And, as I have said, it’s made me think twice about the imagination. If the spirits aren’t external, how astonishing the mediums become! Victor Hugo said of his voices that they were like his own mental powers multiplied by five.

Merrill is reflecting on mediumship and the source of “voices” heard in séances: whether they are truly external spirits or productions of the psyche. He suggests that if the voices are internal, the phenomenon is no less—perhaps more—remarkable, because it implies an extraordinary amplification of human imaginative and associative powers. The comparison to Victor Hugo frames this as a creative, not merely occult, question: the “voices” can be understood as a heightened form of artistic cognition, where the mind generates language, character, and insight beyond ordinary conscious control. The quote thus probes the porous boundary between inspiration, dissociation, and authorship—how art can feel like it comes from elsewhere even when it arises within.