Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries.) MYSTERIOUS PSYCHIC FORCES MYSTERIOUS PSYCHIC FORCES AN ACCOUNT OF THE AUTHOR'S INVESTIGATIONS IN PSYCHICAL RESEARCH, TOGETHER WITH THOSE OF OTHER EUROPEAN SAVANTS BY CAMILLE FLAMMARION _Director of Observatory of Jovisy, France. Author of "The Unknown," "The Atmosphere," etc._ BOSTON SMALL, MAYNARD AND COMPANY 1909 _Copyright, 1907_, BY SMALL, MAYNARD & CO. _All rights reserved._ THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A. _He who pronounces anything to be "impossible," outside of the field of pure mathematics, is wanting in prudence._ FRANCOIS ARAGO. _A learned pedant who laughs at the possible comes very near being an idiot. To purposely shun a fact, and turn one's back upon it with a supercilious smile, is to bankrupt Truth._ VICTOR HUGO. _Science is under bonds, by the eternal principles of honor, to look fearlessly in the face every problem that is presented to her._ SIR WILLIAM THOMPSON. PREFACE The subject treated in the following pages has made great progress in the course of forty years. Now what we are concerned with in psychical studies is always unknown forces, and these forces must belong to the natural order, for nature embraces the entire universe, and everything is therefore under the sway of her sceptre. I do not conceal from myself, however, that the present work will excite discussion and bring forth legimate objections, and will only satisfy independent and unbiased investigators. But nothing is rarer upon our planet than an independent and absolutely untrammelled mind, nor is anything rarer than a true scientific spirit of inquiry, freed from all personal interest. Most readers will say: "What is there in these studies, anyway? The lifting of tables, the moving of various pieces of furniture, the displacement of easy-chairs, the rising and falling of pianos, the blowing about of curtains, mysterious rappings, responses to mental questions, dictations of sentences in reverse order, apparitions of hands, of heads, or of spectral figures,--these are only common place trivialities or cheap hoaxes, unworthy to occupy the attention of a scientist or scholar. And what would it all prove even if it were true? That kind of thing does not interest us." Well, there are people upon whose heads the sky might tumble without causing them any unusual emotion.