CONCLUSION
This volume reminds me of the mountain which gave birth to a mouse.
Its length would be excusable if only it marked a step in advance in
the field of psychology or physiology, or as to the question of the
supernormal. As such is not the case, it is unpardonable, and nothing
more is left me to do except to make clear its deficiencies in this
triple aspect.
First: From the physiological point of view, it is apparent that
Mlle. Smith, as is doubtless true of all mediums, presents during her
visions and somnambulisms a plenitude of disturbances of motility and
sensibility, from which she seems entirely free in her normal state.
But these trifling observations do not suffice to solve the
neuropathological problem of mediumship, and the question still
remains open as to whether that term corresponds to a special category
of manifestations and to a distinct syndrome, or whether it merely
constitutes a happy euphemism for various scientific denominations
already in use.
To endeavor to fix the connections of mediumship with other functional
affections of the nervous system, it would first be necessary to
possess exact intelligence on a number of important points still
enveloped in obscurity. In regard to some of these, such as the
phenomena of periodicity, of meteorological and seasonal influences, of
impulses, and of fatigue, etc., we have only very vague and incomplete
hints. And we know almost nothing of other still more essential
questions, such as the relations of equivalence and substitution
between the various modalities of automatism (nocturnal visions,
crepuscular states, complete trances, etc.), the effect of spiritistic
exercises, and especially of that of the seances upon nutrition or
denutrition (variations of temperature, of urotoxicity, etc.), which
would permit the comparison of spontaneous seizures and those excited
by mediumship with those of the more serious nervous affections, the
phenomena of heredity, similar or reversed, etc.
Let us hope that a near future will establish some good mediums and
their observers in practical conditions favorable to the elucidation of
these various problems, and that the day will come when the true place
of mediumship in the framework of nosology will be discovered.
Secondly: From the psychological point of view, the case of Mlle.
Smith, although too complex to be reduced to a single formula, is
explicable _grosso modo_ by some recognized principle, the successive
or concurrent action of which has engendered her multiple phenomena.
There is, in the first place, the influence, so often verified, of
emotional shocks and of certain psychic traumatisms upon mental
dissociation. By means of these the birth of hypnoid states may become
the germ either of secondary personalities more or less strongly marked
(we have seen that the first manifestations of Leopold in the childhood
of Hélène are attributable to this cause) or of somnambulistic
romances, which hold the same relation towards the normal state as does
that exaggeration of stories and indulgence in reveries to which so
many are addicted—perhaps all of us.
We must also take into consideration the enormous suggestibility and
auto-suggestibility of mediums, which render them so sensitive to all
the influences of spiritistic reunions, and are so favorable to the
play of those brilliant subliminal creations in which, occasionally,
the doctrinal ideas of the surrounding environment are reflected
together with the latent emotional tendencies of the medium herself.
The development of the personality of Leopold-Cagliostro, starting
from the moment at which Mlle. Smith began her seances, is easily
explained in this manner, as well as the Martian dream and the previous
existences of the Hindoo princess and the queen of France.
And, finally, we must note the phenomena of cryptomnesia, the awakening
and setting to work of forgotten memories, which easily account for the
elements of truth contained in the great preceding constructions and in
the incarnations or casual visions of Mlle. Smith in the course of her
seances.
But besides this general explanation how many points of detail there
are which remain obscure! For example, the precise origin of Hélène’s
Sanscrit, and many of her retrocognitions, for want of information
concerning the thousand facts of her daily life whence the ideas which
nourish her somnambulism may have been drawn! And how difficult it
is to gain a correct idea of her case as a whole, on account of the
crudity of our actual notions as to the constitution and organization
of the human being, of our almost total ignorance of psychological
ontogeny!
Without mentioning Hélène’s ephemeral incarnations (in which I have
shown there is no reason far seeing anything beyond the imitations due
to autosuggestion), the divers more stable personalities which manifest
themselves in her hypnoid life—Leopold, Esenale, and the actors of the
Martian romance, Simandini, Marie Antoinette, etc.—are only, in my
opinion, as I have hinted on many occasions, the varied psychological
states of Mlle. Smith herself—allotropic modifications, as it were,
or phenomena of polymorphism of her personality. For no one of these
personalities corresponds sufficiently with her ordinary personality by
intellectual faculties, the moral character, separation of memories, to
justify the hypothesis of a foreign _possession_.
But the theory of psychic polymorphism is still very imperfect, and
inadequate to explain the embryological shades which shine forth in
Hélène’s subliminal products—the retrograde perspective which they open
as to the different stages or periods of her evolution. The Martian
cycle, with its unknown language, evidently betrays an eminently
puerile origin and the display of an hereditary linguistic aptitude,
buried under Hélène’s ordinary self; whereas the Hindoo romance denotes
a more advanced age, and that of Marie Antoinette seems to have
sprung from still more recent strata, contemporaneous with the actual
normal personality of Mlle. Smith. The primitive nature and different
ages of the various hypnoid lucubrations of Mlle. Smith seem to me to
constitute the most interesting psychological fact of her mediumship.
It tends to show that the secondary personalities are probably, in
their origin, as the idea has been sometimes suggested, phenomena of
reversion of the ordinary actual personality, or of momentary returns
of inferior phases, long since passed, and which normally should have
been absorbed in the development of the individuality, instead of
breaking forth again in strange proliferations.
Thirdly: As to the supernormal, I believe I have actually found a
little telekinesis and telepathy. As to lucidity and spiritistic
messages, I have only encountered some brilliant reconstructions, which
the hypnoid imagination, aided by latent memory, excels in fabricating
in the case of mediums. I do not complain of this, since for
psychology, which is not specially enamoured of the marvellous, these
admirably successful imitations are also interesting and instructive on
account of the light which they throw upon the inward workings of our
faculties.
Of course Mlle. Smith and her friends see things in a very different
light. With Hélène everything, or almost everything, is supernormal,
from the reminiscences of her lives as Marie Antoinette and Simandini,
to the Martian and the incarnations of Cagliostro, of Mlle. Vignier, or
of the _curé_ of Chessenaz.
And now let us admit, hypothetically, that I have not been able to see
the supernormal, which was plainly before my eyes, and that it is this
blindness of mine alone which has prevented me from recognizing the
real presence of Joseph Balsamo, my own mother, the Hindoo princess,
etc.—or, at all events, the presence of real, disincarnate, independent
spirits. It is, of course, to be regretted, but then it is I alone who
will be in disgrace on the day when the truth shall be made manifest.
For, as to progress in our knowledge of things, everything is to be
feared from easy credulity and obstinate dogmatism, but that progress
will not be arrested or seriously retarded by possible errors,
committed in good faith, through an exaggerated severity of application
and a too strict observance of the principles themselves of all
experimental investigation; while, on the contrary, the obstacles and
the difficulties which the necessities of the method multiply along
its path have always been a strong stimulant, producing new movements
forward and more durable conquests based on better demonstrations.
It is better, then, to follow my advice—in the well-understood interest
of and for the advancement of science, in a domain where superstition
is always ready to give itself free play—it is better to err through
excess of caution and strictness of method than to run the risk of
being sometimes deceived; it is better to allow some interesting fact
to escape for the moment, rather than to open the door to the follies
of the imagination by a relaxation of necessary caution.
As to Mlle. Hélène Smith, supposing that I have failed to recognize
in her phenomena which are really supernormal (which, in that case,
will some day be better set forth by other observers), she will,
nevertheless, accomplish more in the way of discovering the real truth,
whatever it may be, in submitting herself disinterestedly to my free
criticisms, than by doing as so many useless mediums have done, who,
afraid of the light, in their foolish eagerness for the triumph of a
cause very dear to their hearts, have shunned close investigation, and
would have us rely upon their word alone.
They forget the saying of Bacon, which is ever being confirmed: “_Truth
is the daughter of time, not of authority._”
THE END
FOOTNOTES:
[1] _I. e._, Spirit-rapping—the faculty of obtaining responses by means
of raps upon a table.
[2] Glossolalia signifies the “gift of tongues,” or the ability to
speak foreign languages without having consciously acquired them.
[3] This term is used to designate the visions which manifest
themselves at the moment of awakening from sleep immediately prior to
complete awakening, and which form a pendant to the well-known, much
more frequent hypnagogic hallucinations, arising in the intermediate
state between sleep and waking.
[4] Vision relating to the Oriental cycle; the man was the Arab sheik,
the father of Simandini.
[5] The following are some of these impromptu rhymes, surely up to the
level of the circumstances which inspired them, but by which we ought
not to judge the _conscious_ poetic faculties of Mlle. Smith:
To a little girl proud of her new shoes:
“Marcelle est là, venez la voir,
Elle a ses petits souliers noirs.”
In a “culinary” discussion:
“Vous détestez les omelettes,
Autant que moi les côtelettes.”
To a person slightly vain:
“Vos richesses, ma chère amie,
Ne me font point du tout envie!”
[6] The confusion of sensations in the two sides of the body, as when a
person locates in the right leg a touch upon the left leg.
[7] See, on allochiria, P. Janet, _Stigmates mentaux des hysteriques_,
pp. 66-71; and _Nevroses et idées fixes_, vol. i. p. 234.
[8] See Lehmann’s _Aberglaube und Zauberei_, p. 217 _et seq._
Stuttgart, 1898.
[9] W. James, “Thought Tends to Personal Form.” _Principles of
Psychology_, vol. i. p. 225 _et seq._ New York, 1890.
[10] Alexandre Dumas, _père_, _Memoirs of a Physician_, chap. xv.
[11] The one which is found, for example, at the beginning of the _Vie
de Joseph Balsamo_, etc., translated from the Italian (3d edition,
Paris, 1791), and which has been several times reproduced. Mlle. Smith
has hanging over her fireplace a fine copy of this portrait.
[12] See, _e.g._, Ferrari, Hericourt, and Richet, “Personality and
Handwriting,” _Revue philosophique_, vol. xxi. p. 414.
[13] C. Flammarion, _La Planète Mars et ses conditions d’habitabilité_,
p. 3. Paris, 1892.
[14] Compare the case of Mlle. Anna O. Brener et Frend, _Studien über
Hysterie_, p. 19. Vienna, 1895.
[15]
“Do not think that in loving you as a tender brother
I shall tell you all the profound mysteries of heaven;
I shall help you much, I shall open for you the way,
But it is for you to seize and seek with joy;
And when you shall see her released from here below,
When her mobile soul shall have taken flight
And shall soar over Mars with its brilliant tints;
If you would obtain from her some light,
Place your hand very gently on her pale forehead
And pronounce very softly the sweet name of Esenale!”
[16] Allusion to the seance of November 25, 1894, at M. Lemaître’s. See
p. 146.
[17] That is to say, he died on Mars, where he had been reincarnated.
[18] Allusion to seance of February 2, 1896. See p. 154.
[19] These are texts 16-20, 26, 28, 31, 34, 37-39. They are further
distinguished by an asterisk.
[20] A literal English translation of each text will be found
immediately beneath the French equivalents of the Martian words.
[21] If it is objected that the Martian lacks the essential character
of a language—that is to say, a practical sanction by use; by the fact
of its serving as a means of communication between living beings—I
will not answer, like Mlle. Smith, that after all we know nothing
about that, but will simply say that the social side of the question
does not concern us here. Even if Volapük and Esperanto are not used,
they are none the less languages, and the Martian has, in regard to
its artificial construction, the psychological superiority of being
a natural language, spontaneously created, without the conscious
participation, reflective or willing, of a normal personality.
[22] De Marlès’ _General History of India, Ancient and Modern, from the
Year 2000 B. C. to our Own Times._ Pp. 268-269. Paris, 1828.
[23] Robert Sewell. _Lists of Antiquarian Remains in the Presidency of
Madras._ Vol i. p. 238 (1882.) Citation by M. Barth. I have not been
able to consult this work.
[24] Buchanan. _A Journey from Madras through the Countries of Mysore,
Canara, and Malabar, etc._ 3 vols. 4to. London, 1807.
[25] James Rennell. _Description Historique et Géographique de
l’Indostan._ Translated from the English. Paris, an. VIII. (1800). 3
vols., 8vo and atlas 4to.
[26] Dow. _History of Hindustan._ Translated from the Persian of
Ferishta. London, 1803. M. Michel suggests Wilks’s _Historical Sketches
of the South of India_ (London, 1810) as having possibly served as
a source of information for De Marlès. If some learned reader may
discover any traces of Sivrouka antecedent to De Marlès, I shall be
under great obligation to him if he will communicate the information to
me.
[27] It will be readily understood that this vision represents Marie
Antoinette with her three children and Madame Elizabeth.
[28] I have respected the orthography as well as the complete absence
of punctuation of this bit of automatic writing, confining myself to
marking by vertical bars its evident separation into verses of eight
feet. It is written in the inclined and regular hand called that of
Marie Antoinette (like that of Fig. 40), but with a pencil too pale to
permit its reproduction.
[29] By this is meant the bringing or conveying of material objects
into a closed space—the passage of one solid body through another.
[30] A small oil-portrait of my mother.
End of Project Gutenberg's From India to the planet Mars, by Théodore Flournoy