This woman-medium was constantly tried to expose as a fraud, but many of the miracles that she performed, never found an explanation. Despite the fact that among the scientists who studied her abilities, there were world stars.
In the evening in Milan, several people gathered in a spacious room, in the middle of which was a round wooden table. Behind him sat a dark-haired, middle-aged woman, whose rough features betrayed a commoner. Her eyes were closed, it seemed that she was completely detached from the outside world. Suddenly, in the silence, filled only with tense breathing of those present, the legs of the table tore off the floor, and he began to slowly rise into the air …
The woman at the table was a famous medium. Her name was Evzapia Palladino.
Orphan story
Evzapa was born in 1854 to a poor Festian family in southern Italy. The mother died of giving birth, and the orphan was given to be raised by neighbors. At the age of one, the baby suffered an injury, severely damaging the parietal bone. Perhaps this was the reason for the manifestation of her paranormal gift. When the girl was twelve, her father was killed by bandits. She became an orphan. The teenager was adopted by a family of foreigners living in Naples. They dreamed of making a little lady out of an illiterate peasant woman.
However, they never managed to teach Ezapius to read and write and instill in her good manners. The pupil left them, becoming a servant in the Murialdi family, the head of which was fond of spiritualism. Soon the owners began to notice that there were poltergeist phenomena in the house. It looks like they were related to a young maid. Having become interested, Messrs. Murialdi persuaded Ezapius to participate in a seance. A few minutes later, in front of the amazed audience, the table rose into the air, the chairs in the room began to dance, the curtains on the windows fluttered, and the dishes trembled.
Since then, the poltergeist never manifested itself spontaneously - only during sessions. The girl quickly gained fame as a talented medium.
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Member of the Spiritual Society
In 1872, Signor Damiani, famous in spiritualistic fugues, became Evzapia's mentor. During a seance, Damiani's wife, a young Englishwoman, appeared a spirit named John King and ordered her to go to a certain address and look for a girl named Evza-pia Palladino there. According to the spirit, she was a powerful medium and could become an intermediary between him, King, and Signora Damiani.
Previously, the young woman had never heard of Euzapia. However, she went to the indicated address and indeed found the named person there. He and Ezapia had a seance, and John King appeared. From that day on, he became the spirit-driver of the young Italian. Signor Damiani took over the duties of Ezapia's impresario.
Euzapia joined the Roman Spiritual Society. After moving to Rome, she began to give regular sessions of communication with spirits, making various objects move and rise in the air, musical instruments - to play. In addition, by the will of Ezapia, certain miraculous images appeared on paper, and on the clay - handprints and outlines of someone's faces.
For the purity of the experiment, the Italian woman was tied to a chair, but this did not prevent her from performing "tricks". Sometimes, right from the chair, her body rose into the air, despite the fetters.
Ezapia was able to desire to increase her height by several inches and change the weight of objects. The woman claimed that this was done by the spirits with whom she communicated.
But most of all, the phenomenon of materialization struck the eyewitnesses. Her guided force tied knots on the ropes that entangled Ezapia. And sometimes some threads and sticks appeared directly from the medium's body. Sometimes, at the request of the audience, the medium expelled a shining clot, which she enveloped herself and other people. She also managed to summon ghosts.
During one of the sessions, a hand suddenly leaned out from behind the curtain and tried to take away from Professor Foa a photographic plate, with which he wanted to fix some radiation in the room. And here is the testimony left by one of the observers, Professor Botazzi:
“The same hand rested on my right forearm, but did not squeeze it. This time, I not only brought my left hand to the point of contact, but also looked both ways, so I could see and touch at the same time.
I made out a human hand, which had a natural color, and felt the back of a slightly lukewarm, uneven and rough palm.
The hand dissolved in the air, and, I saw it with my own eyes, - having described an arc, it was drawn, as it seemed to me, into the body of Madame Palladino. I confess, I began to doubt: what if the left hand of Ezapia got free from my right and reached out to my forearm? But at the same moment I received proof of the groundlessness of my doubts, because our hands touched each other the same way as usual."
A year later, the girl got tired of the sessions, but most of all - from the constant control from the members of the Spiritual Society. She returned to Naples and began to earn her living as a seamstress. In 1885, Ezapia got married, but the marriage lasted only a year, after which Signora Palladino returned to her career as a medium. She began to give paid sessions.
Under the hood of scientists
Despite its attractiveness as an object for scientific research, Ezapia Palladino did not arouse sympathy among pundits. According to most of them, she gave the impression of an uneducated and vulgar woman. In addition, Ezapia was distinguished by sexual promiscuity, and even, it seems, was dishonest - the visitors to her sessions often lost money and valuables.
In the fall of 1892, Signora Palladino was examined by a commission headed by A. N. Aksakov, a Russian writer and researcher, famous for his craving for the study of the unknown. It also included several scientists, among whom were the famous astronomer Schiaparelli and the physiologist Charles Richet.
A table 1.1x0.7x0.8 meters in size and weighing 8 kilograms was specially made for experiments with Evzapia. The researchers recorded in the protocols all the details of the movement of the table and came to the conclusion that it rises up only when one of its legs touches the leg or skirt of the medium. It was noticed that Ezapia's skirt was puffed out on one side, which raised suspicion: Palladino was hiding some kind of instrument under it.
However, subsequent experiments refuted this assumption. Aksakov writes: “At the evening seance, when the table had risen completely, both hands of Ezapia were stretched out over the table, without touching it by at least 5 centimeters; her fists were clenched convulsively, her arms were convulsively stretched out. In addition, during the session on October 15, during the experiment with the table, Richet held his hand between both hands of Euzapia. And he told me that during the first lift, Ezapia's hand, which was from below, barely touched the table, and during the second lift it did not touch it at all.
Aksakov also observed the phenomenon of the appearance of "ghostly hands". At the same time, he and Schiaparelli tightly held the medium's hands on both sides, so fraud on the part of Palladino was excluded.
In the summer of 1894, Charles Richet invited Ezapia to conduct several experimental sessions at his home.
This time, the controls were even stricter. A device in the form of two pedals, separated by a partition, was placed under the feet of Ezapia. As soon as you lift your foot off the pedal, the bell rang. During the sessions, the medium's legs remained motionless, but she was able to set many objects in motion. Once a table rose into the air when all the participants in the experiment, including Evzapia herself, stood next to it. On another occasion, an accordion in the distance began to make isolated sounds. At the same time, Palladino's fingers moved as if in time with the sounding notes, although, of course, she did not touch the musical instrument.
In 1905-1907, Evzapia was examined at the Institute of General Psychology in Paris. The commission was headed by the same Charles Richet, who were joined by the famous physicists Marie and Pierre Curie. The commission came to the conclusion that in some cases Palladino resorts to tricks, while others cannot be explained - in particular, it was about the already mentioned phenomenon with an "extra" hand.
So, in July 1905, at a session in the house of Signor Borisso, those present clearly saw a hand in a dark sleeve, protruding from Ezapia's right shoulder. And in July 1907, Professor Gomeotti stated: “I see two left hands, they look exactly the same! One lies on a small table, and Signor Botazzi touches it, and the second, it seems, grows out of her shoulder, reaches out to her, touches, and then, melting, disappears into her body again. Another time, the researcher was hit on the arm by a pipe, which had recently materialized in the air.
In April 1908, the French journal Annals of Psychic Sciences published photographs of Ezapia Palladino, in which a phantom hand is clearly visible, while two controllers hold the medium by the wrists.
Exposing the "scammer"
Upon reaching the age of 55, Evzapia's abilities apparently began to fade, and her health also deteriorated. In 1909 she was given a tour of America. There, the medium had to suffer a crushing fiasco. Apparently, no longer relying on her parapsychic abilities, Ezapia decided to resort to deception, using dexterity of arms and legs to demonstrate the "phenomena". Once she was conducting a session in one of the laboratories of Columbia University once again evoking the spirit of John King! The session was attended by three professional magicians, presented to the medium as venerable professors. The illusionists dreamed of exposing Palladino and declaring her a fraud, since they believed that mediums were beating their bread. And their hopes were justified, and how!
The "spirit" had to touch the participants of the session as a sign of its presence in the room, and then it had to raise the table into the air. At the same time, Ezapia was held by two people. Her legs were also controlled. And in the dark, people felt someone's touch. And then the table behind the medium began to move. And suddenly … there was a wild female cry! It was Evzapia shouted. It turned out that a man was lying on the floor of the room, watching what was happening from below. He saw Ezapia free her foot from her shoe and stretch it back to move the table. The observer, without thinking twice, grabbed her heel. This was the cause of the terrible scream. After that, Ezapia Palladino was declared a false medium.
Evzapia herself assured that the organizers of the sessions, who expect fraudulent actions from her, were making her "cheat". Like, they inspire her with their thoughts, and, being in a trance, she unconsciously fulfills their "wishes". Of course, no one believed her.
However, there was a man who tried to rehabilitate Ezapia. It was the most famous American illusionist of the time Howard Thurston. In one of the sessions, Thurston, who, together with his assistant, personally controlled Signora Palladino, witnessed levitation and some other completely inexplicable phenomena, including the materialization of a phantom. Another participant in the session recalls how, before his eyes, an object that the woman could not reach with her hand crawled on the table by itself.
Thurston wrote: "I saw with my own eyes how a table was flying at Ezapia Palladino's session, and I am deeply convinced that the phenomena that I observed were not caused by fraudulent means or with the help of her hands, feet and knees."
One way or another, despite the fierce controversy started by the press and researchers around her gift, Ezapia Palladino continued to act as a medium. This was the only craft she did well.
Contemporaries characterized her as a hot-tempered and wayward person, with a hysterical nature. But at the same time, Evzapia was generous to the poor, generously giving them alms, patronizing children and animals …
The "mistress of spirits" died at the age of 65. She had her last session just 10 days before her death.
T. Troyanova "Lady of Spirits" No. 23 2007