He Says He Has Photographed a Soul

Prof. Baraduc’s Report of an Astonishing Discovery — A Picture Said to Have Been Made by Will Power on a Plate 100 Miles Away.

Paris has a reputable scientist of good standing who has created a stir by announcing to the French Academy of Medicine that he has photographed what is, to all intents and purposes, the soul. More than that, he insists that he has produced a portrait on a sensitive plate 100 miles away simply by an effort of the will. He developed the plate and got a print from it just as any photographer does, and you have the photograph of a thought.

A correspondent of The Press in Paris secured a number of these wonderful pictures, and a few of them are reproduced here to-day direct from the photographs.

If Professor H. Baraduc has not been misled he has made the most important discovery that can be credited to science since the first development of electricity, and has blazed a long path into the Unknown and the Hereafter.

Not enough of the details of Professor Baraduc’s alleged discoveries are at hand to form a basis for more than abstract conclusions, but it is interesting to note that the members of the French Academy of Medicine seem to have taken their brother scientist seriously, although the greatest American authority on the subject, Nikola Tesla, flouts the idea, as will be seen.

A TALK WITH DR. BARADUC.

In an interview with a correspondent of The Press the day following this announcement Dr. Baraduc said he believed he had solved what is variously known as soul, mind, spirit, thought, etc.; all one and the same thing. This mysterious power rests in an invisible vital fluid surrounding and pervading the body of a man. By means of this force an image can be produced upon a photographic plate without the use of any apparatus whatever. A man of strong will can form any picture he pleases upon a photographic plate by willing with all his power that the image should appear. And this will power, he said, can be exerted through any distance.

Dr. Baraduc showed The Press correspondent many photographs taken in this way by two Austrian scientists who are co-operating with him in his work.

Such a startling communication from a text of Dr. Baraduc’s reputation has naturally attracted a good deal of attention, and his rooms are crowded all day with savants eager to witness the experiments.

The doctor told The Press correspondent that he had long ago demonstrated that the vital force of the body possessed a mysterious influence over a sensitive photographic plate. This influence, which is some form of light, can, like the Roentgen rays, penetrate through anything and imprint an image upon a plate. The most marvelous part of the affair is that the doctor uses no apparatus, either electric or photographic.

INFLUENCES OF THE HANDS.

When the right hand is laid upon a photographic plate, covered with black paper and placed in a dark room, a nebulous image is imprinted upon the plate, as shown by a photograph reproduced in The Press.

This image is of an entirely different nature when the left hand is laid upon a plate. The force executed by and emanating from the right side of the body is positive or attractive, while that from the left side is negative or repulsive.

When photographed the right hand force has the appearance of lightning, only of a more subdued character, while the left hand force shows a series of luminous spots.

If a needle is horizontally suspended over a bobbin of insulated wire, so that it moves freely, the approach of the right hand will slowly attract the needle, while the left hand repels the needle. The reel of wire intensifies the action of the vital force, which is akin to electricity. It is not electricity, however, as Dr. Baraduc believes he has demonstrated.

PHOTOGRAPHING BY WILL POWER.

In one of the experiments the doctor told a subject, whom he knew to be possessed of a strong will, to form an image of his brother in his mind. When he had done this he was told to gaze at a photographic plate and “will” with all his power that the image of his brother should appear upon the plate. All this was done in a darkened room, the plate being wrapped in black paper.

After an interval of ten minutes the plate was developed and a nebulous image, which could clearly be recognized when compared with the ordinary photograph of the brother, was found in the right hand corner of the plate.

The mere fact of there being any mark at all upon the plate is proof of the discovery of a new form of light emanating from the human body. That the mind can so direct this mysterious light as to cause the object of thought to be projected upon the plate is nothing short of marvelous.

In connection with the work of Dr. Baraduc a still more wonderful result has been obtained by Dr. Istrati and Dr. Hasdeu of Bucharest, director of instruction in Roumania. Dr. Istrati went to Campina, about 100 miles from Bucharest, and agreed at a certain hour upon a certain date to will the appearance of an image of his colleague upon a plate. A camera was focused upon Dr. Hasdeu and at the appointed hour the room was made absolutely dark and developments awaited.

With all his power, Dr. Istrati willed the appearance of his friend’s image. When the plate was developed a tiny silhouette was discovered on the negative, which was clearly a profile of the learned savant.

The silhouettes obtained are nebulous in character, but the discovery is new. The doctors expect before long to be able to produce photographs of a more definite nature.

When the mind is strongly excited by religious ecstasy a totally different appearance is produced upon the plate. Dr. Baraduc has no explanations to offer concerning the spiritual essence. He, however, imagines that the difference between the photograph of a tranquil mind and one filled with religious awe and ecstasy represents the difference between the vital and the spiritual essence.

In other words, the vital essence can be modified according to its surroundings.

The doctor says he firmly believes that criminal instincts can influence a fellow creature when in close proximity simply by the unconscious influence of his vital essence. Dr. Baraduc earnestly requests all those experimenting with his new discovery to let him have a copy of the results.

The portrait of Dr. Hasdeu, willed by Professor Istrati, is pictured in The Press to-day from a copy of the original photograph loaned by Professor Baraduc. Printed beside this remarkable “will portrait” is a picture of Dr. Hasdeu taken by photograph in the ordinary way.

Another interesting picture made by the French savant and reproduced here is a photograph of the hand of a person through whose body an electrical current had passed just before his hand was laid on the sensitive plate. No camera was used.

TESLA LAUGHS.

When these so-called will photographs were shown to Nikola Tesla, he remarked:

“Well they may, like that sort of thing over in Paris, but it won’t go here. We have enough that is genuine without going out of our way to be humbugged. It is quite beyond any possibility that thoughts should be photographed. It is only by virtue of the fact that light travels in straight lines that we can take pictures at all, that we can see even with our eyes. If the sun’s rays were reflected against the retina of the eye in curved lines there would be no definiteness, only blur. Think what a jumble there is even in the clearest mind, no matter how hard it tries to concentrate itself on one object during ten minutes, and then imagine what a snarl the ‘soul’ would appear to be if it were exposed to a plate that length of time. Supposing, for the sake of argument, that there are thought rays and that they could effect a sensitive photographic plate, then in order to produce a definite picture they would have to be straight and constant. Think what the effect would be if a plate were exposed ten minutes to a hundred lights of different colors all in violent motion. A thought or a soul might look like that! A thought is beyond the reach of photographic apparatus. I, has its own peculiar realm. It is conceivable that a photograph of a hand taken during intense mental excitement on the part of the owner of the hand might differ from a photograph of the same hand when there was no mental excitement, but to call the ‘excited’ picture ‘soul’ is nonsense.”

From Theosophists we have heard for some time that egos and such things could be seen distinctly and that the wiggling of a thought as it coils in and out and round the brain is mighty interesting to the naked eye. If Professor Baraduc isn’t as far away from the truth as Nikola Tesla says he is, the Theosophists had advance news from the spiritual realm.