CHAPTER II 



THE PROBLEM OF SUPERNORMAL PHYSIOLOGY 



No one nowadays is ignorant of what is meant by the 

 so-called supernormal physiology. It is manifested in 

 persons of special gifts and constitutions, called mediums, 

 by dynamic and material effects inexplicable by the 

 regular play of their organs and transcending the field 

 of organic action. 



The most important and complex phenomena of 

 this so-called supernormal physiology are those called 

 materialisation and dematerialisation. Conformably to 

 our method, these are the only ones which we shall first 

 endeavour to understand, in order, later, to apply the 

 solution of the problem to other less important facts 

 of the same order, such as the movements of objects 

 without contact. 



I . MATERIALISATIONS 



I have no intention of making here a historical or 

 critical study of materialisations, a study which the 

 reader will find in the special works named below. 1 I 

 shall only bring my personal contribution to the analysis 

 and synthesis of this phenomenon, which is of primary 



1 Works to consult : Aksakoff : Animisme et Spiritisme; J. Bisson : 

 Les Phenomenes dils de Materialisation ; Crookes : Researches in the 

 Phenomena of Spiritualism ; Delanne : Les Apparitions MattriaHsies ; 

 D'Esperance : Au Pays de I'Ombre ; Flammarion : Les Forces Naturelles 

 Inconnues ; Maxwell : Psychic Phenomena ; Richet : Etudes sur Us 

 Materialisations de la Villa Carmen ; Dr Schrenck-Notzing : Materialisa- 

 tions Phenomenes ; De Rochas : (Euvres Completes. 



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