The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-12-19 00:00:00

WILL-POWER.
(From the Pictorial World.)

That there is such a thing as magnetic force nobody
who has given the matter the least thought will deny.
There is hardly a day passes but we see evidences of i
its working, especially n our family relations, where
there is full sympathy between ourselves and those with
whom we come in contact. How often this happens:
a party are sitting round the table in perfect silence,
when suddenly two members speak out simultaneously
upon some subject not likely to have been suggested
by anything about them. How often we attract a
persons attention in church or elsewhere by looking
steadily at him and thinking earnestly and only of
him. How often when some person is approaching us
and we are ignorant of the fact, we are led by some
unexplainable impulse to speak of him, so that it has
passed into a proverb, "Speak of the evil one and he'll
appear to you ;" or this, for those whom we love:
• Speak of an angel and you'll hear the rustle of its
wings." These are all only slight indications of mag-
netic power.
It would be an easy undertaking to go on and mention
scores of cases wherein mental influence is directly
traceable in the ordinary affairs of life, but it is the
purpose of this article to call attention to a series of
interesting experiments which have been carried on in
Paris, and to which the writer has been a witness—in
which he has indeed been a participator. To test the
absolute force of will-power among persons who do not
profess to be Mesmerists or " magnetizers " was the
purpose of a little group gathered at a well-known
pension in the Rue Bohai. To begin with, there was
not a single believer in the doctrines of Spiritualism in
the party, not one " medium," not one person who had
developed any special will-power in himself. There
were-ladies and gentlemen, artists and literary men. A
young lady was sent out of the room, and during her
absence it was agreed by the party that on her entrance
they should all will her to take a certain book from a
table, carry it to another part of the room, and put it
down in a designated place and position. The subject
was led in blindfold that she might not see the ex-
pression on the faces of the group, and was simply
guarded by two of the ladies, who walked beside her
to prevent her running into the chairs and tables.
Without a moment's, or only a moment's hesitation,
she did exactly the thing that had been designated.
The same experiment was tried with different mem-
bers of the party, both ladies and gentlemen, varying
the requirement each time, and was successful in nine
cases out of ten. The second experiment was still
more satisfactory than the first. While one of the
party was out of the room a certain number was
agreed upon, and to this number all the company
were to turn their thoughts when the subject re-
turned. On his return--blindfolded always—one of
the party held up his fingers, a different number each
time, and each time calling out, "Is it that?" In
every instance but one, out of a great pumber of repe-
titions of this experiment, the subject called out
"Yes " at the right number.
The third experiment, made by another group quite
as miscellaneous 88 the first, was quite as remarkable
as anything the professed-mediums do. Ten names
were written on slips of paper, each inclosed in an en-
velope and sealed up. A subject was then chosen by
lot out of the party, who went out of the room, while
one of the names was fixed upon by the remaining
members of the party. To this name on the subject's
return, they fixedy bent their thouglits. He went to
the table where the envelopes lay in a pile, install.

taneously took up one of them, broke the seal, and
there written on the slip of paper was the name
"Agatha," the name fixed on by the party. Four
times out of tivethus experiment was successful—a pro-
tion quite large enough to remove the result from
the range of mere coincidence. Nowthese are all very
simple experiments—experiments which may be tried
by any one. They are quit* important, too, as furnish-
ing a clue to the mysteries of the so-tilled "Spiritua-
lists." They point clearly enough to the existence of
a natural force quite independent of any interference
of the dead.