LETTER X. MESMERISM.—Use of chloroform—History of Mesmer—The true nature and extent of his discovery—Its applications to medicine and surgery—Various effects produced by mesmeric manipulations—Hysteric seizures—St. Veitz’s dance—Nervous paralysis—Catochus—Initiatory trance—The order in which the higher trance-phenomena are afterwards generally drawn out, 153
LETTER XI. SUPPLEMENTAL.—Abnormal neuro-psychical relation—Cautions necessary in receiving trance communications—Trance-visiting—Mesmerising at a distance, and by the will—Mesmeric diagnosis and treatment of disease—Prevision—Ultra-vital vision, 175
LETTER XII. THE ODOMETER OR DIVINING-RING.—How come upon by the author—His first experiments—The phenomena an objective proof of the reality of the Od-force, 209
LETTER XIII. THE SOLUTION.—Examination of the genuineness of the phenomena—Od-motions produced by bodies in their most inert state—Analysis of the forces which originate them—Od-motions connected with electrical, magnetic, chemical, crystalline, and vital influences—Their analysis, 219
POSTSCRIPT.—Further analysis of Od-motions—Proof of their genuineness—Explanation of their immediate cause, 242
LETTER XIV. HYPNOTISM. TRANCE-UMBRA.—Mr. Braid’s discovery—Trance-faculties manifested in the waking state—Self-induced waking clairvoyance—Conclusion, 248
THE DIVINING ROD.—Description of and mode of using the same—Mr. Fairholm’s statement—M. de Tristan’s statement—Account of Von Reichenbach’s Od force—The Author’s own observations.
Dear Archy,—As a resource in the solitary evenings of commencing winter, it occurred to me to look into the long-neglected lore of the marvellous, the mystical, the supernatural. I remembered the deep awe with which I had listened, many a year ago, to tales of seers, ghosts, vampyrs, and all the dark brood of night. And I thought it would be infinitely agreeable to thrill again with mysterious terrors, to start in my chair at the closing of a distant door, to raise my eyes with uneasy apprehension towards the mirror opposite, and to feel my skin creep through the sensible “afflatus” of an invisible presence. I entered, accordingly, upon a very promising course of appalling reading. But, a-lack and well-a-day! a change had come over me since the good old times when fancy, with fear and superstition behind her, would creep on tiptoe to catch a shuddering glimpse of Kobbold, Fay, or incubus. Vain were all my efforts to revive the pleasant horrors of earlier years: it was as if I had planned going to a play to enjoy again the full gusto of scenic illusion, and, through absence of mind, was attending a morning rehearsal only; when, instead of what I had anticipated, great-coats, hats, umbrellas, and ordinary men and women, masks, tinsel, trap-doors, pulleys, and a world of intricate machinery, lit by a partial gleam of sunshine, had met my view. The enchantment was no longer there—the spell was broken.