Frank Podmore

“ Grottendieck's first step, after being awakened by the falling stones, was to go into the next room, and wake up the boy. The boy then searched the jungle, and on his return was told to search the kitchen. Mr. Grottendieck climbed the partition whilst the boy was searching the kitchen. But in his later letter he describes seeing the boy asleep whilst he is himself on the partition, trying to catch the stones as they fall. One of these two accounts then—we cannot tell which—must be inaccurate in regard to the important detail of the boy's position at the time. If one is inaccurate, both may be. ”

“ In all cases the bedstead in the neighbourhood of which the noises occurred was occupied by a child, or children, to whom other circumstances point as the centre of the disturbance.
These "Poltergeist" disturbances, as they have been named, are of some historical importance, as it is to an outbreak of this kind in America that the beginning of the movement of modern Spiritualism may be traced. A farmer named John Fox occupied a frame house in Hydesville, a small hamlet in New York State. ”

“ The Poltergeist is, so to speak, the fera nature of Spiritualism.
Recently Mr. Andrew Lang has obtained, through the kindness of the Marquis d' Eguilles, copies of the official records of a trial in which a Poltergeist case formed the subject of enquiry. The case is a fairly typical one, and will serve to illustrate the nature of the phenomena usually exhibited. In January, 1851, Thorel, a shepherd, summoned M. Tinel, Curé of Cideville, for libel. The Curé had, according to the plaintiff, accused him of sorcery, and had procured his dismissal from his employment. ”

“ To attain, therefore, a clear understanding of the physical phenomena presented to us by Spiritualist mediums, some of which are dealt with in the next chapter, it is essential to study the Poltergeist manifestations which are their lineal progenitors. ”

“ Now the disturbances began at the end of November, 1850, and they ended on the 15th February, 1851, so that the occurrences were still fresh in the memory of the witnesses. More than one of the most inexplicable events are testified to by witnesses who, if strongly predisposed to belief in the marvellous, were, it is to be presumed, fairly well educated. Their testimony is given with some care, and there can be no doubt that these witnesses honestly believed that they had seen and heard things inexplicable by natural causes. ”

“ Was she really watching the candlestick continuously, or did she merely remember to have seen it at one moment at rest, and, after a short interval, in motion through the air? It is difficult, without long training, to realise how small is the part played in general perception by actual sensation, especially in the case of retinal impressions, and how largely those retinal impressions are interpreted and supplemented by immediate and unconscious inference. When we are dealing with familiar matters the inference is generally correct ”

“ One night in March, 1848, raps were heard as if proceeding from the bedstead in which his two young daughters, Margaretta and Katie, were sleeping. The disturbance was repeated night after night and the neighbours crowded in to listen. ”

“ The same day also I saw three persons sitting on a small table in the Presbytery and it moved along the floor in spite of the efforts of two people to hold it back. Several people were there, amongst others my femme de chambre, but I cannot precisely say who the others were. Another day I saw the child sitting on a chair with his feet off the ground and his back not leaning on the chairback, yet the chair rocked with a movement which the child could not have given it, ending with the chair falling in one direction and the boy in another. ”

“ VISITATIONS of raps and loud noises, accompanied by the throwing of stones, the ringing of bells, and other disturbances of an inexplicable kind, are from time to time reported by the daily papers as occurring in country villages, and, more rarely, in busy thoroughfares in our large towns. ”

“ In this way it is very easy to form a roof if it is only for a temporary house. This house was situated pretty far away from the bore-places belonging to the oil company, in whose service I was working.
I put my bullsack and mosquito curtain on the wooden floor and soon fell asleep. At about one o'clock at night I half awoke, hearing something fall near my head outside the mosquito curtain on the floor. After a couple of minutes I completely awoke and turned my head around to see what was falling down on the floor. They were black stones from one eighth to three quarters of an inch long. ”

“ The young persons round whom these disturbances occur frequently describe hallucinatory figures seen by them, and there is evidence, in many of the cases investigated by or reported to the Society, of hysteria or marked abnormality of one kind or another. ”

“ The defendant pleaded that he had only charged Thorel with "arrogating to himself the quality of sorcerer." It was shown by the evidence of many witnesses that for some weeks disturbances of an inexplicable character had plagued the Curé's house. M. Tinel kept two pupils, who gave evidence as follows: Gustave Lemonnier, the younger of the pupils, aged twelve, said that raps began when he was alone, on November 26th, and continued. He saw knives, blacking-brushes, a roasting spit, and M. Tinel's breviary leave their places and go I through the window-panes. All sorts of objects flew about. ”

“ Grottendieck's statement that he "saw quite distinctly that the stones came right through the kadjang." [6] As Mr. E. T. Dixon has pointed out in his comments on the case, "no retinal image or succession of retinal images could have recorded the passage of stones through the kadjang; he can only have (unconsciously) inferred that the stones passed through from the fact that he was not aware of any retinal image representing them coming up to the ceiling from the boy's hand (or wherever they did come from) ."
It is probable that the appearance of the stones falling slowly is also, as Mr. ”