Translation from the German by Robert Hütwohl[1]
If one examines more closely why certain people, when “occult phenomena”or so-called “spiritual phenomena” are spoken of, have nothing but a dull grin for it, or scornfully reject it with a sneer that is supposed to be sublime, we find that the the reason for this is that they not only do not understand anything about such things, but are also afraid of them; because one is afraid of what one does not know, and then it is easier to imitate the ostrich and, when pursued, to bury one’s head in the sand instead to meet the danger, even if it is only an imaginary one.
Anyone who wants to get to know the nature of man and nature as a whole should not only concern himself with the visible and tangible natural phenomena, but also with the natural laws of the supersensible world, and he will find that a study of the psychic processes is not only of great interest, but highly instructive, of extraordinary importance for practical life, and more than a thousand moral sermons is suitable to give us hints in this regard.
It was only a few years ago that all of Vienna was in suspense and got excited because of the suicide of a well-known court president, Hofrat N. . . .; he was notorious and feared for his severity and the cruelty of his judgments; for he found delight in eliciting confessions from the accused, and in always condemning them to the highest penalties permitted by law for even the smallest offences; so that it was said of him that he became a judge, just as some people in the Middle Ages became messengers, namely, to satisfy their lust for torture and murder, and moreover to be paid for it. He brought misfortune to numerous people because of minor offences, whereas he was highly respected because of his “loyalty to duty.” Incidentally, he himself was not morally pure and had been inclined to sexual excesses since early youth. One night he shot himself dead, and what prompted him to do so is revealed by notes he had written with the intention of giving them to a doctor. These were written as if they were about another person about whom he wished to write to the doctor for advice. This letter states the following:
One day, he managed to get a jury to find a Jew, accused of a crime of indecency, guilty and sentenced him to twenty years in prison. He celebrated the triumph of his eloquence, but everyone was amazed at the severity of the sentence. Even the coroner expressed his doubts as to the guilt of the accused, and the jury, having come to quiet reflection, asked for the trial to proceed; but Herr Hofrat refused.
Such was the effect upon the accused of the pronouncement of the sentence; that nerves of steel, used to such performances, were needed in order not to be shaken by it and perhaps confused about the justice of the judgment passed. First the condemned man stammered some unintelligible words, probably in Hebrew. Then the stooped man, who appeared to be of barely medium height, straightened up so that he looked tall and addressed a series of curses and threats to the chairman. “Mr. President,” he began; “You know as well as I do that I am innocent” and at the end of his speech he said: “You will be paid back, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth; just wait.” We pass over the outbursts of desperation of the condemned man which followed these curses, and which immediately earned him a discipline penalty, after which he was forcibly removed from the courtroom.
Years passed and the Councilor was said to have forgotten the case altogether; but one night at two o’clock between March 18th and 19th he awoke suddenly and saw the condemned man standing before him, just as he saw him then when he was uttering those taunts, his face distorted with anger. While the Hofrat lay there, paralyzed with horror, it seemed to him that something was knocking very softly on the room door, or rather, it was more a hesitant pawing, as if a little hand was begging for admission. At the same time he felt as if something had slipped in, and a faint crackling went through the parquet floors, across the room from the door to the bed, as if this invisible something were coming closer and finally stopping right in front of him. It seemed to him that this something was the condemned man, and he had the feeling that he himself and the apparition were fundamentally the same person.
From that time on, the privy councilor never had a quiet hour, but was constantly tormented by a hellish pang of conscience; he resolved to look over the file in question again to make sure that the condemned man was really guilty; but didn’t find the courage to do so. In doing so, he tried to drown out the voice of his conscience by indulging in the meanest sensual pleasures and spending the nights with street prostitutes. In the end he found out that the condemned man had actually died in prison at two o’clock on the night of March 18-19. Soon after, he shot himself dead.
This actual event was brought by Alfred Freiherr von Bergen in the form of a novella entitled “Hofrat Eysenhardt” and published by the “Deutsch-Österreich Verlag” in Vienna. The book is of great interest especially because it aptly describes the psychological moments and changes in the life of such a person.
Since “Hofrat Eysenhardt” was an educated man, he too, like certain other scholars, sought the reason for his “ghost apparition” in vain through all sorts of “scientific” and impossible theories, as well as “hallucination,” “nerve disorders” and the like to explain and to ease his conscience; but to anyone acquainted with the nature of the inner man and his latent powers, the explanation is most simple, and is that the condemned man had formed a thought-picture of himself by intense thought, and by his vengefulness animated it with his will; which connected with the astral being (elemental) entering through the door and thereby gained the power to condense sufficiently to become visible and to bring the Lord Hofrat the retribution which he richly deserved.
Notes:
[1] Occult Phenomena [Occult Phenomena. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Neue Lotusblüten 5, no. 7-8 (July-August 1912), 233-238] {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hütwohl, ©2025}