In two or three instances Mrs. Verrall's script has apparently referred to future events. An example of these prophetic intimations will be given in the next chapter.
Mrs. Verrall, it will have been observed, during the process of automatic writing retains her ordinary consciousness, and whatever view we may hold of the nature of the "communicator," it seems probable that this circumstance tends to embarrass the process of communication. At any rate the most striking messages of this type have been obtained when the automatist is in a condition of trance, and the ordinary personality altogether in abeyance, as in the instance of Dr. Vidigal's servant cited in the last chapter. Other cases of the kind, in which messages purporting to emanate from the dead have been given have been investigated, of recent years by the Society for Psychical Research.[1] But isolated instances possess comparatively little weight, partly because we can rarely be sure of the adequacy of the record, if it stands alone, but chiefly because of the much greater scope offered for chance coincidence, if only the successes are noted. What is desired in such cases is a full record of all the utterances of the entranced person, such as Mrs. Verrall has kept of her own automatic writing. A few such records had been kept before 1882. Two of the most notable are
- ↑ See, especially, the cure of Wilson Quint, recorded in Proceedings, viii., 206, Mr. Jobson's case (Journal, November, 1898). and the case recorded by Colonel Taylor and Mr. Piddington (Journal, July, 1903).
