J. MALCOLM BIRD 285 



represent the fabric of fiction built up by the subcon- 

 scious, in Its insistence upon having an explanation for 

 some sense impression, received during sleep, and the 

 actual source of which It Is unable to observe. This 

 gives us a picture of the subconscious as unwilling to 

 tolerate a mystery; ingenious but not logical In its 

 search for explanations; and possessing a high instinct 

 for dramatization and play-acting. Picture such a 

 fraction of the ego at a moment of psychical cogni- 

 tion. Here is the sitter; here are data about him 

 which the mind must recognize as extraneous to nor- 

 mal modes of cognition and to anything which it is 

 entitled to know. An explanation must be had at all 

 costs; if none Is inherent one must be Improvised. 

 Perhaps the most natural and the easiest assumption 

 Is that the person from whom the data might most 

 readily have been got Is present and gave them. In a 

 sufficient number of cases to establish this explanation 

 as a habit, such person will be a deceased friend of 

 the sitter. In a sense this is preferable, since It is 

 easier for a spiritistically Inclined mind to conceive of 

 a spirit's presence than that of a living person whose 

 presence the senses deny. Once having invented this 

 explanation, the subconscious will Inevitably display a 

 strong trend toward actual dramatization; and the 

 degree to which the normal personality is submerged 

 and the subconscious is in control will dictate whether 

 a full speaking impersonation by the entranced me- 

 dium will be staged for the benefit of the sitters, or 

 merely a subjective Impersonation In hallucinatory 

 form to the medium himself. In the psychometrical 

 case, the object Itself suggests a vehicle for cognition 

 other than a spirit; the data are about It and are not 



