The secret life of the soul. Unconscious

Contents The ability of the soul for unconscious intelligent activity 1. Unconscious intelligent activity of the soul 2. An example of the unconscious activity of the spirit 3. What was done unconsciously can subsequently affect the area of consciousness 4. The power of inherited habits 5. Examples of the subconscious activity of our personality 6. The ability of the soul for the unconscious perception of impressions (paramnesia, or false memory) 1. Experiences in guessing the effects of drugs 2. Detailed description areas, buildings and persons who lived in them, from a piece of stone 3. Description of the planet from a piece of meteorite 4. An incident from the life of St. Sergius 5. Clairvoyance of the writer Chokke 6. Stories about the psychometric abilities of Mrs. Coffan 7. Inner voice. (Letter to the editor of Rebus) 8. A warning about danger 9. Open murder, thanks to psychometric ability 10. The death of the Duke of Orleans in Paris, seen in Scotland B. The ability of the human soul to directly know what is happening at a long distance at a given time (far-sight facts) C. Graphology D. Palmistry D. Heightened sensitivity E. Clairvoyance G. Clairvoyance with the help of crystals 3. Spiritual insight I. Double vision J. Cryptoscopy, or the ability to see hidden objects K. Reading thoughts L. The mysterious appearance of images in the soul of the artist during his work M. Instinctive solution of difficult mathematical problems Spiritual vision 1. The shadow of the deceased Count Stackelberg 2. Stories about Swedenborg 3. The Ghost in Ancient Times 4. The Appearance of the Knight's Ghost 5. The Beresford Ghost 6. The Ghost Room 7. The Ghost of Queen Elizabeth 8. The Pastor's Ghost 9. The Priest's Tale 10. From Beyond the Grave 11. The Vision of a Child 12. The Appearance of the Ghost 13. The Vision of A. S. Pushkin 14. The White Woman 15. R. Owen's story about a father who died in Europe, who appeared to his son in America 16. Two historical stories about ghosts 17. Vision of the Krakow canon Jacob Gursky The soul's capacity for unconscious intelligent activity 1. Unconscious intelligent activity of the soul Have you, reader, ever thought about the extent to which consciousness is involved in our daily activities? This question, of course, has never occurred to most, and yet its solution leads to many interesting, if not instructive, conclusions. It turns out that a significant proportion of our activity, not only physical, but also intellectual, such as in the artistic, poetic and even scientific fields, occurs completely automatically, that is, without the participation of consciousness. Carpenter gives numerous examples of this kind of unconscious brain work, but we will allow ourselves to cite only one of them here. “Playing the piano,” says this scientist, “represents the most remarkable manifestation of unconscious brain work. We must simultaneously parse two separate lines of hieroglyphs, the right hand following one line, the left hand following the other. All ten fingers work as fast as they can. The mind transfers to the keys tens of A sharps, B flats and C bekars, quarter notes, eighth notes, thirty-second notes, pauses and all other musical secrets. The legs also do not remain inactive, they work as pedals. And all this time, the performer or performer - a conscious performer - is in seventh heaven with artistic delight from the result of all this terrible work, or, perhaps, is completely occupied with a pleasant conversation with the gentleman, turning over the notes and quite thoroughly confident that she is giving him her whole soul. Speaking about automatic acts (“Mental automatism” by Jackson) - which only differ from ordinary actions in that at the moment of performing the act the subject knows nothing about it - Dessoir gives one example in which, during an interesting story from a friend who visited him, he was doing the toilet, then, putting the key in his pocket, got dressed and left the house. But on the street he suddenly has the idea that the key was left at home. He hurriedly returns, searches and finally makes sure that the key is in his pocket. When he explained his absence home to a friend who was waiting for him on the street, he remarked: “You should have told me about this earlier, because I saw you take a bunch of keys out of the drawer, separate one key and put it in your pocket.” Each of us knows hundreds and thousands of such examples, as they are repeated at every step. All of them prove that when performing even very complex actions, the participation of consciousness is not at all necessary. How often, when reading a book, it doesn’t matter whether it’s out loud or to ourselves - we think about something completely different and have absolutely no idea about the pages we’ve read. While proofreading, drawing and composing colors, we are simultaneously carrying on a conversation that completely absorbs our attention, etc. There is no doubt that all such actions, which require mental effort to a certain extent, cannot be performed without the participation of our “I,” which, however, is already occupied with another kind of work. This is even more obvious when we remember the well-known ability of Napoleon, Caesar and others, who could simultaneously dictate entire letters to several people, complex and witty dispositions that decided the fate of battles, etc. An even more striking example of simultaneous intellectual work in two different directions is provided by one of the members of the Lond. total psycho, research Burkworth, who, during the liveliest conversation, without making any mistakes or interrupting the latter, can do the addition of huge columns of numbers 1. For the success of this kind of experiments, in addition to consideration, memory is also necessary, i.e., in other words, the participation of our “I” is absolutely necessary here. But it can’t, so to speak, be in two places at the same time?! Therefore, we have to admit that our soul is capable of unconscious rational activity; we, to put it inaccurately, have, as it were, two consciousnesses. One of them, which under ordinary conditions manages more complex spiritual processes, Dessoir calls the “subconscious” (Oberbewusstsein), the other, which controls the simplest processes, the “subconscious” (Unterbewusstsem). But if this kind of division of our personality on the basis of observations taken from everyday life can still arouse great doubts, then when analyzing the pathological states of our spirit, these doubts gradually give way to confidence in the theoretical possibility of a complex personality. It happens, as for example in the case of Dr. Azam, that a subject under the influence of the subconscious personality knows everything that happened during the normal period, while in the ordinary state he has absolutely no idea about what happened during the dominance of his second “I”. Felida X. in a normal state or, in Azam's terminology, in condition prime, not only does not know anything that happens in condition seconde, as Azam calls the state of natural somnambulism - into which his patient at times fell - but even the very character of the latter was sharply different during both periods. Nevertheless, as we have already said, the memory of Felida X.’s second “I” embraced her entire life. The first concerned only the normal state, i.e., the same thing was observed here that is usually noticed in hypnotics. A similar case occurred with Dufay, and his patient L. L, being under the influence of the subconscious personality, expressed herself extremely disrespectfully regarding her normal state: “etat bete” - she characterized him. Sometimes the conscious and subconscious personalities are in such a close mutual connection, and, moreover, without subordinating them to each other, that the position of the subject reaches the highest degree of drama. Jaffe gives the example of a certain D., who lost the ability to distinguish between good and evil in relation to his own aspirations and divided himself into good D. and evil D., as a result of which he tried to kill the latter by suicide 2 . Leibniz in one place of his Nouveaux Essais says: “If we could suppose that two different and separate consciousnesses act alternately in the same body, one by day, the other by night, then I ask, would not the man of the day and the man of the night represent the same two different personalities as Socrates and Plato?” This question has now been resolved in a positive sense; a difference has been established between the sleeping man and the waking man, which in some cases reaches extraordinary clarity. For the most part, both consciousnesses alternate; at least, cases of simultaneously feeling two personalities within oneself are quite rare. In some pathological conditions, it was possible to observe a complete splitting of the personality. Such a case is given by the French psychiatrist Ball. Patient S. once heard a voice after a long faint: “Are you feeling better today?” Thinking that this is being asked by someone hiding nearby, the patient answers meekly. The next day, hearing the same voice and not seeing anyone, S. asked: “Who are you?” “Mr. Gabbage,” answered the voice, and a conversation began between them, in which all the discord that existed between the two consciousnesses was expressed. A few days later, S. finally saw the mysterious stranger quite clearly, distinguishing in him the smallest details of his facial features, folds of his suit, etc. This case represents the highest degree of splitting of personality, reaching its hallucinatory personification. An interesting example of the sequential change of two “I”s is given by Meknaish 3 . One young American woman, waking up one day after an unnaturally long sleep, found herself in a state of such complete transformation of personality that she had no idea of ​​anything that she knew before, that is, in an abnormal state. She had to learn to speak, read, even walk, etc. This was a subject whose soul represented a perfect tabula rasa. A few months later, again after a long sleep, the previous normal state returned, which was then again replaced by a secondary period. This went on for 4 years, and each time the transition from one personality to another was caused by sleep. Professor Barrett talks about the son of a London priest who suffered a serious illness, after which the young man suddenly seemed to cease to be one person, and two personalities began to appear in his person, alternating. In one state he was himself, recognized his friends and parents and generally led, so to speak, a normal existence. In another, he pretended to be a completely different person, bearing a different name, did not remember his previous past, did not recognize his parents and acquaintances, and had a musical talent that was not even mentioned in his usual state. Both existences, we note, seemed normal. Very important arguments in favor of the dualism of the 4th personality are presented by the studies of Vinet and Feret on the hysterical. Let us present here some of these interesting experiments that provide grounds for very broad generalizations. Having blindfolded the subject suffering from anesthesia of the right hand, we place a pencil between the thumb and forefinger of the latter. It turns out that, despite the numbness of the hand, both fingers clasp the pencil, and the others are bent accordingly, as for writing. Meanwhile, the subject knows nothing about this: the movements were made without the knowledge of his consciousness. It follows from this that a hysterical person, despite anesthesia, can react to irritation of her insensitive member, but all this happens under the influence of the subconscious personality, in other words, the anesthesia of a given member extends only to the normal “I”. Moreover, if the hand holding the pencil begins to draw some letters, numbers, etc., then after we leave it, it itself continues to write certain numbers, letters, draw figures, and again completely unconsciously for the subject. Therefore, regardless of subconscious perception, subconscious thinking is also visible here. But although subconscious processes remain completely unknown to the conscious “I,” nevertheless, as Binet proved with his experiments (“Revue philosophique”), these processes do not remain without influence on the latter 5. It is known from normal psychophysiology that tactile impressions can excite corresponding visual representations 6 . If, let’s say, something cold, slippery touches us, then, even if we didn’t see it at all or kept our eyes closed, the idea of ​​a frog, toad, etc. immediately arises in us; the touch of a knife evokes a visual idea of ​​its shape, color, etc. But, of course, if we touch an anesthetized surface, then this kind of representation, apparently, should not arise. However, it turns out that, although there is no conscious representation in such cases, nevertheless, the influence of the impression perceived by the subconscious personality affects our “I” in a corresponding form. For example, if an experimental subject, whose attention is focused on the letters of a newspaper, begins to prick the anesthetized part of the body or draw lines on it, then the subject sees dots or lines on the newspaper that obscure the letters for him, making it difficult to read. At the same time, Binet noticed another very important fact. If the experimenter, having drawn, say, a square, on the anesthetized hand of a hysterical person, asks him to think about some thing, then the figure of a square appears before the subject’s eyes. The only difference between an idea that arises completely freely and under the influence of a tactile impression experienced by a subconscious person is the speed of occurrence: in the first case it is instantaneous, in the second it is 2-5 seconds. Sometimes the subject even says: “I don’t know, I have to think for a moment.” The following experience gives us a basis for judging the degree of dependence of one consciousness on another. If the experimenter, taking the patient's anesthetized hand, writes some number with it, then another one under it, and then draws a line under them, then sometimes it happens that the subject himself adds their sum under these numbers. The patient cannot answer the question about what the first numbers were, but the overall result, i.e., the amount, is known to him. From this it follows, says Dessoir 7 , that “in the second consciousness, impressions are not only noted, but are also consciously associated with each other, that without the knowledge of the individual, an addition is carried out, only the last term of which, the result, passes into the primary consciousness.” Summarizing the above facts, we come to the conclusion that the consciousness of a sleeping, drunk, somnambulist, or epileptic during a seizure differs from normal consciousness, that this second consciousness, or subconscious, has its own memory, its own intelligence. But this memory is not always sharply separated from the life of the normal self. Turning now to experimental studies, we note that at the same time as proving the duality of personality, they throw light on the nature of hypnosis. Burru and Bureau had one patient who suffered from great hysteria, who, after a strong mental shock, completely lost her memory of the past. She retained the memory of only one period of her entire existence from birth to entry into the hospital, not excluding the two years mentioned. At the same time, her physical condition also changed. While while awake she suffered partly from anesthesia and partly from hyperesthesia (increased sensitivity), in hypnosis her sensitivity was normal. In the latter state, the patient’s mental makeup also changed, expressed in her gaze, movements, writing and speech. Dessoir explains this case by saying that: “a strong shock upset the balance of mental life and plunged part of it into a depth that remains unattainable for the consciousness of the individual, but in hypnosis a state arises that includes this depth. Thus, hypnosis can be compared to the subconscious” 8. So, the application of hypnotism to the study of personality gave psychologists the opportunity to directly experiment on our subconscious “I”. From the experiments, first of all, it became clear that a person who was in deep hypnosis does not remember anything that happened in a dream, and only during secondary hypnosis is the subject’s memory of the events that occurred during previous euthanizations resurrected. Wohlfarth relates a case in which a lady recalled in hypnosis what happened to her during a hypnotic sleep in which she was immersed thirteen years ago 9 . When speaking about the memories of someone who has woken up, we deliberately do not use the word “forgets,” since “you can only forget something that was previously known, and the first, or normal, “I,” says Dessoir, “does not know anything of what the second, or somnambulistic, experienced 10 . It sometimes happens that we cannot remember some impression, but the next day, after sleep, we remember it: this was suggested to us by the unconscious personality at a time when it emerged from its usual subordinate position. But the latter is completely freed from the despotism of the conscious “I” only during somnambulism. However, even here, the timid and accustomed to subordination, the subconscious “I” does not retain independence and immediately falls under the influence of the extraneous, awake, conscious personality of the hypnotist. Janet gives an interesting example of such duality of the self. A nineteen-year-old normal girl named Lucy, when hypnotized, called herself Adriene. Adriene had a complete understanding of Lucy, knew such details of her life, starting from early childhood, of which Lucy had lost all memory. On the contrary, normal Lucy had no idea about Adriene, and the hypnotist also did not obtain information about the latter from her. Lucy chose the name Adriene, obviously, on the one hand, in view of the consciousness of the difference of both “I,” and on the other hand, out of subjective preference for this name and in view of the convenience of conversation with the hypnotist. Lucy gave in to suggestions and carried them out exactly, being in some kind of mixed, either wakeful or hypnotic state. So, for example, she is ordered to get up and walk, and she did this without realizing it at all: from her conversation one could conclude that she imagined that she was sitting. She was ordered to cry - and she burst into tears, again without realizing it and continuing to conduct a cheerful and carefree chatter. However, although the second “I” is obedient and uncritical, it is, as we have already seen, not devoid of the ability to think. Here is another example from the experiments carried out by Dr. Dessoir at a meeting of the Society of Experimental Psychology. G. D. is subjected to a post-hypnotic suggestion, which he must carry out when he hears M. Dessoir clap his hands for the 17th time. Upon awakening D., Dr. Moll starts a conversation with him, during which Dessoir claps his hands 15 times. When D. was asked if he heard the flapping, he replied that he did not, and also had no idea what was going to happen after 17 blows. But as soon as the last two blows sounded, D. completely automatically carried out the suggestion. This experience proves that the subconscious not only has memory, but is also capable of intellectual work. The following experience convinces us of the same thing. They suggest to the hypnotic person that upon awakening he will perform a certain action after two numbers said one after the other during a conversation add up to 7, and the suggestion is actually carried out on 11. Let's go further, however. It has probably happened to you, reader, more than once, when you are thinking about something, and automatically draw whatever you like on paper. Either you draw some kind of face, then you put numbers, then you endlessly write out some name, then you draw a triangle, a square, a house, etc. There can be three degrees of this kind of meaningless staining. The first of them is characterized by the fact that the subject knows what he is writing, but does it involuntarily, automatically and thinking about something extraneous. The second is when “the subconscious develops greater freedom,” and there is considerable swiftness in the movements of the pencil, so that “the operator loses knowledge of the content of his own writing and notices with obvious surprise how sometimes the most secret thoughts and feelings come into the light of God.” When spiritual duality reaches its apogee, the subject no longer notices at all what his hand is doing, and often does something completely different, conducts a lively conversation, etc. Shadow, by the way, observed one person who could talk and sing, and at the same time write, despite the paper, successive phrases and even entire pages, without being aware of what was written. “In my opinion,” says the author, “it was impossible to believe in her sincerity. Meanwhile, she explains that when she finishes a page, she has no idea what was written; when she rewrites, she is amazed and sometimes afraid of what is written. Her handwriting is different than usual. The movement of the fingers and pencil is fast and seems automatic." 12 This is not the place for us to talk about so-called spiritualistic “direct” writing, but we cannot resist involuntary comparison of automatic, i.e., under the influence of the second self, writing with similar phenomena noticed during spiritualistic seances. During the above experiment on Mr. D., when the latter declared that he knew nothing about clapping his hands, he was given a pencil in his hand, noticing that the hand itself would record how many times Mr. Dessoir clapping his hands. D. laughed incredulously, after which he continued the conversation and did not notice at all how the pencil slowly wrote down “15 times.” When after some time D.’s attention was drawn to the words he had written, he did not want to believe that it was his hand that wrote them. In this way, a hypnotized person can be forced to write things that he would not at all want to reveal. Here one involuntarily recalls Goethe’s words: “zwei Seelenwohnen, ach! in seiner Brust" 13 . The use of automatic writing in psychological research has, among other things, made it possible to clarify the psychological basis of the so-called rapport between the hypnotist and the euthanized. When the latter was inspired not to hear anyone except the experimenter, he did not answer any questions from strangers. Meanwhile, when the hypnotist gave him a pencil, telling him to write down the names of those asking and the questions addressed to him, then during the most lively conversation, the hand automatically wrote down the content of the questions and the names of those asking. From this Dessoir concludes that “rapport in this case is nothing more than the normal perception of certain impressions by the higher spheres of sleep consciousness” 14. The same experiment carried out in relation to negative hallucinations gives similar results and, therefore, allows for an explanation close to rapport. When one of the four cards was made invisible through suggestion, the subject named only the other three. They put a pencil in his hand, explaining that the hand should write down all the cards, and, indeed, they were all written automatically, while the subject continued, after all, not to see the fourth card. (Extracted in abbreviation from the book by V. Vitner: “To believe or not to believe?” St. Petersburg, 1899, pp. 108–109.) 2. An example of the unconscious activity of the spirit One day, a circle of friends gathered at Dr. Dessoir's place. While the rest of the company was busy talking loudly, Mr. W. became engrossed in some book. Suddenly one of the guests pronounced the name of Mr. X., who was very interested in Mr. W. The latter did not have the slightest idea of ​​what was said, but heard only one surname of the person who interested him, and therefore turned to the society with a question regarding the fate of Mr. X. Then, with the consent of Mr. W., Dessoir put him to sleep and demanded that he repeat everything that was said when he read. Imagine the surprise of society when the hypnotized man accurately conveyed the entire conversation. It is obvious, therefore, that, despite the occupation of reading, which completely absorbed the attention of Mr. W., auditory impressions were perceived by him, but they did not reach the consciousness that dominates in the waking state, but to another, which in the normal state plays a passive role and was called into the light of God, if I may say so, during hypnosis. (V. Bitner: “To believe or not to believe?” St. Petersburg, 1899, p. 122.) 3. What was done unconsciously can subsequently affect the area of consciousness As Fechner relates (Elemente der Psychophysik II, p. 432, after 1st ed.), he was amazed one morning in bed by a white image of a chimney when he closed his eyes. Before that, lying with his eyes open and thinking, he saw in front of him, without realizing it, a black chimney on a white background of the wall, and what seemed to him now was only a trace of this image 15. This means that physical irritation occurred in such a way that the sensation of vision could arise, but, due to lack of attention, not the sensation itself appeared in consciousness, but only a more vivid trace of it. In the same way, if we listened absentmindedly to our interlocutor, then only a long time later we can realize what he was saying. Only thanks to a special intensification of attention, unconsciously perceived impressions here rise above the “threshold of consciousness,” and if attention is awakened, this occurs because the received irritation produces ideas in us, although it itself has not crossed the threshold of consciousness. Therefore, if we are able to remember something, then this is not at all proof that we actually learned it quite consciously at one time. An unconscious impression can also be recalled in a memory due to its connection with a consciously perceived one. In some cases of hysteria, processes occurring simultaneously and independently of consciousness act so coherently and intelligently that the existence of a “lower consciousness” was assumed. (See Prof. G. Geffding: “Essays on Psychology,” St. Petersburg, 1898, pp. 62–63.) 4. The power of inherited habits Habits and inclinations that we ourselves have acquired, or that we have indulged in, or, finally, that have been bequeathed to us by previous generations, live long after their causes have disappeared. The ideas, feelings and actions to which these inclinations lead us do not have a complete explanation in the life of consciousness itself. There are always intermediate members that are usually missed and which can only be discovered through physiological and sociological research. Conscious motives have disappeared, but their consequences still live. Therefore, we define instinct as a purposeful action not accompanied by consciousness. Conscious action is partly determined by unconscious motives and also leaves unconscious consequences. Both for individuals and for entire nations, sudden upheavals hardly mean much; usually underground inclinations persist, which cannot be controlled immediately. Herodotus (IV, 3–4) says that the slaves of the Scythians, during the long and distant campaigns of their masters, married their wives and seized power. When the masters returned, they could not deal with the younger generation born from these marriages by force of arms, but they pacified them only by slapping them with whips, which were usually used to punish slaves. This story can serve, in any case, as a poetic confirmation of the idea of ​​​​the power of inherited habits. The lives of outstanding people who paved new paths often show us how much they had to struggle with what was ingrained, thanks to the impressions of youth and practice (See Prof. G. Gefding: “Essays on Psychology”, St. Petersburg 1898, p. 61 16). 5. Examples of the subconscious activity of our personality Some happy organizations have the ability to read at will, tens and hundreds of miles away, the unspoken, sometimes even unconscious thoughts of their friends and relatives. Particularly possessed of this remarkable ability was Stead, the well-known publisher of The Review of Reviews. Of his stories to an employee of The Christian Commonwealth, we will cite only the more interesting ones. For clarity, we note that in his mental communications with absent people, Stead uses automatic writing. To do this, having mentally asked some question to the person he is interested in, he takes a pen in his hand, and his hand automatically writes the answer. “A few months ago,” says this wonderful journalist, “I was in Redcar, in the north of England. One foreigner, an employee of Review of Reviews, was supposed to meet me there around 3 o'clock in the afternoon. I was visiting my brother, who lives ten minutes from the station. When it was already ten minutes to three, it occurred to me that her phrase in the letter “about three” could also mean the time before three, therefore, not having a train schedule at hand, I asked her to mentally tell me the time of the train’s arrival. This was done without any prior agreement with her. She immediately wrote her name and replied that the train was arriving at the station at ten minutes to three. I had to go, but as I was leaving, I asked her: where is she at this moment? My hand wrote: "I'm at Middlesbrough station, on the road from Hartpool to Redcar." I went to the station, where I saw on the schedule that the train arrives at two hours and fifty-two minutes. But the train was late. It was already three o'clock and he was not there yet. At five minutes past three, worried, I took a piece of paper out of my pocket and, taking a pencil, asked her where it was. At that very moment she wrote her name 17 and answered: “I’m on the train, rounding the curve in front of Rzdkar, I’ll arrive in a minute.” - Why are you late? – I asked a question mentally. “We were detained in Middlesbrough,” the hand wrote, “I don’t know why.” “I put the piece of paper in my pocket and walked along the platform. The train was already approaching. As soon as he stopped, I went up to my friend and asked her: “You are late, why is that?” “I don’t know, the train stopped in Middlesbrough for so long that I thought it would never go.” Then I showed her the piece of paper, and she was extremely surprised to learn that it was she who wrote with my hand. “Before that, I only saw her once in my life.” One day Stead had to go to Preston to test a printing press he was planning to buy. However, he did not go, because his hand wrote that the car had deteriorated. Wanting to make sure, Stead telegraphed its owner to the hotel where he lived, although, according to the condition, he should have already been in Preston, and the owner after some time came to Stead to confirm the unpleasant news already known to the latter. Another time, Stead's son, who had gone to the Rhine, where he was taking photographs, wrote a letter to his father, asking him to send him records, the supply of which was depleted. The records were sent, however, the hand nevertheless repeated the request to send them several times. Stead this time doubted the correctness of the hand's messages, but upon his son's return it turned out that he had not received the parcel. “Some of my friends,” says Stead, “wrote to me in this way, at a distance of three hundred miles, the details of their travels, the times of arrival and departure of trains, the cost of living in hotels, a lot of such little things that I would never have been able to guess.” From these interesting stories, which, by the way, we note, have been carefully verified, the reader sees that our second “I” has the ability of telepathic perception, which in some subjects reaches the highest degree of its development, bordering on one of the types of clairvoyance. But the above stories at the same time show that our second “I” has not only the ability of telepathic perception, but also unconscious influence. Both of these, in most cases, occur between relatives and acquaintances, but, obviously, there is no reason to assume that both of them, i.e., telepathic influence and perception, could not manifest themselves between people who do not know each other at all, and, moreover, completely without the participation of their consciousnesses. Thus, it is enough that this fact is generally known to anyone in the world, and it can, under favorable but still unknown conditions, manifest itself in the form of automatic writing, or be demonstrated by a medium in a state of so-called trance, or in some other way. (We extracted the presented facts in abbreviation from the book by V. Bitner: “To believe or not to believe?” St. Petersburg, 1899, pp. 132–134.) 6. The ability of the soul to unconsciously perceive impressions (paramnesia, or false memory) Sometimes it seems to us that we have already been to a known place, seen already known persons, heard an already known word. In reality, there was nothing of the kind. This is called false memory, or paramnesia 18. Famous scientists Mawdsley and Wigan explain paramnesia by the fact that in it both hemispheres of the brain, usually working alternately, act simultaneously, which gives the feeling as if we are dealing with a subject that is already familiar. According to Angel, this phenomenon is caused by unconscious perception, the sensation of which, that is, reaching consciousness, occurs somewhat later. We perceived something, but it did not move into the realm of consciousness, which, according to Spinoza’s apt definition, is attention to what is happening in our mind. When we pay this attention to what we perceive and become aware of it, then it already seems familiar to us. But sometimes there are cases when what has not yet been perceived is already known to us in advance. Upon arrival in some area that we have never been to before, it not only seems familiar to us, but we are even able to describe all the details of the path ahead of us: various turns, bridges, intersections, ravines, some remarkable signs, etc. There are subjects who possess such “false” memory to the highest degree. With one, for example, the French military doctor J., cases of awakening in the memory of things that he obviously could never see occur two or three times every day. So, one day in the theater, when they were playing a completely new play, he suddenly felt that it was familiar to him. Having informed a friend who was with him in the box about this, he immediately proved the truth of his words by completely unmistakably finishing the monologue that the actor had just begun. There are quite a few such cases in the literature. They were known in ancient times. Plato says that one warrior, dying on the battlefield of Plataea, felt at that time an extraordinary clearing of his memory. His spiritual gaze turned back fifty years when he was killed in battle with the Persians. When recalling his life at that time, a skirmish with the enemy that happened shortly before this battle, which ended happily for the Greeks, was resurrected in his memory. In it, he managed to kill the enemy leader, whose shield, decorated with the appropriate inscription, was hung by him in a nearby church. When the words of the dying man were checked, it turned out that, indeed, in the place he indicated, on one of the columns of the church, there was a shield, on the back of which was the inscription mentioned by the warrior... Reading this strange story, given by one of the most truthful writers of antiquity, and comparing it with some facts from modern life, we understand that our views on mental activity need great additions. To admit, like some spiritualists and Eastern religions, the possibility of transmigration of souls, as hinted at in the above story by Plato, is, from a rational point of view, absurdity. Referring to a random coincidence would be useless and not convincing to anyone. In fact, is it really possible to talk about a random coincidence when it is repeated several times a day? Meanwhile, the phenomenon of paramnesia, which is so closely related to the question of prophetic visions and at the same time serving as the source of many conclusions in an extremely mystical direction, should not remain unexplained. It would therefore be more prudent, instead of ignoring many well-known facts due to the inability to explain them, to propose, of course, in the form of a hypothesis, an explanation based on phenomena that are not yet completely generally recognized. In view of these and similar considerations, if we look at cases like the above story of Plato, the doctor J., and others, as examples of not false, but real memory, then the matter will appear in a slightly different form. I can already see, reader, the bewilderment on your face, and therefore I hasten to express myself more clearly. The fact is that if a known phenomenon does not encounter any obstacles from a logical point of view, then there are no reasonable grounds to ignore it. In this regard, every existing object and even an already accomplished phenomenon does not represent anything impossible for their perception. How? That's another question. But for now it is important for us to agree only with the fact that what exists or existed in reality, therefore, having produced a certain effect, can have one or another influence on our psyche. In other words, it is just as possible from the point of view of logic as the perception of something that does not yet exist is impossible. Having agreed on this important point, let us look at the question more specifically. Let us take, for example, the case of the aforementioned French doctor J., to whom the new play turned out to be familiar. Leaving aside the possibility of some related mentality of two individuals, allowing them to independently create similar things in the field of science or art, as well as an accidental coincidence, let us remember the existence of a very rare ability of some individuals to mentally communicate with others without the latter’s knowledge. The famous journalist Stead has this ability to a fairly strong degree. Readers already know that there have been cases with him when, concentrating his thought on a famous person located somewhere far away, even hundreds of miles away, and asking her a question concerning her in his mind, he receives an answer that is automatically written in his hand. During spiritualistic seances, such automatic writing is a common occurrence. Such telepathic communication of our subconscious personality with the psyche of, perhaps, completely unfamiliar persons to us, probably most often happens during the active activity of our second “I,” that is, in hypnosis and similar forms of natural sleep. Let's imagine that the doctor Zh. was quite often in a similar dream, favorable for the telepathic perception of thoughts, ideas and entire completed pictures coming from nowhere. Then it is possible that the author of the play, which seemed so familiar to J., found himself in unconscious telepathic communication with the latter precisely at the time when, on the one hand, this play was being written or thought about, on the other hand, J. was in a favorable state for perceiving other people’s thoughts. I personally had one rather remarkable case, which, it seems, can be classified in the same category of phenomena. When, after graduating from high school, I was in a special educational institution, in the first year I fell ill with typhus. Going to the infirmary, I was very busy with the thought that, perhaps, having fallen ill, I would not have time to submit by the deadline the essay that I had completed and even rewritten, with the exception of the end, which I intended to redo. I took the notebook with me to the infirmary. The first two days I had a fever and was delirious. On the third day the fever subsided and I slept peacefully at night. In the morning I got up, put on a robe and shoes, took a notebook from under the pillow and went into the room where the doctors wrote prescriptions, prescribed portions, etc. There I sat down at the table and began to write. It should be noted that I did all this unconsciously and subsequently did not retain any memories, and I judge my actions by the results. I can’t say how long I wrote, but the stoker who came later told me that he asked me why I got up so early, and how I could write almost in the dark (it was about five in the morning in the winter, and the fire in the lamp was reduced to the last degree). I didn’t answer him and continued to write quickly. He lit the stove and then began to remove small chips and debris. The flame flared up, and its reflection illuminated me. Then only the stoker saw that I was writing with my eyes closed and smiling from time to time. - Master! Master! What are you doing? I was silent and wrote. The poor guy got scared, quit his job and ran to the paramedic. After a while they both came and began to silently watch me. Obviously, I had already finished my work. They say I leaned back, muttered something, then wrote again. Finally, laughing somehow strangely, I made a large stroke, similar to those made in official papers at the end of each page (so that nothing could be added). Then the paramedic said that, considering me a “sleepwalker,” he was afraid to call out to me. Having written the end of the essay straight out, as it turned out later, I waved the notebook so that the ink would dry (although the press blotter was lying right there), and, folding the notebook, stood up from the chair. I walked past the paramedic who made way for me with a calm, confident gait, although my eyes were closed the entire time. The next day, when the senior doctor found out about this incident, the previously unnoticed notebook was taken away from me and the ward servant was charged with monitoring me more closely. In the morning I felt good and the temperature was almost normal. I had no idea about my overnight adventure. When they told me about it, I did not leave the doctor until they read to me what I had written at night. I could hardly believe that I myself had written the end of my essay in a similar spirit, but I was pleased with it, so I asked to hand it in to the teacher. The latter, interested in this case, wanted to report it in one of the pedagogical journals where he collaborated (I don’t know if he fulfilled his intention). What struck him most of all was that two months later he received from his brother, also a writer, a reprint of the article the latter had written. It turned out that there was one page in it, which was almost word for word a repetition of one passage from what I wrote at the end of the work that night. Based on the timing, it turned out that I was probably writing at the same time as the author of the mentioned article. Nothing like this has ever happened to me again. About three days after this nocturnal adventure, my illness became so severe that I did not emerge from an unconscious state for a long time. Citing this case, which presumably represents an example of the telepathic influence of one brain on another, of course, one cannot attach much importance to it, due to the lack of accurate data confirming the simultaneous writing of both works. Nevertheless, the naturalness of the explanation following from it for some cases of paramnesia, which is thus an example of a previous telepathic influence, does not allow us to ignore such cases. But, as is easy to see, paramnesia cannot always be explained in this way. In those cases where its object is not the creation of the human spirit, but inanimate objects, as, for example, in the above-mentioned story by Plato, we have to resort to another explanation. Comparing this case with those examples of paramnesia, when for the first time the area we see turns out to be already familiar, it seems necessary, in order to avoid the unconvincing assumption of random coincidences, to assume in a person the ability to perceive objects that lie outside the sphere of our external senses. This ability of supersensible perception, called clairvoyance in space, seems to be possessed by some, however very rare, subjects. During hypnosis this ability is enhanced and made less exceptional. It is possible, therefore, that in sleep, which, as we know, sometimes turns into some forms of hypnosis, we acquire the gift of this kind of clairvoyance. Many scientists and even entire societies of experimental psychology are working to study such phenomena, gradually coming to the conclusion of the reality of this kind of clairvoyance. If, following their example, we admit the possibility of the existence of such supersensible perception, in favor of which many data speak, then the second type of false memory, manifested in relation to inanimate objects, becomes easily explained. Psychometry. The word “psychometry” (the definition of the soul) is far from corresponding to the concept it contains. But it is very difficult to come up with the correct name for the special gifts of nature, inexplicable in our earthly world. We will try to explain with several examples what exactly is meant by psychometry, but first we will say that the soul - (psycho) - under certain inherent conditions, has the ability to place itself in some kind of connection with more or less distant events that have left their, so to speak, spiritual mark on the objects touched by the psychometer. Such an object could be a hand, a piece of clothing, a stone, a piece of wood, a fragment from ancient ruins, a coin, a letter or an envelope. In a word, every object, through contact with which the psychometer enters into a spiritual relationship (rapport) with everything around it, as well as with the era with which this object is associated. And in some way it becomes the reason for the stimulation in the psychometer of the ability to see with his spiritual vision well-known events, as if passing in front of him in a panorama, and to feel the internal impressions associated with them. The following examples will better explain what is meant by psychometrics. Stories about human psychometric ability 1. Experiments in guessing the effects of drugs At the medical school, some comrades paid special attention to a male and female student who were distinguished by their extreme sensitivity, and decided to make several psychometric experiments with them, for which they chose two medications and poured a few drops of arnica tincture, coming from Germany, onto the student’s palm and a few drops of ipecac tincture onto the student’s hand. Both described the effect of medications on the human body so correctly that other students present learned, in their words, what kind of medications they were. But that’s not all: each of them described the surroundings of those places where the plant that served for the tincture was picked; for arnica - the Thuringian Mountains near Inselberg, and for ipecac - the tropical countries of Brazil, and so detailed and vivid that we definitely saw them ourselves. We did our experiments mostly with a girl, as with an even more sensitive subject, and with a student we only determined the medications by pouring them into his palm. With pulsatila and secal-cornut, the description of their effect on the male and female body came out so vividly that one might think that the person describing it took them in large doses. The California remedy for Canchilagua fever, then little known, produced all the symptoms of intermittent fever, although the student had never even heard the name of the plant. The student was so sensitive that I once tried to put a bottle of medicine in her hand, and as soon as she touched the stopper with one finger, her symptoms immediately became apparent, at first slowly and weakly, but soon as strongly and definitely as with direct contact with the medicine. Another doctor once put some lint in her hand, and she soon described the railway worker and the injuries he had received, described the surgical operation and the area where his accident happened. 2. Detailed description of areas, buildings and persons who lived in them, based on a piece of stone Professor Buchanan, who discovered the psychometric power, carried out experiments with hundreds of sensitive women, most of all with his wife, and achieved truly miraculous results. A small piece of tombstone from the grave of an Indian and several marble fragments from various Greek ruins, as soon as they fell into the hands of a medium, evoked detailed descriptions of places, buildings and persons who lived in them, descriptions of the battles that took place there, etc. A piece of paper torn from a letter was enough to establish a spiritual connection between the medium and the author of the letter, and a piece of wood thrown up by the sea for the medium to see and describe the terrible picture of the shipwreck. 3. Description of the planet from a piece of meteorite In conclusion, we will recall the amazing results achieved by Professor Denton with meteorites. Professor Denton has traveled extensively throughout the globe for geological research. One day he managed to dig out of the ground a meteorite that fell at his feet. As soon as it cooled down somewhat, he broke off a piece of it and took it with him, then broke it into twelve pieces and sent them to twelve psychometric mediums, most of whom did not know each other at all, and could hardly guess what was sent to them sealed in paper. Eleven of the twelve psychometers described a celestial body suddenly destroyed with all the animals, plants and creatures similar to earthly people who lived on it during the catastrophe. They described the forces operating there and the bodies of the inhabitants of that era, which had reached a high degree of perfection. Some of the mediums were able to trace the events that took place up to the destruction of that planet, whose fragments now revolved around the sun in the form of meteors, the path of which crosses the earth in the month of November. If a psychometer, taking someone by the hand, perceives both physical and mental impressions from him, then in the future, when psychometry develops, it will have to play an important role in the diagnosis of diseases, because through it the mental, spiritual and physical state of the patient can be examined not only at a given moment, but also at all previous ones, with all its most distant causes and consequences. In a word, the complete history of the disease will be clear to the doctor, whereas at present the mental and spiritual state of the patient is little known and even less noticeable 19. 4. An incident from the life of St. Sergius Contemporary of St. Sergius of Radonezh, St. Stefan, the enlightener of Perm, led during his reign. Prince Dmitry Ivanovich, the bishop of the Zyryansky region he had converted to Christianity, hurried to Moscow in 1390 to ask the prince to curb his officials, who oppressed his flock with heavy exactions. On his way to Moscow, he passed nine miles from Trinity, where St. Sergius. St. Stefan longed with all his heart to see him, but, hurrying to Moscow, he postponed the meeting until the return trip. This time he sent his greetings to the ascetic from afar. Stopping the horses in sight of the Sergius Monastery, he got off the cart, said a prayer and, spiritually contemplating the great ascetic, bowed to him to the ground. At this moment, Rev. Sergius sat with the brethren at the meal and, having seen the spiritual greeting of St. Stefan, immediately stood up and answered him with the same greeting, solemnly saying to the astonished brethren: “the teacher is coming.” This is the folk legend about the absentee meeting of two great ascetics (see the life of St. Sergius, compiled by Archimandrite Nikon). 5. Clairvoyance of the writer Chokke In Eduard von Hartmann’s interesting essay “Spiritism”, in the chapter “on reading thoughts”, mention is made of the famous German writer Heinrich Czock 20, who had a remarkable ability to “visually imagine all the main moments of a person’s life at the first glance at him and when hearing his voice.” A similar ability, to a greater or lesser extent, was possessed by some other individuals who were physically and mentally healthy. This amazing anomaly in the human psyche cannot, therefore, be counted among the legion of diverse mental disorders (they are now innumerable), with which others are so fond of explaining any out-of-the-ordinary phenomenon in the field of the spiritual nature of man. Csokke reports his gift of clairvoyance in his interesting autobiography 21 . With great apprehension, he begins to talk about his clairvoyance ability. Of course, he is not afraid that he will be considered superstitious, but he is afraid, mainly, that by his confession he will strengthen in superstition those who are predisposed to it. Such, however, is the fate of all so-called mysterious phenomena. The majority either resolutely denies the existence of these phenomena, considering them worthless nonsense and “fantasy,” or disowns them with superstitious fear, as if from evil spirits. Meanwhile, these “mysterious phenomena” represent a number of deeply interesting facts that are of enormous value not only for experimental psychology, but also for our entire scientific and ethical worldview. Perhaps the closest study of these “phenomena” will lead us to the solution of some “damned” questions that have been troubling the human mind for a long time. Let us now move on to Csokke's story. Often, when he silently listened to the speech of a person hitherto unknown to him or peered into the features of his face, the entire past life of the speaker in its smallest details flashed before his mental gaze, like a clear and distinct dream, and at times only individual events. This strange phenomenon usually lasted only a few minutes and it did not depend at all on his will and desire. Usually, Chokke was so completely immersed in examining the picture of someone else's life flashing before him that in the end the stranger's facial features blurred, as if in a fog, and he ceased to clearly distinguish even the voice, which had previously served him as a commentary on the facial features. For a long time, Chokke considered these fleeting visions to be a game of fantasy. Another feature that prompted him to do this was that in the picture of the vision he clearly distinguished the clothing and movement of the characters, the rooms and their decoration with all the details. The incident forced Chokke to take his strange visions more seriously. For fun, he once allowed himself, in an intimate family circle, to tell the secret story of a seamstress who had just left the room. Everyone was surprised and were convinced that Chokke knew perfectly well all the ins and outs of the poor seamstress, since everything he told turned out to be the absolute truth. Meanwhile, he saw this seamstress for the first time. It is easy to imagine Csokke’s own amazement when he saw that his visions were consistent with reality. Since then, he began to pay more attention to this strange feature of his and, if only decency allowed, he told those whose lives flashed before him the content of his visions in order to achieve denial or confirmation. Each time, however, confirmation followed, much to the embarrassment of those confirming. To illustrate this mental peculiarity of his, Chkke gives the following example, which, in his opinion, more clearly depicts the volume and content of the visions that arose in his mind than others: “Once on market day, in Waldsgut, I stopped at the Rebstock hotel. With me were two of my companions on the forest excursion I then took through the forests of the canton. We ate dinner in a crowded dining room. The conversation of those dining revolved mainly around the oddities and peculiarities of the Swiss, mesmerism, Lavater's physiognomy, etc. All these subjects were subjected to merciless mockery. One of my companions, whose national pride was greatly hurt, asked me to object to something, especially to one young man sitting vis-a-vis us, who most furiously mocked the mysterious and enigmatic phenomena of the human soul. Just at that moment his life flashed before me. I turned to him with the question whether he would give me a truthful answer if I, being completely unfamiliar with him, told him everything secret and intimate from his life. “We must admit,” I added, “that such a piece of art leaves far behind Lavater’s physiognomy, which you mock so much.” He promised to openly admit everything if I would only tell the truth. I began to convey my visions, and the whole company present learned the story of the young merchant, his years of study, his little errors and, finally, the little sin he committed in relation to the cash register of his principal. I described to him in detail an uninhabited room with whitewashed walls, where to the right of the black door there was a black cash drawer on the table, etc. Deep silence reigned throughout the story, occasionally interrupted by my questions about the veracity of what I was reporting. The young man, with deep embarrassment, gave an affirmative answer every time, even to the last one. Touched by his frankness, I extended my hand to him in a friendly manner and finished the story.” Despite the many evidence that should have convinced him that he had this strange mental feature, Csokke was still in doubt for a long time. That's how it should be, however. In such cases, as in general in the field of psychism, where it is so difficult to verify and firmly establish the certainty of a fact, a reasonable dose of doubt is not only excusable, but also obligatory. At first, Czocke tried to explain this phenomenon either by chance or by the similarity of the ideas that arose in the mind of the listener with his own. But the frequent repetition of cases and the unconditional fidelity of all the smallest details in the picture of the vision with reality eliminated any reasonableness of such explanations. Finally, he settled on a metaphysical explanation. Based on the belief that man consists of three elements - body, soul and spirit, 22 he attributes this ability to the spiritual element, which manifests itself in some cases in a way unknown and incomprehensible to us. Strictly speaking, given the current state of our knowledge, it is not yet possible to present a strict scientific explanation of the phenomena of psychism. Only more or less witty guesses are possible 23 . 6. Stories about Mrs. Coffan's psychometric abilities a) “One day a friend of mine,” writes Mrs. Coffan in her diary, “who does not admit the possibility of a psychic ghost (perciprion), wrote some words on a piece of paper, after which she turned out the light, closed my eyes and put her note on my head. I immediately began to describe a woman I didn’t know and, having described her in the most accurate way, added that this person was very sick. At that very moment I felt a terrible push in the back of my head, echoing along my entire back, and I had to say that the patient was suffering from a spinal cord disease. The feeling I experienced was so unpleasant that I had to throw this piece of paper out of my head. I have never met this person or heard anything about her, and yet my description turned out to be absolutely correct. b) Another time, General G. gave me a letter, but in such a way that I did not see the handwriting in which it was written. I immediately said that it was written in a foreign language, described the physical and mental properties of its author, explained the purpose of the letter and finally announced that the writer would soon undertake a journey. Indeed, the letter was written in Spanish, a language unknown to me, and the journey was undertaken during the same month. c) Doctor L. gave me a white stone with traces of carvings, and the impression I received made me express myself as follows: “I see white columns with carvings at the top. This piece formed part of the upper wall cornice. At the base of the wall I see a mosaic floor consisting of wonderful, multi-colored stones. This wall used to form part of a building standing on a mountain, from which only ruins are now visible! A bright blue sky stretches above them, and the air there is surprisingly clean and transparent. But I can see him even in the moonlight. This was the imperial palace." Then, after a moment's hesitation, I continued: “This is the palace of the Caesars in Rome.” The accuracy of this impression was confirmed by Doctor L., who himself found this stone in the ruins described above. Following this, the doctor handed me a piece of dark red marble. When I applied it to my forehead, I got this idea. “This is taken from the ancient ruins on the mountain, they were once surrounded by a thick, dark green grove. This stone was taken from the wall surrounding the building, which was neither a palace nor a church, but intended for public meetings. I see chariots and horse lists. And here is a man with a majestic, noble bearing, dressed in a wonderful purple dress with a golden border. He has a robe thrown over his shoulders, in his hand he has a cane with some kind of decoration on the top, and on his head is a crown like a bishop’s miter. He addresses the crowd, and I hear the words: winner, victory! Blood was shed here, and this man is a great orator.” The piece given to me was a fragment of an amphitheater built by Cicero. The doctor gave me another stone, which seemed to me to be a fragment of the floor in some sacred place. My imagination took me to a vast cathedral - one of the greatest buildings in the world, so huge that its depth disappears into darkness. A huge dome rises above it, and a number of small chapels stretch around its middle part. Masses of people come and go from there. I see a procession of priests with lit torches. I think this is the Cathedral of St. Peter's in Rome. And here the doctor confirmed the accuracy of my definition. d) My husband gave me a business card. Without even looking at it, I put it on my forehead and said that it had a man’s name on it, that this man had very dubious rules, and that the predominant traits of his character were hypocrisy and a thirst for profit. Trying to involve others in ruinous enterprises, he enriches himself at the expense of their mistakes. He is not an American, but rather a Jew or a Pole, with black eyes, a large nose and huge legs. Dealing with money and trade turnover. At the time of this description, neither I nor my husband had the slightest idea about this person, and only by making inquiries about her from friends did we learn facts that fully confirmed the accuracy of my impressions” 24 . 7. Inner voice. (Letter to the editor of Rebus.) Considering myself one of the natural scientists for whom every fact should have significance, no matter how little it can be explained from the point of view of modern scientific theories, I consider it my duty to inform the editors of Rebus about the following mysterious incident that occurred yesterday and struck me only today. “In the 70s, while living in Kyiv,” says Mr. Shpachinsky, “I occasionally met with my friends the professor of anatomy at the local university V. A. Betz. My acquaintance with him was never close, and starting from 1876, when I often changed my place of residence, although I was in Kyiv, I met him extremely rarely, perhaps several times during the entire time, and then not at the mentioned acquaintances, where he stopped visiting, but on the street, and we exchanged only a bow. I can say with confidence that over the past few years, and especially since 1891, that is, since I have been living in Odessa without a break, I have never thought about Prof. Betse, not even knowing whether he was alive, whether he was still a professor at the university, etc. Although I receive Kyiv newspapers and sometimes read them, I don’t remember ever having encountered any news in them concerning the named person. That’s why I was quite struck yesterday morning by the phrase: “Betz is dead,” uttered somewhere inside my self at the moment when I woke up. It was not a dream, there was no voice, and I cannot even say in what language this news was conveyed to my consciousness. I immediately told my family about this strange fact and asked my wife to follow the Kyiv newspapers, saying that “what the hell, maybe Prof. Betz is dead." It was October 1, 1894, and when the Kyiv newspapers arrived, we were convinced, to our utter surprise, that Prof. Betz died the day before, that is, on September 30. This is what I absolutely cannot understand, and what I consider it worthwhile to make public as a naked fact. To this I would like to add that I do not consider myself a spiritualist, I have never been present at any séances, and that this is the first event in my life that I must inevitably classify as extraordinary. Accept, etc. 25. 8. Warning of danger A remarkable manifestation of the highest intuitive, psychometric or prophetic ability saved him from a terrible railway accident. It was like this. A train carrying travelers from Springfield to Chicago on July 4, 1891, left that city on the Illinois Central Railroad. He was traveling at a speed of thirty miles per hour when the driver Horace Seavey, without knowing why, began to slow down, after which he very vividly felt the psychometric force that had taken possession of him. Here are his own words: “In one second I clearly saw in front of me the outlines of an area in which, at a distance of two miles from the point we were passing, there was a bridge over a steep ravine, as clearly as if it were really in front of me. This picture flashed to me like lightning. I said to myself: “There is no bridge, I know there isn’t.” Something similar has happened to me before, and I could not help but rely on my premonitions. I did the same that evening with full conviction that the bridge had been destroyed. I stopped the train thirty feet from the bridge. The fireman and I both looked stupefied. There really was no bridge, we jumped off the locomotive and began to inspect the area. Where there was a span, there was a whole pile of smoldering ash; all that was left of the bridge were the rails hanging over the ravine, still fastened with their bolts. We approached the bridge from one side and the other by steep embankments. The fireman asked me how I managed to stop the train, I couldn’t answer him, I don’t know myself. One thing I can say is that I knew there was no bridge. Conductor Edward Collins went to see what had happened, and when he saw the rails hanging in the air, he was so amazed that he could not utter words. We all thanked with all our hearts the invisible influence or force that saved the lives of two hundred people.” 26 9. Outright murder thanks to psychometric ability In the summer of 1682, a murder was committed in Lyon that alarmed the entire city. There were two killed - a husband and wife who ran a wine cellar in the new city market. The corpses were found in it, and a bloody ax lay nearby - the weapon of a crime committed for the purpose of robbery, since the hacked cash register turned out to be empty. However, despite a thorough investigation, it was not possible to find the criminals. Then one of the murdered man’s neighbors drew the police’s attention to a person who could, according to him, help find the culprits, namely a peasant who lived in the Dauphine mountains (an old French province). This peasant, named Jacques Aimard, was famous for his ability to find treasures hidden in the ground, detect all kinds of deceptions and discover thieves. He achieved all this by following the inclination of a simple twig, held on his chest with crossed arms. They assured that the twig was never mistaken, and the rumor about the peasant miracle spread far beyond the borders of the area where he lived. Jacques Aimard willingly agreed to come to Lyon and help justice find the perpetrators of the double murder. First of all, Emar was led to the cellar where the murder was committed, and they gave him a twig cut from the first tree they came across. As soon as Emar approached the place where the corpse of the wine merchant was raised, a noticeable excitement took possession of him, and everyone saw that the twig had leaned forward. In the place where the woman’s corpse had previously lay, the same thing was repeated to an even more dramatic degree. At the same time, Emar seemed close to fainting. This preliminary test convinced police officials that they were not dealing with a hoaxer. Once on the trail of the criminals, the twig, like a sensitive hunting dog, never lost it. Guided by him, Emar rises from the cellar to the shop, heads to the robbed cash register, then runs out into the street. After wandering for some time in the courtyard of the archbishop's house, he moves on, crosses the bridge and continues his path outside the city, along the right bank of the Rhone. Having reached the gardener's house, which stood right there on the shore, he no longer doubts that there were three criminals, that they entered there and sat at the table there. He even points out the bottle they drank from. The gardener knew nothing about this, but his children, 9 and 10 years old, entered the room, and the twig began to move again. They learned from the children that one Sunday morning, when they were alone at home, some three people entered the house and drank wine there. The forensic investigator who accompanied Aimard did not know what to decide: to go further or to stop the search, which threatened to lead them deep into France, since the criminals had apparently run far away. Having agreed to subject Emar to another experiment: burying an ax in the garden, found bloodied at the crime scene, and, in addition, several others completely similar to it, suggested that he find the one with which the murder was committed. This took only a few minutes: right at the place where the crime weapon was hidden under a layer of earth, the magic twig began to move. This experiment was repeated under other conditions: they blindfolded Emar and took him in different directions, trying to confuse him, but he invariably returned to the same place. All these details, together with many others, are found in the report of the case submitted to the Crown Prosecutor and published in the official French newspaper "Le Mecher" in August 1692, and are therefore more or less trustworthy... After Emar had so brilliantly passed the difficult test, he was asked to continue the search, accompanied by the police commissioner and the gendarme. Continuing to walk along the banks of the Rhone, they soon reached the place where the criminals, according to Aimard, got into the boat, and were not slow to follow their example. Wherever they went ashore, Emar and his companions also landed there. Entering the hotels where they stayed, he indicated exactly where they slept, what glasses they drank from, etc., surprising everyone present. Approaching the camp near the village of Sablona (on the Moselle), Emar became very excited - the criminals were obviously nearby. But then fear suddenly overcame him, he threw down his magic twig and fled. “What if I find murderers in the king’s army? - he thought. “After all, soldiers will not stand on ceremony with an accuser from the peasant class!” Having confessed in Lyon, he explained why he had not completed the work he had begun; he was reassured, provided with letters of recommendation, and sent again to Sablon under heavy escort. But alas, this time he was late: the troops had already left the camp, General Catinet led them through the Alps. However, Emar rushed after them, having reached the city of Boker, he is convinced that the traces of the killers have separated, and chooses the direction in which the twig leans more strongly. At the city prison he has a feverish attack. Without any hesitation, he announces that the walls of this prison hide one of the murderers, and indeed, among the 15 prisoners, a twig pointed to a hunchbacked man, imprisoned just an hour ago for petty theft. He was immediately sent to Lyon, and Emar began to look for other accomplices with redoubled zeal; in Toulon it turned out that they had boarded a ship. They had to pursue them by sea, but even this did not stop the zealous French police, the ship was directed according to the instructions of Aimard, and landed several times, following on the heels of the fugitives. Finally, they reached the border of the kingdom; the police had no right to go further, and Emar did not dare to continue traveling through the Genoese region. In his opinion, if they had not been a day late in their pursuit, the comrades of the captured villain would not have escaped legal retribution. As for the latter, he was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death (on the wheel). At first he insisted that he had never even been to Lyon, but it was not difficult to convict him. In all the hotels where, according to Aimard, he stayed, between Bonaire and Lyon, he was recognized, and finally he had to admit that he had two comrades with him. Having confirmed all the details concerning their escape, he tried to convince the judges that he remained a simple witness when one of his comrades killed his husband, and the other his wife. But according to one contemporary, there was so much evidence against him, other than that obtained by Emar, that there could be no doubt about his guilt. It is impossible to remain silent about the fact that when Aimard was subsequently brought to Paris to carry out scientific experiments on him, he had already largely lost his miraculous ability. Many explained this by a change in environment and lifestyle, due to which, they say, the Maid of Orleans lost her ability to clairvoyance. (“Rebus”. 1890, No. 45 27.) 10. Death of the Duke of Orleans in Paris, seen in Scotland Mrs. Broughton, an acquaintance of one of the correspondents of the London Society for Psychical Research, related the following incident. One day - it was in 1844 in Edinburgh - she woke up at night and began to wake up her husband, saying that something terrible had happened in France. The husband thought that she had seen a terrible dream, persuaded her to fall asleep again and asked her not to disturb his sleep. She assured him that she had not seen this in a dream. This is what she saw: firstly, a broken carriage, a crowd of people came running, carefully lifted a body and carried it to a neighboring house. Then she sees a body lying on the bed, and recognizes him as the Duke of Orleans. Little by little, friends gather around the bed, among them several members of the French royal house - the king, the queen. Everyone stands silently with tears at the head of the dying Duke. Some man (she saw his back, but could not recognize him) - it was a doctor - bent over the Duke and felt his pulse; in his other hand he held a watch. Then everything disappeared. As soon as morning arrived, Mrs. Broughton wrote down her vision in a memory book. There was no electric telegraph at that time, and several days passed before the Times reported the death of the Duke of Orleans. Visiting Paris shortly afterwards, Mrs. Broughton immediately recognized the place where the accident occurred. She soon also received an explanation for her vision: the doctor called to the dying duke was her old friend, and when he stood at the duke’s bed, his thoughts were always occupied with her and her family 28 . B. The ability of the human soul to directly know what is happening at a long distance at a given time (far-sight facts) 29 Here are a few typical examples of this amazing ability, collected from Perti: 1. Queen Margaret (in Memoires de Marguerite de Valois, reine de Navarre. Paris. 1658) says: “My mother, the Queen (Catherine de Medici), lay dangerously ill in Metz. At her bedside sat King Charles, my brother, my sister and my other brother, the Duke of Lorraine, several dignitaries and ladies who did not want to leave her, despite the hopelessness of her situation. In a frenzy, she shouted that she saw the battle, saw how everyone was running, and her son had won. “Oh, my God! “Lift up my son,” she shouted, “he’s lying on the ground.” Do you see the Prince of Condé dead over there?” Everyone present thought she was delusional. However, when the battle was reported to her the next day, she said: “I saw it yesterday.” 2. Swedenborg, like the ancient Socrates, was distinguished by the strong development of magical abilities, among other things, far-sightedness. Sitting in a society in Amsterdam in 1762, he saw from there the death of Emperor Peter III in St. Petersburg. Suddenly, in the middle of the conversation, his face changed, and everyone realized that something extraordinary was happening to him. Having come to his senses, he finally explained to questions from those present: “At that very hour, Emperor Peter III died.” Soon the newspapers confirmed this. 3. Kerner writes about one somnambulist: in a state of far-sightedness, Caroline once said with a laugh: “I see the lady pharmacist in her kitchen, she stands and orders the maid to light the fire” (the pharmacy was very far from the somnambulist). Mrs. X. immediately quietly sent a note to the pharmacist. The messenger was walking along the street, which could not be visible to the somnambulist, but suddenly the somnambulist shouted: “And there is a girl running with a note to the pharmacy. Now she enters the house, and now she is already in the kitchen in front of the pharmacist, and this one is reading a note. Hilarious! They ask if it’s true that Madam Pharmacist has just lit a fire? “Of course,” she says. “But the girl is on the street again, and now she comes here.” All this was later confirmed by the pharmacist. In general, Kerner says about this somnambulist: “In her clairvoyance, she was transported first to one place, then to another and talked about her acquaintances - about what they were doing at any given moment.” Personally, Kerner himself tested Carolina's foresight in various ways. 4. The following story is from Mrs. Muir. “In 1849 I was living in Edinburgh. One Sunday around 10 1 2 o'clock, when I was dressing my second (5 year old boy) to go to church with him, he looked at me and said: “Mom, Sister Janie is dead!” I tried to persuade him to explain to me why he thought this, but he only repeated what he had said. This cousin Janie was a 16-year-old girl who formerly lived in Edinburgh, and a few months ago moved to Kapstadt with her parents. She loved my boys very much and often played with them. I was amazed at the persistence with which the child repeated his statement, so I wrote down the day and hour and reported it to my mother and sisters. After some time, we received news by mail from Kapstadt about the death of the girl, which followed precisely that Sunday. She was badly burned the day before and suffered until twelve o'clock the next day. Alice Muir." 5. Very similar to the one described is the following incident, the first account of which is given by Mr. C. B. Curtis. “The incident I am about to talk about happened 18 years ago. My wife was visiting her sister at the time, about 300 miles from New York. Thirty miles from this place lived her brother and his family, including their 12-year-old son David. “One afternoon my wife was sitting with my sister while the latter’s three-year-old daughter was playing in another part of the room. Suddenly the child stopped playing, ran to my wife and cried out: “Auntie, David has drowned!” Since they did not immediately pay attention to the child, he repeated the words: “David drowned!” The aunt, believing that she had heard incorrectly, asked the mother what the child had said, and the same words were repeated. However, no one else thought about it at that time, and the mother only said that the child was probably repeating what he had heard from others. A few hours later they received a telegram with the news that about the time these words were spoken, the child's cousin, David, along with a brother a year or two older than him, had drowned while skating, 40 miles away. Charles B. Curtis." 6. The following cases are very strong examples of their kind. The story belongs to St. A. Arondel, who wrote in 1884 from the Colorado Keys, North America, Conn. State. “Towards the end of 1875 I made a short trip to Madison, Ohio, Johnson and Kelly Islands, and other neighboring places. There were 9 of us and we were traveling on a sailboat. One Sunday morning we drove from Cedar Point to Sandusky for a church service. During the service, a strong storm arose, and when we went down to the pier on the way back, the lake was quite stormy. However, we decided to try to move, which we finally succeeded in, but during the voyage we almost died. We had only driven halfway, when a very strong gust of wind caught our boat and capsized it on its side. The water rushed in, and it already seemed impossible to keep the ship on the surface of the water, then we rested with all our might against the side, which was still above the water, and every minute we thought that we would be flooded. Through almost superhuman efforts, those of us who had the presence of mind cut off all the sails, and the boat was righted enough to bail out the water. Finally, after a difficult struggle, we managed to reach the shore. At the moment of greatest danger, when salvation seemed impossible, I remembered my wife and children who were 100 miles away. I thought about them as if in dying agony, and felt that it was impossible to leave them. If there was ever a cry from the heart to beloved beings, then at this moment, it happened on Sunday afternoon. I returned home the following Saturday afternoon. Since I had to preach a sermon on Sunday, I did not talk to my wife that morning, and it was not until Sunday afternoon that we found time to talk. Just as I was about to describe my trip, my wife said, “By the way, something strange happened to me last Sunday at this very time of day. I was relaxing on the couch, when suddenly I was strongly struck by the feeling that you needed me, and I even imagined that you were calling me. I jumped up and, listening, went out onto the porch and looked at the road, and was generally very excited.” As far as we could determine by comparing the notes, this happened just at the time when I was resting against the side of a sinking ship and saw a wet grave in front of me. I don't think it's just a coincidence, I think it needs to be explained differently. Alfred Arondel, pastor of the W. E. Church." 7. The following incident is well known, as printed in the Life of Bishop Wilberforce, vol. I, p. 397. “The bishop sat in his library at Ceddesdon with three or four of his clergy, who wrote with him at the same table. The bishop suddenly raised his hand to his head and exclaimed: “I am sure that something has happened to one of my sons.” Subsequently, they learned that it was at this time that his eldest son (who was at sea) had his leg severely crushed due to an accident on the ship. The bishop himself relates this circumstance in a letter to Mrs. Noel, dated March 4, 1874. “It is strange that during this incident I was so overcome by an overwhelming conviction that some misfortune had befallen my son Erbert, that at last, on the third day, the 13th, I wrote down that I was unable to get rid of this impression, and made notes for memory.” 8. The following message was delivered to Professor Barrett, who knows the narrator well. “I left my house, 10 miles from London, as usual, in the morning and that same day, being on my way to Victoria Street, Westminster, while crossing a road, muddy and slippery from watering, I fell and was almost crushed by a carriage coming from the opposite direction. The fall and fright shocked me quite a bit, but I wasn’t hurt. At home I found my wife anxiously waiting for me, and this is what she told me. She was in the kitchen wiping a cup, which she suddenly dropped, and he exclaimed: “Oh my God! He's hurt!" Mrs. S., who was nearby, heard the scream and both agreed as to the time and other details. I often asked my wife why she screamed, but she is unable to explain her feelings and only says: “I don’t know why, I realized that you were in great danger.” T. W. Smith. 1876 9 . “My son Ross,” writes Mrs. Goethe, “is a music teacher at an institution for the mentally ill, near Bath. On Monday (November 1882) afternoon, sitting with my family, I remarked to my son-in-law, Mr. Evilin-Dering: “I am so worried about Ross today, I only think about him. How annoying I must be to everyone!” Soon I received a letter from my son in which he writes: “I barely escaped on Monday afternoon when one of our patients, named Rummel, rushed at me with a chair. After a desperate struggle, I whistled, and help came to me from the next room. Although there are many of us, at that moment other employees were absent, but, thanks to God, I was not injured,” etc. This happened just at the time when I was tormented by those strange sensations” 31 . Facts from the field of graphology. Graphology is the art of guessing the character of faces, and even their physical appearance, from handwriting. We found it convenient to attribute this mental phenomenon to psychometry. 1. Here is a fact reprinted from Rebus (No. 15, 1883) in the December supplement to the magazine Nature and People, 1896. “In Brussels, in 1882, the Antwerp lawyer Verneuil was killed. The killer did his job, as they say, so cleanly that the detectives were knocked off their feet looking for him, and finally decided to abandon their fruitless attempts - the killer disappeared into thin air. They only knew that he was known under the fictitious name of Vaughan, but in the hands of the investigators there was a piece of paper written by him, and it was he who discovered the clever criminal. When all means were exhausted, the judges remembered graphology, and one of the followers of this science, Bergamotta, undertook to determine not only the moral, but also the physical appearance of Vaughan from his handwriting. After several hours of diligent work, this graphologist made the following conclusion: “the temperament is hot, ardent, sanguine-bilious, large bones, well-developed muscles, middle age, unfriendly manners, tendency to anger, to spleen, to misanthropy. In a state of anger, Vaughan turns pale; gait is correct; the person is positive, precise, does not like disputes; more arrogance than pride; loves order in everything and thinks well; personally selfish, proud, ambitious, speaks little, subtle diplomat, rarely says what he thinks; studied, understands art; devoid of any religious feelings; dark complexion; the eyes are most likely gray; the nose is slightly humpbacked; hands are small, with thin fingers; good teeth; squints eyes; pronunciation is not entirely clear; on the right hand the middle finger is phenomenally underdeveloped.” This conclusion was handed over to the police inspector, and ten days later the murderer was in the hands of justice. 2. Here is another fact, reprinted there from “New Time” (1881). “Not long ago there lived in Moscow a certain Chizhov, a most honest person, a sincerely religious man. He had a special talent: recognizing people by their handwriting. Once he was in Kyiv, he came to the Reverend. Theophilus (now deceased) and finds members of the pedagogical council of the theological academy visiting him. “We are having difficulty,” they tell him, in deciding which of the three students to give the first diploma: they all have the same marks...” Chizhov takes the essays of these students lying right there on the table, looks, compares the handwritings and says: “The author of this is blond, thin... This one is a handsome, lively, energetic brunette... give this one the championship, he deserves...” The pedagogical council was surprised: Chizhov quite correctly described the signs of the students... “How do you recognize a person’s handwriting?” – friends and acquaintances pestered Chizhov. “I don’t know myself,” he answered, “I don’t know myself, on a whim...” The idea is that both this Chizhov and that Bergamot handwriting specialist comprehended the character and all the characteristics of someone not through graphological signs - it only seems to graphologists that they actually draw knowledge from handwriting. In fact, the source of knowledge for graphologists is the individual imprint from the author of the manuscript, with which the paper is saturated with writing. If another thing gives the somnambulist the opportunity to penetrate both the character and the state of health of the person to whom this thing belongs, then even more so should the manuscript provide this opportunity. When writing, we saturate the paper with our thoughts, so to speak. 3. Here is a girl graphologist whose explanations about her ability perfectly confirm the validity of this opinion. In the article by Gr. F-ta “How to find out a person’s character” we read: “... She only partly uses graphological features... In many cases, this girl is not able to give explanations; she then judges by the mood that is evoked in her by the general impression produced by the handwriting. “The handwriting suggests something to me,” she says then. The girl understands significant, outstanding characters more quickly and easily than insignificant, ordinary ones; men's are lighter than women's. With natures living in the world of their ideas, dreams and daydreams, the girl feels some kind of spiritual kinship, it gives her some special pleasure to follow every line and point of their handwriting. She unravels the handwriting of such people playfully, jokingly. “There are rich and poor handwritings,” she says, “there are people with a strong personality, and in between those who have magnetic force. These are positives, or “givers” (creators), and they are easier to guess than negatives, or perceivers, desirers, who take more than they give, who emit. Most people are as positive as they are negative.” The mystical views of the sensitive are best characterized by her own words: “There are states,” she says, “in which sight, hearing, touch lead to one thing: penetration into nature and its laws with a spiritual gaze. During the dream I am able to hear with my hand. The language of the soul is expressed equally in dreams and in handwriting.” “I understand a freshly written manuscript easier and faster than an old one that has been lying around for several years,” says the girl (p. 195). (“Rebus”. 1897, No. 41.) Palmistry is the art of determining a person’s character and even, to a certain extent, past and even future events in his life using the lines of the hand. We also classify it as psychometry and believe that without the assumption that magnetic radiation from the body acts on the neuropsychic organization of the psychometer, palmistry, like graphology, is absurd. After these remarks, let us present a few facts about palmistry. 1. “Several months ago,” the magazine reports. “Light” – we were able to witness very interesting experiments from the field of the most despised branch of the secret sciences, despised probably because it has hitherto been too little studied, namely, experiments from the field of palmistry. The results of our session with one gentleman who studied with Debarolle, the father and creator of palmistry, were truly amazing. Our palmist not only determined with amazing accuracy and accuracy the substantive traits of characters, tastes and inclinations, but also correctly indicated some events from the past and even made several predictions about the future, which were soon amazingly justified. Debarolle, who worked more than anyone else in favor of palmistry in order to bring it out of the realm of charlatanism, recently passed into another world 32. Dumas the son delivered a funeral speech over his grave, in which, among other things, he said that Debarolle did for the hand what Gall and Spurzheim did for the brain: he scientifically developed palmistry, as they developed phrenology, and taught us to know our properties according to the instructions contained in the shape and lines of the hand. Debarolles fell upon this path forty years ago during his travels through Spain in the company of both Dumas, father and son. He was guided to him by the successful predictions of a gypsy woman who read the hands of him and his comrades. His main work, entitled: “Les Misteres de la main” (Secrets of the Hand), contains up to 600 pages filled with witty considerations and interpretations 33. During their wanderings through the mountains and valleys, the comrades often met camps of nomadic gitanos (Spanish gypsies), whom, due to their love for everything picturesque and unusual, they joined for several days. As you know, fortune telling by hand is one of the main trades of gypsies, who claim that their mysterious art was passed down to them, according to legend, from their direct ancestors, the Egyptian priests of Isis. Such a statement could not help but interest Debarolle, who was more than once amazed at the accuracy of their fortune-telling. His request for initiation into the mysterious science was willingly fulfilled. Dumas described their wanderings in his interesting story: “From Paris to Cadiz.” The vivid imagination of the novelist was greatly affected by Debarolle's reports about his palmistry experiments. Upon returning to Paris, he introduced Debarolles to Captain d'Arpentigny, who also studied the hand, but drew his conclusions from its external structure, and not from the lines on the palm; he called his system “chirognomy”. Having become acquainted with it, Debarolle found that it could easily be reconciled with palmistry, that, in essence, one confirms the other on all counts. From that time on he abandoned all other activities and began to devote all his time and attention to solving the great problem. Having rightly judged that theories require confirmation by practice, he gave free consultations for two years, carefully observing during them all external symptoms that indicated certain physical or moral properties, and found them identical in almost all those subjected to his research. Having thus become convinced of the correctness of palmistry, he wanted to know whether its instructions were consistent with the instructions of physiognomy and phrenology. To his great satisfaction, he became convinced that the systems of Gall and Lavater were quite consistent with his own. Only one stone was missing to strengthen the entire building, namely graphology, or the art of determining character by the form and features of handwriting. A certain Adolf Genze from Leipzig had already established his own theory based on the influence of the brain on the hand. Debarolles went to see him in Germany and, knowing the German language well, soon became fully acquainted with this new branch of knowledge. The result of his research was his last book, Revelations completes. In it, he authoritatively proves the relationship between palmistry, chirognomy, physiognomy, phrenology and graphology. Lovers of the miraculous - and their name is legion - will probably find a lot of interest in his book, even if they are not convinced of the indubitability of the author's conclusions. Debarolles does not allow his system to be a simple way of passing time; he has outlined much more serious goals for it. In his opinion, it makes it possible not only to direct the upbringing of children along the path most suitable to each person’s abilities, but also to form a more accurate understanding of the character and dispositions of our neighbors. Of course, the majority treats such a subject with nothing other than natural skepticism. Debarolle understands this very well, but he loves to deal with desperate skeptics. One day, Dumas the son brought him with him to an evening with Dr. Charcot, to a society consisting of comrades in the profession of the owner of the house. The mocking smile that appeared on the face of each of the guests at the sight of Debarolle did not frighten the fearless adept of the mysterious science; he bravely walked around the scientific meeting, taking turns drawing up the horoscope of each doctor, and those among them whom he could not convince were, in any case, surprised to the extreme. A similar success befell him in Sweden three years ago. Hearing that King Oscar, a man with a very inquisitive mind, wanted to get acquainted with his system, Debarolle immediately went to Sweden and in a very short time initiated the learned monarch into his views. As a sign of respect and gratitude, the king awarded him the order. Further triumph awaited Debarolle in Uppsala, where he was met by a host of professors, and many of them agreed with the palmist's conclusions 34 . 2. In "Historical" Vestnik" (1888, book 1) L. N. Pavlishchev reports the following facts from the life of his mother Olga Sergeevna, sister of the poet Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. “One of Olga Sergeevna’s favorite pastimes in her youth was the study of physiognomy and phrenology, so the works of Lavater and Gall became her reference books, with the help of which she, as she said, unmistakably recognized the character of people. She also took up palmistry, sometimes being amazed at her predictions, of which I will give two examples. One day, Alexander Sergeevich, shortly after graduating from the lyceum, convincingly began to ask her to look at his hand. Olga Sergeevna did not agree to this for a long time, but, finally yielding to her brother’s strong request, she took his hand, looked at it for a long time and, bursting into tears, told him, kissing this hand: “Why, Alexander, are you forcing me to tell you that I am afraid for you?... You are facing a violent death, and not yet in your old age.” The prediction came true in 1837. 3. Olga Sergeevna predicted a similar violent death to her relative A.G. Baturin, lieutenant of the Life Guards Jaeger Regiment. Two days before his death, he spent the evening with the Pushkins, Olga Sergeevna’s parents, in the full bloom of health and youthful strength. The conversation turned to palmistry, and Olga Sergeevna, looking at his hand, said: - According to your hand, you will not die a natural death, however, do not believe my palmistry readings. On the third day after this prediction, Baturin fell at the hands of a murderer. The soldier of the regiment in which Baturin served, burning with revenge against the cruel sergeant major who had punished him, decided to kill him, and to encourage himself to the crime, he got drunk and, bursting into the barracks room, where he thought to meet the intended victim, rushed with a knife at Baturin, mistaking him for the object of his revenge. Baturin immediately gave up the ghost.” (See “Historical News.”, book 1, 1888) D. Increased sensitivity 35 Facts of this ability. A correspondent for the New York newspaper "Sunday Mercury" writes: “At the invitation of Dr. Newton of Gokey Greek, I visited with him his neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Collins, of whom I had previously heard from the doctor that they had settled in this locality about ten years ago, and about five years before that their son John, then a boy of ten years old, fell ill with typhus and lay unconscious for twenty-one days. Upon recovery, doctors recognized he had hyperesthesia, i.e. increased sensitivity. When we came to the Collinses, the father, among other things, related the following example of his son’s amazing sensitivity. “A month ago,” he said, “the boy had, in his words, a strange dream: he saw two people walking around our house with a large bundle in their hands, he saw them very clearly, he even heard them talking among themselves about the bundle that they had to hide somewhere. The dream made a strong impression on John, and he told it to us at breakfast, and at twelve o’clock several policemen came to us, looking for thieves who had robbed one of the village shops that night. Hearing about the theft, John told the police that he saw in a dream two people with a knot, and this knot, as it seemed to him, contained stolen things. His description of these people matched the two individuals who were seen that evening not far from the robbed shop. Then John remembered that in his dream he had heard one tell the other that the best place for them to hide their bundle was in an empty hut at the foot of a nearby mountain. The police went to the indicated hut and captured the thieves themselves, as well as the things and money they had stolen. The boy himself talks about his strange ability, that since his illness he has seen some kind of atmosphere around him, spreading over an indefinite space, and within this atmosphere all faces and objects appear to him as clearly as if they were very close to him. I wanted to do the experiment myself with Dr. Newton, and John's parents agreed to my wish. The doctor left, and I stayed with the boy, who gradually began to tell me everything that Newton did. He said that he saw him get into his buggy and ride to some area, then water his horse, take the case out of his pocket and put it under the pillow, and then get into the buggy again and ride back. Soon Newton returned and literally confirmed John's story. Then, when the doctor went into another room, the boy began to say that he, standing in the middle of the room, checked his pocket watch with the wall one, then took a figurine from the fireplace, examined it and put it in its original place, which, upon Newton’s return, turned out to be absolutely correct. Then I, in turn, left the room, and the doctor placed himself next to the boy, having in front of him a watch, a sheet of paper and a pencil. I got into the one-cart, rode a distance of 500 yards, turned and, getting out of the cart, mounted the horse and thus returned, having been away for seventeen minutes. Everything I did was written down minute by minute and turned out to be quite correct. In giving my own account of what I was doing, I deliberately left out some small details, but they were all written down by the boy, and he told me: “But you got out of the carriage where the wheeled road turns into the forest, tied your horse to an old stump, walked to the rock and returned to the carriage.” All this was true, and I was quite satisfied with my experience 36 . 2. Here's another similar fact. In his essay on Egypt, Mr. Warburton describes his experience with one of the most famous local magicians. Mr. Warburton invited this sorcerer to his hotel in order to check for himself the genuineness of the phenomenon, and he called a boy from the street, made a mysterious sign on his palm and ordered him to look closely at this sign. The boy did what was required, but ten minutes passed without any result. Then the sorcerer called another boy and repeated the same manipulation with him. The second boy, being more sensitive to his influence, soon fell into a semi-mesmeric state, produced by the action upon him of the mysterious mark on his hand. The sorcerer invited Mr. Warburton to summon whomever he wished, and he summoned the late Lord Derby. The boy immediately exclaimed: “There he is, I see an old man with glasses and long black clothes lying on the couch.” Mr Warburton then called the late Lord Nelson. The boy said: “He’s here, I see a military man with one arm.” Then many other persons were called, and the boy described them all in detail, which greatly surprised Warburton and his friends. The whole point of the phenomenon was to cause the boy to renounce his mental faculties so much as to fall into a semi-mesmeric state and thus enter into intercourse (en rapport) with Warburton, when he called out different faces. The images that passed through Mr. Warburton's brain, when calling up these faces, appeared to the boy as if in a picture, which proves the strong development of the gift of clairvoyance 37. Miss Cora Morse tells Mr. Hodgson about her clairvoyant experiences: “When I lived with Mr. Rough's family in 1881, my psychometric abilities were subjected to the most careful examination almost daily. Here are two such experiences. Mr. Rough had the habit, when letters were brought from the post office, without opening them or even reading the addresses, to keep them for some time on my forehead. 1. One day, as he held the unopened envelope on my forehead, I said, “This letter talks about illness, and it came from someone in Watseka. Yes, now I see that your daughter, Mrs. V., is very sick.” Here she reported some details about the illness and added: “Tomorrow you will receive a telegram calling you to see the sick woman, but she will not die, and we must pack up so as to be ready for a hasty departure.” The letter was printed and it contained everything I said. The next morning a telegram arrived, and the alarmed parents left the same day. The patient recovered, everything happened as it was reflected in my impression. She herself or her parents will willingly testify to my words in the smallest detail. 2. When another time Mr. Rough held a letter to my forehead, I suddenly burst into tears and exclaimed: “This letter is for me, give it to me. Someone has died, I read the following words: “Ring the bell quietly, don’t you see the crepe on the door.” He gave me the letter, tore open the envelope, and I immediately saw the title phrase I had read earlier. The letter was from my mother, informing me of the death of my nephew, the son of my elder brother. 3. On the evening of May 21, 1881, in the presence of Mr. R., his wife and their son's wife, ready to confirm my story, the following happened. Sitting at the window of their home in Iowa, I saw two large balls of light flying past the window, accompanied by a red scarf so long that it seemed to never end. I got up from my seat and went to the dining room, where some of the family members were drinking tea at that time, telling them what I saw, I added my conviction that this vision foreshadows some kind of national disaster. The balls mean death, and the long scarf means blood that splashes across the entire nation. Then I saw a tall, strongly built brunette handing me some paper and said: “We will learn about this disaster from a young man similar to the one I just described.” As time passed, my vision was gradually forgotten, and then, on one of the July days of the same year, when we were all sitting sewing, a young man passed by the window, and I recognized the one I had seen in the May vision. Quickly jumping up, I ran to meet him, and he gave me a telegram about the murder of Garfield 38, or, better said, about the shot that was the cause of his death. This telegram was the first to inform us about the incident. Mrs. R. later said that when she saw how quickly I rushed to the door, she thought that one of my close friends was coming towards us, and this was only a double of my vision.” (From communications of the London Society for Psychical Research, published in Rebus, 1899, No. 20.) 4. “Recently, during his first hypnotic sleep, a young subject, whose eyes had lost mobility due to contracture of their motor muscles, became clairvoyant: sitting with his back to me, he guessed the different colors of paper, which I, approaching him from behind, placed on his crown. While repeating the hypnosis, I tried to place my watch on his head: after a few seconds of hesitation, the young man could accurately determine the hour. Knowing that hypnotics, for the most part, have knowledge of the time of day, I deliberately set my watch back 20 minutes” 39. G. Clairvoyance using crystals The belief that various kinds of hallucinations can be excited by various forms of crystals is extremely widespread. We find traces of this belief in ancient Peru, in Fetz, Madagascar, Siberia, among the American Indians, among the blacks of Australia and in Polynesia. We find the same beliefs in ancient Greece (Pausanias), Rome (Varro), ancient India and Egypt. Before Miss X.'s investigation, it apparently did not occur to anyone that a belief so universal must probably be based on some facts. Miss X. has personally made numerous experiments, and from these experiments she makes the following classification of visions appearing in crystals or ink: 1) Resurrected memories of long-forgotten facts, emanating from the unconscious sphere of our being. 2) Ideas and images, consciously or unconsciously objectified in the mind of the recipient. 3) Visions are telepathic, or having their source in clairvoyance, inexplicable by normal methods of perception. Since Miss H. turned her attention to this subject, numerous experiments have placed beyond all doubt the fact that a large percentage of persons who are completely healthy and normal have the ability to see various landscapes and figures of people in motion in glass spheres or by other means. Dr. Parish attributes this ability to the influence of “dissociation,” essentially hypnosis. But he says this by assumption, having never seen any experience. “Now,” says Andrew Lang, “I want to describe a series of experiments with a glass ball, carried out under my own supervision, during which certain things were apparently learned in ways that were not usual. I personally am completely convinced that there is no deception in this case, not only due to the special nature of all the facts that will be discussed, but also due to some other circumstances. Recently, during the year 1897, I became acquainted with a young lady who told me about three or four hallucinations she had seen, the veracity of which had been sufficiently verified. She is completely unfamiliar with the phenomena of psychism, thinks soberly and has completely satisfactory health. I purchased a glass ball and was present when she looked into it for the first time. I remember that she saw the inside of one house with a full-length portrait of an unfamiliar person. There were, I suppose, several images of fantasy of the usual kind. At this time, she developed the ability to see places and faces that were completely unfamiliar to her, but familiar to those people, mostly foreigners, among whom she lived due to circumstances. This is an example of what is called "thought transference." At that time, regarding the reality of this phenomenon, I wavered between doubt and faith, but now the scales have finally tipped towards faith. I give here several cases from Miss Angus's experiences. The first incident took place on the eve of the day when she first became acquainted with the use of a glass ball. Here's what she writes: 1. “One lady asked me to see a friend of hers that she was thinking about. Almost immediately I cried out: “Here is an old, old lady looking at me with a smile. Her prominent nose almost meets her chin. Her whole face is covered with wrinkles, especially in the corners of her eyes, which makes her look as if she is ready to laugh. She is wearing a small white shawl with a black border. But it couldn't be that she was that old, having completely black hair. However, she looks very old from the outside.” The image of this old woman soon disappeared, and the lady, my interlocutor, told me that I had completely correctly described her friend's mother instead of himself. And that it was a joke on the part of the old lady's family, as a result of which she had to dye her hair in order to appear so brunette, and that the old lady was eighty-two years old. Then my interlocutor asked me if my vision was clear enough for me to recognize his mother, with whom he bears a resemblance, from a photograph of my son. The next day she showed me many photographic portraits, among which I, without any hesitation, pointed out the son of the old lady I had seen due to his striking resemblance to his mother.” The lady I was talking to verbally confirmed to me the complete validity of the fact described above. 2. “One afternoon I was in the company of a lady whom I had never met before and had never heard of. She asked me if she could look into my crystal. While she was looking, I happened to look over her shoulder and saw a ship struggling with huge waves, despite the fact that land was visible. Then everything disappeared and suddenly I saw a small house with five or six steps of stairs at the front door. An old man was sitting on the second step reading a newspaper. In front of the house there was a small meadow, covered with thick and lush grass, on which several lambs, or rather sheep of very small stature, grazed. When the picture had disappeared, the lady told me that I had accurately described a place on the Isle of Shetland where she was going to go with her mother for a few weeks.” Miss Angus told me this episode about two days after it happened, and the lady who was discussed in this story completely confirmed to me verbally the accuracy of the above facts and then did it a second time in the decade of 1897. Both ladies were complete strangers to each other before this incident. The old man was obviously a school teacher. On the island of Shetland, sheep and ponies are distinguished by their small stature. 3. The next story belongs to another lady, Miss Rose. Miss Rose writes: “My first experience with the crystal was not a pleasant one, as the following description will show, given as accurately as my memory allows. I asked my friend, Miss Angus, for permission to look into her crystal and, having looked into it, immediately returned it, saying that the first experience did not satisfy me. I saw a well-lit room, a bed covered with curtains, and some people who were going in and out, but I could not determine what kind of people they were. I gave the crystal to Miss Angus, asking her to look at it for me. Soon she said: “I see a bed with a man lying on it, and near the bed a lady in a black dress.” Without saying anything more, Miss Angus continued to look into the crystal, and after some time had passed I asked her permission to look again. But as soon as I looked, I shuddered, as if from an electric discharge. In a brightly lit room I saw an old man in bed, apparently; dead. My cousins ​​were visiting me at that time, and the next day, Saturday, we received news of the death of the father of one of them. True, I knew about his illness, but at the time when I looked into the crystal, I did not think about him at all. I must also say that I did not see the face of the old gentleman whose death I learned the next day.” 4. The following incident was witnessed by another acquaintance of Miss Angus. On Thursday, I don’t remember what date, March 1897, I was at an evening with our friends Angus, and we started talking about crystals and the fact that some people have the ability to see various visions through them. We started talking about this because Miss Angus recently received one of these crystals from Mr. Andrew Lang. I asked her to show me this crystal, and then look into it, wanting to make sure if she could see the face that I would be thinking about at that time. Then I began to think intensely about one of my acquaintances, a young military man in London, believing that the experience would be very convincing due to the unusual form of my acquaintance, about whom, moreover, Miss Angus could neither know nor hear. Soon after I had fixed my thoughts on the person in question, Miss Angus, after first declaring a vision of some vague and indefinite figures, finally cried out: “Now I see very clearly a man on a horse, he is dressed somehow strangely, oh, yes, he is a soldier in his uniform, only he is not an officer.” My surprise was so great that I could not concentrate my thoughts on my friend, and the vision disappeared and did not appear again. 5. I can describe in a few words the experience that took place on December 21, 1897. A gentleman came from England to the Scottish town where Miss Angus lived. He dined with her with her family, and about ten and a half in the evening she suggested looking into the crystal to see the scene or face he was thinking about. He called up in his mind a picture of a ball at which he had recently attended, and the image of the young lady to whom he had been introduced at that ball. He was unable, however, to clearly evoke a visual image of the said person, and Miss Angus only said that she saw an empty ballroom with shiny parquet and bright lighting. Then the gentleman tried to make a new effort and finally evoked in his memory the image of the young lady. Miss Angus then began to describe another room, comfortably furnished, but not a ballroom, and in this room a young lady with black hair, dressed in a white blouse, the style of which was also described, was about to read or write by the light that burned in a glass globe without a lampshade. The description of the face, height, build agreed with the memory of the gentleman in question, but he never saw his fleeting acquaintance in a suit other than a ballroom one. He and Miss Angus looked at the clock, which showed 10:30, and the aforementioned acquaintance of Miss Angus promised, at the first meeting with the young lady he was interested in, to ask her what she was doing at that very time. As luck would have it, the next day, December 22nd, he met her at another ball, and her answer was quite consistent with what Miss Angus saw in her crystal. She was writing a letter that evening and was dressed in a white blouse of exactly the same style as Miss Angus had described, sitting under a gas jet covered with a glass globe without a lampshade. This person was a complete stranger to Miss Angus, and the said gentleman saw her only once at the ball, and both of them testified in writing to me the truth of the fact reported here. 6. Soon after this incident I persuaded Miss Angus to try the following experiment. The inductor must write down his thoughts on a piece of paper and give me his note in a sealed envelope. Miss Angus must do the same regarding her vision in the crystal, and there should be no communication between them. In our experiment the inductor was Mr. Pembroke, who came for the purpose of making the acquaintance of Miss Angus, and who was an accidental visitor to our town. This is what he wrote before he knew what Miss Angus had seen in the crystal: “On Saturday, January 23rd, 1898, while Miss Angus was looking into the crystal, I was thinking about my brother, who was then, I believe, somewhere between Sabatu (in the Punjab) and Egypt. I was very interested in where he was now in his journey.” Miss Angus' vision is recorded as follows: “A long road, very white, with large trees on one side. On the other, there is a river or lake with grayish-colored water. Blue sky with sunset fire burning on it. Not far away there is a large black ship at anchor, and on the deck I see a man lying down who seems to be feeling unwell. This man is strong, handsome and very tanned. Seven or eight Englishmen, dressed very lightly, stand on the road near the ship, January 23, 1898.” A large black ship anchored on a river or lake suggests, no doubt, the idea of ​​the Suez Canal, where Mr. Pembroke's brother was actually located at the time, as is proved by a letter received eight days after the experience, on the 31st of January. During the experiment, Mr. Pembroke had no idea what the river seen in the crystal could mean, and did not know well where his brother was located. 7. In February 1898 Miss Angus returned to the area where I was then living. We visited a historical crime scene together, and Miss Angus wanted to look into the crystal. Since the circumstances of this crime (the murder of Cardinal Baton) are more or less generally known, I assumed that Miss Angus would see the scene of this murder in the crystal. But she saw instead a tall and pale lady of about 40 years old, with black hair fluffed over her forehead, standing near a chair placed on a raised platform. The particular description of the lady's costume was entirely consistent with the ordinary dress worn by women in 1546, when this historical murder was committed, so that I immediately said, "I believe this is Marriott Ogilvie," a person to whom Miss Angus's historical knowledge, like that of the majority of the public, did not extend. Mariot was the lady of the cardinal's heart and was in the castle on the day of the murder, as the historian Knox says. The thought of it might have flashed through my head, and, according to the theory of thought transmission, might have been communicated from me to Miss Angus's mind, but I never thought of the Marriott costume. 8. The following fact took place in the same city. The lady who told it to me is well known to me, and this fact was verbally confirmed to me by Miss Angus herself, to whom the lady, her nephew and everything concerning them were completely unfamiliar. “I was very worried whether my nephew would be sent to India this year, and for this reason I told Miss Angus that I was thinking about one thing and asking her to look into the crystal. She looked, but immediately averted her gaze and began to look out the window at the sea, saying: “I saw the ship so clearly that I thought it was a reflection.” Then she again began to look into the crystal and said: “This is a huge ship, and it passes near the high rock on which the lighthouse stands. I can't see who is on the ship, but the sky is very clear and blue. Now I see a large building, something like a club, and in front of it there is a crowd of people sitting and walking. I think that this must be some foreign country, since the people are dressed very lightly, and it seems to be very hot there. I see a young man sitting on a chair with his legs stretched out in front of him, he does not speak, but seems to be listening to something. He is dark-haired, slender, not very tall, with black and sharply defined eyebrows.” I had not had the pleasure of meeting Miss Angus before, and she knew nothing of my nephew, but nevertheless the young man described was exactly like him, both in appearance and in his manner of sitting.” In relation to this case, the hypothesis of thought transmission is quite sufficient. The lady was thinking about her nephew in connection with India, and there is no reason to conclude that the image evoked was prophetic 40 . The pure, enlightened eye of the desert elders saw the thoughts of people, despised the future, contemplated the bright world of good angels, and penetrated into the dark world of the spirits of evil. We can point to the Monk Anuvius, who described in detail the thoughts, desires and way of life of the visitors who came to him, who more than once saw angels and demons, saw both the bright abodes of paradise and the dark gates of hell (“Chet-Min.” June 5); on the Monk Niphon, who saw how souls were separated from bodies (“Chet-Min.” Dec. 23); on the Monk Andrew, who saw in the church how the Mother of God prayed for the human race (“Chet-Min.” Oct. 1); on the Monk Pachomius, who did not know the Greek language, but, with help from above, suddenly began to understand the Greek monk who came to him; and answer him in Greek (“Thu – Min.” May 15); or on the Monk Or, who read in the desert without ever learning to read (“Thursday-Min.” Aug. 7). There are so many such examples that a whole book could be written about them. Here are other outstanding cases of spiritual insight. 1. The Monk Zosima, the Solovetsky wonderworker, arrived in Novgorod to intercede for his Solovetsky monastery, from which the servants of the Novgorod boyars were taking away the land necessary to support the brethren. He was invited to dinner by the then famous Martha, the mayor of Novgorod, who, together with some boyars, out of foolishness, self-interest and pride, did not favor the founding of a monastery on Solovetsky Island. During the meal, having examined those sitting, the monk sees that six famous Novgorod boyars are sitting without heads. Struck by this vision, he shed tears and could not eat or drink. At this time he did not say anything to anyone, but later he revealed this secret to his disciple Daniel. Soon the vision of St. Zosima was justified by the event that had taken place: Novgorod was taken by Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, and those boyars whom the monk saw without heads were executed, Martha herself was exiled to prison, her house was destroyed, and the place itself was deserted (“Thursday – Min.”, April 17). 2. Theodore of Novgorod, a fool for Christ's sake, was distinguished from the Lord by a special gift of clairvoyance. From a young age, he renounced his kinship and permanent home, in severe frosts he walked barefoot and half-naked along the streets of the trading side, endured ridicule and insults from impudent people, and distributed everything that he received from kind and compassionate people to the poor. The Lord rewarded him for his voluntary suffering with the gift of clairvoyance. It happened that he repeated to everyone he met: “Take care of the bread,” and famine set in. At other times, he said, pointing to famous streets: “It will be clean here, it will be good to sow turnips,” and soon a fire would devastate these streets. (See “Brief Essays on Historical Russian Churches,” Moscow. Publ. 1890, p. 116.) 3. One day, his brother, a Pereyaslavl merchant, came to the Monk Demetrius of Prilutsky. He traded unsuccessfully and fell into debt. Twice he came to his brother ascetic for a blessing and after the first time he paid off his debts, and after the second he became rich. But when he came for the third time, the monk did not give a blessing and advised him to be content with what he had acquired. The wealth collector did not listen to his brother’s advice, went to the wild Pomors and died there without a trace. One day while working with the brethren, St. Demetrius said with a sigh: “We, brothers, are building earthly, perishable affairs, but Grand Duke Demetrius no longer cares about a vain life.” A few days later the news came that the Grand Duke died on that very day and at 1 hour. (From there, p. 112.) 5. Let us now indicate several contemporary examples of spiritual insight from the life of St. Seraphim, Sarov ascetic. One day a gentleman came to him for a blessing on a long journey, who was very kind, only about St. I thought falsely about icons, believing that icons have the same dignity, both miraculous and non-miraculous. O. Seraphim, who saw this gentleman for the first time, blessed him and said: “What, father, is my sinful blessing? Ask for help from the Queen of Heaven, here in our warm cathedral there is an icon of the “Life-Giving Source”, serve her a prayer service, because it is miraculous, it will help you.” Then he continued with a smile: “Have you read, father, the life of Ioannikis the Great? I advise you to read it. He was a very kind and good man, but at first he was mistaken about icons, just like you.” After that he gave him some more instructions. A peasant's horse was stolen. The poor man arrived in the Sarov Hermitage, and, seeing a monk there, threw himself at his feet and said: “Father! Are you Seraphim? “I’m not Seraphim,” the monk answered him, “but what do you need him for?” “Yes, they say he’s guessing,” answered the simple-minded peasant, “but my horse was stolen.” O. Seraphim at this time, near his cell, was putting firewood in a woodpile. When the monk pointed out to the peasant Fr. Seraphim, the peasant threw himself at his feet. O. Seraphim picked him up and tenderly asked: “Why did you come to me, poor one?” “Father,” answered the peasant, “my horse was stolen, and now I am completely poor without it, and you, they say, are guessing.” O. Seraphim took him by the head, and, putting it to his own, said: “Protect yourself with silence and now hurry to the village (he told him this village), and when you approach the village, turn off the road to the right, and pass the backs of four houses, there you will see a gate. Enter it, untie your horse from the block and lead it out silently.” Following this instruction, the peasant actually found his horse. There are similar examples in the life of Fr. There were a lot of Seraphim. Here's another one: his beloved monk, Fr. John, having heard from others that Fr. Seraphim is sometimes in spiritual admiration and sees the heavenly abodes; he came to him to learn about this from him in more detail. He just wanted to ask him, when at that very moment Fr. Seraphim covered his mouth with his hand and said: “Protect yourself with silence.” Then he began to talk to him about the prophets, apostles, martyrs and other saints, then repeated to him several times: “My joy! I pray you, gain a peaceful spirit." And then he said: “I’ll tell you about the poor Seraphim, I have taken delight in the word of my Lord Jesus Christ, where he says: in the house of My Father are many mansions. At these words of Christ the Savior, I, poor one, stopped and longed to see those heavenly abodes, and I was delighted. But it is impossible to tell you about the joy and heavenly sweetness that I tasted.” After these words, the elder suddenly fell silent, his eyes closed, his head hung down, his face brightened, and extraordinary joy was expressed on his lips and all over his face. This mysterious silence lasted for about half an hour. Then the Elder of God opened his eyes and said with joy: “Oh, if only you knew, my beloved Fr. John, what joy, what sweetness awaits the soul of the righteous in heaven, then you would decide in your temporary life to endure all kinds of sorrows, persecution and slander with thanksgiving. If this cell were full of worms, and if these worms ate our flesh throughout our entire temporary life, then we would have to agree to this with every desire, so as not to lose heavenly joy” 41. 6. In "Sovr. Izv." Mr. V. Kazantsev, reporting several stories from the world of the inexplicable, mentions, among other things, the case of his father, a man who generally cared little about religious duties and who accidentally ended up in the monastery of the Nikolaev Peshnoshskaya hermitage, 80 miles from Moscow, during the Dormition Fast. “I entered the church,” said Mr. Kazantsev’s father, “I saw many people who were praying, I took a candle and waited for the confessor to arrive, and finally, Fr. Savvaty, who ran the monastery. He was blind. How now I see him like a waxen face and a long, very yellowed beard. Having done the usual rule and venerated the holy icons, he put on the stole and, led by the hands of a novice into the pulpit, began to loudly read the prayer before confession from memory. Halfway through, his voice was interrupted, and he, having made two prostrations before the icon of the Savior, began to read again, but again his voice was interrupted, and he, turning his face to the people, said: - Children of our holy mother church! There is one among you who is not her son. Come each one and say your names separately. There were about 60 talkers, everyone came up and talked. When it was my turn, I only said my name when Fr. Savvatiya became majestic and menacing and seemed to brighten up. - Get out, you are not a son of the church, you have neglected the Body and Blood of Christ, rejected the Sacrament of Repentance, have not united with Christ, you are betraying your soul to the devil. I stood as if struck by thunder, my vision went dark, I don’t remember how I left the church, I came to my senses already sitting on the ground, near the fence of the monastery, tears were choking me. Several pilgrims surrounded me with sympathy, and a hieromonk from the desert who came up, as it turned out, persuaded me to go to the monastery, where he promised to confess me and communicate the Holy Mysteries, but I flatly refused, since I wanted with all my soul to confess to Fr. Savvatia. But for two days I begged in vain, he was adamant. Finally, the abbot of the monastery intervened. At his admonition, Fr. Savvaty agreed to confess and commune, but on the condition that I spend a week with him in his cell. Needless to say, there has been no talk of disdain for religious rituals since then” 42 . The concept of this ability and facts from its field. Double vision means the ability to distinguish objects accessible only to one vision 1) blindfolded or through a screen transmitting light, 2) without the help of the eyes, with other parts of the body. In the latter case, they talk about the transfer of feelings, that is, they assume that the visual ability moves from the eyes to other organs. 1. “Here (Lewis tells his listeners) is an experience showing to what extent the faculty of vision can be sharpened. These are glasses equipped with side reinforcement and consisting of two solid convexities that do not transmit light. They can be fitted to the eye sockets, the outlines of which exactly match. All this is covered with black paper and completely impenetrable to light. As a precaution, pieces of cotton wool are placed over the eyes and around the glasses to fill the void and close the gaps. The device is supported by an elastic band that surrounds the head. Under these conditions, I give Esther (a person with double vision) today's newspaper, taking careful care that the latter is illuminated as under normal conditions of reading, and after these precautions you see that, to our great surprise, the subject perceives the light and fluently reads two or three lines from the said newspaper. For me, this is one of the strangest phenomena of the sophistication of visual ability, the physiological explanation of which remains to be found. This is a region of infinitesimal forces acting on the nervous system, brought to an unprecedented degree of excitability, and unless it is assumed that the vibrations of light penetrate through opaque glasses in the same way as sound vibrations penetrate through partitions, I still see no other probable explanation for this strange phenomenon of visual hypersthesia. “Somnambulistic subjects (says Lewis elsewhere) are even capable of reading through a plank of wood five millimeters thick, and thus exhibiting a range of extra-physiological refinements which surpasses all that we consider ourselves to know about the natural causes which determine the functional activity of the nervous elements.” 2. The facts of the so-called “transfer of vision” are also well documented. “In some hysterical people (says Vine 44), tactile sensations especially often take the form of visual images. The visual image becomes, according to patients, as dazzling as the sensation produced by electric light; it becomes objectified and can obscure external objects like a hallucination. When subjects reach this degree of sensitivity, the slightest irritations are immediately presented to them in visual form, and sometimes it happens that it seems to them that they see the irritation received by their skin. Wiene confirms this remark with the following experience. He applied a copper token with a convex image to the neck of one hysterical (and anesthetic) woman; the patient began to complain that she had dazzling round spots in her eyes, which became brighter the more strongly Vine pressed the token. In order not to make unconscious suggestions to her with his questions, he asked her to draw with a pencil what she saw. Although the patient was a poor girl who had never learned to draw, and whose hands were also atrophied, she drew a figure amazingly close to the real one. The experiment, repeated three years later (when Wiene accidentally saw the patient again), gave even more satisfactory results. The same experiments were carried out on healthy people, but, compared to the first ones, they were completely unsuccessful. Wiene explains all these experiments with very instructive drawings that clearly demonstrate this difference. “It is possible (he says in conclusion) that these experiments provide the key to a phenomenon that has often been described under the name of transference of senses and which supposedly consists in the ability of some persons to see through the organs of touch. The details we have outlined show that, although the transference of feelings is, strictly speaking, an illusion, it is nevertheless the result of a completely real psychological phenomenon - namely, the suggestion of images” 45. 3. “Here is a man who is completely blind and yet can see,” said A. S. White, introducing Henry Hendrickson to one of his acquaintances. His words turned out to be quite fair. Mr. Hendrikson can see, or rather, distinguish objects, although he lost his sight at six months of age. He was born in Norway forty-three years ago and lived in America for forty years. He was educated in the Institution for the Blind at Janesville, Wisc., and after leaving this institution engaged in various trades, chiefly broom making, he wrote a book entitled "Out of the Darkness." This work contains some explanation of Mr. Hendrickson's double vision, although the author cannot explain this ability to himself satisfactorily or on the basis of natural science. He is well-mannered, a rather interesting conversationalist, and thanks to the dark glasses hiding his completely closed eyes, it is difficult to guess that he is blind. Over the past twenty years, he rarely walked with a guide, except when he was in a hurry or went to a completely unfamiliar area. It should be remembered that he is completely blind and has not seen the world since he was six months old. Meanwhile, he can tell, like any sighted person, when he approaches a sudden elevation of the sidewalk, he can turn a corner, he can tell when he is passing by an entrance, he can very well and easily determine the approximate height of the buildings on the street, but he cannot say when he is approaching a sudden decrease in the sidewalk. He can't explain this. Many who observed his free transitions from place to place doubt his blindness, but those who tested his vision are convinced that he sees nothing. “While on a train at full speed,” said Mr. Hendrickson, “I can freely identify and count telegraph poles, and often do this for the pastime or to determine the speed of our progress. Of course, I don’t see them, but I guess about them. This feeling, of course, is not hampered in any way by my blindness. I cannot explain it, but I am never in complete darkness: at noon, as at midnight, I am always surrounded by the same bright light. Once I was stung by a bee, and for a moment I felt as if stunned and became blind, that is, I should say, I found myself in complete darkness, I could neither distinguish nor feel anything.” A practical test of this inexplicable double vision was made in the presence of several persons. A thick, heavy cloth was thrown over the blind man's head, hanging from all sides and reaching to the waist of Mr. Hendrickson, who was sitting. Absolutely nothing was visible through this cloth. Then a stick was held in front of the subject or behind him, changing its position. To questions like the following: – “Is it horizontal or vertical?” – or – “how do I hold it?” - he gave quick and correct answers, never making a mistake, sometimes determining whether the stick was held at a right or an oblique angle. “This is a simple manifestation of my ability to guess,” said the blind man, “and I cannot explain it otherwise. This veil is a mere formality, it is pure nonsense. My visual or recognition sensations are not obtained by me in this way. I have never in my life seen with the eyes of any object even the slightest shadow of it. Here is the proof of my words. Take me to an unfamiliar room, which I have never been in, and which I have never heard of, and no matter how dark it is, I will very accurately determine its dimensions for you. I don’t feel the walls, I don’t touch anything, I don’t see anything, but by some strange law of guessing I recognize the dimensions and outlines of the room. “In 1878,” he continued, “I went to New York and called on Brick Pomeroy in his office in Union Square. Several people gathered there and we had a pleasant conversation. I was unaccompanied. Mr. Pomeroy invited me to his apartment and asked if I could find my way. I said that based on his description I could find his house, his guests began to laugh. A bet was made, and I set off on foot - the others followed me, some in carriages, some also on foot. I came straight to Mr. Pomeroy's house on Forty-first street, walking a long distance, and never took a wrong turn. Indeed, I recognized the house; when I approached it, I did not see it, but, meanwhile, I recognized it and won the bet. I am learning stenography from Mr. White, and since I have a very good ear, I hope to become a skilled stenographer. At first it was a little difficult for me to write, but now I can write very well.” “Do you know,” Mr. White interjected, “if I stood here in the room and began to make movements with my outstretched forefinger, as if beating before a choir, describing the shapes of the letters, he would be able to tell what letters I was writing, and would read the words I wrote in this way. “Let’s carry out this experiment,” we asked. “With pleasure,” Mr. Hendrickson answered, smiling. Then one of those present expressed a desire to cover the head of the blind man, although he did not doubt his blindness. “Okay,” said the blind man, and the cloth appeared on the stage again. Then Mr. White stood up and began to write letters quickly through the air. “Well, this is what you asked me,” said Mr. Hendrickson, lifting the cloth to get some fresh air. – Can you see what I am writing? I will answer both yes and no. I don't see but I know. “By the way,” added Mr. Hendrickson, “I am an excellent speed skater and, gliding quickly across the ice, I see the slightest particle on the ice, every scratch and roughness, no matter how small or unnoticeable it may be.” The faster I run, the clearer I see. I don't want to say that I see, but I guess, or something like that. This is clear to me and I can discern everything. “Were you mistaken in relying on this kind of vision?” ("Chicago Gerald"; sn. "Rebus". 1888, No. 45.) J. Cryptoscopy, or the ability to see hidden objects Some clairvoyants have the ability to open and indicate, at the request of the magnetizer, objects hidden in the most secret places. So, for example, the magnetizer, turning to one lady, said to her: “Let me, without breaking modesty, ask you, madam, can I get the one I am magnetizing to tell you what things are in your pocket?” – Julia, name the things that are in this lady’s pocket. – A cambric scarf, a scented pillow, a cufflink, a ring and a small box. – What is in the box? -Gilded pins, an ivory toothpick and a nail clipper. – How much money is in the wallet and what is it? - Twenty-five new quarter francs. The things that were in her pocket were poured out onto the table, and the audience was convinced with their own eyes that Yulia was not mistaken. “Yulia, tell me what kind of dress the gentleman I’m touching at this moment is wearing and what things he’s wearing,” said the magnetizer, putting his hand on the shoulder of the most unbeliever in the whole crowd. – You will calculate objects from the inside out, so get started. – A jaconette shirt, fastened in front with two gold buttons, a tie with blue stripes on a white background, a black satin vest with two pockets, one of which contains a flat silver watch without a chain, and in the other a bill for dinner in a restaurant, yellowish trousers without stripes, in the right pocket of the trousers there are: an Algerian wallet, two gold coins wrapped in paper coins and three five-franc coins, nothing in the other pocket. A frock coat made of green cloth, sewn in a funny, I want to say fashionable, cut. In the side pocket is a briefcase filled with business cards, letters and various papers. Finally, this gentleman wears gold-plated glasses and two gold rings, one of which, with a diamond, is worn on the ring finger of his left hand. The check proved that all things were calculated with the strictest correctness and accuracy 46. 1. Perty reports on one seer, Zschokke, in his own words: “When meeting some person unfamiliar to me, when I listened to him in silence, it sometimes happened that his entire past life passed before my mental eyes, like a vivid dream, in a few minutes with many of its little things, or only individual scenes from it.” When Zschokke told several people about what he saw in them, and they confirmed everything, he himself was attacked with horror. One day, having met a young man unknown to him in the forest, he guessed an important secret from his life, how this man once committed theft from his principal’s cash register, and accurately described this cash register and the room in which it was located. He confirmed all this. Zschokke's perspicacity usually manifested itself in relation to persons unfamiliar to him and strangers 47 . From this story it is clear that mind reading, explained by others as the play of muscles, occurs precisely contrary to the requirement of the theory of Mori and Libo that it take place not only between acquaintances, but even between kindred souls. In addition, a constant stumbling block for the theory, both in this and in other examples of insight, is the fact that the readers guess not only the real mental states of a person, but also his past life, even with details that he himself may have forgotten. The question is, on the basis of what muscles will such reading be carried out then? And is it even possible to imagine any kind of play of muscles that would reflect a series of complex states of a person’s present and past life? Are there any muscular movements by which one could recognize Zschokke and others like him, what is N.’s name, where he lived, what places he was, what people he communicated with, what dress he wore, etc. One visionary doctor, during a visit to a patient, looked at him for a long time and said that he had twice attempted on his wife’s life and now still does not abandon his intention... The patient turned pale and confessed everything 48 . What muscular movements exist, one might ask, to express such a complex state as the intention to kill one’s wife? Special muscular movements would be required to express the intention to kill in general, and secondly, to kill specifically the wives, in addition, it would be necessary to assume the existence of exact imprints, or traces, of the patient’s previous two attempts on the life of his wife. In fact, no matter how far the play of muscles extends, in general the ability to muscularly embody mental states, in any case, it cannot reflect everything small and accidental. One can easily recognize the criminal or the one intending to commit a crime, perhaps there is, perhaps, some approximate type of murderer and that’s all. The above-mentioned doctor, according to the scientific theory of mind reading, at most could only find his patient suspicious, suspect him of intending to do something bad, for example, murder. The rest does not fit into its framework, and this is its unsuitability 49 . 2. The usually peaceful, quiet course of life in the Swedish city of Gothenburg was disrupted in April 1894 by the arrival there of the guesser, or mind reader and, apparently, clairvoyant, the Englishman Tyndall. He was invited there by one person who was interested in this psychic phenomenon, but almost immediately upon his arrival, Mr. Tyndall became the subject of tests by a whole circle of people, and then was subjected to a public, nationwide test. Omitting the details of the experiments with Mr. Tyndall in private circles, which proved that Mr. Tyndall actually has a very remarkable gift for guessing thoughts, we move on to the experience that raised the population of the entire city to its feet. A committee created from representatives of the local press and other persons decided to carry out the following experiment with Mr. Tyndall: one of the committee members was assigned to play the thief, steal some object from someone (it later turned out to be a silver coffee pot) and hide it somewhere at his discretion. Having seized the coffee pot, the “thief,” accompanied by another member of the committee, left the hotel where the committee was meeting, and, following a very confused route along eleven streets, reached the house of a wealthy merchant, whose fruit trade was located in the same house. Having entered the merchant’s apartment, the “thief” hid the coffee pot, without the knowledge of the owner of the house, in one of the large marble vases decorating the main staircase. Having said goodbye to the kind host, the “thief” and his companion returned to the hotel, where the rest of the committee members were waiting for them. The committee was not told anything about where the thing was hidden and what kind of thing it was. Then Mr. Tyndall was introduced, barely making his way through the huge crowd of people that had gathered at the entrance of the hotel (it was during the day). Tyndall was covered with a blindfold, the absolute opacity of which was checked by a committee. Tyndall seemed very excited. However, as soon as the bandage was put on him, he grabbed the hand of his so-called “medium” (sensitive), Mr. Meller (engineer), and quickly walked with him to the exit of the hotel. Here, at the entrance, a charabanc drawn by a pair of horses was waiting for him. In an instant, Tyndall jumped onto the box, grabbed the reins and drove the horses, the members of the committee, including the “thief” and his companion, barely had time to take their places in the charabanc. Tyndall wished that one of the committee members would sit next to him (it turned out to be neither the “thief” nor his companion) and would place the fingers of his left hand on the back of his head, and the fingers of his right hand on the palm of his right hand. They rode, despite the masses of people crowding along the way, so quickly that the owner of the horses, frightened, at one intersection grabbed the reins and accidentally turned the horses to the left, while Tyndall wanted to turn to the right (it later turned out that the path along which the thing was being carried was to the right). Due to the narrowness of the street, it was impossible to turn the carriage back, and Tyndall, having driven the horses further, returned, driving along some streets, to the street along which the thing had been carried. Following exactly the confused route of the two committee members, he stopped in front of the merchant's house and, jumping off the box, all blindfolded, entered the fruit shop. Then he approached the inner door leading to the householder’s room, but it turned out to be locked. Tyndall turned back, casually rummaged through the fruit, left the shop, found himself in the neighboring shop of a coffer, whose visitors were extremely surprised to see a man blindfolded, walked out from there and this time entered the front porch leading to the apartment of the owner of the house. Here he instantly stopped at a marble vase and took out a silver coffee pot, to the great surprise of the householder. Tyndall returned the same way, without removing his bandage, to the hotel, accompanied by loud applause from the public and thousands of “hurrays” from the crowd. At the hotel, he immediately approached the “thief” and also pointed to his companion, and after that only Tyndall’s blindfold was removed. Among other experiments, the experiment with multi-colored ribbons is interesting: those present tied a ribbon, each of a different color, to their sleeve, in Tyndall’s absence. It was written down who had what color ribbon, then the ribbons were removed, tangled into a ball, and the introduced Tyndall was given the opportunity to tie each one his own ribbon, which Tyndall did flawlessly. All experiments with persons who can concentrate their thoughts on what they have planned, on what they have in mind, are unconditionally successful for Tyndall. On the contrary, experiments with people who are absent-minded, quickly forgetting what they should have remembered, and transferring their thoughts to something else, did not always and not so quickly succeed. An experiment of this kind was carried out: it was agreed that two people would wish for the same thing. Then, one of those who guessed was made drunk, and the hidden thought could not be read by Tyndale, but when the second subject, a sober one, was introduced, Tyndale immediately guessed what was planned without error. A distinctive feature of Tyndall is the extreme speed of all movements, extreme nervousness. Apparently, the perception and awareness by his senses and brain of impressions and ideas of other people's thoughts also occurs with extraordinary speed 50 . L. The mysterious appearance of images in the artist’s soul during his work “James Tissot, whose wonderful paintings, From the Life of Christ, attracted general attention in Paris and London and made such a strong impression there, is by nature,” says the Leterary Degest reporter, mystic and clairvoyant. Much was said and written about Tissot's travels in the east and his careful study of eastern topography and costumes in the March issue of Me Cluré's Magazine. Moffet gives even new interesting details about Tissot's working method itself: “Tissot has a habit of sketching out his impressions and fantasies with a few pencil strokes in a small album, no larger than a postcard. Having chosen something from these sketches for the picture, he again makes a sketch, so to speak, only the skeleton of the picture, but in an enlarged size as desired. These are just a few rough lines: a half-oval for the face, two or three lines for the torso, etc. Then something amazing happens, we would say incredible if we knew nothing about the deep recesses of the human spirit. Scientists call this phenomenon “hyperesthesia” or “hypertrophy of nerves,” but no matter what it is called, this phenomenon is constant in Tissot, invariably repeated in each of his paintings. Tissot, having arrived in a certain special state and having previously formed an idea for himself of what exactly he would reproduce, leans over a sheet of paper with barely marked dots and looks at it intently. And so, the whole picture gradually grows in his imagination. He will see faces, clothes, colors, the slightest details; he closes his eyes in admiration and mutters, “Excellent! Amazing! Oh, just not to forget... Just to keep it in my memory!..." Straining all his willpower to capture the vision in his imagination, he takes a brush and reproduces what he saw in memory. Most of Tissot's paintings are painted in this way, but many of the best could not be painted: the dazzling vision flashed by like a wonderful dream and did not return, despite any efforts. "Yes! – he sighs, “It was too good to remember!” However, I must make a reservation that this phenomenon of visions does not represent an abnormality. Tissot simply has a high degree of sensitivity in images and colors - a sensitivity that is gifted to so many artists. It all comes down to cause and effect, just as dreams are often caused by known causes. The reason for Tissot's visions: concentration, prayer and artistic temperament. His visions are not always caused by close contemplation of a sheet of paper; they also happen to him on the street. One day, for example, on the way to Paris, near the Bois de Boulogne, Tissot suddenly sees in front of him a massive stone arch into which a huge crowd of people in oriental costumes, with turbans on their heads, is pouring. The people, gesticulating strongly, point to a balcony on a high wall of yellow stone; Roman soldiers drag a prisoner in a red shameful robe onto the balcony. A brightly embroidered carpet descends from the balcony, onto this carpet the rough hands of the soldiers bend the face of the prisoner, showing him to the people, the face of Jesus Christ. Tissot accurately transferred this vision to a canvas with the inscription “Esse Noto” (“Behold, Man”). An indispensable condition for such work by Tissot is solitude. He says: “To write well, I must think and feel completely alone” 51. M. Instinctive solution of difficult mathematical problems We also attribute this phenomenon of human mental life to psychometry. One engineer solved difficult algebraic problems; for example, he could directly write what the root of any power of a number written on the entire blackboard was equal to. But how he did what other and better students achieved by taking a long time to solve a difficult problem using logarithms - he himself could not explain. He said that this was as clear to him as two and two are four. This engineer, so to speak, instinctively solved these difficult problems, and moreover, when his final conclusion did not agree with the one found through long and complex calculations, he proved the correctness of his conclusion, and attributed the error to others - and the remarkable thing is that he always turned out to be right. Unfortunately, this engineer was not remarkable for anything other than his extraordinary calculations 52 . Spiritualists and visions of historical figures 1. Shadow of the deceased Count Stackelberg During the reign of Empress Catherine II, there were several mysterious cases recorded by contemporaries. The Empress herself, with her clear, sound and practical mind, of course, did not attach any importance to such stories and was extremely skeptical about them. Thus, during the court’s stay in Tsarskoe Selo in 1767, a lot of talk was aroused by an adventure that happened to the Empress’s maid of honor, Countess Stackelberg, who later married Count V.G. Orlov. Stackelberg, in the morning, during her toilet, in the presence of several young friends, suddenly saw the face of her father, who was in Riga, in the window. And so the young countess happily runs into the garden and shouts: “Father has arrived, he was coming to the window!” Together with Stackelberg, her friends ran into the garden, but no matter how they looked for the count, they did not find him anywhere. Young Stackelberg saw her father so clearly that she had no doubt at all about his arrival, and no matter how hard her friends tried to dissuade her that the vision was the result of her thoughts and imagination, she still insisted that she saw her father clearly - and began to feel sad. At the empress's dinner table, the ladies-in-waiting whispered among themselves about the vision. The Empress wanted to know details about this, and Prince I. S. Baryatinsky told everything to the Empress. “Calm down,” said Catherine, “your father is not in St. Petersburg, he could not come here without my permission. It seemed so to you, I advise you, however, for curiosity’s sake, to write down this vision.” A few days later, news was received from Riga about the death of Count Stackelberg on the very day and hour when he appeared to his daughter. 2. Stories about Swedenborg In Catherine's time, high society, with the help of the Freemasons, was very interested in contacts with the spiritual world. The writings of Swedenborg have been interesting reading for some of our nobles. Count Musin-Pushkin, our envoy to the Swedish court, spoke especially a lot about Swedenborg. His story about how Swedenborg learned about the fire of Stockholm while he was in England created a great sensation in society. His other story is about how the Swedish Queen Louise Ulrika, wanting to be sure of his spiritual vision, asked Swedenborg if he could talk to her recently deceased brother, Prince William, and ask him what they talked about in their last meeting with him before he left Stockholm. Swedenborg replied that in a few days he would bring her an answer, and, indeed, on the appointed day he conveyed to her her conversation with the prince with all the details of the place, time and circumstances in which it took place. The astonished queen was so amazed by Swedenborg's answer that at the first moment she almost fainted, and only a few minutes later she came to her senses 53 . 3. Ghost in ancient times In the Plinian Letters, translated by Mr. Lewis, the following passage occurs. Pliny Sura (Sura). I would very much like to know your opinion about whether in reality there are so-called ghosts that have a special, characteristic image and some supernatural power, or whether they are nothing more than the creation of our imagination, played out in moments of fear. However, I am inclined to believe in their real existence. In Athens there was a very spacious and comfortable house, which had a bad reputation and was harmful to health. In the middle of the night, a strange noise was heard there, reminiscent of the echo of iron, but if they listened to it carefully, it turned into a very clear sound of chains, at first coming as if from afar, and then getting closer and closer. Soon afterwards the ghost of an emaciated old man with a long beard and bristly hair usually appeared. He had shackles and chains on his hands and feet, and he shook them violently. It is clear that the residents spent all their nights without sleep out of fear, so that finally the house was empty, no one agreed to live in it. However, the owner decided to post an ad in the hope that someone who had not heard about the reputation of the house would agree to buy it or hire it. At this time, the philosopher Athenorus arrived in Athens and read the announcement. Having learned about the rental conditions, which seemed suspicious to him due to their cheapness, he made the most careful inquiries, which, however, not only did not prevent him, but rather encouraged him to rent a house. As soon as evening came, he ordered the sofa to be moved to the front of the house for himself, and prepared his writing materials, his lamp, and his notes on the table. He ordered the servants to remain in the inner chambers, while he immersed himself wholeheartedly in his work, so that his mind, remaining idle, would not prompt his imagination to the fantastic images about which he had heard so much. At first, the usual night silence reigned, but soon the sound of iron and the rattling of chains was heard, but Athenorus never looked up from his work, directed all his attention into it, preventing his ears from hearing. But the sounds intensified and came closer, now they were heard right at the door, and soon in the room where he was sitting. Then he looked around, saw, recognized the figure he had been told about. She stood nearby and made a sign with her hand, as if inviting him to follow her. He waved his hand at her to wait, and again plunged into his studies. After that, the figure began to shake the chains above his head, and he kept writing. Looking at her again, he saw her making the same sign. Then, without further delay, he took the lamp and followed her. The figure moved slowly, as if exhausted under the weight of chains, and, turning into the courtyard adjacent to the house, suddenly disappeared. Left alone, the philosopher noticed through the grass and twigs the place where the figure had disappeared. The next morning, he turned to the city authorities and demanded that the indicated place be dug up. His wish was fulfilled, and human bones were found there, entwined with chains attached to them. These bones were collected and buried at the public expense, and from that moment the spirit, reassured by the proper burial of its earthly remains, ceased to appear. I earnestly ask you to apply your deep learning to this issue. Due to its serious significance, it is worthy of drawing your attention, but I consider myself not unworthy to benefit from the fruits of your wisdom regarding it... 54 4. The appearance of the ghost of a knight The Russian Archive published a very interesting diary by V. A. Mukhanov, which tells about the appearance of a ghost. This incident occurred in one of the western provinces, on an estate that once belonged to Prince Zubov, with Count Sukhtelen, married to Countess Zubova, the niece of the owner of the estate. One day gr. Sukhtelen stood with his brigade not far from this estate, where he had to go on business. On the second or third day of his arrival, he wished to have a gazebo or pavilion built near his house, where he could find refuge from the heat of the day. They began to work, and the next day the manager came to tell Count Sukhtelen that early in the morning, at the place where the pavilion was being built, they found the skeleton of a knight covered with battle armor and armor. Having removed all the metal accessories from the skeleton, Sukhtelen ordered it to be placed in a coffin and, in the presence of a priest, to be lowered into the ground in a cemetery with prayer. In the evening, the count examined the armor, rummaged through books and wanted to determine to which century the dead warrior belonged. It's time to sleep. Leaving the armor and books, he went to bed, released the man and put out the candle. With the quiet flickering of the moon, the rays of which penetrated the room, the count soon saw a knight approaching him. He shuddered and rang the bell, a man came in with a candle, and the knight disappeared. A few minutes later the fire was extinguished again. The ghost appeared again, leaned towards Sukhtelen and, touching his icy lips with his icy lips, disappeared again (probably he came to thank him for his prayer). The Count talked about this event, adding that never before had he been possessed by a feeling of fear to such a degree as on that terrible night. Mukhanov conveys this story from the words of gr. Nikolai Dmitrievich Zubov, to whom Sukhtelen himself told about this incident 55. In October 1693, Sir Tristam and Lady Beresford went to visit her sister, Lady Maxille in Gill-Gall. One morning Sir Tristam got up early while his wife was sleeping and went for a walk before breakfast. When Lady Beresford came to the table, it was already very late, and everyone noticed her exhausted and confused appearance, especially her husband, who carefully began to question her about her health, and later, left alone with her, inquired why her hand was bandaged with a black ribbon? Lady Beresford seriously asked her husband never to ask her about this. “Because,” she added, “you will never see me without this bandage.” “If you ask this so seriously, then I promise never to ask you about it again,” answered Sir Tristam. Hastily finishing her breakfast, Lady Beresford began to ask anxiously whether the mail had arrived? But the mail had not yet arrived, and Sir Tristam asked: “Why are you waiting for letters with such interest today?” - “Because I should receive a letter notifying me of the death of Lord Tyrone, who died on Tuesday.” “Well,” observed Sir Tristam, “you have never been superstitious, probably some terrible dream frightened you.” Soon after, the servants brought letters, one of them with a black seal. “I guessed right,” exclaimed Lady Beresford, “he died!” The letter was from the steward, Lord Tyrone, notifying them that his master had died in Dublin on Tuesday, October 14th, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Sir Tristam consoled his wife and asked her not to be too upset, but she assured him that now, after confirming what had happened, she was much easier, and then added: “Now I can tell you the good news: I am pregnant, and the child will be a boy.” Indeed, in the month of June their son was born, and six years after that Sir Tristam died. After his death, Lady Beresford continued to live with her family on his estate in County Derry and traveled very rarely. She saw almost no one except Mr. and Mrs. Jackson in Coleraine. Lady Beresford's birthday came, she wanted to invite guests to her place, and sent for her eldest son, Sir Marcus Beresford, who was already 20 years old, and for her married daughter Lady Riverston. She also invited Dr. King, the Archbishop of Dublin (her old friend) and the old priest who baptized her and remained close to her throughout her life. This whole society was going to celebrate her birthday. That morning, Lady Beresford, talking to the priest, said: “You know, today I turned 48 years old.” “No, you are mistaken,” he objected, “you are only 47 years old, I remember how once I had an argument with your mother about this, I then sent for the registry book and now I can safely assure you that today you are not 48, but 47 years old.” “You, then, signed my death warrant,” she exclaimed, “leave me, please, I don’t have long to live, and a lot still needs to be put in order. Send me my daughter and son immediately.” The priest fulfilled her wish, he immediately sent Sir Marcus and his sister to their mother and ordered them to tell the archbishop and some other acquaintances that the holiday was postponed. When Lady Beresford’s children came to her, she greeted them with the following words: “Dear children, before I die, I have something very important to tell you. You know what a cordial friendship existed from early youth between me and Lord Tyrone. In a grave state of doubt, we made a promise to each other that whoever dies first among us should, if possible, appear to the other and declare which religion pleases the Almighty. One night, many years after this exchange of promises, I was sleeping in Gill Hall when I suddenly woke up and saw Lord Tyrone sitting on the edge of the bed. I screamed and tried to wake up my husband, Sir Tristam, but in vain! “Lord Tyrone,” I said, “tell me, why are you here and how did you get here at night?” “Have you forgotten our promise to each other in our early youth? I died on Tuesday at four o'clock. I was allowed to appear to you to assure you that the existing Christian religion is true and leads us to salvation. I am also allowed to announce to you that you are pregnant and will give birth to a son, that Sir Tristam will not live long, you will remarry and die from the consequences of childbirth at the age of 47.” I asked him to give me some proof of his visit, so that when the morning came, I would not consider it a dream. He pulled aside the curtains of my bed and hooked them on an iron hook in some very unusual way. This was not enough for me, then he wrote his name in my briefcase, but even this was not enough for me, then he took my hand above the wrist, his hand was cold as marble, and from its touch the veins and nerves of my hand became dead and dried up in that place. “Let no one see this place on your hand while you are alive,” he said and disappeared. While I was talking to him, I was calm, but when he disappeared, I was overcome with great excitement and fear, and cold sweat appeared on my forehead. And I again tried to wake up my husband, but in vain. I burst into tears, the tears relieved me, and I fell fast asleep. In the morning your father got up without waking me, he did not notice the strange position of the bed curtains. Having started to get dressed, I hurried to get a broom from the corridor, with the help of which, with great difficulty, I unhooked the curtains, fearing that their unusual position would arouse surprise and questions from my family. I tied my hand with a black ribbon and went down to breakfast. My excitement was, however, noticed by everyone... When I die, dear children, I want you alone to untie the black ribbon and see what shape my hand is in.” Lady Beresford then asked to be left alone to collect her thoughts. Her children left, leaving with her a nurse, who was ordered to immediately notify them if there was any change in the patient’s situation. An hour later the bell rang and the children hurried to their mother's bedroom - it was all over. The son and daughter knelt down by the bed, and Lady Riverstone untied the ribbon on the mother's arm, indeed, as Lady Beresford had said, the veins and nerves in this place were completely dry. The Archbishop of Dublin buried her in St. Patrick's in Dublin, where her ashes rest to this day 56. “On a stormy autumn day in 1858,” says one engineer, “leaving early in the morning from a small town in Galicia, after a tiring journey, I arrived in the evening in the town of Oswecim. At that time I served as an engineer in the regional city of Lvov. Anyone who traveled in these parts thirty years ago will agree with me that in those days such a move was difficult in many respects and associated with great inconvenience, and therefore it is understandable that I arrived at the mentioned place very tired, especially since I had not had hot food all day. The owner of the hotel where I stayed, Mr. Lowe, was known as the best innkeeper in the whole city and, in addition, kept a buffet at the station, the merits of which I had the opportunity to become acquainted with during my frequent wanderings around this region. After having dinner in the common dining room and drinking tea, as is Polish custom, I asked for a room to stay for the night. A young servant took me to the first floor of an ancient monastery, which, thanks to the mercantile spirit of our time, has been converted into a hotel. Having passed through a vast hall, which probably once served as a refectory for the monks, and currently plays the role of a dance hall for the Auschwitz Golden Youth, we emerged into a long monastery corridor, along the sides of which were once the cells of the monks, now sleeping rooms for travelers. I was given a room at the very end of a long corridor, and besides me, there was not a single traveler in the hotel at that time. Having locked the door with the key and latch, I went to bed and put out the candle. Probably no more than half an hour had passed when, by the light of the bright moon that illuminated the room, I saw quite clearly how the door, which I had previously locked with a key and a latch and which was directly opposite my bed, slowly opened, and in the doorway appeared the figure of a tall armed man, who, without entering the room, stood on the threshold, suspiciously examining the room, as if with the goal of robbing it. Struck not so much by fear as by surprise and indignation, I could not utter a word, and before I was about to ask him the reason for such an unexpected visit, he disappeared through the door. Jumping out of bed in great annoyance at such a visit, I went to the door to lock it again, but then, to my utter amazement, I noticed that it was still locked with a key and a latch. Struck by this surprise, for some time I did not know what to think, and finally laughed at myself, realizing that all this was, of course, a hallucination or a nightmare caused by too much dinner. I lay down again, trying to fall asleep as quickly as possible. And this time I lay there for no more than half an hour, when I again saw a tall and pale figure enter the room and, entering the room with a stealthy step, stopped near the door, looking at me with small piercing eyes. Even now, after thirty years that have passed since that time, I see before me this strange figure, who had the appearance of a convict who had just broken his chains and was about to commit a new crime. Mad with fear, I mechanically grabbed the revolver that was lying on my night table. At the same time, the man who entered moved away from the door and, like a cat, took several sneaking steps, with a sudden jump he rushed at me with a raised dagger. The hand with the dagger fell on me, and at the same time the shot of my revolver rang out. I screamed and jumped out of bed, and at the same time the killer disappeared, slamming the door hard, so that a roar went down the corridor. For some time I clearly heard footsteps moving away from my door, then for a minute everything became quiet. A minute later, the owner and servants were knocking on my door with the words: “What happened? Who shot it? -Have you not seen him? – I asked. - Whom? - asked the owner. - The man I was just shooting at. -Who is this? – the owner asked again. When I told what happened to me, Mr. Lowe asked why I didn’t lock the door. “For mercy,” I answered, “is it possible to lock her tighter than I locked her?” - But how, despite this, the door still opened? “Let someone explain this to me, but I absolutely cannot understand this,” I answered. The owner and servant exchanged a significant glance. “Come on, dear sir, I’ll give you another room, you can’t stay here.” The servant took my things, and we left this room, in the wall of which they found a bullet from my revolver. I was too excited to sleep, and we went to the dining room, now empty, since it was already after midnight. At my request, the owner ordered tea to be served to me, and over a glass of punch he told me the following: “You see,” he said, “the room given to you by my personal order is in special conditions. Since I purchased this hotel, not a single traveler who has spent the night in this room has left it without being frightened. The last person who spent the night here before you was a tourist from the Harz, who was found dead on the floor in the morning, stricken with apoplexy. Two years have passed since then, during which no one spent the night in this room. When you came here, I thought that you were a brave and decisive person who could take the charm out of this room, but what happened today makes me close this room forever.”57 7. The Ghost of Queen Elizabeth In one spiritualist newspaper published in France, it was said that the spirit of Queen Elizabeth appeared to a young English officer standing guard at Windzor Castle. This tale was transmitted by telegraph, and the press declared it absurd. But one respectable London newspaper, based on the opinion that there is no smoke without fire, began to investigate the circumstances of the case and found out that the officer on guard who had the vision, Lieutenant Glyn, was the nephew of the Bishop of Peterborough. The young officer was at present garrisoned in Argyllshire, and the bishop who had spread the story lived on the Continent, so that direct inquiry could not be made. Finally, we managed to find the officer’s mother, the venerable Mrs. Sidney-Glyn. Despite her amazement at the appearance of the reporter, she, with the most imperturbable calm, in response to his question about the adventure with her son, explained to him that there was some truth in it. “It is absolutely true that something abnormal happened to my son. He told me that he was sitting in the library of Windsor Castle and was engaged in the not at all exciting reading of the Dorsetmire history. Suddenly he noticed that someone had entered the interior of the library. He looked up and saw a female figure dressed in black with black lace on her head that flowed down to her shoulders. The figure walked across, through the library, to one corner, which the son could not see from his place. He did not pay much attention to this phenomenon, believing that it was someone reading in the inner chambers. It was four o'clock in the afternoon. Soon an official appeared to close the library. My son asked who the lady was who worked in the inner rooms, but the official replied that there was no one in the library except him. My son began to insist that just before that a lady had gone into the inner rooms of the library. -Who could it be? – the official asked, making sure that there was no one in the adjacent rooms. “She passed through the door there in the corner,” said my son, pointing to the corner into which the lady disappeared before his eyes. “But there’s no door there,” the official objected. “Glyn did not say a word about his incident, and he himself did not think about it until the librarian, Mr. Holmes, who informed the official about what had happened, asked him about it. When, at the request of Mr. Holmes, he described in more detail the woman who appeared to him, the librarian stated that Queen Elizabeth appeared to him. Mr Holmes added that the Queen was said to have been seen several times in former times in this place, but that he, Mr Glyn, was the first contemporary to whom she had appeared. The Dean of Windsor, as well as members of the royal family, asked my son about this incident, they say that Mr. Holmes spent his days and nights in the library for a long time, but was not honored by the appearance of the Queen.” At the end of the above conversation between Mrs. Sidney-Glyn and the Daily Mail reporter, the young officer's father, the Honorable Sidney Carr Glyn, a veteran of the Crimean campaign, entered the room. He stated: “If my son says that he saw something, you can be sure that he really saw something. He is an honest young Englishman who will never exaggerate one bit." Then the lieutenant's parents, with his consent, allowed this incident to be published. The Daily Mail representative then turned to the librarian of the castle, Holmes, who showed him the very place where the “ghost” took place. “He showed me,” says the reporter, “the chair on which Lieutenant Glin was sitting, standing on the east side of the room, and on which I myself sat down. There was a large globe right in front of me. Looking past him, one could see several steps leading to a gallery, with books lining the walls. On the left side there are windows, on the right there is a row of books and windows, from which one can see the terrace and the large water surface that currently surrounds Windsor. At the end of the gallery there is a tower with two windows to the west, through which a mass of light passes, so that a person passing through the gallery should stand out clearly in silhouette. On the south side of the gallery, built by Queen Elizabeth and turned into a picture gallery, where she walked and pondered the masterpieces of public policy, which she brought to her present position, there is a beautiful fireplace with a bust of the queen, with a certain severity in her gaze. Here, at this place, Mr. Glyn saw a ghost who walked along the gallery, then turned sharply to the right and disappeared into the darkness, from which in the old days a staircase led to the terrace where the queen loved to stroll. According to Holmes, there has been a legend behind this gallery since time immemorial that it is visited by the queen 58 . Dr. Stephenson, who lived in London (No. 17 Becker Street), tells the story of the ghost of the Congregational pastor Allen who appeared to him. “Just a few days before the above-mentioned incident,” says Dr. Stephenson, “Pastor Allen was visiting us and sat with us all evening, smoking his usual short pipe. Two days after his visit to us, he fell ill, and I went to visit him. Having made sure that there was no danger, I sat with him for half an hour, and then calmly went home. That same night, an extraordinary phenomenon occurred, which is the subject of my story. I woke up early in the morning and suddenly saw Pastor Allen standing at the foot of my bed with his hat pulled down over his eyes. I immediately woke up my wife and told her: - Look, Pastor Allen! What does it mean? I saw him so clearly that not for one second did I consider him a ghost. - What are you talking about? God be with you! - the wife objected. -Where do you see him? You must have dreamed about him! - Lord, there he is, standing at the foot of the bed! Can't you see him? “No,” my wife answered me. “Well, that means Pastor Allen is dead.” You can be sure of this. “Tell Julia...” the ghost said weakly and disappeared without finishing his sentence. Julia is the name of the pastor's eldest daughter. The strangest thing about this phenomenon was the fact that behind the figure of the pastor a large library cabinet filled with books was always visible, which disappeared simultaneously with the ghost itself. I recorded the hour and minute of the ghost's appearance. Immediately after the first breakfast, my wife could not stand it and, scolding herself “for stupid superstition and curiosity,” she went to Pastor Allen. Approaching the house, she saw that all the shutters were closed, and a weeping maid ran out to meet her and said that Pastor Allen had died early in the morning, and at the same time named the very time when the ghost of the deceased appeared to me, standing at the foot of my bed. (“Rebus”. 1892, No. 40.) “On September 30, 1891,” writes the priest of the small parish N in the outskirts of London to Mr. Stead, “one of my parishioners, who was on his deathbed, invited me to his place. He had been suffering from chest illness for several years. I confessed to him and, after sitting with him for some time, I left, promising to give him communion the next morning. It was about two miles to my house, and I walked it completely unnoticed. When I returned home, it was not yet dusk, telling the maid to make me tea, I sat down to read the newspaper. Before I had time to unwrap it, something amazing suddenly happened: the wall against which I was sitting seemed to disappear, and I quite clearly and clearly saw poor John - the same patient whom I had just confessed - lying on his wretched bed. John suddenly sat up in bed and fixed his gaze on me with a steadfast, pleading gaze. I saw him as clearly as the newspaper I had just held in front of me. I was amazed and amazed to the extreme, but not at all frightened. I sat and looked at the vision for at least five seconds; then it gradually began to disappear, as if melting into thin air, and finally the wall appeared in front of me again, and the vision disappeared completely. The next morning, as I entered the church for worship, John's wife rushed to me and cried loudly: - Oh, my father! My heart is broken, broken! Oh, my father! John is dead! He died so unexpectedly! Half an hour after you left, he sat up in bed and said to me: - Lord, John, you said goodbye to him yourself! - Yes, yes! But I feel so bad! Oh, how I want to see him! I'm dying! Let him say mass for me. Don't forget, Molly, tell your father... And, with your name on his lips, he leaned back and died. John died of a broken heart. I ask you to believe my story,” adds the venerable pastor, “I give you my word that I wrote only the pure truth, and that, as a minister of the church, I would never allow myself to forget myself to such an extent as to spread false information” 59. “I have an Irish friend,” writes V. Stead, “who was married to a prominent postal official in Dublin. Having been widowed, after some time she remarried, which turned out to be extremely unsuccessful. Her second husband, an engineer, was an unusually talented man, distinguished by a brilliant mind. Unfortunately, honesty was not one of his brilliant qualities. One day, far from wonderful for her, my friend finds out that her husband is already married. And not only that, his first wife is alive and well. My friend, a woman with a strong character. Having learned the fatal news for her, she immediately left her husband and went to London. Irving F., her husband, having learned only two years later that she was living in London, abandoned his family, with whom he was in Italy, and came to his second, passionately beloved wife. The scenes that took place between them at this time were extremely difficult and even threatened to end tragically. Fortunately, the woman he deceived, although she also madly loved him, had such a strong character that, despite a number of stormy scenes, she flatly refused to get back together with him. The rejected man again left for Italy, showering her with bitter reproaches. A few months after he left, a friend of mine came to me and said that she was afraid that something bad had happened to her “husband” because the night before his voice called loudly to her from outside the window, and at night she clearly saw him in her room. The poor woman was greatly saddened by this event. I laughed at her impressionability and attributed it all to a hallucination caused by the turbulent scenes she experienced when parting with her loved one. But less than a week had passed before she received a letter from Italy informing her that Irving F. had died suddenly on such and such a day and hour. Then I found out that the unfortunate man was in terrible despair from separation from his second wife, and all the time after returning from London to Italy he drank until he was dead. Drunk, he somehow left the house and was found dead that very evening when his voice called his beloved wife from outside the window. No one knows whether he died a natural death or whether he took his own life. I wrote to Lady D. F. the other day, asking her to tell me in writing, as fully as she could, all that she had seen and heard during that original event. “At the end of the summer of 1886,” Lady Georgina F. begins her letter,? Irving and I were in Italy, on the shores of the Bay of Naples. We lived at the Washington Hotel, in room No. 46. At this happy time for me, I still considered myself Irving’s legal wife, and we loved each other deeply. His family was against our marriage, and one morning, having talked about our family affairs, we swore to each other that nothing would ever separate us - neither poverty, nor slander, nor persecution of his relatives, in a word, nothing earthly. We both said that we would agree to die rather than part with each other. Our conversation moved from earthly life to the afterlife, and we talked for a long time about the future life of the souls of dead people. I wondered whether the souls of the dead could communicate their passage to a better world to their surviving friends. In the end, we made a solemn oath to each other, in the event of the possibility of souls returning to earth, that whichever of us died first would appear to the survivor. Soon after that I found out that he was married, and, as you know, we separated. I left him, and in 1888 he came to London for me. During his stay in London, I once asked him if he remembered his promise to appear to me after death? - Oh, Georgie! You don't have to remind me of this! - he exclaimed. - After all, my soul is a particle of yours, and nothing, even in eternity itself, can separate them. Never, even now, when you treat me with such cruelty. Even if you become the wife of another, our souls will still remain merged into one. When I die, my soul will come to you. At the beginning of August 1888, Irving left London for Naples. His last words to me were that I would never see him again; I will see, but no longer alive, since he cannot live with a broken heart, and he himself will put an end to his broken life. After his departure, he did not write to me even once, but I never believed that he would take his own life. In November I wrote a letter to him in Sarno, but did not receive an answer. Thinking that he either left Sarno, or was ill, or was traveling and therefore did not go to the post office, I calmed down on this and did not even think about the possibility of his death. Time passed, and until November 28, nothing special happened to me. That night I sat at the table near the fireplace and diligently looked through my class notebooks. It was about half past twelve. Having accidentally taken my eyes off the manuscript, I looked at the door and suddenly saw Irving on the threshold. He was dressed as I last saw him: in a coat and top hat, his arms were down, according to his characteristic habit. He held himself very straight, as always, his head was raised up, his face had a serious and dignified expression. His face was turned towards me and suddenly took on a strange, mournful expression and became pale, like that of a dead man. He seemed to suffer from the inability to speak or move. At first I thought he was alive, and, mortally frightened, with my heart beating loudly, I cried out in a trembling voice: Oh! But the sound of my voice had not yet died in the air, when his figure began to melt and, scary to say, how to melt: he himself disappeared first, and quite a long time later his coat and hat disappeared. I turned white and cold with horror and was so frightened that I could neither get up nor call for help. Fear took possession of me to such an extent that I sat all night, not daring to move from my place, not daring to take my eyes off for a second from the door at which Irving’s ghost appeared to me. With inexpressible relief, I saw glimpses of dawn and heard the movement of other residents nearby. Despite everything that happened, however, I did not think for a minute that he had died and that this was the fulfillment of his promise. I tried to shake off the nervous state that had taken hold of me and explained this phenomenon to myself as a visual hallucination, since before that night I had spent several nights in a row at work. “Still, this is strange,” I sometimes thought, “it was all very real.” One evening I was sitting alone again studying, when suddenly Irving’s voice, loud and clear, called me from outside the window. “Georgie! Are you here Georgie? – asked this voice. Convinced that Irving had returned to England - I could not be mistaken, I knew his voice too well, alarmed and embarrassed, I ran out into the street. Terribly disappointed, I returned to my room. I have been worried about his fate lately and, indeed, I would be glad if this time he himself came to me. “No, it’s him,” I thought. - It must be Irving. After all, I heard with my own ears how he called me. He probably hid in one of the neighboring entrances to see if I would come out to meet him, or what I would do in general.” I put on my hat and walked to the end of the street, looking into every entrance where he could hide. Later, at night, I heard Irving coughing under my window with amazing clarity, and he coughed on purpose, as they do, wanting to attract someone's attention. And so, starting from that night, for nine weeks I constantly heard Irving’s voice: sometimes every day for a whole week, then three times a week, then every two nights, then every three or four nights. Starting at midnight, and sometimes later, his voice spoke to me throughout the whole night. “Georgie! It's me!" - he said sometimes. Or: “Georgie! Are you home? Talk to Irving." Then there would be a long pause, after which a deep, strange, inhuman sigh would be heard. Sometimes he wouldn't say anything except, "Oh, Georgie, Georgie!" One night, during a terrible fog, Irving called to me so loudly and clearly that I instantly got out of bed, sure that this was not a hallucination. “He should be here,” I told myself. “He lives here, somewhere nearby, it’s clear as day.” And if he’s not here, it only means I’m going crazy.” I went outside. The thickest, black fog stood around me like an impenetrable wall. - Irving! Irving! Come here to me! Because I know that you are hiding to scare me! After all, I saw you myself! Come here and stop fooling around! And so, I swear to you on my honor, a few steps away from me, out of the fog, his voice shouted to me: Then a deep, terrible sigh died in the distance. Every night I continued to hear coughing, sighing and moaning. At the end of the ninth week I received my letter back, with a note from the Neapolitan consul on it: “Signor O'Neullée morto.” Irving O'Neill died on November 28, 1888, the day he appeared to me. The strange thing about this whole story is that as soon as I learned in a purely earthly way about Irving’s death, his suffering spirit seemed to calm down. At least from that day on I never heard his voice again. He knew for sure that no one had notified me of his death, and he himself tried with all his might to notify me of it. I was so amazed by his appearance on November 28, 1888 that I deliberately wrote down this date with the intention of writing to him about it. I wrote, but my letter arrived in Sarno after his death. That the voice was his, there is no doubt about that for me, because he had a very special voice, the likes of which I have never heard from anyone. And during his life, before knocking on the door and entering, he always called me through the window first. When his voice said: “Ah, Georgie!” - it sounded so terrible, so hopelessly sad, his sigh spoke of such boundless despair that his heart bled from the inability to relieve him, moreover, feeling his closeness. But, as I already said, with the receipt of material notification of his death, all phenomena ceased. That’s all I can tell you about the supernatural incident that happened to me.” Georgina F. 60 . On Sunday, January 12, 1891, about six o'clock in the afternoon, our little son Ernest, sitting on his father's lap in front of the kitchen stove, suddenly began to worry and, shouting: “a lady has gone upstairs,” he jumped off his knees and ran up the stairs, where we followed him, taking a candle in our hands. He went straight to the bed where his grandmother had died three and a half months earlier. Not finding her on the bed, he began to search throughout the room and, finally, seeing her near the window, rushed there with a joyful cry: “Grandma, my lovely grandmother!” - stretching out his small hands to the window, but the vision moved to another corner of the room. The child, following him from place to place, returned again to the window, where it disappeared, while the boy blew him kisses, saying: “Farewell, lovely grandmother! She's gone, I don't see anything. Let's go down!" The next day, the child went upstairs to his grandmother's room several times, but did not see anything. On the third day, his mother carried him there in her arms. Having looked around the room, the boy again saw something and cried out with delight: “My dear, my lovely grandmother!” After that, for two weeks he constantly went upstairs, but saw nothing. Ernest was little more than two years old when his grandmother died; he loved her very much, but never saw her except in bed, where she lay for about a year, suffering greatly. Ernest is no more developed or more nervous than children his age. When asked where grandma is, he replies that she has gone to heaven, clearly not understanding the meaning of this word. For several days before this event, nothing was said about the deceased in front of the child. The priest of St. Aubin's Church adds to this story: “I testify that the above message was received directly from the child’s parents and signed by them; At the same time, I certify with my conscience that, knowing them well, I consider them incapable of even slightly changing what they believe is true. The child's father is a rural worker, the mother runs a small shop; all three enjoy complete health, neither parents nor child ever suffered from nerves. The father told me that when he went upstairs with the child, he felt a special smell of the acid that was constantly used during the grandmother’s illness, but his wife did not smell anything. This year, both father and mother told me that from time to time in different parts of the house they could hear the ticking of a clock, the reason for which they could not guess, however, they did not attach much importance to this circumstance” 61. Mrs. E.I. Raevskaya, in her memoirs published in the “Russian Archive” for 1896, cites the following incident that occurred in Tula in 1859: “My brother-in-law’s sister, the young Baroness M. M. Mengden, was married to Count Dmitry Yanuaryevich Tolstoy. The Count was a kind-hearted man, my husband, and we all loved him very much. They had two sons, the eldest two years old, the youngest a few months old, when their father fell ill with consumption inherited from his mother. Doctors sent him to the Hyères Islands, in the south of France. In the autumn of 1858, the young countess accompanied her husband to the border and was forced to return to her estate to her little children, whom it was unthinkable to subject to such a long journey. To understand what follows, I must make a small digression and describe my son-in-law’s office in Tula. A door led to it from the hallway, to the right of this door, along the wall, there was a long, wide, cozy sofa upholstered in dark green morocco, on which my sister and I always rested after dinner, while the male company immediately smoked, talked, sometimes walking around the spacious room or sitting in the comfortable armchairs placed in it. Opposite the window stood the baron's large desk, the length of the room, and to the left a small staircase, fenced with railings, led down to the spacious room where my husband spent the night (this room on the lower floor was located right under the office). On November 8, 1858, Baron Mengden and my husband spent the evening with Prince V.A. Cherkassky. They joked and laughed a lot together there and returned home at twelve o'clock in a pleasant and cheerful mood. My husband went downstairs, but had not yet undressed, and Baron Vladimir Mikhailovich, humming some song, went up to the desk, where two candles were burning, and began to wind his pocket watch. Suddenly, out of some vague feeling, he raised his eyes and looked at the morocco sofa that stood against the wall opposite the table. What does he see! His son-in-law, Count Tolstoy, pale and thin, lies on the sofa and looks at him with eyes full of sadness... - Jean! - the baron cried out in such an alarming voice that my husband, at his call, rushed headlong up the stairs towards him... But the image of the count, instantly fading, was already evaporating, and when my husband ran into the office, all that remained of him was a light, transparent cloud that disappeared, rising to the ceiling... My husband loved Tolstoy. After crying all night, he came upstairs early in the morning, where I and the children were staying. - Tolstoy is no longer alive! - he told me with tears and told me about the vision. - Not a word to your sister! – I exclaimed. – You know how nervous she is! She herself has had visions, and she is terribly afraid of them. And in her current situation, any shock is dangerous. In addition, she and I relax every day on this very sofa, which for her is the most comfortable in the house. What will happen to her if she finds out that in this very place... “It’s true,” answered the husband, “Mengden and I have already talked about this... We decided on this. They didn't say a word to their sister. Only three months later, a telegram was received from the Hyeres Islands announcing the sudden death of Count D. Ya. Tolstoy. So, he was still alive when my son-in-law saw his sad appearance in Tula... 13. Vision of A. S. Pushkin One day Pushkin sat and talked with Lansky, and both subjected religion to the most caustic and caustic ridicule. Suddenly a young man entered their room, whom Pushkin mistook for an acquaintance of Lansky, and Lanskoy for an acquaintance of Pushkin. Sitting down next to them, he began to talk to them, and instantly disarmed them with his arguments in favor of religion. They didn’t even know what to say, and, like shamed children, they remained silent and finally announced to the guest that they had completely changed their opinions. Then he stood up and, bidding them farewell, went out. For some time the interlocutors could not come to their senses and were silent, but when they spoke, it turned out that neither one nor the other knew the stranger. Then they called numerous servants, and they declared that no one had entered the room. Pushkin and Lanskoy could not help but recognize something supernatural in the arrival of their guest, especially since at his first appearance he inspired a kind of fear that disarmed their objections. From this time on, both of them were much more careful in their judgments regarding religion. In Harz, near the small town of Blankenberg, nestled at the foot of Blankenstein, there is an ancient castle belonging to the Dukes of Brunswick. It is difficult to imagine a more charming and romantic area. An ancient, centuries-old park descends in terraces from the very walls of the castle. Deep below lies a gray, crowded town. Right in front of the castle windows, among the hills, stretches a series of rocks called the Devil's Wall. To the right and left the castle is surrounded by a dense forest, a refuge for red deer and boar. In front of the castle lies one of those vast plains, dotted here and there with isolated villages and blackened wild blocks of rock, which are so characteristic of this area. William Watte, one of the pioneers of spiritualism in England, many years ago visited this castle and saw in it, among other things, a portrait of the famous “White Woman”, whose ghost appears from time to time in this and many other castles in Germany and whose appearance usually foreshadows the death of a sovereign person or one of the courtiers. In Volume V of the Theater of Europe, Merian says that in 1652 and 1653 she often appeared in the Berlin castle, and was often seen in Karlsruhe. As for the latter, there are two reliable stories, namely, how one court lady, walking at dusk in the garden of the Karlsruhe castle with her husband and not at all thinking about a white woman, suddenly saw her on the path near her and so clearly that she could clearly see her face. Very frightened, she ran to the other side, and the ghost disappeared. The husband did not see her ghost, but he noticed his wife’s deathly pallor, as well as the fact that her pulse was beating feverishly. Soon after, one of the lady's family members died. Then one of the courtiers saw her in the gallery of the Karlsruhe palace, coming towards him. At first, he mistook the vision for a court lady who wanted to play a trick on him, and tried to grab it, but it instantly disappeared. Almost three hundred and fifty years have passed since she appeared for the first time at Neugau Castle, and at first she appeared there very often. They saw her more than once, and at noon at that, looking out of the window of the upper, uninhabited tower. She usually appeared in white clothes, wearing a widow's veil with large bows on her head, she was tall and had a kind expression on her beautiful face. Only two of her appearances are known, during which she spoke. One of the court ladies entered her dressing room to try on a dress and asked the maid: “What time is it?” At this time, the “White Woman” came out from behind the screens and answered: “Ten o’clock, dear lady.” The lady, of course, was very frightened, and after a few weeks she fell ill and soon died. The words spoken by the ghost on another occasion had a deeper meaning. This was in Berlin in December 1628. Appearing, the white woman said in Latin: “veni, hudica vivos et mortuos; iudicium mihi adhuc superest”, that is: come, judge the living and the dead - I still have a judgment ahead. Of the many phenomena of the “White Woman,” there is one more that is especially remarkable. In Neugau Castle there is a very old custom of treating all the poor people who come on Maundy Thursday with sweet porridge made from vegetables and honey, and also giving them beer and seven pretzels each. When, during the Thirty Years' War, the Swedes, having taken possession of the city and the castle, did not fulfill this custom, such turmoil, noise, and clamor at night began in the castle that there was no way to stay there. Various terrible ghosts appeared to the sentries, an invisible force threw them to the ground, pulled the officers from their beds. Despite any searches, the phenomena continued until the Swedish commandant, on the advice of one of the Neugau residents, fulfilled the ancient custom and fed the poor with sweet porridge - only then did everything calm down. They worked in vain for a long time to figure out who this mysterious creature was, until the Jesuit Baldwin extracted from many ancient papers and acts the following, very probable, story of the “White Woman.” Among the portraits of the most ancient and glorious family of Rosenbergs, they found one very similar to a white woman. This is a portrait of Perchta, or Bertha, von Rosenberg. She is depicted there dressed in the fashion of the time, all in white. Born between 1420 and 1430. Her father, Ulrich II von Rosenberg, was the Oberburg Count of Bohemia and, by the permission of the pope, the main leader of the Catholic troops against the Hussites, and her mother was Katharina Bartenberg, who died in 1436. Bertha in 1449 married John von Liechtenstein, a rich and noble Baron of Steyermork, but was very unhappy with him, so she was forced to seek protection from her relatives from various insults and oppressions of her depraved husband, after whose death she lived with her brother Henry IV Rosenberg, who took over the administration of Bohemia in 1451 and died without heirs in 1457 Bertha, until her death, could not come to terms with the memory of her husband and passed into that world unreconciled. After the death of her brother, Bertha lived in Neuhaus and built a castle there, which cost her subjects enormous labor. Encouraging their efforts, she promised them, in addition to an honest payment in money, upon completion of the construction, to treat the workers and their families with sweet porridge, which she fulfilled. During the magnificent feast she gave to all the surrounding peasants, she, wanting to perpetuate the memory of their zeal, established an annual treat for the poor on this day. Subsequently, her heirs moved it to Maundy Thursday. It is not known exactly when Bertha died, but it is believed that at the end of the fifteenth century. Portraits of her have been preserved in many castles in Bohemia, and in all of them she is depicted in a white widow's dress with a veil on her head. This image is very reminiscent of the “White Woman”. She appears in all the castles where her descendants live, and her appearance always foreshadows either someone's death or some kind of misfortune 62. 15. R. Owen's story about a father who died in Europe, who appeared to his son in America “For a mind clouded by current prejudices, it will be completely incomprehensible how the fact of ghosts would be recognized so unanimously in all countries if no one had ever seen them.” George Stragan. One of the remarkable types of skepticism is the denial of what has been assumed in all centuries, the possible appearance of our so-called dead. The fantastic details of current ghost stories - scary faces, naked skeletons, the clanking of chains, the smell of sulfur, bluish flames - contributed a lot to this newest Sadduceeism. False ideas and painful feelings caused by the phenomenon of death have clouded not only our judgment, but also our sensations. We learned to fear those whom we loved in this world immediately upon their transition to another. We think with horror about the possibility of their appearance. Perhaps we faint when they suddenly appear, because fear blinds: this is the father of superstition. In the nursery, or at home, our children listen to scary stories about ghosts and tremble with horror. This is a spiritual poison, fatal both for peace of mind and for sober religious feelings. If we are going to tell children anything about spirits, then it would be better to tell them as calmly as we talk about any natural phenomenon, that we will all also eventually become spirits. That only part of our life takes place here, and the rest we will spend in another world, which we do not see now, but which is more perfect and beautiful than ours. It should be added that, perhaps, we will be able to come back from that world and appear to some of our old friends, that perhaps they, our children, will have such happiness that, before they leave, they will see one of those who departed earlier, they will see what people call a spirit or a ghost. It is very likely that their nerves would have been somewhat shaken if this had actually happened. Likewise, thunder, when heard for the first time, can be awe-inspiring. But, if children are well brought up, they will soon acquire the ability to observe, without vain excitement, both phenomena. When would people, in their entirety, achieve such a spiritual order, ghosts would probably become a more common occurrence. Spirits, reading our thoughts, often, of course, refrain from manifesting themselves to people, since they see that if they manifested themselves, they would only cause horror. About spontaneous ghosts I will limit myself to just one example. I can support my story with the meaning of the name, place and time. This is one of the many cases of a loved one appearing shortly after death. In 1862, Mr. Bradhurst Schieffelin, a member of the well-known firm of Schiefflin & Co. of New York, very kindly delivered this story to me with the following note: “New York. June 12, 1862 M. G. I have the pleasure of informing you of the attached letter from Fr. Frederick Steins (rev. Frederick Steins), where he talks about the fact that his father appeared to him. G. Steins, a German and a highly respectable personality, serves as pastor of the Presbyterian Church on Madison street in this city and is in charge of a very large parish community of Germans.” "New York. June 10, 1862 According to your request, expressed in the letter, I convey to you the circumstances directly related to the fact of the appearance of my father. On December 13, 1847, I was walking with my two eldest sons on Grand Street in New York. It was afternoon, before noon, and the panel was full of people. Then suddenly the figure of my father appeared to me. He was in his usual clothes, with his well-known hat on his head, with his ever-present pipe in his hand, and looked at me very seriously, then just as suddenly disappeared. I was very frightened and immediately wrote home about what had happened. After some time, a letter came to me from one of the brothers, from Neukirchen, in Prussia along the Rhine, where our family lived. My brother informed me that on the morning of December 13, my father died there. Even at breakfast that day he was in his usual health and talked about me, expressing great concern about me. After breakfast he left the house and, returning back, fell dead, suddenly struck by an apoplexy. I found out later that at the time of his death he was wearing the same clothes in which I saw him, the same hat on his head, and a pipe, as usual, in his hand. With true respect... Steins. The concern for his absent son that the father expressed just before his death is a very remarkable feature in this example 63 . 16. Two historical ghost stories a) In a note to one of his poems, Walter Scott mentions a ghost seen by Lady Fenshaw. In the recently published notes of Lady Fenshaw, referring to the winter of 1650 - 1651, which she spent in Ireland with Sir Richard Fenshaw, she says: “We went to Lady Honor 0'Briand, the youngest daughter of Earl Tomand, and stayed with her three days. On the first night, around one in the morning, I was awakened by a voice. Having parted the curtains of the bed, in the light of the moon I saw a woman, all in white, with red hair and a pale strange face, lying on the windowsill and looking out the window towards us. Having said three times in a voice that I had never heard in my life: “Horse!” - she disappeared with a sigh, more like a gust of wind than a human breath, and her whole figure seemed to me more like a thick cloud than a human being. I began to push and pinch my husband, who was fast asleep, I managed, however, to wake him up, and he was extremely surprised to see me in such fear, and was even more amazed when I told him what had happened and showed him that the window was open. For the rest of the night neither of us slept a wink, and my husband told me that in Ireland we have to deal with such phenomena more often than in England. About five o'clock the mistress of the house came to visit us, saying that she had not gone to bed all night, since her cousin O'Brian, whose ancestors had once owned this house, asked her not to leave it until the last minute of his life and died at two o'clock in the morning. Then she added: “I hope that nothing has disturbed you, since it usually happens here that before the death of some member of the family, a woman begins to appear at the window every night. Many years ago this unfortunate woman had a child from the owner of the house. This latter killed her in his garden and threw her into the river flowing under the window. I give you my word that I didn’t think about it when I gave you this room as the best in the house.” Without answering her, we hastened to get out of there.” (Lady Fanshaw's Memoirs.) b) In Knebworth, Lord Lythgon's family seat, there is a room called the "yellow boy's room." It is said that Lord Castlereagh (who is mentioned in Byron) was once visiting the father of the late Lord Lithgon. He was given the room of the “yellow boy” without warning him about anything. The next morning Lord Castlereagh told Mr. Bulwer that he had been awakened during the night in a most unpleasant and astonishing manner. “I felt very tired,” said the lord, “and soon fell asleep. I don’t know what woke me up, I looked in the direction of the fireplace and saw that there was sitting there, with his back turned to me, as if the figure of a boy with long yellowish hair. When I looked at him, the boy stood up, walked towards me and, pulling back the curtain at the foot of my bed with one hand, ran the fingers of his other hand two or three times across his throat. I saw him as clearly as I see you now,” added the lord. “You must have seen this in a dream,” said Bulwer.” - “No, I was completely awake at that time.” - Mr. Bulwer did not find it necessary to inform Lord Castlereagh that the “yellow boy” always appeared to people who were destined to die a violent death, and that at the same time he always indicated the type of this death 64. 17. Vision of the Krakow canon Jacob Gursky Jacob Shtenberg Gurski, cathedral canon of Krakow, who was elected rector of the Krakow Academy eight times, was elected archbishop of the Mariinsky Church in Krakow at the request of King Stephen Batory. In the second year of his ministry, he sat late one night at his home and talked with his cleric Mikulski at a table littered with books and papers that Mikulski was putting in order. He told him: “Today I was tired dictating, but I wanted to finish this job, I was supported by the desire to fight in defense of my former student, now a friend of Sokolovsky. Virtemberg professor Kruznush may not give in right away, but..." But then the bishop suddenly fell silent and fixed his gaze towards the door, and crossed himself with his hand, and a minute later, as if answering some speech, he said first: “So, as a reward,” then: “good news, accept, Lord, my gratitude”; at these words he knelt down and prayed. The cleric looked at him with surprised eyes and, although he did not know what it all meant, he could not continue his reading: some involuntary force, arousing in him a feeling of deep respect and veneration, forced him to remain silent. Only when the elder, after a short prayer, stood up and, approaching him, asked: “And you, too, saw and heard him?” - he could barely answer him in a trembling voice: “Only yours with...” “Your trembling voice shows fear, remove it from yourself, and rejoice with me that I have been awarded such great mercy of God... and what the Lord declares good to others only in a dream, I myself saw in reality, with my own eyes.” Thus spoke the venerable old man, and his eyes were full of gratitude and delight, shining with an inexpressible brilliance that illuminates the soul in a moment of inspiration, when it is full of beautiful thoughts that bring it closer to God, and the bishop’s face was so transformed that it is impossible to convey it. Mikulsky, involuntarily struck to the core by his appearance, fell to his knees and kissed his feet. - Get up, get up, my dear, with this blessing that I give to you first, in these last minutes of your earthly life you will be the first to hear what I am ordered to announce to people. Having listened to his order, the cleric stood up, and this is what he heard from Bishop Gursky: “The truth of my words will be confirmed by our death, announced through the lips of the blessed Leopolita, our eyes saw him and we heard the following words: “When the sun shines in the sky for the second time. The Lord will call you to praise. So that they do not think that this death was predicted by me, unworthy servant of the Mother of God, announce my words to people.” Having said these words, he disappeared, leaving me with an incredibly joyful feeling.” Then the cleric Mikulsky took his hand and, watering it with tears and kissing it, exclaimed: “Oh, the unconfessed destinies of God!” “Oh, unconfessed ones,” the bishop repeated after him and, not allowing him to speak any more, sent him away and was left alone. The next day he announced his vision and, awaiting the predicted death, confessed and received communion in order to die as he lived, a good Christian. He died, as it was announced to him, at sunrise the next day 65. Let's add a trace of ourselves. an example of complex spiritual activity: anyone interested in astronomy and who has watched the movement of a star through a telescope knows how this is done. The observer simultaneously watches the passage (very fast!) of the mime star of the cobweb threads stretched in front of the lens (vision), listens and counts the strokes of the chronometer (hearing), instantly calculates in his mind and records the time of passage of the star through each thread of the lens, and the accuracy of more experienced observers extends to hundredths of a second (mental activity). This does not prevent lawyers from keeping this in mind, especially prosecutors, in whose hands the fate of the defendant sometimes rests entirely. If the reader is familiar with the famous novel by Count L.H. Tolstoy's "Sunday", then in this case he will not argue much with us. – G.D. Macnish in his “Philosophy of sleep” (from the words of Michell and Nott) approx. In Dessoir, pp. 3 first. from. This expression is undoubtedly not an accurate - better to say - the dual power of the soul. – G.D. Priv. Dessoir has 10–12. first ed. See Helraholt. "Handbuch der physiologischen Optik". S. 449. 1867. Page 19 second ed. Dessoir Quoted from Molla “Der Hypnotismus” S. 33. Berlin. 1339, as well as from others, by the way, from Dessoir. "De!,intelligence." 3 ed., pref., p. 16–17. Two souls live in his chest. “I myself,” says Prof. Gefding, the same observation was made. After intensely looking at the clear sky through the open window, I closed my eyes and a light cross on a dark background appeared to me, amazing me. Then opening my eyes, I sang that it was a trace of the impression of a window cross on a clear background.” (The trace was here, a kick and in Fechner, an effect of contrast). The facts reported here are of enormous importance in the matter of mental, religious and moral education and upbringing. You need to be extremely attentive to the inclinations and habits that develop in order to prevent bad ones. – G.D. It doesn’t hurt to pay attention to the fact that in 5 such cases the agent writes his name at the beginning and end of each message. This circumstance can be explained by the fact that, given the existence of a supposed connection between the agent and the recipient, the opening and termination of the action of, say, a nerve current should first of all evoke an unconscious idea of ​​​​who is sending this current - this will be the most elementary message. If anyone asks why such a representation appears not only at the beginning, but also at the end, then we allow ourselves to remind ourselves that the same phenomenon is observed with electric currents: at the beginning, and at the moment of cessation and interruption of the current, a stronger sensation is observed. It is clear that at the beginning nothing is communicated to the recipient, but at the end there is nothing left to communicate, meanwhile, the feeling should be stronger in both cases - so it is expressed in a positive or negative representation of the agent himself. Thus, the ethereal connection, so to speak, which is supposed between the latter and the percipient, can be compared to a wire... This crudely realistic explanation of the influence of one spirit on another at a distance, taken from Bitner’s book, we do not share in its entirety. Material conditions alone can never explain the influence of one human soul on another. We present this explanation because it confirms the very facts of communication between one person and another at a distance. For us, it is already important that such recognition is in the book of the material direction. – G.D. When using the term “paramnesia” to apply to such cases, we must make the reservation that this is inaccurate and is applied only in the absence of another. See "Rebus". 1892 No. 50, from which we have extracted the above facts. Heinrich Czocke (1770–1848) is one of the brilliant German writers of the first half of the 19th century, who played an important political role in the history of Switzerland at the end of the last and beginning of the present century. But he is especially famous among the Germans for his religious and moral writings. His "Stur. deg. der Andacht" (The Hours of Awe) are very popular in Germany and Switzerland. N. Zschokke. “Eine Selbstchay” Aanm, Saueriander, 1872. T. 1, pp. 310–314 In the second volume of his autobiography (Welt und Cottanschauung) he develops this position in detail, which serves as the cornerstone of his worldview. He, by the way, comes to the conviction of the indestructibility of our spirit, which is distinguished by supernormal abilities and is freed from our body at the moment of death. Editor-publisher of “Bulletin of Experimental Physics” Er. Shpachinsky. October 2, 1894; n. "Rebus". 1895, No. 1. “Light”, No. 512, sn. "Rebus". 1984, no. 31. Of course, it was not the twig itself that could indicate the direction of the path along which the killers should be sought, but its inclination in a certain place and direction was caused by the unconscious nervous and muscular movements of the person in whose hands it was, acting so unnoticed by himself, under the influence of the psychometric ability of the soul. – G.D. Examples of far-sightedness in somnambulists and others are abundantly reported by Porti V. I, 228–234; 3. II, 257–265. In essence, this is the so-called second sight (das zweite Gesicht - Second sight), i.e. the ability to see with closed eyes, so to speak, with only spiritual eyes. This ability is constantly revealed in somnambulism, so that the latter is unthinkable without it. See book. “Prophetic, or prophetic, dreams” priest. P. Svetlova, pp. 73–75, from which the above stories are extracted. Extract from the book “Lifetime. ghost and other telepathic phenomena" by Gurney, Myers and Podmore, trans. from English, 1893 This article was written on February 5, 1861. This work appeared in Russian translation in the “Addition to the Gatsuk Newspaper” for 1885. "Light" n. "Rebus". 1887, 41. Elevated sensitivity is a property of our psychophysical nature, thanks to which we can contemplate distant events, objects and faces as if up close. We also attributed phenomena of this kind to the psychometric department. – G.D. “Public opinion” from BPR. 1894; n. "Rebus". 1894, No. 19. President Garfield was shot on July 2 and died on September 20, 1881. see Ann. des Sc. psych. 1898, No. 3; n. "Rebus". 1898, no. 45–47. See the book “Minutes of Pastoral Leisure”, Bishop. Hermogenes. Vol. II, pp. 26–30. “Sovrem. Izv., sn. "Rebus". 1885, No. 3. Lefor.s clinics, p. 129. Lei Alteratior.3 de la personnalite. p. 191. See book. prof. A. Gilyarov: “Hypnotism according to the teachings of Charcot’s school”, Kyiv. 1894, pp. 268–272. See "Secrets of Sleep and Magnetism", Dr. Debe. Perty 3. II. 2 66. See 5 above. See “Prophecy.” or prophetic dreams,” St. Svetlova, pp. 88–90. From Swedish newspapers; n. "Rebus". 1894, No. 22. "Light". 1899 No. 955; see "Rebus". 1899, No. 37. See op. Sumarokov “On Spiritualism.” "Work". 1893, No. 12; n. "Rebus". 1894, no. 25–27. “Russian, arch.”, sn. "Rebus". 1897 No. 29. Public Opinion, 1897, Oct. 15; see "Rebus". 1898, no. 6. "Annales des sc. Psych." 1891, No. 1, sn. "Rebus", 1892, No. 24. “New. Bp.”, n. "Rebus". 1897, No. II. "Annales des Sciences Psychiques". 1894 No. 1. See Jung Stilling's Theory of Spiritual Science; n. "Rebus". 1884, No. 12. Robert Dahl Owen: “A disputed area between two worlds”, St. Petersburg. 1881, pp. 191–194. Autobiography and Reminiscences Trith'ä Trith Autobiography and Reminiscences, vol. II, p. 309; n. "Rebus". 1889, No. 31. "Hour", monthly supplement. 1857, vol. VIII, p. 473. Joseph Monczynski; n. "Rebus". 1898, No. 15. You might be interested in: