From the Unconscious to the Conscious 



partial explanations on points of detail can have any 

 value at all. Mediumship, in all its prodigious diversity 

 can be understood only by the knowledge of the actual 

 psychological constituents of individual man, what the 

 individual grouping consists of, and its possibilities of 

 relative and momentary dissociation; and, especially, 

 by knowledge of its metaphysical essence, and of the 

 creative dynamo-psychism objectified in it. 



If, and only if, we take our stand on this new concept 

 of the Self, it becomes easy to comprehend the endless 

 diversity of mediumistic action. Nevertheless, even if 

 we take these precise notions on the constitution of the 

 individual as our point of departure, there will always 

 remain questions open to controversy on the subject of 

 mediumship. 



Among these reserved questions two, more especially, 

 are open to discussion the personalities manifested, 

 and the teachings given by these personalities. 



I. Mediumistic 'personalities. In all manifestations 

 of mediumship is to be observed a marked tendency to 

 * personification.' The mental disjunctions, exteriori- 

 sations, cryptomnesic and crypto-psychic phenomena, and 

 powers over matter, are not usually anarchic or incoherent; 

 they denote a purpose and show direction. This 

 direction is by a secondary personality distinct from 

 the Self. 



Often this secondary personality is insignificant and 

 ephemeral. Just as elementary exteriorisations and 

 incipient mento-mental action or clairvoyance the 'small 

 change* of mediumship are usual in the normal existence 

 of mediums, so also the tendency to disjunctions and 

 autonomous personifications appears as a commonplace 

 and uninteresting phenomenon. 



But in the favourable atmosphere created by spiritist 

 stances, or following on frequent use or impulse, or 

 sometimes spontaneously, these manifestations become 

 more precise and accentuated, and the directing 



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