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The Eleventh Lesson: Hindu Wonder-Working.1347
showing in boiling water, and gradually the entire glass is bubbling away as
if a great heat were being applied to it. Investigators have then insisted that
the glass be placed on a table away from the hands of the fakir, the result
being that the ebullition gradually subsided, and the glass of water resumed
its normal appearance, with the exception that tiny bubbles of air gathered
and remained on the sides of the glass, just as they do in ordinary instances
when a glass of water is allowed to remain for a length of time.
It is said by those who have experimented with this phenomenon, that
the water does not grow hot, nor does it really “boil” in the sense of being
agitated by heat, the appearance being that of “effervescence” rather than
that of “boiling” by heat. It should be noted here that the investigators took
steps to prevent the insertion of any effervescent chemical into the water,
in some cases the precautions taken being so great that the investigators
brought their own glasses, which they filled themselves, and then covered
carefully, in one case a covered “Mason Jar” being used to obviate any change
or the insertion of any chemical substance into the water. In one instance, we
understand, the water was connected with a registering instrument similar
to a galvanometer, and no signs of an electric current were observed—
and in the same test the water was subjected to a chemical analysis, but
no traces of foreign chemical substances were found. Some have remarked
that the water seemed to be slightly warmer than that of the water before
the manifestation upon it, but this may have been caused by the natural
heat of the hands of the fakir—we have heard of no cases in which the heat
has been recorded by the use of a thermometer. Some have thought that
after the manifestation the water tasted “flat,” as does water that has been
subjected to boiling, in fact this seems to be the general verdict, but there
is a chance of the effect of auto-suggestion or imagination in this case, in
absence of any scientific test. As to the genuineness of the phenomenon of
the effervescing or boiling, however, there seems to be no doubt.
Some of the fakirs performing the above feat, when closely questioned,
insisted that they were unable to explain what force was used, as they