The Grumpy Economist: Teleplastics Materialization: Investigations, Photos, Riddles

Presented in this article are excerpts and photos from "Dr. V. Gustave Geley (Paris) on his Observations with Eva C., 1918," a concluding chapter of Phenomena of Materialisation (1920) by Baron Albert Von Schrenck Notzing. The chapter presents information about the research and findings of these two scientists in relation to materialization phenomena or what is translated in English as Geley's lecture topic of January 28, 1918: "Supra-normal Physiology and the Phenomena of Ideoplastics" presented at the Collége de France for members of the Psychological Institute.

In his [Geley's] view, our ignorance concerning this subject is due to our lack of knowledge of the original and essential laws of nature. Even normal physiology is full of riddles. Thus the whole mechanism of life, and the activity of the so-called functions, are still far from being clear. The constitution of the organism itself and everything connected with it—birth, growth, embryonic and post-embryonic development, the maintenance of the personality during life, and organic restitutions (in some animals this extends to the regeneration of limbs, and even of entrails)—are as many insoluble riddles, if we accept the scientific view of individuality, and regard these forms of activity as a complex of single elements and their functions. Why a complex of cells, by the fact of the association of its elements, should have this vital and individualising force, is an insoluble mystery. Equally unexplained is the repetition, in embryonic life, of stages traversed in the previous development of the race, of the series of metamorphoses which finally lead to complete forms, and therefore tend towards a definite end.

Among the mysterious processes of this kind we have, among certain insects, the stage of the chrysalis.

Dr Geley studied materialisations in several mediums, but in his lecture he only refers to those observed in the case of Eva C. These results were obtained under control conditions, which were completely satisfactory. They are less valuable for their transcendental character than for the accurate indications which they offer concerning the genesis and primordial character of materialisation. Geley continues as follows:

"Eva C. was educated and prepared for the investigations by Mme. Bisson. In the works published by this lady and Dr von Schrenck Notzing we find numerous particulars concerning the nature of materialization.

"While Mme. Bisson's book represents a conscientious collection of facts, Dr von Schrenck Notzing's full treatise represents a scientific and complete investigation of the phenomena obtained with Eva C., carried out with great clearness and accuracy, and with an artistic understanding. It also contains experiments with another medium, whose gifts were quite similar to those of Eva C. Now I had the privilege of continuing these investigations, in conjunction with Mme. Bisson, for twelve months, with two sittings per week, which took place partly in her flat and partly (for three months) in my own laboratory."

Dr Geley could see and touch the materialisations in question. The testimony of his senses was corroborated by registering instruments and by photography. He often followed the phenomenon from its origin to its end, for it formed and disappeared before his eyes.

"However unexpected," he continues, "however strange and impossible such manifestations seem to be, I have no longer the right to express any doubt as to their reality. Before I continue, I must testify that the medium, in my presence, always gave proofs of absolute honesty during the experiments. The intelligent resignation with which she submits to all conditions, and undergoes the really painful tests of her mediumship, deserves sincere recognition and gratitude on the part of all men of science worthy of the name."

Eva is brought, in the hypnotic state, to the stage in which she forgets her normal personality. Then she is made to sit in a black cabinet. The use of a black cabinet for materialisation has no other object than to withdraw the sleeping medium from the disturbing influences of her surroundings, and especially from the action of light. It thus becomes possible to maintain sufficient illumination in the séance room to observe the phenomena clearly.

The phenomena set in after various intervals, sometimes very soon, sometimes very slowly, after an hour or more.

She sighs and groans, and recalls the condition of a woman in the act of parturition. These plaintive expressions attain a paroxysm at the moment when the phenomenon appears; they diminish, or cease, as soon as the materialisation is finished.

The substance occurs in various forms, sometimes as ductile dough, sometimes as a true protoplastic mass, sometimes in the form of numerous thin threads, sometimes as cords of various thicknesses, or in the form of narrow rigid rays, or as a broad band, as a membrane, as a fabric, or as a woven material, with indefinite and irregular outlines. The most curious appearance is presented by a widely expanded membrane, provided with fringes and rucks, and resembling in appearance a net.

The amount of externalised matter varies within wide limits. In some cases it completely envelops the medium as in a mantle. It may have three different colours—white, black, or grey. The white colour is the most frequent, perhaps, because it is the most easily observed. Sometimes the three colours appear simultaneously. The visibility of the substance varies a great deal, and it may slowly increase or decrease in succession. To the touch it gives various impressions. Sometimes it is moist and cold, sometimes viscous and sticky, more rarely dry and hard. The impression created depends on the shape. It appears soft and slightly elastic when it is expanded, and hard, knotty, or fibrous when it forms cords. Sometimes it produces the feeling of a spider's web passing over the observer's hand. The threads are both rigid and elastic.

The substance is mobile.

Sometimes the movements are sudden and quick. The substance appears and disappears like lightning and is extraordinarily sensitive. Its sensitiveness is mixed up with the hyperaesthetic sensibility of the medium.

When the touch is moderately strong, or prolonged, the medium complains of a pain comparable with the pain produced by a shock to the normal body.

The substance is sensitive to light. Strong light, especially when sudden and unexpected, produces a painful disturbance in the subject. Yet nothing is more variable than the action of light. In some cases, the phenomena withstand full daylight. The magnesium flash-light acts like a sudden blow on the medium, but it is withstood, and flash-light photographs can be taken.

Dr Geley then proceeds to describe the structures formed. They are very various. Sometimes they are indefinite, non-organised structures, but most frequently they are organic formations, varying in their composition and completion. When the materialised organ is complete, it has the perfect appearance, and all the biological qualities, of a living organ. Fingers have been seen which were wonderfully modelled, including the nails; also complete hands, with bones and joints; a living brain-case, in which Dr Geley could touch the bones under thick hair. He also saw well-developed living human faces.

When Eva took away her hand the substance was pulled out, formed strong cords, and expanded, forming fringes resembling network. Finally, he saw in this network, in succession, the formation of some fingers, a hand, or a completely organised face. Sometimes such an organisation took place out of substance emerging from the mouth.

Geley discusses the completion of the unit of the organic substance, which applies to supra-normal as well as to normal physiology. It appears to Geley to be the most important point in the biological problem. He also assumes a dynamism which organises, centralises, and directs.

Various faces show, in their size and in their physiognomy, great analogies, as well as differences, from one sitting to the next, or even in the same sitting.

The usual precautions were carried out in Dr Geley's laboratory in a very strict manner. Eva C. was undressed on entering the séance room in the presence of Dr Geley and Mme. Bisson. She then put on the séance costume, which was sewn up the back. Her hair and mouth were examined by Dr Geley, or one of his collaborators. Eva C. then took her seat on the wicker chair in the cabinet.

Geley concludes his lecture with the words, "I do not say, 'there was no fraud during these sittings'; but I say, 'the possibility of fraud was altogether excluded.' I cannot repeat it too often: the materialisations were always produced before my eyes, and I observed the whole genesis and development with my own eyes."

With Dr Gcley's permission, the author here reproduces ten photographs (Figs. 201-210) [see the previous article with many photos from these sittings including a face with a scarf-like veil "in process of dematerialisation"] from his collection, which show the complete agreement of the author's results with these further results, obtained five years afterwards, in different circumstances, and under probably even more rigid conditions. The creative and formative power is the same in both series of observations, and exhibits the peculiarities characteristic of the productions of Eva C. There are expressive female faces, draped with veil-like fabrics, and fragments of teleplasm. The cleverly arranged decorative elements combine to form an artistic total impression intended for the observer. The faults of proportion in the faces, the indentations, the sketchiness and incompletion of the execution; in short, the technique of production, has remained the same in every point as in the case of the author's results. Rents, breaks and cracks, such as have been alleged by critics as evidence of fraud, are also present in Geley's pictures . . .

Similar experiences are reported by Madeleine Lacombe (Ann. Sc. Psychiques, 1918 and 1919) in her letters to Camille Flammarion in connection with the private medium, the Countess Castelvicz, in Lisbon. Here again the phantoms began as luminous, transparent, and subsequently condensing clouds. They were only partly materialised at first, and, in addition to formations true to life, they show also mask-like and sketchy types. The phantom of a nun (Fig. 211) is flat, in spite of the very vivid expression of the face.
Fig. 211. Phantom of a Nun, taken by Mme. Lacombe.

The face is veiled, and the upper body is draped with a white fabric. It is remarkable, in this figure that the whole right side, including the right ear, shoulder, and arm, is entirely wanting, as if this part had been torn off a life-sized portrait. The margin of the phantom on the right side shows an irregular structure, tears, fragments, and threads, somewhat resembling a torn piece of paper. This recalls the structure of the phantom (Fig. 157), which shows a pencilled character in the design of the mantle, and also fibres and threads in its outer margin.
Fig. 157. Photograph by Mme. Bisson, May 19, 1913.

In spite of the entirely independent genesis of these two phantoms, the creative agency seems to have worked according to the same scheme. Similar analogies are obtained in pictures of mediums of widely different nationalities. Thus, the author observed in the case of a boy of sixteen, the son of a workman living near the frontier of Upper Bavaria, in a sitting on 16th October 1919, that the substance emerged from his mouth in the form of a self-luminous cloudy ribbon, and this ribbon expanded near the shoulders and enveloped the upper body in a white mass. With the same medium, the representative of the author, who was himself prevented from attending the séance, observed, on the 8th November 1919, at a distance of about 18 inches, a sort of thick fog rising behind the medium in the cabinet. The fog descended on to the boy's head, and finally extended, like a cloth, over his whole face. After some six or eight seconds the apparition changed itself altogether and disappeared at the medium's neck. Later, the author also observed the genesis of a finely-drawn left female hand out of a strongly luminous white, cloud-like substance, emanating from the same medium. These analogies, with previous observations, might be carried much further, from the author's own experience, but for the present he wishes to confine himself to a hasty glance at the photographic material which has been placed in his hands during the last few years by various private circles. Stricter conditions than those covering the sittings with Eva C. could hardly be expected, but their absence need not reduce the accuracy of the observations, in spite of the possibility of errors, since the persons furnishing the accounts are reliable investigators, whose only interest is the service of truth.

The next four photographs are furnished by the same person [a Galician Mining Director], and concern a Polish girl in the service of a land agent (Figs. 215, 216, 217 and 218).
Fig. 215. Teleplasm at the neck of a Galician girl.
Fig. 216. Teleplasm emerging from the mouth of the same medium.
Fig. 217. [Another photo.]
Fig. 218. Teleplasm covering the face of the Galicean medium.

In this case the substance lies on the face like a grey rag, or projects irregularly from the neck opening, or the mouth. Here again we have striking analogies with Eva C. and Stanislava P. (Figs. 32, 158, 170, 172 and 176).
Fig. 31. Flashlight photograph by the author, June 7, 1911.
Fig. 32. Lateral view (photographed in the cabinet) of the phenomenon shown in Fig. 31.
Fig. 158. Mme. Bisson's flashlight photograph, May 31, 1913.
Fig. 170. Author's flashlight photographs, January 25, 1913.
Fig. 172. Author's flashlight photographs of February 15, 1913. [Compare with Fig. 27 Eva C. materialization]
Fig. 176. Enlargement of Fig. 174. (Author's flashlight photograph, July 1, 1913.)

The next photograph (Fig. 219) shows a large mass of flocculent substance, behind which the head of a phantom is visible.
Fig. 219. Phantom head from the sitting of Mme. Lacombe. Lower part of the face as well as the neck, covered with teleplastic matter.

Some stereoscopic pictures of the sittings with Eva C. show the same kind of material, resembling torn cotton, as does an additional photograph of Stanislava P. (Fig. 220), taken by Mr. L., of Warsaw.
Fig. 220. Teleplastic matter in form of a veil on the breast of the Polish medium, Stanislava P. (Warsaw photograph.)

On the two photographs obtained by the author on 26th October 1919 we see the sixteen-year-old Willy S. opening the curtain with one hand and holding a planchette in the other (Fig. 221), supported by a drawing-board on the boy's knees.
Fig. 221. Teleplastic fabric on the right shoulder and arm of the 16 year old Austrian medium, Willy S. (Author's photograph.)

A large mass of white substance covers the right shoulder and upper arm, like a white napkin, and is fastened at the neck. The second picture (Fig. 222) shows a white substance on the head covered with large solid strips of a dark colour.
Fig. 222. Grey and white fragments on the head of Willy S. (Author's photograph.)

The third and fourth photographs (Figs. 223 and 224) show various formations of teleplasm . . .
Fig. 223. Teleplastic material on the chest of Willy S. (Author's photograph.)
Fig. 224. Primitive hand at ear of Willy S., with teleplastic matter on right shoulder. (Photograph of author's collaborator K.)

It is obvious that the teleplastic appearances follow a distinct (biological?) sequence, which covers not only the simpler formations as illustrated, but also more complicated organic and organised bodies, fragments, types, and diagrammatic imitations. However wonderful these phenomena may appear to be, they depend upon a biological mechanism hitherto unexplored; upon a system of forces working with a certain, almost monotonous, uniformity, which is again clearly connected with the most elementary facts of the problem of life.

These excerpts are from the part of Phenomena of Materialisation that presents supplementary work and subsidiary material pertaining to Dr. Von Schrenck Notzing's research and experiences following the publication in 1914 of the first German edition of the book, Materialisations Phaenomene. In the part of the book that was initially published, the reader may compare the photos documenting the materialization (or 'physical') mediumship of Eva. C. (in the following photos seen wearing a black veil with a mesh one-twelfth of an inch wide) with those of Stanislava P. One correlation is shown in Fig. 152-155 and Fig. 171.

Eva's mouth is wide open. A part of the veil is slightly drawn into the mouth. We see distinctly that, over the whole under lip, a broad, striped, and fibrous mass, recalling a leafy vegetable structure or tangled felt, hangs out of the medium's mouth, emerging, apparently, between the tip of the tongue and the lip. At the end of this tangle of fibres there hangs a plastically developed finger of natural size, cut off at the middle of the first joint. The second joint is grasped by the fibrous cord, and it is only connected with the rest of the mass of this cord.

Schrenck Notzing wrote about Fig. 171 of Stanislava P.:

There is a broad, thick, rough, and consistent white strand, resembling an arm, the fundamental structure of which, as shown by the enlargement, appears to be granular. No pattern of any organic or technical fabric is to be seen. The exterior surface is partly striped, irregular, and rough. At the end of the mass, which broadens below, there are three quite coarsely designed fingers, one of which, the index, is stretched, while the two others are bent.

Here, then, we find another parallel to the performances of Eva C. The product developed from the mouth, which is not veil-like, shows in both cases a tendency to form shapes such as hands and fingers.