Observations placeholder
Dubois-Menant, Jules Gabriel – The painting that presaged an accident
Identifier
027773
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
The well known painter Dubois Menant came to spend two months in Nice. Since he lodged in my house, I had a great pleasure of spending many hours of pleasant conversations with this advanced spiritualist, and here is a psychic story that he told me. I'll give him the floor.
On March 20, 1904, in Paris, I had to have a meeting with Mr. J. at 3 o' clock. Now then, at about 2:35, as I made my preparations, I noticed that the easel supporting Mrs. V.'s pastel portrait would be more convenient for my work than the one arranged for this purpose. So I prepared to change the place of the portrait by putting it on another easel.
This portrait was in an oval frame and under an ordinary glass while waiting for its definitive place. At that moment I was experiencing a strange, very strong sensation of intuition, that an accident was going to happen to this portrait, although I did my best to avoid it. I'm convinced it is going to roll on the ground and break. I'm trying to balance it and I'm going to take two holds to keep it stable, but I've barely turned my head and I hear a tremendous noise: it was the portrait lying on the ground, under the debris of the glass and the broken frame. I carefully removed each splinter of glass, and I noted with satisfaction that the portrait had only a scratch on the cheekbone of the right cheek. Fearing that the paper itself had been punctured, I delicately passed my finger over the area of the accident, and it was with great relief that I could see that this scratch was only on the surface of the pastel. Everything was reduced to a simple glass and frame material accident that could be easily repaired.
I look at my watch; it is 2:45; my model is coming.
After the session, Mr. J. gives me an appointment at 9 o' clock in the evening with some friends.
When I arrived, these gentlemen said: "Do you know the address of Mrs. V.?
- Yes, 43, rue du Marché, in Neuilly.
- Ah! so much the better, it's not her.
- Why? what is it?"
These gentlemen then showed me the number of La Presse, which appeared that evening and reported an accident that occurred during the day at 2:45 (Sunday, March 20) at the Métropolitain, and among those injured, the newspaper mentioned Mrs. V., living on Philippe-le-Boucher street, who had been hit by glass splinters in her face.
Since the address I knew did not correspond to the address given by the newspaper, these gentlemen concluded that the accident did not concern Lady V., whom we all knew, but another person with the same name.
I then confirmed that the accident must have happened to lady V., whom we knew and not to another, and I indicated formally the place of the injury, adding that I would go to this lady on the next day. To their amazement I did not tell any more, and the next day, Monday, March 21, I made the planned visit.
I found this lady with her head wrapped in bandages. It was she who had been the victim of the accident reported by the newspaper. She had been affected to the cheekbone of the right cheek by a glass splinter, which had produced a superficial cut of the skin, exactly at the same point as the pastel. The accident had occurred at 2:45, exactly when the painting fell off the easel.
The address error came from the fact that this lady lived in a house at the corner of the two streets of the Market and Philippe-le-Boucher: the reporter had indicated the second street instead of the first one.
….. if Mrs V. has managed to manifest herself to her painter friend by producing a telekinesis phenomenon similar to that caused by dying and deceased people, this means that, as a result of the railway accident in which she was injured, she probably fell into syncope for a moment - which determined a phenomenon of "bilocation"; that is to say that her "spiritual body", guided by her will, was transported in the studio of her painter friend, to whom she manifested her presence by communicating to him the accident which had happened to her, by exerting a paranormal action on her portrait,…..