[95] Mrs. Feilding is Mme. Tomchik, the Polish medium examined by Professor Ochorowiz, and is the best known medium who “levitates” things without physical contact.
[96] At no time, to my knowledge, did the search include the orifices of her body.
[97] In this trick I swallow (if one’s eyes are to be trusted) anywhere from fifty to a hundred and fifty needles and from ten to thirty yards of thread; then after a few seconds I bring up the needles all threaded. The length of thread is governed by the size of my audience. For instance, at the Hippodrome, in New York, I used one hundred and ten feet of thread and two hundred needles; at the Berlin Winter Garden one hundred feet of thread and one hundred needles. In the regular large size theatres I use about eighty feet of thread and a hundred needles but for ordinary purposes thirty-five feet of thread and seventy-five needles are sufficient.
So far this trick has never been properly explained but that does not prove that I have abnormal powers. This needle mystery has been examined by a great many physicians and surgeons and in Boston at Keith’s Theatre it was presented at a special performance to over a thousand physicians and they were unable to explain it. However, there is nothing abnormal in it. It is nothing more than a clever and natural mystification.
[98] That is, has a secret accomplice. One who does things to help along “unknown.” One who is in the “click.”
[99] After my last seance with Mlle. Eva Mr. Feilding discovered by accident that I was writing a book on the subject. He begged me not to say a word or publish anything about the seances until after the Society for Psychical Research had published a full report. Now that it has done so there is nothing to keep me from writing my experiences.
[100] The result of his investigations are published in three books: “Reality of Psychic Phenomena,” “Psychic Structures at Goligher Circle,” and “Experiments in Psychical Science.”
[101] It would be difficult to convince me that the many things photographed and described by Baron Schrenck-Notzing could be presented under rigid test conditions.
[102] Dr. Troup, Professor of Psychology; Dr. Stormer, Professor of Mathematics; Dr. Scheldrup, Professor of Physics; Dr. Monrad Krhn, Professor of Neurology; Dr. (med.) Leegaard, and Mr. John Dammann, a prominent expert of conjuring tricks.
[103] Guzek was exposed in Paris as I predicted, the exposure occurring sooner than expected.