are very
exceptional, and that, until quite recently, have not been admitted to
the realm of psychical investigation, philosophical discussion, or
even human credence. Lately, however, there have been found a
sufficient number of well authenticated facts in similar lines of
experience to warrant the investigation and classification of them (if
possible) under a modern name, "Psychic Research," and under a well
established and not so recent one, Spiritualism.

I am not intending to discuss these subjects, _per se_, nor to
endeavor to classify or explain the experiences I am about to relate.
They are _experiences_, as real as any of those in my human or mundane
existence; indeed, if I were called upon to decide that one is real
and the other illusion, I should say without hesitation that these,
and similar ones throughout my lifetime, are the real, and the
ordinary mundane experiences unreal.

At the age above referred to I was, without any seeking, and without
any surrounding circumstances to "suggest" such a state, taken
possession of (entranced) by intelligences, distinct personalities in
thought, word, and action, who spoke through my organism, unfolded and
educated my mind, in fact became my mental and spiritual instructors.
The public discourses and teachings given under these conditions are
well known to many of the readers of THE ARENA, as these labors are
the work of a lifetime.

It is not of this public work that I am constrained to write; but I
may as well say here that I have had no other teachers, no other
instructors, and have pursued no course of study or reading of human
books; those whom I call my guides and guardians have been my
teachers. During the time that these outside intelligences are
controlling and speaking through my organism I am wholly unconscious
of what is passing in human life and wholly unaware of that which is
being uttered through my lips. I am also unaware of the lapse of time.

It may be best for me to here declare that I am not, in the usual
sense, peculiar, nor was I different in my childhood from other
children, save as each differs from the other. I was very diffident,
and--not using the word in the psychical sense--sensitive. I was not
given to morbid states or to the "dreaming of dreams." Perhaps I was
imaginative; most children are; and I loved fairy tales, but not
unduly. This is simply to show that there was no abnormal condition of
mind or body to produce the supernorm