He knew all the tricks which self-styled mediums used to lead séance audiences up the garden path.
Eva C was the doctor's subject for observation. In 1909 séances were held in the Paris home of the dramatist Alexander Bisson (1848-1912). Several people participated, including doctors, as they did later in Munich and London. Eva C's clothing, as well as the lighting, door locks, composition of the walls etc., were constantly checked. Before they began Eva C showed herself in the nude. Madame Bisson gave her a gynaecological examination; her perineum and anus were explored. 'Before each séance the author examined the hair, nostrils (air was blown through them), the external ear channels, the oral orifices, teeth, armpits, feet, the state of hands and fingernails ... the objection that the medium could have small rolled up pellets somewhere on her person seems to be unfounded.'
After these extremely detailed searches the wretched Eva C was sewn into the dark robe that she had never touched before. 'If one takes into account the fact that the medium had nothing white on her body (neither blouse nor handkerchief) the grey and white materializations against the black background are convincing.'
Schrenck-Notzing made use of a technical innovation of the time: flash photographs with pulverized magnesium. These sometimes nauseating photographs are shown as proof in his book Materializations- Phanonemene [6].
What actually happened at these mediumistic séances?
Some examples from the records:
17th May, 1910 ... To the accompaniment of deep respirations and convulsive muscular efforts a large, streaked, flocculent substance formed directly before my eyes and seemed to flow from her mouth, getting bigger and thicker. The substance may have been five to eight centimeters wide and forty to fifty centimeters long. I moved my head about fifteen to twenty centimeters nearer to observe more clearly and saw this sluggish moving mass, like a heap of the finest striped grey veils, slowly sink down. It followed every movement that the medium made with her head and yet-seemed to separate itself from it .... To our astonishment we could no longer make out any facial features, for the whole head was enveloped in a big veil-like cloud from which light-coloured tatters and strips hung down over her breasts and down to the knee. This image vanished before our eyes, as when a cloud dissolves, and her face was clearly visible again .... 1st June, 1910 ... During the next apparition the light coloured materialization first came out of her lap and right hip .... Her mouth had no connection with the substance; I convinced myself of this by putting my finger in her mouth ....
2nd September, 1910 ... Madame Bisson held a seance during which Eva C wore nothing but a nightdress .... Madame Bisson
got the hypnotized medium to undo it and I had my first opportunity to observe teleplasma emanation from a naked body ... it mainly flowed from the bodily orifices, mouth, nipples and genitals ... the emanation had a smoke-like character and formed clouds from which veillike material substances and all kinds of shapes resembling human limbs arose ....
Professor Charles Richet (1850-1935) was present at the séance of 5th November, 1910. This French doctor recognized the protective action of the blood in infected experimental animals and discovered anaphylaxy. (*) He won the Nobel Prize for this in 1913.
Today the stance began at once with the phenomena .... In the place where the mass of grey matter had thickened most, we saw a white gleam shot with pink, looking like white chiffon or veiling.
At nearly all the Paris séances doctors from every conceivable faculty were present, and also scientists such as Professor Fontenay, who checked the physical data. During the séances in Munich Dr. von Schrenck invited lecturers at the University such as Dr. Specht and Dr. Kafka.
During the years Eva C produced outlines of figures and clearly recognizable photographically recorded faces. Sceptical Paris and London doctors examined the medium thoroughly, even looking under her skin. They also checked her immediate surroundings, but the phenomena were repeated no matter what the conditions.
Eva C came from a comfortable home; she had no money problems. She never accepted payment and appeared willingly before all kinds of doctors, and even journalists. On the list of séances figure such names as Professor Eck Dumoir van Twick, Society for Psychic Studies.
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[*] Hypersensitivity of the body to foreign protein which is not accepted through the intestinal canal.
---- The Hague; Professor Courtier, Director of the Physiological Laboratory of the Sorbonne and even Sir William Crookes (1332-1919), Member of the English Society for Psychic Research. Crookes discovered thallium in 1861 and invented the radiometer in 1874. The British Committee invited Eva C to its house at 20 Hanover Square, London. Seances were held there under the strictest scientific conditions.