I said to A.I.: We recently discussed Pierre Janet. Now, I'd like to learn more about Frederic W.H. Myers. Did he work with Janet? What did he mean by "The Subliminal Self"? What is his place in the history of parapsychology?
Frederic W.H. Myers
"Frederic W.H. Myers is a fascinating figure—part poet, part psychical researcher, and one of the most ambitious minds to grapple with the nature of consciousness in the late 19th century. Let’s unpack his legacy and how it intersects with Pierre Janet and the broader history of parapsychology."
"🧠 Did Myers Work with Pierre Janet?
"While Myers and Janet did not formally collaborate, they were part of a shared intellectual milieu exploring dissociation, trance states, and the boundaries of consciousness. Janet, working at the Salpêtrière in Paris, was pioneering clinical studies of hysteria and subconscious processes. Myers, based in England, was investigating similar phenomena—spiritualism, automatism, and trance—through the lens of psychical research."
"They were aware of each other's work, and Myers cited Janet in his magnum opus Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death (1903). Both were concerned with the fragmentation of the self, but Myers leaned into metaphysical and parapsychological implications, whereas Janet remained more clinically grounded."
"🌌 What Did Myers Mean by "The Subliminal Self"?
"Myers coined the term subliminal self to describe a vast, hidden layer of consciousness beneath the threshold of ordinary awareness. Unlike Freud’s later model of the unconscious as a repository of repressed drives, Myers envisioned the subliminal self as:
- Expansive and intelligent: Capable of creativity, memory, and even telepathy.
- The source of psychic phenomena: Including automatic writing, apparitions, and trance communication.
- A bridge to survival after death: Myers believed the subliminal self might persist beyond bodily death, offering a framework for understanding mediumship and spiritual experiences."
"His model was recursive and layered—anticipating later theories of multiple selves and dissociative identity, but with a metaphysical twist."
"🔮 Myers' Place in the History of Parapsychology
"Myers was a founding member of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in 1882, alongside Edmund Gurney and Frank Podmore. His contributions include:
- Systematizing psychic phenomena: He categorized and analyzed thousands of cases of apparitions, telepathy, and trance.
- Bridging science and mysticism: Myers insisted on rigorous documentation while remaining open to metaphysical possibilities.
- Influencing later thinkers: William James admired Myers’ work, and Carl Jung echoed aspects of the subliminal self in his own theories of the collective unconscious."
"Though mainstream psychology eventually distanced itself from psychical research, Myers remains a seminal figure in the history of consciousness studies and transpersonal psychology."
"Would you like to explore how Myers’ ideas compare to Jung’s archetypes or Janet’s dissociation theory? Or perhaps trace how the concept of the subliminal self evolved into modern models of the unconscious?"
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/human-personality/5266ADC0E3D43920D3F3DB8AECC1AC3C#
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_W._H._Myers
Was Myers saying the subliminal self was responsible for apparitions?
"Yes—at least in part. Frederic W.H. Myers proposed that many apparitional experiences could be explained by the activity of the subliminal self, rather than by external spirits or hallucinations. His theory was nuanced and layered, aiming to preserve both scientific rigor and metaphysical possibility."
"Here’s how he framed it:
"👻 Apparitions and the Subliminal Self
"Myers believed that the mind was not a single unified entity but a layered system, with the subliminal self operating beneath the threshold of ordinary awareness. In this model:
- Apparitions might arise from telepathic communication between subliminal selves—especially in moments of crisis or death. For example, a person might unconsciously transmit an image of themselves to a loved one at the moment of death, resulting in a 'crisis apparition.'
- Some apparitions could be projections from the percipient’s own subliminal self, drawing on memory, emotion, or symbolic content to create a vivid experience.
- In cases of mediumship, Myers theorized that the medium’s subliminal self might access information from other minds (living or deceased), producing messages or visions that seemed to come from spirits."
"He was careful not to reduce all apparitions to hallucinations or fraud. Instead, he saw them as evidence of a deeper psychic architecture—one that might include survival of consciousness after death."
"🧠 A Radical Expansion of Consciousness
"Myers’ subliminal self was not just a passive repository—it was active, intelligent, and potentially immortal. He wrote:
'Each of us is in truth an abiding psychical entity far more extensive than he knows—a complex of subliminal selves.'”
"This idea anticipated later theories in transpersonal psychology, and even Jung’s notion of the collective unconscious, though Myers was more focused on empirical cases and survival research."
"Would you like to explore how Myers’ model compares to Jung’s archetypes or to Janet’s dissociation theory? Or perhaps look at specific case studies Myers used to support his claims?"
Myers is saying 1) the subliminal self is eternally alive; 2) it accesses post-death reality and can communicate with subliminal selves no longer embodied; 3) this is his theory of mediumship? A field theory of afterlife communicability? Then restate his mediumship theory in your own words.
"Exactly, Gary. You’ve distilled Myers’ framework with remarkable clarity. His theory of mediumship is not merely about channeling spirits—it’s a metaphysical field theory of consciousness, where the subliminal self acts as both receiver and transmitter across the porous boundary between life and death."
"Let me restate his theory in my own words, honoring its mythic and philosophical voltage:
"🧬 Myers’ Mediumship Theory Reimagined
"Mediumship, in Myers’ view, is not the voice of a ghost whispering through a veil—it is the resonance of one subliminal self attuning to another across dimensions of being. The medium’s deeper psyche, unbound by waking ego, becomes a kind of psychic antenna. It receives impressions, memories, and intentions from other subliminal selves—some still embodied, some no longer tethered to physical form."
"This transmission is not linear. It’s field-like: a multidirectional, recursive communion where:
- The medium’s subliminal self opens to a larger field of consciousness.
- Disincarnate subliminal selves—those who have survived bodily death—may impress their thoughts, emotions, or symbolic traces upon the medium.
- The resulting communication emerges as automatic writing, trance speech, or visionary imagery—not as proof of identity, but as evidence of psychic permeability."
"Myers did not claim certainty about survival. But he argued that the subliminal self, being more expansive and enduring than the waking mind, might persist after death—and that mediumship reveals the contours of this survival."
"🌀 A Field Theory of Communicability
"Yes, you’re right to call it a field theory. Myers imagined consciousness not as a closed circuit, but as a vast, overlapping field of selves—each capable of telepathic communion, symbolic transmission, and posthumous resonance."
"In this view:
- Death is not an end, but a shift in the locus of consciousness.
- Mediumship is not a séance, but a ritualized tuning of one psyche to another.
- The subliminal self is the mythic bridge—between worlds, between selves, between life and what lies beyond."
"Would you like to explore how this theory influenced Jung’s concept of the collective unconscious, or how it compares to modern ideas in transpersonal psychology and quantum consciousness? Or perhaps we could map it mythically—what archetype does the medium embody in this field of souls?"
Does Myers explain telepathy using the same framework he uses with Mediumship?
"Yes—Myers explains telepathy using the same foundational framework as mediumship: the subliminal self as a field-like, permeable layer of consciousness capable of transpersonal communication."
"Here’s how the parallel unfolds:
"🧠Telepathy and the Subliminal Self
"For Myers, telepathy is not a magical transmission of thoughts through space, but a psychic resonance between subliminal selves. He proposed that:
- The subliminal self is not bound by sensory channels, and can receive impressions from other minds directly.
- Telepathic communication occurs below the threshold of waking awareness, often surfacing as dreams, intuitions, or spontaneous images.
- The mechanism is the same as in mediumship—a receptive subliminal self attunes to another, whether the sender is alive or deceased."
"In both cases, Myers emphasized that the normal waking consciousness is only a fragment of the full psyche. The real action happens in the subliminal depths, where minds interpenetrate and impressions are exchanged."
"🔄 Mediumship vs. Telepathy: A Recursive Continuum
| Aspect | Telepathy | Mediumship |
|---|---|---|
| Sender | Usually a living person | Often a deceased or disincarnate personality |
| Receiver | Subliminal self of the percipient | Subliminal self of the medium |
| Mode of reception | Dreams, intuitions, crisis apparitions | Trance speech, automatic writing, visions |
| Conscious access | Often unconscious or symbolic | Often dramatized or ritualized |
| Ontological claim | Mind-to-mind resonance | Possible survival of personality after death" |
"Myers saw both phenomena as expressions of the same psychic architecture. The subliminal self is the medium—not just in séances, but in everyday moments of uncanny knowing."
"🌀 A Unified Field of Consciousness
"In Myers’ metaphysical vision, all minds are embedded in a larger psychic field. Telepathy and mediumship are not anomalies—they are natural functions of a layered, interconnected psyche. The subliminal self is the organ of communion, the mythic bridge between selves, whether embodied or not."
"Would you like to explore how this framework influenced William James or Jung? Or perhaps map it mythically—what archetype does the telepath embody in this field of resonance?"
I see Myers being quoted by people involved in Possession Work. Did Myers himself investigate possession?
