Slow going. Depictions from the first book written by Baron von Schrenck Notzing. The first one is about a plant being made to grow, not really to do with ectoplasm but interesting none the less. They took the effort to count the leaves and make measurements. His work was translated from what I understand, I wonder if the German terminology could be extracted somehow and cross referenced. Dates of experiments at the bottom. Chladni is still floating around in the back of my head, where did I see him quoted before? I'm sure there is a theme with him specifically.
"corolla" is the collective name for a flower's petal. "150 four-star corollas" is such a bad description. Had to look up what this flower is.
Oxley made the interesting experiment, unknown to the medium up
to the time of the experiment, of mixing the seed of an Indian plant,
Ixora crocata, with sand and water in a decanter, and requesting the
medium to accelerate its growth. It is said that, under the eyes of
twenty persons, the plant developed to a height of twenty-two inches,
with a flower composed of some 150 four-star corollas and twenty-nine
Leaves.
As in Mrs d'Esperance' s book Professor Mangin - describes materiali-
sation as a fugitive structure suddenly generated, which assumes a
human or animal shape. Its material is not permanent, but phantom-
like. It contains the minimum of substance necessary to produce in the
witnesses the illusion that they have a living body before them. Mostly
it consists of outlines or sketches of hands or heads, and in order to save
work in the formation of heads, the mysterious artist employs drapery.
In connection with the dress of the phantom Mangin asks
whether it consists of " apports " or materialisations, and recalls the
well-known scene in which Katie King cut off portions of her garment
and distributed them among those present. She then filled up the
gaps by simply covering them with the intact portion of her drapery.
They were immediately filled up, and, in spite of the closest inspection,
Crookes was unable to find a seam.
I see something like a white luminous ball of undetermined
outline suspended above the floor. Then suddenly there appears,
emerging from this white orb of light as from a trap-door, the phantom
' Bien Boa.' It is of moderate height. He is draped in a flowing
garment with a belt round his waist. ' Bien Boa ' is halting and
lame in his walk. One cannot say whether he walks or glides. . . .
Without opening the curtain he suddenly collapses and vanishes on
the floor. At the same time one hears the noise of a body falling on
the floor. Three or four minutes afterwards the same white orb appears in the opening of the curtain above the floor, then a body is seen quickly
rising straight up and attaining the height of an adult, and then it again
collapses on the floor."
The first series of sittings took place in 1894, in the presence of
Richet, Lombroso (Turin), Danilewski (Petrograd), and others.
In 1898 (May-June), 1903 (February-March), there were investiga-
tions in Munich in conjunction with German savants, and Professor
Flournoy (Geneva). The author also took part in the tests of the
medium arranged by Richet in August 1894 in the South of France,
attended by the physicist Sir Oliver Lodge, Professor and Mrs Sidgwick,
Frederick Myers and some French physicians. Lacking confidence
in the accuracy of his own results, the author felt the need of repeated
supplementary tests, and these took place at Rome (May 1896), Naples
(May 1898), Rome and Naples (April 1902), Rome (March 1903), and
lastly in Genoa and Nice (April 1909).
"corolla" is the collective name for a flower's petal. "150 four-star corollas" is such a bad description. Had to look up what this flower is.
Oxley made the interesting experiment, unknown to the medium up
to the time of the experiment, of mixing the seed of an Indian plant,
Ixora crocata, with sand and water in a decanter, and requesting the
medium to accelerate its growth. It is said that, under the eyes of
twenty persons, the plant developed to a height of twenty-two inches,
with a flower composed of some 150 four-star corollas and twenty-nine
Leaves.
As in Mrs d'Esperance' s book Professor Mangin - describes materiali-
sation as a fugitive structure suddenly generated, which assumes a
human or animal shape. Its material is not permanent, but phantom-
like. It contains the minimum of substance necessary to produce in the
witnesses the illusion that they have a living body before them. Mostly
it consists of outlines or sketches of hands or heads, and in order to save
work in the formation of heads, the mysterious artist employs drapery.
In connection with the dress of the phantom Mangin asks
whether it consists of " apports " or materialisations, and recalls the
well-known scene in which Katie King cut off portions of her garment
and distributed them among those present. She then filled up the
gaps by simply covering them with the intact portion of her drapery.
They were immediately filled up, and, in spite of the closest inspection,
Crookes was unable to find a seam.
I see something like a white luminous ball of undetermined
outline suspended above the floor. Then suddenly there appears,
emerging from this white orb of light as from a trap-door, the phantom
' Bien Boa.' It is of moderate height. He is draped in a flowing
garment with a belt round his waist. ' Bien Boa ' is halting and
lame in his walk. One cannot say whether he walks or glides. . . .
Without opening the curtain he suddenly collapses and vanishes on
the floor. At the same time one hears the noise of a body falling on
the floor. Three or four minutes afterwards the same white orb appears in the opening of the curtain above the floor, then a body is seen quickly
rising straight up and attaining the height of an adult, and then it again
collapses on the floor."
The first series of sittings took place in 1894, in the presence of
Richet, Lombroso (Turin), Danilewski (Petrograd), and others.
In 1898 (May-June), 1903 (February-March), there were investiga-
tions in Munich in conjunction with German savants, and Professor
Flournoy (Geneva). The author also took part in the tests of the
medium arranged by Richet in August 1894 in the South of France,
attended by the physicist Sir Oliver Lodge, Professor and Mrs Sidgwick,
Frederick Myers and some French physicians. Lacking confidence
in the accuracy of his own results, the author felt the need of repeated
supplementary tests, and these took place at Rome (May 1896), Naples
(May 1898), Rome and Naples (April 1902), Rome (March 1903), and
lastly in Genoa and Nice (April 1909).