From the Unconscious to the Conscious 



appear, I have no right to put forward the slightest 

 doubt as to its reality. With Eva, the mode of operation 

 necessary to obtain materialisations is very simple: the 

 medium, after having been seated in the dark cabinet, is 

 put into the hypnotic state, slightly, but enough to 

 involve forgetfulness of the normal personality. This 

 dark cabinet has no other purpose than to protect the 

 sleeping medium from disturbing influences, and specially 

 from the action of light. It is thus possible to keep the 

 stance-room sufficiently well lit for perfect obser- 

 vation. 



The phenomena appear (when they do appear) after 

 a variable interval, sometimes very brief, sometimes an 

 hour or more. They always begin by painful sensations 

 in the medium; she sighs and moans from time to time 

 much like a woman in childbirth. These moans reach 

 their height just when the manifestation begins, they 

 lessen or cease when the forms are complete. 



There first appear luminous liquid patches from the 

 size of a pea to that of a crown-piece, scattered here and 

 there over her black smock, principally on the left side. 



This constitutes a premonitory phenomenon, appear- 

 ing sometimes three-quarters of an hour to an hour 

 before the other phenomena. Sometimes it is omitted, 

 and sometimes it appears without being followed by 

 anything more. The substance exudes specially from 

 the natural orifices and the extremities, from the top 

 of the head, from the nipples, and the ends of the fingers. 



The most frequent and most easily observed origin 

 is from the mouth ; the substance is then seen to proceed 

 from the interior surface of the cheeks, the roof of the 

 palate, and the gums. 



The substance has variable aspects; sometimes, and 

 most characteristically, it appears as a plastic paste, a 

 true protoplasmic mass; sometimes as a number of fine 

 threads; sometimes as strings of different thickness in 

 narrow and rigid lines; sometimes as a wide band; 



54 



