Mysterious Psychic Forces: An Account of the Author's Investigations in Psychical Research, Together with Those of Other European Savants — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Mysterious Psychic Forces: An Account of the Author's Investigations in Psychical Research, Together with Those of Other European Savants
John Stuart Mill · en
One of the most interesting of the pictures is one in which I am
standing by the side of Katie; she has her bare foot upon a particular
part of the floor. Afterwards I dressed Miss Cook like Katie, placed
her and myself in exactly the same position, and we were photographed
by the same cameras, placed exactly as in the other experiment, and
illuminated by the same light. When these two pictures are placed over
each other, the two photographs of myself coincide exactly as regards
stature, etc., but Katie is half a head taller than Miss Cook, and
looks a big woman in comparison with her. In the breadth of her face,
in many of the pictures, she differs essentially in size from her
medium, and the photographs show several other points of difference.
But photography is as inadequate to depict the perfect beauty of
Katie's face as words are powerless to describe her charms of manner.
Photography may, indeed, give a map of her countenance; but how can it
reproduce the brilliant purity of her complexion, or the ever-varying
expression of her most mobile features, now overshadowed with sadness
when relating some of the bitter experiences of her past life, now
smiling with all the innocence of happy girlhood when she had
collected my children round her and was amusing them by recounting
anecdotes of her adventures in India?
"Round her she made an atmosphere of life;
The very air seemed lighter from her eyes,
They were so soft and beautiful, and rife
With all we can imagine of the skies;
Her overpowering presence made you feel
It would not be idolatry to kneel."
Having seen so much of Katie lately, when she has been illuminated by
the electric light, I am enabled to add to the points of difference
between her and her medium which I mentioned in a former article. I
have the most absolute certainty that Miss Cook and Katie are two
separate individuals so far as their bodies are concerned. Several
little marks on Miss Cook's face are absent on Katie's. Miss Cook's
hair is so dark a brown as almost to appear black; a lock of Katie's,
which is now before me, and which she allowed me to cut from her
luxuriant tresses, having first traced it up to the scalp and
satisfied myself that it actually grew there, is a rich golden auburn.
One evening I timed Katie's pulse. It beat steadily at 75, whilst Miss
Cook's pulse a little time after was going at its usual rate of 90. On
applying my ear to Katie's chest I could hear a heart beating
rhythmically inside, and pulsating even more steadily than did Miss
Cook's heart when she allowed me to try a similar experiment after the
seance. Tested in the same way, Katie's lungs were found to be sounder
than her medium's, for at the time I tried my experiment Miss Cook was
under medical treatment for a severe cough.