FRO M IND IATO

TH E PLANET MA RS

A STUD Y OF A CA SE OF

§0MNAMBULISM

W IT H G L O S S O L A L I A

TH . ELOURNOY

,PROFES 'SOR OF PSYCHOLOGY AT THE

UN IVERSITY OF GENEVA

TRANSLATED BY

DAN IEL B.YERMILYE

H A R P ER BRO T H ER S PU B L ISH ERS

NEW YORK AND LONDON

1 9 0 0

Xx

[TR ANSLATIONJ

I authorize Messrs. Harper Brothers to translate

and to publish in the Engl ish language my book From

India to the Planet Mars.

THEODORE FLOURNOYGENEVA , June 20 , 1900

C O NT ENT S

CHAPTER

TRANSLATOR ’S PREFACEI . INTRODUCTIONI I . CH ILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF MLLE . SMITHI I I . MLLE . SM ITH SINCE H ER IN ITIATION INTO SPIRIT I SM

I . THE MED IUM I ST IC BEG INN INGS OF MLLE . SMITHI I . MLLE . SM ITH IN HER NORMAL STATEI I I . SPONTANEOUS AUTOMATIC PHENOMENA

I . PERMANENCE OF EXTERIOR SUGGESTIONS2 . IRRUPTI ONS OF SUBLIM INAL REVERIES3 . TELEOLOG ICAL AUTOMATI SMS

IV . THE SEANCESIV . THE PERSONALITY OF LEOPOLD .

I . P SYCHOGENES I S OF LEOPOLDI I . PERSON IFICATION OF BALSAMO BY LEOPOLDI I I . LEOPOLD AND THE TRUE JO SEPH BALSAMOIV . LEOPOLD AND MLLE . SM ITH

V . THE MARTIAN CYCLEI . O RIG IN AND B IRTH OF THE MARTIAN CYCLEI I . LATER DEVELOPMENT OF THE MARTIAN CYCLEI I I . THE PERSONAGES OF THE MARTIAN ROMANCE

ESENALE

A STANEPOUZE

,RAM IE— VAR IOUS PERSONAGES

IV . CONCERN ING THE AUTHOR OF THE MARTIANROMANCE

PAGE

CONTENTSCHAPTER PAGL

VI.THE MARTIAN CYCLE ( CONTINUED)— THE MARTIANLANGUAGE .

I . VERBAL MARTIAN AUTOMATI SMSI I . THE MARTIAN TEXTSI I I

. REMARKS ON THE MARTIAN LANGUAGEI

.MARTIAN PHONETICS AND HANDWRITING

2 . GRAMMATICAL FORMS3 . CONSTRUCTION AND SYNTAX4 . VOCABULA-RY

IV.MLLE . SMITH AND THE INVENTOR OF MARTIAN .

THE MARTIAN CYCLE (CONCLUDED)— THE ULTRAMARTIAN

VI I I . THE H INDOO CYCLEI . APPARITI ON AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE H IN

D00 CYCLEI I . SIVROUKA AND M . DE MARLESI I I . THE ARAB ELEMENTS OF THE OR IENTAL CYCLEIV . THE H INDOO LANGUAGE OF MLLE . SM ITHV . THE SOURCES OF THE H INDOO DREAMTHE ROYAL CYCLESUPERNORMAL APPEARANCESI . THE STUDY OF THE SUPERNORMALI I . PHYSICAL PHENOMENA

I . APPORTS2 . MOVEMENTS OF OBJECTSWITHOUT CONTACT

III. TELEPATHYLUCID ITYI . MED ICAL CONSULTATIONS2 OBJECTS RECOVERED3 . RETRO'COGN ITIONS

V . INCARNATIONS AND SPIR IT MESSAGESI . CASE OF MLLE . VIGN IER2 . CASE OF JEAN THE QUARRYMAN3 . CASE OF THE SYND IC C IIAUMONTET ANDOF THE CURE BURN IER

CONCLUS ION

TRANSLATOR ’

S PREFACE

HE transla tion into English of From India

to the PlanetMam has been undertaken in

response to the demand crea ted by the widespread and increasing interest which is man ifesting itself both in Grea t Brita in and the Un ited

States in the phenomena exh ibited by its heroinean in terest wh ich marks a new era in the progress

of human knowledge.

'Twenty— even tenfl—years ago the phenomenawhich Prof. Flou rnoy here describes in deta il , andOf wh ich he Offers a keen

, skilful , psychologica l

ana lysis ,would havemetwith the sneers of popular

science and the contempt of obscurantist orthodoxy the book would have found few readers .

Times have greatly changed Since the Society for

Psy chica l Research was founded ,eighteen years

ago,by a few thoughtful men (included among

them were those whose names would have con

ferred honor upon any body of men ) interested in

the investiga tion of abnorma l menta l or psychic

phenomena .

In expla in ing their reasons for organ izing thatV ii

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society, its founders made the following state

ment :From the recorded testimony of many compe

tent witnesses, past and present, including Obser

vations accurately made by scientific men Of emi

nemce of various coun tries , there appears to be,

among much illusion and deception ,an important

body of remarkable phenomena wh ich are pr ima

facie inexpl icable on any genera lly recogni zed hy

pothesis , and wh ich , if in con testably established,would be Of the highest possible va lue.

The organ ization of thi s society constituted the

first attempt in the world’

s hi story to investigate

the phenomena of cla irvoyance, automatic writing

and speaking, trance condi tions, second sight , appa

ritions Of persons at the poin t of death, a l leged

spirit messages, etc ., by a scientific body formed

upon a broad basis .

As was to have been expected,the work and aims

Of the society were met by a storm of derision and

ridicule,and by a ttacks wh ich poured in from every

quarter, the bitterest Of wh ich came from the a lwaystoo numerous class of na rrow- minded scientists,whose partisan prejudices , confin ing them to a nar

row rut, h inder their seeing anyth ing from a point

of View other than tha t of their preconceived hypotheses, and prevent them from atta ining that

Open- mindedness wh ich is indispensable to and oneof the first requisites of a true scientist in any

fieldof investigation .

vi ii

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The interest shown to - day in the work of psych ica l research— among the evidences of which may

be noted the reception a ccorded th is work of Prof .Flournoy , which has , with in a few months fromthe da te Of its publica tion ,

a tta ined its th ird Frenchedition— demonstrates the ultima te triumph of thefounders Of tha t society in their efforts to bring thethinking public to a rea lization Of the supreme im

portance Of a systema tic scientific studv Of the my s

terious psychic phenomena so long neglected by

Officia l science ,but wh ich are now beginn ing to

assume their rightful place in the field of study andobservation .

Men have come to rea lize tha t the facts proved by

science have not thus far been adequate to satisfy

the needs Of mankind , and many are to—daV asking

whether the scientific investiga tion Of psych ic phe

momena may not succeed in proving the preamble

of all religions .

Already science has disclosed the existence of a

hidden ,sublimina l world with in each individual be

ing , and it is the investiga tion Of tha t part of the

individua li ty of Hel‘

ene Smith wh ich our author

has undertaken in the following pages .

The importance of the subject and its in tense in

terest lie in the fact tha t psych ica l research hints

ata possible solution ,by means of the samemethods

wh ich science has been a ccustomed to u se in the

physica l world , of the grea t problem of man’

s future

destiny ,of an answer to the question asked by Job

ix

TRANSLATOR ’S PREFACE

four thousand years ago,If a man die, shall he

live aga in and which has been repeated in va in

by every generation of men who have since inhab

ited the earth .

While,it is true, the grea t ma jority of men are

still skeptical as to the ability of science ever tosolve this problem , it is, however, a fact tha t a con

tinually increasing number of thoughtful men are

coming to believe that the hi dden sublimina l world

within us may point to an unseen but spiritua lworld without, communica tion with which , if once

established , would furnish u s with the Solution so

ardently longed for .

Such men do not believe that it behooves themto be content with the passivity of pureAgnosticismare not willing tha t Ignoramus et Ignombimus

Should be their on ly creed . They are beginn ing

to search for new facts in the doma in of the humanmind , just as they have searched for and foundthem everywhere else they have looked for them .

Mr. F W. H . Myers ,the pioneer and leader of

the psychical research movemen t , in an addressrecently delivered , says Starting from va riousstand-

points, we endeavor to carry the newer, the

intellectua l virtues into regions where di spassionatetranquillity has seldom yet been kn own . First

,

we adopt the ancient belief— implied in all monotheistic religion , and conspicuously confirmed bythe progress of modern scienceh that the world as awhole, spiritua l and ma terial together

,has insome

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S PREFACE

way a systematic uni ty : and on thi s we basethe n ovel presumption that there should be a unityOf method in the investigation Of all fact . We hold

therefore tha t the a ttitude,the habits of mind

,the

methods by which physica l science has grown deepand Wide, should be applied a lso to the spiritualworld . We endeavor to approach the problems

of tha t world by ca reful collection,scrutiny ,

testing

of particular facts and we account no unexpla ined

fact too trivia l for our a ttention .

”

Thi s is just wha t Prof . Flournoy has endeavoredto do in regard to the strange phenomena man ifested by Mlle . Helene Smith . NO fact has beenregarded by him as too trivia l to escape hi s keen

,

careful scrutiny from a psychologica l point of view .

The first task wh ich the investigators of theseObscure men ta l phen omena set themselves was ,

na tura lly,tha t Of sepa ra ting and sifting the rea l,

actua l ly existent facts from the mass of fraud and

deception in wh ich mercena ry Charla tans, a ided

by the easy credulity Of the simple- minded , had con

trived so completely to bury from sight the true

phenomena tha t for a l ong time the in tel ligen t

public refused utterlv to bel ieve in the existence of

any rea l phenomena of the kind, but insisted that

everything when ful ly probed would be found to

be mere delusion,the result of trickery and fraud.

Probably no scien tific fact since the dawn Of

modern science has required so grea t a weight Of

cumula tive evidence in its favor to establish thexi

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S PREFACE

ever, has been accomplished .

Prof.Flournoy

’

s heroine,a lthough she is a h igh

minded, honorable woman ,regarded by a ll her

neighbors and friends as wholly z

'

ncapable Of con

scious fraud , has been subjected to the closest sur

veillance on the part of a number of eminen t phy

sicians and scien tists of Geneva for more than five

years past, while Mrs . Piper , the famous Boston

medi um ,has been subjected to an even closer scru

tiny by the Society for Psych ica l Research for the

past fif teen years . In spite of the fa ct that th is

society has announced its willingness to become

responsible for the entire absence of fraud in Mrs .

Piper ’s case, and Of a similar declaration on the

part of Prof . Flournoy and his associa tes in regardto Mlle. Smi th ,

there still rema in a considerable

number Of ultra - skeptica l persons who persist in

asserting that fraud and deceit are at the bottomof

,and account for, a ll thi s species of phenomena .

The well- known gentlemen who have investi

gated these cases have never been accused of easy

credulity in other ma tters, and have cautiously

and perseveringly continued , in their endeavor tosatisfy skepticism, to pile Pelion upon Ossa in the

way of cumulative proofs of the genuineness ofthe phenomena and to safeguard their investigations in every possible manner aga inst all possi

bility of fraud, until they have final ly come to feelxi i

TRANSLATOR ’S PREFACE

tha t more than sufficient proof has been furnishedto sa tisfy any honest , la ir- minded

,sensible doubt .

They do not feel tha t they have the right to devotefurther time to the question of the genuineness Of

the facts observed by them— time which they bel ieve might be better employed in endeavoring to

discover the laws by which the phenomena are

governed . They believe tha t thosewho are not satisfied with the evidence a lready offered will not beconvinced by an y amoun t Of fu rther testimonytha t their skeptic i sm is invincible. For persons so

constituted this book will have no interest its per

usal will afford them no pleasure .

The endeavor to expla in these mysterious phe

nomena by scientific investiga tors has resulted intheir adoption Of one or other of two hypotheses ,viz . :

I . That the phenomena are the product of and

originate in the sublimina l c onsciousness of the

medium ; or,2 . That the phenomena are rea lly of supernor

mal origin and emana te from the dis incarnate spir

its Of the dead , who return to earth and take tem

porary possession of the organism of the medium ,

ta lking through her mouth ,writing with her hand

while she is in a somnambulistic state.

The first theory involves the crediting of the sub

limina l consciousness with a lmost mi raculous pow

ers of telepa thy , since, on tha t hypothesis , it is nec

essa ry ,in order to account for the knowledge pos

sessed by the medium ,to suppose that her sublimxi i i

TRANSLATOR ’S PREFACE

ina l consciousness is able to roam at will through

out the entire un iverse and read the mind of anybeing possessing the information sought for .

All open- minded investiga tors freely admi t that

either of the above hypotheses may be un true ;that very little is known by them as yet in regard tothe nature of the phenomena ; that the da ta are too

slight to justify more than a provisiona l hypothesis,whi ch the discovery Of new facts may at any time

entirely demolish . But, thus far, the hypotheses

above given seem to be the only ones wh ich willin any way ra tionally a ccoun t for the facts : inwhi ch case

,it is evi den t that each individua l ob

server will be influenced in his choice of a hypothesis by his religious belief, which will grea tly affectthe point of View fromwhi ch he approaches the sub

ject, and a lso by his na tural temperament, habitsof though t

,etc .

Prof . Flournoy states tha t he has endeavored tokeep constantly in mind and to be guided by two

propositions, wh ich he designa tes respectively thePri nciple of Hamlet and the Principle of La

Place,”the former being , A ll things are possible,

”

the latter, The weight of the evidence ought to be

proportioned to the strangeness of the facts .

Guided by these two principles, Prof . Flourn oyhas come to the conclusion that Mlle. Smith rea lly

possesses the faculty of telekinesis— the ability to

move ponderable Objects situated at a di stance,

Without con tact and con trary to known na turalxiv

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laws . On the other hand,he does not believe

the phen omena mani fested by her to be of supernorma l origin . The various a lleged spirit mes

sages, incarnations,” “

g ift Of tongues,

”and all

other appa ren tly supernorma l phenomena,in his

Opini on , spring from M lle. Smith ’

s sublimina l consciousness

,and he exercises great skill and inge

nu ity in his effort to trace the very wonderful andaston ishi ng mani festa tions with wh ich he has hadto dea l to na tura l sources .

Whether the indi vidua l reader adopts the author’

s

views and theories , or finds in others a more natura lexplana tion of the facts narrated by Prof . Flournoy ,

he cannot fa il to admire the frankness,candor

,and

entire freedom from pre udi ce displayed by him .

He evinces a true,open - minded

,scien tific spirit,

never distorting fa cts in order to make them fit hishypotheses , and freely adm itting the possibility of

the di scovery Of new fa cts at any time,of a nature

to compel him to adopt some other hypothesis thantha t which he has provisiona lly assumed to ex

pla in the phen omena .

A word on another subject before the reader goes

on to the perusa l of thi s narrative Of strange facts

Onewho is interested in Psychica lResearch ,when

he ha s fina lly succeeded in convincing some obsti

na te skeptic of the genuineness of the phen omena

—when the doubter has at last yielded to the weight

of evidence, then ,very frequently , the next ques

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tion,which comes as a wet blanket to dampen the

ardor of the enthusiastic devotee, is : C i i i bono?

Admitting the truth of thefacts , what useful pur

pose is subserved by their studv ? Science will

never succeed in solving the problem of man’

s

future destiny . It is all a waste of time and will

end in nothing . And in a review of this verv book,which recently appeared in one of our leadingmetro

politan newspapers ,the reviewer asks, What “i ll

sciencemake of all this (referring to the phenom

ena mani fested by Ml le. Smith) ; and then answers

his own question by saying ,It is very unl ikely

that science will ever discover the nature of these

mysterious phenomena or the laws which govern

them .

”

From this conclusion the followers of PsychicalResearch emphatica lly dissent . It seems passingstrange to them tha t such an opin ion should be

held by intelligent men at the present stage of development of human knowledge,

in View of the

mighty discoveries wh ich have been wrested fromnature by the laborious process of persevering 0b

servation of seemingly trivia l facts . An eighteenth centu ry wr iter mi ght with some Show of

reason have made a similar observation in regardto Dr. Franklin and his experiments with kite andkey in a thunder—storm . It would indeed

, at that

epoch, have seemed unl ikely tha t science woul d

succeed in di scovering the secret of the electric fluidby such means . But to - day ,

at the dawn of thexv i

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TRANSLATOR ’S PREFACE

ravelled end in the texture of things but rathertakes for granted that a rational answer to the new

problem must somewhere exist— an answer whi ch

will be all the more instructive because it will in

volve facts of whi ch tha t first question must have

fa iled to take due accoun t .

This fa ith in the uniformi ty of materialNatureformulates itself in two grea t dogmas— for such

they are — the dogma of the Conservation of Matter and the dogma of the Conserva tion Of Energy .

Of the Conservation of Matter,within earthly lim

its, we are fairly wel l assured ; but of the Conservation Of Energy the proof is far less complete,simply because Energy is a conception whi ch doesnot belong to the materia l world a lone. L ife is tous the most important of all forms of activityOf energy, I would say

— except that we cannot

transform other energies into Life, nor measure in

foot- pounds that directive force which has changedthe face of the world . Life comes we know not

whence ; it van ishes we know not whither it isinterlocked with a mov

'

ng system vaster than thatwe know . TO grasp the whole Of its manifestation , we should have to follow it into an unseenworld. Yet scientific fa ith bids us believe that

there, too, there is continuity and tha t the pastand the future of tha t force which we discern fora moment are still subject to un iversa l Law.

“

Out of the long Stone Age our race is awakening into consciousness Of itself . We stand in the

xv i ii

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dawn of history . Behind us lies a vast and unre

corded waste— the mighty struggle humanam

condere gentem . Since the times of that ignorance we have not yet gone far a few thousand

years, a few hundred th inkers, have barely started the human mind upon the grea t wons of its on

ward way . It is noty et the hour to sit down in ourstudies and try to eke out Tradition with Intu

ition— as one might be forced to do in a planet’

s

sen ility ,by the glimmer Of a fading sun . Daphn i ,

qu id antiguos signorum suspicis or las The tra

ditions, the intuitions of Our race are themselves

in their infancy and before we abandon ourselvesto brooding over them let us at least first try theupshot of a systematic search for actua l facts .

For wha t should hinder 7 If our inquiry lead us

first thr ough a jungle of fraud and folly ,need that

a larm u s ? As well might Columbus have yield

ed to the sa ilors’

pan ic when he was entangled in

the Sargasso Sea . If our first clear facts about

the Unseen World seem sma ll and trivia l , should

tha t deter us from the quest As well might CO

lumbus have sa iled home aga in , with America in

the offing , on the ground that it was not worth

wh ile to di scover a continent wh ich mani fested

itself only by dead logs .

”

It is deeply to be regretted that no appea ls have

ava iled to persuade Mlle. Smi th to consent to the

publication of her photograph ,in connection with

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Prof . Flournoy’

s account of the phenomena mani

fested by her .

She shrinks from the publicity which her pos

session Oi these strange powers has thr ust upon

her . She dislikes extremely the notoriety given

to her mysterious faculties,and refuses to be in ter

viewed concerning them,or to di scuss Prof . Flour

noy’

s book .

The name Helene Smith is , as the reader willdoubtless guess

,merely a pseudonym . The indi

viduality designa ted by that name,however, is held

in hi ghest esteem— in veneration even— by a verylarge circle Of friends and acqua intances in the

city on the shores of Lake Leman,in which she

has passed her life from infancy , for whose benefitshe is a lways ready to exercise her mysteriousgifts and to g ive her services freely to such as seek

her aid, refusing a lways to accept any pecun iarycompensa tion for her services . Attachi ng

, as she

does,a religious Significance to her powers

, she

would deem it a sacrilege to traffic in them .

DANIEL B . VERMILYE.

COLUMBIA UN IVERS ITY , NE!V YORK ,

j u ly , 1900.

FROM IND IA

TO TH E PLANET MA RS

CHAPTER I

I N T R O D U C T I O N

Nthe month Of December, 1894, I was invited byM . Aug . Lema i tre, Professor Of the College of

Geneva , to a ttend some seances Of a non - professiona l medium , receiving no compen sation for herservices , and of whose extraordinary gifts and ap

parently supernorma l fa culties I had frequentlyhea rd .

Having gladly a ccepted the invitation Of myworthy colleague , I found the medium in question ,

whom I sha ll ca ll Mlle . Helene Smith ,to be a beauti

ful woman about th irty yea rs of age,ta ll, vigorous ,

of a fresh ,hea lthy complexion , with ha ir and eyes

almost bla ck, of an open and in telligen t counte

nanCe ,wh ich at on ce invoked sympathy . She

evinced noth ing Of the emacia ted or tragic aspectwh ich one habitua l ly a scribes to the sibyls Of tradition ,

but were an a ir of hea lth ,Of physica l and men

A I

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

taIvigor, very pleasant to behold, and whi ch , by—the

way , is not Often encoun tered in those who are goodmediums .

The number Of those invi ted to take part in theseance being complete, we seated ourselves in a circ le, with our hands resting upon the traditiona lround table of spiritistic circles . Mlle. Smith— who

possesses a triple mediumsh ip Visua l, auditive, andtyptological

ti— began ,in the most natura l manner,

to describe the various apparitions which passed before her eyes in the partia lly darkened room . Sudden ly she stops and listens ; she hears a name spokenin her ear , wh ich she repeats to us with a ston ishmen t ; then brief sen tences , the words of wh ich are

spelled out by raps on the table, explain the mean

ing of the Vision . Speaking for myself a lone (therewere thr ee of us to divide the honor Of the seance) ,I was greatly surprised to recognize in scenes whi chpa ssed before my eyes even ts wh ich had tran spiredin my own family prior to my birth . Whence couldthe medium, whom I had never met before, have

”

derived the knowledge of events belonging to a re

mote past, Of a private nature, and utterly unkn ownto any living person?The astounding powers of Mrs . Piper, the famous

Boston medium, whose wonderful intuition reads thelatent memories of her visitors like an open book

,

recurred to mymind , and I wen t out from that seancewith renewed hope of finding myself some day faceto face with the

“

supernorma l”— a true and genu* 1. a , Spir it- rapping— the facu lty of obtaining responses by

means of raps upon a. tab le.

2

INTRODUCTION

ine supernorma l— telepa thy, cla irvoyance, spiritisticman ifestations, it matters not by wha t name it beca lled, provided on ly tha t it be wholly out of the

ordinary, and tha t it succeed in utterly demolishing the entire framework of established presen t- dayscience .

I was able at th is time to obta in genera l in formation on ly concern ing the past Of Mlle . Smith

,but it

was a ll of a character favorable to her, and has sincebeen fully confirmed .

Of modest bearing and an irreproachable mora lcharacter, she has for yea rs earned an honorableliving as an employée of a commercia l house, inwhich her industry, her perseverance, and her highcharacter have combined to secure her a very responsible and importan t position .

Some three yea rs prior to the date of my introduction to her she had been in itiated in to a spiritisticgroup

,where her remarkable psych ic powers a lmost

immedia tely man ifested themselves ; and she thenbecame a member of va rious other spiritistic circles .

From its commencemen t her mediumshi p man itested the complex type to wh ich I have a lready a l

luded, and from wh ich it has never devia ted . Vi

sions in a waking sta te ,a ccompan ied by typtologica l

dicta ti on and auditive ha llucinations , a lterna tely ap

peared .From the point of View of their conten t

these messages had genera l ly a bearing on past

even ts usua lly unknown to the persons present, butwhich were a lways verified by referring to biographica l dictionaries or to the traditions Of the families

interested . TO these phenomena of retrocogn ition

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

or of hypermnesia were joined occasionally, ao

cording to the environm ent, mora l exhortations , communi cated through the table, more frequently in

poetry than in prose, addressed to the sitters ; med

ica l consulta tions, a ccompanied by prescriptionsgenerally appropria te commun ica tion s from pa rents

or friends recently deceased or, fina lly, revela tions

as piquant as they were unver ifiable concern ing the

antefr ior itc’s (tha t is , the previous existences) of the

sitters , a lmost a ll of whom, being profound believers

in spiritism ,wou ld not have been a t a ll surprised to

learn that they were the reincarna tions respective lyof Coligny, of Vergn ia ud, of the Prin cess Lamba lle,or of other notable personages . It is necessary ,fina lly , to add that a ll these messages seemed tobe more or less bound up with the mysterious presence of a

“spirit answering to the name of Leopold,who assumed to be the guide and protector of the

medium .

I at once undertook to improve my acqua in tancewith Héléne Smith . She freely consen ted to giveseances for my benefit, a lterna ting with a serieswhich she was giving M . Lema i tre

, and another forthe benefit of Prof . Cucndet, vice- presiden t of the

Geneva Society (spiritistic) for Psych ic Studies, allof which I was permitted to a ttend . In th is wayI have been able to be presen t at the grea ter part ofHelene

’

s sean ces during the past five years . The

persona l observa tion s tha t I have thus been able tomake, reinforced by notes on sittings wh ich I wasunable to attend , kindly furn ished me by MM.

Lemaitre and Cuendet, form the basis of the study

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

nesia ,which had been her stopping- point up to that

time, and whi ch the sitters mistook for the ordinarywaking sta te, was now tran sformed into tota l som

nambu lism with consecutive amnesia .

In spiritistic parlance, Mlle . Smith now became

completely entranced, and having formerly been an

ordinary visua l and auditive medium, she new ad

vanced to the higher plane Of an“

incarna ting me

dium .

I fear that th is change must in a great mea surebe attributed tomy influence, since it followed a lmostimmediately upon my introduction to Helene’s

seances . Or, even if the tota l somnambuli sm would

have inevitably been even tua lly developed by virtue

Of an organic predisposition and of a tendency favorable to hypnoid states It is nevertheless probable thatI a ided in hastening Its appearance by my presenceas well as by a few experimen ts which I permittedmyself to make upon Hélene.

As is well known , mediums are usua lly surroundedby a ha lo of veneration , wh ich preven ts any one fromtouching them during their trances The idea wouldnever occur to any ordinary frequenter of spiritisticc irc les to endeavor to a scertain the condition of themedium

’

s sen sory and motor functions by feelingher hands, pinching the flesh

,or pricking the skin

with a pin . Silence and immobility are the strictrule, in order notto h inder the spontaneous productionof the phenomena , and a few questions or brief Ohservations on the receipt of a message is a ll tha t ispermissible by way of conversation

, and no one

therefore would , under ordinary circumstances,dare

6

INTRODUCTION

to a ttempt any man ipulation of the medium Mlle.

Smith had a lways been surrounded by th is respectfulconsideration , and during the first three seances I

con formed myself strictly to the passive and purelycontemplative a ttitude of the other sitters . But atthe fourth sitting my discretion van ished . I couldnot resist a strong desire to a scerta in the physiologica lcondition of the charming seeress, and I made somevi gorous elemen tary experimen ts upon her hands

,

wh ich lay temptingly spread ou t opposite me on the

table. These experimen ts , whi ch I renewed and

followed up at the succeeding seance (February 3,demonstra ted tha t there is presen t in Mlle .

Smi th, du r ing her vis ions, a large and varied assort

men t of sensory and motor disturbances wh ich had

hi therto escaped the notice of the sitters, and wh ich

are thorough ly identica l with those tha t may be ob

served in ca ses of hysteria (where they are more

permanent) , and those that may be momentarilyproduced in hypnotic subjects by suggestion . Th is

was not at a ll a ston ish ing , and was to have been

expected .But one consequence, wh ich I had not

foreseen ,did occur when ,

four days a fter my second

experimenta l seance, Mlle. Smith fell completely

asleep for the first time at a sitting with M . Cuendet

(February 7th) , at wh ich I wa s not presen t . The

sitters were somewhat frigh tened, and,in trying to

awaken her , discovered the rigidity of her arms ,whi ch were considerably con tractured . Leopold

however, commun icating by means of the table upon

which she was lean ing , fully reassured them, and

gave them to understand tha t such sleep was not at

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

all prejudicia l to the medium . After a ssuming Ya

rions attitudes and indulging in some amusing m im

icry ,Mlle . Smith awoke in excellen t spiri ts, retain ing

as a last recollec tion of her dream tha t of a kisswhi ch Leopold had imprin ted upon her forehead .

From that day on somnambulisms were the rule

with Helene, and the seances at wh ich she did not

fa ll completely a sleep for at least a few moments

formed rare exceptions to the course of events during

the next four years . It is a great depriva tion for Mlle .

Smith tha t these slumbers ordinarily leave her no

memory upon her awaken ing of wha t has tran spired

in her trance, and she longs for the seances Of formertimes when the visions unfolded themselves beforeher eyes, furnish ing her with a pleasing spectaclewhich was a lways unexpected , and whi ch , continua lly being renewed, caused the seances to be to hera source of great delight . For the sitters, on the

other hand, these scenes of somnambulism and in

carnation,together with the various physiological

phenomena Of cata lepsy, lethargy, con tra ctures, etc . ,

wh ich accompan ied them, added grea t variety and

additiona l in terest to Helene Smith ’

s remarkableand instructive triple mediumsh ip .

The greater sometimes implies the less : simu lta

neously with the a ccess of complete somnambulismcame new forms and innumerable shades of hemisomnambulism . The triple form of automa tismwh ich distinguished the first years Of Mlle .

Smith ’

s

spiritistic experiences ha s been wonderfully developed since 1895 , and it would now be difficult to nameany principal forms of psychi c mediumsh ip of wh ich

8

INTRODUCTION

she has not furn ished curious specimens . I shallhave occa sion to cite severa l of them in the course ofth is work . Helene constitutes the most remarkablemedium I have ever met

,and very nearly approaches

the idea l of what might be ca lled the polymorphous ,or multiform

,medium,

in con tradistinction to the uniform mediums

,whose faculties on ly concern them

selves with one kind O i automatism .

2 . A modification ana logous to that wh ich tookplace in the psychologic form of the messages con

sisting of a ma rked improvement in their depth and

importan ce,was n oticeable simultaneously in their

con ten t .Alongside of the un importan t commun ications , com

plete at one sitting and independent one of another,whi ch fi lled up a large part of each of Helene

’

s seances

and in no wise differentiated her faculties from those

of the ma jority of mediums , she man ifested from the

beginn ing a marked tendency to a superior system

atization and a more lofty cha in of vision s ; com

mun ication s were Often con tinued through severa lseances, and.

rea ched their con clusion on ly at the end

of severa l weeks . But from the period at wh ich I

made the acqua in tan ce of Mlle . Smith th is tendencytowards uni ty began toassert itself still more strongly .

Severa l long somnambulistic dreams began to appear

and to develop, the even ts of whi ch con tinued to be

un folded through mon ths , even years, and indeed

still con tinue ; a species of romance of the sublimina limagination ana logous to those continued stories

”

whi ch so many of our race tell themselves in their

momen ts of far n iente, or at times when their routine9

FROM INDIA T0 THE PLANET MARS

occupations Offer on ly slight obstacles to day - dreaming , and of which they themselves are genera l ly the

heroes .

Mlle .Smi th has no fewer than three distinct som

nambu listic romances, and if to these is added the

existence of that secondary persona li ty to whi ch I

have a lready a lluded, and whi ch revea ls i tself under

the name of Leopold, we find ourselves in the presence

of four subconscious creation s of vast exten t, whi ch

have been evolved on para llel lines for severa l yea rs,

and whi ch mani fest themselves in irregular a lterna

tion during the course of differen t seances, or often

even in the same seance .

All of these have undoubtedly a common origin in

Hélene’

s sublimina l consciousness but in practice,

at least, and to all appearance, these imaginative

construction s present a rela tive independence and a

diversity of con tent sufficiently grea t to render it

necessary to study them sepa rately . I sha ll confine

myself at presen t to a genera l View of them .

Two Of these romances are connected with the

spiri tistic idea of previous existences . It ha s , indeed ,been revea led that Helene Smith has a lready li vedtwice before on th is globe . Five hundred years agoshe wa s the daughter of an Arab sheik , and became ,

under the name of Simandin i , the favorite wife of aHindoo prince named Sivrouka Nayaka , who reignedoverKanara , and built in the year 1401 the fortress OfTchandragu iri . In the last century she reappearedin the person of the illustrious and un fortunate MarieAntoinette. Agai n reincarnated

,as a pun ishment

for her sins and the perfecting of her character,in

10

INTRODUCTION

the humble ci rcumstances of Helene Smith, she in

certa in somn ambuli stic states recovers the memoryof her glori ous ava ta rs of old

, and becomes aga in forthe moment Hindoo prin cess or queen of France.

I will designa te under the names of“Hindoo or

Orienta l cycle and“

Roya l” cycle the whole of theautomati c mani festations relative to these two previou s existences . I sha ll call the th ird romance theMartian

”cycle, in whi ch Mlle . Smith

,by virtue of

themediumi stic faculties, which are the appanage andthe con solation of her present life, has been able toenter in to relation with the people and affa irs of the

planet Mars, and to unveil their mysteries to us .

It is in thi s a stronomica l somnambulism tha t the

phenomenon of glossola lia* appears, whi ch consistsof the fabrication and the u se of an unknown lan

guage, and whi ch i s one of the principa l objects of

thi s study ; we sha ll , see , however, that ana logousfacts are likewise presented in the Hindoo cycle.

The persona li ty of Leopold main ta ins very com

plex rela tion s with the preceding creation s . On the

onehand , it is very closely connected with the Roya lcycle, owing to the fact that the name of Leopold ison ly a pseudonym under whi ch is concea led the illu strious Cagliostro , who , it appears , was madly infatuated with Queen Marie An toinette, and who

now , discarnate and floa ting in space, has constituted

himself the guardian angel in some respects of Mlle.

Smi th ,in whom a fter a long search he has aga in

* G lossolal ia signifies the g i ft of tongues , or the abi l ity to

speak foreign languages w ithout hav ing consc iously acqu ired

them .

I!

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

found the august object of h is unhappy passion of a

century ago.

On the other hand , thi s rOle of protector and spiritual guide wh ich he assumes towards Helene con fersupon him a privileged place in her somnambulisms .

He is more or less mixed up in the greater part Ofthem assists at them,

wa tches over them,and per

haps in a measure directs them . He a lso occasiona llyappears in the midst of a Hindoo or a Martian scene,delivering hi s message by certain characteristic movements of the hand .

To sum up : sometimes revea ling himself by rapsupon the table, the taps of a finger

,or by automatic

writing ; sometimes incarnating h imself completelyand speaking by the mouth of Mlle. Smith wh ile eu

tranced— Leopold fulfils in these seances the multipleand varied functions of spirit- guide

,giving good ad

vice relative to the manner of acting towards themedium ; of stage-manager hidden behi nd the sceneswatching the performance and ready at any time tointervene; of benevolen tly disposed interpreter willing to furn ish explana tion s of all tha t is obscure; Ofcensor of morals sharply reprimanding the s itterswhen he deems it necessary ; of sympathetic physician prompt at diagnosis and well versed in the

pharmacopceia , etc . He a lso appears under his ownname of Cagliostro to the somnambulistic gaze ofthe resuscitated Marie An toinette and answers herquestions by means Of auditive ha llucinations . Noris this all : to make our summary complete, it is nec~essary a lso to investigate the persona l connectionof Mlle. Smith with her invisible protector . She

12

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

from the same period, is closely connected , a s I sha ll

also show ,with an involun tary suggestion Of M .

Lema itre, who made the acqua intan ce of Helene in

the spring of 1894, n ine mon ths before my in tro

duction to her . The Roya l cycle, fina lly , had been

roughly outlined at seances held at the home of M.

Cuendet, in December, 1893 . Nevertheless , I repeat,only since 1895 have the exuberan t growth and

magn ificent flowering of tha t sublimina l vegetation

taken place under the stimula ting and provoca tive

influence, albeit wholly un intentiona l and a ltogetherunsuspected at the time, of the varied environments

of Mlle. Smith ’s seances .

As far as the indiscreet revelation s in rega rd to my

own fami ly, wh ich so much aston ished me atmy firstmeeting with Mlle . Smith , are con cerned , as well as

the innumerable extraordinary fa cts of the same kindwith which her mediumsh ip abounds

,and to whi ch

she owes her immen se reputa tion in spiritistic circles,it wi ll suffice to return in the closing chapters Of thi sbook .

CHAPTER I I

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF MLLE. SMITH

HE psychologica l h istory of Mlle. Smith and

her,automatisms is natura l ly divided in to

two separate periods by the importan t factof her in itiation into spiritism at the beginn ing of1892 . Before tha t time , not suspecting the possibi lity of voluntary commun ication with the world of

disincarnate spirits, she natura lly manifested nothing more than a few spontaneous phenomena

, the

firstflutterings of her mediumistic faculties wh ichstill lay dorman t , the exact nature and progress ofwh ich it would be in teresting to know in deta il ; unfortuna tely, in the absence of written documen ts concern ing that pre—spiritistic period , we are confined tothe sta tements of Hélene and her parents in regardto it

, and the untrustworth iness of the memory in

connection with even ts of a remote past is on ly too

well known .

The spiritistic period , On the cofitrary ,extending

over the last seven yea rs, and infin itely more fertile

in a rtificia lly promoted (e.g. , the seances ) as well as

in spontaneous man ifesta tion s, is much better knownto us ; but in order to comprehend it intel ligently, i tis necessary first to pass in review the few facts

IS

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

wh ich we have been able to gather relating to the

pre- Spiritistic period— that is to say , the chi ldhood

and youth of Mlle. Smi th . That will be the subject

of thi s chapter.Mlle.

Smith has lived in Geneva since her in

fancy.After attending school, she entered as an

apprentice, at the age of fifteen , a large commercial

house, where, as I have al ready stated , she stil l re

ma ins,and where, little by little, she has risen to a

very responsible position . Her father, a merchant,was a Hungarian , and possessed a remarkable facility for languages, whi ch is of interest to u s in presence of the phenomena of glossola lia, a subject whi chwill be discussed herea fter . Her mother is a Genevese . Both en joyed excellent health and a tta ined avenerable old age . Helene had a younger sisterwho died in early ch ildhood

, and two brothers olderthan herself, who are now fa thers of families and

established abroad, where they have had successfulbusiness careers .

I am not aware that M . Smith, who was a man of

positive character, ever displayed any phenomena of

automatisms . Mme. Smith ,however

, as wel l as

her grandmother, has experienced severa l thorough lycharacteristic phenomena of that kind, and one , at

least, of Helene’

s brothers It appears, could easilv

have become a good medium . Th is is another instance of the distinctly hereditary tendency of me

diumistic faculties .

M . Smith , a man of active and enterprising character, died quite sudden ly, probably of an embolism,

at the age of seventy- five years . He had left Hun

I6

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF MLLE. SMITH

gary in his youth , and fina lly established h imself atGeneva , after having travelled extensively in Ita lyand Algiers, where he rema ined for severa l years .

He spoke fluently Hungarian , German ,Fren ch

,Ita l

ian , and Span ish , understood English fa irly well, anda lso knew Latin and a li ttle Greek . It would seemthat hi s daughter has inherited these linguistic aptitudes, but on ly in a latent and subliminal manner

,

for she has a lways detested the study of langu ages,

and rebelled aga inst learn ing German ,in whi ch she

took lessons for three years .

Mme . Smith , who is a kind- hearted woman , withmuch good , practica l sen se, is sixty- seven years of

age . Neither she nor her husband was ever a ner

vous or psychopathi c subject, but both showed a

marked tendency to bron cho—pulmonary affections of

a somewhat a larming type . Mme. Smi th has, besides, suffered frequently from rheumatism . Helene

does not appear to have inherited these tenden cies ;she has a lways en j oyed robust hea lth ,

and has not

even had the sligh t diseases usua lly incidenta l to

Ch ildhood .

Although both M . and Mme . Smi th were Protestants, through a cha in of peculiar circumstan ces theirdaughter was baptized a Ca tholic shortly a fter her

birth,her name being in scribed some months later

on the register of the Protestan t church of Geneva .

The memory of thi s unusua l baptism has certa in ly

not been lost by Helene’

s sublimina l imagination ,

and has duly contributed to the hypothesis of a mys

terious origin . Of the years of ch ildhood I know

nothing specia lly interesting . At the in termediate

B I7

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

school, at which she passed on ly a yea r, and where I

have consulted the records of her cla ss, she was not

of view of deportment , but she certa in ly did not revealthe full measure of her intelligen ce, since she fai ledto pass the examination s at the end of the year,

a fact wh ich decided her entrance upon an appren

ticeship . On'

the other hand, the worthy pastor

who gave her religious instruction somewhat later,andwho has never lost sight of her since, ha s furnished me with most eulogistic testimonia ls as to

her character he remembers her as a young girl Of

serious disposition ,intelligen t, thoughtful, fa ithful

in the discharge of her duties , and devoted to her

family .

M . Smith never showed the least trace of mediumi s

tic phenomena ; from having been very indifferent, oreven hostile, to spiritism until hi s daughter began tointerest herself in it, he fina lly succumbed to her influence and became a believer in that doctrine towardsthe close of his life. Mme. Smith

, on the contrary,has a lways been predisposed to it, and has experiencedsevera l phenomena of tha t na ture in the course of herlife. At the period of the epidemi c of “table- tipping

”

which raged in our country about the mi ddle Of thi scentury, she too experimented qui te successfully

fora whi le upon the table with her friends and a cqua intauces . Later, she had some sporadic vi sions . Thefollowing is one of the most typica l . Whi le her little daughter three years old was ill , Mme.

Smithawoke in the middle of the ni ght and saw an angel,Of dazzling brightness, standing by the Side of the

18

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF MLLE . SMITH

litt le bed with its hands stretched ou t above the

ch i ld ; a fter some momen ts the apparition gradua lly dissolved . Mme . Smith awakened her husbandand told him of the fa ta l sign ificance wh ich she at

tached to the Vision , but he ,unable to see anyth ing ,

ridiculed her superstitious fears . As a ma tter of fact ,the chi ld died on the following day , to the grea t surprise O i the physician a ttending her . Thi s is a fine example oi true materna l presen timen t

,subcon sciously

felt and transferring itself in to the n orma l consciousness by a Visua l ha llucina tion wh ich borrowed for its

symboli c conten t an appropria te popular image.

Mme . Smi th never knew her mother, who diedshortly a fter her birth ; but she reca lls and has relatedtome some cha racteristic vision s of her grandmother,who brough t her up ; va rious phenomena connectedwi th one of Helene

’ s brothers (hearing of steps in the

n ight, etc . ) have proved to her that one of her sons, at

least , is a medium .

Helene Smith was certa in ly predisposed, both byheredity and temperament, to become a medium,

as

soon as the outwa rd Opportun ity— that is, the sug

gestions of spiritism— Should presen t itself.

It is eviden t, indeed , from her recita l Of events, tha t

she was more or less visionary from her in fancy . Itdoes not appear, however , tha t she ever man ifestedphenomena capable in themselves of attracting the

a tten tion of her family . I have not been able to dis

cover any indication whatever of crises or atta cks of

an abnorma l na ture,not even of sleep—wa lking . Her

automatisms have been a lways a lmost en tirely con

fined to the sensory or menta l sphere, and it is on lyI9

FROM INDIA T0 THE PLANET MARS

from her own narra tives that other people have any

knowledge of them . They a ssume the double form

of reveries more or less con scious, and of ha llucma

tions properly so called .

I. Rever ies .

— The habit of fa lling in to reverie , of

building ca stles in the a ir , of tran sporting one’

s selfinto other condition s Of existen ce, or of telling one

’

s

self stories in which one plays the ch ief rOle, is more

frequent among women than among men , and in

ch ildhood and youth than in mature years . Th is pro

pensity seems to have a lways been extremely markedin the ca se of Mlle. Smith , s ince from her school- girldays she has shown herself to be Of a sedentary and

domestic temperament, preferring the quiet companionsh ip of her mother to the games of her comrades,and her needle- work to out- door recreations . The

fragments wh ich have survi ved in Hélene’

s conscious

memory are a ll that is known to us of the conten t ofthese reveries, but it suffices , nevertheless, to revea lto us the genera l tone of her fictions, and to Showus that the images sudden ly surging up before hermen ta l vision had a peculiar, often very fan tastic,character, and wh ich enables u s to see in them the beginn ings of her later great somnambulistic romances .

It is to be noticed a lso that the designs, embroideries,varied artistic works, wh ich were a lways the favoriteoccupa tion s of her moments of leisure and in wh ichshe excels, were a lmost a lways , from her in fancy,not copies Of exterior models

,but the products of her

own invention , marked with the bizarre and origina lstamp of her interna l images . Moreover

,these pieces

of work grew under her fingers with an ease and20

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

hallucinations . On the other h and , we undoubtedly

have the right to give the latter designation to the

numerous apparitions whi ch Mlle . Smith has when

in full possession of her senses in the daytime .

One day , for example, as she wa s playing out- Of

doors with a friend, she saw some one following her ,

and mentioned the fact to her compan ion ,who could

not see any one . The imaginary individua l, a fter

having fol lowed her around a tree for a moment,disappeared ,

and she was unable to find him aga in .

Of an entirely different order are the strange char

acters which she remembers having sometimes in

voluntarily substituted for French letters when writ

ing to her friends , wh ich must be regarded as graphemotor hallucinations . These were undoubtedly thesame characters wh ich at other times appeared to herin visua l images .

Th is was the prelude to the phenomenon so fre

quently experien ced by her in the last few years, andof wh ich we shall hereafter see many examplesnamely, automatic writing ,

mingling with her ordinary ch irography in her waking state.

Alongside Of hallucination s like these, wh ich donot Show any intentional or useful character and are

only a capricious and fortuitous irruption into the normal con sciousness , mere dreams or fancies fi lling upthe sub- conscious strata

,there are a lso man ifested

in Helene’

s case some hallucinations Of a man ifestutility, whi ch have in con sequence the sense of mes

ly prior to complete awaken ing , and wh ich form a pendant tothe we l l - known .mu ch more frequ ent hypnagogic ha l lu c inations,arising in the intermediate sta te between s leep and wak ing .

22

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF MLLE .SMITH

sages addressed by the sublimina l consciousness ofthe subject to her norma l consciousness , by way of

warn ing and protection . It is to be noted that theseha llucina tions , wh ich migh t be ca lled teleologica l

,

have lately been cla imed by Leopold, a lthough he

has no recollection of, and does not assert h imself tobe the author of, the ea rlier ones .

The following is a curious example At about theage of seventeen or eighteen , Hél ne was returningfrom the coun try one even ing , carrv ing a fine bouquet of flowers . During the last minutes of the j ourney she hea rd beh ind her a peculiar cry of a bird

,

whi ch seemed to her to warn her against somedanger, and she hastened her steps without looking

behi nd . On her arrival athome the cry followed herinto her room without her having been able to see thecreature from wh ich it emanated . She went tired to

bed, and in the middle of the n ight awoke in greatpa in

,but was unable to cry out . At that moment

she felt herself gen tly lifted , together with the pillowon wh ich she lay ,

as if by two friendly hands, whi chenabled her to recover her voice and ca ll her mother, who hastened to comfort her , and carried theflowers , which were too odorous, out of the room .

Leopold, on being interroga ted recently during a

somnambuli sm of Helene a s to thi s incident, comingup aga in a fter so many yea rs , has a very clear recollection of it and gives the following explanation .

It was not rea lly the cry of a bird, but it was he,Leopold

,who caused Helene to hear a sort of whi stle,

hoping thereby to attra ct her a ttention to the dan

ger lurki

ng in the bouquet of flowers, in whi ch was23

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

a great dea l of garden - mint of powerful Odor. Un

fortunately Helene did not understand, and reta ined

the bouquet in her room . He adds that h is fa i lure

to give a more clear and intelligible warning was

due to the fac t that it wa s at tha t time impossible

for him to do so. The wh istle wh ich Helene took

for the cry of a bird was a ll that it was in h is powerto utter . It was again he who in tervened at the

moment of her nocturna l il lness by ra ising her headin order to enable her to ca ll for help .

I have no reason to doubt the substantia l accuracy

either Of the account given by Helene and her mother,or of the explanation recen tly furn ished by Leopold .

The incident belongs to the category of well- knowncases where a danger of some sort not suspected bythe normal persona lity, but wh ich is subconsciouslyknown or recogni zed, is warded Off by a preserva tiveha llucination ,

either sensory (as here— the cry of thebird) or motor (as in the lifting Of the body) . The

sublimina l consciousness is not a lways able to givea clear message ; in the present case, the auditiveautomatism remained in a state of elemen tary ha lluc ination , a simple wh istle, without being able toelevate it to a distinct verba l ha llucination . Its genera l warn ing sense, however, was understood byHelene, thanks to the confused feeling of danger thatshe felt at the same time. Moreover

,th is con fused

feeling, which caused her to quicken her steps, itseems tome, ought not to be considered as the conse

quence Of the wh istle she heard , but ra ther as a par

a llel phenomenon ; the appearance or the Odor of themint she was carrying , whi le not attra cting her con

24

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF MLLE . SMITH

scious a ttention , nevertheless dimly rou sed in her anidea of the danger lurking in the flowers

, and thatidea in turn affected her clear con sciousness under thedouble form of a vague emotion of danger and a verboauditive tran sla ti on whi ch did not go so far as toformulate itself expli citly .

Under circumstances of a nature ca lculated to causea strong emotiona l shock , and especia lly when the

psychic sphere whi ch involves the sen timen t ofmodesty is strongly acted upon

,Helene has a v is

ua l ha llucination of a man clothed in a long ,brown

robe, with a wh ite cross on h is brea st,li ke a monk

,

who comes to her a id, and accompani es her in silenceas long as the necessity for hi s presence continues .

This unknown protector , a lways silent, each timeappearing and disappearing in a sudden and my s

terious manner, is no other than Leopold h imself,according to the recent a ffirma tions of the la tter .

We should na tura lly expect tha t Helenewould have

had in her youth many striking experiences of pre

vision ,marvellous in tuition ,

divination ,etc . , whi ch

are among the most diffuse forms of teleologica l

automatism . Such ,however, does not seem to have

been the fact ; neither she nor her mother has re

counted to me anyth ing remarkable of this na ture,and they confine themselves to a genera l a ffirmation

of frequen t presentimen ts, whi ch were subsequen tlyjustified as to the persons and events with wh ich theywere connected .

All the examples wh ich I have above cited concur

in bringing to light the strong penchant of Mlle.

Smi th towards automatism . But from the point of25

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

view of their meaning there is a notable difference

between the teleologica l phenomena ,presen timents

or ha llucinations of a mani fest utility, and those

whi ch have none'— mere reveries and other perturba

tion s,whi ch are a ltogether superfluous, if nota ctua lly

detrimenta l, to Helene’s norma l personality.

There are dreams and other automatisms abso

lutely useless whi ch have insinuated themselveswithout rhyme or reason into Hélei i e

’

s normal li fe.

One does not know how or in what mann er to interpret these phenomena , capricious and fortuitous asthey seem to be, and they remain isolated, inconsidcrable facts, without bearing and without interest,since they cannot be a tta ched to any cen tra l prin~ciple, to one mother- idea or fundamenta l emotion .

We are, therefore, reduced to certain con jectures,the most reasonable of wh ich is that these diversefragments make part of some vast subconscious crea tion ,

in wh ich all the being of Mlle. Smith ,crushed

and bruised by the conditions wh ich the rea lities of li fehave imposed upon her , as is more or less the case witheach one of us , gave free wing to the deep a spira tionsof its nature and expanded in to the fiction of an existence more brilliant than her own . All that we knowof Helene

’

s character, both a s a child and as a younggirl, shows us that her dominant emotiona l note wasa sort of instinctive inward revolt aga inst the modestenvironment in wh ich it was her lot to be born

,a pro

found feeling of dread and Opposition, of inexplicable

ma la ise, of bitter an tagoni sm against the whole of

her material and in tellectua l environmen t . Wh ileshowing herself a lways very devoted to her parents

26

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OFMLLE . SMITH

and brothers , she had on ly feeble natura l affi n ities forthem . She felt l i ke a stranger in her family and as

one away from home She had a feeling of isolation,

of abandonment, of exile, wh ich created a sort of gulfbetween her and her family . So strong were thesefeelings tha t she actua lly one day seriously a sked herparents if it was absolutely certa in that she was theirdaughter , or whether it was notpossible that the nursemigh t some day by mistake have brought home an

other ch ild from the da ily wa lk .

Th is want of adaptation to her environment,this

sort of mysterious homesickness for an unknown

country, shows itself in a characteristic manner in thefollowing fragmen t of narra tive

,in whi ch Helene,

who has a lways attributed great importance todreams tells of one in wh ich an isolated house figured . To me th is retired man sion

,in wh ich I lived

alone, isola ted, represen ts my life , wh ich from my in

fancy has been neither happy nor gay . Even wh ile

very young Ido not remember to have shared any of

the tastes or any of the ideas of the members of my

family .Thus during the whole of my ch ildhood I

was left in wha t I ca ll a profound isola tion of heart

And in spite of a ll , in spite of th is complete want of

sympathy,I could not make up my mind to marry,

a lthough I had severa l opportun ities . A voice was

a lways saying ,Do not hurry : the time has not ar

rived ; thi s is not the destiny for wh ich you are re‘

served .

’

And I have listened to tha t voice, wh ich

has absolutely noth ing to do with conscience, and I

do not regret it, for since I have engaged in spiritism I have found myself so su rrounded with sym

'

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

pathy and friendsh ips that I have somewha t forgot

ten my sad lot.

”

Thi s quotation speaks volumes in regard to the

turn of mind and the emotiona l disposition which

ruled Helene as a little girl . It is surely, so to speak,

the vulgar story and the common lot of all ; many a

ch i ld,many a youth ,

many an un recogn ized gen ius,

feel themselves suffocating in their too narrow eu

v ironment when the laten t energies of life begin to

ferment . But there are differen ces in kind and in

degree .With Mlle. Helene Smith the sentiment of

not having been made for her environmen t, and of be

longing by nature to a h igher sphere, was intense

and la sting . Her mother a lways had the impression tha t Helene was not happy, and wondered that

she was so serious , so absorbed , so wan ting in the

exuberance of spirits natura l to her age . Her fatherand her brothers

,not comprehending the rea l reasons

for th is absence of gayety, taxed her very un justlywith pride and hauteur

,and accused her sometimes of

despising her humble surroundings . Thereare shadesof feeling wh ich can on ly be understood when theyhave been experienced . Helene well knew tha t sherea lly had no contempt for her materia l and socialenvironment, which , on the contra ry

,inspired her

with respect , but whi ch simply was not congenial toher nature and temperament .To thi s fundamenta l feeling of imprisonmen t in a

too paltry sphere was j oined, in Helene

’s case, atimid disposition . Darkness , the lea st noise

,the

creaking of the furn iture, made her tremble; by day,a person wa lking beh ind her

, an unexpected move28

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so to speak, a parte ante wh ich precedes the arrivalof Helene into th is life, the occultist will have full latitude to imagine such a succession of existences as it

shall please him in order to expla in the character shehas had from her infancy. But on this side of thewa ll— that is to say , withi n the limi ts of her presentlife— the psychologist will have the righ t to ignore allthese prena ta l metempsychoses, and taking for hispoint of departure the inna te constitution of Helene,without troubling himself about anything she may

have received by the a cciden ts of heredity or preservedfrom her roya l pre—existen ces, he will endeavor to explain by that same con stitution , as it revea ls itselfin her daily life, the genesis of her sublimina l creations under the action of occa siona l exterior influences. The occultist, then , can have the pleasureof regarding Mlle . Smi th ’

s characteristic tra it as a

chi ld, that impression of solitude and wanderingabout in a world for wh ich she was not made

, as theeffect of her rea l past grea tnesses, wh ile the psychologist will be permitted to see in it the cause of herfuture dreams of grandeur .The emotional di sposition which I have depicted,

and wh ich is one of the forms under wh ich the maladaptation of the organi sm

, physica l and mental,to the hard conditions of the envi ronmen t

, betraysitself, seems therefore to me to have been the sourceand starting - point for a ll the dreamings of Hélene in her chi ldhood . Thence came these vi sionsa lways warm, luminous , h igh ly colored

,

bizarre; and these brilliant a pparitions,dressed, in which her antipathy for her in

30

exotic,superblysipid and

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF MLLE . SMITH

unplea san t surroundings betrays itself, her weari

ness of ordinary , commonplace people, her disgustfor prosa ic occupation s , for vulgar and disagreeablethings, for the narrow house

, the dirty streets , thecold win ters , and the gray sky . Whether these images , very diverse, but of the same brillian t qua lity

,

were a lready existen t in Helene’s subcon sciousthough t wh ile sti ll a chi ld or a young girl

, we are um~able to say . It is, however , probable that their sys

tematization was far from a tta in ing to such a degreeof perfection as they have presen ted during the pastfew years under the influence of spiritism .

All the facts of automa tism to wh ich Helene can

assign a vaguely approxima te da te group themselves around her fifteen th yea r

,and a re a ll included

between the limits of her n in th and twentieth years .

Thi s eviden t connection with a pha se of developmen t of ma j or importance has been confirmed to me

by Leopold on various occasions , who says that he

appeared to Helene for the first time in her ten th

year, on an exceptiona l occasion of extreme fright,but after tha t, not until about fou r yea rs later, be

cause the“physiologica l conditions necessary to

hi s apparition were not y et realized . The moment

they were rea lized , he says, he began to man ifest

h imself , and it is at the same period, according to

him ,that Helene commenced to recover memories

of her Hindoo existence, under the form of strange

vision s of whi ch she comprehended neith er the nat

ure nor the origin .

After the age of about twenty years, W i thout af

firming or believing that h er Vis ions and appari

31

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tions ceased a ltogether, Mlle . Smith has no strikingrecollections of any , and she has not told me of anypsych ic phenomenon experienced by her in the series

of years immediately preceding her entrance into

spiritism. We may in fer from th is, with some reason ,

tha t the ebullitions of the imagina tive subconsciouslife gradually became ca lm after the explosion of

the period we have mentioned . They had been ap

peased . The conflict between Helene’

s inner nature

and the environment in which she was forced to livebecame less fierce. A certa in equilibrium wa s estab

lished between the necessities of practica l life and

her inward aspirations . On the one hand, she re

signed herself to the necessities of rea lity ; and if hernative pride could notyield to the point of condescending to a marriage , honorable undoubtedly , but forwhi ch she felt she was not intended, we must nevertheless pay homage to the perseverance, the fidelity,the devotion which she a lways brought to the fu lfilment of her fami ly and business duties . On the

other hand, she did not permit the flame of the idealto be extinguished in her, and it reacted upon herenvironment as strongly as possible

,making its

imprint upon her persona lity well marked .

She introduced a certa in stamp of elegan ce intothe modest home of her parents . She a rranged forherself a sma ll sa lon , coquettish and comfortable inits simpli city . She took lessons in music

,and

bought herself a piano . She hung some old engravings on her wa lls, secured some Japanese vases, ajardin iere filled with plants , cut flowers in prettyvases, a hanging lamp with a beautiful shade of her

32

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF MLLE . SMITH

own make, a table- cover whi ch she had put togetherand embroidered herself, some photograph s curiously

framed according to her own design ; and out of th isharmon ious whole, a lways beautifully kept

, she

evolved someth ing origina l, bizarre, and delightful,

conforming well to the genera l character of her fan~tastic subcon sciousness .

At the same time tha t Mlle . Smith succeeded in a c

commodating herself to the conditions of her existence, the state of la tent timidity in which she livedgradua lly dimin ished . She is still occasiona llyovercome by fear, but much less frequently thanformerly, and never without a legitimate exteriorcause.

Indeed, j udging her by these la tter yea rs , Ido notrecogn ize in her the ch ild or young girl of formerdays, a lways timid , trembling, and frigh ten ed, tacituru and morose, wh o has been depicted to me byherself and her mother .

It seems to me , then , tha t the wildness of the

dreams and automa tisms,wh ich were symptoms of

a tenden cy to menta l disin tegra tion,wh ich ma rked

the yea rs of puberty, was succeeded by a progres

sive diminution of these troubles and a gradua l gaining of wisdom on the pa rt of the sublimina l strata .

We may presume that th is harmon iza tion , thi s re

ciproca l adapta tion of the interna l to the externa l,

would in time have perfected itself, and tha t the wholepersona lity of Mlle . Smith would have con tinued toconsolidate and un ify itself, if spiritism had not come

all of a sudden to rekindle the fire wh ich still slum

bered under the ashes and to give a new start to theC 33

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

sublimina l mechan ism wh ich was beginn ing to growrusty .

The suppressed fictions aroused themselves , thereveries of former years resumed their sway ,

and the

images of sublimina l phantasy began to bemore prolific than ever under the fertile suggestions of occultph i losophy, ra llying- points or centres of c ry sta llization— such as the idea of former existen ces and re

incarnations— around wh ich they had on ly to groupand organize themselves in order to give birth to thevast somnambulistic construc tion s the developmentof which we sh a ll be obliged to follow .

CHAPTER III

MLLE. SMITH SINCE HER INITIAT ION INTOSPIRIT ISM

AVING endeavored in the preceding chapterto reconstruct in its chief cha racteristics theh istory of Mlle . Smi th up to the time when

spiritism begin s to be mixed up with it,I would have

preferred in the presen t chapter to make a deta iledstudy of her psychologica l life during these last years ,without however , a s y et, touch ing upon the conten t ,properly so ca lled , of her au toma tisms . Not havingbeen able to accomplish thi s design to my sa tisfaction ,

for wan t of time and patience, I sha ll endeavor at leastto systematize my notes somewha t by grouping themunder four heads . I sha ll trace the birth of Hélene

’

s

mediumsh ip as far as it is possible for me to do

so from the meagre a ccounts I have been able toprocure concern ing a time at whi ch I was not ac

qua inted with her . Then ,passing to facts with

whi ch I am more familiar , I will describe rapidlyher norma l sta te as I have been able to see it for the

la st five yea rs . Thi s would have been the place for a

study of individua l psychology , but I have been com

pelled to abandon the idea on account of multiple

difficulties . Fina lly ,I will offer a few remarks on

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

the abnormal side of her existence, wh ich it is con

ven ient to divide in to two groups , namely, the span

taneous— that is to say ,springing up of themselves in

the course of her ordinary life; or those provoked by

the voluntary seeking for favorable circumstances,

and whi ch constitute the seances properly so ca lled.

I. THE MED IUMISTIC BEG INN INGS OF MLLE.

SMITH

In the winter of 1891—92 Mlle. Smith heard spirit

ism spoken of by one of her acqua in tances, Mme.

Y. ,who lent her Den is

’s book, A pres la Mor t. The

perusa l of th is work having vividly excited Helene’

s

curiosity,Mme. Y . agreed to accompany her to her

friend, Mlle. Z . ,who was interested in the same

questions, and who produced automatic writing.

They then decided to form a circle for regular experimentation . I take from the notes wh ich Mlle. Z . has

had the kindness to furn ish me, the accoun t, unfortunately very brief, of the seances at whi ch Hélene

’

s

mediumi stic faculties first made their appea rance.

“It was on the 20th of February,1892, that I made

the acqua intance of Mlle . Smith . She wa s in troducedto me by Mme . Y . , for the purpose of endeavoring toform a spiritistic group . She was then a ltogether anovice in spiritism, never having a ttempted any

thing, and did not suspect the faculties that havesince developed themselves in her .

“

February 20.

— First reun ion : We seat ourselvesat the table we succeed in making it oscillate . We

regard Mme. Y . as the medium upon whom we can

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thirty seances . As she on ly took down at the time

the headings of the commun ica tions of the spirits

and wrote out the rema inder on the following day ,

we cannot rely very strongly on the objective ac

curacy of these accoun ts, wh ich ,however, have the

advan tage of presenting to us the mediumsh ip ofHelene, as related by herself. She speaks of herselfin the third person .

The following is a summary of the two first seances held in th is new environmen t :fl“March 25, I892 .

— Eleven person s a round a largeand heavy din ing- table of oak with two leaves . The

table is - set in motion , and severa l spirits come and

give their names (by raps) , and testify to the pleasureit gives them to find themselves among us . It is at

this seance tha t Mlle . Smith begin s to di stinguishvague gleams with long wh ite streamers movingfrom the floor to the ceiling

,and then a magn ificent

star, whi ch in the darkness appears to her a lonethroughout the whole of the seance. We augur fromth is that she will end by seeing thi ngs more distin ctlyand will possess the gift of cla irvoyan ce .

“

April I .

— Violent movemen ts of the table,due to

a spirit who ca lls h imself David and announ ces himself as the spiritua l guide of the group .

Then he

gives way to another spirit who says he is VictorHugo, and the guide and protector of Mlle .

Smith,who is very much surprised to be assisted by a per

son of such importance. He soon disappea rs .Mlle.

Smith is very much agitated ; she has fits of shi vering ,

is very cold . She is very restless, and sees

sudden ly, ba lancing itself above the table, a grin38

MLLE . SMITH SINCE HER INITIATION

ning, very i ll- favored face, with long red ha ir . She

is so frigh tened that she demands tha t the li ghts beli t. She is ca lmed and reassured . The figure dis

appears . Afterwards she sees a magnificen t bouquet

of roses of different hues being pla ced on the tablebefore one of the sitters, M . P . All at once she sees

a sma ll snake come ou t from underneath the bouquet, wh ich ,

crawling quickly,perceives the flowers,

looks at them , tries to reach the hand of M . P. ,

withdraws for an in stan t, comes back slowly, anddi sappears in the in ter ior of the bouquet . Then all

is dissolved and three raps are given on the table,terminating the seance . [M. P . in terprets the mean

ing of the vision of the bouquet and the serpen t as a

symboli c transla tion of an emotiona l impression ex

perienced by Mlle . Smi th ] .Such was the birth of Helene ’s mediumshi p .

Sca rcely anything happened on the 20th of Febru

ary ,when the movements of the table were not at

tributed to her (a lthough in a ll probability she causedthem) ; in the following seances she appeared in

two a ttempts at automa tic writing (unfortunatelylost) in imita tion of the writing medium with whom

she was sitting . The outcome of th is second at

tempt leads u s to suppose tha t Helene’

s faculties

would have developed rapidly in tha t direction if she

had not abandoned it and changed her environment .

Her visua l faculty, suggested by the experiments

at obscure seances , shows itself on the 18th and 25th

of March in the form of elementa ry ha llucinations

or vague figures having their poin t of departure

probably in the simple entoptica l phenomena , the

39

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

retina's own light, consecutive images , etc . Then,

encouraged by the predictions of the sitters, she at

tained on the Ist of Apri l to Visions properly so

called, having a varied con tent and a rea l or symbol

ic signi fica tion . At the same time her typtologica lautomatism was perfecting itself. We recogni ze it

in the name of Victor Hugo, coming especia lly for

Mlle.Smith

,and suspect it to have b een a name al

ready given at the second seance.

Auditive ha llucinations follow closely upon the

Visua l, but it is impossible to know at just whatdate, as the records do not clearly indica te wheth

er the messages recorded had tha t origin or wererapped out on the table. To these known formsof automatism must be added the frequen t phenomena of emotion , sh iverings, sadness, restlessness, fear, etc . , wh ich are experien ced by Helenewithout knowing why , and are a fterwards foundto be in perfect conformity to , and in evident connection with , the content of those emotiona l phenomena wh ich they genera lly precede by a few mo

ments .

Thus, in a half- dozen weekly seances, the mediumshi p of Mlle. Smi th was invested with a com

plex psychologica l aspect, wh ich from tha t time itpreserved in tact for three years, and of wh ich I wasa witness after I made her acqua intance.

Thi s

rapidity of developmen t is not at all unusua l ; butthere is thi s pecu liarity abou t Helene, that her medium istic faculties, after their first appearance, remained for a long time sta tionary

, and then underwent all at once, in the spring of 1895, the enormous

40

MLLE . SMITH SINCE HER INITIATION

transforma tion and tremendous expan sion wh ich Ihave described in the first chapter, and to wh ich Iwill not aga in refer.

II . MLLE . SMITH IN HER NORMAL STATE

I was about to say that in her norma l sta te Mlle.

Smith is n orma l . Certa in scruples restra in me, and

I correct myself by saying that in her ordinary sta teshe seems just li ke anybody else . By th i s I meanthat outside of the gaps wh ich the seances and thespon taneous eruptions of automatism make in her

life, no one would suspect, observing her performanceof her various duties, or in ta lking with her on a ll sortsof subjects, a ll that she is capable of in her abnormal

sta tes, or the curious treasures which are concea led in

her sublimi na l stra ta,

With a hea lthy and ruddy complexion , of good

height, well proportioned , of regular and harmoni ousfeatures , she brea thes hea lth in everythi ng . She pre

sents no visible stigma ta of degeneration . As topsychic defects or anoma li es, with the exception of her

mediumshi p itself, I kn ow of none, the timidity of her

youth having entirely disappeared . Her physica lstrength is ma rvellous, as shown by the fact tha t

she bears up under the stra in of a business whi ch

demands nearly eleven hours of her time each day ,

nea rly a ll of wh ich she is compelled to stand on her

feet, and from whi ch she takes on ly one week’

s va

ca tion in summer . Besides th is confin ing work away

from home, she a ssists her mother about the house

morning and even ing ,in the housekeeping duties,41

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

and finds time besides to read a little, to practise at

her piano, and to make the lovely handiwork, wh ichshe designs and executes herself with remarkableorigina li ty and good taste. To a li fe so full mustbe added , besides , the spiritistic seances whi ch she

is genera lly willing to give on Sunday, and sometimes on a weekday even ing, very disinterestedly, topersons who are in terested in psych ic questions orwho desire to consult Leopold on important subjects .

Wh ile hesita ting to affirm tha t a person presen ting phenomena so extraordinary as those of mediumship is perfectly norma l in other respects, I am

pleased to discover that as far a s Mlle . Smi th is concerned, through my conversation s with her and as

the result of mv investigations concerning her , shedoes not present a single abnorma lity

,physica l

, in

tellectual, or mora l, between the periods of the irruptions of her automatisms . Her field of vision

,

whi ch she has permitted me to measure with a Lan

dolt perimeter, is norma l for whi te as well as for colors , for wh ich latter she has a very delica te perception . There is no trace of tactile anaesthesia in herhands . There is no known motor trouble. Thetremorof the index- finger gives a line, of four oscillations per second on an average, differing not at

all from the lines obta ined from persons perfectlynorma l (see Fig .

It cannot be expected that I should pa in t a fullmora l and intellectua l portra it of Mlle . Smi th

, as Ishould be in danger of hurting her feelings in casemya ttempt should come to her notice. I can on ly touchon a few points . One of themost striking is her great

42

MLLE . SMITH SINCE HER INITIATION

native di gni ty ; her bearing, her manners, her language are a lways perfect, andhave a certa in qua lity ofnoblesse and pride wh ich accords well with her somnambu li stic roles. On occa sion she shows a statelyand rega l hauteur. She is very impressionable, andfeels little things very keen ly . Her anti pathies as wellas her sympathi es are quick, lively, and tenacious .

She is energetic and persevering . She knows verywell wha t she wants, and n oth ing pa sses her by nuperceived, nor does she forget anything in the con

duct of others towa rds her . I see everythi ng, nothing escapes me, and I forgive but never forget,

”she

has often sa id to me. Perhaps a severe mora li stwould find in her a certa in exaggeration of persona lsensibili ty, but that sort of self—love is a very cormnoncharacteristic of human nature, and is very natura l inmediums who are continua lly exposed to public crit

icism .

She is very intelligent and h igh ly gifted . In con

versation she shows herself vivacious, sprightly, and

sometimes sarcastic . Psychi c problems, and all question s connected with mediumi stic phenomena , ofwh ich

she is herself so striking an example, occupy her mind

a great dea l and form the principa l subject of her priva te thoughts and of her conversa tions With people in

whom she is in terested .

Her phi losoph ica l views are not wanting in origi

nality or breadth . She does not beli eve in spiritism,

in the genera lly accepted sense of the term, and has

never consented, in spite of the advances whi ch have

been made to her , to become a member of the Geneva

Society (spiritistic) for Psych ic Studies, because, as43

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

she says , she has no fixed ideas on subjects so obscure,does not care for theories, and does not work in the

interest of any party.

”She investigates, she observes,

she reflects and discusses, having adopted for her mot

to, The truth in a ll th ings, for a ll things, and a lways .

There are two points in regard to which she is

uncompromising— namely, the objective rea lity ofLeopold, and the supernorma l con tent of her automatisms . N0 one dares tell her that her grea t invisibleprotector is on ly an illusory apparition ,

another partof herself, a product of her subconscious imagination ;nor tha t the strange peculiarities of her mediumi sticcommun ications— the San scrit, the recogni zable signa tures of deceased persons, the thousand correctrevelations of facts unknown to her —are but old forgotten memories of things wh ich she saw or heard inher ch ildhood . Such supposition s being con tra ry toher inmost beliefs , and seemingly fa lse in fact, easilyirritate her, as being in defiance of good sense and

an outrage on truth . But outside of these two sub

jects she will examine and discuss coolly any hypothesis one chooses . The idea tha t she should be thereincarnation of a Hindoo princess or of Marie Antoinette, that Leopold is rea lly Cagliostro, tha t thevisions ca lled Martian are rea lly from the planetMars, etc . , a ll seem to her to con form fully to thefacts but these beliefs are not indispensable to her,and she is ready , should they prove to be fa lse, tochange to other theories~as

, for example, telepa thy ,

a mixture of occult influences, a mysterious meet

ing in her of intuitions coming from some h ighersphere, etc .

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

give more weight to h is decla rations (see Fig . 8,

p .

It is incontestable that Helene has a very well- or

gan ized brain , as is eviden ced by the admirableman

ner in wh ich she manages the important and compli

cated department which is under her direction in the

commercia l establishmen t in wh ich she is employed .

To accuse her of being in sane, simply because she

is a medium, as some charitable souls (the world isfull of them) do not hesita te to do sometimes, is, tosay the least, a most inadmissible petitio pr incipi i .The opin ion wh ich Mlle . Smith holds in her norma l

state concern ing her automa tic fa culties is a ltogetheroptimistic ; and there is noth ing to prove her in the

wrong . She regards her mediumship as a rare and

precious privilege, with which nothing in the worldwould induce her to part . True , she a lso sees in itthe rea son for the ma levolen t and un j ust j udgments

,

the jea lousies, the ba se suspicions, to wh ich the ignorant multitude have in a ll ages subjected thosewho have succeeded in elevating themselves aboveit through the possession of fa culties of thi s kind.

But, on the whole, the disadvantages are more thancoun terbalanced by ga ins of a h igh order, and the

inward satisfaction a ttached to such a gift . .Andhere I desire to emphasize the statement

,once for

a ll, that Helene does not belong to the class of pro

fessional mediums, nor to those who u se their me

diumship for the purpose of coining money .Mlle.

Smith ,who earns her living in the position wh ich her

in telligence and fitness have secured for her, and

through which her family en joys a modest ease,

46

MLLE . SMITH SINCE HER INITIATION

never accepts any pecuni ary compensation for herseances or con sultation s . Such a tra ffic in facultieswhi ch have a sort of religious sign ification in her

eyes would be absolutely repugnan t to her feeli ngs .

Hélene’

s spon taneous automatisms have often a idedher in , without ever having interfered with ,

her dailyoccupa tion s . There is , happily for her , a great difference in in ten sity between the phenomena of hersean ces and those wh ich break in upon her habitua lexisten ce, the la tter never having caused such dis

tu rbance of her persona lity as the former .

In her da ily life she has on ly passing ha llucination s limited to one or two of the sen ses

,superficia l

hemisomnambu li sm s , compa tible with a certa in

amount of self- possession— in short, ephemera l per

tu rbations of no importan ce from a practica l point ofview . Taken a s a whole

,the in terven tions of the

sublimi na l in her ordinary existence a re more bene

ficial to her than otherwise,sin ce they often bear the

stamp of utility and appropria teness , wh ich make

them very serviceable .

Phenomena of hypermnesia ,divina tion , lost objects

mysteriously recovered ,happy inspiration s , tru e pre

sentimen ts , correct in tuition s— in a word, teleolog i

ca l automa tisms of every sort— she possesses in so

h igh a degree tha t th is sma ll coin of gen ius is more

than sufficien t to compensa te for the in conven iencesresulting from the distraction and momentary ab

sence of mind with wh ich the vision is a ccompan ied .

In the sean ces, on the contra ry, she presen ts the

most grave functiona l a lterations tha t one can

imagine, and passes through accesses of lethargy,47

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

cata lepsy, somnambulism,tota l change of person

a li ty, etc . , the least of which would be a very dis

agreeable adventure for her if it should happen to

occur in the street or at her office.

But here I am obliged to leave Hélene’

s ordinarystate to enter upon the study of her automatisms .

III.SPONTANEOUS AUTOMAT IC PHENOMENA

The automa tisms wh ich occur outside the seances

in Mlle. Smith ’s every- day life, those, at lea st, whi ch

she is able to reca ll and narra te, are of a frequencyvery variable and utterly independent of any known

c ircumstances sometimes presen ting themselves

two or three times in the same day ; a t others , two

or three weeks will elapse without a single one.

Extremely diverse in their form and con ten t, thesephenomena may be divided in to three categories,based upon their origin . The first proceed fromimpressions received by Helene in momen ts of specialsuggestibility ; the second are the fortuitous apparitions above the ordinarv level of her consciousness,the romances in process of elaboration to wh ich weare coming ; the la st , wh ich differ from the two

preceding species (wh ich are a lways useless, if notdetrimenta l) by their beneficia l character and theiradaptation to the needs of the momen t , are rousedby those teleologica l automatisms to wh ich I havea lready ca lled attention as having occurred in herchi ldhood, and wh ich have shared in the genera l recrudescence of her subconscious life under the lashof the spiritistic experiences .

48

MLLE . SMITH SINCE HER INITIATION

Let u s pa ss these different cases rapidly in review .

I . Permanence of exter ior suggestions — The spiritistic reuni on s are natura lly their principa l source . Ido not mean tha t she has there been subjected toexperiments in post- hypnotic suggestion . Justice toall those who have a ttended the seances compels thesta tement tha t they have never abused the suggesti

bility whi ch she shows on such occasions , by sug

gesting ideas of such a nature as to cause her annoyance on the following days . The most that hasbeen a ttempted has been the suggestion of some sma llma tters by way Of harmless experiment, to be exe

ecuted by her a few moments a fter awaking fromher trance . There is no need Of intentiona l suggestions to influence her in a lasting manner ; there

fore we have a voided as far as possible everythi ngtha t mi ght leave disagreeable traces beh ind , and

have suggested to her before the end of the seance

that she have on the morrow no headache, fatigu e,etc . but it sometimes happens tha t certa in incidents , often absolutely insign ifican t, are engraved

on her memory in a most un locked- for manner and

assai l her as inexplicable obsession s during the en

suing week . The following are some specimens of

involuntary suggestion ,wh ich genera lly linger for

three or four days, but may occasiona lly continue

for twelve or fifteen .

Hélene told me one Sunday tha t she had been pos

sessed severa l times during the day by the ha llu

cinatory image of a straw hat, the inside of whi ch

was turn ed towards her , and whi ch rema ined vertica lly in the ai r about three or four feet in fron t Of

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her, without being held by any one. She had the

feeling that th is hat belonged to me, and I happenedfina lly to recollect that at the seance of the preceding

Sunday I happened to fan myself with th is very

hat during her fina l trance, the image of wh ich hadbeen engraved on her mind in one of the flashes in

wh ich she opened her eyes and closed them againinstantly before her fina l awaking . Thi s obses

sion ,said she, was very strong on Monday and the

following day or two, but lessened somewhat towardsthe end of the week .

At another time she preserved during a whole weekthe sensation of the pressure of my thumb on her lefteyebrow . (Compression of the externa l fronta l andsuborbita l nerves is a mean s I Often employ to hastenher awaking, a fter a hin t given by Leopold . )There happened to her a lso twice in the same day

an auditive and Visua l ha llucination Of an aged person whom she did not recogn ize, but the extremelycharacteristic description of whom corresponds so

well with that of a gentleman Of Geneva who had beenmentioned to her a few days previously

,immediately

before the commencement of a seance (when she was

probably a lready in her state of suggestibility) , thatthere is scarcely any doubt but that these apparitionswere the consequence of that conversation .

Following another seance where she had, at the

beginn ing of a Hindoo scene, made va in efforts todetach a bracelet from her left wrist

, she preservedfor three days the feeling Of someth ing grasping thatwrist, without understanding what it. could be .

In the sameway , various feelings Of sadness, anger,50

MLLE . SMITH SINCE HER INITIATION

a desire to laugh or to weep , etc ., the cause Of which

she was unable to expla in , have often followed her fora considerable length of time after the seances ofwh ichthese feelings were the mani fest emotiona l echo . Thi sis Often the effect of ou r dreams on our waking state :we forget the dreams , bu t their influence rema ins

,and

is Often more marked in the dreams of a hypnotizedperson or a somnambulist than in those of ordinary

sleep .

The seances are not the exclusive source of theinvolun ta ry suggestions whi ch trouble Mlle . Smi thin her da ily life without any benefit to herself . It iseviden t tha t on every occasion when she finds herself

in tha t particular condition of least resistance whi ch

we, in our ignorance of its intrinsic nature,designa te

by the conven ient name of suggestibility ,

”she is

exposed to impressions capable of return ing to a ssa il

her in the course of her da ily occupa tions . Fortu

nately thi s condition of suggestibility does not seemto develop itself readily in her outside of the spiritistic

reun i ons .

2 . Irruptions of subl im i na l rever ies— I sha ll have

too many occasions to cite concrete examples of vi

sions, voices , and other spontaneous outpourings of

the work Of imagina tion , whi ch are continua lly going

on under the ordinary consciousness of Mlle . Smith ,

to dwel l long on thi s point . Some genera l remarks

Wi ll suffice .

The conn ection whi ch the unforeseen phenomenama inta in with those of the seances themselves is veryvaried .

Sometimes we are able to recogn ize them as

reproductions , more or less incomplete, of episodes

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which occurred at the preceding seances, and con

sider them simple echoes or post- hypnotic repetitions

of these last . Sometimes, on the contra ry , it appears

that we have to dea l with preparatory rehearsa ls ofscenes whi ch will unfold themselves at length and

will be continued at some later seance . Fina lly,sometimes it is a question of tableaux, having no con

nection with those whi ch fill up the seances they are

like leaves, flying away never to return , romances

which are continua lly being fabrica ted in the deep

sublimina l strata of Mlle. Smith’

s con sciousness .

Hélene,in fact, does not long remember , nor in much

detail, with a few exceptions, those visions wh ich take

place in her ordinary state, and whi ch occur mostfrequently early in the morn ing, wh ile she is still in

bed, or just after she has arisen and whi le workingby the light of her lamp ; sometimes in the even ing,or during the brief moments of rest in the middle of

the day ,and,

much more rarely, whi le in the ful l

activity of waking hours she is at her desk . If shehad not long since, atmy request , and with great goodwi ll, acquired the habit of noting in pencil the essentia l content of these apparitions , either during theapparition itself (wh ich she is not a lways able to do)or else immediately a fterwards, we should have stillmoredeficiencies in the plot of her romances to deplore.

Helene’

s psychological sta te, during her spontaneousvisions, is known to me only by her own descriptions .

She is fortunately a very intelligent observer and a

good psychologist .

Her narratives show that her visions are accom

panied by a certain degree of Obnubilation . For a

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mediate condition between sleep andwaking, a lways

so favorable, as we know,to the development of un

conscious cerebration . But there are innumerable

shades and gradations between this middle type,so to speak, and its opposite extremes on the one

hand is the fortunately very exceptiona l case where

she is seized with ecstasy whi le at her place of busi

ness ; and, on the other hand, that in whi ch the automatism limits itself to inscribing some unknown

characters or words in another hand than her own in

her correspondence and writings peculiar lapsus

calarni , whi ch she is not slow to perceive on comingto herself .The following is an example of a case of ecstasyHaving ascended one day to an upper story , to

look for somethi ng in a dark store- room, she had an

apparition of a man in a turban and largewh ite cloak,whom she had the impression of recogn izing,* and

whose presence filled her with a delightful ca lm and

profound happiness . -She could not reca ll the con

versation whi ch passed between them,which, though

in an unknown language, she n evertheless had thefeeling of having perfectly comprehended . On the

departure of themysterious visitor she was aston ishedto find herself brought back to sombre reality, andstupefied on noting by her wa tch that the in terviewhad lasted much longer than it had seemed to do .

She preserved all that day a delicious feeling of wellbeing as the effect of the strange apparition .

Vision relating to the Orienta l cyc le ; theman was the Arab

Sheik, the father of Simandin i .

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MLLE . SMITH SINCE HER INITIATION

The phenomenon of mingling strange writing w ithher own is Of rela tively frequent occurrence, and wesha ll see divers specimens of it in the followingchapters , apropos of the romances to whi ch it especia lly belongs . I will give here on ly one complex ex

ample, whi ch will serve at the same time as an

illustration of a specia l kind of automa tism,very

harmless, to whi ch Helene is a lso subject, and wh ichcon sists in making verses , not withou t knowing , but

at least without in tending to do so, and in connection with the most trifling matters .

There are times when ,in spite of herself, she

feels compelled to speak in distin ct rhymes of eigh tfeet, whi ch she does not prepare ,

and'

does not per

ceive until the momen t she has fini shed utteringthem .

* In th is particular case it is by a quatra in

(a very unusua l occurren ce) that she replies to some

one who had consulted her in regard to some blue

The fo l low ing are some O f these impromptu rhymes , su re lyup to the leve l of the c irc um stanc es w h ich insp i red th em , b u t by

wh ich w e ough t not to j udge the con sc ious poetic facu lties of

Ml le . Sm ith

To a l ittle g irl proud of her new shoes

Ma rce l le est la, venez la vo ir,

El le a ses peti ts sou l iers no irs .

cu l inary discuss ion

Vou s détestez les ome lettes ,Au tant que moi les cotelettes .

To a person s l igh tly va in

Vos r ichesses ,ma chere am ie

Ne me font po int du tou t env ie I"

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ribbon .But this quatra in , by its style, by the visi on

of the blond head of a chi ld which a ccompani es it,and by the manner a lso in wh ich she writes it, causes

us to hazard the con jecture tha t it is an inspirationdepending on the underly ing Roya l cycle; wh ile in the

following letter, in whi ch she narrates the affair toM. Lemaitre, her pen inscribes, a ll unknown to her,strange cha racters eviden tly due to the cropping out

of the Martian cycle, of wh ich she speaks in the

letter (see Fig . I, a passage of tha t letter making a

Martian M and V in the words vers and r ima it) :

at. 9M 4 eam

Fragment of a letter (normal handwriting) of M lle. Smith, containing two

Martian letters. (Collection ofM. Lemaitre.)

I have heard some Martian words this afternoon,

but have not been able to reta in them in my mi nd. Isend you those hea rd a few days ago, when I had thevision of which I am about to make you the design

(Martian lamp) . Yesterday morni ng I for the firsttime spoke in verse, without being aware of it ; it wasonly on fini shing the sentence tha t I perceived thatit rhymed, and I reconstructed it to a ssure myself ofthe fact. A little later , on examin ing some ribbons,Ibegan anew to speak in verse, and I send those a lso

56

MLLE . SMITH SINCE HER INITIATION

they will amuse you . It is a curious thi ng that Ihad at tha t same momen t the vision of the blondcurly head of a ch ild bound with a blue ribbon . The

vision lasted more than a minute. Wha t is still morecurious, I do not at a ll recollect having worn ribbonsof that shade as a ch ild I remember some rose- colored,some red, but I have no recollection wha tever of anyblue ri bbons . I rea lly do not know why I spoke thesewords it is the more amusing . I was obliged to

speak them, I assure you, in spite of myself . I waseager to put them on paper, and I noticed in writingthem down that, for a moment, the handwriting wasnot regular, tha t is , it was slightly di fferen t from

mine.

”

Here is the quatra in , the pencil impression of whi chis too fa int to enable a facs imi le to be reproducedhere, and in it I have indicated by ita lics the wordsand syllables the ca lli graphy or orthography of which

di ffers from tha t ofHélene and becomes the style ofau

tomatic handwriting ca lled that of Marie Antoinette :

Les nuances de ces rubans

Me rappelent mes j eunes ans ;

Ce b leu ver di , j e m’

en souw’

m ,

Sans mes cheveux a llai t si b ien

The head of curly blond ha ir, ornamented withblue ribbons, a lso figures in the visions of the Roya lcycle, and appears to belong , as is here the case, some

times to Marie Antoinette herself, sometimes to one

or other of her chi ldren ,especia lly the Dauphin .

Whi le it is genera lly easy to connect these eruptions

of the sublimina l volcano with the various dreams

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

from whi ch they emanate, such is nota lways the case,and there are visions the origin of wh ich is doubtful

and ambiguous . We must not forget that , a longside

of the grand cycles of Helene wh ich are better known ,

there a lso float in her laten t imagination innumer

able sma ll accessory systems, more or less indepen

dent, whi ch supply a large part of the seances , such

as revelations Of former events connected with the

famili es of the sitters, etc . it is not a lways possibleto identify the fragments coming from these isola teddreams .

3 . Teleologi ca l au toma tisms . The spontaneousphenomena Of th is category, possessing a s a common

characteristic a practica l utility for Helene more or

less marked, can be subdivided into two classes, according to their direct a ttachment to the persona lityof Leopold, or their not belonging to any distinct per

sona lity , and whi ch on ly express in a Vivid manner

the result of the norma l working, a lthough more orless unconscious , of the faculties of memory and of

reason . I confine myself now to citing one case ofeach of these classes , of wh ich we sha ll see otherexamples in the chapters rela ting to Leopold and to

supernorma l appearances .

One day Mlle . Smith , wishing to take down a largeand heavy object from a h igh shelf,was prevented fromso doing by the fact tha t her uplifted arms seemed asthough petrified and incapable of being moved forsome seconds she saw in thi s a warn ing and gaveup her intention . In a later seance Leopold saidthat it was he himself who had caused Helene’s

arms to become rigid , in order to prevent her from58

MLLE . SMITH SINCE HER INITIATION

attempting to lift the Object which was too heavy forher and would have caused some accident to befa llher .

On another occasion a clerk who sought va in ly fora certa in pattern asked Hélene if she knew what hadbecome of it . Helene replied mechan ica lly and without reflection ,

“

Yes , itwas sent to Mr . J . (a customerof the firm) at the same time there appeared beforeher in la rge black figures about eight or ten inches inheight the number 18 , and she added , instinctively,

Itwas eighteen days ago. Th is statement caused theclerk to smile, because of its improbabili ty , the ruleof the house being tha t customers to whom pa tternswere lent for exami nation must return them inside of

three days or a messenger would be sen t for them .

Helene, struck by thi s objection , and having no con

scious recollection of the affair , replied , Rea lly, per

haps I am wrong . Meanwh ile, an investiga tion ofthe date indi cated in the records of the house showedthat she was perfectly correct . It was thr ough various negli gences , with whi ch she had noth ing at a ll to

do,that the pattern had notbeen sent for or recovered .

Leopold , on being a sked , has no recollection of thiscircumstance, and does not appear

’

to have been the

author of this automa tism of cryptomnesia , nor of

many other ana logous phenomena th rough wh ich

Hélene’

s subconscious memory renders her signa l

services and has gai ned for her a well- merited and

high ly va lued reputation .

Thus we see tha t if the spon taneous automatismsof Mlle .

Smi th are Often the vexatious result of her

momen ts of suggestibili ty,or the tempestuous irrup

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

tion of her sublimina l reveries, they a lso often as

sume the form of useful messages . Such compensa

tion is notto be despised .

IV. THE SEANCES

Mlle. Smith has never been hypnotized . In her

instinctive aversion ,whi ch she sha res with the ma

jority of medi ums, to anything that seems like an

attempt to experiment upon her, she has a lways re

fused toa llow herself to be put to sleep . She does notrealize that in avoiding the idea she has actua llyaccepted the rea li ty, since her spiritistic experiencesin reali ty constitute for her an auto- hypnotization,

whi ch inevitably degenera tes into a hetero - hypnoti

zation , as she is brought under the influence of one orother of the persons presenta t the seance.

All her seances have somewhat of the same psychologic form, the same method of development running through their immense diversity of content .She places herself at the table with the idea and the

intention of bringing into play her mediumistic facu lties. After an interva l, va rying from a few secondsto a quarter of an hou r , genera lly in a shorter timeif the room is well darkened and the sitters are per

fectly silent, she begins to have visions, preceded andaccompanied by very va ried sensory and motor disturbances, a fter wh ich she passes into a completetrance. In that state, it rarely happens, and thenonly for a few moments, that she is entirely uncon

sc ious of the persons present, and, as it were, shutup within her personal dream and plunged into pro

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MARS

fully opened, the eyes become brillian t, the entirecountenance lights up with a pleasan t smile and gives

evidence of her recogn ition of the world and of her

return to herself . But with the same suddennesswith wh ich it appea red, that appearance of life la stsbut a second or two, the physiognomy resumes itslifeless mask, the eyes becoming haggard and fixedclose aga in , and the head fa lls on the back of thecha ir . Thi s return of sleep will be followed by an

other sudden awaking, then perhaps by severa l more,until the fina l awaking, a lways distinguished, aiter the smile at the beginn ing , by the stereotypedquestion , What time is it and by a movemen t ofsurprise on learn ing tha t it is so late . There is nomemory of what has transpired during “

the seance.

A complete description of the psychologica l andphysiologica l phenomena wh ich present themselves , or wh ich might be obtained in the course of

the seances, would detain me too long,since there

is absolutely nothi ng constant either in the natureor in the succession Of the phenomena

, and no two

seances a re evolved exactly in the same manner .

I must confine myself to some striking characteristics .

Three principa l symptoms, a lmost contemporane

ous genera lly, announce that Mlle . Smi th is beginn ing to enter into her tran ce .

There are on the one side emotiona l or cceneesthetic modifica tions, the cause of which is revea led a

li ttle later in the subsequen t messages . Hélene is,for instance, seized by an invincible desire to laugh ,

wh ich she cannot or wi ll not explain or she com62

MLLE . SMITH SINCE HER INITIATION

pla ins of sadness, fear, of different unpleasant sensation s , Of hea t or of cold , of nausea , etc .

, accordingto the nature Of the commun ications wh ich are ap

proachi ng and of wh ich these emotiona l states are

the forerunn ers .

There are, on the other hand , phenomena Of systematic anmsthes ia (nega tive ha llucinations) , limited to those sitters whom the coming messages con

cern . Hélene cea ses to see them ,whi le continuing

to hear their voices and feel their touch ; or , on the

contrary, she is aston ished to no longer hear them,

though she sees their lips moving, etc . ; or, fina lly

,

she does not perceive them in any manner , and demands to know why they are leaving when the se

ance is hardly begun . In its deta ils th is systematicanmsthes ia varies infin itely, and extends sometimesto but one part of the person concerned , to his hand ,

to a portion of hi s face, etc . , without it a lways beingpossible to expla in these capricious deta i ls by theconten t of the following visions ; it would seem that

the incoherence of the dream presides over th is preliminary work of disin tegration , and tha t the normalperceptions are absorbed by the subconscious per

sona lity eager for materia l for the building up of the

ha llucinations wh ich it is preparing .

Systema tic anmsthesia is Often complicated withpositive ha llucina tions , and Helene will man ifest her

surpri se at seeing,for example, a strange costume

or an unusua l coiffure . Thi s, in rea lity, is the vi

sion wh ich is al ready being insta lled .

The thi rd symptom ,wh ich does notmani fest itself

clearly in her , but the presence of wh ich can be often63

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

establi shed before all the others by investiga tion , is

a complete a llochiria ,

* ordinari ly accompan ied byvarious other sen sory and motor disturbances . If,at the beginn ing of the seance, Hélene is asked, for

example, to raise her right hand, to move the leftindex- finger , or to close one eye, she begins stra ightway to carry into effect these different acts ; then

all at once, without knowing Why and without hesi

tation , she deceives herself in rega rd to the side, andraises her left hand, moves her right index- finger ,

c loses the other ey e, etc . This indicates that she

is no longer in her norma l state, though still appearingto retain her ordinary con sciousness , and with theliveliness Of a norma l person discusses the questionof her having mistaken her right hand or ey e for

her left, and vice versa . It is to be noted tha t Leopold,on such occasion s of pronounced a lloch iria

,does not

share th is error in regard to the side. I have assistedat some curious discussions between him and Helene,

she insisting that such a hand was her right , or that

the Isle Rousseau is on the left as one passes thebridge of Mont Blanc or coming from the ra ilwaystation ,

and Leopold all the wh ile, by mean s of rapsupon the table , giving her clearly to understandshe was wrong fA little after the a lloch iria

, and sometimes simul

taneously with it, are to be found va rious other phenomena , extremely variable,

of wh ich I here cite on ly

The confusion of sensations in the two sides of the body ,as

when a person locates in the righ t leg a touch u pon th e left leg .

1See , on al loch i r ia ,P. Janet , Stigmates mentaux des fiy ster iques ,

pp . 66- 71 and Neoroses et i dl esfixes , vol . i . p . 234 .

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MLLE . SMITH SINCE HER INITIATION

a few One of her arms is contr‘

actured as it restsupon the table, and resists the efforts of the sittersto lift it up , as though it were a bar of iron the

fingers of the hand a lso participate in th is rigidity .

Sometimes thi s con tracture does not exist before,but establishes itself at the same instan t that some

one touches the forearm ,and increases in proportion

to the efforts wh ich are made to overcome it. Thereis no regularity in the distribution of the anaesthesia

(changing from one instant to another) , the con

tractu res , or convulsions whi ch the hands and armsof Helene exhibit . It a ll seems due to pure caprice,

or

to depend on ly on underlying dreams , of whi ch littleis known .

Certa in ana logous and likewise capricious phenomena of anaesthesia ,

pa ra lysis , sensations of allsorts

,Of whi ch Hélene complains, often appear in

her face, her eyes , her mouth , etc . In the midst Ofa ll these disturbances the vi sions ann ounce them

selves, and the somnambulism is introduced with

modifications , equa lly va riable, of other functions ,evidenced by tears , sobbings , sighs , repea ted hi c

coughs,various changing of the rhythm of respira

tion , etc .

If Helene is experimen ted upon and questioned too

long, the development of the origina l visions is ob

structed , and she ea sily reaches a degree of sen si

bi lity where she fa lls in to the standard class of public representa tions of hypnotism— a charmed and

fa scinated state in whi ch she rema ins riveted before

some brillian t object , as , for example, the ring ,

trinkets , or cuff- button of one of the sitters ; then

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precipitates herself in a frenzy upon the Object, andtries to secure it ; or assumes emotiona l attitudes and

poses under the influence of joyous airs upon the

piano experiences suggested hallucinations of allkinds , sees terrible serpents, wh ich she pursues with

a pair of pincers beautiful flowers , whi ch she smellswith deep respira tions and distributes to the sittersor

,again ,

bleeding wounds wh ich have been made

on her hand, and whi ch cause her to shed tears .

The common - pla ce character of these phenomenacauses their long continuan ce to be deprecated, andthe ingenuity of all is exercised in endeavoring bydifferent means, none of whi ch is very efficacious or

very rapid, to plunge her in to profound and tranquil sleep, from wh ich she is not long in passing of

her own accord into complete somnambulism and in

taking up the thread of her persona l imaginati ons .

If a ll these disturbing investigations have beensuccessfully avoided, the spon taneous developmentof the automatisms is effected with greater rapidityand fulness . It is possible then to behold

, in the

same seance, a very va ried spectacle, and to li sten,

besides, to certa in specia l commun ications made ina semi - waking state to one or other of the sitters :then , in complete somnambulism, a Hindoo visionis presented, followed by a Martian dream

,with an

incarnation of Leopold in the middle, and a scene ofMarie Antoinette to wind up with . Ordina rily twoof these last creations will suffi ce to fill up a seance.

One such represen tation is not performed wi thout theloss of considerable strength by the medium

,which

shows itself by the fina l sleep being prolonged some66

MLLE . SMITH SINCE HER INITIATION

times for an hour, interrupted, a s I have said,by

repetitions of the preceding somnambulistic scenes,

ea sily recogn izable by certain gestures or the murmuring of chara cteristic words . Pa ssing throughthese diverse oscilla tions and the ephemera l awaking , of whi ch I have spoken above,

Helene fin ishes

by returning to her norma l state ; but the seanceswhich have been too long con tinued or too fu l l Ofmovement leave her very much fa tigued for the restof the day . It ha s a lso sometimes happened to her tore enter the somnambulism (from wh ich she had probably not completely emerged) during the course ofthe even ing or on return ing home

,and on ly to succeed

in recovering her perfectly norma l state through theassistance of a n ight ’s sleep .

As to the rea l na ture of Hél‘

ene’

s slumbers at the

end of the seances, and her states Of consciousnesswhen she awakes , it is difficult for me to pronounce,having on ly been able to Observe them under unfavotable conditions— that is , in the presence of sittersmore or less numerous and restless . The greaterpart certa in ly consist of somnambulisms, in which

she hears a ll that passes around her , since a lthough

she seems profoundly asleep and absent, the sugges

tions then given her to be carried out after awaking

are registered and performed wonderfully— at leastwhen Leopold, who is a lmost a lways on hand and an

swers by movements of one finger or another to ques

tion s put to him,does not make any opposition or de

clare that the suggestion sha ll not be carried out !

There are a lso brief moments when Helene seems to

be in a profound state of coma and kind of syncope67

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

without trace of psychic li fe her pulse and respiration continue to be regular, but she does not react to

any excitation ,her a rms, if rai sed, fa ll heavily, no

sign of Leopold can be obta ined , and suggestionsmade at that instant will not be acted upon .

These lethargic phases, during whi ch a ll conscious

ness seems to be abolished, are genera lly followed bycataleptic phases in whi ch the hands and arms pre

serve every position in whi ch they may be placed,and continue the movements of rotation or of oscilla

tion which may be forced upon them, but never formore than one or two minutes .

In default of more complete experiments, I submitthe following comparison of Helene’s muscular forceand of her sensibi li ty to pa in before and a fter a seancelasting nearly three hours, the second ha lf being infull somnambulism . At o’clock, on sitting downat the table three dynamometric tests with her righthand gave kilos . 27, 25

— average, The

sensibility to pain measured on the back of the me

dian phalanx of the index- finger with the algesiom

eter of Griesbach , gave for the right, grs . 35, 40, 20, 20— average, 29 ; for the left, 35, 20, 20, 15— average,

grs . (Sensibility sligh tlymore delicate than tha tof another lady present at the seance, not a mediumand in perfect hea lth . )At o

’

clock, some minutes a fter the fina l awaking : dynamometer, right hand , 8, 4.5

— average, a lgesiometer, complete ana lgesia both as

to right and left, on the whole of the back of the

index as well as the rest of the hand and wrist, the

maximum of the instrument (100 grs . ) was attained68

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question of more complicated and difficult things,compatible, however, with the rationa l points of Vi ewof the n orma l waking sta te, Hélene fa lls momentar

ily into somnambuli sm for the execution of the ordergiven , un less she has permanently rema ined in thatstate, in spite of her apparent awaking, in order not

Fig. 2. Tremor of right index- finger. A , B C fragments of curves taken in thenormal statebefore the seance (A and C with closed eyes ; B, with open eyes

look

ing at the Index-finger) ; D, E, F , fragments of curves received in succession a

quarter of an hour after the seance. The curve F reflects the respiratory osci llations

:The curves go from right to left, and the'interval between the two verticallines i s ten seconds.

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MLLE . SMITH SINCE HER INITIATION

to te—en ter defini tely and completely upon her ordinary

sta te until a fter the execution of the order, of wh ichthere then rema ins to her no recollection whatever .

From the foregoing fa cts we may conclude tha tli ttle or nothing of that wh ich goes on a round herescapes her subcon scious in telligen ce, and it is fromthi s source tha t her somnambuli stic romances are

nourished a fresh .

A word more as to the preparation for the sean ces .

I do not refer to a conscious prepa ration,but to a

sublimina l in cuba tion or elabora tion ,unknown by

her, showing itself on the level Of her ordinary persona lity in the form Of fugitive gleams and frag

mentary images during her sleep at n igh t or themoments of awaking in the morni ng . Mlle . Smi th

,

in rea li ty, has no hold,possesses no influence, upon

the nature of her vi sions and somn ambuli sms . She

is able, undoubtedly, up to a certa in poin t, to aid

their appearance in a genera l way , by cultivatingtranquilli ty of mind , securing darkness and silencein the room, and by abandon ing herself to a passivea ttitude of mind ; or to hi nder it, on the other hand ,by movement, or distraction of a tten tion ; but with

the fixed and concrete con ten t itself of her auto

matisms she has nothing to do and no share in the

responsibility for it . So fa r as her grea t cycles or

her detached messages are con cerned, they are fab

ricated in her in spite of herself, and without her

having a word to say about their production ,any

more than one has in the formation of his dreams .

When it is recollected , on the other hand, that the

phenomena of incuba tion , of sublimina l preparation,

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or unconscious cerebration ,are un iversa l facts, play

ing their rOle in the psychology of every human be

ing ,we can rely upon finding them a lso among the

mediums, and upon their holding a place with themmuch more important than with others, owing to the

fact that their subconscious li fe is so much more

fully developed .

With each one Of u s the expectation or the simpleperspective of any event— a departure, a visit, an

errand , or undertaking to do anyth ing , a letter towrite, in short, a ll the more in sign ifican t in cidentsof da ily existence, when they are not absolutelyunforeseen promote a psychologica l adapta tionmore or less extended and profound .

Alongside of and underneath the con scious ex

pectancy ,certain physica l or menta l a ttitudes , vol

untari ly assumed in View of the event , a lways effectan underlying preparation of an inward kind

, a

change wh ich we may regard , according to the sidefrom wh ich we con sider the individua l, as a peculiarpsychica l orientation or cerebra l adjustment, a modification in the associa tion Of ideas or in the dynamicsof the cortica l nerves . But everyth ing points to thefact that in persons gifted with mediumsh ip thi s underly ing preparation is capable of a ssuming on occasion a greater importance than is the case with ordinary morta ls, a much more complete independenceof the ordinary consciousnessTo return to Mlle. Smith

,when she knows some

time in advance who will be presen t at her nextseance, and what people she will a lmost surely meetthere, it would be a ltogether natura l that such pre

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MLLE . SMITH SINCE HER INITIATION

vious kn owledge of the environment and Of the sitters would influence her sublimina l thoughts and insome degree di rect the course of the laten t incubation . It may well be asked , therefore, whether thevaried spectacle whi ch the sean ces furni sh is rea llya lways impromptu and has its birth on the spur ofthe moment li ke ordinary dreams , or whether it hasbeen subconsciously thought out, the sean ce beingon ly the performance of an arrested programme, the

representation coram popu lo of scenes a lready ripened in the deep sublimina l strata of the medium .

Neither of these two hypotheses , held to exclude

the other . answers to the facts, but there is some

truth in both of them .

The menu of the seances— if the expression is per

missible— is a lways composed of one or two plats de

resi stance, carefully prepa red in advan ce in the sublimina l laboratories, and Of various hors d ’

oeuvr es

left to the inspira tion of the moment . To speakmore exactly, the genera l plot, the chief lines and

more striking points of the scenes wh ich unfold them

selves are fixed according to a previous arrange

ment, but the deta ils of execution and accessory

embellishments are en tirely dependent upon chance

circumstances . The proof of th is is found, on the

one hand, in the suppleness , the perfect ea se, the ap

propriateness with wh ich Helene’

s automatisms— if

we can still apply the word automa tism to those ca ses

in wh ich spontaneity,self- possession , free u se of a ll

the faculties constitute the dominant characteristics— often adapt themselves to unexpected situations

in the environmen t or capricious in terruptions on

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

the part of the sitters ; on the other hand , in the

fact that Leopold, interroga ted at the beginn ing of

the seance, ordinarily knows very well and announ

ces the principa l vision or in carna tions whi ch are

about to make their appearanc e, provided , at lea st,the spectators do not h inder their unfolding by theirtempestuous clamor for someth ing else .

The an imated conversations , sometimes full of spirited repartee, between Leopold or Marie Antoinetteand the sitters, could not have been prepared in ad

van ce, and are a ltogether Opposed to the stereotypedrepetition whi ch is genera lly expected of automa ticphenomena . But

,on the other hand, such repetition ,

a lmost en tirely mechanica l and devoid of sense, presents itself on frequent occasions . I have, for instance, seen somnambulistic scenes presented whichwere entirely mi splaced , and con stituted at the timeveritable anachr onisms , whi ch would have perfectlyfitted the situation eight days previously in anotherenvironment, and for wh ich the a foresa id scenes hadbeen evidently intended ; but, having been withhelduntil the last moment by un foreseen circumstances ,the following seance gets the benefit of these postponed messages .

Here is proof tha t Helene’s sublimina l imaginationprepares up to a certa in poin t her principa l productions, in View of the conditions and surroundings under which the seancewill probably take place, and a lsothat these products, once elaborated

,must be elim

inated and poured forth with a sort of blind necessity,

at the right or the wrong time, whenever the entranceof Hélene into a favorable hypnoid state furnishes

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MLLE . SMITH SINCE HER INITIATION

them an Opportun ity so to do . It follows a lso thather norma l persona li ty has nothing wha tever to dowith the prepa ration of the sean ces, since she can

neither suppress nor change scenes badly adaptedto the actua l environment , the appearance of wh ichsometimes greatly annoys Mlle . Smi th when they arerecoun ted to her a fter the sean ce ; nor can she provokethe messages, the production of wh ich she desires

and vain ly hopes for— as , for example, a medica l con

su ltation with Leopo ld , the incarnation of a deceasedparent, or a scene from one cycle ra ther than from theothers , for the benefit of a sitter who particularly de

sires it, and whom she is very desirous to please.

Much more could be sa id con cerning the psycho

logica l side Of the sean ces of Mlle . Smith , but I mustlimit myself . It will be possible to ga in a more com

plete idea of th is subject by studying the illustrations

in the following chapters on the chief cycles of her

brillian t sublimina l fantasy .

CHAPTER IV

THE PERSONALITY OF LEOPOLD

S Leopold rea lly Joseph Ba lsamo , as he pretends ?

Or,since he has noth ing in common with the

famous thaumaturgist of the last cen tury, save

a certa in superficia l resemblance, is he, at any rate,a rea l being ,

separate from, and independent of, Mlle.

Smith Or,

fina lly, is he on ly a pseudo - rea lity, a

kind of a llotropic modification of Helene herself, a

product of her sublimina l imagination , just like our

dream creations and the roles suggested to a hypnoticsubjectOf these three suppositions it is the last which to

my mind is undoubtedly the true one, wh i le in Mlle.

Smith ’s eyes it is as certain ly the fa lse View . Itwould be hard to imagine a more profound difference of opin ion than tha t wh ich exists between Mlle.

Smith and myself on th is subject . It is I, a lways,

who get the worst of a discussion with her concerning it . I yield for two reasons . First

,out of polite

ness and, secondly, because I understand Hélene perfectly ,

and, putting myself in her place, rea lize thatI should think exactly as she does about the ma tter .Given her surroundings and persona l experiences

,

it is impossible for her to do otherwise than believe76

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speaks for her in a way she would have no idea of

doing, he dictates to her poems of wh ich she would be

incapable . He replies to her ora l or menta l questions ,converses with her , and discusses va rious questions .

Like a wise friend, a ra tiona l mentor, and as one

seeing things from a hi gher plane, he gives her ad

vice, counsel, orders even sometimes directly opposite to her wishes and against whi ch she rebels .

He consoles her , exhorts her , soothes, encourages,and reprimands her ; he undertakes aga in st her the

defence of persons she does not like, and pleads thecause of those who are an tipathetic to her . In a

word,it would be impossible to imagine a being more

independent or more differen t from Mlle . Smith herself, having a more persona l character , an individua lity more marked, or a more certa in actua l existence.

Hélene is a lso fortified in thi s conviction by thebelief noton ly of members of her own family, but bythat of other cultivated people who,

having a ttendedmany of her seances, have no doubt wha tever of Leo!

pold’

s Objective and separate existence . There are

those who believe so firmly in the rea lity of th is superior being, invisible to them, that they are in the habitof calling upon him during the absence of Mlle . Smith .

Natura lly they obta in responses, thr ough the table or

otherwise, and that causes unforeseen complicationssometimes when she comes to learn of it . For wh ileshe admits theoretica lly— and Leopold h imself hasoften declared the same thi ng— tha t he extends hi ssurveillance and protection from a far over otherspiritistic groups, and especia lly over a ll Hélene

’

s

friends and acquaintances, in practice and in fact,78

THE PERSONALITY OFLEOPOLD

however, it happens that neither he nor she will willing ly admit the authen ticity of those pretended commun ication s from Leopold obtained in the absence ofthe medium of hi s predi lection . It is genera lly some

deceiving spirit who has manifested in his placeon these occasions . These den ia ls , however, do notpreven t those who have become believers from con

tinu ing to believe in the omn ipresence of this goodgen ius , or from teach ing their ch i ldren to revere him ,

to make vows and address prayers to h im . It mustnot be forgotten tha t spiritism is a religion . Thi sa lso expla ins the grea t respect shown to mediums,whi ch is like tha t accorded to priests .

It follows tha t , without in the least refra in ing from

speaking il l Of them whenever they th ink they havea grievance aga inst them, on the other hand theybestow on them the same marks of respect as are on lyaccorded to the most sublime product of the humanrace .

I have known a sa lon where, on the centre table, infull view and in the place of honor , were two photographs in beautiful frames on the one side the headof Christ, on the other the portra it Of— Mlle. Helene

Smith . Among other beli evers , with less idea l butmore practica l a spirations , no business matter of im

portance is closed , no serious decision made, unti l

Leopold has been consulted through Helene as an

in termediary, and the cases a re too numerous to

men tion in wh ich he has furn ished important in

forma tion ,preven ted a heavy precuniary loss, given

an efficacious medica l prescription ,etc .

It is easily seen how a ll the successes obtained by79

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Leopold, and the mystica l veneration whi ch many

very estimable persons accord him , must con tributeto strengthen the fa ith of Hélene in her a ll- powerfulprotector . It is in vain that, aga inst this abso luteassurance, one seeks to avail one

’

s self Of the a rguments Of contemporary psychology . The exampleof the fictions of the dream, the ana logies taken fromhypnotism and from psychopathology, considerations of menta l disintegration , the division of theconsciousness and the formation of second persona lities , a ll these refined subtleties of our modern sci

entists break in pieces like glass aga inst immovablerock . I sha ll not undertake to combat a proposition which , for her, has in contestably so much evi

dence in its favor, and wh ich resolves a ll difficultiesin the most felicitous manner and in conformity togood common - sense.

Nevertheless , since each individua l has a right tohis own Opinion in the world

,I beg leave to assume,

for the time being , that Leopold does not exist outsideof Mlle. Smith , and

'

to try to discover his possiblegenesis in the men ta l life of the latter— so lely by hypothesis and by means of psychologica l experiment .Therefore, readers who have li ttle taste for th is kindof academic composition had better skip th is chapter.

I . PSYCHOGENESIS OF LEOPOLD

A description of the development Of Leopold is noteasy, since he has a double origin

, apparent and

rea l, like the crania l nerves which give so muchtrouble to the students of ana tomy .

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lene and her spiritistic group aga inst the invasion

of an intruder ca lled Leopold , who cla ims and manifests an increasing authority over the medium byvirtue of mysterious relations in the course of a pre

viou s existence ; fina lly, the present period, wh ichhas lasted for six years past, in whi ch Victor Hugono longer figures, and whi ch may be da ted approximately from the moment when it was revea led thatLeopold is on ly an assumed name, under wh ich heh ides in rea li ty the great persona lity of Joseph Ba lsamo .

I do not find any fact worthy of mention in the

first phase, in which Victor Hugo, who seems to haveappeared as the guide of M lle . Smith about the I stof April, 1892 (see above, p . played a rOle of noimportance . In the second phase, however, it isnecessary to cite some extracts from the reports ofthe seances of the N . group, in order to throw lightupon the singular character wh ich Leopold manifested there from the beginn ing .

August 26, 1892 .

— “

A spirit announ ces h imselfunder the name of Leopold . He comes for Mlle.

Smith , and seems to wish to have a grea t authorityover her . She sees him for some moments , he appears to be about thi rty- five years of age, and is

clothed a ltogether in black . The expression of hiscountenance is rather pleasing

, and through an

swers to some questions wh ich we put to h im we

are given to understand that he knew her in an

other existence, and that he does not wish her to

give her heart to any one here below Mlle .Smith

recognizes her guide, Victor Hugo . She is made82

THE PERSONALITY OF LEOPOLD

happy by his a rriva l, and a sks his protectionaga inst the obsession of thi s new spirit

. He an~swers that she has noth ing to fear

,tha t he wil l

a lways be presen t . She is joyful at being gua rdedand protected by h im , and feels tha t she has nothing to fear .

September 2 Leopold comes a lso,but Mlle .

Smith fears noth ing, since her guide (Victor Hugo)is there to protect her .

September 23 . An unpleasan t even ing .

A spirit announces himself . It is Leopold . He

speaks to us at on ce :‘

I am here . I wish to be

ma ster of th is sitting .

’ We are very much disap

pointed , and do not expect any good Of him . He

tries , as he had a lready done once before, to putMlle . Smith to sleep , who has great difficulty in struggling aga inst thi s sleep . She rises from the table,hoping by th is means to rid herself of h im , and thathe will give up his place to others . She returns inabout ten minutes, but he is still there, and appar

en tly has no in ten tion Of abandoning h is place . We

summon our friends (spiritua l) to ou r a id . They

take Leopold’s place momenta rily , but very soon Leo

pold returns ; we struggle with him ,we desire h im to

go away,but neither soft nor hard words have any

effect ; before that dogged determination we rea lize

that all our efforts will be useless, and we decide to

c lose the seance .

”

October 3 . [Man ifestation by the favorite spir

its of the group, who declare] tha t they have not

been able to come, as they would have liked to do ;that they were prevented by the spirit of Leopold,

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who is trying to in troduce h imself to us ; tha t we

should repulse him as much as possible, persuadedthat he does not come for any good end . I do not

know whether we sha ll be able to rid ourselves of

h im ,but we greatly fear tha t he wil l in j ure us and

retard our advancement .”

October 7“ Leopold announ ces h imself .

We try to reason with him ; we do not wish to forbid

his coming, but we a sk of h im tha t he sha ll come as

a friend to a ll, and n ot in the rOle of master: He is

not satisfied ; appears to bear much ma lice . We

trust he will come to have better feelings . He

shows himself, wa lks around the table, bows to us ,and salutes each one with his hand, and retires aga in ,

leaving hi s place to others .

October 14. [After a quarter of an hour of mo

tion less and silen t waiting in darkness around thetable Mlle. Smi th is questioned , and she is shakenin vain . ] She is a sleep . By the advice of personspresent we a llow her to remain asleep, when , at the

end Of five minutes , the table ra ises itself, a spirit

ann ounces himself . It is Victor Hugo ; we ask if hehas anything to say he answers y es , and spellsout Wake her ; do not allow her ever to sleep. We

.

try to do so. We are nervous about that sleep we

have great difficulty in awaken ing her .

”

January 6, 1893 . After twenty minutes of waiting, Leopold arrives, and, as is hi s habit, puts themedium to sleep for some minutes he torments us,and prevents our friends (disincarnate) from comingto the table. He vexes us in every way , and goescontrary to a ll our wishes . In presence of that ran

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Mlle.Smith on the 12th of December inaugurating

a new series of seances, with an en tirely different

spiritistic group organ ized by Prof . Cuendet. Here

Victor Hugo very ra rely appears, and never in the

r61e of guide, wh ich rOle is freely accorded , withoutobjection ,

to Leopold , whose rea l identity (Cagliostro)was no secret to any one in the new environment .It was , therefore, in the course of the year 1893, at a

period wh ich cannot be precisely determined from the

records, that the riva lry of these two persona litieswas terminated by the complete triumph of the sec

ond .

It follows from the preceding recita l tha t the ap

pearance of Leopold in seances of the N . group was

a phenomenon of man ifest contrast, of hostility, and

of antagonism towards that group .

It is a difficult and delicate ta sk to pronounce uponthe complex spirit Of an environment of wh ich one

was not a part, and in regard to wh ich one possesseson ly a few and not very concordant inciden ts . The

following, however, seem to be the factsThe N . group, much more numerous than is con

venient in seances of that kind , was composed of veryvaried elements . Alongside of serious believers wereordinarily some students who boarded with one ofthe ladies of the group, and who do not appear tohave felt the seriousness of spiritistic reunions.

That age has no mercy, and the profound siguification of the seances often escaped their superficialand frivolous intelligence . Under such condi tionsMlle. Smi th was inevitably compelled to experiencetwo contrary impressions . On the one hand, she per

86

THE PERSONALITY OF LEOPOLD

ceived herself admired , made much of, feted , as the

un riva lled medium , wh ich she rea lly was , and uponwhom the group depended for its existence on the

other hand , her secret instincts and hi gh persona ldignity could not but be offended by the familiaritiesto which she was exposed in thi s mixed environment .I regard the two riva l and successive guides Of

Hé lén e a s the expression of th is double sentiment .

If she had been brought up like an American woman,

or if her na ture had been a degree less fine, the frivolity Of the sean ces would undoubted ly have on ly givenmore wa rmth and brilli ancy to Victor Hugo insteadof wh ich , the victorious colors of Leopold are ra isedover a nature of great native pride,

extremely sen sitive on the poin t of femin ine dign ity, and whose se

vere and rigid education had a lready exa lted her

sense of self- respect . After a strugg le of a year be

tween these two person ifications Of Opposite emotiona l

tendencies, the second ,a s we have seen , fina lly tri~

umph s and Mlle . Smi th withdraws from the N .

group,wh ich at the same time breaks up .

The idea I have formed of Leopold is now appar

en t. He represen ts , to my mind , in Mlle . Smith , the

synthesis, the quintessence— and the expan sion ,too

of the most h idden springs of the psychologica l organ

ism. He gushes forth from that deep and my ste

riou s sphere in to wh ich the deepest roots Of ou r individua l existence are plunged ,

which bind us to the

species itself, and perhaps to theAbsolute, and when ce

confusedlv spring our instincts of physica l and mora l

self - preserva tion ,our sexua l feelings . When Helene

found herself in an environment not exactly dan87

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

gerou s , but where she simply ran the risk , as in the

N . group, of yielding to some inclination con trary to

her fundamenta l a spirations , it is then that Leopoldsudden ly springs up , speaking as the master , takingpossession of the medium for h imself, and indica tingh is unwillingness tha t she should a ttach herself toany one here below . We here recognize the same

principle of self - protection and self - preservationwh ich was a lready active in her as a young girl inthe teleologica l automatisms a rising on the occasionof certa in emotiona l shocks

,of wh ich I have spoken

on p . 25 .

But , by these consideration s , , we have travelledvery far from the origina l appearance of Leopold inthe seance of the 26th of August

, 1892, towa rds hi sactua l, more ancient origin . Th is seems to da te froma great fright wh ich Helene had in the course of hertenth year . As she was wa lking a long the street, onher way home from school, she wa s a ttacked by a bigdog . The terror of the poor child can well be imagined, and from which she was happily delivered bva personage c lothed in a long brown robe withflowing sleeves and with a wh ite cross on the breast , who,

appearing to her sudden ly and as by a mirac le,chased the dog away , and disappeared before she

had time to thank him . But, according to Leopold ,

th is personage was no other than h imself,who on

this occasion for the first time appeared to Helene,and saved her by driving away the dog .

Th is explanation was given by Leopold on the 6th

Of October , 1895 , in a seance in wh ich Helene expe

rienced, in a somnambulistic state, a repetition of88

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whi ch th is familiarity provoked, and hastened tomake his apologies but what is Of interest to us in

this connection is the fact tha t under the shock of

this emotion her defender of the brown robe appearedbefore her in the corner of the room, and did not leave

her side unti l she had rea ched home.

A short time ago thi s same protector, a lways in

the same costume, a ccompan ied her severa l days insuccession whi le she was traversing a little- frequentedpart of the route towards her place Of business . One

even ing, a lso, he appeared to her at the entrance to

the street leading to the loca lity in question , in the

a ttitude of barring the way , and obliged her to makea detour to rega in her house .

Mlle. Smith ha s the impression— and severa l indications go to show that she is not deceived— that it iswith thepurpose of sparing her some unpleasant sightor a dangerous encoun ter tha t Leopold , in the brownrobe, appears to her under perfectly well- known conditions . He rises before her a lways at a distance of

about ten yards , wa lks , or ra ther glides, a long in si

lence, at the same rate as she advances towards him,

a ttracting and fascina ting her gaze in such a manneras toprevent her turn ing her eyes away from h im eitherto the right or the left, until she has passed the placeof danger . It is to be noted tha t whereas Leopold,under other circumstances— for in stance, at the se

anoes— shows h imself to her in the most varied cos

tumes and speaks on a ll subjects,it is a lways under

his hieratic aspect, silent, and clothed in hi s long darkrobe, that he appears to her on those occasions of reallife in which she is exposed to feelings of fright pe

9°

THE PERSONALITY OF LEOPOLD

cu liar to her sex , as he appeared to her on that firstoccasion in her tenth year .The hints I have given sufficiently justify

,I th ink

,

my opin ion tha t the rea l and primordia l origin ofLeopold is to be found in tha t deep and delica tesphere in wh ich we so often encoun ter the roots ofhypnoid phenomena , and to wh ich the most i llustrious visionaries, such as Swedenborg

,seem to owe

a great part not on ly of the intellectua l content butof the imagina tive form , the ha llucinatory wrapping ,

of their gen ius . There is a double problem to be

solved in Mlle . Smith ’ s case . Why have these instinctive feelings and emotiona l tendencies wh ich

are common to the entire human race succeeded indeveloping in her a product so complex and h igh lyorgan ized as is the persona lity of Leopold ? and why ,

in the second place,‘ does that persona lity believe

itself to be Joseph Ba lsamo ?I instantly reply that these two resu lts are, to my

mind, enti rely the effect of autosuggestion . To

explain the first, the simple fact of her being occu

pied with spiritism and engaged in mediumistic ex

periments , is sufficient . Take any individua l hav

ing in her subconsciousness memories , scruples,emotiona l tenden cies , put in to her head spiritistic

lean ings, then sea t her at a table, or put a penci l

in her hand even though she may not be of a veryimpressionable or suggestible temperamen t, or in

c lined to the men ta l disintegration wh ich the genera l

See Lehmann's Auberg lauoe and Zauber ei

’

, p . 217 cl seq. Stutt

gart , 1898 .

9 I

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

public ca lls the mediumistic faculty, nevertheless,it will not be long

,before her sublimina l elemen ts

group themselves and arrange themselves accord

ing to the“ persona l form to wh ich a ll con scious

ness tends,* and which discloses itself outwa rdlyby commun ica tions whi ch have the appearance of

coming directly from disin carnate spirits .

In the case of Mlle. Smith , Leopold did not existunder the title Of a distinct secondary persona litybefore Hélene began to be occupied with spiritism .

It was at the seances of the N . group, by an emotiona l reaction aga in st certain influen ces , as we haveseen , tha t he began ,

little by little, to take shape,a ided by memories of the same genera l tone, un tilhe fina lly grew into an apparen tly independent being , revea ling h imself through the table, man ifesting a wi ll and a mind of his own ,

reca lling ana logous former incidents of Helene’s life, and c la imingfor h imself the merit of having in tervened in it in therOle of her protector .

Once estab lished, thi s secondary self could not

do otherwise than to grow, and to develop and

strengthen itself in a ll direction s, assimilating to

i tself a host of new data favoring the state of sug

gestibi lity which accompan ies the exercise of mediumship . Without the spiritism and the autohypnotization of the seances, Leopold could never havebeen truly developed into a persona lity

,but would

have continued to remain in the nebulous,inco

W. James, Thought Tends to Persona l Form . P r in ciples

of Psychology , vol . i . p . 225 et seq . New York,1890.

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of amateurs, now deceased, whose salon and round

table have held a very honorable place in the hi storyof Genevese occultism . But I learned from Mme . B .

that one of the disincarnate spirits who man ifested

h imself oftenest at the seances of M . and Mme. Badel

was th is very Joseph Ba lsamo . There is , indeed ,no figure in history whi ch accords better w ith the

idea of a posthumous return to the my steries of the

round table than that Of the en igma tic Sicilian ,

especia lly since Alexandre Dumas , pere, has surrounded him w ith an additiona l ha lo of romance .

Not con ten t with the public reun ions of the N .

group , Mme. B . often invited Helene to her house for

priva te seances , of which no record was made . At

one of these, Helene having had a Vision of Leopold,who pointed out to her with a wand a decanter, Mme.

B . sudden ly thought of a celebrated episode in the lifeof Cagliostro, and a fter the seance she proceeded totake from a drawer and show to Hélene an engravingtaken from an illustra ted edition of Duma s

,repre

sen ting the famous scene of the decanter between Ba lsamo and the Dauph in at the chateau of Taverney .

At the same time she gave utterance to the idea thatthe spiritwhoman ifested h imself atthe table bymeansof Hélene

’

s hands was certain ly Joseph Ba lsamoand she expressed her aston ishment that Helene hadgiven him the name of Leopo ld, to whi ch Helene re

plied that itwa s he h imself who had given tha t name.

Mme . B . , continuing her deductions , told Mlle. Smiththat perhaps she had formerly been themedium of thegreat magician , and consequently had been LorenzaFeliciani in a former li fe. Hélene at once accepted the

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THE PERSONALITY OF LEOPOLD

idea , and for severa l weeks considered herself to be thereincarnation of Lorenza , unti l one day a lady of her

acqua in tan ce remarked that it wa s impossible,Loren~

za Felic ian i having never existed save in the imagination and the romances of Alexandre Duma s

, pere.

Thus dispossessed of her supposed former existence,Helene wa s not long in dec laring through the tab lethat she was Marie An toinette . As to Leopo ld ,

a

short time a fterMme . B . had hy pothetica llv identified

him with Cag liostro , he h imse lf confirmed that hy

pothesis at a sean ce of the N . group , dictating to the

table that hi s rea l name was Joseph Ba lsamo .

The origin of the name of Leopo ld is very obscure,and many hypotheses have been advan ced to ac

coun t for it without ou r being able to establish any

of them with certainty .

One fact , however, is certa in ,namely , that save for

the vague a ffirma tion that he had known Helene in

a previous existence, Leopold had never pretended to

be Cag liostro, or given any reason for being thought

so,before the reun ion where Mme . B . , who had been

for some time accustomed to man ifestations of thatpersonage, announced the supposition and s howed

Mlle .Smith immedia tely a fter the seance (at a mo

men t when she was probably still in a very suggest

ible sta te) an engraving from Duma s’

works repre

senting Ba lsamo and the Dauph in . From that dayLeopold , on hi s part , never fa i led to c la im tha t per

sona li ty , and progressively to rea lize the chara cter of

the rOle in a very remarkable manner, as we sha ll see.

*A lexandre Dumas , pere, Memoi r s of a Phy sician , chap . xv.

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

II.PERSONIFICA T ION OF BALSAMO BY

LEOPOLD

There is no need, I th ink , to remind the reader of

the well- known fact— so often described under the

names of Objectivity of types, person ifica tion , change

of persona lity, etc— that a hypnotized subject can be

transformed by a word into such other living beingas may be desired , a ccording to the measure inwh ich h is suggestibility on the one hand and the

vividness of hi s imagina tion and the fulness of h isstored- up know ledge or memories on the other, emables him to fulfil the rOle wh ich is imposed uponhim . Without investigating here to what extentmediums may be likened to hypnotized subjects, itis unden iable that an ana logous phenomenon takesplace in them ; but the process is more gradua l, andmay extend itself over severa l years . In place of

the immediate metamorphosis wh ich modifies at onestroke and instantly, con formably to a prescribedtype, the attitude, the physiognomy, the gestures, thewords, the intonation s of voice, the style, the handwriting

,and other functions besides, we are, in the

case of the medium ,in the presence of a develop

ment formed by successive stages a rranged accord

ing to grades , with interva ls of different lengths,wh ich fina lly succeed in creating a complete persona lity, a ll the more aston ish ing , at first sight, because the involuntary suggestions have not beennoticed , the accumulation s of which have little by

li ttle caused its birth . Th is process of developmen t

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that of Louis XVI ,under the different phases of

his multiplex gen ius . He a lso showed himself to

her in his laboratory,surrounded by utensi ls and

instruments appropriate to the sorcerer and alchemist tha t he was ; or , aga in ,

as the physician and pos

sessor of secret elixirs, the knowledge of wh ich isproductive of consulta tions or remedies for the u se

of sitters who need them ; or, again ,as the illu

mined theosoph ist, the verbose prophet of the broth

erhood of man ,who diffuses limping Alexandrine

verses — which seem to have been inherited from

h is predecessor, Victor Hugo— con ta in ing exhorta

tions a little weak at times , but a lways stamped with

a pure mora l tone, elevated and noble sen timents ,and a very touch ing religious spirit— in short, a fine

example Of that ethico- deific verbiage (if I may be

allowed the expression , wh ich is an Americanism) ,whi ch

,both in prose and in verse, is one of the most

frequent and estimable produ cts Of mediumsh ip .

But it was not un til 1895 that Leopold, benefitingby the progress made by the automa tic phenomenain Helene, multiplied and perfected his processesof commun ication . The first step consisted in sub~

stituting , in hi s dictations by spelling , the movements of the hand or of a single finger for those of

the whole table . This was the immediate result of

a suggestion Of mine .

The second step in advance wa s the handwriting,whi ch shows two stages . In the first

,Leopold gave

Helene the impression of a phrase (verbo—visual hallucination ) , whi ch she copied in pencil on a sheet

of paper, in her own handwriting . The second,98

THE PERSONALITY OF LEOPOLD

9a n71of cl ar et} ,Jal’

w if

JDLVrOL’

J - fi2 foetu cefa fifu f d"

for?fit 07 063 - ff

'

c C7c! ! {CI fiemé a

’an f

c l'

m'

l’

zj an é Cf?

fi rmC72 {Jean e En cr 972 a

m enu 147flom /ooeoza'm .) demo) ou t?Z‘

e gee'

C'cc'709 u c

'

Ct.

e el”con fi rm"

e d ru id f ee d 'Efi e d'

cm e gran der

e‘

f docj m'

afemzm d c dedu ced/a

Fig. 3. Handwriting ofLeopold . F ragments of two letters , one in Alexandrina verse,the other in prose. entirely in the hand of Leopold , automatically written by Mlle.

Smith in spontaneous hemisomnambulism.

Fig. 4. Normal handwri ting of Mlle. Smith.

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wh ich was on ly accomplished five months later,and whi ch consisted in writing directly with Hé

lene’s hand, permitted the immediate establishment

of three curious facts . One is , that Leopold holdshis pen in the usua l manner, the handle resting between the thumb and the index- finger , wh ile Helene,in writing, a lways holds her pen—handle or pencilbetween the index and middle fingers, a very rarehabit with us . The next is that Leopold ha s an

entirely differen t handwriting from tha t of Hélene,calligraphy more regula r , larger , more pa instak

ing ,and with marked differences in the formation

of the letters (see Figs . 3 and The th ird isthat he uses the style Of handwriting of the last century

,and puts an 0 instead of an a in the tenses of

the verbs , j’

amois, for j’

ama is , etc . These threecharacteristics he has never departed from duringall the four years that I have been accumulatingspecimens of h is handwriting .

The following is a résumé of the seances at whi chthese two innova tions took place.

April 2 1 , 1895 .

— As I had just asked Leopold a

question wh ich he did not like, Helene, being in a

state of hemisomnambu lism , with a pen cil and somesheets of paper placed before her

,in the hope of ob

tain ing some commun ication (not from Leopold) ,seemed about to plunge into a very interesting peru

sal of one of the blank sheets then , at my request,wh ich she with difficulty comprehended, she commenced to write rapidly and nervously on another

sheet, in her usual handwriting, a copy of the im

aginary text which Leopold was showing her100

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tence of anger . She persisted in holding it between

the index and middle fingers , as was her won t, whi le

Leopold wanted her to hold it in the usual way , be

tween the thumb and the index - finger , and sa id :“

Ido not wish her to she is holding the pencilvery badly . The right index finger then wentthrough a very comical gymnastic performan ce, being seized with a tremor , which caused her to place

it on one side or the other of the pencil , according towhether it was Leopold or Hélene who was victori

ous during this time she frequentlv ra ised her eyes,with a look sometimes reproachful , sometimes supplicating, as if to gaze at Leopold standing by herside endeavoring to force her to hold the pencil inthe

‘

manner he preferred . After a con test of nearlytwenty minutes , Hélene,

vanquished and completelysubdued by Leopold, seemed to be absen t, wh ile herhand, holding the pen cil in the manner she did not

like , wrote slowly the two following lines, followed bya rapid and feverish signa ture of Leopold

Mes vers sont s i m auvais que pou r tO i -j'au rois d i)

La isser a tout j ama is lo poete tetu .

— LEOPOLD .

"

An allusion , wh ich was of no importance, to a re

mark made by me at the commencemen t of the se

ance on the verses of Victor Hugo and those of Leopold frequently dictated by the table . The seancelasted some time longer ; on awaken ing

,Helene

vaguely remembered having seen Leopold,but knew

nothing more concern ing the handwriting scene .

It is a fact that while her other inca rnations are

always accomplished passively and without any102

THE PERSONALITY OF LEOPOLD

struggle, that of Leopold has the peculiarity of regularly provoking more or less resistance on the partof Hélene. I do not make of her all that I wish

she is headstrong . I do not know whetherI shall succeed . I do not believe I can ma sterher tod ay replies he Often when asked to incarna te h imself or write with her hand, and, indeed ,hi s efforts often fail . There exists between Heleneand her guide a curious phenomenon of contrast andOpposition, wh ich only breaks out in the hi gher andmore recent forms of motor automa tism, the handwriting, the speech , or the complete incarnation ,

butfrom wh ich the sensory messages and simple rapson the table or of the finger are free. It is very pos

sible tha t the idea , very an tipathetic to Helene, of

the hypnotizer mastering hi s subjects in spite Ofthemselves— of the disincarnated Cagliostro using hismedium as a simple tool —has been subconsciously

the origin of th is constant note of revolt aga in st thetota l domina tion of Leopold, and of the intense suffering whi ch accompanied hi s first incarnations, and

wh ich has slowly dimini shed through her becomingaccustomed to the process, though it has never been

completely banished .

After the handwriting , in its turn came speech ,

which also was atta ined by means of two stages .

In a first attempt Leopold on ly succeeded in givingHelene hi s intona tion and pronunciation a fter a

sean ce in whi ch she suffered acutely in her mouth

and in her neck, as though her vocal organ s were

being man ipulated or removed ; she began to talk

in a natural tone, and was apparently wide awake103

FROM INDIA T0 THE PLANET MARS

and feeling well , but spoke with a deep bass voice,and a strong , easily recogn izable Italian accent . It

was not un til a year later that Leopold was final ly

able to speak h imself by the mouth of Mlle. Smi th ,

wh ile she wa s completely en tranced , and who did notretain on awakening any memory of this strange oc

currence. Since then the complete control of themedium by her guide is a frequent occurrence at

the seances, and a ffords a tableau very characteristic and a lways impressive .

Leopold succeeds in inca rnating himself only by

slow degrees and progressive stages . Helene thenfeels as though her arms had been seized , or as if theywere absen t a ltogether ; then she complains of dis

agreeable sensations, wh ich were formerly pa inful , inher throat, the nape of her neck , and in her head her

eyelids droop her expression changes her throatswells into a sort of double chin , which gives her a

likeness of some sort to the well - known figure of

Cagliostro . All at once she rises, then ,turn ing

slowly towards the sitter whom Leopold is about toaddress , draws herself up proudly, turns her backquickly, sometimes with her a rms crossed on her

breast with a magisterial air, sometimes with one

of them hanging down wh ile the other is pointedsolemnly towards heaven , and with her fingers makesa sort of masonic sign , whi ch never varies . Soonafter a series of hi ccoughs, sighs, and va rious noisesindicate the difficulty Leopold is experien cing in taking hold of the vocal apparatus the words came forthslowly but strong the deep bass voice of a man ,

slightly confused, with a pronunciation and accentIo4

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self that when she incarnates her guide she rea llyassumes a certa in resemblance of features to him,

and there is something in her a ttitude whi ch is some

times somewhat theatrical, but sometimes really majestic , whi ch corresponds well to the genera lly receivedidea of th is personage, whether he is regarded as a

clever impostor or as a wonderful gen ius .

Speech is the apogee of the incarna tions of Leopoldoften interrupted by fits of h iccoughs and spasms,it seems to be in j urious to Helene

’

s organ ism, and

there are some seances at whi ch attempts to produceit fa il to succeed . Leopold , on these occasions , indicates his impotence and the fa tigue of the mediumby his gestures , and is then reduced to the necessityof expressing himself by digital dictations or handwriting, or else to gi ving Helene verbo—auditive hallucinations , the con tent of whi ch she repea ts in hernatural voice.

From the point of View of ease and mobility of theentire organ ism, there is a notable difference betweenLeopold and the other incarnations of Hélene theselast seem to be effected with much more facility thanin the case of that of her guide par excellence. In

the case of the Hindoo princess and tha t of MarieAntoinette, the perfection of the play, the supplenessand freedom of movement, are always admirable . Itis true there is no question here, according to thespiritistic doctrine and the subcon scious idea s ofMlle.

Smith , of incarnations properly so called , since it

duced . Ml le . Smith has hanging over her fi replace a

'

nne copy

of th is portrait.

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THE PERSONALITY OF LEOPOLD

is she herself who simply returns to that whi ch she

formerly was, by a sort of reversion or prena talecmnesia ; she does not undergo

, in consequence,any foreign possession , and can in these roles preserve her natural iden tity and the entire dispositionof her faculties . But still the occasional incarnation of different personalities , such as those of de

ceased parents or friends of the spectators, are oftenmore easily and quickly effected than that of Leopold .

Helene moves in these cases with more vivacity and

changes of attitude. In the role of Cagliostro, on theother hand, with the exception of the grandiose and

not very frequen t movemen ts of the arms , once standing , she rema in s motion less , or only with difficul tyadvancing a little way towards the person to whomshe addresses her discourse .

The conten t of the ora l conversations of Leopold,as well as of his other messages by the various sen

sory and motor processes , is too varied for me todescribe here the numerous examples scatteredth rough thi s work on ly can give an idea of it .

III . LEOPOLD AND THE TRUE JOSEPHBALSAMO

It would natural ly be supposed that Leopold wouldhave given us, by means of the psychological per

fection of his partial or total inca rnations and by the

content of hi s messages , such a living likeness of

Cagliostro that there would have been occasion to

ask whether it is not rea lly the latter who actual ly“ returns, in the same way that Dr . Hodgson and his

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colleagues ask themselves whether it is not actuallyGeorge Pelham who man ifests himself through Mrs.Piper. Let us suppose, for example, that Leopoldpossessed a handwriting, an orthography, a styleidentical with that which is found here and there inthe manuscripts of Joseph Ba lsamo that he spokeFrench ,

Italian, or German , as that cosmopolitan ad

venturer did, and with al l the same peculiarities ;that h is conversa tions and messages were full of

precise allusions to actua l events in his life, and

also of unpublished but verifiable facts, etc . In thatca se the difficult and delicate task of proving thatNflle . Smith had no knowledge through normalmethods of these thousand exact features would stillremain

, and we shou ld not be forced to ask whetherthis soi—d i sant authentic revenant is simply a verywell - gotten - up simulacrum,

an admirable reconstruetion , a marvellous imitation , such as the subliminalfaculties are only too glad to produce for the diversion of psychologists and the mystification of the

simple.

Thi s problem is not given to us . I regret it, butit is true, nevertheless— to my mind

, at least, forin these matters it is prudent to speak only for one’sself— that there is no reason to suspect the rea l presence of Joseph Balsamo beh ind the automatismsof Mlle. Smith .

That there are very curious ana logies betweenwhat is known to us of Cagliostro and certa in characteri stic tra its of Leopold, I do not deny, but they are

precisely such as accord very wel l with the suppositiou of the subliminal medley .

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Let u s consider first the handwriting . To facilita te the comparison ,

I have reproduced here (see pp .

109 and III) some fragments of letters of Cagliostro

and of Leopold and of Helene . Let us suppose

whi ch is , perhaps , open to discussion— tha t the

handwriting of Leopold, by its regularity, its firm

ness, resembles that of Balsamo more than that

of Ml le. Smith the degree of resemblance does not,I think

, go beyond that whi ch might be expected

considering the notorious fact tha t handwritingreflects the psychologica l temperamen t and modifiesitself in accordan ce with the sta te of the persona lity .

It is well known how the calligraphy of a hyno

tized subject varies according to the suggestion

tha t he shall persona te Napoleon , Ha rpagon , a l ittle girl , or an old man there is nothing surprisingin the fact tha t the hypnoid secondary persona lityof Helene, whi ch imagines itself to be the powerfuland manly Count of Cagliostro, should be aecom

pan ied by muscular tensions commun ica ting to thehandwriting itself a little of tha t solidity and breadthwhich are found in the autograph of Balsamo . To

th is, however, the analogy is limited . The dissimi

larities in the deta il and the formation of the lettersare such tha t the only conclusion wh ich they warran t is that Mlle . Smith , or her subcon sciousness,has never la id eyes on the manuscripts of Cagliostro .

They are, indeed, rare, but the facilities she might

have had, of whi ch she has not thought of taking

See , e.g . , Ferrari , H ericourt, and Richet, Persona l ity and

Handwriting , Revuephi lowplzz'

que, vol . xxi . p . 414.

n o

THE PERSONALITY OF LEOPOLD

U y

III

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advan tage, for consulting in the Geneva public li

brary the same volume from wh ich I took Fig . 5,

would prove, at least , her good fa ith and her hon

esty, if it were in the least necessa ry . The extrav

agant signature of Leopold with wh ich a ll his mes

sages are subscribed (see Fig . 7) recalls in no wise that

of Alessandro di Cagliostro at the bottom of Fig . 5 .

The archaic forms of orthography, j’

au rois for

j’

aura is, etc . ,wh ich appear above the first auto

graph of Leopold (see p . and wh ich occur aga in

in the messages of Marie An toinette, constitute a

very pretty hit, of which the ordinary self wouldprobably never dream by way of voluntary imita

tion ,but by wh ich the subcon scious imagination

has seen fit to ,profit. It is undoubtedly a ma tter

for wonderment tha t Mlle. Smith ,who has not gone

very deep into literary studies , should , neverthe

less, have reta ined these orthographic peculiarities

of the eighteenth century ; but we must not overlook the fineness of choice, the refined sen sibility,the consumma te, albeit instin ctive, art which pre

sides over the sorting and storing away of the subconscious memories . By some natural affi n ity, the ideaof a personage of a certain epoch a ttracts and gath

ers in to its net everyth ing that the subject can possibly learn or hear spoken concern ing the fashi onof writing, of speaking , or acting , peculiar to thatepoch . I do not know whether Balsamo ever usedthe French language and the orthography that Leopold employs . Even if he did, it would not weakenthe hypothesis of the subliminal imita tion

,but if

,

on the other hand, it should be ascerta ined that he1 12

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to the questions put to him concern ing his terrestrial life. These answers are remarkably evasive

or vague. Not a name, not a date, not a precisefact does he furn ish . We only learn that he hastravelled extensively,

suffered grea tly, studied deep

ly ,done much good, and heal ed a great many sick

folk but now he sees th ings too lofty to think any

more about h istoric deta ils of the past, and it iswith uncon cealed disgust or direc t words of re

proach for the idle curiosity of his carnal questionersthat he hasten s to turn the conversation , l ike Socrates , to moral subjects and those of a lofty philosophy ,

where he feels evidently more at ease. Whenhe is further pressed he becomes angry sometimes,and sometimes ingenuously avows his ignorance,enveloping it meanwh ile in an a ir of profound mystery . They are asking the secret of my life, of myacts, of my thoughts . I cannot an swer.” Thi s doesnot facilitate investigation of the question of identity .

In the second place come the consultations and

medical prescriptions . Leopold a ffects a lofty disda in for modern medicine and phenic acid . He is

as archaic in his therapeutics as in his orthography,and treats all maladies a fter the an cient mode . Bathsof pressed grape- ski ns for rheumatism

, an infusionof coltsfoot and jun iper — berry in whi te wine forinflammations of the chest, the bark of the horsechestnut in red wine and douches of salt water as

tonics, tisanes of hops and other flowers , camomile,oil of lavender, the leaves of the a sh

, etc . all thesedo not accord badly with what Balsamo mighthave prescribed a century or more ago . The mis

1 14

THE PERSONALITY OF LEOPOLD

fortune, from the evidentia l point of View ,is that

Mlle. Smi th ’s mother is extremely well versed in all

the resources of popula r medicine where old recipesare perpetuated . She has had occasion to nursemany sick people in her life, knows the virtues ofdifferen t medicinal plants , and constantly employs ,with a sagacity which I have often admired , a num

ber of those remedies spoken of as old - women ’s ,whi ch make the young doctors fresh from the clin icsmile, but to whi ch they will more than once resort

in secret a fter a few y ears of medical experience.

Finally ,there still remain the sen timents of Leo

pold for Helene, wh ich he cla ims are only the con

tinuation of those of Cagliostro for Marie Antoinette.

My ignorance of hi story does not permit me to pro

noun ce categorically on th is point . That the Queen

of Fran ce did have some secret interviews with the

famous gold- maker ,”du e to simple curiosity or to

questions of materia l interest, there is no doubt , I

believe ; but tha t h is feelings for h is sovereign were

a curious combination of the despa iring passion of

Ca rdina l Rohan for the queen , with the absolute re

spect which Al exandre Dumas , pere, a scribes to Jo

seph Balsamo towards Lorenza Felician i , appears to

me less evident .

In short , if the revela tions of Leopold have truly

unveiled to us shades of feeling of Coun t Cagliostro

h itherto un suspected , and of wh ich later documen

ta ry resea rches shall confirm the hi storic correctness— why ,

so much the better, for that will finally estab

lish a trace of the supernormal in the mediumsh ip of

Hélene lI 15

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IV.LEOPOLD AND MLLE. SMITH

The connection between these two personal ities

is too complex for a precise descripti on. There isneither a mutual exclusion , as between Mrs . Piper

and Phinu it, who appea r reciproca lly to be ignorantof each other and to be separa ted by the tigh test

of partitions ; nor a simple jointing, as in the case of

Felida X. ,whose secondary sta te envelops and over

flows the whole primary state. This is more of a

crossing of lines, but of wh ich the limits are vagueand with difficulty assignable. Leopold knows, foresees, and recalls very many th ings of wh ich the normal personality of Mlle . Smith knows absolutelynothing, not only of those whi ch she may simplyhave forgotten , but of those of whi ch she never hadany consciousness . On the other hand, he is farfrom possessing a ll the memories of Helene he is

ignorant of a very great part of her da ily life evensome very notable inciden ts escape him entirely,whi ch explains his way of saying that, t o his greatregret, he cannot rema in constantly by her, beingobliged to occupy himsel f with other mi ssions (concern ing wh ich he has never enl ightened us) wh ichobl ige him often to leave her for a time.

These two personal ities are, therefore, not co- ex

tensive each one passes beyond the other at certainpoints, without its being possible for u s to say whichis, on the whole, the more extended . As to theircommon domain , if it cannot be defined by one wordwith entire certa inty, it appears , nevertheless, to be

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in two, it is doubtful whether th is plura lity is more

than apparent . I am not positive of having ever

established with Helene a veritable simultaneity of

different consciousnesses . At the very moment

at whi ch Leopold writes by her hand , speaks by her

mouth,dictates to the table, upon observing her at

tentively I have always found her absorbed , pre

occupied, as though absen t but she instantaneous

ly recovers her presence of mind and the u se of her

waking faculties at the end of the motor automa

tism . In short , tha t wh ich from the outside is takenfor the coexistence of distinct simultaneous person

alities seems to me to be only an a lterna tion , a rapidsuccession between the state of Helene - consciousness and the state of Leopold - consciousness ; and,

in the case where the body seems to be jointly oc

cupied by two independent beings— the right side,

for instan ce, being occupied by Leopold, and the

left by Hélene, or the Hindoo prin cess— the psych icaldivision has never seemed to me to be radical , butmany indica tions have combined to make me of theopin ion tha t beh ind all was an individua l ity per

fectly self- conscious, and en joying thoroughly , a longwith the specta tors , the comedy of the plural existences .

A single fundamen ta l personal itv ,putting the

questions and giving the answers,qua rrell ing with

itself in its own interior— in a word, enacting all the

various r61es of Mlle . Smith—~is a fitting in terpretation, which accords very well with the facts as I haveobserved them in Hélene, and very much better thanthe theorv of a plurality of separate con sciousness

1 18

THE PERSONALITY OF LEOPOLD

es, of a psychological polyzoism,so to speak .

Th is

la st theory is doubtless more conven ient for a clearand superficial description of the facts, but I am not

at all convin ced tha t it conforms to the actual condition of affa irs .

It is a state of consciousness su i gener is, which itis impossible adequa tely to describe, and which can

on ly be represented by the ana logy of those curiousstates, exceptional in the norma l waking life, butless rare in dreams , when one seems to change hisiden tity and become some one else.

Hélene has more than on ce told me of having hadthe impression of becoming or being momentarilv

Leopold . This happens most frequen tly at night,or upon awakeni ng in the morn ing . She has firsta fugitive vision of her protector then it seems thatlittle by little he is submerged in her ; she feels himovercoming and penetrating her en tire organ ism, as

if he rea lly became her or she him . These mixed

sta tes are extremely interesting to the psychologist ;unhappily ,

because they general ly take place in a

condition of consecutive amnesia , or because the

mediums do not know how ,or do not wish , to give a

complete account of them ,it is very rare that detailed

descriptions are obta ined .

Between the two extremes of complete dual ity and

complete un ity numerous intermediate states are to

be observed ; or , at least , since the con sciousness of

another cannot be directly penetra ted , these mixed

states may be in ferred from the consequences whi ch

spring from them .

It has happened , for example, that , believing they1 19

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

were dealing with Leopold alone, thorough ly incar

nated and duly substituted for the persona lity ofMlle . Smith , the sitters have a llowed to escape them

on that account some ill - timed pleasantry, some indiscreet question or too free criticisms, all innocen t

enough and without evil intention , but still of a nat

ure to wound Helene if she had heard them,and from

wh ich the authors would certa inly have absta ined inher presence in a waking state.

Leopold has not stood upon ceremony in puttingdown these imprudent babblers , and the incident,generally, ha s had no further consequen ces . Butsometimes the words and bearing ofMl le. Smi th fordays or weeks afterwards show that she was awareof the imprudent remarks, wh ich proves that the con

sciou sness of Leopold and her own are not separatedbv an impenetrable barrier, but tha t osmotic changesare effected from the one to the other . It is ordinar

ily poin ted and irritating remarks wh ich cause thetrouble, wh ich goes to prove tha t it is the feelings ofself- love or persona l susceptibility tha t form in eachone of us the inmost fortifica tions of the social self,and are the last to be destroyed by somnambulism

,or

that they constitute the fundamental substra tum, the

common base by wh ich Leopold andMl le .Smith form

a whole and mingle themselves in the same individuality .

The psychological process of th is transmission isvaried from another cause. Sometimes it appearsthat the consecutive amnesia of the trance has beenbroken as to themost piquant details

, and that Héleneclearly remembers that which has been sa id

,in the

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It is the lungs it is da rker it is one

side whi ch has been affected You say that it

is a severe inflammation— and can that be healed ?Tell me, what must be done Oh , where have

I seen any of these plants I don’

t know whatthey are ca lled those I don ’t understandvery well those synantherous ? Oh , whata queer name . Where are they to be found ?

You say it belongs to the family of thenit has another name Tell me wha t it is sometissnlages [sic ] Then you think thi s plant is goodfor him ? Ah ! but expla in thi s to me the

fresh leaves or the dried flowers ? Three times a day ,

a large handful in a pin t and then honey andmi lk . I will tel l h im that he must drink threecups a day etc . Then followed very deta ileddirections as to treatmen t

,various infusions, blis

ters, etc . The whole scene lasted more than an

hour, followed by complete amnesia , and nothingwas said to Helene about it, as it was ha lf- past sixin the even ing, and she was in haste to return home .

The next day she wrote me a seven - page letter inwhich she described a very strik ng dream she had

had during the night . I fell asleep about twoo’

clock in the morn ing and awaked at about five .

Was it a vision Was it a dream I had ? I don ’treally know wha t to consider it and dare not say ;but thi s I do know, I saw my dear friend Leopold

,

who spoke to me a long time about you, and I th ink

I saw you also . I asked h im what he thought ofyour state of health . He replied that in hisOpinion itwas far from re—established . Tha t the pa in

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THE PERSONALITY OF LEOPOLD

you feel in the right s ide came from an inflamma

tion of the lung wh ich has been seriously affected

You will doubtless laugh when I tell you thathe a lso described the remedies you ought to take .

One of them is a simple plant, which is called ,

as nearly as I can remember,Tissu lage or Tussi lache,

but has a lso another name, wh ich I cannot recollect,but the first name wil doubtless suffice, since he saysyou are familiar with the plant etc .

Wha t I have sa id concern ing Leopold is also ap

plicable to the other personifications of Mlle . Smith .

The normal consciousness of Hélene mingles and

fuses itself in every way with the somnambulisticconsciousness of Simandin i , of Marie An toinette, orsome other in carnation , as we sha ll soon see . I passnow to the examina tion of some deta iled examples,destined to throw light upon the réle whi ch Leopold

plays in Hélene ’

s existence .

Let us begin by listeni ng to Leopold h imself .

Among h is numerous messages, the following letter,wri tten in his fine handwriting by the hand of Mlle.

Smith— in respon se to a note in whi ch I had begged

h im (as a spiritua l being and distinct from her) to

a id me in my “ psych ic researches — conta ins in

formation for which I had not a sked , but wh ich was

n one the less interesting . It must not be forgotten

tha t it is the disinca rna te adorer of Marie Antoinette

who is writing

FR IEND ,

—Iam plea sed and touched by the mark

of confidence y ou have deigned to accord me. The

spiritua l guide of Mademoiselle [Smith ], whom the

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Supreme Being in his infinite goodness has per

mitted me to find aga in with ease, I do a ll I can to

appear to her on every occasion when I deem it nec

essary ; but my body, or, if you prefer, the matter oflittle solidity ofwhi ch I am composed , does nota lwaysafford me the facility of showing myself to her in a

positive human manner . [He, in fact, appeared toher often under the form of elementa ry visual hallucinations, a luminous trai l, whitish column , vaporous streamer, etc . ]That which I seek above all to inculcate in her

is a consoling and true ph ilosophy, wh ich is neces

sary to her by reason of the profound, unhappy impressions, wh ich even now still rema in to her , of

the whole drama of her past life. I have often sownbitterness in her heart [when she was Marie Antoin ‘

ette], desiring only her welfare. Also,laying aside

everything superfluous, I penetrate into the mosthidden recesses of her soul, and with an extremecare and incessant activi ty I seek to implant therethose truths whi ch I trust will aid her in a tta ining

the lofty summit of the ladder of perfection .

Abandoned by my parents from my cradle, Ihave,

indeed , known sorrow early in life . Like all , I havehad many weaknesses, wh ich I have expiated , andGod knows that I bow to His will lMoral suffering has been my principal lot. I have

been full of bitterness, of envy, of hatred , of jealousy .

Jealousy, my brother l what a poison , what a corruption of the soul 1Nevertheless, one ray has shone brightly into

my life, and that ray so pure, so full of everything124

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with Leopold, say to her : Unti l this evening a

little later the same voice, which she now recogn izedas that of Leopold , but of a quality rougher and

nearer to her than was h is habit, sa id to her : You

understand me well, unti l this evening. In the even

ing ,having returned home, she was excited at supper ,

left the table in haste towards the end of the meal , andshut herself up in her room with the idea that shewould learn something ; but, presently, the instinctive agitation of her hand indicated to her that sheshould take her pencil, and having done so, she ohtained in the beautiful ca lligraphy of Leopold the following epistle . (She says that she rema ined wideawake and self - conscious whi le writing it

, and it isthe on ly occasion of a similar character when she

had knowledge of the content . )

MY BELOVED FR IEND ,

— Why do you vex yourself, torment yourself so ? Why a re you indignant ,because, as you advance in life, you are obliged toacknowledge that all th ings are notas you had wishedand hoped they might be Is not the route we followon th is earth a lways and for a ll of us strewn withrocks ? is it not an endless cha in of deceptions, of

miseries ? Do me the kindness,my dea r sister

,I beg

of you , to tell me tha t from th is time forth you wil l

cease from endeavoring to probe too deeply the human heart . In wha t will such discoveries a id you ?What rema ins to you of these things

, except tearsand regrets And then th is God of love

,of justice,

and of life— is not He the one to read our hearts ? Itis for Him, not for thee, to see into them .

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Would you change the hearts ? Would you givethem tha t wh ich they have not, a live, a rden t soul ,never departing from what is right

,j ust

, and true ?Be ca lm , then , in th e face of all these little troubles .

Be worthy, and , above a ll, a lways good I In thee

I have found aga in tha t heart and tha t soul,both of

wh ich w ill a lways be for me a ll my life, a ll my joy,

and my on ly dream here below .

Believe me : be ca lm : reflect : tha t is my wish .

Thy friend,LEOPOLD .

I have chosen th is example for the sake of its brevity . Héléne ha s received a number of commun ica

tions of the same kind , sometimes in verse, in wh ichthe mora l and religious note is often still more ac

centu ated . In the grea ter part we meet with, as

in the next to the last phrase of the foregoing letter , an a llusion to the presumed affection of Cagliostro for Marie Antoinette . It is to be noticed tha tthere is nothi ng in these excellen t admon itions thata h igh and serious soul like that of Mlle . Smi th couldnot have drawn from its own depths in a momen tof con templation and medita tion .

Is it a benefit or an in jury to the moral and trulyreligious life to formulate itself thus clearly in verbal

ha llucinations rather than to rema in in the con

fused but more persona l sta te of experienced aspirations and strongly expressed emotions ? Do theseinspira tions ga in or lose in inward authority and

subjective power by assuming this exterior garb

and th is a spect of Objectivity 7 Th is is a delicate127

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

question ,probably not susceptible of a uniform so

lution .

In the following incident, which I relate as an ex

ample among many other simila r ones, it is no long

er, properly speaki ng, the moral and religious senti

ments personi fied in Leopold, but rather the instinctof reserve and of defen ce pecul ia r to the weaker sex,

the sense of the proprieties, the self- respect, tincturedwith a shade of exaggeration almost amounting toprudery .

In a visit to Mlle. Smith , during wh ich I inquiredwhether she had received any recent commun ica

tions from Leopold, she told me she had only seen

him two or three times in the la st few days, and hadbeen struck by h is restless and unhappy a ir, ih

stead of the air so pleasant , so sweet, so admirable,wh ich he genera lly has . As she did not know towhat to attribute th is change of coun tenance, I advised her to take her pencil and to wrap herself inmeditation , with the hope of obta ining some automatic message.

In about a minute her expression indicated thatshe was being taken possession of ; her eyes werefixed on the paper, upon whi ch her left hand rested ,the thumb and little finger being agitated and con

tinually tapping (about once a second) , the righthand having tried to take the pen cil between the

index and middle finger (the manner of Helene) ,ended by seizing it between the thumb and the in

dex finger, and traced slowly in the handwritingof Leopold

Yes, I am restless Ipained , even in anguish . l128

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offered her a rose wh ich he was wearing as a bou

tonniere.

Eight days later I pa id another Visit to Helene,and after an effort to secure some handwriting , wh ich

was not successful , but resulted in a Martian vision

(see Martian text N0. I4) , she had a visua l ha lluc ination of Leopold , and losing consciousness of theactual environment and of my presence a lso, as wellas that of her mother

, she flung herself into a run

ning conversation with him in regard to the incidentof eight days previously : “ Leopold . Leopolddon ’ t come n ear me [repulsing him ] . You are too

severe, Leopold l Will you come on Sunday ? Iam going to be atM . Flournoy ’s next Sunday . You

will be there but take good care tha t you do

not No, it is not kind of you always to disc losesecrets . What must he have thoughtYou seem to make a mounta in out of a mole- hill .And who would th ink of refusing a flower ? You

don’

t understand at all . Why ,then ? It was

a very simple th ing to accept it, a matter of no importance whatever to refuse it would have beenimpolite You pretend to read the heart .Why give importan ce to a th ing tha t amounts tonoth ing ? It is on ly a simple a ct of friendship

,

a little token of sympathy to make me writesuch th ings on paper before everybody! not n ice of

y ou' In thi s somnambulistic dialogue, in which

we can divine Leopold ’s replies , Helene took for

the moment the accent of Marie Antoinette (see below,

in the Royal cycle To awaken her,Leo

pold, who had possession of Helene’s a rms

,made

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THE PERSONALITY OF LEOPOLD

some passes over her forehead, then pressed the frontal and suborbita l nerves of the left side, and mademe a sign to do the same with those of the right .The seance of the next day but one, at my house,passed without any a llusion by Leopold to the incident of the street- car, evidently on accoun t of thepresence of certa in s itters to whom he did not wishto revea l Helene’s secrets . But, three days a fter,in a new visit, during whi ch she told me of havinghad a waking discussion concern ing the future life(without telling me with whom) , she again wrote

, in

the hand of Leopold It is not in such society as

th is tha t you ough t so seriously to discuss the immortality of the soul . ” She then confessed thatit was aga in on the street- car, and with M . V . . that

she had held that conversation whi le a funera l procession was passing . There was never anythingtha t might have been of a compromising cha racterin the exchange of courtesies and the occasional con

versations of Mlle. Smith with her neighbor of the

street—car . The trouble that it caused poor Leopold

was very characteristic of h im , and well indica ted

the severe and jealous censor who formerly had wor

ried the N . group ; there can be heard aga in the

echo of that voice, which has absolutely nothi ngto do with the conscience (see pp . 27 and and

whi ch has hitherto preven ted Hélene from accepting

any of the suitors whom she has encountered in the

course of her journey thr ough life . Thi s austere

and rigorous mentor, a lways wide awake, and tak

ing offence at the least freedom which Mlle. Smith

a llows herself in the exchange of trifling courtesies,131

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

represents, in fact, a very common psychological attribute ; it is not every well- bred feminine soul thatcarries stored in one of its recesses, where it man ifests its presence by scruples more or less vaguelyfelt, certa in hesitations or apprehensions, inhibitingfeelings or tenden cies of a shade of intensity varying

according to the age and the temperament .It is not my pa rt to describe thi s delica te phenom

enon . It suffices me to remark tha t here, as in theethi co- religious messages, the persona lity of Leo

pold has in noway a ided the essen tia l“

content of thoseinward experiences of wh ich Ml le. Smith is perfectlycapable by herself ; the form only of their manitestation has ga ined in picturesque and dramaticexpression in the m ise - en - scéne of the automatichandwritings and of the somnambulistic dia logue.

It seems as though the suggestive approach of mypresence andmy questions had been necessary to excite these phenomena ; it is, however, very probable,to judge from other examples, tha t my influence on lyhastened the explosion of Leopold in formulated reproaches, and that his la tent discon tent, h ithertonoticed in the restless and suflering air of his

fugitive Visual appa ritions, would have terminated,after a period of incubation more or less prolonged , inbreaking out into spon taneous admon itions, auditiveor written .

It can be divined tha t in thi s rOIe of vigilant guardian , of an almost excessive zealousness for the honor or the dignitv of Mlle. Smith

,Leopold is again ,

to my mind , only a product of psychological duplication . He represents a certa in grouping of inward

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taking part in spiritistic reun ions at a time at wh ich

she believes herself able to do so with impun ity, butwhi ch he, endowed with a more refined ccenaasthetic

sensibility,thinks she ough t not to undertake . He

has for severa l years formally la id hi s ban upon

every kind of mediumistic exercises at certain very

regular periods .

He has a lso on numerous occasions compelled

her by various messages , categorical auditive hal

luc ination s, diverse impulses , con tractures of the

arms,forcing her to write, etc .

,to modify her plans

and to abandon seances a lready a rranged . Th isis a very clear form of teleologica l automatism .

As a specimen of th is spontaneous and hygienicintervention of Leopold in the life of Hélene, I haveselected the letter given below,

because it combinesseveral in teresting tra its . It well depicts the en

ergy with wh ich Mlle . Smith is compelled to Obeyher guide .

The passage from the auditive to the graphicform of automatism is a lso to be noticed in it . Apropos of th is , in the page of th is letter reproduced inFig . 8 (see p . it is made clear that the tran sitionof the hand of Helene to tha t of Leopold is accom

plished brusquely and in a decided manner . The

handwriting is not metamorphosed gradua lly,slow

ly , but continues to be that of Ml le . Smith, becom

ing more and more agitated,it is true, and rendered

a lmost illegible by the shocks to the arm of whi chLeopold takes hold up to themomen t when ,

sudden lyand by a bound, it becomes the well - formed ca lligraphy of Cagliostro .

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THE PERSONALITY OF LEOPOLD

j anuary 29 , A .M .

MONSIEUR ,— I awoke about ten minutes ago,

and hea rd the voice of Leopold tell ing me in a very

imperious manner,‘

Get up out of your bed, and quickly , very quickly, write to your dear friend , M . Flournoy , tha t you will not hold a seance to- morrow

, and

tha t you will not be able to go to hi s house fortwo weeks , and tha t you will not hold any seancewith in tha t period .

’ I have executed h is order,having felt myself forced , compelled in spite of

myself, to Obey . I was so comfortable in bed and

so vexed at being obliged to write you such a mes

sage ; but I feel myself forced to do wha t he bids me.

At thi s moment I am looking at my watch itis o ’clock . I feel a very strong shock in myright arm— I migh t better speak of it a s an electricdisturbance— and wh ich I perceive ha s made me

write crooked . I hear a lso at thi s instan t the voice

of Leopold . I have much diffi culty in writing what

he tells me 6.42V2 . Say to him th is : I am , sir ,

a lways you r very devoted servant, in body and mind,

hea lthy and not u nba lanced .

’

I stopped for some moments a fter writing thesewords

,whi ch I saw very well , a fter having written

them ,were in the handwriting of Leopold . Immedi

a tely a fterwards, a second disturbance, similar to the

first,gave me a fresh shock , th is time from my feet to

my head . It all passed so quickly tha t I am disturbed

and con fused by it . It is true tha t I am not y et quite

well . Is thi s the reason why Leopold prevents my

going to Florissant to - morrow 7 I do not know,but

,

nevertheless, am anxious to follow his advice .

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Mlle. Smith always submits obediently to the commands of her guide, since, whenever she has trans

gressed them,through forgetfulness or neglect,

she has had cause to repen t it .It is clear that in th is role of specia l physician of

Mlle. Smi th , a lways an cou rant of her state of heal th ,

Leopold could easily be in terpreted as person ifyingthose vague impressions wh ich spring forth con

tinually from the depth s of our physica l being, informing u s as to wha t is passing there.

A neura lgic tootha che is felt in a dream hours before it makes itself felt in ou r waking consciousness,while some maladies are often thus foreshadowedseveral days before they actua lly decla re themselves .

All literature is full of anecdotes of this kind and

the psychiatrists have observed that in the form ofcircular a lienation , where phases of melancholic depression and maniacal excitation alternately suc

ceed one another more or less regularly with intervalsof normal equ i librum , it is frequently in sleep thatthe first symptoms of the change of humor can bedetected wh ich has a lrea dy begun in the depths ofthe individuality, but will on ly break forth on the

outside a little later . But all the hypnoid states areconnected, and it is not at all surprising that , in thecase of a subject inclined to automatism,

these con

fused presentiments should a rise with the appearanceof a foreign persona lity whi ch is only a degree hi gherthan the process of dramatization already so brilliantly at work in our ordinary dreams .

It will be useless to lengthen or further multiplyexamples of the intervention of Leopold in the life

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of Ml le. Smith . Those whi ch I have given show

him under his essential aspects, and suffice to justify

Héléne’

s confidence in a guide who has never de

ceived her , who has always given her the best coun

sel , delivered discourses of the h ighest ethi ca l tone,and manifested the most touching solicitude for her

physical and mora l health . It is easy to understandthat noth ing can shake her fa ith in the real, Objectiveexistence of thi s precious counsellor .

It is really vexatious that the phenomena of dreamsshould be so little observed or so badly understood

(I do not say by psychologists, but by the generalpublic , which prides itself on its psychology) , sincethe dream is the prototype of spiritistic messages , andholds the key to the explanation of mediumistic phenomena . If it is regrettable to see such noble, sympathetic , pure, and in all respects rema rkable personalities as Leopold reduced to the rank of a dreamcrea tion, it must be remembered , however, thatdreams are nota lways , as idle folk thi nk,

thi ngs to bedespised or of no va lue in themselves : the maj ority

are insignificant and deserve on ly the oblivion towhich they are promptly consigned . A very largenumber are bad and sometimes even worse than re

a lity ; but there are others of a better sort , and dreamis often a synonym for ideal .”

To sum up, Leopold certa in ly expresses in his central nucleus a very honorable and a ttractive side of

the character of Ml le . Smith , and in taking him as

her guide” she on ly follows inspirations whi ch are

probably among the best of her nature.

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CHAPTER V

THE MARTIAN CYCLE

HE title of thi s book would naturally commitme to a review of the Hindoo romance beforeinvestigating the Martian cycle . Considera

tions of method have caused me to reverse th is order . It is better to advance from the simple to thecomplex , and whil e we certainly know less concerning the planet Mars than of India , the romance wh ichit has inspired in the subliminal gen ius ofMlle . Smithis rela tively less difficult to expla in than the Orien ta lcycle . In fact, the former seems to spring from pureimagina tion , whi le in the latter we meet with certa inactua l hi storica l elemen ts , and whence Helene

’ smem

ory and intelligence have gain ed a knowledge Of

them is an extremely difficult problem for us to solve .

There is , then ,on ly one faculty at work in the Mar

tian romance, as a professional psychologist would

say ,whi le the Orien ta l cycle ca lls severa l into play,

making it necessary to trea t of it later, on accoun t of

its greater psychologica l complexity .

Wh ile the unknown language wh ich forms the

veh icle of many of the Ma rtian messages cannot

na tura lly be dissociated from the rest of the cycle ,

it merits, nevertheless, a specia l con sideration ,and

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

the following chapter will be entirely devoted to it .

It does not figure in the presen t chapter, in whi ch

I shall treat of the origin and the con tent only of the

Martian romance .

I.OR IG IN AND B IRTH OF THE MARTIAN

CYCLE

We dare to hope, says M . Camille Flamma rion ,

at the beginn ing of his excellent work on the planetMars,

“ that the day will come when scientific meth

ods y et unknown to us will give us direct evidences

of the existence of the inhabitants of other worlds ,and at the same time, also, will put us in commun ica tion with our brothers in And on the

la st page of his book he recurs to the same idea , and

says : What ma rvels does not the science of the

future reserve for ou r successors, and who would dareto say that Ma rtian human ity and terrestria l hu

man ity will not some day enter into commun icationwith each other

Thi s splendid prospect seems still far Off, alongwith that of wireless telegraphy, and a lmost an Utopian dream, so long as one holds strictly to the current conceptions of our positive sciences . But breakthese narrow limits ; fly, for example, towards the illimitable horizon wh ich spiritism opens up to itshappy followers, and as soon as th is vague hopetakes shape, noth ing seems to prevent its immedi

C . Flammarion , La Planéte Mar s et ses condi tions d‘

lzabi tabi li tl ,

p. 3 . Paris , 1892 .

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good medium has the right to ask herself whether

she is not the being predestined to a ccomplish thi s

unrivalled mission .

These are the considera tions wh ich , to my mind ,in their essentia l content inspired in the sublimina lpart of Mlle . Smith the first idea of her Martian ro

man ce . I would not assert that the passages fromM . Flammarion wh ich I have quoted came directlyto the notice of Hélene, but they express and reca

pitu late wonderfully well one of the elemen ts of the

atmosphere in wh ich she found herself at the be

ginni ng oi her mediumshi p . For if there are no

certain indication s of her ever having read any work

on the heaven ly worlds ” and their inhabitan ts,either that of M . Flammarion or of any other au

thor, she has , nevertheless, heard such subjects dis

cussed . She is perfectly familia r with the name of

the celebrated a stronomica l writer Juvisy , and kn owssometh ing of his philosoph ical ideas, wh ich , by - the

way , is not at a ll surprising when we consider thepopulari ty he en joys among spiritists

,who find in

h im a very strong scientific support for their doctrineof reincarnation on other planets .

I also have evidence that in the circle of Mme. N. ,

of wh ich Hélene was a member in 1892, the conversation more than once turned in the direction ofthe habitability of Mars, to wh ich the discoveryof the famous cana ls has for some yea rs special

ly directed the attention of the genera l public . Thi scircumstan ce appears to me to expla in sufficien tlythe fact that Helene

’

s sublimina l astronomy should

be concerned with this planet . It is , moreover, quite142

THE MARTIAN CYCLE

possible tha t the first germs of the Martian romanceda te still further back than the beginn ing of Helene’ s

mediumshi p . The Orien tal rOIe shows indications ofconcern ing itself with that planet

,and the verv clear

impression which she has of having in her ch ildhood and youth experien ced many visions of a similarkind

“

without her noticing them particularly,

”givesrise to the supposition tha t the ingredien ts Of wh ichthi s cycle is composed date from many years back .

Possibly they may have one and the same primitivesource in the exotic memories, description s , or pictures of tropica l countries wh ich la ter branched outunder the vigorous impulsion of spiritistic ideas intwo distin ct curren ts , the Hindoo romance on the

one side and the Ma rtian on the other , whose wa tersa re mingled on more than one occasion a fterwards .

Wh ile, on the whole, therefore, it is probable thatits roots extend back as far a s the ch ildhood of Mlle .

Smith , it is nevertheless with the Martian romance,

as well as with the others,not a mere question of the

simp le cryptomnesiac return Of facts of a remote past ,or of an exhumation of fossil residua brought to lightaga in by the a id of somnambulism . It is a very active

process , and one in full course of evolution , nour~

ished ,undoubtedly , by elemen ts belonging to the

pa st , but wh ich have been recombined and moulded

in a very origina l fash ion ,un til it amounts fina lly,

among other th ings , to the creation of an unknown

language . It will be in teresting to follow step by step

the pha ses of th is elabora tion : but since it a lways ,un fortunately ,

h ides itself in the obscurity of the subcon sciousness , we a re on ly cogn izan t of it by its occa

143

FROM INDIA T0 THE PLANET MARS

sional appearances , and all the rest of that subter‘

ranean work must be in ferred , in a manner somewhat

hypothetica l, from those supra liminal eruptions and

the scanty data wh ich we have concern ing the outward influen ces which have exerted a stimulating influence upon the sublimina l part of Helene. It was

in 1892 ,then , that the conversations took place wh ich

were to prepare the soil for th is work of lofty subli

minal fan tasy, and planted in Helene’

s mind the

double idea ,of enormous scientific interest , tha t she

could enter into direct relation with the inhabitants

of Mars, and of the possibility, unsuspected by scientists, but which spiritism furn ishes us, of reach ingthere by a mediumistic route. I doubt . however,whether tha t vague suggestion on the pa rt of the en

vironment would have sufficed to engender the Mar

tian dream— since for more than two years no sign ofits eruption ma infested itself— without the intervention of some fillip more concrete, capable of giving a

start to the whole movement . It is not ea sy, unfort

unately ,for want of records of the facts, to assign

with precision the circumstances under wh ich and the

momen t when Hélene’

s subconscious imagination re

ceived that effective impulsion,but an unequivocal

trace is discovered , as I am about to show in the contemporaneous report of the proceedings of the firstdistinctly Martian seance of Mlle. Smith .

In March ,1894, Hélene made th e acquaintance of

M . Lema itre, who, being exceedingly interested inthe phenomena of abnormal psychology

, was presentwith others at some of her seances , and finally beggedher to hold some at his house. At the first of these

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later under the name of Esenale as officia l interpreterof the Martian language.

It was altogether differen t a month later (Novem

ber at the second reun ion at M . Lema itre’

s , atwhich Mme . Mirbel was aga in presen t . On th is occasion the astronomica l dream appeared at once and

domina ted the entire seance.

From the beginning , says the report of the se

ance, Mlle. Smith perceived , in the distance and at

a great height, a bright light . Then she felt a - tre

mor wh ich a lmost caused her heart to cease beating,

a fter which it seemed to her as though her head wereempty and as if she were no longer in the body . She

found herself in a dense fog ,which changed suc

cessively from blue to a Vivid rose color, to g ray, andthen to black : she is floating, she says ; and thetable, supporting itself on one leg , seemed to expressa very curious floa ting movement . Then she seesa star, growing larger , a lways larger . and becomes ,finally,

“

as large as our house. Helene feels thatshe is a scending ; then the table gives , by raps .

Lema itre, that whi ch you have so long desiredMlle. Smith , who had been ill at ease, finds herselffeeling better she distinguishes three enormousglobes, one of them very beautiful . On what amI walking she a sks . And the table replies On

a world— Ma rs .

”Helene then began a description of

a ll the strange thi ngs wh ich presen ted themselvesto her view, and caused her as much surprise as

amusement . Carriages without horses or wheels,emi tting sparks as they g lided by houses withfounta ins on the roof a

'

cradle having for curta ins146

THE MARTIAN CYCLE

an angel made of iron with outstretched wings,

etc . Wha t seemed less strange ,were people ex

actly like the inhabitants of our earth , save thatboth sexes wore the same costume, formed of trousersvery ample , and a long blouse

,drawn tight about

the wa ist and decorated with various designs . The

ch ild in the cradle was exactly like our chi ldren ,

according to the sketch wh ich Helene made frommemory a fter the seance .

Fina lly, she saw upon Mars a sort of vast a ssemblyhall, in wh ich wa s Professor Ra spail , having in the

first row of h is hea rers the young Alexis Mirbel , who,by a typtologica l dicta tion , reproa ched his motherfor not having followed the medica l prescriptionwhi h he gave her a month previously Dearmamma ,

have you , then , so little confidence in us

You have no idea how much pain you have caused

me ! Then followed a conversa tion of a private

na ture between Mme. Mirbel and her son , the la tterreplying by means of the table ; then everythingbecomes quiet , the vision of Mars effaces itself little

by little ; the table takes the same rotary movement

on one foot whi ch it had at the commencement of the

seance ; Mlle. Sm ith finds herself aga in in the fogs

and goes through the same process as before in an

inverse order . Then she excla ims : Ah l here I

am back aga in l and severa l loud raps on the tablema rk the end of the seance .

I have rela ted in its principa l elemen ts th is firstMartian seance, for the sake of its importance in dif

ferent respects .

The initia l series of ccena sthetic ha llucinations,I47

FROM INDIA T0 THE PLANET MARS

corresponding to a voyage from the earth to Mars,reflects well the ch ildish character of an imaginationwhich scientific problems or the exigenc es of logic

trouble very little. Without doubt spiritism can ex

plain how the ma teria l difficulties of an interplan

etary journey may be avoided in a purely mediumistic , fluid connection ; but why , then , th is persist

ence of physical sensa tions, trouble with the heart,tremor, floa ting sensation , etc .

7 However it may

be, thi s series of sensations is from th is time on the

customary prelude, and, as it were, the premonitory aura of the Martian dream, with certain modifications, throughout all the seances sometimesit is complicated with auditive hallucinations (rumbling, noise of rush ing water, or sometimesolfactory (disagreeable odors of burn ng ,

of sulphur,

Of a coming storm) , oftener it tends to shorten and

simplify itself, unti l it is either reduced to a brieffeeling of ma la i se, or to the in itia l visua l hallucination of the light, genera lly very brillian t and red,in which the Martian vi sion s usua lly appear.But the point to whi ch I wish to call special at

tention is that singula r speech of the table, on the

instant at whi ch Mlle . Smith a rrives on the distant star and before it is known what star is con

cerned Lema itre, tha t wh ich y ou have so muchwished for l

”This declara tion , whi ch may be con

sidered as a dedication , so to speak, inscribed on thefrontispiece of the Martian romance, au thorizes us ,

in my Opin ion , in considering it and interpreting itin its origin, as a direct answer to a wish of M.

Lemaitre, a desire whi ch came at a recent period to148

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the ground and fertilized by former conversa tions con

cern ing the inhabitants of Mars and the possibilityOf spiritistic relations with them,

has served as the

germ of the romance, the further development Ofwhich it rema ins for me to trace .

One point wh ich still rema in s to be cleared up in

the seance, as I come to sum up , is the singula rly arti

fic ial character and the sligh t connection between the

Martian vision ,properly so ca lled , and the reappear

ance of Raspail and Alexis Mirbel . We do not altogether understand what these personages have to

do with it . What need is there of their being to - dav

found on the planet Mars simply for the purpose of

con tinuing their interview with Mme . Mirbel , begun

at a previous sean ce, without the interven tion of anyplanet The a ssembly- ha ll atwhi ch they are found,wh ile it is loca ted on Mars

,is a bond of un ion a ll

the more artificial between them and that planet inthat there is noth ing specifica lly Martian in its description and appears to have been borrowed fromour globe. This in cident is at bottom a matter outof the regular course, full of interest undoubtedly forMme. Mirbel , whom it directly concern s, but withoutintimate connection with the Ma rtian world . It waseviden tly the astronomical revelation

,in tended for M .

Lema itre, and ripened by a period of incubation ,which

should have furn ished the materia l for thi s seance :but the presence ofMme . Mirbel awoke anew themem

ory of her son and of Raspail , whi ch had occupiedthe preceding seance, and these memories, interfering

with the Martian vision , become, for good or ill, incorporated as a strang e episode in it without having

150

THE MARTIAN CYCLE

any direct connection with it . The work of unification , of dramatization ,

by whi ch these two unequa lcha in s of ideas a re ha rmon ized and fused the one

with the other through the in termediation of an as

sembly - ha ll , is no more or no less extraordinary thantha t wh ich displays itself in all our nocturna l phantasmagoria , where certa in absolutely heterogeneousmemories often a lly themselves a fter an unexpectedfashi on ,

and a fford opportun ity for confusions of themost biza rre cha ra cter .

But mediumistic commun ica tions differ from ordi

nary dreams in th is — namely, the incoherence of the

latter does not cause them to have any consequences .

We are aston ished and diverted for a momen t as we

reflect upon a dream . Sometimes a dream holds a

little longer the atten tion of the psychologist , who

endeavors to unravel the intrica te plot of hi s dreams

and to discover , amid the caprices of a ssocia tion or

the even ts of the waking state, the origin of theirtangled threads . But

, on the whole, th is incoher

ence has no influen ce on the ultimate course of ourthough ts, because we see in ou r dreams only the

results of chance , without va lue in themselves and

without objective sign ifica tion .

It is otherwise with spiritistic commun ications, byrea son of the importance and the credit accorded

them .

The medium who partia lly recollects her automa

tisms , or to whom the sitters have deta iled them a fter

the close of the seance, adding a lso their comments,becomes preoccupied with these mysterious revela

tions like the paranoiac , who perceives h idden mean151

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

ings or a profound sign ificance in the most triflingcoincidences, she seeks to fathom the conten t of her

strange Visions, reflects on them, examines them in

the light of spiritistic notions if she encounters difficu lties in them , or con tradictions, her conscious orunconscious thought (the two are not a lways in ac

cord) will undertake the task of removing them, and

solving as well as possible the problems wh ich thesedream- creations , considered as rea lities, impose uponher,and the later somnambulisms will bear the imprint of th is labor of interpretation or correction .

It is to thi s point we have come at the commencement of the astronomica l roman ce Of Mlle . Smith .

The purely accidenta l and fortuitous,con j unction

of the planet Mars and Alexis Mirbel in the seanceof the 25th of November determined their definitivewelding together . Association by fortuitous contigu ity is transformed in to a logica l connection .

II . LATER DEVELOPMENT OF THE MARTIANCYCLE

This developmen t was not effected in a regularmanner ; but for the most part by leaps and bounds,separating stoppages more or less prolonged .

Afterits inauguration in the seance Of November25, 1894, itsuffered a first eclipse of nearly fifteen mon ths

, attrib

utable to new preoccupations wh ich had installedthemselves on the hi ghest plane of Mlle .

Smith ’ssubcon sciousness and held that position throughoutthe whole of the year 1895 .

Compared with the seance of November, 1894, that152

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February 2,1896 — I sum up, by enumerating

them, the principa l somnambulistic phases of th is

seance, which la sted more than two hours and a half,and at wh ich Mme . Mirbel assisted .

1 . In creasing hemisomnambu lism ,with gradua l

loss of consciousness of the rea l environment— at the

beginning the table bows severa l times to Mme. Mirbel , announ cing tha t the coming scene is in tendedfor her . After a series of elementary visua l halluc inations (ra inbow colors , mean ing for Mme .

Mirbel tha t she would finally become blind , Helenearose , left the table, and held a long conversation withan imaginary woman who wished her to enter a curions little car without wheels or horses . She becameimpatien t towards th is woman

, who,a fter having at

first spoken to her in Fren ch, now persisted in speak

ing in an un intelligible tongue,like Ch inese . Leo

pold revea led to us by the little finger that it was thelanguage of the planet Mars , that this woman is themother of Alexis Mirbel , reincarna ted on tha t planet,and tha t Helene herself will speak Ma rtian .

Presently Helene begin s to recite with increasing volubility an incomprehensible jargon , the beginn ing of

which is as follows (according to notes taken by

M . Lema itre at the time, as accurately a s possible) I“ M itchm a m itchmon m im in i tch ou a inem m imat

c h ineg mas i c h inof m éz av i patelk i ab rés inad na

v ette naven navette m itc h i ch én id naken c h inou

toufiche From th is point the rapidity preven ted

as“ téké katéch iv ist . . 1n éguetch ,

”or

u méketCh o o o kété 0 0 o Ch iméké .

H

After a few minutes}IS4

THE MARTIAN CYCLE

Helene interrupts herself, crying out, Oh ,I have had

enough of it you say such words to me I will neverbe able to repeat them .

” Then,with some reluctance,

she con sents to follow her in terlocutrix into the car

whi ch was to ca rry her to Ma rs .

2 . The trance is now complete . Hélene thereuponmimi cs the voyage to Ma rs in three phases, themean ing of which is indicated by Leopold a reg

ular rocking motion of the upper part of the body

(passing through the terrestrial atmosphere) , absolute immobility and rigidity (in terplanetary space) ,aga in oscillations of the shoulders and the bust (atmosphere of Mars) . Arrived upon Mars

, she descendsfrom the car, and performs a complicated pantomimeexpressing the manners of Martian politeness um

couth gestures with the hands and fingers, slappingOf the hands , taps of the fingers upon the nose, the

lips, the chin , etc .

,twisted courtesies , glidings, and

rota tion on the floor, etc . It seems that is the way

people approach and sa lute each other up there .

3 . Thi s sort of dance having suggested to one of

the sitters the idea of performing upon the piano,Hélene suddenly fell upon the floor in an evidently

hypnotic sta te, wh ich had no longer a Martian char

acter . At the cessa tion of the music she en tered into

a mixed sta te, in whi ch the memory of the Martian

vision s continua lly mingle themselves with some idea

Of her terrestria l existence . She ta lks to herself .

Those dreams are droll, a ll the same . I musttell tha t to M . Lema itre. When he [the Martian

Alexis Mi rbel] sa id Good- day to me, he tapped

himself upon the nose. He spoke to me in a

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

queer language, but I understood it perfectly ,all the

same, etc . Seated on the ground, lean ing against

a piece of furn iture, she continues, soliloquizing in

French ,in a low voice, to review the dream ,

m in

gling with it some wandering reflections . She

finds , for example, that the young Martian (Alexis)was a remarkably big boy for one on ly five or six

years old ,as he claimed to be, and that the woman

seemed very young to be h is mother .

4. After a transitory phase of sighs and h iccoughs ,followed by profound sleep with muscula r relaxa tion ,

she enters into Martian somnambulism and murmurs some confused words : “ Ké s in ou itidj é

”

etc . I command her to speak French to me she

seems to understand , and replies in Ma rtian ,with

an irritated and imperious tone, I ask her to tellme her name ; she replies ,

“ Vas im in i Météch e.

With the idea that , perhaps , she“ is inca rnating

the young Alexis,of whom she has spoken so much

in the preceding phase, I urge Mme. Mirbel to ap

proach her , and thereupon begins a scene of incar

nation rea lly very affecting Mme . Mirbel is on her

knees , sobbing bitterly , in the presen ce of her re

covered son ,who shows her marks of the most

profound affection and caresses her hands exactlv

as he was accustomed to do during hi s la st illness ,”

all the time carrying on a discourse in Ma rtian

(tin i s toutch ) , wh ich the poor mother cannot un

derstand, but to wh ich an accent of extreme sweetness and a tender intonation impa rt an evidentmeaning Of words of consolation and filial tenderness . This pathetic duet lasted about ten minutes,

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which has transpired, she is astounded, has only

a hesitating and con fused memory of her having

spoken at a ll th is even ing of her visit to M . C. , and

does not recogn ize nor understand the four Martian

words given above when they are repea ted to her .

On severa l occasions during thi s seance I had made

the suggestion to Helene tha t at a given signal,a fter her awaking, she would recover the memoryof the Martian words pronounced by her and of theirmeaning . But Leopold, who was present, declaredthat thi s command would not be obeyed, and that

a translation could not be Obtained thi s eveni ng .

The signa l, though often repeated , was , in fact,without result .It has seemed to me necessary to describe with

some detail th is sean ce, at whi ch the Martian language made its first appea ran ce, in order to placebefore the reader all the fragments wh ich

,we have

been able to gather, without, of course, any guarantee of absolute accuracy, since every one knows howdifficult it is to note the sounds of unknown words .

A curious differen ce is to be noticed between the

words picked up in the course of the seance and the

four words severa l times repea ted by Helene, themean ing and pronun cia tion of wh ich have been determined with complete accura cy in the posthypnotic return of the somnambuli stic dream . Judged by theselatter, theMartian language is only a puerile counterfeit of French, of whi ch she preserves in each word anumber of syllables and certa in conspicuous letters.

In the other ph rases, on the contrary , also makinguse of later texts wh ich have been translated, as

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THE MARTIAN CYCLE

we shall see herea fter, it cannot be discovered whatit is . We are con stra ined to believe that these first

outbreaks of Martian , cha racterized by a volubilitywhich we have rarely met with sin ce then

, was on lya pseudo -Ma rtian , a continuation of sounds utteredat random and without any rea l mean ing , analogous to the gibberish wh ich ch ildren u se sometimesin their games of

“ pretending to speak Chi neseor Indian , and tha t the rea l Martian wa s on ly c re

a ted by an unskilful distortion of French , in a posthypnotic a ccess of hemi somnambu lism ,

in order torespond to the man ifest desire of the sitters to obtainthe precise sign ifican ce of some isolated Martianwords .

The impossibility, announced by Leopold , of procuring a transla tion tha t same even ing of the pretended Ma rtian spoken for the first time during thatseance, and the fa ct tha t it could not aga in be oh

ta ined,give some support to the preceding theory .

The circumstance tha t Helene, in remembering

her dream in phase No . 3 , had the sen timen t of hav

ing well understood th is unknown jargon , i s not an

objection ,since the ch ildren who amuse themselves

by simulating an uncouth idiom— to recur to that

example— do not reta in the least consciousness of the

idea s whi ch their gibberish is assumed to express .

It seems , in short, that if thi s new language wa s

a lready really established at tha t time in Hélene’

s

sublimina l consciousness to the point of susta in ingfluen tly discourses of severa l minu tes

’

duration ,

some phra ses at least would not have fa iled to gush

forth , spontaneously sometimes, in the course of or

IS9

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

dinary life,and in order to throw light upon visions

of Martian people or landscapes . More than sevenmonths had to elapse before tha t phenomenon , wh ichwas so frequent a fterwards, began to appea r .

May we not see in this ha lf- yea r a period of in

cubation , employed in the subliminal fabrica tion of alanguage, properlv so called— that is to say , formedof prec ise words and with a defin ite sign ifica tion , in

imitation of the four terms just referred to— to replacethe disordered non sense of the beginn ingHowever it may be , and to return to ou r story

,

one can imagine the in terest wh ich tha t sudden and

unexpected apparition of mysterious speech aroused,and wh ich the authority of Leopold would not allowto be taken for any thing other than the languageof Mars . The natura l curiosity of Helene herself

,

as well as that of her friends , to know more aboutour neighbors of other worlds and their way of expressing themselves should na tura lly have contributed to the developmen t of the sublimina l dream .

The following seance, unhappily, did not j ustifythe promise with wh ich it began .

February 16, 1896. At the beginn ing of this

seance, Helene has a vision of Alexis Mirbel, who

announces , by means of the table,that he has not

forgotten his French , and tha t he will give a translation of the Martian words another day .

But thisprediction is not fulfilled . Whether Helene, for

the reason that she is not feeling well to—day ,or that

the presence Of some one antipathetic to her has h indered the production of the phenomena

, the Martiansomnambulism , which seemed on the point of break

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al l the more intensity, dating from the following noc

turnal vision . (See Fig .

September 5, 1896.

—Hélene narra tes tha t having

arisen at a quarter - past three in the morn ing to take

in some flowers that stood upon the window- sill and

were threatened by the wind , instead of going back

to bed immediately she sat down upon her bed and

saw before her a landscape and some peculiar people.

She wa s on the border of a beautiful blue- pink lake,with a bridge the sides of wh ich were tran sparentand formed of yellow tubes like the pipes of an organ ,

of wh ich one end seemed to be plunged in to the water .The earth was peach - colored some of the trees hadtrunks widen ing as they ascended

,wh ile those of

others were twisted . Later a crowd approached thebridge

,in wh ich onewoman was especia lly prominen t .

The women wore hats wh ich wereflat, like plates .

Helene does not know who these people are, but ha sthe feeling of having conversed with them . On the

bridge there was a man of dark complexion (Astane) ,carrying in his hands an instrument somewhatresembling a carriage—lantern in appea rance, whi ch ,

being pressed , emitted flames , and whi ch seemed tobe afly ing—machine . By means of th is instrumentthe man left the bridge, touched the surface of the

water , and returned again to the bridge . Th is tableaulasted twenty- five minutes , since Helene, upon re

turn ing to consciousness , observed tha t her candlewas still burn ing and ascerta ined tha t it was then

o’

clock . She is convinced tha t she did not falla sleep, but was wide awake during all of th i s Vision .

(See Figs . 10 and

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THE MARTIAN CYCLE

From that time the spontaneous Martian visionsare repeated and multiplied . Mlle. Smith experiencesthem usua lly in the morn ing, a fter awaking and be

fore rising from her bed sometimes in the even ing ,

or occasionally at other times during the day . It is inthe course of these visua l ha llucinations that theMar

tian language appears aga in under an auditive form .

September 22 , 1896 — During these la st days Hélene has seen aga in on different occa sions the Mare

tian man ,with or without hi sfly ing - machine for

example, he appeared to her whi le she was taking a

ba th , at the edge of the bath—tub . She has had sev

era l times visions of a strange house the picture ofwh ich followed her with so much persistency tha tshe finally pa in ted it (see Fig . At the same

time she hea rd on three differen t occasions a sentence

the meaning of wh ich she does not know , but wh ich

she was able to take down with her pen cil as followsD odé né c i haudan té m é ch e m éti c h e A stané ké

dé m é vech e . (As was a scerta ined six weeks after,by the tran slation given in the seance of the 2d of

November, th is ph rase indicates that the strange

house is tha t of the Ma rtian man ,who is ca lled

Astane. )Thi s phra se was undoubtedly Martian , but what

wa s the mean ing of it ? After having hoped in va in

for nearly a month that the mean ing would be re

veal ed in some way or other, I decided to try a dis

guised suggestion . I wrote to Leopold h imself a

letter, in whi ch I appea led to hi s omn iscience as well

as to his kindness to give me some en ligh tenment

in regard to the strange language wh ich piqued our163

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

curiosity, and, in particular, as to the mean ing of thephrase Helene had heard . I asked him to answer me

in writing, by means of Helene’

s hand . We did nothave to wait long for a reply . Hélene received myletter the 20th of October , and on the even ing of the22d, seized with a vague desire to write, she took a

pencil , whi ch placed itself in the regula r position ,

between the thumb and the index - finger (whereasshe always held her pen between the middle and index- finger) , and traced rapidly, in the characteristichandwriting of Leopold and with h is signature, a

beautiful epistle of eighteen Alexandrine lines ad

dressed to me, Of wh ich the ten last are a s follows ,being an answer to my request that the secrets ofMartian be revealed to me

Ne crois pas qu’

en t arman t comme un b ien tendre frére

Je te diroi des c ieux tou t le profond mystere ;Je t

’

a idero i beaucoup, j e t’

ou v riroi la voie

Mais a toi de saisir et chercher avec j oie ;Et quand tu la verras d

'ic i - bas détachee ,

Quand son fime mob i le au ra pris la voléeEt planera su r Mars aux superbes cou leu rs ;Si tu veux obtenir d

’

el le quelques lueu rs ,Pose b ien doucement, ta ma in su r son front paleEt prononce bien bas le doux nom

Do not th ink that in lov ing you as a tender brother

I sha l l te l l you all the profou nd myster ies of heaven ;I shal l help you much , I shal l open for you the way ,But i t is for you to seize and seek w ith j oy ;And when you shal l see her released from here below ,

When her mob i le sou l sha l l have takenfligh tAnd shal l soar over Mars w i th its bri l l iant tintsI f you wou ld obtain from her some l ight,Place you r hand very gently on her pa le foreheadAnd pronounce very softly the sweet name of Esenale

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recently lived upon Mars, and al so upon the earth ,

which permits him to act as in terpreter, etc .

After half an hour of waiting, Helene’

s ca lm sleepgave way to agi tation ,

and she passed into anotherform Of somnambulism, with sighs, rhythm ic movementsof the head and hands, then grotesque Martian gestures and French words murmured softly to the hearing of Leopold, who seems to accompany her on Mars,and to whom she confides some of her impressions inregard to that whi ch she perceives . In the midst ofthi s soliloquy a vertica l movement of the arm, peculiarto Leopold, indicates tha t the moment has a rrived forcarrying out his directions . I place my hand on

Helene’

s forehead, and utter the name of Esenale,to which Helene replies in a soft , feeble, somewhatmelancholy, voice : Esenale has gone awayhe has left me alone but he will return ,

he will soon return . He has taken me by thehand and made me en ter the house [that which she

saw in her vision , and of whi ch she made the drawinga month ago

— see Fig . I do not know whereEsenale is leading me, but he has said to me, Dodé

né c i haudan té meche m éti ch e A stané ké dé mé

veche,’

bu t i did not understand ; dode, thi s ;n é , i s ; oi , the ; h audan , house ; te, of the ; méch e,great ; métiche, man A stane, A stane; ké , whom ;

dé , thou ; mé, hast ; vec h e, seen Thi s is the

house of the great man Astane, whom thou hastseen . Esenale has told me that . Esenalehas gone away . He will return he willsoon return he will teach me to speakand Astanewill teach me to wri te.

”

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THE MARTIAN CYCLE

I have abridged thi s long monologue, constantly

interrupted by silences , and the continuation of wh ichI on ly obta ined by having con stan t recourse to thename of Esena le a s the magic word

,a lone capable of

extracting ea ch time a few words from Héléne’

s con

fused bra in . After the last sen tence or phrase, in whichone can see a ca tegorical prediction of the Martianwriting , her weak , slow voice was finally hushed ,

and

Leopold directs by means of h is left middle finger theremoval of the hand from the forehead . Then followthe customary a lternations of lethargic sleep, sighs,ca ta lepsy, momen tary relapses in to somnambulism,

etc . Then she open s her eyes permanen tly,very

much surprised to find herself in the easy- cha ir . Her

brain is grea tly con fused . It seems to me as thoughI had a great many things on my mind , but I cannot

fix upon anyth ing .

” By degrees she rega ins a clearcon sciousness , but of the en tire sean ce, wh ich hasla sted an hour and a half, there on ly remain some

fragmen ts of Martian vision s and no recollectionwhatever of the scene with Esenale and that of thetransla tion .

This process Of tran sla tion , the first applica tion of

wh ich is here presen ted , becomes from th is time the

standard method .

For more than two yea rs and a ha lf, the imposition

of the hand upon Helene’s forehead and the uttering

of the name of Esen a le at the proper momen t during

the trance con stitute the open sesame”of the Mar

tian - French dictionary buried in the sublimina l strataof Hélene’s con sciousness . The idea Of this cere

monia l is evidently to awaken by suggestion— in a

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

certain favorable somnambulistic phase, wh ich Leo

pold recognizes and h imself announces by a gesture

of the arm— the secondary personal ity which has

amused itself by composing the phrases of thi s extraterrestria l language.

In spiritistic terms, it amounts to invoking the

disincarnate Esenale, otherwise called Alexis Mir~bel , who, having lived on both planets, can easilydevote h imself to the functions of an interpreter .

The on ly difference between th is scene of transla tion and other seances is in the ease and rapidity

with whi ch it is performed . Esenale seems sometimes to be thorough ly a sleep and difficult to awaken ;Helene persists in replying by the stereotyped refra in

,

and incessantly repeats , in her soft and melancholyvoice, Esenale has gone away— he will soon re

turn — he has gone away— he will soon return .

Then some more energetic passes or friction on the

forehead are necessary, instead of the simple pressu re of the ha nd, in order to break up thi s mechanica l repetition , wh ich thr ea tens to go on forever, andin order to obtain , fina lly, the repetition and translation , word by word , of the Martian texts . Otherwise the voice continues identical with that of the refrain , soft and feeble, and one can never know whether it is Esenale himself who i s making u se of Hélene

’

s phonetic appa ratus without modifying it,

or whether it is she herself, repeating in her sleepwhat Esenale has told her the categorica l distinctness and absence of all hesitation in pronun

c iation of theMartian are in favor of the former supposition , which is also corroborated by the fact that

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THE MARTIAN CYCLE

it was a lso in this same voice that Alexis Mirbel

(Esenale) spoke to his mother in the scenes of incarnation . (See Fig .

It would be wea risome to recount in detail a ll thefurther man ifestations of the Martian cycle, whi choc cur frequently in numerous seances and also um

der the form of spontaneous Vision s in the da ily lifeof Mlle . Smith . The reader can ga in an idea ofthem both from the remarks of the following pa ragraph , as well as from the explanatory résumés

added to the Martian texts, wh ich will be collected

in the following chapter . It merely remain s for

me to say a word here as to the manner in wh ich thepictures of Helene rela tive to Mars, and reproduced

in autotype in the Figs . 9 to 20,have been made.

None of these pictures has been executed in com

plete somnambulism, and they have not, con sequent

ly ,like the drawings of certa in mediums , the interest

of a graphi c product , absolutelyautoma tic , engenderedoutside Of and unknown to the ordinary conscious

ness .They are nothing more than simple com

position s oi the norma l consciousness of Mlle .Smith .

They represent a type of intermediary activity ,and

correspond to a state of hemisomnambu lism . We

have seen above (p . 20) that a lready in her ch ild

hood Hélene seems to have executed various pieces

of work in a semi - automatic manner . The same

performan ce is often reproduced on the occasion

of the Ma rtian visions , wh ich sometimes pursue her

so persistently that she decides to execute them with

pen cil and brush work wh ich , in anticipation ,

often frigh tens her by its difficulty, but wh ich , when169

FROM INDIA T0 THE PLANET MARS

the time comes, accomplishes itself, to her great astonishment, with an ease and perfection almost mechamical . Here is an example

One Tuesday even ing , having a lready retired,Hélene saw on her bed some magnificent flowers,very different from ours, but without perfume, and

whi ch she did not touch , for during her visions she

has no idea of moving, and rema ins inert and passive. The a fternoon of the following day , at her

desk, she found herself enveloped in a red light, andat the same time felt an indefinable but violent affection of the heart (aura of the voyage to Mars) .“

The red light continues about me, and I find myself surrounded by extraordinary flowers of the kindwhich I saw on my bed, but they had no perfume.

I will bring you some sketches of them on Sunday .

”

She sent them to me,in fact, on Monday, with the

following note : I am very well satisfied with myplants . They are the exact reproduction of thosewhich it afforded me so much pleasure to behold

[No . 3, in Fig . 16, whi ch , beforehand, Helene despaired of being able to render wel l], whi ch ap

peared to me on the latter occasion , and I greatlyregret tha t you were not here to see me execute thedrawing the pencil glided so quickly tha t I did nothave time to notice what contours it was making.

I can assert without any exaggeration that it wasnot my hand alone that made the drawing

,but that

truly an invisible force guided the pencil in spite ofme. The various tints appeared to me upon the

paper, and my brush was directed in spite of me. tow

ards the color whi ch I ought to use. This seems in170

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THE MARTIAN CYCLE

credible, but it is, notwithstanding, the exact truth.

The whole was done so quickly that I marvelledat it .”

The house of Astane (Fig . and the extensivelandscapes of Figs . 13 and 14, are also the prodnets of a quasi- automatic activity

,which always

gives great satisfaction to Mlle. Smith . It is , in a

way ,her sublimi na l self wh ich holds the brush and

executes, at its pleasure, its own tableaux, which a lsohave the va lue of veritable origina ls . Other drawings, on the contrary (for example, the portra it of

Astané, Fig . wh ich have given Helene muchtroublewithout having sa tisfied her very well , should

be regarded as simple copies from memory, by theordinary personality ,

of past vision s, the memory of

which is graven upon her mind in a manner su ffi

c iently persisten t to serve as a model several daysafterwards . In both cases , but especially in the first,Helene

’

s pa intings may be considered as faithful re

productions oi the tableaux wh ich unfold themselvesbefore her , and consequently give us better than mostverba l descriptions an idea of the general characterof her Martian visions .

Let us see now wha t kind of information the mes

sages and somnambulisms of Helene furn ish u s in

regard to the brillian t planet whose complicatedrevolutions formerly revea led to a Kepler the funda

mental secrets of modern astronomy.

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

III . THE PERSONAGES OF THE MARTIANROMANCE

In using the word roman ce to designa te theMar

tian communi ca tions, taken as a whole, I wish tosta te that they are, to my mind , a work of pure im

agination ,but not that there are to be found in them

characteristics of un ity and of in terna l co - ordina tion ,

of susta ined a ction , of increasing interest to the finaldénouement . The Martian romance is on ly a succession of detached scenes and tableaux,

without orderor intima te connection ,

and showing no other common trai ts bey ond the unknown language spoken init, the quite frequent presen ce of the same personages,and a certain fashion of origina lity, a color or qua litybadly defined as

“

exotic ” or“ bizarre ” in the land

scapes, the edifices , the costumes , etc .

Of a con secutive plot or in trigue, properly so ca lled ,there is no trace . I natura lly speak only of thatwhich we have learned from the seances of Mlle.

Smith , or from the spon taneous vision s wh ich she

recollects sufficiently to narrate a fterwards .But

this fa ils to shadow forth the h idden source whencethey a ll spring .

Without determining the question , I am inclined ,nevertheless , to accord to the Martian romance, insome profound stratum of Helene’s being

,a much

greater con tinuity and exten t than would appearfrom judging it solely by the fragmen ts known tou s . We have on ly ,

in my Opin ion,a few pages

,taken

at hazard from differen t chapters ; the bulk of the172

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

in response to questions of the sitters— wh ich an

swered very well the purpose of suggestion— Leo

pold a ffirmed by the left index- finger tha t Esenalewas Alexis Mirbel . It cannot be determined wheth

er that identifica tion con stituted a primitive factwhi ch it pleased Leopold to keep secret, only reveal

ing it at the end of a seance at whi ch Mme . Mirbelwas present, or whether, as I am in clined to regardit

,it was on ly established at tha t same seance , un

der the domi nation of the circumstances of the mo

ment . As a translator of Martian , Esenale did not

show great ta len t . He had to be entreated, and itwas necessary often to repeat his name wh ile pressing or rubbing Helene

’s forehead , in order to Ob

tain the exact mean ing of the last texts wh ich hadbeen given . He possessed, it is true, an excellentmemory, and fa ith fully reproduced , before givingit word by word , the French for the Ma rtian phraseswh ich Helene had heard severa l weeks before and onlyseen aga in five or six months a fterwards (textand of which there had been no previous opportu

n ity to obta in a translation . But it was to these latter texts, not yet interpreted, tha t he confined hiswillingness on two occasions on ly did he add

,of

his own accord , some words of no importan ce (texts15 and 36. Text No . 19 , for in stan ce, has a lwaysremained untranslated , and my la ter efforts (June

4, 1899) to Obtain the mean ing of the unknownwords m ilé p i ri have been in va in moreover, Esena le has not been able to fill up the gaps in textNo . 24.

Alexis Mirbel , after the two first Martian seances,I74

THE MARTIAN CYCLE

reported on pp . 146 and 154, ca lled Esenale, oftenaccorded his mother, in scenes of incarnation

,

somewha t pathetic , touching messages of filia l tenderness and consolation (texts 3 , 4, 11 , 15 , and

It is to be noted that, a lthough opportun ities for continu ing th is rOle were not wan ting , he appears tohave completely abandoned it for the last two years .

His last message of th is kind (October 10, 1897, text18) followed a month after a curious seance in wh ichLeopold sought to expla in to us spon taneously

no one had men tioned the subject - certa in flagran tcon tradiction s in the first man ifestation s of Alexis

Esenale . Here is a résumé of tha t scene, with the

text of Leopold’

s commun icationSeptember 12 ,

1897 .

— After sundry waking vi

sions , Mlle . Smith hears Leopold speaking ; her eyes

are closed , and, appearing to be a sleep , she repeats ,mechan ica lly and in a slow and feeble voice, the

following words, whi ch her guide addresses to her :

Thou art going to pay close atten tion . Tellthem now [the sitters] to keep as quiet as possible,tha t is wha t often mars the phenomena , the com

ings and goings , and the idle chatter of wh ich you

are never weary . You recollect there was , severa l

a reun ion you held with M . (I do not understand

the name he gave) at Carouge Well ,

at tha t moment he happened— that is to say , two

days before — to die on (I could not under

* Al lusion to th e seance of November 25, 1894 , at M. Le

maitre’

s. See p . 146 .

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

stand the name) where he had beenor he had regained life .

* Thi s is why I have come totell you to- day he wa s in that pha se of separation ofthe material part from the soul wh ich permitted himto recollect hi s previous existen ce— that is to say ,

his life here below in thi s state he not on ly recol

lects his first mother, but can speak once more thelanguage he used to speak with her . Some time af

ter, when the soul was fina lly at rest, he no longerrecollected that first language he returns, he hoversabout (his mother) , sees her with j oy, but is incapable of speaking to her in your language ] Whetherit will return to him I do not know and cannot say ,

but I believe that it will . And now listen . HereMlle. Smith seems to awake, opens her eyes, and

has a long Martian vision,which she describes in

deta il . She now sees a little girl in a yellow robe,whose name she hears a s An in i Ni kai

‘

né , occupiedwith various ch ildish games— e . g. , with a small wandshe makes a number of grotesque little figures dancein a white tub, large and sha llow, full of sky - bluewater . Then come other person s, and,

finally, As

tane, who has a pen in his fingers , and,little by lit

tle, takes hold of Helene’

s arm and throws her intoa deep trance for the purpose of causing her to writetext No. 17.

These spontaneous explana tions of Leopold are

Interesting in that they betray clearly the subliminal desire to introduce some order and logic into the

That is to say ,he d ied on Mars , where he had been rein

carnated.

f Al lusion to seance of February 2 , 1896. See p . 154.

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called her to him through space ; but when he ap

pears to her , whi le awake, at the edge of her bathtub

, and expresses hi s chagrin at finding her still

on this miserable earth (text it must be admi ttedthat it is he who has descended to her and in spiresher with these Visions of an upper world . It is ofno importance

,on the whole . It is here to be noted

that, in these evocations , Astaneon ly man ifests himself in visua l and auditive ha llucination s, never intactile impressions or those of genera l sensibility in

the sphere of emotion h is presence is accompan iedby a grea t calm on the part of Helene, a profoundbliss, and an ecstatic disposition , whi ch is the cor

relative and pendant of the happiness experienced byAstane h imself (texts 10

,17, etc . ) at finding him

self in the presence of his idol of the past . The so

c ial state of Astané— I should rather say h is name,his qua lity of sorcerer, and h is previous terrestria lexistence in the body Of Kanga— was not immediately revea led .

Nevertheless, at his first appa rition (September 5 ,1896, see p . he rises superior to the crowd

,inas

much as he alone possesses afly ing - machine incomprehensible to us . In the following weeks Mlle .

Smithhears h is name, and sees him aga in on many occasions, as well as his house (Fig . but it is on ly at

the end of two months and a ha lf that h is identity andhis evocative

”powers become known , at a seance

atwh ich I was not present, and during whi ch Helene

did not, contrary to her usual custom,fa ll completely

a sleep . The following is a résumé of the notes, whichI owe to the kindness of M . Cuendet

178

THE MARTIAN CYCLE

November 19, 1896— Con trary to the experience

of the preceding seances , Mlle. Smith remained con

stantly awake, her a rms free on the table, conversingand even laugh ing a ll the wh ile with the sitters . The

messages were Obtained by means Of Visions and

typtologica l dicta tions . Helene having a sked Leopold how it happens tha t she had been able to com

mun icatewith a being living on Mars, she has a vision

in whi ch Astane appears to her in a costume moreOrienta l than Martian . Where have I seen thatcostume asks she and the table replies , In India ,

wh ich indicates tha t Astané is an ex—Hindoo reincar

nated on Mars . At the same time Hélene has a

Vision of an Orien ta l landscape whi ch she believes

she has a lready seen before, but without knowingwhere . She sees Astané there, carrying under his

arm rolls of paper of a dirty wh ite color , and bowing

in Orienta l fa shi on before a woman ,a lso clothed in

Orienta l garments , whom she a lso believes she has

seen before .These personages appear to her to be

inanima te, like statues .

”The sitters ask whether

the vision was not a simple tableau (of the past) pre

sented by Leopold ; the table replies in the a ffirmative,then inclines itself signi ficantly towards Mlle. Smith ,

when some one a sked who tha t Orienta l woman might

be, and the idea is put forth that possibly she repre

sents Simandin i . Finally , to further questions of

the sitters, the table (Leopold) dictates aga in tha t

Astane in h is Hindoo existence was ca lled Kanga ,

who was a“

sorcerer of the per iod”; then that

“

A stané

on the planetMars possesses the same facu lty of evoca

tion which he had possessed in India .

”Leopold is then

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FROM INDIA T0 THE PLANET MARS

asked if the power of Astane is greater than his . A

different power , of equal strength ,

” replies the table.

Finally, Helene desiring to kn ow whether Astanewhen he evokes her sees her in her rea l cha racter orthat of her Hindoo in ca rnation , the table affi rms thathe sees her in her Hindoo cha ra cter, and adds : and,

in consequence, under those character istics which she

[Helene] possesses to—day and which are in such str ik

ing harmony with those of S imaNdin i , insisting on

theN in themiddl e of the name.

It is to be remark ed that at this sitting it was Leopold who gave al l the information in regard to thepast of Astane, and that he recogn izes in him a powerover Helene a lmost equa l to his own . It is strangethat the accredited guide of Mlle. Smith , ordinarilyso jealous of his rights over her and ready to takeoffence at all rival pretensions, so freely accords suchprerogatives to Astane. Th is unexpected mi ldnessis still more surprising when the singular similarityof position of these two personages in regard to Heleneis considered. Kanga , the Hindoo fakir, holds inthe life of Simandin i exactly the same place as Cagliostro in the life of Marie An toin ette, the place of a

sorcerer giving beneficia l counsel, and at the sametime of a platoni c adorer, and both of them in theiractual rOles of Astané and of Leopold preserve forMlle. Smith the respectful a ttachm ent wh ich they hadfor her illustrious former existences . How is it thesetwo extra - terrestria l pretenders do nothate each otherthemore cordia lly since their rival claims uponHelenehave identical foundations But, far from in the

least disputing her possession , they assist each other180

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

minal imagination to correspond to the diversity of

the circumstances . The contradiction pa in fully feltbetween the proud aspira tion s of the grande dame

and the vexing iron ies of rea lity has caused the twotragic previous existences to gush forth— in trin sically iden tical , in spite of the differences of place and

epoch— of the noble girl of Arabia ,having become

Hindoo princess, burned a live on the tomb Of her

despot of a husband, and of her Austrian h ighness,having become Queen of France and sharing themartyrdom of her spouse .

On parallel lines, in these two dreams issuing fromthe same emotional source, it is the un iversa l andconstant taste Of the human imagination for themarvellous, a llied to the very femin ine need of a re

spectfu l and slightly idolatrous protector, wh ich on

the one side has created out of whole cloth the personage of Kanga - Astane, and on the other handhas absorbed , without being careful in modifyingauthentic h istory, that of Cagliostro - Leopold . Bothare idealistic sorcerers , of profound sagacity, ten

der- hearted, who have placed their great wisdom at

the service of the un fortunate sovereign and madefor her , of their devotion , amoun ting a lmost to ado

ration , a tower of strength , a supreme consolation inthe midst of all the bitternesses of rea l l ife. And as

Leopold acts as guide for Helene Smith in the genera l course of her actual earth ly existence, so Astanéseemingly plays the same rOle in the moments of

that life in which Helene leaves our sublunar worldto fly away to the orb of Mars .

If, then , Astane i s only a reflection, a projection

182

Fig. 12 House of Astané. Blue sky ; soil , moun tains , and walls of a red color.

The tum plants, w i th tw15 1ed trunk s,have purple leaves ; the others have long

green lower leaves and small p u rple I‘l lgher leaves . The frame- work of the doors ,w indows . and decorations are in the shape of trumpets. and are of a brownish- red

color. White glass and curtains or shades of a turquoise- blue The railings of

the roof are yellow , w ith blue tips .

Fig Martian lands cape . Sk y of y ellow ; gl een lake ; gray shores bo rde red byabrown fence ; bell- towers on the shore , in yellow - brown tones, wi th

‘

corners'an

'

d pm

nacles ornamented with pink and blue balls ; hi ll of red rocks,wub vegetation of

a rather dark green i nterSpersed w i th rose , purple , and white spots (flowers)bui ldings at the base c onstructed of brick - red latti ce

- work ; edges and corners

terminating in brown- red trumpets ; immense “ ll lte Wi ndow- panes , wi th tur umse

blue curtains roofs furnished wi th yellow - brown bell - turrets , brick- red attlements, or w i th green and red plants (l ike those of Astané

’s house, Fig. Per

sons wi th large white hei d - dresses and red or brown robes .

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FROM INDIA T0 THE PLANET MARS

green eye in the middle (like the ey e of a peacockfeather) , and five or six pa irs of paws, or ears all

about (see Fig . Thi s an ima l un ites the intelli

gence of the dog with the stupidity of the par

rot, since on the one hand it obeys Astane and

fetches objects at his command (we do not knowhow) , while, on the other hand, it knows how towrite, but in a manner purely mechan ical . (We

have never had a specimen of thi s handwriting) .

(See Fig .

In fact, as to other animals , beyond the little blackbird cited , without description (text and a spe

cies of female deer for the purpose of nursing infants (text Helene saw on ly horrid aquaticbeasts like big snails, wh ich Astan é caught bymeans of iron nets stretched over the surface of thewater .Astané

’

s property is enclosed by large red stones,on the border of the water, where Helene loves to retire with her guide to converse in peace and to reca llto mind with him the an cient and melancholy mem

ories of their Hindoo existence ; the genera l tone ofthese conversations is entirely the same as that ofher conversations with Leopold .

There is a mounta in also of red rocks , where Astane possesses some excavated dwelling - places, a

kind of grotto appropriate to the sorcerer - savantwhich he is .

The corpse ofEsenale, admi rably preserved , is a lsoto be seen there, among other th ings, about whi chthe disincarnate Esena le sometimes floats in fluid ”

form, and wh ich Hélene still finds soft to the touch ,184

Fig . 18 . Astane s ugly beast. The body and tai l are rosev colored ; the

eye is green with a black centre ; the head is black ish ; the lateral appendices are brownish-

yellow , covered, like the whole body, wi th pinkhai r .

Fig . N

Fig . I r . Astane. Yellow complexion, b row n hai r ; brown sandals ; rollof white paper in his hand ; variegated costume , or red and white ; brickred belt and border . Fig . 19 . Martian lamp , standing against a rose and

blue - colored tapestry .

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girls with long hair hanging down their backs, andwearing at the back of the head a head- dress of roses ;colored blue or green butterflies a ttached to the neck .

There were at least th irty speaking Martian (butHélene did not hear them distinctly ) . Astané ap

peared“

in a very ugly robe to - day , and showed himself full of friendly ga llan try towards the young girls .

He seats himself alone at one of the tables wh ilethe young people take their places at others , twocouples at each . These tables a re adorned withflowers different from ours : some blue, with leavesin the shape of a lmonds others starry, and a s wh iteas milk, scented like musk others

,aga in

, the mostbeautiful , have the form of trumpets , either blue orfire colored, with large rounded leaves, with blackfigures . (See Fig .

Hélene hea rs Astané pronoun ce the name Pouzé .

”

Then come two men in long wh ite trousers with a

black sash one wears a coa t of rose color, the other

a wh ite one. They carry ornamen ted trays, and,

pa ssing in front of ea ch table, they place square pla tesupon them, with; forks without handles, formed of

three teeth an inch in length for glasses they hadgoblets like tea - cups, bordered with a silver thread .

Then they brought in a kind of basin a cooked an imalresembling a cat, wh ich is placed before Astane

,who

twists it and cuts it rapidlywith h is fingers,tipped with

sharp silver tips ; square pieces are distributed,among

the guests , on square plates with furrows a round theedges for the juice. Every one is filled with a wildgayety . Astanesits at ea ch table in success ion , and

the girls pass their hands through his hair. New186

Fig 10 Flying - machine held by Astane, emittingyellow and redflames . [From the collec tion of

M . Lemaitre

Fig . 20. Plant of Martian design . Fi re- redflowers ;v iolet-

gray leaves .

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heard and repeated a short time before. During the

entire vision Leopold occupied her left hand, whi chwas hanging anaesthetically down her body, and replied by his index - finger to the questions which I

asked in a low voice. I thus learned tha t th is Martianscene was not a wedding, or any specia l ceremony

,

but a simple fami ly fate ; that it was no recollectionor product of Helene

’

s imagination but a rea lity act!

ually passing on Mars : tha t it was not Leopold butAstané who furn ished th is vision and caused her tohear the music tha t Leopold h imself neither sawnor heard anyth ing of it all , y et knows all that Mlle.

Smith sees and hears , etc .

This résumé of a familyme, presided over by As

tané, gives the measure of the originality of the peo

ple of Mars . The visions relating to other incidentsare of the same order : read the description of theMartian nursery (text of the voyage in a miza

a sort of automobile, the mechan ism of wh ich is en

tirely unknown to us (text of the operation ofch irurgery (text of the games of the little An in i

(p . 176, We see a lways the same general mixture of imitation of th ings wh ich transpire amongus, and of infantile modifications of them in the minute details .

POUZERAMIé — VAR IOUS PERSONAGES

Of the other personages who traverse the Martianvi sions we know too little to wa ste much time uponthem . The name of the one who appears most frequently is Pouze. He is presen t at the banquet , and

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THE MARTIAN CYCLE

we meet him also in the company of a poor little withered old man with a trembling voice, in connectionwith whom he occupies h imself with garden ing or

botany ,in an even ing promenade by the shore of

the lake (text He also figures aga in by theside of an unknown person named Paniné , and he

has a son,Sa ine, who had met with some accident

to his head and had been cured of it,to the great joy

of h is parents (texts 23 and

Fina lly , we must devote a few words to Ramié ,who man ifests h imself for the first time in October ,1898 , as the revealer of the ultra - Martian world

,of

whi ch we sha ll soon take cogn izance . Ramié seems

to be a relative ofAstané, an a stronomer , not so brill

iant as Astane, but possessing the same privi lege,whi ch the ordinary Martians do not seem to en joy ,

of being able to take hold of Helene’

s arm,and of

writing with her hand . There is, to my mind , no

fundamen ta l difference between Leopold , Astane,and Ram ié , in their relation to Helene ; they are

on ly a reproduction in triplica te of one identica l emo

tiona l relation , and I do not think I am mistaken

in rega rding these three figures as three very tran s

paren t disguises oi the same fundamenta l persona lity,wh ich is on ly a hypnoid subdivision of the real being

of Mlle . Smith .

It is much wiser to leave to the future— ii theMar

tian and ultra - Martian roman ces con tinue to de

velop— the ta sk of en lighten ing ourselves more

completely as to the true character of Ramié . Pos

sibly some day we sha ll a lso know more concern ing

the couple ca lled Matémi and Sike, as well as many189

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

others, such as Sazéni , Paniné , the little Bullié,

Rome, Fédié, etc .,of whom we now know scarcely

more than their names , and understand nothing

in regard to their possible relationsh ips to the cen

tra l figures of Astané and Esenale .

IV.CONCERNING THE AUTHOR OF THE MAR

TIAN ROMANCE

The genera l ideas wh ich the Martian cycle

suggests will most a ssuredly differ , according towhether it is con sidered as an authentic revelation

of affa irs on the planet Mars, or on ly as a simple

fantasy of the imagination of the medium ; and

meanwh ile, holding , myself, to the second suppo

sition ,I demand from the Martian romance infor

mation in regard to its author rather than its sub

ject- matter .

There are two or three points concern ing th is un

known author whi ch strike me forciblyFirst : He shows a singular indifference— pos

sibly it may be due to ignorance— in regard to all

those questions whi ch a re most promi nen t at the

present time, I will not say among a stronomers , but

among people of the world somewhat fond of popularscience and curious concern ing the mysteries of

our un iverse. The canals ofMars, in the first placethose famous canals with reduplication— temporarily more en igmatica l than those of the Ego of themediums ; then the strips of supposed cultivationalong their borders, the mass of snow around the

I9°

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we endeavor to appreciate the full value of what itdoes give us , we are struck by two points, wh ich I have

already touched upon more than once in passing

viz . , the complete identity of the Martian world , taken

in its ch ief points, with the world n wh ich we live,and its puerile origina lity in a host of minor detai ls .

Take,for example, the family ffte (p .

To be

sure,the venerableAstaneis there saluted by a caress

of the ha ir in stead of a hand—shake the young couples while dan cing grasp ea ch other not by the wa istbut by the shoulder the ornamenta l plants do not

belong to any species known to us : but, save for these

insign ifican t divergences from our costumes and

habits , as a whole, and in genera l tone, it is exactly

as with us .

The imagination whi ch forged these scenes, with

all their decoration , is remarkably ca lm ,thoughtful ,

devoted to the real and the probable . The m iza ,

wh ich run s without a visible motor power, i s neithermore nor less extraordinary to the un in itiated spectator than many of the veh icles wh ich traverse ourroads . The colored globes placed in an aperture of

the walls of the houses to light the streets recallstrongly ou r electric lamps . Astane sfly ing—ma

ch ine will probably soon be realized in some form or

other . The bridges wh ich disappear under the

water in order to allow boats to pass (text 25) are,save for a techn ical person ,

a s natura l as ours wh ichaccomplish the same result by lifting themselves inthe a ir . With the exception Of the evoca tive pow

ers of Astane, wh ich only concern Mlle . Smith personally and do not figure in any Martian scene

,there

192

THE MARTIAN CYCLE

is nothing on Mars whi ch goes beyond wha t has beena tta ined or might be expected to be a ccomplished byingen ious inven tors here below .

A wise little imagination of ten or twelve years Oldwould have deemed it quite droll .and original to makepeople up there eat on square pla tes with a furrow forthe gravy, of making an ugly beast with a single ey ecarry the telescope of Astane to him ,

of makingbabies to be fed by tubes runn ing directly to the

breasts of an ima ls like the female deer , etc . Thereis noth ing of the Thousand and One Nights , theMetamorphoses Of Ovid

,fa iry stories

,or the adven t

ures Of Gulliver , no trace Of ogres nor of giants norof veritable sorcerers in th is whole cycle . One would

say tha t it wa s the work of a young scholar to whomhad been given the task of trying to invent a world

as differen t a s possible from ours , but real , and who

had con scientiously applied h imself to it, loosen ing

the reins of h is chi ldish fancy in regard to a multitude

of minor points in the l imits of what appeared admissible a ccording to hi s short and narrow experience.

Thirdly By the side of these arbitra ry and use

less innovation s the Martian romance bea rs in a

multitude of its characteristics a clearly Orienta lstamp , upon wh ich I have already often insisted .

The yellow complexion and long black hair of

Astané ; the costume of a ll the personages— robes em

broidered or of brilliant hues , sanda ls with thongs ,flat whi te hats , etc . , the long hair of the women and

the ornaments in the form of butterflies for their coiffures the houses of grotesque shapes , reca lling the

pagoda ,kiosk, and minaret , the warm and glowing

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

colors of the skies, the water, the rocks, and the

vegetation (see Figs . 13 and etc . all th is has a

sham a ir of j apanese, Ch inese, Hindoo . It is to benoted that th is imprint of the extreme East is purelyexterior, not in any wise penetrating to the characters or manners of the personages .

All the tra its that I discover in the author of theMartian romance can be summed up in a singlephrase,its profoundly infantile character . The candor andimperturbable nai

‘

veté of chi ldhood, whi ch doubtsnothi ng because ignorant of everyth ing, is necessaryin order for one to launch h imself seriously upon an

enterprise such as the pretended exact and authenticdepictions of an unknown world . An adult

,in the

least cultivated and having some experience of life,

would never waste time in elaborating similar nonsense— Mlle. Smith less than any one, in telligent andcultivated as she is in her norma l state .

Thi s provisional view of the author of the Martiancycle will find its confirmation and its complemen t inthe following chapters, in wh ich we sha ll examinethe Martian language, from whi ch I have until nowrefrained.

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dream, in somnambulism,men ta l a liena tion ,

or in

chi ldren . At the same time th is fabrication of ar

bitrary words raises other problems— as, for example,

the occasiona l u se of foreign idioms unknown to the

subject (at least, apparently), but wh ich really exist .

In each of these cases it is necessary to examine further whether, and in what measure, the individual

attributes a fixed mean ing to the sounds wh ich heutters, whether he understands (or has, at least, theimpression of understanding) his own words, orwhether it is only a question of a mechan ica l and

meaningless derangement of the phonetic appara tus,or

, again ,whether thi s jargon , un intelligible to the

ordinary persona lity, expresses the idea s of somesecondary persona lity . All these forms, moreover,vary in shades and degrees, and there are, in ad

dition ,those mixed cases, possibly the more fre

quent, where all the forms are mingled and com

bined . The same individua l, and sometimes in thecourse of the same spasm,

a lso exh ibits a series of

neologisms, comprehended or uncomprehended, giving way to a simple, in coheren t verbiage in com

mon language, or vice versa , etc .

A good description and rationa l classifica tion ofall these categori es and varieties of glossolalia wouldbe of very great interest . I cannot th ink of attempting such a study here, having enough a lready tofully occupy my attention ,

'

by reason of havinginvolved myself with the Martian of Mlle . Smith .

This somnambulistic language does not consist,as we have a lready discovered, either in speaking

ecstatically or in religious enthusiasm, nor yet in196

THE MARTIAN CYCLE AND LANGUAGE

the u se of a foreign language wh ich rea lly existsit represents rather neologism carried to its h ighestexpression and practised in a systematic fash ion ,

with a very precise sign ification,by a secondary

persona lity unknown to the normal self . It is a

typica l case of glosso- poesy ,

”of complete fabri

cation of a ll the parts of a new language by a subconscious activity . I have many times regrettedthat those who have witnessed analogous phenomena — as , for example, Kerner , with the Seeress ofPrecast— have not gathered together and publishedin their entirety all the products of th is singularmethod of performing their functions on the part ofthe verba l faculties . Undoubtedly each case takenby itself seems a simple anomaly, a pure arbitrarycuriosity, and without any bearing but who knowswhether the collection of a large number of thesepsychologica l bibelots

, as yet few enough in theirtota l , would not end in some unexpected light Ex

ceptiona l facts a re often the most in structive .

In order to avoid fa lling into the same errors ofnegligence, not knowing where to stop , in case Iwished to make a choice, I have taken the course of

setting forth here in full a ll the Martian texts wh ich

we have been able to ga ther . I will have them follow a paragraph contain ing certa in remarks wh ich

tha t unknown language has suggested to me ; but,very far from flattering myself tha t I have exhausted

the subject, I earnestly hope that it will find read

ers more competen t than myself to correct and com

plete my observa tions, since I must acknowledge

that as a linguist and ph ilologist I am very muchI97

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

like an ass playing the flute . It is expedient, in

beginning, to give some further details regardingthe various psychological methods of mani festationof that unknown tongue .

1. VERBAL MARTIAN AUTOMATISMS

I have described in the preceding chapter, and willnot now return to it, the birth of the Martian language, indissolubly bound up with that of the ro

mance itself, from the 2d of February, 1896, up to theinauguration of the process of translation by the entrance ofEsenale upon the scene on the 2d of November following ( see pp . 154 During severalmonths thereafter the Martian language is confinedto the two psychological forms of apparition in whichit seems to have been clothed during the course of

that first year .First : Verbo- auditive automatism, hallucinations

of hearing , accompanying vision s in the wakingstate. In the case of spontaneou s

‘

visions , Helene notesin pencil , either during the vi sion itself or immediatelyafterwards, the un intelligible soun ds whi ch strike herear but to her grea t regret many of them escape her ,since she is sometimes on ly able to ga ther the first orthe last phrase of the sen tences which her imaginarypersonages address to her , or scattered fragmen ts ofconversations which she holds wi th herself thesefragments themselves often con ta in inaccuracies ,wh ich are ultimately rectified at the moment of translation , Esenale having the good habit of articulatingvery clearly each Martian word before giving its

198

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by the hand of Hélene whi le completely entrancedand incarnating a Martian personage. In thi s casethe characters are genera lly sma ller, more regular,better formed than in the drawings of the precedingcase. A certai n number of occasions, when the

name has been pronounced by Hélene before beingwritten, and especia lly the articulation of Esenaleat the moment of tran slation , have permitted therelations between her voca l sounds and the graph icsigns of the Martian language to be established .

It is to be noted tha t these four automa tic man ifestations do not infl ict an eq ual inj ury upon the

normal personality of lVfll e. Smith . As a rule, theverbo - auditive and verbo - visua l ha llucinations on ly

suppress her consciousness of present rea lity theyleave her a freedom of mind wh ich , if not complete,is at least sufficient to permit her to observe in

a reflective manner these sensoria l automatisms ,

to engrave them on her memory, and to describethem or make a copy of them, whi le she often addsremarks testifying to a certa in critica i sense. On

the contrary, the verbo—motor ha l lucinations of artic

u lation or of wri ting seem to be incompatible withher preservation of the waking state, and are followed by amnesia . Helene is always totally absent

or entranced whi le her hand writes mechanica lly,and if, as seldom happens, she speaks Martian automatically , outside of the momen ts of complete incarnation, she is not awa re of it, and does not recollect it . This incapacity of the normal personalityof Ml le. Smith to observe at the time or remember

afterwards her verbo motor automatisms denoteszoo

THE MARTIAN CYCLE AND LANGUAGE

a more profound perturbation than tha t she exper i

emees during her sen sory automatisms .

The Ma rtian handwriting on ly appeared at the

end of a prolonged period of incubation ,whi ch be

tray ed itself in severa l in cidents , and was certa in lystimula ted by various exterior suggestions duringa year and a ha lf at least . The following are the

prin cipa l dates of th is developmen t .

February 16, 1896 — The idea of a special handwriting belonging to the planet Mars occurs for thefirst time to Helene’s a ston ishment in a Ma rtiansemi—trance (see p .

November 2 . Handwriting is clearly predictedin the phra se,

Astané will tea ch me to w rite,”ut

tered by Helene in a Ma rtian tran ce, a fter the sceneof the translation by Esena le (see p .

November 8 .

— After the transla tion Of text NO . 3 ,

Leopold , being questioned , replies tha t Astané w illwrite thi s text for Mlle . Smith , but the prediction isnot fulfilled .

May 23, 1897 .

— The announ cement of Martian

handwriting becomes more precise . Presen tly,

”

says Astané to Hélene, thou wilt be able to trace

our handwriting ,and thou wilt possess in thy hands

the cha racters of ou r language (textJune 20.

— At the beginn ing of a sean ce , a Martian

vision , she demands of an imaginary interlocutor

a large ring whi ch comes to a point, and with wh ich

one can write. Thi s description applies to M . R . ,

who has with him some sma ll pocket- pens of thi skind , capable of being adjusted to the end of the in

dex—finger .

.

201

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

June 23 .

— I hand Hélene the two sma ll pocketpens which M . R . has brought for her , but they do

not please her . After trying to u se one, she throwsit away and takes up a pencil , saying that if shemustwrite Martian ,

the ordinary means will suffice as

well as those peculiar pocket- pen s . In about a min

ute she falls asleep, and her hand begins automati

ca lly to trace a message in Leopold’

s handwriting .

I then ask that individua l whether the pocket- pens

of M . R . do not meet the exigencies of Martian , and

whether Mlle . Smith will some day write tha t lan

guage, as has already been announced . Helene’

s

hand thereupon responds in the beautiful callig

raphy of Leopold : I have not y et seen the instru

men t wh ich the inhabitants of the planet Mars u se

in writing their language, but I can and do a ffirmthat the th ing will happen , as has been announcedto you .

— LEOPOLD .

June 27 .

— In the scene of the tran slation of text 15 ,Helene adds to her usua l refra in , Esenale ha s goneaway he will soon return he wi ll soon wr i te.

August 3 .

— Between four and five o ’clock in the

a fternoon Helene had a vision at her desk ,la sting

ten or fifteen minutes, of a broad,horizontal bar ,flame- colored , then changing to brick- red, and whi ch

by degrees became rose- tin ted, on wh ich were a multitude of strange cha ra cters, wh ich she supposesto be the Martian letters of the a lphabet, on accountof the color . These charac ters floated in space before and round about her . Ana logous visions oc

cur in the course of the weeks immediately follow

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then writes undernea th the three letters of line 5 , andwithout saying anything adds line 6. Then she

resumes : How dark it is with you the sun

has entirely gone down (it still ra ins very hard) .NO one more ! noth ing more ! She rema ins incontempla tion before that wh ich she has written ,

then sees Astane aga in near the table, who againshows her a paper, the same, she th inks , as the for

mer one. But no, it is not a ltogether the same ?

there is one mistake, it is there [she poin ts to the

fourth line towards the end] Ah,I do not see

more I Then , presently she adds He showedme someth ing else there was a mistake, but I wasnot able to see it . It is very difficult . Wh ile I waswriting, it was not I myself, I could not feel myarms . It was difficult , because when I ra ised myhead I no longer saw the letters well . It was like a

Greek design .

At th is moment Hélene recovered from the state ofobscuration , from which she emerged with difficulty

,

which had accompan ied the Martian vision and the

automatic copy of the verbo—visua l text . But a littlela ter in the even ing she on ly vaguely rememberedhaving seen strange letters , and was a ltogether ignorant oi having written anyth ing .

The very na tural supposition tha t the three firstwords written were the names of the known personages (Astane, Esenale, Pouzé) , who bore them on

their wands , led to the discovery of the meaning of

many of the Martian characters and permitted the

divining Of the sense of the three last words.

The new a lphabet was enriched by certain other204

THE MARTIAN CYCLE AND LANGUAGE

Fig. 2 1. Text No. 16 : seance of August 22 , 1897.— First Martian

text wri tten by Mlle. Smith (according to a visual hallucination).Natural size . [Collection of M . Lemaitre ] H erewith its

French notation.

205

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

signs on the following days, thanks to the echoes

of that seance in the ordinary life of Héléne, who

happened on severa l occasions to wr i te not the trueMartian a s yet, but French in Martian letters, to

her great stupefaction when she found herself a ftera while in the presence of these unknown hiero

glyphi cs .

Fig. 22. Examples of isolated French words (j m nmz’

sa, Iumz’

ére, pra ir ie) automati

cally traced in Martian characters by Mlle. Smith in her normal handwriting. See

alsoFig. 1, p . 56.

The first manifestation of that graphic automa

tism,being as yet concerned only with the form of

the letters and not the vocabulary , dates from the

day a fter the following seance :August 23 . Here, wrote Hélene to me at noon ,

sending me some memoranda from which I havetaken the three examples of Fig . 22 here are somelabels which I made it my business to make thismorn ing at ten o’clock, and which I have not beenable to fin ish in a satisfactory manner . I have onlyjust now emerged from the rose- colored fog in wh ichI have been continuously enwrapped for a lmost twohours .

”

Three weeks later a complete automatic Martianhandwriting was produced in a seance at my house,of whi ch the following is a summary.

September 12 , 1897.

— At the end of a quite longMartian vision , Mlle. Smith sees Astané, who has

something at the end of hi s finger and who signs to206

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Almost immedia tely Leopold substitutes himself

for Astaneand traces on the same sheet, in hi s char

acteristic handwriting (considerably distorted tow

ards the end) Place thy hand on her forehead,”

by means of wh ich he indicates to me tha t the time

has arrived to pass on to the scene of translation by

Esenale.

We may conclude from these successive stages

that the Martian handwriting is the result of a slow

Gfi l ll’

l’

a c‘

i dmc 3 6 2 2[r o d e f gflo j /t f m n

a L VVE é a E

p. 9 a 4 t u. v w x5

2 ch

Eh J iht’

fiafe V.emu/4,“ Si g/wAp/im

‘

d

Fig 24. Martian alphabet, summary of the signs obtained. (Never has been given

as such by M lle. Smith . )

autosuggestion , in whi ch the idea of a special writinginstrument, and its handling, for a long time playedthe dominant r61e, then wa s abandoned, withoutdoubt, as impracticable to real ize. The charactersthemselves then haun ted for several weeks Héléne’svisua l imagination before they appeared to her on

the cylinders of the th ree Martians in a manner sufficiently clear and stable to enable her to copythem and afterwards to be capable of subduing hergraphomotor mechan ism . Once manifested out

208

THE MARTIAN CYCLE AND LANGUAGE

wardly , these signs , wh ich I have assembled underthe form of an a lphabet in Fig 24, have not varied fortwo yea rs .

Moreover, some trifling confusion , of wh ich I sha ll

speak a little later, shows well that the persona litywh ich employs them is not absolutely separa ted fromthat of Hélene

,a lthough the latter, in a waking state,

might hold the same rela tion to Martian wh ich she

holds to Ch inese- tha t is, she knows its general very

characteristic aspect , but is ignorant of the sign ification of the cha racters

, and would be incapable of reading it .

Hélene’

s Martian handwriting is not stereotyped,but presents

,a ccording to circumstan ces , some va

r iation s in form,especially in the size of the let

ters .

Th is may be established by Figs . 2 1 to 32 , in

wh ich I have reproduced the greater part of the textsobta ined by writing . When the Martian gushesforth in verbo - visua l ha llucinations , Héléne tran

scribes it in strokes of large - dimensions , lackingfirmness , full of repetitions (Figs . 2 1

,26, and

she a lways rema rks that the origina l , wh ich is before

her eyes , is much sma ller and clea rer than her copy .

In the texts wh ich have come automatica lly from

her hand— te ,supposedly traced by the Martian s

themselves— the handwriting is rea lly smaller and

more precise . Here aga in are some curious differ

en ces . Astane has a ca lligraphy less voluminousthan tha t of Esenale, and Ramie has a much finer

one than Esenale (Figs . 28 and

It would be a ltogether premature for me to launch

o 209

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

myself upon the study of Martian graphology, and,therefore, leaving tha t line to my successors, I takeup the texts whi ch have been collected in their chron

ological order .

II . THE MARTIAN TEXTS

It is not always ea sy to represent a language andits pronunciation by mean s of the typograph ica lcharacters of another . Happily the Martian , in spiteof its strange appearance and the fifty millions ofleagues which separate u s from the red planet, isin reality so near n eighbor to French that there isscarcely any diffi culty in th is case.

The dozen written texts " which we possess, and

which Mlle. Smith either copied from a verbo- visua lhallucination , or wh ich were traced by her hand inan access of graphomotor automatism, are readilytranslated into French , sin ce each Martian letterhas its exact equivalen t in the French alphabet .I have confined myself to placing accents on the

vowels (there are none in the Ma rtian writing) , conformably to the pronun ciation of Esenale at the

moment of translation . It is on ly necessary to readthe following texts a loud, a rticulating them as

though they were Fren ch , in order to secure theMartian words almost exactly as they proceed fromthe mouth of M le. Smith ; I say a lmost, becausethere still rema ins, na turally, in the speech of Esenale, as in that of every one, a special mannerism

These are texts 16—20, 26, 28 , 3 1 34 , 37—39 , They are furtherdistingu ished by an asterisk .

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esset,like fat ames , like aloes m is and mess, like

lis (flower) , and mess (of an officer) , etc . In the sec

ond place, for the different va lues of the e I have

adopted the following rule the e broad is alwaysindicated by the accent grave e; the e medium,

which is onl y found at the beginni ng and in the middle of a word, is marked with the acute accent é ;the e short, by the acute accen t at the end of a word

(or before a fina l 3 mute) , and by the circumflex at

the beginn ing or in the middle the e mute, or demimute, remains without accent .

The pronunciation , therefore, will be, for exam

ple, the e’

s of the Martian words m été , b énézee, likethose of the French words été, r épe

’

tée ; eve, likeré’vé, tes, as in Lu téce, etc .

There will be found in italics, underneath the

Martian texts, their Fren ch equiva lents, word forword, as given by Esenale in the manner describedabove (see pp . 166 I have a lso indicated thekind of automatism auditive, visual , vocal , orgraphic— by means of wh ich each text was obtained,a lso the date of its appearance, and (in parentheses)that of the seance, often quite remote, at wh ich itwas translated . I have a lso added such explanations as seemed to me to be necessary .

1. métiche C . médache C . métaganiche S. k in’t'che

Monsieur C. Madame C. Mademoisel le S. quatre.

Mr. C. Mrs . C . Miss C . Fou r.

Vocal . February 2, 1896. See above, p . 157.

A l iteral Engl ish translation of each text w i l l be found immediately beneath the French equ iva lents of the Martian words.

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THE MARTIAN CYCLE A

’

ND LANGUAGE

2 . dodé né c i haudan té mess méti che astane ké dé

Cecz'

est la ma ison da grand lzomme A stané qu e tu

me veche.

05 1124 .

Th is is the hou se of the great man Astane, whom thou hast seen .

Auditive. About September 20, 1896 (translatedNovember — Heard by Hélene at the same time at

wh ich she had the vision of Fig . 12 (see p .

3 . mode iné c é d i cévou itche ui eve ché kine liné

Mer e ador e’e, ;'

e le r ea mnaz’

s et su i t ton peti t L inet.

Adored mother , I recogn ize thee , and am thy l ittle Linet.Words addressed toMme . Mirbel by her son Alexis

(Esenale) in a scene of incarnation a ltogether ana logous to tha t described on p . 156.

4 . i mode mete modé mode ine palette is

0 mer e ,tendr e mer e, mer e bz

’

en - a ime’

e,

ca lme tou t

ché pé liché ché chire né c i ten ti vi

ton souci , ton f i ls est pres de toi .

Oh ,mother , tender mother , dearly loved mother , ca lm all thy

care , thy son is near thee .

Voca l . November 29, 1896 (tran sla ted same se

ance) . - Spoken by Esenale and addressed to Mme.

Mi rbel, in a scene of incarna tion analogous to thepreceding . At the moment of translation Esenale

repeated, very distin ctly, the last words, as follows :“n é C i , est pres is near ten ti v i , de toi

Th is wa s eviden tly an error, since it appears from nu~

merou s later texts tha t est pres de toi corresponds to

n é ten ti v i ; it follows that it would be na tura l totran slate the word Ci by la, i c i , or tout, if these words

had not been differently rendered in other texts . (Aconfusion of the adverb lit with the a rticle la , trans

lated by c i in text 2 ,might a lso be suspected . )

2 13

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

s. i kiché ten ti si k é di eve dé étéche méné

0h l pourquoz'

prés dc moi ne te l iens- ta touj our s , amie

izé bénézée

enfin ” trou t/( e

Oh Why dost thou not keep thyse l f a lways near me, friend ,

at last found aga in

Auditive . December 4, 1896 (tran slated December Fragmen t of a long discourse by Astane

to Helene, during an appa rition wh ich she had ofh im about n ine o ’clock in the even ing, as she was

about to go to bed. Th is senten ce, which he uttered

twice, is the only one wh ich she has been able to re

cal l with sufficien t precision to note down immediately after the vision . She has the feeling of having understood Astane s whole discourse wh ile hewas delivering it, and th inks she would have beenable to translate it into French ,

perhaps not word forword , but in its genera l sense. She expected to

transcribe it the following day , but in the morningwhen she awoke she was unable to recall eitherthe words of Astané or their mean ing, not even thatof this sentence, written on the previous even ing .

Heard aga in , as the second part of the followingtext, in the seance of the 13th of December.

6. ti iche céné é spénié u i ti ez i atev astané ez i

De notre belle Esp/n i l at de man i t” Astana: mon

érié viz é 6 i k iché ten ti Si (It évé

dme descend d olz .’ pou r quoz

'

f r ) : de moi no te tian :

dé étéche méné ize bénéz ée

tu touj oum , amie enfin r etr oum’e

From our beauti fu l Espénié"

and from my being Astané .mysou l descends to thee— Oh ! why dost thou not keep thysel f always near to me , friend , at last found aga in ?

Auditive. December 13 , 1896 (translated same2 14

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FROM INDIA T0 THE PLANET MARS

How much I regret your not having been born in

our world you would be much happier there, since

everythi ng is much better with u s, people as well asth ings, and I would be so happy to have you near

me . That is about wha t it seemed to me to meanperhaps some day we may be able to be sure of it .

8 . ames mis tensée lade s i ames ten tive avé

Vim s an instant oer : moi , v im : pr i s d‘

zm v iei l

men koume ié ché pé lésse ames somé tese

f ondr e tou t ton chagr in v iens admi r er

misaimé h é dé sures pit chami métafleu r s. qu e tu crois sans parf um , mair pour tan t si

borésé ti finaimé ia i z i dé séimiré

pleines de senteu r s Ma i : si tu comprendra r

Come towards me a moment, come near an old friend to meltaway all thy sorrow ; come to admire theseflowers . wh ich you

be l ieve w ithou t perfume , but yet so fu l l of frag rance ! But if

thou cou ldst understand .

Auditive and voca l . January 31 , 1897 (translated same seance) .— Héléne, in hemisomnambw

lism , sees Astané, who tells her to repeat his wordsshe replies to him But speak pla inly I willgladly repea t them but I do not understandvery well Then she pronounces slowly and

very distinctly the foregoing text , in groups of

words , separated by a moment of silence (markedin the text by the sign It is remarked thatthese groups, with the exception of the sixth ,

correspond to the hemistiches of the French translationobta ined in the same seance. After the sixth groupHéléne rema ins silent for a long time, and finallysays

“

I cannot understand then utters the four lastwords, which are the reply ofAstané to her objection.

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THE MARTIAN CYCLE AND LANGUAGE

9 . ané éni k é é réduté c é i lassuné té ima ui

C’

e.rt i c i que, soli ta i r e, ie m’

appr ocfie da ciel et

bétiné chee durée

r ega rde ta ter r e.

It is here that, a lone , I bring myse l f near to heaven and looku pon the earth .

Auditive . February 24,1897 (translated March

I4) .— Reclin ing in her easy- cha ir , after the noonday meal , Héléne hears this sentence, whi le at the

same time she has the vision of a house, constructed by digging into a Martian mounta in , and tra

versed by a sort of a ir - sha fts , and whi ch representsAstané

’

s observa tory .

ro . Simandini lé lami mené kize pavi k iz atimi

Simandin i , me voiei amie ! guelle j oie, que! ban/wa r !

Simand ini , here I am friend ! what j oy ! what happiness !Auditive . March I4, 1897 (tran sla ted same seance) .See following text .

11 . i mode dumé iné modé kevi cé mache povini

O mer e, anc iemze mer e, quand j e peux ar r iver

poénéz é mfmé 6 v i sal iné éz iné mima nikainé modé

qu elques in stan ts oer : toi j’

oublie mes pa r en ts Nikame'

, mi re .’

- i men

5 ami .

’

Oh ,mother , former mother , when I can arrive a few in

stants near thee , I forget my parents Nika i‘

né,mother l — Oh

friendVoca l . March 14, 1897 (translated same se

an ce) .— From the beginning of th is seance Héléne

compla ined of cold hands , then a grea t desire toweep , and of a buzzing in the ears , wh ich kept increasing and in whi ch she fina lly heard Astané

address to her the Ma rtian words of text IO , Im217

FROM INDIA T0 THE PLANET MARS

mediately a fter she passes into full somnambu

lism her respirations, very short and pan ting , rise

to three per second , accompani ed by syn chronousmovemen ts of the left index—finger then she stopssudden ly with a long expira tion , immediately followed by a deep inspira tion : then her breast heaves ,her face assumes an expression of suffering , and the

left index- finger announ ces tha t it is Esena le (AlexisMirbel) who is incarnated . After a series of spasmsand h iccoughs, Héléne a rises, and, placing herselfbehind Mme. Mirbel, takes her neck in her hands,bows her head upon hers, tenderly pa ts her cheek,and addresses to her the words of text N0. I I (exceptthe two last words) . Then she raises her head , andaga in , with panting respiration (accelerated to th irtyin spiration s in sixteen seconds) , wa lks towards M .

Lema itre (whose pupil Alexis Mirbel had been at

the time of hi s dea th ) . She places her hands uponhis shoulders, a ffectionately gra sps h is righ t hand ,and with emotion and continued sobbing addressesto him the two words i m en ! After wh ich she goesthrough the pan tomime of extending her hand to Leopold and of a llowing h im to conduct her to a couch

,

where the translation of textsNos . IO, I I , and 9 is obtained by the customary process, but not withoutdifficulty .

12 . lassuné ké nipuné ani tis dé machir mirivé

Approcke, ne ( r a in ; pas ; bien tflt tu pou r r as tr a f or

iche manir sé dé évenir toué chi amiché z é for imé

notr e l er i tu re, et tu posslderas dans ter ma ins les marques

ti vi che tarviné

de notr e langage.

Approach , fear not ; soon thou Wi lt be ab le to trace our writ

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

the latter ha lf of the seance in wh ich the Arab ser

vant, Adel , plays a leading role . The mingling ofthe two roman ces is greatly accen tua ted a few mo

ments later, in a long discourse, devoid of r’

s and

very rich in sibilants , and spoken with so great volubi lity that it was impossible to ga ther a single word .

At the time of the translation , at the close of theseance, th is tirade was repeated with the same ra

pidity , preventing any nota tion ; according to the

French translation wh ich followed, it concernedmemories of the life of Simandini whi ch Hélene re

called to Astané and in wh ich there is much men

tion of the a foresa id Adel (see Hindoo Cycle, Chap .

14 . eupié z é pa lir né amé arva nini pédriné évai

Eupie’

,le temps est wenu ,

‘ A r va nou s gu i tte ,

‘

soi s

div ine lamée ine Vina té luné —pouz é men hantiné

Izeu reux j u squ e a u retou r da j ou r .—Pou ze

’

,ami fidéle,

éz i vraini né touze med v i ni ché chiré sainé — ké

mon de’

si r est mime pou r toi et ton fi ls Sa nd — Que

zalisé téassé mianiné u i di daz iné eupié pouz é

l’

e’

l/ment entier t’

enveloppe et te ga rdel — Eupie

f /— Pouze‘/

Eupié , the time has come ; Arva leaves u s ; be happy ti l l theretu rn of the day . Pou ze

, fa ith fu l friend ,my w ish is even for

thee,and thy son Sa ine.

— May the entire e lement envelop thee

and guard thee— Eup ié l

— Pou ze

Auditive . June 18 , 1897 (translated j une—During a visit I made to Mlle . Smith she has a

vision of two Martian personages wa lking on the

shore of a lake, and she repeats th is fragment of

their conversation wh ich she has heard . According

to another text (No . Arva is the Ma rtian nameof the sun .

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THE MARTIAN CYCLE AND LANGUAGE

15. mode tatinec c é k é mache radz iré z é tarv ini va

M i re c/zer ie, j e ne pu i s pr ononcer le langage oi;

n ini n ini triménéni i i adz i cé z é seimiré vétiche i

nou s nous compr en ions si bien ! j e [e compr ends “pendan t ; 6mode iné e kévi bérimir m hed kevi machiri cé di trine

me'

r e ador e/e, gu and r ev iena’r a - t—i l ? Quand pour rai -j e te par ler

ti éstotiné u i hazec animina i modé cé mé i adz i

de ma der n iér e et cou r te ex istence ? 0 me’re

, j e t’

a i bien

i linée i mode inée c é ké lé nazere ani — mirar ecomzue, d mer e ador efe

, j e ue me trompe pas ! — Adieu

mode itatinée mira miré. mira

mi r e e/ze'

r ie,

adieu ,adieu

,adieu

My dearest , I c annot pronounce the language in wh ich we

u nderstood each other so wel l ! I u nderstand i t, however ; oh 'adored mother , when w i l l i t retu rn ? When shal l I be ab le to

speak to thee of my last and short existence ? Oh ! mother, Ihave w el l recogn ized thee , oh ! adored mother

,I am not

m istaken l— Farewel l , dearest mother , farewe l l , farewe l l , farewe l l

Auditive. June 27, 1897 (transla ted same seance) .Mme. Mirbel being presen t, Héléne perceives Ese

nale , who rema in s in the vicin ity of his mother andaddresses these words to her . The adieux at the

close were not spoken at that time, but were utteredby Esena le immedia tely following and as a complemen t of the tran sla tion ; th is is the on ly case (outside oi text 36) in which he did not confine h imselfstrictly to the texts a lready ga thered and in wh ich hepermitted h imself to introduce a new phra se, whi ch

otherwise does not con ta in a single unknown word

itatinée, chér ie, is evidently a slip wh ich should becorrected either to tatinée, chér ie, or to it atinée, 6

chér ie. The precise French equiva lent of tr iménén i

is probably entretenions .

22 1

FROM INDIA T0 THE PLANET MARS

16. astane é senale pouz é méné Simandini mira

(A stant. Esenale. Pouze’. Amie Simandini , adieu I)Astane. Esenale . Pouzeé . Friend Simandini , farewel lVisua l . August 22, 1897 .

— Th is text, for which

there is no need of a translation , consti tutes the firstappearance of the Martian handwriting . See above,Fig . 2 1 , and the résumé of that seance, pp . 203

—205 .

*r7. tah ire mis méch med mirivé éz iné brima§ ti tbs

P r ends nu crayon pou r tracer mes paroles de cet

tensée — az ini dé améir maz i si some i che naz ina

instant. A lor s tu v iendras avec moi adm i rer notr e nouz/eau

tranéi .— Simandini c é k ié mache di pédriné tés luné ké c é

passage. Simandin i , j e ne pu i s te gu i tter cc fou r . Que j e

eve divine patrinez k ie nipuné ani

su is heu reux Alor s ne cr a ins pas

Take a penc i l to trace my words of th is moment. Then thou

w i lt come w ith me to admire ou r new passage. Simandini , l

cannot leave thee th is day . How happy I am I— Then fear not

Graphic . September 12 , 1897 (trans lated same seance) .— See p . 207 and Fig . 23.

*18 . modé tatinec lami mis miré. ti ché biga Ira

M i r e clu‘r ie, voici nu adieu de ton enf ant qu iébrini é sana 6 vi idedi 26 rénir— z é mess métich hé épense tant d toi . On te Ie por ter a , Ie g rand lzomme qu i a

2 6 valini imine— u i z [6] grani s idinéle visage mince et le corps maigre.

My dearest, this is a farewe l l from thy chi ld , who thinks so

much of thee. The big man ,who has a thin face and a s lender

body , w i l l bear it to thee.

Auditive, then Graphic . October IO, 1897 (trans

lated same seance) .— Hélene has a vision of a Mar

tian landscape, in which Esenale floats discarnatearound the plants and speaks these words, which sherepeats . (It is understood from the translation that

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THE MARTIAN CYCLE AND LANGUAGE

th is text was intended for Mme . Mirbel , who wasthen in the country , but to whom the person veryc lea rly indica ted by the final characteristic was

about to pay a visit and could carry the message . )I then offer Héléne a pencil in the hope of obta in ingth is same text in writing after various terg iversations and grimaces , denoting a sta te of increasingsomnambu lism , she fina lly takes the pencil betweenher index and middle fingers , tells Esenale that shestil l sees him and makes h im sit down by her side,and then begins to write , completely absent and fa seluated by the paper . The left index- finger (Leopold)in forms us that it is Esenale h imself who is writingby mean s of Hélene

’

s arm . Twice she interruptsherself in order to say to Esena le, Oh do not go

y et, stay a little wh ile longer 1” She appears ner

vous and agitated , and often stops writing to stabher paper with her pencil or to make erasures orscribble on it (see Fig . 25) in the z é of the last line,she forgets the é (th is did not prevent Esenale frompronouncing the word correctly at the time of its

transla tion ) .

*19 . m [en] cé k ie mache di trine sandine teri

(Amie, j e ne pu is te par ler longtemps comme

né ez i vra i ni zou réch mira mi le piri mira

est mon de'si r p lus ta rd ,

adieu adieu .)

(Friend ,I cannot speak to thee a long time

,as is my des ire ;

later , farewe l l , farew el l !)Graphic , then Auditive . October 24, 1897 (there

has never been any translation of th is text , two

words of wh ich are still unknown ) . — Hélene first

sees the table illumined by a green light in whicho nu

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

some designs appear wh ich she copies, and wh ich

give th is text, except the two last letters of the firstword

, the place of wh ich rema ins blank . Immedi

ately after she hears Martian spoken , which she re

pea ts . It is the same text then she has a vi sion of

Astane, Esenale, and a little girl whose name she

hears as Nike but th is soon gives way to other nonMartian somnambulisms . (See Fig .

*ao. Sike éva

‘

i divine z é niké criz i capri né amé

Siké, sois neu reux .’ Le peti t oiseau noi r est nenu

orie anté ch 6 626 carimi ni ez i é rié é ni é pav inée hed

f r apper [tier d ma f ene‘

tr e, ct mon dme a ( t! j oy eu se i l

lé sadri dé z é véch ir tiz iné Matémi misa'

imé 16

me chanta : tu le ver ras dema in .

— Mat5mi, fieu r qu i me

amez essaté Arva ti ez ine udanig ames tés uri ames

f a i s v i vr e, solei l de mes songes , niens oe soi r , w'

ens

sandine ten ti si évai div inée Rome va né Sike

longtemps pr i s de moi sois li eu r eu se .’— Rome

f, on est Siké ?

atriz i ten té tamech épiz i

Lei - od s, pr i s da taml c/ze r ose.

Sike, be happy ! The l ittle black b ird came yesterday rap

ping at my w indow ,and my sou l was joyfu l ; he sang to me

Thou w i lt see him to-morrow . Matémi ,flower wh ich makes m e

l ive,sun of my dreams , come th is even ing ; come for a long

time to me ; be happy— Rome, where is Sike — Yonder , near

the tamé che"

rose.

Auditive, then Graph ic . November 28 , 1897 (translated same seance) . —Fragments of conversationheard during the vision of the Martian feite describedon p . 185 . Sike (a young man ) and Matémi (ayoung girl ) form the first couple who pass by and

wa lk off in the direction of a large bush with red

flowers (tameche) ; then a second couple exchangethe last words of the text wh ile going to rejoin the

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23 . [A] paniné évai ki t ime z é miza. ami grini

Pan ine, soi s pr udent, le miza na sou lever '

ké chee emeche rés paz é [B] pouze tes luné soumml

one to ma in se r eti r e / Pou ze, cc fou r r iant.

arva u cen z é primi ti ché chire k iz pavi lunéA rva s i beau . le r em i r de ton fits . r/uel [zeu r eux four

[C] same ez i chire ize liné'

i k ize pav i ez i manéSa i ne

’

,mon fi ls ,

enfin debou t ! que/[e Mon pér e

u i eze mode tiz ine ez i chiré ez i mané cé eve adi

et ma D ema in ,mon flf on pér e, j e su is bien

ané.

ma in tenan t.

Pan ime, be prudent, the m iza is abou t to arise ; remove

thy hand ! Pouze, th is laugh ing A rva so beau ti fu l .The retu rn of thy son . What happy day Sai né

,my son ,

fina l ly standing ! What j oy My father and my mother

To- morrow , my son . my father , I am wel l now .

Auditive . February 20, 1898 (translated same

seance) .— Very complicated Martian vision . First ,three small , movable houses , like pavilions or Chi

nese kiosks, going about on little ba lls ; in one of

these, two unknown personages , one of whom putsher hand ou t of a small oval window

,wh ich oc

casions, on the part of her compan ion, the obser

vation of the first sentence (A) of the text at thi s

instant , in fact , these rolling pavilion s (m i z a) as

sume an oscillatory movement , wh ich makes a noiselike tick- tack ,

and then glide like a train uponrails . They go around a h igh red moun ta in and

come into a sort of magn ificent gorge or ravine, withslopes covered with extraordinary plants

, and wherethey find wh ite houses on an iron framework re

sembling piles . The two men then a light from theirm iz a

,

”chatting together, but Héléne can only hear

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THE MARTIAN CYCLE AND LANGUAGE

fragments (B) of their conversation . A young man

of sixteen to eighteen years of age comes to meetthem , who has his head tied up in a kind of n ightcap,and having no ha ir on the left side. Martian sa lutation s a re exchanged ; they mutua lly strike their headswith their hands , etc . Helene compla ins of hearingvery con fusedly tha t which they are saying , and can

on ly repea t ends of sentences (C ) . She has pain inher heart , and Leopold dicta tes to me by the left index—finger, Pu t her to sleep, wh ich presently leadsto the customary scene of transla tion of the text .

24 . samé ez i chi ré i ée eze pavi ché v ina ine ruzz i

Sam e’

,mon fi ls , tou te ma j oie, ton r etou r au mi lieu

ti n ini né mis mess assi le atimi itéche .

de nou s est u n gr and ,immense ban/zeu r . touj our s .

furimir .

a imer a .

Sai né , my son , a ll my j oy ; thy retu rn to ou r c irc le is a great,an immense happiness . a lways w i l l love . ev er .

Auditive . March 11, 1898 (translated AugustYesterday morn ing, on jumping out of bed ,

wrote Helene to me , when sending me th is text , I

had a vision of Ma rs , a lmost the same a s that wh ich

I had before (at the seance of February I saw

aga in the rolling pavilions , the houses on piling ,

severa l personages , among them a young man who

had no ha ir on one side of his head . I was able to

note some words . It was very con fu sed , and the

last words were caught on the wing , when here and

there somethi ng a little clear came to me

25 . (16 véchi ké ti éfi merve éni

Tu nois qu e de c/zoses superbes i ci .

Thou seest what su pe rb th ings (a re) here .

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

Auditive. August 21 , 1898 (translated same se

ance) .— Waking vision of a river between two rosecolored mountain s, with a bridge (like that in Fig .

9) which lowered itself into the water and disap

peared in order to a llow five or six boa ts to pass

(like that in Fig . then reappeared and was re

stored to its place . As Héléne describes all this,she hears a voice speaking to her the above Martianwords of the text .

*26. Astane né 2 6 ten ti vi

A ston! est la pr i s de toi .

Astané is there , near to thee .

Visual . August 21 , 1898 (translated same se

ance) .— Following the preceding scene : Héléne perceives in the a ir (illumined and red— tha t of herMartian vision ) some characters unknown to her ,wh ich she copies (see Fig . 1 ask her, showingher the word z é (which elsewhere a lways standsfor le) , if she is not mistaken . She verifies it bycomparing it with the imaginary model before herand affirms it to be correct .

27. sike kiz eriz i hantiné hed é ébrinié res améré éSike’, guel oiseau fidéle .

’ i l u. pens! se r l un i r d

nini éssaté ti iche atimi matémi bantine hed né

nous , v ivre de notre ban/tea r ! Mate‘

mi fidéle, i l est

hantiné ez i darié sike tbs ousti k é z é badeni lassane

fidi le mon ma u l — Si ké cc bateau que le nen t approc/te

maz i trimaz i bed 6 ti z i maz été é povine é nini z é priani

avec f orce ! i i a de la pei ne a‘

ar r iver d nous le fioté fahmine ivraini i de 6 ti z i maz été é Vi zéné éest pu issant auj ourd

'l mi ; on a de la peine d distinguer lo

chodé

c/zodl .

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

Sike, what (a) fa ith fu l bird ! he has thought to reunite him

sel f to u s , to l ive of ou r happiness— Matém i . faith fu l , my heart

is faith fu l — Sike, th is boat which the w ind br ings near w i th

force it has some diffi cu lty in reach ing u s the cu rrent is strong

to- day ; one has some diffi cu lty in d istingu ish ing the chode.

"

Auditive . About the 4th of September, 1898

(translated October I6) .— Helene hea rd and n otedth is phrase at the same time atwhich she had the vi

sion of the two young Martian people who were walking in a kind of flower- garden , and saw a boat arrive,like that in Fig . 13 . The mean ing of chodé has

not been a scerta ined .

*28 . men mess Astane c é ames 6 v i ité ch li tes

Am i g r and A stané, j e niens d toi touj ou r s par cet

a liz é neumi assi le ka ianiné ez i atev u i lé

ele’men t my ste’

r ieux, immense, gu i enveloppe mon e

’

tr e et me

taz i é 6 v i med i ée§ ez ine rabrig n i tibra§. men ames di

lance toi pour tou tes mes pensees et besoins . Ami,w

’

en s te

ouradé ké Matémi uz énir chée k ida u i ké chée briz i pi

souven i r que Matef

mi attendr a ta f ar/cu r ,et que ta sagesse lu i

déz anir . évai div ine tes lunér efpondra . Soi s lzeu reux cc j ou r .

Friend great Astane, I come to thee a lways by th is ele

ment,mysterious , immense , whi ch enve lops my being an d

launch es me to thee by al l my though ts and des ires . Friend,

come thou to remember that Matém i w i l l awa it thy favor , and

that thy w isdom w i l l answer h im . Be happy to - day .

Visual . October 3, 1898 (tran slated October— At a quarter before n ine in the even ing Mlle.

Smith , desiring to obtain a commun ication fromLeopold for herself and her mother

, sat down in an

easy—chair and gave herself up to meditation .Pres

ently she hears the voice of Leopold telling her thathe cannot manifest h imself that even ing

,but that

someth ing much more in teresting and important230

THE MARTIAN CYCLE AND LANGUAGE

is being made ready . The room seems to her to become completely obscured , except the end of thetable at whi ch she is sitting , whi ch is i llumined witha golden light . A young Martian girl in a yel lowrobe and with long tresses then comes and seatsherself beside her and begins to trace, without inkor paper , but with a poin t on the end of her indexfinger , bla ck figures on a whi te cyl inder, at firstplaced on the table, a fterwards on her knees , and

wh ich is unrolled as she writes . Helene is near

enough to see the cha racters clearly, and copies themin pencil on a sheet of paper (see Fig . a fter which

the vision van ishes and her mother and the room re

appear .

29 . saz éni k iché nipunéz é dode né pit léz iré bez

Sazen i pou rqu oi cr a i ndr e ? Ceci est sans souf r ance u i

neura évai dastrée firéz i z é bodri né dorime z é

danger ,sois pa is ible ; cer ta inement le os est sain ,

le

pastri tubre né tnxe

sang seu l est ma lade.

Sazen i , why fear ? Th is is w ithou t suffering or danger , be

peacefu l ; certa in ly theflesh is w el l , the b lood a lone is i ll .Auditive . October 14, 1898 ( tran slated October

I6 ) . Morn ing vision of an unknown gentleman

and lady, the la tter having her arm , spotted with

red,applied to an instrument with three tubes placed

on a shelf fastened to the wall . These words were

spoken by the man the lady sa id noth ing .

30. mode k é hed oné chandéné tese mi me ten ti

Mer e, que i ls sont de’

li cieux ces moments pr i s de

v i biga va bindié ide ti zame tensée z ou réche

toi l — Enf ant, oz‘

c tr ou ve on de mei lleu r s instants ? plus tard

med ché atev k iz toumine zati

pour ton Etre guel pu issant sou ven i r .

231

FROM INDIA T0 THE PLANET MARS

Mother, how del ightfu l they are , these moments near to

thee l— Chi ld ,where finds one better moments ? later for thy

being what (a) po'

werfu l remembranc e .

Auditive .October 22, 1898 (translated Decem

ber“ At a qua rter - past six in the morn ing

vision of a pebbly shore ; earth of a red tint ; immense sheet of water, of a bluish green . Twowomen are wa lking side by side. Thi s was all I

could gather of their conversation .

l ater {a we <0 i varzc r is.) rest al e

$2 4 161605. h r bSlffih sS “c.

$825 n us» A 15m In: n ew rc r

(mafia? (a t" Szc t c zg 2c (re lq‘

h'

rfllar e: rate 42. ri se

Fig. 28. TextNo. 3 : (October 27, written by Mlle. Smith,incarnating Ramie. Natural size.

*31 . Ramie bisti ti Espénié ché dime i mi z i

Ramie'Izaoi tant de Esp/ni l , ton semblable par la

trimaz i tie vadazag di aniz ié bana mirag. Ramie di

f orce des“

vadazas, te envoie trois adieux . Ramie’

te

trinir tie touma§ ti hé animina u i tiche di uz ir nami

par/era des c/zarmes de sa existen ce et bientdt te dira beaucoupti Espénié . éva

‘

i divinée

de Espen i l . Sois Izeu reuse /

Ramie, dwe l ler in Espénié , thy l ike , by the force of the “va

dazas ,"sends thee th ree adieux. Ram ie w i l l speak to thee of

the charms of h is existence , and presently w i l l tel l thee much o f

Espénié . Be happy

Graphic . October 27, 1898 (transla ted DecemberTen minutes to one in the afternoon. No

232

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

er r? SANIM BATAM ISSEM TANAKvima—ti -misé- biga maprini é imiz i krama z ine

nom de une enf ant en tr ef sou s panier bleu

VANEM SEBIM MAZAK TATAK SAKAM

vima - ti -mis- zak i datrinié tuz é vame gamié

nom de nu an imal caclz/ ma lade tr i ste pleu r e.

Branch green— name of a man— sacred— in— name of a ch i ld

— bad— entered— under -basket —b lue— name of an animal— h idden— i ll— sad— weeps .

Auditive, as to the non—Martian text (see following chapter) wh ich Helene heard spoken on the

2d of November by the strange beings of the tableauof the preceding vision . Vocal, a s to the Martiantranslation of th is text, wh ich was given by Astané(incarnated in Hélene and speaking the unknown language by her mouth , followed by its Martian equ iva

j gi e r ll’

c. an not e r 515

27 ”.c We igc f f Yr s lu r

f 'l V'

c.tf r N de f” ”st o i c ?

aw gum, Va Per.) ‘emt2c tr: n ra e r

’

55 21; ac t as A

7 55 4; lr c'gc f l

‘

.

Fig. 29. Text No. 34 (November 2 , w ritten by M lle. Smith,incarnating Ramie. Natural size.

lent for each word) , in the sean ce of the 18th of December, 1898 . Immedia tely a fter

,Astaneyielded his

place to Esenale, who in turn repeated the Martianphrase, transla ting it word for word in to French bythe customary process .

*34. Ramié di pédrini é ana né é riné divine

Ramit te gu i tte maintenant, est satisfait, li eurcux

234

THE MARTIAN CYCLE AND LANGUAGE

té mi mé ten ti v i . hed dass inié mis abada ti ché

da momen t pr i s de toi . [ l ga r de peu de ton

atev u i di paréz ié bana mira§.— évai div inée

i'

tr e et te la i sse tr oi s adieux . Soi s li eu r eu se .’

Ram ie leaves thee now ,is satisfied , happy for the moment

nea r to thee . H e reta ins a l ittle of thy being and leaves theeth ree ad ieux . Be happy .

Graph ic . November 2 , 1898 (translated December— Helene on ly perceived a fter its accomplish

men t tha t her hand , whi ch she felt firmly held,had

written thi s text at the close of the preceding vision

(see Fig .

35 . [A ] attana z abiné pi ten té iche tarv ini mabii ré

i ll ona'e a r r i e

'

n f,tr els pres da mi l l -

e,langage gr ossier

nubé teri z ée atev [B] Astane ez i dabe fouminé m

cu r ieux comme les é'

tr es .’ mon ma i tr e pu i ssan t c i

i é ti taka tubre né bibé ti z é uméz é

tou t de pouvoi r ,seu l est capable de le f a i r e.

H idden wor ld ,very near to ou rs , coarse language , cu rious

l ike the be ings— Astane,

my power fu l master and a l l powerfu l ,a lone is c apab le of do ing i t.

Auditive . December 5 , 1898 (translated December

Working by lamp - ligh t at seven o’

clock in

the morn ing ,Helene aga in had a vision of the Mar

tian (Rami é) who had cla sped her waist with one arm

whi le showing her somethi ng with a gesture of the

other (probably the tableau of the preceding vision ,

though Helene did not see it) and uttering the firstph ra se of it (A) . The second phrase (B) is the replyof th is same Martian to a men ta l question of H6

léne a ski ng him to translate the strange language

of the other day . (She must, therefore,have un

derstood the mean ing of the first phrase in order to

have replied to it by her appropriate menta l question . )3 35

FROMmomTo THE PLANET MARS

V4” £5(l i ef cle

'

l'

Ye, li c. irl—C f,“

J? £6

li c I3 5. l'

a’e f

’

Vl’

c i -c i l”

Lfic f cFig. 30. Text No. 37 (March 24, written by Mlle. Smith , incarnating Astane.

[Collection of M . Lemaitre ] Owing to a defect of the stereotype plate a dot islacking on the first letter.

36. [A] aé aé aé aé lassuni é lami réz é aé aé aé

A e’, d e’

,ae

’

,a l l— Appr oc/ze ; voi ci Ré

’

ze’. ae’

, d ef, al,

aé niké bul ie va né ozamié z iténi priméni— [B] ozamiéae’, peti t est Ozamie‘? Zi tén i , Ozamit,

vinia ti mis biga kema z iténi vinia ti misé biga kémisi

nom de un enf ant mdle ; Zi téni,

nom de une enf ant f emelle ;

priméni vima ti misé biga kémisi

Pr im/ni , nom de une enf ant f emel le.

Aé , aé aé aé ! Approach ,here is Reza. aé , aé , aé , aé ,

l ittle Bul i é where is O zam ié ? Z itén i , Priméni . Ozamié ,name of a ma le chi ld ; Zi ten i , name of a fema le ch i ld ; Priméni ,name of a female ch i ld .

Auditive. March 8, 1899 (translated June — Hé

lene heard the phrase (A) during the vision ofwhi chthe description follows . At the translation , as the

sitters did not at once understand that the three firstwords are proper names, Esena le adds the phrase

(B) with its French sign ification . I was unable togo to sleep yesterday even ing . At ha lf- past eleveneveryth ing around me was sudden ly lighted up

, and

the vivid light permitted me to distinguish surround236

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

with the mi lk of these beasts . I heard cries, a greathurly- burly, and it was with difli cu lty that I couldnote these few words [of this text] . Thi s visionlasted about a quarter of an hour then everythinggradually disappeared, and in a minute after Iwasin a sound sleep .

”

*37. Astané bounié z é buz i ti di triné nami

A stané then /u I: moym a'e te par ler bed ucoz

ti di uméz é séimi ré bi tarvini

de 1: f a i re compr ena’r e son Iangage.

Astane searches for the means to speak to thee much and to

make thee understand h is langu age .

Graphi c . March 24, 1899 (translated JuneHalf- past six in the morn ing . Vision of Astane.

I was standing , about to put on my slippers . He

spoke to me, but I could not understand him . Itook this sheet of paper and a pencil he spoke tome no more, but seized my hand which held thepencil . I wrote under this pressure I understoodnothi ng, for thi s is as Hebrew to me. My hand wasreleased I ra ised my head to see Astane, but he haddisappeared (see Fig .

*38 . fedie amés Ramie di uz énir tes luné ames z é

Fédi é, v im s ; Rami é te attendra cc j our ; a im s , le

boua trinir

f rére par lera .

Fedie, come Ramiewi ll awa it thee to- day ; come, the brother

w i l l speak .

Visual . March 30, 1899 (translated JuneSeated at her toilet- table, at ha lf- pa st n ine o ’clockin the eveni ng, Hélene found herself suddenly en

veloped in a rose- colored fog ,whi ch hi d one part

of the furni ture from her , then was dissipated, al238

THE MARTIAN CYCLE AND LANGUAGE

lowing her to see, at the fa rther end of her room,

a strange hall , lighted with rose- colored globes

fastened to the wa ll . Nearer to her appeared a

table suspended in the a ir , and a man in Martiancostume, who wrote w ith a kind of nail fastened tohi s right index—finger .

“ I lean towa rds th is man ;

I w ish to place my left hand on thi s imaginary table,

but my hand fa lls in to empty space, and I have greatdifficulty in restoring it to its norma l position . Itwas stiff, and for some moments felt very weak .

Happily the idea occurred to her to take pencil and

paper and copy the characters whi ch the Martian ,

whom I had seen severa l times before [Ramié ] , tracedand with extreme difficu lty

—s1°

nce they were much

sma ller than mine— Isucceeded in reproducing them”

(the Martian text of Fig . Al l thi s lasted about a

qua rter ofan hour . I went immedia tely to bed, and saw

nothi ng more tha t even ing , nor on the following day .

”

.l-Si ic l'

042W $1590 szwrz‘mr mo

Selma, on P be 525 .

bu t . be. 5526 5 5- 1 55 1 65 4 ?

3c {SIN/62! A f ‘é'

S'

c

Fig. 32 . Text No. 39 (Apri l 1 , by Mlle . Sm ith , incarnatingRamie. [Collection of M . Lemai tre . ) Natura l size.

*39 . Ramié ponde acami andé lir entech

Ram ie’

,savan t astr onome

,appa r a i

‘

tr a lzz'

er

iri 6 v i anti . riz v i bané. mirag ti Ramie u i

Jam/en t a'toi ma in tenan t. Su r toi tr oi s adieux a

’e Ram i/ et

A stané . évai divinée

A stam’. Soi s lzeu r eu se

239

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

Ramie,learned astronomer; w i l l appear as yesterday o ften to

thee now .Upon thee th ree ad ieux from Ram ie and A stane.

Be happy !

Graph ic . April I,1899 (translated June

Aga in ,on going to bed at five minutes past ten , a

new visi on of the personage seen day before y esterday [Ramie] . I thought he was about to speak

,

but no sound issued from his lips . I quickly takepenc il and paper, and feel my right arm seized byhim ,

and I begin to trace the strange handwritingattached hereto (see Fig . He is very a ffectionate h is bearing ,

hi s look, everyth ing breathesboth goodness and strangeness . He leaves me

really charmed .

40 . ramié ébana diz éna z ivénié u i bi vraini

Ramz'

e'

, lentemm t, pr of ondzfmen t

, ( tudze et son de’sz'

r

assi le né ten ti res kalamé astane ez i dabe né ai

immense est pr és de 5 6 accomplz'

r . A stané mon ma i tr e est 1d

med lé godané u i ankoné evat bané z izaz i div inée

pou r me a i der et r ej om'

r . Soi s tr oi s f ai r fieu r eu re /

Ram ie,s low ly ,

deep ly stu d ies ,and h is great des ire is near to

being accompl ished . A stane, my mas ter , is there to aid me and

to rej oice . Mayst thou be thr ic e happy

Auditive . June 4, I 899 (tran slated same seance) .Hem isomnambu lism ,

in wh ich Hélene, without having a vision ,

hears a voice addressing words to her ,from which , with some difficulty, she collected thepreceding sen tences .

41 . To these texts, forming sentences, in orderto complete the whole, some isolated words must beadded gathered on various occasions

, the mean ingof wh i ch is obta ined with sufficient certa in ty

, eitherfrom the French context in which they were framed,

240

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

deed,a language and not a simple jargon or gibberish

of voca l noises produced at the hazard of the momentwithout any stability . It cannot be den ied the follow

ing characteristics— First It is a harmony of clearly

articulated sounds, grouped so as to form words . Sec

ondly These words when pronounced express defin ite ideas . Th irdly

,and fina lly Connection of the

words with the ideas is con tinuous or, to put it dif

ferently , the sign ifica tion of the Martian terms ispermanent and is main ta ined (apart from slight inconsistencies , to which I will return la ter on ) from one

end to the other of the texts whi ch have been collectedin the cou rse of these three years .

* I will add that inspeaking fluently and somewhat quickly

,a s Helene

sometimes does in somnambulism (texts 4, I I , I5 ,it has an acoustic qua lity altogether its own

,due to

the predominan ce of certa in sounds, and has a pecu liar intonation difficult to describe . Just as one distingu ishes by ear foreign languages wh ich one doesnot understand, the whole dialect possessing a peculiar accent wh ich causes it to be recogn ized, so in th iscase one perceives , from the first syllables uttered,

I f it is obj ected that the Martian lacks the essentia l charac terof a langu age— that is to say , a p rac ti ca l sanc tion by u se by the

fact of i ts serv ing as a mean s of commu n ication between l iv ingbe ings

— Iw i l l not answer , l ike Ml le . Sm ith , tha t after al l we know

noth ing abou t that, bu t w i l l s imp ly say that the soc ia l side of

the qu estion does not conce rn u s here . Even i f Vo lapu k and

Esperanto are not u sed , they are none the less langu ages , andthe Martian has

,in regard to its a rtific ia l constru c tion , the psy

cholog ical superiority of be ing a natura l language , spontaneou s

ly c reated ,w i thout the consc ious partic ipation ,

reflective or w i l ling ,

of a normal persona l ity .

242

THE MARTIAN CYCLE AND LANGUAGE

whether Helene is speaking Hindoo or Martian,ac

cording to the musica l connection, the rhythm , the

choice of consonants and vowels belonging to eachof the two idioms . In th is theMartian , indeed, bearsthe stamp of a na tura l language. It is not the resultof a purely intellectua l ca lcula tion , but influences ofan aesthetic order, emotiona l fa ctors

,have combined

in its crea tion and in stin ctively directed the choice of

its a ssonances and favorite terminations . The Mar

tian language has certa in ly not been fabrica ted in

cold blood during the norma l,habitua l , Fren ch (so

to speak) state ofMlle . Smith , but it bears in its char

a cteristic tona lities the imprin t of a pecul iar emo

tiona l disposition , of a fixed humor or psych ical Orien

tation ,of a specia l condition of mind , whi ch may be

ca lled , in one word ,the Ma rtian sta te of Hélene . The

seconda ry persona lity ,wh ich takes plea sure in lin

gu istic games,seems, indeed , to be the same, at its

source, a s tha t which delights in the exotic and h ighlycolored visua l images of the planet of red rocks , and

wh ich an ima tes the personages of the Martian ro

mance .

A glan ce at the ensemble of the foregoing textsshows tha t Martian ,

as compared with Fren ch , ischara cterized by a superabundan ce of é, é, and 1i

’

s,

and a scarcity of diphthongs and the nasa l sounds .

A more a ccurate sta tistical table of sounded vowelswh ich strike the ear in reading a loud the Martian

texts on the one hand , and their translation in toFrench on the other, gives me thepercentages of Table

I.

,whi ch follows . But it is well known tha t the

vowels are distinguished , from the acoustic point243

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

of View,by certa in fixed characteristic sounds , and

that they are distributed at different heigh ts in the

musical sca le .

TABLE I.

— STATISTICS or VOWEL SOUNDSMARTIAN FRENCH

a

a mu te ( l ike those of can mate)5 c losed or h a l f c losed (l ike those of

[Mb/ti , r evel ) .

e open ( l ike that of a loés)i

U o

u

Diphthongs and nasa ls (ou ,oz

,m

,an ,

i n,on ,

a n)

TABLE II.

— GROUPING FROM PO INT or VIEW OF H EIGHTMARTIAN FRENCH

Vow els, h igh (i and e sounded)Vowels, m idd le (a and o)Vowels , low or hol low (u ; diphthongs

and nasa ls ; e mu te)

i and é are the h ighest, a and o occupy the middleplace, i t and ou a re found in the lower part of thesca le . In adding to the la tter, therefore, the nasals,whi ch are a lways hollow,

and a lso e mute, Table I .

divides itself into the three groups of Table II. from

the point of view of height and sonorousness . It

is,therefore, clear that the Martian is of a general

tonality much h igher than the Fren ch since, whi lethe two languages have a lmost the same proportionof middle vowels , the low ,

hollow, or mute sounds ,

whi ch constitute a lmost one- half of the French vow

els, amount to scarcely one- twelfth in Martian,

244

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

ticipation of Mlle .Smith . It rema ins for me now to

mention some of the cha racteristics whi ch seem to

indica te that the inventor of th is subliminal linguisti c work had never known any idiom other than

French ,that it is much more sen sible to verbal ex

pression than to logical connection of ideas , and

that it possesses in an eminent degree that in fantile

and puerile character wh ich I have a lready pointed

ou t in the author of the Martian romance . It now

becomes necessary to examine rapidly this unknown

language, from the poin t of View of its phonetics and

its writing,its grammatica l form,

its syntax , and its

vocabulary .

I . Martian Phonetics and H andwr i ting.

— Mar

tian is composed of articulate sounds, all of wh ich ,

consonants as well as vowels, exist in French .

Wh ile on thi s globe languages geograph ically ou r

neighbors (not to mention those farther away) differeach from the other by certain specia l sounds— eh,

German , th , English , etc— the language of the plan

et Mars does not permit of similar phonetic originalities . It seems, on the con trary, poorer in thi s re

spect than the French . As y et I have not found init the h issing j or ge (as in juger ) , nor the doublesound 75. Martian phonetics, in a word

,are on ly an

incomplete reproduction of French phonetics .

The Martian alphabet , compared with ours , suggests a remarkable analogy . The graph ic form of

the characters is certa in ly novel , and no one woulddivine our letters in these design s of exotic aspect .Nevertheless , each Martian sign (with the singleexception of that of the plural) corresponds to a

246

THE MARTIAN CYCLE AND LANGUAGE

French sign , a lthough the inverse is not the case,

whi ch indica tes that here aga in we are in the presence of a feeble imi tation of our system of handwriting .

The twelve written texts upon whi ch I base mycompa rison comprise about 300 words (of whi ch 160

are different) and 1200 signs . There are a ltogethertwen ty- one differen t letters , all of which have theirexa ct equiva lents in the Fren ch a lphabet

,whi ch a lso

has five others whi ch Martian lacks ; j and x, of

whi ch the sounds themselves have not been ob

served , and q, w,and y , of wh ich there is a double

use, with k, v, and i . Th is reduction of graphi c ma

terial man ifests itself in two other deta ils . First,

there are neither accen ts nor punctuation marks ,with the exception of a certa in sign , resembling theFrench circumflex , used sometimes in the shape of

a point at the end of phra ses . In the second place,ea ch letter has only one form, the diversity of cap

itals and sma ll letters not seeming to exist in Mar

tian .Of ciphers we know n oth ing .

There are still three sma ll peculiarities to notice :

I . In default of capitals , the in itials of proper names

are often distinguished by a point placed above the

ordina ry character .

2 . In the case of double letters the second is re

placed by a point situa ted at the right of the first .

3 .Fina l ly, there exists, in order to designate the

plura l of substantives and of some adjectives, a specialgraph ic sign ,

answering to noth ing in the pronun ciation and having the form of a small vertica l undu la

tion ,wh ich reminds one a little of an amplification of

247

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

the French 3 , the usual ma rk of the plura l in French .

These peculiarities, outside the ordinary form of the

letters, constitute the sum tota l of ingenuity dis

played in Martian handwriting .

It must be added that th is handwriting , whi ch isnot ordinarily inclined , goes from left to righ t, like

the French . All the letters are of nea rly the same

heigh t, except tha t the i is much smaller, and thatthey remain isolated from each other their assemblyinto words and phrases offers to the ey e a certain

aspect of Oriental hi eroglyphic inscriptions .

The Martian a lphabet never having been revea led

as such ,we are ignorant of the order in wh ich the

letters follow each other . It would seem as though

the letters had been inven ted by following theFrench

a lphabet, at least in great part , if one may judgeaccording to the ana logies of form of the Martiancharacters corresponding to certa in series of Frenchletters : compare a and b ; g and h s and t ; and

also the succession k, l , m , n .

It is in the phoneti c va lue of the letters— that is tosay ,

in the correspondence of the articula ted soundswith the graph ic signs— tha t the essentia lly Frenchnature of theMartian may be seen . The only notabledifference to be pointed out here between the two languages is the much greater simplicity of the Martianorthography, resulting in the employment of no u se

less letters . All are pronounced, even the fina l consonants, such as s, n , 2, etc . , whi ch are generally silent

in French . This gives the impression tha t the Martian handwriting is moulded on the spoken language,and is only the notation of the articulated sounds

248

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

Here, for example, is a list of persona l pronouns ,

articles, possessive adjectives, etc . , wh ich have ap

peared h itherto

j e cé me 16, moi s i re tés, ces tésé

tu dé te di , toi v i cette tés , tésée

i l hed se rés, lu i pi le (pron . ) 26

now nini mon ez i qu i ké , qu e h é

vou s sini ma éz é guel k iz , guelle

k iz é

res bée u n mis , une miséle

,la les (art.) 2 6,z i , z ée.

There are some texts where the femin ine is derived

from the masculine by the addition of an e mute,and the plura l by the small , unpronounced sign ,

whi ch has a ll the appearan ce of being a remin iscence

of French 3 .

Between these two languages there is another order

of points of contact, of a more specia l interest, becauseit shows the preponderating role wh ich verbal imageshave often played in the making of Martian to the

prej udice of the in trin sic , logica l na ture of the ideas .

I should say that at a ll times the Martian tran slatesthe French word , a llowing itself to be guided by auditive ana logies without regard to the real meani ng , in

such a way tha t we are surprised to discover in theidiom of the planet Mars the same peculiarities of

homonyms as in French . It is a lso the case tha t twovocables identical as to pronuncia tion ,

but of en tirelyheterogeneous sign ification , as the preposition a and

the a of the verb avoir , are rendered in Martian bythe same word, é .

Other curious coincidences are to be noted , In250

THE MARTIAN CYCLE AND LANGUAGE

French the c on junction et on ly slightly differs,from

the point of View of phon ic images, from the verb est ;in Martian a lso there is a great ana logy between miand n é

, whi ch tran slate these two words . Betweenthe past participle n ié of the verb to be and the con

junction mi there is on ly the difference of an é , justa s between their French equiva lents été and et.

It must be admitted that all these coincidenceswould be very extraordinary if they were purelyfortuitous .

3 . Constru ction and Syntax. The order of the

words is absolutely the same in Martian as in

French . Thi s iden tity of construction of phrases ispursued sometimes into the minutest deta ils, such as

the division or amputation of the negation ne

pas (texts 15 and and a lso the in troduction of a

useless letter in Martian to correspond to a French

euphemistic t (see text Kev i bér im i r m h ed,

quand reviendra - t- i l when will he return

If it is admitted hypothetically tha t the succession

of words,such as is given us in these texts , is not

the na tura l ordering of the Martian language, but

an artificia l arrangement , like that of juxtalinear

translations for the use of pupils , the very possibilityof tha t correspondence absolutely word for wordwould rema in an extraordina ry fact without a par

a llel , sin ce there is not a single language that I know

of in wh ich each term of the French phrase is a lwaysrendered by one term ,

neither more nor less, of the

foreign phrase . The hypothesis referred to is , more

over, inadmissible, sin ce the Martian texts , of wh ich

Esenale gives the litera l translation , were not pre

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viously a rranged by him with that end in view ;they are the identical words wh ich Mlle. Smi th heardand noted in her visions , often weeks and monthsbefore Esenale repeats them for the purpose of tran slating them, and wh ich constitute the conversa tion ,

as such ,taken from life, of the Martian personages .

We must conclude from th is that these in their elo

cution follow step by step and word by word the

order of the French language, which amounts a lmostto saying that they Speak a French the sounds of

wh ich have simply been changed .

4. Vocabu lary .

— From an etymologica l poin t of

view, I have not been able to distinguish any rule of

deriva tion , even partial, that wofi'

ld permit the suspi

c1on tha t the Martian words had come from Frenchwords, according to some law . Apart from the en tirefirst text , where it is difficult to deny that the peo

ple of Mars have stolen French terms of politeness,at the same time distorting them, no clear resemblance is to be seen between Martian words and theFren ch equivalents ; at most, there are traces of borrowing, like merve, superbe, whi ch might ha ve beenabridged from mervei lle (text and vech i

, an im

itation of coir .

Still less does the Martian lexicon betray the influence of other known languages (at least to mykn owledge) . A term wh ich suggests such similarityis ha rdly ever met with modé , mere mother and gudé bon good cause u s to thi nk of

German or English words ; an im ina existenceis like anima various forms of the verbs e‘tre and

vivre to be” and to live évé , evat‘

,essat, re

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and whi ch ,wh ile giving to its lucubration s certa in

strange and unknown appearances, without doubtcaused them to run in the a ccustomed moulds of the

on ly rea l language of whi ch it had cogn izance. The

Martian of Mlle. Smith ,in other words , is the product

of a bra in or a persona lity which certa in ly has taste

and aptitude for linguistic exercises, but whi ch never

knew that Fren ch takes little heed of the logica l con

nection of ideas, and did not take the trouble to makeinnovation s in the matter of phonetics , of grammar,or of syntax .

The process of crea tion of Ma rtian seems to havecon sisted in simply taking certa in Fren ch phrasesas such and replacing each word by some otherchosen at random . That is why , especia lly in the

texts at the beginn ing, the structure of Frenchwords is recognized under the Ma rtian . The au

thor herself was undoubtedly struck by it, and fromthat time exerted herself to complicate her lexicon ,

to render her words more and more un recognizable.

Th is research of origina lity wh ich , however,she has never extended beyond the purely materialpart of the language, never having an idea thatthere might be other differences in languagesrepresents an effort of imagina tion with whi ch she

must be credited . Homage must a lso be renderedto the labor of memorizing , whi ch the making of a

dictionary has necessitated . She has sometimes,indeed , fa llen into errors the stability of her vocabulary has not a lways been perfect . But

,fina lly,

a fter the first hesitation and independen tly of somelater confusions, it gives evidence of a pra iseworthy

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THE MARTIAN CYCLE AND LANGUAGE

terminologica l consistency , and whi ch no doubtin time, and with some suggestive encouragement ,would result in the elabora tion of a very completelanguage — perhaps even of severa l languages , as

we may augur from text 33 , to which we shall return in the following chapter .

5 . S ty le.

— It rema ins to investigate the style. Ifit is true that manners make the man — that is tosay , not the impersona l and abstract understanding ,

but the con crete chara cter, the individua l temperament , the humor and emot iona l vibration— we oughtto expect to find in the style of the Martian texts thesame specia l stamp wh ich distinguishes the vision s,the sound of the language, the handwriting , the per

sonages— in short, the en tire romance, that is to say ,

the curious mixture of Oriental exoticism and ofchi ldish puerility of wh ich the seconda ry person

ality of Mlle . Smi th , at work in thi s cycle, seemsto be composed . It is difficult to pronoun ce uponthese matters of vague aesthetic impression ra therthan of precise observation but , as well as I can

judge, there seems to me to be in the phr aseologyof the texts collected an indefinable someth ing whichcorresponds well with the genera l character of the

en tire dream . As these words are eviden tly firstthough t in Fren ch— then travesties in Martian by a

substitution of sounds, the choice of wh ich , as has

been seen , apropos of the h igh tonality of th is lan

guage, reflects the general emotional disposition

it is , na tura lly ,under their French aspect that we

ough t to consider them in judging of their actual

style .Un fortuna tely ,

we do not know how far the

3 55

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

transla tion given by Esenale is identical with the

primitive original certa in details seem to h int thatthere are divergen ces sometimes . However that

may be, it is clearly to be perceived tha t the literaryform of the ma jority of the texts (taken in French)is more akin to poetry than to prose . Wh ile no one

of them is in verse, properly speaking , the large

number of hemistiches whi ch are met with , the fre

queney of inversion , the choice of terms , the abundan ce of exclama tions and of broken ph rases , betray

a great in tensity of sen timen tal and poetic emotion .

The same character is found , with a strong shadeof exotic and archaic origina lity ,

in the formulas ofsalutation and farewell (

“

be happy to- day ,

” “ threeadieux to thee,

”as well as in many expressions

and terms of phrases wh ich ra ther recall the obscureand metaphorical parlan ce of the Orien t than the

dry precision of our language of to—day i l garde

un peu de ton etre ; cet élément mystér ieux, immense,

etc .)If, now ,

it is recollected that everywhere in literaryh istory poetry precedes prose, imagina tion comes before reason , and the lyric style before the didactic , aconclusion according with that of the precedingparagraphs is reached . Wh ich is, that , by its figuresand its style, the Martian language (or the Frenchphrases wh ich serve it for a skeleton ) seems to bringto us the echo of a past age, the reflex of a primitivestate of mind, from whi ch Mlle . Smith to—day findsherself very far removed in her ordinary and normalstates of mind .

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slight knowledge of the German language (so dif

ferent from the French by the construction of itssentences, pronunciation ,

its three genders , thatsome remin iscences of it, at lea st, would not have

Slipped into its lucubrations . I infer from th is that

the Martian secondary persona lity wh ich gives evi

dence of a linguistic activity so fecund, but so com

pletelv subject to the structura l forms of the mothertongue, represents a former stage , ulterior to the

epoch at wh ich Helene commenced the study of

German .

If one reflects , on the other hand , on the great facility wh ich Mlle . Smith ’ s father seems to have pos

sessed for languages (see p . the question na tura lly arises whether in the Martian we are not in the

presence of an awaken ing and momen tary displayof an hereditary faculty , dorman t under the normalpersonality of Hélene, but wh ich she has not profitedfrom in an effective manner . It is a fact of commonobservation that talents and aptitudes often skip a

genera tion and seem to pass directly from the grandparents to the grandch ildren , forgetting the intermediate link . Who knows whether Mlle . Smith ,

some day ,having obta ined Leopold ’s consent to her

marriage,may not cause the polygot aptitudes of her

father to bloom again w ith grea ter brilliancy, for the

glory of science, in a brilliant line of ph ilologists andl inguists of genius ?

Meanwh ile, and without even invoking a speciallatent talent in Hélene

’

s case, the Martian may be

attributed to a surviva l or a reawaken ing under thelash of mediumistic hypnoses of that genera l func

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THE MARTIAN CYCLE AND LANGUAGE

tion , common to all human beings , whi ch is at the

root of language and man ifests itself with the morespon taneity and vigor as we mount hi gher towardsthe birth of peoples and individuals .

On togen esis , say the biologists,reproduces in

abridged form and grosso—modo phylogenesis eachbeing pa sses through stages analogous to thosethrough wh ich the race itself pa sses and it is knowntha t the first ages of ontogen ic evolution— the em

bryon ie period , in fan cy, early youth— aremore favorable than later periods and adu lt age to the ephemeralreappea ran ces of ancestra l tenden cies , wh ich wouldha rdly leave any trace upon a being who had a lreadyacquired h is organ ic developmen t . The

“ poet whodied young in each one of us is on ly the most common example of those a tavic return s of tenden ciesand of emotions wh ich a ccompan ied the beginn ingsof human ity , and rema in the appanage of in fantpeoples

,and wh ich cause a fount of variable energy in

each individua l in the spring- time of his l ife, to con

gea l or disappear soon er or later with the ma jority

all chi ldren are poets , and that in the original , themost extended , a cceptation of the term . They create

,

they imagine,they construct— and language is not

the least of their creations .

I con clude from the foregoing tha t the very fact of

the reappearan ce of tha t activity in the Martianstates of Hélene is a new indication of the in fan tile

,

primi tive nature left beh ind in some way and long

sin ce passed by her ordina ry persona lity ,of the sub

l imina l stra ta whi ch mediumi stic au tohypnotiza

tion with her puts in ebullition and causes to mount259

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

to the surface . There is a lso a perfect accord between the puerile character of the Martian romance

,

the poetic and archa ic cha rms of its style, and theaudacious and naive fabrication of its unknown language.

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Smith in her waking state, and in Leopold in his

incarna tions . Both of these showed themselvesfully persuaded of the objective verity of thi s lan

guage, and of the Vision s whi ch accompan ied it .Leopold had not ceased, from the first day , to a ffirmits strictly Martian authen ticity . Hélene , withoutmainta in ing absolutely that it came from Ma rs rather than from any other planet, shared the same

fa ith in the extra—terrestria l origin of these messages ;and

, as appeared from many details of her conversations and conduct

, She saw in it a revela tion of theloftiest import, wh ich might some day cause all

the discoveries of M . Flammarion to sink into insign ificance . Wha t would happen if I made up mymind to strike this strange conviction a telling blow

,

and demonstrate that the pretended Martian was on lya chimera , a product , pure and simple, of somnam

bu listic autosuggestionMy first tentative experimen t

, addressed to Leopold,had no appreciable influence on the course of theMartian cyc le . It was at the seance of February I 3,1898 . Hélene was profoundly asleep , and Leopoldwas conversing with us by gestures of the arm and

spelling on the fingers . I categorica lly informed himof my certain ty that the Martian was of terrestria lfabrication , and that a comparison with the Frenchproved it so to be. AS Leopold responded by em

phatic gestures of dissent , I deta iled to him someevidences , among others the accord of the two lan

guages as to their pronunciation of ch , as to the homonym of the pronoun and a rticle le. He listenedto me, and seemed to understand my a rguments

,

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but he refused to admit the force of these characteristic coinciden ces , and sa id There are some th ingsmore extraordinary,

”and was unwilling to give up

the authen ticity of the Martian . We stood by ou r

respective opin ion s , and the later texts do not Showany tra ce of our in terview . It seemed , therefore,tha t it was not through the in terven tion of Leopoldthat a modification of the Martian romance was tobe suggested .

I a llowed some mon ths to pass, then tried a discu ssion with Hélene whi le she was awake . On twooccasion s , in October , 1898 , I expressed to her myutter skepti cism as to the Martian . The first time,on the 6th of October , in a Visit which I made to heroutside of any sean ce, I confined myself to certaingenera l objections to it , to wh ich she replied , in substan ce, as follows : First , that thi s unknown lan

guage,by reason of its in tima te un ion with the v i

sion s , and in Spite of its possible resemblances to theFrench , must necessa rily be Martian , if the visionsare . Then nothi ng seriously opposes that actua lorigin of the vision s , and , con sequently ,

of the lan~

guage itself since there are two methods of expla in

ing th is knowledge of a far - off world— namely,com

mun ications properly spi r i tistic (i . e.,from spirits to

spirits,without material intermediary) the rea lity

of wh ich cannot be held to be doubtful ; and cla i r

voyance, that faculty , or unden iable sixth sense, ofmediums wh ich permits them both to see and hear

at any distan ce. Finally , that she did not holdtena ciously to the distinctly Martian origin of tha t

strange dream , provided it is conceded that it comes263

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

from somewhere outside herself, it being inadmissible to regard it as the work of her subcon scious

ness , Since she had not. during her ordinary life,absolutely any perception whatever, any sentiment,not the shadow of a h int of tha t a lleged in teriorwork of elabora tion to wh ich I persisted in a ttribut

ing it against all the evidence and all common - sense.

Some days later (October 16th ) , as Mlle. Smith,

perfectly awake a fter an a fternoon seance, passedthe even ing at my house, and seemed to be in the

fulness of her n ormal state, I returned to the chargewith more of insistence.

I had until then a lways avoided showing her thefull translation of the Martian texts , as well a s thealphabet, and she on ly knew by sigh t, so to speak,the Martian handwriting , and was ignorant of thevalue of the letters .

This time I expla ined to her in deta il the secrets ofthe language, its superficia l original ities and fundamental resemblan ces to French ; the frequent occurrence of i and e, its puerile construction ,

iden ticalwith French ,

even to the slipping in of a superfluous euphon ic In between the words bé rm ier and

h ed in order to imitate the expression reviendra—t—i l

its numerous caprices of phonetics and homonyms,evident reflexes of those to wh ich we a re a ccustomed ,etc . I added that the vision s seemed to me to be a lsosuspicious through their improbable analogies withthat wh ich we see on our globe . Supposing tha t thehouses , the vegetation , and the people of Mars wereconstructed on the same fundamenta l plan as thosehere below, itwas nevertheless very doubtful whether

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stand why Iwas so implacable aga in st that wh ich is

the most simple supposition , tha t of their authen

ticity ,or why I should prefer to it th is silly and ab

surd hypothesis of an underlying self plotting in her ,unknown to her, th is strange my stification .

Mainta in ing all the wh ile that my deductions

appeared to me strictly correct, I felt bound to admitthat science is not in fallible, and that a voyage toMars could alone solve all ou r doubts as to what takesplace there. We parted good friends , but tha t con

versation left me with a very clear impression of the

complete uselessness of my efforts to make Mlle.

Smith share my conceptions of the sublimina l con

sciou sness . But th is,however , neither surprises nor

grieves me, since from her point of view it is perhapsbetter tha t she thus believes .

The following shows, however , that my reason ingson that even ing , sterile in appearance

,were not with

out effect . If they have not modified Mlle . Smith ’sconsciousmanner of seeing , and, above all , the opin ionof Leopold , they have nevertheless penetrated to theprofound strata where the Martian visions are elab

orated , and, acting there as a leaven , have been thesource of new and unexpected developmen ts . Thisresult brilliantly corrobora tes the idea that the wholeMartian cycle is only a product of suggestion and

autosuggestion . Just as formerly the regret of M .

Lema itre at not knowing that wh ich passes on otherplanets had furn ished the first germ of that lucubration , so now my criticisms and remarks on the lan

guage and peoples of tha t upper world served as a

point of departure for new circuits of Hélene’

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MARTIAN AND ULTRA- MARTIAN

limina l imagina tion . If,in fact, the con tent of our

discussion of the 16th of October, which I have abovebriefly summed up, is compared with the vision s ofthe following months (see beginn ing with text itis clear tha t these latter conta in an eviden t beginn ing of an answer

,and are an attempt to sa tisfy the

questions wh ich I ra ised . A very curious attemptis there made, na i ve and infantine, like the whole

Martian roman ce, to escape the defects of wh ich Icompla ined on that occa sion , not by modifying and

correcting it— that would have been to reverse and tocontradict herself— but by going beyond it in somesort

, and by superposing upon it a new construction ,

an u ltra -Mar ti an cycle,if I may be permitted that

expression ,h inting at the same time that it un folds

itself on some undetermined planet still fa rther awaythan Mars , and tha t it does not constitute an abso

lu tely independent narrative, but tha t it is gra fted on

the primitive Martian romance .

The suggestive effect of my objections of the 16th

of October wa s not immedia te,but became a work of

incuba tion . Text 30,coming the fol lowing week,

differed but slightly from the preceding, save for the

absen ce of a euphon ic letter , wh ich ,however, had

been better in place between the words b ind i e i dé ,

trou ve—t—ou ,than in the b é r im i r m b ed of text I 5 , to

wh ich I had attra cted Helene’

s a ttention possiblyit is a llowable to regard th is little deta il as a firstresult of my criticisms . The apparition ,

a little

la ter, of a new Martian personage, Ramie, who

promised Helene some near revelations as to a

planet not otherwise specified (text proves that267

FROM INDIA T0 THE PLANET MARS

the ultra -Martian dream was in process of subcon

scious ripen ing ,but it did not burst forth unti l the

2d of November (seven teen days a fter the suggestionwith whi ch I connect it) i n tha t curious scene in which

Ramie reveals to Mlle . Smith an unsuspected and

grotesque world , the language of wh ich singularlydiffers from the usua l Martian . The deta iled de

scription of that strange vision , which Helene sent

me, is worth the trouble of citing (see a lso texts 32

to

I was awakened, and arose about twenty minutes ago. It wa s about a quarter- past six in themorn

ing , and I was getting ready to sew . Then , for an

instant , I noticed that my lamp was going out, and

I ended by not seeing anyth ing more. At the same

moment I felt my wa ist clasped , strongly held byan invisible arm . I then saw myself surroundedby a rose- colored light, wh ich generally shows itselfwhen a Martian vision is coming . I quickly tookpaper and pencil , wh ich a re a lways with in reach on

my toilet- table, and placed these two th ings on myknees , in case some words should come to be noted .

Hardly were these prepara tion s concluded whenI saw at my side a man of Martian visage and cos

tume . It was , in fa ct, the personage [Ramie] whohad clasped my wa ist with his left arm

,showing

me with his right hand a tableau , at first indistinct,

but wh ich fina lly outlined itself quite clea rly . He

spoke also some sen tences , wh ich I can note verv

well , it seems to me [text 32 , where Ramie attractsthe attention of Hélene to one of the worlds whichsurround him and makes her see strange beings ]

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from the lips of one of them some words wh ich ,

fortunately— I hardly know how— Iwa s able to note

down .Th is vision lasted a quarter of an hour . Then

I found my wa ist libera ted, but my right hand wasstill firmly held ,

in order to trace strange characterson the paper ”

(text 34, adieux of Ramie to Helene) .A little later there wa s a continuation , or an

abortive repetition ,of the same vision the table did

not appear distinctly,and Ram ié (text 35 ) contented

h imself with teach ing Helene th ings concerni 1ga world beyond , a near neighbor to Mars, and a

coarser language,of wh ich Astane alone could fur

n ish a translation . Th is is , in effect,wha t took

place two weeks la ter : Astane incarnated h imselfwith gestures and peculiar spa smodic movemen ts

,

and repeated (in Helene’

s ordinary voice) the barbaric text, followed word by word by its Martianequivalents, which Esena le, in turn

,succeeding

Astané , interpreted in French,in hi s customary

manner . Leopold also in formed us,in reply to a

question of one of the sitters , that th is un couth and

primitive world was one of the smaller planets butit is to be presumed that he would a lso have answeredin the affirmative if he had been asked if it were ca lledPhobos or Deimos and

, in short, one of the satellites oi Mars would an swer better than the a steroidsto the globe very near to ours

, of wh ich Ramiéspoke .

Up to this poin t the ultra - Martian messages wereconfined to the preceding . The last texts obta ined

(37 to 40) seem to announ ce that the end has not beenreached on that side, and cause us to hope for new

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revelations, when the astronomer Ramié , as the re

sult of his having studied under the skilful directionof his master Astane, shall be in a position to makefurther discoveries in the Martian sky . Psychologica lly speaking , th is amounts to saying tha t theprocess of latent in cuba tion con tinues ; a new ultraMartian language is in a state of developmen t inthe sublimina l depths . If it bursts forth some day ,

I sha ll hasten to bring it to the knowledge of the

scien tific world — in another edition of th is book .

For the present I limit myself to remarking howmuch the little ultra -Ma rtian we possess already indicates the wish to answer my question s of the 16th

of October .

I had a ccused the Martian dream of being a mereimita tion ,

va rn ished with brilliant Orien ta l colors ,of the civilized environment wh ich surrounds u s

and here is a world of terrifying grotesqueness , with

black soil , from wh ich a ll vegetation is ban ished , and

the coarser people of wh ich are more like beaststhan human beings . I had in sinuated tha t the peo

ple and th ings of tha t upper world ought really to

have other dimensions and proportion s than with

u s— and here are the inhabitants of that farther

world veritable dwarfs , with heads twice as broad

a s they are h igh , and houses to match . I had

made a llusion to the probable existence of other lan

guages , referred to the superabundance in Martian

of i and e, impeached its syn tax and its ch , borrowed

from the French,etc — and here is a language abso

lutely n ew ,of a very peculia r rhythm , extremely

rich in a ,without any ch at all up to the presen t mo

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

ment, and of which the construction is so differentfrom the French tha t there is no method of discov

ering it.Th is latter poin t, above a ll

, seems to me to presentin its apogee the cha ra cter of ch ildi shness and puerility wh ich clearly shows itself in tha t unexpectedappendix to the Martian cycle, as in the entire cycleitself. Evidently the na i ve sublimina l philologist ofMlle . Smith has been struck by my criticisms on

the identica l order of the words in Martian and in

French , and has endeavored to avoid that defect inher new effort at an unknown language.

But not knowing in just what syntax and con

struction consist, she has found nothing better tosuit her purpose than the substitution of chaos forthe natural arrangement of the terms in her thought

,

and the fabrication of an idiom wh ich had decidedlynothing in common with the French in this respect .Here is where the most beautiful disorder is practically a work of art. It has, moreover, succeeded,since, even with the double transla tion ,

Martian and

French , of text 33, it is impossible to know exactlywhat is meant .

It is possibly the little girl Etip who is sad, andwho weeps because the man Top has done harmto the sacred an ima l Vanem (wh ich had hidden ,

sick, under some green branches) , wish ing to enter in

to a blue basket. At least it could not have been thebranch, the man

, or the basket wh ich was sacred,the chi ld sick, etc .

The green branch is out of harmony with a worldin which , according to Helene’

s Vision ,there were

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the case of the Martian of Mlle. Smith . Au tosug

gestibility set in motion by certa in stimula ting influences of the environmen t

,as we come to see through

the h istory of the ultra -Martian , amply suffices toaccount for th is entire cycle .

CHAPTER VIII

THE H INDOO CYCLE

HILE the Martian romance is purely a

work of fan tasy,in wh ich the creative

imagina tion was able to a llow itself freeplay through having no investigation to fear, theHindoo cycle, and tha t of Marie Antoinette

,having

a fixed terrestria l setting , represent a labor of construction whi ch was subjected from the start to verycomplex conditions of environments and epochs .

To keep with in the bounds of probability, not to be

guilty of too many ana chron isms , to satisfy the multiple demands of both logic and aesthetics, formeda particularly dangerous undertaking, and one ap

parently a ltogether beyond the powers of a personwithout specia l in struction in such matters . The

subconscious gen ius of Ml le . Smith has acquitteditself of the task in a rema rkable manner , and hasdisplayed in it a truly wonderful and delicate senseof hi storic possibilities and of loca l color .

The Hindoo romance, in pa rticul a r, remains forthose who have taken pa rt in it a psychological enigma , not y et solved in a sa tisfactory manner, becauseit revea ls and implies in regard to Héléne, a knowl

edge relative to the costumes and languages of the275

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

Orient, the actua l source of wh ich it has up to thepresent time not been possible to discover . All the

witnesses of Mlle. Smi th’

s Hindoo somnambulismswho are of the same opin ion on that subject (severalrefra in from having any ) un ite in seeing in it a curious phenomenon of cryptomnesia , of reappearancesof memories profoundly buried beneath the norma lwaking state, together with an indeterminate amountof imaginative exaggera tion upon the canvas of actual facts . But by th is name of cryptomnesia ,

or resu rrection of latent memories , two singularly differentth ings are understood . For me it is on ly a questionof memories of her presen t life ; and I see nothing of

the supernorma l in that . For whi le I have not y et

succeeded in finding the key to the en igma ,I do not

doubt its existence, and I will mention la ter certainindications wh ich seem to me to support my ideatha t the Asiatic notions of Mlle . Smith have a whollynatural origin .

For the observer inclined towards spiritism, on the

contrary, the sleeping memory which is awakenedin somnambulism is noth ing less than that of a pre '

vions existence of Mlle. Smi th , and that piquant explanation , which was first given by Leopold

,profits

in their eyes from the impossibility wh ich I find inproving that it is anyth ing else .

Doubtless, if one was familia r with all the incidentsof Helene

’

s life from her earliest childhood, and if it

were absolutely certa in tha t her knowledge of Indiahad not been furnished her from the outside, throughthe norma l channel of the organs of sense

,it would

be necessary to seek elsewhere for the solution of the276

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

a lthough not bad at heart, and quite a ttached to his

favorite wife ,he had a wild humor and very uncouth

manners . More could not be expected of an Asi

atic potenta te of that epoch . Simandini , neverthe

less, passionately loved h im , and at his dea th she

was burned a live on h is grave, a fter the fash ion of

Malabar .

Around these two principal personages are groupedsome secondary figures , among others a fa ithfuldomestic named Adel, and a little monkey, Mitidja ,

wh ich Simandin i had brought to India with her fromArabia then the fakir Kanga , who occupies a muchmore important place in the Martian romance, inwh ich we have seen h im rein carnated as Astané,

than in the Hindoo cycle .

Some other individua ls , all ma sculine— Mougia ,

Miousa , Kangia , Kana v appear in obscure roles,concern ing wh ich noth ing certa in can be sa id .

The hypnoid states, in wh ich th is romance hasman ifested itself with Hélene

,present the greatest

variety and a ll degrees , from the perfect waking

state (apparently) , momentarily crossed by somevisual or auditive hallucination , thememory of whi chis preserved intact and a llows a deta iled description ,

up to tota l somnambulism , with amnesia upon awaken ing ,

in wh ich the most striking scenes of ecstasiesor incarnations are unfolded . We sha ll see diversexamples in the following pages .

THE HINDOO CYCLE

I . APPAR IT ION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE

ORIENTAL CYCLE

Without recurring to the strange and little—knownvisions wh ich a lready haunted the ch ildhood and

youth of Mlle . Smi th (see pp . 20—25) , Iwill retra ce theprincipal stages of her Asiatic romance from the

bi rth of her mediumsh ip .

During the three first yea rs there were but fewman ifestations of th is sort, in the seances

, at lea st,whi le as to the automa tisms whi ch developed at

other times , especia lly at n ight, or in the hypna

gogic state, we know noth ing .

In November , 1892 , two seances of the N . groupare occupied with the apparition of a Ch inese cityPekin , according to the table— in whi ch a disincar

na te spirit, a pa ren t of one of the group , is foundperforming a mission to a sick ch ild .

In her sean ces of 1894, Helene had on severa l occa sion s detached vision s belonging to the Orient

,

as appeared from their con ten t, or h in ts dicta ted by

the table . She a lso saw Teheran ; then the cemeteryof the mission s at Tokat (June 12th ) ; a cava lier with

a wh ite woollen cloak and a turban bearing the

name of Abderrhaman (September 2d) ; and, finally,

an Orienta l landscape, whi ch depicted a ceremony of

Buddh ist a spect (October 16th) . Th is la tter vision ,

more especia lly ,seemed to be a forerunner of the

Hindoo roman ce, sin ce the records of the sean ces

of tha t period show an ensemble of cha racteristictra its whi ch will be aga in met with in the la ter Hin.

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

doo scenes— cg ,an immense garden of exotic plan ts,

colonnades, rows of pa lm- trees, wi th enormous stonelions at the head ; rug's of magn ificent design , a

temple surrounded by trees , with a statue, apparent

ly tha t of Buddha ; a procession of twelve womenin wh ite, who kneel, holding lighted lamps in the

cen tre another woman , with very black ha ir, detachesherself from the procession , ba lan ces a lamp

,and

burns a powder whi ch expands into a wh ite stone

(the con tinua tion of the roman ce shows th is womanto be Simandini , of whom th is was the first appea rance) .February I7, 1895 .

— At the end of a ra ther longseance, the table dicta tes Pi r ux sheik, and replies toour questions that it refers to an Arab sheik of the

fifteen th century . At th is momen t Hélene awakes ,saying tha t she had seen a man with a black mustacheand curly ha ir , wearing a cloak and a turban

,who

seemed to be laugh ing at and mocking her . The

spelling out of Pirux was not very clea r, and Leopold,when interroga ted la ter, nei ther a ffirmed c ategori

cally,nor did he deny, that th is name wa s that of

the sheik, fa ther of Simandin i .

March 3 .

— Sean ce with six persons presen t , all

having their hands upon the table . After a briefwa iting, Helene is surprised at no longer being ableto see my left middle finger, wh ile she can see a ll myother fingers quite clea rly . My bun ch of keys,wh ich I then place upon my middle finger

,likewise

disappears from her view . Th is very limited , sy s

tematic , visua l anmsthesia authorizes the predicti on ,

followmg numerous examples of former seances,

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the Hindoo woman w ith a diadem on her head burnsincense in themidst of her twelve compan ions, etc .

During all th is time the table, contrary to its cus

tom,gave no explana tion ; but Helene, having her

self asked some question s, remarks tha t the imaginary woman replies to her by certai n signs of herhead and reveals to her many things tha t she hadknown in a former existence . At the moment of thedisappearance of the vision , wh ich had lasted morethan an hour, Mlle. Smith hears the words Untilpresently The con tinuation , in fact, wa s not longdelayed .

March 6.

— Repetition and continuation of the pre

ceding seance, with th is degree of progress— viz . ,that

the visual ha llucination of the woman with the blackhair was changed into a total ccenaesthetic hallucination— i . e.

,instead of a simple vision an incarna

tion was produced . After a very impressive scene of

benediction ; Helene gave herself up to a successionof pantomimes in which she seemed to take part ina fearful spectacle and to struggle with enemies

(scene of the funera l pile) . She ended by seatingherself on the divan when she recovered her normalstate, a fter a series of psych ica l oscilla tions, variousattitudes, etc . The la st of her phases of mimicrywas to tear off and throw away al l the ornamentswh ich an Asiatic princess could wea r— rings on all

her fingers , bracelets on her a rms and wrists, a necklace, diadem, ear

- rings, girdle, anklets . Once awake,she had no recollection of the scene of benediction ,

but recalled quite distinctly the dreams correspondingto the other pantomimes . She saw aga in the black

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THE HINDOO CYCLE

ha ired woman , the Orien ta l landscape of the preceding sean ce, etc . In the course of her description thepa ssage of the simple vision into the scene of incarnation was reflected in a change of the form of her narrative ; She spoke to us of the woman in the th ird person ,

then suddenly adopted the first person , and sa id I”

in recoun ting among other thi ngs tha t shH or the

black - ha ired woman— saw a corpse on the funera lpile, upon whi ch four men , aga inst whom she struggled , endeavored to force her to mount . When I

drew her a ttention to th is change of style, she re

plied that , in fa ct , it seemed a s though she herselfwa s tha t woman .

Independently of the Hindoo romance,these two

sean ces are in teresting from a psychological point ofview, because the change from a visua l

,objective hal

lu c ination into tota l coenaesthetic and motor ha llu c i

na tion occurs in it, constituting a complete transformation of the personality . Th is genera lizationof pa rtia l automatism at the beginn ing , th is subju

gation and absorption of the ordina ry personalityby the sublimi na l personality, does not a lways pro

duce amnesia w ith Helene, tha t un ique impression

whi ch She might describe on awakening as being

herself and some one else at the same time. (Compa re, p . It must be noted that in the partic

ula r case of the identifica tion of the black- ha iredHindoo woman with Mlle . Helene Smith of Geneva ,

the problem of the causa l connection is susceptible of

two opposite solution s (and the same remark w ill be

equa lly appropriate in the case of Marie Antoinette) .

For the believing spiritist it is because Mlle . Smi th283

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

is the reincarna tion of Simandin i— tha t is to say ,

because these two personages , in spite of the separa

tion of their existences in time and space, are sub

stantially and metaphysica lly iden tical — tha t she

rea lly aga in becomes Simandin i , and feels herself to

be a Hindoo princess in certa in favorable somnam

bu listic sta tes . For the empirica l psychologist it is,on the contrary ,

because the visua l memory of a

Hindoo woman (her origin is of no importance) growslike a para site and in crea ses in surfa ce and in depthlike a drop of oil , un til it invades the whole impres

s ionable and suggestible persona lity of the medium— th is is why Mlle . Smith feels herself becoming thiswoman , and concludes from it tha t she formerly

actua lly was that person (see p . 28 But wemust return from th is digression to the Hindoodream .

March 10.

— After various waking vision s relatingto other subjects , Helene en ters in to somnambulism .

For twen ty m inutes She rema ins sea ted with her

hands on the table, by mean s of raps struck uponwh ich Leopold in forms us tha t a scene of previousexisten ce concerning me is being prepa red that Iwas formerly a Hindoo prin ce, and that Mlle. Smith

,

long before her existen ce as Marie Antoinette, hadthen been my wife, and had been burned on mytomb ; that we should ultimately know the nameof th is Hindoo prince, as well a s the time and placeof these even ts , but not th is even ing , nor at the next

seance . Then Helene leaves the table, and in a silentpantomime of an hour

’

s duration , the mean ing ofwhich ,

already quite clea r , is confirmed by Leopold,284

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au ces , and the Hindoo dream did not appear aga inuntil four weeks later .April 7 .

— Mlle . Smith went quickly into a mixedstate, in whi ch the Hindoo dream was mingled and

substituted,but on ly so far as concern s me, for the

feeling of presen t reality . She believes me absent,asks other sitters why I have gone away , then rises

and begins to wa lk a round me and look at me,very

much surprised at seeing my place occupied by a

stranger with black curly hair and of brown complexion ,

clothed in a robe with flowing sleeves of

blue, and with gold ornamen ts . When I speak toher she turns a round and seems to hear my voicefrom the opposite side, wh ither she goes to look forme ; when I go towards her she shuns me ; then ,

when I follow her , she returns to the pla ce I had justleft . After some time occupied in these manoeuvresshe ceases to be preoccupied with me and my substitute in the blue robe, and falls in to a deeper state.

She takes on the look of a seeress , and describes a

kind of embattled chateau on a h ill,where she per

ceives and recogn izes the before- mentioned personage with the curly ha ir, but in another costume and

surrounded by very ugly black men, and women

who are good looking .

Interrogated as to the mean ing of th is vision,Leo

pold replies : The city of Tchandragu i r i in Kana

raa u (si c) ; then he adds, a moment later, There i s

a letter toomany in the lastword ,

”and ends by giving

the name Kanara , and adding the explanation ofthe fifteenth centu ry . Upon awaking from th is somnambu listic state, whi ch lasted two hours , Hélene re

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THE HINDOO CYCLE

ca lls having had a dream of a personage with curlyha ir , in a blue robe

,richly ornamented with precious

stones , with a cutlass of gold,ben t backward , sus

pended from a hook . She recollects having helda lon g conversation with him in a strange languagewh ich she understood and spoke very well herself,a lthough she no longer knows the mean ing of it .April I4.

— Very soon passing into a deep sleep,

Mll e . Smi th leaves the table and gives herself up toa silent pantomime, at first smiling

,then fin ish ing

in sadness and by a scene of tears .

The mean ing of th is is expla ined by Leopold as

foll ows Helene is in India , in her pa lace of Tchandragu iri , in Kanara , in 1401, and she receives a

declara tion of love from the personage with the curlyha ir , who is the Prince Sivrouka Nayaka ,

to whomshe has been married for about a year . The princehas flung himself upon h is knees , but he inspiresin her a certa in fright, and she still regrets havingleft her na tive coun try in order to follow him . Leo

pold a ffirms tha t she will remember, on awaking,in French , all tha t the prince ha s sa id to her in San

scrit , and tha t she will repea t to us a part of it, butnot a ll

,because it is too private . After awaking

she seems in rea lity to recall clearly her en tiredr eam,

and tells us tha t she found herself on a h ill ,Where they were building ; tha t it was not exactly a

city, nor even a Village, since there were no Streets

tha t it was rather an isola ted pla ce in the country,

and tha t whi ch was being built was not in the form

of a house ; it had holes ra ther than windows (afortress and loop - holes) .

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

She found herself in a fine palace, very beautiful

as to its interior, but not its exterior . There was

a great ha ll, decorated with greens, with a grandstaircase at the end, flanked by statues of gold .

She held a long conversation there, not in French ,

with the swarthy personage with the black curlyha ir and magni ficent costume he finally ascendedthe staircase, but she did not follow him .

She appeared to reca ll well the mean ing of all thathe sa id to her in their conversa tion in a foreign language, but seemed emba rra ssed by these memories,and would not consen t to rela te them to us .

May 26.

— In the course of th is seance, as Helene,in a silent somnambulism

,incarnates the Hindoo

princess, I hand her a sheet of paper and a pen ci lin the hope of obta in ing some text or drawing . Afterdivers scribblings she traces the single word S ima

din i in letters whi ch are not at all like her usualhand (see Fig .

Ot'

m a‘

Fig . 34.

Then taking a fresh Sheet , she seems to write on

it with a happy smile, folds it carefully and thrustsit in her corsage, takes it out aga in , and rereads itwith rapture, etc . Leopold in forms u s that Simadini

is the name of the Hindoo princess, and that she isreading a love~letter from Sivrouka . On awaking

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Have we misunderstood that name Or, perhaps,may it not be I who have misunderstood itMlle. Smith here forgets tha t the name did not

come to her on the first occasion by auditive hallu

cination , in wh ich case it migh t be tha t she had mi sunderstood it, but by writing in somnambulism,

whi ch excludes any mistake of her ordinary con

sc iousness . We must confine ourselves to register

ing as a fact, inexplicable hi therto, thi s correction of

a graphi c automatism by an auditive automatism at

the end of severa l mon th s . Between the two orthog

raphi es, I have adopted the second, which has un

dergone no further changes, and figures on ly in theMartian texts (10,

June 16.

— Fuller repetition of the scene of the letterof the Hindoo prince . Impossible to learn the con

tents of it . I suggest to her to remember and to relatethem to us upon awaken ing , but Leopold replies :She wi ll not reveal i t. Why have you not ga ined her

confidence sufficiently , that she may tell you everythingwithou t fear and the suggestion had no effect .June 30.

—Somnambulism with Silen t pantomime,

the mean ing of whi ch is given by Leopold It is thescene of the betrotha l of Simandini and Sivrouka at

Tchandragu iri . There is first a phase of oppres

sion , with sighs and gestures as of a struggle aga inst

various pretenders who wish to seize her thenlaughter and ecsta sy, provoked by the arrival of

Sivrouka , who delivers her and drives off hi s rivals ;finally, joy and admira tion on accepting the flowersand jewels wh ich he offers her .

I have reported, too much at length perhaps,290

THE HINDOO CYCLE

though still greatly abridged , these first appearan cesof the Oriental romance, because they form a con

tinuou s series, in the reverse of the chronologicalorder, con formably to a spiritistic theory wh ich holdsthat in these memories of previous existen ces themediumistic memory goes back and recovers theImages of the more recen t even ts before thosewh ich a re more remote . During th is first period of

four mon ths , the Hindoo cycle made irruption in toeigh t seances (about one- twen tieth of those at whi chI have been present since I have had knowledge ofthem) , and has manifested itself somewhat like thepanorama of a magic lan tern ,

unfolding itself insuccessive tableaux .

Th is whole h istory can be summed up by a few

prin cipa l tableaux there was the scene of the dea thon the fun era l pile, prepared in vision in the sean ceof the 6th of Ma rch and executed on the 10th then

the scen e of the in terior of the pa la ce and the fortress

in process of con struction (7th and 14th of April) ;tha t of the love- letter (26th of May and 16th ofJune) finally, the betrotha l (3oth of j une) . Theremust be added to these the grand tableau at the be

ginn ing ,first presen ted in vision the 3d of March ,

then rea lized three days later with the a ston ish ing

exclama tion Atieya Ganapatinama. The mean ing

of th is scene has never been expla ined by Leopold ,but seems to be quite clea r . A species of prologue

can be seen in it, or even apotheosis , inaugurating

the en tire roman ce it is the Hindoo princess of fourcen turies ago recogn izing her lord and master in flesh

and blood, under the unexpected form of a un iversity291

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

professor , whom she greets with an emphasis whollyOrien ta l in blessing him , very appropria tely,

in the

name of the divin ity of science and of wisdom— sinceGanapa ti is an equivalent of Ganesa, the god with

the head of an elephant, patron of sages and savants .

It can be easily conceived that these two words ofOrien ta l resonance, spoken a loud at a period atwh ich

the Martian was not y et born— and followed by a ll

the conversation s unfortuna tely unheard by us,which at the waking at the subsequent sean cesHélene reca lled having held in a strange language

(in Sanscr it, according to Leopold) with the Hindooprince of her dreams — would excite a lively curiosity and a desire to obtain longer audible fragmentsof th is unknown idiom . It was only in September,1895 , that th is satisfaction was a fforded us

,during

a seance at wh ich the Orien ta l roman ce, wh ich had

given no further sign of life since the mon th of June,made a new outbreak . Starting from tha t moment

,

it has never ceased during these four years to re

appear irregularly,and

, suffering some eclipses ,accompan ied on each occasion by words of a San

scr itoid a spect . Bu t the plot of the romance hasno longer the same clearness tha t it showed at the

beginn ing . In place of tableaux linking themselvesin a regular chronologica l order , they are often no

more than con fused remin iscences , memories , without

precise bonds between them , wh ich gush forth fromthe memory of Simandin i . As the fragments of ouryouthful years surge up incoheren t and pell—mellin ou r dreams , Mlle . Smith ,

too,

finds herself easily

assailed in her somnambulisms by Visions con

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

choly sweetness , a someth ing of languor and ofcharm,

wh ich corresponds wonderfully with the

chara cter of the Orien t , as the spectators conceiveit to be, who,

like me,have never been there, etc .

With all th is a bearing a lways full of noblesse and

dign ity conforms to that wh ich one would expect of

a princess there are no dances , for example, noth

ing of the bayadere.

Mlle. Smith is rea lly very wonderful in her Hindoosomnambulisms . The way in wh ich Simandin i

seats herself on the ground , her legs crossed , or ha lfstretched out, noncha lantly lean ing her arms or herhead aga inst a Sivrouka ,

who is sometimes real

(when in her incomplete trance she takes me for

her prince) , sometimes imagina ry the religious

and solemn gravity of her prostrations when , a fterhaving for a long time ba lan ced the fictitiousbrazier, she crosses her extended hands on her

breast, kneel ing and bowing herself three times ,her forehead striking the ground ; the melan cholysweetness of her chants in a minor key ,

wa iling and

pla intive melodies , wh ich un fold themselves in cer

ta influte- like notes , prolonged in a slow decrescendo,

and on ly dying away at the end of a single note heldfor fully fourteen seconds ; the agile suppleness of

her swaying and serpentine movements,when she

amuses herself with her imaginary monkey,caresses

it, embraces it , excites it , scolds it laugh ingly, and

makes it repea t all its tricks— all th is so varied mimicry and Oriental speech have such a stamp of originality , of ease, of na turalness , tha t one a sks inamazemen t whence it comes to th is little daughter

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THE HINDOO CYCLE

of Lake Leman ,without a rtistic education or specia l

knowledge of the Orient— a perfection of play to wh ichthe best actress , without doubt , could only a tta in at

the price of prolonged studies or a sojourn on the

banks of the Ganges .

The problem, as I have a lready stated , is not y etsolved , and I am obliged still to endeavor to discoverwhence Hélene Smith has derived her ideas in regardto India . It seems that the more simple methodwould be to take advan tage of the hypnotic state of

the sean ces to Obta in a con fession from Helene ’ssubcon scious memory ,

”

and persuade it to disclose

the secret but my efforts in that direction have not

a s y et succeeded . It is doubtless in competen cy on

my part , and I will end,perhaps —or some one better

qua lified than I— in finding the j oint in the armor .

The fact is tha t hi therto I have a lways run up

aga in st Leopold ,who w ill not a llow h imself to be

ejected or ridiculed ,and who has never ceased to

a ffirm tha t the San scrit , Simandin i,and the rest

are authentic . All the tra ils wh ich I have thoughtI have discovered— and they are a lready numerous

have proved fa lse . The reader must pardon me for

not going in to the details of my fa ilures in this

rega rd .

If it was on ly a question of the Hindoo pan tomime

the mystery would not be so grea t : some recita tion s

at school, newspaper articles con cern ing the in cineration of the w idows of Malaba r, engravings and de

scription s rela tive to the civil and religiou s life of

India ,etc .

— in short , the varied sources of in formation wh ich ,

in a civilized country and at ou r epoch295

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

of cosmopolitan ism ,inevitably meet some time or

other the eyes or ea rs of every one of us and formpart of the equ ipmen t (con scious or un con scious) ofevery individua l who is not a ltogether uncultured,would more than suffice to expla in the scene of the

funera l pile, the prostra tion s , and the va ried atti

tudes . There are,indeed

,some well- known examples

showing how small a th'

ng a cunn ing intelligence,furn ished with a good memory and a fertile and

plastic imagina tion,needs in order to reconstruct

or fabricate ou t of noth ing a complex edifice, havingevery appearance of authen ticity

, and capable of

holding in check for a considerable length of time

the perspicacity even of skilled minds . But thatwhi ch consc ious and reflecting labor has succeededin a ccomplishi ng in the cases referred to, the sub

liminal facu lties can execute to a much h igher degree of perfec tion in the case of persons subject toautoma tic tenden cies ,

But two poin ts rema in , wh ich compl ica te the caseof the Hindoo romance and seem to defy— thus fa r, atleast— a ll norma l explana tion ,

because they surpassthe l imits of a simple play of the imagina tion .

Theseare the precise histor i ca l in forma tion given by Leopold , some of wh ich can be,

in a certa in sense,veri

fied and the H'

ndoo langu age spoken by Simandin i,

wh ich conta ins words more or less recogn izable, therea l mean ing of wh ich is adapted to the situa tion inwhich they have been spoken . But

, even if Héléne’

s

imagina tion could have recon structed the mannersand customs and scenes of the Orien t from the generalinformation floa ting in some way in cosmopolitan

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

they did not at all remember having met with themin works of fiction .

“ I have there,” said a learned professor of h is

tory, showing me a good- sized bookcase, numer

ous works on the h istory of India but they relateonly to the north of the pen insula and as to whattranspired in the south during the period to wh ichyou refer, we know a lmost n oth ing . Your names

are unkn own to me and do not recall to my mindany personage, rea l or fictitious .

”

The very name of Sivrouka seems to me im

probable as a Hindoo name replied another, whowas unable to give me any more information on the

subject .

I greatly regret, wrote a th ird, on receipt of Héléne

’

s texts, not to have succeeded in getting uponthe tra il of the recollections of your medium . I cannot th ink of any book whi ch would be likely to furn ish the information . Tchandraguiri and Mangalore (where severa l scenes of the Hindoo cycle are

located) are correct, but Madra s (id . ) did not exist in1401 . Its name and founda tion do not go furtherback than the seventeen th century . Tha t regionwas then a dependency of the kingdom of Vijayanagara , and a na

‘

ik in the service of those princesresided successively at Tchandragu iri and at Man

ga lore. I can make noth ing of Sivrouka ; the

king of Vijayanagara ,.

in 1402 , was Bukkha II . ,or

Bukkha called Siribukkha , Tiribukkha . But themark who so often changed h is residence was evi

dently not a ruling prince . Was it a romance ?Certain details caused me to doubt it . A romancer

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THE HINDOO CYCLE

so careful in regard to loca l coloring as to introducein to h is narrative Indian words

,would not have

gi ven the title of the prin ce under the Sanscrit formNayaka , but would have used the vulgar form na i khe would not have made the wife, in speaking to herhusband , ca ll him by his name Sivrouka (as Helenecon stantly does in this somnambulism) . I have no

recollection of having read anyth ing of th is kind,and I know of no work of fiction from whi ch the storymi gh t have been taken .

It will be readily understood tha t I was annoyed atnot being able to establish clearly my presumedAsia tic previous existence . However

,whi le pro

fessiona l science wa s admin istering to me these colddouches , I con tinued , on my own accoun t

,to search

the l ibra ries at my disposa l , and here one fine day I

accidenta lly came a cross , in an old h istory of India ,

in six volumes , by a man named DeMarlés, the fol

lowing passagesKana ra and the ne

ighboring provinces on the

side towards Delh i may be rega rded as the Georgia

of Hindustan it is there, it is sa id , tha t the mostbeautifu l women a re to be found ; the natives , how

ever, a re very jea lous in guarding th em , and do not

Often a llow them to be seen by strangers .

”

“

Tchandragu ir i , which sign ifies Mounta in of the

Moon ,is a va st fortress constructed ,

in 1401, by the

ra jah Sivrouka Nayaka . Th is prince ,as a lso his

successors , belonged to the sect of the Dja i ns .

At la st I With what a beating heart did I fasten

my eyes on tha t irrefutable h istoric evidence that mypreceding inca rnation ,

under the beautiful skies of299

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

India was not a myth l I felt new life in my veins .

I reread twenty times those blessed lines, and took a

copy of them to send to those pretended savants whowere ignorant even of the name of Sivrouka , and

a llowed doubts to be ca st upon h is reality .

Alas Imy triumph wa s of brief duration . It

seems tha t the testimony of De Marles is not of theh ighest order . Th is author is held in sligh t esteemin well- informed circles, as may be seen from the

following passage in a letter of M . Barth,which

merely expresses, in a vigorous and lively man

ner, an opin ion whi ch other special ists have con

firmedIt is through a letter of M . F lournoy that I learn

that there has existed since 1828 in Pa ris,printed in

Roman characters, a h istory of India by De Marlescontain ing a statement tha t the fortress of Can

dragiri was built in 1401 ,and that its founder was

Sivrouka Nayaka . Wha t new facts there are in

books one no longer consults I And that of DeMarlés is, indeed , one of those tha t are no longerconsulted . I found it yesterday at the library of theInstitute. It would have been impossible to havedone worse, even in 1828 . But sometimes we findpearls in a dung- hill , and perhaps th is SivroukaNayaka is one of them . Un fortunately

, the authorgives no h int as to the scou rces of his in formation ;and later , in his fourth volume

,in which he narrates

the h istory of the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries,

De Marlés'Gener a l H istory of India , A ncient and Modern .

from the Year 2000B . C. to ou r Own Times . Pp . 268 - 269 . Pa ris,1828 .

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thanks again to M . Ba rth ,I have ga ined in formation

concern ing another Tchandragu iri than the one of

the District of North Arcot men tioned by Vivien deSaint-Martin— i .e. a Tchandragu iri , situated in SouthKanara ,

and in the citadel of wh ich a h itherto un

known inscription has been discovered wh ich mustdate back 0 the time ofKing Ha rihara II . , of Vijayanagara , who reigned at the beginn ing of the fifteenthcentury .

* Here is something approachi ng the som

nambu listic revela tion s ofMlle . Smith . While awaiting their defin ite confirma tion by new a rchaeologicaldiscoveries,traces of Sivrouka may be sought for inthe earlier works upon wh ich De Marles must havedrawn . Un fortuna tely these works are not easy tofind, and are inconven ient to consult . ProfessorMichel, of the Un iversity of Liege, has had the

kindness to run through those of Buchanan] and

of Rennell,I but without result .If De Marles did not inven t Sivrouka out of whole

cloth , wh ich is hardly supposable, it was very probably in the translation of Ferishta by Dow

, § that he

Robert Sewel l . Lists of An tiquar ian Rema ins in the Presi

dency of Madras . Vol i . p . 238 (1882 ) Ci tation by M. Barth .I

have not been able to consu lt th is work .

1 Bu chanan . A j ou r n ey f rom Madr as thr ough the Countr ies ofMysor e, Canar a ,

and Ma labar, etc . 3 vo ls . 4to . London

, 1807.

1James Rennel l . D escr iption H i stor igue ct Géographique c’c l

’

l n

a'ostan . Trans lated from the English . Par is

, an . V I I I .

3 vo ls. , 8vo and atlas 4to .

Dow . H i story of H industan . Trans lated from the Persianof Ferishta. London , 1803 . M. Mi chel suggests Wi lks’s H istori ca l Sketches of the Sou th of India (London , 18 10) as hav ing possibly served as a sou rce of in formation for De Mar les.

I f some

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THE HINDOO CYCLE

found hi s facts . I have, unhappily, not y et been ablemyself to consult that very ra re work

,which is not

to be found in Geneva , so far as I am aware, nor toobta in accura te in formation regarding its con tents .

The un certainty whi ch hovers over the hi storica lproblem extends , natura lly, to the psychological problem a lso . It is clear that if certa in inscriptions

,or

even some old work , should come some day to tell usnot on ly of Sivrouka , but of Simandin i

, of Adel , andthe other personages who figure in Helene

’s Hindooromance, but of whom De Marles does not whi sper aword , w e should no longer ca re about the la tterauthor , and the question would then be as followsCould Mlle . Smi th have had cogn izance of these earlyworks

, and if not, how do their contents reappearin her somnambulism But in the actua l conditionof thi ngs

,and all a llowan ce made for possible sur

prises in the future, I do not hesitate to regard as themore probable and more rationa l supposition , that it

was rea lly the passage of De Marles, quoted above,whi ch furn ished

’

he sublimina l memory of Hélene

the precise date of 1401— and the three names of the

fortress , the province, and the ra jah .

Various other tra its of the vision s of Mlle . Smith

betray likewise the same inspira tion . The scene in

wh ich she sees them engaged in building, and her

description of tha t whi ch is being built, suggestclearly the idea of a fortress furn ished by the text

The transla tion Mounta in of theMcan con tributed to

learned reader may discover any traces of Siv rouka antecedent

to De Mar les ,I shal l be u nder great ob l igation to h im if he w i l l

commun icate the in formation to me .

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FROM INDIA T0 THE PLANET MARS

causing her to locate the scene upon a h ill . The

beauty of the women of the coun try ,on wh ich De

Marles dwel ls , has its echo in the remark of Hélénetha t the women whom she sees a re good looking .

”

Fina lly ,the princely chara cter of Sivrouka ,

men

tioned bv DeMarles , is found throughout the length ofthe entire roman ce , and displa y s itself in the splendor of h is costume

,of the pala ce, of the ga rden s, etc .

It is possible tha t the names and the na tional ity of the other personages— Simandin i

,Adel

, the

monkey , the sheik , etc — may have been borrowedfrom some u nknown work ,

wh ich would be, for theArabian portion of the na rra tive, the pendant toDe Marles for the Hindoo pa st .Th is may be , but it is not necessary . It is per

missible to regard,provisiona lly , the imagina tions

built up around Sivrou ka , as an ingen ious expedient, by means of wh ich Helene’s imagina tion findsa way of binding to that cen tra l figure

, and a lso of

blending in a single whole,her other Oriental mem f

or ies not specifically Hindoo .

The hypothesis wh ich I am about to a ssume

which connects directly w ith De Marles the da ta of

Helene’

s Asiatic dream , conta ined likewise in the

work of tha t author , arouses , nevertheless,two oh

jections . The first is drawn from the sligh t differences of orthography between the text of De Marlesand the words spoken by Leopold . Th is difficulty ison ly insurmountable by eleva ting the inerrancy of

the subliminal memory to the plane of absolute infallibility , though the la tter must be admitted to be ordinarily very much superior to tha t of the con sc ious

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persevering energy with wh ich she has never ceased

to protest aga inst my hypothesis, which has the

faculty of exasperating her in the h ighest degree

and one readily understands tha t it would natura lly

do so . For it is in va in that she digs down to the verybottom of her memories she does not discover theslightest tra ce of th is work . And not on ly that, but

how can one seriously suppose that she has ever

had the slightest intimation of it, since she neverstudied the h istory of India ,

has neither read nor

heard anyth ing on the subject, the very name of DeMarles having been utterly unknown to her up to the

day on which she lea rned that I suspected that author

of being the source of theHindoo romance It mustindeed, be admitted that the idea of the passage inquestion having come before the eyes or ears of Mlle.

Smith through any ordinarv channel seems a trifle

absurd . I only know in Geneva of two copies of thework of De Marles , both covered with dust— the one

belonging to the Société de Lecture, a private asso

ciation of whi ch none of the Smith family nor any

friend of theirs was ever a member the other in thePublic Library, where, among the thousands of

more interesting and more modern books , it is now

very rarely con sulted . It could only have happened,therefore, by a combination of absolutely exceptional and almost un imaginable circumstances that thework of De Marles could have found its way into Hélene’s hands and how could it have done so and

she not have the slightest recollection of it ?

I acknowledge the force of th is argument, and that

the wisest th ing to do is to leave the matter in sus

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THE HINDOO CYCLE

pense . But if the question must be decided , thoughthere is scarcely any choice, extravagance for extravagance, I still prefer the hypothesis wh ich on ly in

vokes na tura l possibilities to that whi ch appea ls tooccult causes .

Possibly the work of De Marlés may have beenheard of by Mlle . Smith without her norma l consciou sness taking note of it . Either when amongher friends or a cqua in tances, or with her paren ts ,she mi ght have heard some passages read in her

young days , etc . The fact that she ha s no con

scious recollection of it proves nothing against such

a supposition to any one who is at all familiar withthe play of our faculties .

It goes without saying tha t my method of reasoning is the inverse of tha t wh ich genera lly preva ils inspiritistic circles . Witness the celebrated Aksakoff,as a single example, who, discovering tha t a curioustyptologica l message was found a lready in print in a

book whi ch could not readily have come to the knowl

edge of themedium , and recogn iz ing the fact tha t themessage came from tha t book , says : But in wha t

way could the bra in of the medium have been made

awa re of the con ten ts of the book ? There is the

mystery . I refuse to adm i t that it cou ld have been

through natu ra l means . I believe i twas by some occu lt

process .

”

Very well thi s is pla in language, and the frankness of the decla ration charms me to such a degree

tha t I cannot resist the temptation to appropria te it

for myself in the case ofMlle . Smith and M . deMarles,transposing on ly two words :

“

I refuse to adm i t that it

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

cou ld have been through occu ltmeans . I believe i twas

by some natural process . Eviden tly , in doubtful cases

(wh ich are in an enormous ma jority) , in which the

natura l and the occult explana tions are in direct opposition ,

without the possibility oi a material demon

stration as to wh ich is true in fa ct, a decision must bereached in accordance with persona l taste and feeling .

Between these two methodologica l points of view a

reconciliation is scarcely possible . The reader may

th ink what he will . But,right or wrong , I cla im the

first of these as my opin ion,and regard the tendency

of the superna tura l and occult to substitute themselves, oh account of the in sufficiency of ou r knowledge, for the acquired rights of natura l hypothesis,as an un justifiable reversal of rOles .

To those who shall find my hypothesis decidedlytoo extravagant— or too simple— rema ins a choice between the multiple forms of occult hypothesis . Shallit be Leopold who, in his a ll—powerful state of disin

carnation ,has read in the closed volume ofDeMarlés ?

Or has there, indeed, been a telepathi c transmissionof th is passage from the bra in of some unknown terrestrial reader to that of Ml le. Smith ? Sha ll it bewith her a case of clairvoyan ce, of lucidity, of intuitionin the astra l body ; or, aga in , of trickery on the part ofsome facetious spirit ? And if

,taking the reincar

nationist theory seriously, it is admitted that Sivrouka ,

1401, and Tchandragu i ri , are indeed reallyremin iscences of the past life of Simandini

, how ex

plain that curious coincidence in their choice andtheir spelling with precisely the designations usedby M . de Marles ?

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adopted country to the point of losing even the latentmemories of her materna l language That wouldbe contrary to all known psychological analogies .

However, in saying that Hélene has never writtenor spoken Arabian I exaggerate . On one occasionshe spoke four words of it . It is the exception whi chproves the rule . In fact, not only did she fa il toaccompany that single text with any pronunciation ,

but she executed it as a drawing, and apparently

copied, withou t comprehending, a model whi ch an

imaginary person presented to her .

Here is a review Of that incidentOctober 27, I895 .

— Shortly after the beginn ing ofthe seance Mlle . Smi th has an Arabian Vision Lookat those tents l There are no stones here— it is a ll

sand [she coun ts the tents one by one] . Thereare twenty of them . That one is beautiful . Don ’tyou find it so, M . Lema i tre —that largest one ? It isfa stened by cords and small stakes . etc .

Thenshe describes the personages The one who is

smoking , seated in a corner, with h is legs crossedothers all black (the table says they are negroes,and that the scene takes place in Arabia ) ; then a man

clothed in white, whom Helene has the feeling of

knowing without being able to recogn ize h im she

places her finger upon her forehead, in the attitudeof a person trying to remember

, and the table (onwh ich she has her left hand) in forms us then that shelived in Arabia in her life a s Simandini

, and that sheis trying to recollect those far- distant times .

A quite

long scene follows , in which her Arab remin iscencesa lternate and mingle with the consciousness of the

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THE HINDOO CYCLE

real environment, though she neither sees nor hearsu s . At th is point a sta te of menta l con fusion ensues ,whi ch seems to be very pa inful to her .

M . Lema itre ! M . Floum oy I are you there ?Answerme, then . Did I not come here th is even ingIf on ly I could however

,I am noton voyage.

I rea lly believe it is Sunday at last I understand noth ing more about it. I think my bra in is so

‘

tired that all my ideas are mixed up however,I am not dreaming . It seems to me tha t I havealso lived with them [the sitters at the table],and with them [the Arabs of her vision]. ButI know them— all those men . Tell me, then , who

you are ! Did you a rrive in Geneva lately ? [Theyare, says the table, Arabs who lived five centuriesago, among them the fa ther of Simandini . ] Comenearer, then , come here . I want you to Speak to me I

M . Lema itre ! Oh , tha t pretty little sketch 1 What

is that sketch ? [The table having said that it is a

drawing whi ch her father is presenting to her , andthat she can copy it, a pencil and a Sheet of paper

are placed before her , the la tter of whi ch seems to

be transformed into papyrus in her dream . ] Thatgreen lea f is pretty . Of what plant is it the leaf

I th ink I have a pencil ; I am going to try to maketh is sketch .

After the usua l struggle between the two methods

of holding the penc il (seepp . 100 sheyields toLeo

pold’

s manner of holding it, saying, So much theworse then traces, slowly and with great care

,

Fig . 35, from left to righ t, often ra ising her eyes to

her imaginary model , as if copying a drawing . After311

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARs

wh ich she goes profoundly a sleep ; then other somnambu lisms come.

On awaking she recollects the state of con fusion

through which she had passed . Wretched even

ing ,said she. I wa s unhappy . I felt that I was

living here, as I a lways have, and I saw some th ings

as though I were a foreigner . I was with you, but I

was living elsewhere,”etc .

Th is whole scene gives the distinct impression that

the Arab phrase only existed in Hélene’

s recollec

tion as a visua l memory, without mean ing or any

verbal images . It was for her an incomprehensiblepiece of writing, a simple drawing ,

like Ch inese or

Japanese characters would be for us . Evidently it

was a text which had come before her eyes at some

propitiou s moment , and , having been absorbed bythe sublimina l imagina tion— a lways on the watch

for matters of Orienta l aspect— had been incorporatedin a scene of the Asiatic dream .

Such , at least, is the supposition which seems tome the most plausible . For , to rega rd it a s a fragmen t of Arabian , which Helene cou ld speak and

write fluently if she were in an appropria te sta te of

somnambulism— as Leopold pretended one day to

be the fact— seems to me an hypothesis still more

Fig. 35. Arabian text drawn from left to right by Mlle. Smith in hemisomnambu

lism : e lq al i l men e l h ab i b k ts i r , the l ittle f rom the f r iend ( is) much.

Natural size.

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IV. THE HINDOO LANGUAGE OF MLLE. SMITH

The nature of the Hindoo language of Helene isless easy to expla in clearly than tha t of the Martian ,

because it has never been possible to obta in either

a litera l translation of it or written texts . Besides,being ignorant of the numberless dia lects of ancientand modern India , and not believing it to be incumbent upon me to devote myself to their study solelythat I might be able to appreciate at their properva lue the ph ilologica l exploits of an entranced me

dium ,I am not in a Situation to a llow myself any

persona l judgment in rega rd to th is matter .

There is not even left to me the resource of placingthe parts of the process as a whole before the reader,as I have done in the case of the Martian , for the

reason that ou r ignorance of Helene ’s Hindoo, addedto her rapid and indistinct pronunciation— a realprattle sometimes— has caused us to lose the greaterpart of the numerous words heard in the course of

some thi rty Orienta l scenes scattered over a space offour years .

Even the fragments which we have been able ton ote down presen t for the most part so much uncer

tainty that it would be idle to publish all of them.

I have commun icated the best of them to severaldistinguished Orienta l scholars . From certa in in

forma tion wh ich they have kindly given me, it appears that the soi—disant Hindoo of Hélene is not

any fixed idiom known to these special ists ; but , onthe other hand , there are to be found in it, more or less

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disfigured and difficu lt to recogn ize,certa in terms

or roots wh ich approach more nea rly to Sanscritthan any a ctua l language of India , and the meaning of wh ich often very well corresponds with the

situa tion s in wh ich these words have been uttered .

I proceed to give some examples of them :

1 . The two words , ati éya ganapatinama, wh ichinaugura ted the Hindoo language on the 6th of

March , 1895 (see p . and wh ich were investedat tha t moment, in the mouth of Simandin i withthe eviden t mean ing of a formula of sa lutati on orof benediction , addressed to her la te husband, inopportunely returned , were articulated in a mannerso impressive and so solemn tha t their pronunci

a tion leaves scarcely any room for doubt .It is all the more interesting to ascertain the ac

cord of my scien tist corresponden ts upon the va lue

of these two words the first reca lls to them noth ingprecise or applicable to the situation , but the sec

ond is a flattering and very appropriate a llusion to

the divini ty of the Hindoo Pantheon , whi ch is more

actively interesting to the professiona l world .

M . P . Oltramare, to whom I sen t these words, with

out saying anyth ing as to their source, replied : There

is n oth ing more simple than the word gan apati

mama; it means , who bears the name of Ganapati ,’

whi ch is the same a s G anesa . As to atiéya, tha tword has not a Hindoo appea rance it might perhaps

be atrey a, whi ch ,it seems , serves as a designation for

women who have suffered an abortion , an explication

which ,however, I do not guarantee . [In order to

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a ffirm more concerning these words , it would be nec

essary to know ] whether they a re really Sanscrit,since if they belong to the vulga r languages , I ex

cuse myself absolutely .

M . Glardon ,who is more familiar with the vulgar

languages and speaks Hindustan i fluently , did not

h int to me of au v other mean ing for ati é y é. and saw

a lso in the other word an epithet of honor , literally‘

named G anapati , familiar name of the god Ganesa .

M . de Saussure a lso found no mean ing whateverfor the first term , in which he inclines now to see an

arbitrary crea tion of the Martian order , and he re

marked that in the second , the two words,G anapati ,

well - known divin ity, and mémé , name,

a re con

structed together, in some inexplicable manner , butnot necessarily fa lse . It is quite curious ,

”adds he,

that th is fragment , wh ich is mixed up w ith the nameof a god , may be properly pronounced with a kind of

solemn emphasis and a gesture of religious benediction . Th is denotes, indeed , an intelligen t and

in tentiona l u se .

According to this first brief specimen ,therefore,

Helene’

s Hindoo appears to be a mixture of impro

vised a rticula tions and of veritable Sanscrit wordsadapted to the situa tion La ter specimens onlyserve to corrobora te this impression .

2 . The next outbreak of Hindoo took place fivemonths la ter (September 15 , in the midst of avery long Oriental sean c e , in wh ich I on ly refer topoin ts espec ia lly interesting to u s— to wit

,Helene

’ssupposed San scrit , the French interpreta tion which

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ing the inmost feelings of Mlle . Smith , with whi ch heis perfectly familiar . Shortly afterwards Heleneawakes without recollection .

According to M . de Saussure there are certainly inth is text some Sanscrit fragments answering moreor less to the interpreta tion of Leopold . The mostclear are mama priy a, wh ich signifies my dear , mydear ly loved, and mama sad iou (corrected to sadho),my good, my excellent. The rest of the phrase isless satisfactory in its presen t condition ; tava couldwell be of thee, but apa tava is a pure barbarism,

if it is intended for far from thee. In the same waythe syllable bag in b agda seems to mean , indepen

dently of the transla tion of Leopold , bhaga, hoppiness, but is surrounded by incomprehensible sy l

lables.

3 . In a subsequent seance (December I,

Héléne gave herself up to a va ried series of somnambulistic pantomimes represen ting scenes in the lifeof Simandini , whi ch were thought to be located at

Mangalore, and in the course of whi ch severa l Hindoowords escaped her, of wh ich , unhappily, no inter

pretation could be obta ined from Leopold . But hereaga in , if one is not too difficult to sa tisfy, a meaningmore or less adapted to the pantomime is fina lly discovered .

In the midst of a playful scene with her little monkey , Mitidja , she tells him in her sweetest and mostharmonious tones (A) , m ama kana sour (or sourde)m itidy a o kana m itidy a (ter ) . Later, answeringher imaginary prince, who, according to Leopold,

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has j ust given her a severe admon ition (the reasonfor whi ch is not known ) , and to wh ich she listenedwith an air of forced submission

,and, a lmost sneer

ingly , she tells h im (B) , adap rati tava S iv rouka

no s im yo s inony edo on y edio S iv rouka . Re

turn ing to a better feeling and lean ing towards h im,

she murmurs with a cha rming smile (C) m ama p l iam ama maxim i (or naxm i) Siv rouka ao

laos , m i Siv rouka.

In the fragmen t (A) , one may suppose the m ama

kana to be a term of a ffection , taking the kana to beequiva len t to the Sanscrit kan ta ,

“ beloved,”or ka

n i stha ,

“ da rling , un less it be tran sla ted, as M .

Glardon does , kana (corrected to kh ana) m itidy ato eat for Mitidja .

In the ph ra se (B) , according to M . de Saussure,the la st words might

,with some show of rea

son , make u s think of the word any ed iuh , the following day , or, another day , repea ted twice ; and,

on the other hand , the first word might be transformed into ady a

-

p rabh rti , starting from to—day ;

whi ch , combined with other syllables, themselvesconven tiona lly tritura ted, might give someth inglike : adya -

pra- bh rti tava, s iv ruka yosh in

na any ed iuh , any ediuh : from to- day , of thee,Sivrouka , that I am wife not another day ,

another day— wh ich , besides (if it has any mean

ing at all , ) has scarcely any connection with the

scene .

In the phrase (C) the words mama pl ia evidently

mean the same as the words above, mama priya,

my beloved ; naxm i migh t be Iakshmi , beauty and

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fortune ; and the la st words migh t conta in asm i , 1

am .

While, therefore,recogn izing some words of pure

Sanscrit , the whole appearance of these first textspresen ts , on the other hand , certa in ma tters quite

su spic iou s , from the point of View of construction ,

of the order of the words , and possibly a lso the cor

rectness of the forms .

E . g ,

” observes M . de Saussure,I do not remem

ber that one can say in Sanscrit,‘ my Sivrouka ,

’

nor my dear Sivrouka .

’

One can well say m am a

priya , my well beloved ,substan tively ; but m ama

pr iya S iv ruka is quite another th ing : but it is mydea r S ivrouka wh ich occu rs most frequently . Itis true,

”adds my learned colleague, tha t noth ing

can be a ffirmed absolutely , especia lly concern ingcerta in epochs at wh ich much bad Sanscrit wasmade in India . The resou rce a lways rema ins to usof a ssuming tha t , since the eleven th wife of Sivrouka was a ch ild of Arabia , she had not had timeto learn to express herself without error in the idiomof her lord and master , up to the moment at whi ch

the funera l pile put an end to her brief existence.

The misfortune is,in assuming by hypothesis the

poin t of View of the romance ,one exposes h imself

to another difficu lty . The most surprising th ing ,

remarks M . de Saussure,is tha t Mme . Simandini

spoke San scrit, and not Pra crit (the connection of

the first w ith the second is the same as that between Latin and French

, the one springing fromthe other, but the one is the language in wh ich thesavants write, wh ile the other is the spoken lan

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ines the lines of my hand , she pronounces the following fragmenta ry senten ces, sepa rated by silencescorresponding to the ha llucinatory replies of Sivrouka Pr iya S iv rouka no [sign ifying No, according to Leopold] tvandastroum Sivrouka

itiam i ad ia priya i ti am i s ivra ad ia yatoun ap i ad ia no mama souka, mama b aga s iv

rouka yatou. Besides s ivra , wh ich , Leopold says,is an affectionate name for Sivrouka , we can divine in

th is text other terms of affection : pr iya, beloved ;mama soukha, mama bhaga, Oh ,

my delight, oh,

my happiness I” M . Glardon a lso calls a ttention to

the word tvandastroum ,wh ich approaches the Hin

dustan i tandarast (or tandu rust) , who is in good

hea lth — tandnrusti , health ,

” coming from the two

words tan ,physica l condition

,

”and da ra st, good,

true,”of Persian origin . But he adds tha t it is pos

sibly on ly a coincidence, and seems to me doubtfulwhether he would have thought of the connection if

it were not found in a scene of Chi romancy .

5 . The Hindoo cycle, like the others , makes numerou s irruptions in to the ordinary l ife of Mlle. Smith ,

and affects her personality in most varied degrees,from the simplewaking Vision of Oriental landscapesor people up to the total incarnations of Simandini , of

wh ich Hélene preserves no memory whatever . One

frequent form of these spon taneous automati sms consists in certa in mixed sta tes , in wh ich she perceivespersonageswho seem toher objective and independent,wh ile continuing to have the feeling of a subjectiveimplication or iden tification in regard to them, the

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THE HINDOO CYCLE

impression of an indefinable tu a res agi tu r . It thenea sily happen s tha t the conversa tions she has withthem are a mixture of French and a foreign languagewh ich she is wholly ignoran t of

,though feeling the

mean ing of it . The following is an example :March I , 1898 .

— Between five and six in the morning , whi le still in bed but wide awake

,as she a ffirms

,

Héléne had a superb Hindoo vision .

” Magn ificen tpa lace, with a huge sta ircase of white stone, leadingto splendid ha lls furni shed with low divans withoutcushi on s

,of yellow, red ,

and more often of blue ma

terials . In a boudoir a woman (Simandin i ) reclin ing

and leani ng n oncha lan tly on her elbow on his

kn ees near her a man with black curly ha ir,of dark

complexion (Sivrouka ) , clothed in a large, red,em

broidered robe, and speaking a foreign language, notMartian ,

wh ich Helene did not know, but wh ich ,how

ever, she had the feeling of comprehending inwardly,

and whi ch enabled her to write some sentences of it

in French a fter the Vision . Wh ile she listened toth is man speaking , she saw the l ips of the woman

open ,without hearing any sound come from her

mouth,in such a way that she did not know wha t

she sa id , but Hélene had at the same time the impression of an swering inwardly , in thought, to the con

versation of theman , and she noted his reply . (Th ismeans , psychologically, that the words of Sivrouka

gushed forth in auditive images or ha llucina tions ,and the an swers of Simandini - Helene in psychomotor - spoken images of articulation ,

accompan ied

by the usua l representation of Simandin i effectuating

the corresponding labia l movements . ) Here is a

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fragmen t of conversation noted by Helene in pencilat the outset of the Vision , in her ordina ry hand

writing ,but very irregular , attesting that she had

not yet en tirely rega ined her norma l state .

(Sivrouka ) My n ights without repose, my eyesred with tea rs, Simandini , will not these touch at

last thy attamana ? Sha ll thi s day end without

pardon , without love (Simandini . ) Sivrouka , no,

the day sha ll not end without pardon ,without love

the sum ina has not been launched far from me,a s thou hast supposed ; it is there— dost thou see

(Sivrouka )“

Simandini , my soueca , m ac c anna

baguea— pardon me aga in , a lways l

”

Thi s little scrap of conversa tion , it may be re

marked in passing, gives quite correctly the emo

tional note, which is strong throughout the wholelength of the Hindoo dream in the relationsh ip of

its two ch ief personages . As to the Sanscritoid

words wh ich are there mingled with the French ,

they have not an equal va lue .

“ Sum ina ,

” saysM . de Saussure,

“

reca lls nothing . A ttamana, at

most atmanam (accusative of at ) , l’

dme,

‘

the

soul’

; but I hasten to say that in the contextin wh ich attamana figures one could not makeu se of the Sanscrit word wh ich resembles it, and

whi ch at bottom only sign ifies (dme)‘ soul ’ in phil

osoph ical language, and in the sense of l’

ame universelle,

’

or other learned mean ings .

6. The apparition of isolated Hindoo words , or

words incorporated in a non - Hindoo context,is not

very rare with Helene, and is produced sometimes324

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and of wh ich Leopold deigned , on a single occasion ,

to outline the translation .

The utterances con sist essentia lly of the Sanscritword gaya chan t,

”repeated to satiety, with here and

there some other terms, badly articulated and offering discouraging variations in the notes taken by

the different hearers . I will confine myself to twoversions .

Fig. 36 . Modulation of a H indoo song. The final G of the three variations was

held w i th perfect steadiness during fourteen seconds. The series A was oftendoubled and trebled before the continuation .

One of them is by Helene herself . In a spontaneous vision (May 18

,1898 , in the morn ing ,

upon awaking) , she perceived a man , rich ly dressed in yellowand blue (Sivrouka ) , reclin ing upon beautiful cushion s near a foun tain surrounded by pa lm- trees a

brunette woman (Simandini ) sea ts herself on the

grass , sings to him in a strange language a ravishing melody . Hélene gathers the following fragments of it in writing , in whi ch may be recogn izedthe disfigured text of her ordinary song ,

“ G a h a ia

vahai‘

y am i vassen iata patti ssa i a pr ia i’

a.

"

The other version is that of M . de Saussure, verymuch better qualified than we are to distinguishthe Hindoo sounds . He was quite near Hélene, who

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THE HINDOO CYCLE

sang seated upon the ground , whose voice for themomen t a rticula ted so badly that severa l words es

caped him , and he does not vouch for the accuracyof h is text , wh ich is as follows , as he wrote it to themea sure : “ Gaya gaya n a

'

i a i a m iya gaya b r iti

gaya vaya yan i p r itiy a kr iy a gayan i i gay a mama

tu a gaya m am a nara mama pati i s i gaya gandary é

gaya ity am i v asanta gaya gaya yam i gayapriti gaya priya gaya pati s i .

It was towards the end of th is same seance thatLeopold , undoubtedly with the idea of doing honorto the distinguished presence of M . de Saussure,decided , a fter a scene of Martian translation (text I4,by Esena le) , to give us , in Helene

’s voice,h is inter

pretation of the Hindoo chan t, whi ch fol lows, verba

tim ,with its mixture of Sanscrit words Sing

,bird

,

let us sing ! G aya ! Adel , Sivrouka , sing of thespring- time Day and n ight I am happy ! Let ussing ! Spring - time bird , happiness ! ityam i m a

m anara priti , let us sing ! let us love ! my king !

Miou sa ,Adel !

In compa ring these translations of the Hindootext , certa in points of resemblance are discoveredbetween them . Outside the two perfectly correctwords

, gay a, song, and vasanta, spr ing—time, the idea

of let u s love is discovered in priti and b r iti (San

scrit pr iti , the act of loving) , and an approximate

equiva len t of my Icing in mama pati i , recalling

the Sanscrit mama pate, my hu sband , my master .

It is,un fortuna tely, hardly possible to carry the

iden tification further, except perhaps for bird , wh ich ,

with some show of reason , might be suspected in

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

vay ayan i , vaguely reca lling v3y asan (accusative

plura l of vay asa bird) .

As to the melody of thi s pla intive ditty, M . Aug .

de Morsier, who hea rd it at the seance of the 4th of

September, 1898 , has kindly noted it a s exactly as

possible (see Fig .

The preceding examples suffice to give an idea of

Hélene’

s Hindoo, and it is time to conclude .

It apparently does not belong to any actua lly ex

isting dia lec t . M . Glardon declares that it is neither

ancient nor modern Hindustan i, and, a fter havingput forth at the beginn ing, by way of simple hypoth

esis, the idea that it might be Tamil , or Mahratta ,

he now sees in it a mélange of rea l terms , probablySanscrit and invented words . M . Michel , likewise,is of the opin ion that the grotesque jargon of Siman

dini conta ins fragmen ts of Sanscrit quite well adaptedto the situa tion . All my correspondents are, on thewhole, of exactly the same view, and I could not better sum up their opinion than by quoting the wordsof M . de Saussure :As to the question of ascerta ining whether all

this rea lly represents Sanscrit, it is evidently necessary to answer, N0. One can on ly say

First : That it is a medley of syllables, in the

midst ofwh ich there are, incontestably ,some series of

eigh t to ten syllables,con stituting a fragmen t of a sen

tence wh ich has a meaning (especia lly exclamatoryphrases— e. g. , mama pri ya, mon bien—a imé (

“my wellbeloved

”

) mama soukh a, mes dél i ces (“my delight

Secondly : That the other syllables , of unintel

ligible aspect , never have an anti - Sanscrit character328

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PLANET MARS

M. de Saussure does not hesitate to make thi s comparison ,

and explains, e.g. , the initia l Sanscritoid

text, the famous phrase of benediction,ati éyagana

patinama, by the same process of fabrication whichshone forth in the words of Esenale or Astane.

I am not convinced tha t the genera l process of replacing word for word the French terms by terms

of Oriental aspect, which is certainly the process em

ployed in the fabrication of the Martian ,has been

made u se of in the case of Helene’

s Orienta l words .

Leopold , who has la id so much stress on procuring

u s a quas i -magica l mean s of obta in ing the l iteraltran slation of the Martian ,

has never condescended

to do the same thing for the Hindoo, but hasconfined himself to outlin ing for us some free and

vague interpretations, which scarcely add anything

to that wh ich the pantomime permits us to divine.

Th is leads us to think tha t an entire precise translation of the Hindoo is impossible— in other terms,that Helene does not fabrica te her pseudo- Sanscrit byfollowing step by step a French plot, and by mainta in ing in her neologisms the meaning wh ich hasbeen once adopted, but tha t she improvises and leavesthe result to chance, without reflection (with the ex

ception of some words of true Sanscrit, the mean ingof wh ich she knows and wh ich she applies intelligently to the situation ) .It is not, then , to the Martian texts proper, in my

opin ion , that we must compare Helene’s Hindoo, but

to that pseudo-Martian jargon spoken with volubility in certain seances, and wh ich have never been

noted with certainty nor translated by Esenale.

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THE HINDOO CYCLE

It is understood, too,tha t whi le Helene

’

s sublim

ina l self can safely give itself up to the creation of a

defin ite language in the freedom wh ich the planetMa rs affords, where there is no pre- existing systemto be con formed to nor any objective control to fear,it would be very impruden t and absurd to repea tthe process in conn ection with India the few wordsof pure Sanscrit whi ch were at its disposa l kept itfrom inventing others, the fa lseness of which wouldbe evident at the first a ttempt ata l itera l and verbatim

tran slation . It , therefore, contented itself with theseveridica l elements , insufficien t in themselves a lone forthe construction of complete sentences , being a jargondevoid of mean ing, but in ha rmony through theirdominant vowels with the authen tic fragments .

Now how could these authentic fragments havecome into the possession of Mlle. Smith , who has no

recollection wha tever (nor has her fami ly) of ever having studied San scrit, or of having ever been in com

mun ication with Orien ta l scholars This is the

problem whi ch my researches have encountered

h itherto, and as a solution of wh ich I can think of

noth ing more l ikely than tha t of a fortuna te chance,ana logous to tha t whi ch enabled me to discover thepassage of De Marlés . I am, for the time being ,reduced to vague con jectures as to the extent ofMlle. Smith

’ s laten t knowledge of San scrit, and theprobable nature of its manner of acquisition .

I had long thought that Hélene mi ght have ab

sorbed her Hindoo principa lly by audi tivemeans , andtha t she had,

perhaps, in her infancy lived in the same

housewith some Indian student, whom she had heard,33I

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

across the street or through an open window, speak

ing aloud Sanscrit texts with their French transla

tion . The story of the young domestic without edu

cation is well known ,who, seized with a fever, spoke

both Greek and Hebrew,wh ich had been stored up in

her mind, unknown to her , wh ile she was in the ser

vice oi a German savant . Se non evero é ben trovato.

In spite of the just criticisms of Mr . Lang , apropos ofits poorly established authenticity, th is standard an

ecdote may be considered as a type of many otherfacts of the same kind wh ich have since been actually observed , and as a sa lutary warn ing to distrustsubconsc ious memories of auditive origin . But Indian scholars are rare in Geneva , and th is trail hasyielded me noth ing .

I am rea lly inclined to admit the exclusively visual

origin of Helene’s Sanscrit . First,it is not necessary

for her to have heard tha t idiom . Reading of textsprinted in Fren ch characters coincides very wellwith a pronunciation so confused and badly ar

ticu lated as hers ; and , further, it a lone can ac

count for certain inexplicable errors of pronun ciation if Mlle . Smith had acquired tha t language byear .

The most characteristic of her errors is the presence in Hindoo of the French sound u

,wh ich does

not exist in Sanscrit, but is natura lly suggested byreading if it has not been previously ascertainedthat that letter is pronounced ou in the Sanscrit wordsin which it appears .

Other observa tions militate in favor of the samesupposition . Never in the seances has Simandini

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

ventured to wr ite Sanscrit, and it is in French lettersthat her name was given (see p .

Still,Helene subconsciously possesses a part, at

least, of the Devanaga ri a lphabet, since sometimescertain characters belonging to it slip into her nor

mal writing . But it is to be noted that her knowledge oi thi s kind does not seem in any way to go beyond that wh ich might have resulted from a rapidglance at a Sanscrit grammar .

In certa in ca ses thi s irruption of foreign signs

(altogether ana logous to that whi ch has been seen in

the case of the Martian) is connected with an ac

cess of spontaneous somnambulism and makes partof a whole troop of images and of Oriental terms .

An interesting example is found in Fig . 37, whi chreproduces the end of a letter wh ich Helene wrote mefrom the country . All the rest of th is six- page letter is perfectly normal , both as to handwriting and

content , but suddenly, tired by her effort of pro

longed attention , she begins to speak of her health,sleep overcomes her, and the last lines show the invasion of the Orien tal dream .

Kana , the slave, wi th h is tame birds , and the brilliant plants of the tropics

, substitute themselveslittle by little for the actua l room . The letter reachedme unfinished and without signa ture, as is shownin Fig . 37 ; Helene closed it mechan ica lly dur ingher somnambulism, without knowledge of thi s un

usual termination , a i whi ch she was surprised andannoyed when I showed it to her later.Examination and comparison of all these grapho

motor automatisms show that there are in Helene’s334

THE HINDOO CYCLE

subconsciousness some positive notions, albeit su

perfic ial and rudimentary , of the Sanscrit a lphabet. She knows the exact form of many isolatedcharacters , and their genera l value, in the abstract,as it were, but she does not seem to have any ideaof their concrete u se in connection with other letters .

In a word , these fragments of graph ic automatisms betray a knowledge of Hindoo writing such as

a curious mi nd might be able to acquire by perusingfor some momen ts the first two or three pages of aSanscrit grammar . It would retain certain de

tached forms first, the a and the e, whi ch ,striking

the ey e at the commencement of the two first lines

(con ta in ing the vowels , and usua lly separated fromthe following lines conta in ing the consonan ts) ofthe standard arrangement of the Hindoo letters inten groups ; then the series of ciphers

,occupying

a l ine by themselves and easy to reta in ; fina lly,

some other simple signs gleaned at hazard ; butthere will probably not be reta ined any of the toocomplicated figures resulting from the un ion of sev

era l characters in order to form words . Th is sup

posed genesis en tirely corresponds with the extent

of the notion s as to Sanscrit writing of wh ich Mlle .

Smith ’

s subconsciousness gives eviden ce .

It will suffice in summing up , to accoun t for Mlle.

Smith ’

s Hindoo language, tha t perhaps in the N .

group,or in some other spiritistic environment of

wh ich I am ignoran t, some one, for the sake of curi

osity ,may have shown her and a llowed her to glance

over a San scrit gramma r or lexicon , immediately

after a seance, during that state of suggestibility in

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Fig. 38. Examples of Sanscrit charac ters , automatically substituted for Frenchwords and ciphers, in words and figures appearing in the normal writings of Mlle.

Smi th (lame, r ubis, x66, pl is , 28 65 , Natura l si ze.

wh ich the exterior suggestions are registered verystrongly in her ca se, often without leaving traces inher conscious memory . The fact will a lso be ex

plained that Helene has no memory whatever of i t,is absolutely convinced that she never saw or heardthe least fragmen t of Sanscrit or any other Orientallanguage .

I ought also to add tha t the in formation which Ihave up to the presen t time been able to gather hasfurnished me with no positive indication of the truthof my supposition , wh ile, on the other hand, it hasnot tended to establish its fa lsity .

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a lso that she felt specially attracted towards the

career of Marie An toinette .

But M . Seippel , whom I quoted above, has noth ing

about him of the Arab, and still less of the slave, nei

ther in outward appearance nor in character and as

to myself, let us say here, M . F — i i I may be permittedto substitute harmless in itia ls for the a lways odious

I”— as for M . F there is generally to be met with

in him ,under some diffidence, a certa in mildness of

manner and disposition whi ch would scarcely seemto predestinate h im to the energetic and wild role of

a violent , wh imsica l , capricious , and jea lous Orientaldespot .As to the psychological origins of the Hindoo

dream— considered not so much in its Orienta l decoration , but in its essential note ,

which is the relationof Simandini to Sivrouka (the pretended an teriorityof M . F — two hypotheses can be framed , betweenwh ich it is diffi cult to choose.

First . From the point of View of psychopa thologyI should be tempted to cause this entire somnambu

listic roman ce to be in cluded in that which Freud callsAbwehrpsychosen , resulting from a sort of autotomywh ich frees the normal self from an affective ideaincompa tible with it ; wh ich idea revenges itself byocca sion ing very diverse perturbations

,according to

the subjects , from disorders of innervation ,coming

to disturb the da ily life (hysteria by somatic con

version of the affective coefficient of the repulsedidea) , up to the case in which the self on ly escapesthe intolerable contradiction between the given rea lityand the idea whi ch besets it by plunging itself en

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THE HINDOO CYCLE

tirely in to the latter (menta l hallucinatory confu

sion , delirium,

Between these varied resultsmay be found tha t inwh ich the idea excluded from the consciousness becomes the germ of hypnoid developments, the pointof departure of a secondary consciousness unknownto the ordinary personal ity, the centre of a somnam

bu listic l ife in whi ch the tenden cies wh ich the normal

self has driven far away from it may take refugeand give themselves free play .

Thi s is , perhaps , the happiest solution , from a prac

tica l and socia l poin t of View, since it leaves the indivi dua l in a state of perfect equilibrium and freefrom nervous troubles, outside of the very limitedmomen ts in wh ich the underlying processes break

out in accesses of somnambulism .

Such may be the case of the Hindoo dream and

the origin of the attributing of the role of Sivroukato M . F . Noth ing, a ssuredly, in the norma l life or

bein g of Mlle. Smith would cause the suspicion tha t

she had ever con sciously felt towa rds the la tter theabsurd sentiments whi ch good sense would have condemned in advance ; but divers hi nts of her sub

limi na l life, independently of the Hindoo cycle itself

(certa in dreams, have sometimes seemed to be

tray a la tent conflict,wh ich the sane and reasonable

self wou ld have quickly gotten rid of by the bani sh

ment from the ordinary persona lity of the affective

idea ,inadmi ssible in the given conditions of reality .

Hence, with a temperamen t accustomed to medium

istic doubling of persona lity and imbued with spirit~istic doctrines, the birth and development, under

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neath the level of the normal consciousness, of thi s

romance of a former existence, in wh ich emotiona ltendencies incompa tible with the present life have

found on occasion a sort of theoretic j ustification

and a free field for expansion .

Secondly It may also be presumed, and I prefer

to admit, that the sentiments of Simandin i towardsher fictitious rajah , far from being the reflection and

somnambulic transposition of an impression reallyfelt by Mlle. Smith in regard to some one real anddetermined, are on ly a fan tastic creation— like thepassion with wh ich juven ile imagina tions are sometimes inflamed for an ideal and abstract type whi leawaiting the meeting with a concrete rea lizationmore or less like it — and tha t the assimila tion of

Sivrouka to M . F . is on ly a coincidence due to thesimple chance of Mlle . Smith having made the ao

quaintance of M . F . at the time when the Hindoodream was about to begin . Two points strengthenth is hypothesis of a con tingent and superficial confusion between M . F . and Sivrouka . First

, the

Hindoo dream was evidently begun by a characteristic vision in wh ich Simandini appeared , almosttwo mon ths before the admi ssion of M . F . to thesean ces (see pp . 279 Instead of supposingthat the subconsciousness of Mlle . Smith foresaw a lready the probable arriva l of this new spectator, and reserved for him in advance a leadingrole in the romance of former existence wh ich she

was in process of elaborating (which is not al

together impossible, it i s true) , it hardly seemsas though M . F . could have stood for anything

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CHAPTER IX

THE ROYAL CYCLE

F I were obliged to give thi s cycle a place proportioned to tha t whi ch it occupies in the som

ambulic life of Ml le. Smith , a hundred pageswould not suffice. But permit me to pass rapidlyover facts concern ing whi ch I should only be obligedto repeat the greater part of the observations calledforth by the preceding romances, which apply equal

ly well, mutatis mutandis , to the person ification ofMarie Antoinette by Helene.

The choice of th is role is naturally explained bythe innate tastes of Ml le. Smith for everythi ng that .

is noble, distinguished, elevated above the level of

the common herd, and by the fa ct that some exteriorcircumstance fixed her hypnoid a ttention upon the

illustrious queen of France in preference to the

many other historic figures equa lly qua lified to serveas a point of attachment for her subconscious megalomaniac reveries .

In default of absolutely certain in formation on

this point, l strongly suspect the engraving from the

Memoirs of a Phys i cian , representing the dramaticscene of the decanter between Balsamo and the Dau

phiness, of having given birth to th is identifica34-2

THE ROYAL CYCLE

tion of Helene with Marie An toinette, as well a s totha t of her secondary persona lity of Leopold withCagliostro .

We have, in fact, seen that th is engraving (pp . 94so well ca lculated to impress the imagination ,

was shown to Mlle . Smith by Mme . B . at the end of aseance— tha t is , at a moment when one is never surethat Hélene

’

s return to her normal sta te is complete,and in wh ich her hypnoid persona l ity

,still on a level

with con sciousness , so to speak, is very prone to ab

sorb the in teresting suggestions whi ch the environment may furn ish . It was severa l months— a year

and a quarter , possibly— a fter thi s in ciden t (the precise date of which , in 1892 or 1893 , it is impossibleto determine) that announcemen t was made by thetable, on the 3oth of January , 1894, tha t Helenewas the reincarnation of Ma rie Antoinette . It is to berecollected tha t in the interva l she had for some timebelieved herself to be the rein carnation of Loren za

Felic ian i it is,however, to be n oted that these two

successive iden tifications did not have the samegua rantee or psychologica l sign ification . In fact

,it

was Mlle . Smith ,in the waking state— that is, in her

norma l personal ity— who a ccepted the supposition

of Mme . B . ,tha t she was the reincarnation of Loren

za but the table her subcon sciousness— a lwaysrema ined silent on thi s point . On the contrary, the

idea of having been Marie An toinette does not seem

to have occurred to Helene’

s ordinary consciousnessup to the time at wh ich Leopold revea led th is secretby the table . If any conclusion may be drawn from

th is , it is that, under the multiple suggestions of the343

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

engraving from Dumas’ works and the suppositions

of Mme . B . , the hypnoid imagina tion of Mlle. Smith

at first preferred to the role of Lorenza that of MarieAntoinette, whi ch is undoubtedly more flattering and

more conformable to Helene’s temperament, and then

elaborated and matured it , very slowly , it is true,but not excessively so, in comparison with other ex

amples of subliminal incubations of Mlle. Smi th .

From the point of View of its psychological formsof manifestation , the Royal cycle from that time followed an evolution ana logous to that of its congenersdescribed in the preceding chapters . After somemonths, during whi ch it unfolded itself in visionsdescribed by Hélene and accompanied by typtological explana tions dicta ted by the table, the trancebecame more profound . Mlle. Smith began to personate the queen in pantomime, of whi ch Leopoldgave the exact sign ifica tion by digital indications .

Speech was added the year following, at a datewhich I cannot fix, but the first occa sion on whichI was a witness to it was on the i 3th of October,1895 . Handwriting on ly made its appearance, as

far as I am aware, two yea rs la ter (November I,

1897, see Fig . when the royal in carna tion at

ta ined its apogee and Helene was in the habit of reta ining in memory the somnambulistic role of MarieAn toinette for severa l hours . Since then the rolehas main ta ined itself at a very remarkable level ofperfection , but it scarcely seems to me progressing,and seems likely to become stereotyped . The ob

jectivity of the genera l type of queen must be distinguished in thi s brilliant persona lity , or at least

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When the roya l trance is complete no one can fail

to note the grace, elegance, distinction , ma jesty sometimes, which shi ne forth in Hélene

’

s every attitudeand gesture.

She has verily the bearing of a queen . The moredelicate shades of expression , a charming amiability,condescending hauteur, pity, indifference, overpow

ering scorn flit successively over her countenanceand are man ifested in her bearing, to the filing byof the courtiers who people her dream. The play of

her hands with her rea l handkerch ief and its fictitiousaccessories, the fan , the binocle with long handle, thescent- bottle wh ich she carries in a pocket in her girdle her courtesy ings, the movement, full of graceand ease, by which she never forgets at each turn ingaround , to throwback her imaginary train ; everythingof th is kind , wh ich cannot be described, is perfect in itsease and natura lness . Specia l personification of the

unhappy Austrian wife of Louis XVI . is of a less evident , and moreover doubtful , accuracy . To judge ofit from the on ly objective poin t of comparison at ourdisposal , the handwriting (see Figs . 39 to the

Marie Antoinette of Héléne’

s somnambulisms littleresembles her supposed prototype, for there is lessof difference between the autograph s of Cagliostroand of Leopold (see p . 109) than there is between thatof the rea l queen and tha t of her pretended reincarnation in Ml le . Smith , the la tter having a rounded, iaclined calligraphy, much more regular than in hernormal state, instead of the angular and illegiblewriting which was characteristic of the queen of France,to say nothing of the glaring differences in formation

346

THE ROYAL CYCLE

Fig. 40. Writing of Mlle . Smith incarnating Marie Antoinette. Seance of Novem

ber Begi nning of a letter , w ritten in ink and addressed to Philipped'orleans (M . A ug . de Mors ier, who was not present at the seance) . A fter the

ink- stains of the last line , Helene threw down her penc il , then began again and

finished her letter in penci l in a still more regular and slanting hand than the

above.

c a l /fia t ? fled/1} [ firE’fi M /u u

Z

l7n a l m~ 0357 ] l/u u

/2uI

P

V’VM

I

“ L757. 14 0

c (”Mm { o’

ct m c. ”fla n /t"

19: { a}, m» fr. ffilm /bu r p ; v r 7l

'

b agf fuu fn u m fi tu u 7510 f t 47“

Vow: m l vw t om/757; y

'w/ e/eru Adl a i/2

92 0 07 c"m

e n twi v e0

[ b a t t n . {fla tw 'zj l lf ld

19m”; ti l 4 Ari/ ap a lM Qt. l 2910 11

Fig. 41 . Wri ting and s ignature of Marie Antoinette. Fragment of a letter writtenfrom the Temple to General de Jamayes, and reproduced in the l sog r ap/u

’

e des

H ommes célebres . [Collection of fac - simi les published under the direction of Du

chesne , Sr . , Pari s , 1827—3o . ]

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

of many letters . Some orthograph ic ana logies (Hélene writes instans , enians , étois , etc . ) have noth ingspecific about them, and simply reca ll the general

habits of the last century (see p . I

Not having discovered any indica tion as to MarieAntoinette

’s manner of speaking, I do not knowwhether the hypnoid imagina tion of Helene has

succeeded better than with the handwriting in adopting in her roya l incarnation s certa in intonationsand a pronunciation wh ich have noth ing of Germanin them, and would rather recall the English accent .The timbre of her voice does not change, but herspeech becomes tra iling , with a slight rolling of the

r’

s , and takes on someth ing precise and affected, verypretty, but slightly irritating by its length . We al

ready know that there is not an absolute wa ll ofseparation between Helene ’s various tran ces . Justas is the case with the Martian and the Hindoo

,

the handwriting or the spelling of the queen sometimes slips into the correspondence of Ml le. Smith

(see Fig . and she also sometimes assumes theaccent of Marie An toinette, if not in the ordinarywaking state (I do not know whether tha t is ever thecase) , at least outside her Roya l cycle, especia lly inthe phases of transition in wh ich she begins or endsby incarnating Leopold , the Martian s

, etc . (see, forexample, p .

From the point of View of its content , theRoya l cycleforms a collection of scenes and va ried tableaux ,

liketheMartian dream , lacking any continuous plot , and inwh ich marked historic events scarcely hold a placee. g. , in itthe queen is never seen to moun t the scaffold

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often undetermined . Many are located in the gardens or the apartments of the Petit Trianon , and

the furniture whi ch Helene describes there is , iadeed, a lways pure Louis XVI . More rarely MarieAntoinette is found at the Temple, or at certainrendezvous— innocent, but very imprudent— in somesecret abode in Pari s . She is never seen in Austria ,

since, unlike the Hindoo princess still filled with herArab memories, she seems to have completely lostsight of her past as a young girl.In the surroundings of the queen , the king is

conspicuous by his absence very rarely she makessome allusions to h im with a marked indiffer

ence. The grea ter part of the personages knownto that epoch , whom I refra in from enumerating,figure in it inciden ta lly, but there are three who

continually reappear and hold the first rank . Thereis, first , the Count of Cagliostro

,

“

mon sorcier,”

or“

ce cher sorcier , as the queen familiarly callshim, who never has enough of hi s visits and his

conversations, which are very va ried,including the

discussion of philosophi c subjects , such as the future life and the existence of God as well as the gossip oi the last fe

‘

te at Versailles . There is, secondly,Louis Philippe d

’

Orléans (Equa lity) whi le the thirdis the old Marquis de Mirabeau ; al l of whom

, es

pecially the first, have served as ha llucinatory interlocutors towards Helene in n umerous scenes— up to

the time at whi ch , to the grea t amusement of the

sitters, the somnambulistic monologue was transformed into real and lively conversation, in conso

quence of the introduction in to the seances of M.Eu

35°

THE ROYAL CYCLE

gene Demole, then of M . Aug . de Morsier, in whomMarie Antoinette immediately recogn ized the two

personages last above men tioned .

Since th is unexpected meeting with her two con

tempora ries , reinca rna ted , like herself, the somnam

bu li stic queen freely permits herself, on occasion , the

pleasu re of renewing the little suppers and j oyouseven ings of long ago . When a sean ce wh ich haslasted from four o

’

clock until seven in the afternoonseems to have come to an end

,and Mlle. Smith

, a fterhaving awakened from a long series of Hindoo ,Martian , and other scenes , has been invited to dineand refresh herself before taking up her householdduties , it often happens that

,perceiving M . Demole

or M . de Morsier among the persons present, she

gives a slight start,with a change of coun tenance,

sometimes barely perceptible, but wh ich there is nomistaking then ,

in her very chara cteristic a ccent

of Marie Antoinette, exclaims , Oh ,marquis

, y ou

have been here,and I had not noticed you before

And then follows a somnambulistic vigil wh ich may

be prolonged un til nearly ten o’clock in the even ing ,

mainta ined by mean s of the suggestive amiability ofher improvised compan ions in sustain ing their rolesof Mirabeau or Ph ilippe d ’

Orléans .

They descend to the din ing- room . The queen

takes her place at the table a longside of the marquis

(or of Ph ilippe) . She has eyes and ears for him

a lone, the other guests and the servan ts rema in ingshut out from her dream . She eats and drinks on lythat wh ich he sets before her , and it is no sinecure

to supply the wants of thi s august neighbor , since

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

she possesses a truly roya l appetite . The amount

of food which she devours and the goblets of winewhich she drinks off one a fter another, without suf

fering any inconven ience, are astounding , as in her

normal state Mlle . Smith is sobriety itself and eatsvery little . After dinner they pass into the salon,

with many compliments and obeisan ces , and MarieAntoinette takes coffee . On the first occasions of

this kind, she a lso accepted a cigarette from Philippeand smoked it— Mlle . Smith never smokes in her

waking state— but the remarks of the persons present upon the h istorical un truthfulness of th is featuremust have been registered , and bore fruit, since at thefollowing seances she did not seem to understandthe u se of tobacco in that form she accepted , onthe other hand , with eagerness , a pinch of imaginarysnuff , which a lmost immedia tely brough t about byautosuggestion a series of sneezes admirably su c

cessfu l .

The even ing pa sses in most varied conversation ,

until , evidently feeling fa tigue, the queen becomessilent, closes her eyes, and goes to sleep in an

easy- cha ir . At that instant Leopold, who gives

no sign of life, and from whom no response can be

obtained during the roya l somnambulism,reap

pears and answers by the fingers or man ifests h imself in spontaneous gestures . Helene

’s hand,e. g. ,

is raised , and makes passes on her forehead to ac

centuate the restorative sleep wh ich is about to bringher back to her norma l state . At the end of sometime— half an hour or more —she awakes withoutany recollection of the even ing

,believing that she

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wh ich the marquis or Ph ilippe take a malicious

pleasure in setting for her . She often escapes themwhen they are too clumsy, and, with a most comi caldisplay of temper, is at first confused , then curiouslyquestions , or man ifests uneasiness in rega rd to themental state of her in terlocutors when they introduce the telephone, the bicycle, steamsh ips , or themodern scientific vocabulary into their eighteenthcentury conversation . But

,on the other hand, she

herself employs terms still more ma lapropos , such

as , to dera il (figuratively) , metre and“ centi

metre, etc . Certa in words , such as tramway and“ photography,

”have occasioned serious conflicts .

Marie Antoinette first a llows the treacherous wordto pass unnoticed,

‘

and it is eviden t tha t she perfectlyunderstood it, but her own reflection , or the smi le ofthe sitters , awakens in her the feeling of incompatibility ; she return s to the word just used , and pretends a sudden ignorance and aston ishment in re

gard to it . Spiritism expla ins these blunders byaccusing the Mach iavelian compan ions of the queenof grossly abusing the suggestibility attached tothe trance state by jumbling her ideas and throwing her into con fusion . Psychology is not sur

prised that the sublimina l imitation , however re

markable it may be, presen ts some little defects, andevery one is in accord in regard to her thoughtless manner of expressing herself, in a ttributingthese anachron isms to an acciden tal mingling ofthe memories of her ordinary persona lity and of the

present life with those of the roya l persona lity re

vived during the somnambulism . In her role as

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THE ROYAL CYCLE

queen , Mlle. Smi th gives evidence of a great dea lof ingenuity . She is full of witty repartees, whichdisconcert her in terlocutors, the style of whi ch issometimes perfectly a fter the manner of the epoch .

Thi s ease and readiness of dialogue, excludingall reflective or ca lcula ting prepara tion ,

denote a

great freedom of mind and a wonderful facility forimprovisation . There are mixed with these, on the

other hand , some witticisms and episodes which are

not at all impromptu, but are the evident result of apreliminary elabora tion in the course of the subconscious reveries and va rious automatisms wh ichthe royal romance causes to surge up in Hélene’sordina ry life.

There are some scenes whose development or repetition can be followed in a series of seances and spon

taneous visions as it passes through the other cycles .

The following is one example among manyAt the end of a seance at which M . de Morsier was

presen t (October 10, Mlle . Smith enters intoher dream of Marie An toinette . During dinner shemakes severa l allusions to her son , the Dauphin ,

speaks of her daugh ter, tells of having demanded of

her sorcerer the sex of her next ch ild, etc .

— matters

all foreign to the conversa ti on of Ph ilippe, and which

seem to announce some underlying scene ready tobreak forth . In fa ct, in the middle of the soirée

the queen becomes absorbed and distra it, and finally

fa lls on her knees in a da rk corner of the salon her

monologue indicates that she is before the cradlewhere the l ittle Dauph in and h is sister are lying

as leep.Presently she returns to seek Phi lippe and

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

to conduct him to admire the sleeping ch ildren , to

whom, in a very soft voice, she sings an unknownnursery rhyme Sleep in peace,

”etc . ) of a pla intive

melody ana logous to that of the Hindoo chant the

tears gush from her eyes tender kisses upon the

imaginary cradle and a ferven t prayer to the Virginterminate th is extremely touching maternal scene.

Several weeks a fter (the I st of December) , a new

roman ce makes its appearance in a spontaneousaccess of visua l , auditive, and graph ic automatism,

the recita l of which Helene sent me the followingday . That evening, whi le alone with her mother, shehad in terrogated Leopold upon an affa ir in wh ichshe was greatly interested , and had obta ined fromhim an answer '

“ As soon as his commun icationwas ended, I saw everything disturbed a round me ;

then at my left , at a distance of about thirty feet, aLouis XVI . sa lon , not very large, was outlined , inthe middle of which was a square piano

,open . Be

fore this piano was seated a woman , still young,

the color of whose ha ir I could not distinguish .

Whether it was blond or gray I could not clearlysee. She played and sang at the same time . The

sounds of the piano, the voice even ,reached me, but

I could not catch the words of the song .A young

girl and a boy stood on either side of the piano . Notfar from them was seated a young lady holdingan infan t on her lap This charming vision lasteda very short time, not longer than ten minutes .

”

It w i l l be read i ly understood that th is v ision represents

Marie Antoinette w ith her th ree chi ldren and Madame El izabeth.

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peace, etc . Then she leads h im to the piano, and,displaying an imaginary sheet of music beneathhis eyes, obliges him to accompany her wh ile she

sings the Song of Elizabeth .

”

M . de Morsier, who, fortuna tely , is not easily em

barrassed, improvised an accompan iment to whi chthe queen accommodated herself after some criti

cism, and to wh ich she sings in a very sweet, purevoice some words which were found to be, word forword, identical with those automa tica lly written byHelene on the preceding 1st of December. In thisexample is seen the mi xture of preparation, of repetition , and of impromptu, wh ich are inferred from the

varied incidents which constitute the royal soirées.

It is probable that if it were possible to be a witnessof, or if Mlle. Smith could remember all the spontaneous automatisms which a id in nourishi ng theroyal romance, nocturnal dreams, hypnagogic vi

sions, subconscious reveries during the waking state,etc . , there would be presented interminable imaginary conversations with the marquis, Philippe, Cagliostro, and all the fictitious personages who occasionally make their appearance in the somnambulistic scenes of Marie Antoinette .

It is by this underlying and unknown work, perhaps never interrupted, that the personality of thequeen of France is slowly prepared and elaborated,and which shines forth and displays itself with so

much of magn ificence in the soir ées with Phi lipped ’orleans and the Marquis de Mirabeau .

I have stated tha t, except these two gentlemen ,

who always form part of the royal dream when they358

THE ROYAL CYCLE

a re present (and even sometimes when absen t) , theothers present at the sean ces are excluded . It isunderstood tha t they do not pass unperceived on

this a ccount .In the same manner a s in the negative hallucina

tions or systematic anaesthesia of hypnotized sub

jects , that wh ich seems to be not felt is neverthelessregistered so, in like manner , it is a ltogether prob

able that noth ing of that wh ich pa sses a round her

escapes the fundamen ta l individua lity ofMlle. Smith .

The roya l persona lity wh ich occupies the foreground

of the scene and finds itself in an elective rappor t,

limited to Ph ilippe and the marquis , merely causes

the other personalities to be relega ted to the background without breaking their connection with the

environment . There are many proofs of thi s . For

example, in wa lking ,Marie Antoinette never run s

aga inst any of the others presen t . The remarks and

criticisms of the latter a re not lost upon her , since

very frequen tly her conversa tion betrays their influence a fter some minutes . At the same time, if

any one pinches her hand or tickles her ear , her lips ,her nostrils , she seems anaesthetic still , at the end

of a few seconds she turn s her head away ,and if the

tickling is persisted in , she experien ces a kind of

gitation accommodated to the circumstan ces of her

dream ,changes her position on some pretext , etc .

It is man ifest, in short, tha t the excita tion s to

wh ich she seems to be in sen sible at the momen t , far

from having no effect , are stored up and produce, bytheir sum tota l , reactions wh ich are retarded for some

minutes and wh ich are in telligently adapted to the

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

somnambulisti c scene, but with an intensity muchmore exaggerated than dimin ished by this period of

latency .

Music a lso affects her, precipitating her out of thedream of Marie Antoinette into a common hypnoticstate, in whi ch she assumes passionate attitudes,which have in them nothing of the regal , and whichconform to the varied ai rs which follow each otherupon the piano .

In her phases as Marie An toinette, Helene has an

accent characteristic of it ; she recogni zesme vaguely ;she has some allochi ria , a complete insensibility of

the hands, and a large appetite she does not knowwho Mlle. Smith is if she is asked to give the actualdate, she replies correctly as to the month and day ,

but indicates a year of the last century , etc . Then all

at once her state changes ; the roya l accent givesway to her ordinary voice, she seems wide awake,all mental confusion has disappeared, she is perfectly clear as to persons, dates , and circumstances, buthas no memory of the state from which she has justemerged, and she compla in s of a sharp pa in in herfinger (where I had pinched it whi le in her precedingphase) . I took advan tage one day of these alterna tions to offer her a pencil , and dictated to her thesentence of Fig . 42 . In her normal moments she

holds the pencil in her a ccustomed manner, betweenthe index and middle fingers

, and writes in her

usual hand ; during the returns of the royal somnambu lism she holds it between the thumb and

index - finger and assumes her handwriting and or

thography known as tha t of Marie Antoinette,

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toinette is, in short, a modification— oi an intensity

and extent which va ry grea tly with the seances— of

the ordinary personality of Mlle. Smith , rather thanan a lternating and exclusive personality , of whi ch so

many striking cases have been observed .

For the mere specta tors, the royal somnambulism isperhaps the most interesting of all of Helene’s cycles,on account of the brillian cy and life of the role, thelength of time during wh ich it may be susta ined,the unexpected happeni ngs whi ch the presence of

other real persons brings in to it . It is truly a comedy .

But for the lovers of the supernormal it is the leastextraordinary of -the sublimina l creations of Mlle.

Smith, because the genera l environment, being inFrance, is so imbued with h istoric or legendary memories of the illustrious and un fortunate queen thatthere is nothing surprising in the hypnoid reconstruction of a personage so well known .

Finally, the psychologist and moralist who un

dertakes to reflect on the inner mean ing of thingscannot escape the impression of sharp contrast ascompared with rea lity whi ch this sparkling romanceaffords .

In themselves, Ml le . Smith ’s roya l somnambulismsare a lmost a lways gay and j oyous but

,considering

their hi dden source, in so far as they are the ephe

meral and chimerical revenge of the ideal upon the

real, of impossible dreams upon daily necessities, ofimpotent aspirations upon blind and crushi ng destiny, they assume a tragic sign ification . They ex

press the sensation lived through , felt, oi the bitter362

THE ROYAL CYCLE

irony of th ings , of futile revolt, of fata lity dominating the human being . They seem to say that allhappy and brillian t life is on ly an illusion soon dispated . The da ily ann ih ilation of the dream and the

desire by implacable and brutal rea lity cannot find

in the hypn oid imagination a more adequate repre

sentation ,a more perfect symbol of an emotional

tona lity ,than her royal ma jesty whose existence

seemed made for the h ighest peaks of happiness

and of fame —and ended on the scaffold .

CHAPTER X

SUPERNORMAL APPEARANCES

HE mediumsh ip of Mlle . Smith is full of factssupernorma l in appearance, and the question

wh ich offers itself for ou r solution is that of

determin ing to what exten t they are super

norma l in reality .

The title of this chapter, I must a ssert , is not to be

understood in a partisan sense . The term appearanecs is not used in its unfavorable acceptation , as

mean ing tha t they a re deceptive, and that there isnoth ing behind them . It is taken in a frank and im

partia l sen se, to designate simply the exterior and

immediate aspect of a thi ng , without prejudging itsreal nature, in order, by the very force of thi s neutrality, to provoke investigation destined to separate thetrue from the false, the pure gold from the dross . Itis precisely th is investigation which constitutes mypresen t ta sk .

A rather difficult task , for it is always risky to

touch upon a subject wh ich is an apple of discordamong psychologists , and wh ich has even beenconsidered the Dreyfus case of science. The mat

ter is complicated , too,in th is pa rticular case, by the

absolute faith of Mlle . Smith and her friends in the364

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spite of the etymology, and for lack of any betterterm ,

sha ll simply u se the word supernormal to

designa te facts wh ich come within the actua l framework oi the science of to- day ,

and the application of

wh ich would necessitate principles not y et admi tted— without occupying myself, however , with endeav

oring to a scertain whether these fa cts are messengers

of a superior economy or forerunners of a future evolu

tion rather than the survival of a condition of thingswh ich has disappeared, or whether they are purely

acciden ta l , lusus natu rae, denuded of sign ification .

It goes without saying that in treating.of the supernormal we must admit theoretically its possibility, or

— which amounts to about the same th ing— fail to bel ieve in the in fallibility and perfection of present- dayscience. If I consider it , apr ior i , absolutely impossible for an individual to know , some time before the arrival oi a telegram conta in ing the news , of an accidentby which his brother at the antipodes has been killed,or tha t another can volun tarily move an object at adistance without having a string attached to it , andcontrary to the laws of mechan ics and physiology

,it

is clear that I will shrug my shoulders at every men

tion of telepa thy, and I sha ll not move a step to bepresent at a seance of Eusapia Pa ladino . What anexcellent means of en larging one’s horizon and ofdiscovering something new , by being satisfied withone

’

s ready-made science and preconceived opin ion ,

quite convinced beforehand that the un iverse ends atthe wall Opposite, and that there is nothing to be ob

tained beyond that which the da ily routine has accustomed us to look upon as the limit of the Rea l This

366

SUPERNORMAL APPEARANCES

ph ilosophy of the ostrich , illustrated formerly by thosegrotesque monuments of erudition~over whom Galileo did not know whether to laugh or weep— who re

fused to put their eyes to the glass for fear of seeingsometh ing tha t had no ofli c ial righ t to existence and,

again , tha t of many bra ins petrified by the un seasonable reading of works of scientific vulgarization , and

the un intelligent frequen ting of un iversities— theseare the two great intel lectua l dangers of our time .

If, on the other hand , the ph ilosophica l doubt degenerates in the presence of these scientific impossibi lities into blind credulity if it suffices that a thingbe unheard of, upsetting , contra ry to common - senseand to accepted truths , in order to be immediatelyadmitted , practica l existence, without speaking of

other considera tions, becomes unbearable . The

convinced occultist ought never to allow the creaking of a piece of furn iture to pass without assuringh imself that it is not the despera te ca ll of some greatgrandaun t trying to en ter in to conversation withhim nor to compla in to the police when he finds hishouse upset during hi s absence— for how is he toknow tha t it is not some elementals from the

world beyond who have done the deed It is by thefortunate fa ilure of consequences a lone, and a con

tinual forgetting of the doctrine, that one can con

tinue to live in a un iverse constan tly exposed to the

capricious incursions of the invisibles .

These opposite turns of the mind— the invincible

fa tuity of some and the silly superstition of othersinspire many people with an equa l repugnance . The

need of a happy medium between these opposed ex

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cesses has been felt for some time. Here are, for

example, a few lines, which have lost nothing a fter

the lapse of two centuriesWha t are we to th ink of magic and witchcraft

[to - day we would say occultism ’

and spiritismTheir theory is obscure, their principles vague, un

certain ,approach ing the visionary but— they are

embarrassing facts, affirmed by grave men , who

have seen them,or who have heard of them from per

sons like themselves ; to admit them all , or to denythem a ll, seems equa lly embarrassing ,

and I dareto assert tha t in this, as in a ll extraordina ry thingswhich depend upon customa ry rules, there is a happymedium to be found between credulous souls and

strong minds .

It is the voice of reason itself that the sagaciousauthor of Les Caracteres permits us to hear . We

must, however, add tha t th is happy medium to be

found would not consist in a theory, a doctrine, a

ready-made and entire system,from the height of

wh ich , as from a tribuna l of arbitration , we would

j udge the embarrassing cases wh ich rea lity placesin the path of the seeker ; for th is system— however perfect it might be— would aga in be one moreinfallibility added to all those whi ch a lready encum

ber the road to truth . The happy medium ”dreamedof by La Bruyere can be but a method always

perfectible in its application and prejudging in nothing the results of investigation which go aga instthe gra in of the dogmatic poin ts of view, equallyauthoritative and sterile, wh ich characterize the twoextremes of the

“

credulous souls ”and strong minds.

"

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evidence shou ld be proportioned to the strangeness of the

facts .

The forgetfulness of the Principle of Hamletmakes the strong minds , for whom the limits of

nature would not exceed those of their system, the

simpleton popes of a ll times and of,all kinds, from

the burlesque adversaries of Ga lileo to the poor Auguste Comte, declaring tha t the physica l constitution

of the stars would never be known , and to his noblerivals of the learned societies, denying the aérolites orcondemning railroads beforehand . In its turn , the

ignorance of the Principle of Laplace makes thecredulous souls, who have never reflected that

,if

all is possible to the eyes of the modest seeker, a ll is,however, not certain , or even equa lly possible, and

that some evidence would y et be necessa ry in orderto suppose that a stone fa lling on the floor in an oc

cult reunion arrived there through the walls by theaid of a dematerialization , rather than to admit thatit came there in the pocket of a joker .

Thanks to these axioms , the investigator will avoidthe doubly signalled danger, and will advance without fear into the labyrin th of the supernorma l in ad

vance of the monsters of the occult . However fantastic and magical the things may be which willspring up before hi s eyes or wh ich will fill his ears,he will never be taken unawares, but , expecting all

in the name of the Principle of Hamlet ,”he will not

be a stonished at anyth ing , and simply say : Be itso 1 Why not We shall see . On the other hand ,he will not allow the wool to be pulled over his eyes ,and he will not easily be satisfied in the matter of

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evidence ; but , firmly intren ched behi nd the Principle of Laplace,

”he will show h imself a ll the more

exacting as to the proofs, in proportion to the degreein wh ich the phenomena or the conclusion

,wh ich

they may wish him to accept, may be extraordinary ,

and he will oppose a merciless non liquet to everydemonstra tion whi ch still seems suspicious or lame.

I wish to speak a word here of the inevitable rOle

wh ich the persona l coefficien t of the turn of mind andchara cter plays in the concrete application of the

Prin ciple of Lapla ce .

” Thi s latter is of a vague

ness and a deplorable elasticity whi ch opens the doorto all divergences of individua l appreciation . If wecould express in a precise manner and translate inciphers , on the one hand , the strangeness of a fa ct,wh ich makes it improbable ; on the other hand, the

weight of evidence whi ch tends to make it admissible

and,fina lly, the demandable proportion between these

two con trary factors , so tha t the second may counterba lan ce the first and secure assent— tha t would be

perfect, and everybody would soon come to an agree

ment . Unhappily, the means to accomplish thi s re

sult is not y et perceived .

We must pass now to the weight of the evidence .

We may ,up to a certain point, submit it to an objec

tive judgment and to an impartia l estima tion byfollowing the rules and methods of logic , in the

broadest sense of the term . But the strangeness of

the facts , or , as Laplace sa id, the difficulty in ad

mi tting them ! Who, then ,is to be the judge of

them ,and by wha t un iversa l standard can we

measure them37I

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We must recognize that we are here in presence

of an eminently subjective and emotiona l factor,changeable from one individua l to another .

It is necessary to take some stand . In the mat

ter of the supernorma l there are too many interior

and persona l factors (intellectua l idiosyn crasies ,msthetic temperaments, mora l and religious sen ti

ments, metaphysica l tenden cies , etc . ) tending to

determine the qua lity and intensity of the character

istic of the strangeness in the facts in litiga tion ,

to enable one to fla tter h imself upon a disinterested ,objective, and quasi - scientific verdict upon their de

gree of probability or improbability . It is on ly when ,

after the accumulation of cases and evidences of

similar character, a tacit agreemen t sha ll finally havebeen reached by those who have studied the subject,that the problem can be sa id to be solved , either by

the relegation of pretended supernormal phenomenato the domain of vani shed illusions and abandonedsuperstitions , or by the recogni tion of new laws andforces in nature . The phenomena considered tillthen as supernatural will cease to be so they willform a part of established scien ce, they will havenothi ng more in them that is strange, and will beadmitted by everybody . As long as th is mi le- postis not reached, as long as the supernormal phenomenon is discussed as such , there are but individua lopin ions on th is subject, subjective certitudes or

probabilities, verdicts in whi ch rea lity is on ly reflected as closely welded to the persona lity of theirauthors .

Two suggestions seem to me to spring from thi s .

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on the objective ground of science, and consequentlyalso that of supernorma l facts , wh ich , though stillsituated outside of the scientific realm, hope shortlyto be received with in its pa le. Practical necessitiesmake u s but too often forget that our knowledge ofthe phenomena l world never attains absolute certitude, and as soon as one passes beyond the bruta lfacts of the senses , the best - established truths , as

well as the most thoroughly refuted proposi tions ,do not rise above a probability wh ich ,

however greator insignificant we may suppose it to be, never equalsinfin ity or zero . The in tellectual a ttitude wh ichcommon - sense prescribes in the supernorma l consists, for very strong reasons , in never absolutelyand irrevocably denying or affirming ,

but provisionally and by hypothesis, as it were . Even in ca seswhen , after having examined everyth ing scrupulously , one imagines he has finally reached certitude,

it must not be forgotten that thi s word is but a modeof expressing one

’

s self ; because, in poin t of fact ,one does not rise above a probable opin ion

, and the

possibility of an unsuspected error,vitiating the most

apparently evident experimental demon stra tion ,is

never mathema tica lly excluded .

Th is reserve is particularly indicated in cases of

phenomena like those of Ml le . Smith,wh ich often

leave much to be desired concern ing accessory information , wh ich would be necessary in order to ex

press one’

s self categorica lly on their account . Myappreciation of these phenomena

, far from pretending to an infa llible and defin ite cha racter

,demands ,

therefore, from the start, the right of modifica tion374

SUPERNORMAL APPEARANCES

under the influence of new facts whi ch may be produ ced subsequen tly .

For the sake of clearness I sha ll set off again infour groups the supernormal appearances w ith wh ichI shal l have to occupy myself in th is chapter— via ,

so- called physica l phenomena , telepathy , lucidity ,

and spirit messages . The boundaries of these threelast categories are but poorly defined and might

easily be fused into one . But my division is but akind of a measure of order, and not a classification .

11. PHYSICAL PHENOMENA

Thi s designa tion aga in covers several rather diverse categori es of strange facts . I sha ll only speak

of the two kinds of whi ch Mlle . Smith has furn ishedsamples (and whi ch I have never persona lly w it

messed) —tha t is to say ,apports and movements

of objects without contact .

”

1 . Apports .

*— Besides the unknown causes pre

siding over their aeria l transportation , the arriva l of

exterior objects in a closed space, often coming from

a con siderable distance, implies , in order that they

may pass through the wa lls of the room, either the

subterfuge of a fourth dimension of space, or the

penetra tion of the matter— that is to say , the passage

of the molecules or a toms of the object (its momenta ry

demater ia li zation ) between the molecules or a toms-

of the wa ll . All these impediments to our vulgar

By th is is meant the bring ing or convey ing of materia l ob

j ects into a c losed space— the passage of one sol id body through

another,

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

conception as to the stability of matter, or, what is

worse, to our geometrica l intuition , seem to me so

hard to digest tha t I am tempted to apply to themthe words of Laplace There a re th ings that are so

extraordinary tha t nothing can c oun terba lance theirimprobability . Thi s is not to decla re as fa lse, a

pr ior i , all the stories of th is kind , for we know thatthe true is not a lways the proba ble but assuredly,even in the case of the good Mr . Sta inton Moses,the weight of the proof does not, in my opini on , equa l

the strangeness of the facts .

So far as concerns the apports obtained at the

seances of Mlle. Smith , they all took place in 1892—93,

in the reun ions of the N . group, where the obscurityfavored the production of marvellous things in closerelation with the visions and typtologica l messages .

I will cite from memory certa in acoustic phenom

ena mentioned in the reports : The piano soundedsevera l times under the touch of the favorite disincarnate spirits of the group ; the same happened toa violin and to a bell once we a lso heard metallicsounds that seemed to come from a sma ll musicalbox, a lthough there was none in the room . As tothe appor ts, always received with delight by the

members of the group, who are ever anxiously wishing for them and a sking their spirit friends for them ,

they were frequent and varied enough . In midwinter roses showered upon the table, handfuls ofviolets, pinks, whi te lilacs, etc . , a lso green branches ;among other thi ngs there was an ivy leaf havingengraved upon it in letters , as though by a punching

-machine, the name of one of the principa l dis

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its efforts more especia lly on one point, and aga in on

others ad libitum . Through repetition , habit , selection , hereditary and other prin ciples loved by biologists

,certain more constant lines of force would be

differentiated in thi s homogeneous primordia l sphere,and little by little could give birth to motor organs .

For example— ou r four members of flesh and blood,

sweeping the space a round us , would be but a moreeconomic expedient inven ted by na ture, a machinewrought in the course of better adapted evolution , to

obta in at the least expense the same useful effects asth is vague primitive spherical power . Thus supplanted or transformed , these powers would thereafter mani fest themselves on ly very exceptiona lly

,

in certa in states , or with abnorma l individuals, as

an a tavic reapparition of a mode of acting long ago

fa llen into disuse, because it is rea lly very imperfectand necessitates , without any advantage, an expen

diture of Vital energy far greater than the ordinaryu se of arms and limbs . Un less it is the cosmic power itself, the amoral and stupid demiurge

, the un

consciousness of M . de Hartman ,wh ich comes di

rectly into play upon contact with a deranged nervoussystem, and rea lizes its disordered dreams without

passing through the regular channels of muscularmovements .

But enough of these vaporymetaphy sicalor pseudo

biological speculations to give an account of a phenomenon for whi ch it wil l be time enough to findprecise explanation when its authenticity sha ll bebeyond dispute, if that time shall ever arrive.

Three groups of proofs , of a diverse nature, have378

SUPERNORMAL APPEARANCES

gradua lly brought me to look upon the reality of thesephen omena— in spite of the in stin ctive difficulty of

admitting them — as an infin itely more probablehypothesis than its opposite .

First : I was first unsettled by the reading of the

too~mu ch - neglectedmemoir of ProfessorThu ry ,which

seems to me to be a model of scientific observations ,the weigh t ofwh ich I could on ly overlook by rejecting

,

a pr ior i— in the name of their strangeness— the pos

sibility itself of the fa cts in question ,wh ich would

have been aga in st the Prin ciple of Hamlet . The

conversation s wh ich it was my privilege to hold withM . Thury have grea tly contributed to arouse in me

a presumption in favor of these phenomena ,wh ich

the book would eviden tly not have done in the same

degree if the author had not been persona lly known

to me .

Secondly Once created , my idea of the probability

of these fa cts became rather strengthened than weak

ened by a number of foreign works of more recentdate ; but I doubt whether any , or all of these com

bined,would have been sufficien t to create it . The

displacement of objects w ithout con tact being once

hypothetica lly admitted , it seems easier to me to ex

pla in Crookes’

s observation s on the modifications of

the weight of bodies in the presen ce of Home by

authentic phenomena of th is kind (in spite of the

well- deserved criticisms that Crookes’

s publicationsbrough t upon him) than to suppose that he was

simply Home’s dupe . The same is true with the

cases of Espr its tapageu rs (Poltergeister ) , publishedby the Society for Psych ical Research , the ex

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

elusive hypothesis of the naughty l ittle gi r l ,

without the addition of any trace of telekinesis ,wh ich seems to me a less adequate and more im

probable explanation than that oi rea l phenomena ,

which would have tempted fraud . Natura lly all

depends on the preconceived opin ion one may have

as to the genera l possibility or impossibility of these

facts, and my feeling in regard to the matter would

certain ly be different without the preceding or the

following groups of evidence .

Thirdly The probability of themovemen t of objectswithout contact has reached w ith me a degree practi

cally equiva lent to certitude, thanks to M . Richet , to

whom I am indebted for my presence at his house lastyear at several seances of Eusapia Pa ladino, underconditions of control wh ich gave no room for doubt—at least without cha llenging the combined witness

of the senses of sight, hearing , and touch , as well asthe average quantity of critica l sense and perspicacitywith whi ch every ordinary intelligence flatters itselfit is endowed or, aga in , of suspecting the walls of M .

Richet ’s study had been tampered with , and he h im

self, with his attending colleagues , of being impostors ,in collusion with the amiable Neapolitan herself— a

supposition whi ch the most elementary sense of pro

priety would absolutely forbid me to enterta in . Fromthat moment I believed in telekinesis by constra int ofthe perception , sensata etocu lata certitudine, to borrowthe expression of Galileo , who certa inly did notmeanby that an unreflecting adhesion to the evidences ofthe senses, like that of the casual onlooker at the tricksof the prestidigitator, but rather the final crowning of

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sired from an evidentia l poin t of view . Without sus

pecting in any way the perfect good fa ith of both

Mme. and Mlle. Smi th , it suffices to reca ll the possibility of malobservation and errors of memory in thestories of supernorma l even ts in order not to attributea great evidential value to the absolutely sincere evi

dence of these ladies .

Incapacitated as I am from pronouncing judgmentupon phenomena ofwh ich I was not a witness , I sha ll ,however, put forth a fact which might militate infavor of their authenticity (their possibility havingbeen first hypothetica lly admitted) — namely, thatthese phenomena have a lways been produced underexceptional conditions, at a time when Hélene wasin an abnormal state and a prey to a deep emotion

,

On the one side, thi s circumstance increases the

chances of malobserva tion , whi le, on the other, theday on which it shall be well established tha t (as divers observations cause us to th ink) certain abnor

mal and emotional states set at liberty in the organism latent forces capable of acting at a distance, itwill be permitted us to suppose that perhaps something analogous has taken place in Mlle. Smith ’scase. Here is, as an example of these perplexingcases, a fact which happened to her during a periodof general indisposition . Abridging the story, Ireproduce it as Helene sent it to me the followingday :

Last n ight I had a visit from M . H .I do not

need to give you an analysis of my impressions ;you will understand them as well as I do . He cameto tell me that he had held a seance with a lady who

38 ;

SUPERNORMAL APPEARANCES

was a stranger to me,and that th is lady had seen

Leopold , who had given her a remedy for the indisposition from wh ich I was suffering . I could not refra in from tell ing him that Leopold had assured me

that he man ifested himself only to me, and that itwould consequen tly be difficult for me to admit h isalleged utteran ces to others .

” But that is not the

most interesting part of the story .

Whi le M . H . spoke to me I felt a sharp pain inmy left temple, and , perhaps twomi nutes a fterwards ,my eyes , constan tly di rected towards the piano , on

wh ich I had placed two oranges the evening before,were entirely fa scinated with I know notwhat . Then ,

sudden ly, at the moment when we lea st expected it

we were all three (M . H ., my father , and myself) sea t

ed at a reasonable di stance from the piano— one of

the oranges displaced itself and rolled to my feet .

My father ma inta ined that it had no doubt been

placed too near the edge of the lid , and at a certain

momen t had fa llen in a natura l way . M . H . saw

immedia tely in th is in cident the intervention ofsome spirit . I myself dared not pass my opinion

on it . Finally,I picked up the orange, and we

spoke of other th ings .

M.H

.remained about an hour ; he went away

exactly at n ine . I went to my mother’

s room to

give her a few deta ils of M . H .

’

s visit . I described

to her the fall of the orange, and what was my surprise when , on return ing to the drawing—room and

stepping up to the pian o to take the lamp I had

placed on it , I found the famous orange no longerthere .

There was but one left ; the one I had picked

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up and replaced by the side of the other had disappeared . I looked for it everywhere, but without success . I went back to my mother, and wh ile I spoketo her we heard somethi ng fa ll in the vestibule. Itook the lamp to see what might have fa llen . Idistinguished at the farthest end (towa rds the doorof the entrance to the apartmen t) the much - soughtfor orangeThen I asked myself quite frankly whether I was

in presence of some spiritistic man ifesta tion . I triednot to be frightened . I took the orange to show it tomy mother . I returned to the piano to take the sec

ond orange, so as not to be frightened in a similarway . But it, in its turn ,

had disappeared ! ThenI felt a considerable sensation of trembling . I re

turned to my mother ’s room, and,while we discussed

the matter, we heard again someth ing thrown withviolence, and, rushing out to see what had happened ,I saw the second orange placed in exactly the samespot where the other had been , and considerablybruised . Imagine how aston ished we were Itook both oranges, and, without losing an instant

,

went to the kitchen and put them in a cupboard,where

I found them aga in the following morn ing ; theyhad not moved . I did not go to bed without somefear , but fortunately I quickly wen t to sleep .

Mymother is sure that it is M . H . who brought someevil spirit into the house, and she is quite un

easy .

From the oral explanations of Mlle. Smith and her

mother, and also from the location of the places , itfollows that the oranges had been thrown at a dis

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nomenon , the orange falling and rolling at her

feet .Secondly But the most natural supposition is

certa inly that Mlle. Smith , by the ordinary u se ofher limbs, had taken and thrown these projectiles inan access of unconscious muscular automatism . Itis true that this would not agree with the presence ofher father, mother, or M . H . ,

who did not see her makethe supposed movements . But an absent - mindednessof even normal witnesses will seem easier to admitthan the authentic production of a supernorma l phenomenon .

These episodes which have happened to Mlle.

Smith and her mother sin ce I have known them are

very few , amounting to half a dozen at the most ,and I will not dwell longer upon thi s subject . Hé

lene is not conscious of possessing any faculty of

movement at a distance, and she a lways attributesthese phenomena to spirit interven tion . Leopold

,on

the other hand , has never acknowledged that he isthe author of them . He cla ims that Hélene possesses

within herself supernormal powers , and tha t , in orderto succeed, she would only have to set them to work

,

but that she did not wish to do so .All my sugges

tions and repeated entreaties with Leopold and Hé

lene— either awake or in a state of somnambulismin the hope of obtain ing in my presence some physical phenomenon , have been in va in up to the presenttime.

SUPERNORMAL APPEARANCES

III . TELEPATHY

One may a lmost say that if telepa thy did not existone would have to invent it . I mean by th is that adirect action between living beings , independen t ofthe organs of the sen ses, is a ma tter of such c on

formity to all that we know of nature that it wouldbe hard not to suppose it a pr ior i , even if we had no

perceptible indication of it . How is it possible to

believe that the foci of chemica l phenomena , as com

plex as the nervous centres , can be in activity without giving forth diverse undulations , x, y , or 2 rays,traversing the cran ium as the sun traverses a paneof glass , and acting at a distan ce on their homo

logues in other crani ums It is a simple matter of

in tensity .

The ga llop of a horse or the leap of aflea in Au stra

lia causes the terrestria l globe to rebound on its oppo

site side to an exten t proportional to the weight of

these an imals compa red to tha t of our planet . Th isis little, even without taking in to a ccoun t the fact tha tth is infin itesima l displacement runs the risk at every

momen t of being neutra lized by the leaps of horses

and fleas on the other hemisphere so that , on» the

whole, the shocks to our terrestria l globe resultingfrom all that moves on its surface are too feeble toprevent ou r sleeping . Perhaps it is the same with

their efforts are coun terba lanced , or their resultant

too sligh t to be perceived . But they exist none the

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less in rea lity , and I confess I do not understandthose who reproach telepa thy with being strange,mystica l, occult, supernorma l, etc .

As to the knowledge whether th is theoretica l tele

pathy offers results open to experimenta l demonstra

tion— that is to say ,whether th is chain of intercerebra l

vibrations into which we are plunged exercises any

notable influence on the course of our psych ic life ;and whether , in certain cases, we happen to feel emo

tions , impulses, hallucinations, which the psy chological sta te of one or another of ou r own kind exercises

directly upon us, across the ether and without the

ordinary intermediary of the channel of our sen ses

that is a question of fact arising from observation and

experience. We know how much th is question has

actually been discussed, and how difficult it is to solveit in a decisive way , as much on account of all the

sources of errors and illusions, to whi ch one is ex

posed in th is domain , as on account of a probablyalways necessary concurrence of very exceptiona lcircumstances (whi ch we do not as yet know how to

accomplish at will ) , in order tha t the particular actionof a determined agent should sweep away all riva linfluences , and betray itself in a manner su ffic iently marked and distinct in the life of the percipient.

Everyth ing considered , I strongly lean towards thea ffirmative . The rea lity of telepathic phenomenaseems to me difficult to reject in presence of the clusterof very diverse evidences, entirely independen t ofeach other , that militate in its favor . Undoubtedlynone of these evidences is absolutely convincingwhen taken separately ; but their striking conver

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night at a time when I had sudden ly fa llen illduring a stay in the country some twenty leagues

distant from Geneva . She heard the ringing of a

be]! at her door, then saw me en tering , so emaciatedand apparently so tired that she could not refra infrom speaking to her mother on the following morn

ing of her uneasiness con cern ing me. Unfortu

nately these ladies took no note of the exact date of

th is incident, and Helene did not speak of it to M .

Lema itre until three weeks later, when he told her

about my illness, the beginn ing of whi ch dated back

to the approximate time of the dream . The evi

dential value of this case is weak . On other occasions Mlle . Smith announced to me that, to judgefrom her dreams or vague intuition in a waking

state, I was to have on a certa in day an unexpectedvexation , a pain ful preoccupation , etc . But thecases in wh ich she was right were counterba lancedby those in which she was wrong . It does not appearthat Helene

’

s telepathic relations with other personsare closer than with me, and among the cases knownto me there is not one that deserves the trouble of

being related . An exception must, however, be

made on beha lf of a M . Ba lmes (pseudonym) , whowas for some time employed in the same businesshouse as Ml le. Smith , and concerning whom she

had severa l rea lly curious phenomena . Thi s M .

Balmes was himself a sensitive medium of a verynervous and vibra ting nature . He was worki ngin the story above that of Helene, and stoppedsometimes to ta lk concern ing spiritism with her .

Their relations , whi ch they did not extend beyond

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SUPERNORMAL APPEARANCES

the office, ended there. There never seemed to beany persona l sympathy or specia l affin ity betweenthem , and it is not known how to account for thetelepa th ic bond tha t seemed to exist between them.

The following are examples

1 . One morning M . Ba lmes len t a newspaper toHélene in whi ch there was an article on spiritism .

He h imself had received this paper from one of

hi s friends , M . X . , a Frenchman who had been in

Geneva for some three weeks only and who did not

know Helene even by name. Th is M . X . had

marked the interesting article in red and had added

on the margin an annotation in black . During hernoon mea l at home Hélene read the article rapidly,but for lack of time did not read the ann ota tion marked in black . Having returned to her office she began

aga in to work . However, ata qua rter—past three hereyes fel l on the ann otation of the paper, and as she

was taking up her pen to make some calculation in her

note- book,I do not know,

”she wrote to me, either

how or why I began to draw on thi s writing- tablet

the head of a man entirely unknown to me. At the

same time I heard the voice of a man , of a high , clear,

and harmon ious quality ,but unfortunately I could

not understand the words . A grea t desire came

over me to run and show thi s drawing to M . Ba lmes .

He examined it, and seemed aston ished , for the headdrawn in ink was no other than that of hi s friend

who had len t him the paper marked in pencil . The

voice and the French accent were, as it seems , em

tirely correct a lso . How was it that at the sight

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

of an annotation I found myself in commun ication

with a stranger 7 M . Balmes, in presen ce of this

curious phenomenon ,hastened that very evening

to his friend and learned that at the time when I drewhis portrait there was a very serious discussion in

progress concern ing him (M . Ba lmes) between M . X .

and other persons .

Stric tly speaking ,th is case may be normally

explained by supposing : First, that Mlle . Smith ,

without consciously notic ing or remembering him,

had seen M . X . during his short stay in Geneva ,

wa lking in the street with M . Balmes , and tha t thepaper , whi ch she knew had been lent to M . Ba lmes byone of his friends , had, by means of a subconsciousinduction , awakened the la ten t memory of the faceand voice of the stranger whom she had seen withhim . Secondly, that there is but a fortuitous coinc idence in the fact that M . X . spoke of M . Ba lmes atprecisely the hour when Helene traced the face and heardthe voice of the a foresa id M . X . in an access of automatism, set free at the sight of hi s ann otation on

the paper .In the telepathic hypothesis , on the contrary , the

inc ident would have been expla ined somewhat as follows The conversation of M . X . con cern ing M .

Ba lmes (wh ich was , a s it appears, of an excited nat

u re) had telepathica lly impressed the latter and awakened in h im subliminally the remembrance of M .

X.

M . Balmes, in his turn , without consciously suspect~ing it , had transmitted this remembrance to Mlle .

Smith ,who was a lready predisposed to suggestion on

that day by the loan of the paper, and with whom the

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pretended even to be vexed, and looked as if he wishedto ask me by what right I permitted myself to con

trol his actions . Thi s movement of indignationpassed as quickly as it came, to give way to a sen timen t of the greatest curiosity . He made me tell himin deta il my vision

,and con fessed to me tha t he rea lly

had gone at noon to call upon a lady, and that theyhad discussed the incident about the newspaper . He

had really pronounced the words that I had heard‘ It is curious, extraordinary,

’

and, strange to say ,

I also learned that at the end of these words a violentringing of the bell had been heard , and tha t the con

versation between M . Balmes and his friend had suddenly come to an end by the arriva l of a visitor . The

commotion felt by me was , therefore,noth ing more

than the violent ringing of the bell , wh ich ,putting

an end to the conversation,had a lso put an end to

mv vision .

3 . At the beginn ing of a seance one Sunday af

ternoon at a quarter to four,I handed to Hélene a

glass ball, of the kind used for developing clairvoyance by means of gazing into a crysta l . Shortlyafterwards she saw in it M . Balmes and h is friend ,and above their heads an isolated pistol

,but whi ch

seemed to have noth ing to do with them . She toldme then that M . Balmes had received the day beforeat his office a telegram wh ich very much upset him ,

and which obliged him to leave Geneva that veryevening for S . She seemed to apprehend some misfortune about to befa ll M . Ba lmes

,but soon fell asleep .

By his digital dictations Leopold tells us that he senther to sleep to save her some pa inful visions seen

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SUPERNORMAL APPEARANCES

in the crystal , and that she, Helene, has a mediumi stic consciousness in regard to all that is passingat S. , and that the pistol is connected with M .

Balmes .

It was impossible to learn more, and the rema inderof the seance was taken up with other matters .

M . Ba lmes , who returned to Geneva on the following Monday, and whom I saw the same even ing , was

very much struck with Helene’

s vision ,for

, on Sun

day a fternoon he rea lly took part in a scene wh ichcame nea r being tragic , and in the course of whi chh is friend X . had offered h im a pistol whi ch he a l

ways carried with h im . Mlle . Smith and M . Ba lmesdid not hesitate to see in this coincidence a h igh lycha racterized supernormal phenomenon . Th is caseoffers , however, some di fficu lty

— viz . ,that the in

c ident of the pistol at S . did not take place till morethan two hours a fter Hélene ’

s visions, and that M .

Ba lmes , as he affirms , had no premon ition of the affa irat the time when Hélene had her vision . It followsfrom thi s tha t there was a kind of an ticipated telepathy, a premon ition experienced by another than

the in terested prin cipa l , and thi s ra ises the greatquestion of the supernormal knowledge of future

even ts . I find it ea sier to admit tha t , a lthough M .

Ba lmes did not consciously foresee the incident of

the pistol , he foresaw subconsciously the event, and

tha t th is idea passed telepa thi cally to Helene . Per

haps th is case might be expla ined without havingrecourse to the supern orma l at all. Mlle. Smi th ,

knowing M . Ba lmes’ character, and up to a certa in

point h is persona l circumstances , having been pres

ent the evening before when M . Ba lmes received the

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telegram, and foreseeing (as she sa id at the seance) ,

the gravity of the situa tion ,could easily imagine the

intervention of a fire—arm in the affa ir . Besides,no deta il of the vision indica tes tha t the pistol seen inthe glass ba ll corresponds to that of M . X .

How far the delicate sen se of probabilities can go,and how often spontaneous inferences, with peopleof a quick imagination , are correct, one never knows .

Undoubtedly we often see a supernorma l connectionwhere there is, in reality, on ly a striking coinciden ce,due to a happy divina tion and prevision ,

whi ch isvery na tural . I ought to add that th is manner ofevi cting the supernormal and reducing the vision ofthe pistol to a mere creation of the sublimina l fan ta sy,seems inadmissible to Helene, who rema ins abso

lutely certain that this was a convincing case oftelepathy .

The above example, 2, which is the best of all , inmy opini on , is still not irreproachable.

IV. LUC ID ITY

All the facts of lucidity (clairvoyance, second- sigh t,

etc . ) which are attributed to Mlle . Smi th may be ex

plained by telepathic impressions proceeding fromliving persons . Thi s mean s that I not on ly admitfrom the start the possibi li ty of such phenomena byvintue of the Principle of Hamlet, but, since telepathy is not, in my opin ion , anything very strange,I sha ll feel no subjective difficulty in accepting thereality of Helene

’

s supernormal intuitions, providedthat they present some serious guarantee of authen e

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favorable temperamen ts, more frequently met withamong convinced spiritists than among personswho are normal , and tha t he be not impeded , on theother hand, by the paralyz ing presence of hostiletemperamen ts, such as that of a critica l observer .

It is greatly to be regretted that the na i ve believerswho inspire and succeed in obtain ing magn ificen tphenomena of lucidity usua lly care so little for thedesiderata of scien ce, and, above all , refuse to submit themselves to an examination wh ich might expla in the phenomena in a natura l manner wh ile theinvestigators in search of convincing proofs are

not inspiring and obtain a lmost noth ing .

However it may be, I sha ll give a few examples ofMlle. Smith

’

s proofs of lucidity,wh ich are not very

varied, and can be divided into the three categoriesof the medica l prescriptions and diagnoses , of lost

objects found aga in , and of retrocogn itions of even tsmore or less remote.

1 . Medica l Consu ltations — In promising specimens of extraordinary facts of th is kind I have gonetoo far . Many such have been told me— a s , for in

stance, Leopold dicta ting an unknown and complicated recipe of a ha ir ton ic for a gentleman l iv ingabroad, a single bottle of whi ch was sufficient to bringforth a fu ll growth of ha ir on a head wh ich had become ba ld before middle age ; or , aga in

,Leopold

,

being consulted about the health of a lady livingat a great distance from Geneva ,

revea ling both theveridical nature of her illness , which was unknowntill then to her physicians , and its origin ,

wh ich wasdue to certa in unsuspected but perfectly true inci

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den ts connected with her ch ildhood, and

,finally

,

the treatmen t , wh ich wa s crowned with success .

But the absen ce of written testimony and precisein forma tion as to the concomitant circumstancesof these marvellous cures reduce them to the rankof amusing stories , the va lue of wh ich cannot positively be estimated . As to better—a ttested episodes ,it is true I have been able to obta in authen tic stories ,but they are those in whi ch the probability of a su

pernormal elemen t has been reduced to a min imumimperceptible to m e . I will cite but one ca se .

M . and Mme . G . having invited Ml le. Smith dur

ing the mon th of August to pa ss a day with them

in the coun try, a few leagues distan t from Geneva ,

took advantage of the visit to hold a seance in or

der to consult Leopold on the hea lth of one of theirch ildren . I will tell the in ciden t from a written ac

coun t sen t me by Mme . G . soon a fterwa rds“ Our little girl wa s suffering from anaemia ,

and

fell frequently in to a state of weakness , in spite of

interva ls of improvement . Dr . d’

Espine had been

recommended to us for the time of our return to Ge

neva . The medium [Mlle Smith ] knew nothing of

th is we had taken the precaution to keep it from

her . The sean ce begins with a few kind words

from Leopold , whom M . G . then asks whether he

would do well in con sulting Dr . d’

Espine . A nd I,

”

replied Leopold can I do nothing for you? Un

gratefu l people ! But when he was a sked to indi

ca te some treatment , he replied Wa i t ti ll your re

tu rn to G eneva .

” Then , upon being asked whether

an egg mi xed with brandy would be good for the

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child, he replied that the egg would be good , but the

brandy was not necessa ry in her case. Then he

recommended that the child be taken for an hour’

s

walk in the open a ir every day . As to the prescription relating to her food , he repeated

“I told you to

wait ti ll your retu rn to Geneva .

On their return to Geneva in the middle of September, M . and Mme . G . held a second seance. Th istime Leopold was more exact he advised : Not too

much mi lk, but rather a few glasses of good pure wine

at each meal .” Then he added Treat the anaemia

first and you wi ll tr iumph over the throat trouble,

whi ch would finally weaken her too much . H er blood

is so weak that the least cold, the slightest emotion , I

wi ll go so far as to say that the expectation of a pleasure even , would be sufficient to br ing the angina to a

cr isis . You ought to have foreseen that.” Leopold

,

”

M . G . notes here, has enabled u s to put our fingerupon such of the details as we did not know how toexpla in . At each sen tence my wife and I looked at

each other with stupefaction .

” Leopold ordered alsomany green vegetables, wa rm salt- water douches ofthree minutes ’ duration in the even ing, and The

pr incipal thing now is five drops of i ron in half a

glass of water twice a day before the meal . Do this

and you will see the resu lt in a month . In two weeks ’

time the little girl was ha rdly recogn izable.

I have cited th is case because it is among those thathave most struck M . and Mme . G . , and upon whichthey build their conviction of the independent existence and supernorma l knowledge of Leopold

, and

because it shows how little is needed to kindle the400

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natural channels . All her discoveries consist, so far

as I have been able to judge, in the return , under a

spiritistic and with a dramatic aspect, of memorieseither simply forgotten or properly sublimina l, whichdepended upon the incidents con cerned having firstbelonged to the ordina ry consciousness , or their having always escaped it and having been from theirorigin registered in the subcon sciousness .

These are facts of cryptomnesia pure and simplei . e. , explicable by a norma l psychologica l processvery common in its essence, whi le the picturesqueembellishments added by the mediumistic imagination give to these teleologica l automatisms a certainmysterious and supernormal appearance whi ch in

other surroundings would certa in ly crea te for Hélene— or rather for Leopold — a place a longside St .Anthony of Padua . I confine myself to two examples . Mlle. Smith being charged with the duty of

making ready the merchandise sen t out from her

department, was handed a telegram one day from a

customer who asked that four yards of No .

be despatched to him immediately . This brieforder,

” said Helene, was not ca lculated to hastenthe forwarding of the goods . How could I readilyfind th is No . I in the midst of six or seven thousand others in the store Pondering , telegram in

hand, I was wondering how I could find it, when a

voice outside of but very near me sa id to me :‘Not

there, bu t here,’

and involuntarily I turned round ,without knowing why , and my hand la id itself me

chanically on a piece of goods wh ich I drew towardsme, and which actually bore the No .

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SUPERNORMAL APPEARANCES

It is not necessary to be a medium to know by ex

perience these happy remi n iscences or inspiration s

wh ich sometimes come to free us from embarrass~

ment by shin ing forth like a light at an opportunemoment ; but that whi ch in the case of ordinary

persons remains in the feeble condition of an idea or

interna l image, among mediumistic temperamentsa ssumes readily the fixed and vivid form of an hallu c ination . Instead of simply sudden ly recollecting in the ca se of the No. as would havehappened to any one else, Hélene hears an exteriorvoice

,and perceives her hand moving involun tarily

in a given di rection . It is noted tha t this automatismassumed an auditive and motor form wh ich is thependan t of the voca l and visua l automatism which Ihave referred to on pp . 58

-

59 . It is to th is same classof fa cts , well known and a lmost common to- day , that

the following example likewise belongs, a lthough

the subliminal imagina tion had surrounded it with

the form of an interven tion on the part of Leopold .

One Sunday even ing , on return ing home, Mlle.

Smi th noticed tha t she had lost a sma ll breastpinwhich had been fa stened to her corsage, and whi ch

she grea tly va lued a s a souven ir . The following

day she returned to look for it where she had been theeven ing before, but in va in ,

and a notice whi ch she

caused to be in serted in the“ lost columns of a daily

newspaper gave no result Here I leave the narra

tion of the story to her Persuaded that my pin

was rea lly lost, I did my best to think no more about

it,but thi s was a difficult matter, since one n ight I

was awakened suddenly by three raps struck aga inst

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my bed. Somewha t frightened, I looked around ,but saw noth ing . I tried to go to sleep, but aga in

many raps were struck, thi s time near my head . Isea ted myself on my bed (I was agitated) , trying todiscover what was happen ing , and hardly had I

sea ted myself when I saw a hand shaking my lostbreastpin before my eyes . Th is vision la sted onlya minute, but that wa s long enough for it to make

a deep impression upon me.

”

The following Tuesday even ing (ten days a fter

the loss of the trinket) Helene held a sean ce at the

house ofM . Cuendet, atwhich two other persons were

a lso present . She told of the loss of her pin and the

curious vision above described then a ll seated themselves at the table . After a typtologica l dictationupon an a ltogether different subject, the followingincident occurred, the accoun t of which I have borrowed from notes taken by M . Cu endet (it was in 1894,

and I On ly knewMl le.Smith by reputation at the time)We notice that from the beginn ing of the sean ce

Mlle. Smith describes to us ou r fami liar spirit [Leopold] as holding a lantern in his hand . Why The

table is shaken anew, about to tell us someth ing .

The following is then dictated to us by it ‘

A r ise.

Take a lantern . Extend your walk to theMun icipa lBu i lding. Take the path which crosses the meadow,

andwhich ends at theStreetof theB aths . In them iddle

of the path , to the left, a few yards distant, a block ofwhite stone wi ll be found . Starting from the block ofstone, only one yard away from it, towards the settingsun , the pin so much sought for wi ll be found. Go, I

accompany you .

’

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and noticed where it rolled, first man ifested h imselfin a passing nocturnal vision ,

and then took advan

tage of the next spiritistic gathering to restore com

pletely her latent memories . It is not necessary to

see anything in tentiona l in th is restituti on , the sim

ple play of association of ideas sufii c ing to expla in

that the memory of the situa tion of the pin stored upin a subliminal stratum and stimulated by a desire

to recover the lost object might have mechanicallyreappeared at the momen t of the seance, thanks tomediumistic autohypnotization ,

and gushed forthunder the dramatic form, na turally appropriate tothe environment, of an apparently supernormal pieceof information furnished by Leopold .

3. Retrocogn itions .

— The apparently supernormalrevelations in regard to the past, furn ished at the

seances ofMlle. Smith , can be divided into two groups— namely, whether they concern un iversa l history , ordeal with private interests relative to the families ofthe sitters .

First : The messages of the first group abound ,under the form of vi sions a ccompan ied by typtological explanations, in Hélene

’

s seances of 1894, buthave almost wholly come to an end since I made heracqua intance, and I have never been wi tness of any .

According to the reports wh ich I have seen , all theseretrocogn itions have reference to the hi story of Protestantism, or that of the French Revoluti on— i . e. ,

to two classes of facts whi ch are among the bestknown in France to- day .

It goes without saying that the firmly convinced

spiritistic group in wh ich these messages were te

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ceived have never had a doubt that the apparition swhi ch Hélene perceived were the veritable personagesthey a sserted themselves to be, habited as they werein the costume of the period to whi ch they belonged,communi cating by mean s of the table, and speakingin the first person (except when Leopold acted as

showman and dictated in his own name the explanations a sked for) .But as the content of these messages is a lways the

verbatim reproduction or almost exact equiva lent ofin forma tion which is to be found in hi storical andbiographica l dictiona ries , I cannot avoid being inc lined to the impression that we here are con cernedwith common facts of cryptomnesia .

If the intervention of the supernorma l be absolutelyinsisted upon in th is case, it can on ly be man ifestedunder the form of a telepa th ic transmission from the

sitters to the medium . In favor of that suppositiontwo fa cts may be urged first, that Mlle. Smith passed in tha t group as devoid of all historica l knowledge,and was very much surprised at these revela tions offacts tota lly unkn own to her secondly, tha t therewere regularly in attendan ce at these seances one ormore members of the teach ing body , who by theirgenera l education possessed , without any doubt what

ever, either consciously or in a la tent manner, all the

hi storical knowledge, whi ch , a fter all , was not very

grea t, displayed by Leopold .

But these argumen ts are not of much weight in myopin ion . To begin with the second : as the sitters hadtheir hands on the table at the same time with theme

dium ,a ccording to the spiritistic custom, they could

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themselves, without any telepathy, properly speak

ing , and simply by their slight, unconscious muscularcontractions, have directed, unknown to themselves ,the movements of that piece of furn iture, Ml le . Smith

on ly augmenting these shocks proceeding from her

neighbors .

As to the supposed ignorance of Mlle. Smith , it is

not at all so great as has been imagined , and the hi s

torica l revelations obtained at her seances do not

in any degree surpass the level of that whi ch she

could have absorbed, consciously or unconsciously,

at school and in her surroundings .

Moreover, the hypothesis wh ich appea rs to me the

most probable, and on wh ich I rest, is tha t the mes

sages come essentia lly from Héléne herself— I oughtrather to say from her sublimi na l memory tha t ,however, does not exclude a certa in amoun t of cooperation on the part of the sitters , whose conversation , on the one hand, and their unconscious mu scu

lar action upon the table, on the other, have oftenma inta ined and directed the course of the subcon

scious idea s of the medium and the automa tic unfolding of her latent memories .

Secondly Retrocogn ition of family events, whi chare exh ibited in Mlle. Smith ’s seances

,have generally

the savor of the unknown for the sitters,from the fact

that they concern incidents of the past whi ch havenever been printed save in the memories of certa inaged persons or of a few lovers of local anecdotes .

I do nothesitate to see in these stories of other days,gushi ng forth in visions and in dictations by the tablein the course ofHélene

’

s hemisomnambulisms, narra

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by way of example, the vision wh ich so astonished

me atmy first meeting with Helene (p . and whi ch

has already been published by M . Lema itre. I re

produce his narrative, giving real names

The medium [Mlle Smith ] perceives a long trailof smoke, whi ch envelopes M . Flournoy .

‘

A wom

an I’ cries the medium,

and, a moment a fter, Twowomen quite pretty, brunettes both are

in bridal toilet ! Thi s concerns you , M . Flournoy l

’

[The table approves by a rap . ] They re

main motionless they have white flowers in their

ha ir and resemble each other a little ; their eyes,like their hair, are black, or , at a ll events, very dark .

The one in the corner appears under two differentaspects ; under both forms she is young— perhapstwenty - five years old ; on the one hand she re

mains with the appearance a lready described (bridaltoilet) , and on the other she appears very luminousin a great space, a little more slender of visage, andsurrounded by a number of pretty children , in the

midst of whom she appears very happy ; her happiness manifests itself by her expression ,

but stillmore in her surroundings . Both women seem readyto be married . The medium then hears a name,wh ich at first escapes her, then returns l ittle by little .

‘An ! An ! Dan Ran

D and i Dand i ran

To wh ich of these two women does this name be

long demands M . Flournoy to the one you see

under two aspects , or to the other 7’

Answer To

the one who is presented under two forms .

’

The me

dium does not see the other woman as distinctly as

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th e first, but all at once distinguishes a tall man byher side, who on ly passes by, when the table dictates : ‘ I am hi s sister ; we will return I’ afterwhich the scene changes and we pass to anothersubject.

Th is vision revolves a ltogether around the factsthat my mother and her sister were married on the

same day tha t they were brunettes , quite pretty,

’

and looked a like ; tha t my father was ta ll thatmy aun t married M . Dandiran and died whi le stillyoung , without ch ildren ; a ll matters whi ch shouldhave been of public notoriety in a sma ll city likeGeneva . But the same is true of al l the other re

trocogn itions of Mlle . Smith ; their content is al

ways veridica l , but at the same time is a lso such

as could not fa il to be known to a host of people .

Thi s causes me to doubt whether there is at the

base of these phenomena a really supernormal tacul

ty of retrocogn ition .

A thi rd striking feature is , that all Hélene’

s retrocogn itions concern ing me are relative to the family

of my mother, and are connected with two quite pre

cise and brief periods , the first of wh ich is many years

previous to Mlle. Smith’s birth . Th is limitation a s

to times and persons seems to me sign ificant .

To clear up the ma tter, if possible, I addressed my

self to the last represen tative of the presen t genera

tion of my fami ly ,Professor Dandiran , of Lausanne,

and la id the ca se before him . He did not immediate

ly remember whether my grandparents Claparede had

anycommun ication ,

nearly ha lf a century before,

with the Smi th family, but on the following day he

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wrote me that he distinctly reca lled a young woman

of that name in whom hi s mother and aunt had been

greatly interested , and who had been employed bythem as a dressmaker previous to her marriage to

a Hungarian .

One understands that I had a reason for not addressing myself first to Mme . Smith herself but Imust do her the justice to state that when I questionedher in turn , she very obligingly gave me all the infor

mation I desired , and wh ich was in perfect accord withthe statements of M . Dandiran .

Without entering into deta ils wearisome to thereader, it will be sufficient for me to state tha t all theretrocogn itions in which I was involved were con

nected with two periods in wh ich Mme . Smith hadrelations with my mother ’s family, periods separatedby an interval during wh ich these relations were suspended by the fact of M . and Mme . Smith makinga sojourn of several years in a foreign coun try . Itwould have been possible for Helene to know directlythe facts of the second period , at whi ch time she was

about five or six years of age . As to the first period ,which was many years prior to her birth (the timeof the double marriage of my mother and her sister in

it is evident that Mme. Smith has had manyopportun ities at a later date to na rrate these factsto her daughter and it would have been a ltogethernatural for her to have done so .

Ab uno disce omnes . Although I am less familiarwith the retrocogn itions of Mlle. Smith concern ing

other families , everyth ing contributes to prove to me

that they are explicable in the same manner . In

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concerns the dead and the. great beyond ought not

to be a ma tter for joking . Perhaps the cause is to be

found in the nature of the intermediaries , and the

character of the messages with which the spirits are

accustomed to favor u s . However it may be, I have

ordinarily much difficulty in preserving a serious

countenance in the presence of man ifestations of

disincarnates .

But I reproach myself bitterly with th is facetious

humor when I reflect tha t it is indulged in at the ex

pense of conceptions and bel iefs wh ich supported the

first steps of our race on its pa inful ascent , the sur

v ival or atavic reapparition of which is yet, even to

day , a source of mora l strength , of happy certitude,of supreme consolation for a host of my contemporaries, many of whom I have learned to know, and

who,moreover, inspire me with respect as well as

admiration by their uprightness of life, their nobility of character, the purity and eleva tion of theirsentimen ts .

In the second place, I have often had the deceptivexperience that, when it comes to a discussion of it ,spiritism possesses a great advantage for its defenders, but wh ich is most inconven ient for those whowould investigate it closely— of being fugitive and in

capable of being grasped on account of the fact of itsdouble nature - a science and religion at the sametime— wh ich never permits it to be wholly and eu

tirely the one or the other .When we come to analyze and criticise, according

to strict scientific methods, the positive facts uponwhich it pretends to base its fundamental argument

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SUPERNORMAL APPEARANCES

—the real ity of commun ication with the spirits of

the departed , through the interven tion of mediumsas soon as the adepts begin to unpack for y ou theirstock of theories (I was about to say their stock theo

ries l) they are aston ished at the lack of idea l on thepa rt of these terrible materia list- scien tists , who are

intent upon search ing for the h idden rat”in the

demonstrations of spiritism, instead of falling on

their knees before the splendor of its revelations .

A th ird cause of my uneasiness whenever obligedto approach th is subject is the fear of bein g misun

derstood or misinterpreted, thanks to the na i ve and

simple cla ssification which preva ils in the environ

men ts wh ich the disincarnates frequen t .Spiritism or ma terialism— these are the brutal a l

ternatives to whi ch one finds h imself driven in spite

of h imself . If you do not admit tha t the spirits of

the dead revea l themselves by raps on the table or

visions of the mediums , you are, therefore, a materi

alist l If you do not believe that the destiny of the

human persona lity is terminated at the grave, you

are a spiritist ! This mode of nomenclature and

labelling is surely puerile . Moreover, no one will

ingly con sen ts to be thrust into the company of those

with whom ,no matter how honorable they may be,

he is not in sympa thy .

I also wish to state tha t I absolutely repudiate

the above a lternative . There is greater variety of

choice in the cabinet of human thought . In the

last century ,for example, outside the spiritism of

Swedenborg and the materia lism of Baron d’

Hol

bach ,there was y et the criticism of one named

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Kant, who made some noise in the world and whose

vogue is even now not absolutely extin ct . I shouldnot fear to range myself among his followers . And

in our own times,if it was necessary for me to choose

between Buchner and Allan Kardec , as the spiritist seems sometimes to believe, I would not hesitateto choose— in favor of M . Renouvier, or my deceasedcompatriot Charles Secretan .

I hold to no other phi losophy, and it suffices me,

in order to repulse the whole of materialism and spiritism, to be the disciple — unworthy, but convin ced—of the Nazarene, who replied to the materia listsof his time, not by spiritistic evocation s, but by thesimple words, God is not the God of the dead but ofthe living, for a ll live unto Him .

” I am not surewhether thi s argument convinced the Sadducees,but it plea ses me by its simplicity

, and I have no

desire for any other .

If God exists— Ishould say ,if the supreme reality is

notthe unconscious and blind force—substance of conventional monism, but that sovereign personality (orsupra personality) wh ich in the clear consciousnessof Christ made its paternal presence to be continua llyfelt— if God exists, it is not, apparen tly, in order toplay the role of a perpetual undertaker of funereal

pomp that he consents to exist,or to a llow to fa ll for

ever into noth ingness the poor creatures who wa itupon Him .

They may disappear from before our eyes , but theydo not disappear from before His for they are deadto us, but for Him, and, consequently, in actua l rea l

ity , they are living . OtherwiseHe would not be God.

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cal , are not of the same order . That is why I am not

a spiritist .Here rises a la st poin t , wh ich worries me when I

ought to speak my mind in rega rd to spiritism in thepresence of spiritists . You do not personally hold

,

”

it has been often objected to me, to these communications oi the living with those who have gone beforeus into the grea t unknown , and you cry out against

spiritistic demonstra tion s . It is all very well for you,

who are a mystic , and to whom the exi stence of God

in Jesus Christ seems a sufficient guarantee of thedestinies of human persona lity and its ultimate palingenesis . But every one has not the same temperament

,

and does not take so blithely hi s ignorance of the kindof life whi ch awa its him beyond the tomb . To believe in God, and to abandon to Him with closed eyesthe fate of those who leave us

,ca rrying away with

them the best portion s of ou r being, is all very well,but it is very difficult . The times of the psalmist whocould say

‘

Though H e slay me, yet wi ll I trust H imare no more and as for Christ

, He was certainlya very remarkable medium, but His simple afii rma

tion would scarcely be taken to—day for gospel words .

The solid and the palpable a re necessary to the‘

fools’

of our epoch . They are not capable of admitting a higher world than that of sense, un less they areenabled to touch it with their finger by means of mes

sages and the return of the dead themselves .Whence

it results that every attack, every hostile attitude towards spiritism tends directly to break down theon ly rampart wh ich might henceforth be efficaciousaga inst materialism and its disastrous consequences

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SUPERNORMAL APPEARANCES

infidelity , egotism, vice, despa ir, sui cide, and, final

ly , the destruction and ann ihi lation of the en tire socia lorgan ism . On the other hand

,when science at length

sha ll recogn ize and consecra te spiritism officia lly ,

thereupon , simultaneously with the tangible certa in tyof another life, courage and strength will return to

the hearts of individua ls , devotion and a ll virtues willbegin to flourish on ce aga in , and an eleva ted humanity will soon see heaven descend upon the earth

,

thanks to the connection established and da ily practised between the living and the spirits of the dead .

”

My embarrassmen t is ea sily seen . On the one

hand , I do not in any way admit the foregoing objec

tion . I do not th ink that the gospel has had its dayor is above the reach of fools , since it was for themthat its author designed it . I believe, on the con

trary ,that the Christian fa ith , the fa ith of Christ or

fa ith in Christ , is , in its inmost essence, a psy cholog i

cal real ity , a persona l experience a ccessible to themost humble, a fa ct of consciousness which will survive when all theologica l systems sha ll have been

forgotten and a ll the clergy shall have been abol

ished . That vita l and regenerating power will save

our civilization (if anyth ing can save it) by means

of the individua ls whom it shall have regenerated ,without owing anyth ing to spiritistic theories or

practices .Inversely,

I do not sha re the optimism of

those who would make of spiritism a social panacea ,

and who imagine tha t when the mora l con scious

ness on the one side and the religious consciousness

on the other have cea sed to make themselves heard ,

the messages of the disincarnates will have better419

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

success .If they hear notMoses and the prophets,

neither will they be persuaded though one rose from

the dead”

)But

, on the other hand, there are individua l caseswhich are in teresting and whi ch certa in ly meri t con

sideration . And for mi llions, and by a hundred dif

ferent titles— religious belief, mora l consolation , sol

emn and mysterious rites , old habit, etc — spiritismis to- day the pivot around whi ch existence turns, and

a lso its only support ; would not the destruction of

it,then , be productive of more harm than good , and

would it not be better to let matters take their

course 7 Why prevent man from delighting in

dreams, if he so plea ses ?A ll things are possible, and was it not of the reve

nants that Hamlet was thinking in hi s celebratedapostrophe, from wh ich I have taken th is principle ?These are the th ings wh ich perplex me : while

wa iting to find a way out of them, and by way of

summing up , it seems to me indispensable to separate distinctly spiritism—reli gion , whi ch is an assemblage of beliefs and practices dear to many, fromspiritism- scien ce, a simple hypothesis designed to ex

pla in certa in phenomena arising from observation .

The first tells me noth ing, or ra ther it amuses me

or repels me according to circumstances ; but themore elevated sen timents , and those worthy of all respect, wh ich it inspires in its adepts, impose upon me

the duty of passing it by and ignoring it here. The

second, on the contrary, does not fa il to in terest me,

as it does all who are curious in regard to na tura lphenomena .

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may well be— it is even very probable— that thesemolecular movements do not constitute the ultimate

physica l term immediately para lleling the men ta lworld

,but that the rea l physica l correlatives (spa

tia l) of the (non—spatia l) psychologica l phenomena

should be sought for in the vi brations of imponderable matter

,the ether, in wh ich the ponderable

atoms and molecules are plunged somewhat likegra in s of dust in the a tmosphere, in order to makea sensible though somewha t inaccura te compari son .

_The ethereal body

, perispiritistic , a stra l , fluid, etc . ,

of the occultists,and of many thi nkers who are not

believers in occultism,is on ly a notion scien tifica lly

absurd when it is made to be an equivoca l and cloudyin termediary between the soul and the body, an un

a ssignable tertium qu i d, a plastic mediator of whi chnoth ing is known as to its being material or spiritua lor somethi ng else . But conceived as a system of

movements of the ether, it con ta ins noth ing abSolutely anti or extra—sc ientific in its nature the con

nection between the subjective facts of con sciousnessand the objective, ma teria l facts

,rema ins essentia lly

the same whether one con siders the ma teria l worldunder the imponderable form of ether or under theponderable form of chemica l atoms

,of physica l mole

cules, and of anatomical elements . Noth ing,then ,

would be radica lly opposed, from the poin t of viewof the natura l scien ces, to the existen ce of disin car

nate spirits wandering through space .

The foregoing will doubtless plea se my spiritisticfriends . Here are two facts wh ich will plea se themless . First : I sepa ra te myself from them when they

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SUPERNORMAL APPEARANCES

pass prematurely from mere abstra ct possibilities tothe affirmation of actual ities . Perhaps the outcomewill prove them righ t some day ; perhaps in the

near future, but we have not yet reached tha tpoin t . I freely admi t tha t never have circumstancesbeen so favorable for the spiritistic doctrines as at

present . The authen tic return of George Pelham and

other decea sed persons, throughMrs . Piper entranced,as in termediary, seems is? be admitted by so manyacute observers, the phen omena observed for fif

teen years past in the case of thi s incomparable me

dium are at times so marvellous and surrounded

with such solid scientific gua rantees— the case is, ina word

, so unheard of and astounding in all respects,that those who are on ly acqua in ted with it from a distance, by prin ted reports and ora l narratives of im

mediate witnesses , feel themselves in a poor positionfor formulating their doubts and reservations uponthi s subject .I fear, in the second place, for mediums and prao

tica l spiritists, tha t when their hypothesis shall havebeen scientifica lly demon stra ted the result may be

very differen t from tha t wh ich they now imagin e itwill be.

It migh t well happen tha t the cult of the table,mechan ica l writing, seances, and all other mediumistic exercises , may receive their death - blow from the

officia l recogn ition of spirits by science . Suppose,in fact, that contemporaneous researches should at

last have proved clea rly that messages actually come

from the disincarna te it has a lready followed from

the same resea rches tha t in the most favorable cases423

FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

the veritable messages are very difficult to distin

guish from those wh ich are not authentic . When

people come to understand that this sorting of mes

sages is a lmost a lways beyond their power, theywill

,perhaps , be put out of conceit with experiments

in which they have n inety- n ine chances aga inst one

of being dupes of themselves or others, and in whi ch

a still more vexatious matter— i i they should even be

so fortuna te as to ligh t upon the hundredth chance,they would have no certa in means of knowing it .Th is subject, decidedly,

is fa ta l to me. I lose myself in digressions when discussing it— very uselessthey are, too, since the verdict wh ich the future willpronounce upon the theory of spirits, with or withoutan ethereal body ,

matters little a s far as the actua l ex

amination of the messages furnished by Mlle . Smithis con cerned . Even having become scien tificallyverified , spiritism w ill never absolve us from bringingto the analysis of the pretended commun ica tions lesscare and rigor than whi le it wa s on ly an undemon

strated hypothesis ; each particular case will a lwaysdemand to be scrutin ized by itself, in order to makethe distinction between that whi ch in all probabilityon ly arises from many non - spiritistic causes, and theresidue eventua lly proceeding from the disincarnate .

I ought to state at the outset that, as far a s Helene

’

s

mediumistic phenomena a re concerned , their ca refulana lysis has not revea led to me in them any evidentvestige of the other world , not even of traces of a telepathic transmission on the part of the living . I haveon ly succeeded in perceiving in them very beautiful and instructive examples of the well known

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ing expression ; simple dress a collar not of the

fashion of to- day ; she draws near to this portra it,*

and gazes at it not ill- naturedly .

"

The name of this person is asked, and the table

(Leopold) commences to spell : Mademoiselle —butrefuses to go further, whi le Helene sees the apparitionlaugh ing, with a sly a ir as the name is insisted

on , the table dictates That does not concern you ,

then she begins to jump and skip as though glad of

an opportunity to mock us .

Presently Helene falls a sleep and enters into somnambulism she leaves the table and moves towa rdsthe portrai t in question , before whi ch she rema insfixed , completely incarnating the unknown lady of

her vision . I take down the portra it and place it inits frame upon an easy - chair immediately she kneelsbefore it and contemplates it with affection then , tak

ing the frame in her right hand, whi le the left, verymuch agitated, plays with the cord, she ends

, a ftermany va in attempts, by saying with a grea t stammering,

“

35 j — je l’

a ima is b— b— beaucoup jen

’

a ime pas l’

autre— j— j— je ne l’

a i jama is aimée

l’

autre— j’

amais bien mon neveu — adieuI— je te vois .

”

(“ I liked it very much : I do not like the other one :I never liked the other one . I was very fond of mynephew. Adieu l I see him. )It was impossible to obta in any explanation of

thi s incomprehensible scene, until , having slippeda pencil and a writing- tablet into Helene’s hand

,

she scribbled feverishly, in a hand not her own ,these

A smal l oil - portra it of my mother.

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SUPERNORMAL APPEARANCES

two words Mademoiselle Vign ier then she fellinto a ca ta leptic phase, from wh ich she awakenedwithout memory at the end of half an hour .

Thi s name of Vign ier evoked in me far - off mem

ories and vaguely reca lled to my mi nd the fa ct tha tProfessor Dandiran (who had married, as we haveseen , my mother

’

s sister) had an ancestress of tha tname ; was it she who returned to express to me

by means of Mlle . Smith her affection for my mother , whose portra it she had so attentively regarded,and her regrets , perhaps, that her nephew had not

been preferred to my aun tOn the other hand , M . Cu endet recollected a Ml le.

Vign ier who had been a friend of his family,but who

did not correspond at a ll with the description of Hé

léne’

s visions ; he promised to obta in in forma tion ,

and ,in fa ct

,wrote me on the following day Dear

Sir,

— Here is some in forma tion on the subject of ourseance of yesterday . Th is morn ing I a sked mymother ' Did you ever know another Mlle. Vign ier than the one who was your friend After an in

stant of reflection Yes ,’ replied she ; I did know

another . She was M . Dandiran’

s aun t, of Lau

sanne,his mother

’s sister . She stammered , and

was not a lways very good- natured she had three

large teeth whi ch projected , and a hooked nose .

’

Itis useless to state to y ou tha t th is was the first time

I had heard her spoken of .

”

Thi s in formation ,coinciding with my remem~

brances and Helene’s vision ,

was later confirmed by

M. Dandiran , who gave me the following in forma

tion : Your aun t , Ml le. Vign ier , who died about

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

thi rty- five or forty years ago, loved her nephew

very much ; but she was made very angry by

his marriage, and the sentence uttered before mymother ’s portra it could not have referred to a differ

ence of sentiment in rega rd to the two sisters, for

whom she always had an equal a ffection . Thi ssentence, on the contra ry, is wonderfully well ex

plained by the following facts : My mother and hersister having become betrothed at the same time,oil - pa intings of both , of natura l size, were made by

the same pa in ter . These portra its were not of equa lmerit, and Mlle . Vign ier, who was herself something of an artist, a lways considered tha t of mymother excellent , whi le the other, that of my aunt,she did not like at a ll . Mlle . Vign ier was very lively , and M . Dandiran finds that the epithet ‘

sly’

and the, table dictating That does not concern you ,

’

very well express her character she was , however,not at all malicious or mocking at heart , but it istrue that persons who knew her slightly could easilyhave gained that impression of her . She had threeor four promi nent teeth and stammered badly . In

her photograph she wears a wh ite collar, has a nose

long and arched , but the eyes are rather large and

wide apart . She always wore gold eye- glasses , of

wh ich the medium did not speak .

”

If the reader has had patience to read these deta ils ,he will have remarked that the distinctive tra its of

Mlle. Vign ier in the vision and her incarna tion by

Helene (the stammering, the teeth , the shape of thenose, the ill—natured air) coincide with those spontaneously indica ted by M . Cuendet, who had known

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Whose a ttitude towards them would , in all probability, be wholly different .2 . Case of j ean the Q ua rryman .

—We have hereto deal with a very curious spirit message concerningMme . Mi rbel , in wh ich I cannot fa il to see actualmemories of the la tter— tran smi tted I know not how

(but not necessarily in a supernorma l manner) toMlle. Smith— rather than an authentic communica

tion from a pretended disinca rna te.

In a seance atwhi ch Mme. Mi rbel was not present,Helene had the ha llucina tion of a very strong odor ofsulphur then the vi sion of a quarryman from the

foot of Saleve, in whi ch she perceived and describedin detail an unknown man , who,

by the dictations ofthe table, was declared to be j ean theQuarryman,

and charged the sitters with an affectionate messageforMme. Mirbel . The latter, interroga ted on the following day , recogn ized in the very circumstantial description of th is man , and under a ll the features of

Helene’

s vision , perfectly correct facts connected withher ch ildhood, and wh ich had passed away from the

habitua l circle of her idea s for more than twentyyears . It concerned a workman employed in her

father’

s quarries, and who, when she was a l ittle

girl, had always evinced a specia l affection for her .

Let us suppose— in the absen ce of all proof thatMlle. Smith had ever hea rd these remembrances of

case. It still would not amoun t to an in tervention ofthe deceased quarryman and M . Lema itre was perfectly ri ght, i n my opin ion , in clinging to telepathy

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SUPERNORMAL APPEARANCES

and in haza rding the idea of an etheric influence, towh ich Helene wa s subjected by Mme. Mirbel , who at

the hour of th is seance happened to be half a kilometre distan t from the p lace of the sean ce . Withoutgoing out of the doma in of telepa thy

,I still would pre

fer the hypothesis of a previous transmission in thecourse of one of the seances at wh ich Mme . Mirbelwas present to that of telepa thy at a grea t distan ceat the time of the seance . It is

, in fact , not con tra ryto tha t wh ich is believed to be known of men ta l suggestion , to admit tha t Héléne ’

s subliminal,in the

sta te of Esenale, for example, could in some waydraw fromMme . Mirbel ’s sublimina l the laten t mem

ories whi ch there lay buried for‘some time before

being ready to reappea r at a seance at wh ich she

had some reason to thi nk Mme. Mirbel would againbe present .Whatever the mode of its tran smi ssion may have

been , the con ten t of this vision seems to me to indicateclea rly that it has its origin in the persona l memories

of Mme. Mirbel ra ther than in the posthumous mem

ory of Jean the Qua rryman . All the presumptions

in th is case are, to my mind ,in favor of a memory of

Mme . Mirbel , and not of a veritable commun ication

from the other world . The persona l aspect of the

messages supposed to be dictated by the quarryman

do not con stitute an obstacle to my interpreta tion or

a guarantee of spiritistic authenticity , th is aspect be

ing the form tha t the automatisms habitua lly as

sume among mediums .

3 . Case of the Syndi c Chaumontet and of the Cu r é

Burn ier .

—The following case is the last . It is a

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very recent one, in wh ich the spiritistic and the

cryptomnesiac hypotheses exist face to face, apropos

of signatures written by Mlle . Smith in somnambu

lism whi ch do not lack similarity to the authenticsignatures of the deceased persons to whom they are

supposed to belong .

In a seance atmy house (February 12,

Mlle.

Smith has a vision of a village on a height coveredwith vines ; by a rocky road , she sees descendingfrom it a little old man , who has the a ir of a mu m.

gen tleman he wears shoes wi th buckles , a largefelt hat, the collar of his sh irt is unstarched , and haspoints reach ing up to his cheeks, etc . A peasantin a blouse, whom he meets, makes reverences to him ,

as to an important personage they speak a patoiswhich Helene does not understand She has the im

pression of being familiar with the vil lage, but va in lysearches her memory to discover where she has seenit . Presen tly the landscape fades away, and the

little old man , now clothed in whi te and in a luminousspace (i . e.

,in his actual rea lity of a disincarna te) , ap

pears to draw near to her . At thi s moment, as she

leans her right arm upon the table, Leopold dictatesby the index - finger K iss her arm . I execute theorder Héléne

’

s arm at first resists strenuously,then

yields suddenl y . She seizes a pencil , and in the

midst of the customary struggle relative to themannerof holding it (see p . You are holdingmy hand

too tightly , says she to the imaginary little old man ,

who, according to Leopold, wishes to make use of it inorder to write You hur tme very badly do not hold

i t sofirmly . What di fference does itmake whether

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good memory for everything . I have not followedher in all her wanderings .

”

Awakened , Hélene could not furn ish us any information . But the following day I found on the map

a little village ca lled Chessenaz , in the Department

of Haute—Savoie, twenty- six kilometres , in a stra ightline, from Geneva , and not far from the Credo . As

the Chaumontets are not ra re in Savoy , there wasnothing un likely in the fact of a person of that namehaving been syndic there in 1839 .

Two weeks la ter I made a visit to Mme. and Ml le.

Smith— there was no seance held - when Hélene

suddenly assumed the voice and accent of Leopold,

without being aware of the change, and believ

ing me to be joking when I sought to cause herto notice it . Presently the hemi somnambu lism be

comes accen tuated Helene sees the vision of the

other day , the village and then the little old man (thesyndic) reappear, but the latter is accompan ied th istime by a curé with whom he seemed on good termsand whom he called (wh ich she repeats to me all the

whilewith Leopold ’s Italian accent) , My dear fr iendBurnier . As I ask whether th is curé could not

write his name with Héléne ’

s hand , Leopold p romised me by a digital dictation that I should have that

satisfaction at the next seance ; then he begins totalk to me of someth ing else by Helene’

s mouth , she

being now entirely entranced .

At the following sean ce at my house (the l gth ofMarch) , I remind Leopold of his promise. He an

swers at first by the finger Do you very much de

sire that signature and it is on ly upon my ins isting434

SUPERNORMAL APPEARANCES

tha t he consen ts . Helene then is not long in aga inseeing the village and the cu ré, who a fter divers incidents takes hold of her hand as the syndic haddone, and traces very slowly with the pen these words ,Burn ier greets you (Fig . 44) then she passes intoother somn ambulisms . The moment had arrivedto clear up the matter . I wrote at hazard to the may

or’

s office at Chessenaz . The mayor,M . Saussier

,

had the kindness to an swer without delay : “ During the years 1838 stated he to me, the syndicof Chessenaz was a Chaumontet, Jean ,

whose signature I find attached to divers documents of thatperiod . We a lso had as cu r é M . Burn ier, André,from November , 1824, up to February, 1841 dur

ing thi s period a ll the certifica tes of births, mar

riages , and deaths bear hi s signature. But I

have discovered in our a rch ives a document bearingboth signatures , that of the syndic Chaumontet and

that of the cu ré Burn ier . It is an order for thepayment of money . I take pleasure in tran smittingit to you .

” I have caused to be reproduced in the mid

dle of Fig . 44 the fragmen t of th is original documen t

(dated July 29, bearing the names of these twopersonages the reader can thus judge for himselfin regard to the quite rema rkable similarity wh ich

there exists between these authentic signatures and

those automatica lly tra ced by the hand of Mlle.

Smith .

My first idea was, as may be supposed , that Mlle .

Smi th must some time or other have seen some cer

tificates or documen ts signed by the syndic or by the

cu re’ of Chessenaz , and tha t it was these forgotten

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

visual flashes, reappearing in somnambulism, whichhad served her as inner models when her en trancedhand retraced these signatures . One may likewiseimagine how angry such a supposition would makeHelene, who has no recollection whatever of havingever heard the name of Chessenaz nor of any of itsinhabitants, past or present . I only half regret myimprudent supposition , since it has ava iled to furn ish us a new and more explicit man ifestation of

the curé, who, again taking hold of Mlle . Smith ’sarm at a later seance (May 21st, at M .

,Lema itre ’s)

comes to certify to us as to hi s iden tity by the a ttestation , in due and proper form, of Fig . 43 . As is thereseen , he makes it twice being deceived as to thesignature, he incontinently, with disgust, crossesout that whi ch he had so carefully written , and re

commences on another sheet this second dra ft, in

whi ch he has omitted the word soussigné undersigned

”

) of the first, took h im seven minutes to trace,but leaves noth ing to be desired as to precision and

legibility . This pa instaking calligraphy is verylike that of a country cu ré of sixty years ago, and in

default of another specimen for comparison,it pre

sents an unden iable analogy of hand with the au

thentic receipt of the order for payment of money ofFig 44.

Neither Mlle. Smith nor her mother had the leastnotion in rega rd to the cu ré or the syndic of Chessenaz . They nevertheless informed me tha t theirfami ly formerly had some relatives and connectionsin that part of Savoy, and that they a re still in communication with a cousin who lives at Frangy

, an

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important town nea rest the little village of Chesse

naz . Helene herself made only a short excursion in that region ,

some dozen years ago and if,in following the road from Seyssel to Frangy, she

traversed some parts of the coun try correspondingwell to certain deta ils of her vision of the 12th of February (whi ch she had the feeling of recogn izing, aswe have seen ,

p . she has not, on the other hand ,any idea of having been at Chessenaz itself, nor of

having heard it mentioned Moreover,” says she,

for those who can suppose that I could have beenat Chessenaz without remembering it

,I would affirm

that even had I gone there I would not have beenapt to consult the archives in order to learn that asyndic Chaumontet and a cu re

‘

Burn ier had existedthere at a period more or less remote . I have a goodmemory, and I positively a ffirm that no one of the

persons around me during those few days whi le Iwas away from my family ever showed me any

certificate, paper—~anything , in a word— wh ich couldhave stored away in my bra in any such memory .

My mother, at the age of fourteen or fifteen ,made

a trip in to Savoy, but nothing in her remembran ces

recalls her ever having heard these two names u t

tered .

”

The facts are now presented, and I leave to thereader the privilege of drawing such conclusion fromthem as shall please him .

This case seemed to me worthy to crown my rapidexamination of the supernorma l appearances wh ichembellish the mediumsh ip of Mlle . Smith

,because

it sums up and puts excellently in relief the irrecon438

SUPERNORMAL APPEARANCES

Ls Sm e

Fig. 44. Comparison of the signatures of the syndic Chaumontet and of the curate

Burnier, with their pretended signatures as disincarnates given by M lle. Smith insomnambulism. In the middle of the figure , reproduction of a fragment of anorder for payment of money of 1838 . Above and below, the signatures furnishedby the hand of Helene. Natural size.

c ilable and hostile respecti ve positions of the spiritistic circles and mediums on the one side, perfectlysincere but too ea sily satisfied— and investiga tors

somewhat psychologica l on the other, a lways pursued by the sacrosan ct terror of taking dross forgold . To the first class , the least curious phenomenon— an unexpected vision of the past, some dictation of the table or the finger, an access of somnam

bulism, a resemblance of handwriting — sufi ces to

give the sensation of contact with the unknown and

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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS

to prove the actua l presence of the disincarna teworld .

They never ask themselves wha t proportion therecould well be between these premises, however striking they may be, and tha t formi dable conclusion .

Why and how , for example, should the dead, returning at the end of a ha lf- century to sign by the handof another person in flesh and blood, have the samehand-writing as when aliveThe same people who find this a ltogether natura l,

a lthough they have never seen any absolutely cer

tain cases of it , fa ll from the clouds when the possibi lity of latent memories is invoked before them, of

which the presen t life furn ishes them,moreover

,

daily examples— whi ch they have not, it is true,ever taken the trouble to observe.

The psycholog ists , on the contrary, have the evilone in them in going to look behi nd the scenes of thememory and the imagina tion , and when the obscu

rity prevents them from seeing anyth ing , they havethe folly to imagine that they will end by findingthat wh ich they are seeking— if on ly a li ght couldbe had .

Between these two classes of temperaments sounlike, it will, I fear, be very difficult ever to arriveat any satisfactory and lasting understanding .

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tem,it would first be necessary to possess exact in

telligence on a number of important poin ts still eu

veloped in obscurity . In regard to some of these,such as the phenomena of periodicity, of meteorolog

ical and seasona l influences , of impulses, and of fa

tigue, etc we have on ly very vague and incompleteh ints . And we know a lmost nothi ng of other stillmore essentia l questions, such as the rela tions ofequiva lence and substitution between the variousmodalities of automatism (nocturna l visions, crepuscular states , complete trances, the effect of

spiritistic exercises , and especia lly of that of the

seances upon nutrition or denutrition (variations oftemperature, of urotoxicity , wh ich would permit the comparison of spontaneous seizures and

those excited by mediumship with those of the moreserious nervous affection s , the phenomena of heredity, similar or reversed , etc .

Let us hope that a near future will establish somegood mediums and their observers in practica l conditions favorable to the elucidation of these variousproblems, and that the day will come when the trueplace of mediumsh ip in the framework of nosologywill be discovered .

Secondly : From the psychological point of view ,

the case of Ml le . Smi th , although too complex to bereduced to a single formula , is explicable grossomodoby some recogni zed principle, the successive or concurrent action of which has engendered her multiplephenomena . There is, in the first place, the influence,so often verified, of emotional shocks and of certa in

psychi c traumatisms upon mental dissocia tion .By

44 2

CONCLUSION

means of these the birth of hypnoid states may become the germ either of secondary personalities moreor less strongly marked (we have seen that the firstmanifestation s of Leopold in the chi ldhood of Heleneare a ttributable to thi s cause) or of somnambulisticromances, whi ch hold the same relati on towards thenormal state as does tha t exaggera tion of stories andindulgence in reveries to whi ch so many are addicted— perhaps all of u s .

We must a lso take into consideration the enormoussuggestibility and auto — suggestibility of mediums,which render them so sensitive to all the influences

of spiritistic reun ions, and are so favorable to theplay of those brilliant sublimina l creations in which ,

occasiona lly, the doctrinal ideas of the surrounding

environment are reflected together with the latent

emotiona l tendencies of the medium herself. The

development of the persona lity ofL eopold - Cagliostro ,starting from themoment atwh ich Mlle. Smith began

her seances, is easily expla ined in this manner, aswell as the Martian dream and the previous exist

ences of the Hindoo princess and the queen of France .

And, finally, we must note the phenomena ofcryptomnesia , the awaken ing and setting to work of

forgotten memories, wh ich ea sily accoun t for the elements of truth contained in the grea t preceding con

structions and in the in carna tions or casua l visions

of Mlle. Smith in the course of her seances .

But besides this genera l explanation how manypoints of deta il there are whi ch rema in obscure l For

example, the precise origin of Helene’

s Sanscrit ,and many of her retrocogn itions , for want of informa

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tion concern ing the thousand facts of her da ily life

whence the ideas whi ch nourish her somnambulism

may have been drawn l And howdifficult it is togain a correct idea of her case as a whole, on account

of the crudity of ou r actua l notions as to the constitu

tion and organ iza tion of the human being, of our al

most total ignorance of psychological ontogenyWithout mentioning Hélene

’

s ephemera l in ca rna

tions (in which I have shown there is no reason farseeing anyth ing beyond the imitation s due to aufosuggestion ) , the divers more stable personalitieswh ich man ifest themselves in her hypnoid life— Leopold , Esenale, and the actors of theMartian romance,Simandin i , Marie Antoinette, etc .

— are only, in myopin ion , as I have hinted on many occasions, thevaried psychological states of Ml le . Smi th herselfa llotropic modifications, as it were, or phenomena of

polymorphism of her personality . For no one of

these persona lities corresponds sufficiently with herordinary personality by intellectua l faculties , themora l character, separation of memories , to justifythe hypothesis of a foreign possession .

But the theory of psych ic polymorph ism is stillvery imperfect, and inadequate to expla in the embryologica l shades whi ch sh ine forth in Helene’ s subliminal products— the retrograde perspective whi chthey open as to the different stages or periods of

her evolution . The Martian cycle, with its un

known language, evidently betrays an eminentlypuerile origin and the display of an hereditary l inguistic aptitude, buried under Helene’s ordinaryself whereas the Hindoo romance denotes a more

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And now let us admit, hypothetica lly, that I havenot been able to see the supernormal, wh ich was

plainly before my eyes, and that it is thi s blindnessof mine a lone whi ch has preven ted me from recognizing the rea l presence of Joseph Ba lsamo, my ownmother, the Hindoo prin cess, etc .

— or, at all events,the presence of real , disincarna te, independent spirits .

It is, of course, to be regretted, but then it is I a lonewho will be in disgrace on the day when the truthsha ll be made mani fest.For, as to progress in our knowledge of things,

everythi ng is to be feared from easy credulity and

obstinate dogma tism, but that progress will not bearrested or seriously retarded by possible errors,commi tted in good faith , through an exaggeratedseverity of application and a too strict observanceof the principles themselves of all experimental investigation : whi le, on the contrary

, the obstaclesand the difficulties wh ich the necessities of the method multiply along its path have a lways been a strongstimulant, producing new movements forward and

more durable conquests based on better demonstrations .

It is better, then , to follow my advice - in the wellunderstood interest of and for the advancement ofscience, in a domain where superstition is a lwaysready to give itsel f free play— it is better to err throughexcess of caution and strictness of method than torun the risk of being sometimes deceived ; it is betterto allow some interesting fact to escape for the moment, rather than to open the door to the follies of theimagination by a relaxation of necessary caution ,

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CONCLUSION

As to Mlle . Hélene Smith ,supposing tha t I have

fa iled to recogn ize in her phenomena whi ch are rea lly supernorma l (wh ich , in that case, will some daybe better set forth by other observers) , she will , nevertheless , accomplish more in the way of discoveringthe rea l truth , whatever it may be, in submittingherself disinterestedly to my free criticisms , than

by doing a s so many useless mediums have done,who, a fra id of the light, in their foolish eagerness for

the triumph of a cause very dear to their hearts , have

shunned close investigation , and would have us

rely upon their word a lone .

They forget the saying of Bacon , wh ich is everbeing confirmed : Tr u th i s daughter of time,

of author ity .

"

THE END