It is amazing how successful the mainstream has been in limiting the public's knowledge of some of the main types of paranormal phenomena. One of the main types of paranormal phenomena is called materialization. Materialization is the alleged appearance of physical objects in a way that defies all explanation. You will read accounts describing such a phenomenon very often in the literature of the paranormal. But mainstream sources will scarcely say a word about such a topic. So when the average person reads an account of paranormal materialization, he will be extremely surprised. It's kind of the situation that would exist if scientists had a taboo against discussing meteors, leading to a state where anyone who discussed meteor sightings might sound like some fantasist.
Phenomena of materialization are discussed in my posts below:
(1) The case of the "Katie King" materialization produced by Florence Cook is discussed here, a case involving many observations made by the world-class scientist William Crookes.
(2) Various observations of materialization are discussed here and here.
(3) The case of very many materializations observed in the presence of the medium Marthe Beraud (referred to in a book as Eva C.) is discussed here.
(4) Materialization reports by the distinguished science Alfred Russel Wallace (co-founder of the theory of evolution) are discussed here.
(5) Materialization reports by the 19th century writer Emily Katherine Bates and the 20th century professor C. J. Ducasse are described here.
One of the best examples of evidence for materialization is the 1922 book "Materialisations-Experimente mit M. Franek-Kluski" by physician Gustave Geley and Albert von Schrenck-Notzing M.D. The title can be translated as "Materialization Experiments with M. Franek-Kluski." The book is in German, but with the help of Google Translate it is fairly easy to get an English translation of any page.
After giving some background information about M. Franek-Kluski (a male medium), on page 19 the book mentions getting permanent physical evidence of a materialization: "Now indeed we obtained casts of materialized hands, a process of an extremely delicate nature since it requires a complete materialization of the organ, that of the momentary creation of a human living hand."
Witnesses said that during materialization a full human-like form may appear. During the materializations reported to occur from Florence Cook, the result was a full human form (referred to as Katie King) that might even appear to walk around. On page 24 the authors give this interesting discussion of how such materialization looks to the eye:
'The process by which materializations come about is well known today, since it is known that the materialized organs and tissues are formed at the expense of a primordial substance, which is formed largely by the medium and also to a lesser extent by those present. The primordial substance appears mainly in two forms: as a solid or liquid substance or in gaseous form. In the experiments with Eva C., the solid substance prevailed. The opposite is the case for the majority of other well-known media. The primordial substance almost always develops in a gaseous form or as a vapor, the solid matter was observed only exceptionally in Franek's case. In general, the phenomena take place as follows: First, a strong smell of ozone is noticed....This announcing symptom was never absent from our experiments. The smell comes on suddenly and goes away as well. One sees (in very dim light) faintly phosphorescent vapors, a kind of fog around the medium hover, especially above his head. This fog gradually rises higher like light smoke. At the same time lights appear, apparently foci of compaction. These were generally numerous, delicate, and fleeting, but sometimes they showed themselves to be stronger and more permanent, and gave the impression of luminous parts of otherwise invisible organs, especially the fingertips and parts of the face. Finally, when materialization was complete, fully formed hands or faces, often self-luminous, were seen, as were sometimes the materialized tissues. As is well known, M. le Cour compared the formation of these structures, materialized from a phosphorescent mist, with the formation of the celestial bodies from mists."
On page 20 the authors note methods they took to rule out any trickery such as perhaps someone pulling out of his clothing some object that might be mistaken for a materialized form. We read this:
"The medium sat on a simple chair in front of the black cabinet, the curtains of which generally remain open behind him... Actually, a cabinet seemed superfluous to Franek. The control under these circumstances was very simplified, for it essentially consisted in the holding of Franek's two hands by two experimenters, one on his right and the other on his left. The contact between the experimenters and the medium was also secured by the knees and legs in such a way that Franek could not make any movement without being noticed."
We read on the next page and the page after it of some facts making it hard to imagine the medium smuggling in some foot-sized or hand-sized items to be used in trickery:
"We never undressed the medium. The reader will understand that such a means of control was not appropriate for Franek. However, several times before and after the sessions, unexpected medical examinations of the medium gave me the opportunity to examine his body closely without ever seeing anything suspicious... Franek was in the habit, for reasons of convenience, of emptying his pockets completely before meetings. The clothes hung on his body without showing a bulge....The best sleight of hand would have felt powerless if he had been put in the same position that Franek found himself in during the sessions: in an unprepared room to which he had not been permitted access in the meantime, without the possibility of assistance and both hands immobile!"
Under such conditions, the witnesses reported observing gradual materializations of what looked like human limbs, accompanied by dramatic mysterious luminous phenomena such as reported for the December 27 session: "nebulae, phosphorescent haze, bright luminous points, large luminous spheres, etc."
On page 36 the authors discuss a method they used to obtain permanent physical evidence of materialization, using paraffin (a type of hot wax):
"The paraffin casts are obtained as follows: A bucket containing molten paraffin floating on warm water is placed next to the medium during the session. The materialized 'being' is now asked to dip a hand, foot, or even part of its face into the paraffin one or more times. A mold is then immediately formed on the limb, which hardens immediately in the air or when immersed in cold water standing nearby. The organ in question then dematerializes and leaves the glove to the experimenter. Later you can pour plaster of paris into the glove and then get rid of the paraffin by placing the mold in boiling water. What remains is a plaster cast showing all the details of the materialization. We used this method but did not use the cold water to set the molds for simplicity and to ensure control."
On page 58 we have this remarkable account, which may be of great interest to anyone getting mysterious orbs in photos:
"I asked him if he could see my sister in the 'Astral' who has been dead for 3 years. Answer: Yes. At the same moment I felt a woman's hand gently placed on my forehead, making the sign of the cross there and encircling it with a circle, as my sister always did when she was alive when she said goodbye to me. I recognized her hand, dimly lit, against the edge of the fluorescent screen that lay on the table in front of me. It moved several times before my eyes, and more and more I thought I recognized it. She squeezed my hand, patted my face. I can no longer doubt that it is her hand that I feel. A short time later a glowing orb forms in front of my face and moves away; then she comes very close to my face and to my great astonishment and also to my great joy I notice the fully recognizable facial features of my sister, who smiles at me as in real life. However, she seems much younger to me, about the way she was when she was 25. She died at the age of 54. The upper part of the head is surrounded by cloudy veils."
Following pages 72 we have some photos of the plaster molds that were made using the technique described above. They include the photos below (on the pages here, here, here and here):
Early in the book Guldenstubbe makes this claim:
"More than fifty people were able to observe the astonishing phenomenon of the direct writing of invisible geniuses, giving their paper themselves.
Here are the names of some eyewitnesses, most of whom witnessed several experiments:
M. Ravené, senior, owner of a fine picture gallery in Berlin;
Prince Leonide Galitzin, of Moscow;
Mr. Prince S. Metschersky;
Dr. Georgii, disciple of the illustrious Ling, now in London;
Colonel Toutcheff;
Dr. Bowron, in Paris;
M. Kiorboë, distinguished artist, in Paris, residing rue du Chemin de Versailles, 43;
Colonel de Kollmann, in Paris;
M. le Baron de Voigts-Rhetz;
Mr. Baron Borys d'Uexkull."
The first seven chapters of the book can be skipped over, since they do not deal with Guildenstubbe's observations. Finally in Chapter VIIII the Baron starts discussing his own observations. The author makes a specific claim about when such marvels started:
"No. 1. Figure traced on August 13, 1856, an ever-memorable day, when the author observed, for the first time, the marvelous phenomenon of the direct writing of spirits. This figure was drawn by a spirit in the author's dwelling, 74, rue du Chemin de Versailles on the Champs-Elysées, at three o'clock in the afternoon."
On the next page the Baron claims to have got on various dates writing "in lapidary Latin," "in lapidary ancient Greek," and also hieroglyphs. On page 80 the Baron claims to have got on various dates writing in English, writing in Estonian, and writing in Greek and Latin. Many similar pages follow. They keep describing various "spirit writings" which are numbered. At the back of the book, we see facsimiles of these writings.
In an article at Encyclopedia.com we read this about Guildenstubbe:
"In August 1856 he began to experiment in the phenomenon of direct writing without the intervention of a medium. He placed paper and pencil in a small locked box, carrying the key with him. After 13 days he opened the box and found some written characters on the paper; the experiment was repeated successfully ten times on the same day."
Much later on page 210 the Baron declares this in a triumphal fashion: "It seems that our task is fulfilled; we have proved in the first part of this volume, the reality of the supernatural world of the Spirits, by the experimental way, that is to say by a great number of repeated experiences of the direct writing of the Spirits, in the presence of fifty witnesses of sound mind and body."
You would think that if the Baron had such experiences, that no one in his family would claim to have seen something as astonishing. But according to the account below, one of the Baron's daughters claimed to have seen something even more astonishing: the bilocation of Emilie Sagee.
On page 40-43 of his book Death and Its Mystery by the astronomer Camille Flammarion, we have a detailed account of this case. According to Flammarion's account, 13 girls (one of them the Baron's second daughter) saw an apparition of a school teacher named Emilie Sagee, right next to her physical form, so that there was "one beside the other." "They were exactly alike, and going through the same movements," according to Flammarion, who states, "All the young girls, without exception, had seen the second form, and agreed perfectly in their description of the phenomenon." Later, according to his account, 42 pupils saw an apparition of Sagee in a school at the same time Sagee was also observed picking flowers in a garden -- as if there were two copies of Emilie Sagee. According to the pupils, the apparition "gradually vanished." Flammarion reports, "The forty-two pupils described the phenomenon in the same way." Such an observation may possibly be evidence for the idea that each of us has an "astral body" different from our physical body.
