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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
does not appear to have adduced any evidence beyond his ipse dixit for his assertion that the alleged shield of Euphorbus had in reality been borne by that mythical hero, Meantime the question as to re-incarnation has actually been put to a very few spirits who have given some real evidence of their identity. So far as I know, no one of these has claimed to know anything personally of such an incident, although all have united in saying that their knowledge was too limited to allow them to generalise on the matter.
“Helene's controls and previous incarnations--to return to our subject--do perhaps suffer from the general fault of aiming too high, She has to her credit a control from the planet Mars; one pre-incarnation as an Indian princess; and a second (as I have said) as Marie Antoinette.
"In each case there are certain impressive features in the impersonation; but in each case also careful analysis negatives the idea that we can be dealing with a personality really revived from a former epoch, or from a distant planet;-and leaves us inclined to explain everything by cryptomnesia' (as Professor Flournoy calls submerged memory), and that subliminal inventiveness of which we already know so much."
To the student of experimental psychology the case of Mlle.!Smith irresistibly suggests the handiwork of the medium's own subjective self. It has been demonstrated that experimental hypnotism produces the same phenomena. Under the influence of hypnosis the subject is constantly amenable to suggestion ; thus, if he is told that he is the President of the United States, he will immediately accept the statement as true, and assume all the airs of importance and dignity that he may conceive to appertain to that exalted position. Similarly, if it is suggested to him that he is the spirit of some dead friend, or acquaintance, or other person, he will confidently believe the suggestion to be true, and will assume the characteristics of the deceased, and, if interrogated, give a full account of his surroundings
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