My Library

evidence that none of these modes of perception works wholly automatically. You seem to be able to turn them "on" or "off" at will. There also seem to be a few new means of sensory input. One of these is identification of other human entities (living, dead?) not by how they "look," but through an undisguised awareness of their prime personality habits and thoughts. This is most remarkable, because it seems infallible, with the innermost self appearing to radiate patterns, much as the composition of a star or a piece of metal can be analyzed by its spectrograph. I suspect that such emanations cannot be shut off by the individual, so there can be no covering over of the inner self to hide it from view. Another is the ability to communicate with others at a level above conscious awareness. This has been performed with living persons awake and asleep. It is quite possible that it also takes place among people living in the physical state who are completely unaware of it. In the Second State, it is specific and utterly natural. There are many incidents reported in the notes of such communication while the other person is in conscious physical conversation with a third party. The most frustrating part of this is that the communicant rarely has any memory of it afterward. Also, it is only with difficulty that such contact is opened with a person physically awake. It is like trying to rouse a person from a sound, deep sleep. It may be that this communicating portion of the mind is actually asleep during periods of physical consciousness. Free association or regressive hypnotic techniques should bring recall from such sources when needed. One problem is encountered periodically in perception during the Second State. It may be more common in perception by physical means than has been reported, and thus not unique. I refer to the question of the mind's identification of persons, places, and things which up to that moment have been unknown and unperceived previously. In the quest for evidential data and self-orientation, the mind seems to act strongly in response to an unformed thought command to "Identify!", without modification or equivocation. Therefore, when an unknown or apparently impossible situation, place, person, or thing is encountered, the mind comes up with some kind of answer rather than no answer whatsoever. The answer takes the form of rationalization, if it can be called that; or more commonly, a search is made of past memories and experiences to produce proper identification. It compares the situation under which the object or action is perceived with past personal experience. If there is nothing to coincide exactly with the observed data, the mind invariably reports the most