Glimpses Of The Next State.Pdf - Spiritualists' National Union

172production. How, we do not know; we shall learn hereafter, if her life is spared; but at present itis pure nonsense to talk wildly about hysteria, for we have no hint of the secret yet.Among the incidents to which a number is attached, I attribute special importance to: (1),(3), (4), (5), (7), (8), (9), (18), (14), (84), (35), (36), (42), (45), (48), (49), (50), (54), (55), (58), (93) onthe mental side; and to (2), (16), (20), (23), (24), (29), (31), (33), (57), (59), (66), (68), (69), (70), (76),(79), (80), (81), (84), (91), (94), (95), (96), (99), (100), (101), (102), (104), (105), (106), (108), (110),(112), (113), (115) on the physical.For the sake of brevity I propose to consider only these fifty-six incidents. The samearguments which apply to them will determine the remaining fifty-nine.Before going further, I must explain that what I understand by the term “mind-reading” is thealleged reading of the conscious mind of the sitter by the conscious mind of the medium or psychic.The perception of what is in the mind of a sitter by a spirit is a common phenomenon, but itis supernormal, and a proof of the existence of discarnate intelligence. There is no evidencewhatever that the sub-conscious, or subliminal, mind of a sitter can be tapped by the consciousmind of a medium (out of trance). There is some evidence that the subliminal mind of a medium (intrance) can scrutinise the subliminal mind of a sitter; but this again is supernormal:it only means that two earth spirits can communicate just as a discarnate intelligence can communewith an earth intelligence.It is fairly well established that people who are thoroughly en rapport with one anothercommunicate occasionally by thought; also that people who know one another less intimately canexchange spasmodic messages, if preconcerted arrangements as to time are made. This so-calledtelepathy requires careful investigation. It is by no means certain that a third party is not involved,that a discarnate spirit does not intervene and carry the message from one to the other, as in thecase of Mrs. Georgia, Hudson, and myself. What I wish to make clear is that there is no sort ofreliable evidence to show that the subliminal mind of a visitor can be tapped by a medium out oftrance. I believe that what the visitor is thinking of at the time—his upper consciousness— may beoccasionally divined, in fragments, by a medium. The phenomenon is rare. I can only call to mindone case in my own experience, where I explained away an incident to myself by this theory. On theother hand, I have had hundreds of instances where my upper consciousness was full of reminiscencesreferring to certain people in spirit life, where the spirits had been named and welldescribed, yet not a word was transferred to me by the medium which indicated that the discarnateentities he or she saw had anything in common with myself. I have put questions, the answers towhich were, so to speak, on the tip of my tongue, and there were no satisfactory replies—in manycases wrong replies, in some none at all.Theories of mind-reading and telepathy, as explanations of what are, apparently,supernormal phenomena, are altogether overworked. Thomson Jay Hudson was the chief apostle ofthis sort of criticism. He has come back from that bourne, from which he thought, when in life, notraveller ever returned, to acknowledge his error through my pen.ANALYSIS OF MENTAL PHENOMENA.Incidents 1, 3, 4, 5 belong to the same group— clairvoyance — but the phenomena areexhibited through three mediums. The reader will observe that my mind could have had nothing todo with these cases. Inc. (1). When Dora Hahn picked out a certain photo, I was ignorant what shehad in her hand, and was expecting an altogether different picture. She not only brought theportrait to me with perfect confidence, but gave the relationship, returning to the table to pick upanother photo of the same earth spirit. I was 3,400 miles from my home, and entirely unknown tothe medium. If a discarnate intelligence who knew me, and my wife as a child, did not direct thatchoice, there is no such thing as spiritism.(3) Clairvoyance of Mrs. Conklin. As I was a perfect stranger to the medium, the correctanswers obtained are incomprehensible on any other hypothesis than that of the presence of thespirit. (4) In closing my eyes I took away from the medium any chance he may have had of mind ormuscle reading. I am aware that some investigators may attribute what occurred to these sources,and I should not attach the importance I do to this sitting if I had been able to see the card before