Like the curies, flammarion participated in extensive research with Eusapia Palladino. His first séance with her took place on July 27, 1897, in the home of the Blech family in Paris. A light-colored curtain had been stretched across one corner of the room, forming a “cabinet.” Inside the cabinet were a small sofa, a guitar, and a chair, upon which had been placed a bell and music box. The cabinet had been set up at the request of Eusapia, who explained that such conditions were necessary for the effects. flammarion would have preferred that the cabinet not be used, but noted that in every scientific experiment certain conditions may be required. “He who would seek to make photographs without a dark chamber would cloud over his plate and obtain nothing. The man who would deny the existence of electricity because he had been unable to obtain a spark in a damp atmosphere would be in error. He who would not believe in the existence of stars because we only see them at night would not be very wise” (flammarion 1909, p. 68). Although he accepted the conditions, as requested by the medium, flammarion (1909, p. 68) said, “In accepting these conditions, the essential point is not to be their dupe.” Accordingly, flammarion carefully examined the cabinet and the entire room, making sure that there were no concealed mechanisms, batteries, or wires in the floor or walls. Before the séance, in order to detect anything suspicious upon Eusapia, Madame Zelma Blech, whose integrity flammarion considered beyond question, carefully undressed and dressed her.
The sitting was carried out in various conditions of lighting, ranging from full light to dim red light. Eusapia sat outside the curtain, with her back to it. A rectangular wooden table, weighing fifteen pounds, was placed in front of her. flammarion examined the table carefully, and found nothing suspicious. flammarion and another participant carefully controlled the hands and feet of the medium. Each held one of the medium’s hands with one hand and placed a foot on one of the medium’s feet. In addition, flammarion placed his other hand upon the medium’s knees. The room was fully lighted by a kerosene lamp and two candles. flammarion (1909, p. 70) reported, “At the end of three minutes
the table begins to move, balancing itself, and rising sometimes to the right, sometimes to the left. A minute afterwards it is lifted entirely from the floor, to a height of about nine inches, and remains there two seconds.” Several other levitations took place in this session, causing flammarion (1909, p. 70) to conclude, “It seems that an object can be lifted, in opposition to the law of gravity, without the contact of the hands which have just been acting upon it.” Then a round table a small distance away, to flammarion’s right, spontaneously moved into contact with the table that had risen into the air. flammarion said that it appeared as if the round table was trying to climb onto the rectangular table. It then fell over. This took place in full light. The medium then signaled for less light. The two candles were put out, and the kerosene lamp was turned down somewhat, but there was still enough light for flammarion and the other witnesses to see everything that was happening in the room. The round table, which flammarion had set upright again, repeatedly made movements suggesting it was trying to climb onto the rectangular table. flammarion (1909, p. 71) tried to push the table down, but it resisted. He determined that the medium was not responsible for the round table’s movements.
The medium demanded less light. The kerosene lamp was turned off and a lamp of the kind used in photography dark rooms was turned on. It provided a dim red light, enough for the witnesses to see what was happening in the room. Many unusual occurrences took place, among which I consider the following to be the most significant. first of all the music box sounded behind the curtain, as if someone was turning its handle. As this was happening, the medium’s hands and feet were being carefully controlled by flammarion and another witness (de fontenay). Eusapia moved the hand held by de fontenay, and guiding the finger of de fontenay, touched the finger to flammarion’s cheek and moved it in circles, as if turning the handle of the music box. When she stopped, the music box stopped playing; when she moved the finger again, the music box again played. According to flammarion (1909, p. 72), the soundings and silences of the music box exactly matched the movements and stoppings of the finger on his cheek.
As I write this summary of what happened at the séance, I find myself desiring to leave certain things out. They seem too incredible to me, too unbelievable. But I shall resist that impulse. A small round table moved toward the table at which the party was sitting, and then it rose onto the table top. The sitters heard the guitar sounding behind the curtain and moving around. It emerged from the cabinet, floated toward the sitters, rose onto the tabletop, and then rose onto the shoulder of de fontenay. from there it rose into the air above the sitters, emitting sounds. flammarion (1909, p. 73) noted: “The phenomenon lasts about fifteen seconds. It can readily be seen that the guitar is floating in the air, and the reflection of the red lamp glides over its shining surface.” flammarion (1909, p. 74) also observed another striking movement of a large object: “Later, the chair within the cabinet moves out and takes up a position near Mrs. Blech. It then rises up and rests on top of Mrs. Blech’s head.”
After the séance at the Blech’s, flammarion held eight séances with Eusapia at his own home. flammarion (1909, p. 85) said, “Before every séance Eusapia was undressed and dressed again in the presence of two ladies charged with seeing that she did not hide any tricking apparatus under her clothes.” Arthur Levy, who came with an attitude of distrust and skepticism, gave an account of the séance of november 16, 1897. Levy examined the room, paying special attention to the cabinet, formed by hanging curtains across one corner of the room. He determined that there were no mechanisms therein and no ways to enter or leave the cabinet area except through the curtains, which were always in sight during the séance. The five sitters and the medium sat at a rectangular white table in front of the curtain. Some musical instruments were placed in the cabinet.
One of the sitters placed on the table a scale for weighing letters. Eusapia put her hands four inches from each side of the instrument and caused the scale to move. Levy noted: “Eusapia herself asked us to convince ourselves, by inspection, that she did not have a hair leading from one hand to the other, and with which she could fraudulently press upon the tray of the letter-weigher. This little display took place when all the lamps of the salon were fully lighted” (flammarion 1909, p. 88).
Levy and George Mathieu controlled the hands and feet of the medium. The sitters rested their hands on the table. “In a few moments,” observed Levy, “it begins to oscillate, stands on one foot, strikes the floor, rears up, wholly into the air,—sometimes twelve inches, sometimes eight inches, from the ground . . . All this in full light” (flammarion 1909, p. 88). Eusapia asked for less light, complaining that the brightness was hurting her eyes. The lamp was moved some distance away, and was placed on the floor behind a piano. But there was still sufficient light for the sitters to see what was happening. A tambourine and violin were thrown out of the cabinet onto the table. Levy took the tambourine in his hand, and an invisible personality tried to wrest it from his grasp, cutting Levy’s hand in the process. The table shook violently. An accordion was thrown from the cabinet onto the table. Levy said, “I seize it by its lower half and ask the Invisible if he can pull it out by the other end so as to make it play. The curtain comes forward, and the bellows of the accordion is methodically moved back and forth, its keys are touched, and several different notes are heard” (flammarion 1909, p. 90). Eusapia called for the sitters to join hands with her in a chain. Eusapia then cast an inflamed look at a large sofa, which then, according to Levy, marched up to the table. Eusapia looked at the sofa “with a satanic smile” and then blew upon it, whereupon it went back to its place.