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| Maginot |
Maginot, Adèle (ca. 1848)
Noted early French medium. She was psychic from childhood and was treated by the magnetist Louis-Alphonse Cahagnet because of the disturbances in her life caused by lively psychic occurrences. He soon found her an excellent clairvoyant, especially for medical purposes. From this she progressed to serve as a channel for spirit communications.
From the summer of 1848, many sittings were held in which visitors were put in touch with their departed relatives. Cahagnet made them sign a statement after the sitting indicating which of the particulars were true and which false, which he later published in the second volume of his book Magnétisme arcanes de la vie future dévoilé (1848–60). When Maginot was put into trance, she saw the spirits of the departed, described them, and gave an intimate description of their family circumstances.
Baron du Potet, a well-known writer on animal magnetism and the editor of the Journal du Magnetisme, witnessed a striking séance in the company of Prince de Kourakine, who was secretary to the Russian ambassador. Nevertheless, he was inclined to attribute the result to thought-transference.
Maginot’s most extraordinary phenomena, however, did not consist in communications from the dead but in communi-cations from the living, combined with traveling clairvoyance.
A. M. Lucas came to inquire after his brother-in-law, who had disappeared after a quarrel 12 years before. Maginot, in trance, found the man and said that he was alive in a foreign country, busy gathering seeds from small shrubs about three feet high.
She asked to be awakened since she was afraid of wild beasts. A. M. Lucas returned a few days afterward with the mother of the vanished man. Maginot correctly described the man’s appearance and the history of his disappearance. She was asked to speak to the man, and a conversation ensued.
‘‘Get him to tell you the name of the country where you see him,’’ says the record. ‘‘He will not answer.’’ ‘‘Tell him that his good mother, for whom he had a great affection, is with you, and asks for news of him.’’ ‘‘Oh, at the mention of his mother he turned around and said to me ‘My mother, I shall not die without seeing her again. Comfort her, and tell her that I always think of her. I am not dead.’’’ ‘‘Why doesn’t he write to her?’’ ‘‘He has written to her, but the vessel has no doubt been wrecked—at least he supposes this to be so, since he has received no answer. He tells me that he is in Mexico. He has followed the Emperor, Don Pedro; he has been imprisoned for five years; he has suffered a great deal, and will use every effort to return to France; they will see him again.’’ ‘‘Can he name the place in which he is living?’’ ‘‘No, it is very far inland. These countries have no names.’’
A similar experience was recorded by M. Mirande, the head of the printing office in which the first volume of the Arcanes had been printed. His missing brother, whom he believed to be dead, was found by Maginot to be living and a plausible account of his long silence and whereabouts was given. Unfortunately, in neither case was corroboration forthcoming. But there was one instance (quoted in Cahagnet’s third volume) in which, a few weeks after the sitting, a mother received a confirmatory letter from her absent son.
Frank Podmore challenged Adèle Maginot’s work: ‘‘If Adèle, or any other of Cahagnet’s clairvoyants really had possessed the power of conversing with the living at a distance, I cannot doubt that Cahagnet, in the course of his many years’ experiments, would have been able to present us with some evidence of such power that was not purely hypothetical. Nothing would be more easy to prove. The fact that no such evidence is forthcoming affords a strong presumption that Adèle did not possess the power, and that the conversations here detailed were purely imaginary, the authentic or plausible details which they contained being filched, it may be, telepathically from the
minds of those present.’’ However, in spite of a lack of convincing evidence from Maginot, Podmore also stated of Cahagnet’s investigations: ‘‘In the whole literature of Spiritualism I know of no records of the kind which reach a higher evidential standard, nor any in which the writer’s good faith or intelligence are alike so conspicuous.’’
Noted early French medium. She was psychic from childhood and was treated by the magnetist Louis-Alphonse Cahagnet because of the disturbances in her life caused by lively psychic occurrences. He soon found her an excellent clairvoyant, especially for medical purposes. From this she progressed to serve as a channel for spirit communications.
From the summer of 1848, many sittings were held in which visitors were put in touch with their departed relatives. Cahagnet made them sign a statement after the sitting indicating which of the particulars were true and which false, which he later published in the second volume of his book Magnétisme arcanes de la vie future dévoilé (1848–60). When Maginot was put into trance, she saw the spirits of the departed, described them, and gave an intimate description of their family circumstances.
Baron du Potet, a well-known writer on animal magnetism and the editor of the Journal du Magnetisme, witnessed a striking séance in the company of Prince de Kourakine, who was secretary to the Russian ambassador. Nevertheless, he was inclined to attribute the result to thought-transference.
Maginot’s most extraordinary phenomena, however, did not consist in communications from the dead but in communi-cations from the living, combined with traveling clairvoyance.
A. M. Lucas came to inquire after his brother-in-law, who had disappeared after a quarrel 12 years before. Maginot, in trance, found the man and said that he was alive in a foreign country, busy gathering seeds from small shrubs about three feet high.
She asked to be awakened since she was afraid of wild beasts. A. M. Lucas returned a few days afterward with the mother of the vanished man. Maginot correctly described the man’s appearance and the history of his disappearance. She was asked to speak to the man, and a conversation ensued.
‘‘Get him to tell you the name of the country where you see him,’’ says the record. ‘‘He will not answer.’’ ‘‘Tell him that his good mother, for whom he had a great affection, is with you, and asks for news of him.’’ ‘‘Oh, at the mention of his mother he turned around and said to me ‘My mother, I shall not die without seeing her again. Comfort her, and tell her that I always think of her. I am not dead.’’’ ‘‘Why doesn’t he write to her?’’ ‘‘He has written to her, but the vessel has no doubt been wrecked—at least he supposes this to be so, since he has received no answer. He tells me that he is in Mexico. He has followed the Emperor, Don Pedro; he has been imprisoned for five years; he has suffered a great deal, and will use every effort to return to France; they will see him again.’’ ‘‘Can he name the place in which he is living?’’ ‘‘No, it is very far inland. These countries have no names.’’
A similar experience was recorded by M. Mirande, the head of the printing office in which the first volume of the Arcanes had been printed. His missing brother, whom he believed to be dead, was found by Maginot to be living and a plausible account of his long silence and whereabouts was given. Unfortunately, in neither case was corroboration forthcoming. But there was one instance (quoted in Cahagnet’s third volume) in which, a few weeks after the sitting, a mother received a confirmatory letter from her absent son.
Frank Podmore challenged Adèle Maginot’s work: ‘‘If Adèle, or any other of Cahagnet’s clairvoyants really had possessed the power of conversing with the living at a distance, I cannot doubt that Cahagnet, in the course of his many years’ experiments, would have been able to present us with some evidence of such power that was not purely hypothetical. Nothing would be more easy to prove. The fact that no such evidence is forthcoming affords a strong presumption that Adèle did not possess the power, and that the conversations here detailed were purely imaginary, the authentic or plausible details which they contained being filched, it may be, telepathically from the
minds of those present.’’ However, in spite of a lack of convincing evidence from Maginot, Podmore also stated of Cahagnet’s investigations: ‘‘In the whole literature of Spiritualism I know of no records of the kind which reach a higher evidential standard, nor any in which the writer’s good faith or intelligence are alike so conspicuous.’’
