From the Unconscious to the Conscious 



M. Flournoy cites a number of facts which he 

 attributes entirely to cryptomnesia, mediums giving 

 biographical details of persons unknown to them but 

 which they may have unconsciously known from a 

 forgotten glance at a newspaper which contained those 

 details; mediums speaking fragments of a language 

 of which they are ignorant simply because these phrases 

 have fallen under their eyes on some forgotten occasion, 

 etc., etc. 



' In fine,' Flournoy concludes, ' by whatever mode the 

 mnemonic content has been received, whether by 

 reading, conversation, etc., it emerges in sensorial 

 automatisms (visions, voices, etc.), in motor automatisms 

 (raps or automatic writing), or in total automatisms 

 (trances, controls, or somnambulistic personifications). 

 This diversity, of course, is further complicated by the 

 embroidery which the fancy of the medium adds to 

 fragments properly referred to cryptomnesia.' 



Among the examples given by Flournoy there are 

 some of the most remarkable kind. Some are here 

 quoted. 



Case of Eliza Wood. Mrs Wood, widowed in the 

 previous week, received a visit from a friend, Mme 

 Darel (the well-known authoress of Geneva), who 

 possessed remarkable mediumistic faculties. Mme Darel 

 brought to her, on behalf of the defunct, the following 

 message, obtained at her table: * Tell her to remember 

 Easter Monday.' It was a striking allusion to an event 

 known only to Mr and Mrs Wood, referring to a walk 

 kept secret from their families, prior to their engagement, 

 which had left an ineffaceable memory. This striking 

 proof of identity convinced Mrs Wood, who soon had 

 a second, still more valid, at the seances which she 

 attended at Mme Darel's house. Mr Wood had died 

 not long after their wedding trip, his widow thought 

 he had left no will, and the search which she made was 

 fruitless, till the day when she and Mme Darel were 



