From the Unconscious to the Conscious 



manifestations, Flournoy gives many others, which, 

 equally mysterious in appearance, certainly proceed 

 from pure cryptomnesia ; mediums giving from supposed 

 defunct persons proofs of identity found on inquiry to 

 be erroneous, but conformable to records which had 

 appeared in such and such a newspaper which had 

 evidently fallen under the eyes of the medium at some 

 moment or other without arousing conscious attention. 



However little philosophical thought one may bring 

 to the study of subconscious psychology, what strikes 

 one most forcibly is that it does not fall under any known 

 physiological law. The same question inevitably recurs 

 to the mind of the inquirer why, and how, is it that 

 the portion of the psychism which constitutes the more 

 important part of the Self, remains cryptoid ? Why, and 

 how, does it come to pass that the consciousness and 

 the will of the living being, without which there would 

 be no Self, let go the major part of that Self ? Whether 

 the matter is cryptopsychic or cryptomnesic, the mystery 

 is equally profound. It is physiologically impossible to 

 understand how the conscious memory, under the control 

 and the direction of the person, should be weak, untrust- 

 worthy, and decrepit, while the subconscious memory, 

 only accessible incidentally or in abnormal or super- 

 normal states, should seem both extensive and un- 

 failing. 



Nevertheless this is what everything tends to 

 prove. 



Yet more, the weakness and impotence of the normal 

 memory is sometimes such that the subconscious know- 

 ledge or powers which escape from the direction of the 

 Self appear totally strange to the individual and constitute 

 a secondary consciousness. 



In the bewildering complexity of the subconscious, 

 there arise not only duplicate, but even multiple, 

 personalities. 



93 



