Scottish magician Daniel Hume. Secrets of levitation. Hypotheses and assumptions

61. Daniel in the lion's den. The Writing on the Wall The Book of Daniel tells the story of a young Jew who, during the years of the Babylonian captivity (after 586 BC), rose to great office in the court of the Persian king Darius. Daniel became one of the king's three highest dignitaries. The other two were jealous

Chapter 24. Colonel Kordashevsky and an unidentified flying object 1 On the twenty-seventh of February 1927, there was excitement on the station platform in Riga. The train was leaving from Latvia to Germany, and passengers were already sitting in the international carriages. Just before departure to one of the

“The Flying Medium” According to people who believe in the paranormal, one of the most famous mediums of the 19th century was the Scottish spiritualist Daniel Dunglass Home. He performed such incredible tricks that few people can explain to this day. Yes, and ourselves

The phenomenon of Daniel Dunglas Hume, who was born on March 20, 1833 in Scotland, near the city of Edinburgh, after more than a century remains the greatest universal mystery. But it must be admitted that if the family of the future unsurpassed sorcerer, sorcerer, magician had not moved to America in 1844, to the town of Greenville, lost among the hills, forests and rivers, they would hardly have known about Hume’s supernatural gift.

And they found out because even then the United States had free access, due to commercial interests, to all countries of the world. Therefore, it is not surprising that, having become convinced of the amazing paranormal abilities of young Hume, his poor relatives decided to organize a European tour, which brilliantly proved the infallibility of their bets. Subsequent successes were consolidated by European tours. The peak of triumph came in Russia, where the “ruler of the subtle worlds” was received on equal terms by members of the imperial family. And, in order to show what Hume could do, and he could “weave natural magic,” in the finale we will be transported to the capital of the endless empire - St. Petersburg.

However, we have to start with the fact that any gift that goes beyond ordinary human capabilities necessarily has a starting point, the so-called point of revelation. Most often these are some mystical and prophetic events. For the youth Hume, they were fulfilled predictions about the deaths of loved ones, accompanied by ghostly visions and “solid materializations.”

As Hume wrote in his two-volume book The Light and Shadows of Spiritualism, published in 1877, one day, when he was just getting ready to fall asleep, along with a stream of light pouring into the room, his estranged brother Edwin appeared, “falling out of the void.” Reporting that he had been dead for three days, he demanded that Daniel always remember that those who had lived in the past, those living now, those who would live in the future, were in fact immortal. So there's no need to grieve.

A day later, a letter arrived confirming that Edwin had died on time, called by a ghost who looked like an ordinary person. Predicting the death of a beloved mother looked different. In 1850, she had a dream in which her long-drowned sister Mary dropped flowers one after another in the “colored fabric”. The mother, who knew firsthand about her son’s supersensible gift, asked him what it meant. Daniel, as if prompted from the outside, replied that each flower symbolizes the month of the remaining life. "Nonsense!" - the woman exclaimed, starting to get ready to visit the neighboring town. A week later, Daniel came out to dinner pale, depressed, and frightened, telling his aunt: “Mom just came to see me. She reported that she died at noon today. I hugged her goodbye. She wasn’t quite a spirit yet.” My aunt advised me to rest so that my fantasies would dissipate. She had barely finished her sentence when her nephew dismounted at the gate, confirming Daniel’s words.

Cousin John's relatives, therefore distant relatives of Hume, offered to participate as a medium-intermediary between living people and the souls of the dead in the then fashionable spiritualistic séances. The very first “night gatherings” convinced Daniel that he could do things that others, “even the very strong,” could not do. Reporters from surrounding newspapers instantly flocked to demonstrate the impossible capabilities of the young talent. They flocked to expose the fraudster.

But, as a rule, having become eyewitnesses, without finding any pitfalls, they turned from opponents into allies, publishing reports from amazing sessions. One such report, for example, depicts a series of “physical effects” at the moment when a large oak table came off the floor and began to rock like a ship in a storm. At the same time, even when the table stood up on its edge, the objects on the surface - a lead pencil, a glass of water, a burning candle - were securely held, as if under the influence of excellent glue.

Hume suggested to those present that one of them loudly command one of the objects, of his choice, to “free himself from the bonds of attraction.” And what? They shouted: “Glass, free yourself!” The glass, splashing water, fell onto the carpet. The pencil and candle remained “glued.” It was also possible to give orders “for action” mentally.

But this was not the only thing that attracted Hume’s fellow countrymen to the sessions. It made it possible to very clearly see deceased relatives, communicate with them, and receive important information about lost documents and caches of valuables. The information received from the spirit was immediately double-checked. Immediately what they said came true. Harvard University professor David Wells, who did not believe in either God or the devil, vowed to expose the rogue, but instead became his devotee.

In his repentance, Professor Wells expressed the desire to become a friend, to share the burdens of travel and everyday life. A few hours before departure, an old woman appeared to the newly-made companions, at first thick, then translucent, complaining that someone else’s had been placed on her own coffin - this was clearly not Christian. She also indicated the place in the cemetery where to look for the crypt. The crypt was found without difficulty. Embarrassed, the cemetery watchman admitted that for money he agreed to “lower the baby’s coffin into the grave of an old noble lady.”

The injustice was immediately corrected. The old woman, appearing immediately in the flesh, thanked Hume and stroked “the cheek of the shocked Wells with a warm, trembling palm.” The professor, it must be said, greatly complicated the measured life of Hume, who was not in good health, by sending a detailed report on the “cemetery miracle” to his native university.

Rumors that Daniel knows literally everything about the fates of the dead, including the missing, have spread throughout America. Nobles and commoners crowded at his doorstep. He, regardless of time, helped. He helped, in particular, an inconsolable sister who had lost two brothers - sailors. Gave me the opportunity to briefly communicate with them. During this contact, the howling of the wind was heard, the blows of waves against the hull of the ship and the creaking of gear were heard. The spirits of the sailors showed how they died by lifting the table into the air, violently swinging it and knocking it over on its back. Those present - six heavyset men - took turns jumping onto the raging table. The table carried them around the room, raised them to the ceiling, lowered them down. Finally, the spirits of the brothers “laid their hands on the sister’s forehead, comforting and calming.” And it was at this session that Hume not only rose into the air, but for the first time, for a very long time, about an hour, in a supine position, he flew along the street at a height from the pavement about 3-4 meters. During flights and air travel, it was undesirable to touch him, because any touch caused him unbearable pain.

Communication with spirits, ringing “bells that hung by themselves,” writing notes in the handwriting of deceased relatives and friends, carrying heavy objects, arbitrarily changing their weight, fulfilling “any, including selfish, whims of those present”, little by little, completely undermined health Daniel. It was necessary to do something effective to restore good health and former optimism.

So Hume, again on the advice of spirits, went on a grand tour of Europe, making a splash with each session in the homes of noble families and famous intellectuals. At the same time, he studied by attending lectures at technological and medical academies. Newspapers again and again called him “the most convincing and disinterested preacher of immortality.” How could it be otherwise if, at a session in the house of the Russian Countess Kusheleva, he soon married his charming daughter Sasha.

In Peterhof, where Hume arrived with his young wife, he was caressed by the emperor's family, whose members were amazed that the piano played on its own, that the precious bracelet itself came off the queen's wrist and, emitting beautiful and bright rays, circled above her head . At the request of the crowned couple, sheets with royal watermarks were obtained “out of thin air”, on which were the autographs of Catherine II and Paul I.

When the Humes’ son Grisha was born, the empress became the godmother, and at the christening she “watched in awe as seven pink and blue stars girded the baby’s brow, and one star, falling off, leaving a golden light, rushed into the early evening sky. Yum lived happily with Sasha. The only thing that depressed him was that one day, when they were going to bed, the spirits of Daniel’s late mother and Sasha’s late father came, warning that she would not stay among the living for too long and would soon move in with them. That's what happened.

And, in order to drown out the melancholy and pain of loss, Hume agreed to the proposal of chemistry professor Alexander Butlerov, popularizer of unconventional knowledge, writer Alexander Aksakov, mathematician, academician Panfuty Chebyshev to conduct comprehensive in-depth studies of his own phenomenal abilities. In the company of open, friendly, inquisitive Russians, Hume did something that he would not have dared to do under other circumstances in the presence of other people. For example, he washed himself with heat from the fireplace, which splashed into his face. Falling into a trance, he increased his muscles, the volume of his chest, and significantly lengthened and shortened his height.

The center of the experiments, of course, was direct contacts with spirits, which, recognized by everyone, appeared in crowds, predicting a “quick and promising future.” Answering the question whether his “performances” are proof that universal immortality is an indisputable fact, he always answered: “Don’t say he’s dead. Nothing kills except sin. Sin kills, but those who live in accordance with the commandments of Christ, the great prophets of other religions, never die.”

When other evidence of this statement was required, Hume wondered aloud whether his late wife Sasha might appear. Sasha always appeared, kissed him, and even those who did not know her during her lifetime could be convinced of the perfect resemblance of the “alien” to the photograph that Daniel carried in his breast pocket.

Dr. Wilkinson, whom his contemporaries called an incorrigible, most hardened skeptic, having attended Hume's sessions, having observed how an elegant hand, as if cast from plaster, crowned the head of the poet Robert Browning's wife Elizabeth with a laurel wreath, suggested that in what was happening the mental aspect was inseparable from the physical, said , that from now on he has no doubts about what he sees.

As if waiting for the recognition of the majority of representatives of the best scientific minds, Daniel Dunglass Hume retired, summing up the past, transferring “echoes of the past” to paper, into articles and books brilliant in depth of analysis. Sounds paradoxical. But to this day no one can say who this man really was, who was allowed not only to come into contact with the spirits of the geniuses of mankind. But also leave behind an insoluble mystery, whether he communicated with spirits or possessed the divine gift, as he was also called, “a creator at his own request.”

At the age of 38, Hume stopped giving séances due to deteriorating health. He died suddenly on June 21, 1886 and was buried in the Saint-Germain cemetery according to the Orthodox rite. Daniel Dunglas Hume's tombstone bore only one brief inscription: "Until the next time we see the spirits."

Human levitation. Humanity dreams of flying. Not in metal boxes, which sometimes fall, break and turn a person into a bloody mess with bones - into a crappy, unfinished stew of human flesh in a jar, before turning into which you first experience fear, horror, pain... And for this possibility of dying painfully you also have to pay airlines? No! Humanity dreams of flying without artificial devices and for free. Like in a dream! Human levitation is a dream of the sky, of freedom, of the happiness of flight. There are no financial or social restrictions for human levitation. Man – that sounds proud! A person deserves levitation, and not a queue at the ticket office or erroneously blocked money on a plastic card when booking air tickets online. Levitation! We don’t agree with less humanity!

When Sir Isaac Newton was hit on the head with an apple, he became very angry. Out of anger, he forbade us to fly. With the inexorable logic of a scientist hit over the head, Sir Newton explained to humanity why people do not fly. Most people did not understand all the physical subtleties of the law of universal gravitation, but took it as an axiom: a person will not fly without special devices. Prohibited by the law of universal gravitation led by Newton. Most of humanity can only dream and fantasize.

“It’s autumn, ships are burning in the sky.
Autumn, I would like to get away from the earth..."

However, there was and is a minority. They did not agree and did not comply. What do we know about Giordano Bruno? The great philosopher and astronomer, a follower of the teachings of Copernicus, Giordano Bruno defended the materialistic ideas that the Earth is not a flat saucer on three pillars, but revolves around the Sun, and that there are many such suns in the world - these are the stars above. Modern science has officially recognized Giordano Bruno as a rebel against the church and a progressive materialist scientist. For his progressive views, Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake... that's all that most people know.

The minority knows that “... writes the Dominican monk and philosopher Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), who was burned in 1600 as a heretic: “When he, Thomas Aquinas, having collected all the strength of his spirit, rose to the spiritual perception of heaven, his entire sensitive and mobile spirit was so concentrated in his thoughts that his body rose above the ground in free air space...” The authoritative materialist scientist Giordano Bruno claims that none other than Thomas Aquinas, one of the respected teachers of the Christian doctrine of the Catholic Church, at least once demonstrated levitation. And why, if Giordano Bruno is worthy of trust in his brilliant astronomical views, should we not trust him in matters of levitation?! By the way, the above quote is from a textbook at the Munich Institute, and not from the website of a crazy esotericist from a psychiatric hospital.

The Catholic Church alone has officially documented the use of levitation by 230 Christian saints. The church considered the amazing abilities of these people to be manifestations of faith and holiness. Not counting the huge number of other “heretical” cases, like the case with the testimony of Giordano Bruno. Levitation has always been a risky gift - they can canonize and surround with honor, or they can burn: 230 recognized saints and many thousands of “heretics” who died from torture and burned at the stake. Levitation is a gamble not only with the law of gravity, but also with human society and with the powers that be.

Daniel Hume (Daniel Dunglas Home) was never caught in fraud, demonstrating levitation, for example, to the Russian Tsar Alexander II, the Italian prison psychiatrist Cesare Lombroso, and the writer Arthur Conan Doyle. Without exaggeration, dozens of world-famous people saw with their own eyes and documented the levitation of Daniel Hume on many occasions. And no one could prove that this was not levitation, but fraud. Hume was considered the greatest medium of all time. And if the objectivity of the writer Arthur Conan Doyle can still be doubted, then the authority and corrosive insight of the prison psychiatrist and pragmatist Cesare Lombroso is a very powerful argument in favor of levitation performed by Daniel Hume. By the way, Daniel Hume’s wife was the Russian Countess Alexandra Sheremetyeva.

The history of levitation is amazing and extraordinary:

Perhaps the first case of levitation officially recorded in Christianity was demonstrated publicly and described in her book by Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582).

“Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), the most prominent Christian female mystic, also experienced numerous levitations. At the same time, she felt as many people do, “flying in a dream.” Teresa describes her impressions in the following words: “It seemed to me that a huge force was rising under my feet, which I could not resist ... I must admit that I experienced great fear, even very great for the first time. Because while my body rose from the ground, as if the spirit was attracting it to itself (and all this with tenderness, if I did not resist), my thoughts did not float. At least I was sane enough to realize that I was getting up. After this state ended, my body seemed light as a feather, as if it had no weight. This feeling was so strong that sometimes I didn’t even know if my feet were touching the ground.” Teresa's levitations were so persistent that she asked the sisters to hold her tightly when the “attack”, as she called it, came. But often it was too late - and she soared upward until the state of weightlessness passed.” .

And St. Basil the Blessed (the same one whose name the temple stands on Red Square), according to contemporaries, crossed the Moscow River “like dry land” in the summer. And Seraphim of Sarov, they say, soared...

This whole huge cultural layer dedicated to levitation - what is behind it? Real cases of levitation? Tricks and tricks? Fraud? Myths and legends as a reflection of dreams? Delusional states and fantasies of witnesses and storytellers?

Official materialist science said “no” to levitation. The seer Vanga predicted that in 2050 people will learn to fly through the air without any mechanical devices. I would like to agree with science. Meanwhile...

“A team of scientists from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of Missouri in Kansas City (USA) managed to make a mouse levitate using a superconducting magnet. It should be noted that similar experiments have already been carried out on frogs, but no one has previously been able to repeat these experiments with the participation of mammals. The conditions necessary for levitation of the object under study are created when it is placed in a strong external magnetic field. As is known, water present in any living organism has diamagnetic properties: under the influence of an external magnetic field, the parameters of the movement of electrons in its molecules change somewhat, which leads to the appearance of a weak magnetic field directed opposite to the original one. The resulting repulsion effect allows one to overcome the force of gravity. In their experiments, the authors used a superconducting solenoid cooled to cryogenic temperature; When current passed through the winding, a magnetic field with an induction of about 17 Tesla was created. The gap of the magnet with a diameter of 66 mm was maintained at room temperature. First, the scientists placed a plastic cage in the gap, and then released a three-week-old mouse weighing only 10 g into it. The animal turned out to be disoriented and began to spin around, trying to find some kind of support. “The mouse didn’t seem to like this new condition very much,” says Yuanming Liu, one of the authors of the study. “She was hitting the cage and trying to grab onto something.” However, subsequent experiments showed that after 3-4 hours the mice get used to such conditions and, levitating, calmly eat and drink. Researchers propose using similar experiments to study the effects of microgravity on living organisms and liquids (in a separate series of experiments, the authors observed the levitation of water drops with a diameter of up to 50 mm). Experts will also have to figure out how long-term exposure to such a strong magnetic field will affect the health of mice; Previous studies have shown that fields with an induction of 9.4 T do not pose any danger to rats.”

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Thanks to his amazing parapsychological abilities, the famous researcher of occult phenomena Daniel Hume gained fame among his contemporaries as a great magician and magician. For more than a hundred years, specialists in anomalous phenomena have been trying in vain to unravel the nature of his extraordinary gift.

Young Spiritualist

Hume was born on March 20, 1833 in Scotland, but, being a very sick child, from early childhood he was raised in the family of his aunt Mrs. Cook, who moved to America in 1842. At the age of 10, Dan became interested in mystical literature. He and his best friend, a boy named Edwin, agreed among themselves: whichever of them dies first must appear to the other on the third day as proof of the existence of an afterlife. Soon the Cook family moved to another city. And then somehow, already in a new place, going to bed late in the evening, Dan saw the figure of Edwin at his bed, shrouded in a luminous cloud. It turned out that he died three days ago...

Dan eventually also moved to America. One day, in 1850, he was lying sick in bed and suddenly heard a voice: “At twelve o’clock.” His mother's face appeared above the bed. She clearly uttered an incomprehensible phrase twice more, then the face disappeared. Daniel's mother died that same day at twelve o'clock...

A few months later, strange knocking noises began in the house. Then it moved by itself. The local priest suggested that the souls of the dead wanted to come into contact with the inhabitants of the house. So Daniel became a medium. With the help of knocking, the spirits answered his questions. Among them was the young man’s late mother: she explained to her son that his purpose in life was to bring faith, healing and consolation to people. Dan's aunt disapproved of her nephew's activities, and he left her and began conducting seances of spiritualism.

Old lady in gray

Daniel constantly communicated with spirits. One day they told him to immediately go to another city where something important would happen. When Daniel arrived there, a gentleman met him and conveyed an invitation from one of the most prominent families in the city to stay at their house.

There he noticed an old woman in a gray silk dress walking past him with a concerned expression on her face. However, subsequently there was no old woman in the house. And after dinner, Daniel heard the rustle of a silk dress and a quiet voice: “I’m embarrassed to bother you, but they put another one on my coffin, it’s very difficult for me... And they also cut down the tree in the garden in vain!” Hume told the owner of the house, Ward Cheney, about his adventure. He confirmed that the old woman in gray was his deceased relative and that his brother had recently cut down a tree that was blocking the view from the window. But he knew nothing about the coffin.

The next morning, the medium persuaded Cheney to examine the family crypt. It turned out that the cemetery watchman placed a small coffin with the corpse of a child on top of the deceased’s coffin.

The spirits often entered into communication with Daniel on their own initiative. Sometimes they themselves indicated to him the address of the person who currently needed his help. He healed many sick people by falling into a trance and performing passes on them.

During spiritualism sessions, in addition to knocking and moving furniture, other strange things happened. Somehow, an unknown force lifted the medium into the air and held him under the ceiling for some time. Sometimes those present observed the appearance of the hands of an invisible creature. These touched various objects, rang a bell, wrote with a pencil on paper, and even played musical instruments. They felt as if they were alive.

Selfless medium

Hume studied theology at the university and then medicine. But he was unable to complete his education due to his condition. The spirits he contacted told him that he should go to Europe. In April 1855, he arrived in England and began séances. Then he traveled around Belgium and Holland. It must be said that, unlike other spiritualists, Hume did not charge any fees from visitors. Selflessness is another proof of the authenticity of his talents. However, he had many ill-wishers who considered the famous medium a charlatan. In 1856, in Florence, an attacker waylaid him at the door of his house and stabbed him three times with a dagger. Fortunately, the injury turned out to be not serious.

"Tricks" that no one could solve

In 1858, Daniel married the Russian Countess Alexandrina. They settled in St. Petersburg, and soon their son Grisha was born. But it turned out to be short-lived: Hume’s wife died of illness.

After Alexandrina's death, her spirit visited Hume several times. He gave the medium various advice, in particular, he helped him find one missing item.

Some of Hume's "tricks" even go beyond the phenomena known to parapsychology. For example, for a long time he could hold hot coals with his bare hands, apply them to his face and make others touch hot coals in his presence without receiving the slightest burn... In addition, Hume was able to arbitrarily change the size of his body, becoming taller and shorter. At the same time, his weight either increased or decreased; before the eyes of eyewitnesses, his chest expanded or sharply narrowed, and his muscles grew or fell.

Daniel Hume died in 1886. He managed to publish a number of works on spiritualistic topics, the most famous of which is “The Light and Shadows of Spiritualism” (1877). This man was capable not only of communicating with the souls of the dead, but also of his own free will, causing and stopping poltergeists, foreseeing the future, moving objects at a distance, levitating, healing the hopelessly ill... And no one was ever able to convict him of deception and fraud. Is he under the control of some otherworldly forces or was he simply the bearer of a unique gift? Alas, this will, in all likelihood, remain a mystery.

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