16 



-that of reasoning." " The subjective mind takes 

 cognizJiDCfi of its environment by means inde- 

 pendent of the physical senses. It perceives by 

 intuition. It is the seat of the emotions, and the 

 store-huuse of memory. It performs the hig'hest 

 functions when the objectivesensesare in abeyance 

 and is capable of inductive reasoning. In a word, it 

 is that intelligence which makes itself manifest in 

 a hypnotic subject when he is in a state of somnam- 

 ,bulism. It sees without the use of the natural 

 organs of sight, it can be made to leave the body 

 and travel to distant lands, bringing back intetli- 

 .gence oftimes of the most exact and truthful 

 character. It can read the thoughts of others. In 

 other words, it is the soul " This, in short, is his 

 theory, and, if you will follow me carefully for a 

 .short while. I will endeavuur to trace its possibil- 

 ities as to the variety of phenomena which exist?. 

 The objective then works within the limit of 

 reason and bases its action on the positive know- 

 ledge of the individual or on the reasonable 

 knowledge of others. The subject mind, however, 

 is constantly under the control of suggestion, as 

 you will understand from the action of subjects in 

 the hypnotic condition. It believes anything that 

 it is told and accepts any condition, however 

 contrary it may be to the experience or knowledge 

 of the individual. Watch the subject in hypnosis. 

 He may be made druok by drinking a glass of 

 water. If told that an onion is a delicious orange, 

 he will eat it with great relish, believing implicitly 

 what he is told, etc. Another thing which should 

 be mentioned here, is what is known as auto 

 suggestion. It would follow naturally that if the 

 objective mind of one person had power to control 

 the subjective mind of another, then each 

 individual should have power to control his own 

 subj ctive mind. This is exemplified by the 

 power one has to refuse to be placed in the 

 hypnotic condition, or by resolving beforehand 

 that while in that condition they will not 

 allow themselves to be influenced beyond any- 

 thing which would violate their moral principlep,and 

 operators will find that when this is the case, their 

 experiments will not succeed. The mind (or 

 minds) in the normal condition are at their 

 best when evenly balanced. This rarely happens, 

 but when it does, then we have what is 

 called genius. Should the objectivi' mind alone 

 reign you will see that man becomes a mere 

 machine working out his destiny by hard struggle. 

 He has to fight against a loss of memory, be loses 

 the emotional side of his nature, becomes cold 

 and hard and has no love. Should the subjective 

 niind become the dominant power, then reason 

 falls from her throne and the subject becomes 

 mad. You have numerous instances of this ijuite 

 close at hand, possibly some of you have knowledge 

 of them in the asy I iims close by. There are 

 persons whose objective minds have become 

 disorganised through disease of the brain. Many 

 books could be written to bear record of the 

 marv&llous doings and sayings of persons while 

 in this condition. I quote one or two. One 

 doctor writing on the subject says : — 

 " The records of the wit and the cunning of mad- 

 men are numerous in every country. Talents for 

 plo»]uenco. poetry, music, painting, and uncommon 



ingenuity in several of the mechanical arts, are 

 often evolved in this state of madness. A gentle- 

 man whom I attended in a hospital often de- 

 lighted as well as astonished the patients and 

 officers by his displays of oratory in preaching 

 from a table in the hospital every Sunday. A 

 female patient of mine, who became insane after 

 parturition, sang hymns and songs of her own 

 composition during the latter stages of her iUnes?, 

 with tone of voice so soft and pleasing that I hung 

 upon it with delight every time I visited her She 

 bad never developed a talent tor poetry or music 

 in any previous part of her life. Two instances of 

 a talent for drawing evolved by madneps have 

 occurred within my knowleilge. And where is 

 the hospital for mad people, in which elegant and 

 fully-rigged ships, and curious pieces of machinery 

 have not been displayed by persons who never 

 developed the least turn fcr a mechanical art 

 previous to their derangement '- Sometimes we 

 observe in mad people an unexpected resuscitation 

 of knowledge ; hence we hear them dnscrihe 

 past events, and speak in ancient and modern 

 languages, or repeat long and interesting 

 passages from books, none of which, we 

 are sure, they were capable of recollecting 

 m the natural or healthy state of their mind." 

 This is the evidence of one roan only on the 

 subject. When, however, the two minds operate 

 in perfect harmony with one another and are 

 evenly balanced, then, as I stated before, the 

 result is genius. This has been, perhaps, best 

 exemplified in the wondertul mindof Shakespeare, 

 and in different degrees in all who have made 

 their mark in the advance of knowledge. The 

 perfect memory of the subjective mind being at 

 their command, it follows that, combined with the 

 reasoning power of the objective min'l, wondrous 

 results must of necessity follow. There are many 

 means by which the subjective mind may be 

 brought into operation apart from hypnosis. 

 Perhaps the most common of all methods is by 

 the use of what is called the planchette. This is 

 a small piece of board working on two legp, on 

 which are small castors. A third leg consists of 

 a pencil, the point ot which rests upon the paper 

 on which it is intended to write. By means of 

 this instrument many strange results may be 

 obtained, many of which are of a most marvellous 

 character. There are several varieties of this 

 machine, which I need not mention jusc now, 

 but closely allied to this we have what is 

 called automatic writing. This is performed by 

 holding a pencil in the hand and allowing it to 

 write unconsciously. This with somn people is 

 quite easy, and is productive of very many strange 

 results, in many cases bringing to light events 

 which have long since happened and been for- 

 gotten. I had hoped to give you several illus':ration8 

 of this, but the book I wished to quote trom has 

 become lost. Many of you, however, I have no 

 doubt, are familiar with this form of ph^-nomeBa. 

 There is also what is called psychnmetry, or, in 

 other words, the supposed power of the human 

 mind to trace the history of inanimatn objects. 

 For instance, the person will pick up an article, 

 perhaps a piece of stone, and trace its life history 

 back through the ages through which it has. 



