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
TRANSLATOR’
S PREFACE
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
TRANSLATOR ’
S PREFACE
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
TRANSLATOR’
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
TRANSLATOR ’S PREFACE
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
XV
TRANSLATOR '
S PREFACE
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
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
TRANSLATOR ’
S PREFACE
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
xix
TRANSLATOR ’
S PREFACE
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
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
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
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
'
27
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
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
35
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
36
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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 .
44
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
D 49
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
SI
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
52
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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 .
54
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"
55
FROM INDIA T0 THE PLANET MARS
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
57
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
59
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
60
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET'
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 .
64
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
F. 65
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
I
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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.
70
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,
71
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
72
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
73
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
74
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
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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 .
80
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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,
83
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
84
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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.
92
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
94
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.
95
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
96
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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.
99
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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.
106
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
107
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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 .
108
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
1 16
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
120
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
122
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
123
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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 .
126
THE PERSONALITY OF LEOPOLD
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
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
130
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
132
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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 .
I34
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 .
35
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
136
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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.
138
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
I39
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 .
140
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
I44
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
155
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,
156
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
158
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
160
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
162
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
164
FROM INDIA To THE PLANET MARS
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.
”
166
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
167
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
168
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
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.
171
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
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 .
I7S
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.
176
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
179
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
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 .
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 .
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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 .
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
188
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°
FROM INDIA T0 THE PLANET MARS
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
I93
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.
FROM INDIA T0 THE PLANET MARS
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
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
202
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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 .
2 10
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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.
212
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
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.
216
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
218
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 .
220
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
222
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
224
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
226
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 .
227
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 .
228
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
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
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
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
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
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
251
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
252
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
254
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 .
256
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
258
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.
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
,
262
MARTIAN AND ULTRA- MARTIAN
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
264
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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’
s sub266
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 ]
268
FROM INDIA TO THE PLA i nAi t o
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
270
MARTIAN AND ULTRA-MARTIAN
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
271
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
272
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
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.
279
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,
280
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
282
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
FROM INDIA T0 THE PLANET MARS
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
286
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) .
287
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
288
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
292
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
294
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
296
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
298
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 .
300
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
302
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 .
303
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
304
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
306
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
307
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 ?
308
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
310
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.
312
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
314
THE HINDOO CYCLE
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
315
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
3 16
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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,
318
THE HINDOO CYCLE
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
3 19
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
320
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
322
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
323
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
326
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
.327
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
FROM INDIA TO THE"
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.
33°
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
332
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
335
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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 .
336
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
338
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
339
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
340
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
344
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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 . ]
347
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
348
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
3SI
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
352
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
354
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
355
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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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
359
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,
360
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
FROM INDIA T0 THE PLANET MARS
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
367
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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.
"
368
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
370
SUPERNORMAL APPEARANCES
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
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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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FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
379
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
380
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
383
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
384
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
387
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
388
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
390
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
39I
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
392
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
394
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
395
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
396
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
398
SUPERNORMAL APPEARANCES
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
399
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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 .
402
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
403
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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 .
’
404
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
406
SUPERNORMAL APPEARANCES
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
407
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
403
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
410
SUPERNORMAL APPEARANCES
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
41 1
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
4 12
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
414
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
415
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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.
416
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
418
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 .
420
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
422
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
424
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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.
426
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
427
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
428
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
430
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
431
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
432
FROM INDIA T0 THE PLANET MARS
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
435
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
436
FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS
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
439
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 .
FROM INDIA T0 THE PLANET MARS
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
443
FROM INDIA T0 THE PLANET MARS
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
444
FROM INDIA T0 THE PLANET MARS
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 ,
446
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
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