Adventurings in the PsychicalBruce, H. Addington (Henry Addington)
Science
Adventurings in the Psychical
Bruce, H. Addington (Henry Addington)
Parapsychology
"As B, I felt no emotion, except that of pleasure, using the word
pleasure as meaning a 'good time'--social gayety, driving, motoring,
walking, boating, etc.; but my enjoyment of these things was very keen.
As B, I was always the gayest of the company, but for people I cared
nothing. The little acts of affection which we all perform in daily home
life I never thought of. The habit of shaking hands with one's friends,
kissing or embracing those nearer and dearer, had no meaning to me.
Ordinarily, I think, when one shakes hands with a friend, one feels the
individuality of the person, more or less, and the clasp of hands means
something; but, as B, it meant no more to me than clasping a piece of
wood, and the acts of shaking hands, embracing, or kissing were all
alike--it made no difference to me which I did--one meant just as much
as the other. This lack of feeling applied only to people, for I loved
the outside world; the trees, the water, the sky, and the wind seemed to
be a very part of myself. But the emotions by which as A I was torn to
shreds, as B I did not feel at all."
In still further contrast, this most remarkable young woman, when in the
B state, was giddy, irresponsible, and frivolous. In the A state, she
was most serious-minded and intellectual, being fond of reading such
excellent literature as the works of Shakespeare, Hugo, Ibsen, Tolstoi,
and Maeterlinck. All this, B found very tiresome, and cared only for the
lightest kind of fiction, when she read at all.
In matters of dress and social pleasures, A and B were also
diametrically opposed. A believed that she ought to wear black; B, who
seems never to have given a thought to the dead husband, detested black,
and, on the other hand, had a really abnormal liking for white. So that,
as the two selves alternated in control, the strange spectacle was
presented of the same woman at one moment arrayed in deep mourning, at
another dressed in some light, bright gown.
To cap the climax, B took a malicious pleasure in tormenting her other
self in many ways. She made engagements which she knew that, as A, she
would not like to keep; she cultivated friendships with people with
whom, as A, she had little desire to associate; she was wastefully
extravagant, freely spending on useless articles money which, as A,
she had been carefully hoarding against a rainy day; she indulged in
innumerable petty, but annoying, practical jokes at A's expense.
For example: A would often wake in the morning to find on her pillow or
dressing-table notes advising her jeeringly to "cheer up," to "weep
no more," and not to "bother Doctor Prince so much." These notes she
herself had written during the night, having changed to the B state
while she slept, awakened as B, risen, and penned the notes, and then
returned to bed, to fall asleep once more, and, in the morning, awake as
A, with no memory of what she had done since retiring.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account