Page:The Naturalisation of the Supernatural.pdf/300

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
280
Messages Through Trance

exclusive. In some subjects, indeed, he succeeded in evoking three such stages, the memory in each being distinct and exclusive, so that the subject in state A would carry on an animated conversation on any imaginary incident suggested to him by Gurney; when thrown into state B he would have completely forgotten the subject of his talk in state A, but would talk on a fresh subject similarly suggested, which would in turn be forgotten on his being placed in state C. He could be led backwards and forwards through these three states several times in the course of an evening, and would converse in each state freely on the ideas peculiar to that state, or on any other which might be suggested to him. After a few days, however, these artificial barriers would disappear, and the trance memory would show itself undivided.

Now the phenomena which can be observed on a small scale in these artificial divisions of memory occur in much more impressive form in certain pathologic cases. Sometimes, as in the life-history of Ansel Bourne, the patient may entirely lose his memory and his sense of identity, and have to begin life over again in an unfamiliar environment. Sometimes, as in the classic case of Felida X., or the more recent history, recorded by Dr. Morton Prince, of Miss Beauchamp, two, or more, states of consciousness may alternate, and this alternation may be observed to continue for years. The memories proper to these states may be mutually exclusive; or on the other hand, the memory