Stanisława Tomczyk

Polish telekinetic Stanisława Tomczyk levitates a pair of scissors while in a trance as psychologist Julian Ochorowicz watches closely. Wisła, Poland, 1909.[1][2]

Stanisława Tomczyk was a Polish Spiritualist medium in the early 20th century.

Tomczyk was the subject of experiments in 1908-09 at Wisła, in southern Poland, by the psychologist Julian Ochorowicz. Reportedly Tomczyk was regularly hypnotized by him for therapeutic purposes and she claimed to be controlled by an entity, "Little Stasia" ("Stasia" being a diminutive of Tomczyk's given name, "Stanisława"), who said she was not the spirit of any dead person. Tomczyk claimed she could levitate objects without contact, stop the movement of a clock in a glass case, and influence the turn of a roulette wheel.

She was tested during eleven sittings by the Society for Psychical Research in Great Britain between June 2 and July 13, 1914 in informal experiments admittedly not subject to rigid control with "inconclusive results", the most striking demonstration being the momentary levitation of a celluloid ball about 9 inches above a table with her hands about a quarter of an inch away.[3]

Scientists suspected that the telekinesis Tomczyk was performing involved the use of a fine thread or hair, running between her hands to lift and suspend the objects in the air. This was confirmed when psychical researchers who tested Tomczyk occasionally observed the thread.[4]

Stanisława Tomczyk (left) and the magician William Marriott (right) who duplicated by natural means her levitation trick of a glass beaker.

On one occasion, psychologist Julian Ochorowicz saw a black thread between her hands and in numerous photographs taken by Ochorowicz and later investigators a thread was sometimes visible.[5]

Tomczyk's levitation of a glass beaker was exposed and replicated in 1910 by the magician William S. Marriott by means of a hidden thread.[6]

In 1919, Tomczyk married the psychical researcher Everard Feilding, who was the Secretary of the Society for Psychical Research.[7][8]

See also

References

  1. "Stanisława Tomczyk photo description at Diomedia". Retrieved November 18, 2013. Description page at a stock photo agency representing the Mary Evans Picture Library, where the date is also given as 1909. She visited the researcher in 1908 and 1909; hence, the exact date is uncertain at this time and reported as 1908 elsewhere.
  2. "The Sketch. A journal of art and actuality". HathiTrust.org Digital Library 70: 277. June 8, 1910. Retrieved November 17, 2014.
  3. "Journal of the Society for Psychical Research". HathiTrust.org Digital Library 17: 24, 25. February 1915. Retrieved November 18, 2013.
  4. Carrington, Hereward (1992) [1931]. Story of Psychic Science. Kessinger Publishing. p. 136. ISBN 978-1564592590.
  5. Benjamin B. Wolman. (1977). Handbook of Parapsychology. McFarland & Company. p. 320. ISBN 978-0442295769
  6. Pearson's Magazine. June 1910. C. Arthur Pearson Ltd. p. 615
  7. Buckland, Raymond (2005). The Spirit Book: The Encyclopedia of Clairvoyance, Channeling, and Spirit Communication. Visible Ink Press. ISBN 9780780809222. Feilding's name is often misspelled 'Fielding', as here.
  8. Lewis Spence. (2003). Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology. p. 327. ISBN 978-1161361827
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, September 02, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.