Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 12.djvu/537

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FREDEEIC W. H. MYEES, Human Personality. 52$ gradually faded away ". For the explanation of such cases Myers constructs his theory of the " phantasmogenetic centre " as follows : The " subliminal self," that " most unitary" part of man's whole being, has the power to throw off a fragment of itself into some definite spot where this fragment produces some obscure modifica- tion of space (not, it would seem, a modification of matter, or of ether, but of space, pure and unadulterated). Persons in the immediate neighbourhood of this spot then may perceive this small part of modified space as an image of the person from whom the fragment of the "subliminal self" has been thrown off, and they perceive it, not through the eye or other sense-organ, for that would imply a modification of matter or of ether in the position occupied by the phantom, but through some hidden faculty adapted to such perception, through " a certain kind of immaterial and non-optical sensitivity," and the image enters their ordinary con- sciousness in a form indistinguishable by them from percepts achieved in the ordinary manner by eye and sensory nerves. Here Myers' theory enters into competition with the ordinary theory of the Spiritualists, who assume that a disembodied spirit is capable of effecting a redisposition of matter or ether in the spot occupied by the phantom, such that the eye receives an optical image and the percept enters consciousness in the ordinary way. Now, in choosing between these two theories, we must remember that Myers himself believes that we have proof of independent existence of disembodied spirits and of their power to modify the state of matter. We have then on the one view only two difficult conceptions, the existence of the disembodied spirit and its power to modify matter, and both of these are admittedly proved by other independent phenomena. On the other view we have to assume, firstly, the " subliminal self " ; secondly, its power to throw off an " excursive fragment of the personality " ; thirdly, the power of that fragment to modify a particular portion of space (not matter or ether) ; fourthly, the power of the ordinary man to perceive the modi- fication of space in that spot (when he turns his eyes towards it) as an image which closely simulates an ordinary optical image, this obscure faculty being one of whose existence we have no other indication. There can be no doubt which of the two theories we must prefer according to every rule of scientific reasoning. And the ordinary or spiritualistic theory appears especially preferable in those cases in which the phantom picture consists of several figures, both of men and animals with the ordinary accessories, such as garments and horse-trappings, and even contains an image of one of the percipients. The only ground for bringing the " subliminal self " into the play is the presumption that the agency projecting the phantasmal picture of the body is the mind of the person whose body is pictured, and the fact that, in cases of phantasms of the living, the person whose phantom is seen remains as a rule unaware of the event. But the fact that the picture may contain several persons,.