MISTER MYSTERY RESPONDS

A New York press tycoon (whom we will call Mr. X) sent for Michael and Jacob early in the morning. The man had had a dream that night and feared that the dream was premonitory. He had great faith in premonitory dreams. Once he dreamed that it would rain and it rained all day long. On another occasion he dreamed that a man stabbed him in the back and it also rained all day long. So it's no wonder that Mr. X had faith in premonitory dreams. But the dream of that night was so odd, that Michel and Jacob reassured him about it. Besides, the day had dawned sunny and there was nothing that presaged that it was going to rain. But Mr. X really looked like he was not holding together well, and he asked them not to lose sight of him until he came home at night. It was just a precautionary measure. Just in case he was swallowed by a whale as he had dreamed. Michael and Jacob scrupulously fulfilled their mission and throughout that day they accompanied Mr. X everywhere and had their eyes wid...

The patient, on the couch. The analyst behind seated in a chair. PATIENT: I pulled and pulled, and the elephant didn't move. Doctor Hoch, have you ever pulled an elephant? DOCTOR: What? No, no PATIENT: Then you can't imagine how strong those beasts are DOCTOR: I didn't know they sold elephants at Macy's. The advertising says they sell everything, but ... PATIENT: What do you say? Elephants at Macy's? DOCTOR: I thought you told me you were a dependent at Macy's PATIENT: Affirmative. Section of shoes for men DOCTOR: So you are not in the elephant section PATIENT: There's no elephant section at Macy's. Do you want to buy an elephant? I don't recommend it, Dr. Hoch. You can't imagine how strong these animals are DOCTOR: Yes, yes, I can imagine it. I have seen illustrations of elephants. I even saw a movie once ... PATIENT: Ah, but it's not the same as having personal experience. I pulled and pulled and the elephant did not ...

Year 1871. During Mrs. Cassel's stay in the spa resort of Vichy, she witnessed the discussion between the director of the thermal establishment and a client, who complained that, in the room she shared with her husband, strange noises were heard at night. The director insisted that it was her husband's snoring, to which she replied that she was familiar with her husband's snoring and  this was another kind of noise, more like the one that emits a Patagonian Mara. The director said he wasn't familiar with the noise that a Patagonian Mara emits, but even so he would switch rooms. Intrigued by what the client had told him, the director set out to spend the night in the room in question. Mrs. Cassel got up early the next morning to see with her own eyes the result of the venture. When she was walking down the corridor, she saw from a distance a dozen strange rodents similar to jackrabbits leaving the room in single line. The last one to leave was the director of the thermal...

Judging by the experiences that Jackie Cassel relates in her monograph "Paranormal Waters" (published in 1867 when the passion for the spa resorts was at its peak), the thermal establishments are not only sources of health but also of paranormal phenomena. Mrs. Cassel, a middle-aged and unmarried Frenchwoman resident in Clermont, suffered from cerebral lumbalgia and the doctor prescribed her some purple pills, but as she did not like that color, she preferred to prescribe herself a stay in the spa of Carlsbad in Czechoslovakia. Even with reluctance, her doctor agreed to pay for her stay at the Grand Hotel in that spa city, and that is how Mrs. Cassel began his career as an expert in spas. In that first stay in a thermal establishment, she realized that unusual things happened there. For example, the towels disappeared. You left the towel on a lounger and, when you returned, it was conspicuous by its absence. The jars of aromatic salts also disappeared and, on one occasion, t...