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Aubert, Georges – 03 Third Epoch – 07 Mr Gabriel Delanne is involved and Georges has his first public séance
Identifier
028620
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
It is at this moment that Mr Gabriel Delanne, president of the French Society for the Study of Psychic Phenomena, director of the Scientific and Moral Journal of Spiritism, published in this last issue an article in which he invited all the mediums of good will to make themselves known. Mr. David …. asked my father if he wanted him to write to ask for an appointment.
My father was delighted to answer him in the affirmative and, by means of an explanatory letter, Mr. David asked Mr. G. Delanne to come to his house to hear me.
This happened around October 1904.
The next week, we were all gathered at Mr. David's house. Around two o'clock I saw Mr. Delanne arrive with two other people, Baron de W... . and Mr. F..... composer.
Once the presentations were made, Mr. David informed these gentlemen of the phenomenon and, briefly, informed them of all the demonstrations he had witnessed over the past thirteen years.
After this necessary presentation, I stood in front of the instrument as usual. It was in the greatest silence that several songs were listened to.
Mr. G. Delanne seemed very interested to have heard me and after exchanging his impressions with Mr. de W.... and Mr. F....., he asked me if I was willing to give a séance at the Society's head office, 57, Rue du Faubourg St-Martin.
I immediately agreed to this request and an appointment was made for, I think I remember, the first Sunday in November, in Paris.
We were waiting for that day very anxiously, because my father and I anticipated that this was the beginning of my affirmation.
However, Mr. G. Delanne, a scientist above all, did not lose sight of the need for control. To this end, he had invited Mr. Courtier, Secretary General of the General Psychological Institute and another member of the same research institution to this meeting.
It had been agreed between them and him that, if they were interested in my case, they would ask me to lend myself, at the Institute, to a whole series of experiments intended to study my mediumnity.
So here we are at 57, rue du Faubourg Saint-Martin.
The room was literally packed and I remember, not without certain sweetness, the emotion that invades me in front of all this audience.
What was going to happen?
In short, I had only ever played in front of a limited number of listeners and suddenly I was in front of maybe one hundred and fifty or two hundred people.
My greatest desire was naturally that everything should go as usual. Although I never missed the demonstration, I was nevertheless afraid that the supposed curiosity, doubt and disbelief of the audience would disturb the phenomenon.
At the back of the room, on a platform, were all the directors of the company surrounding their president, Mr. G. Delanne.
It was on this small stage that my father, Mr. David and I went up.
I was then invited to sit next to a large grand piano, which for the occasion, the company's board had insisted on bringing in.
The séance began.
Mr. Delanne gave a very well-documented lecture on automatic mediumnities and gradually came to talk about the one I had.
After introducing me to the audience in this way, he asked me to uncover the piano.
Then it was a superb demonstration that our friends the musicians allowed me to give.
At the end of each piece, once the name of the author was known, there was a loud applause for which I was very happy, not on my own behalf, because in this case, I was never more than a living mechanic, but for the success of the séance which I felt I had to practice some convictions.
Once this beautiful musical séance was over, Mr. Delanne informed the listeners that if my mediumnity seemed very beautiful, it was nevertheless necessary to be dedicated to it and verified by scientists. He also announced that to do so, I would be presented at some time there, at the General Psychological Institute, 14, rue de Condé, in Paris. I would then be examined in all respects.
That was the end of my first public séance.