933. These cases, then, may serve as illustrations both of the incipient stages of a trance which may develop into ecstasy on the one hand or possession on the other, and of the different aspects of possession according as it is regarded as a more developed form of motor automatism or as a special intensification of telepathic action. We have first, in Mrs. Luther's case, a partial and temporary control by the subliminal self, exhibiting probably telepathic influence, but with no indications of any psychical excursion or invasion; in Professor Thoulet's case we find a fuller control by the subliminal self, with a manifestation of knowledge suggesting some spiritual excursion; in Mr. Goodall's case there seems to be a telepathic conversation between his subliminal self controlling his utterance and some perhaps discarnate spirit; and finally, in Mr. Wilkie's case, there is the definite superposition, as it were, of a discarnate spirit's message upon the automatist in such a way that we are led to wonder whether it was the mind or the brain of the automatist that received the message.

The first step apparently is the abeyance of the supraliminal self and the dominance of the subliminal self, which may lead in rare cases to a form of trance (or of what we have hitherto called secondary personality) where the whole body of the automatist is controlled by his own subliminal self, or incarnate spirit, but where there is no indication of any relation with discarnate spirits. The next form of trance is where the incarnate spirit, whether or not maintaining control of the whole body, makes excursions into or holds telepathic intercourse with the spiritual world. And, lastly, there is the trance of possession by another, a discarnate spirit. We cannot, of course, always distinguish between these three main types of trance - which, as we shall see later, themselves admit of different degrees and varieties.

934. The most striking case known to me of the first form of trance - possession by the subliminal self - is that of the Rev. C. B. Sanders, whose trance-personality has always called itself by the name of "X + Y = Z," and of whom I give an account in 934 A. The life of the normal Mr. Sanders has apparently been passed in the environment of a special form of Presbyterian doctrine, and there seems to have been a fear on the part of Mr. Sanders himself lest the trance manifestations of which he was the subject should conflict with the theological position which he held as a minister; and indeed for several years of his early suffering "he was inclined to regard his peculiar case of affliction as the result of Satanic agency." On the part of some of his friends also there seems to be a special desire to show that "X + Y = Z" was not heterodox. Under these circumstances it is perhaps not surprising that we find so much reticence in "X+Y = Z" concerning his own relations to the normal Mr. Sanders. What little explanation is offered seems to be in singular harmony with one of the main tenets advanced in this book, since the claim made by "X+ Y = Z" is obviously that he represents the incarnate spirit of Mr. Sanders exercising the higher faculties which naturally pertain to it, but which can be manifested to the full only when it is freed from its fleshly barriers.

This frequently occurs, he says, in dying persons, who describe scenes in the spiritual world, and in his own experience when "his casket" is similarly affected, and the bodily obstructions to spiritual vision are removed.

The suggestion which I made in the case of Anna Winsor (see vol. i., 237 and 237 A) - that the intelligence controlling her sane right arm was her own subliminal self - may now perhaps appear less strange than it did at the outset of our inquiry; but whereas in that case the supraliminal self was only partially in abeyance, the supraliminal self of Mr. Sanders seems to become completely dormant during his trances.

935. In this case then the subliminal self seems to take complete control of the organism, exercising its own powers of telepathy and telaesthesia, but showing no evidence of direct communication with discarnate spirits. We must now pass on to the most notable recent case where such communication has been claimed, - that of Swedenborg, - to whose exceptional trance-history and attempt to give some scientific system to his experiences of ecstasy I referred in Chapter I (Introduction. Human Personality And Its Survival Of Bodily Death). (section 105).

And here I meet with a kind of difficulty which is sure to present itself sooner or later to all persons who endeavour to present to the world what they regard as novel and important truths. There is sure to be some embarrassing likeness or travesty of that truth in the world already. There are sure to be sects or persons, past or present, holding something like the same beliefs on different grounds; - on grounds which one may find it equally difficult to endorse and to disavow.

I have indeed already been able to admit without reluctance that the "humble thinkers" of the Stone Age, the believers in Witchcraft, in Shamanism, have been my true precursors in many of the ideas upheld in this book. But these spiritual ancestors are remote and unobtrusive; and it may be easier to admit that one is descended from an ape than that one is own brother to a madman. Swedenborg is, in fact, a madman in most men's view, and this judgment has much to support it. The great bulk of his teaching, - almost the whole content of Arcana Coelestia, - has undergone a singularly unfortunate downfall. A seer, a mystic, cannot often be disproved; - his visions may fall out of favour, but they still record one man's subjective outlook on the universe. Swedenborg's wildnesses, on the other hand, were based upon a definite foundation which has definitely crumbled away. No one now regards the Old Testament as a homogeneous and verbally inspired whole; - and unless it be so, the spiritual meaning which Swedenborg draws from its every word by his doctrine of Correspondences is not only a futile fancy, but a tissue of gross and demonstrable errors.

And yet, on the face of it, was not all this error more amply accredited than any of the utterances of possession or the recollections of ecstasy which I shall be able to cite from modern sensitives? Swedenborg was one of the leading savants of Europe; it would be absurd to place any of our sensitives on the same intellectual level. If his celestial revelations turn out to have been nonsense, what are Mrs. Piper's likely to be?