BAD WEILBACH, near MAYENCE, _1st August, 1851_.
LETTER I. 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, 9
LETTER II. VAMPYRISM.—Tale exemplifying the superstition—The Vampyr state of the body in the grave—Various instances of death-trance—The risk of premature interment considered—The Vampyr visit, 30
LETTER III. UNREAL GHOSTS.—Law of sensorial illusions—Cases of Nicolai, Schwedenborg, Joan of Arc—Fetches—Churchyard ghosts, 53
LETTER IV. TRUE GHOSTS.—The apparitions themselves always sensorial illusions—The truth of their communications accounted for—Zschokke’s seer-gift described, to show the possibility of direct mental communication—Second-sight—The true relation of the mind to the living body, 70
LETTER V. TRANCE.—Distinction of esoneural and exoneural mental phenomena—Abnormal relation of the mind and nervous system possible—Insanity—Sleep—Essential nature of trance—Its alliance with spasmodic seizures—General characters of trance—Enumeration of kinds, 86
LETTER VI. TRANCE-SLEEP.—The phenomena of trance divided into those of trance-sleep, and those of trance-waking—Trance-sleep presents three forms; Trance-waking two. The three forms of trance sleep described; viz., death-trance, trance-coma, simple or initiatory trance, 98
LETTER VII. HALF-WAKING TRANCE, OR SOMNAMBULISM.—The same thing with ordinary sleep-walking—Its characteristic feature, the acting of a dream—Cases, and disquisition, 106
LETTER VIII. TRANCE-WAKING.—Instances of its spontaneous occurrence in the form of catalepsy—Analysis of catalepsy—its three elements: double consciousness, or pure waking-trance; the spasmodic seizure; the new mental powers displayed—Cases exemplifying catalepsy—Other cases unattended with spasm, but of spontaneous occurrence, in which new mental powers were manifested—Oracles of antiquity—Animal instinct—Intuition, 116
LETTER IX. RELIGIOUS DELUSIONS.—The seizures giving rise to them shown to have been forms of trance brought on by fanatical excitement—The Cevennes—Scenes at the tomb of the Abbé Paris—Revivals in America—The Ecstatica of Caldaro—Three forms of imputed demoniacal possession—Witchcraft; its marvels, and the solution, 136