Trance and Catalepsy
Trance is a condition into which certain mediums enter in order to receive messages and give them in the form of speaking or writing. No one knows, at the present time, what the medium-trance is, or for that matter, any other kind of trance ! Dr. George Moore says: “Trance is a state of body sometimes produced in man a condition utterly inexplicable by any principle taught in the schools.” Prof. William James stated his belief that the medium-trance was different from any other trance of which we have any knowledge, and this seems to be borne out by the fact that spirit-messages are given in this condition, as well as telepathic, clairvoyant and premonitory messages of all kinds.
Both trance and catalepsy occur spontaneously; both may also be induced artificially by hypnotism. Both are mistaken for death, and in many respects they are very similar. In catalepsy the body is rigid, whereas in trance this is very rarely the case this forming the chief mark of distinction (external indication) between the two states. What the internal differences are we do not know. Various attempts, however, have been made to define them. Dr. Franz Hartmann, e.g., thus distinguishes them: “There seems hardly any limit to the time during which a person may remain in a trance but catalepsy is due to some obstruction in the organic mechanism of the body on account of its exhausted nervous power. In the last case the activity of life begins again as soon as the impediment is removed or the nervous energy has recuperated its strength.
When a hypnotist places bis subject under hypnotic control, the subject remains en rapport with the operator. The influence comes from a living person. In the medium-trance it seems probable that the operator is not a living but a deceased person, and that it is a kind of telepathic influence from spirits which induces this state. In fact, it is brought about by influence from the “other side.”
