Quimby on Somnambulism and strange phenomena of the mind

If the spiritual being be independent of matter, why cannot we communicate with it without the aid of the bodily senses? It is to this subject I would now call your attention. The mind itself obeys the laws which its Creator first laid down, and we are not to suppose any strange anomaly in its outward exhibitions is contrary to the original design. The great Law-giver possesses all wisdom and is the fountain-head of all perfection. The mind is not a creative experiment of his, himself being ignorant of what results will follow.

If these strange phenomena of the mind, which are exhibited in the different states of excitement, are exceptions to the common rule, we must attribute to the Great Mind imperfection and humanity or a direct interposition to stay the great laws which were first given to suppress and bewilder ignorant and dependent man. But to my mind, it does not appear consistent with the wisdom of God that so extended an interference would be personally made to counteract first principles which are displayed in this age of mesmeric light. It must be that all these strange appearances are reconcilable with eternal laws. And we are to look to these alone for a probable and clear solution. The same laws govern the mind, when in its natural state and susceptible of impressions through the five senses as when in its excited and unnatural condition or under the influence of Neuaric, Phrenomagnetic, Mesmeric or Somnambulic influence. The only difference is this, in the method of conveying impressions to the mind. Give the impression, whether through the senses or otherwise, and the same correspondent results follow. If I make an impression upon the mind of a beautiful landscape by pointing it out to the natural eye, it is the same as though I made the same impression upon that mind while in an excited or mesmeric state. The view is real and pleasing in one case as in the other, to the mind that beholds it. It is as much an existence before the mind, when the impression without the material object is made, as when the impression with a presentation of the real landscape to the natural eye is given.

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We shall here give a brief outline of what appears to be the condition of mind when in an excited or mesmeric state. Susceptibility is in its highest state of action and the operator seems to control the direction of thought if he chooses or can so impress the mind with influences as to govern its action in a measure.
This point is no doubt gained by some powerful impression produced by the operator upon the mind of the subject. This condition can be produced by other influences than an individual mind. A fright by suddenly coming upon some external object will often produce a similar state of mind. Intense thought and excruciating pains produce this excited state and some times sets the mind in action, when it is enabled to exhibit the same phenomena as when induced by an individual operator. We shall have occasion in the progress of our work to refer to cases which arise from unknown impressions upon the mind, producing hallucination, insanity, dreaming, somnambulism, spectral illusions etc.

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Somnambulism is another state of mind as laid down by different philosophers. It is only another condition of excited mind by which all the impressions are received by another process than that the bodily organs, by which the subject is induced to walk and perform bodily and mental labor. This condition of mind is really the dreaming or excited state and explainable upon the same principles as other dreams. But the difficulty in explanations given by those who have written upon the subject is the misconception of its cause mixing up the action of the mind under such excitement with its action through the bodily senses. I do not intend to convey the idea that the mind may not act partly from one cause or condition and partly from the other. It does so act, and this no doubt is the cause of many impressions which the mind in its dreaming state is constantly receiving. Their confusion in explanations arises from the argument being drawn from the knowledge received through the bodily senses alone, not mentioning to explain the phenomena arising from an independent state. If facts alone, subject to the laws which govern mind, were to furnish a basis, it is not possible to explain these two conditions, natural and excited on other principles than those which have governed us throughout this work.

Somnambulism is then a species of mesmerism and a subject may be so controlled as to perform the same experiments we shall give, selected from different works.

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·         a clergyman who had been long contemplating the writing of a sermon upon a certain passage of the Scripture, which required deep thought. He arose from his sleep during the night and entirely wrote out the whole discourse in a most lucid and convincing reasoning and language and returned to rest.

·         in the western part of Maine, of the gentleman farmer who during the month of August in one of his night walks, arose and taking his scythe went into his field and actually mowed down a half acre of his best wheat, returned the scythe to its usual place and returned to bed.

·         a lady of Wapping, near East Windsor, Conn., who was, while in this state, able to thread her needle, perform her domestic labors, read a book upside down with great fluency, tell the time by a watch held near her head and know what her friends were doing in any part of the room, at any moment etc., etc.

·         a lad born in Buck's County, Pennsylvania, is a striking instance of somnambulism or excited state of mind. He could perceive persons and their conduct, however remote, by simply resting his hands upon his knees and his head upon his hands. He was frequently questioned by wives, whose husbands were gone to sea and had been absent a long time, and would give the correct information as to their place and conduct.

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The cases of somnambulism which we have referred to are conditions of mind precisely like those in the mesmeric state. Every action which transpired in the accounts above may be produced by a subject under the mesmeric influence. This places the question, beyond a doubt, that the different conditions of the mind are all governed by similar laws and explainable upon such principles as we have laid down. We have taken for examples, such ancedotes and incidents as are familiar to almost every individual who has paid close attention to the philosophy of the mind, such as are found in various authors who have explained these phenomena according to their ideas of mind; but we have endeavored to explain them upon other principles. http://www.ppquimby.com/concord/quimby2.htm