This section is from the book "Mysteries Of The Vital Element Dreams, Somnambulism, Trance, Vital Photography, Faith And Will, Anesthesia, Nervous Congestion And Creative Function", by Robert H. Collyer. Also available from Amazon: Mysteries Of The Vital Element.
The same is often related of that brilliant poet, Lord Byron.
These cases no donbt will suggest dozens similar in character to the reader; where men were conscious of their incapacity, except when "tuned up " to the occasion.
Had not an inflammatory condition of brain occurred in the servant girl given by Abercrombie, she could not have repeated whole passages of Homer in the original Greek.
It is the same with the so-called "spiritual mediums" the writer has met with; these people in their ordinary normal condition are really most uninteresting and singularly ignorant on all scientific matters.
It is only when the brain is super-charged with the nervo-vital element, or in the nervous congested state that its functions are exalted to such an extent as to astonish and confound the uninitiated. The recipient of magnetism who has been frequently reduced to a state of unconsciousness, soon becomes possessed of the power of self-inducing a somnambulic condition of brain. It is this faculty which enables the "mediums" to produce phenomena which, during the normal state, they have no capacity of producing; nor does it require that the condition should be one of unconsciousness. Most of the most noted "mediums" who have been examined by the author there has been a semi-magnetic or state of abstraction.
Whenever these "mediums" exhibit wonderful mental faculties, it is from the power of self-inducing this condition of brain. This power of will over the functions of the organs, which are normally under the control of the organic system of nerves, was exhibited in the case of Colonel Townsend of Bristol, who could suspend the heart's action so that those who witnessed the phenomenon supposed him to be dead. It is also exercised by the Fakirs of India, and no doubt it was this power of self-inducing a somnambulic state of brain which Swedenborg employed. When persons have had their brain frequently subjugated, they soon possess this power.
The subject is so large, that it is impossible to enter more fully into details on the present occasion; this must be reserved for a work in preparation on the "Functions of the Brain in Health and Disease."
If the brain is not adequately supplied with vitalized magnetism, it is incapable of the lowest order of mental manifestation. In functional derangement of the lungs, as in the case of Cornelius Vromann, the supply was so weak or so limited, as not even to admit of the waking state. This state of sleep must not be confounded with the natural, or that induced by an extraordinary supply of nervous fluid. When there is a morbid activity of the lungs, as in the case of Mr. Gourlay there is an excess of vital fluid, and sleeplessness is the result. A violent mental shock caused by intense joy or grief will cause sleeplessness. In these cases we invariably have increased respiratory action.
A proper supply of nervous fluid from the lungs is essential to mental exercise. If the brain is too small, there is a want of power; or if too large for the capacity of the lungs, there is also deficient supply to produce cerebral function. There must be a co-ordination of the various organs in their development, otherwise mental functions are imperfect.
During the dreaming state known as nightmare what horrid tortures and excruciating suffering is endured, and the disturbing cause may be of a trifling character.
The exquisite sensitiveness of the iodized silver plate to the action of light, is as nothing when compared to the functions of vitalized electricity.
The great function of memory cannot be exercised except the vibratory condition of the brain substance is perfectly unimpaired, and free from obstacles which abnormal states produce. The least pressure will destroy all coherence, and suspend the function as completely as in the most profound coma. One case occurred, which the author examined with great care. The patient had lost a portion of the cranium. On pressure of the finger all power of thought was suspended. A conversation might be arrested at any instant. The subject or topic would, however, be continued by the patient on the moment of the pressure being removed.
There is a spiritual materiality, or, in other words, a vitalized magnetism, so extremely ethereal or attenuated that its operation in combination with ganglionic nervous masses present functions of so unusual a nature that the unlearned in such manifestations have attributed them to agencies beyond the sphere of nature's laws, and they are denominated "supernatural."
No one is prepared to say, that the hexagonal construction of the bee's cell, where the honey is deposited, or the radiating lines of the spider's web, are not as much vital crystallization, so to speak, as the special formations of inorganic bodies into definite angles, when passing from the liquid to the solid state. Why should not the same law be the remote cause in both instances of organic as well as inanimate existence? To deny to a higher condition of matter the laws of assuming definite forms which are known to exist in the lower, seems most unphilosophical.
The ancients, who were ignorant of the laws which govern matter, ascribed all things beyond their limited comprehension, to the supernatural.
Necromancy was the art of calling up the spirits of the dead, most commonly practised by the Egyptians. The magicians were the interpreters of the occult language employed at these ceremonies -the "Manes." The questions made by the living were distinct and easily understood. The answers, on the contrary, though certain, were neither so quickly obtained nor so easily unravelled. But the priests and magicians, who had been taught in the labyrinth of the temple how to understand the voice of the gods, the answers of the planets, the language of birds, serpents, etc., easily understood the dead, and became the interpreters. The priests reduced this to an art, whose most necessary point, and that which was best suited to the dead, was absolute silence, silence and darkness. They retired into deep caves, they fasted and partook of the soporific cakes (panis frugibus), and lay on the skins of sacrificed beasts. When the applicants awoke from the dreams, it was to reveal their most inward and secret thoughts. In fine, all the religious ceremonies of the Egyptians were directed to the knowledge of the future. Even these practices are resorted to by the ignorant to ascertain future events: a pretended conversing with the dead has always been a fruitful source of delusion and deception.
 
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