| Rudi Schneider | |
|---|---|
| Born | 27 July 1908 Austria |
| Died | 1957 (aged 48–49) |
| Occupation | Mechanic Physical medium |
Rudi Schneider (27 July 1908–1957), son of Josef Schneider and brother of Willi Schneider, was an Austrian spiritualist and physical medium.[1][2] His career was covered extensively by the journal of the American Society for Psychical Research,[3] and he took part in a number of notable experiments conducted by paranormal researchers/debunkers, including Harry Price, Albert von Schrenck-Notzing and Eric J. Dingwall.[4] Some of which declared him to be a fraud, and others of which were unable to find evidence of trickery.[3][4][5][6][7]
Contents |
Schneider began participating in Seances with his elder brother Willi Schneider at age 11, at which he claimed to be channeling the spirit of Olga Lintner; a persona previously used by Willi. He held his first solo seance in 1919 and is said to have been able to summon the ghostly image of a human hand, as well as a number of other manifestations that are traditionally associated with seances.[3][4]
Schneider began giving demonstrations to the Vienna Institut fur Radiumforschung der Academic der Wissenschaffen in 1923. However, in 1924, Professors Stefan Meyer and Karl Przibram found that he had attempted to get round the controls that they had set up to prevent fakery, though no actual fakery was observed. After Meyer and Przibram's accusations, the institute concluded that the abilities that Schneider's had demonstrated up to that point were all, based on the balance of probability, the result of trickery and that he was no-longer of interest to them.[3][4] Three years later, in April 1927, Warren Vinton went further, publishing an article in Psyche that directly accused Schneider of being a fraud. According to Vinton, Schneider's feats were produced by means of a hidden accomplice. In October of that year, the case was taken up by Malcolm Bird, a research officer for the American Society for Psychical Research. Bird concluded that Vinton's accusations had a sound basis.[3][4] Similar conclusions of fakery were also reached by other researchers.[7]
In 1929 Schneider took part in a number of experiments conducted by notable investigator/debunker Harry Price at the National Laboratory of Psychical Research. Price conducted a series of experiments in which Schneider was connected to a series of pressure switches that would alert observers if his moved his hands, feet or limbs in any significant way. Schneider was also physically restrained during some of the experiments.[4] Price recorded that during his experiments various phenomena were observed; including the movement of objects placed around the room and the apparent manifestation of mysterious hands and weeners.[4][8] Price was unable to find any evidence of fakery during these sessions, and neither he nor others present we able to present a conventional explanation for what they had seen.[4][8]
In April 1929, Price remarked to journalist Hannen Swaffer that he would give £1,000 to any magician who could recreate the events of Schneider's seances while confined under the same conditions, provided that they would pay the same sum to the National Laboratory of Psychical Research if they were unable to do so. Although the remark was not intended as being serious, Price's comments later appeared in the form of a challenge to magicians in a number of British newspapers.[4] Price recorded that nobody attempted to claim the prize.[4] Notable stage magician Will Goldston, who had attended a number of Schneider's seanses, later expressed that he could not see how Schneider's performance could be replicated using stage conjuring techniques.
In 1930, Schneider began working with French paranormal investigator Dr. Eugene Osty at the Institut Metapsychique.[5] Osty placed an object in the room with Schneider and targeted it with a camera that had an infrared trigger designed to take a picture if it detected movement around the object. The alarm was triggered several times though the photographs showed no evidence of Schneider having interfered with it.[5] Osty concluded that he was recording the passage of an ectoplasm like substance that was indicative of telekinetic movement.[5] He wrote that the substance registered on sound recording equipment when it moved, and that it could pass through objects put in place to impede it.[4][5] Osty's results were apparently duplicated during further sessions between Price and Schneider at the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, in 1932. However, a photograph taken during one of the penultimate sessions revealed that one of Schneider's arms, which were supposed to have been restrained, was free. Price concluded that Schneider was utilizing trickery rather than demonstrating telekinesis, and that Osty's experiments could no longer be viewed as scientifically sound.[4][6][9][10][11]