The Text - Section 2
BOOKLET I
BU Booklets 1-7
PRIMARY TRUTHS
What are primary truths? According to Mr. Stewart, "They are such and such
only, as can neither be proved nor refuted by other propositions of greater
perspicuity. They are self-evident-not borrowing the powers of reasoning to shed
light upon themselves."
We are naturally inclined to consider the reality of our personal existence. That
we exist is the great basis upon which we build everything. It is the foundation of
all knowledge. Without self-existence nothing could result in the progress of the
understanding. If any man questions the fact of his own existence, that very
process, by which he doubts, proves to a demonstration, that an existing,
doubting power must have been precedent, must have had a creation. The first
internal thought is immediately followed with an undoubting conviction of
personal self-existence. It is a primary truth in nature, and requires no further
explanation.
PERSONAL IDENTITY
Another primary truth is personal identity. This is the knowledge of ourselves.
The identifying of ourselves with our self-existence. We know that we exist, and
in that existence we recognize our personality. Man is composed of matter and
mind, by some mysterious combination united; and we may divide our identity
into mental and bodily.
Mental identity is the continuance and oneness of the thinking and reasoning
principle. It is not divisible in length, breadth and dimensions composed of
particles etc. like matter, nor does it change or cease to exist. It remains as it was
originally with all its eternal powers-its eternal principles.
Bodily identity is the sameness of the bodily organization-the man in figure, as
we behold him with our natural eyes. The particles of matter of which the body is
composed may change; but its shape and structure and its physical creation are
the same.
Professor Upham, in his work on Intellectual Philosophy in reference to this
subject, uses the following language. "It was a saying of Seneca, that no man
bathes twice in the same river; and still we call it the same, although the water
within its banks is constantly passing away. And in like manner we identify the
human body, although it constantly changes."
Personal identity, then, comprehends the man as we behold him, in his bodily
and mental nature, mysteriously and wonderfully made!
The old soldier, who has fought the battles of his country in the days of the
American Revolution, will recount his deeds of valor and his heroic sufferings to
his youthful listeners, not doubting, that he is really the same old soldier, who
was in his country's service some sixty years since. The early settlers of our
country, as they look abroad over the cultivated plain, never doubt, that they are
really the same individuals, who some forty years felled the trees of the forest
and turned the wilderness into a fruitful garden!
So is man constituted, that his own identity is one of the first primary truths.
We are so constituted that we believe, or rather there seems to be an
authoritative principle within us of giving confidence or credence to certain
propositions and truths, which are presented to our minds. Among the first things
which the mind admits is that there is no beginning or change without a cause,
that nothing could not create something. When any new principle is discovered,
man immediately seeks out the cause, looks for some moving power, as though
it could not be self-creative and self-acting.
In contemplating the material universe, in beholding the beautiful planetary
system, the sun, the moon and the stars regulated and controlled by undeviating
laws, who does not say, these are the results of some mighty creative
intelligence! That the power of their existences and harmonious motions was
originated beyond themselves. Thus it is that we attribute to every effect a cause-
to every result a motive power.
Matter and mind have uniform, undeviating and fixed laws. And they are always
subject to and controlled by them. We are not to suppose otherwise, unless we
give up our belief that any object is governed or directed. Yet we are not to
suppose that the same laws apply both to matter and mind. Each has its peculiar
governing principle, and in as much as mind, in its nature, deviates from matter,
so may its laws deviate.
We all believe that the earth will continue to revolve on its axis and perform its
annual orbit around the sun, that summer and winter, seed-time and harvest will
continue to succeed each other, "that the decaying plants of autumn will revive
again in spring."
This belief does not arise in the mind at once; but has its origin now in one
instance and then in another, until it becomes universal.
IMMATERIALITY OF THE SOUL
It is a conceded principle, that mind does not possess, or rather, we fail to detect
the same qualities in mind as in matter. No sect of philosophers, I believe, have
ever pretended that mind is distinguished by extension, divisibility,
impenetrability, color etc., and therefore most have agreed to use immateriality
as applied to the soul, in distinction from materiality as applied to the body, that
the soul is destitute of those qualities which appear in matter, having its own
peculiar attributes, such as thought, feeling, remembrance and passion.
The mind as it exists in man and develops itself through the bodily organs, no
doubt, has a close connection with matter, the physical system and particularly
the brain. Yet we are not to suppose that mind is dependent for its existence
upon the organs of the body, nor is it subject to the control of matter, although
influenced and impressed by it. Mind rather exercises a direction to matter,
producing certain results. If mind was any portion of the materiality of the body, a
destruction of any portion of this would destroy a portion of that. But this is not
the fact. Individuals, deprived of some of their limbs, do not exhibit any degree of
loss of mind. How often has it appeared far more active and energetic, in the last
moments of dissolving nature, than when the physical powers were in full health
and vigor. Men, upon the battlefield, mutilated and wounded and suffering the
intensest pain, have displayed, amid all this disaster of the body, the highest
powers of intellectual action. So that, although mind to us appears at first view to
have an inseparable connection with the body, yet, for its energies, its full
unqualified powers of action does not rely upon bodily health and vigor.
The works of genius, as displayed in the various branches of science, literature
and law, bear the character of a higher order of creation than matter. Memory
and imagination do not appear to have resulted from ponderous substances. The
powers of Judgment and Reasoning must have originated in something higher
and nobler than divisible bodies. To what cause can you attribute the origin and
perfection of the demonstrations of Euclid? What constituted the authorship of
the wise laws of Solon and the political institutions of Lycurgus and those of
modern Europe and the greatest concentration of wisdom ever embodied into
one human work-I mean the American Constitution? What gave almost
intellectual inspiration to the Iliad and Oddessa. What gave birth to the wonderful
productions of Tasso and Spencer and Milton? Where shall we look for the origin
of the Philippics of the Ancients, or in more modern days, for the speeches of a
Fox and the Orations of a Webster?
Where human genius has wrought its highest triumphs and achieved
transcendent greatness, who can say, its creative cause, its fountain light is in
powerless and inert matter! To ascribe the qualities of matter to the soul would
erase forever the idea of a future and eternal existence. But we have no direct
evidence of the soul's dissolution and discontinuance at death. The death of the
body is only the removal of the soul's sphere of action from our natural view, and
no doubt gives a larger world of Spiritual action in its new destination. And have
we not every reason to suppose that the soul will exist after the dissolution of the
body? "Death," in the language of Dr. Stewart, "only lifts the veil, which conceals
from our eyes the invisible world. It annihilates the material universe to our
senses, and prepares our minds for some new and unknown state of being."
We have already stated that belief is a simple state of the mind and consequently
cannot be made plainer by any process of reasoning.
It is always the same in its nature although it admits of different degrees, which
we express in the language of presumption, probability and certainty, etc.
It is on the principle of belief that the mind is operated upon in the various
exhibitions of its power. For, without confidence, what can we accomplish?
Without a belief in our ability to accomplish, what would be the result? It is a
principle which comes into every department of reasoning; and testimony is only
so operative upon the mind as it affects our belief.
THE SOUL
Those, who style themselves philosophers and have written upon the subject of
the mind, have always considered the soul as constituting a nature which is one
and indivisible; yet for the purpose of more fully understanding its various stages
of action, they have given it three parts or views, in which it may be contemplated
expressed in the Intellect, Sensibilities and the Will Intellectual, sensitive and the
voluntary states of the mind.
We find, in different languages, terms expressive of these three states. Different
authors, in works not written expressly upon the subject of the mind, have
adopted these modes of expressing its action.
The popular author of "Literary Hours" has given in one of his works an
interesting biographical sketch of Sir Robert Steele. After referring to his
repeated seasons of riot and revelry, of his determinations and repentances etc.,
he thus describes him. "His misfortune, the cause of all his errors, was not to
have clearly seen where his deficiencies lay; they were neither of the head nor of
the heart, but of the volition. He possessed the wish but not the power of volition
to carry his purposes into execution."
It has been remarked of Burns, that the force of that remarkable poet lay in the
power of his understanding and the sensibilities of his heart. Dr. Currie in his life
of Burns makes use of the following language. "He knew his own failings and
predicted their consequences; these melancholy forebodings were not long
absent from his mind; yet his passions carried him down the stream of error and
swept him over the precipice he saw directly in his course. The fatal defect of his
character lay in the comparative weakness of his volition, which governing the
conduct according to the dictates of the understanding entitles it to be
denominated rational."
Professor Upham, in his philosophy informs us of a celebrated writer, who in
giving directions to his son as to the manner of conducting with foreign ministers,
uses the following language. "If you engage his heart, you have a fair chance of
imposing upon his understanding and determining his will." Shakespeare, the
great philosopher of the human understanding, says in the second scene of
Hamlet,
It shows a will most incorrect to heaven,
A heart unfortified,
An understanding simple and
unschooled.
ORIGIN OF KNOWLEDGE
The daily observation of every individual will result in the belief of different states
of the mind. We often speak of the natural operations of the mind, its natural
state etc., which is only that condition or standard nearest which a great majority
of minds have resemblance. We also speak of the excited condition, the excited
and deranged state. It is said with much truth, that every man is blest with some
peculiarities entirely his own, that no two men are precisely alike in all respects.
Now as we deviate from the great standard or natural state, mind becomes
excited or morbid and insane. And all these different states or different
temperatures of the mind are produced from strong impressions, made under
peculiar circumstances. We are susceptible of sensations, governed and
controlled by them under all circumstances. These direct all our conduct
throughout the whole life. The life of man is a succession of sensations or
impressions which induce him to act in one capacity or another. His capabilities
are enlarged, as these impressions are numerous and powerful, or limited, as
they are rare and light. All great minds are susceptible to the highest degree. His
mind is most powerful and gigantic whose impressions are stamped upon the
intellect with an indelible mark. This fact resolves the mystery of memory and
explains the system of reasoning. We are the receptacles of successive
impressions. Every step the mind takes in its progress of thought is marked with
a new impression. Every beginning, every progress and every conclusion results
in a new impression.
It is a very natural question among students to enquire, how the mind acquires
knowledge from external objects. We will illustrate the process in this manner. An
object is presented through the senses and the mind perceives, then is
immediately impressed with the idea of that object, or receives the impression
which the presentation of the object makes. This is the starting point and the
mind immediately desires to possess or reject the same according to the
character of the impression, or, at least, to know what constitutes the object. Now
as the mind in this case is dependent upon the senses to convey a knowledge of
the object to itself, or rather to place itself in immediate communication with the
object, its attention and action is solely directed by the impression received. To
an untaught or unlearned mind the presentation of an object would leave an
impression but it is possible that action would here cease, unless it should
receive other impressions than that merely of the object. But present the same
object to a well-trained mind, and it gives an impression which is immediately
followed by a successive train of impressions and ideas, giving rise to
innumerable subjects of thought and contemplation. But, to the untaught mind,
present a second object and a second impression is communicated, which is
immediately followed by the first. Then comes a comparison or an impression of
the difference of the two. And so a succession of objects presented, multiplies
the number of impressions which follow, in a ten fold ratio. The principle of
association, which is a successive train of impressions, is set in operation and
keeps the mind ever on the stretch.
Thus the mind goes on its voyage of successive thoughts, arising from the
presentation of one object or from some strong impression produced in some
manner, through the organs of sense. Language is the expression of ideas or
impressions and this is perhaps the great source by which mind communicates
with mind through the sense of hearing. The conversation among our friends is
the method, by language, of expressing ideas or impressions which produce
similar ideas and impressions upon those to whom the conversation is directed. If
you describe a scene you have witnessed in some distant country, giving
different lights and shades as the impressions follow each other on your mind,
bringing before another individual one grand view of the whole transaction, you
give rise to impressions in the mind of your listener, which upon the principle of
association, carries him back to a hundred different scenes of a similar character
with each of which are associated ten thousand impressions, which are similar to
those communicated at the place of transaction. Two men pass an old castle.
Each receives an impression from the presentation of the object. It will remind
one of some old ruins of a castle which he saw a thousand miles distant, and
whatever transpired or what he witnessed at the time he saw it. The other
perhaps will be reminded of some legend or old story which he read in his boyish
days where lords and knights and ladies were made its inhabitants and visitors,
about which are associated the days of chivalry and love. How differently are
these two individuals affected by the appearance of the old castle. Each mind
receives the starting point from the same source and then arise all these
impressions entirely different in their course, yet equally rapid in their succession.
A succession of ideas arises according to the previous acquisitions of each mind
and these diverging trains are pursued until another subject presents itself which
breaks up this course of thought. Then mind takes a different route and receives
its new train of ideas or impressions. Here, too, it pursues its course, nor does it
cease its wanderings until it receives a stronger impression from some other
external object. It then sets off again in another direction and passes rapidly over
a numerous train of ideas, succeeding each other on the principle of association.
I will illustrate the manner of acquiring the first impression by presenting an
apple. It appears to the mind or rather the mind perceives it to be a substance,
then of spherical dimensions. Here are two impressions given. If I exercise the
sense of touch I shall learn the same facts. It feels round like itself. I convey
another impression by the sense of smell. I taste of it, and here is a third
impression. As the sight, feeling, smell and taste of the object affects me
pleasantly or unpleasantly, I am impressed to take or reject the fruit. These are
the means by which we acquire knowledge. Not in so rapid a succession as I
have described, because, before we can pronounce the character of any object,
we must have learned a language and the different modes of expressing its
appearance to those who understand the language we employ.
Thus it is by testimony we receive much of our information. At first, it is difficult to
believe what we are not accustomed to witness ourselves. Yet as the mind
becomes enlightened and understands the principle upon which it is received, it
yields its confidence and adopts this method of obtaining knowledge. An
individual, who should be told that upon some parts of our globe constant night
prevails for a certain number of months, and upon some other parts of the same
globe constant day reigns for the same length of time, would not be very likely to
believe it, unless such an anomaly could be explained upon principles which
would carry conviction, by a comparison of all the knowledge he possesses upon
the subject. Thus it is that mind is set in motion by the presentation of external
objects. Before it is thus moved, it is a mere blank, possessing certain inherent
powers which will only exhibit themselves by the exercise of some moving power.
"The mind," says Professor Upham, in his work on Mental Philosophy, "appears
at its creation to be merely an existence, involving certain principles and
endowed with certain powers, but dependent for the first and original
development of those principles and the exercise of those powers on the
condition of an outward impression. But after it has been once brought into
action, it finds new sources of thought and feeling in itself."
Having, therefore, all these inherent powers to acquire its knowledge is in
proportion to the impressions it has received from external objects and internal
operations. If you present a subject of conversation to a well trained mind, stored
with impressions or knowledge, you have started a point which sets in motion the
whole ocean of mind, educated from the past, and leads to endless discussions.
But should you present the same topic to an untaught or partially-disciplined
mind, you would start the current of thought, it is true, but that current would soon
cease, or rather could not be very extended because the subjects of thought or
the whole amount of knowledge possessed by the individual is limited.
I have spoken of the natural mind and the way of acquiring knowledge through
the bodily senses only. But there are other means of communication by which
impressions are conveyed to the mind.
If the spiritual being be independent of matter, why cannot we communicate with
it without the aid of the bodily senses? It is to this subject I would now call your
attention. The mind itself obeys the laws which its Creator first laid down, and we
are not to suppose any strange anomaly in its outward exhibitions is contrary to
the original design. The great Law-giver possesses all wisdom and is the
fountain-head of all perfection. The mind is not a creative experiment of his,
himself being ignorant of what results will follow. If these strange phenomena of
the mind, which are exhibited in the different states of excitement, are exceptions
to the common rule, we must attribute to the Great Mind imperfection and
humanity or a direct interposition to stay the great laws which were first given to
suppress and bewilder ignorant and dependent man. But to my mind, it does not
appear consistent with the wisdom of God that so extended an interference
would be personally made to counteract first principles which are displayed in
this age of mesmeric light. It must be that all these strange appearances are
reconcilable with eternal laws. And we are to look to these alone for a probable
and clear solution. The same laws govern the mind, when in its natural state and
susceptible of impressions through the five senses as when in its excited and
unnatural condition or under the influence of Neuaric, Phrenomagnetic, Mesmeric
or Somnambulic influence. The only difference is this, in the method of conveying
impressions to the mind. Give the impression, whether through the senses or
otherwise, and the same correspondent results follow. If I make an impression
upon the mind of a beautiful landscape by pointing it out to the natural eye, it is
the same as though I made the same impression upon that mind while in an
excited or mesmeric state. The view is real and pleasing in one case as in the
other, to the mind that beholds it. It is as much an existence before the mind,
when the impression without the material object is made, as when the impression
with a presentation of the real landscape to the natural eye is given.
We shall here give a brief outline of what appears to be the condition of mind
when in an excited or mesmeric state. Susceptibility is in its highest state of
action and the operator seems to control the direction of thought if he chooses or
can so impress the mind with influences as to govern its action in a measure.
This point is no doubt gained by some powerful impression produced by the
operator upon the mind of the subject. This condition can be produced by other
influences than an individual mind. A fright by suddenly coming upon some
external object will often produce a similar state of mind. Intense thought and
excruciating pains produce this excited state and some times sets the mind in
action, when it is enabled to exhibit the same phenomena as when induced by an
individual operator. We shall have occasion in the progress of our work to refer to
cases which arise from unknown impressions upon the mind, producing
hallucination, insanity, dreaming, somnambulism, spectral illusions etc.
This excited state of the mind, called by some, the magnetic, mesmeric and
congestive is no doubt produced by a powerful impression of the operator upon
the mind of the subject, concentrating or drawing the whole attention to one
influence. No set rules can be given by which this influence can be exercised
because the same efforts will produce different results upon different minds; yet
no doubt every mind has its portal of access and could we know where that is, or
the way and manner of approaching it, we could produce impressions so
powerful upon every mind as to subdue the action of the bodily senses and
communicate directly with it. The doctrine, therefore, of powerful "magnetizers"
(as they call themselves) that only a more powerful capacity or higher order of
intellectual vigor can subdue a weaker mind and produce the excited or
mesmeric state is idle as the wind. These higher orders of intellects with strong
sensibilities are more capable of being brought to the contemplation of one
individual subject and receiving the most powerful impressions, if you can
discover the accessible road to their sensibilities. If you can produce an
impression upon such a mind as will overcome all his prejudices towards you or
your science and acquire his undivided confidence, you will then excite the mind
into this spiritual state of action and he will readily read your own thoughts.
Indeed I have been led to the conclusion that the highest powers of genius have
been the results of excited minds, upon the principles I have laid down, and that
they are but the inspiration of this spiritual action. What is it that contributes so
much to distinguish Homer and Demosthenes, Virgil and Cicero, Milton, Tasso,
Shakespeare and the whole host of great men who lived in ancient and modern
times! It must have been this excited state during which poetry and eloquence
and the highest achievements of mind were left, as lights of their genius, to live
through all coming time. Eloquence, which holds the multitude in breathless
silence or sways them hither and thither, produces the controlling impression
upon each mind which in its turn impresses and influences the other exciting a
low degree of the mesmeric state. It is, in fact, a principle by which we are all
more or less governed in all our pursuits.
The high degree of excitement, called clairvoyant, gives the mind freedom of
action, placing it in close contact with every thing. There is nothing remote or
distant, past or future; everything is present and discoverable. It only requires
direction, and the subject is before it.
It is enabled to discover and describe countries and cities, mountains and plains,
rivers and oceans, inhabitants and animals on distant parts of the globe. The
mind will pass into the depths of the earth or rather looks through all matter, all
space and all time, giving its character, its condition and its result. Call its
attention to any subject however remote and it is present to the mind. These
ideas, I have thrown out in relation to mind in its highest state of excitement, are
not the result of a vivid imagination or the productions of a speculating mind, but
the effect of experiments, repeated at different times and on various occasions.
They are facts, which stand out beyond all contradiction-all cavil! And we are not
to pass them as a freak of nature or as the result of contradictory laws. It must be
the highest state of action to which the mind has arrived, giving testimony of the
great powers with which it is created, yet controlled by its natural laws. We must
not, therefore, account for this wonderful development upon the supposition of
exceptions to general rules, but upon the continuation of great and undeviating
principles.
BOOKLET II
BU Booklets 1-7
THE DIFFERENT DEGREES OF EXCITEMENT OF MIND,
TAKEN UP IN THEIR ORDER AND DISCUSSED
1st. Dreams and Their Causes
The peculiar state of the mind usually called dreaming is explainable upon the
principles laid down in our premises, namely, that impressions are conveyed to
the mind by some other process than through our bodily senses. We may fall to
sleep under a deep impression of some transaction which has actually occurred,
and the mind, having long been under the most powerful action of thought in
connection with the transaction, will yield up the access through its natural body
and receive its impressions directly upon itself. In other words, the mind becomes
in a degree mesmerized and is then capable of producing all the phenomena for
both in dreaming, which it would, if it were actually thrown into that state by an
individual second power. The principle of association or impression succeeding
impression by which the mind is controlled, both in its natural and excited state,
is the law, which always governs. The mind always acts from impressions
received when it acts at all; and, when in this state, is not regulated exclusively
by surrounding objects because it is as susceptible of impressions from objects
at a vast distance as those immediately around it. For time, space, distance and
matter are no impediments to its action. Give it direction towards any subject,
and everything connected with it is present. The dreaming state does not differ
from the mesmeric, only as it is produced by another method than what is
commonly called magnetic.
We submit, therefore, the following accounts of individuals of what actually
passed in their minds, taken from different authors, together with the usual
explanations, and shall endeavor to account for them upon such principles as we
believe to govern mind.
Dr. Abercrombie, who has philosophized much upon mind relates to us many
interesting anecdotes which he had accumulated from observation and by the
assistance of his friends.
An instance is mentioned of a gentleman and his wife, who were actually
dreaming upon the same subject at the same time, in the following language. "It
happened at the period, when there was an alarm of French invasion, and almost
every man in Edinburgh was a soldier. All things had been arranged upon the
expectation of the landing of the enemy, the first notice of which was to be given
by a gun from the castle, and this was to be followed by a chain of signals
calculated to alarm the country in all directions. Further, there had been recently
in Edinburgh a splendid military spectacle in which five thousand men had been
drawn up in Prince's Street, fronting the castle. The gentleman, to whom the
dream occurred and who had been a zealous volunteer, was in bed between two
and three o'clock in the morning when he dreamed of hearing the signal gun. He
was immediately at the castle, witnessed the proceedings for displaying the
signals and saw and heard a great bustle over the town from troops and artillery
assembling in Prince's Street. At this time he was roused by his wife, who awoke
in a fright in consequence of a similar dream connected with much noise and the
landing of the enemy and concluding with the death of a particular friend of her
husband's, who had served with him as a volunteer during the war."
The Dr. attributed all this remarkable occurrence to a noise produced in the room
above by the fall of a pair of tongs which had been left in an awkward position
etc. But how it should happen, that the tongs should have produced similar trains
of thought in two different individuals by the noise of a fall is more than I can
understand.
One would suppose that the noise would have been conveyed to the mind by the
bodily senses, giving a true impression of its origin or at least would not have
resulted in impressions so foreign to the real cause. The true explanation seems
to be this. Both minds, no doubt, passed into the sleeping state, partially excited
upon the alarm of the French invasion etc. and were in the mesmeric sleep and
in communication with each other, capable of giving and receiving impressions.
The fall of the tongs might have affected the mind of one or both. It would not be
necessary to affect more than one. The train of association is started in this
highly excited state by an impression which could not have been given through
the bodily senses. The impression received is immediately followed by other
impressions connected with the subject upon which the mind was most intent
during the waking state. And being in communication with the other, conveyed
similar impressions. Thus both minds were led along in mutual connection,
receiving real impressions but arising from (as we would say in the waking state)
false causes.
Another instance is mentioned in which dreams are produced by whispering in
their ears. The particulars of one case are given in the papers of Dr. Gregory and
were related to him by a gentleman who witnessed them. The subject was an
officer in the expedition to Louisburg in 1758 and while in this state was a great
source of amusement to his associates and friends. "They could produce in him
any kind of a dream by whispering in his ear, especially if this was done by a
friend with whose voice he was familiar. At one time they conducted him through
the whole progress of a quarrel which ended in a duel; and when the parties
were supposed to be met, a pistol was placed in his hand, which he fired and
was awakened by the report. On another occasion they found him asleep on the
top of a locker or bunker in the cabin where they made him believe he had fallen
overboard and exhorted him to save himself by swimming. He immediately
imitated all the motions of swimming. They then told him that a shark was
pursuing him and entreated him to dive for his life. He instantly did so, with so
much force, as to throw himself entirely from the lockers upon the cabin floor, by
which he was much bruised and awakened of course. After the landing of the
army at Louisburg, his friends found him one day asleep in his tent, evidently
much annoyed by the cannonading. They then made him believe that he was
engaged when he expressed much fear and showed an evident disposition to run
away. Against this they remonstrated, but at the same time increased his fears
by imitating the groans of the wounded and dying; when he asked, as he often
did, who was down, they named his particular friends. At last they told him that
the man next himself in the line had fallen, when he instantly sprang from his
bed, rushed out of the tent and was roused from his danger and his dream
together by falling over the tent ropes."
Upon being aroused, he could not recollect anything which had transpired and
had only a confused feeling of fatigue."
We can account for these experiments only upon the excited state of the mind
being capable of receiving impressions from another source than through the
senses. The whispering in the ear was only whispering to the mind, the sense of
hearing being, no doubt, inactive, and all the impressions of the quarrel were
actually produced upon his mind and not through the sense of hearing by the
direction of those around him. In the case of swimming, a strong impression of a
shark was made upon his mind and in the excited state it appeared realwas
actually seen as much as though every circumstance had transpired as it
appeared in the natural state; and all these impressions were the result of mind
acting upon mindimpressions conveyed by the minds of those around him,
directly to his mind, making precisely the same result, as though he had in his
waking state fallen overboard and was pursued by a shark.
In this excited state of the mind, called by philosophical writers the dreaming,
every act of the past may be called up by some directing power or by successive
impressions. Dr. Abercrombie has related some incidents among his
acquaintances which will illustrate this principle. "The gentleman who was the
subject was at the time connected with one of the principal banks in Glasgow and
was at his place at the teller's table, where money is paid, when a person entered
demanding payment of a sum of six pounds. There were several people waiting,
who were, in turn, entitled to be attended before him; but, he was extremely
impatient and rather noisy; and, being besides a remarkable stammerer, he
became so annoying that another gentleman requested my friend to pay him his
money and get rid of him. He did so, accordingly, but with an expression of
impatience at being obliged to attend to him before his turn, and thought no more
of the transaction. At the end of the year, which was eight or nine months after,
the books of the Bank could not be made to balance, the deficiency being exactly
six pounds. Several days and nights were spent in endeavoring to discover the
error but without success, when at last my friend returned home much fatigued
and went to bed. He dreamed of being at his place in the bank, and the whole
transaction with the stammerer, as now detailed, passed before him in all its
particulars. He awoke under a full impression that the dream was to lead him to a
discovery of what he was anxiously in search of and soon discovered, that the
sum paid to this person in the manner now mentioned had been neglected to be
inserted in the book of interests, and that it exactly accounted for the error in the
balance." The Dr. acknowledges this to be a very remarkable case and not to be
explained upon any principles with which he is acquainted. All the rules by which
philosophers have accounted for experiments as wonderful as this, here fail him.
Had he witnessed the experiments which have been given by subjects under the
excited or mesmeric state, he could have accounted for the mystery. In this state,
the mind may be said to be before a map on which is written the past, present
and the futureonly needs direction to some definite point to disclose every act of
our lives. The error in the books had been a constant cause of excitement and
his mind had been so highly wrought up as to pass into the mesmeric state and
under the impression of discovering the error. All the transactions during the past
year were before him with the books and he was thus enabled to detect the error.
This no doubt was a species of the clairvoyant state of mind.
The author of Waverly has given an interesting anecdote, considered by him
authentic. "Mr. R. of Bowland, a gentleman of landed property in the Vale of
Gala, was prosecuted for a considerable sum, the accumulated arrears of teind
(or tithe) for which he was said to be indebted to a noble family, the titulars (lay
impropriators of the tithes). Mr. R. was strongly impressed with the belief that his
father had, by a form of process peculiar to the laws of Scotland, purchased
these lands from the titular, and therefore, that the present prosecution was
groundless. But, after an industrious investigation of the public records and a
careful enquiry among all persons who had transacted law business for his
father, no evidence could be recovered to support his defense. The period was
now near at hand when he conceived the loss of his lawsuit to be inevitable, and
he had formed his determination to ride to Edinburgh the next day and make the
best bargain he could in the way of compromise. He went to bed with this
resolution and, with all the circumstances of the case floating in his mind, had a
dream to the following purpose. His father who had been dead many years
appeared to him, he thought, and asked him, why he was disturbed in his mind.
In dreams men are not surprised at such apparitions. Mr. R. thought that he
informed his father of the cause of his distress, adding that the payment of a
considerable sum of money was the more unpleasant to him because he had a
strong consciousness that it was not due, though he was unable to recover any
evidence in support of his belief. `You are right my son,' replied the paternal
shade. `I did acquire right in these teinds, for payment of which you are now
prosecuted. The papers relating to the transaction are in the hands of Mr. , a
writer (or attorney), who is now retired from professional business and resides at
Inveresk, near Edinburgh. He was a person whom I employed on that occasion
for a particular reason, but who never on any other occasion transacted business
on my account. It is very possible,' pursued the vision, `that Mr.
_________may have forgotten a matter which is now of a very old date;
but you may call it to his recollection by this token, that when I came to pay his
account, there was difficulty in getting change for a Portugal piece of gold and
that we were forced to drink out the balance at a tavern!' Mr. R. awoke in the
morning, with all the words of his vision imprinted on his mind, and thought it
worth while to ride across the country to Inveresk, instead of going straight to
Edinburgh. When he came there, he waited upon the gentleman mentioned in
the dream, a very old man; without saying anything of the vision, he enquired
whether he remembered having conducted such a matter for his deceased
father. The old gentleman could not at first bring the circumstance to recollection;
but on mention of the Portugal piece of gold, the whole returned upon his
memory; he made an immediate search for the papers and recovered themso
that Mr. R. carried to Edinburgh the documents necessary to gain the cause,
which he was on the verge of losing."
This incident was explained by Dr. Abercrombie that the son, no doubt, had
heard his father relate all these circumstances at some prior time and that he had
entirely forgotten them, but that the anxiety of mind upon the subject produced in
the dreaming state, some circumstance, which led to discovery of what his father
had previously told him. This may be a satisfactory explanation to those who
believe it, yet I apprehend all would not be fully satisfied. This we believe might
have occurred in this manner. The mind had become extremely excited, in the
waking or natural state, upon the subject of the lawsuit and as sleep insensibly
came upon him, the mind immediately passed into the excited or mesmeric state,
when it would be enabled to recall the past and ascertain all about the facts from
communication with the mind of the Attorney at Inveresk or from actually
beholding the papers etc. Even this explanation, to me, is not satisfactory,
although I have no doubt of the capabilities of the mind to have discovered it
upon the principle above; yet why should we not admit the real appearance of his
father's spirit and that a communication of "mind with mind" developed the facts
as related. I will simply remark here that there is no question of the fact that
individuals under this highly excited state of mind may communicate with the
spirits of their deceased friends. We shall relate some experiments which have
transpired, proving conclusively this spiritual communication in another part of
this work.
We find recorded in some work on mental philosophy, the following anecdotes.
"A gentleman of the law in Edinburgh had mislaid an important paper relating to
some affairs on which a public meeting was soon to be held. He had been
making a most anxious search for it for many days; but the evening of the day
preceding that on which the meeting was to be held had arrived, without his
being able to discover it. He went to bed under great anxiety and disappointment
and dreamed that the paper was in a box, appropriated to the papers of a
particular family with which it was in no way connected; it was accordingly found
there the next morning. Another individual, connected with a public office, had
mislaid a paper of such importance that he was threatened with the loss of his
situation if he did not produce it. After a long and unsuccessful search, under
intense anxiety, he also dreamed of discovering the paper in a particular place,
and found it there accordingly."
The minds of these two individuals no doubt passed into the clairvoyant state,
when they were able to behold with the mind's eye, the condition and position of
the various papers. And so intent was their mind upon the discovery, or the joy
which followed the discovery in the mind produced so strong an impression, as to
be recollected after the mind was aroused from the dreaming state, which is not
uncommon under certain circumstances.
We will remark here that no doubt the mind is in active operation during our
sleeping hours and passes rapidly along the highway of thought, yet is not
conscious of it by us in our waking state. Nor is this position contradicted by the
fact that we do occasionally recollect our dreams. We seldom have any
recollection of our dreams unless some very striking impression which causes
pleasing emotions or startling fear or excessive sorrow is left upon the mind. And
however much the mind might think while the bodily senses are wrapped in
slumber, we should have no cognizance of such thoughts unless something
peculiar and effective should occur. In our waking moments as we pass along
our streets, we seldom notice objects which are common and in their place; but if
anything new is introduced and strikes us with emotions of pleasure or pain, we
notice and recall it at some future time. In passing familiar objects, the mind, no
doubt, recognizes them; but the impressions are slight and other immediate
objects occupy our attention, and we are not aware that we have passed them,
yet we could not argue that we have not passed them because they did not make
strong impressions, so as to be recollected; nor can we reject the doctrine that
the mind is ever watchful and never slumbers; but even when our bodily senses
are at rest, it goes on in thought recollecting only what is most striking and
peculiar in its progress. But we know upon the ceaseless and constant action of
the mind, when the bodily senses are at rest, by the excited or mesmerized
condition which is (if you please) the dreaming state. The subject seldom
recollects what has transpired during his sleeping state, unless you produce a
very powerful impression which is followed by the emotion of pleasure or pain to
a very high degree. Then it is enabled to recall what was intimately connected
with those emotions, and those only. I have no doubt, that the two cases of
dreaming and mesmerizing are controlled by similar laws and that they are alike
in constantly occupying the mind, although we recollect only those ideas which
are most powerfully presented and which appear to be connected with some
strong emotion.
We have witnessed a great number of experiments upon subjects in the excited
or mesmeric state which demonstrate what I have advanced in regard to
impressions. Every subject can be so powerfully impressed as to recall the
thought in his waking moments while of ordinary transactions no idea is retained.
These experiments prove both the similarity of states of mind in the dreaming
and mesmeric; and also, that our powers of mind are never at rest.
Mr. Combe mentions a singular dream of an individual, that he had committed
murder, and that the murder was actually committed two years after. Another
case of a clergyman who visited Edinburgh, residing not far from that city, and
while sleeping at an inn, dreamed that he saw his own dwelling on fire and his
child in the midst of it. He awoke with the full belief of his dream and immediately
setting out for his residence arrived in time to witness the burning of his house
and to save his child from the flames.
These are published in works of philosophy as singular and wonderful
coincidence. It is said that they demonstrate a strong propensity of character and
mental emotion combined in a dream, and by some natural cause, one speedily
fulfilled. Dr. Abercrombie has very ingeniously accounted for the last example by
the supposition, that "the gentleman left a servant, who had shown great
carelessness in regard to fire and had often given rise in his mind to a strong
apprehension that he might set fire to his house -that his anxiety might have
been increased by being from home and the same circumstance might make the
servant more careless." A further supposition is made, "that the gentleman
before going to bed had, in addition to this anxiety, suddenly recollected that
there was on that day in the neighborhood of his house, some fair or periodical
merry-making, from which the servant was very likely to return home intoxicated."
And at last it is supposed that these incidents "might have been embodied into a
dream of his house being on fire, and that the same circumstances might have
led to the fulfillment of the dream."
This explanation does not reasonably account for the murder which took place
two years after the dream, if it should prove satisfactory in regard to the fire; and
therefore we take the liberty to explain them both upon such principles as we
have endeavored to lay down, as governing the mind under such circumstances.
We believe that experiments have proved that to a mind in its excited or
dreaming state, when its bodily senses are dormant or inactive, and impressions
are conveyed to it by direct influences upon itself, all space, time, distance and
matter are no obstacles to its action. In the cases above named, let us assume
the fact that there is no such thing as time with the mind, that the past, present
and future are all present and displayed before it as upon a map and which are
all visible, and the explanation of the dreams which occurred previous to the
actual occurrence are simple and readily understood.
The mind in this state looks forward and beholds occurrences, which have not
yet transpired, but are reserved for a future event; yet it is not able to distinguish
at what hour of time it will transpire. It, in fact, appears to the mind precisely like
all other events, whether past or present and probably would not be remembered
unless connected with some powerful emotion. The committal of murder in one
case produced a most powerful impression upon the mind of the actor and was
therefore recollected in his waking moments. The burning of the house, in which
those most dear to the clergyman and the imminent danger of his child, no doubt
summoned up all the emotions of the heart and left an impression which
confirmed his belief that the scene of the dream was actually taking place.
Similar experiments have been witnessed in the declarations of mesmeric
subjects, and scenes which transpired weeks and months and years after were
beheld with all the vividness and reality as though they were the events of
yesterday.
We have collected a few more facts, illustrative of the power of the mind under
excitement, dreaming and mesmerism.
A gentleman in Scotland was affected with aneurism of the popliteal artery and
was under the care of two eminent surgeons and the day was fixed for operation.
About two days previous to the time set by the surgeons, his wife dreamed that a
change had taken place in the disease, in consequence of which the operation
would not be required. Upon examination of the tumor, the next morning it was
found that the pulsation had nearly ceased and it finally recovered itself. A lady
dreamed that an aged female friend of hers had been murdered by a dark
servant and the dream occurred more than once. The impression was so strange
that she actually went to the house of the lady, to whom it related and prevailed
upon a gentleman to watch in the adjoining room the following night. About 3
o'clock in the morning footsteps were heard on the stairs and the gentleman left
his place of concealment and met the servant carrying up a basket of coal in
which a strong knife was found concealed. Being questioned as to where he was
going with his coal he replied in a confused manner, to mend his mistress' fire,
which was not very probable in the month of July and at three o'clock in the
morning.
Another lady dreamed that her nephew was drowned with some young
companions with whom he had engaged to sail the following day, and the
impression was so strong that she prevailed upon him not to join his companions,
who went on the excursion and were all drowned. A lady, who had sent her
watch to be repaired and a long time having elapsed without its return, she
dreamed that the watchmaker's boy had dropped it on his way to the shop and it
was injured so much as not to be repaired. Upon enquiry, this was ascertained to
be a fact.
These experiments are acknowledged to be of an order not satisfactorily
explainable upon such principles as are laid down by philosophers. The ground
we have taken, we believe, fully explains these coincidents. And we shall give a
few experiments upon mesmeric subjects showing that the same results may
follow.
Another very singular instance of coincident dreams is related by Mr. Taylor and
is given by him as a undoubted fact. A young man who was at an academy a
hundred miles from home, dreamed that he went to his father's house in the
night, tried the front door but found it locked, got in by a back door and finding
nobody out of bed went directly to the bedroom of his parents. He then said to his
mother whom he found awake, "Mother, I am going a long journey and am come
to bid you goodby." This she answered under much agitation, "Oh, dear son,
thou art dead." He instantly awoke and thought no more of his dream until a few
days after he received a letter from his father enquiring very anxiously after his
health, in consequence of a frightful dream which his mother had on the same
night in which the dream now mentioned occurred to him. She dreamed that she
heard someone attempt to open the front door, then go to the back door and at
last come into her bedroom. She then saw it was her son who came to the side
of her bed and said, "Mother, I am going a long journey and am come to bid you
goodby" on which she exclaimed, "Oh, dear son, thou art dead." But nothing
unusual happened to any of the parties. Dr. Abercrombie supposes these two
dreams must have arisen from some strong mental impression arising in both
minds about the same time, which produced a similarity of dreaming. A
circumstance very extraordinary and is quite as likely to occur from chance as
that every thing is governed at haphazard without undeviating laws. The true
explanation is simple. These two minds were in a dreaming, excited or mesmeric
state. The bodily senses cease to act-impressions are now conveyed directly to
the mind. All space and time, in this state, are annihilated. Here, then, the mind
of the son is in communication with his mother. He makes precisely the same
impressions upon her mind as are made upon his; and both minds being in the
excited state readily receive impressions from false causes. But we do not design
here to say how this train of thought originated but probably from strong mental
excitement in his waking moments, leading to the train which occurred in his
dream. There can be no question but that one mind here was governed by the
other and therefore both dreams would occur at the same time and upon the
same subject.
The stories of second sight are also explainable upon the same principle laid
down in our preceding work. Anxiety and constant thought upon subjects
connected with our interests will sometimes lull us into a mesmeric or dreaming
state in which we can behold many scenes, sometimes real and sometimes
fictitious.
The mind is excited into the clairvoyant state and is then enabled to perceive
objects without the bodily senses. The principle of sight is in the mind, and in our
natural state, that principle develops itself through the eye. In the excited state it
is developed independent of the eye, acting directly upon the object.
A gentleman sitting by the fire during a stormy night, while his domestics are
upon the lake and exposed to the ravages of the storm, falls to sleep (in
mesmeric sleep) under the excitement of their absence. The mind is immediately
present with the boat and discovers every transaction which befalls the company.
If the boat is capsized, he sees it; if it is to return safe, he beholds it. But we are
told that under such circumstances, we should expect a disaster and that the
mind, falling to sleep with all the picture of their danger before it conjured up by
its imagination, would naturally dream their loss. And if the boat returns, nothing
more is thought of the dream; if she is lost, these revive all the circumstances as
they transpired in the sleeping moments! I grant that such might occur or rather
happen but presume the instances of chance would not be numerous enough to
account for all the stories of second sight. If the mind is regulated at all by laws,
we do not see the reasons of so many exceptions, especially as I contend, all
these dreaming phenomena cannot be satisfactorily explained upon other
principles than what we have laid down. There is, however, a question which
would naturally suggest itself in relation to the impressions we receive while in
this excited, dreaming state. What we dream will not always come to pass. This
does not militate against that doctrine we have laid down, but will only confirm
what we have before declared in relation to the power of impressions to regulate
our thoughts. We will illustrate our subject in this manner. Suppose an individual,
whose mind has been long upon one subject in which he finds himself deeply
interested. While having his mind intently fixed under ordinary excitement with all
his external faculties in action, he arrives at certain conclusions which he
believes to be correct and a strong impression is made governing the further
action of the mind in relation to the subject. Now this conclusion may not be
correct, yet the individual would be firm in his position. A wrong impression,
arising some where in the process of reasoning, has led to a wrong conclusion.
Now if the individual could detect the first false step, he would correct the
conclusion and vindicate truth. This is the natural operation of mind under
ordinary excitement. Now place a subject in the dreaming or mesmeric state, and
it becomes far more susceptible of impressions than before. It is, therefore, even
more liable to receive a wrong impression from some external cause or internal
emotion than in its natural state, and therefore, all of these false dreams may be
accounted for on this principle. An individual passing into this excited state may
have, in his waking moments, impressed upon his mind something as having
actually taken place which had not and did not transpire, with such power, as that
the impression would control the mind and be led to an endless number of false
conclusions which the facts in the case did not warrant. This is when the mind is
led astray and does not receive impressions from facts but from preceding
impressions. And that mind cannot distinguish the false from the true cause,
unless in the course of its progress, it is led to reconsider or review the whole
scene with the idea of getting the facts and giving a true statement. The mind can
act from facts or rather receive its impressions from facts, and when this is the
case, will always develop true results.
We shall mention only a few cases of what is usually called dreams and pass to
another division of our subject. The following incident is related by Dr.
Abercrombie who was acquainted with all the particulars and fully vouches for
their accuracy.
"Two ladies, sisters, had been for several days in attendance upon their brother
who was ill of a common sore throat, severe and protracted, but not considered
as attended with danger. At the same time one of them had borrowed a watch of
a female friend, in consequence of her own being under repair; this watch was
one to which particular value was attached on account of some family
associations, and some anxiety was expressed that it might not meet with any
injury. The sisters were sleeping together in a room communicating with that of
their brother, when the elder of them awoke in great agitation, and having roused
the other, told her that she had had a frightful dream. `I dreamed,' she said, `that
Mary's watch stopped and that when I told you of the circumstances, you replied,
much worse than that has happened, for __________'s breath has stopped also,'
-naming their brother who was ill. To quiet her agitation the younger sister
immediately got up and found the brother sleeping quietly, and the watch, which
had been carefully put by in a drawer, going correctly. The following night the
very same dream occurred, followed by similar agitation, which was again
composed in the same manner, the brother being again found in quiet sleep, and
the watch going well. On the following morning soon after the family had
breakfasted, one of the sisters was sitting by her brother while the other was
writing a note in an adjoining room. Then her note was ready for being sealed,
she was proceeding to take out the watch alluded to, which had been put by in
her writing desk; she was astonished to find it stopped. At the same instant she
heard a scream of intense distress from her sister in the other room; their
brother, who had still been considered as going on favourably, had been seized
with a sudden fit of suffocation, and had just breathed his last."
BOOKLET III
BU Booklets 1-7
I have frequently alluded to the capacities of mind, acting in its excited state,
independent of matter. This can be clearly proved by a subject under the
mesmeric influence. The mind is then present with all things and needs only to
be directed and the object is before it. Distance and space are nothing, and
therefore, no time is required to pass the mind from one object to another. It is so
in our waking thoughts. The mind is occupied with only one thing at a time and
when it is directed to a new object of thought, the direction and the attention pass
at the same instant. Nor does it require any longer time or any other further effort
to think of an object in the Chinese Empire than those nearest us. But the mind in
our natural state depends upon the five senses for its external information and
forms all its ideas of things through them. But in the excited state, it receives no
impressions through the organs of sense, but every object, which acts at all, acts
directly upon the mind or is presented by the influence of another mind.
Instances of dreaming are now on record in which this principle is fully illustrated-
Smillie in his Natural History relates a case of a medical student of the University
of Edinburgh, who was accustomed to dream and be aroused from the same
cause that produced the first impression. We also notice instances of the
following character. A gentleman dreamed that he had enlisted as a common
soldier, joined his regiment, deserted, was apprehended, carried back, tried,
condemned to be shot, and at last led out for execution. After all these
preparations, a gun was fired and he awoke with the report and found that a
noise in the adjoining room had both produced the dream and awaked him. Dr.
Gregory mentions a case in which a gentleman, who had taken cold from
sleeping in a damp place, was liable to a feeling of suffocation when he slept in a
lying posture; and this was always accompanied with a dream of a skeleton
which grasped his throat. On one occasion, he procured a sentinel, giving him
directions to arouse him whenever he was disposed to sink down, as these
dreams never occurred when he slept in a sitting position. He began to sink
away, and upon his being aroused instantly, found fault with his attendant for not
having aroused him immediately as he had been in a struggle with the skeleton
for a long time before he awoke. "A friend of mine," says Dr. Abercrombie,
"dreamed that he had crossed the Atlantic and spent a fortnight in America. In
embarking on his return, he fell into the sea, and having awoke from the fright,
discovered that he had not been asleep above ten minutes."
"Count Lavallette," says Professor Upham, "who was some years since
condemned to death in France, relates a dream, which occurred during his
imprisonment, as follows. `One night while I was asleep, the clock of the Palais
de Justice struck twelve and awoke me. I heard the gate open to relieve the
sentry, but I fell asleep again immediately. In this sleep, I dreamed that I was
standing in the Rue St. Honore at the corner of the Rue de l'Echelle. A
melancholy darkness spread around me, all was still, nevertheless a low and
uncertain sound soon arose. All of a sudden I perceived at the bottom of the
street and advancing towards me a troop of cavalry, the men and horses
however, all flayed. This horrible troop continued passing in a rapid gallop, and
casting frightful looks at me. Their march, I thought, continued five hours; and
they were followed by an immense number of artillery and wagons, full of
bleeding corpses, whose limbs still quivered; a disgusting smell of blood and
bitumen almost choked me. At length the iron gate of the prison, shutting with
great force, awoke me again. I made my repeater strike; it was no more than
midnight so that the horrible phantasmagoria had lasted no more than two or
three minutes that is to say, the time necessary for relieving the sentry and
shutting the gate. The cold was severe and the watchword short. The next day,
the turnkey confirmed my calculations.' "
These experiments all confirm the doctrine of the rapidity of thought, that no time,
as we are accustomed to measure it, is required for transactions which would
occupy months and years in their performance. Yet the mind lives in these short
periods required to pass upon such scenes, apparently the whole time it would
require to perform them. The mind in its dreaming or excited state will pass from
country to country, from shore to shore, mountain to mountain in rapid
succession, feeling that it has actually passed over a space of time sufficient to
have accomplished all these distances. Under such influences, the mind would
perform a pilgrimage to Mecca, experience all the particulars of the passage of
the Rubicon, visit St. Petersburg and Moscow and be engaged in a whaling
voyage in the Pacific Ocean-all in rapid succession. Impression follows
impression and results and conclusions follow as rapidly as they are produced. It
is true that the mind compares every transaction of thought with its knowledge,
previously attained. And it is thus deceived in the measure of time when it does
not, through the organized body, perform its thoughts. It has no other method by
which to calculate than such as is derived from previous knowledge.
Somnambulism is another state of mind as laid down by different philosophers. It
is only another condition of excited mind by which all the impressions are
received by another process than that the bodily organs, by which the subject is
induced to walk and perform bodily and mental labor. This condition of mind is
really the dreaming or excited state and explainable upon the same principles as
other dreams. But the difficulty in explanations given by those who have written
upon the subject is the misconception of its cause mixing up the action of the
mind under such excitement with its action through the bodily senses. I do not
intend to convey the idea that the mind may not act partly from one cause or
condition and partly from the other. It does so act, and this no doubt is the cause
of many impressions which the mind in its dreaming state is constantly receiving.
Their confusion in explanations arises from the argument being drawn from the
knowledge received through the bodily senses alone, not mentioning to explain
the phenomena arising from an independent state. If facts alone, subject to the
laws which govern mind, were to furnish a basis, it is not possible to explain
these two conditions, natural and excited on other principles than those which
have governed us throughout this work.
Somnambulism is then a species of mesmerism and a subject may be so
controlled as to perform the same experiments we shall give, selected from
different works.
"A young nobleman," says Dr. Abercrombie, "living in the citadel of Breslau, was
observed by his brother, who occupied the same room, to rise in his sleep, wrap
himself in a cloak and escape by a window to the roof of a building. He then tore
in pieces a magpie's nest, wrapped the young birds in his cloak, returned to his
apartment and went to bed. In the morning he mentioned the circumstances as
having occurred in a dream, and could not be persuaded that there had been
anything more than a dream, till he was shown the magpies in his cloak."
"A farmer in one of the counties of Massachusetts had employed himself, some
weeks in winter, threshing his grain. One night as he was about closing his
labors, he ascended a ladder to the top of the great beams in the barn, where the
rye which he was threshing was deposited, to ascertain what number of bundles
remained unthreshed, which he determined to finish the next day. The ensuing
night about two o'clock he was heard by one of the family to rise and go out. He
repaired to his barn, being sound asleep and unconscious of what he was doing,
set open his barn doors, ascended the great beams of the barn where his rye
was deposited, threw down a flooring and commenced threshing it. When he had
completed it, he raked off the straw and shoved the rye to one side of the floor,
and then again ascended the ladder with the straw and deposited it on some rails
that lay across the great beams. He then threw down another flooring of rye
which he threshed and finished as before. Thus he continued his labors until he
had threshed five floorings, and on returning from throwing down the sixth and
last, in passing over part of the haymow, he fell off where the hay had been cut
down about six feet, on the lower part of it, which awoke him. He at first imagined
himself in his neighbor's barn, but after groping about in the dark for a long time,
ascertained that he was in his own, and at length found the ladder on which he
descended to the floor, closed his barn doors which he found open, and returned
to his house. On coming to the light, he found himself in such a profuse
perspiration that his clothes were literally wet through. The next morning on going
to his barn, he found that he had threshed, during the night, five bushels of rye,
had raked the straw off in good order and deposited it on the great beams and
carefully shoved the grain to one side of the floor, without the least
consciousness of what he was doing, until he fell from the hay."
We recollect of reading an account of a clergyman who had been long
contemplating the writing of a sermon upon a certain passage of the Scripture,
which required deep thought. He arose from his sleep during the night and
entirely wrote out the whole discourse in a most lucid and convincing reasoning
and language and returned to rest. On the following day, could recollect nothing
of the transaction, but the different heads of the subject connected with
dreaming. Upon going to his study, he was surprised to find the whole discourse
in writing, neatly executed in his usual form of writing sermons.
Another instance came under our own observation, in the western part of Maine,
of the gentleman farmer who during the month of August in one of his night
walks, arose and taking his scythe went into his field and actually mowed down a
half acre of his best wheat, returned the scythe to its usual place and returned to
bed. He awoke the next morning and recollected nothing of the transaction, but
remarked that he had a singular dream of taking his scythe and mowing an acre
of his wheat instead of reaping it as was his usual method. He was loath to
believe what he witnessed with his own eyes, the grain in the swath and that it
had been done by his own hand. It no doubt would have been charged upon
some of his good neighbors had not some of his own household witnessed the
whole transaction.
Philosophers have confessed their inability to explain satisfactorily these strange
phenomena-and then by undertaking to show in what possible manner it might all
happen, mystify what was before mysterious. We do not learn from them how it is
possible for one to see at all under any circumstances without the bodily organ of
sight; and much less have they proved to us the power of seeing without eyes
and in Egyptian darkness. "There is," says Prof. Upham, "a set of nerves which
are understood to be particularly connected with respiration and appear to have
nothing to do with sensation and muscular action. There is another set which one
knows to possess a direct and important connection with sensation and the
muscles. These last are separable into distinct filaments, having separate
functions, some being connected with sensation merely and others with volition
and muscular action. In sensation, the impression, made by some external body,
exists at first in the external part of the organs of sense and is propagated along
one class of filaments to the brain. In volition and voluntary muscular movement,
the origin of action, as far as the body is concerned, seems to be the reverse,
commencing in the brain and being propagated along other and appropriate
nervous filaments to the different parts of the system. Hence it sometimes
happens, that, in diseases of the nervous system, the power of sensation is in a
great measure lost while that of motion fully remains; or, on the contrary, the
power of motion is lost while that of sensation remains. These views help to
throw light upon the subject of somnambulism. Causes, at present unknown to
us, may operate through their appropriate nervous filaments to keep the muscles
awake, without disturbing the repose and inactivity of the senses. A man may be
asleep as to all the powers of external perception, and yet be awake in respect to
the capabilities of muscular motion. And aided by the trains of association which
make a part of his dreams, may be able to walk about and to do many things
without the aid of the sight or hearing."
It cannot be possible that the explanation given by the professor was satisfactory
to himself. For it would be one of the greatest experiments of chance ever known
or thought of for a man to rise from his sleep and go to his barn and climb to the
great beams, throw down his bundles of grain, thrash them and rake up the straw
etc., etc., and follow up this course of business without seeing or without the
power of sight. But the explanation given above admits that such transactions
might happen without "sight or hearing." No one has ever undertaken to explain
them upon the supposition that they do really see and perform all these muscular
actions by the aid of the visual powers of mind.
There is another experiment referred to by the professor as not having been
reached by any of his previous statements and explanations; and he considers
that they may form an exception to the usual appearances in somnambulists but
of a marked and extraordinary character. "There are few cases," he says, "(the
recent instance of Jane Rider in this country is one), where persons, in the
condition of somnambulism, have not only possessed slight visual power, but
perceptions of sight increased much above the common degree. In the
extraordinary narrative of Jane Rider, the author informs us, that he took two
large wads of cotton and placed them directly on the closed eyelids, and then
bound them on with a black silk handkerchief. The cotton filled the cavity under
the eyebrows and reached down to the middle of the cheek and various experi-
ments were tried to ascertain whether she could see. In one of them a watch
inclosed in a case was handed to her and she was requested to tell what o'clock
it was by it; upon which, after examining both sides of the watch, she opened the
case and then answered the question. She also read, without hesitation, the
name of a gentleman, written in characters so fine that no one else could
distinguish it at the usual distance from the eye. In another paroxysm, the lights
were removed from her room and the windows so secured that no object was
discernible, and two books were presented to her when she immediately told the
titles of both, though one of them was a book which she had never before seen.
In other experiments, while the room was so darkened that it was impossible,
with the ordinary powers of vision to distinguish the colors of the carpet, her eyes
were also bandaged. She pointed out the different colors in the hearth rug, took
up and read several cards lying on the table, threaded a needle and performed
several other things which could not have been done without the aid of the vision.
Of extraordinary cases of this kind, it would seem that no satisfactory
explanation, (at least no explanation which is unattended with difficulties), has as
yet been given."
This last case with the remarks is extracted from Upham's Mental Philosophy
Vol. 1, page 214. He expresses no difficulty in explaining how the farmer of
Massachusetts could do his thrashing in the midst of darkness and without the
power of sight, but is willing to acknowledge his inability to explain the method of
seeing in the case of Jane Rider. To us, it appears that they may both be ex-
plained upon the same principles, that they are nearly parallel cases and can be
accounted for in no other way than by the principles we have laid down, namely,
that in the excited, dreaming or somnambulistic subject, impressions are
conveyed to the mind without the aid of the bodily organs, and that the faculties
of the mind are acting in direct communication with objects-that the mind sees,
hears, tastes, smells and feels, without the eyes, ears, tongue, nose and hands.
And that precisely the same impressions may be conveyed to the mind directly
without these organs as could be with them.
A case of somnambulism is related by Dr. Gillett of Connecticut. The subject was
a lady of Wapping, near East Windsor, Conn., who was, while in this state, able
to thread her needle, perform her domestic labors, read a book upside down with
great fluency, tell the time by a watch held near her head and know what her
friends were doing in any part of the room, at any moment etc., etc. This
condition of mind was supposed to result from her weakness and ill health. She
was afterwards cured of these spasms by the influence of mesmeric operations.
The case of Yarnell, a lad born in Buck's County, Pennsylvania, is a striking
instance of somnambulism or excited state of mind. He could perceive persons
and their conduct, however remote, by simply resting his hands upon his knees
and his head upon his hands. He was frequently questioned by wives, whose
husbands were gone to sea and had been absent a long time, and would give
the correct information as to their place and conduct. He would often direct where
stolen goods were found and describe the persons who had taken them. Other
instances might be named of the same class, proving the most extraordinary
power of the mind while in this excited state.
One remark, before we close this part of our subject. The cases of
somnambulism which we have referred to are conditions of mind precisely like
those in the mesmeric state. Every action which transpired in the accounts above
may be produced by a subject under the mesmeric influence. This places the
question, beyond a doubt, that the different conditions of the mind are all
governed by similar laws and explainable upon such principles as we have laid
down. We have taken for examples, such ancedotes and incidents as are familiar
to almost every individual who has paid close attention to the philosophy of the
mind, such as are found in various authors who have explained these
phenomena according to their ideas of mind; but we have endeavored to explain
them upon other principles. We proceed now to a further illustration of our
position upon the theory of mesmerism.
MESMERISM
Anton Mesmer, a Swiss Physician, about the year 1750 was distinguishing
himself by his philosophical writings. From some cause or other, he left his native
country and appeared in France in 1778. Soon after his arrival, he introduced the
new science of Animal Magnetism, which has since been sometimes called
Mesmerism from its supposed discoverer. The phenomena exhibited by Mesmer
under the influence of his new science had been familiar in one form or other to
the inhabitants of the world so far back as history extends; yet he claimed the
honor of discovering its powers and its laws. He introduced the doctrine of the
"magnetic fluid" and was accustomed to magnetize trees by whose power in turn
subjects were thrown into the magnetic state etc. I believe it has generally been
conceded by all who have succeeded him and who have claimed much honor for
having advanced the science, that Mesmer first operated with the Animal fluid. In
the year of 1784, the subject of Animal Magnetism excited much interest in Paris
and the King was finally induced to direct a committee of the Royal Academy of
Medicine of Paris to give the subject a thorough consideration and report their
opinion of its merits. The American Philosopher, Dr. Franklin, was then
Ambassador at the Court of France and was appointed a member of this
committee. It appears during the progress of their investigations that two
principles were to be decided. First, whether the experiments were really
performed as they appeared or were they a species of deception practiced by
collusion, contact or by previous practice. Second, whether, if there should be no
deception practiced, there is sufficient evidence from the facts developed to
establish a theory of "Magnetic Fluid" through which all these strange
appearances of the mind were exhibited. The committee decided that there was
not sufficient evidence exhibited to show that the phenomena called Magnetic
were caused by the action of a fluid, as had been contended by the disciples of
Mesmer. This settled, with them, the second part of their enquiry. The results,
however, and the facts witnessed, were more difficult to reject. They were
thought to be "singular and wonderful" and were finally attributed to the power of
the imagination. The mysterious influence of `mind over mind,' was readily
conceded; yet they supposed the medium to be (not a magnetic fluid), but
"Imagination." We find no fault with this report except in the term used as its
cause, namely, the "Imagination," believing that even the facts disclosed before
the honorable committee were such as to require another expression. If I imagine
a picture or scene, it will not appear real to me. I might create images
corresponding to certain names which would be given them, but there would be
no belief on my part of the real existence of such created images. The poet may
rely upon his powers of imagination and portray in measured verse ideal
existences which please and amuse, but should he portray what he believed to
exist or knows to exist just as he would describe any fact, no one would contend
that the work was a species of imagery, but a relation of facts by the author, or at
least, what was believed to be true by him. Milton, in Paradise Lost has displayed
the highest powers of the imagination, but we do not presume he believed
himself relating simple facts, which actually transpired according to the
description he has given. Yet to some minds who have read this work of genius
and have a belief and a conviction of the reality of his imagery, it is with them a
matter of fact. Imagination can have no permanent effect over the conduct of an
individual, because an impression produced upon the mind by an imaginary
cause ceases to control him, the moment he is conscious of this fact. If I should
read an account of some wonderful event in the columns of a newspaper and I
believed it to be a fact, there would be no imagination upon my part, although the
whole scene might be the work of the editor's imagination. It would be imagery to
him, but reality to me. Now the committee did not pretend that collusion or
consent of action produced such results as were exhibited before them, but that it
was by some unknown mystery, the influence of "Imagination."
It must be admitted at the present day that all subjects act from impressions and
that they really believe in the reality of the cause of these impressions, else they
would not appear so sincere or would not be sincere. If it were the result of the
imagination, it would indeed be a species of polite deception because a subject
could not be supposed to act sincerely and know at the same time that it
proceeded from false causes and that he was deceiving himself. The operator, or
rather the controller of the mind of a subject in the mesmeric state, may produce
impressions upon the recipient, from false causes; yet those causes would be
real to his subject and produce the same results as though every impression
were the result of a real cause. A mesmerizer may imagine a book before the
subject and the subject will see and feel it, although no book be in a room; that is,
the same impression is made upon his mind by the mind of the operator as
though a book had really been placed before him. The operator thinks or
imagines the book, but the subject receives a real impression and acts as though
the object was before him. I have frequently amused myself with experiments of
this nature, fully demonstrating the effect of imagination producing real
impressions upon the subject. I have handed Lucius, my subject, a six inch rule
and imagined it to be twelve inches. He would immediately divide the rule into
twelve inches by counting. Present him with the rule and ask him how many
inches it contains and he would answer correctly unless, by the operation of my
mind I should produce an impression that it contained twelve inches. I have first
asked him to tell me how long it was and he would answer me correctly. I would
then ask him to look again, and then I would imagine any length I please and he
would answer me according to the impression I produced by my imagination or
thought. So in regard to other impressions which I would cause to be made upon
his mind, always producing the same results as though the real object were
presented. I understand the term, imagination, as employed by the honorable
Committee, to refer to the subject and not the operator-that it is a result of the
imagination of the subject. Our remarks above, we think, explain precisely how
much the imagination has to do with this subject, believing as we do that the
mesmerized mind acts from impressions regulated by the same laws as when
impressions are made by the communication of the bodily senses. In the
experiments we have named, and no doubt it was so before the Committee,
whatever imagination has to do with the experiments at all is confined, not to the
subject but to the operator or individual who is in communication with the subject.
We believe the Committee had good and conclusive evidence against the theory
of a fluid and we are equally unbelieving in the imagination as being the result of
all they witnessed. We are aware that much, very much, appears at first view to
be the power of imagination; but a further investigation into the results will prove
that with the mesmeric subject, there is no such power as imagination.
There was an interesting experiment which was performed before the Committee
at Paris of this nature. A tree was magnetized, as the operator supposed, and the
subject was to be led up to it and the magnetic fluid would pass into him and
throw him into the magnetic state. This was performed several times with perfect
accuracy. But the Committee finally hit upon this method. Instead of taking him to
the magnetized tree, he was led up, blindfold, to one not magnetized and quite
as mysteriously fell into the mesmeric condition. This proved to the Committee,
as it must to everyone, that in fact one tree possesses the same principle and
quantity of magnetism as the other, which the operator had acted upon; or that
neither of them was impregnated with magnetism but that some other cause,
called by the Committee imagination, produced the mesmeric sleep. Query, was
this imagination! The subject in the first instance believed that he was led to the
magnetized tree, which was true, and there could not have been imagination
about this. In the second instance he was led to the natural tree, but he believed
it to be magnetized and of course the same impressions and the same results
would follow, if you reject the magnetic fluid. Every circumstance to the subject
would be the same in both experiments, and if like causes produce like effects, it
could not be the result of a magnetic influence because one tree was magnetized
and the other was not and the impressions being real in both cases could not
have affected the imagination. Imagination supposes something not real. These
impressions, from which the subject acts, are real and not imaginary to him.
If the reply is that imagination produced both results, we answer that every thing
which makes an impression upon the mind is, then, the result of the imagination.
All the impressions we receive are imagined, and man's whole conduct is nothing
but a series and succession of imaginations.
If I direct my subject to do a certain thing at such a time, informing him what that
is and the result I wish to produce, and nothing further is said or thought about
the direction until the time arrives, and should the subject by his own voluntary
act do according to my direction, is it the result of his imagination? If on the other
hand, I desire him to do something at a certain time, but do not communicate to
him my desire, and he should without further cause perform the very act I
wished, would it be the power of his imagination? If these are all the result of
imagination, every thing which surrounds us exists only in imagery and the world
is ideal. The system of Berkeley concerning the non existence of matter and that
material existences are but images etc.-might be well adopted; and to carry up
the science a little further, Hume, with his creations of images and impressions,
would be the pattern philosopher of the images of men!
We are rather disposed to confine the use of the word imagination to its proper
definition and not to confound it with realities. We must therefore reject both the
"magnetic fluid" and the "imagination" as being the cause of the phenomena
called mesmeric. We embrace a doctrine which both the Committee and the
followers of Mesmer do not deny, namely, the influence of mind over mind, not
through the medium of a "fluid" or the "Imagination" but by direct contact with and
action upon mind.
We shall now proceed to examine the theory of a "Fluid" and to show what
deception those who have adopted and advocated the theory have practiced
upon themselves. It has been remarked, (and with what truth our readers will
hereafter decide), that Animal Magnetism is a stupendous humbug, that it is a
species of polite deception held up to the community as something strange,
wonderful and real -a delusion played upon the credulity of honest citizens by
artful and designing operators. The facts resulting from experiments, in this
enlightened age, cannot be refuted; but I am aware that the oddity and
unreasonable methods of accounting for them by the writing and lectures of the
advocates of a Fluid theory are so inconsistent with many experiments performed
by the followers of Mesmer, themselves, that not only the animal fluid, but all the
strange phenomena of mind, arising from the mesmeric state, are rejected at
once and passed over to the grave of delusion.
But the rejection of facts should be more carefully done, than of falsehood. Nor
should we give up the whole facts because the system of explanation is
inconsistent and absurd. It is not really the community who are so essentially
humbugged as those who adopt and defend the "Fluid Theory." They are really
deceived, supposing they have the agency of a fluid when, in fact there is no fluid
about the experiments. Their belief, however, enables them to perform their
experiments and they proceed as though they were really doing something by its
agency. If they should adopt the theory of solids instead of fluids, it would be
quite as reasonable and they might perform all the experiments which they now
perform with the fluid, or reject both and then all the experiments can be better
performed which could be performed by "fluids and solids."
The Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend A.M. late of Trinity Hall, Cambridge has
published a volume of some four hundred pages, entitled Dispassionate Inquiry
into Mesmerism. It is on the whole a very interesting work, and serves rather to
amuse than to instruct and direct the enquirer after truth. His experiments were
good and expressed in beautiful language and with scientific terms. But the error
of all his labor was in the first impression from a false cause. He was a believer in
the magnetic fluid and endeavored to bring all the facts he discovered under its
agency. Like the Religionist who first writes out his creed and then bends every
possible principle he can discover in the Bible to support a fabric which he has,
himself, designed, he appears to be more intent upon settling the question of a
fluid agency and bending all his experiments to support his Theory than to
branch out in opposition and undertake to prove the falsity of his position.
On page 276, Book fourth, we find the following principle laid down.
"First, I affirm that, productive of the effects called mesmeric, there is an action of
matter as distinct and specific as that of light, heat, electricity or any other of the
imponderable agents, as they are called; that, when the mesmerizer influences
his patient, he does this by a medium, either known already in other guise, or
altogether new to our experience.
"What proofs, it will be asked, can I bring forward to this assertion? I answer,
such proofs as are considered available in all cases where an impalpable,
imponderable medium is to be considered; facts, namely, on certain
appearances, which, bearing a peculiar character, irresistibly suggest a peculiar
cause.
"Let us take only one of these. Standing at some yards distant from a person who
is in the mesmeric state, (that person being perfectly stationary, and with his
back to me), I, by a slight motion of my hand (far too slight to be felt by the
patient through any disturbance of the air) draw him towards me as if I actually
grasped him.
"What is the chain of facts which is here presented to me? First, an action of my
mind, without which I could not have moved my hand; secondly, my hand's
motion; thirdly, motion produced in a body altogether external to, and distant from
myself. But it will at once be perceived, that, in the chain of events, as thus
stated, there is a deficient link. The communication between me and the distant
body is not accounted for. How could an act of my mind originate an effect so
unusual?" Here then follows the explanation. "That which is immaterial, cannot,
by its very definition, move masses of matter. It is only when mysteriously united
to a body that spirit is brought into relationship with place or extension, and under
such a condition alone, and only through such a medium, can it propagate
motion. Now, in some wondrous way spirit is in us incorporate. Our bodies are its
medium of action. By them and only by them, as far as our experience reaches
are we enabled to move masses of foreign matter. I may sit and will forever that
yonder chair to come to me, but without the direct agency of my body, it must
remain where it is. All the willing in the world cannot stir it an inch. I must bring
myself into absolute contact with the body which I desire to move. But in the case
before us, I will; I extend my hands; I move them hither and thither and I see the
body of another person-a mass of matter external to myself, yet not in apparent
contact with me-moved and swayed by the same action which stirs my own body.
Am I thence to conclude that a miracle has been performed, that the laws of
nature have been reversed, that I can move foreign matter without contact or
intermediate agency? Or must I not rather be certain, that, if I am able to sway a
distant body, it is by means of some unseen lever, that volition is employing
some thing which is equal to a body, something which may be likened to an
extended corporeity which has become the organ of my will?"