THE PHENOMENON OF TELEPORTATION ANALYZED BY FRANZ HARTMANN

MAGICAL METATHESIS OR THE ALMOST INSTANTANEOUS TRANSFER OF LIVING PERSONS TO DISTANT PLACES BY OCCULT MEANS.

“We are such stuff as dreams are made on.”

Shakespeare (Tempest).

As it is our object to study the still unexplained laws of nature and the constitution of man, the so-called “occult” or “spiritual” phenomena properly come within the reach of our examination, and of these the most astounding and perplexing ones are evidenced in cases where people in their natural bodies have suddenly disappeared in one place and in an incredibly short space of time been found in another distant place, which they could not have reached by ordinary means.

To such cases the name of “magical metathesis” or transposition may be given; because as far as we know, the change of locality is usually not made by one’s own efforts but by the aid of superior powers unknown to those who are subjected to it.

There are numerous such cases mentioned in history, although they are often treated as fables by those who know nothing of the laws of metaphysics.  In the legends of the saints we find accounts of such occurrences; for instance, that of Saint Franciscus Xaverius who was bodily taken from a ship on the high seas to a vessel in distress, which he saved by his directions.

Another well-known case is that of Apollonius of Tyana, who suddenly disappeared from the presence of the Emperor Domitian at Rome and immediately afterwards appeared bodily among his friends at Puteoli. There are also similar instances recorded in the Bible. (See Acts viii. 39, 40)

We have all heard of the “witch sabbaths” when the witches used to assemble in a certain locality to which they were transported through the air. Of course we have been educated to believe that all such cases belong to the garret where the exploded superstitions of medieval times are stored away and that the poor witches dreamed such nonsense.

This is the view of popular science, while some of the spiritists believe that the witches came in their astral forms; but there are men of high intellect and education, such as the eminent Dr. John Pordage [died 1681], who positively affirm that the witches were carried through the air in their physical bodies. He says:

« If you think it impossible that witches are bodily carried away and made to fly over houses and spires through the air in a very short space of time, you may attribute your opinion to your own ignorance; because you do not know the nature of the devil and the power of evil spirits. But whether you doubt it or not, it is nevertheless true, that the witch is transported through the air in her corporal body and clothing and not merely as a spirit, leaving the physical body behind. Such things are not fantasies or dreams, but a transfer by magical power. »

(Note: It may here be remarked that Dr. Pordage does not regard the “Devil” as being a personality or ghost, walking the earth, but he refers to the principle of evil out of which evil spirits, demons, and bad persons are born. The Devil as a power of evil is as impersonal as the power for good.)

Moreover, such things are not merely things of the past, but they are even at the present time of more frequent occurrence than we are willing to believe, and it seems that the number of miles of distance is of little importance.

I have heard of a case in which a man was thus transported from England to Australia, and I have friends at Florence who claim that they have been repeatedly visited in this manner by a Hindu lady living in India.

While I am writing these lines the daily papers and monthly journals are discussing the case of the two boys Alfredo and Paolo Pansini of Bari, which were repeatedly taken away in some mysterious manner and were found fifteen minutes afterwards in some place, forty-five kilometers distant, and once even in a fishing smack on the sea near Barletta.

Such cases, whenever they become publicly known, create a certain excitement, but are soon forgotten, because there is no reasonable explanation for them known to scientific authorities.

For the benefit of those who have not read an account of these occurrences in the Italian papers, we give the following condensed extract translated from the Giornale d’Italia:

« Bari, November 15, 1905.

A MYSTERIOUS RESIDENCE

In the year 1901 Signor Mauro Pansini, a mason and architect, went with his family to live in an old house not far from the Palazzo Municipale. A few days passed off quietly, but then the family was terrified by strange noises and phenomena; the pictures fell from the nails, plates, glasses and bottles were thrown against the walls and broken to pieces, and the furniture moved about without any one touching it.

They concluded that the place was haunted by evil spirits; the priest was called and went through the prescribed ceremonies for exorcising the devils; but even the most liberal application of prayers and holy water availed nothing; the tables were overturned and chairs broken just as before.

One evening the little Alfredo Paoli, aged seven years, while the rest of the family were present, fell into a state of sleep and began to speak in a voice which was not his own, saying that he had been sent by God for the purpose of driving away the evil spirits, and it seemed for a while as if a better class of spirits had come, for now there were all kinds of sweets, candy, and chocolate, brought to them by the invisibles, and one night the little boy, while in a state of trance, described a battle taking place between the good and the bad ghosts. Next the boy began to walk mechanically and answer questions concerning things which he could not know.

They took the boy to church. There he became as insensible as a corpse, but woke up as the bishop called his name. He remained with the bishop for several days, and then returned to his parents. There still more curious phenomena took place.

One day the lad Alfredo, with his brother Paolo, aged eight years, were at Ruvo at 9 a.m., and at 9:30 they were found at the Capucine convent at Malfatti (some thirty miles away).

Another day the whole family were sitting at the breakfast table at 12:30 p.m., and as there was no wine the little Paolo was sent for it. He did not return, and half an hour afterwards Alfredo suddenly disappeared, and at 1 p.m. both boys were found in a fishing boat on the sea not far from the port of Barlatta.

They began to cry, and the fisherman, being himself frightened almost out of his wits by their sudden appearance, took them ashore, where by good fortune they found a coachman who knew them and took them home, where after a rapid drive of half-an-hour they arrived at 3:30.

In this way they were spirited away on other occasions to Bisceglie, Giovinazzi, Mariotti, and Ferlizzi (the distance of which places from Ruvo may be seen on the map) and brought back to their parents in the ordinary way. »

The doctor Raffaelo Estugno and other scientists investigated their cases, but they either came to no result, or they avoided giving the only reasonable explanation which presents itself to an occultist; and this is not to be wondered at, if we take into consideration the storm of indignation which has been raised in “scientific” quarters even against such a celebrated scientist as Professor Richet for publishing the accounts of his experiments in the Villa Carmen, and having had the hardihood to affirm publicly having seen and touched a materialized ghost.

Now two such cases have come to my personal knowledge. One happened in the neighborhood where I lived, the other among my personal friends.

FIRST CASE

The first is that of the so-called “bloodsweating” girl at Radein in Tyrol. It also was largely discussed in the press and ridiculed.

There is a small hovel at Radein in which lived an orphan girl by the name of Angelica Darocca together with her three brothers. There was only one room, which served as parlor and bedroom for the girl, while her three brothers slept in the garret under the roof. This girl had the “stigmata” on her hands and feet, from which at certain times a bloody sweat issued, and it is claimed that for seven years she had touched no food nor drink whatever.

Nevertheless, she was in good health, and this may be explained by the fact that she appears to have been a energetic vampire, drawing vitality and strength from the visitors and the children which were brought to her by their parents to be blessed; because she was considered to be a saint. These children she used to embrace and caress, which may have been good for her, but probably bad for them. As may be supposed, numerous visitors came to see the saint, although the place is on a high and steep hill and difficult of access.

The doctors did not know what to make of the case and the parson was equally at a loss. The bishop, however, did the best he could by prohibiting people to visit the house.

The girl was desirous of leaving the place, as she felt she was a burden to her brothers, and the bishop of Trient at last got her a place in a convent at Meran.

On November 17, two nuns of that convent came to take her in charge. They talked and prayed with her, and while they spoke the girl fell into a trance. When the nuns called again the next morning, they found the bed empty; the girl had disappeared and her brothers informed them that this was not the first time she had thus mysteriously been taken away. The parson was called, they searched the house, but Angelica was nowhere.

On November 25, the brothers and some of the neighbors held their usual prayer meeting in that room, when suddenly the girl was in the same bed again.

She said that some superior power had taken her away, without any volition on her part. She also did not know where she had been; but a day or two after a lady in the vicinity received a letter from a friend of hers living at Rome, and in that letter she said that she and her sister had enjoyed the visit of an amiable Tyrolese girl by the name of Angelica Darocca — that she had stayed with them and went with them to the church of St. Peter, and that the girl had disappeared without even taking a drink of water during that stay.

The girl was afterwards taken to Roveredo, where she exhibited all the signs of obsession. In the asylum where she stayed, voices and yells, screams and whistling were heard; noises like the blows of a sledgehammer upon an anvil, sawing as if a dozen carpenters were at work, filing of iron, rasping of wood, groans and blasphemous talk.

The disturbances grew so troublesome that the nuns were forced to send her away. Thereupon a lady at Trient took her in charge. She got so ill that she seemed to be dying, and upon the advice of her physician the Sacrament of “extreme unction” was administered to her, after which she entirely recovered and the disturbances ceased.

All this may be called “hysteria” and “hypnotism,” but it is not explained how hysteria and hypnotism can carry a person 660 kilometers away.

SECOND CASE

In the next case some of my own special friends and acquaintances are concerned, and not being permitted to give their names, I will call them M.

The actors in this case are a family well known at Florence and occupying prominent places in society.

They are not spiritists of the usual kind, but appear to be occultists, capable of working consciously upon the astral plane. They are very intelligent and well educated, and it is remarkable that they seem to know the Hindu philosophy very well, although they never read any books treating of that subject, but receive their instruction in some other (spiritual) way.

They claim that every event takes place in the world of causes before it becomes manifested in our visible world of effects, and that therefore certain disasters, such as earthquakes, may occasionally be prevented by acting upon their causes in the spiritual realm.

And for this purpose they have a circle of friends who meet sometimes at their house and assist them mentally and spiritually in their work.

One of the members of that circle is my friend Dr. Z, a young, strong, and healthy man, but having a peculiar mediumistic organization; for besides being sufficiently clairvoyant to see the internal organs and their diseased states in his patients, he has repeatedly while in an unconscious condition been carried bodily away to some distant place and even through closed doors and solid walls.

Thus he was once taken from Livorno to Florence, a distance of 100 kilometers in about 15 minutes. I will give his own statement as he wrote it down at my request, and what he says has been corroborated by our friends:

« I had to go to Livorno for a few days. Before leaving Florence I went to see our friends with whom I am often in spiritual communion.

I had already been two days at Livorno when a very strange thing happened to me.  It was after 9 p.m., and I had been to supper, when I distinctly felt an occult message coming from our friends at Florence, asking me to come as soon as possible, because they needed my presence.

Instinctively I took my cloak and without even changing my jacket bestrode my bicycle and went for the station, intending to take the first train leaving for Florence; but as I went on I was forced by an irresistible impulse to take the road to the right, which leads towards Pisa, and at the same time my bicycle went on with such a velocity that I became giddy and my legs could not follow any more the quick movement of the pedals, so I had to abandon them.

Still the velocity grew to such an extent that it seemed to me as if I was flying without touching the ground. For a moment I saw Pisa and its lights, then the breath began to fail me owing to the pressure of the air caused by the rapidity of the motion, and I lost consciousness.

When I regained my senses, I found myself in the parlor of our friends M., at Florence, and they expressed their surprise, seeing that I had come so soon, as there were no trains arriving from Livorno at that hour. I looked at my watch. It was 9.30 p.m. Thus it could not have taken me more than a quarter of an hour to travel the 100 kilometers from Livorno to Florence, considering the time necessary to put on my cloak and get my bicycle.

I asked our friends how I happened to enter the house, the doors being always closed at that hour, and they told me that “Tom” (a certain “spirit” who frequently manifested himself in their house and used to give directions) told them to go to a certain room, called the “magic chamber,” to make certain signs and pronounce certain words.

This they did and immediately there began a racket and noise as if a bomb had exploded at the window towards the street, and they heard a thump as if a human body had fallen upon the chair. They struck a light and found that the human body was myself and that I seemed to sleep.

While this conversation took place, the doorbell rang violently. It was the night watchman, who claimed to have seen somebody, presumably a robber, enter the house through the window. Evidently, it was I whom he saw. Our friends told him that everything was all right and the watchman retired, apparently not quite satisfied and not fully convinced.

While our friends went to open the door to speak with the watchman they found a bicycle in the entrance hall. Thus it seems that my bicycle was carried through the closed door and I through the window, which was also closed.

This happened in March 1902. I had my full consciousness when I left Livorno until I passed through Pisa and regained it at the house of our friends at Florence. The next day I returned to Livorno by train and had the bicycle shipped there at the same time. »

Thus Dr. Z travelled the whole distance of 100 kilometers in about 15 minutes, while it takes the fast train four hours to go from Livorno to Florence.

Another time the same gentleman while sitting in the parlor of our friends at Florence, fell into a trance and, while in this condition, was taken bodily through the solid ceiling to the room above. I have myself repeatedly seen materialized ghosts which were apparently perfectly solid, pass in this way through floors and walls; but Dr. Z was not a ghost.

At one time the family of M found Dr. Z on the sofa in their parlor, after he had made such an aerial trip, in a semiconscious condition and not fully materialized. They lifted his limbs, which seemed as light as a feather. He spoke to them in a whisper, and asked to be magnetized, which they did.

After a few minutes his strength and solidity returned, and as he jumped up and struck with his fists upon the table, he exclaimed with his usual voice, “Now I am material again!”

That the facts recounted above are true I am myself fully satisfied, but of course I have no means to convince any sceptic. I ask, however, no blind belief of anybody, and am entirely indifferent in regard to the opinion of those who deny the possibility of such facts. In the absence of any satisfactory explanation, we may perhaps be permitted to speculate a little on the subject.

POSSIBLE EXPLANATION

It is clear that these persons were not able to take such aerial flights by means of their own volition. The children at Bari were carried away against their own wish by something which called itself “Cavaliere Fernando.” In the case of Dr. Z an intelligence called “Tom” seems to have had something to do with it. Angelica Darocca claimed that she was taken away by a superior power.

These powers, spirits, devils, or whatever we may call them, also manifested a great deal of strength in producing physical phenomena, noises like the rolling of heavy cannon balls over the wooden floor, lightnings within the room, rain and the throwing of sand. These phenomena were not desired but were often the cause of a great deal of annoyance.

These beings could not be any disembodied human spirits; for it is not reasonable to suppose that the human soul or astral form should by dying acquire such powers, and living people temporarily abandoning their physical forms do not possess them.

In the tales of the “Thousand and One Nights” such spirits are called “djinns”; the mystics of the medieval ages called them “devils”; modem writers have given them the name “elementals,” and as they act intelligently, they must possess a certain amount of intelligence of their own.

Moreover there have been and there are still many persons in possession of clairvoyant faculties and they are able to see and describe these demons.

Thus for instance Dr. J. Pordage, whose inner senses were opened in his forty-fourth year, describes the apparitions which he saw in the night of January 3, 1651. One appeared as a man whom he knew to be dead; one looked a giant, another like a horrible dragon, and they were also seen by his wife. Then began a series of most disagreeable phenomena. He and his wife and many neighbors and friends were tormented with horrible sights and noises, suffocating stenches, disgusting tastes and painful sensations.

The apparitions, visible to all, were those of semi-human and semi-animal forms, ferocious animals and beasts which changed their forms. Drawings of various kinds appeared upon the window panes, upon the tiles of the roof and on stoves, and these pictures could not be washed away, but it required a hammer and chisel to remove them. These phenomena lasted for months, causing much trouble, but perhaps they would have been welcome to a modem spiritist.

I have a friend at Hamburg who by means of using putty spread on boards receives the impressions of hands and faces and forms of invisible monsters, snakes, etc., and by pouring plaster of Paris upon the moulds he obtains a very queer collection of casts.

The mystics say that these devils have the power to mix their magical influence with the elements of this visible world and are thus able to produce the most stupendous phenomena:

« They can take the shape of some deceased person and personate him perfectly; they may obsess or influence susceptible people [mediums] such as desire to enter into communication with them and thereby they may cause such persons to perform apparently miraculous things, such as are done by fakirs and sorcerers; their influence penetrates to the very marrow of their victims and thus they may cause disease and death. The witches and sorcerers [mediums] are the instruments of these devils; they act without knowing how. Even the most learned wizard does himself not know what his magic power is and how he produces his feats. »

It seems to me that these views of the ancient sages are far more reasonable than those of some of our modem scientists, who attribute these phenomena to what they call “hypnotism,” psychic force and so on. But it may be asked; How is it possible that an organized being can become dissolved, so as to pass through solid walls and be rematerialized again?

It seems that for the purpose of solving this question we should understand the mystery of matter and force. We should then perhaps find that we are ourselves an organism of forces composed of vibrations of ether upon so low a scale as to appear as what we call “matter,” and that matter and force are essentially one and the same thing.

We know that the higher may control the lower, the active the passive. Mind can control the motions of the body and spirit the emotions of the mind.

If our spirituality were fully developed, there is no reason why we should not be able, by the power of our spiritual will, to change the vibrations of which our material body is composed and send them as “organized force,” guided by our thought, to any part of the world.

We know that the influence of mind gradually changes the physical body; perhaps if our mental force were stronger great changes in our physical constitution might be produced at will, and certain things which now are regarded as impossible would be found to be perfectly natural.

There is a great truth which has been always known to the sages and now begins to be adopted by popular science, namely that mind is not a product of matter, but matter a product of mind.

Already images formed of thought have been rendered sufficiently natural by the power of mental concentration and will, so as to be photographed, and philosophy teaches that the whole world, with all its apparently solid forms, its mountains and rocks is a product of will and ideation; all things exist within the Universal Mind before they enter into what we call “objective existence” by the power of that spirit which is the life and foundation of all, and the way in which this is accomplished may become known to us, if we examine ourselves; for we find by our own introspection, that from an idea springs a desire, which causes the idea to grow into a thought form and this thought form grows by the power of will until finally it becomes manifested as an act.

Now it is known that man is an image of the great microcosm of universal nature, and as within ourselves there may be found innumerable desires and thoughts, each of them having its own life, its own state of consciousness and its own power to grow and develop.

So likewise in the great soul of the world there may be innumerable inhabitants of a similar kind, being invisible to our eyes, creations of thought and desires, personifications of passions and instincts, endowed with will and intelligence, impalpable to our senses, but nevertheless powerful to perform, under certain conditions in our physical world, all those phenomena, which are spoken of by the mystics as the works of daemons, and are at present one of the still unsolved mysteries of academical science.

(The Occult Review, July 1906, vol. 4, p.17-25)