Eusapia Palladino, the Queen of the Cabinet Part 1
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NOTES ON A STRANGE WORLD MASSIMO POLIDORO Eusapia Palladino, the Queen of the Cabinet Part 1 usapia Palladino is considered to her account, was able to stimulate spon- Genoa, and so on, where she was tested have been one of the most gifted taneous spiritual manifestations. Little by some of the leading figures of psychi- Emediums of all time. Whether or Sapia was only thirteen, but when the cal research of the day. not she really possessed psychic powers, family, enchanted by her gift, told her Although scientists were usually very she is a fascinating study in human psy- that she could stay as long as she contin- impressed by her, not all witnesses were chology. I will devote this and several ued to perform strange phenomena, she satisfied that the possibility of cheating future columns to her case. quickly resolved to please them. had been completely ruled out. When Born on January 21, 1854, in Miner- Her séances soon attracted the atten- sometimes she was caught cheating, vino Murge, a town in the province tion of many learned men, including the she would berate her investigators for of Bari in southern Italy, she was the eminent criminologist Cesare Lombroso failing to control her properly, pleading daughter of peasants and had little or that she could not be held responsible no formal education. Her mother died for what she might do while in a trance! soon after her birth, and her father was apparently killed by thieves when she The Sittings in Naples (1908) was twelve. In 1908 a very special series of sittings Neighbors arranged for her to con- took place in Naples under the auspices tact a native of the village who was of the Society for Psychical Research now living in Naples. In Naples, how- (SPR) and under the guidance of Everard ever, the native told her she could live Feilding, then honorary secretary of the with some foreigners who wanted to SPR. The “Feilding Report” (Feilding, adopt and educate a small girl. The Baggally, and Carrington 1909), a com- arrangement turned out to be disas- plete examination of all the séances, was trous. Eusapia refused every attempt to written by Feilding but endorsed by make her read and write, comb her hair, the other members of the committee take a daily bath, and behave like a good as well. They concluded in the report little girl. that “some force was in play which was She was soon on her own again and beyond the reach of ordinary control, took temporary refuge with a fam- and beyond the skill of the most skilled ily known to her, until some other conjurer.” The conditions of the séances arrangement could be found. She par- Eusapia Palladino were such, they added, that it was ticipated in a séance and, according to impossible to suppose that there were Massimo Polidoro is an investigator of and physiologist Charles Richet, a future any accomplices. The only conclusion the paranormal, author, lecturer, and Nobel Prize winner, who attended var- they could draw (with “great intellectual co-founder and head of CICAP, the Italian ious séances with Eusapia and emerged reluctance”) was “that there does actu- skeptics group. His Web site is www.massimo convinced that she was the real thing. ally exist some hitherto unascertained polidoro.com. This would soon allow her to visit force liberated in her presence.” Europe via Paris, Warsaw, Cambridge, The Feilding Report remained, as 30 Volume 33, Issue 3 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER parapsychologist John Beloff (1993) that “the ‘substitution’ hypothesis seems researcher Hereward Carrington are said, “one of the mainstays of the case for able to explain, at best, a relatively small given as (pp. 319-320): the paranormal and a stumbling-block number of reported phenomena” (p. Mr. Carrington has been for some for skeptics.” 134). However, a re-examination of a time the investigator for the American Psychologist and conjuror Richard few episodes described in the report and Society for Psychical Research, and Wiseman (1992a) quite effectively the conditions surrounding them may is the author of a book, The Physical illustrated in the Journal of the Society suggest otherwise. Phenomena of Spiritualism . , in which is a detailed exposure of the for Psychical Research how the Feilding The SPR Investigators tricks employed by fraudulent medi- Report was badly flawed and how the ums, of which he has made a special controls against fraud, as described by the The SPR first had a chance to examine study. For many years Mr. Carrington investigators, were inadequate. Wiseman Palladino in Cambridge, thirteen years has been an amateur conjurer, and is took into consideration the hypothesis before Naples (Hodgson 1895), and able to reproduce almost any of the slate writing and other “tests” offered that an accomplice may actually have on that occasion the experimenters, by the average “medium.” In the been present within Palladino’s séance especially Richard Hodgson from the course of his work for the American cabinet. This idea stimulated an inter- American branch of the SPR, reached Society he has investigated many cases esting debate in the pages of the Journal, the conclusion that systematic fraud of poltergeists, physical phenomena, with Wiseman’s critics (Barring ton 1992; had been used and that there was no etc., etc., and in all the ten years of such work had never seen anything 1993; Fontana 1992; 1993; Martínez- adequate reason for concluding in favor that he was unable to account for by Taboas and Francia 1993) trying to of any paranormal agency having been trickery, which in many cases he could disprove his hypothesis and Wiseman at work during the course of the sittings. improve upon. Since it was clearly felt that the object of the investigation was determining whether the phenomena were due to trickery or not, it was essential that the investigators were knowledgeable of the methods of trickery. But were they really? (1993a; 1993b; 1993c; 1993d) respond- However, in consideration of the atten- Mr. Baggally has similarly been for ing point-by-point to each criticism. tion that Eusapia continued to attract many years an investigator of the phe- Aside from the question of whether among distinguished scientists on the nomena of spiritualism and has been or not an accomplice was really present continent, like Camille Flammarion, especially interested in the physical at the 1908 Naples séances, what has Marie Curie, Oliver Lodge, Enrico phenomena. He, also, is an amateur conjurer of much experience. Not with- clearly emerged from Wiseman’s work Morselli, and many others, the Society stand ing the fact that he had investi - is that the three investigators were sim- felt that her case could not be lightly gated nearly all the mediums who have ply no match for Eusapia. To further dismissed and decided to reopen it. appeared upon the spiritualist horizon illustrate this point, let’s examine an Since it was clearly felt that the object since the days of D.D. Home, he, like alternative explanation for the Palladino of the investigation was determining Mr. Carrington, had never yet met with what appeared to him a genuine phenomena as described in the Feilding whether the phenomena were due to example of any agency other than that Report (from now on referred to as the trickery or not, it was essential that of more or less easily discoverable trick- report)—one that was dismissed too the investigators were knowledgeable of ery, and before the experiments with quickly. Namely, that of her ability the methods of trickery. But were they Eusapia, had come to an entirely nega- to free her limbs via “substitution.” really? tive conclusion as to the probability of any genuine physical phenomena. Wise man (1992a) wrote that: “It seems In the report the credentials of the Mr. Feilding, though not himself implausible that Palladino would, under three researchers, Everard Feilding, a conjurer, had had a reasonably these conditions, be able to continually Honorary Secretary of the SPR; W.W. extensive experience in the investiga- perform such trickery” and concludes Baggally; and the American psychical tion of physical phenomena and the advantage of a fairly complete educa- SKEPTICAL INQUIRER May / June 2009 31 tion at the hands of fraudulent medi- lights were faint, but the room wasn’t in those following it, only Feilding men- ums. While preserving an open mind completely dark. After two minutes, tions it, lamenting the fact that “Eusapia’s as to the possibility of the existence the experimenters saw one cord being ‘spirits’ or ‘fluidic force,’ or whatever the of some hitherto unascertained force in nature whereby the manifestations thrown on the table: the other end was agency might be which produced them” testified to by so many observers of still fastened to the experimenters’ chair, had to “intrude into a series of respect- high standing were produced, the but Eusapia’s left foot was free. It was able phenomena, one of such indubitably discovery of repeated fraud had pro- Baggally, “an expert knot-tier” (p. 504), Daven portish associations as the untying duced in him an attitude of complete who had tied the cord with four knots of the cord” (p. 504). Not one of them skepticism as regards the probability around Eusapia’s ankles. They were so accuses her of fraud. of his ever finding any examples of the exercise of such a force. tight that, when at the end of the séance In the next installments I will exam- he had to unfasten the cord around the ine the conditions of the séances in This certainly sounds impressive, but other ankle, it took him . well, “about Naples, including the use of lights, the from what can be deduced by reading two minutes.” specifics of the table, and the kind of the report, the “complete skepticism” This episode could at least have given clothing used by Eusapia.