Observations placeholder

Friar Herbert Thurston - The Physical Phenomenon of Mysticism

We can feel little doubt that Mollie was greatly harassed by curious would-be investigators, and the New York Herald, in its comments, wishes her "good riddance of the swarms of inquirers who beset her without respect for her feeble health." What made her, no doubt, quite resolute in closing her door to all except those whom she recognized as personal friends, was her consciousness of her pitiable impotence and the knowledge that convulsive spasms often came upon her with little or no warning. She seems by nature to have been sensitive and reserved. ... Mollie Fancher had no confessor to put her under obedience, and when she was questioned about her trances by Judge Dailey she replied only in general terms as follows:

Well, when I go into my trances, I am usually conscious of being in existence, but they are not like dreams. They are like indistinct wanderings, something like the dreams I used to have when asleep before I was injured. When I come out of my trances, they at times leave quite distinct recollections or impressions upon my mind, Sometimes they are dim and are slowly recalled and then become very distinct.

Now as a usual thing, when I go into a trance, I go out and around and see a great deal. Sometimes I go into a house and view the condition of the rooms, and do not see anyone in the rooms. Sometimes I see persons and nothing more. I very seldom speak of where I have been and who I have seen. At the time when Mr. Sargent was incorporating this company I am connected with, he was at Muskegon, Michigan. I went into a trance and was gone for hours. My friend, Bert Blossom, was present in the room, and when I came out of the trance I found him greatly alarmed thinking I was dead. I told him I had been away to where Mr. Sargent was, and saw him on a stage, and he was singing to an audience of people in a large room. I had seen and heard him.

Mr. Blossom said that that was most unlikely; but within the next three days I received from Mr. Sargent a letter, informing me of the fact that a Mr. Chase, at Muskegon, had opened a large piano factory, and that they had celebrated the event by a concert, at which he had taken a part in singing; and he also sent me a newspaper giving an account of the affair, and I subsequently learned from him that I had correctly described the event and scene.