Telepathy and the Subliminal Self

by R. Osgood Mason

The first picture represents the created earth covered with water and enveloped in a thick mantle of steaming mist, causing a condition of absolute and impenetrable darkness upon its surface. In the language of the seer, “The earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” For ages the unbroken ocean which covered the earth was heated by internal fires; the rising vapor as it met the cooler atmosphere above was condensed and fell in one constant downpour of rain. Unceasing, steaming mist, vapor, and rain, wholly impenetrable to light: such were the conditions.

At length, as the cooling process went on, the density of the mists was diminished;—the wonderful fiat went forth, “Let light be”—and light was. But still the mantle hung close upon the unbroken ocean.

The second picture appears. Not only was there light but a firmament—an arch with a clear space underneath it; and it divided the waters which were above it from the waters which were beneath it.

Picture the third. The waters were gathered together and the continents appeared; and the land was covered with verdure—plants and trees, each bearing seed after its kind. Of the inhabitants of the sea the seer had taken no account. It was simply a picture that he saw—a natural, phenomenal representation.

Picture the fourth. The mists and clouds are altogether dispelled. The clear sky appears. The sun comes forth to rule the day—the moon to rule the night. The stars also appear.

Picture the fifth. The lower orders of animals are in full possession of the earth and sea—fish, fowl, and sea-monsters.

Picture the sixth. The higher orders of creation, mammals and man.

Such was the phenomenal aspect of the various epochs of creation roughly outlined, strong, distinct, and in the main true. Not even the scientific critic with his present knowledge could combine more strength and truth, with so few strokes of the brush.

Relieved of the burden of inspiration and the necessity for presenting absolute and unchangeable truth, and presenting the seer as simply telling what he saw, the picture is wonderful, and the telling is most graphic. It needed no deity nor angel to tell it—it was there—and the subliminal self of the seer whose special faculty it was to see, perceived the scene in all its grandeur. He also was the one best fitted to perceive the laws which should make his people great, and describe the forms and ceremonies which should captivate their senses and lead them on to higher intellectual, moral, and ethical development.

Next take the other example. Fifty years ago a young man, not yet twenty years of age, uneducated, a grocer’s boy and shoemaker’s apprentice, was hypnotized; and it was found that he had a most remarkable mental or psychical constitution. He had most unusual experiences, and presented unusual psychical phenomena which need not be recounted here.