Part 13 (1/2)

Undoubtedly, therefore, it is proper to assu of this chapter, Professor Loe wardrobe advance to attack him; and when Lords Crawford and Dunraven saw the h the air, hallucination rather than ”spirit action” is the correct explanation At all events, in view of the known fallibility of the human senses; the manifold opportunities for fraud open to le exception of Hoation has been caught practising fraud at one tienuine any of the phenomena of physical mediumshi+p

Still, it would be incorrect to say that the tiation of these phenomena has been time wasted They have performed a necessary police duty for society, and their labors, as we shall see, have been productive of psychological discoveries of great practical importance

CHAPTER VI

THE SUBCONSCIOUS

When the Society for Psychical Research was founded, in 1882, its purpose was not only to obtain, if possible, scientifically acceptable proof of the survival of human personality after bodily death, but also to study the nature of personality in its ht into the powers and possibilities of man here on earth

In this latter quest it has been ee of ourselves has been increased a thousandfold

As has been shown, phenoarded as mysterious and ”supernatural”--such as apparitions, clairvoyance, crystal-gazing, etc--have been definitely explained on a purely naturalistic basis; and, as was said at the close of the last chapter, in addition to naturalizing the supernatural, psychical researchers have reat practical utility, and having a profound bearing on affairs of everyday life

A these, none is of more importance than the discovery of the ”subconscious” This tero, is nowadays used by psychologists in a variety of ways, but it e of mental processes and phenomena that occur beneath the surface of our ordinary consciousness

Subconsciouspart in our lives It is in evidence in such co the piano, handling a tool, a tennis racket, or a baseball bat

There was a time, in the experience of all of us, e could do none of these things, but had to learn them by conscious effort Little by little, as we acquired more skill, the element of consciousness became less and less, until at last we could execute thely automatic manner, as in the fashi+on of the piano player described by Miss Cobbe:

”Two different lines of hieroglyphics have to be read at once, and the right hand has to be guided to attend to one of theers have the work assigned as quickly as they canwhich does duty as mind, interprets scores of A sharps, and B flats, and C naturals into black ivory keys and white ones, crotchets, and quavers, and demi-quavers, rests, and all theto do with the pedals And all this time the performer, the _conscious_ performer, is in a seventh heaven of artistic rapture at the results of all this tremendous business, or perchance lost in a flirtation with the individual who turns the leaves of thehim the whole of her soul”

The subconscious is thus a sort of reservoir in which are stored up, available for future use, the things learned through education and experience; and it also has a dynae the operations of the upper consciousness Ordinarily we fail to appreciate e to this hidden servitor, for the reason that its workings are so smooth, so unobtrusive, as to pass quite unnoticed Yet abundant evidence has been secured to demonstrate not sinificant fact that it is never at rest, but is perpetually laboring in our behalf

Even when our consciousness is for the moment completely in abeyance--as e are asleep--the subconscious continues operant Many of my readers have doubtless had the experience of vainly endeavoring for hours, perhaps for days, to solve so with a luminously clear idea of its correct solution While they slept, their subconsciousness had been at work disentangling the threads of their conscious reasoning, stripping away and discarding unessentials, and finally presenting the of that which had previously been so perplexing to them

In all such cases the action of the subconscious is more vividly evident when, as often happens, the desired solution is gained during sleep itself, in the form of a dream An excellent example is found in an episode narrated by a business man, who says:

”I had been bothered since September with an error in my cash account for that month, and, despite many hours' exaave it up as hopeless It had been the subject of e portion of my leisure hours Matters remained thus unsettled until the eleventh of Deceht of the subject, but I had not been long in bed and asleep, when h I had been at my desk

”The cash book, banker's pass books, etc, etc, appeared before me; and, without any apparent trouble, I almost immediately discovered the cause of the mistakes, which had arisen out of a co taken a slip of paper in my dream, and made such a memorandum as would enabledone this, that the whole of the circumstances had passed fro I had not the slightest recollection of hout the day, although I had the very books before ed in my sleep When I returned home in the afternoon, as I did early, for the purpose of dressing, and proceeded to shave, I took up a piece of paper froinethereon the very ht The effect on me was such that I returned to our office and turned to the cash book, when I found that I had really, while asleep, detected the error which I could not detect inhours, and had actually jotted it down at the time

”I have no recollection whatever as to where I obtained the paper and pencil hich I made the memorandum It certainly must have been written in the dark, and in my bedroo afternoon The pencil was not one which I a, and my impression is that I one down-stairs for it”[32]

[32] _Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research_, vol viii, pp 394-395

Illustrative of the sa because of the light it throws on the true nature of ular experience that once befell Professor H V Hilprecht, the well-known archaeologist of the University of Pennsylvania

At the ti to decipher the inscriptions on two sate from the temple of Bel in ancient Babylonia, and believed by his of some wealthy Babylonian He had already published a preliminary report on the collection of which they formed a part, but, despite weeks of earnest effort, had utterly failed to get at theof the words inscribed on thements until nearly twelve o'clock without any satisfactory result, he went to bed weary and exhausted, and was soon in a deep sleep He then dreamed that he was transported to the temple of Bel, where a venerable priest, whose dress showed that he belonged to a pre-Christian epoch, conducted him into the treasure chamber of the temple It was a se wooden chest, around which were scattered pieces of agate and other valuable stones While Professor Hilprecht stood looking at these, the priest said to hies 22 and 26 belong together, are not finger rings, and their history is as follows:

”King Kurigalzu [who reigned in Babylonia about 1300 B C], once sent to the teate and lapis lazuli, an inscribed votive cylinder of agate Then we priests suddenly received the command to s of agate We were in great disate at hand as rawfor us to do but cut the votive cylinder into three parts, s, each of which contained a portion of the original inscription

”The first two rings served as earrings for the statue of the God; the two fragiven you so much trouble are portions of theether you will have confir you have not yet found in the course of your excavations, and you never will find it”

With this the priest disappeared, and the drea, impressed with its coherence and vividness, Professor Hilprecht again attacked the troubleso the proper guesses for themiddle portion, readily deciphered the full inscription: ”To the God Ninib, son of Bel, his lord, has Kurigalzu, pontifex of Bel, presented this”[33]