"THE UNCONSCIOUS SELF."
[TO THE EDITOR OF TUE "SPECTATOR."] SI14—In your interesting article of June 6th on "The Unconscious Self" you ask me several questions, to some of which, if you will allow me, I will briefly reply.
I may remind your readers that the problem under discussion is as follows :—It is admitted provisionally (and actual experiment will readily confirm the admission) that certain persons write, with planchette or pencil, words and sentences of which they are ignorant before they write them, or while they write them, and which sometimes contain facts of which thewriter is not consciously possessed. What, then, is the agency concerned P I have argued in the "Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research," Parts VII. and VIII., that we must in most cases ascribe this writing to unconscious cerebration on the part of the operator, involving sometimes a telepathic communication from the minds of other living persons to his mind. There is, of course, another conceivable explanation,. viz., that the writing is prompted by some intelligence altogether distinct from the operator. And you very pertinently inquire whether it is possible to write voluntarily under theconditions under which Mrs. Newnham, for instance, wroteautomatically. I have applied to the Rev. P.11. Nowa= for further details, and he says :—" Undoubtedly, as a rule, unconscious muscular pressure is sufficient to account for all mechanical results produced by Mrs. Newnham. But therewere occasions on which it is difficult to account for themechanical result in any manner that I can conceive of.. Our planchettes were home-made, without wheels to the legs ; and they have to overcome a good deal of friction in moving. Now, I always insisted that when the hand was on planchette (she never used two hands), it shouldpress so lightly that a sheet of note-paper could be passed and repassed between the fingers and the wood. I have done this scores, if not hundreds of times, while the writing went on, and it was not in the least degree impeded. I do not see how the down-strokes, when the planchette moved towards her, could be formed while one finger only touched the rim, and exerted no conscious leverage whatever. I think a /ratrate professor of legerdemain
ought to be consulted about this. Of course, if he could produce the result by conscious contraction of the muscles, the automatic power could do the same unconsciously."
You will perceive, Sir, that Mr. Newnhaes reply justifies the pertinence of your question, and militates against my theory of unconscious cerebral action. I can only say that, in my own experience, I have never seen planclaette moved in a way which I could not imitate, with the one exception (which makes for my argument) of mirror-writing, produced automatically by persons who could not write this reversed script (without elaborate effort) in their normal state. But I accept the reference to the judgment of professors of legerdemain. Mr. Maskelyne, to whom the Society for Psychical Research is indebted for several -sagacious hints, has kindly recommended to us an expert friend -of his own as thoroughly competent in each inquiries. We shall be happy to submit to this gentleman's judgment any case which may be presented to us where an automatic writer can show ground for believing that the force employed in writing is not initiated by his own muscles.
One word more. You suggest, farther, that if a person who had never learnt to read or write proved able to write automatically, my hypothesis would be shown to be insufficient. I quite concur ; but, on physiological grounds, I do not think it likely that any such person can be found. I wish that some of your readers, who are acquainted with persons for whose bead fide illiteracy they can vouch, would try the experiment. Let them make such a person place his hand on planchette ; and if he who never wrote before writes then, I will gladly go from one -end of England to the other to see him.
I must not extend this letter further, or I should have liked to touch on what you say of the dangers involved in my explanation. Should the subject interest your readers, I might recur to it. In the meantime, we are all agreed that a far wider field of induction is to be desired; and I would earnestly request your readers to repeat the experiments, as detailed in my papers, for themselves, and to send me any results of interest which they may attain. There are, I think, few directions in which intelligent persons, without special apparatus, are likely -to be able to lend aid so useful in the investigation of important truth.—I am, Sir, &c., FREDERIC W. H. Mrrhs. Leckhampton House, Cambridge.
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