CHAPTER IV

EUSAPIA PALLADINO TELEKINESIS
Physical Mediumsbip
ANEW group of phenomena which is now to be examined, and which is quite distinct from those just discussed, upsets our tradi- tional conceptions still more completely. I refer to the so-called physical manifestations of Medium- ship. They also like the phenomena already described, are not found for the first time in the surroundings only of modern occultism. We already find descriptions of such phenomena in ancient literature for instance, in Josephus. The account of Christ's " walking on the sea " must be included in this category, together with the legends of the middle-ages describing the appearances of persons floating in mid-air wrapt in ecstasy. Similar cases are also to be found amongst primitive men and savages.
It stands to reason that we are much more suspicious of physical phenomena than of the purely psychic. The stability of our conventional scientific conception of the universe appears possibly erroneously to be much more seriously jeopardized by them than by new facts of
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conscious life. Consequently our instinctive op- position to the recognition of abnormal physical phenomena is far stronger than it is to that of psychic supernormal phenomena. Only two of the older mediums connected with such mani- festations are still remembered in the present generation, and even so, they are remembered, not so much for the singularity of their pheno- mena, as for the reason that the phenomena were vouched for as real by scientific investigators of the highest standard.
One of these mediums was Slade, an American. The astro-physicist, C. F. Zoellner, spent much time in experimenting with him, and was helped upon occasion by scientific friends such as Wilhelm Weber and Fechner. Both these scientists declared themselves convinced of the reality of the phenomena as recorded by Zoellner. Unfortunately the plan conceived by the astro- physicist Vogel was never put into execution. He intended to hide in a cupboard and watch Slade closely through a hole in it. On the other hand, we have a report by Dessoirs on sittings with Slade, in which he states that he was fully convinced of the objectivity of the manifestations. These were very varied in character. For instance, Zoellner is stated to have taken two slates, and, after putting a little slate-pencil between them, to have tied them tightly together with string. When Slade then held them under
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the table in the presence of the sitters, a curious scraping sound was heard. He then moved the package from beneath the table, and after loosen- ing the string, writing was found on the slates. In other similar experiments, it was stated that on a soot-covered surface the imprint of a bare, or only partly, clothed human foot appeared, differing in size to that of Blade's. Moreover, Slade did not always hold the slates himself, and this fact is confirmed by Dessoir.
Other tests consisted, according to Zoellner, in abstracting certain articles from locked, un- opened receptacles, or again replacing them there. Then knots were tied in a string of which both ends had first been sealed together, and finally Zoellner describes how two wooden rings, each turned from a single piece of wood, were placed by Slade round the foot of a centre table without unscrewing the top, which was balanced on a column ending in three legs, none of which also were unscrewed. All these assertions are illustrated with photographs, which Zoellner prints in his report.
The objections made against Zoellner 's reports from the present-day standpoint are based, in the first place, on the absence of any minutes of the experiments a> most regrettable omission ; and next, on the supposition that sufficient care was not taken to prevent deception on Slade's part. For instance, Slade may have had an opportunity
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of abstracting the string with seals attached, and substituting for it at the next sitting a second sealed string with knots in it. Again, with regard to the slates : Zoellner has been blamed for not taking sufficient precautions to make an exchange impossible, or to prevent the knots being loosened sufficiently to introduce some sharp, thin object between the slates with which written characters might have been traced. These explanations are not, however, applicable when it becomes a question of emptying sealed boxes; still less so when it comes to placing wooden rings round the legs of a table. It is a significant sign of the weakness of the criticisms against Zoellner, that no reference is made to the facts which are hardest to account for.
I have often made vain attempts to discover whether the table with the ring still exists. A relative of Zoellner, his eminent biographer, Fr. Koerber, my former mathematics master at my " Gymnasium," could only tell me that the table still existed up to a short time ago, but as he could not indicate its present whereabouts it has not been possible for me to ascertain whether the ring actually did only consist of one piece ; also, the exact details of the construction of the table, whether the top was easily removable, etc. In my opinion there is only one possibility of fraud with regard to the table experiment : that Slade hypnotized Zoellner, who was alone with
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him when the feat was accomplished, unscrewed the top, placed the ring round the foot, and then awakened Zoellner, possibly under the influence of the definite suggestion that the latter should not remember anything that had taken place. Given such conditions he would indeed have had the opportunity of carrying out the most astound- ing feats. But if this explanation is approved with regard to the table experiment, it would also apply to all the others ; and upon this view none of the tests described by Zoellner, and of which he was the sole observer, can be looked upon as conclusive. The only question is whether such an explanation is acceptable.
Tp answer this question in the affirmative is made extremely difficult by the facts that, in the first place, the wooden rings were suspended on a sealed cord ; that guests were waiting in the adjoining room, and that, according to Zoellner, the whole proceedings did not last more than five minutes. Consequently, Slade must either have replaced the cord, on which another ring was also suspended, by one exactly similar, or renewed the seals with Zoellner's cipher or a facsimile thereof.
Again, what view are we to take with regard to those cases where there were other witnesses, such as Weber, Fechner, Wach, etc. ? Here we are bound to admit that so far no precedent has been found whereby it has been proved possible
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to put the company present, consisting of several individuals, into a hypnotic state so easily without their consent, as must (it is necessary to assume) have here been the case. It could only be done by telepathic suggestion. This has been proved to be possible in some instances, but only in connexion with individuals who had already been under the hypnotic influence of the " suggestor," or, in the case where both persons showed signs of parapsychic structure. Upon this view, then, a parapsychic phenomenon at any rate took place. Attempts have also been made to suggest that reputed performances of Indian Fakirs, who, in the sight of many spectators, claim to throw a rope into the air, and make a boy climb up and disappear with it, are the result of mass hal- lucination produced by telepathic suggestion. It must, however, not be forgotten that this, too, is but a hypothesis, and that a hypothesis is not strengthened by being applied to many cases instead of limited to one.
Zoellner's reports have repeatedly been sum- marily dismissed on the ground that Slade was " as all the world knows " discovered cheating in America. But this rumour still lacks con- firmation. Koerber made every effort to clear this matter up, but was unable to procure more definite information. It is, therefore, not justi- fiable to regard it as an established fact that Slade was a cheat. On the other hand, there is the
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highly suspicious circumstances that at a sitting with Slade in London, a slate which was supposed to have nothing on it was found to have had letters already written on it, when it was forcibly snatched away from him a moment or so after he had held it under the table.
Unfortunately, Helmholtz refused to examine Slade, despite repeated invitations to do so. His testimony would have been of the greatest value, and the case of Slade would be much the clearer for it to-day. As it is, we only know that Helmholtz's opinion a priori was that it was all a fraud, though a priori judgments have no significance so far as science and psychology are concerned. The case of Zoellner-Slade must in consequence be left in suspense. But what- ever one's opinion may be, the brilliancy and interest of Zoellner's theoretic interpretation of the experimental results, based on the hypo- thesis of the Fourth Dimension, which he con- sidered proved, remain unimpaired. Its sim- plicity savours of genius.
The experiments of the physicist Crookes made less of a stir in Germany than in England. He believed he had established the fact that the medium, Home, was able at will to decrease or increase his weight. And in the case of another medium, Florence Cook, he even claimed to have observed and photographed genuine materializa- tions (Katie King). Unfortunately the experi-
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ments with Home were not repeated by anyone at the time, despite their great interest, and the comparative ease with which they might have been carried out. Quite recently, a young Berlin engineer, Grunewald, is said to have achieved the same result with another medium, though this has not yet been verified.
Some years after Slade, Home, and Florence Cook had been forgotten, a new medium began to awaken the interest of the European spiritualist world Eusapia Palladino. Her fame remained undiminished to the day of her death. Dragged through all Europe and half America, surrounded by a galaxy of savants and dillettanti, she has been the theme of a whole literature in every civilized land. And yet, no complete unanimity appears to exist even to-day between the different observers. Opinions are not only divided as to how far the phenomena were genuine, but also as to whether the whole thing was or was not a fraud. All the same, it is only fair to say that all those who observed her for any consecutive length of time are agreed that the major part, and par- ticularly the most striking of her phenomena, were genuine. It is due to this circum- stance that the case is of such surpassing interest.
Eusapia Palladino was born in 1854 ^ n a 8ma ^ village in the Abruzzi Mountains the only child of an inn-keeper. Her mother died at her birth,
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and when she was eight years old she also lost her father, who was murdered by brigands. Eusapia was put in charge of her grandmother, who brutally ill-treated her. Later on she became a sempstress. After her marriage she gradually relinquished her former occupation for that of a professional medium.
I do not know what her regular income was, but she was repeatedly invited to undertake lengthy journeys to Munich, Paris, London, Petrograd, and she also gave sittings in America. She died in Naples in 1918, a great loss to psychic research. Her medial faculties are said to have developed during her puberty. Between the age of 13-14 she first saw visions, and objects are said to have been moved in her presence without her touching them.
Her temperament and this is borne out by her portraits is said to have been joyous, gre- garious and inclined to emotionalism. She had no schooling whatever, and could hardly write her name. Nevertheless she was gifted with great natural intelligence, and evinced great knowledge of character in her intercourse with the people with whom she came in contact. In this respect she showed faculties which it is preferable not to find in a medium. To get a sitting with her does not seem to have been too easy. She was fully aware of the part she played in the world. " E una Palladino," she was wont
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to say of herself , "and she insisted on being treated as a great lady in spite of her want of culture. She did not always submit to the conditions of control to which attempts were made to subject her, but sometimes autocratic- ally imposed her will with regard to the manner in which she wished the sitting to be held. For this reason, sittings with her were more often confined to mere observations than devoted to actual experiments. For, whenever pressure was put upon her or she was contradicted however substantial or well-considered the reason might be the investigator took the risk of having the sitting abruptly broken off, and the case was of such interest, and as a rule so much expense had been incurred in obtaining the phenomena at all, that it was usually preferable to be content with mere observation, as soon as Eusapia began to remonstrate. The impression left by her own high opinion of herself was counterbalanced by her kind-heartedness. Her own early fate, at the remembrance of which she often shed tears, made her charitable, particularly to orphans. Having been given the choice of a present, at a sitting one day, she begged for an artificial limb for a child whose own was about to be amputated. She avoided solitude, and loved to have company around her always, as she was often made uneasy by her own phenomena. She was in actual fear of darkness, and always kept a night-light burning ;
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she even preferred not to have all the lights extinguished during the sittings.
Though other mediums, of whom there are similar reports, such as Mdme. d'Esperance, Frau Pribytkoff, etc., never, or but rarely, emerged from the spiritistic sphere in which they had been discovered and which they looked upon as their spiritual home, Eusapia Palladino was examined by a considerable number of scientists in whose rank, Germans were but sparsely repre- sented.
The examinations carried out in 1905-08 in Paris at the Institut General Psychologique were distinguished by the presence of the great number of eminent investigators who took part in them. The report published by Courtier, Professor of Psychology at the Sorbonne, re- peatedly mentions the names of Perrin, Poincare, Curie, Bergson. The investigations (there were forty-three sittings in all) were conducted in the manner usual, not only with Eusapia, but also with other psychical mediums. A corner of the room was partitioned off from the rest by a black curtain fixed with metal rings to a pole. Eusapia sat just in front of the centre of the curtain behind a table, with a sitter on either side of her who had instructions to watch her hands and feet. They were each told to hold her hand preferably by the thumb and to place their left on her right
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foot and their right on her left foot respectively. Unfortunately, it was she who often placed her own foot on that of the observer. Then, a so- called " chain " was formed by all the participants of the seance by joining hands right and left round the table. Eusapia refused to be bound, no matter how lightly, as she declared that this reminded her of a lunatic asylum, and gave her the feeling of being mentally afflicted and forcibly tied down. Neither would she permit any flash- light photographs, though as a matter of fact the lights were said to have been so bright at times, that it would have been possible to read by them. In the interior of the cabinet, behind the curtain, was a light table for bric-ci-brac, some smoke- blackened articles or papers, a jar filled with modelling clay or putty, and a zither.
The sittings usually started in a bright light which gradually was made fainter. According to the minutes, the manifestations began with various sounds of unknown origin on the table raps as if by a finger, scraping as by a nail, etc. As the lights grew fainter, the objects in Eusapia's vicinity began to move about spontaneously. The table rose (" levitations ") and the various objects in the cabinet were heard to change place. With a still dimmer light, it is asserted that vague outlines of hands and other parts of the human body, such as a head and bust, became visible near Eusapia, appearing through the
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central and side folds of the curtain. Brilliant dots or sparks resembling electricity were some- times seen. A phenomenon which often recurred was that the curtain behind and next to Eusapia billowed out, and to the touch felt as if it was pushed forward by something tangible. Pheno- mena of other description were also reported by the observers. Equally remarkable were the imprints left upon the modelling clay, for instance of human veil-covered hands, greatly resembling those of Eusapia, or occasionally of a human face. Part of the records were obtained by a register- ing apparatus, but the most important are based on the evidence of the sitters. The report of the result of the investigations is summarized in the ten following points :
{i) Displacements (backwards or forwards) and the (complete or partial) levitation of certain heavy objects (ordinary small tables) in Eusapia's vicinity were evidenced by registering apparatus.
(2) Some of the said movements of objects appear to have been caused by the mere touch of the hands or clothes of the medium, and even without her touching them at all. During the complete levitation of the table before which she sat, or of the smaller table placed near her, her muscles were strongly contracted. But she did not seem to will to elevate the objects in the same way that we ordinarily will things.
(3) The supporting point of the force which
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raised the objects seemed to be centred in the medium, as the scales on which she was placed during the elevations marked an increase and decrease in weight which corresponded to the laws of mechanics.
(4) It was shown that she could discharge electroscopes from a distance.
(5) It was shown that she could cause mole- cular oscillations from a distance (rapping, sound- vibrations).
(6) Lights of unexplained origin were seen near the medium during the sittings. Some of these phenomena were like electric sparks.
(7) Those present said that they observed human forms and felt themselves touched. But it must also be noted that fraud has been proved with regard to some manifestations of this kind.
(8) In the course of some of the sittings, Eusapia passed into a secondary condition of an unstable type. She complained of hyperaes- thesia to the touch during the greater part of the sittings, and for some time after them also. She complained further of partial amnesia with regard to the seance phenomena.
(9) The ideas and the will of Eusapia influenced the nature and the course of the phenomena.
(10) Fraud was possible, but to what extent it was practised is hard to determine.
This brief synopsis can certainly not take the place of the detailed report in the original. But
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it proves conclusively that the above-mentioned eminent investigators, who had Eusapia again and again under their observations were con- vinced of the objectivity of part of the phenomena. Their testimony is naturally of far greater value than the judgment of some obscure minor scientist of Frankfort or elsewhere, who delivers judgment on Eusapia without personal ex- perience.
On the other hand, according to Courtier's report, any conclusions about Eusapia are neces- sarily to some extent vitiated by the certainty that some of her manipulations were fraudulent. On one occasion, shortly before a sitting, she was seen tampering with a pair of scales, which she was manipulating with the aid of a white hair. On another, a little nail fell to the ground, apparently from Eusapia's left hand, who evinced great surprise. The nail could be used to make marks on blackened paper similar to those found at the sittings. In the total darkness of one of the seances, while the sitters felt various touches, Eusapia freed her hand with lightning speed from that of Courtier, and immediately after, as Courtier recovered from his surprise, Eusapia's hand lay once again in his. In short, there is not the slightest doubt that she practised fraud, a fact of which other investigators were also convinced. At the first investigations under- taken by the British Society for Psychical Re-
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search, who make a rule of never continuing experiments with a medium convicted of fraud, the investigations with Eusapia were abandoned on that ground. The only surprising part consists in the repeated assertions of investigators that Eusapia's deception was of so childish a nature that it could not be taken seriously, when we have regard to her intelligence, and remember that phenomena often occurred at the same time which could not possibly be due to fraud. True, such phenomena always took place in Eusapia's immediate vicinity. Once during the Paris seances, when a flashlight photograph was taken of her against her will, it showed her with an extremely crafty expression. And yet these incriminating circumstances are again outweighed by others of such importance that scepticism must of necessity cease. Thus the Paris report : " Eusapia made a movement of her hand, and the zither sounded from within the cabinet. Eusapia scratched the hand of M. d'Arsonval with hers, and again the zither was heard, as though plucked by fingers." " Another time a small board which had been nailed to an inner corner of cabinet was torn from its founda- tion." Many far heavier objects were moved, lifted and transported, for instance : a stool was raised one metre high, and a dish full of putty placed on top of it. This stool stood in the cabinet, and through a gap in the curtain it
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was seen to advance and retreat several times. The wish was expressed that the dish with putty should be lifted on to the table. Eusapia requested that all should concentrate their will on this idea and it would be realized, and realized it was. The stool was then hoisted on to Monsieur Curie's shoulder. The receptacle with the putty weighed seven kilos, and it took con- siderable strength to lift and hold with one hand. The dish was 30 cm. long and 24 cm. wide (Controllers left : Mr. Komyakoff ; right : Mr. Curie)." " She was able to depress a letter- weight in full light without touching it ; but when the scales was placed under glass so that Eusapia could not possibly touch them with a thread, they did not move. On the other hand, the balance was again depressed after the glass cover had been removed under conditions of observation which certainly seemed quite ade- quate. Her hands lay to the right and left of the scales ; on lowering them the scales sank in sympathy."
We ask in vain how such phenomena could have been achieved by fraud, without detection by the sitters. This explains how it was that the Society of Psychical Research made an exception in the case of Eusapia, and arranged for a renewed examination of the medium through several of its most experienced members in Naples* These investigators were convinced of the
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genuineness of the phenomena, Carrington among them, who was so well known for having shewn up innumerable pseudo-mediums.
I exclude the reports of Lombroso and Flammarion from the others. The latter may be called a Visionary; and in many of the works of Lombroso, particularly in his book on Genius, inaccuracy and superficiality are so conspicuous, that he must be taken with a certain reserve. But there are still the experiments made by Botazzi in Naples, who was the Professor of Physiology at that University, and who collaborated with five other professors at the university and polytechnic. According to this report, the reality of the phenomena was definitely proved under good conditions ; for instance : " Both of us, Mr, Scarssa (Lecturer of Physics at Naples University) and I, kept our eyes fixed on the mandoline, and we can definitely assert that the instrument, clearly illuminated by the lamp above it, was not touched by the visible hands of Eusapia. The latter was sixty cms. away from it, but the mandoline moved as though set in motion by magic. It is impossible to describe the impression made by the sight of an inanimate object moving in dead silence, not only for a second, but for several minutes, without being touched by anyone, under the compulsion of a mysterious force, among other inanimate objects."
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On another occasion, Botazzi (who weighed eighty-nine kilos) was propelled along the ground with the chair on which he was seated.
During a sitting in Munich, at Schrenck- Notzing's house, the table before which Eusapia sat was elevated, while her right hand was con- trolled by Professor G., and her left by Dr. Albrecht, while Schrenck-Notzing lay under the table in order to keep her legs and feet under observation. Another time there was even a lamp under the table. At a seance at Rome, while the hands of the medium were controlled by the physiologist Professor Luciani and the alienist Sante de Santis, the curtain of the cabinet behind Eusapia was inflated some twenty times in succession. It was possible to touch the curtain, lift it up and also put one's hand between Eusapia and the curtain. And when, in the course of independent experiments connected with active telekinesis the light was suddenly switched on, Eusapia was discovered to be in a deep trance, her hands held by her neighbours.
Flournoy reports further : " It is to Richet that I am indebted for the privilege of having taken part in several seances with Eusapia Palladino last year (1898). The conditions of control then were such that there is no room for doubt, unless we are to distrust the combined testimony of sight, hearing and touch, as well as that modicum of critical sense and astuteness,
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in the possession of which every person of ordinary intelligence prides himself. The only other alternative is to assume that there were secret doors in the walls of Richet's work-room, and that he, together with his learned assistants, were the wicked aiders and abettors in the farce enacted by this charming Neapolitan lady."
According to the material at my disposal, the following university professors, among others, made experiments with her : the physiologists Richet (Paris), Luciani (Rome), Botazzi (Naples), the alienists and neurologists Sante de Santis (Rome), Morselli (Genoa), Lombroso (Turin), the anatomist Pio Foa (Turin), the scientists M. and Mdme. Curie, Perrin, Poincare (Paris), the astronomers Schiaparelli (Milan), Flammarion (Paris), the psychologists and philosophers Courtier and Bergson (Paris), Flournoy (Geneva). All these investigators are convinced of the genuine nature of certain supernormal pheno- mena as demonstrated by Eusapia Palladmo. Is there really any sense from a scientific point of view in those who have not been observers persisting in face of this evidence in considering the non-existence of the phenomena in question as more probable than their objectivity ?
Only those investigators who casually attended only one or two sittings as, for instance, Dessoir, Lipps, Munsterberg, Moll, were still sceptical. But their evidence that of Dessoir is very
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shaky is of little importance, as their investiga- tions were very slight in comparison with those of investigators who were able to follow the case at length and in detail.
It should also be noted that Eusapia's mediumistic faculties were obviously variable. The same English investigators, who, in 1908, came to positive conclusions, were present at various quite negative sittings in 1910 in Naples, in which Eusapia did nothing but cheat. This circumstance really is in favour of the justice and objectivity of their first report.
Those who put the whole thing down to fraud support their case by the outcome of two American seances. At one of them, Munster- berg arranged that some one should crawl along the floor towards Eusapia without her knowledge, and seize hold of her suddenly in the darkness during the seance. This resulted in an ear- piercing scream from Eusapia and the abrupt breaking-off of the sitting. The person under the table declared that he had seized " an unshod foot." When the light was turned on, Eusapia was seen to be fully clothed. During another sitting with Professor Lord at Columbia Univer- sity, two observers claim to have noticed how the objects in the cabinet were set in motion by Eusapia herself, who had managed to free one foot from control.
Important though these assertions may be,
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they do not explain the Paris observations, as well as many others, and the uncertainty is increased by the divergent opinions of the conjurers who were consulted. An English conjurer declared that Eusapia's manifestations were absolutely genuine, and that certainly could not be reproduced by conjuring. On the other hand, two of his American colleagues pronounced very unfavourably against them, and insisted that her performances were all faked. The point argued by Eusapia's partisans is that, like all mediums, she was greatly irritated by the ostentatious display of mistrust, which caused a considerable diminution of her psychic faculties, and it is also emphasized that she was never equally consistent in her performances.
Another American investigation undertaken at Columbia University can also be set against the arguments of Munsterberg and Lord. An onlooker was able to watch the whole time through a hole in the top of the cabinet, and so discover whether Eusapia moved the objects contained therein by means of a hook or other fraudulent contrivances. His report is that at every sitting a new organic member a pseudopodium appeared from under the curtain behind the back of Eusapia with the aid of which apparently the mechanical effects were produced. But similar reports also had already been pub- lished during the 'nineties concerning the pseu-
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dopodia which apparently emanated f romEusapia's body. Consequently those who are opposed to the theory of fraud insist that in the case of the Munsterberg exposure, the foot was not Eusapia's own, but a pseudopodium.
These observations which until lately seemed highly problematical, and more or less a subter- fuge, have received further support in the con- clusions arrived at quite recently by the English physicist, Crawford, by Ochorowicz, late pro- fessor of philosophy in Warsaw, and by Schrenck- Notzing. Crawford declares that in the case of an Irish medium, he has repeatedly proved the presence of certain " rod-like " projections of varied lengths and thicknesses which, though invisible, were perceptible to the touch and felt cold, sticky, and like reptiles. Schrenck-Notzing and Ochorowicz were able, in the case of another medium, to photograph similar projections on some occasions, though on others they remained invisible. Thus, another explanation of the cases where Eusapia was charged with the fraudulent manipulation of what looked like threads, might lie in the assumption that these were actually composed of fine organic rays.
The telekinetic movement of objects, the levitations, as well as the strange touches ex- perienced by the sitters, particularly in the dark, are said to be produced by these pseudopodia ;
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they are able to become quite rigid, and by a purely mechanical process fasten themselves on to the objects moved. During levitations accordingly the weight of the medium is in- variably increased by that of the objects raised by the pseudopodia, as has been repeatedly estab- lished.
Upon this hypothesis there is no question of the direct working of the mind of the medium upon distant things, and if the working of her mind is regarded as confined to her own organism, physical mediumistic phenomena are easier than formerly to fit into our normal conception of the universe. Distant objects may be treated as set in motion by means of pseudopodia, which themselves behave in a quite normal mechanical manner. The problems of telekinesis and levitation is thus relegated almost entirely to the organic sphere, in so far as the so-called pseudopodia are of organic nature. The observa- tions of the above-mentioned investigators are, when taken in conjunction with those of older date, of such a momentous character that it becomes imperative to verify them still further objectively. We are possibly confronted by an entirely new category of psycho-physical pheno- mena, which makes the dependence of material or semi-material events upon the action of the mind far greater than was ever dreamed of in the past. Though even so, I should like to remark
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that the theory of pseudopodia does not in all cases suffice.
It is noteworthy that the medium possesses the sensation of touch through the pseudopodia. It is from them that Eusapia derived her power of perception. Innumerable references in the reports of Botazzi and others indicate that she knew when she moved an object at a distance or made an impression on clay. It is therefore no proof that she was cheating because she emitted a piercing scream when her foot or the pseudo- podium's was seized ; it is equally possible that she actually did feel the pain of the vigorous grasp on the foot and Crawford with his medium claims to have shown that this is true.
It is still quite uncertain of what substance the curious efflorescences are composed and how they are actually formed. The main difficulty con- sists in the fact that the pseudopodia are able partly to penetrate clothing. An analogy to their power of becoming stiff might be found in the sexual organs of mammalia.
But when all is said, the mind of the medium is still apparently the deciding factor the sole means through which all the strange phenomena of physical mediumship are evolved. In some cases this fact stands clearly out and Eusapia herself was conscious of it. In such cases she could predict what was going to happen. For instance she made a gesture of striking or twanging
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strings, and the sound of rapping or of the mandoline was heard. Botazzi paid particular attention to these connexions, though reference thereto is also found elsewhere. It must remain an open question whether conscious mental processes in all cases so far as Eusapia was con- cerned preceded the phenomena, but it is obvious that normal ideas, thoughts, and acts of will, etc., cannot alone produce these remarkable effects. There must be also other conditions still unknown to us which have to be fulfilled. To invoke the " subconsciousness " of Eusapia as the deciding factor, is to make use of an entirely insufficient conception. Subconscious processes have no more influence on material things than conscious ones, and if these other unknown conditions were unfulfilled, the subconscious processes would have no more effect in Eusapia's case than with other people. The real motive for coming back to the explanation of the " subconscious " lies in the assumption that the actual " vital factors " which differentiate organisms from purely physico-chemical formations, are not to be found in special independent faculties of any land, but are to be identified with the un- conscious acts of the soul itself. If, therefore, there are unconscious mental processes which build up the organism by their influence upon inorganic processes, the inference is that the efflorescences, pseudopodia, etc., are constructed
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by similar, or at any rate, similarly unconscious acts of the mind. This assumption may be correct, yet these temporary limbs, as well as our ordinary members, appear to be nothing but the tools used by the ego in its conscious acts. rr he fact that Eusapia was able to determine in advance the nature of the phenomena and rap out a given number of knocks on the table in the cabinet in accordance with the wish of a sitter, does not alter the explanation. It is of no matter whether we are concerned with genuine mani- festations of will power or not. Eusapia denied it and we cannot disprove her denial. As a matter of fact, however, there are many happen- ings which seem to be the result of the will and yet are not so. For instance some people perspire with supernormal facility ; they are able by concentrating their minds on perspiration to produce drops of sweat on the palm of their hand, and yet this cannot properly be called the result of an act of will. The solution of the physical phenomena of mediumship will possibly be found in studying such cases.
The outward form in which the psycho- physical phenomena were produced by Eusapia was spiritistic. She^ herself was convinced of the truth of spiritism and ascribed the phenomena to a certain spirit, " John King." In certain cases he " controlled " her and spoke through her in a voice somewhat altered from her usual one.
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Eusapia also upon occasions produced inspira- tional phenomena. As, however, all the attention of the investigators was invariably focussed on the physical phenomena, the reports regarding Eusapia's psychic condition are unfortunately rare, and I have not been able to obtain an accurate account of the changes which took place in her personal condition. As she was very uneducated and certainly had no original tendency to introspective self-analysis, even were she still alive, there would be but small hope of getting more precise particulars of how she perceived and felt things from her own (sub- jective) point of view. And even so, whatever might have been possible, her character was not such that we should have been able to rely very much upon her word.