Case file · High strangeness

Franek Kluski's paraffin hands

The Warsaw medium Franek Kluski (Teofil Modrzejewski) produced, in séances of 1920–21 with Gustave Geley and Charles Richet, wax gloves said to be moulds of 'materialised' hands dipped in paraffin.

1920 CE · 52.23, 21.01 · status: disputed

The account

The moulds, some with wrists too narrow for a living hand to slip out of, were kept at the Institut Métapsychique International in Paris. Kluski, a banker and writer, took no payment and also reported phantom animals, including a 'bird of prey' and a large ape-like creature, at his Warsaw sittings.

The sceptical view

Researchers have shown that such gloves can be made by pulling a hand from thin wax or using dissolvable moulds, and the séances took place in darkness.

Sources

  1. Wikipedia: Franek Kluski
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