Rapport
A mystical sympathetic or antipathetic connection between two persons. It was formerly believed that for a witch to harm her victims, the latter must first have become in rapport with her, either by contact with her person, or by contact with some garment she has worn. A certain witch, Florence Newton, was accused of establishing rapport between herself and those she sought to bewitch by kissing them, whereby she was able to compass their destruction. In the practice of animal magnetism it was considered that the only invariable and characteristic symptom of the genuine trance was the rapport between patient and operator. The former was deaf, dumb, blind, to all save his magnetizer, and those with whom his magnetizer placed him in rapport. This condition, however, still observed in hypnotism, is referable to a perfectly natural cause. (See Hypnotism.) The term is preserved at the present day in Spiritualism, when it signifies a spiritual sympathy between the " control" and the medium or any of the sitters. The medium-or, more properly, the control-may be placed in rapport with anyone who is absent or dead, merely by handling something which has belonged to them. It is for a similar reason that the crystal is held for a few moments prior to the inspection by the person on whose behalf the crystal-gazer is about to examine it.