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Supernormal faculties in Man- Dr Eugene Osty

Mme R-, in September, 1920, missed a platinum brooch. She questioned her servants about it. Soon after, the housemaid, Anna-Theresa H., aged 18, told her of certain suspicions.

 "Madame, it is your maid who has stolen it. I found her in your room yesterday, and she seemed fluttered when she saw me."

The maid in her turn (a war-widow with three children) came to Mme R-and said,

"Madame, I am sure that Anna-Theresa is the thief, and I don't wonder at it, I never liked her."

Mme R-, perplexed between the two statements, put the police on the track, and an enquiry began. Some days passed. By the advice of a friend, Mme R-went to the Metapsychic Institute, expecting to find mediums there.

Dr. Geley named Mme Morel as a clairvoyante who might possibly be useful, she having already given proofs of supernormal faculty in similar cases.

Mme R- went to Mme Morel on October 5th with a friend. This friend interviewed Mme Morel alone, putting into her hands a fur cape belonging to Mme R-, and asking what she could say concerning a jewel lost by the lady to whom the cape belonged. Mme Morel said,

"It has been stolen. . . . I see a long article…. very bright . . . like a brooch . . . it has not left the house … a woman has taken it; she is not very tall, young, chestnut hair . . . she is very worried, you must go back home quickly . . . the lady must go back home and say nothing about it. If nothing is said, and she behaves naturally, the thief will be still more worried. I see her wrapping the jewel in an old newspaper and throwing it under a table in a long room like a hall. If nothing is said, the jewel will be brought to her in a few hours. Go at once . . . it is the youngest woman in the house who is the thief, not the other."

Mme R- returned home to Neuilly. At eight the same evening, she being in the dining-room, another servant came and said, " Madame, here is your brooch. I have just found it in the hall in an old newspaper."

The police inspector arrived at the same time. Mme R- told him what Mme Morel had said and the conclusion of the affair.

Soon after M. Krug-Bass, the magistrate, had the housemaid arrested, her bearing seeming suspicious to him. She vehemently denied the theft. Ignorant of all supernormality, he suspected the clairvoyante of complicity in the theft, went to see her, and threatened her.

In the Middle Ages she would have been put to the torture and perhaps sent to the stake.

A month later M. Krug-Bass extorted a confession from the housemaid and declared himself convinced of the existence of transcendental faculties. The Press gave wide notice to the story of the brooch, the accounts being devoid of any sort of accuracy.