FOSS^SSIOJ^ AND MEDIUMSHIP. 231 



myself, I certainly felt no inconvenience from the fall. I lay 

 groaning for a little while, and then got up and sat in my chair 



again. 



*' Some one now suggested that we should sing, and this being 

 done, I immediately became affected by the music, which moved 

 me in a very extraordinary manner. I fancied myself realizing 

 the whole scene clearly. In a great cathedral I seemed to be the 

 presiding priest at the close of a great function pronouncing the 

 benediction." He then went through several of these dreamlike 

 states, some of which he describes, and says of them : " In all these 

 phases or states I seemed to bo two individuals one my ordinary, 

 critical, observant self, closely watching what took place in and 

 around me, the other the character that seemed to be personating 

 itself through me." Toward the close of the seance the hymn 

 " Nearer, my God, to Thee " was sung. " Before the first verse 

 was finished I began to experience strange sensations. ... I 

 seemed to be far away in space. ... I seemed to bo moving or 

 rather to be drawn downward, and presently felt that I had 

 reached this earth again ; but all was strange and fearful and 

 lonely, and I seemed to be disappointed that I could not attain 

 the object of this long and lonely journey. ... At this point some 

 one said, ' It's his father controlling him.' I then seemed to real- 

 ize who I was and whom I was seeking. I began to be distressed 

 in my lungs. ... I was in a measure still conscious of my actions, 

 though not of my surroundings, and I have a clear memory of 

 seeing myself in the character of my dying father lying in the 

 bed and the room in which he died. It was a most curious sensa- 

 tion. I saw his shrunken hands and face and lived again through 

 his dying moments ; only now I was both myself in some indis- 

 tinct sort of way and my father with his feeling and appearance." 



Mr. Tout then shows in detail that these dreams for they are 

 no more sprang from the suggestions which were given him by 

 his friends and from autosuggestions furnished by his own mind. 

 For example, the journey through space sprang from a ghost 

 story which he had once read, told from a ghost's point of view, 

 and describing the return of a restless spirit to earth. He then 

 adds : " I know myself and my susceptibility, even under normal 

 conditions, to suggestion in all sorts of forms, not necessarily 

 verbal, so well that no alternative remains to me but to believe 

 that what I did was due simply to everyday suggestion in one 

 form and another. Building and peopling chateaux en Espagne 

 was a favorite occupation of mine in my earlier days, and this 

 long-practiced faculty is doubtless a potent factor in all my char- 

 acterizations, and doubtless also in those of many another full- 

 fledged ' medium.'" With this sane and rational conclusion all 

 sensible folk will agree. 



