As to the theory proposed by M. de Gasparin, Thury judges it very severely. “While admitting that in the experiments of Valleyres,” says de Mirville, “the seat of the _force_ might have been in the _individual_—and we say that it was intrinsic and extrinsic at the same time—and that the will might be generally necessary (p. 20), he repeats but what he had said in his preface, to wit: ‘M. de Gasparin presents us with crude facts, and the explanations following he offers for what they are worth. _Breathe on them_, and not many will be found {113} standing after this. No, very little, if anything, will remain of his explanations. As to facts, they are _henceforth demonstrated_’” (p. 10). As Mr. Crookes tells us, Professor Thury refutes “all these explanations, and considers the effects due to a peculiar substance, fluid, or agent, pervading in a manner similar to the luminiferous ether of the scientists, all matter, nervous, organic or inorganic, which he terms _psychode_. He enters into full discussion as to the properties of this state, or form, or matter, and proposes the term _ectenic_ force ... for the power exerted when the mind acts at a distance through the influence of the psychode.”[213] Mr. Crookes remarks further, that “Professor Thury’s _ectenic_ force, and his own ‘psychic force’ are evidently equivalent terms.” We certainly could very easily demonstrate that the two forces are identical, moreover, the astral or _sidereal_ light as explained by the alchemists and Eliphas Levi, in his _Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie_; and that, under the name of AKASA, or life-principle, this all-pervading force was known to the gymnosophists, Hindu magicians, and adepts of all countries, thousands of years ago; and, that it is still known to them, and used at present by the Thibetan lamas, fakirs, thaumaturgists of all nationalities, and even by many of the Hindu “jugglers.” In many cases of trance, artificially induced by mesmerization, it is also quite possible, even quite probable, that it is the “spirit” of the subject which acts under the guidance of the operator’s will. But, if the medium remains conscious, and psycho-physical phenomena occur which indicate a directing intelligence, then, unless it be conceded that he is a “magician,” and can project his double, physical exhaustion can signify nothing more than nervous prostration. The proof that he is the passive instrument of unseen entities controlling occult potencies, seems conclusive. Even if Thury’s _ectenic_ and Crookes’s _psychic_ force are substantially of the same derivation, the respective discoverers seem to differ widely as to the properties and potencies of this force; while Professor Thury candidly admits that the phenomena are often produced by “wills _not_ human,” and so, of course, gives a qualified endorsement to Mr. Crookes’s theory No. 6, the latter, admitting the genuineness of the phenomena, has as yet pronounced no definite opinion as to their cause.