Popular Superstitions, and the Truths Contained Therein: With an Account of MesmerismMayo, Herbert
History
Popular Superstitions, and the Truths Contained Therein: With an Account of Mesmerism
Mayo, Herbert
Mesmerism; Parapsychology and medicine; Superstition
2. The next feat is greater. Dr. Teste, in his most interesting
_Manuel de Magnétisme Animal_, gives the case of a lady, his patient,
who, when entranced, foretold the day and hour when an accident, the
nature of which she could not foresee, was to befall her, and from
it a long series of illness was to take its rise. Dr. Teste and the
lady’s husband were staying with her when the fatal moment approached.
Then she rose, and, making an excuse, left the room, followed by her
husband; when, on opening a door, a great gray rat rushed out, and she
sank down in a fit of terror, and the predicted illness ensued. In
this most decisive case, the prevision extended to an extraneous and
accidental circumstance, to which no calculation or intuition of her
natural bodily changes could have led her.
3. But there are instances which reach yet farther. Dr. Foissac
narrates the case of a Mdlle. Cœline, who, when entranced, predicted
that she would be poisoned on a certain evening, at a given hour.
What would be the vehicle of the poison she could not foresee, either
at the time when she first uttered the prediction, or on an occasion
or two afterwards, when, being again entranced, she recurred to the
subject. However, shortly before the day she was to be poisoned, being
questioned in trance as to the possibility of averting her fate, she
said, “Throw me into the sleep a little before the time I have named,
and then ask me whether I can discern where the danger lies.” This was
done, and Mdlle. Cœline at once said that the poison was in a glass
at her bed-side—they had substituted for quinine an excessive dose of
morphine.
Thus it appears that persons in waking trance can, first, calculate
what is naturally to follow in their own health, or in that of persons
with whom they are in mesmeric relation; can, secondly, foretell the
occurrence of fortuitous external events, without seeing how to prevent
them; can, thirdly, when endowed with more lucidity, discern enough to
enable them occasionally to counteract the natural course of external
events. Fate thus becomes a contingency of certainties. There is a true
series of consequences to be deduced from whatever partial premises the
clairvoyante may happen to be acquainted with. When she has more data,
she makes a wider calculation, certain as far as it goes. But other
premises, influencing the ultimate result, may still have escaped her.
So the utmost reach of genuine trance-prevision is but the announcement
of a probability, which unforeseen events may counteract.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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