Somnambulic Mediums
172. Somnambulism may be considered as a variety
of the medianimic faculty, or, rather, they are two
orders of phenomena very often found combined. The
somnambulist acts under the influence of his own
spirit; it is his soul, which, in moments of emancipa-
tion, sees, hears, and perceives, outside the limit of
the senses ; what he expresses, he draws from himself;
his ideas are, in general, more just than in the normal
state, his knowledge more extended, because his soul
is free; in a word, he lives, by anticipation, the life of
spirits.
The medium, on the contrary, is the instrument of
a foreign intelligence; he is passive, and what he says
comes not from himself. To recapitulate: the somnam-
bulist expresses his own thought, the medium that of
another. But the spirit who communicates to an ordi-
nary medium could also as well to a somnambulist;
often the state of emancipation of the soul renders this
communication more easy. Many somnambulists see
spirits perfectly, and describe them with as much pre-
cision as the seeing mediums; they can talk with
them, and transmit their thought to u s ; what they
say beyond the circle of their own knowledge is often
suggested to them by other spirits. Here is a remark-
able example, where the double action of the spirit of
the somnambulist and of the foreign spirit reveals
itself in the most unequivocal manner.
173. One of our friends had for a somnambulist a
young boy of fourteen or fifteen years of age, of very
ordinary intelligence, and extremely limited instruc-
tion. Nevertheless, in somnambulism he gave proofs
of extraordinary lucidity and great perspicacity. He
excelled especially in the treatment of diseases, and
made a great many cures regarded as impossible.
One day he gave a* consultation to a sick person,
whose malady he described exactly.
" That is not all," said they ; " now you must indi-
cate the remedy." " I cannot," he answered. " My
angel doctor is not here" "What do you mean by
your angel doctor?" "He who dictates to me." " It
is not you, then, who see the remedies ?" " Why,
n o ; don't I tell you my angel doctor dictates them
to me ?"
Thus, with this somnambulist, the action of seeing
the disease was that of his own spirit, who for that
needed no assistance, but the indication of the reme-
dies was given by another; this other not being there,
he could say nothing. Alone, he was only a somnam-
bulist ; assisted by what he called his angel doctor, he
was a somnambulistic medium.
174. Somnambulistic lucidity is a faculty that per-
tains to the organism, and which is entirely indepen-
dent of the elevation, of the advancement, and even of
the moral state of the subject. A somnambulist may,
then, be very* clear, and be incapable of solving certain
questions, if his spirit be but little advanced. He who
talks by himself may say good or bad, true or false
things ; put more or less delicacy or fastidiousness
into his proceedings, according to the degree of eleva-
tion or inferiority of his own spirit; then the assist-
ance of a foreign spirit may supply his insufficiency; but a somnambulist may be assisted by a lying, or
trifling, or even a bad spirit, as well as mediums ; it is
here, above all, that the moral qualities have a great
influence to attract good spirits. (See Book on Spirits,
Somnambulism, No. 425; and in this, the chapter on
the Moral Influence of the Medium)
