21. IMPRESSIONS OF HEADS AND OF HANDS.
The heads and the hands formed are sufficiently dense to leave a mould of their features and shape imprinted in the putty or the clay.
Perhaps the most curious thing is that it is not necessary that these weird formations, these forces, be visible in order to produce impressions. We have seen a vigorous gesture imprint itself at a distance in clay.
22. Pa.s.sING OF MATTER THROUGH MATTER.--TRANSFERS, OR THE BRINGING IN OF OBJECTS.
A book has been seen pa.s.sing through a curtain. A bell has pa.s.sed from a library-room, locked with a key, into a drawing-room. A flower has been seen pa.s.sing perpendicularly downward through a dining-room table. Some have thought they had ocular proof of the mysterious appearance of plants, of flowers, of fruits, and other objects, which (as the claim went) had pa.s.sed through walls, ceilings, doors.
The latter phenomenon took place several times in my presence. But I was never able to get certain proof of it under unimpeachable conditions; and I have ferreted out many a trick.
The experiments of Zollner (a wooden ring entering into another wooden ring, a string tied at the two ends making a knot, etc.) would, of course, be a thing of exceptional interest if the medium Slade had not the bad reputation of being just a skilful prestidigitator,--a reputation probably only too well merited. I should think that there is good reason to suppose that the experiments of Crookes are authentic.
Has s.p.a.ce only three dimensions? We will set this question aside.
23. MANIFESTATIONS DIRECTED BY AN INTELLIGENCE.
These have been already glimpsed in a certain number of the preceding cases. The forces in action here are of the psychical as well as the physical cla.s.s. The question is to know whether the intellect of the medium and of the sitters is sufficient to explain everything.
In all the cases I have previously mentioned, this intellect seem to suffice, but only by attributing to it occult faculties of prodigious potency.
In the present state of our knowledge, it is impossible for us to understand the way in which mind, conscious or unconscious, can lift a table, make raps in wood, form a hand or a head, stamp an imprint. The _modus operandi_ is absolutely unintelligible to us. Future science will perhaps discover it. But all these actions never overpa.s.s the limits of man"s capacities, and let us admit, the capacity required is not an extraordinary one.
The hypothesis of spirits of another order than that of living human beings does not seem to be necessary.
The hypothesis of the doubling of the psychic personality of the medium is the most simple. Is it sufficient to entirely satisfy us?
Hard blows on the table like those of a fist, contrasting with gentle taps, may have this origin, in spite of appearance.
It is the same with apparitions of the hands, of heads, of spectral forms. We cannot declare this origin of the phenomena to be impossible; and it is more simple than to a.s.sume that they are due to wandering spirits.
The conveying of objects over the heads of the experimenters in complete darkness, without touching either chandelier or heads, is scarcely comprehensible. But do we understand any better how a spirit can have hands? And if it did, might it not amuse itself thus?
Spectacles are taken from a face without the act being perceived; a handkerchief is removed from the neck, then s.n.a.t.c.hed from between the teeth that are holding it; a fan is transferred from one pocket to another. Do latent faculties of the human organism suffice to explain these intentional actions? It is right for us neither to affirm nor to deny.
I have thus pa.s.sed in review the whole series of phenomena to be explained, at least all those within the limits of the plan of this work.
A first, and obviously safe, conclusion is that man has in himself a fluidic and psychic force whose nature is still unknown, but which is capable of acting at a distance upon matter and of moving the same.
This force is the expression of our will, of our desires; I mean as it appears in the first ten cases of the preceding cla.s.sifications. For the other cases we must add the unconscious, the unforeseen, wills different from our conscious wills.
The force is at once physical and psychical. If the medium puts forth a force of twelve or fourteen pounds to lift a table, his weight undergoes a corresponding increase. The hand which we see forming near him is able to grasp an object. The hand really exists, and is then reabsorbed. Might we not compare the force which brings it into existence with that building-force of nature, which reproduces a claw for the lobster and a tail for the lizard? The intervention of spirits is not all indispensable.[84]
In mediumistic experiments things happen as if an invisible being were present, able to transport the different objects through the air, usually without striking against the heads of the persons who are sitting in various parts of the room in almost complete darkness; capable also of acting upon a curtain like a strong wind, pushing it far out, able to fling this curtain over your head, giving you a Capuchin hood or coiffure, and pressing strongly against your body, as if with two nervous arms, and touching you with a warm and living hand. I have perceived these hands in the most unmistakble way. The invisible being can condense itself sufficiently to become visible, and I have seen it pa.s.sing in the air. To suppose that I, as well as other experimenters, was the dupe of an hallucination is an hypothesis which cannot be maintained for a single moment and would simply show that those who entertained the idea were far more likely to have an hallucination than we were, or else that they entertained the most inexcusable prepossession and prejudice. We were in the best possible condition for observing and a.n.a.lysizing any phenomena whatever and no sceptic will make us believe anything different on this point.
There is certainly an invisible prolongation of the organism of the medium. This prolongation may be compared to the radiation which leaps from the loadstone to reach a bit of iron and put it into movement.
We can also compare it with the effluvium which emanates from electrified bodies.[85]
I also compared it some pages back to calorific waves.
When a medium makes a gesture of striking the table with his closed fist, but stops short at a distance of from eight to twelve inches, and when, at every gesture, a sonorous stroke of the fist echoes in the table, we see in that the proof of a dynamic prolongation of the arm of the medium.
When she pretends to imitate on my cheek the rotation of the crank of a music-box, and when this box keeps time with the imitated movement, stops when the fingers stop, plays the tune faster when the finger accelerates its circular tracings, goes slower when it goes slower, etc., we have here again proof of dynamic action at a distance.
When an accordion plays of its own will, when a bell begins to ring of itself, when a lever indicates such and such a pressure, there is a real force in action.
We must therefore admit, first of all, this prolongation of the muscular and nervous force of the subject. I am keenly sensible of the fact that this is a bold proposition, almost incredible, most strange and extraordinary; but after all the facts are there, and whether the matter irks us or not is a small matter.
This prolongation is real, and only extends to a certain distance from the medium, a distance which can be measured, and which varies according to circ.u.mstances. But is it sufficient to explain all the observed phenomena?
We are forced to admit that this prolongation, usually invisible, and impalpable, may become visible and palpable; take, especially, the form of an articulated hand, with flesh and muscles; and reveal the exact form of a head or a body. The fact is incomprehensible; but after so many different observations, it seems to me impossible to see in this curious phenomenon only trickery or hallucination. Logic lays its laws upon us and commands our respect.
A fluidic and condensable double has therefore the power of gliding momentarily out from the body of the medium (for his presence is indispensable).
How can this double, this fluidic body have the consistency of flesh and of muscles? We do not understand it. But it would neither be wise nor intelligent to admit only that which we can comprehend. It must be remembered that, for the greater part of the time, we imagine we comprehend things because we can give an explanation of them; that is all.
Now this explanation rarely has any intrinsic value. It is only a framework of words tacked together. Thus you fancy you understand why an apple falls from the top of the tree, because you say that the earth attracts it. This is pure simple-mindedness. For in what does the attraction of the earth consist? You know nothing about it; but you are satisfied, because the fact is a common one.
When the curtain is inflated as if pushed out by a hand, and when you feel you are pinched in the shoulder by a hand at the moment the curtain touches you, you have the impression that you are the dupe of an accomplice hidden behind the curtain. There is some one there who is playing a practical joke on you. You draw aside the curtain. Nothing!
Since it is impossible for you to admit a trick of any kind, because you, and you alone, hung that curtain between the two walls; and since you know that there is no person behind it because you are close by it and have not lost it out of your sight; and since the medium is seated near you with his, or her, hands and legs held, you are forced to admit that a temporarily materialized being has touched you.
It is certain that these facts may be denied and that they are denied.
Those who have not personally verified them are excusable. It is not a question of ordinary events which take place every day and which everybody can observe. It is evident, as a general proposition, that, if we admit only what we have ourselves seen, we shall not get very far. We admit the existence of the Philippine Islands without having been there, of Charlemagne and of Julius Caesar without having seen them, of total eclipses of the sun, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, etc., as facts of which we have not ourselves been eye-witnesses. The distance of a star, the weight of a planet, the composition of one of the heavenly bodies, the most marvelous discoveries of astronomy, do not excite scepticism, except in the minds of wholly uncultivated persons, because people in general appreciate the value of astronomic methods. But undoubtedly, in these psychical matters, the phenomena are so extraordinary that one is excusable for not believing them.
Nevertheless, if anyone will give himself the trouble to reason he will positively be compelled to recognize that, in following on this trail, he is inevitably brought to a stand in face of the following dilemma: either the experimenters have been the dupes of the mediums, who have uniformly cheated, or else these stupefying facts actually exist. Now since the first hypothesis is eliminated, we are forced to admit the reality of the occurrences.
A fluidic body is formed at the expense of the medium, emerges from his organism, moves, acts. What is the intelligent force that directs this fluidic body and makes it act in such or such a way? Either it is the mind of the medium, or it is another mind that makes use of this same fluid.
There is no escape from this conclusion. I may remark that the meteorological conditions, fine weather, agreeable temperature, cheerfulness, high spirits, favor the phenomena; that the medium is never wholly out of touch with the manifestations, and frequently knows what is going to take place; that the cause escapes the mental grasp and is fugitive and capricious; and that the apparitions fade away like a dream as silently as they are formed.
Note also that, in important manifestations, the medium suffers, complains, groans, loses an enormous amount of force, exhibits an astonishing nervous energy, experiences hyperaesthesia, and at the apogee of the manifestation, seems for an instant to be absolutely prostrated.
And, in truth, why should not his mind as well as his fluidic force be haled out of his body and be exhausted in external work? The psychical force of a living human being is able, then, to create "material"
phenomena--organs, spectral figures.
But what is matter?
My readers know that matter does not exist as it is perceived by our senses. These only give us incomplete impressions of an _Unknown Reality_.
a.n.a.lysis shows us that matter is only a form of energy.
In the work called _A Propos d"Eusapia Paladino_, which sums up his experiments with this medium, M. Guillaume de Fontenay ingeniously tries to explain the phenomena by the dynamic theory of matter. It is probable that this explanation is one of those that make the nearest approach to the truth.
According to this theory, the quality which seems to us characteristic of matter--solidity, stability--is no more substantial than the light which strikes our eyes, or the sound which enters our ears. We see; that is to say, we receive upon the retina rays which affect it. But around and on every side of the retina undulate countless other rays that leave no impression upon it. It is the same with the other senses.
Matter, like light, like heat, like electricity, seems to be the result of a species of movement. Movement of what? Of the primitive monistic substance, quickened by manifold vibrations.
Most a.s.suredly, matter is not that inert thing that we commonly suppose.