It is just the contrary which happens when this association is possible: harmony shows itself spontaneously and the phenomenon occurs with a precision which surprises all those present. It even happens that the board supplied with a pencil may write directly as on the paper. The following is an example which we find in the works of Sir Oliver Lodge. Two young girls were writing with a board, in the presence of some ten people. This board would not work with any other combination except that of the two girls. These young ladies, who were very well educated, conceived the idea of asking a spirit who maintained that he had been first in a competition at the University, to give them the formula of an equation which should represent a curve forming the outline of a heart, which was the shape of the board of which they were making use.

The answer: R = x sinθ1/θ

Oliver Lodge says that Mr. Sharpe, of Bournemouth, was kind enough to trace an exact copy of this curve and that this figure was a good representation of the ordinary form of a board. He adds, "It is naturally more difficult to invent an equation complying with a given curve, which the writing did in this instance than to trace a curve when the equation has already been given."

1 Human Survival, by Sir Oliver Lodge.

Another complication which, even with allowance for enthusiasm or exaltation, surpasses the powers of man, organic as well as intellectual, is that produced by several messages obtained simultaneously. For example, see in Aksakof (p. 381) what Dr. Wolfe says of the celebrated medium Mansfield, who wrote with both hands at once, and talked at the same time. Mr. Crookes, in his Researches on the Phenomena of Spiritualism (p. 167), testifies to a similar fact:

"In my presence several phenomena were produced at the same time, and the medium was not aware of all of them. I saw Miss Fox write automatically a communication for one of the spectators, while a second communication on another subject was given to her by a different person by means of the alphabet and by raps. During this time she was talking with a third person without the slightest embarrassment upon a third and quite different subject. In order to understand better to what point certain intelligent occult influences may take possession of physical organs and vary their action, even passing from one person to another, one must know of the curative effects which are sometimes produced, which give every evidence of having been directed by spiritual beings."

The following report is borrowed from the work of F. Myers, Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death:

Curative action exercised upon Mrs. X.:

"The author of the report, says Myers, is a doctor occupying an important scientific position in continental Europe: we know of him because we corresponded with him through a mutual friend. He enjoyed a European reputation as a scholar. He has discussed the case with his wife and with Dr. X, and has seen the account which we are now publishing in abbreviated form.

"We are obliged to disguise the identity of Dr. X and even to withhold the name of his country, as the strangeness of the facts which we are to relate, would be regarded as absolutely in bad taste if presented to his present scientific following. Dr. Z, who makes his appearance here under the uncertain character of a magnetic spirit, is also a scholar of European fame and a personal friend of Dr. X. Mrs. X one dark night sprained her right foot. Fifteen days after our return to M. her foot was almost well, but shortly afterward I fell ill and Mrs. X became greatly fatigued in caring for me. During the whole winter, Mrs. X was obliged to keep to her room, her foot in plaster - or treated with dressings of silicate. Finally this treatment was abandoned and there was a return to the simple bandage and the use of crutches. The circulation of the right foot caused an inflammation of the tissues and we were seriously alarmed. At this time several friends interested Mrs. X in certain attested feats of spiritism, of which up to this time she had but very vague ideas. The guiding spirit of a group of which one of my friends was a member proposed the spiritual intervention of Dr. Z. They settled on a day for a visit of the doctor to Mrs. X. Mrs. X was informed of the time set. Occupied by other things we completely forgot the date of the meeting. But, on the said day, April, 1891, Dr. Z announced himself by raps on the table. Only then did we remember the promised interview. I asked the opinion of Dr. Z on the nature of the malady of Mrs X's foot and the knocks answered, through the medium of Mrs.----------the word, 'tuberculosis,' signifying that there were tuberculosis in the articulations. Of that in truth, there had been some symptoms. A few days later Dr. Z returned at our request. He promised to undertake the cure of Mrs. X's foot, warning us however that there would never be a complete cure, that the invalid would remain incapable of long walks and would suffer, more or less from this foot, whenever the weather was damp - a fact which subsequent events confirmed. On the 17th of August, 1891, the invalid felt for the first time an unusual sensation accompanied by a tingling in her feet and a sense of heaviness in the members of her body, especially her feet. This sensation rapidly spread to the rest of her body, and when it reached her arms and hands a rotary movement was visible. This phenomenon appeared every evening after dinner as soon as she would seat herself in her easy chair. This was her condition when the family went to the country of R. At this place the manifestation occurred twice a day, lasting fifteen to twenty minutes. Ordinarily the invalid would place her two hands upon a table. The sensation of being magnetized was felt first in her feet, in which this rotatory movement began, and which then would gradually pass to the upper part of the body. The invalid grew capable of walking without great difficulty though every voluntary movement of her foot was painful. Yet when this movement was produced by occult powers she did not feel pain. A new phenomenon developed. One day Mrs X felt herself pulled from her chair and forced to stand upright. Her feet and her entire body responded to a series of gymnastics, whose movements were regular and rhythmical, as in an artistic dance. This occurred often in the succeeding days, and at the close of each attack the duration of which was one or two hours, the movements became very violent. Mrs. X had never had the simplest of gymnastic exercises, and these movements would have been exceedingly painful and exhausting, if she had been forced to do them of her own will. However, she was neither fatigued nor out of breath at the end of each exercise. Everything seemed to be progressing satisfactorily and Dr. Z announced that his care was no longer indispensable. But the next day an accident made matters much worse. Mrs. X, desirous of taking something from her wardrobe, mounted with great precaution upon a low chair, the four feet offering a sure, solid basis: just as she was getting down, the chair was violently pulled from under her and thrown some distance away. Mrs. X fell on her weak foot, and all the treatment had to begin again. In a later letter, Dr. Z explains that according to the story of Mrs. X this movement seemed due to an invisible force and not to a natural fall from the chair. Mrs. X was accustomed to bandage her foot herself every day. One day she was stupefied to feel her arms seized by an occult power, and directed by a force outside herself. From that day on the bandages were adjusted according to all the rules of art and with a perfection that would have done honor to the most skillful surgeon in the world. Though Mrs. X was very skillful herself, she had never had the slightest opportunity to acquire the least acquaintance with surgery, but nevertheless the bandages were irreproachable in their exactitude and everyone admired her skill. When Mrs. X wished to renew the bandages she put them all rolled upon the table within reach of her hands and mechanically her hand took the bandages, which seemed to assist more perfectly the occult operator.