800. The lines of evidence followed in previous chapters, and here briefly recapitulated, are in themselves sufficient to justify the reader in provisional acceptance of my primary thesis - namely, that the analysis of man's personality reveals him as a spirit, surviving bodily death. This point has been reached by the discussion of phenomena, such as dreams and ghosts, already vaguely familiar to the popular mind.

801. There are still, however, phenomena - less familiar to the ordinary reader - which await discussion, and which will add greatly to the evidence for my central contention. Prominent among these are motor automatisms; and it is important to understand which of such automatisms (after dismissing morbid varieties) I retain here for discussion as evolutive phenomena.

802. Before answering this question in detail, we must realise the preliminary theorem that it may be expected that supernormal vital phenomena will manifest themselves as far as possible through the same channels as abnormal or morbid vital phenomena.

803. To distinguish between the developmental and the degenerative we must study each psychical phenomenon in turn; considering whether it indicates mere inhibition, mere perturbation; - or whether the inhibition involves latent dynamogeny, and the perturbation masks evolution.

804. Automatic movements may be scientifically more important than conscious movements; in fact, they lead up to those trance-utterances which form in my view our most advanced phenomena.

805. We may begin by pointing out certain main characters which unite in a true class all the automatisms which we are here considering. They are idiognomonic and nunciative.

806. Example of simple form of nunciative automatism in muscle-reading. The unconscious tremor reveals both my thought and my memory.

807. Case of nunciative or message-bearing automatism in words written in obedience to post-hypnotic suggestion.

808. Illustration from the dynamometer of automatic transformation of will into motion.

809. Simple motor externalisation of subliminal thought in table-tilting.

810. The automatist no doubt unconsciously sets going and stops such movements; but the word which is thus spelt out is by no means always what he wished or expected. Other indications that the tilts are subliminally controlled.

811. A more elaborate form of automatic gesture inspires what are called "spirit-drawings." 811 A. Mr. Wilkinson on spirit-drawings.

812. Before entering on the impending subject of automatic writing, I interrupt my exposition to introduce two historical cases of automatism, - one of them inhibitory, one dynamogenic, - which add to my subject the dignity of the great names of Socrates and Joan of Arc. The automatisms of Socrates are now capable of coherent explanation.

813. The monitions of the Daemon of Socrates consisted mainly in sagacious inhibitions.

814. There is also some slight indication of Socratic telepathy, clairvoyance, ecstasy.

815. Joan of Arc an example of monitory impulse; her voices (not always clearly externalised) impel her irresistibly to the noblest doings. 815 A. Mr. A. Lang on Joan of Arc.

816. These two great historical cases illustrate the furthest extent of the claim that can be made for the agency of the subliminal self in similar automatisms; - apart from telepathy or possession.

817. They launch us on our subject with the consciousness of two difficulties. We have to decide for each case - first, whether we are to call it sensory or motor; then, whether we are to attribute its origination to the auto-matist's or to some other mind. It is antecedently likely that the subliminal self will sometimes express its messages in terms (so to say) of profound organic modifications. Cases of: 817 A. Dr. N. 817 B and C. Mrs. Had-selle. 817 D. Lady de Vesci.

818. The inhibitory impulses may sometimes relate to exceedingly trivial matters. Cases of: 818 A. Mrs. Verrall. 818 B. Mrs. Elliott.

819. Or a sudden inhibition may be combined with a corresponding impulse; case of Dr. Hodgson finding five-leaved clover. 819 A. Case of Dr. Guebhard finding bifid fern.

820. Sometimes the impulse may conceivably be explained by a subconscious perception or interpretation. - Case of Mr. Wyman.

821. A similar case where the sense of smell may have played a part.- Case of Mr. C. W. Moses. 821 A. Case of Mrs. Gray.

822. Another case, possibly due to smell or sense of varying resistance in the air. - Mr. Wait.

823. A similar case, perhaps attributable to excessive tactile sensibility.- Mr. W.

824. A case of inhibition which seems beyond explanation by hyperaesthesia, and suggests telaesthesia or spirit guardianship. - Dr. Parsons.

825. We next come to cases involving massive motor impulses to various actions. Case of Mr. Garrison. 825 A. Case of Mr. Skirving.

826. Innate predisposition to motor automatisms of various kinds. Scheme of increasingly specialised motor phenomena. Rise of automatic writing.- Edmund Gurney and W. Stainton Moses. My own experience.

827. Automatic writing a mode of experiment harmless in itself.

828. Classification of contents of messages.

829. Most automatic script originates in the automatist's own brain. - Mr. H. A. Smith's cases.

830. Reference to anagrams in the "Clelia" case. 830 A. The "Clelia" case.

831. Case of Professor Sidgwick's friend.

832. Mr. Schiller's case (832 A); - appearance of fictitious personalities, although neither invited nor credited by the automatist. 832 B. Case of Soeur Jeanne.

833. Case of Madame X. An unusual combination of various motor automatisms.

834. The cases just described lead up to Professor Flournoy's case of "Helene Smith".

835. Mlle. Smith an example of continuous and complex subliminal mentation going on in a perfectly healthy and normal organism.