Observations placeholder

Supernormal faculties in Man- Dr Eugene Osty

I said to Mme Morel, " Look into the state of health of the person who is holding your hand."

 "  . . I go over her body …. examine each organ none seems to me ailing . . but I feel a strange lassitude. . . . Ah! now I see the cause, it is an early stage of pregnancy, etc.

The diagnosis was correct, pregnancy of one month (as ultimately proved the case) and seemed to be the result of an actual physical examination. To show those present that this was not the metagnomic process, I only had to make an objection to induce the subject to justify her words by description of her visions. I said,

 "I think you are making a mistake."

"No, it is certainly a pregnancy that I saw . the whole body of this person appears to me afresh. . . I see it there, quite close, and can see every organ quite well . none is out of condition. I now come to the ovary, which is turgid; I see it like a bunch of grapes, of which one is much larger than the rest; so it is a case of pregnancy . . but it is only at the beginning, for that 'grape' is but little developed...."

 "Look at the state of health of the child."

 "Oh, the child is in very poor health . . . lymphatic . . one lung is affected. Take care of his chest,"

 "Are you sure?"

 "Yes, I see his blood without power or movement, whitish as if it contained some humour. Now I see the lungs, one is small, dark, and sickly."

Not being equipped with technical knowledge the thought of the subject represents to her the ailment by modifications of form and colour in organs imagined quite otherwise than they really are.

 As description of a reality it is false, but suffices to reveal the true, which is what is required. Here are some further instances which show the usual manner in which transcendental modalities of sensorial thought collaborate in bringing supernormal cognizance into the plane of consciousness:

 "I see this person's bladder . . . its walls are covered with crystals. . . . I feel a sugary taste in my mouth . the person is diabetic. . . ."

 "Why! this lady has something abnormal in her head. She does not see like others. . . . I see a black hole in her right eye . . . her right eye does not see."

 The person of whom this was said appeared to be normal and looked at things as all persons do ; there was no black hole in her right eye, but a year before its sight had been destroyed by a grain of shot penetrating it.

The greater the number of extracts I might make from my notes, the more obvious would be this progression towards true knowledge by means of false mental images. It is the same as regards cognition of places, scenes, and events.

 It is- by successive mental representations ; not by vision of a whole, but by hallucinations which do not convey the sensations that would be given by the reality, that the metagnomic psychism reaches the revelation of a truth. Although interpreting successive hallucinations, the subject expresses himself like one looking at a picture and telling another what he sees; he can only do so by successive descriptions. The analogy of language in both cases leads to the supposition of analogous perception. That, however, is not the case.