- 198 - • Mirabelli as an apport medium. From the residence of Pinto de Queiro in São Paulo a revolver that had been locked in a trunk was apported into the residence of a Mr. Watson, after the announcement had been made that this would be done. Furthermore, a picture was apported in broad daylight from Mr. Watson’s residence over a distance of several kilometres into the office of an insurance company, where it fell to the floor with a crash, causing immense excitement. On another occasion, Mirabelli was at the da Luz railroad station with several companions, on his way to taking a ship to Santos, when he suddenly vanished. About 15 minutes later a telephone message came from São Vicente, a city 90 kilometres away from da Luz, stating that the medium was present in São Vicente exactly two minutes after he had disappeared in São Paulo. On the occasion of a session of the investigating committee held in honour of Dr. Enrico de Goes and attended by many scholars, Mirabelli vanished from the séance room without untying his bonds and without disturbing the seal on any of the doors or windows. He was found lying on a sofa in an adjoining room, still in trance and singing a hymn. These so-called “apports” fall within the domain of dematerialization and re-materialization of matter. Matter is disintegrated and converted into od at one place, transported through walls and closed doors in that state, and recondensed into solid matter elsewhere. Several instances of the same process are recorded in the Bible: the prophet Habakkuk, who was brought from a great distance to Daniel in the lions’ den; the disciple Philippus, who suddenly disappeared from one place and instantly reappeared in a far-off city; the freeing of Peter from behind locked prison doors – all of these things happened according to the same laws of dissolution and recondensation of matter as in the case of the medium Mirabelli. • Mirabelli as a materialization medium. The materializations produced by Mirabelli are the most powerful exhibitions of spirits taking on bodily form witnessed in modern times. What follows happened at a séance held in the laboratory of the investigating committee in Santos, over which Estanislao de Camargo, Alberto Riveira and J. F. Schmid presided. This séance, which took place at nine o’clock in the morning, was attended by many people of note. The hall in which the experiment was conducted was situated on the ground floor and was 10 by 11 meters in size. The windows opening on the street were locked with iron bolts; the floor was composed of narrow wooden boards, which had been examined one by one to make sure that they had not been set up for trickery. Everything was found to be in order, and it was definitely established that the only way of forcing an entry into the room would be to break through its thick walls or the doors framed in stone. Mirabelli, seated in a chair, turned pale, indicating the beginning of a deep trance. His eyes bulged and he twisted about as though someone were trying to strangle him, while beads of sweat stood out all over his body. Suddenly three sharp raps sounded on a table that stood in the hall, and a child’s voice called out: “Papa!” Dr. Ganymed de Souza, one of those present, declared with great emotion that he recognized the voice of his little daughter, who had died of influenza in the capital city. Everyone sat in tense expectation, and presently the figure of a girl appeared beside the medium. Hardly able to speak, her father stepped out of the circle, called her by name, went up to her and folded her in his arms. Amid sobs he assured the others again and again that it was his daughter he was holding, and that the dress the apparition was wearing was the dress in which she had been buried. All the while, Mirabelli lay as though in death agony, cowered in his chair, his complexion
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