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THE MEDIUMS’ BOOK > PART SECOND - SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS > CHAPTER XIV - OF MEDIUMS > Somnambulic Mediums > 172
172. Somnambulism may be considered as a variety of the medianimic faculty, or, rather, they are two orders of phenomena very often found combined. The somnambulist acts under the influence of his own spirit; it is his soul, which, in moments of emancipa- tion, sees, hears, and perceives, outside the limit of the senses ; what he expresses, he draws from himself; his ideas are, in general, more just than in the normal state, his knowledge more extended, because his soul is free; in a word, he lives, by anticipation, the life of spirits.
The medium, on the contrary, is the instrument of a foreign intelligence; he is passive, and what he says comes not from himself. To recapitulate: the somnam- bulist expresses his own thought, the medium that of another. But the spirit who communicates to an ordi- nary medium could also as well to a somnambulist; often the state of emancipation of the soul renders this communication more easy. Many somnambulists see spirits perfectly, and describe them with as much pre- cision as the seeing mediums; they can talk with them, and transmit their thought to u s ; what they say beyond the circle of their own knowledge is often suggested to them by other spirits. Here is a remark- able example, where the double action of the spirit of the somnambulist and of the foreign spirit reveals itself in the most unequivocal manner.
The medium, on the contrary, is the instrument of a foreign intelligence; he is passive, and what he says comes not from himself. To recapitulate: the somnam- bulist expresses his own thought, the medium that of another. But the spirit who communicates to an ordi- nary medium could also as well to a somnambulist; often the state of emancipation of the soul renders this communication more easy. Many somnambulists see spirits perfectly, and describe them with as much pre- cision as the seeing mediums; they can talk with them, and transmit their thought to u s ; what they say beyond the circle of their own knowledge is often suggested to them by other spirits. Here is a remark- able example, where the double action of the spirit of the somnambulist and of the foreign spirit reveals itself in the most unequivocal manner.