Among unfavorable circumstances, on the other hand, must be reckoned a state of nervous tension; fatigue; a too passionate interest; a mind anxious, preoccupied or distracted. The tables--M. de Gasparin further says, in his metaphorical language--"detest folks who quarrel, either as their opponents or as their friends." "As soon as I took too deep an interest, I ceased to command obedience." "If it happened that I desired success too ardently, and showed impatience at delay, I no longer had any power of action on the table." "If the tables encounter preoccupied minds or nervous excitement, they go into a sulking mood." "If you are touchy, over-anxious ... you can't do anything of any value." "In the midst of distractions, chatterings, pleasantries, the operators infallibly lose all their power." Away with salon experiments! Must one have faith? It is not necessary; but confidence in the result predisposes to a larger endowment of power in the seance of the occasion. It does not suffice to have faith there are persons who have faith and good will, yet with whom power of action is altogether wanting. Muscular force or nervous susceptibility do not seem to play any role. Meteorological conditions have seemed to exercise some influence, probably by acting upon the physique and the spirits of the operators. Thus fine weather, dry and warm weather (but not a suffocating heat) act favorably. The especially efficacious influence of dry heat upon the surface of the table[59] will perhaps receive a different explanation. _Unconscious Muscular Action, produced during an especially Nervous Condition._--So long as only movements with contact were known, in which the movement observed was one of those which muscular action might produce, explanations based on the hypothesis of unconscious muscular action were certainly sufficient and much more probable than all the other explanations which had been up to that time proposed.