Report of Dr. Gustave Le Bon
(_Seance of November 28_)
(There were present at this seance, besides the hosts, M. and Mme.
Brisson, MM. Gustave Le Bon, Baschet, de Sergines, Louis Vignon, Laurent, Ed. de Rothschild, Delanne, Bloch, Mathieu, Ephrussi, Mme. la Comtesse de Chevigne, Mmes. Gagneur, Syamour, Fourton, Basilewska, Bisschofsheim.)
Eusapia is undoubtedly a marvellous subject. It struck me as something wonderful that, while I was holding her hand, she was playing on an imaginary tambourine to which the sounds of the tambourine that was behind the curtain accurately corresponded.
I do not see how any trick is possible in such a case, any more than in the case of the table.
My cigarette-holder was grasped by a very strong hand, which wrenched the object from me with a good deal of energy. I was on my guard and asked to see the experiment again. The phenomenon was so singular and so beyond all that we can comprehend that we must first try natural explanations.
1. It is impossible that it could have been Eusapia. I was holding one of her hands and _was looking at the other arm_, and I placed my cigarette-holder in such a position that, _even with her two arms free_, she would not have been able to accomplish such a marvellous thing.
2. It is not probable that it could have been an accomplice; but is it not possible that the unconscious mind of Eusapia suggested to the unconscious mind of a person near the curtain to pa.s.s a hand behind it and operate there? Everybody would be acting in good faith and would have been deceived by the unconscious element. This important point ought to be verified, for no experiment would be so valuable if it were once _demonstrated_.
Could not Eusapia"s departure be put off? We shall not have a similar opportunity, and we surely ought to clear up that phenomenon of the hand.
It is very evident that the table was lifted; but that is a material phenomenon which one can readily grant. The hand which came to seize my cigarette-holder performed an act of the will implying an intelligence, but the other is nothing of the kind. Eusapia might lift a table to the height of three feet without my scientific conception of the world being changed by it; but to bring in the intervention of a spirit, that would be to prove the existence of spirits, and you see the consequences.
As for the hand which seized the cigarette-case, it is absolutely certain that it was not that of Eusapia (you know that I am very sceptical and that I was looking about me); but close to the curtain, in the salon, there were a good many people, and several times you heard me ask people to stand aside from the curtain. If we two had been able to study Eusapia _absolutely alone_, in a room to which we had the key, the problem would soon be solved.
I have not been able to make this verification, the sitting at which Dr.
Le Bon was present having been the last which Eusapia had consented to give at my house. But his objection is of no value. I am absolutely certain that n.o.body glided behind the curtain, neither in this particular case nor in any other. My wife, also, particularly occupied herself in observing what took place in that part of the room and never was able to discover anything suspicious. There is only one hypothesis; that is, that Eusapia herself handled the objects. Since Dr. Le Bon declares that the thing was impossible, he himself personally inspecting it, we are compelled to admit the existence of an unknown psychic force.[27]
Report of M. Armelin
(_Seance of November 21_)
(For this sitting I had asked three members of the Astronomical Society of France to exercise the severest control possible; namely, M. Antoniadi, my a.s.sistant astronomer at the observatory of Juvisy, M.
Mathieu, agricultural engineer at the same observatory, and M.
Armelin, secretary of the Astronomical Society. The last-named gentleman sent me the following report. There were also present M. and Mme. Brisson, M. Baschet, M. Jules Bois, Mme. Fourton, Mme. La Comtesse de Labadye.)
At quarter of ten Eusapia takes her seat, her back to the place where the two curtains meet, her hands resting upon the table. At the invitation of M. Flammarion, M. Mathieu takes his seat at her right, charged with the duty of keeping constant watch upon her left hand, and M. Antoniadi is enjoined to do the same for her right hand. They also make themselves sure of her feet. At the right of M. Mathieu sits Mme. la Comtesse de Labadye; on the left of M. Antoniadi, Mme.
Fourton. Facing Eusapia, between Mmes. de Labadye and Fourton, MM.
Flammarion, Brisson, Baschet, and Jules Bois.
The gas chandelier is lighted and the full light turned on. This chandelier is almost over the table. A little lamp with a shade is placed on the floor behind an easy-chair, near the opposite side of the room, in the direction of its greatest length, and to the left of the fireplace.
At five minutes of ten the table is lifted from the side opposite to the medium and falls back with a bang.
At ten o"clock it rises from the side of the medium, who withdraws her hands, the other persons holding their hands lifted up. The same effect is produced three times. The second time, while the table is in the air, M. Antoniadi declares that he is leaning on it with all his weight and is unable to lower it. The third time, M. Mathieu leans on it in the same way and experiences the same resistance. During this time, Eusapia holds her closed fist about four inches above the table, looking as if she were strongly grasping something. The action lasts several seconds. There is no doubt whatever about this levitation.
When the table falls back, Eusapia experiences something like a relaxation after a great effort.
At 10.03 the table is lifted clean off its four feet at once, at first on the side opposite to the medium, rising about eight inches; then it falls abruptly back. _While it is in the air, Eusapia calls her two neighbors to witness that they are closely holding her hands and her feet, and that she is not in contact with the table._
Then light raps are heard in the table. Eusapia makes M. Antoniadi lift his hand about eight inches above the table and taps three times upon his hand with her fingers. The three taps are heard simultaneously in the table.
To prove that she is not using either her hands or her feet, she sits down sidewise upon her chair on the left, stretches out her legs, and puts her feet on the edge of the chair of M. Antoniadi: she is in full view and her hands are held. At once the curtain is shaken in the direction of M. A.
From 10.10 to 10.15, several times in succession, five raps are heard in the table. Each time the gas is turned down a little, and each time the table moves without contact.
At 10.20 it balances itself, suspended in the air, and resting upon the two legs of the longer side. Then _it rises off of its four feet to a height of eight inches_.
10.25. The curtain moves, and M. Flammarion says that there is some one behind it, that somebody is pressing his hand. He holds his hand out toward the curtain, at a distance of about four inches. The curtain is pushed out into something like a pocket made by a hand which is drawing near. The medium with nervous laugh cries, "Take it, take it." M. A. feels through the curtain the touch of a soft body, like a cushion. But the hand of M. F. is not taken. Objects are heard to move, including the bells of a tambourine.
All of a sudden the medium, leaving M. Mathieu, stretches her hand above the table toward M. Jules Bois, who takes it. At this moment, behind the curtain, an object falls to the floor with a great noise.
10.35. Eusapia, again freeing her right hand, lifts it up above her left shoulder, the fingers forward, at a distance of several inches from the curtain, and beats four or five strokes in the air which are heard to sound in the tambourine. Several persons think they see a will-o"-the-wisp through the gap between the curtains.
Up to that point the gas has been gradually lowered. After the lapse of a full moment I find that I can no longer read, but I can distinguish very clearly the horizontal lines of my writing. I can see the hour perfectly by my watch, as well as the faces of those present, (that of Eusapia especially) turned toward the light. The gas is now completely extinguished.
At 10.40, the gas being out, I can still read my watch, but with difficulty; I still see the lines of my writing, though without being able to read.
Eusapia wants somebody to hold her head, which is done. Then she asks somebody to hold her feet. M. Baschet gets down on his knees under the table and holds them.
M. Antoniadi cries, "I am touched!" and says that he has felt a hand.
I have very distinctly seen the curtain puffing out. Mme. Flammarion, whom I see silhouetted on the bright gla.s.s of the window, her head leaning forward, goes behind the curtain in order to a.s.sure herself that the medium is not doing anything suspicious in the way of motions.
One of the persons present having changed places, Eusapia utters complaints: "_La catena! la catena!_" ("The chain! the chain!") The chain is re-established.
At 10.45 the curtain is inflated again. A b.u.mp is heard. The round table touches the elbow of M. Antoniadi. Mme. Flammarion, who has kept looking behind the curtain, says that she sees the round table turned over. Its feet are in the air, and it is moving to and fro. She thinks she sees glimmers of light near the floor.
M. Mathieu feels a hand and an arm pushing the curtain against him. M.
Antoniadi says that he is touched by a cushion; his chair is pulled and turns under him as if on a pivot. He is touched again on the elbow by some object.
It is ascertained that M. Jules Bois is holding Eusapia"s right hand above the table; M. Antoniadi a.s.sures us that he is holding her left hand, and M. Mathieu her feet.
The curtain is again shaken twice; M. Antoniadi is. .h.i.t in the back very hard, he says, and a hand pulls his hair. The only light remaining is the little lamp with a shade, behind an easy-chair at the farther end of the salon. I continue to write, but my strokes take all kinds of shapes.
Suddenly, M. Antoniadi exclaims that he is enveloped by the curtain, which rests upon his shoulders. Eusapia cries, "What is this that is pa.s.sing over me?" The round table comes forth beneath the curtain.
Mme. Flammarion, who is standing opposite the window, and has kept looking behind the curtain, says that she sees some very white object.
At the same moment M. Flammarion, Mme. Fourton, and M. Jules Bois exclaim that they have just seen a white hand between the curtains, above Eusapia"s head; and, at the same moment, M. Mathieu says that his hair is being pulled. The hand we saw seemed small, like that of a woman or of a child.
"If there is a hand there," says M. Flammarion, "could it perhaps grasp an object?" M. Jules Bois holds a book out toward the middle of the right-hand curtain. The book is taken and held two seconds. Mme.
Flammarion, whom I see always silhouetted upon the bright gla.s.s of the window, and who is looking behind the curtain, _cries that she has seen the book pa.s.s through_.
M. F. proposes to light up and verify. But everybody agrees in thinking that the curtain may have already changed its position. A moment afterwards the curtain is again puffed out, and M. Antoniadi says that he is. .h.i.t four or five times on the shoulder. Eusapia has asked him more than ten times whether he is quite "_seguro_" (sure) that he has hold of her hand and her foot.
"Yes, yes," he replies, "_seguro, segurissimo_" ("sure, quite sure").
Mme. Fourton says that for the second time she has seen a hand stretched out and that this time it touched the shoulder of M.
Antoniadi. M. Jules Bois says that for the second time he has seen a hand stretched out at the end of a small arm, the fingers moving, the palm forward. (It is impossible to decide whether these two visions were simultaneous or not.)
We are getting accustomed to the almost complete darkness; I can still read "11.15" by my watch. M. Antoniadi says his ear is pinched very hard. M. Mathieu says he is touched. M. Antoniadi feels his chair pulled: it falls to the floor. He lifts it again and seats himself on it, and is again hit very hard on the shoulder.
About 11.20, at the request of Eusapia, M. Flammarion replaces M.