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CHAPTER XV.

WRITING MEDIUMS OR PSYCHOGRAPHS.

Mechanical Mediums - Intuitive Mediums - Semi-mechanical Mediums - Inspirational or Involuntary Mediums - Presentient Mediums.

178. OF all our means of communicating with spirits, manual writing is the simplest, most convenient, and most complete, for it enables us to establish regular and continuous relations with spirits, and thus to ascertain their nature and quality, to learn their thoughts, and to appreciate them at their true value. The faculty of writing, moreover, is the one which is most susceptible of being developed by exercise.

Mechanical Mediums.

179. If we observe the movements of a table, a planchette, etc., we cannot doubt that a direct action is exercised by the communicating spirit on these objects.

They are sometimes shaken so violently that they get away from the medium's hands; they sometimes turn towards, or touch, some particular person or persons in the circle; at other times, their movements testify joy, affection, or anger. In the same way, when a pencil is held in the medium's hand, it is sometimes thrown forcibly to a distance, or the hand itself is agitated convulsively, and strikes the table angrily, while the medium himself is perfectly calm, and surprised at finding that he is not master of his movements. Occurrences of this kind, however, always denote the presence of

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imperfect spirits; spirits of high degree are calm, dignified, and gentle; when not met with suitable respect, they retire, and their place is taken by others of lower rank. A spirit, therefore, can express his thoughts directly, through an object of the movements of which the hand of the medium is only the fulcrum, or indirectly, by his action on the hand itself.

When a spirit acts directly on the medium's hand, he gives to it an impulsion altogether independent of its owner's will, causing it to write on uninterruptedly as long as he has any thing to say, and to stop when he has finished.

The most interesting and valuable characteristic of this mode of medianimity is the unconsciousness of the medium in regard to what he is writing, and of which he has often not the remotest idea; this absolute unconsciousness constitutes what are called passive or mechanical mediums, and is an exceedingly precious faculty, because it excludes all doubt as to what is written being independent of the medium's mind.

Intuitive Mediums.

180. A spirit can also transmit his thought through the intermediacy of the soul of the medium himself. The disincarnate spirit does not, in this case, cause the medium to write by acting on his hand; for he neither holds nor guides it, but acts directly upon the incarnate soul, with which he temporarily identifies himself.

The soul of the medium, under this impulsion, directs his hand, and the hand moves the pencil. We have, in this place, to take note of a very important point, viz., that the disincarnate spirit does not substitute himself for the medium's soul, for the soul cannot be displaced; but he dominates it without the medium's being aware of his action, and impresses it with his will. And yet the part played, in such a case, by the medium's soul, is not simply passive; for it is the medium's soul that receives and transmits the thought of the disincarnate spirit, and he is there-

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fore aware of what he is writing, although the thoughts are not his, and is what we call an intuitive medium.

"If this be the case," it may be objected, "there is nothing to prove that the medium is not writing his own thoughts instead of those of another spirit." We reply that, in fact, it is sometimes very difficult to ascertain this point. But we may add that we cannot refuse to recognise the fact of suggestion when thoughts are expressed which have never before arisen in the medium's mind, which flow into it spontaneously as he writes, and which are often not only contrary to his ideas and convictions, but notably beyond his knowledge and intellectual capacity.

The part played by a mechanical medium is that of a machine. The intuitive medium, on the contrary, acts as a dragoman, or interpreter, and, in order to transmit a thought, must necessarily understand it; but still, this thought is not his thought, for it only passes through his brain.

Semi-mechanical Mediums.

181. In the case of purely mechanical mediums, the movement of the hand is independent of the will; with the intuitive medium, that movement is voluntary. The semi-mechanical medium participates in the qualities of both the others; he feels an impulsion that is given to his hand, independently of his will, but, at the same time, he knows, as he goes on, what he is writing. With the mechanical medium, the thought follows the act of writing; with the intuitive medium, it precedes it; with the semimechanical medium, it accompanies it. These last-named mediums are the most common of all.

Inspirational Mediums.

182. Everyone who, either in the normal state or in trance, receives an influx of thoughts that are foreign to the action of his own mind, may be included in the category of inspirational mediums. They are, in fact, a variety

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of the intuitive medium, with this difference, that the intervention of an occult power is much less evident in their case; so that, with inspirational mediums, it is even more difficult to distinguish their own thought from that which is suggested, than in the case of the intuitive medium.

The peculiar characteristic of the inspirational medium is spontaneousness. And here let us remark that inspiration comes to us all, from spirits who influence us, for good or for evil, in every circumstance of our lives, and in every resolution we make, and it may therefore be truly said that, in this respect, every one is a medium, for there is no one who has not about him his familiar spirits, who do their utmost to suggest salutary or pernicious counsels to those with whom they are connected; a truth which, were we duly penetrated with its reality and importance, would frequently lead us to oppose a more effectual resistance to the suggestions of evil, by seeking the inspiration of our guardian-angel in our moments of uncertainty as to what we should say or do. At such times, we should invoke that watchful guardian with fervour and confidence, as a Providentially-appointed friend; and, if we did so, we should often be astonished at the new ideas which would arise in our minds, as though by enchantment, whether for the taking of an important decision, or for the accomplishing of our special work. If, after such an appeal for guidance, no distinct idea occurred to us, it would show that we must wait a little longer before taking a decision. It is evident that an idea which arises spontaneously in our minds is really foreign to ourselves, because, if it had been always in our mind, we should always have been in possession of it, and there would have been no reason why it should not have been called up by a conscious act of our own will. He who is not blind has only to open his eyes, when he will, in order to see; in the same way, he who has ideas of his own has them always at his disposal; if they do not come at his will, it is because he has to get them elsewhere than from his own stock.

From the foregoing considerations it is evident that we

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may include in this category the persons who, without being endowed with superior intelligence, and without any modification of their normal state, have flashes of intellectual lucidity which give them, for the moment, an unusual facility of conception and of expression, and sometimes a presentiment of future events. In what are rightly spoken of as "moments of inspiration," the flow of ideas is abundant and continuous, our thoughts succeeding one another in an orderly enchaining, through the action of an involuntary, spontaneous, and almost feverish impulsion; it appears to us, at such times, as though some superior intelligence had come to our aid, and our mind seems to have been suddenly relieved of a burden.

183. All those who are possessed of genius, artists, poets, scientific discoverers, great writers, etc., are doubtless spirits of superior advancement, able to comprehend and to conceive great ideas; and it is precisely because of this ability that the spirits who desire the accomplishment of some particular work select them as their instruments, suggesting to their minds the trains of thought required for their special ends, so that, in a majority of cases, "men of genius " are mediums without being aware of it.

Many of them, however, have a vague intuition of this extraneous help, and every one who seeks inspiration performs, unconsciously, an act of evocation, whenever he makes an appeal to his "good genius" to come to his aid; an appeal that is often made, but which would be simply absurd if he who makes it had not an intuitive hope of its being heard; and this assertion is confirmed by the replies made to the following questions, by the spirits whom we have interrogated in regard to this subject.

- What is the primal cause of inspiration?

"The communication of his thoughts by a spirit."

- Is inspiration confined to the revelation of great things?

"No; it often has reference to the most commonplace circumstances of your daily life. For instance, you may have thought of going somewhere, but a secret voice tells

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you not to go, because there is danger in the way; or it tells you to do something which you have not thought of doing; this is inspiration. There are very few persons who are not more or less 'inspired' in this way, at certain moments."

- May authors, painters, musicians, and so on, be considered, in their moments of inspiration, as mediums?

"Yes; for, in such times, their soul is freer, more disengaged from matter, and recovers a portion of its spiritual faculties; and it therefore receives, with greater facility, the communications of other spirits who inspire it with their own suggestions."

Presentient Mediums.

184. The kind of impression which we call presentiment is a vague intuition of future things. This faculty, more or less developed in certain mediums, is sometimes the result of a sort of second-sight, * by which they obtain glimpses of the consequences of things present, and thus perceive the filiation of events to come; but it is also, in many cases, the result of occult communications. It is to persons who are thus endowed, and who constitute a variety of the inspired mediums, that we give the appellation of presentient mediums.

* See The Spirits’ Book, p.182.