In the late nineteenth century, Pierre Curie was investigating the mysteries of ordinary magnetism when he became aware of the spiritualist experiments of other European scientists, such as Charles Richet and Camille Flammarion. Pierre Curie initially thought the systematic investigation into the paranormal could help with some unanswered questions about magnetism. He wrote to Marie, then his fiancée:  "I must admit that those spiritual phenomena intensely interest me. I think they are questions that deal with physics." Pierre Curie's notebooks from this period show he read many books on spiritualism. He did not attend séances such as those of Eusapia Palladino in Paris in June 1905 as a mere spectator, and his goal certainly was not to communicate with spirits. He saw the séances as scientific experiments, tried to monitor different parameters, and took detailed notes of every observation. Despite studying spiritualism, Curie was an atheist.