On Thursday, September 10, workers and church members began arriving in Basel for the Swiss Conference meeting, which was to begin that evening. Ellen White's old friend Daniel T. Bourdeau arrived with a number of French believers. She greeted them cordially and had a pleasant interview with Bourdeau and his little family.EGWE 57.1

There were his wife, Marion; his daughter, Patience, now an energetic teen-ager of 15; and Augustin, just 10 years old. Ellen White had known the Bourdeau family from the earliest days when their home at Bourdeauville, in northern Vermont, had been an important Adventist outpost.EGWE 57.2

Daniel's brother, A. C. Bourdeau, had accepted the third angel's message first, and Daniel thought at the time that he was crazy to observe Saturday instead of Sunday. Proud of his Biblical scholarship gained at a Baptist seminary in Canada, Daniel had set out to prove from the Scriptures that his brother was wrong. In the process, of course, he discovered quite the opposite, and he was forced to admit that the Biblical arguments favored the seventh-day Sabbath, but even so, he still felt he could not accept Mrs. White's visions as authentic. Then came a significant meeting at Buck's Bridge, New York, in 1857. Daniel was there, and during the meeting Ellen White was taken off in open vision. The physical phenomena characterizing her early visions, among which was breathlessness (see Daniel 10:17, 18), were apparent on this occasion.EGWE 57.3

James White, who was present, invited those who had doubts to come forward and see for themselves. He explained that Mrs. White, while in vision, was completely oblivious to everything around her, and gave opportunity for anyone present to examine her. This was Bourdeau's chance. Gaining permission from Elder White, and in a spirit of reverence and decorum, he resorted to an unusual procedure after satisfying himself that there were no outward signs of breathing. As he testified later:EGWE 58.1

“I ... took my hand and placed it over her mouth, pinching her nostrils between my thumb and forefinger, so that it was impossible for her to exhale or inhale air, even if she had desired to do so. I held her thus with my hand about ten minutes, long enough for her to suffocate under ordinary circumstances; she was not in the least affected by this ordeal.”—Statement of D. T. Bourdeau, February 4, 1891, quoted in J. N. Loughborough, The Great Second Advent Movement, p. 210.EGWE 58.2

Bourdeau confessed that after this experience^{*The first physical phenomena associated with Ellen White's open visions during the forty years of her ministry constituted convincing evidence to many of her contemporaries that her visions were genuine and not a hoax or a trick of the devil. But neither Mrs. White nor her contemporaries who believed she was a true messenger of God held that these extraordinary manifestations were fundamental tests of her validity as a prophet. They were evidences among other evidences. Since Satan could presumably counterfeit the physical phenomena, there would have to be more basic tests. These tests are defined in the following scriptures: Matthew 7:15-20; Isaiah 8:20; Jeremiah 28:9; 1 John 4:1, 2. Careful students agree that Mrs. White's life and work measured up to these Biblical standards.} he was never again inclined to doubt the divine origin of Mrs. White's visions. During the European Council soon to follow, Bourdeau's confidence would be put to a severe test, but it would not be shaken. And it never was.EGWE 58.3

The First and Second European Conferences

Mrs. White Attends Swiss Conference