234 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Here it is conceivable that the counting was merely forgotten 

 and not strictly subconscious ; but sometimes the suggestion can 

 be elicited by automatic writing while the upper consciousness is 

 apparently quite normal and entirely unaware of what is written. 

 At other times the subconscious state seems to effect partial union 



with the upper consciousness. Thus P 11 was told " The baking 



trade is failing." Next day while awake he put his hand upon 

 the planchette and the instrument slowly produced the words 

 " The baking trade is failing." While the writing was proceeding 

 he said that some one seemed to be " hallooing in his ear some- 

 thing, he could not make out what, about the baking trade." An- 

 other of Mr. Gurney's patients, when told to see his wife, thought 

 he saw a face in an air ball. It was dim and soon faded away. 

 Later, the suggestion having been repeated, he said he " saw a lot 

 of faces floating before his eyes " that night. Such cases are pre- 

 cious as throwing light upon the origin of the u spirit voices " 

 and " visions " which many automatists hear and see. 



Mr. Gurney also got interesting evidence of subconscious time 



reckoning. The patient, W s, was * told in trance on March 19th 



that, when he came next, he was to poke the fire six minutes after 

 his arrival, and that when he wrote he was to record the number 

 of minutes that had run. On March 21st he arrived at 6.57i, and 

 I set him down to the planchette in about a minute. The writing, 

 which it took about a minute to produce, was ' 2, 3 more/ . . . 

 He was told on March 23d that a quarter of an hour after his 

 next arrival he was to open and shut the door of the room and 

 note the course of time as usual. The next time he arrived at 

 7.6}. He was set to the planchette at 7.19. The writing, pro- 

 duced at once, was ' 13 minutes and 2 more/ " At 7.22 he exe- 

 cuted the suggestion. 



Analogous phenomena in normal life are familiar. Many per- 

 sons, of whom I am one, by giving themselves a suggestion upon 

 going to bed to wake at a given time next morning, can make 

 themselves wake at or about the time appointed. When the time 

 is fixed by habit there is still more striking evidence of subcon- 

 scious processes. For several months it was my practice to get 

 up at 6.50 every morning. Not only did I usually wake about 

 that time, but I would also often, after lying awake for some time, 

 get out of bed suddenly without any clear intention of doing so 

 or thought of the time. While busily thinking of something else 

 I would suddenly find myself out of bed and beginning to dress ; 

 then, looking at my watch, I would find it was within a few min- 

 utes of 6.50. There was no striking clock within my hearing or 

 other means of consciously reckoning time, as also there was not 

 n these experiments of Mr. Gurney's. 



It is upon such phenomena that the doctrine of subconscious 



