What is it that is active in us in telepathic phenomena? We may recall the case of Thomas Garrison (Society for Psychical Research, VIII, p. 125) who, while sitting with his wife at a religious service, suddenly gets up in the middle of the sermon, goes out of the church, and, as if impelled by an irresistible impulse, walks twenty miles afoot to go to see his mother, whom he finds dead on his arrival, although he did not know that she was ill and although she was relatively young (fifty-eight years). I have a hundred observations similar to this in writing before me. It is not our normal habitual nature that is in action in such a case as this.

There is probably in us, more or less sentient, a sub-conscious nature, and it is this which seems to be at work in mediumistic experiences. I am pretty much of the opinion Myers expresses in the following paragraph:[90]

This explanatory hypothesis is held, with an important modification, by a distinguished savant to whom also we owe long and patient researches into the obscure phenomena of normal psychology; I mean Dr. Geley, who thus sums up his own conclusions:

This sub-conscious nature does not seem to depend upon the organism. It is probably anterior to it, and will survive it. It seems to be superior to it, endowed with powers and acquirements very different from the powers and acquirements of the normal, supernormal, and transcendent consciousness.

Assuredly, there is in this view of the case more than one mystery still, were it only the feat of performing a material act at a distance, and that (not less strange) of apparently having nothing to do with that kind of an act.

The first rule of the scientific method is first to seek explanations in the known before having recourse to the unknown, and we should never fail to comply with this rule. But if this method of sailing does not bring us to port, it is our duty to confess it.

I very much fear that that is what is the matter here. We are not satisfied. The explanation is not clear, and is floating a little too much at random in the waves—and the wavering uncertainty—of the hypothesis.

At the point at which we have now arrived in this chapter of explanations we are precisely in the position of Alexander Aksakof when he wrote his great work, Animism and Spiritualism, in reply to the book of Dr. von Hartmann on Spiritualism. Hartman claimed to explain all of these psychical phenomena by the following hypothesis.

Akaskof tried to see if these hypotheses (the last of which is a pretty bold one) are sufficient to explain everything, and he concludes that they are not. That is also my opinion. There is something else. This something else, this residue at the bottom of the crucible of experiment, is a psychic element, the nature of which remains still wholly hidden from us. I think that all the readers of this book will share my conviction.

Anthropomorphic hypotheses are far from explaining everything. Besides, they are only hypotheses. We must not hide from ourselves that these phenomena introduce us into another world, into an unknown world, one that is still to be explored in its whole extent.

As to beings different from ourselves,—what may their nature be? Of this we cannot form any idea. Souls of the dead? This is very far from being demonstrated. The innumerable observations which I have collected during more than forty years all prove to me the contrary. No satisfactory identification has been made.[92]

The communications obtained have always seemed to proceed from the mentality of the group, or, when they are heterogeneous, from spirits of an incomprehensible nature. The being evoked soon vanishes when one insists on pushing him to the wall and having the heart out of his mystery. And then my greatest hope has been deceived, that hope of my twentieth year, when I would so gladly have received celestial light upon the doctrine of the plurality of worlds. The spirits have taught us nothing.Nevertheless, the agents seem sometimes to be independent. Crookes mentions having seen Miss Fox write automatically a communication for one of her sitters while another communication upon another subject was given to her for a second person by means of the alphabet and by raps, and all the while she was chatting with a third person upon another subject totally different from the other two. Does this remarkable fact prove with certainty the action of a spirit other than that of the medium?

The same scientist mentions that, during one of his sÉances, a little rod crossed the table, in full light, and came and rapped his hand, giving him a communication by following the letters of the alphabet spelled out by him. The other end of the rod rested on the table at a certain distance from the hand of the medium Home.

This case seems to me, as well as to Crookes, more conclusively in favor of an exterior spirit, so much the more since the experimenter having asked that the raps be given by the Morse telegraphic code, another message was thus rapped out. I also remember that the learned chemist mentions that the word "however" hidden by his finger, upon a newspaper, and unknown even to himself, was rapped out by a little rod.

Wallace also mentions a name written upon a piece of paper fastened by him under the central leg of the experiment table; JonciÈres, a water-color correctly painted in complete darkness, and a musical theme written with a pencil; M. Castex DÉgrange, the announcement of a death, and the place where a lost object might be found. We have also seen sentences dictated either backwards or in such a way that every other letter only must be read to get the sense, or else by strange combinations showing the action of an unknown intellect. We have a thousand examples of this kind.

But if the mind of the medium may liberate itself and appear in an extra-normal state, why might it not be this mind which acts? Do we not have several distinct personalities in our dreams? If they could dynamically appear, would they not act somewhat in this way?

We ought not to lose sight of the fact that these phenomena are of a mixed character. They are at once physical and psychical, material and intellectual, are not always produced by our conscious will, and are rather the subject of observation than experiment.

It is expedient to insist on this characteristic. I one day, (January 31, 1901) heard E. Duclaux, member of the Institute, director of the Pasteur Institute, express the following confused idea (an idea held by so many physicists and so many chemists), in a company which was yet quite competent to discuss these phenomena: "There is no scientific fact except a fact which can be reproduced at will."[93] What a singular reasoning! The witnesses of the fall of a meteor bring us an aËrolite which has just fallen from the sky and been dug up, all hot, from the hole it had made in the ground. "Error! illusion!" we ought to reply: "We shall only believe when you repeat the experiment."

They bring to us the body of a man killed by a stroke of lightning, stripped of his clothes, and shaved as if with a razor. "Impossible!" we ought to reply; "pure invention of your deluded senses." A woman sees appear before her, her husband, who has just died nearly two thousand miles away. We are asked to believe that this is not so, and will not be so until the apparition appears a second time.

This confusion between observation and experiment is a very strange thing as coming from cultivated men.

In psychical phenomena there is a voluntary, capricious, incoherent, intellectual element.

I repeat, we must learn to comprehend that everything cannot be explained and resign ourselves to waiting for an extension of our knowledge. There is intelligence, thought, psychism, mind, in these phenomena. There is still more in certain communications. Can the observations be confirmed and justified by assuming the mind of the living merely as the active agents? Yes, perhaps, but only by attributing to us unknown and supernormal faculties. Yet it must be remembered that this is only an hypothesis. The Spiritualistic hypothesis of communication with the souls of the dead remains also as a working hypothesis.

That souls survive the destruction of the body I have not the shadow of a doubt. But that they manifest themselves by the processes employed in sÉances the experimental method has not yet given us absolute proof. I add that this hypothesis is not at all likely. If the souls of the dead are about us, upon our planet, the invisible population would increase at the rate of 100,000 a day, about 36 millions a year, 3 billions 620 millions a century, 36 billions in ten centuries, etc.,—unless we admit re-incarnations upon the earth itself.

How many times do apparitions, or manifestations occur? When illusions, auto-suggestions, hallucinations, are eliminated, what remains? Scarcely anything. Such an exceptional rarity as this pleads against the reality of apparitions.

We may suppose, it is true, that all human beings do not survive their death, and that, in general, their psychical entity is so insignificant, so wavering, so ineffectual, that it almost disappears in the ether, in the common reservoir, in the environment, like the souls of animals. But thinking beings who have the consciousness of their psychical existence do not lose their personality, but continue the cycle of their evolution. It would seem natural therefore to see them manifest themselves under certain circumstances. Persons condemned to death, in consequence of judicial errors, and executed, should they not return to protest their innocence? Would it not be reasonable to suppose that persons put to death in such a way that violence was not suspected would return to accuse the assassins? Knowing the characters of Robespierre, of Saint-Just, of Fouquier-Tinville, I should like to have seen them revenge themselves a little on those who triumphed over them. The victims of '93, should they not have returned to disturb the sleep of the conquerors? Out of the twenty thousand citizens shot by fusillades during the time of the Commune of Paris I should like to have seen a dozen unceasingly harassing the Hon. M. Theirs, who was really too puffed up and vain-glorious over his having first permitted the organization of that insurrection and then punished it.

Why do not children whose death is lamented by their parents ever come to console them? Why do our dearest attachments seem to disappear forever? And how about last wills and testaments stolen away, and the last will of the dead ignored and their intentions purposely misinterpreted?

"It is only the dead that do not return," says an old proverb. This aphorism is not of absolute application, perhaps; but apparitions are rare, very rare, and we do not understand their precise nature. Are they actual apparitions of the dead? It is not yet demonstrated.

Up to this day, I have sought in vain for certain proof of personal identity through mediumistic communications. And then one does not see why spirits, if they exist around us, should have need of mediums at all, in order to manifest themselves. They surely must form a part of nature, of the universal nature which includes all things.

Nevertheless, it seems to me that the Spiritualistic hypothesis should be preserved by the same right as those I have summed up in the immediately preceding pages, for the discussions have not eliminated it.[94]But why are there manifestations the result of the grouping of five or six persons around the table? That this should be a sine qua non is not a very likely thing either.

It may be, it is true, that spirits exist around us, and that it is normally impossible for them to make themselves visible, audible, or tangible, not being able to reflect rays of light accessible to our retina, or to produce sonorous waves, or to effect touches. Therefore, certain conditions present in mediums might be necessary for their manifestation. Nobody has the right to deny this. But why so many puzzling incoherences and solecisms?

I have on a bookshelf before me several thousand communications dictated by "spirits." In the last analysis, a dim obscurity remains hanging over the causes. Unknown psychic forces: fugitive entities; vanishing figures; nothing solid to grasp, even for the thought. These things do not yield us the consistency of a definition of chemistry or of a theorem in geometry. A molecule of hydrogen is a granite cliff in comparison.

The greater part of the phenomena observed,—noises, movement of tables, confusions, disturbances, raps, replies to questions asked,—are really childish, puerile, vulgar, often ridiculous, and rather resemble the pranks of mischievous boys than serious bona-fide actions. It is impossible not to notice this.

Why should the souls of the dead amuse themselves in this way? The supposition seems almost absurd.

We know that an ordinary man does not change his intellectual or moral value from day to day, and, if his spirit continues to exist after the death of his body, we may expect to find it such as it was before. But why so many oddities and incoherences?

However these things may be, it behooves us not to have any preconceived idea, and our bounden duty is to seek to prove the facts as they present themselves to us.

The unknown natural force brought into play for the lifting of a table is not the exclusive property of mediums. In different degrees it forms a part of all organisms, with different coefficients, 100 for organisms such as those of Home, or Eusapia, 80 for others, 50 or 25 for less favored individuals. But I should hold it as certain that it never drops in any case to 0. The best proof of this is that, with patience, perseverance, and the exercise of the will, almost all the groups of experimenters who have seriously occupied themselves with these researches have succeeded in obtaining, not merely movements, but also complete levitations, raps, and other phenomena.

The word "medium" scarcely has any longer a reason for being, since the existence of an intermediary between the spirits and us is not yet proved. But still the word may be preserved, logic being the rarest of things in grammar and in everything else that is human. The word "electricity" has had no connection for a long time with amber (??e?t???), nor the word "veneration" with the genitive case of Venus (Veneris), nor the (at first astrological) term "disaster" with aster (star), nor the word "tragedy" with goat-song (t?????, ?d?). But this does not hinder these words from being understood in their habitual sense.[95]As respects explanatory hypotheses, I repeat, the field is open to all. It is to be noted that communications dictated are closely related to the condition of mind, the ideas, the opinions, the beliefs, the knowledge, and even the literary culture, of the experimenters. They are like a reflection, or counterpart, of this ensemble of ideas and faculties. Compare the communications noted down in the house of Victor Hugo in Jersey, those of the Phalansterian Society of EugÉne Nus, those of astronomical meetings, those of religious believers,—Catholics, Protestants, etc.

If the hypothesis were not so bold as to seem unacceptable to us, I should dare to think that the concentration of the thoughts of psychic experimenters creates a momentary intellectual being who replies to the questions asked and then vanishes.

Reflection, reflex action? That is perhaps the true expression. Everybody has seen his image reflected in a mirror, and nobody is astonished by it. However, analyse the thing. The more you look at this optical being moving there behind the mirror, the more remarkable the image appears to you. Now suppose looking-glasses had not been invented. If we had not knowledge of those immense mirrors which reflect whole apartments and the visitors in them, if we had never seen anything of the kind, and if someone should tell us that images and reflections of living persons could thus manifest themselves and thus move, we should not comprehend, and should not believe it.

Yes, the ephemeral personification created in Spiritualistic sÉances sometimes recalls the image that we see in a mirror, which has nothing real in itself, but which yet exists and reproduces the original. The image fixed by the photograph is of the same kind, only durable. The potential image formed at the focus of the mirror of a telescope, invisible in itself, but which we can receive on a level mirror and study, at the same time enlarging it by the microscope of the eye-piece, perhaps approaches nearer to that which seems to be produced by the concentration of the psychical energy of a group of persons. We create an imaginary being, we speak to it, and in its replies it almost always reflects the mentality of the experimenters. And just as with the aid of mirrors we can concentrate light, heat, ether-waves, electric waves, in a focus, so, in the same way, it seems sometimes as if the sitters added their psychic forces to those of the medium, of the dynamogen, condensing the waves, and helping to produce a sort of fugitive being more or less material.

The sub-conscious nature, the brain of the medium, or his astral body, the fluidic mind, the unknown powers latent in sensitive organisms, might we not consider these as the mirror which we have just imagined? And might this mirror also not receive and reproduce impressions, or influence, from a soul at a distance?

But we must not generalize partial conclusions which we have already had much trouble in defining.

I do not say that spirits do not exist: on the contrary, I have reasons for admitting their existence. Even certain sensations expressed by the animals,—by dogs, by cats, by horses,—plead in favor of the unexpected and impressive presence of invisible beings or agents. But, as a faithful servant of the experimental method, I think that we ought to exhaust all the simple, natural hypotheses, already known, before having recourse to others.

Unfortunately, a large number of Spiritualists prefer not to go to the bottom of things, or analyse anything, but to be the dupes of nervous impressions. They resemble certain worthy women who tell their beads while believing that they have before them Saint Agnes or Saint Filomena. There is no harm in that, says some one. But it is an illusion. Let us not be its dupes.

If the elementals, the ÉlÉmentaires, the spirits of the air, the gnomes, the spectres of which Goethe speaks (following Paracelsus in this), exist, they are natural and not supernatural. They are in nature, for nature includes all things. The supernatural does not exist. It is then the duty of science to study this question as it studies all others.

As I have already remarked, there are in these different phenomena several causes in action. Among these causes the ones that supposes the action to proceed from disembodied spirits, the souls of the dead, is a plausible hypothesis which ought not to be rejected without examination. It seems sometimes to be the most logical; but there are weighty objections to it, and it is of the highest importance to be able to demonstrate it with certainty. Its partisans ought to be the first to approve the severity of the scientific methods which we apply in our studies of the phenomena, for Spiritualism will receive thereby so much the more solid a foundation and will have so much the more value. The illusions and the artless faith of simple souls cannot give it any more solid and substantial basis. The religion of the future will be the religion of science. There is only one kind of truth.Sometimes authors are made to say that which they have never said. For my part, I have had frequent proof of this, notably in the case of Spiritualism. I should not be surprised if certain interpretations of the pages which precede should come to light, shaped into the opinion that I do not believe in the existence of spirits. Yet it will be impossible to find any affirmation of this kind in this work, or in any other published by me. What I say is that the physical phenomena studied in these pages do not prove the existence of spirits, and may probably be explained without them,—that is, by unknown forces emanating from the experimenters, and especially from mediums. But these phenomena indicate, at the same time, the existence of a psychical atmosphere or environment.

What is this environment? It is indeed very difficult to get a true idea of it, since we are not able to apprehend it by any of our senses. It is also very difficult not to admit it in view of the multitude of psychical phenomena. If we admit the survival of individual souls, what becomes of these souls? Where are they? It may be replied that the conditions of space and of time in which our material senses exist do not represent the real nature of space and time, that our estimates and our measures are essentially relative, that the soul, the spirit, the thinking entity, does not occupy space. Still, we may consider also that pure spirit does not exist, that it is attached to a substance occupying a certain point. We may also consider that all souls are not equal; that there is a superior and inferior class; that certain human beings are scarcely conscious of their existence; that superior souls, being self-conscious, as well after death as during life, preserve their entire individuality, have the power of continuing their evolution, of voyaging from world to world and adding to their moral and intellectual growth by successive reincarnations. But the others, the unconscious souls, are they more advanced the day after death than the day before? Why should death bestow upon them any perfection? Why should it make a genius out of an imbecile? How could it make a good man out of a bad one? Why should it turn an ignoramus into a wise man? How could it make a shining light out of an intellectual nobody?

These unconscious souls,—that is to say, the multitude,—do they not disappear at death into the surrounding ether, and do they not constitute a kind of psychic atmosphere, in which a subtle analysis can discover spiritual as well as material elements? If the psychic force performs an action in the existing order of things, it is as worthy of consideration as the different forms of energy in operation in the ether.

Without, then, admitting the existence of spirits to be demonstrated by the phenomena, we feel that these do not all belong to a simply material order,—physiological, organic, cerebral,—but that there is something else involved, something else inexplicable in the actual state of our knowledge.

But a something else of the psychical order. Perhaps we shall be able to go a little farther, some day, in our independent impartial researches, guided by the experimental scientific method, denying nothing in advance, but admitting whatever is proved by sufficient observation.

---

To sum up: In the actual state of our knowledge it is impossible to give a complete, total, absolute, final explanation of the observed phenomena. The Spiritualistic hypothesis ought not to be dismissed. Still, we may admit the survival of the soul without necessarily admitting a physical communication between the dead and the living. But then all the observed facts leading up to the affirmation of this communication are worthy of the most serious attention of the philosopher.

One of the chief difficulties in the way of these communications seems to be the condition itself of the soul freed from bodily senses. It would have other ways of perceiving. It would not see, hear, touch. How then can it enter into relation with our senses?

There is a whole problem in that which is not to be neglected in the study of any psychical manifestations whatever.

We take our ideas to be realities. This is a mistake. For example, to our senses the air is not a solid body; we pass through it without effort, while we cannot pass through an iron door. The converse is true of electricity: it passes through iron, and finds the air to be a solid impassible body. To the electrician, a wire is a canal leading electricity across the solid rock of the air. Glass is opaque to electricity and transparent to magnetism. The flesh is transparent to the X-rays, while glass is opaque, etc.

We feel the need of explaining everything, and we are driven to admit only the phenomena of which we have had an explanation; but that does not prove that our explanations are valid. Thus for example, if some one had affirmed the possibility of instantaneous communication between Paris and London, before the invention of the telegraph, people would have regarded the assertion as utopian. Later it would not have been admitted, except on condition of the existence of a wire between the two stations, and any communication without the medium of an electric wire would have been declared impossible. Now that we have wireless telegraphy we can apply this discovery to the explanation of the phenomena of telepathy. But it is not yet proved that this explanation is the true one.

Why do we wish to explain these phenomena at all hazards? Because we naÏvely imagine that we are able to do so in the present state of our knowledge.

The physiologists who claim to see daylight in this matter are like Ptolemy persisting in accounting for the movements of the heavenly bodies by holding to the idea of the immobility of the earth; or Galileo explaining the attraction of amber by the rarefaction of the surrounding air; or Lavoisier seeking (with the common people) the origin of aËrolites in thunder storms or denying their existence; or Galvani, who saw in his frogs a special organic electricity. I put my physiologists in good company, surely, and they have nothing of which to complain. But who does not feel that this natural propensity to explain everything is not justified, that science progresses from age to age, that what is not known to-day will be known later, and that we ought sometimes to know how to wait?

The phenomena of which we are speaking are manifestations of the universal dynamism, with which our five senses put us very imperfectly in relation. We live in the midst of an unexplored world, in which the psychical forces play a role still very insufficiently investigated.

These forces are of a class superior to the forces usually analyzed in mechanics, in physics, in chemistry: they are of the psychical order, have in them something vital and a kind of mentality. They confirm what we know from other sources,—that the purely mechanical explanation of nature is insufficient and that there is in the universe something else than so-called matter. It is not matter that rules the world: it is a dynamic and psychic element.

What light will the study of these still unexplained forces shed upon the origin of the soul and upon the conditions of its survival? That is something that the future has to teach us.

The truth that the soul is a spiritual entity distinct from the body is proved by other arguments. These arguments are not made for the purpose of injuring this doctrine; but while confirming it and while putting in clear light the application of psychic forces, they still do not solve the great problem by the material proofs that we should like to have.However, if the study of these phenomena has not yet yielded all that is claimed for it, nor all that it will in the future yield, we still cannot help recognizing that it has considerably enlarged the sphere of psychology, and that the knowledge of the nature of the soul and of its faculties has been once for all expanded under grander and deeper skies and wider horizons.

There is in nature, especially in the domain of life, in the manifestation of instinct in vegetables and animals, in the general soul of things, in humanity, in the cosmic universe, a psychic element which appears more and more in modern studies, especially in researches in telepathy, and in the observation of the unexplained phenomena which we have been studying in this book. This element, this principle, is still unknown to contemporary science. But, as in so many other cases, it was divined by the ancients.

Besides the four elements fire, water, air and earth, the ancients admitted a fifth, belonging to the material order, which they named animus, the soul of the world, the animating principle, ether. "Aristotle" (writes Cicero, Tuscul. Quaest. I. 22), "after having mentioned the four kinds of material elements, believes that we ought to admit a fifth kind from which the soul proceeds; for, since the soul and the intellectual faculties cannot reside in any of the material elements, we must admit a fifth kind, which had not yet received a name and which he styles entelechy; that is to say, eternal and continued movement." The four material elements of the ancients have been dissected by modern analysis. The fifth is perhaps more fundamental.

Citing the philosopher Zeno, the same orator adds that this wise man did not admit this fifth principle, which might be compared to fire. But, from all the evidence, fire and thought are two distinct things.Virgil has written in the Æneid (Book VI) these admirable verses which are known to everybody:

Principio coelum ac terras camposque liquentes
Lucentemque globum Lunae Titaniaque astra
Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus
Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet.

Martianus Capella, like all the authors of the first centuries of Christianity, mentions this directive force, also calling it the fifth element, and furthermore describes it under the name "ether."

A Roman emperor, well known to the Parisians, since it was in their city (in the palace built by his grandfather near the present Thermes, or old Roman baths) that he was proclaimed emperor in the year 360 (I mean Julian, called the Apostate), celebrates this fifth principle in his discourse in honor of the "The Sun, the Monarch,"[96] styling it sometimes the solar principle, sometimes the soul of the world, or intellectual principle, sometimes ether, or the soul of the physical world.

This psychical element is not confounded by the philosophers with God and Providence. In their eyes, it is something which forms part of nature.

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One more word before closing. Human nature is endowed with faculties as yet little explored, that the observations made with mediums, or dynamogens, bring to light—such as human magnetism, hypnotism, telepathy, clairvoyance, and premonition. These unknown psychic forces are worthy of being embraced within the scope of scientific analysis. At present they have been almost as little studied as in the time of Ptolemy, and have not yet found their Kepler, and their Newton, yet fairly obtrude themselves upon our notice, and cry out to be examined.

Many another unknown force will be revealed. The earth and the planets were circling about the sun in their harmonious orbits while astronomical theories saw in them only a complicated whirl of seventy-nine crystalline shells. Magnetism was encircling the earth with its currents long before the invention of the mariner's compass which reveals them to us. The waves of wireless telegraphy existed long before they were arrested in their flight. The sea was moaning along its shores ages before the ear of any being had come to hear it. The stars were darting their rays through the ether before any human eye had been raised to them.

The observations set forth in this work prove that the conscious will, or desire, on the one hand, and the subliminal consciousness on the other hand, exert an influence, or perform work, beyond the limits of our body. The nature of the human soul is still a deep mystery to science and to philosophy.

It seems rather remarkable that the conclusions drawn from my labors here are the same as those of my work The Unknown, which were founded upon the examination of the phenomena of telepathy, apparitions of the dying, communications at a distance, premonitory dreams, etc. Indeed, the following deductions were drawn at the close of that volume:

1. The soul exists as a real entity independent of the body.

2. It is endowed with faculties still unknown to science.

3. It is able to act at a distance, without the intervention of the senses.

The conclusions of the present work concord with those of the former, and yet the subjects studied in this are entirely different from the subject-matter of that.

I may sum up the whole matter with the single statement that there exists in nature, in myriad activity, a psychic element the essential nature of which is still hidden from us. I shall be happy for my part, if I have helped to establish by these two works the above important principle, exclusively based upon the scientific verification of certain phenomena studied by the experimental method.

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INDEX

Academy of Sciences, its scepticism xvi, 19, investigates Angelica Cottin, 224 et seq.
Acoustic Mediumistic Phenomena,—Cases of, 71, 73, 89, 96, 112, 121, 144, 163, 167, 183, 274, 292, 299, 369, 373, 374, 378, 380.
Aksakof, Alexander, 63, 151, 178;
cited, 55, 66, 188, 435;
his account of alleged spirit communication regarding satellites of Uranus, 50-52.
Albert the Great, xxi.
Alcofribaz Nazier, anagram signature of Rabelais, q.v.
Alterations in weight of bodies in mediumistic phenomena (including variations in scales without contact), 88, 153, 173, 199, 354, 413, 414.
Animism vs. Spiritism, 187 et seq.
Antoniadi, M., report on E. Paladino, 109-111.
Apparitions, 419.
See also, Materializations.
Apports (objects brought in from outside the sÉance room), 99, 112, 186, 187, 292, 373, 378, 380.
Arago, 178;
investigates Angelica Cottin, 223;
alleged spirit communication from, 389.
Aristotle, quoted, 450.
Armelin G., report on E. Paladino, 103-109.
Ascensi M., 143.
Astral body, 166.
Astronomical discoveries, xvi.
Automatic writing and drawing, theories of, 26-30, 58 et seq.;
—methods of, 28;
by Victorien Sardou, 25, 46;
—by Camille Flammarion, 26, 47-49;
reflect the thoughts of the experimenter, 49 et seq.;
by children, 274;
other cases, 384-387.
Azam, Dr., 141;
—— Felida's case, 59.
Babinet, M., 266;
report on Angelica Cottin, 224-227;
de Gasparin's criticisms of, 260-265.
BaclÉ, Louis ("Louis ElbÉ"), 368.
Baschet, RÉnÉ, 34, 98, 101, 103, 128;
arms partial materialization, 131.
Basilewska, M. and Mme., 98, 101.
Bianchi, M., 147.
Binet, Alfred, 188.
Bisschofsheim, Mme., 101.
Blech family, hold sittings with E. Paladino, 63-84, 173.
Bloch, Andre, 84, 93, 101.
Bois, Jules, 84, 103, 128, 203.
Boisseaux, Mme., 173.
Boissier, Edmond, 27.
Bourrer, M., 141.
Boutigny, M., 114.
BrÉdif, C., medium, 196.
Brisson, Adolphe, 95, 98, 101, 103, 114, 128, 200, 203;
report on E. Paladino.
Brisson, Mme. A., 93, 95, 101, 103, 114.
Buffern, Prof., 151.
Buguet, medium, 196.
Burot, 141.
Cactoni, M. and Mme., 368.
Calonne, xvi.
Castex-DÉgrange, M., 437;
reports of mediumistic phenomena, 381-393.
Charcot, Dr., 4.
Chardon, Dr. Beaumont, notes on Angelica Cottin, 223.
Chevigny, Countess de, 101.
Chevreul, M., 266.
Chiaia, Prof. E., first obtains impressions in clay through Paladino, 78;
challenges Lombroso to investigate Paladino, 136.
Cicero, quoted, 450.
Claretie, Jules, 45, 98;
report on E. Paladino, 98-101.
Coleman, Benjamin, 334.
Cook, Florence, medium (afterwards Mrs. Elgie Corner), remarkable case of materialization, 334;
investigated by Crookes, 335-347.
Cottin, Angelica, the Electric Girl, 219;
Dr. Tanchou's report of, 220-222;
notes of M. Hebert, 222;
Dr. Beaumont Chardon, 223;
Academy of Sciences investigates, 224-227.
Coues, Dr. and Mrs. Elliott; report on mediumistic phenomena, 401-405.
Crookes, Sir William, 65, 121, 196, 297, 305, 358;
his experiments in psychical research, 306-347;
his mechanical contrivances for testing such phenomena, 308, 318, 319, 322, 323;
his views in 1898, 347-351;
his theory regarding such phenomena, 408.
Crystal vision, 292.
Cumberlandism, 171.
Curie, Pierre, 360.
Daguerre, an anecdote of, 11.
Dariex, Dr., 63, 173, 218, 368;
cited, 3, 210;
his opinion of fraud in mediums, 203-205.
D'Arsouval, Prof., 360.
Darkness as a factor in psychical phenomena, 10-13, 68, 89.
Davenport Brothers, the, xi, xiii, xiv, xxi.
Delanee, G., 84, 98, 101, 375.
Delfour, Abbe, cited, 398.
Delgaiz, Raphael, Husband of Eusapia Paladino, 67.
Desbeaux, Emilie, 173.
Dialectical Society of London, its organization, 289;
its experiments in psychical research, 291-302;
Huxley declines to join, 290;
Flammarion's letter to, 302-304.
Divination of Numbers, 240, 249 et seq.
Double Personality, an hypothesis for spiritistic communication, 58 et seq.;
Dr. Pierre Janet's studies in, 60.
Drayson, Gen. A. W., on solution of scientific problems by Spirits, 50 et seq.;
errors of, 53, 55.
Duclaux, E., 438.
Du Prel, Dr. Charles, 151.
Dusart, Dr., 289.
Dynamic theory of matter, 427.
Eglington, medium, 196.
Ephrussi, M., 101.
Ermacora, Dr., 151.
Faith not a necessity in psychic phenomena, 279.
Faraday, 188, 259, 262, 266.
Felida, case of double personality, 59.
Finzi, M., 151.
Flammarion, Camille, some scientific researches of, vi;
early writings on Unknown Natural Forces, xi;
experiments with Eusapia Paladino, 5-23, 63-134;
acquaintance with Allan Kardec, 24 et seq.;
automatic writing by, 26;
delivers funeral oration of Kardec, 30;
experiments with Mme. Huet, 36 et seq.;
letter to London Dialectical Society, 302-304;
his "General Inquiry" concerning unexplained phenomena, 376;
some specimen cases, 377-405.
Fluidic action, theories of, 166, 179, 253, 258, 282, 422, 427.
Fluidic projection of limbs, etc. See Materializations.
Fontenay, Guillaume de, 3, 21, 84, 95, 368;
participates in Paladino sittings, 69-83, 123;
his dynamic theory of matter, 427-431.
Foucault, M., 264.
Fourth dimension, 420.
Fourton, Mme., 93, 95, 98, 101, 103, 114, 128, 202.
Fox sisters, case of the, 34.
Fox, Miss, automatic communication by, 437.
Fraud in mediums, 194, et seq.
Frauenhofer, cited, 19.
Fremy, M., cited, xix.
Fresnel, 190.
Fulton's invention of steamboat, xvi.
Gagneur, Mme., 98, 101.
Galileo, alleged spiritistic communication from, 26, 47-49;
his erroneous theory for frictional attraction, 188, 189.
Galvani's experiments in electricity, xvi.
Gasparin, Count Agenor de, 305;
experiments with moving tables, 229-253;
his hypotheses, 253-258, 408;
his rejoinder to Babinet's negations, 258-265;
Prof. Thury's comments on, 268, 273, 276, 279, 282 et seq.
Geley, Dr., his hypothesis of subliminal consciousness, 434.
Gerosa, Prof., 151.
Gigli, M., 143.
Girardin, Mme. de, 61.
Gramont, Count de, 173.
Grasset, Dr., his opinion on pyschical phenomena, 409.
Grove, quoted, xix.
Guerronnan, A., 173.
Gully, Dr., 334.
Hallucination, collective, does not satisfactorily account for phenomena, 130, 179.
Harrison, William, 334.
Hartman, Dr. von, 435.
Hebert, M., note on Angelica Cottin, 322.
Herschel, William, 50.
Herschel, Sir John, cites, 50.
Hodgson, Dr. Richard, 305.
Home, Daniel Dunglas, 195, 437;
experiments with an accordion, 121;
Crooke's investigation of, 307-322;
324-334;
declares Miss Cook an impostor, 116-118, 124, 146, 148, 160, 167, 174, 181, 186, 292, 371, 374;
of heads, 73, 89, 115, 161, 177, 187, 371.
(b) Visible:—of hands and arms, 10, 73, 116, 159, 175, 185, 292;
of heads and busts, 21, 72, 115, 128, 177, 185, 366;
of complete figure, "Katie King," 334-346.
Mathieu, Georges, 93, 101, 200;
report on E. Paladino, 111-114.

Mathieu, P. F., 37.
Matter passing through matter, see Solid.
Maxwell, Dr. Joseph, 63, 172, 173.
Extracts from his investigations, 360-368;
his opinions, 410.
Mediums, cheating of professional, 3, 207;
their conscious and unconscious deception, 4;
use of the word, 5;
their will and health as factors, 14;
pecuniary temptations of, 157.
See also, BrÉdif, Florence Cook, Angelica Cottin, Davenport brothers, Eglington, Fox sisters, Daniel D. Home, Mme. Huet, Allan Kardec, A. Politi, E. Paladino, Anna Rothe, Sambor, Slade, Mrs. Williams, Mme. X.
Mediumistic Phenomena, a chapter in physics, 2;
effects of antipathy of by slanders, 15;
genuineness of, 21, 184;
reflections upon those of Paladino, 118 et seq.;
experiments with an accordion, 121 et seq.;
confirmatory of magnetism rather than hypnotism, 166;
always of psycho-physical nature, 166;
hypothesis of fluidic double (astral body), 166, 179;
fraud in, 194 et seq.;
agency is in the person, not in the object, 254;
mechanical tests of, by Prof. Thury, 269 et seq.;
by Sir William Crookes, 306 et seq.;
unconscious muscular action considered, 280;
no indications of electricity in, 281;
experiments of London Dialectical Society, 291-303;
Sir William Crookes' experiments, 306-347;
his opinions of, 347-351;
investigations of Alfred Russel Wallace, 353-359;
of Dr. J. Maxwell, 359-368;
of other scientists, 368-375;
popular ignorance of, 406 et seq.;
recapitulation of scientist's theories regarding, 408;
recapitulation of phenomena with Flammarion's comments, 411-423 et seq.;
subliminal consciousness as a factor in, 433 et seq.;
Dr. von Hartmann's hypothesis, 435;
Aksakof's reply, 435;
of mixed character, 438.
See also, Acoustic phenomena, Alteration in weight, Apparitions, Apports, Automatic writing, Fluidic Action, Impressions, Invisible hands, Levitations, Luminous phenomena, Materializations, Movement of objects, Ordeals, Predictions, Raps, Solid passing through solid, Spirit communications, Spiritualism, Thermal radiations, Typtology, Touchings, Writing produced at a distance.
MÉry, Gaston, 84, 95, 375.
Miller, American medium, 375.
MilÉsi, Prof., 368.
Mind, action of, upon matter, 283 et seq., 365.
MoliÈre, xiv., quoted, 264, 265.
Montaigne, 1.
Morgan, Prof., 297-359;
accepts Spiritistic theory, 409.
Morselli, Prof. Enrico, 188;
investigates E. Paladino, 177-192.
Mouchez, Admiral, 197, 213.
Mouzay, Countess de, 211.
Movements of natural objects, in mediumistic phenomena, 411-416;
cases of, 9, 17, 70-74, 88, 90, 91, 93, 95-99, 105, 106, 108, 109, 111-114, 125, 126, 144, 147, 148, 156, 157, 163, 165, 167, 175, 176, 181-183, 185, 187, 234, 237, 271, 274, 275, 293, 295, 297, 299-301, 353, 354, 358, 359, 369, 370, 371, 373, 378, 382, 383, 398, 399, 403.
Musset, Alfred de, 398.
Myers, F. W. H., 63, 162, 305, 350;
on Subliminal Consciousness, 433, 434.
Newton, cited, 19.
Nus, EugÈne, 61, 443.
Ochorowicz, Dr. Julien, 63, 162, 188;
his studies of Eusapia Paladino, 76-78;
his conclusions, 166, 409;
condemns the rejection of Paladino by English scientists, 168;
his explanation of her substitution of hands, 170.
Ordeals, 292.
Ostwald, Dr., arranges sÉance with E. Paladino, 15.
Paladino, Eusapia (Mme. Raphael Delgaiz), 2, 3;
her exhaustion after phenomena, 7;
her fraud (conscious and unconscious), 10;
influence of her health on experiments, 15;
darkness demanded for best results, 10, 68, 89;
her personality and history, 67, 86, 87, 140;
Flammarion's estimate of the comparative authenticity of her phenomena, 70;
unknown natural forces evidenced, 80, 152;
investigated by Flammarion, 5-23, 63-134;
by Lombroso, 143-150;
by Enrico Morselli, and FranÇois Porro, 177-192;
by other scientists, at Milan, 151 et seq.;
at other places, 162 et seq.;
M. Antoniadi considers her phenomena fraudulent, 109-111;
unsuccessful attempt to photograph fluidic hand, 123;
M. L—— denies levitations, 132;
Professor Chiaia challenges Lombroso to investigate, 136;
photographs of facial imprints, 76, 136;
her spiritualistic education, 141;
her symptoms during the production of phenomena, 142;
her sensations, 143;
Ochorowicz's apparatus to control feet, 164;
results of sympathetic trance of a sitter, 165;
detected in fraud at Cambridge, 168;
an incident at Ochorowicz's home, 168 et seq.;
her deceptions, their reasons and their relevance to phenomena, 194-211;
Dr. Dariex's opinion of them, 206;
her sensitiveness to suggestion, 207.
Reports on her phenomena by Dr. Julien Ochorowicz, 76-78, 166;
by Prof. Chiaia, 78, 136-140;
by Arthur LÉvy, 86-92;
Adolph Brisson, 93, 94;
Victorien Sardou, 95-98;
Jules Claretie, 98-101;
Gustave Le Bon, 101-103;
G. Armelin, 103-109;
M. Antoniadi, 109-111;
M. Mathieu, 111-114;
M. Palotti, 114-116;
M. Le Bocain, 116-118;
A. de Rochas, 140-143, 174-176;
M. Ciolfi's account of Lombroso's sÉances, 143-150;
the Milan scientists, 151-161;
M. de Siemradski, 163, 164;
Sir Oliver Lodge, 167;
Sully-Prudhomme, 176;
FranÇois Porro's reports of sÉances with Morselli, 177-192.
Recorded cases of her phenomena.
(a) Raps (including typtological communications), 8, 13, 17, 70, 75, 80, 105, 114, 144, 145, 147, 175, 203.
(b) Movements of natural objects (see also (d) apports), 9, 17, 70-74, 88, 90, 91, 93, 95-99, 105, 106, 108, 109, 111-114, 125, 126, 144, 147, 148, 156, 157, 163, 167, 175, 176, 181-183, 185, 187-203, 209, 210.
(c) Levitations, 6, 16, 70, 73, 74, 83, 88, 91, 93, 94, 96, 99, 104, 105, 111, 113, 114, 144-147, 154-156, 160, 164, 167, 25;
letter to Jules Claretie, 45;
report on E. Paladino, 95-98;
participates in Paladino sittings, 123, 124.
Sayn-Wittgenstein, Prince, 334.
Schiaparelli, 4, 63, 82, 151, 178, 194;
letter regarding E. Paladino, 64.
Secondary personality, see Double Personality.
Sergines, M. de, 101.
Sexton, Dr., 334.
Sidgwick, Prof. Henry, 305.
Siemiradski, M. de, 162;
quoted, 163.
Simmons, Mr. and Mrs. Franklin, 368.
Sivel the aËronaut, alleged spirit communication from, 213.
Slade, Henry, medium, 66, 420;
his fraud, 196.
Socrates, vii.
Solid passing through a solid, cases of, 107, 128, 372;
—a natural parallel, 130.
Solovovo, Petrovo, describes Sambor's phenomena, 371-374.
Soul, the, xx, 82, 178, 188, 439, 452.
Spirit communications, 384-389;
erroneous, 51, 52, 57;
see also, Automatic writing, Raps, Trance-speaking.
Spiritualism (spiritism), 194;
its immateriality in psychical research, xx, 80;
has never taught anything new, 26, 436;
not proven by Paladino phenomena, 166;
dilemma between animism and, 188, 435;
Porro's opinion of its relation to Paladino, 190 et seq.;
de Gasparin's arguments against, 285;
Thury's comments on, 285 et seq.;
spiritistic hypothesis accepted by Cromwell Varley, 305, 409, by Wallace, 409, by Prof. Morgan, 409;
spirits not necessarily souls of dead, 431;
still a working hypothesis, 439, 447;
arguments against its probability, his theories, 276-287, 408.
Touchings in mediumistic phenomena, 418.
See also, Materializations (tactile).
Trance speaking, cases of, 71, 160, 293.
Typtology (intelligible communications by raps), code for, 8;
results generally tally, knowledge of the experimenters, 14, 37, 57;
apparently an extension of hand and brain, 33;
received through Mme. Huet, 37 et seq.;
answers to unknown questions evidently guess-work, 240;
specimens of, 38-43, 70, 80, 114, 147, 203, 212, 237, 292, 293, 297-301, 355, 356, 380, 403, 437.
See also, Raps.
Unknown natural forces, v, xvii, 1-23, 2, 18;
extracts from Flammarion's monograph on, xi-xxi;
evinced in E. Paladino's phenomena, 80, 192;
hypotheses regarding, 81, 406 et seq.;
danger of too great scepticism against recognition of, 188 et seq.;
not the exclusive property of mediums, 442.
Uranus, the satellites of, spiritistic communications regarding, 50-57.
Vacquerie, Charles, 213.
Varennes, M. and Mlle. de, 95.
Varley, Cromwell F., 291, 297, 359;
accepts spiritistic hypothesis, 305, 409.
Vignon, Louis, 98, 101.
Virchow, cited, 20.
Virgil, quoted, 451.
Vizioli, M., 143.
Voltaire, 1.

Wagner, Prof., 162.
Wallace Alfred Russel, 65, 290, 297, 437;
accepts spiritistic theory, 409.
Watteville, Baron de, 63, 173, 218;
—his investigations of mediumistic phenomena, 353-359.
Weber, A., 372.
Wellemberg, M., 218.
Will, the, its influence upon phenomena, 273 et seq., 365.
Williams, Mrs., medium, 218, 219.
Wolf, M., 218.
Writing and marks produced at a distance, 167, 356, 371, 373, 379.
X., Mme., mediumistic sÉance with, 211-216.
Zeno, cited, 450.
ZÖllner, Prof., 66, 178, 196, 420.

---

Footnotes:

[1] Sosie is a character in Plautus and MoliÈre. Hermes takes Sosie's form, and, when the latter sees his double, he almost doubts his own identity. So the word came to mean a counterpart, a double, one's alter ego.—Trans.

[2] This seems to be a reference to the wardrobe used by the early Spiritualists as a cabinet in their demonstrations in public halls.—Trans.

[3] The cock scratching for grain finds a pearl.

[4] In order that I may at once place before the eyes of my readers documentary evidence of these experiments, I reproduce here (Pl. I) a photograph taken at my apartments on the 12th of November in 1898. Any one can perceive by the horizontality of the arms, as well as by the distance between the feet of the table and the floor, that the elevation is from six to eight inches. The precise distance is marked on the figure itself,—a measurement taken the next day by propping up the table, with the aid of books, in the same position as it was. The medium has her two feet wholly under my right foot, while at the same time her knees are under my right hand. Her hands are upon the table grasped by my left hand and by that of the other critical observer or "control" (contrÔleur), who has just placed a cushion before her to shield her very sensitive eyes from the flash of the magnesium light, and thus save her from a disagreeable nervous attack.

These photographs, taken rapidly by magnesium light, are not perfect, but they are records.

[5] See L'Inconnu, pp. 20-29.

[6] Certain book-shops in Paris.—Trans.

[7] Oration delivered at the grave of Allan Kardec, by Camille Flammarion, Paris, Didier, 1869, pp. 4, 17, 22.

[8] The author means, of course, by this phrase (milieu ambiant), the totality of psychic force present, the psychological atmosphere, the total mind-energy radiated by the several more or less sensitive or mediumistic members of the company.—Trans.

[9] This communication is given in English by the author.—Trans.

[10] Alcofribaz Nazier is well known as Rabelais' anagram, formed from his own name. It was the signature under which he published his Pantagruel.—Trans.

[11] A piece of typtological dictation of the same kind has been recently sent to me. Here it is:

Iutptuoloer
eirfieuebn
ssoagprsti

Read successively, from top to bottom, one letter of each line, beginning on the left, and the sense will appear as follows: "Je suis trop fatiguÊ pour les obtenir." ("I am too tired to obtain them.")

[12] This and the next dictation are rhymed verse in the original French.—Trans.

[13] In rhymed verses in the original.—Trans.

[14] A word of recent origin, meaning ambitious or pretentious people who want "to arrive," the would-be's. The word forms the title of a recent French novel, L'Arriviste, and (translated) of an English one called The Climber.—Trans.

[15] So in the original. Possibly M. Sardou was under the mistaken impression that Gulliver was a nom-de-plume for Dean Swift.—Trans.

[16] This inclination is really 82°, reckoning from the south, or 98° (90 + 8°), counting from the north (see Fig. A).

[17] I have just found in my library a book which was sent to me in 1888 by the author, Major-General Drayson, the title of which is Thirty Thousand Years of the Earth's Past History, Read by Aid of the Discovery of the Second Rotation of the Earth. This second rotation would take place about an axis the pole of which would be 29° 25' 47" from the pole of the daily rotation, about 270 right ascension, and would be accomplished in 32,682 years. The author seeks to explain it by the glacial periods and variations of climate. But his work is full of confusions most strange and even unpardonable in a man versed in astronomical studies. The truth is that this General Drayson (who died several years ago) was not an astronomer.

[18] Intelligence, Vol. I., preface, p. 16, edition of 1897. The first edition was published in 1868.

[19] All those who occupy themselves with these questions are acquainted, among other cases, with that of Felida (studied by Dr. Azam). In the story of this young girl she is shown as endowed with two distinct personalities to such an extent that, in the second state, she becomes amorous ... and enceinte, without knowing anything about it in her normal condition. These states of double personalities have been methodically observed for thirty years.

[20] Psychological Automatism, p. 401-402.

[21] See Pl. IV. and V. I preserve with care a plaster cast of this imprint.

[22] A. de Rochas, The Externalization of Motivity, fourth edition, 1906, p. 406.

[23] The reports of the sittings at Montfort-l'Amaury form the subject of a remarkable work by M. Guillaume de Fontenay, Apropos of Eusapia Paladino, one vol., 8vo. illustrated, Paris, 1898.

[24] The respective places of the persons were not always those of the photographs. Thus, at the time of the production of the imprint, M. G. de Fontenay was at the right of Eusapia, and M. Blech at the same end of the table.

[25] In the following sitting, of November 12, M. Antoniadi writes (with an excellent corroborative sketch): "Phenomenon observed with absolute certainty; the violin was thrown upon the table, twenty inches above the head of Eusapia."

[26] This is absolutely true, says my son, who is reading over these lines.

[27] During the correction of the proofs of these sheets (Oct., 1906), I received from Dr. Gustave Le Bon the following note:

"At the time of her last sojourn in Paris (1906), I was able to obtain from Eusapia three sÉances at my house. I besought one of the keenest observers that I know, M. Dastre,—a member of the Academy of Science and professor of physiology at the Sorbonne,—to be kind enough to be present at our experiments. There were present also my assistant, M. Michaux, and the lady to whose kind offices I owe the presence of Eusapia.

"Besides the levitation of the table, we several times, and almost in full light, saw a hand appear. At first it was about two inches and a half above Eusapia's head, then at the side of the curtain which partly covered her, about twenty inches from her shoulder.

"We then organized, for the second sÉance, our methods of control. They were altogether decisive. Thanks to the possibility of producing behind Eusapia an illumination which she did not suspect, we were able to see one of her arms, very skilfully withdrawn from our control, move along horizontally behind the curtain and touch the arm of M. Dastre, and another time give me a slap on the hand.

"We concluded from our observations that the phenomena observed had nothing supernatural about them.

"As to the levitation of the table,—an extremely light one, placed before Eusapia, and which her hands scarcely left,—we have not been able to formulate any decisive explanation. I will only observe that Eusapia admitted that it was impossible for her to displace the slightest one of the very light objects placed upon that table."

After writing this note, M. G. Le Bon said to me verbally that, in his opinion, everything in these experiments is fraud.

[28] To these eight sÉances I might add a ninth, which took place on the succeeding December 5, in the study of Prof. Richet. Nothing remarkable occurred, unless it was the inflation, in full light, of a window curtain, which was about twenty-four inches from Eusapia's foot, my foot and leg being between it and her. The observation was absolutely accurate.

[29] To what cause may we attribute the levitation of the table? We have undoubtedly not yet discovered the secret. The action of gravity may be counterbalanced by movement.

You can amuse yourself, while at breakfast or dinner, by toying with a knife. If you hold it vertically in your tightly closed hand, its weight is counterbalanced by the pressure of the hand and it does not fall. Open your hand, still holding the knife grasped by the thumb and index finger, and it will slide as if it were in a too large tube. But move the hand by a rapid see-saw movement, from left to right, from right to left: you will thus create a centrifugal force which holds the object in vertical suspension, and which may even toss it above your hand and project it into the air, if the movement is rapid enough.

What, then, sustains the knife, annihilates its weight? Force. Might it not be that the influence of the experimenters seated around the table puts in special movement the molecules of the wood? They are already set in vibration by variations of temperature. These molecules are particles infinitely small which do not touch each other. Might not a molecular movement counterbalance the effect of gravity? I do not present this as an explanation, but as an illustrative suggestion (comme une image).

[30] M. Chiaia has sent me photographs of these prints. I reproduce some of them here (Pl. VII).

[31] The word "trance" has been given to the peculiar state into which mediums fall when they lose the consciousness of their environment. It is a kind of somnambulistic sleep.

[32] Annales des sciences psychiques, 181, p. 326.

[33] However, some doubt may remain. In my photographs, also (Pl. I. and VI.), the foot of the table at the left of the medium is concealed. As I myself was at this very place, I am sure that the medium was unable to lift the table with her foot, for this foot was held under mine, not by a rod or by any support whatever; for I had a hand upon her legs, which did not move. The objection is moreover refuted by the experiment which I made on the 29th of March, 1906 (see p. 6), of a levitation, with Eusapia standing,—an experiment which had been made before on the 27th of July, 1897, at Monfort-l'Amaury (see p. 82), the feet, very naturally, being visible. Hence there can be no doubt whatever about the complete levitation of the table floating in space. Aksakof obtained a levitation, in the sÉances at Milan, after having tied Eusapia's feet with two strings, the ends of which were short and had been sealed to the floor very near each foot.

Farther on the reader will be given proof of other undeniable instances, among others, at pp. 164, 165.

[34] I hear very often the following objection: "I shall only believe in mediums who are not remunerated; all those who are paid are under suspicion." Eusapia belongs to these last. Being without fortune, she never visits a city unless her travelling and hotel expenses are paid. She also loses her time, and is submitted to a not very agreeable inquisition. For my part, I do not admit the above objection at all. The physical and intellectual faculties have nothing in common with money-getting. It will be said that the medium is interested in deceiving and tricking: it increases her fees. But there are a good many other temptations in the world. I have seen unpaid mediums, men and women of society, cheat without any scruple, from pure vanity, or for a purpose still less fit to be avowed,—for the mere pleasure of trapping some one. The sÉances of Spiritualism have been made to serve useful and agreeable ends in fashionable society—and more than one marriage has originated there.

We must be as sceptical about one class of mediums as about another.

[35] These reports were published in detail in the work of M. de Rochas on The Externalization of Motivity, 4th edition, 1906, p. 170.

[36] I will add, for the benefit of those who wish to try some of these psychic experiments, that the best conditions for success are to have a homogeneous, impartial, and sincere group, free from every preconceived idea, and not exceeding five or six persons in number. It is absurd to object that, in order to obtain the phenomena, one must have faith. But, while positive belief is not necessary, it is yet advisable not to exercise any hostile influence during a sÉance.

[37] A very curious experiment made with a letter-weigher took place at l'AgnÉlas. In response to an impromptu suggestion made by M. de Gramont, Eusapia consented to try whether, by making vertical passes with her hands on each side of the tray of the letter-weigher (going as high as fifty grams), she could not lower it. She succeeded in doing so several times in succession, in the presence of five observers placed about her, who testified that she did not have in her fingers either thread or hair to press upon the tray.

[38] Published by C. de Vesme in his Revue des Études psychiques, 1901.

[39] Eusapia, as has been said, is unable either to read or write.

[40] Arago, in 1846, with the "electric girl"; Flammarion, in 1861, with Allan Kardec, then afterwards with different mediums; ZÖllner, in 1882, with Slade; Schiaparelli, in 1892 with Eusapia; Porro, in 1901, with the same medium (Revue des Études psychiques).

[41] Notably in Uranie, in Stella, in Lumen, in L'Inconnu. See also above, p. 30 in my Oration at the Grave of Allen Kardec.

[42] Slade was sentenced to three months of hard labor, in London, for swindling. He died in a private hospital, in the State of Michigan, in September, 1905.

[43] Annales des sciences psychiques, 1896, p. 66.

[44] We have already noticed (see p. 149) the practical joke of Professor Bianchi in a meeting of the most serious investigators.

[45] See Annales, 1896. The report is very rich in records. The door of the wardrobe opened and closed of itself, several times in succession, in synchronism with the movements of the medium's hands, which were at about a yard's distance. A toy piano weighing about two pounds was moved about, and played several airs all alone, etc.

[46] A Parisian Anarchist executed for dynamiting the houses of the Judges Benoit and Bulot. The popular chanson of the Anarchists called La Ravachole originated in this man's deeds and personality. See Alvan Sanborn's Paris and the Social Revolution, Boston, 1905.—Trans.

[47] See also EnquÊte sur l'authenticitÉ des phÉnomÈnes electriques d'Angelique Cottin. Paris, Germer BalliÈre, 1846. Also L'Exteriorisation de la motricitÉ, by Albert de Rochas.

[48] Lafontaine, who also studied Angelica's case, says that "when she brought her left wrist near a lighted candle, the flame bent over horizontally, as if continually blown upon." (L'art de magnetiser, p. 273).

M. Pelletier observed the same thing in the case of some of his subjects, when they brought the palm of the hand near a candle.

Specialists call these points "hypnogenic points," from which fluidic streams radiate.

[49] Arago.—Trans.

[50] Études et lectures sur les sciences d'observations, vol. II., 1856.

[51] Des Tables tournantes, du Surnaturel en gÉnÉral, et des Esprits, par le comte AgÉnor de Gasparin, Paris, Dentu, 1854.

[52] The lady who soon after was styled "the medium."

[53] This was the only table with casters that the operators made use of.

[54] The allusion is to Faraday's explanation of Arago's discovery in the magnetism of rotation. Faraday showed that a rotating disk of non-magnetic metal would draw after it in similar rotation a magnetic needle suspended over it, and even a heavy magnet. See Professor Tyndall's Faraday as a Discoverer, pp. 25, 26.—Trans.

[55] The long scene from which this is taken in MoliÈre is so full of Italian, Old French, and dog Latin, that it has not been translated by Van Laun. All but the last word (juro) of each stanza is spoken by the big-wigs in this mock examination of a baccalaureate medical student; that word is his:

"Do you swear that in all consultations you will be of the ancient opinion, whether it be good or bad?"—"I swear it."—"To never make use of any remedies except those of the learned faculty of medicine, even should the patient burst and die of his disease?"—"I swear it."—Trans.

[56] "Les Tables tournantes," considÉrÉs au point de vue de la question de physique gÉnÉrale qui s'y rattache. GenÈve, 1855.

[57] The dynamic force necessary to produce this uplift, if we admit that it was developed and accumulated during the five or ten minutes of playing that preceded the phenomenon, would not, on the other hand, be beyond the strength of the child; it would remain even much beneath the limit of his powers. In general, the force expended, in these phenomena of the tables, if one may judge by the degree of fatigue experienced by the operators, much surpasses what would be required to produce the same effects mechanically. There is, therefore, in this respect, no reason for admitting the intervention of a force foreign to the boy's own nature.—(Thury.)

[58] In the first experiments of Thury, eight persons remained an hour and a half standing, and then seated, around a table, without obtaining the least resulting movement. Two or three days after, on their second trial, the same persons, at the end of ten minutes, made a centre-table revolve. Finally, on the 4th of May, 1853, at the third or fourth trial, the heaviest tables began to move almost immediately.

[59] In the case of difficult tests, when they took place on cold days, a warm spread was stretched over the table, and removed at the moment of the experiment. The operators themselves, before acting, held their hands open for a moment before a stove.

[60] Report on Spiritualism of the Committee of the London Dialectical Society, London: 1871.

[61] In one vol. 8vo. Paris: Leymarie, 1900.

[62] See, for example, the January number, 1876: Sidereal Astronomy.

[63] Especially at Nice, in 1881 and 1884. Home died in 1886. He was born in 1833, near Edinburgh.

[64] Sir William Huggins, an astronomer well known for his discoveries in spectrum analysis.

[65] Edward William Cox.

[66] Experimental Investigation on Psychic Force, by William Crookes, F. R. L., etc., London, Henry Gilman, 1871. The brochure was translated into French by M. Alidel, Paris. Psychical Science Publishing House, 1897.

[67] The quotation occurs to me—"I never said it was possible, I only said it was true."

[68] Katie King, The Story of her Appearances. Paris, Leymarie, 1899. I thought I would not reproduce these photographs here, because they did not seem to me to have come from Mr. Crookes himself. Florence Cook died in London on the 2d of April, 1904.

[69] On Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, London, 1875, French translation, Paris, 1889 (the English word spiritualism is always used here in the sense of spiritism).

[70] Les PhÉnomÈnes psychiques. One vol. 8vo. Paris, 1903.

[71] As I said on a previous page, psychic forces have as much reality as physical and mechanical ones.

[72] This is the same thing that I observed at Monfort-l'Amaury. See p. 73.

[73] The Italian journals reproduced a picturesque photograph of the table lifted almost to the height of the ceiling, at the moment it had passed over the heads of the sitters and was turning over (see A. de Rochas, ExtÉriorisation de la motricitÉ, 4th ed.). I do not reproduce it, because it does not seem to me to be authentic. Besides, the observers declared that they did not verify this phenomenon until after its pro

[74] Annales des Sciences psychique, 1902.

[75] Several observations published in that work are however, connected in subject with the present one. For instance: a piano playing alone (p. 108), a door opening of itself (p. 112), curtains shaken (p. 125), extravagant gambols of pieces of furniture (p. 133), raps (p. 146), bells ringing (p. 168), and numerous examples of unexplained disturbing noises coinciding with deaths.

[76] The word used here by M. Castex-DÉgrange is tÊte de Turc, a thing like the leather-covered bags in our gymnasiums, and used in fairs in France, to be pummelled by those wishing to try their strength.—Trans.

[77] I had considerable acquaintance with him at the Nice Observatory, where, in 1884 and 1885, I made with him spectroscopic observations on the rotation of the sun.—C. F.

[78] In the sÉances of which I spoke in the early part of this book (second chapter), when the word "God" was dictated the table beat a salute.—C. F.

[79] Goupil, Pour et Contre, p. 113.

[80] It has been my desire to give in this place the result of the personal experience of a large number of men anxious to know the truth; above all to reply to ignorant journalists who invite their readers to indulge in supercilious scorn of these researches and experimenters. At the very moment when I was correcting the proofs of these last pages I received a journal, Le Lyon rÉpublicain, of the 25th of January, 1907, which has for its leading article a quite preposterous diatribe against me signed "Robert Estienne." The performance shows that the author does not know what he is talking about nor the man of whom he is treating.

There is evidently no reason in the nature of things why the city of Lyons should be more disposed to error than any other point on the globe. But mark the coincidence: I received, at the same time, a number of L'UniversitÉ catholique, of Lyons, in which a certain AbbÉ Delfour speaks of "supernatural contemporary facts" without understanding a word of the subject.

No, the trouble is not with the city of Lyons merely. There are blind people everywhere. You can read a dissertation ejusdem farinÆ, signed by the Jesuit Lucien Roure, in Les Études religieuses, published at Paris, with critical judgments worthy of a traveling salesman.

In this connection, you can read in the Nouveau CatÈchisme du diocÈse de Nancy: "Q. What must we think of the demonstrated facts of Spiritualism, somnambulism, and magnetism?—A. We must attribute them to the devil, and it would be a sin to take part in them in any way whatever."

[81] Newton, as is well known, declares, in his letter to Bentley, that he can only explain gravitation by supposing the existence of a medium which transmits it. Yet, to our senses, the ether would not be a material thing. But, however that may be, celestial bodies do certainly act at a distance one upon another.

[82] The initiated know that according to this doctrine the terrestrial human being is composed of five entities: the physical body; the ethereal double, a little less gross, surviving the first for some time; the astral body, still more subtile; the mental body, or intelligence, surviving the three preceding; and finally the Ego, or indestructible soul.

[83] These observations may be compared with a little social diversion which is rather popular, and is particularly described in one of the first works of Sir David Brewster (Letters to Walter Scott upon Natural Magic) in the following terms:

"The heaviest person of the company lies down on two chairs, the shoulders resting on one and the legs on the other. Four persons, one at each shoulder and one at each foot, try to lift him, and at first find the thing difficult to do. Then the subject of the experiments gives two signals by clapping his hands twice. At the first signal, he and the four others inhale deeply. When the five persons are full of air he gives the second signal, which is for the lifting. This takes place without the least difficulty, as if the person lifted were as light as a feather."

I have frequently performed the same experiment upon a man in a sitting posture by placing two fingers under his legs and two under his arm-pits, the operators inhaling all together uniformly.

This is undoubtedly a case of biological action. But what is the essential nature of gravitation? Faraday regarded it as an "electro-magnetic" force. Weber explains the movement of the planets around the sun by "electro-dynamism." The tails of comets, always turned away from the sun, indicate a solar repulsion coincident with the attraction. We know no more to-day than in the time of Newton what gravitation really is.

[84] It is not indispensable, even in certain cases in which it seems to be so. Let us take an example. At a sÉance in Genoa (1906), with Eusapia, M. YouriÉvich, general secretary of the Psychological Institute of Paris, besought the spirit of his father, who asserted that he was present before him in ghostly form, to give him a proof of identity by producing in the clay an impression of his hand, and above all of a finger the nail of which was long and pointed. The request was made in Russian, which the medium did not understand. Now this impression was sure enough obtained several months after, with the mark of the nail referred to. Does this fact prove that the soul of the father of the experimenter actually performed the act with his hand? No. The medium received the mental suggestion for producing the phenomenon, and did in fact produce it. The Russian language did not make any difference. The suggestion was received. Besides, the hand was much smaller than that of the man whose spirit was evoked.

The experimenter next asks his deceased father to give him his blessing, and he perceives a hand which makes the sign of the cross before him (in the Russian style, the three fingers together) upon the forehead, the breast, and the two sides. The same explanation is applicable here.

It was a mistake to say that this ghost and his son conversed together in the Russian tongue, as the published account said. M. YouriÉvich only heard some unintelligible sounds. People always exaggerate, and these exaggerations work the greatest possible harm to the truth. Why amplify? Is there not enough of the unknown in these mysterious phenomena?

[85] In certain countries (Canada, Colorado), a gas-jet can be lighted by holding out the finger toward it.

[86] See what I formerly wrote on this subject in Lumen, in Uranie, in Stella, and in my Discours sur l'unitÉ de force et l'unitÉ de substance, published in l'Annuaire du Cosmos, for 1865.

[87] The Human Personality, p. 11.

[88] Id., p. 23.

[89] Id., p. 63.

[90] The Human Personality, p. 313.

[91] The Subconscious Nature, p. 82.

[92] See my remarks in The Unknown, pp. 290-294.

[93] See Bulletin of the Psychological Institute, Vol. I. pp. 25-40.

[94] Quite recently I saw an account of some phenomena which rather plead in its favor than otherwise (Bulletin of the Society for Psychical Studies of Nancy, Nov.-Dec., 1906). Out of the eleven instances mentioned, the first and the second may have been taken from a cyclopedia, the third and the fourth from public journals; but, in the case of the seven others, the admission of the identity of apparitions with the originals they purported to represent is surely the best explanatory hypothesis.

[95] As a forestalling of judgment on what is yet to be demonstrated, the word "medium" is a wholly improper term. It takes it for granted that the person endowed with these supra-normal psychic faculties is an intermediary between the spirits and the experimenters. Now while we may admit that this is sometimes the case, it is certainly not always so. The rotation of a table, its tipping, its levitation, the displacement of a piece of furniture, the inflation of a curtain, noises heard—all are caused by a force emanating from this protagonist of the company, or from their collective powers. We cannot really suppose that there is always a spirit present ready to respond to our fancies. And the hypothesis is so much the less necessary since the pretended spirits do not impart any new facts to us. For the greater part of the time, it is undoubtedly our own psychic force that is acting. The chief personage and principal actor in these experiments would be more accurately called a dynamogen, since he (or she) creates force. It seems, to me that this would be the best term to apply in this case. It expresses that which is proved by all the observations.

I have known mediums very proud of their title, and sometimes found them a bit jealous of their fellows. They were convinced that they had been chosen by Saint Augustine, Saint Paul, and even Jesus Christ. They believed in the grace of the Most High and claimed (not without reason too) that, coming from other hands, these signatures were to be suspected. There is no sense in these rivalries.

[96] See the Complete Works of the Emperor Julian, Paris, 1821. Vol. I. p. 375.

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Transcriber's Notes:

Footnote 73 is incomplete in the original text.