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
When we sat at a large loo table without a cloth, with all our hands
upon it, the taps would generally commence in a few minutes. They
sound as if made on the under side of the leaf of the table, in
various parts of it. They change in tone and loudness, from a sound
like that produced by tapping with a needle or a long finger-nail, to
others like blows with a fist or slaps with the fingers of a hand.
Sounds are produced also like scraping with a finger-nail, or like the
rubbing of a damp finger pressed very hard on the table. The rapidity
with which these sounds are produced and are changed is very
remarkable. They will imitate, more or less exactly, sounds which we
make with our fingers above the table; they will keep good time to a
tune whistled by one of the party; they will sometimes, at request,
play a very fair tune themselves, or will follow accurately a hand
tapping a tune upon the table.
Of course, the first impression is that some one's foot is lifting up
the table. To answer this objection, I prepared the table before our
second trial without telling any one, by stretching some thin tissue
paper between the feet an inch or two from the bottom of the pillar,
in such a manner that any attempt to insert the foot must crush or
tear the paper. The table rose up as before, resisted pressure
downwards, as if it was resting on the back of some animal, sunk to
the floor, and in a short time rose again, and then dropped suddenly
down. I now with some anxiety turned up the table, and, to the
surprise of all present, showed them the delicate tissue stretched
across altogether uninjured! Finding that this test was troublesome,
as the paper or threads had to be renewed every time, and were liable
to be broken accidentally before the experiment began, I constructed a
cylinder of hoops and laths, covered with canvas. The table was placed
within this as in a well, and, as it was about eighteen inches high,
it kept the feet and dresses of the ladies away from the table. The
latter rose without the least difficulty, the hands of all the group
being held above it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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