Rochas, Lt.-col. Eugene Auguste Albert d'Aiglun

Rochas, Lt.-col. Eugene Auguste Albert d’Aiglun (1837–1914)

(religion, spiritualism, and occult)

Eugene Auguste Albert d’Aiglum Rochas was Administrator of the École Polytechnique of Paris. However, due to his great interest in metaphysical matters he was forced to resign. He became a prominent French psychical researcher, well known for his work with hypnotism, reincarnation, human emanations (ectoplasm), and physical mediumship.

Rochas was the first to acquaint the French public with the claims of Baron Karl von Reichenbach, and his theory of the exteriorization of motricity was regarded as an important contribution to the examination of materialization. He worked with medium Eusapia Paladino at his home at l’Agnelas, near Voiron. He also claimed to have exposed Charles Bailey, the Australian apport medium, but such exposure seems to have been uncertain. Certainly Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and others did not accept it.

Rochas wrote a number of books, including La Science des Philosophes et l’Art des Thaumaturges dans l’Antiquité (1882), Les Forces non définies (1887), Le Fluide des Magnetiseurs (1891), Les États Profonds de l’hypnose (1892), Receuil de documents relatifs à la levitation du corps humain (1897), Les États Superficiels de l’hypnose (1898), and La Suspension de la Vie (1913).

Sources:

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan: The History of Spiritualism. New York: Doran, 1926Fodor, Nandor: Encyclopedia of Psychic Science. London: Arthurs Press, 1933Rochester rappings see Hydesville