From the Unconscious to the Conscious 



IO. THE SUPERNORMAL 



The appearance of the supernormal resembles that 

 of creative inspiration and genius it is conditioned by a 

 degree of decentralisation sufficient to break for the 

 moment the cerebral limitation of the individual. From 

 the depths of the subliminal consciousness there will 

 sometimes issue, as from a window suddenly opened in 

 the opaque enclosing envelope, dazzling flashes of 

 divination, powers of action from mind to mind, or 

 powers superior to matter, released from the contin- 

 gencies of Time and Space. 



This lucidity, these apparently unlimited powers, are 

 not really marvellous; or at least they are neither more 

 nor less marvellous than all the phenomena of life and 

 thought. 



There is no hard and fast line between the normal 

 and the supernormal; both have their origins in the 

 vital processus, and the only difference is that the one 

 is familiar to us and therefore gives us the illusion of 

 understanding it, while the other derives its occult 

 character from the fact that it is unusual. 



Supernormal physiology presents exactly the same 

 mystery as normal physiology: the normal formation of 

 a living being is neither more nor less marvellous, neither 

 more nor less comprehensible than the abnormal forma- 

 tions which mediumship presents to our view. It is, 

 we repeat, the same ideoplastic miracle which forms the 

 hands, the face, the tissues, and the whole organism of 

 the child at the expense of the maternal body; or the 

 hands, face, and organism of a * materialisation ' at the 

 expense of the body of a medium. 



The psychological supernormal is but one aspect, a 

 hidden aspect, of the normal conditions of the individual, 

 whose apparent consciousness is only the limited reflection 

 of his total consciousness. There is the same mystery 



261 T 



