- 188 - so, as they are unable to control it. I saw, or rather felt it only once, when it brushed against me, and I noticed a peculiar odour which I could not define at that moment, but which other participants who were more familiar than I with the phantom described as that of a wet dog. On the occasion mentioned it passed behind me, going to the lady beside me, who was holding the medium’s hand. It broke the chain and put an end to the séance by grasping the lady’s hand and rubbing it against its face. This startled her so, that she screamed loudly. • Many apparitions have luminous hands, that is to say, the palms of their hands shine in the dark. The light given off is white, slightly tinged with green, and it is so strong that whenever the phantoms hold or pass their hands above their heads, faces or figures, every detail is shown as plainly as when luminous plates are used. They thus illuminate themselves in order to give the participants an opportunity to observe them closely. However, they also turn their luminous hands or rather palms toward the participants, so that the latter are illuminated and, apparently, observed by the phantoms in turn. On one such occasion I could see distinctly that the light was not altogether steady, but was constantly vibrating, showing different intensities, although the light thrown off by the palm as a whole remained the same throughout. I could also see brighter sparks or rays fluctuating in zigzag or on different courses from the base of the hand to the fingertips. At the same time the luminous palms diffused a powerful smell of ozone. • One of the rarest, but perhaps one of the highest types, is the phantom of an old man that is completely self-illuminating. I have seen it only twice. The apparition resembles a pillar of light and is, as I was told, often seen in the Kluski Circle. The light emanating from it is so intense that not only all the séance participants, but all objects, near and distant, in the room, are illuminated by it. When I saw the apparition the palms of its hands and the region around its heart were more luminous than the other parts of its body. The phantom arose in the middle of the room, at some distance from us. The table around which we were seated stood in one corner of the room, with the medium sitting directly in that corner. The old man wore a high, conical headdress and was clothed in a long robe that hung down in deep folds. He approached us with majestic strides, his robe swaying as he walked. With his hands he made motions in the shape of triangles. At the same time, he spoke in a deep, solemn voice. He stopped behind me for about 10 seconds, waving his luminous hands above us and speaking continually. Then he withdrew to the far end of the room and vanished. His coming was accompanied by a wave of ozone-rich air, which filled the room even after the séance had ended. The phantom is that of a very old man with a [long] grey beard. His language was rather guttural, and incomprehensible to anyone present, although between us we had a command of about 12 different languages. To date no one has succeeded in identifying this language or in discovering who the phantom is. Among the members of the circle, he is known as the Assyrian priest, a designation that fits his external appearance perfectly. • Paraffin moulds were made by the phantoms. As soon as they noticed the kettle filled with melted paraffin on the table, they would approach it with evident pleasure and, on request, would make shapes in very specific and complicated positions out of the paraffin. They dipped their hands into the paraffin and allowed the glove-like moulds thus formed to drop upon the table. Whenever the phantom hand is luminous, it can be seen as it splashes about in the paraffin like a goldfish in a bowl. The gloveshaped moulds were treated rather carelessly by the phantoms. On one occasion a pair of them fell from the table into my lap and from there to the floor. I called the attention of the others to this, asking them not to move their feet, lest the moulds be damaged. One participant asked the phantom to pick up the moulds and place them on the table, which was immediately done. In the process my ankle was firmly seized and my leg pushed aside to make room under the table where there were 14 legs. The phantom required from 30-45 seconds to make a mould, whereas when I tried to do this myself, it took several minutes for the paraffin to cool sufficiently to be removed. Even then I found it impossible to strip the glove from my hand without breaking it; in fact, I was unable to accomplish this with a single finger that I had dipped into the paraffin as far as the second joint.” When I removed the paraffin from a plaster cast by dipping it into hot water, I noticed a number of hairs floating in the water. They were common hairs, of the kind that grow on the back of the hand and on the third finger-joint. Since I was quite sure that I had used perfectly clean water and a white porcelain bowl in conducting my test, I was greatly astonished at this discovery. I therefore examined the previously made casts and noticed, through the [relatively] thin layer of paraffin, several bits of hair or down embedded in the paraffin on one of them.
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