Pascal Forthuny

Pascal Forthuny (24 March 1872 - 29 April 1962) was a French art critic, clairvoyant medium and novelist.[1][2]

Pascal Forthuny
Born24 March 1872
Paris
Died29 April 1962 (1962-04-30) (aged 90)
Occupation(s)Art critic, clairvoyant

Biography

Forthuny was born as Georges Léopold Cochet in Paris in 1872.[3] He developed his alleged paranormal abilities of automatic writing, clairvoyance and psychometry in the 1920s after his son died in a plane crash.[4][5] He was tested by psychical researchers such as Eugéne Osty and Charles Richet who were convinced he had genuine paranormal powers.[1][6]

Other researchers were more skeptical. Samuel Soal wrote that Forthuny's work was "not always above suspicion." During an anonymous sitting in 1929, Forthuny had pretended to obtain his name by automatic writing but it was discovered that he previously attended lunch with psychical researchers Eleanor Sidgwick and V. J. Woolley who told him the afternoon sitter was Soal.[7]

In 1930, an article in the French magazine Psychica accused Forthuny of fraud. During one of his alleged clairvoyant demonstrations he was said to have obtained signals from an accomplice who gave him information about his target.[8]

Chair tests

Forthuny was known for carrying out "empty chair" tests in parapsychology.[9] This type of experiment was originally devised by Eugéne Osty at the Institut Métapsychique International and conducted with Forthuny in April 1926. Forthuny was shown a marked empty chair in the conference room. He then gave predictions to a stenographer about the unknown person who would occupy the chair such as their appearance or characteristics. Later during the same day the room would be filled with people and the marked chair would be occupied. According to Osty the experiments were a success and evidence for precognition. Criticism of the chair tests came from Antônio da Silva Mello who found the results suspicious as they were never replicated.[10] The controls of the tests were also criticized and they are now considered discredited.[11]

Publications
  • Notes et impressions de voyage: En Suisse (ill. P. Forthuny), Paris, La Semaine des constructeurs, 1898
  • Le Roi régicide: Roman social, Paris, Tallandier, 1898
  • La voie idéale: Les étapes inquiètes, Paris, Fasquelle, 1899
  • Une crise, Paris, Paul Ollendorf, 1901
  • L'Altesse, Paris, Tallandier, 1904
  • Amours d'Allemagne: Frieda, Paris, Pierre Douville, 1907
  • Les vierges solitaires: Roman social, Pierre Douville, 1909
  • Isabel ou le poignard d'argent: La tragédie des deux Espagne, Paris, Sansot & Cie, 1911
  • Au seuil de l’âme chinoise !: Essai pour une psychologie de l'apprenti sinologue, Paris, P. Dupont, 1915
  • Le vendeur d'huile et la reine de beauté : Maisons closes chinoise, Paris, Albin Michel, 1918
  • Le miracle des pruniers en fleurs: Roman chinois, Paris, Albin Michel, 1920
  • Une victoire de la photographie psychique: la romanesque et glorieuse aventure du medium William Hope (de Crew, Angleterre) accusé d'être un imposteur, traîné une année dans la boue, victime d'une sombre machination, enfin reconnu parfaitement innocent et incontestable medium photographe, Terrier frères et Cie, 1923
  • Les amants chinois, Paris, Albin Michel, 1924
  • Entretiens avec une outre : Devant la mort de Sarda Nafale et l'entrée des Croisés à Constantinople, Paris, G. Daugon imp, 1929
  • Je lis dans les destinées : La clairvoyance et ses médiums, Les éditions de France, 1937

References
  1. Anderson, Rodger. (2006). Psychics, Sensitives and Somnambules: A Biographical Dictionary with Bibliographies. McFarland & Company. p. 61. ISBN 978-0-7864-2770-3
  2. Vigato, Jean-Claude. (1994). L'architecture régionaliste: France, 1890-1950. Norma. p. 30. ISBN 978-2909283111
  3. Georges Léopold Cochet, Léonore
  4. Wolman, Benjamin B. (1977). Handbook of Parapsychology. McFarland. p. 14. ISBN 978-0442295769
  5. Xiong, Jesse Hong. (2010). The Outline of Parapsychology (Rev. ed.). Lanham: University Press of America. p. 126. ISBN 978-0761840435
  6. Mauskopf, Seymour H; McVaugh, Michael Rogers. (1980). The Elusive Science: Origins of Experimental Psychical Research. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 43. ISBN 978-0801823312
  7. Soal, Samuel. Spiritualism. In Julian Franklyn. (1973 edition, originally published 1935). A Dictionary of the Occult. Causeway Books. p. 253. ISBN 0-88356-009-7
  8. Barrington, Mary Rose; Stevenson, Ian; Weaver, Zofia. (2005). A World in a Grain of Sand: The Clairvoyance of Stefan Ossowiecki. McFarland. p. 155. ISBN 0-7864-2112-6
  9. Edmunds, Simeon. (1965). Miracles of the Mind: An Introduction to Parapsychology. Charles C Thomas Publishers. p. 58
  10. Mello, Antônio da Silva. (1960). Mysteries and Realities of This World and the Next. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 431-432
  11. Hövelmann, Gerd H; Michels, Hans. (2017). Legitimacy of Unbelief: The Collected Papers of Piet Hein Hoebens. Lit Verlag. pp. 229-242. ISBN 978-3-643-90855-1

Further reading
  • Anonymous. (1930). Psychica, January 1930. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 26: 87. (Describes an allegation of fraud against Forthuny)
  • Eugéne Osty. (1926). Pascal Forthuny: Une faculté de connaissance supranormale. Félix Alcan.
  • Theodore Besterman. (1929). Pascal Forthuny: Paris. In Report of a Four Months' Tour of Psychical Investigation. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 38: 474-476.
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