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 curtain swells out and approaches my face. It is at this moment that
the medium falls into a trance. She utters sighs and lamentations and only
speaks now in the third person, saying that she is John King, a psychic
personality who claims to have been her father in another existence and
who calls her "my daughter" (_mia figlia_). This is an auto-suggestion
proving nothing as to the identity of the force.
Five new taps ask for still _less light_, and the lamp is most completely
turned down, but not extinguished. The eyes, growing accustomed to the
clare-obscure, still distinguish pretty well what is taking place.
The curtain swells out again, and I feel that I am touched on the
shoulder, through the stuff of the curtain, as if by a closed fist. The
chair in the cabinet, upon which are placed the music-box and the bell, is
violently shaken, and the objects fall to the floor. The medium asks again
for _less light_, and a red photographic lantern is placed upon the piano,
the light of the lamp being extinguished. The control is rigorously kept
up, the medium agreeing to it with the greatest docility.
For about a minute the music-box plays intermittent airs behind the
curtain, as if it was turned by some hand.
The curtain moves forward again toward me, and a rather strong hand seizes
my arm. I immediately reach forward to seize the hand, but I grasp only
the empty air. I then press the two legs of the medium between mine and I
take her left hand in my right. On the other side, her right hand is
firmly held in the left hand of M. de Fontenay. Then Eusapia brings the
hand of the last named toward my cheek, and imitates upon the cheek, with
the finger of M. de Fontenay, the movement of a little revolving crank or
handle. The music-box, which has one of these handles, _plays at the same
time behind the curtain in perfect synchronism_. The instant that
Eusapia's hand stops, the music stops: all the movements correspond, just
as in the Morse telegraphic system. We all amused ourselves with this. The
thing was tried several times in succession, and every time the movement
of the finger tallied the playing of the music.
I feel several touches in the back and on the side. M. de Fontenay
receives a hard slap on the back that everybody hears. A hand passes
through my hair. The chair of M. de Fontenay is violently pulled, and a
few moments afterwards he cries, "I see the silhouette of a man passing
between M. Flammarion and me, above the table, shutting out the red
light!"
This thing is repeated several times. I do not myself succeed in seeing
this silhouette. I then propose to M. de Fontenay that I take his place,
for, in that case, I should be likely to see it also. I soon distinctly
perceive a dim silhouette passing before the red lantern, but I do not
recognize any precise form. It is only an opaque shadow (the profile of a
man) which advances as far as the light and retires.