscious or soul sphere of thought and
existence. At times there is an inrush from that sphere into our
present conscious state, by which we know of things which could not
otherwise be known. Of dreams, our space will not admit more than
occasional reference, we may mention as a case in point the dream of
Mrs. Donan, wife of the livery stableman from whom Dr. Cronin hired
his horse in Chicago. A week before Dr. Cronin was murdered this lady
had a dream-vision, and dreamt he was barbarously murdered, and saw in
a vision the whole terrible scene. This dream was a means, first, of
forewarning the doctor, and second, of leading to the detection of the
miscreants.
Of premonitions, an incident reported in the _Register_ of Adelaide,
will suffice:--“Constable J. C. H. Williams has reported to
headquarters that he had an unpleasant experience at about midnight
on Monday. He was on duty at the government offices in King William
Street, and while standing at the main entrance he had a presentiment
that he was in danger, and walked away a few steps. Scarcely had he
moved from the spot, when a portion of the cornice work at the top of
the building fell with a crash on the place where he had been standing.
The piece of plaster must have weighed fully a stone, and had it struck
Williams the result would doubtless have been fatal. A passer-by saw
the constable a few minutes after, and his scared looks and agitated
manner clearly showed that his story was true.” Concerning telepathy,
Mrs. Andrew Crosse, the distinguished widow of the famous electrician,
relates in _Temple Bar_ an anecdote about the late Bishop Wilberforce,
to the effect, the Bishop was writing a dry business letter one day,
when a feeling of acute mental agony overcame him and he felt that some
evil had befallen his favourite son, a midshipman in the navy. The
impression was correct. On that very day the lad, who was with his ship
in the Pacific, had been wounded and nearly bled to death. When this
was told Hallam, the historian, he replied that a very similar thing
had happened to himself. A few cases are noted further on. Some persons
would repudiate _all_ such incidents as accidents or coincidences;
while others would fly to the extreme, and declare all such are the
result of “spirit control”--that is, some disembodied but friendly
spirit projected the dream, conveyed the warning, or telepathically
despatched the news. But we must never forget news has to be received
as well as despatched. Consequently, we, as embodied spirits, must
possess psychic consciousness.
I believe that _much_ of the phenomena, directly and indirectly
attributed to disincarnate spirit control, are traceable to _no other
source_ than the powers of our own embodied spirits, as revealed by
the facts of somnambulism and trance, and this is the opinion of all
intelligent spiritualists.
“Because,” says Mr. G. H. Stebbins, a prominent investigator of modern
spiritualism in the United States “a person quotes from books he never
saw, or _tells of what he never knew_ in any external way, that is not
final proof that he is under an external spirit control. Psychometry
and clairvoyance may sometimes solve it all.”
“I hold,” says Mr. Myers, “that telepathy and clairvoyance do, in fact,
exist--telepathy, a communication between incarnate mind and incarnate
mind, and perhaps between incarnate minds and minds unembodied;
clairvoyance, a knowledge of things terrene which over-passes the
limits of ordinary perception, and which, perhaps, achieves an insight
with some other than terrene world.”
These are the cautious admissions of eminent investigators in psychical
research.
DOUBLE OR SUB-CONSCIOUSNESS.
“There are two sets,” says Dr. Brown-Sequard, “a double state of mental
powers in the human organism, essentially differing from each other.
The one may be designated as ordinary conscious intelligence; the
other, a superior power, which controls our better nature.”
J. Balfour Brown, in his “Medical Jurisprudence,” says:--“In no case
of pure somnambulism, waking consciousness of the individual knows
anything of the sleeping consciousness. It is as if there were two
distinct memories.”
This double-consciousness, memory, or sub-state of mental powers, is
another but lower phase of psychic-consciousness, and is sometimes
exhibited by accidents, and also by disease.
Dr. Abercromby relates the case of a boy, four years old who was
trepanned for a fracture of the skull. He was in a _complete stupor_
during the operation, and was not conscious of what took place. At
fifteen he became seriously ill of fever. In the delirium occasioned
by the fever, he gave a correct description of the operation, _and of
all the persons present, their dress_, manners, and actions, to the
minutest particulars. The “superior power” must have obtained this
knowledge in some other way than through the ordinary channels of the
outward senses.
In cases of apparent drowning, where the person has been saved from
death by active, external help, we have been informed that the human
mind has worked with a rapidity of action not thought possible in the
waking state, the intensity of menial action being increased in adverse
ratio to the inaction of the external senses and consciousness. In
this state the career of a lifetime has been reviewed, conversations,
actions, persons seen and places visited, all vividly brought to
mind--in possibly less time than it takes to pen this paragraph. These
phenomena suggest the reflection that the daily waking life--sensuous
and worldly-minded--is possibly, to many, the least real and effective.
How much our external life is influenced by our unconscious (to us in
the waking state) sub-life, is an interesting problem.
Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes says:--“The more we examine the mechanism
of thought, the more we shall see that the automatic and unconscious
action of the mind enters largely into all its processes. We _all_ have
a _double_ who is wiser and better than we, who puts thoughts into our
heads and words into our mouths.”
A commercial gentleman of my acquaintance, who was rather sceptical
on the subject of double-consciousness--although, “notwithstanding,”
he said, “Mr. Stead, in the _Review of Reviews_, had turned an
honest penny out of ghosts, double-consciousness, and that sort of
rubbish”--admitted to me, he had a maid, who had an awkward habit of
rising in her sleep, carefully setting the fires, cleaning and dusting
out the rooms, setting the breakfast table, and doing many other things
which appeared important to the servant-mind. Her movements were
watched. She slipped about with eyes closed, avoiding obstacles, and
doing her work systematically and neatly, and without fuss, when done,
she would go to bed. In the morning she had no recollection of what she
had said or done. It was a curious thing, he had to admit. The girl
was honest enough. He was certain this habit had not been simulated.
Threats of discharge, and possible loss of wages, did not cure her of
this habit. There was a certain form of “double consciousness” in this
case.
“The subliminal consciousness” of Mr. Myers, by which he accounts for
the phenomena of genius, is but another way of expressing the concept
of an “identity underlying all consciousness,” the psyche, the real “I,
me,” “the superior power which directs and controls our better nature,”
the “double who is wiser and better than we,” the reality of which is
so much hidden from our ordinary experience, because our soul-life is
so much buried out of sight by the _débris_ of the “things of this
life,” which, fortunately or otherwise, pre-occupy so much of our
attention.
It is this “subliminal consciousness” we see manifested in the psychic
state, and natural somnambulism. Clairvoyance, psychometry, thought
transference, etc., are as so many spectrum rays of the one soul light.
Call them “subliminal” if you will. These rays flow out from the soul,
and are many-hued, distinct or blurred, according to the degree of
pureness or super-sensitivity of the external corporeal prism through
which they are projected.
Persons have lived for years, we are credibly informed, who have
spent half their lives entranced, _in the alternation of two distinct
individualities_ or two distinct states of consciousness, in one of
which they forget all they had learned or did in the other.
Professor Huxley described (British Association of Science, Belfast,
1874) a case in which two separate lives, a normal, and abnormal one,
seemed to be lived at intervals by the same individual during the
greater portion of her life.
The conclusion to the whole matter is--the psychic, or soul-powers in
some persons are less entrammelled by the senses than in others; that a
high degree of organic sensitiveness always accompanies those who are
recognised as psychics or sensitives; that this state of sensitiveness
is natural to some, and in others may be developed by accident,
disease, or induced by somnambulism and trance.
I will endeavour to show these psychic characteristics, or soul
gifts, underlie, and enter into the varied phenomena--clairvoyance,
psychometry, thought transference, thought-reading, and what not, which
are collated under the title of,
“HOW TO THOUGHT-READ.”