Stanisława Tomczyk and the Levitating Scissors

When

1908–1909 date from records made at the time

Where

Wisła, Silesian Beskids, Poland

Verdict

Disputed

In the mountain town of Wisła, Julian Ochorowicz studied a medium who made scissors float between her hands – and “Little Stasia” left marks on photographic plates.

What happened

Stanisława Tomczyk, a young woman said to have developed hysterical fits and a split personality after being briefly jailed during a riot, came under the care of the psychologist Julian Ochorowicz. He treated her with hypnosis and in 1908–1909 conducted experiments with her in Wisła, where he lived and built guesthouses. In trance Tomczyk turned into “Little Stasia” – an entity that insisted it was not the spirit of a dead person. In her presence scissors, spoons and celluloid balls floated in the air between her outstretched hands, a clock under a glass dome stopped and a roulette ball was said to land on chosen numbers. Ochorowicz photographed the phenomena and published his results in the Paris journal Annales des Sciences Psychiques. Photos of the levitating scissors went round the world, and he won a prize in Paris for his “mediumistic photographs”.

Witnesses

Julian Ochorowicz and his guests in Wisła; in 1914, investigators from the Society for Psychical Research in London.

Explanations and hypotheses

A fine thread is visible between the medium’s fingers in some of the photographs. Ochorowicz noticed it himself but considered it a paranormal emanation from her fingers, which he called “rigid rays” and “ideoplasm”. Magicians and sceptics believe Tomczyk simply used a thread or a hair. In 1914 the Society for Psychical Research tested her in London without a conclusive result; in 1919 Tomczyk married one of its leading members, Everard Feilding.

Disputed A likely explanation exists, but some of the facts are still disputed.

Sources

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