Light and deep trance
There are all grades and degrees of trance, from the very light stage, in which there is but little difference from the ordinary waking consciousness, to that degree of deep trance where the medium is totally unconscious of everything that passes around him. Very deep trance of this character is rare, but many of the most famous mediums have got their best messages while in that condition. The famous Mrs. Piper of Boston had almost to die, to all outward appearances, before she could enter this deep trance, and at the end of two hours or so, during which the trance lasted, the only signs of life were slow respiration and heart beat. The only signs of consciousness were manifest in the right hand and arm which did the automatic-writing.
Many test-mediums and sensitives, on the other hand, pass into a stage of trance so light, that no one but an expert could detect any trance at all. Yet, in many such cases, no memory of the condition remains after the trance is finished. These light trances differ but slightly from cases of day-dreams, absent-mindedness, etc., when we say to a person, half in joke: “You are in a trance!” By shades and degrees this becomes deeper, as the state becomes more profound and lower and lower layers or strata of the subconscious mind are reached, Mrs. Piper had three distinct “layers” of this character. The first differed slightly from the waking state. In this condition she talked. The second condition was far deeper trance and in this stage spirits were seeu instead of human beings. In the third or deepest stage speech was usually absent and automatic writing occurred.
In trance, we may assume that there is a gradual and fluctuating control of the medium’s mind and body by the communicating spirit, and that, as one vacates or is driven out by the invading intelligence, the latter is able to control, more and more effectually, the medium. Just as “two solid bodies cannot be in the same place at the same time,” so two spirit intelligences cannot occupy and control the same body at the same moment.
When once the fact of spirit control is granted, the nature and character of this control remains to be solved. How does the spirit manipulate the brain and nervous mechanism of the medium, to bring about the desired results. What parts of the brain are used, and how? These and many similar questions remain to be answered; and it may take many years of scientific research before we are enabled to answer queries such as these with any degree of confidence.
