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 1908-9 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. ↑ Hereward Carrington. (1992). Story of Psychic Science. Kessinger Publishing. p. 136. ISBN 978-1564592590 Reprint of the original 1931 edition.
  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. books.google.com (Visible Ink Press). Retrieved November 18, 2013.
  8. ↑ Lewis Spence. (2003). Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology. p. 327. ISBN 978-1161361827