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Trance Personalities

Trance messages purporting to come from the medium's spirit control do not as a rule reveal a very definite personality. The control reflects the thoughts and opinions of the medium and the sitters, possesses little knowledge that they do not possess, and is in general a somewhat colourless creature. Yet not infre- ⚫quently a trance medium is controlled by a spirit of distinct, not to say distinguished, personality, whose education and culture are on a much higher plane than the medium's own, and whose ideas and opinions are quite independent. Such spirits are generally given distinguishing names. They often control the medium alternately with other controls. On the other hand, the medium has generally a monopoly of one or more of these spirits, though sometimes one control may be shared by a number of mediums.

Among those who may justly be regarded as the common property of the mediumistic fraternity are the spirits of certain great men-Virgil, Socrates, Shakespeare, Milton, Benjamin Franklin, Victor Hugo, Swedenborg, and so on. The messages delivered through their control seldom resemble anything they wrote during their lives. It would indeed be ludicrous to hold these great men responsible for the feeble outpourings delivered in their name. these spirits come and go; it is perhaps hardly accurate to call them trance personalities at all. Among the best known of the latter class are the spirits who purported to control the late Mr. Stainton Moses-Imperator, Rector, Mentor, Prudens, and others. What the real names of these controls may be is not known, for Mr. Moses only revealed the secret to a few of his most intimate friends. Imperator and Rector were among the controls of Mrs. Piper in still more recent years, and indeed much of her automatic discourse did not come directly from the communicating spirits, but was dictated by them to Rector. It is suggested, however, by Sir Oliver Lodge and other authorities, that the controls of Mrs. Piper are not identical with those of Stainton Moses, by whom were written through his hand the well-known Spirit Teachings, but are merely But masqueraders. But Mrs. Piper has several interesting trance personalities of her own, without borrowing from anybody. One of her earliest controls was Sebastian Bach, but ere long he gave place to a spirit calling himself "Dr. Phinuit," who held sway for a considerable time, but gave place in his turn to George Pelham-" G.P." Pelham was a young author and journalist who died suddenly in 1892. Soon after his death he purported to control Mrs. Piper, and gave many striking proofs of his identity. He constantly referred, with intimate knowledge, to the affairs of Pelham, recognised his friends, and gave to each his due meed of welcome. Not once, it is said, did he fail to recognise an acquaintance, or give a greeting to one whom he did not know. Many of Pelham's old friends did not hesitate to see in him that which he claimed to be. Only on one occasion, when asked for the names of two persons who had been associated with him in a certain enterprise, 66

G.P." refused, saying that as there was present one who knew the names, his mentioning them would be referred to telepathy! Later, however, he gave the names-incorrectly. When "G.P." ceased to take the principle part in the control of Mrs. Piper, his place was taken by Rector and Imperator, as mentioned above. Another well-known medium, Mrs. Thompson, had as her chief control" Nelly," a daughter of hers who had died in infancy; also a Mrs. Cartwright, and others. These controls of Mrs. Thomson are said not to have shown any very individual characteristics, but to resemble Mrs. Thomson herself very strongly both in voice and manner of speech, though Mrs. Verrall has stated that the impersonations gave an impression of separate identity to the sitter. Mrs. Thomson's early trance utterances were controlled by another band of spirits, with even less individuality than those mentioned. Frequently the mediums and investigators themselves, on reaching the discarnate plane, become controls in their turn. The late Mr. Myers, Mr. Gurney, Dr. Hodgson, and Professor Sidgwick purported to speak and write through many mediums, notably through Mrs. Piper and Mrs.

Thompson, Mrs. Verrall and Mrs. Holland. Many of the statements made by these controls were correct, and some matters revealed which were apparently outside the scope of the medium's normal knowledge, but at the same time several fatal discrepancies were found to exist between the controls and those they were supposed to represent. Thus the script produced by Mrs. Holland contained grave warnings, purporting to come from Myers, against Eusapia Palladino and her physical phenomena, whereas Myers was known to hold in his lifetime opinions favourable to the physical manifestations. On the whole these trance personalities show themselves decidedly coloured by the personality of the medium. In cases where the latter was acquainted with the control the trance personality is proportionately strong, whereas when there was no personal acquaintance it is often of a neutral tint, and sometimes bad guesses are made, as when Mrs. Holland represented the Gurney control as of a brusque and almost discourteous temperament. But such instances must not be taken as impeaching the medium's good faith. Even where the trance personality is patently the product of the medium's own consciousness, there is no reason to suppose that there is any intentional deception. While in some of the most definite cases the evidence for the operation of a discarnate intelligence is very good indeed, and has proved satisfactory to many prominent investigators.