Collected Papers on Analytical PsychologyJung, C. G. (Carl Gustav)
Science
Collected Papers on Analytical Psychology
Jung, C. G. (Carl Gustav)
Psychoanalysis
IV. After S. W. had entered into the somnambulic state she began to make
curious movements with her lips, and made swallowing gurgling noises.
Then she whispered very softly and unintelligibly. When this had lasted
some minutes she suddenly began to speak in an altered deep voice. She
spoke of herself in the third person. "She is not here, she has gone
away." There followed several communications of a religious kind. From
the content and the way of speaking it was easy to conclude that she
was imitating her grandfather, who had been a clergyman. The content of
the talk did not rise above the mental level of the "communications."
The tone of the voice was somewhat forced, and only became natural when,
in the course of the talk, the voice approximated to the medium's own.
(In later sittings the voice was only altered for a few moments when a
new spirit manifested itself.)
Afterwards there was amnesia for the trance-conversation. She gave hints
about a sojourn in the other world, and she spoke of an undreamed-of
blessedness which she felt. It must be further noted that her
conversation in the attack occurred quite spontaneously, and was not in
response to any suggestions.
Directly after this séance S. W. became acquainted with the book of
Justinus Kerner, "Die Seherin von Prevorst." She began thereupon to
magnetise herself towards the end of the attack, partly by means of
regular passes, partly by curious circles and figures of eight, which
she described symmetrically with both arms. She did this, she said,
to disperse the severe headaches which occurred after the attacks. In
the August séances, not detailed here, there were in addition to the
grandfather numerous spirits of other relatives who did not produce
anything very remarkable. Each time when a new one came on the scene the
movement of the glass was changed in a striking way; it generally ran
along the rows of letters, touching one or other of them, but no sense
could be made of it. The orthography was very uncertain and arbitrary,
and the first sentences were frequently incomprehensible or broken
up into a meaningless medley of letters. Generally automatic writing
suddenly began at this point. Sometimes automatic writing was attempted
during complete darkness. The movements began with violent backward
jerks of the whole arm, so that the paper was pierced by the pencil. The
first attempt at writing consisted of numerous strokes and zigzag lines
about 8 cm. high. In later attempts there came first unreadable words,
in large handwriting, which gradually became smaller and clearer. It
was not essentially different from the medium's own. The grandfather was
again the controlling spirit.
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