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Annals of Science Anatomy of a Fraud: Harry Price and the Medium Rudi This article was downloaded by: [University of Cambridge] On: 01 April 2014, At: 10:16 Publisher: Taylor & Francis Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Annals of Science Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tasc20 Anatomy of a fraud: Harry price and the medium rudi schneider Anita Gregory a a School of Education, The Polytechnic of North London , Prince of Wales Road, London, NW5 3LB, England Published online: 23 Aug 2006. To cite this article: Anita Gregory (1977) Anatomy of a fraud: Harry price and the medium rudi schneider, Annals of Science, 34:5, 449-549, DOI: 10.1080/00033797700200311 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00033797700200311 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. 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Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms- and-conditions ANNALS OF SCIENCE, 34 (1977), 449-549 Anatomy of a Fraud: Harry Price and the Medium Rudi Schneider ANITA GREGORY School of Education, The Polytechnic of North London, Prince of Wales Road, London NW5 3LB, England Received ll February 1977 Summary Among the most interesting of the controversies in the recent history of parapsychology and related studies is the claim made in 1933 by the psychical researcher Harry Price that the medium Rudi Schneider had on one particular occasion produced his psychic effects by fraudulent means. The background to this event, and the controversy which followed it, are described in detail in this article, which draws on many hitherto unpublished materials. The issues involved range from the design of experiments in an unusual area of science, through the relation between fringe and orthodox science, to the role of popularisers of science (such as Harry Price) and the ethics of science. Contents 1. Introduction: psychical research .......................... 449 2. An outline of Rudi Schneider's career as a medium .......... 453 3. Early accusations of fraud ................................ 457 4. Harry Price and the London background of his first invitation to Rudi Schneider ...................................... 467 5. Price's First Series of experiments .......................... 472 6. Price's Second Series of experiments ........................ 475 7. Price's Third Series of experiments ........................ 483 8. Background of Price's denunciation of Rudi Schneider ........ 493 9. The Brown and Fraser-Harris Times correspondence .......... 503 10. Price's campaign against Eugene Osty ...................... 512 11. Price's policy towards members of the National Laboratory between 28 April 1932 and 5 March 1933 .................... 515 12. Price's denunciation, and its repercussions .................. 518 Downloaded by [University of Cambridge] at 10:16 01 April 2014 13. Interpreting the photographic evidence supporting Price's denunciation ............................................ 524 14. Summary of possible interpretations of the photographs ...... 533 15. A variety of conclusions .................................. 538 1. Introduction: psychical research Psychical research as a systematic and serious study is virtually 100 years old. The Society for Psychical Research was founded in 1882, and has counted among its past presidents some of the most eminent figures in the humanities and sciences. Hundreds of thousands of skilled and learned man-hours have been expended in the pursuit of the elusive phenomena of what has widely come to be known as ' parapsychology'. The American Association for the Advancement of Science has declared the subject to be worthy of academic study. Professorships of parapsychology are gradually being established. 450 Anita Gregory Highly respected scholars and scientists become preoccupied with one or another aspect or claim, and risk--and occasionally retain--their reputations in the process. Meanwhile, the learned world remains deeply divided as to the propriety and importance of a study of phenomena the very definition, let alone authenticity, of which presents problems, and the study of which to date has certainly not, to put it conservatively, contributed to universally acceptable knowledge. Only relatively recently has the attention of scientists been drawn to some fundamental questions in the history of science which suggest that the progress of science is far from being an ineluctable progress from ignorance to certain knowledge, from supersitution to truth, from darkness to light--that social and psychological factors have played a part in what is, and what is not, accepted and acceptable by a given scientific community at a given time--and that theories and tacit assumptions may colour and at .times determine the inter- pretation of observations. The pursuit of new knowledge, especially when this involves even the possibility of shaking venerable beliefs, is a fairly impassioned affair, and the pursuit of psychical research presents an object lesson in this respect. Quite often contemporary history cannot be written, not only because of a certain lack of perspective and because much information needed is simply not available, but also because legal complications may render any dis- passionate assessment impossible. The laws of slander and libel, for example, may make it difficult or impossible even to describe how certain people behaved --especially if they are wealthy or influential. The picture may stand out more clearly in retrospect and can certainly be told more safely at a later date which, of course, involves other problems and difficulties of establishing what took place in the more or less distant past. There is never any shortage of writers willing to believe that current assumptions present the ultimate pinnacles of truth; that iron ships will never float, that without the devil's help light patterns cannot be captured on paper or sound patterns by mechanical devices, that the earth stands still and the sun moves, that machines heavier than air will never fly, that surgical operations without chemical anaesthesia must involve pain and that consequently hypnotic anaesthesia is a fraud, and so on and so forth. It goes without saying that the phenomena of psychical research have met with their fair Downloaded by [University of Cambridge] at 10:16 01 April 2014 share of dogmatic a priori denial. As Helmholtz so cogently put the matter: ' Neither the testimony of all the Fellows of the Royal Society, nor even the evidence of my own senses, would lead me to believe in the transmission of thought from one person to another independently of the recognised channels of sense '.1 Somewhat more recently, Dr. G. R. Price wrote that, since phenomena such as telepathy are impossible, scientists claiming positive results must be either mistaken or fraudulent, and he invoked of all authorities the philosopher Hume to underpin the a priori contention that such matters are inherently impossible. 2 Sceptical empiricists are hardly in a position consistently to pontificate concerning inherent impossibilities: at best what is involved is 1 Quoted by R. Heywood, Th.e sixth sense (1959, London: Chatto & Windus), 11. 2 G. R. Price, ' Science and the supernatural ', Science, 122 (1955), 359-367. Anatomy of a Fraud 451 probability, or rather plausibility, since the latter word more clearly suggests a general aura of social belief-worthiness for people at a particular epoch. All too often the line taken in controversies concerning some phenomena or other of psychical research are in fact debates with a foregone conclusion in which one or other of the contending parties starts with an entirely unshakeable set of assumptions that, since certain things cannot happen, their occurrence must be either delusory or else due to some fraudulent manipulation. Needless to say, all too often there are quite normal explanations for alleged marvels. Nowhere are mistakes, delusions and hallucinations more likely than in the conditions of the seance room, nor is there any dearth of discoveries of fraud, chicanery and racket. Serious researchers who investigate these matters and who are open to being convinced either of fraud or else of the authenticity of phenomena have to become extremely sophisticated as regards the sources of error in this field and, should they themselves
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