Metapsychical Phenomena: Methods and ObservationsMaxwell, J. (Joseph)
Philosophy
Metapsychical Phenomena: Methods and Observations
Maxwell, J. (Joseph)
Parapsychology -- Investigation
“It is exact that my cousin Y. possesses documents on the history of
religions. M. Meurice knew that the question interested me; but it is
extremely improbable, that he should have known of the existence of
my cousin Y., who lives in the strictest seclusion; it is still more
improbable, that he should have known the contents of his library. I
cannot, however, affirm these two points, but I can at least affirm
that M. Meurice does not know my cousin Y.
“The personification H. B. shows a spirit of fatherly protection
towards M. Meurice; for example:—
“The medium was once out driving; a rather serious accident happened,
in which his carriage was caught between a cart and a tram; the
coachman was thrown from his seat and wounded. As the tram struck the
carriage, M. Meurice felt himself seized by the arms, and carried out
of the carriage on to the footpath by H. B.[25]
[25] The reader may care to see Dr. Maxwell’s detailed report
to Professor Richet of the above incident:—
‘On Sunday morning Meurice was out driving. A short distance
from Bordeaux his carriage collided with a milk-cart; the
shafts of the latter crashed through one of the carriage
windows. At the same time an electric tram, unable to pull
up in time, struck the carriage in the rear. The coachman
was thrown from his seat on to the ground, where he lay
unconscious. He was wounded near the left eye, ... his face was
covered with blood.
‘At the moment the collision with the tram took place, Meurice
quickly opened the carriage door with the natural intention of
jumping out; but he felt himself suddenly lifted up and carried
on to the footpath, a distance of ten feet. He saw no one.
‘He probably jumped of his own accord, and the sensation he
experienced was but the symbolical expression of the solicitude
the personifications show for him. The protector was supposed
to be H. B.
‘Now, on Saturday afternoon, the eve of the day on which the
above accident occurred, I had a seance with my friend. We
tried for luminous phenomena, but the experiment was null.
Towards the close of the seance, Meurice said he saw the face
of a dead man, with a wound on the left temple, the face was
covered with blood. I asked who it was, and received by raps
without contact: “Suicide, victime d’amour, Gaston”; the raps
refused to give the surname. The aspect of the coachman’s face
after the accident the next morning somewhat recalls the aspect
of the vision; if we accept this, there is a curious mixture
of true and false, the false showing forth when our personal
activity intervenes in order to question: a fact which I have
often observed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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