Summary of "The Transmigration of Souls" by Gleb Golubev

This book, published in 1976, is the story of the exposure of a cunning fraudster profiting from the popular theme of reincarnation. The work depicts the clash between a psychologist’s cool reasoning and the astonishing credulity of ordinary people regarding paranormal phenomena.

Mysterious suicide in Geneva

An old friend of psychology professor Maurice and his wife Claudine comes to visit. Jean-Paul Groener, the cantonal police commissioner, frequently asks the professor for help in investigating complex scams. The commissioner is puzzled by the absurd suicide of a young shoe company delivery boy named Rudi Baumann. The robust young man hanged himself in a tiny attic on Rue des Grottes.

The young man left a farewell note on the table. In it, Rudi complained about his impoverished existence and expressed his joy at the prospect of pleasant reincarnations. A police officer found newspaper clippings in the room about recent lectures by the Indian yogi Professor Brahmacharya. Rudi had attended his lectures in Bern three times and enthusiastically told his landlady about his imminent reincarnation. Groener asks the specialist to stop the swindler. A bad example can quickly infect other impressionable Swiss residents.

Pseudo-scientific justifications for miracles

Maurice and Groener are away on business. Claudine carefully studies her husband’s household file. He has long been collecting newspaper articles about the transmigration of souls in a gray folder. The articles are replete with sensational stories about the American Ruth Simmons. Under deep hypnosis, she recalled in detail a past life in distant Ireland as Bridey Murphy. The authors of the publications offer ingenious justifications for the immortality of the human psyche. Professor Donald Raine of the University of Greyburg links the constant division of living cells with the transmigration of souls.

Newspapers boldly cite the authentic neurosurgical experiments of the Canadian physician Penfield. He stimulated the temporal lobes of his patients’ brains with a weak electric current. The current evoked vivid, forgotten memories. Journalists cite the experiments of the Swede Hidén. They categorically assert that genetic memory is transmitted to descendants at the molecular level. Claudine, with growing alarm, understands the power of such deception. The scientifically sound texts seem quite convincing to the uninitiated. That evening, the couple goes to the Lausanne Business Club for a long-awaited lecture by a touring Indian. Due to a strong, icy wind, the business car moves very slowly. They barely make it in time for the session.

Speech by an Indian guest

The televised evening is hosted by the good-natured, plump Emil Arvid. This man had previously been successfully treated by Maurice for severe alcoholism. The small club hall is packed with a noisy crowd. Professor Brahmacharya himself appears on stage, wearing a long white robe and turban.

The guest begins the lecture smoothly with a reference to the bas-reliefs of the Javanese temple of Borobudur. He explains the psychological effect of déjà vu as flashes of ancestral memory of bygone eras. Maurice is indignant and snorts loudly. The lecturer skillfully blends real scientific facts with occult fiction. Having completed the theory, the Hindu moves on to fascinating practical experiments.

The professor invites brave volunteers onto the stage. Maurice jumps out first. The cunning magician quickly eliminates him after a brief conversation behind a closed screen. For the mystical encounter, he selects a young woman, Jeanne Barroux, and an elderly mathematics teacher, Paul Domberg, nicknamed "Copernicus." Both are given a thick, dark liquid to drink from crystal glasses. The volunteers lie down on couches and obediently fall into a deep, hypnotic sleep.

The Journeys of Souls in Past Centuries

To ensure the experiment’s rigor, a prestigious committee of spectators is formed. Maurice persistently pushes his way into it. Arvid becomes the committee’s chairman. The spectators assign various historical eras. Jeanne is given the tricky year 1291. This is a cunning test of her knowledge of the legendary William Tell. The girl describes herself as a young silver poplar in a quiet gorge.

The engineer is then asked to recall events from the twentieth century BC. Zhanna is instantly transformed. She identifies herself as a prehistoric woman named Lam. Lam lives in a pile dwelling in the middle of a deep lake. She sews fur clothing with bone needles and constantly dreams of hunting prey. The audience listens, captivated, to the realistic details of the harsh ancient way of life.

A mathematics teacher is assigned the turbulent mid-seventeenth century. Domberg breathes heavily in the tropical heat. He describes life in cruel captivity among French pirates in the Caribbean. The old man expertly describes the careening of a sailing ship and the strict rules for dividing up plundered property. When the commission names the first century BC, his soul is transported into the body of a young servant of Queen Cleopatra. The girl, carrying a fan, sails up the Nile on a luxurious galley.

Public exposure of deception

Maurice decisively interrupts the protracted performance and steps to the front of the stage. The scientist announces the use of classical suggestion for a certain period. Under the pretext of selection, the lecturer elicited the volunteers’ favorite movies and books from behind the screen. As a child, Domberg devoured the famous novels about the noble Captain Blood. He watched the popular color film adaptation of Cleopatra’s adventures. Jeanne remembered the realistic museum models of cavemen’s camps.

The Hindu had implanted the necessary vivid images in the sleeping volunteers beforehand. He linked each assigned role to a specific phrase. Upon hearing the hypnotist’s audio password, the volunteer would immerse themselves in the assigned fantasy. To safely bypass specific dates and avoid historical errors, the magician had prepared backup incarnations. Clearly, a speechless poplar is incapable of telling the story of the armed uprising in the Swiss cantons.

To demonstrate his point, Maurice lulls the lecture organizer to sleep. At the resounding command, "Pay attention!" Mr. Arvid transforms into an arrogant Roman patrician. Gnaeus Cornelius Gracchus watches with rapt attention the brutal races of fast quadrigas. This dynamic scene is lifted straight from the Hollywood film "Ben-Hur." When the committee members name December 1602, the scholar utters the phrase, "Quiet, quiet." This historical era is tied to the famous nighttime defense of Geneva from the invasion of the treacherous Duke of Savoy. The impressionable fat man avoids the dangerous necessity of describing these urban events. He immediately freezes to attention and declares himself a century-old oak tree.

Having broken the spell of the visiting guest, Maurice brings Emil Arvid out of his hypnotic state. The organizer remembers nothing of his unusual behavior on stage. At the door of the empty hall, he approaches Claudine’s husband and asks a disconcerting question. Arvid is perplexed by the attacks on the poor yogi. The experiments conducted seem to him undeniable proof of the theory of metempsychosis. Maurice, with comical horror, realizes his enormous pedagogical blunder. He put Arvid to sleep before the detailed public explanations began. The impressionable fat man was forever deprived of the opportunity to hear the rigorous logic of the exposure of a cynical deception.