Modern spiritism; its science and religion - SpiritArchive.org

SECOND SIGHT AND APPARITIONS 153
perfectly indistinguishable from real objective vision
and hearing. The two are identical.
To What are
They Due?
Maeterlinck also inquires, "Are these warnings
due to subliminal consciousness or are they spirit
warnings?" We cannot always tell.
One can, of course, only judge by the facts in
each case. In the case of Dupre* the warning was
clearly providential, and one must judge that it was
objective, in common with other visions. Joan of
Arc, with her well-authenticated "voices," that
altered the destiny of France, is a widely known
example.
Irresistible
Impulse
"Although," says Maeterlinck (I think too
sweepingly), "these premonitions are generally
futile, they are not always so. A traveller approaches
an unknown town in the dark, and suddenly feels
an irresistible impulse (on the road) to turn (his
horse); he obeys, and next day discovers had he
gone a few feet further on, he would have slipped
into the river, and probably been drowned.
"A traveller in South America descends a river
in a canoe; the party are just about to sail round a
promontory, when a mysterious voice orders them
at once to cross to the other side of the river; this
appears so absurd that he has to threaten the
Indians with death, to force them to do it; but they
have scarcely got half-way across when the promontory
falls at the very spot where they meant to
round it."