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'salter 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]SeeL'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 hisPantagruel.—Trans.
[11]A piece of typtological dictation of the same kind has been recently sent to me. Here it is:
Iutptuoloereirfieuebnssoagprsti
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," thewould-be's. The word forms the title of a recent French novel,L'Arriviste, and (translated) of an English one calledThe 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 isThirty 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]SeePl. 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.andVI.), 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, forthis 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 (seep. 6), of a levitation, with Eusapia standing,—an experiment which had been made before on the 27th of July, 1897, at Monfort-l'Amaury (seep. 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 onThe 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 hisRevue 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 inUranie, inStella, inLumen, inL'Inconnu. See also above, p. 30 in myOration 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 (seep. 149) the practical joke of Professor Bianchi in a meeting of the most serious investigators.
[45]SeeAnnales, 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 calledLa Ravacholeoriginated in this man's deeds and personality. See Alvan Sanborn'sParis and the Social Revolution, Boston, 1905.—Trans.
[47]See alsoEnquête sur l'authenticité des phénomènes electriques d'Angelique Cottin. Paris, Germer Ballière, 1846. AlsoL'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'sFaraday 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 forcenecessary 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 wordspiritualismis always used here in the sense ofspiritism).
[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. Seep. 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 untilafterits 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 istête 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 ofL'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 dissertationejusdem farinæ, signed by the Jesuit Lucien Roure, inLes Études religieuses, published at Paris, with critical judgments worthy of a traveling salesman.
In this connection, you can read in theNouveau 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 inLumen, inUranie, inStella, and in myDiscours sur l'unité de force et l'unité de substance, published inl'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 inThe Unknown, pp. 290-294.
[93]SeeBulletin 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 adynamogen, 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 theComplete Works of the Emperor Julian, Paris, 1821. Vol. I. p. 375.
Transcriber's Notes:
Footnote 73 is incomplete in the original text.