rol of his consciousness, he could develop a
secondary self that would impose on the beholders as a discarnate
spirit. On one occasion he thus acted in a semi-conscious way the part
of a dead woman, the mother of a friend present, and the impersonation
was accepted as a genuine case of spirit control. On another, having
given several successful impersonations, he suddenly felt weak and ill,
and almost fell to the floor.

At this point, he stated, one of the sitters "made the remark, which I
remember to have overheard, 'It is father controlling him,' and I then
seemed to realize who I was and whom I was seeking. I began to be
distressed in my lungs, and should have fallen if they had not held me
by the hands and let me back gently upon the floor.... I was in a
measure still conscious of my actions, though not of my surroundings,
and I have a clear memory of seeing myself in the character of my dying
father lying in the bed and in the room in which he died. It was a most
curious sensation. I saw his shrunken hands and face, and lived again
through his dying moments; only now I was both myself, in an indistinct
sort of way, and my father, with his feelings and appearance."

All of this Tout explained correctly as "the dramatic working out, by
some half conscious stratum of his personality, of suggestions made at
the time by other members of the circle, or received in prior
experiences of the kind." In most instances, however, the original self
is completely effaced, and no consciousness is retained of the
performances of the secondary self; but that an avenue of sense is still
open is sufficiently demonstrated by the readiness with which, in
hypnotic experiments, seemingly insensible subjects respond to the
suggestions of the operator. Here, therefore, we find our clue to the
solution of the mystery of Lurancy Vennum. A victim of a psychic
catastrophe, the cause of which must be left to conjecture in the
absence of knowledge of her previous history, she was placed in
precisely the position of the adventurous Mr. Tout and of the inert
subjects of the hypnotist's art. That is to say, having lost momentarily
all knowledge and control of her own personality, the character her new
personality would assume depended on the suggestions received from those
about her.

Yet not altogether. Dr. Stevens's detailed record contains a reference
which indicates strongly that the spiritistic tendency manifest from the
onset of her troubl