The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-09-24
DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS.
A Case i'm Which One Man really
Lived Two Lives.


New York Mail and Express.
The subject of double consciousness"
mentioned in this column yesterday, nad,
as then stated, a most interesting exempiar
in the person OF David =. Jameson, VINO
died in Detroit in 1875 or 1876.
1t cannot be truthfully denied that jamie
son WIS what the world usually denomi-
mates a crank but his ~crankiness did not
interfere with the conduct of a prosperous
business. nor with the usual obligations to
the weil-being of society. He claimed that.
in his early childhood. he had shown a
most remarkable precocity; that at the age
of nine he was familiar with the elemen-
tary principles OF chemistry and mechani-
cal philosophy; at the age of twelve a stu
dent in geology and astronomy, and that
before he reached sixteen he was familiar
with and could discuss the abstruse prin-
ciples of biology and its kindred studies.
On the anniversary OF his seventeenth
birthday Jameson. who had been placed
In a drug store IN the Sity OF Cleveland 10
TO spend a few days with his parents.
While walking in the garden with his moth
er he was suddenly stricken with what APP
peared to be catalepsy. He remained in an
unconscious condition for four days. and
when he came to himself he was, to all in
tents and purposes, a child. His understand
ing was that of an infant. He was taught
the alphabet, and then received lessons in
reading and in penmanship. His muscular
strength was not superior to that OF a boy
of five or six years. This gradual education
continued for two years, and at the end of
that time the mental faculties had bright
tic 81 Idplliy l1dt the young man paSSe1
all competitors in the public school in
which he was a pupil. He had not the faint
est remembrance of his other or previous
lie. AT the age of nineteen. In the second
life, or thirty-six in actual years of living,
his father obtained a place for him in a
telegraph office to learn the business of an
operator. He sat down in front of the in
strument and his fingers were on the key
when a metamorphosis took place., which
Jameson describes so graphically that I
reproduce his exact language. 1t is as fol-
lows:
Instantly. 1 was seized with an
irresistible impulse to bound upward, and
in another moment l felt as IL relieved of
all physical encumbrances, and like an
eagle escaping from Imprisonment. 1 was
mensltyl The fact was that / had, though
unc0nsciously, passed into another mental
condition akin to that occurring eighteen
years previously, though accompanied by
very different sensations and phenomena.
My father. who was present stated that
the moment my fingers touched the instru-
from an attack of sudden pain. and then
sprirgfng upward, / fell back insensible. I
was at once removed to d private residence,
but, as on the former similar occasion, 1
could not be aroused by any Of the means
employed in the hands of the physicians or
oilers, until the afternoon Of the third
day.
My mother. who had been summoned, ar
rived just in time to witness my return to
s e9ess ioyl Z svo and in to 0oss nsr s1rp pf mv d sna
mental endowments, which, apparently,
had been dormant for eighteen years.
My first expression aStoniShed my mother,
1t being a repetition of the same question
asked on the evening of my first transition
eighteen years before, viz: Does my
father know that 1 have come homer" She
replied, pointing to my bewildered parent
standing near. "Your father is here-my
dear child, what has come over you?" /
could not expiainI was confused, but soon
ventured to ask where we were, how we
came there and if anything special had oc-
CURED in our family; 1 could not realize
that / was far from home, or even out of
my native township. We Immediately re-
turned to our Western home, and my whole
conversation. by the. way, was upon mat
ters pertaining to my studies in chemistry,
and the kind treatment received from my
employer. My parents were silent as to
what had transpired during the long in
terval since | had abandoned the study OF
chemistry; but occasionally l would in
quire, Where have we BEEN" and.
"Mother, have you and father been sick ?
You both look as if you had been long i'll
or are you getting prematurely old?'
When safely at home / was muci, sur.
prised at the changed appearance OF every
thing. My only sister, whom I had known
Is a child of seven years. now appeared SC
| very much changed that no amount Of ar.
gument could convince me of her identity
In consequence Of this I Secame quite
melancholy, imagining that she must have
died suddenly and that this fact my parents
considered prudent to conceal from me-"
That is merely one-hundredth part o.
| the experience of this strangely constituted
man. At the time of his death-he was fit,
| or thereabouts-he was as he had been from
| babyhood to the time when his mentality
changed SO suddenly. The long period fol
lowing this change was a complete blank
Jamieson's case is one of the most inter
| esting cases of double consciousness or
/ record and is not generally known.