SEMATOLOGY AND TYPTOLOGY.

Language of signs and of raps.

— Alphabetic typtology.

Language of signs and of raps.

— The first intelligent communications were obtained by means of raps, that is, by typtology.

Very limited were the resources offered by that primitive means, which suffered from the art's being in its infancy, everything being reduced, in the communications, to monosyllabic answers, by yes, or no, by means of an agreed-upon number of raps. Later it was perfected, as we have already said.

In two ways are the raps obtained, with special mediums. This mode of operation requires a certain aptitude for physical manifestations.

The first, which might be called typtology by means of a tilting movement, consists in the movement of the table, which rises on one side only and falls, striking with one of its legs. For this it suffices that the medium place his hand on its edge.

If one wishes to confer with a particular Spirit, it will be necessary to evoke him. Otherwise, the first who comes manifests himself, or the one who is in the habit of presenting himself.

Having agreed, for example — that one rap will mean — yes and two raps no, or vice versa, indifferently, the experimenter will direct to the Spirit such questions as he wishes. We shall see further on which ones he ought to abstain from.

The drawback lies in the brevity of the answers and in the difficulty of framing the question in such a way as to allow for a yes, or a no. Suppose one asks the Spirit: what do you desire? He will be able to answer only with a sentence. It will then be necessary to say: do you desire this? No. — That? Yes. And so on.

It is to be noted that, when this means is employed, the Spirit also uses a kind of mimicry, that is, he expresses the energy of the affirmation or of the negation by the force of the raps.

He also expresses the nature of the feelings that animate him: violence, by the abruptness of the movements; anger and impatience, by repeatedly striking strong raps, like a person who stamps impetuously with his feet, sometimes going so far as to throw the table to the floor.

If he is amiable and courteous, he tilts the table, at the beginning and end of the session, by way of a salutation.

If he wishes to address himself directly to one of those present, toward him he directs the table with gentleness, or with violence, according as he wishes to show him affection, or antipathy.

This is, properly speaking, sematology, or the language of signs, just as typtology is the language of raps.

Here is a notable example of the spontaneous use of sematology. One day, in his drawing room, where many persons were occupied with the manifestations, a gentleman of our acquaintance received a letter from us. While he was reading it, the table that served for the experiments suddenly came and placed itself at his side. The reading of the letter concluded, he went to place it on another table, on the opposite side of the room. That table followed him and moved toward where the letter was.

Surprised at this coincidence, the addressee of the letter reckoned that between it and that movement there was some connection, and he questioned the Spirit on the matter, who answered that it was our familiar Spirit.

Informed of what had occurred, we asked, in our turn, that Spirit what the reason was for the visit he had paid to that gentleman. The answer was: “It is natural that I should visit the persons with whom you are in relations, in order to be able, if necessary, to give to you, as well as to them, the necessary warnings.”

It is, then, evident that the Spirit had wished to draw the attention of the person to whom we refer and was seeking an occasion to inform him that he was there. A mute could not have conducted himself better. [Alphabetic typtology.]

It was not long before typtology was perfected and enriched with a more complete means of communication, that of alphabetic typtology, which consists in the letters of the alphabet being indicated by raps.

Words, sentences, and even whole discourses can then be obtained.

According to the method adopted, the table will give as many raps as are necessary to indicate each letter, that is, one rap for the a, two raps for the b, and so on. Meanwhile, a person will write down the letters, as they are designated. The Spirit indicates that he has finished, using a sign that has been agreed upon.

As is seen, this mode of operation is very slow and consumes a long time for communications of a certain length. Nevertheless, there are persons who have had the patience to use it, in order to obtain dictations of many pages.

But practice led to the discovery of abbreviations, which allowed work to proceed more rapidly. The one most frequently used consists in the experimenter placing before himself an alphabet and the series of numerals indicating the units. The medium being at the table, another person runs successively through the letters of the alphabet, if it is a matter of obtaining a word, or the series of numerals, if a number. When the letter that serves is pointed to, the table, by itself, strikes a rap and the letter is written down. The operation is begun again to obtain the second, then the third letter, and so on successively. If there has been a mistake in some letter, the Spirit gives warning, making the table give repeated raps, or produce a special movement, and one begins again. With habit, one comes to proceed quite quickly. But it is, above all, by guessing the end of a word begun and which can be hit upon from the sense of the sentence, that one succeeds in greatly abbreviating the communication. When there is uncertainty, one asks the Spirit whether it was this or that word that he wished to employ, and the Spirit answers yes, or no.

All the effects we have just indicated can be obtained in a still simpler manner, by means of raps produced in the very wood of the table, without any kind of movement, a process we have already described in the chapter on physical manifestations, number

2 This is interior typtology. Not all mediums are equally apt for manifestations of this latter kind. There are many who obtain the raps only by the tilting movement of the table.

Nevertheless, by exercising themselves, the majority of them can come to obtain them in that manner, which has the double advantage of being more rapid and of offering less occasion for suspicion than the tilting, which can be attributed to a voluntary pressure.

It is true that the raps in the interior of the wood can also be imitated by mediums in bad faith. The best things can be simulated, which, moreover, proves nothing against them. (See, at the end of this volume, the chapter entitled: Frauds and deceptions.)

But whatever improvements may be introduced into this manner of proceeding, one will never succeed in making it attain the rapidity and ease that writing presents, which is why, at present, it is already little employed.

It is, however, sometimes most interesting, from the point of view of the phenomenon, especially for novices, and has, above all, the advantage of proving, in a peremptory manner, the absolute independence of the medium's thought.

Thus one obtains, not infrequently, answers so unexpected, so strikingly apropos, that only a fairly determined prejudice will be capable of preventing those present from yielding to the evidence. Hence it is that this process constitutes, for many persons, a strong motive of conviction.

But whether it be the one employed, or any other, in no case do the Spirits show themselves disposed to lend themselves to the whims of the curious, who claim to test them by means of senseless questions.

With the aim of better guaranteeing the independence of the medium's thought, various instruments in the form of dials have been devised, on which the letters are traced, in the manner of those of the electric telegraph. A movable needle, which the influence of the medium sets in motion, by means of a conducting wire and a pulley, indicates the letters.

These instruments we know only through the drawings and descriptions that have been published in America. We can therefore say nothing of their value; but we hold, for ourselves, that the very complication they denote constitutes a drawback; 3 that the independence of the medium is perfectly proved by the interior raps and, still better, by the unexpectedness of the answers: than by all material means.

Moreover, the incredulous, ever disposed as they are to see everywhere contrivances and arrangements, will be far more inclined to suppose them in a special mechanism, than in the first table one lays hold of, free of any and every accessory.

A simpler apparatus, however, of which bad faith can easily make abusive use, as we shall see in the chapter on Frauds, is the one we shall designate under the name of the Girardin Table, in consideration of the use that Mme. Émile de Girardin made of it in the numerous communications she obtained as a medium. For that lady, although she was a woman of wit, had the weakness to believe in the Spirits and in their manifestations.

The instrument consists of a movable tabletop, with a diameter of thirty to forty centimeters, turning freely and easily around an axis, like a roulette. On its surface and following its circumference, there are traced, as on a dial, the letters of the alphabet, the numerals, and the words yes and no. At the center there is a fixed needle. The medium resting his fingers on the edge of the movable disc, it turns and stops, when the desired letter is under the needle. One writes, one after another, the letters indicated, and thus there are formed, very rapidly, the words and the sentences.

It is to be noted that the disc does not slide under the medium's fingers; that his fingers, keeping themselves resting on it, follow its movement. Perhaps a powerful medium may succeed in obtaining an independent movement. We judge it possible, but we have never observed it. If the experiment could be made in that manner, it would be infinitely more probative, because it would eliminate all possibility of deception.

It remains for us to destroy a rather widespread error: that of confusing with rapping Spirits all the Spirits who communicate by means of raps.

Typtology constitutes a means of communication like any other, and one that is no more than that of writing, or of speech, unworthy of elevated Spirits. All Spirits, good and bad, can make use of it, as of the various others that exist.

What characterizes superior Spirits is the elevation of the ideas and not the instrument they use to express them.

Without doubt, they prefer the more convenient means and, above all, the more rapid ones; but, in the absence of pencil and paper, they will not scruple to avail themselves of the common speaking table, and the proof is that, by this means, the most sublime dictations are obtained.

If we do not make use of it, it is not because we consider it contemptible, but solely because, as a phenomenon, it has already taught us all that we could come to know, nothing more being possible for it to add to our convictions, and because the extent of the communications we receive demands a rapidity with which typtology is incompatible.

Thus, then, not all the Spirits who manifest themselves by raps are rappers.

This qualifier should be reserved for those whom we might call professional rappers and who, by this means, delight in playing tricks, for the amusement of certain persons, and in annoying with their importunities.

One may expect that they will sometimes give witty things; but profound things, never. It would consequently be a waste of time to put to them questions of any scientific, or philosophical bearing.

The ignorance and inferiority peculiar to them gave reason for the other Spirits, with justice, to qualify them as clowns, or mountebanks of the spirit world.

Let us add that, besides almost always acting on their own account, they are also often instruments that the superior Spirits lay hold of, when they wish to produce material effects.