The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-04-07
MENTAL PHENOMENA
INTERESTING LECTURE ON THE SUR
JEcT BY NEW YORK LAWYER.
Difference Between sleep, Insanity
and Trance, with n Dfscourse ON
Hypnotfsm and Spiritual sight.
New York Recorder.

ANlW 1CotSC r.. Cas WIN "A
made a special study of psychics and of
mental phenomena, and who spent fifteen
years in France in delving into these SUBJ
Jects IN cooperation with leading scien-
lists, delivered a most interesting lecture
on these topics last Friday night at the
rooms of the Brooklyn Theosophical So
ciety. at No.. 464 Classon avenue. Mr.. Duy-
sters. however, is not a theosophist. The
rooms were thronged with persons inter-
ested in psychical research. In introducing
his lecture. Mr.. Duysters gave a brief
sketch of the growth of intellectual move
ments in France and Germany. He said that
the inductive method of reasoning was the
only one which was of value.
Every one has a conscious and a SUBJ
conscious mind" continued Mr.. Duysters.
With some people the conscious and the
saoconscious minds are hsrmoniously re-
lated, and it is from these more gifted
persons that a higher intellectual life and a
higher knowledge have descended to the
human race.
The recent discoveries made at SAL
petriere and Nancy by the great scientists
of France concerning the finer forces of
physics and their relation to the mind are
extremely valuable and shed much light
over a great domain of intellectually which,
hitherto, was a dark, blank desert"
Mr.; Duysters had an elaborate chart,
l Which,, lie explained, showed a condensed
classification of mental phenomena. He
DIVIDED these phenomena into sleep, in
sanity and trance; Each of these again
motto and ambulatory sleep, subdividing
ambulatory sleep, further. into auto and
traumatic or casual, idiopathic or primary.
Under the general head of trance Mr.. Duy-
sters placed catalepsy, clairy oyance, spirit
ual sight and aletheian trance. Catalepsy,
the speaker said, was of three kinds
rigid lethargic and mortual. Clairvoyance
l wa hahifIIa p ncifnr on6 fro
In explanation of this chart Mr.. Duysters
continued:
In normal sleep the conscious mind is
dormant, and there are no dreams. In
partial sleep the conscious mind is SEMI
awake. by reason of some physical dis
turbance of a bodily organ, and percepts
the pictures of the subconscious mind.
THE HYPNOTIC EVIDENCE.
I'm hypnotism the conscious mind is DOR
mant and the subconscious mind gets pos
session of the voluntary muscular system
and is suggestive. In ambulatory sleep,
or somnambulism, the conscious mind is
dormant, and the subconscious mind, TAX
ing possession of the voluntary muscular
system, either carries out a suggestion
made by the conscious mind while awake
or a semf-thought originating in the SUBJ
conscious mind.
In insanity the phenomena
are due to a disturbed condition of the
mind circulation owing to causic, ulcerous
Idiopathic insanity is when there is no
apparent physical predisposing cause, and
| Of the conscious mind. In both cases the
subconscious mind has taken possession of
the voluntary muscular system: The dis
tinct1ons of catalepSy are purely physical.
In all these cases the mental state is the
same-that is. the conscious mind is awake
ton, but both the conscious and subcon-
scious minds have lost control of both the
voluntary and involuntary muscular sys-
In cLairvoyance. the conscious mind of
the subject is in connection with the SUBJ
conscious mind and reads or percepts the
sutcoEscious mind mot the conscious mind
OF the person who, by reason of being in
hand of the s~ubject), is brought within
the view of the subject. The psychic per-
cepts this subconscious mind as a series of
pictures and hence speaks of them frequent
ly as spirits.
"Farsightedness is the power of the SUBJ
great distance. In spiritual trance, the SUBJ
ject is liable to a multitude of errors, mis-
facts. Instances of this are the frances of
Bohm, Swedenborg, Guyon and Pascal.
Thus, a Catholic woman in this trance con-
dition, invariably sees the Virgin Mary.
angels with wings, and so on, because these
pictures have been hypnotically impressed
on the subconscious mind and the subject
is seeing, largely, the pictures in her sub
conscious mind, but at times also perceives
truths.
no errors and clearly and definitely per-
ceives the higher strata of matter and
tdC laws v hllS liz SdIuG.
AT birth an infant has only a subcon-
sclous mine which gradually develops
s sspeegh a the S differental channels of the
The conscious mind begins at the fore
head, and as the child begins to see and
talk, the conscious mind assumes greater
force asrs. wind =, 49,
There is no such thing as forgetting. for
everything which we have seen or heard
is indelibly impressed on the memory. but
what we want. If Won forget a fhip0 ord
try to remember 1t, you cannot; but If you
stop trying and allow the conscious mind to
react, you will recall it.
LEG PART OF THE MIND.
Each member of the body is a portion
of the subconscious mind. Cut off a mans
leg and you cut off a portion of his mind.
Bury his leg crooked, or bind it with wire
or a cord, and that man will yell until you
disinter the leg and straighten it, or cut
off the wire or cord. The reason for this
is that the leg, which is a portion of the
subconscious mind, endeavors through mag
netic attraction, to get back to the other
portions of the subconscious mind. The
subconscious mind can see in New York
what is going on in Paris, but how, is more
than l am able to tell. 1t is able to do
this. however, only when it is magnetically
connected. The subconscious mind Is un-
able, of itself. to receive or to draw de-
auctions.
Many people possess the psychic con-
dition without their friends Knowing it.
4hCy SCI ~ SOfd oulucnlys without
any reason. They laugh one minute and
weep the next. You will find them
stretched on their beds. apparently in a
dead faint. Friends grow frightened. and
call in a doctor. That is the worst thing
that they could do. They should have
called in the butcher or the grocer. because
the butcher or the grocer would have been
frightened to death, and would have done
nothing. but the doctor, thinking tina he
should earn his fee, does something. and
that something is always the wrong thing.
"A word about trance mediums. They
have been investigated very thoroughly
in recent years. Trance conditions have
been proven to be as true as the fact that
the earth is round. 1t is a shame that
there should be so many persons ged
in it for money reasons. There are frauds.
and there are a great many who are not
frauds. These frauds should be sent to
Sing Sing.
IF you attend a seance of a trance me-
dunn and she tells you that she sees your
g~randmother's spirit behind your back, she
tells the truth: The secret of it is that you
have formed in your mind the picture of
your grandmother. and this, by magnetic
influence, has been conveyed to the subcon-
scious mind of the medium, and so she sees
the spirit 1t is exactly like a picture
thrown on a sensitive plate. A friend Of
mine and ] went to a medium. Ny friend
was a skeptic. She told him of things which
oocf.rrod in his life which she 0orfofpfv