the book-lined wall behind his desk. Much of one shelf appeared to contain books with his own name prominent upon their spines.
“Do you intend to write a book about me?” Lisette meant to put more of a note of protest in her voice.
“It is possible that I may wish to record some of what we discover together, my dear. But only with scrupulous discretion, and, needless to say, only with your complete permission.”
“My dreams.” Lisette remembered the book of his that she had tried to read. “Do you consider them to be evidence of some previous incarnation?”
“Perhaps. We can’t be certain until we explore them further. Does the idea of reincarnation smack too much of the occult to your liking, Miss Seyrig? Perhaps we should speak in more fashionable terms of Jungian archetypes, genetic memory or mental telepathy. The fact that the phenomenon has so many designations is ample proof that dreams of a previous existence are a very real part of the unconscious mind. It is undeniable that many people have experienced, in dreams or under hypnosis, memories that cannot possibly arise from their personal experience. Whether you believe that the immortal soul leaves the physical body at death to be reborn in the living embryo, or prefer to attribute it to inherited memories engraved upon DNA, or whatever explanation— this is a very real phenomenon and has been observed throughout history.
“As a rule, these memories of past existence are entirely buried within the unconscious. Almost everyone has experienced deja vu. Subjects under hypnosis have spoken in languages and archaic dialects of which their conscious mind has no knowledge, have recounted in detail memories of previous lives. In some cases these submerged memories burst forth as dreams; in these instances, the memory is usually one of some emotionally laden experience, something too potent to remain buried. I believe that this is the case with your nightmares—the fact that they are recurrent being evidence of some profound significance in the events they recall.”
Lisette wished for a cigarette; she’d all but stopped buying cigarettes with British prices, and from the absence of ashtrays here, Dr Magnus was a nonsmoker.
“But why have these nightmares only lately become a problem?”
“I think I can explain that easily enough. Your forebears were from London. The dreams became a problem after you arrived in London. While it is usually difficult to define any relationship between the subject and the remembered existence, the timing and the force of your dream regressions would seem to indicate that you may be the reincarnation of someone—an ancestress, perhaps—who lived here in London during this past century.”
“In that case, the nightmares should go away when I return to the States.”
“Not necessarily. Once a doorway to the unconscious is opened, it is not so easily closed again. Moreover, you say that you had experienced these dreams on rare occasions prior to your coming here. I would suggest that what you are experiencing is a natural process—a submerged part of your self is seeking expression, and it would be unwise to deny this shadow stranger within you. I might farther argue that your presence here in London is hardly coincidence—that your decision to study here was determined by that part of you who emerges in these dreams.”
Lisette decided she wasn’t ready to accept such implications just now. “What do you propose?”
Dr Magnus folded his hands as neatly as a bishop at prayer. “Have you ever undergone hypnosis?”
“No ” She wished she hadn’t made that sound like two syllables.
“It has proved to be extraordinarily efficacious in a great number of cases such as your own, my dear. Please do try to put from your mind the ridiculous trappings and absurd mumbo-jumbo with which the popular imagination connotes hypnotism. Hypnosis is no more than a technique through which we may release the entirety of the unconscious mind to free expression, unrestricted by the countless artificial barriers that make us strangers to ourselves.”
“You want to hypnotize me?” The British inflection came to her, turning her statement into both question and protest.
“With your fullest cooperation, of course. I think it best. Through regressive hypnosis we can explore the significance of these dreams that trouble you, discover the shadow stranger within your self. Remember—this is a part of you that cries out for conscious expression. It is only through the full realization of one’s identity, of one’s total self, that true inner tranquillity may be achieved. Know thyself, and you will find peace.”
“Know myself?”
“Precisely. You must put aside