Mysterious Psychic Forces: An Account of the Author's Investigations in Psychical Research, Together with Those of Other European SavantsFlammarion, Camille
Philosophy
Mysterious Psychic Forces: An Account of the Author's Investigations in Psychical Research, Together with Those of Other European Savants
Flammarion, Camille
Parapsychology -- Investigation; Spiritualism
One of us having expressed the wish to be kissed, felt before his very
mouth the peculiar quick sounds of a kiss, but not accompanied by any
contact of lips. This happened twice. On three different occasions one
of the experimenters felt the touch of a face with hair and beard. The
feeling of the skin was exactly that of a living man. The hair was
much coarser and more bristly than that of the medium, and the beard
seemed very soft and delicate.
Such are the experiments made at Milan in 1892 by the group of savants
cited above.
How can we help admitting, after the reading of this new official report,
the following things?
1. The complete levitation of the tables.
2. The levitation of the medium.
3. The movement of objects without contact.
4. Accurate and delicate touches made by invisible organs.
5. The formation of hands and even of human figures.
These phenomena take their place in this book as things which were
observed with the most scrupulous care.
Let us note also the action of the little piece of furniture (chair or
round table), which tries to climb up on one of the company or upon the
large table,--a thing also observed by myself.
Although the savants of the Milan group regretted that they did not make
_experiments_, but only _observations_ (I said above (p. 20), what we
ought to think about this), the facts were none the less proved.
I will add that after the reading of this _proces-verbal_, the cautious
reserves of M. Schiaparelli seem exaggerated. If fraud has sometimes crept
in, still what has been accurately observed remains safe and sound and is
an acquisition to science.
Our medium, Eusapia, has been the subject of a fruitful series of
experiments. Let me also mention those of Naples in 1893, under the
direction of M. Wagner, Professor of Zoology at the University of St.
Petersburg; that of Rome in 1893-1894, under the direction of M. de
Siemiradski, correspondent of the Institute; those of Varsovie, from the
25th of November, 1893, to the 15th of January, 1894, at the house of Dr.
Ochorowicz; those of Carqueiranne and of l'ile Roubaud, in 1894, at the
house of Professor Richet; those of Cambridge in August, 1895, at the
house of Mr. Myers; those of the villa de l'Agnellas, from the 20th to the
29th of September, 1895, at the house of Colonel de Rochas; those of
Auteuil, in September, 1896, at the house of M. Marcel Mangin, etc. It
would be entirely superfluous and an unconscionably long task to analyze
them all. Let us merely select some special characteristic instances.
In the report of M. de Siemiradski we read as follows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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