Metapsychical Phenomena: Methods and ObservationsMaxwell, J. (Joseph)
Philosophy
Metapsychical Phenomena: Methods and Observations
Maxwell, J. (Joseph)
Parapsychology -- Investigation
‘Here is the exact account of the fact I mentioned to you.
‘On the evening of the 17th October 1901 I went to bed feeling greatly
disturbed; I could not define the cause of my mental anguish, for I was
in perfect health. This trouble persisted, and my sleep was haunted by
painful nightmare.
‘At half-past four I suddenly awoke, having distinctly heard the
sound of my telephone bell. I ran to the apparatus, and answered the
ring. The night operator replied that he had not rung me up, and that
nothing unusual was happening. I had therefore been labouring under a
hallucination, provoked by a particular haunting impression.
‘At seven o’clock in the morning, the telephone again sounded, and I
was put into communication with my brother-in-law residing at Biarritz.
He told me that my sister, Madame V., had, in the night, been struck
with congestion of the brain, and was in a critical state.’
All these facts may be considered as coincidences; their attentive
study, their thorough analysis, and their careful, thoughtful
comparison can alone make us suspect, that hazard has nothing whatever
to do with their production.
I may compare these cases of telepathy to facts of exteriorisation of
sensibility, and of vision at a distance. I have given very little
study to these facts, for they do not enter into the habitual plan of
my researches; I have sometimes observed them, but under conditions
which do not satisfy me. My observations, however incomplete they
may be, tend, nevertheless, to make me think, that the phenomenon
described by de Rochas, under the name of _extériorisation de la
sensibilité_, is real. I have met with two sensitives, who presented
the phenomenon in a fairly clear manner in a waking state. I was led
to make the following experiment with one of these sensitives. As soon
as she entered the seance-room and had taken off her cloak, I took
hold of the garment and pinched the lining. The sensitive mentioned
feeling a certain sensation, rather feeble however, in the part of her
body which had been covered by the garment in the place I had pinched
it. The first time I tried this experiment, the sensitive had not been
warned, and was surprised at the sensation she felt. Needless to say, I
took precautions to make sure, this lady did not see what I was doing.
I have observed, that this particular sensibility disappears very
rapidly; at the end of forty or fifty seconds it has ceased to exist.
I have asked a lady friend of this sensitive’s to try the same
experiment with her more private garments, especially with the corsets.
Sensibility should then be greater.
I think that the observation of this fact, which I point out with much
reserve, not having submitted it to serious study, is easier than
is supposed, by employing the method I indicate, that is to say, by
pinching or pricking garments which the sensitive has just thrown off.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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