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From Nothing so Strange - Arthur Ford

 To get any picture of the process of trance, Joan said, it needs to be kept in mind that each individual is an energy complex; that is, each individual is made up of a composite of energies mingling in an inconstant pattern which, nevertheless, has a distinct individuality. The physical body is composed of one kind or degree of energy moving at a relatively low rate of vibration, and this pattern of physical energy is itself complex, for the heart, liver, brains and other organs do not have the same frequency; nor are they the same in illness as in health. But there are also other energy patterns which interpenetrate the physical energy pattern; energies characteristic of the emotional and mental aspects of the personality.

Psychically gifted persons in all times have frequently been able to see or sense these finer energy patterns as pulsating colour. The difference between the physical energy pattern and the emotional and mental patterns is so marked that the psychically endowed often speak of the "mental body" and the "emotional body." It is these finer energies which remain unaffected by death. Although it is often said that "the soul takes off," actually these finer energies simply separate themselves from the physical and remain intact as they have always been.

  Attempting an illustration of this intermingling of energies in one individual, Joan advised, "Think of a loose tangle of wire in a general spherical configuration. The tangle has pattern of an intricate sort; geometrical designs intermeshed. Think of the wire as carrying both a magnetic and an electric charge. See both the electricity and the magnetism as moving currents, and let them represent emotional and mental energies. The whole pattern appears alive; it changes shape, sometimes one current outbalancing the other." Here she broke off. "I'm mixing my figure. That's the trouble with an analogy, but I am trying to show you that either the mental or emotional energy may over-produce. The trick is to keep the configuration of personality in balance, of course . . ."

“Now if you think of a larger more open-meshed configuration of wire coming along and opening, as if on a spring, to encompass the smaller more compact configuration of mental-emotional energy, then you have something of an idea of the way in which the physical body takes on, or takes in, the non-physical. Thereafter the strands of energy intermingle-what you know as the physical and the non-physical-and together they form one design, each modifying the other. Really, though, it is fatuous to use such terms as physical and non-physical because both are forms of energy.”

  “Just hold in mind that every individual has an overall energy pattern, part of which is a distinctive physical pattern and part a distinctive mental pattern. In earth life it is necessary at all times for certain aspects of the mind to maintain some connection with the body because the interplay of mental energy and physical energy operates to a degree in every cell . . . So if the medium's mind wishes to be body-free for any length of time, then some other mind with an energy pattern of about the same frequency, has to cooperate with the medium's body energy. Thus when the medium is in trance his mind is freed for experience in our unobstructed universe, but some discarnate entity is temporarily residenced in his body. Indeed, for the time being the discarnate becomes a living individual in that he inhabits-although not completely-a living body. During trance it is Ford who is 'dead' while his living body is occupied by Fletcher. However, the exchange could not become permanent even if Ford were willing to remain 'dead'."

  This line of thought advanced by Joan was contrary to my preconceptions for I had always thought of my mind, for the duration of the trance, as being knocked out, paralyzed, rather than as being free. It was a new idea to me that it is my mind that mingles with the discarnates and impresses their messages upon the body-tending Fletcher who accepts the impressions I give him as his own-as they are in his situation!-and so reports them.

  Had we not noticed that if in the midst of a trance session the subject turned to something in which the medium was particularly interested, there was likely to be an expression of the medium's personal views and the source of that expression was usually unidentified or was Fletcher-who strangely had just Ford's views on these particular matters?

 Indeed it had often come to me that some points of view and some convictions which I knew to be peculiarly my own occasionally show up in my trance. Said Joan, "On such occasions Ford is just speaking his own piece, taking part in the general discussion and relaying -it to Fletcher. And sometimes Ford is so much interested in what is being said here that he goes off with his cronies on this side and lets someone else man the station. There are other discarnate personalities who have approximately his energy pattern and can, if given leave, feed impressions to Fletcher." Thus it is, I presume, that a certain long-winded minister sometimes delivers discourses, occasionally to Fletcher's outspoken disgust.