Stead, going out and acquiring desired knowledge relating to the location, occupation, and needs of persons from whom he desired such information, and bringing it back and reporting it by means of automatic writing.

Again, we have seen this subliminal self in the case of Mrs. Newnham, perceiving the silently written and sometimes even the unwritten questions of her husband, and automatically writing the answers by means of Planchette; and we have seen it producing hallucinations of hearing as in the case of Leonore causing Leontine to hear a voice reproving her for her flippancy.

A remarkable series of facts are here pointed out, facts some of which are akin to those which have for ages been lying about in the lumber rooms of history or in out-of-the-way corners of men's memories, neglected and discredited, because unexplained, unaccounted for, forming no part of any recognized system of mental action, and some only recently observed and even now looked at askance for the same reason. They have remained a ma.s.s of undigested and unarranged facts, without system, without any ascertained relation to each other, pointing to no definite principle, defined by no definite law. It is only within the past decade that these facts have been studied with reference to the action of a subliminal self.

But this new and startling idea being once admitted and brought to the front, it is found that not only in the whole series of observed automatic actions in the somnambulism of the hypnotic state, and that of ordinary sleep, are the organs of the unconscious body made use of by this subconscious or subliminal self, but also in dreams, in reverie, in moments of abstraction, of strong emotion or mental excitement, and even in the case of some peculiarly susceptible persons in the ordinary waking condition, this subliminal self can greatly influence and sometimes take entire control of the action of the body.

It will be seen then, how wide and important is the range of phenomena in which the subliminal self appears as an active agent, impressing its own special knowledge, however acquired, its ideas, pictures, and images upon the primary self, and causing them to be perceived, remembered, and expressed by it; and with this unusual power in view, evidently it is in this direction also that we must look for the key to that still more remarkable series of phenomena which are known as phantasms or apparitions.

CHAPTER XI.

PHANTASMS CONTINUED.

So far a single cla.s.s of cases has been brought forward in proof and ill.u.s.tration of our proposition, that _sensation may be produced telepathically_, namely, the voluntary cla.s.s; as for instance, when it has been resolved beforehand and strongly desired and willed that a representation or apparition of one's self should be seen and recognized by another person at a specified time and place, and it has been so recognized. This cla.s.s contains fewer recorded cases, but, on the other hand, they are specially valuable, because the element of error arising from chance coincidence is almost entirely excluded. In addition to these voluntary or prearranged cases there is, however, another and much larger cla.s.s of cases which occur spontaneously, unthought of, and unexpected by the percipient as well as by the agent.

Pa.s.sing over cases of an indefinite or undefined sense of danger or peril--or of a "presence"--we will proceed to notice some well authenticated cases of spontaneous impressions of a definite character made upon the senses, and especially upon the sense of sight. This definite impression may be made upon the senses of the percipient in dreams--especially those of a veridical character, where there is a definite reality corresponding in time and circ.u.mstances.

It may also be made when the percipient is in a condition of reverie, between sleeping and waking, and even when wide awake and in a perfectly normal condition.

This definite impression of seeing or hearing may be made upon a single percipient, or it may be perceived by several persons at once.

The following may serve as examples of _veridical dreams_. They were carefully examined by the editors of _Phantasms of the Living_, and especially by Mr. Gurney. Only initials in the first case were given for publication.

"In the year 1857, I had a brother in the very centre of the Indian Mutiny. I had been ill in the spring and taken from my lessons in the school-room, consequently, I heard more of what was going on from the newspapers than a girl of thirteen ordinarily would in those days. We were in the habit of hearing regularly from my brother, but in June and July of that year no letters came, and what arrived in August proved to have been written quite early in the spring, and were full of disturbances around his station.

"He was in the service of the East India Company--an officer in the 8th Native Infantry. I was always devoted to him, and I grieved and fretted far more than any of my elders knew at his danger. I cannot say that I dreamt constantly of him, but when I did the impressions were very vivid and abiding.

"On one occasion his personal appearance was being discussed and I remarked, 'He is not like that now, he has no beard nor whiskers;' and when asked why I said such a thing, I replied, 'I know it, for I have seen him in my dreams;' and this brought a severe reprimand from my governess, who never allowed 'such nonsense' to be talked of.

"On the morning of the 25th of September, quite early, I awoke from a dream, to find my sister holding me and much alarmed. I had screamed and struggled, crying out, 'Is he really dead?' When I fully awoke, I felt a burning sensation in my head. I could not speak for a moment or two; I knew my sister was there, but I neither saw nor felt her.

"In about a minute, during which she said my eyes were staring beyond her, I ceased struggling cried out, 'Harry's dead, they have shot him,' and fainted. When I recovered I found my sister had been sent away, and an aunt who had always looked after me, was sitting by my bed.

"In order to soothe my excitement, she allowed me to tell my dream, trying all the time to persuade me to regard it as a natural consequence of my anxiety.

"When, in my narration, I said he was riding with another officer and mounted soldiers behind them, she exclaimed 'My dear, that shows you it is only a dream, for your brother is in an _infantry_, not a cavalry, regiment.'

"Nothing, however, shook my feeling that I had seen a reality; and she was so much struck by my persistence that she privately made notes of the dates and of the incidents, even to the minutest details of my dream, and then for a few days the matter dropped, but I felt the truth was coming nearer and nearer to all. In a short time the news came in the papers:--'Shot down on the morning of the 25th, when on his way to Lucknow.' A few days later came one of his missing letters, telling how his own regiment had mutinied, and that he had been transferred to a command in the 12th Irregular Cavalry, bound to join Havelock's force in the relief of Lucknow.

"Some eight years after, the officer who was riding by him when he fell, Captain or Major Grant, visited us and when, in compliance with my aunt's request, he detailed the incidents of that sad hour, his narration tallied (even to the description of buildings on their left) with the notes she had taken the morning of my dream. I should also add that we heard my brother had made the alteration in his beard and whiskers, just about the time that I had spoken of him as wearing them differently."

"L. A. W."

The next case which I will present is from Dr. A. K. Young, F. R. C. S.

I., of the Terrace, Monaghan, Ireland.

One Monday night, in December, 1836, Dr. Young had the following dream, or, as he would prefer to call it, revelation. He found himself suddenly at the gate of Major N. M.'s avenue, many miles from his home. Close to him was a group of persons, one of them a woman with a basket on her arm, the rest men, four of whom were tenants of his own, while the others were unknown to him. Some of the strangers seemed to be murderously a.s.saulting H. W., one of his tenants, and he interfered. He goes on to say:

"I struck violently at the man on my left and then with greater violence at the man's face to my right. Finding to my surprise that I did not knock him down either, I struck again and again with all the violence of a man frenzied at the sight of my poor friend's murder. To my great amazement I saw that my arms, although visible to my eye, were without substance; and the bodies of the men I struck at and my own came close together after each blow through the shadowy arms I struck with. My blows were delivered with more extreme violence than I ever before exerted; but I became painfully convinced of my incompetency. I have no consciousness of what happened after this feeling of unsubstantiality came upon me."

Next morning, Dr. Young experienced the stiffness and soreness of violent bodily exercise and was informed by his wife that in the course of the night he had much alarmed her by striking out again and again with his arms in a terrific manner, "as if fighting for his life." He in turn informed her of his dream and begged her to remember the names of the actors in it who were known to him.

On the morning of the following day, Wednesday, he received a letter from his agent, who resided in the town close to the scene of his dream, informing him that his tenant, H. W., had been found on Tuesday morning at Major N. M.'s gate speechless and apparently dying from a fracture of the skull, and that there was no trace of the murderers. That night Dr. Young started for the town and arrived there on Thursday morning. On his way to a meeting of the magistrates he met the senior magistrate of that part of the country and requested him to give orders for the arrest of the three men whom, besides H. W., he had recognized in his dream, and to have them examined separately. This was done. The three men gave identical accounts of the occurrence, and all named the woman who was with them. She was then arrested and gave precisely similar testimony.

They said that between eleven and twelve on Monday night they had been walking homeward, all together along the road, when they were overtaken by three strangers, two of whom savagely a.s.saulted H. W., while the other prevented his friends from interfering. The man H. W. did not die, and no clue was ever found to the a.s.sa.s.sins.

The Bishop of Clogher writes confirmatory of Dr. Young's account.

"Borderland cases" are those in which the percipient, though seeming to himself to be awake, may be in bed, has perhaps been asleep, and is in that condition between sleeping and waking known as reverie and which we have seen is favorable for the action of the subliminal self, either as agent or percipient.

Pa.s.sing, then, from dreams to "Borderland cases," the first example under this head which I will present is from Mrs. Richardson, of Combe Down, Bath, England.

She writes:--

"August 26th, 1882.

"On September 9th, 1848, at the Siege of Mooltan, my husband, Major-General Richardson, C. B., then adjutant of his regiment, was most severely wounded, and supposing himself dying, asked one of the officers with him to take the ring off his finger and send it to his wife, who at that time was fully one hundred and fifty miles distant, at Ferozepore. On the night of September 9th, 1848, I was lying in my bed between sleeping and waking, when I distinctly saw my husband being carried off the field seriously wounded, and heard his voice saying, 'Take this ring off my finger and send it to my wife.'

"All the next day I could not get the sight nor the voice out of my mind. In due time I heard of Gen. Richardson having been severely wounded in the a.s.sault on Mooltan. He survived, however, and is still living. It was not for some time after the siege that I heard from Colonel L., the officer who helped to carry Gen. Richardson off the field, that the request as to the ring was actually made to him, just as I had heard it at Ferozepore at that very time.

"M. A. RICHARDSON."

The following questions were addressed to Gen. Richardson.

1. "Does Gen. Richardson remember saying, when he was wounded at Mooltan, 'Take this ring off my finger and send it to my wife,' or words to that effect?"

Ans. "Most distinctly; I made the request to my commanding officer, Major E. S. Lloyd, who was supporting me while my man was gone for a.s.sistance."

2. "Can you remember the _time_ of the incident?"

Ans. "So far as my memory serves me, I was wounded about nine P. M., on Sunday, the 9th September, 1848."

3. "Had Gen. Richardson, before he left home, promised or said anything to Mrs. R. as to sending his ring to her in case he should be wounded?"

Ans. "To the best of my recollection, never. Nor had I any kind of presentiment on the subject. I naturally felt that with such a fire as we were exposed to, I might get hurt."

The next case is from Miss Hosmer, the celebrated sculptor. It was written out by Miss Balfour, from the account given by Lydia Maria Child, and corrected by Miss Hosmer, July 15th, 1885.

"An Italian girl named Rosa was in my employ for some time, but was finally obliged to return home to her sister on account of confirmed ill-health. When I took my customary exercise on horseback, I frequently called to see her. On one of these occasions I called about six o'clock P.

M., and found her brighter than I had seen her for some time past. I had long relinquished hopes of her recovery, but there was nothing in her appearance that gave me the impression of immediate danger. I left her with the expectation of calling to see her again many times. She expressed a wish to have a bottle of a certain kind of wine, which I promised to bring her myself next morning.

"During the remainder of the evening I do not recollect that Rosa was in my thoughts after I parted with her. I retired to rest in good health and in a quiet frame of mind. But I woke from a sound sleep with an oppressive feeling that some one was in the room.

"I reflected that no one could get in except my maid, who had the key to one of the two doors of my room--both of which doors were locked. I was able dimly to distinguish the furniture in the room. My bed was in the middle of the room with a screen around the foot of it. Thinking some one might be behind the screen I said, 'Who's there?' but got no answer. Just then the clock in the adjacent room struck five; and at that moment I saw the figure of Rosa standing by my bedside; and in some way, though I could not venture to say it was through the medium of speech, the impression was conveyed to me from her of these words: 'Adesso son felice, son contenta.'

And with that the figure vanished.