172. Somnambulism may be regarded as a variety of the medianimic faculty, or rather, we should say, that these two orders of phenomena are found very frequently united. The somnambulist acts under the influence of his own spirit; it is his own soul which, in its moments of emancipation, sees, hears, and perceives, beyond the limits of the senses what he expresses he draws from himself. His ideas are generally more just than in his normal state, and his knowledge is more extended, because his soul is free; in a word, the somnambulic state is a sort of foretaste of the spirit life. The medium, on the contrary, is the instrument of an intelligence exterior to himself; he is passive ; and what he says does not come from himself. In other words, the somnambulist expresses his own thoughts, and the medium expresses those of another. But the spirit who communicates through an ordinary medium may do so through a somnambulist; the soul emancipation of somnambulism often rendering spirit communication even more easy. Many somnambulists see spirits perfectly, and describe them with as much precision as do seeing mediums; they converse with them, and transmit their thoughts to us; and what they say, when beyond the circle of their personal knowledge, is often suggested to them by spirits. The following is a remarkable example of the joint action of the somnambulist's own spirit and of another spirit.

173. A friend of ours had a somnambulic subject, a lad of about fourteen years of age, of very limited intelligence, and very imperfectly educated. But, in the somnambulic state, he gave proofs of extraordinary lucidity and great penetration. He excelled especially in the treatment of disease, and cured a great number of persons who had been regarded as incurable. One day, he gave a consultation to a sick man, whose malady he described with entire exactness. - "That is not enough," said a bystander, "you must now tell us the remedy." - "I cannot do so," he replied, "my angel doctor is not here."- "What do you mean by your 'angeldoctor'?'" - "Why! The one who prescribes the remedies."- "Then it is not you who see the remedies?" "No; did I not say that it is my angel doctor who tells me what I am to prescribe?"

Thus, in the case of this somnambulist, the seeing of the disease was the act of his own spirit, which, for that part of his work, had no need of assistance; but the remedies were dictated by another; so that, when this other was not present, the somnambulist could say nothing about them. Left to himself, he was only a somnambulist; assisted by him whom he called his "angeldoctor", he was a somnambulic medium.

174. Somnambulic lucidity is a faculty appertaining to the organism, and is entirely independent of the elevation, advancement, or even the moral state of the subject. A somnambulist may be very lucid, and yet, if his spirit is but little advanced, he may be incapable of solving certain problems. The somnambulist, who speaks from his own power, may say good or bad things, may be true or false, may act well or ill, according to the elevation or inferiority of his spirit; he may or may not be assisted by another spirit, who may supply his insufficiency; or he may be acted upon by a lying, frivolous, or even wicked spirit, just as is the case with a medium; but, in his case, as in all cases, his moral qualities have a powerful influence in attracting to him good spirits. (See The Spirits' Book, No. 425, and following chapter.)