Metapsychical Phenomena: Methods and ObservationsMaxwell, J. (Joseph)
Philosophy
Metapsychical Phenomena: Methods and Observations
Maxwell, J. (Joseph)
Parapsychology -- Investigation
_B._ Visions of past and forgotten facts present a different
appearance. The following is an example:—The sensitive, in the course
of conversation, was asked to sing one of Delmet’s songs. He could not
remember two lines of one of the verses, and was obliged to pass them
over. I had the curiosity to improvise an experiment, and I begged the
sensitive to look into a crystal. The forgotten lines were read by him
in the crystal. Facts of this nature—and they are very numerous in
technical literature—can be explained by the action of the impersonal
or subliminal consciousness. The souvenir forgotten by the personal
consciousness exists in the general consciousness, which has need
of scenic effects in order to transmit its message to the personal
consciousness; hence we have sensorial, automatic, visual activity,
and the reading of the forgotten words, which appear printed in the
crystal. I will not dwell upon facts of this kind; they are so well
known.
_C._ The third category of visions comprises the perception of past
events, which the medium affirms never to have known. It is evident
that these facts can, in the greater number of cases, come under the
preceding category, and be but forgotten souvenirs. But I have reason
to think it is not always so, and that a certain number of cases
exists, in which knowledge of the past appears to be acquired in a
supernormal manner. This is only an impression, which I draw from the
reality of certain premonitory facts observed by me.
As an example of the facts I am describing at present, I will cite the
following:—
A sensitive one day looked into the crystal; he suddenly saw the words
‘Salon de 1885,’ and a series of pictures, announced by their titles,
passed before his eyes. The pictures, thus seen by him, had really been
exhibited in the salon of 1885. In 1885 the sensitive was too young, to
have had any personal knowledge of the salon of that year; but nothing
is easier than to read descriptions of past salons, or to procure
reproductions of the pictures exhibited there. The sensitive, whose
good faith is above suspicion, affirms having no conscious souvenir
of a like reading. He believes he has never seen or read anything
concerning the salon of 1885, but he confines himself to affirming the
non-existence of a conscious souvenir. It is, nevertheless, possible,
as he acknowledges, that he may have glanced over a former catalogue or
criticism without remembering it.
Facts of this kind are never convincing, for it is very difficult to
know exactly, if the sensitive has ever had knowledge of the fact,
which emerges in the vision. I cite the above case, as an example only,
without pronouncing an opinion on its signification.
_D._ I have had no occasion of observing induced hallucinations
representing a scene actually happening; at least, I have never been
able to verify any in a satisfactory manner.
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