7. Suspension of persons or bodies in the air for a considerable space
of time.
No less interesting is it than to compare these phenomena to those
observed by the thirty-three members of the commission appointed by
the “Dialectic Society of London.” The following was this committee’s
report, after eighteen months’ investigation:
1. Noises of varied nature, apparently arising from the furniture,
floor or walls of the room, accompanied by vibrations which are often
perceptible to the touch, are present without being produced by
muscular action or any mechanical means whatever.
2. Movements of heavy bodies occur without the aid of mechanical
apparatus of any sort, and without equivalent development of muscular
force on the part of persons present, and even frequently without
contact or connection with any one.
3. These noises and movements are produced often at the moment wished
for and in the manner demanded by persons present, and, by means of
a simple code of sounds, respond to questions and write coherent
communications.
4. The response and communications obtained are, for the most
part, hackneyed and commonplace, but sometimes they give facts and
information only known to one person in the room.
5. The circumstances under which the phenomena are present vary, the
most striking feature being that the presence of certain persons seems
necessary to their production, and that the presence of some people
serves as a check; but this difference does not seem to depend on
the belief or the unbelief of those present as to the nature of the
phenomena.
The testimony, oral and written, received by the commission affirmed
the reality of phenomena much more extraordinary still, such as heavy
bodies rising in the air (men in certain cases floated through the
atmosphere) and remaining in suspension without tangible support;
apparitions of hands and forms belonging to no human beings, but
seemingly alive, judging by their aspect and motions.
This report was signed by _savants_ of the first order, as sceptical
before commencing their investigations as the most positive
Materialists of our academies of science. Let us cite, among the
celebrated names of men known throughout the world for their
learning and scientific veracity, those of the great naturalist and
_collaborateur_ of Darwin, Russell Wallace, Professor A. Morgan,
President of the Mathematical Society of London and Secretary of
the Royal Astronomical Society; F. Varley, Chief Engineer of the
Trans-Atlantic Telegraph Company and member of the Royal Society of
London.
Mr. Morgan does not fear to add to the report the following lines: “I
am perfectly convinced, from what I have seen and heard, in a manner
that renders doubt impossible, that _Spiritualists_, without doubt, are
upon a track that will lead to the advancement of the psychal sciences;
their opponents are those who seek to trammel all progress.”
Mr. Varley writes to the celebrated Professor Tyndall: “I am obliged to
investigate the nature of the force that produces these phenomena, but,
up to the present time, I have been unable to discover anything save
the source from which this _psychic force_ emanates, _i.e._, from the
vital systems of the mediums. I am only studying, however, a thing that
has been the object of investigation for two thousand years; brave men,
whose minds are elevated above the narrow prejudices of our century,
seem to have sounded the depths of the subject in question,” etc.
This opinion of the learned English physicist proves, once more, that
we are right in connecting Demonomania to the magic of antiquity and to
modern spiritualism. One must be perfectly blind or of poor judgment
not to see the connecting links that unite these various phenomena. And
if our men of science dare no longer say that these facts are worthy
of credit, although refusing to investigate the same, it is because
they lack courage, it is because they dare not brave the criticism
of pretended strong-minded men and the jests of the ignorant. If the
_vulgum pecus_, the amorphous matter that stuffs the superior element
of society, contest the value of the works of Crookes, Wallace, Morgan,
Varley, Gibier, Zoellner, Mapes, Hare, Oxon, Sexton, and others, they
can only be included in the same class of people who ridiculed Galileo,
Harvey, Jenner, Franklin, Young, Davy, Jussieu, Papin, Stephenson,
and Galvani, with all the authors of great discoveries and scientific
truths, who have invariably been combatted by the pseudo-scientific
and half-fledged goslings whose names adorn our so-called colleges and
other mutual admiration societies.[93]
Why, then, longer refuse to study _a force_ recognized by some of the
most eminent men among modern civilized nations and by the modest
pioneers who first studied these phenomena in France? If the number of
experimenters named be not sufficient to convince sceptics, let them
enter into a full study of present-day psychology, and find a host of
the greatest modern neurologists.
Nine years of study has led Mr. Oxon, Professor at the University of
Oxford, to formulate the following propositions on _Psychic Force_,
which corroborate the results obtained by his colleagues in England,
Germany, and America, and which still constitute another proof of the
identity of the phenomena:
“1. A force exists which acts by means of a special type of human
organization, a force that we call _psychic force_.
“2. It is demonstrated that this force is, in certain cases, governed
by an intelligence.
“3. It is proved that this intelligence is often other than that of the
person or persons through whose influence it acts.
“4. This Force, thus governed by an exterior intelligence, at times
manifests its action, independent of other methods, by writing coherent
phrases, without the intervention of any known mode of writing.
“5. The evidence of the existence of this force governed by an
intelligence rests on
“(_a_) The evidence observed through the senses.
“(_b_) The fact that _the force_ often uses a language unknown to the
medium.
“(_c_) The fact that the subject matter treated is very frequently
superior to the medium’s knowledge or education.
“(_d_) The fact that it has been found impossible to produce the same
results by fraud under the conditions in which these phenomena are
obtained.
“(_e_) The fact that these special phenomena are not only produced in
public and by paid mediums, but likewise in a family circle where no
strangers are admitted.”
Without writing to prejudice the question, I believe, in my turn, that
I can solemnly affirm that this force has intimate connection with the
soul, the mind or the ministerial part of our being, as it is called;
that it acts on our ideas as well as on our physiological functions,
and it is to my mind the destiny of humanity to investigate its essence
and study its phenomena, its manifestations and all its sensible
effects by all our senses and means of investigation.
It is high time that secular boasting of the materialistic scientists
be checked, and that they should recognize the fact that force does
not arise from matter alone but exists independent of it and primarily
submits to its laws.
Starting, then, with the proposition that an unknown force exists, to
whose influence we unconsciously submit, science should investigate
this force, isolate, and control it, if it be in our power so to do.
Instead of opposing an ignorant skepticism to modern discoveries
in _psychic force_, our learned Academicians should investigate
the acquired facts for inspiration in future work, remembering
that good thought of Laplace: “We are so far from knowing all the
agents of Nature and their different modes of action, that it is
not philosophical to deny the existence of phenomena simply because
they cannot be explained in the actual condition of our present
knowledge.”[94]
Such are the conclusions I believe I have a right to draw from my
historical studies on the Demonomania of the Middle Ages. Let me
briefly recapitulate my personal views on the subject:
1. There exists a psychic force, intelligent, inherent to humanity,
manifesting itself, under determined conditions, by various phenomena,
with an intensity more or less great.
2. Certain human beings, known as mediums, who are very sensitive to
the action of magnetism, facilitate the production of these phenomena,
considered as supernatural in the actual state of our present
scientific knowledge, and in apparent contradiction with all known
physical and physiological laws.
3. In certain nervous conditions, natural or provoked, this Force can
possess the human organism and bring about, temporarily, either a
change in one’s personality or an alteration in one’s sensations and in
the intellectual and moral faculties.