Duality of Voice

by Emil Sutro

The correctness of the preceding remarks will become more apparent when we substitute for the faculty of seeing, that of hearing. We hear the voice of another person through the anterior part of our ear, entering, as it does, from without. We hear our own voice through the posterior part of our ear, going out, as it does, from within. No matter how low we may speak, we can always hear our own voice, though inaudible to others; and we can still distinctly hear it at such time, even when we fail to hear a low, though in fact relatively much louder, tone proceeding from the voice of another person. A ventriloquist, on the other hand, with whom these relations are reversed, hears his own voice reflected from without, inwardly, while, if he continues in the same condition while listening to another person's voice, he will hear the latter from within, outwardly.

For the purpose of testing the correctness of these observations, please pay attention to the following: In listening to the sounds of another person's speech, you will have no difficulty in noticing that they stream into your ear from without, inwardly. Now, substitute for this other person's voice the sounds of your own voice, and continue to listen to the same in precisely the same manner in which you did to those of this other person; that is, let them flow into your ear from without, inwardly. The result will be that you will not only not hear the sounds of your own voice, but that these sounds themselves will become paralyzed, that you will not be able to produce any sound whatever.

The cause is obvious. You attempt to listen to negative sounds with the side of your ear still tuned negatively; while, ordinarily, when we cease to listen and commence to speak, all poles are reversed. Spoken sounds are positive in relation to the speaker, but negative in relation to the person listening to the same. In consequence, the producer hears them with the negative (inner) part of his ear, the receiver, or listener, hears them with the positive (exterior) part of his ear.

I copy the following from an article in the Philadelphia Sunday Press:

"A curious fact in regard to the effect of explosions upon the drumhead, is that this tissue, though generally blown in, is sometimes blown out. Just what causes the latter result has not yet been fully explained."

In this instance, I presume, the person's ear was tuned to listen interiorly, and the effect of the explosion, which, in relation to him, was of a negative nature, took effect on the positive, the posterior, side of his ear. This person was not in expectancy of the explosion, but it came on unawares, of a sudden, while he was in a state of contemplation.

In connection with the eye, our inner consciousness acts as a "rein" upon the outer, drawing back in case of danger, checking our progress when suddenly coming upon a precipice, and regulating our steps to circumvent it, but without coming to a stop, when seeing an obstacle in our way from a distance. The "rein" in such an instance reverses the poles of the eyes—the positive becomes negative and the negative positive; that is to say, in our usual mode of seeing, while walking, the exterior surface of the eye is positive, the interior negative; but when there is danger ahead and we are warned to be cautious, the exterior becomes negative and the interior positive; the activity now being exercised by the latter, the passivity by the former. The action of the "rein," however, is not direct, but crosswise; that is to say, the posterior surface of the left eye is in correspondence with the anterior of the right, and vice versa, in conformity with the "impulse" emanating from either the one or the other, while the anterior surface of the left eye is in correspondence with the posterior of the right, and vice versa.

The knowledge of the reversion of the functional exercise of our organs of sense is of signal importance in connection with motion and vocal utterance, which always go hand in hand; every utterance being accompanied by a motion, though not always visible to the eye. In truly artistic delivery these motions are brought to the highest perfection; and visibly, though often in great moderation, accompany every inflection of the voice.

To be able to see a thing at all, we must be in a relatively proper position with the object to be seen; we must be on the same plane with it. We must also have light, not only for the latter, but by reflection therefrom also for ourselves. In addition we must have the inner light enabling us to comprehend what we have seen. I contend that for the study of spiritual-material as well as material-spiritual phenomena, such light has always been wanting for the thing to be seen, as well as for the orb to see and consequently for the spirit to comprehend. In attempting to comprehend, and to explain appearances, physiologically, we have been looking in our exterior world, where we cannot, in place of our interior world, where we might be able to see and to observe. We have been using the outer surface of our eye instead of the inner, with which to see spiritual things. The thing to be seen and the orb with which to see were not on the same "plane." It was impossible to perform the act of spiritually seeing. The proper light once obtained, it has not only illumined for me the things to be seen, but also my capacity for seeing and comprehending them. Roentgen has taught us the method of seeing material things through opaque bodies. I have learned to recognize spiritual phenomena in opaque bodies, created, as they are, by a combination of spiritual and material factors. While I have made use of this gift for a special study—that of vocal utterance—I incline to think that it may be made use of for the study of not only all the various material-spiritual phenomena to be observed in the nature of organic bodies in general and man's in particular, but also of our relations with the unseen and unknown world and its forces, in which our essence has its being, whence it comes, and to which it returns. In minutely explaining my mode of proceeding, it is also my special desire to rob it of any appearance of "supernaturalness" some persons might be inclined to invest it with. Though I cannot explain many things connected with the voice from an entirely naturalistic standpoint, I think they are all explainable if the proper amount of study and observation be given to them. This, as a matter of course, does not, however, include the operations of the mind proper, which are governed by laws beyond any human understanding.