[Ill.u.s.tration]
Leaving Mrs. R."s diary, the following is the account Mr. Wedgwood wrote of the seance at the time:--
"JUNE 26, 1889.--Had a sitting at Planchette with Mrs. R. this morning.
Planchette said there was a spirit there who thought it could draw if we wished it. We said we should be glad if he would try. Accordingly Planchette made a rude attempt at a hand and arm proceeding from an embattled wall and holding a sword. A second attempt made the subject clearer. Planchette said it was meant for a test. The spirit signed it "J.
G." No connection of ours, he said. We gradually elicited that his name was John Gurwood, who was wounded in the Peninsula in 1810, and killed himself on Christmas Day, 1845. It was not the wound but the pen that did it.
"JULY 5, 1889.--I made the foregoing memorandum the same day, having very little expectation that there would be any verification.
"H. WEDGWOOD."
Quoting again from Mrs. R."s journal: "Friday, Sept. 27.--Mr. Wedgwood came, and we had two sittings--in the afternoon and evening. I think the same spirit wrote throughout, beginning without signature, but when asked the name, writing John Gurwood. The effort, at first incoherent, developed afterward into the following sentences: "Sword--when I broke in, on the table with plan of fortress--belonged to my prisoner--I will tell you his name to-night. It was on the table when I broke in. He did not expect me.
I took him unawares. He was in his room, looking at a plan, and the sword was on the table. Will try and let you know how I took the sword to-night."
"In the evening, after dinner: "I fought my way in. His name was Banier--Banier--Banier. The sword was lying on a table by a written scheme of defence. Oh, my head! Banier had a plan written out for defence of the fortress. It was lying on the table, and his sword was by it.... Look! I have tried to tell you what you can verify.""
Mr. Wedgwood reports his verification as follows:--
"When I came to verify the messages of Planchette, I speedily found that Col. Gurwood, the editor of the duke"s dispatches, led the forlorn hope at the storming of Ciudad Rodrigo in 1812 (note Planchette"s error in date), and received a wound in his skull from a musket-ball, "which affected him for the remainder of his life," (_Annual Register_, 1845). In recognition of the bravery shown on that occasion, he received a grant of arms in 1812, registered in the College of Arms as having been pa.s.sed "upon the narrative that he (Capt. G.) had led the forlorn hope at Ciudad Rodrigo, and that after the storming of the fortress the Duke of Wellington presented him with the sword of the governor who had been taken prisoner by Capt. Gurwood.""
The services thus specified were symbolized in the crest, described in the "Book of Family Crests": "Out of a mural coronet, a castle ruined in the centre, and therefrom an arm in armor embowed, holding a cimeter."
It was evidently this crest that Planchette was trying to sketch. The _Annual Register_ of 1845 also confirms Planchette"s a.s.sertion that Col.
Gurwood killed himself on Christmas Day of that year, and adds: "It is thought that this laborious undertaking (editing the dispatches) produced a relaxation of the nervous system and consequent depression of spirits.
In a fit of despondency the unfortunate gentleman terminated his life."
Compare Planchette: "Pen was too much for me after the wound."
Here are described four instances of automatic writing by means of Planchette. Two of these cases were reported to Mr. Myers, who has thoroughly canva.s.sed them as regards their authenticity, as well as the ability and good faith of the persons concerned, both in the writing and reporting; and he has made use of them in his own able argument upon the same subject.
In the other cases the messages were written under my own observation, my own hands also being upon the board. In the case of Mr. and Mrs. Newnham the intelligence which furnished the messages disclaimed altogether the aid of any spirit except "wife"s spirit," which did "unconsciously guide."
In the case reported by Mr. Wedgwood and Mrs. R., the intelligence distinctly claimed to be from Col. John Gurwood, who had died nearly fifty years before. In my own cases, in that written with the co-operation of my friend"s school-girl daughter, the intelligence claimed to be that of Peter Stuyvesant, while in those written with Miss V., various names were given, none of which was recognized as belonging to a person of whom we had ever had any knowledge, and all bore abundant evidence of being fict.i.tious. One, indeed, professed to be "Beecher," and declined to give an opinion on the prospective trotting qualities of a colt, on the ground that he was "no horseman"; and in our later experiments, when closely questioned, it distinctly stated that the intelligence came from the mind of Miss V. herself.
Let us a.n.a.lyze these messages a little further. Those written by Mr. and Mrs. Newnham were remarkable, not only because Mrs. Newnham was writing without any conscious knowledge of what was being written, but neither had she any conscious knowledge of the questions to which she was writing the answers. Evidently, then, her own ordinary consciousness was not acting at all in the matter regarding either the questions or answers, for she was fully awake, in her normal condition, and perfectly competent to judge of her own mental state and actions. Nevertheless, there was some intelligence acting reasonably and consciously, and making use of her hand to register its thoughts.
In a former chapter I have described and ill.u.s.trated a somewhat unusual mental phenomenon, to which the name thought-transference, or telepathy, has been given; and in another I have endeavored to demonstrate the existence of a secondary or subliminal self or personality.
If I mistake not, it is here, in these two comparatively little known and, until recently, little studied, psychical conditions, that we shall find the key to message-bearing automatism, as well as other manifestations of intelligence which have heretofore been considered mysterious and occult.
Applying this key to the Newnham Planchette-writing, the secondary personality or subliminal self of Mrs. Newnham took immediate cognizance of the questions silently and secretly written out by her husband, although they were utterly unknown to her ordinary or primary self, and made use of her hands to communicate the answer.
The answer, also, was of course unknown to her primary self, but her subliminal self, in addition to its own private and constant stock of knowledge and opinions, had the advantage of more subtle means of securing other knowledge necessary for a proper answer, and so sought it in her husband"s mind, or wherever it could be obtained. The sources of information accessible to the subliminal self, through means a.n.a.logous to those which have been named--thought-transference and telepathy--are certainly various, and their limit is not yet known. We may mention, however, in this connection, besides the mind of the automatic writer--the mind of the questioner, and also the minds of other persons present, in any or all of which may be stored up knowledge or impressions of which the ordinary consciousness or memory retains no trace; it may be a scene witnessed in childhood; a newspaper paragraph read many years ago; a casual remark overheard, but not even noticed--all these and many more are sources of information upon which the subliminal self may draw for answers, which, when written out by the automatist, seem absolutely marvellous, not to say miraculous or supernatural.
Thus, the prayer at the ceremony of the advancement of a Mark Master Mason, although language entirely unfamiliar to Mrs. Newnham, was perfectly familiar to her husband, who was himself a Mason, and, I believe, a chaplain in the order; and while the form was not one actually used, it contained strictly accurate technicalities, and would have been perfectly appropriate to such an occasion.
The messages written by Mr. Wedgwood and Mrs. R. profess to come directly from the spirit of Colonel Gurwood; but without absolutely discarding that theory, having the key to which I have referred, let us see if such a supposition is necessary to explain the facts.
It may be conceded at once that neither Mr. Wedgwood nor either of the ladies with whom he wrote had any conscious knowledge of Col. Gurwood--his military career, or his sad taking off; but they were all intelligent people. John Gurwood, as it turned out, was a noted man; he was an officer in the Peninsular War, under the Duke of Wellington, performed an act of special bravery and daring, in the performance of which he was severely wounded, and for which he was afterward granted a coat of arms. He was also afterward chosen to edit the duke"s dispatches. All this was recorded in the _Annual Register_ for 1845, soon after Gurwood"s death, together with a description in the language of heraldry of the crest or coat of arms which had been granted him many years before.
It is scarcely possible that such an event would not have been noticed in the newspapers at the time of Gurwood"s death, and nothing is more probable than that some of these intelligent persons had read these accounts, or as children heard them read or referred to, though they may now have been entirely absent from their ordinary consciousness and memory. At all events, the subliminal self or secondary consciousness of Mrs. R., whom Planchette designates as "the medium," or of Mr. Wedgwood, may have come into relationship with the sources of information necessary to furnish the messages which it communicated, and these sources may have been the knowledge or impressions unconsciously received many years before by some of those present, the generally diffused knowledge of these facts which doubtless prevailed in the community at the time of Gurwood"s death, and the full printed accounts of these events, many copies of which were extant.
From the description of Gurwood"s coat of arms the idea could easily have been obtained which Planchette rudely represented in drawing, const.i.tuting what is called a test, and also the other knowledge concerning his military career and death which appeared in the various messages.
Regarding cases coming under my own observation, the incident relating to Peter Stuyvesant"s pear tree was well known to us both, and had only recently been a matter of general conversation, and all of those present had a more or less distinct idea of Peter Stuyvesant himself, derived from Irving"s "Knickerbocker"s History of New York."
Of the cases observed with Miss V., as before stated, nearly all the names given of "authorities," as we called them, were evidently fict.i.tious, scarcely one being recognized, and none were of persons with whom we had any connection, and some did not claim any other origin than our subliminal consciousness, as was also the case with messages written by Mrs. Newnham.
If, then, some of the messages are surely the work of the subliminal self of the writer, aided by its more acute and more far-reaching perceptions, and if nearly all may be accounted for in the same way, the probability that all such messages have the same origin is greatly increased, and in the same degree the necessity for the spiritualistic theory is diminished, since it is evident that of two theories for explaining a new fact we should accept that one which better harmonizes with facts already established.
CHAPTER VIII.
AUTOMATIC WRITING, DRAWING AND PAINTING.
The subject of Automatism has thus far been ill.u.s.trated by reference to Planchette-writing alone. It was selected because it is the kind most frequently seen and most easily proved by experiment. The little instrument Planchette, however, is not essential; it is used because, being placed on casters, it is more easily moved.
The Chinese, long ago, used for the same purpose a little basket, with style attached, placed upon two even chopsticks.
The same results also occur with some persons when the pencil is simply held in the usual manner for writing. The hand then being allowed to remain perfectly pa.s.sive, automatic movements first take place--the hand moving round and round or across the paper, and then follows writing or drawing, as the case may be. Some persons produce written messages in _mirror writing_--that is, reversed--or so written that it can only be easily read by causing it to be reflected in a mirror. This kind of writing is sometimes produced on the first attempt of the experimenter, and even by young children without any experience or knowledge of the subject.
As previously shown, different strata of consciousness may, and in some well observed cases, most certainly do, exist in the same individual. In these well observed cases, each separate consciousness had its own distinct chain of memories and its own characteristics and peculiarities; and these distinct chains of memories and well defined characteristics const.i.tute, so far as we can judge, distinct personalities. At all events, they are centres of intelligence and mental activity which are altogether independent of the ordinary, everyday consciousness or personality, and often altogether superior to it. Accordingly this other centre of intelligence and mental activity has been named the _second personality or subliminal self_; that is, a consciousness or self or personality beneath the threshold, so to speak, of the ordinary or primary self.
Ansel Bourne and A. J. Brown were separate and distinct personalities, having entirely distinct, and apparently unrelated, chains of memory, distinct characteristics, opinions, and peculiarities, acting at different times through the same body.
Ansel Bourne was the usual or primary personality; A. J. Brown was a second personality, a separate focus of intelligence and mental activity, a subliminal self. What the exact relationship existing between these two personalities may be we do not attempt at present to explain; but that they exist and act independent of each other we know. In other instances, as, for example, that of Madame B., the hypnotic subject of Prof. Janet of Havre, and also that of Alma Z., we have been able to observe these separate centres of intelligence, these distinct personalities, both in action at the same time, upon altogether separate and unrelated subjects.
Sometimes the subliminal self takes full control, making itself the active ruling personality to the entire exclusion of the primary self; and sometimes it only sends messages to the primary or ordinary self, by suggestion, mental pictures, or vivid impressions made upon the organs of sense and producing the sensation of seeing, hearing, or touch.
To ill.u.s.trate these different methods of communication between the ordinary and subliminal self, suppose an individual, whom we will designate as X., manifests this peculiar condition of double consciousness. As we have seen, the subliminal self often takes cognizance of things concerning which the ordinary self is entirely ignorant, but it may not always have the power to impress the primary self with this knowledge, nor to take full possession, so as to be able to impart it to others by speaking or writing. This is the usual condition of most persons; with some peculiarly const.i.tuted persons, however, the possibility of being so impressed surely exists, and with them these impressions are direct and vivid.
Our individual, X., is one in whom this ability to receive impressions in this manner exists.
To ill.u.s.trate: Suppose first that X. is asleep, is taking his after-dinner nap, and that children playing in his grounds have set fire to some straw in close proximity to buildings near by. No one notices the danger. X. is asleep, but his subliminal self is on the alert--like the second self of the somnambulist or subject in the hypnotic trance--it sees that unless checked there will be a destructive conflagration. It impresses upon X. a dream of fire so vivid that he wakes in alarm, discovers the mischief and averts the danger. Or suppose X. to be awake and sitting in his office in a distant part of the house, quite unconscious of anything unusual. All at once he becomes restless, unable to pursue his work; he is impelled to leave his desk, to go out, to walk in the direction of the fire, and thus become aware of the danger. Or again, that X. is an automatic writer--that paper and pencil are at hand and he receives a sudden impulse to write. He has no knowledge of what he is writing, but upon examination he finds it a warning to look after the threatening fire; or still again, that he hears a voice distinctly saying, "Look out for fire;" or sees a distinct picture of the place and circ.u.mstances of the fire; all these are possible methods by which the subliminal self might communicate to X., the ordinary personality, the danger which was threatening.
Automatism, therefore, does not necessarily take the form of written messages, but may take any form by which the subliminal self can best transmit its message to the primary self--or in the same way from one person to another, whether by words written or spoken automatically--by voices heard, by action influenced, as when X. is influenced to leave his office and walk, or the mischievous Leontine unties the ap.r.o.n of Leonie, or by vision or vivid mental picture, as when Peter sees a "sheet let down by the four corners," from which he learns an important lesson.
The messages received automatically may not all be true; they may be trivial and even false; on the other hand, they may not only be true and important but they may convey information quite out of the power of the primary self to acquire by any ordinary use of the senses. Nor need we be greatly surprised at this; it is a normal function of the subliminal self; with some persons that function is active, with others it is dormant, but in all, at some moment in life, circ.u.mstances may arise which shall awaken that function into activity.
A remarkable example of messages received by automatic writing is that furnished by Mr. W. T. Stead, occurring in his own experience. Mr. Stead is a well-known author, journalist, and the editor of the London edition of the _Review of Reviews_, in which magazine his experiences have, on various occasions, been published.
As he regards the matter, there is an _invisible intelligence_ which controls his hand, but the persons with whom he is in communication are alive and visible--for instance his own son on various occasions, also persons in his employ, writers upon his magazine, casual acquaintances, and even strangers.
None of these persons partic.i.p.ate in any active or conscious way in the communications. Mr. F. W. H. Myers has often conversed with Mr. Stead and with several of his involuntary correspondents in relation to the phenomena, and the facts are so simple and open, and the persons connected with them so intelligent and evidently sincere and truthful, that no doubt can be entertained as to the reality of the incidents, however they may be interpreted.
One of the most remarkable of these involuntary correspondents is known as Miss A., a lady employed by him in literary work of an important character. She testifies in regard to the matter: "I, the subject of Mr.
Stead"s automatic writing, known as "A.," testify to the correctness of the statements made in this report. I would like to add what I think more wonderful than many things Mr. Stead has cited, namely, the correctness with which, on several occasions, he has given the names of persons whom he has never seen nor heard of before. I remember on one occasion a person calling upon me with a very uncommon name. The next day I saw Mr. Stead and he read to me what his hand had written of the visit of that person, giving the name absolutely correctly. Mr. Stead has never seen that person, and until then had no knowledge of his existence."
The following is a description of a journey made by Miss A., automatically written by Mr. Stead, he at the time not having the slightest knowledge where she was, what she was doing, or that she intended making any such journey. The slight inaccuracies are noted:--