PALLADINO, EUSAPIA [1854–1918]
Famous, but controversial physical medium who was investigated by a large number of European, English and American scientists and researchers. Although she was found guilty of trickery on a number of occasions, she was also able to produce phenomena such as levitations and materializations.
Eusapia Palladino was born in southern Italy on 21 January 1854. Her birth cost her mother’s life and soon after her father died. Thus orphaned, she was taken into the family of friends at Naples who had an interest in spiritualism. They soon detected that Eusapia was not an ordinary peasant girl when the table began to levitate at a séance with her present. Soon Eusapia began to sit as a medium demonstrating a range of powers, although she often said she was afraid of them and never knew what would happen next.
A curious incident led to the identification of the dead pirate John King as Eusapia’s alleged control. One day an unknown woman came to visit Palladino at the house she was staying at, claiming to have received a message from King that there was a powerful medium living at that address, through whom he wished to communicate phenomena. After that King was a constant throughout Palladino’s career, announcing himself through raps as soon as she sat at a séance table.
The first scientist who was impressed by Eusapia’s extraordinary ability was Neapolitan Professor Dr Ercole Chiaia. On 9 August 1888 Chiaia addressed an open letter to renowned psychiatrist Cesare Lombroso and challenged him to observe a special case, saying:
The case I allude to is that of an invalid woman who belongs to the humblest class of society. She is nearly thirty years old and very ignorant; her appearance is neither fascinating nor endowed with the power which modern criminologists call irresistible; but when she wishes, be it by day or by night, she can divert a curious group for an hour or so with the most surprising phenomena. Either bound to a seat, or firmly held by the hands of the curious, she attracts to her the articles of furniture which surround her, lifts them up, holds them suspended in the air like Mahomet’s coffin, and makes them come down again with undulatory movements, as if they were obeying her will. She increases their height or lessens it according to her pleasure. She raps or taps upon the walls, the ceiling, the floor, with fine rhythm and cadence. In response to the requests of the spectators something like flashes of electricity shoot forth from her body, and envelop her or enwrap the spectators of these marvellous scenes. She draws upon cards that you hold out, everything that you want – figures, signatures, numbers, and sentences – by just stretching out her hand towards the indicated place…
This woman rises in the air, no matter what bands tie her down. She seems to lie upon the empty air, as on a couch, contrary to all the laws of gravity; she plays on musical instruments – organs, bells, tambourines – as if they had been touched by her hands or moved by the breath of invisible gnomes. This woman at times can increase her stature by more than four inches…
Her shoes are too small to fit these witch-feet of hers, and this particular circumstance gives rise to the suspicion of the intervention of mysterious power.
It was not until two years later that Lombroso found time enough to visit Naples and attend a sitting with Eusapia. His first report states:
Eusapia’s feet and hands were held by Professor Tamburini and by Lombroso. A handbell placed on a small table more than a yard distant from Eusapia sounded in the air above the heads of the sitters and then descended on the table, thence going two yards to a bed. While the bell was ringing we struck a match and saw the bell up in the air.
A detailed account of Lombroso observations and reflections appeared in theAnnales des Sciences Psychiques in 1892. He was so convinced of the reality of the physical phenomena produced by Eusapia that he arranged more tests by scientists in Milan, Naples and Rome. Although the scientists were impressed by the phenomena produced by Eusapia they and Lombroso could also not fail to notice her tendency to indulge in trickery if given the chance. Lombroso writes:Many are the crafty tricks she plays, both in the state of trance (unconsciously) and out of it – for example, freeing one of her two hands, held by the controllers, for the sake of moving objects near her; making touches; slowly lifting the legs of the table by means of one of her knees and one of her feet, and feigning to adjust her hair and then slyly pulling out one hair and putting it over the little balance tray of a letter-weigher in order to lower it. She was seen by Faifofer, before her séances, furtively gathering flowers in a garden, that she might feign them to be ‘apports’ by availing herself of the shrouding dark of the room.
Similar observations were made by other investigators, and her penchant to cheat caused Eusapia no end of trouble in her later years.
The sittings in Naples, which started Lombroso on his career as a psychical researcher, were followed by an investigation in Milan in 1892.
Another investigation in 1894 was significant because it involved for the first time investigators from the Society for Psychical Research. The Society’s Sir Frederick Myers and Henry and Eleanor Sidgwick were present. The group was impressed and prepared a report for the Society’s proceedings. When the report was published it was criticized as leaving room for trickery, and as a result a series of sittings were arranged in Cambridge. The sittings proved to be a disaster when Eusapia was found to be adept at cheating.
Palladino’s advocates fought against the Society for Psychical Research’s pronouncement of fraud. They claimed to have known all along that if given the chance Eusapia would cheat, and that if properly controlled she could still produce incredible effects. More studies followed and eventually in 1908 the Society commissioned three sceptical investigators to sit with Palladino in Naples: Mr W W Baggally, a practical conjurer, Dr Hereward Carrington, an amateur conjurer whose book, The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism, was considered the standard authority on fraudulent performances, and the Hon. Everard Fielding, who had also brought many a fraudulent medium to grief.
Much to the surprise of the investigators, at the end of the sittings the three admitted that the phenomena were genuine and inexplicable by fraud. Their report was published in the Society’s Proceedings in November 1909 and is thought to be among the most important documents in the literature of psychical research, compelling even a hardened sceptic like Frank Podmore, to say:
Here, for the first time perhaps in the history of modern spiritualism, we seem to find the issue put fairly and squarely before us. It is difficult for any man who reads the Committee’s report to dismiss the whole business as mere vulgar cheating.
In 1918, Eusapia Palladino, the overweight, almost illiterate and vulgar peasant from Naples, who thrilled, confounded and disappointed so many investigators, died. She was without doubt the medium who was more investigated than any other during this period, and whose feats continue to provoke controversy and heated debate. She helped establish the reality of what is today called macro PK and it is only fitting that the final words on the matter should be those of Everard Fielding, a sceptic until his encounter with Eusapia. After commenting on having to abandon his initial scepticism, Fielding declared:
I have seen hands and heads come forth, that from behind the curtain of an empty cabinet. I have been seized by living fingers…I have seen this extraordinary woman sitting visible outside the curtain, held hand and foot by my colleagues, immobile.