45. Somnambulic System. This system has had
more partisans, and even yet counts some. Like the
preceding it admits that all the intelligent communica
tions have their source in the soul or spirit of the me
dium ; but in order to explain his aptitude to treat of
subjects beyond his knowledge, instead of supposing a
multiple soul, it attributes his power to a temporary
excitement of the mental faculties, to a kind of. som
nambulistic or ecstatic state, which exalts and devel
ops his intelligence. It cannot be denied that some cases are influenced by this cause ; but after having
seen a great number of mediums, any one will be con
vinced that it will not solve all the facts, and that it
forms the exception, and not the rule. It might be
thought so if the medium had always the air of an
inspired or ecstatic person —an appearance that he
certainly could always simulate, if he wished to act a
part ; but how believe in inspiration, when the medium
writes like a machine, without having the least con
sciousness of what he is writing, without the least
emotion, without thinking of what he is doing, laugh
ing or talking of one thing and another. Excite
ment may be imagined in the case of ideas, but it is
not easy to understand how it can make a person write
who does not know how to write, and still less when
the communications are transmitted by rappings, or
by the aid of a planchette or a basket. We shall see,
at the end of this work, the part we must assign to
the influence of the medium's ideas ; but the cases in
which a foreign intelligence is revealed by incontesta
ble signs, are so numerous and so evident, that they
can leave no doubt in this respect. The defect of the
greater number of the theories broached by spiritists is the drawing of general
conclusions from isolated cases.
