Observations placeholder

The Life of a Sensitive – Madame Michael Bouissou

On another occasion I took Jugoslavia as the goal of my nocturnal perigrinations. Once again I went to visit Mme de Ch-L-, who confirmed the accuracy of what I saw. The preparations for the projection were the same, but on this occasion I crossed the fringe of the real world with greater rapidity, a fringe it is as difficult to cross as an atmosphere surcharged with electricity would be. I felt myself forging ahead without any effort, as though recumbent, through a warm soft night. I arrived in an empty room which in reality was in darkness at that time of night.

However, for me it was lit up, allowing me to examine furniture and curtains, ornaments and books in close enough detail to describe them. This time I had planned to leave some evidence of my occult presence and I had warned Mme de Ch-L- of my visit though without specifying the day or the hour, merely asking her to notice any incidents which seemed to her abnormal. She agreed and after visiting the first room (her father's office, of which she had often spoken) I looked for her bedroom where she should have been at that time of night, firmly resolved to try and give proof of my presence there.

Nothing impedes the medium on these strange journeys: neither enclosures, walls, nor closed doors; he goes through everything and finds himself in a room without having needed to climb a staircase or open a door. In this way I finished in the room that I knew intuitively must be his though I could not examine anything. Two huge spiders, satiated and peaceful, were asleep on the ceiling. These harmless beasts always terrify me, and whenever a spider and I find ourselves in the same room it is always I that gives way. That night, horrified at the idea of being confronted with the spider as I had been with the plate, I beat a hasty retreat and re-entered my carnal shell, which lay there calm and undisturbed.

Next day I wrote to Mme de Ch-L-, giving her a minute description of the study I had visited and asking her why she tolerated the presence of these horrible animals on her ceiling. A few days later I received her reply. The description of the first room was completely accurate, and as for the spiders: "I never disturb them," she said, "for they are harmless and I'm not afraid of them. They are most valuable in this country where they account for a host of infuriating mosquitoes."