Phenomenon of transfiguration.

— We take the following fact from a letter written to us in September 1857 by one of our correspondents in Saint-Étienne. After referring to several communications of which he was a witness, he adds:

“An extraordinary fact is occurring in a family in our vicinity. From the turning tables they passed to the armchair that speaks; then a pencil was attached to the foot of that armchair and it indicated psychography; they practiced it for a long time, more as a game than as a serious matter. At last the writing designated one of the young girls of the house, ordering that they pass their hands over her head after they had made her lie down; she fell asleep almost immediately and, after a certain number of experiments, was transfigured: she took on the features, the voice, and the gestures of dead relatives, of grandparents she had not known, and of a brother who had died a few months earlier. These transfigurations occurred successively within the same session. I was told that she spoke a dialect that is no longer that of our time, for I know neither the ancient nor the present one. What I can affirm is that in a session in which she had taken on the appearance of the brother, vigorous and resolute, this little girl of thirteen gave me a rough handshake. “This phenomenon is constantly repeated, in the same manner, for eighteen months now, but only today did it occur spontaneously and naturally, without the laying on of hands.”

— Although quite rare, this strange phenomenon is not exceptional; we have already been told of various similar facts, and we ourselves witnessed something of the kind in somnambulists in a state of ecstasy and even in ecstatics who were not in a somnambulistic state. Moreover, it is certain that violent emotions work upon the physiognomy a change that gives it an expression completely different from that of the normal state. Do we not likewise see creatures whose mobile features lend themselves at will to modifications that allow them to take on the appearance of other persons? From this it is seen that the rigidity of the face is not such that it cannot lend itself to passing modifications more or less profound, and there is nothing surprising that a similar fact could occur in this case, though, perhaps, from a cause independent of the will. In this connection, here are the answers that were given by Saint Louis on the 25th of February last, in a session of the Society:

Is the case of transfiguration we have just spoken of real?

Answer. – Yes.

In this phenomenon is there a material effect?

Answer. – The phenomenon of transfiguration can occur in a material way, to such a point that in the different phases in which it presents itself it could be reproduced by daguerreotype. n

How is this effect produced?

Answer. – Transfiguration, as you understand it, is nothing but a modification of the appearance, a change or an alteration of the features that can be produced by the action of the Spirit itself upon its envelope or by an exterior influence. The body never changes; nevertheless, in consequence of a nervous contraction, it takes on diverse appearances.

Can it happen that the spectators are deceived by a false appearance?

Answer. – It can also happen that the perispirit plays the role you know. In the fact cited there was nervous contraction and the imagination augmented it considerably. Moreover, this phenomenon is very rare.

Would the role of the perispirit be analogous to what takes place in the phenomenon of bicorporeity?

Answer. – Yes.

Then, in cases of transfiguration, is it necessary that there be the disappearance of the real body, so that the spectators see only the perispirit under a different form?

Answer. – Not properly a physical disappearance, but rather an occlusion. Come to an understanding about the words.

It seems to result from what you have just said that in the phenomenon of transfiguration two effects can occur: 1st – Alteration of the features of the real body in consequence of a nervous contraction; 2nd – Variable appearance of the perispirit, made visible. Is that how we should understand it? Answer. – Certainly.

What is the first cause of this phenomenon?

Answer. – The will of the Spirit.

Can all Spirits produce it?

Answer. – No; Spirits cannot always do what they want.

How to explain the abnormal strength of this little girl, transfigured into the person of her brother?

Answer. – Does the Spirit not possess a great strength? Besides, it is that of the body in its normal state.

Observation. – This fact has nothing surprising about it. Many times we see very weak persons endowed momentarily with a prodigious muscular strength, owing to an overexcitement.

In the phenomenon of transfiguration, since the eye of the observer can see an image different from reality, will the same occur in certain physical manifestations? For example, when a table rises without the contact of hands and we see it above the ground, is it really the table that has been displaced? Answer. – Do you still ask?

Who lifts it?

Answer. – The force of the Spirit.

Observation. – This phenomenon has already been explained by Saint Louis and this question has already been treated completely in the issues of May and June 1858, in connection with the theory of physical manifestations. We were told, in this case, that the table or any other object that moves is animated by a factitious momentary life, which allows it to obey the will of the Spirit.

— Certain persons have wished to see in the fact a simple optical illusion that, by a kind of mirage, would make them see a table in space, when in reality it was on the ground. If that were so, it would be no less worthy of attention.

It is curious that those who wish to contest or disparage the spiritist phenomena explain them by causes that, themselves, would be true prodigies and equally difficult to comprehend. Now, why treat the matter with such disdain? If the cause they point to is real, why do they not go deeper into it? The physicist seeks to know the reason for the slightest abnormal movement of the magnetized needle; the chemist, the slightest change in muscular attraction [molecular attraction]; n why, then, would one regard with indifference phenomena as strange as these of which we speak, even if they resulted from a simple deviation of the visual field or from a new application of known laws? That has no logic.

Certainly it would not be impossible that, by an optical effect similar to that which allows us to see an object inside water higher than it really is, because of the refraction of luminous rays, a table might appear to us in space when in truth it was on the ground. However, there is a fact that peremptorily resolves the question: it is when the table falls abruptly to the ground and when it breaks; that does not seem to us an optical illusion.

— But let us return to transfiguration.

If a muscular contraction can modify the physiognomy, it will do so only within certain limits; but certainly if a little girl takes on the appearance of an old man, no physiological effect would make a beard grow on her. It is necessary, then, to seek its cause elsewhere. If we refer to what we said earlier about the role of the perispirit in all the phenomena of apparition, even of living persons, we will understand that there is found the key to the phenomenon of transfiguration. Indeed, since the perispirit can isolate itself from the body and become visible; since, by its extreme subtlety, it can acquire diverse appearances, according to the will of the Spirit, one conceives without difficulty that this is what occurs with a transfigured person: the body remains the same; only the perispirit has changed its aspect. But, it will be asked, what becomes of the body? For what reason does the observer not see a double image, namely, on one side the real body and on the other the transfigured perispirit? Strange facts, of which we will soon speak, prove that the real body can, in some fashion, be veiled by the perispirit, in consequence of the fascination that in such circumstances is worked upon the observer.

— The phenomenon that is the object of this article had already been communicated to us a long time ago, and if we had not yet spoken of it, it is because it is not our intention to make of this Review a simple catalogue of facts destined to feed curiosity, an arid compilation without appraisal or commentary. Our task would be very easy, and we take it more seriously. Above all, we address ourselves to men of reasoning, to those who, like us, want to know things, at least what is possible for us. Now, experience has taught us that facts, however strange and multiplied they may be, are in no way elements of conviction; and they will be so all the less the stranger they are. The more extraordinary a fact is, the more abnormal it seems to us and the less disposed we find ourselves to give it credit. We want to see, and when we see, we still doubt; we distrust illusion and connivance. It is no longer thus when we find a plausible cause for the facts. Every day we see persons who formerly attributed the spiritist phenomena to imagination and blind credulity and who today are fervent adherents, precisely because now these phenomena do not repel their reason; they explain them to us, comprehend their possibility, and believe in them, even without having seen them. Before speaking of certain facts, we had to wait until the fundamental principles were sufficiently developed, in order to comprehend their causes. That of transfiguration is among these. For us, Spiritism is more than a belief: it is a Science; and we feel happy to see that our readers have understood us. [1] T. note: Attraction musculaire, in the original. The correct term would be molecular attraction.