PLURAL STATES OF BEING. 543 



have the two fundamental facts of the representation of the move- 

 ment before it is performed and the perception of the movement 

 as it is performed, or the model and the copy states of conscious- 

 ness. These are illustrated in a remarkable way in automatic 

 handwriting or the performance of graphic movements which are 

 unknown to the principal consciousness and in a great variety of 

 other movements which are brought about in the secondary con- 

 sciousness by sensations, ideas, and states of all kinds which may 

 occur in the principal consciousness. A curious manifestation of 

 this reunion of consciousnesses is that of suggestions from uncon- 

 scious indications, as when the infliction of a certain number of 

 pricks on an unconscious member gives rise to a suggestion of the 

 number, or when the pressure of a coin or other design suggests 

 a rude reproduction of the design more exact in detail than is 

 made when the organism is in the normal condition. The connec- 

 tions of these consciousnesses are in fact capable of producing 

 hallucinations of all the senses, fixed ideas, and emotional effects. 



Among experiments cited in which the person is induced to 

 perform unconscious movements is that of the exploring pendulum 

 described by Chevreul, the oscillations of which depend on psy- 

 chological movements in the mind of the performer of the experi- 

 ment, it registering the unconscious movements of the hand and 

 making them perceptible by increasing them. Automatic hand- 

 writing is a psychological action of a similar nature, but a little 

 more delicate and more complex. 



What are called unconscious movements of healthy subjects 

 and the various reactions of the secondary personalities of hys- 

 terical patients are really identical, but differ in extent, in exter- 

 nal circumstance, or in degree of development ; and healthy 

 subjects may present special conditions of mind that tend to 

 bring on mental disintegration, as when attention is divided 

 among a great many subjects or when it is intensely concentrated 

 on one thing and distracted as to all others ; but the unconscious- 

 ness thus produced does not reach the degree of development at- 

 tained in hysterical persons and is not as brilliant. It will not 

 spontaneously write letters and confessions, but is still something 

 positively existing. 



Recent researches have thrown new light upon phenomena of 

 spiritism, or so-called " spiritualism," by showing that these phe- 

 nomena are due largely to mental disaggregation or division. 

 There is no essential difference between the experiments described 

 upon hysterical patients and the more spontaneous experiments 

 that the spiritists practice upon themselves. The principal dif- 

 ferences lie in the minor, or, one might almost say, anecdotal con- 

 ditions i. e., in the medium, the terms employed, or the imagined 

 explanations. 



