Baron Albert von Schrenk Notzing
(1862-1929) was a German
aristocrat and practising physician whose private wealth gave him the means to
undertake an extensive programme of psychical research. He concentrated on
physical phenomena, particularly on ectoplasmic materialisations, and his
carefully-controlled experimental techniques put his results beyond all
reasonable criticism. He worked with the well-known materialisation mediums of
the time, Eusapia Palladino, ‘Eva C.’ and the Schneider brothers. His description
of his work remains the most detailed account of the experiments of the time,
and was published as:
Schrenck Notzing, Baron Albert von (1920). Phenomena of Materialisation. A contribution to the investigation of mediumistic teleplastics. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., London. Translated by E.E. Fournier d’Albe (First published in German as Materialisations - phaenomene, Reinhardt, Munich, 1914).
This book, together with those of
Juliette Bisson and Gustave Geley, form the most detailed evidence available
for the reality of ectoplasmic materialised forms. See also:
Bisson, Juliette A. (1914). Les Phenomenes de Materialisation. Librairie Felix Alcan, Paris.
Geley, Gustave (1927). Clairvoyance and Materialisation. ? Publ., London. (First published in French in Paris, 1924).
On to Glen Hamilton