Stanisława Tomczyk

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

Tomczyk was the subject of experiments in 1908-9 at Wisła, in southern Poland, by the psychologist, Julian Ochorowicz. Reportedly Tomczyk was regularly hypnotized by him for therapeutic purposes and was 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 could produce movements without contact, stop the movement of a clock in a glass case, and influence a roulette to the extent that the numbers chosen by Tomczyk turned up more often than justified by chance. Dr. Ochorowicz concluded that the physical movements were performed by rigid "rays" projecting from Tomczyk's fingers.

Tomczyk considered the prankish "Little Stasia," at first, to be her double, as did Ochorowicz — until he obtained Stasia's photograph, as announced by her, in an empty room, with all light excluded, while Tomczyk was with him in an adjoining room.

In 1909 a séance with Tomczyk was witnessed in Paris by Professor Theodore Flournoy. It left him "in no doubt as to the reality of simple telekinesis." At a later series of séances in Geneva attended by Flournoy, Professors Clarapede, Cellerier, Batelli and Flournoy's son, the sitters' expectations were not fulfilled.

In 1910 Tomczyk was investigated by scientists at a physical laboratory in Warsaw, Poland, and reportedly produced remarkable physical phenomena under strict test conditions. Experiments and observations were subsequently published by Baron Schrenck Notzing and a Professor Richet.