Mysterious Psychic Forces: An Account of the Author's Investigations in Psychical Research, Together with Those of Other European Savants
John Stuart Mill · en
The results obtained did not always come up to our expectations. Not
that we did not secure a large number of facts apparently or really
important and marvellous; but, in the greater number of cases, we were
not able to apply the rules of experimental science which, in other
fields of observation, are regarded as indispensable in order to
arrive at certain and incontestable results. The most important of
these rules consists in changing, one after the other, the methods of
experiment, in such a way as to bring out the true cause, or at least
the true conditions of all the events. Now it is precisely from this
point of view that our experiments seem to us still incomplete.
It is very true that the medium, to prove her good faith, often
voluntarily proposed to change some feature of one or the other
experiment, and frequently herself took the initiative in these
changes. But this applied only to things that were apparently
indifferent, according to our way of seeing. On the contrary; the
changes which seemed to us necessary to put the true character of the
results beyond doubt, either were not accepted as possible or ended in
uncertain results.
We do not believe we have the right to explain these things by the aid
of insulting assumptions, which many still find to be the simplest
explanation, and of which some journals have made themselves
champions. We think, on the contrary, that these experiments are
concerned with phenomena of an unknown nature, and we confess that we
do not know what the conditions are that are required to produce them.
To desire to fix these conditions in our own right and out of our own
head would be as extravagant as to presume to make the experiment of
Torricelli's barometer with a tube closed at the bottom, or to make
electrostatic experiments in an atmosphere saturated with humidity, or
to take a photograph by exposing the sensitive plate in full light
before placing it in the camera. However, it is a fact that the
impossibility of varying the experiments in our own way has diminished
the worth and the interest of the results obtained, by depriving them
of that rigorous demonstration which we are right in demanding in
cases of this kind, or, rather, to which we ought to aspire.
The following are the principal phenomena observed.
_Levitation of One Side of the Table_
We agreed to have the medium sit alone at the table, in full light,
her two hands placed on its upper surface and her sleeves drawn back
to the elbows.