Joseph Maxwell

          Attorney-General at the Court of Appeal at Bordeaux, prominent French psychical investigator. The chance reading of a book on theosophy gave him the first impulse to study occult mysteries. He found in Limoge a remarkable medium. The result, however, was unconvincing. But he realised that certain manifestations could only be studied with the assistance of nervous and mental pathology and for six years he studied at the University of Bordeaux for a medical degree. As a trained investigator he had the rare fortune to find a medium in a friend, M. Meurice, who could produce telekinetic phenomena in light.

He obtained further good results with Mme. Agullana, of Bordeaux, two young mediums of Agen, and others. In 1895, in I'Agnelas, he attended, with Col. Rochas, Dariex, Sabatier, Count de Gramont and Watteville, experiments with Eusapia Palladino. He made a deep study of the phenomena of raps and in Les Phenomenes Psychiques, Paris, 1903 (Metapsychical Phenomena) he affirmed the reality of telekinesis in these words:

"I am certain that we are in the presence of an unknown force; its manifestations do not seem to obey the same laws as those governing other forces more familiar to us; but I have no doubt they obey some law."

He admitted that the force is intelligent but wondered if that intelligence did not come from the experimenters. His theory was that a kind of collective consciousness produces the intellectual results. The book - the result of ten years of research - is a valuable contribution to psychical literature.

His more recent books also merited interest. They are La Divination, 1927, La Magie, 1928, and Les Tarots, 1933.

Source (with minor modifications): An Encyclopaedia of Psychic Science by Nandor Fodor (1934).