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| Édouard Isidore Buguet fakes telekinesis |
Angelique was living near La Perriere, France when the alleged phenomenon started on January 15, 1846. The story goes that she was working silk with a few friends when either the weaving frame or the table on which they worked started shaking. They told adults, but were not believed, so they tried to go back to work. Apparently, it kept happening, but only when Angelique was near the frame or the table, depending on the source.
Note: Small variations in the sources regarding Angelique Cottin may be the result of French to English translations. However, there are large discrepancies of note as well.
Angelique Cottin's parents found out about the occurrence and told people they believed her. They took her to the parish priest for exorcism. Lucky for Angelique, the priest sent her to a doctor instead, obviously believing that the girl was not possessed. Whether he believed her a fraud or someone with a strange illness is unclear.
Interestingly, the doctor allegedly saw objects move quickly away from Angelique Cottin after so much as brushing against her skirt or hand. People near her said they felt electric shocks. Chairs and couches that Angelique sat in were flung against the wall. The doctor's reports supposedly state that men were made to hold down furniture that was affected by Angelique. They were unable to hold it still when her powers were active. There were breaks in the activity, but the doctor said she was most active in the late evenings.
Eventually, the case of Angelique Cottin was referred to academics, one of which was a physicist. They went over the reports given by the doctor, by the girl and presumably by her parents. They made their own report based on these and their own tests. According to some sources, the committee of academics concluded that the phenomenon was genuine and published those findings in the Journal des debats in February of 1846. In truth, the committee observed none of the phenomena described by the doctor and the Cottins save one. They observed the chairs she sat in shaking, though they were never able to ascertain whether the shaking was of her doing. They were going to arrange further tests, but the poltergeist of Angelique Cottin suddenly ceased activity on April 10, 1846. At least, that is what the committee was told.
Despite never returning for follow up experiments with the committee, Angelique continued to display her malady for money. How she was able to replicate it after it supposedly stopped is unknown. Whether she had been faking it and simply continued to do so is also unknown. The biggest unknown here is how she would have faked it. It seems that without either the help or incompetence of her doctor, she would not have been able to pull such an elaborate fast one. Maybe she fooled the doctor. Maybe her parents promised him a cut of the profits. Maybe she was not faking it at all.
It is important to mention that sources regarding Angelique Cottin vary wildly. Some say she could manipulate magnets, though the only claim made at the time was that she could find the North Pole on magnets by touch. There are also some that say she made compass needles spin, though that was never claimed possible by her observers. Contemporary sources are available to peruse for those who are interested. Just don't expect them to shed any light on the subject.
Sources
Haughton, Brian, Angelique Cottin -- Electric Girl, retrieved 11/19/11, mysteriouspeople.com/poltergeist_girl.htm
Figuer, Louis. The Electric Girl, Popular Science Monthly March 1875, Volume 6
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