Geraldine Cummins

The Scripts of Cleophas — recorded by Geraldine Cummins (Rider & Co., 2.ª ed., 1928) [DECLARADA]

Geraldine Cummins — Swan on a Black Sea (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1965) [DECLARADA]

Canalización · Miembro

Investigación psíquica (psychical research) · Miembro

«I HAVE always disliked looking at my face in a mirror, but my collaborator in this book insists that I must face the mirror of time by relating some autobiographical facts, since they may be helpful to the reader of the Cummins-Willett scripts.» — así abre Cummins su capítulo autobiográfico, declarando que escribe a instancias de la editora y para qué, para que sirva a quien lea los scripts.

«I am an author. Fifteen of my twenty-two published books have been ‘transmitted’, or produced by ‘automatic’ writing. Of the rest seven have been consciously produced; five of them have Irish themes and setting; two deal with aspects of psychical research.» — y el inventario con que Cummins se presenta, que es donde da la proporción de su obra transmitida frente a la consciente.

«It is necessary to make this statement as I have been quite often described as ‘a well-known film star’, (who has the same surname) or other professions have been alleged to be mine.» — y la razón que Cummins da de ese inventario, que se la confunde con una actriz de cine del mismo apellido y se le atribuyen oficios ajenos.

«But I must in self-defence emphatically deny the practice of one of several professions assigned to me as the livelihood producing my daily bread.» — y lo que Cummins niega con más fuerza, ejercer alguno de esos oficios como medio de vida, que es la negativa del médium profesional.

«According to modern standards, my own education was negligible. I never went to school. Three of my younger sisters and I received instruction successively from two uneducated resident English governesses and finally a French mademoiselle.» — Cummins mide su propia instrucción a la baja, que es dato del caso porque los scripts traen erudición que ella no tenía.

«My subsequent interest in psychic science was much re¬ inforced, I think, through my family background of medical science.» — y lo que Cummins pone en el otro platillo, el fondo familiar de ciencia médica que detalla en seguida.

«But with our background of Medical Science all of us children were brought up in an analytical atmosphere with a kind of religious respect for exact truthful statement in scientific research; there was to be no loading of the dice for emotional or personal reasons.» — y lo que Cummins dice haber sacado de ese fondo, una atmósfera analítica con respeto religioso por el enunciado exacto y sin cargar los dados.

«Doubtless through this paternal influence I am still what I described myself at the age of seven, ‘a very curious person’, that is to say a person who wants to know the truth concerning life and death however disagreeable it may be.» — y la definición que Cummins da de sí misma, tomada de lo que decía a los siete años, persona muy curiosa que quiere saber la verdad sobre la vida y la muerte por desagradable que sea.

«It is true that for a number of years my uncle Professor Lyle Cummins was attached to Cardiff University and directed a fine crusade against tubercu¬ losis in Wales. But he was a very over-occupied man, so our paths did not cross each other’s except for one day in the nineteen-twenties, when he eloquently tried to persuade me wholly to abandon psychical research for my literary work.» — y la excepción que ella misma se pone y no oculta: un tío suyo trabajó años en Cardiff, aunque sus caminos, dice, no se cruzaron salvo el día en que él quiso persuadirla de dejar la investigación psíquica por la literatura; el troceo corta tuberculosis con el guion U+00AC.

«I wrote stories that were published in magazines and I collaborated with my friend Miss S. R. Day in writing an Irish peasant tragedy called Broken Faith. Then, at the age of twenty-two, I experienced the youthful bliss of witnessing this play being rehearsed by the poet W. B. Yeats and the play¬ wright Lennox Robinson at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin.» — Cummins data su comienzo literario y teatral, con los dos nombres que ensayaron su obra.

«Alas, only once in my life have I seen a ghost, one very welcome to me.» — y la acotación que Cummins pone a su propia experiencia psíquica, una sola aparición en toda su vida.

«Among those who attended our sittings was a young man back from the Serbian front, Mr. E. R. Dodds, later Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford University and finally in 1961-2 President of the Society for Psychical Research (the S.P.R.).» — Cummins nombra a un asistente de aquellas sesiones y lo sigue hasta su cátedra y su presidencia de la sociedad.

«His was an extremely whole¬ some sceptical influence. He has a keen sense of humour and youthful though he was then, did not mind Hester calling him ‘the Universal Question Mark’.» — y lo que Cummins dice de él en aquellas sesiones, un escepticismo que llama sanísimo y el apodo con que lo llamaban.

«The technique of composition has always been of deep interest to me, and when I was a young Irishwoman it developed on two lines. (1) The composition was the creation of my conscious mind. (2) It was derived from the unconscious.» — Cummins distingue en primera persona sus dos maneras de componer, la del pleno acuerdo consciente y la que viene del inconsciente.

«On the conscious mind level I have tried and failed to write about English people. I did not know them sufficiently well to make their characters come alive in fiction. They remained foreigners to me.» — y el límite que Cummins se reconoce en esa manera, no lograr personajes ingleses, que es el argumento que Toksvig usa a su favor en la Introduction.

«Its composition emerged from the deeper levels of mind, so much so it seemed as if I were merely a secretary taking down an already fully composed narrative by another author, and my pen travelled over page after page with abnormal rapidity.» — la descripción que Cummins da de esa segunda escritura, como si fuera secretaria tomando un relato ya compuesto por otro autor.

«I use the adjective transmitted to define it because my conscious mind is suspended, plays no part in the communication.» — y la razón que Cummins da de preferir transmitida a automática, que es la misma enmienda de vocabulario que hace la editora.

«Whatever the source of such writings, i.e. a subconscious or a common unconscious mind, or a discarnate individual’s mind I have not composed a single sentence of those rapidly written scripts when provided.» — la fórmula con que Cummins declara lo único que afirma de sus scripts, dejando las tres explicaciones posibles abiertas y negando solo haber compuesto una frase.

«Incidentally, I dislike the word ‘control’, commonly used in psychic research for the guardian caretaker of a medium.» — la enmienda de vocabulario que Cummins hace por su cuenta, que le disgusta la palabra control con que la investigación psíquica nombra al guardián de un médium.

«He used me as an intermediary to investigate through transmitted writing the psychological backgrounds of patients in cases of obscure neurosis. Thus was disclosed the conflicts etc. in the patients’ subconscious minds.» — Cummins describe el uso médico que un facultativo hizo de ella, investigar por escritura transmitida el fondo psicológico de pacientes con neurosis oscuras.

«In my case, I had merely concentrated on stillness and listening as a stenographer does to dictation, and these correct statements relating to the history of the object touched by me or held wandered into my brain in words.» — y cómo describe Cummins su propio procedimiento en la lectura de objetos, con el símil de la estenógrafa que escucha un dictado.

«I never saw the patients. Usually a sheet of his or her hand-writing and an object he or she had worn were posted to me and I worked alone upon them in the absence of the physician.» — y el protocolo de esos trabajos según Cummins, que no veía a los pacientes y trabajaba sola sobre un papel escrito y un objeto.

«But a man described as 'an intellectual’ recently in an ignorant article finally dismissed psychical research with the remark ‘I cannot see the use of mediums’. Dr. Connell and I have proved that a sensitive can be of valuable service to medical psychology in restoring to health sufferers from obscure psychoses mainly through what is called psychometry or object reading. Certain patients have been thus rescued from ruin and despair.» — la respuesta de Cummins a quien despachaba la investigación psíquica por inútil, con lo que ella reclama haber mostrado y con el término técnico que usa.

«I must add that I have no medical qualifications. I am simply employed as a masseuse by a physician. So no patient should apply to me about his case.» — y el límite que Cummins se pone en el acto, sin títulos médicos y empleada por un facultativo, con la advertencia a los lectores.

«It is entirely thanks to E.B.G. as I shall call her that I was able among my various occupations to work seriously at psychic research over many ensuing years.» — Cummins atribuye a su colaboradora haber podido trabajar en serio en investigación psíquica, que es la figura que los scripts llaman por sus iniciales.

«I shall not in future cumber the pages with the words ‘alleged’ or ‘purporting to be’ from communicators.» — la decisión de escritura que Cummins anuncia en su capítulo, dejar de cargar las páginas con las fórmulas de reserva, que es lo contrario de lo que hace el aparato del volumen.

«Leading English and Scottish theological scholars highly commended the accuracy of certain historical facts written in them, facts entirely unknown to me. I could not in view of my education have known them.» — y el argumento que Cummins da por sus escritos anteriores, la exactitud histórica reconocida por estudiosos frente a su propia instrucción.

«Mr. Salter conducted my long Cummins-Willett experiment. He and Mr. Henry Tennant (Mrs. Willett’s younger son) were the absent sitters in this case.» — Cummins declara quién condujo este experimento y quiénes fueron los asistentes ausentes, que es el protocolo del libro dicho por ella.

«We were amateurs; I was never a professional. It was quite beyond my strength. Indeed, I have a respectful admiration for first-class professional mental mediums of integrity who lead an arduous, exhausting, ill-paid life.» — Cummins se separa del médium profesional y a la vez lo respeta, con la vida que le atribuye dicha sin adorno.

«Until 1952 I avoided reading any books or articles about psychic research as I feared that its technical jargon would interfere with my composi¬ tion in regard to my consciously composed literary work.» — y la razón que Cummins da de no haber leído sobre el asunto hasta 1952, que es el dato en que descansa su negativa sobre las fuentes.

«A month before she died on December 18, 1951, she begged me to abandon literary work, concentrating on our research. I promised to do so, and have kept my promise.» — y la promesa que Cummins dice haber hecho a su colaboradora moribunda, dejar la literatura por la investigación.

«As he, with passionate curiosity, studied the mystery of life and death in medical science I continue to pursue and probe at this mystery in psychic science.» — y la continuidad que Cummins reclama con su padre médico, la misma curiosidad por el misterio de la vida y la muerte en otro campo.

«Is there a swan (a soul) that rises from the Black Sea of Death and flies away to other regions?» — y la pregunta con que Cummins cierra su capítulo, que es la del epígrafe del volumen devuelta al final.

«HOW do you establish your lines of communication?’ That is a question which I often meet with, in one form or another. I wish I could answer it clearly and simply, so that my map could be followed without difficulty by aspirants to the same psychic experiences. But all I can do is to try to throw light on the process from different angles. It can never be a textbook answer, for the track that those lines follow is at least partly laid in a region apart from conscious thought.» — Cummins abre su capítulo de método con la pregunta que le hacen y con la acotación de por qué no puede haber respuesta de manual, porque el trecho se traza en parte fuera del pensamiento consciente.

«I chose the word ‘stillness’, perceiving it meditatively in my mind’s eye, for a few minutes only while I endeavoured to lose my little self in the meaning of that word.» — y la palabra que Cummins eligió para ese ejercicio, que es el término técnico de su método.

«The advice which was somehow transmitted to me was this: In the quiet of evening I was first to concentrate on stillness, secondly to desire the fulfilment of my need and thirdly to imagine it fulfilled.» — y el método completo en tres pasos, que Cummins declara recibido y no inventado: concentrar en la quietud, desear el cumplimiento de la necesidad e imaginarla cumplida.

«In order to enter the stillness, it is necessary to raise one’s intelligence to a higher degree of consciousness. The stillness is neither a passive, inert state, nor trance, in my experience.» — y la definición que Cummins da de esa quietud, deslindándola de dos estados con los que se confunde.

«Once launched, the desire seems as a little boat on the lake or sea of the imagination. There, piloted by desire, driven forward by the waves of imagination, it can on certain occasions reach the objective chosen.» — y la figura con que Cummins describe la mecánica del método, la barca del deseo sobre el mar de la imaginación.

«Generally speaking, my first task is completely to orientate my thoughts away from the life around me. I prepare for such writing by eliminating sense impressions and muscular action.» — la primera operación del método según Cummins, apartar el pensamiento de la vida alrededor eliminando impresión sensorial y acción muscular.

«Mediums have been accused of ‘fishing’ for information, but in my view such fishing is taboo, if, for no other reason, that it is certain to spoil my practise of concentration.» — Cummins declara tabú la pesca de información de que se acusa a los médiums, y da una razón de oficio antes que moral.

«Mine is and always has been the (b) method.» — y Cummins se coloca en uno de los dos, que es el que excluye la posesión, en una sola línea.

«Of course I have had my blank sittings, devoid of evidence. Mediums more gifted than I have also experienced them. Just as in physical science numerous experiments are failures, so it can be in psychic experiments.» — Cummins consigna sus propios fracasos y los pone al lado del fracaso experimental corriente de las ciencias físicas.

«Of course the medium too can be the cause of failure. Serious worries in her own life can inhibit the production of convincing evidence, or, as in the case of professional mediums, exhaustion of sensitivity through giving too many sittings.» — Cummins reparte la causa del fracaso también del lado del médium, con la preocupación propia y el agotamiento del profesional.

«Scepticism, however, is no fault or hindrance in the investi¬ gator. If not allied with his emotional subconscious prejudices or fears, evidential results can very well be obtained.» — y la distinción con que Cummins salva el escepticismo, que no estorba mientras no vaya aliado a prejuicios o miedos subconscientes.

«I’ve been asked to try and describe my personal sensations when I am acting as recorder of transmitted writing from those who claim to have departed this life of fairly recent times. I can do no better than to quote ‘Mrs. Willett’.» — Cummins describe sus propias sensaciones citando a la comunicadora, que es la inversión final del libro: la transmisora se explica con las palabras de quien transmite.

«I may add that I have not read the Balfour Study of the Psychological Aspects of Mrs. JVillett’s Mediumship, only what is quoted from it in G. N. M. Tyrrell’s The Personality of Man and in Mr. Saltmarsh’s Evidence of Personal Survival from Cross Correspondences. Neither book quotes very much from the Balfour Study.)» — y la negativa que Cummins repite justo ahí, entre paréntesis, sobre lo que ha leído del estudio anterior, con los dos libros nombrados y la acotación de que ninguno cita mucho.

«I heard nothing with my ears, but the words came from outside my mind ... I don’t feel a sense of seeing, but an intense sense of personality, like a blind person perhaps might have—and of inflections, such as amusement or emotion on the part of the speaker.’ And, again, ‘It is as “minds” and “character” I know them.’» — la cita de la comunicadora que Cummins hace suya, con la ausencia de voz oída y el sentido intenso de personalidad como de un ciego.

«But in psychometric work, that is to say when I have held an object I have occasion¬ ally been clairvoyant and have seen passing pictures of a person or a room or country that has been connected with the object or its owner.» — y la diferencia que Cummins marca respecto de esa cita, que en la lectura de objetos sí ha sido clarividente.

«But it was as if I were a spectator in a cinema, looking at moving pictures. I had hardly any sense of the words describing them that were being rapidly written by my hand.» — la figura con que Cummins describe esas imágenes, espectadora de cine que apenas percibe las palabras que su mano escribe.

«It may be significant that when I record communications from educated people of the last decade I do not see images and scenes, but when I recorded the Cleophas writings, concerned with people who were said to have lived eighteen hundred years ago, I sometimes saw moving pictures of them and their surroundings.» — y la correlación que Cummins señala con la cautela de un puede ser significativo, entre la época de los comunicadores y la aparición de imágenes.

«They came with a purpose and appeared to force their way into my writing.» — la clase de comunicador que Cummins llama intruso, desconocido para ella y para los presentes, que se abre paso con un propósito.

«I felt extremely repelled by the unpleasant personality of Dr. Tomlin and I stopped his later attempts to write through me.» — y lo que Cummins declara haber hecho con ese comunicador, cortarle el paso, que es una decisión de ella y no de los comunicadores.

«Exactly the opposite was my reaction to my communicator ‘Mrs. Willett’. In her case I was sensible of a delightful and varied personality with a glancing wit. Her personality was indeed a trifle dominating, but she was clearly the fine, late Victorian English lady, public-spirited and a worker for others.» — y el retrato contrario, el de la comunicadora de este libro tal como Cummins la sintió.

«My own method of concentrating on ‘stillness’ does not seem to have been hers. Why should it be?» — y la diferencia de método que Cummins consigna entre las dos, sin armonizarla.

«It places my directing self in a strong position in which I have never been controlled by an alien mind. Mine has never been a case of ‘possession’ by another mind.» — la negativa central de Cummins sobre su propio oficio, que su yo director nunca ha sido controlado por una mente ajena y que lo suyo no es posesión.

«Certain people have said or written that ‘automatic writing is dangerous to the writer’. In my case there has been no danger experienced by me, possibly for the simple reason that mine has not been automatic writing. It has been transmitted writing taken down as by a reporter who has complete control of his physical body.» — y la respuesta de Cummins a la acusación de peligro, apoyada en la distinción de vocabulario que ella y la editora sostienen, transmitida y no automática.

«But I am aware that my conscious mind is more keenly alert and active in its pointed concentration during the transmitting process. This may possibly be so because on favourable occasions it appears to be raised through concentration to the higher subatomic level of energy.» — y lo que Cummins sí concede de su estado, una mente consciente más alerta y, con la cautela de un puede ser, elevada a un nivel de energía que llama subatómico.

«I did not in these proxy Willett sittings converse with Mrs. Willett. For this unsociability she severely chided me.» — y el reproche del script recogido por Cummins desde su lado, con la razón de oficio que da.

«Whether the content of my scripts are transmitted to me by a subconscious or unconscious mind or a discarnate communicator, that is for others than myself to judge.» — la última línea del volumen, y es una abstención: Cummins deja a otros el juicio sobre si lo que escribe viene de una mente subconsciente, de una inconsciente o de un comunicador descarnado.

«Cummins, Geraldine Dorothy, 1890-The scripts of Cleophas; a reconstruction of primitive Christian documents, recorded by Geraldine Cummins, with a prefatory note by John Lamond. London, Rider & co. [1928] xix p. 1¢€., 11-291p. 23cm. I. Title. II. Title: Cleophas, The scripts of» — la ficha de catalogo pegada al final del ejemplar, que repite la mencion de responsabilidad, infiere la fecha entre corchetes y colaciona el volumen

«I know personally, Miss Cummins, through whose instrumentality The Scripts of Cleophas has been given to.the world. I have personally witnessed her writing and can testify that copy amounting to upwards of 1714 words was produced in one hour and ten» — John Lamond abre la Prefatory Note declarandose testigo de la escritura y cronometrandola: mas de mil setecientas palabras en una hora y diez minutos

«Miss Cummins makes no claim to special knowledge of the period (Apostolic) of which she writes» — Lamond niega que la escribiente reclame saber particular del periodo apostolico del que trata el libro

«THE volume here presented to the public is only a first instalment, in itself self-contained and complete, ot the first three Scripts of Cleophas, which consist of a long series of scripts produced through Miss Geraldine D. Cummins, but purporting to be ultimately communicated by one Cleophas, a Christian convert of the first century» — la Introduccion sin firma abre declarando lo que el volumen es: primera entrega de una serie larga producida por mano de Cummins y adjudicada a un Cleofas del siglo primero; el verbo es purporting, no is

«Miss Cummins; the daughter of the late Professor Ashley Cummins, of Cork, has achieved distinction both in sport and in the literary world» — los editores situan a la escribiente por familia y por oficio antes de describir el procedimiento

«Having a view to the content of the scripts, it is important to remember that, though Miss Cummins has read a great deal, her reading has been confined, for the most part, to the works of such modern writers as Shaw, Galsworthy, Yeats, etc. ; she has never studied theology, theosophy, philosophy, or Christian origins» — y acotan sus lecturas a los modernos nombrados, negandole estudio de teologia, teosofia, filosofia y origenes cristianos: es el argumento con que descartan despues la memoria subconsciente

«Miss Gibbes made the acquaintance of Miss Cummins early in 1923, and states that she has never been in the least interested in early Church history, or in the Church, and professes ignorance of anything appertaining to either» — y fechan en 1923 el trato entre las dos, con la declaracion de Gibbes de que nada le interesaba de la historia de la Iglesia primitiva

«The first sittings with.Miss..Gibbes.-began..in. December 1923, when Miss ‘Cummins could only write for a quarter of an hour at a time,as her “power” then gave out» — las primeras sesiones se fechan en diciembre de 1923 y se miden por el cuarto de hora que duraba lo que el texto llama su poder; el troceo imprime los puntos del OCR dentro de la frase

«Normally, Miss Cummins is not a rapid writer, and has to work rather laboriously, and with many corrections, to produce 600 or 700 words in a couple of days» — los editores contrastan esa velocidad con la ordinaria de la escribiente, laboriosa y con muchas correcciones

«When producing these writings, Miss Cummins places her left hand over» — la postura con que se escribia, descrita por los editores; el tramo se corta aqui porque el troceo reemite la marca de plana a media frase, y sigue en la linea siguiente

«dotted, as the pencil never leaves the surface of the paper. The speed attained, as contrasted with Miss Cummins’s normal rate of» — el detalle con que los editores sostienen que el lapiz no se levantaba: ni tes cruzadas ni ies con punto

«The editors have satisfied themselves as to the genuineness and disinterestedness of the part played by Miss Cummins and her associate, Miss Gibbes, in the production of these records» — lo unico que los editores declaran haber comprobado: la buena fe y el desinteres de las dos mujeres, no el origen de lo escrito

«No such second intermediary occurs in the transmission of what is here reported. Neither Miss Cummins nor the editors have interposed anything of their own» — frente a aquello, los editores niegan segundo intermediario y niegan haber interpuesto nada suyo

«The editors do not claim any authority for these documents, and do not here attempt to offer any explanation of their origin, though they are convinced that the suggestion which might be made by followers of Dr. Morton Prince, of subconscious memory on the part of Miss Cummins, is altogether divested of probability by what is said above of her interests and education, and by what they personally know of these in fuller detail» — los editores no reclaman autoridad para los documentos ni explican su origen, y a la vez descartan por improbable la memoria subconsciente que propondrian los seguidores de Morton Prince

«The narrative is transmitted through the ‘“‘Messenger”’, who is not its actual author. He demands from Miss Cummins mere receptivity and passivity» — los editores presentan a la voz transmisora y le niegan la autoria del relato, con lo que exige de la escribiente: receptividad y pasividad

«It contains much which, in consideration of the life and mentality of the intermediary, Miss Cummins, appears quite inexplicable on the supposition of human authorship» — el argumento de los editores contra la autoria humana, apoyado en la vida y la mentalidad de la intermediaria

«Miss Cummins is an Irish lady, well known as the producer (in automatic script) of a number of interesting writings, some of which purport to contain detailed information, not available from normal historical sources, about incidents in the early history of Christianity.» — Broad presenta a Cummins como irlandesa conocida por producir en escritura automática escritos que, dice, pretenden traer información detallada sobre la historia temprana del cristianismo no disponible en fuentes históricas normales.

«As a good example of these writings I would mention her well-known book The Scripts of Cleophas» — y da por buen ejemplo de esos escritos el libro de Cummins sobre Cleofás, que el volumen data en 1928; el tramo se corta antes del año entre paréntesis.

«the next question that arises is this: What is the least unplausible way of accounting for the production of such scripts by a person whose normal sources of information were those available to Miss Geraldine Cummins at the times when her hand automatically wrote them?» — la pregunta que Broad se pone y que ordena el resto de su texto, formulada por lo menos inverosímil y no por lo verdadero: cuál es la manera menos inverosímil de dar cuenta de esos scripts a partir de las fuentes normales de que la automatista disponía.

«foreword by Professor C. D. Broad page vii introduction by Signe Toksvig lv THE BEGINNING OF THE CUMMINS—WILLETT scripts by Geraldine Cummins 1 THE SCRIPTS AND NOTES 7 personal background by Geraldine Cummins 147 the lines of communication by Geraldine» — el Contents del volumen, que es donde se ve el reparto de voces por capítulos y sus páginas impresas; el troceo lo saca de sitio, en una plana anterior a la Introduction.

«I then, in the books of Miss Geraldine Cummins, came across other cases of transmitted writings (now technically known as ‘scripts’). These also had similarities to those of Swedenborg.» — Toksvig cuenta cómo llegó a la automatista de este libro y por dónde: escritos transmitidos, que es donde da el término técnico que el volumen usa, scripts.

«In 1955 I succeeded in meeting Miss Cummins, and since then we have kept in frequent touch.» — Toksvig data su trato personal con la automatista, dos años antes del primer script.

«But, unlike Swedenborg’s scripts on these topics, Miss Cummins’s present a vivid and coherent narrative, thrilling even to one like myself with a minimal interest in the subject matter.» — el juicio de Toksvig sobre los escritos anteriores de la automatista: relato vívido y coherente, que a ella misma, poco interesada en la materia, le resultó apasionante.

«In that notice it was stated that ‘Mrs. Willett’ of the famous Balfour Study had been the pseudonym of a certain English lady who, Miss Cummins had realized, was the very same woman from whom she was obtaining these vigorous scripts.» — el momento del reconocimiento, contado por Toksvig: la nota necrológica revelaba que el seudónimo del estudio famoso era el de la misma mujer de quien venían los scripts.

«Geraldine Cummins gave one sitting at Fishers Hill, Woking, to Ger¬ ald and Lady Betty Balfour» — la fila de 1939, que es el único contacto anterior entre la automatista de este libro y la familia Balfour; el troceo corta Gerald con el guion U+00AC.

«Geraldine Cummins read extracts from G. W. Balfour’s ‘Study of the Psychological Aspects of Mrs. Willett’s Mediumship’ in a book by Tyrrell and a book by Salt» — la fila de 1955, que declara qué había leído la automatista del trabajo de Balfour sobre la mediumnidad de la comunicadora, y por qué vía; el tramo se corta en el guion de renglón de Saltmarsh.

«The six scripts received by Geraldine Cummins before she knew that the communicator and Mrs. Willett were identical had been, so she was assured by the experimenter, full of correct information about matters known to ‘the absent sitter’, who was the lady’s younger son, Henry.» — el dato de fecha que Toksvig subraya: los seis scripts anteriores al reconocimiento estaban llenos, según el experimentador, de información correcta sobre asuntos que sabía el asistente ausente.

«Miss Cummins has not read the Balfour Study, she has only read fragments from it, quoted in two other books (see page 4) which are far from covering the subjects in her own Willett scripts, but the possibility of subconscious extrasensory perception of the Balfour Study is there.» — y Toksvig consigna a la vez la negativa y el hueco que deja: la automatista no ha leído ese estudio, solo fragmentos citados en otros dos libros, pero la posibilidad de percepción extrasensorial subconsciente del estudio queda en pie.

«Did Miss Cummins’s subconscious perception roam around till she found and put together various unpublished manuscripts? Or did the same omniscience find these facts in the minds of those few people still living who knew them, and arranged the material for publication?» — Toksvig se pone a sí misma las dos preguntas que quedarían abiertas si se acepta la percepción subconsciente: si anduvo rondando manuscritos inéditos, o si halló los hechos en las mentes de los pocos vivos que los sabían.

«Possibly, but unlikely. Miss Cummins has done badly in telepathy tests of the quantitative kind.» — y su respuesta, que concede lo posible y niega lo probable, con un dato en contra de la propia automatista: le ha ido mal en las pruebas cuantitativas de telepatía.

«Out of the question is the supposition that she consciously hunted about in reference books for the facts or played the detective secretly in getting them from living people who might have known Mrs. Willett. That lady’s anonymity was exceptionally well guarded, and Geraldine Cummins’s utter sincerity is guaranteed by all who know her.» — la hipótesis que Toksvig descarta del todo, la del rebusque consciente o el trabajo de detective, con dos razones: el sigilo con que se guardó el anonimato y la sinceridad que le garantizan quienes conocen a la automatista.

«Various published scripts by Miss Cummins demonstrate that she too is a channel that can convey the wholeness of a personality, as well as facts unknown to her that are often startingly verified.» — y lo que atribuye a la de la automatista: canal capaz de transmitir la entereza de una personalidad además de hechos que ella no sabía; el troceo imprime startingly por startlingly.

«The objection might finally be raised that Geraldine Cummins is an author in her own right, quite apart from her 'transmitted' writing, so why could she not simply be continuing this creativity in her subconscious mind, then in perfect good faith dubbing it ‘transmitted’ when it comes to the surface?» — la última objeción que Toksvig se plantea, y la más incómoda para el libro: que la automatista es escritora por derecho propio y podría estar continuando esa creatividad en su subconsciente y llamándola transmitida de buena fe.

«a figure steps forward, completely unlike Miss Cummins or any of her compatriots, a lady who, one feels, is almost aggressively selfdrawn.» — la figura que Toksvig dice ver salir de estos scripts, dibujada por sí misma con algo de agresividad; span une selfdrawn donde el impreso parte self-drawn al final del renglón.

«Geraldine Cummins has many remarkable gifts, but I think few would consider that they include an ‘orderly magisterial habit of mind’.» — y el argumento que Toksvig saca de ese retrato, por contraste: que pocos atribuirían a la automatista el hábito mental ordenado y magistral que la carta describe.

«Miss Cummins then adds, ‘I’m sure the script message is a failure.’ It can be seen that Miss Cummins is by no means an automatic believer in her automatic or transmitted scripts.» — Toksvig cierra con el juicio propio de la automatista sobre ese mensaje y saca de ahí lo que le importa: que ella no cree en sus escritos por oficio.

«‘That settles it,’ he said one day to me. ‘Now Fm convinced. I’ve read Geraldine’s fiction. She could not possibly have invented Mrs. Willett.’» — y la frase con que él la cerró, apoyada en haber leído la ficción de la automatista.

«E.B.G. is Miss E. B. Gibbes, also known as ‘Bea’, whose devoted and scholarly work in connection with Miss Cummins’s auto¬ matic writings is well known. She died suddenly on December 18, 1951.» — la nota que identifica la sigla de la colaboradora muerta de la automatista, que aparece dentro de los scripts como una de las voces.

«A sample of Geraldine Cummins’s normal writing.» — y el pie de la tercera muestra, la letra normal de la automatista, que es el término de comparación de la lámina.

«On March 30 she went to tea with Mrs. S., and they talked of her friend the Irish poet AE, also about Yeats. Miss Cummins said that in her opinion Yeats’s head always ruled his heart for all his lyrical poetry about Maud Gonne. Mrs. S. capped this with a story to show the heart may rule the head, even in the case of an intellectual. She said Arthur Balfour had been in love with a girl who died while he was abroad. He rushed home to offer her an engagement ring, but it was too late. Mrs. S. did not mention her name.» — la editora reconstruye la conversación de la que después se sospechó como fuente, y consigna que ahí no se dio el nombre.

«This is relevant here, as the communicator is worrying because the automatist has hesitated between Henry and Harry as the correct name of her living son. Miss Cummins’s brother, always called Harry, was killed in the First World War. That memory having been aroused in her, ‘offsets’ one might say on the communicator’s mind, and the wrong form of the name is given. A ‘mutual’, if involuntary, selection, has taken place.» — y la nota aplica el término al error del nombre: la memoria removida en la automatista compensa en la mente de la comunicadora y da la forma equivocada, que es una selección mutua involuntaria.

«Note: Script is endorsed as follows: ‘This script was written at Woodville, Glanmire, Co. Cork, on 26.9.57. Iris A. Cummins.’)» — el endoso manuscrito que certifica dónde y cuándo se escribió el sexto script, firmado por una tercera persona; es el único de esta clase que el volumen reproduce.

«Geraldine Cummins, The Road to Immortality: Being a Description of the After-life Purporting to be Communicated by the Late F. W. H. Myers (London: Psychic Press Ltd., 1932, 1967), 123.» — otra de las obras que las notas registran: *The Road to Immortality*, de Geraldine Cummins, en su reimpresión de 1967.

«Geraldine Cummins, Swan on a Black Sea: A Study in Automatic Writing: The Cummins-Willet Scripts, ed. Signe Torsvig (New York: Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1970).» — y su estudio de escritura automática *Swan on a Black Sea*, publicado por Samuel Weiser.

«We know that many books have been written totally by means of this directed force, including the Patience Worth series received by a Midwestern housewife and the fascinating New Testament stories dictated through Geraldine Cummins.» — y sitúa el libro dentro de una serie de precedentes que nombra por su vía y no por su título: la serie de Patience Worth recibida por un ama de casa del Medio Oeste y los relatos del Nuevo Testamento dictados a través de Geraldine Cummins.

«Geraldine Cummins knew nothing of psychic matters. She received messages purporting to come from the deceased F. W. H. Myers (Beyond Human Personality, Ivor Nicholson & Watson, 1935) containing similar statements. She said, for example, that a (deceased) daughter ‘met’ her (living) parent during their sleep. Thus, ‘when you sleep, your soul enters your double, or unifying body, and you then pass within your subliminal-self.» — la segunda fuente, con la ignorancia previa declarada, y la mecánica del sueño en boca de un Myers difunto.