The present paper describes the development and the phenomena of a circle for physical mediumship, based predominantly on my own observations. Over the course of four and a half years, I have participated in 21 sittings. Typical phenomena include unusual movements of a table, raps on the room walls and the ceiling, various luminous and psychokinetic phenomena, the generation of supposed ectoplasm, and apports. I will describe the controls applied during the sittings and my personal involvement in accompanying the development (...) of the phenomena, and explain why I finally arrived at the conclusion that considerable parts of the phenomena were produced by fraudulent means. Keywords: Physical mediumship - raps - psychokinesis - ectoplasm - apports - circle - fraud. (shrink)

This paper chronicles my introduction to and subsequent investigation of the Felix Experimental Group (FEG) and its exhibitions of classical physical mediumship. It’s been nearly a century since investigators have had the opportunity to carefully study standard spiritistic phenomena, including the extruding of ectoplasm, and the FEG is the only current physical mediumistic circle permitting any serious controls. The paper details a progressively stringent, personally supervised series of séances, culminating in some well-controlled experiments with video documentation in a secure and (...) private location belonging to one of the investigators. Regrettably, recent indications of fraud (explored also by Michael Nahm in this issue) have tarnished the case as a whole. However, it remains unclear how extensive the fraud has been. Accordingly, this paper evaluates the arguments both for and against the paranormality of the phenomena displayed under the author’s supervision. (shrink)

Between June 2014 and December 2015, a PK laboratory was organized in Buenos Aires. Up to five video cameras were installed to record the events. Various devices were assembled to measure physical, physiological and environmental variables. 23 meetings were held with a presumptive PK subject, identified in previous research. The subject was apparently able to move a table at will, through an alleged "PK force", and the phenomena were documented and recorded on several occasions. Although contactless movement of the table (...) or other objects could not be achieved, muscular effort was ruled out as the cause of the observed movements. One experiment developed by William Crawford was repeated, although Crawford’s results were not replicated. EEGs studies were performed with the subject at rest and also during the production of the phenomena. Unexplained anomalies were observed in the EEG data obtained during the production of the phenomena, and the normal curve of a Random Number Generator also deviated significantly (p = 0.008) during the trials. No variations of electric and magnetic fields were found to be associated with the phenomena. Stephen Braude visited the laboratory and attended 3 meetings. (shrink)

In 2014, I published an article on the Felix Experimental Group, its medium Kai Mügge (KM), and my involvement in the following the development of the phenomena reported around KM (Nahm, 2014). In this article, I showed convincingly (in my opinion) that KM had cheated in the past, in particular with regard to producing a red “spirit” light with a magician’s LED device, and with regard to producing (self-luminous) ectoplasm with the help of phosphorescent Halloween spider web while pretending to (...) be in a trance. Recent developments and publications render it recommendable to summarize a few aspects of the aftermath of this publication. (shrink)