563 A. Rachel Baker,1 one of the most noted "sleeping preachers," was born at Pelham, in Massachusetts, in 1794. Her parents were Presbyterians of limited means, and the chief element in her education, which was otherwise limited to seven months' regular schooling, was religious instruction. She is said to have been a child "of a serious make, of few words, timorous, and much given to melancholy,... [her] mental faculties, in the opinion of all those best acquainted with her, are far from being beyond what is common to females." In June 1811, at the age of seventeen, she fell into a state of religious melancholy, which gradually became more acute till November of the same year, when the somnambulic condition first appeared; being apparently asleep in a chair in the evening, she talked incoherently of her fears of hell, etc. The fit or trance, with the same kind of talk, constantly recurred till January 27th, 1812, when a mental crisis occurred in the waking state - a climax of terror and despair, succeeded by a kind of "conversion," which produced a happy and calming effect on her mind.

From this time onwards the trances continued, but her talk became much more regular and rational, and many persons used to come and listen to it.2 It consisted of prayers and religious addresses, and those who knew her well declared that her intellectual faculties were increased to an extraordinary degree while in the trance. It was observed " that all that Rachel expresses in her state of somnilo-quism is the result of preconceived ideas and opinions, but delivered with a readiness and a fluency which is very far above her waking state," and the specimens quoted bear out this view. The so-called "fits," which occurred almost every evening, lasted about forty-five minutes, beginning and ending with slight epileptiform symptoms, and passing off into natural sleep for the rest of the night. In her waking state she knew nothing of what had happened in the "fit," except from the information of others. No other morbid symptoms of any kind were detected in her by the doctors who report on the case; the "fits" ceased during temporary ill-health, and returned as soon as she recovered.

Two other cases of "sleeping preachers" are recorded in the same book - that of Job Cooper, a Pennsylvanian weaver, in 1774, and Joseph Payne, a boy of about sixteen, at Reading in England, in 1759, whose case is described in The Gentleman's Magazine for May 1760. See also the case of "X+Y=Z" in Chapter IX (Trance, Possession And Ecstasy).

564 A. Besides the references given in 541 F to hypnotised and somnambulic subjects foreseeing and successfully prescribing for the symptoms of their diseases, see also the remarkable case of Anna Winsor (237 A), and that of Elizabeth Squirrell, referred to below (565 A).

1 See "Remarkable Sermons of Rachel Baker, and Pious Ejaculations, delivered during Sleep," by Dr. Mitchill, M.D., Professor of Physic, the late Dr. Priestley, LL.D., and Dr. Douglass (London, 1815).

2 "Several hundreds every evening flock to hear this most wonderful Preacher, who is instrumental in converting more persons to Christianity, when asleep, than all the other Ministers together, whilst awake" (Op. cit. title page).

A case in which symptoms of a markedly hysterical type followed accurately the predictions of the patient, ending in her complete recovery, was given by Dr. N. Cervello, in his Storia di un Caso d'Isterisono con Sognazione Spontanea (Palermo, 1853), and is summarised in the Journal S.P.R., vol. ix. p. 333.

Another curious case of prevision of the details of an illness - exercised not in spontaneous somnambulism, but in hypnosis - was given in Dr. Alphonse Teste's Manuel Pratique du Magnétisme Animal (1841), and recently reprinted in the Revue des Etudes Psychiques, January, February, and March, 1901, p. 74, from which I summarise it.

The subject, Mme. M., was a patient of Dr. Teste's, who had often proved clairvoyant. On a certain Friday, being alone with her and her husband, Dr. Teste hypnotised her and tried to find out how far she could foretell the future. She proceeded to tell them what would happen, but only in relation to herself. She said that on the following Tuesday, between 3 and 3.30, something - she could not tell what or where - would frighten her; she would have a fall, which would cause a miscarriage; at 3.30 she would faint for eight minutes, and would be very ill for the rest of the day and night. On Wednesday there would be considerable haemorrhage; on Thursday she would be much better, and would get up, but at 5.30 p.m. the haemorrhage would come on again and be followed by delirium; she would then have a good night, but would lose her reason on Friday evening. This state would last for three days, after which she would recover. In answer to questions, she declared that no precautions could possibly avert the accident. On awaking she ignored, as usual, everything that had happened in her trance.

Dr. Teste impressed on her anxious husband the necessity of keeping her in complete ignorance of the prediction, and himself took careful notes of all the details of it, which he showed the next day to a medical friend of his, Dr. Latour.

On the Tuesday he came to Mme. M.'s house, and found her lunching with her husband, apparently in the best of health and spirits. He said that he wished to spend the day with them. Soon afterwards he hypnotised her for a few minutes, when she repeated her prediction exactly, saying as before that she could not tell what would frighten her, nor where it would be. On waking she again knew nothing of the prediction.

Dr. Teste and her husband determined to take all possible precautions against the accident, and, as the hour approached, not to let her out of their sight for a moment. Nevertheless, a few minutes after 3.30 she went out of the room, accompanied by her husband, suddenly saw a rat - an animal to which she had an intense antipathy; the shock of seeing it caused her to fall, and the results of the accident followed exactly as she had predicted.

This case - though a remarkable instance of self-suggestion - obviously affords no clear evidence of anything further, since Mme. M.'s prevision related simply to her own actions. She could not tell beforehand what would be the cause of her fright; the rat - if it was a real, and not a hallucinatory one - seems to have acted as a mere point de repere for the suggestion to attach itself to. If there had been no rat, Mme. M.'s subliminal self would probably have conjured up some other cause of fright, real or imaginary, and the effects would have followed in due course.

It will be noted that many, if not all, these cases of self-suggestion relate to hysterical symptoms, which are probably caused, as well as cured, by the subliminal self.