I acknowledge that I do not attach any value to the objection of certain scholars, who, having examined the case of Eusapia, declared that there is no spirit therein.

From the moment that a physical effect is produced, outside of a physical organism, we are in the presence of a supernatural manifestation. Eusapia shows us a normal power of the Beyond, acting under conditions but little known. It is she herself who acts; but it is understood that a being from the other world produces the phenomenon when there is no longer a medium here to whom we may attribute it.

This is exactly the case with manifestation after death. It is said that in these special cases the witnesses of the manifestations served as mediums: perhaps - in a certain measure, but it cannot be explained why these chance mediums can act outside of the zone where other mediums work: why they are not limited to the field of action immediately surrounding the organism in space: and why the exception occurs only when the phenomena is unexpected and coincides with death.

The proof of identity is often strengthened by the fact that the raps recall certain marked characteristics of the deceased, whether because of a rhythm or because they are heard in a place to which he was accustomed during his life, or better still, because there has been an understanding in advance.

Finally, the mediums have also the faculty of displacing objects, of opening or shutting doors, of drawing bolts. We find many of these performances in spontaneous manifestations, always in concordance with a death, or with the dying moments, the sick person at that time being conscious of manifesting himself at a distance.

The clairvoyancy of the dying is instructive. It reveals to us that they are the undoubted agents of the phenomenon whose effect greatly exceeds the action which a medium could produce only at a short distance.

We could discuss this subject at greater length, for we have many examples, but our space is limited.

Let us remember only that there is a distinction to be made concerning a phenomenon produced by an entity from the other world. The raps and movements of objects manifest themselves in a distinctive manner, according to the cases, and the distinction is the one we have made on the subject of telepathic transmissions.

A simple animistic power coming from a medium will produce phenomena that may be repeated at will, or almost so: a foreign intervention may occur merely by accident.

We do not generally understand the role of the double in manifestations, we do not take into account its existence as if its reality were not proven: but, not only is the idea of the double a necessary hypothesis to the explanation of the majority of facts, but it also is manifested spontaneously. The spontaneous doubling of the human body is a phenomenon of great importance, for in it is found an unexpected confirmation of the possibility of materialized apparitions. This phenomenon has been observed under numerous circumstances, and very wrongly classified among visual hallucinations, in as much as it has nothing in common with telepathy. In truth it is objective. Upon certain occasions photography has recorded it even when its visibility had not as yet attracted attention, though at other times it has been possible to observe the double of a person by his side. Take, for example, the case of Mrs. Stone:1

1 Telepathic Hallucinations, 4th ed., p. 278.

"I have been seen three times where I was not actually present,1 and each time by different persons. The first time, it was my sister-in-law who saw me. She was at my bedside one night after the birth of my child. Looking at the bed where I was asleep, she saw me distinctly and saw also my double. She saw on one hand my natural body and on the other my spiritualized image. She closed her eyes several times, but on reopening them, continued to see the same apparition. In a short time the vision disappeared. She thought it was a premonition of death for me, and she did not speak of it to me until several months later."

The presence of the double is so real that it is usually seen by all those present, as in the following case:2

Count D. and the sentries claimed to have seen one night the Empress of Russia, seated on her throne in full court costume, while she was asleep. The lady-in-waiting in attendance, also convinced of the vision, went to awaken her. The Empress herself came into the throne room and saw her own image. She ordered a sentinel to make a fire and the image then disappeared. The Empress died three months afterwards.

But the most clearly defined case is that of Emily Sagee, which had a number of witnesses and which has become a classic. It concerns a teacher whose double was seen many times by all the pupils of a boarding school at Newelcke in Russia. We cite certain passages from Aksakof:1

1 The narrator means that the image was seen in one spot while she was nearby in another.

2 Quoted in Materialized Apparitions, by Gabriel Delanne, Vol. I, p. 892.

"Among the teachers there was a French woman, Mlle. E. Sagee, born at Dijon. A few weeks after her appearance in the house strange rumors began to be circulated concerning her among the pupils. When one girl would say that she saw her in a certain part of the establishment, another would affirm that she had met her elsewhere at the same moment. But things soon became complicated and took on a character which excluded all possibility of imagination or mistake. One day, Emilie Sagee was giving a lesson to thirteen pupils, among whom was Mlle, de Gudenstubbe, and to make her demonstration clearer Mlle. Sagee wrote the passage to be explained, upon the board. The pupils saw suddenly and to their great terror, two mesdemoiselles one beside the other. They resembled each other exactly and were making the same gestures. Yet the real person had a piece of chalk in her hand and was writing, while her double had none but was imitating the motions that the real Mlle. Sagee was making as she wrote.