"From the Unconscious to the Conscious 



he warns, he knocks at all doors; but nothing 

 reaches us but a vague disquiet, an indistinct 

 murmur which is sometimes translated to us by 

 a jailer only half awake, and, like ourselves, 

 captive till death. ... In other words, and without 

 metaphor, the medium draws from his habitual 

 language, and from that which the sitters suggest to 

 him, materials wherewith to clothe and identify the 

 presentiments and the unwonted visions which come 

 he knows not whence.' 



This unknown guest, this subconscious person is 

 not in reality a single and homogeneous being. It 

 would be better named * the subconscious complex,' 

 which can reveal itself to us under the most diverse 

 forms and attributes. 



Unity belongs to the real Self only, as distinct from 

 the mental process as from the organic form, but retaining 

 in itself the memory-total of all representations. 



In order that the Self, abstracted from organic 

 limitations, should be able to reveal its higher powers and 

 the immensity of its latent conscious acquisitions, it 

 must be able sufficiently to master its own decentralised 

 mentality. 



Such a condition rarely comes about, and it is for 

 this reason that crypto-psychic manifestations are usually 

 fragmentary and erratic. 



() Even if the communication proceeds from an 

 intelligence distinct from the medium, it may 

 itself be imperfect or falsified, frequently both 

 and in varying degrees. 



Passing through the mediumistic channel it will 

 necessarily be limited by the mentality and the cere- 

 bration of the medium ; and as the intrinsic subconscious 

 inspiration has such difficulty in reacting accurately on 

 the brain, there is all the more reason why an extrinsic 

 inspiration should be limited, lessened, or deformed. 



270 



