What Is The Trance Mediums Secret?
THE SILVER HAIRED OLD LADY – settled back in her armchair, took a drink of water, and said, “Now whatever you do, don’t touch me. Do you understand? Don’t touch me “
My friend and I assured her we wouldn’t and she relaxed and closed her eyes. Then followed much deep breathing, clicking sounds from her throat and movements of the face. Eventually, with a voice somewhat changed and deepened, she spoke as one who introduced himself as a Red Indian. Straightaway, several intimate experiences of my own were discussed. I was also told of several things I was doing or planning to do. These included the writing of a book, and one that I was thinking about. She correctly explained what I had in mind for the future book, what its theme was to be, and predicted its future.
After this, with different voices, followed several famous personalities, but all the time I had the uncomfortable feeling that it was still the same little lady talking to me. She was definitely psychic; that was proved from the information she gave. But as for her being taken over by other personalities, something within me could not accept that.
I felt that what she did was to make a personality, more positive than her own, through which she found it easier to express her own psychic impressions. None of this, I felt, was being done purposely. It was just that she could do, say, and be, in this state what she could not in her normal conscious condition.
After this experience I was able to describe in detail to my wife the conscious personality of a woman who was developing trance mediumship in a circle she attended. She was a shy, retiring person who wouldn’t say “Boo” to a goose, yet she had within her a great deal that she wanted to express. For her, trance was a natural means of overcoming shyness and being able to express, through a personality she it unconsciously assuming, her inner feelings.
Phoebe Payne, the famous clairvoyant, makes a similar observation in her book, Man’s Latent Abilities. She explains how she has clairvoyantly seen trance mediums take on other personalities from materials in their own auras. But an understanding of trance mediumship is not so simple as that. I have seen other mediums who are truly baffling, the personalities by which they appear to be taken over distinct and having qualities, information and abilities that do not seem to come from the mediums themselves.
It is difficult to understand the contradictions so evident in a medium’s explanation of what takes place. For instance, it is often said that a spirit actually enters the medium’s physical body, much as one dons clothes.
But Sylvan Muldoon, in his book Astral Projection, tells how his astral body had no impact at all with physical bodies. He simply passed through them with no sensation.
Some authorities contend that the soul, or spirit, can never have a local habitation as we know it. Using the analogy of radio waves, they give voice to my wireless, my next door neighbour’s, and my friend’s wireless a thousand miles sway, all at the same moment. But radio waves are grosser and slower than light, and light is still a physical manifestation. If we think way beyond the speed and quality of light, we may have an idea of the spaceless, timeless existence of the soul. To enter a body, the soul would have to be physical, like water, located through inertia in a limited portion of space. This would seem to discount any idea of an actual entering. It would be rather-again like the radio matter of attune- ment or coming into an harmonious relationship. Two personalities in their different conditions would have to come into alignment and harmony, just as one tunes in a wireless to a particular wavelength. Also, a radio signal does not actually enter the wireless and flow through it. It sets upon a very sensitive part of the wireless and the response is then translated and amplified into sound. So, too, would it seem to be with trance mediumship.
There also seems to be some woolly thinking on the question of the information being expressed. It is often said that a medium cannot give all the information that the spirit wishes, because certain words or knowledge are not part of the medium’s brain cells and present learning. To dispel this idea, we can consider any of the great mediums, such as Andrew Jackson Davies and Edgar Cayce. They were able to give information which they did not consciously possess. Edgar Cayce was able to speak foreign languages while in trance, ones he had never learnt, so they can, also able to convey medical, scientific and geological messages. If there is any barrier to the expression of messages, it is due to an inadequate or incomplete ability and faculty of expression and has no connection with education. Or it may simply mean that the medium is drawing from no other mind but their own.
Another interesting idea in regard to the personalities expressed during trance is prevalent in occult teachings. This is the belief that the psychic `self of each of us holds the complete memory of our every thought, feeling and act. This memory is said to include also the previous lives of the individual. Therefore, by delving into our psychic self, these past memories can be revived.
The Past Revived
If, for example, one had been a priest in the past, an unusual knowledge of religious’ principles could be expressed. In actual life we have the case of Meri, which was reported in the journal Litteraire in 1864. While visiting the Vatican Library in Rome, Meri was received by the young novice”. As was the custom of these girls, they spoke to him in pure Latin. As they did so, it was as if a veil fell from him and he found himself conversing with them in a language he had never spoken in this life. Meri himself describes this as memory of a past existence.
These memories of a past life within the psychic self, when contacted, will usually express themselves as distinct and living personalities. It would thus be difficult at times to associate them with the present self, especially if one had conditioned oneself to look upon every psychic contact as a dead personality. Naturally, the trance condition is an ideal state for these past selves to express again. Occultism states it is possible that many spiritualist guides may be past incarnations of the present medium, expressing their particular knowledge and psychic contacts.
A Tibetan Mystic
Another interesting sidelight on trance mediumship is given by Alexandra David-Neal in one of her books about Tibet. She .and a Tibetan nobleman were in conversation with a learned mystic, and the nobleman asked the mystic a question to which he could not reply. He said that his Master, who lived a great distance away, could have answered it. The nobleman naturally asked if this Master could be interviewed, but the reply was a definite “No”. The mystic became quiet and seemed to withdraw within himself. Suddenly, before their eyes, it was as if he became another person entirely, and in a strange voice, he answered the question which had been put to him. This answer was in fact a prophecy which later proved correct. The mystic then reverted to his normal self and, looking rather shaken, told them that his Master had spoken through him. He then retired immediately.
I have, in fact, met another trance medium who claims that a living Tibetan Lama talks through him. I have heard that this claim has been verified by a Tibetan Lama in this country who knows the aforementioned Lama. But I cannot properly report on this through lack of information.
Trance mediumship, then, leaves us with a number of possibilities to be considered. Expressions of living personalities expressions of one’s past selves; expression of the universal mind, or even one s own unconscious constructions, may be just a few, There are undoubtedly other, more subtle, considerations that research and experience will uncover. But whatever form it takes, I have no doubt myself that, in some cases, it is of extreme practical and inspirational value. Whatever we may care to think, we cannot deny that it is an extremely interesting subject.
I leave you with the thought that `She’ left with Holly in one of Rider Haggard’s wonderful books “The soul dear Holly is not in the body – the body is in the soul.”