Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1877-05-09
DUAL LIFE.

We have already discussed IN some
detail the curious mental condition OF
persons who apparently possess two
distinct mental lives. To such indi.
viduals the events of the abnormal lite
are q blank while existing in normal
state, and vice uersa DR.. Brown.Se-
GUARD has advanced the hypothesis
that this phenomenal condition Is
consequence OF our two brains, of
which he believes we ordinarily use
but one, leaving t he other nearly un-
employed.
The Greeulanders have queer be.
liet that the shadow, which by day ac
companies us wherever we go, at
night wanders away and has adven-
lures. This odd superstition regards
the duality of life from another stand
point than the almost purely physically
one of Dr.. Sequard; and Mr.. Her.
bert Spencer, in his new work on
"Synthetic Philosophy" devotes some
close reasoning to the primitive idea
of ourpossessing an alter ego, and to
the question OF whether We do not
form conception of 4 mental self
through the incomprehensible expert
ences of deans. Dreams, he gays,
cannot be interpreted as we interpret
them, in the absence of the hypothe'
sis of mind as Il distinct entity; and
this hypothesis cannot exist before the
experiences suggesting it. There are
dream experiences, which seem to i'm
ply two entities and such supposl-
ton involves the notion that the sec
ond entity differs from the first simply
in beng absent and active at night
while the other is at rest. Only as
this supposed duplicate, once thought
OF as like the original in all things,
becomes gradually modified by the
dropping Of physical characters ire
concilable with the facts, does the n.y.
pothesis Of mental, self become es-
tablished.
1t is notable fact that this belief
III The duality of self is constantly
found among savagss, and that they
bring the same forward in explanation
ur Vi. p..~,:-. -.~.-~ '-.--.~... os
swoon, cata|epsy, etc. in which ami
nation is suspcnded-as well rs fol
sleep. Insensibii,y following blow
or violent exertion, the Fijian believes
is due to the duplicate self wandering
away from the body; ana as the de
sertion is more determined than II
the case of sleep, the return OF thf
duplicate is followed by silence as te
what has been seen or done in the III
teryal, In our own common speech
{ we show the way in which syncop'
, Yields seeming veritication OF th'
:, primitive notion OF duality. We speaE
of one who revives from talntlng II
!, as coming back to himself" we u.s.
the term "absent.minded' or sab
stracled," literally meani0g drawn
=, away. "Wiis gone wool-gathering
4, is an apt vulgarism in point. All o
. these terms clearly express the idea O
: something having departed from th'
0 present sell, for time.
c In apoplexy, the patient suddenl
f falling betrays 'total loss OF con
s seriousness, of feeling, and OF volur
F.. tary movement )" there is snoring a
l. in deep sleep. Yet the sufferer car
d not be drought back to himself" b
It ordinary means, and the savage Wi
O ncsses such effects, and, recalling HI
d DIRE am experiences, believe that tn
n second self has gone away tor tim
b. beyond recall. Some time atter"ard
d there is like prolonged insensibil!',
70 and then revival, and then anoth"r :
T. lence as TO what has happened In th
d interval on the third time, the ab
" sent something does not return.
ID Similar in the suddenness Wit
IN which it commences, but otherwiS
s. dissir.ilar, is the state of insenSlell't
called catalepsy. instantaneous lo'
of consciousness is followed by
E. state in which the patient ''presen
X the air of statue rather than that
Sc an animated being" and control
I'd tbe members is lost. There is no L
!. collection of occurrences during Il
to attack; and interpreting the facts a
= cording to their primary meaning
I'd the wandering other self will give
i'd account of its adventures. The chi
to pewas, believing in the journeylng
wv souls, think that those Of persons in
,c. trance, "belng refused passage, II
as turn to their bodies and reanlma
them"