D'Ourches, Comte (ca. 1856)

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D'Ourches, Comte (ca. 1856)

Nineteenth-century French occultist who experimented with mesmerism and animal magnetism. During the 1850s he and his friend the Baron L. von Guldenstubbe pioneered the formation of Spiritualist circles in France similar to those being formed in America. The baron describes such séances in his book La Réalité des Espirits et le Phénomène merveilleux de leur écriture directe (1857), stating that the Comte D'Ourches succeeded in making tables rise without contact, in addition to the phenomena of table-turning, raps, and vibration of piano chords. D'Ourches was also associated with the baron's experiments in obtaining direct writing.