Sleepwalking, trance and second sight

We present in this issue the topic #121 from the Systematized Study of the Spiritist Doctrine, that is being presented weekly, according to the programme elaborated by the Brazilian Spiritist Federation (FEB), structured in 6 modules and 147 topics.

If the reader uses this program for a study group, we suggest that questions proposed be discussed freely before the reading of the text that follows. If you would like to study alone, we ask you to try to answer the questions at first and only then read the text that follows. The answer key can be found at the end of the lesson. 

Questions 

1. What are the characteristics of sleepwalking?

2. During sleepwalking, the individual is sleeping, so who is acting?

3. What is trance?

4. What is the phenomena of second-sight?

5. Are there connections between dreams, sleepwalking and the phenomena of second-sight?

Text

During sleepwalking, it’s the soul of the sleepwalker which acts

1. Sleepwalking, trance and second-sight are part of the emancipation of the soul, as much as sleeping, catalepsy and lethargy are. We can see that in the main book of Allan Kardec called The Spirit’s Book.

2. Sleepwalking’s characteristic is that the individual, while asleep, is still moving and acting using their own body as if they were awake. He/she gets up, walks, and does normal day to day chores perfectly. Another characteristic of sleepwalkers is that when the individual wakes up, they don’t remember what they did while asleep.  

3. During sleepwalking, the sleepwalker’s soul emancipates from his/hers body and starts seeing things with his/hers spiritual eyes, similarly to what happens when we sleep normally. Even though the soul is emancipated during sleepwalking, it still exercises an influence over their body. And it happens normally, as facts show, like when people walk on their house’s roof or over a dangerous cliff without having accidents. Gabriel Delanne talks about some interesting facts in his book “O Espiritismo perante a Ciência” such as the case of this pharmacist of Pavia. He would get up during his sleep and go to his laboratory and he would prepare medicines that weren’t already prepared.

4. If the individual continues acting while asleep and with his/hers eyes closed, what else could it be if not this individual’s soul who is acting? And that is what happens, because after emancipated, the spirit can more easily use his/hers perceptions. Spiritism teaches us that sleepwalking is a state of independence of the spirit more complete than dreams, which would be a state of incomplete somnambulism according to spiritual guides.

Trance is a more elaborate type of somnambulism  

5. Somnambulism can be induced artificially by hypnotherapists and the first one to do so was Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer from Austria, who was looking in this experience for an alternative therapy. In these cases, the sleepwalker can have contact with other spirits who can tell him/her what they should say, helping them in their difficulties. This fact is noticed mainly in medical prescriptions and there are many stories of sleepwalkers that could see their diseases while emancipated and were told which medicine to use by another spirit. This can be seen as mediumship where the sleepwalker is an instrument between us and other disincarnated spirits.

6. Trance is another type of emancipation of the soul, which is a more elaborate somnambulism because the soul of the individual is even more independent, according to what Spiritism teaches us.

7. If during dreams and sleep, the spirit wonders around the worlds that surround us, during trance, it can enter an unknown world. This unknown world is of the pure spirits, which he/she can have contact with but not pass certain limits. If the emancipated soul crossed these limits, the bond between them and their body would be destroyed.

8. Having contact with so evolved places and spirits, it’s easy to understand why a certain glow surrounds the emancipated soul living this experience. This experience gives him/her a very good feeling of places where he/she will be able to go when achieving that level of evolution.

Second sight is “the eye of the soul”

9. Second sight is the name given to the phenomena in which people who are perfectly awake can perceive facts and scenes happening far away from them or in the spiritual world.  

10. Kardec asked the spiritual guides if there is any relation between dreams, somnambulism and second sight. The spiritual guides answered that all of them are the same. What is called second sight is the result of the emancipation of the soul without being during sleep. Second sight is the “eye of the soul”.

11. Examples of these facts are everywhere in the spiritualist literature, especially in the classic one. One of these examples is what happened to the Swedish clairvoyant Swedenborg, who could see and describe clearly spirits and scenes of the spiritual world.

12. History also has examples of second sight like the one that happened to Apolonio of Tiana. He was teaching his disciples in a public square when he stopped talking suddenly as if something very serious had happened. Following it, he announced the death of Dominicano.  

Answer Key