“This phenomenon has taken place in my presence four times, although in
obscurity. The conditions under which these movements were performed,
however, were completely satisfactory; but the ocular demonstration of
such a thing is necessary to prevent the effects of our preconceived
opinions; for example, upon that which is _naturally possible or
impossible_, I shall only mention here cases in which the deductions of
reason have been affirmed by the sense of vision.
“I saw, one day, in the quality of spectator, a chair on which a lady
was seated raised from the floor several inches.
“On another occasion, in order to avoid being suspected of producing
the phenomenon by artificial means, the lady knelt on the chair, so
that the four legs of the piece of furniture were visible to every
eye; then the chair was lifted from the floor three inches, remaining
suspended in the air for ten seconds, when it slowly descended to the
floor again.
“Another time, but separately, two children were raised to the ceiling
in their chairs, under a full glare of light, under conditions entirely
satisfactory to me, for I was on my knees and attentively watched the
feet of the chairs in order to see that no one touched them.
“The most remarkable examples of levitation I have observed have taken
place with Mr. Home. On three occasions I have seen him lifted to the
ceiling of the room. On the first occasion he was seated in a chair,
the second time he was kneeling on a chair, and the third experiment
he stood on the chair. In all these instances I had every facility for
examining the phenomena at the moment they occurred.
“Over a hundred instances where Mr. Home was raised from the floor in
the presence of numerous witnesses have been published, and I have had
the oral testimony of at least three witnesses to these exhibitions,
_i.e._, Count Dunraven, Lord Lindsay, and Captain Wynne.
“To reject the numerous depositions presented on this subject would be
to reject all human testimony on any other subject; for there are no
facts in history, be they sacred or profane, that are supported on such
a solid basis of proof.
“The number of witnesses who will testify to the levitations of Mr.
Home is overwhelming. It is to be greatly desired that persons whose
testimony would be accepted as conclusive by the scientific world would
seriously examine with patience these facts.
“The majority of ocular witnesses of these phenomena are still living,
and will most assuredly bear witness; but in a few years it will be
difficult, if not impossible, to obtain such _direct evidence_ as in
the case of Home.” (_Crookes._)
It is to this class of phenomena that the case of Francois Fontaine
belongs, the authenticated facts of which, officially recorded and
witnessed, are matters of history; her levitations in the prison at
Louviers cannot be doubted.
The cataleptic symptoms accompanying the ascentional movements of this
woman bear witness as to the special neuropathic condition in which she
was found—a condition to-day in which most mediums develop _psychic
force_, either spontaneously or following hypnotic maneuvers.
One of the benefits to future science will be the explanation given to
these phenomena now considered supernatural; things that our learned
Academicians refuse to believe in, _although not investigating_,
insisting that such phenomena are hallucinations, the mere assertions
of writers and those who witness them; while these so-called _savants_,
who laugh spiritualism to scorn, claiming it a fraud and imposture, are
themselves afraid to be convinced by scientific experimentation.[85]