Observations placeholder
Bozzano, Professor Ernesto - Psychic phenomena at the moment of death – 46 Father Fijio
Identifier
027772
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Ernesto Bozzano - Psychic phenomena at the moment of death [110 cases suggesting survival after death]
Telekinesis related to death event
7-th case. - This case is borrowed from the report of Professor A. Alexander (Light, 1898, page 443). It is … remarkable …. because the phenomenon of telekinesis - a falling portrait - is realized as a consequence of what someone has just mentioned, or more precisely, evoked the deceased represented on the portrait. Professor Alexander writes:
I must first point out that, towards the end of 1896, there was a political unrest in Rio de Janeiro, following a request for compensation made by Italy. The Italian protocol had been approved by the Brazilian House at first and second readings, but was later postponed because of pressure exerted on the deputies by the military wing. Among the numerous citizens who followed the case with passionate interest was Professor X., a professor at the École Polytechnique. As a strict republican, he was indignant of the army's intrusion into political matters for which the solution belonged to the people through its representatives, not the army.
One day, at lunchtime, while he was animatedly discussing the unconstitutional intrusion of the army, he alluded to an earlier period in Brazilian history (1832), when the then Regent, Father Fijio, threw the religious dress, armed the citizens and relentlessly crushed the unsubordinated soldiers. He added that he regretted that the monk was no longer there to stifle the current government usurpers once again. While he was speaking in this way, the sound of an object falling was heard in the adjacent room. Sixty framed portraits were lined up on the walls of the room. They represented the most outstanding political, literary and scientific notabilities of Brazil. One of these portraits had detached itself from the wall and fell on the bookshelf below; it was the portrait of Father Fijio!
Since the phenomenon of portraits which fall in connection with the death of those whom they represent is an indisputable fact, I do not believe that the episode in question can be attributed to an "accidental coincidence", however extraordinary it may be. Indeed, if any of the sixty portraits in the room had fallen when Professor X. spoke favorably of a figure included in the collection, then the event should have been seen as the result of an "accidental coincidence". But the fallen portrait was precisely that of the person evoked at that time. It is not easy to attribute the event to mere chance without going beyond the bounds of plausibility. In any case, this assumption could only be a personal opinion and not an opinion based on the mathematical calculation of probabilities.