We tried to obtain words by means of the alphabet, but without success. (I will remark in this connection that Eusapia knows neither how to read nor to write.)
Pierre Ostwalt was able to write a word with the pencil. It seemed as if an invisible force was guiding his hand. The word he pencilled down was the first name of Mme. Werner, well known to him.
In spite of all our efforts, we were unable to obtain a single proof of identity. Yet it would have been very easy for Mme. Werner to find one, as she had so solemnly promised us to do.
In spite of the announcement by raps that an apparition would appear which we would be permitted to see, we were only able to perceive a dim white form, devoid of precise outline, even when we manipulated the light so as to get almost complete darkness. From this new sitting the following conclusions are deduced:
a. Fraud cannot explain the phenomena, especially the levitation of the table, the violent blows and shakings given to the door, and the projection of the curtain into the room.
b. These phenomena are certainly produced by a force emanating from the medium, for they all occur in her immediate neighborhood.
c. This force is intelligent. But it is possible that this intelligence which obeys our requests is only that of the medium.
d. Nothing proves that the spirit evoked had any influence.
These propositions, however, will be examined and developed one by one in the pages that follow.
All the experiments described in this first chapter reveal to us unknown forces in operation. It will be the same in the chapters that follow.