MISTER MYSTERY RESPONDS

At twilight, the Romantics are in the ruins of the old castle, in their open-air camp, around a campfire. Some are standing, others sitting or lying on the grass, and Schlegel wanders around them like a planet. You might say they are in an outdoor version of Mrs. Schopenhauer's salon. Wieland has just told them about his fleeting encounter with his liberator, whom he identifies with a fairy. "A fairy?!", Caroline Walsolz exclaims incredulously. "That’s silly! Fairies don't exist! "Of course they do exist!", Adele Schopenhauer jumps, "Don't they, mom?" Johanna agrees with her daughter and explains that fairies, like goblins, sylphs, undines and other similar creatures, are the spirits of Nature, but not everyone has the ability to see them. "Nonsense!", Mrs. Walsolz exclaims, "I have very good eyesight and I have never seen any of those creatures you mention. I bet they are a Brothers Grimm’s invention." “And what a...

Mother Nature begins to awaken from the harsh winter while the Romantics advance along a narrow path between high snow-capped mountains. Everywhere you hear the word "sublime" on their lips. Because Romantics feel a sincere love for Nature. With the excuse of having to relieve himself, Wieland gets out of the path and embraces a red spruce passionately. From the path, the others hear him murmuring and panting. And, thinking that Wieland has met someone, they join him at the precise moment when he is proposing to the tree and then stamps his lips against the trunk. When feeling reciprocated, he presses his lips with even more pleasure. He stays that way for a while, like in a rapture. However, upon hearing the sudden laughter of his companions, he tries to detach himself from the trunk. But it's too late: the red spruce has fallen in love with Wieland and nothing will be able to separate them. But this is merely a romantic interpretation. The rough reality is that the poe...

Fairies were another of the Society for Psychical Research's workhorses. Among its members there were supporters of its existence, there were supporters of its nonexistence and there was a third group led by George Philimore who was not a supporter of either one or the other. When this third group were asked for their opinion about it, they crouched down and held their breath with their fists closed until their faces turned a deep purple color. When he was low in morale, Crookes thought that maybe they were right. But when he was in a good mood, he believed firmly in the existence of fairies, although he did not dare to put it in writing. It must be said that on those occasions of euphoria, Crookes not only believed in fairies and elves but also in the existence of Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and even a Mr. Swosky who supposedly ruled the world clandestinely and tortuous from an opium den of Spitalfields. Crookes was a most fickle man. He could beg you to offer him a Scotch whiske...

On a rainy winter evening, the senior members of the Society for Psychical Research were gathered around the fireplace in the comfortable living room of the SPR headquarters. While each one lit his pipe, Sir Henry Sidgwick offered to tell them an intriguing story that he was told the last summer when he was with his family in Wales. And it was told to him as a true story. Everyone nodded and listened with interest: In a small Welsh village lived a married couple very well matched in everything except in their beliefs about life after death, where they both diverged. Mrs. Robinson believed in the Afterlife, Mr. Robinson in the Beforedeath. The village was equally divided with respect to an old woman who lived in a cabin on the outskirts of the town. Some said that she had paranormal faculties and the others claimed that she had “disturbed” faculties. Of course, Mr. Robinson was aligned with the latter and Mrs. Robinson with the first. For her part, the old woman was aligned with those ...