Book: Experiments in Movement from afar

Chapter: Further records of scientifically interested participants

Page 135: “When I review my observations with Willi Sch., I come to the overall conclusion that in this medium there were real telekineses as well as real materializations in rich abundance. For example, the telekineses were moving and lifting smaller and larger objects such as luminous rings, a table bell, a handkerchief, a tambourine, straw tables, a paper basket, an oak table, a heavy piano stool, etc., and also, a game box, at the command of the participants. The telekinesis was ideally located at a distance of 1 m to 1 m 20 cm from the medium, but also greater and smaller distances were observed. The phenomena showed on the one hand a marked elegance and precision in the execution of movements, and on the other hand, sometimes a very significant force. The time from the start of trance until the occurrence of the first phenomenon was very different, sometimes up to 3 hours, but then the phenomena followed continuously in rapid succession when the inhibitions apparently often existing, were overcome. The materializations consisted of the appearance of more or less well-defined hands near the red light lamp, then again in the sudden appearance of more amorphous, flat, grey structures, finally in the formation of the shadow of larger or smaller hands, paws or blunt formations on a light plate. I have also noticed contact by stumps or hands in several sessions. Of great interest, however, was the observation that – apparently regularly – the telekinetic process was preceded by a materialization process. The manner in which the individual objects were passed through the air was by the existence of a material moving organ – we obtained the proof of this assumption by direct observation. Firstly, in the experiments using the gauze cage, approximately 75 cm above the ground to the right of the medium in the direct path of the objects to be moved, an expansion of the gauze netting was found as if a narrow elastic, rod-like body had been pressed through the wall. Moreover, in the experiment with the raising of the handkerchief, it was clearly felt as if the cloth had been laid or held by a movable hand-like limb. At the lifting of the little table one could see how a bright ring was lifted off the table, then apparently pushed over the end of a limb-like stump, which then pushed itself under the table and raised it up. Then I was able to observe how, in the light of the red light lamp, a dark green small hand-like structure lifted a light ring at the edge of the table, and in the last sessions, in the light of the lamp, various telekinetic phenomena were perfectly produced by a movable limb covered with the cloth by lifting and ringing the bell, picking up and putting down of the game box, etc. This proves that, in our case, telekinesis and materialization were the same, that is, only different forms of expression for the same basic parapsychological process – a brilliant confirmation of the earlier claims of Schrenck-Notzing, Ochorowicz, Crawford. 

If the actual mystery of telekinesis and materialization is not yet solved in this way, the observations in the excellently conducted experimental sessions with Willi Sch. allow us to create a hypothetical picture of the whole process.  Personally, I consider the process to be as follows. The entranced medium emanates from the right side of an invisible, extremely sensitive and light-sensitive material, a “fluidal efflorescence” which gradually deposits outside the body of the medium, apparently with a preference for the ground. From this fluidal substance are now formed teleplastic end members, which suddenly appear and disappear just as quickly, either for the execution of telekinesis or for visualization, under the psychical control of the medium, subject to the suggestive influences of the circle. In some cases, a slow formation of self-illuminating portions of the efflorescence can also be observed. This “ideoplastic” process is a matter of fact. Its real nature is still obscure to us, but the sessions under discussion gave us new insights into the triggering and inhibiting conditions under which the processes take place. Further investigations, in pursuit of the tried-and-tested approach, must be reserved for throwing further light on the darkness of the processes in question.“

 (Source: Experiments in Movement from afar (telekinesis) – In the psychological institute of the Munich University and in the author’s laboratory, Author: Dr. med. Albert Baron von Schrenck-Notzing, Publisher: Union Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft Stuttgart / Berlin / Leipzig, 1924)