Observations placeholder

From the  Physiology of Magnetism by C. Chardel.

The following extracts from Chardel  give us information both as to the connection of the somnambulists with the world of the discarnate and on the condition of the soul during the state of somnambulism.

On one occasion, when the somnambulist Lefrey had dictated to her magnetiser some therapeutic prescription, she remarked to him in a peculiar tone : —

'You understand that he is giving me the order?’

'Who orders that ? ' said the doctor.

‘ He does. Don't you hear him ? '

' No ; I neither hear nor do I see anyone.'

‘Ah, of course ! ' she replied. ‘You are asleep whilst I am awake.'

‘ Indeed ! It is you who are dreaming, my dear. You fancy that I am asleep, whilst really my eyes are wide open ; and I hold you under my magnetic influence, and it depends entirely on my will when I shall restore you to your previous condition. You imagine that you are awake because you are talking to me and because, to a certain extent, you have control over yourself. Nevertheless, you cannot open your eyes.'

‘You are asleep, I repeat. I, on the contrary, am almost as completely awake as we shall all be at a future day.

I will explain myself.

All that you are capable of seeing is gross and material. You recognise the apparent form, but the real beauties escape you. I, on the other hand, whose corporeal sensations are for the moment suspended, whose soul is nearly completely disengaged from ordinary affairs, I see what is invisible to your eyes ; I hear what your ears cannot; I understand what is incomprehensible to you.

For instance, you do not see what passes from you to me when you magnetise me. I see it very clearly. At every pass you make I see little columns of fire-dust emanate from the tips of your fingers and incorporate themselves in me ; and when you isolate me, I am almost surrounded by an atmosphere glowing with this same fire-dust.

When I wish, I can hear distant sounds — sounds vibrating a hundred miles away. In a word, I do not need that objects should come to me ; I can go to them wherever they may be, and I can make a far truer estimate of them than anyone could do who was not in a condition analogous to mine’