Observations placeholder
Ossowiecki, Stefan - reading the mind and secret desires of Mme X
Identifier
007860
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
If any observation goes to show that Stefan read minds and not bits of paper, this is the one.
A description of the experience
Mary Rose Barrington, Ian Stevenson and Zofia Weaver, A World in a Grain of Sand: The Clairvoyance of Stefan Ossowiecki, 2005.
Formal experiments
I admit that I was going to write something quite insignificant: 'What is your wife's name?' when M. Ossowiecki, who was the other side of the door, called out: 'No, not that; write something personal, something that has meaning for you.'
I, who did not believe in clairvoyance, was nonplussed for a few seconds, realizing that M. Ossowiecki had instantaneously become aware of my idea. So I wrote another phrase: 'This winter shall I go on the grand voyage that I want to make?’
Let us come back to the experiment. As soon as M. Ossowiecki had taken possession of the envelope, he said:
"Yes, Madame, you will go on your voyage."
And as Mme. X looked at him questioningly he continued:
"Here is the sentence you wrote ‘Is it right that this winter I shall go on the grand voyage that I want to make?'
Apart from a small variation in language at the beginning of the sentence [note that in French ferai-je is identical in meaning with Est ce que je ferai], the experiment was absolutely successful and Mme. X was both delighted and amazed, thanking M. Ossowiecki when he said that he could also tell her many other interesting things. He told her that she "wanted to go to Egypt; that she had already stayed there three years ago and remembered an unforgettable experience; that she had wanted to go back there several times but had never been able to do so because of various illnesses affecting her son; that he would get better and that her plans would come to fruition."
Apart from this last point, which relates to the future, everything M. Ossowiecki said was perfectly true. And he did not know Mme. X and knew nothing about her. Moreover he did not leave it at that. He took Mme. X aside for a time and told her a whole series of facts, quite personal ones, about her own past, which plunged her into a state of utter stupefaction.
Coming away from this encounter Mme X, still dumbfounded, told me that Ossowiecki told her not only some things that were known only to herself, but also some thoughts that had not developed beyond a state of desire. All this part of the experiment cannot unfortunately be divulged because of its very private character.