Metapsychical Phenomena: Methods and ObservationsMaxwell, J. (Joseph)
Philosophy
Metapsychical Phenomena: Methods and Observations
Maxwell, J. (Joseph)
Parapsychology -- Investigation
“Now two or three days afterwards, M. Meurice had a vision or a
dream—often he cannot tell whether it be one or the other; he saw an
aged lady sitting before a large table, on the top of which a doll’s
table was standing; two younger women were with her; one of these
latter made the small doll’s table turn round three times without
touching it. The room in which these ladies were sitting was large,
and M. Meurice thought it was in a country-house. The curtains were of
rose-coloured velvet.
“The scene described was the one my friend had related to me, but
I pointed out to M. Meurice that one detail at least was certainly
incorrect: viz. the doll’s table. H. B. immediately wrote: ‘He has not
made a mistake, it was the small table which moved, and not the large
one.’ (_Il ne se trompe pas, c’est bien le mouvement d’une petite table
qui a eu lieu, et non celui d’une grande._) I saw my friend the next
day, and I related this incident to him. He assured me it was quite a
mistake, that it was a large table, and not a doll’s table, which had
moved. I saw him again a few days later, when he told me he had made
further inquiries about the table-turning incident, and had found out
that it was indeed a doll’s table placed upon the large table, which
had effected the movements in question.
“The vision was therefore exact on this point; it was also exact
concerning the number and age of the persons present, but the room in
which the seance took place was in Paris and not in the country; the
description of the room was incorrect.
“In this case, automatic writing confirmed the details seen
hallucinatorily, or in dream; these details were most certainly
unknown to M. Meurice as well as to myself. I will add that even had I
mentioned my friend’s name, which I can affirm I did not do, that name
would have been of no assistance to M. Meurice, inasmuch as he does not
know my friend, much less his cousin in Paris.
“This is the most precise case, in which M. Meurice has given me
correct details unknown to myself.
“If we examine in a general manner the character of the H. B.
personification, we are, perhaps, obliged to admit that it presents
a spiritistic appearance. This appearance is all the more singular,
in that it manifests in a centre where the spiritistic hypothesis
is looked upon with disfavour. I am well aware of the fact, that
tendencies opposed to those of the normal personality are often
observed in secondary personalities.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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