One of the most common methods of exploring the subconscious1 mind is the method of automatic writing. I have never tried this myself, but tens of thousands of people are sitting every night with a "ouija" in front of them, holding a pencil on a piece of paper and letting their subconscious minds write what they please. Most of them are hoping to get messages from the dead—a problem which we shall discuss in the next chapter. Suffice it for the moment to say that automatic writing and table rapping and other devices of mediumship have opened up to us a vast mass of subconscious mentality2. A part of the scientific world still takes a contemptuous attitude and calls this all humbug3, but many of our greatest scientists have been persuaded to investigate, and have become convinced that in this mass of subconsciousness4 there is mingled5, not merely the mind of the medium, but the minds of all those present, and possibly other minds as well. For my part, I do not see how any one can study disinterestedly6 the proceedings7 of the Society for Psychical8 Research and not become convinced that telepathy at least is one of the powers of the subconscious mind.
Telepathy is what is popularly known as "thought transmission." Every one must know people who are what is called "psychic," and will know what is happening to some friend in another part of the world, or will go upstairs because they "sense" that some one wants them, or will go to the door because they "have a hunch9" that some one is coming. And maybe these things are only chance, but you will be unscientific if you do not take the trouble to read and learn what modern investigators11 have brought out on such subjects.
This much is certain, and is denied by no competent investigator10: whatever has been in your mind is there still, and it is possible to find a way of tapping the buried memory. An old woman, delirious12 with fever, begins to babble13 in a strange language, and it is discovered that she is talking ancient Hebrew. The woman is entirely14 illiterate15, and her conscious memory knows no language but her own, her conscious mind has no ideas beyond those of her domestic life and the gossip of the village. But investigation16 is made, and it is discovered that when this woman was a girl, she worked in the home of a Hebrew scholar, and heard him reading aloud. She did not understand a word of what she heard, and was not consciously listening to it; nevertheless, every syllable17 of it had been stored away forever by her subconscious mind. Innumerable cases of this sort have been established; and, as a matter of fact, we might have been prepared for such discoveries by the memory-feats of the conscious mind. It is well known that Mozart, when a child, could listen to a new opera, and go home and play it over note for note. At present there is a child in America, giving exhibitions in public, carrying on thirty games of chess at the same time. There have been others who do sums of mental arithmetic, such as multiplying thirty-two figures by thirty-two figures, or reciting the Bible backwards18.
All this seems incredible; and yet there is something still more incredible. Suppose that these same powers, which are stored in our subconscious minds, were stored also in the minds of animals! A few years ago Maurice Maeterlinck published a book, "The Unknown Guest," in the course of which he tells about his experiments with the so-called Elberfeld horses: two animals which had been trained for years by their owner to give signals by moving their forefeet, and which apparently19 could count and divide and multiply large sums, and extract square and cube root, and spell out names, and recognize sounds, scents20 and colors, and read time from the face of a watch. Of course, it is easy to say that this is absurd, that the horses must have got some signals from their trainer; but, as it happened, they would do their work in the absence of their trainer; they would do it in the dark, or with a sack over their heads, and the best scientific minds of Germany were unable to suggest any test conditions which could not be met. There have been many gigantic frauds in the world, and this may have been one of them; on the other hand, there have been many new discoveries, and for my part I will finish exploring the miracles of the subconscious mind of man, before I presume to say that anything is impossible in the subconscious mind of a horse or a dog. Also I will wait for some learned person to explain to me how the subconscious minds of horses and dogs know enough to build and repair their bones and teeth, so cleverly that modern architectural and engineering science could teach them nothing. I ask, also, if it is possible to find a region in the subconsciousness which is common to two people, why is it absurd to suggest that there might be a region common to a man and a horse? Why is this any more absurd than that they should eat the same food and breathe the same air and feel the same affection and be frightened at the same dangers?
The only persons who will be dogmatic about such subjects are the persons who are ignorant. Those who take the trouble to investigate, discover more wonderful things every day, and they realize that we have here a whole universe of knowledge, to which we have as yet barely opened the doors. Consider, for example, the facts which we are acquiring on the subject of personality and what it means. You would say, perhaps, that if there is anything you know positively21, it is that you are one person, and have never been anybody else, and that your body belongs to you, and that nobody else ever has used or ever can use it. But what would you say if I told you that tomorrow "you" might cease to be, and somebody else might be in possession of your body, walking it around and wearing its clothes and spending its money? What if I were to tell you that there might be in "you," or in your body, half a dozen different personalities22 which you have never known or dreamed of, and that tomorrow there might break out a war between them and "you," as to which of the half dozen people should hear with your ears and speak with your tongue and walk about with your clothes on? Unless you are familiar with the literature of multiple personality, you would surely say that this was unbelievable—quite as much so as a mathematical horse!
Let us begin with the case of the Reverend Ansel Bourne, who was many years ago a perfectly23 respectable clergyman in a Rhode Island town. One day he disappeared, and his family did not hear of him. A year or two later there was a store-keeper in a town in Pennsylvania, who suddenly came to himself as the Reverend Ansel Bourne, not knowing what he had been in the meantime, or how he came to be keeping a store. Under hypnotism it developed that he had in him two personalities, and his trance personality recollected24 all that had been happening in the meantime and told about it freely.
Or take the still more fascinating case of the young lady who is known in the literature of psychotherapy as Miss Beauchamp. Her story is told in a book, "The Dissociation of a Personality," by Dr. Morton Prince of Boston. Some thirty years ago Miss Beauchamp, a very conscientious25 and dignified26 young lady, became nervous and ill, and took to doing strange things, which were a source of shame and humiliation27 to her. Under hypnotism it was discovered to be a case of multiple personality. The other personality, who finally gave herself the name of Sally, was entirely different in character from Miss Beauchamp, being mischievous28, vain, and primitive29 as a child. She conceived an intense dislike for Miss Beauchamp, whom she called by abusive names; at times when she could get possession of Miss Beauchamp's body, she delighted in playing humiliating tricks upon her enemy, spending her money, running her into debt, breaking her engagements, disgracing her before her friends. Sally was always well and Miss Beauchamp was always ill, and Sally would take the body, for which they fought for possession, and take it for long and exhausting walks, and leave it cold and miserable30, lost and penniless, in the possession of Miss Beauchamp! And of course this made Miss Beauchamp more and more a wreck31, and Sally took possession of more and more of her time. Sally knew everything that Miss Beauchamp did and thought, but Miss Beauchamp did not know about Sally. She only knew that there were gaps in her life, during which she did things she could not explain. And because she did not want her friends to think her insane, she would try to hide this dreadful condition of affairs; but Sally would spoil her plans by writing letters to her friends, and also by writing insulting letters for Miss Beauchamp to find when she took possession again.
Then one day, after several years of treatment, there appeared yet another personality, who knew nothing about Miss Beauchamp or Sally either, and only knew what Miss Beauchamp had known up to some years before. Miss Beauchamp had a college education, and wrote and spoke32 French; Sally knew no French, and tried in vain to learn it; the new personality did not have a college education at all. Nevertheless, after long experiment, the story of which is as fascinating as any novel you ever read, Dr. Prince discovered that this was the real Miss Beauchamp; the others were "split off" personalities. He traced the cause to a severe mental shock, and succeeded in the end in combining the first Miss Beauchamp with the last, and in suppressing the obstinate33 and wanton Sally. As you read this story, you watch him mentally murdering a human being; "Sally" clamors pitifully for life, but he condemns34 her to death, and relentlessly35 executes his sentence. It is a "movie" thriller36 with a happy ending, and I should think it would make disconcerting reading to persons who believe that each of us is one immortal37 soul, or "has" one immortal soul, and is responsible for it to a personal God.
There is never any end to the problems of these multiple personalities, and each case is a test of the judgment38 and ingenuity39 of the specialist. He will try to make one personality "stick," and will fail, and will have to accept another, or a combination of two. In one case, he found that he could not get the right personality to "stick" except under hypnosis, so he decided40 to leave the man in a mild state of trance, and the new personality lived all the rest of its life in that condition. If you wish to know more about this subject you can find books in any well-equipped library. I mention one, "The Riddle41 of Personality," by H. Addington Bruce, because it contains in the appendix an excellent list of the literature of the subconscious in all its many aspects.
There is another, and most fascinating method of exploring this underworld of the mind, and that is the study of dreams. Some fifteen years ago a psychotherapist in New York told me about the discoveries of a physician in Vienna, and gave me some pamphlets, written in very difficult and technical German. Since then this Professor Freud has been translated, and has become a fad42, and the absurdities43 of his followers44 make one a little apologetic for him. But we do not give up Jesus because of the torturers and bigots who call themselves Christians45, and in the same way we have no right to blame Freud for all the absurdities of the psychoanalysts.
Probably there never was a time in human history when there were not people who interpreted dreams, and you can still buy "dream books" for twenty-five cents, and learn that a white horse means that you are going to get a letter from your sweetheart tomorrow; then you can buy another dream book, telling you that a white horse means there is going to be a death in your family within the year. Naturally this prejudices thinking people against dream analysis; yet, dreams are facts, and every fact has its cause, and if you dream about a white horse, there must assuredly be some reason for your dreaming this particular thing. Of course we know that if you eat mince-pie and welsh-rabbit at midnight, you will dream about something terrible; but will it be snakes, or will it be a railroad wreck, or will it be white horses trampling46 over you? Obviously, it may be a million different unpleasant things; and what is it that picks out this or that from the infinite store of your memory, and brings it into the region of half-consciousness which we call the dream?
Professor Freud's discovery is in brief that the dream is a wish-fulfillment. Our instincts present to our consciousness a great mass of impulses and desires, and among these the consciousness selects what it pleases, and represses and refuses to recognize or to act upon the others. But maybe these decisions are not altogether satisfactory to the subconsciousness. The mind of the body is in rebellion against the mind—shall we say of reason, or shall we say of society? The mind of society, otherwise known as the moral law, says that you shall be a good little boy, and shall go to school and learn what you are told, and on Sunday go to church and sit very still through a long sermon; whereas, the body of a boy would rather be a savage47, hunting birds' nests and scalping enemies and exploring magic caves full of precious jewels. So the subconsciousness of the boy, balked48 and miserable, awaits its time, and finds its satisfaction when the boy is asleep and his moral censor49 has relaxed its control.
This dream mind is not a logical and orderly thing like the conscious mind; it is not business-like and civilized50, it does not deal in abstractions. It is far more interested in things than in words; it does not present us with formulas, but with pictures, and with stories of weird51 and wonderful happenings. It is like the mind of the race, which we study in legends and religions. It does not tell us that the sun is a mass of incandescent52 hydrogen gas, so and so many miles in diameter; it tells us that the sun is a cosmic hero who slays53 the black dragon of night. So the mind of our body presents us with innumerable pictures and symbols, exactly such as we find in poetry. There may be, and frequently is, dispute as to just what a poet meant by this or that particular image, but if we read all the work of any particular poet, we get a certain impression of that poet's individuality. If he is always talking about the perfume of women's hair and the gleam of the white flesh of nymphs in the thickets54, we are not left in doubt as to what is wrong with this poet.
And just so, when the expert sets to work to examine all the dreams that any one person can remember, day after day, sooner or later the expert observes that these dreams hover55 continually about one particular subject; and by questioning the person, he can find out what is the secret which is troubling the person, perhaps without the person himself being aware of it. Of course there are many people who like nothing so much as to talk about themselves; and many are spending their time and their money on the latest fad of being "psyched," who would, in any properly organized world, be put to work at hoeing weeds or washing their own clothes. Nevertheless, it is a fact that there are real mental disorders56 in the world, and innumerable honest and earnest people who have something the matter with them which they do not understand. Here is one way by which the conscientious investigator can find out what the trouble is, and make it clear to them, and by establishing harmony between their conscious and their subconscious minds, can many times put them in the way of health and happiness.
Through psychoanalysis we are enabled to understand the "split" personality and its cause. We discover that almost everyone has more or less rudimentary forms of multiple personality hidden within him; made out of desires and traits which he does not like, or which the world forces him to drive into the deeps of his being. These may be evil impulses, of sex or violence; they may be the most noble altruisms, or artistic57 yearnings, ridiculous things in a world of "hustle58." A quite normal man or woman may keep a separate self, apart from the world, living a Jekyll life of business propriety59 and a Hyde life of religious or musical ecstasy60. Or again, the repressed impulses may integrate themselves in the unconscious, and you may have genius or lunacy or both—"great wits to madness near allied61." The modern knowledge on such dark mysteries you may find in Hart's "The Psychology62 of Insanity63."
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1
subconscious
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| n./adj.潜意识(的)，下意识(的) | |
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mentality
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| n.心理，思想，脑力 | |
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humbug
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| n.花招，谎话，欺骗 | |
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subconsciousness
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| 潜意识；下意识 | |
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mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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disinterestedly
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proceedings
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| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
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psychical
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| adj.有关特异功能现象的；有关特异功能官能的；灵魂的；心灵的 | |
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hunch
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| n.预感，直觉 | |
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investigator
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| n.研究者，调查者，审查者 | |
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investigators
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| n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 ) | |
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delirious
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| adj.不省人事的，神智昏迷的 | |
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babble
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| v.含糊不清地说，胡言乱语地说，儿语 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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illiterate
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| adj.文盲的；无知的；n.文盲 | |
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investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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syllable
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| n.音节；vt.分音节 | |
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backwards
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| adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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scents
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| n.香水( scent的名词复数 )；气味；（动物的）臭迹；（尤指狗的）嗅觉 | |
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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personalities
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| n. 诽谤，（对某人容貌、性格等所进行的）人身攻击； 人身攻击；人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 ) | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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recollected
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| adj.冷静的；镇定的；被回忆起的；沉思默想的v.记起，想起( recollect的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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conscientious
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| adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的 | |
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dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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humiliation
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| n.羞辱 | |
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mischievous
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| adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的 | |
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primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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condemns
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| v.（通常因道义上的原因而）谴责( condemn的第三人称单数 )；宣判；宣布…不能使用；迫使…陷于不幸的境地 | |
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relentlessly
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| adv.不屈不挠地；残酷地；不间断 | |
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thriller
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| n.惊险片，恐怖片 | |
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immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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ingenuity
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| n.别出心裁；善于发明创造 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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riddle
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| n.谜，谜语，粗筛；vt.解谜，给…出谜，筛，检查，鉴定，非难，充满于；vi.出谜 | |
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fad
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| n.时尚；一时流行的狂热；一时的爱好 | |
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absurdities
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| n.极端无理性( absurdity的名词复数 )；荒谬；谬论；荒谬的行为 | |
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followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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Christians
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| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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trampling
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| 踩( trample的现在分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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48
balked
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| v.畏缩不前，犹豫( balk的过去式和过去分词 )；（指马）不肯跑 | |
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censor
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| n./vt.审查，审查员；删改 | |
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civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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incandescent
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| adj.遇热发光的， 白炽的，感情强烈的 | |
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slays
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| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的第三人称单数 ) | |
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thickets
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| n.灌木丛( thicket的名词复数 )；丛状物 | |
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hover
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| vi.翱翔，盘旋；徘徊；彷徨，犹豫 | |
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disorders
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| n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调 | |
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artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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hustle
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| v.推搡；竭力兜售或获取；催促；n.奔忙(碌) | |
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propriety
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| n.正当行为；正当；适当 | |
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ecstasy
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| n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷 | |
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allied
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| adj.协约国的；同盟国的 | |
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psychology
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| n.心理，心理学，心理状态 | |
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insanity
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| n.疯狂，精神错乱；极端的愚蠢，荒唐 | |
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