The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-03-04
ODD Tests OF AYPN0T|SM
Strange Experiments in Darkened
Rooms with Mesmcrized Snbjects.>
QUEER LIGHTS ARE VISIBLE
A Man In Totally Dark Room VIII Soon
See Things" and Ills BOdy. Under
Hypnotic Influences. Gives orr
Strange Effluvia.

Put man of the temperament called
sensitive" in dark room. Then nut
cat, or bird, or some pots of flowers
IN the same room. The man will see
strange things after he has been IN
| that dark room for a few hours; for the
cat. or bird, or flowers will become vis-
ible to him in the darkness. At first.
! writes DR.. Miller in the Globe Demo-
crat, they viii appear as gray cloud
I on black backgrounds; then he will
see some lighter spots: and finally each
object will become distinct, becoming
! more and more 80 as time passes.
| Go into the dark room yourself with
such sensitive" man, and sit there
quietly for several hours Finally your
companion will Eegln TO see you.
| Your hands for example, will ut first
| appear to him as gray smoke; then
each linser viii shine with is own light.
He will see Il luminous protuberance
| at the end of each finger: sometimes
as long as tho finger itself.
When the first surprise Is past. ask
| your sensitive" man to detali exactly
what he has seen. He will tell you that
the colors Of the lights are not the
same on all parts of your body; that
your right hand shows a blue light and
| your left hand yellow reddish light.
| He Will insist that there Is the same
difference in color between the "lumin
GUS eiiiuvia" of your feet He will
state that the right side or your body
| and face is blush and darker than the
left side. which is yellowreddish and
much lighter.
MAGNETS ARE LUMINOUS.
1t has been known for some time that
under similar conditions in dark room
u magnet emits a blue light at its north
pole, and yellow reddish light ut its
south pole. The strength of the light
varies according to the power of the
| magnet and the sensitiveness of the
eyes of the subject. 1t may be one or
three feet In diameter, and appears like
u fiery flood intermingled with sparks.
HypnotiZed subjects frequently speak
of this eff1uvia from the poles of u
magnet. That their very sensitive ret
inae do see these phenomena has been
demonstrated beyond shadow of
doubt by such eminent and reliable au-
thorities as Alfred Russell Wallace.
Reichenbach, DeleuZe, Despine. Char
pignon, Luys and finally by the great
Charcot himself.
NJ. A. de Rochas, the director of the
''Ecole Polytechnlque," ins Paris, has
quite recently published the results Of
his own personal experiments, show
ing that these luminous elIluvia" are
Col. de Rochas has hypnotized, at diff
ferent stages, two different subjects at
the same time and in the same room.
Let us call them A and Is. "A reported
that he could see Il luminous or phos-
phorescent coating on B's body. He
could see besides that BIS mouth, eyes,
ears, nOstrils and finger ends were
emitting a fame-ljke light, blue on one
side of the body, and yelloW-reddish
on the other. Those openings seemed
to act like escapes" for these flames,
which were distinct from the coating OF
the skin.
A glass of water was put within the
radius of BIS luminous eftluvia' as de-
scribed by A, who could see how far
they reached. After n few minutes A
reported that the water itself had be-
come luminous, and that 1T remained
so for a long while, even If removed
to the other end of the room out of the
reach of BIS eifluvia.
BIS sensitiveness of the skin was
made to disappear by the hypnotic
process; but any touch or puncture of
q pin or needle on the outside edge OF
the phOsphorescent or luminous coat
ing perceived by AS eyes was imme-
diately perceived by B. His body did
not feel the prick of a needle, but the
outer edge of his luminous eff1uvia,'
several Ittt away IIolll lhC SNii, ioN
acquired this sensitiveness lost by the
body.
A WONDERFUL FACT.
And here appears a wonderful fact.
The water in the tumbler removed to
the end of the room had acquired that
same sensitiveness. II you pinch the
water with your finger or touch it with
a pin Il will scream that you pinch or
prick him. But b will not feel the ac-
tion If performed by a person who has
no magnetic relation with him. We
must conclude that the nervous sensi-
tiveness Of BIS flesh has been carried
further than the surface of his body,
and communicated to objects saturated
and impregnated by his luminous eff
fluvia' also that the senstiveness of
those objects remained in them for
awhile. even when removed to GER
tin distance from BIS effluvia, loads it
self with sensltivenesS as calcium does
with light; and the energy received
radiates from it till it has returned all
it has received: in other words, till it
is spent or emptied.
The extent of the luminous atmOS-
phere around Il and the force of the
luminous flames which flow from his
nose and eyes and mouth and ears ap-
pear different to A at different stages
motto sleep into which Il has plunged |
When the sleep is light his sorround-
ing luminous atmosphere is very faint
and shallow: but when he is thoroughly |
hypnotiZed his luminous atmosphere Is |
intense, and extends far away from |
him.
The Colonel immersed small wax |
statute of man in this life of b that |
was surrounding his body. and found, |
that when lie pricked the statue with a |
pin. concealed from BIS eyes, B could |
exactly locate the pin pricks on his |
own body, and would exclaim, You are |
pricling my arm" or You are prick
ing my face with u PIN The Colonel |
could not find that this sensitiveness
of Il extended more than Is or 20 feet |
from his body except in extraordinary
cases.
This so-called "exteriori2ation" and
transfer of Il mans senses of feeling 10
inanimatc objects has Il wonderful
bearing on the subject OF contagion IN
disease. sStill another bearing of the
same discovery was illustrated by Col.
De ROchas IN an experiment with Il
magneti2ed metallic crown This mag
netiZed crown had been originally used
for the treatment Of Il patient in one of
the hospitals. When Subsequently
placed upon the head of Il healthy sub
ject In the state of hypnotic lethargy,
this subject showed every symptom Of
the disease from which the patient who
wore the crown suffered. In
other words, the luminous efiiuvla"
of the sick patient had so permeated the
crown that when it was placed on the
head of well man, and the hypnotized,
he caught the disease from the crown.
These Investigations appear to be
proof positive of theory of my own,
which have been led to form from re-
suits attained In various directions.
This theory is that well man with
strong Will Is positive" | mean to say
that this life principle, will, mentality,
or whatever you choose to call it. ex-
udes from his person, and flows from