Theos-Talk Archives (February 2005 Message tt00028)

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Konstantin Zaitzev" 
<kay_ziatz@y...> wrote:
> 
> As for the proofs of ESP observations and existence of the subtle 
> bodies there is a good book by Hector Durville "Manifestation Du 
> Fantome Des Vivants". The book is available in French in Russian. I 
> don't know whether is an English translation.
> Durville was a psychic researcher who tried to be objective, but he 
> writes much in favour of theosophists. He found that of many 
systems 
> the theosophical system matches best to his observations, but he 
adds, 
> "if theosophists theoretized less and experimented more, their 
books 
> would be more accurate"

Not just more accurate but more interesting.

If you are Russian you might find this interesting. Years ago I read 
a story about the last Czar inviting the French magician Papus to his 
capital. Papus (real name Gerard Encausse) claimed to have cast a 
spell on Russia which would prevent the country from descending into 
chaos, but he said the spell would be broken when he died. It has 
been years since I read the book in which this story appeared, but 
unless I am mistaken it was published when Papus was still alive, 
which is what made the story interesting.

Papus died in October, 1916.

It was reportedly to counter the influence of Papus that the Russian 
church promoted Rasputin as the royal family's new wonder man. 
Papus' son Philippe Encausse published a bio of him (entitled 
Sciences occultes I believe) which described his experiences in 
Russia but I got this story from a much older source.