Eusapia Palladino
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Eusapia Palladino (alternate spelling: Eusapia Paladino; 1854-1918) was a famous Spiritualist medium from the slums of Naples.
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[edit] Life and work
In her early life, Eusapia Palladino was married to a traveling conjuror. (Rawciffe, 1952, page 321.)
In Italy, France, Germany, Warsaw, Poland, and St. Petersburg, Russia, Palladino was noted to display extraordinary powers in the dark: levitating and elongating herself, bringing forth flowers, physically materializing the dead, producing spirit hands and faces, levitating tables, playing musical instruments under the table without contact, directly communicating with the dead through her spirit guide, John King, etc. Many Europeans regarded Palladino as a genuine Spiritualist medium, claiming that she did not employ the standard deceptions used by fraudulent mediums.
Palladino dictated the lighting and "controls" that were to be used in her mediumistic seances. The fingertips of her right hand rested upon the back of the hand of one "controller." Her left hand was grasped at the wrist by a second controller seated on her other side. Her feet rested on top of the feet of her controllers, sometimes beneath them. A controller's foot was in contact with only the toe of her shoe. Occasionally her ankles were tied to the legs of her chair, but they were given a play of four inches. During the sitting in semi-darkness, her ankles would become free. Generally she was unbound. In one instance, a contoller cut her free so that phenomena might occur.
Palladino refused to allow someone beneath the table to hold her feet with his hands. She refused to levitate the table from a standing position. The table being rectangular, she must sit only at a short side. No wall of any kind could stand between Palladino and the table. The weight of the table was seventeen pounds. The table levitated to a height of 3 to 10 inches for a maximum of 2-3 seconds. When the table levitated, there was also movement from Palladino's skirt. (Podmore, 1910.)
In France, the United Kingdom and the USA, she had been caught using tricks. Palladino was expert at freeing a hand or foot to produce phenomena. She chose to sit at the short side of the table so that her controllers on each side must sit closer together, making it easier to deceive them. Her shoes were gimmicked and unbuttoned in such a way that she could remove her feet without disturbing a "control." Her levitation of a table began by freeing one foot, rocking the table, and then slipping her toe under one leg. Since she sat at the narrow end of the table, this was made possible. She lifted the table by rocking back on the heel of this foot. A total levitation was produced by now switching the support of the table to her knees. She made light spirit rappings by pressing the tips of her fingers on the table top and moving them. Louder raps were made by striking a leg of the table with a free foot. She could do these tricks in full light and not be caught. All the sitters at the table viewed her from different angles. Where one might catch her trick, another could not. This confusion greatly aided her. (W.S. Davis, 1910.)
A photograph, taken in the dark, of a small stool behind her, that moved and levitated, revealed the stool to be sitting on Palladino's head. After she saw this photo, the stool remained, immobile, on the floor. A plaster impression taken of a spirit hand matched Palladino's hand. She was caught using a hair to perform "controlled" scientific experiments. In the dim light, her fist, wrapped in a handkerchief, became a materialized spirit. (Podmore 1910)
When Palladino's rules for control were not met, nothing happened. When controls were loosened, phenomena occurred. Palladino spoke only in Italian. Her spirit guide, John King, could only do the same. Palladino even admitted to a New York reporter that she used tricks. She and her supporters said she had to. Her powers did not always work, but something was expected.
As time passed, Palladino's amazing powers began to diminish. Her supporters claimed that it was because she was growing older, not because of the tighter controls demanded by conjurors (magicians) and the scientific community, or the many times she was eventually caught cheating. Throughout the history of Spiritualism, master conjurors have rarely been welcomed or heeded.
[edit] See also
- Pharaoh (novel partly inspired by Palladino's seances).
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- Occult and Supernatural Phenomena, Chapter Twenty-One, Eusapia Palladino by D.H. Radcliffe, Dover Publications, reprint of Psychology of the Occult, Derricke Ridgway Publishing co., 1952
- Mediums of the Ninteeth Century, Volume Two, Book Four, Chapter One, Some Foreign Investigations by Frank Podmore, University Books, 1963, reprint of 1902 edition
- The Newer Spiritism, Book One, Chapters Three and Four, Eusapia Palladino, Eusapia Palladino and the S.P.R by Frank Podmore, Arno Press, 1975, reprint of 1910 edition
- The New York Exposure of Eusapia Palladino by W. S. Davis, Journal of the American Society of Psychical Research, Pages 401-424, Vol 4, No. 8, Aug 1910, gives excellently detailed information from conjurors who were prepared for her skills and watched her very closely. At one point, the total levitation of the table in full light, everyone even applauds. The gesture seemed "to go over her head".
[edit] Further reading
- Revelations of a Spirit Medium, by Harry Price and Eric J. Dingwall, Arno Press, 1975, a reprint of the 1891 edition by Charles F. Pidgeon. This extremely rare, often overlooked and forgotten, book gives an "insider's knowledge" of 19th-century deceptions.
- Wish and Wisdom: Episodes in the Vagaries of Belief by Joseph Jastrow, D. Appleton-Century Co., 1935. Chapter 12, Paladino's Table contains a photo of a mysterious spirit face in plaster compared to the face of Paladino. The similarity is striking.
- The Psychology of Conviction: A Study of Beliefs and Attitudes by Joseph Jastrow, Houghton Mifflin Co.,1918, Chapter 4, "The Case of Paladino."
