A PSYCHIC PUZZLE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 3 December 1926, Page 7

A PSYCHIC PUZZLE.

GIRL POSSESSED BY EVIL SPIRIT. A pale, Slavonic-looking girl, sitting playing with toys at one end of the room; a net drawn across the apartment, anil a number of grave-faced investigators seated in the space thus shielded; this is the scene which will probably be witnessed immediately at the National Laboratory for Psychical Research, South Kensington. The girl. Eleonore Zegun, a 13-year-old Rumanian, has been brought to England bv Countess Wassiliko Serecki, at the instance of the laboratory, in order that psyehists may investigate the phenomena- attributed to the girl’s possession of an evil spirit. It is claimed that this “poltergeist” without any volition oil the part of the girl; who is said to be very childish for her years, throws objects about the room, and sometimes from one room to another, causes things to disappear, and raises stigmata or marks on the girl’s arms. “Wc are going to divide the seance room into two portions,” said Mr Harry Price, of the laboratory. “In one section will be the girl, with some toys and other things, separated by a line net from the investigators. “It has been claimed that some of the objects flung about by the supernatural agency are occasionally sent through matter, and we want to see if this can be proved under conditions which exclude any possibility of deception. The meshes of the net will not be large enough to permit of the objects passing through. They will either have to break the net, or pass through matter. If anything is flung at the not at the same side as the girl we will have to use our own judgment as to Whether it is normal or not.” Since the girl came to this country there have been many examples of the appearance of stigmata when Eleonore was going about her ordinary duties of playing. Some of the marks are the imprints of teeth, as if the girl’s arm has been bitten.

Medical men and Fellows of the Royal Society have formed a committee of investigation into the baffling “wizardry” of this child. They are Dr. R. J.‘ Tiilvard, F.E.S., Mr Edward Heron-Allen, F.R.S., Dr. A. L. Urquhart, St. Thomas’ Hospital, and Dr. R. Fcild-ing-Ould. E.R.S. For llic next four or fnm weeks they will have Eleonore under observation to see if they can explain her apparent magic. They have two branches of phenomenon to fathom: Poltergeist (or noisy devils), in which articles fly about tlic room in which Eleonore happens to be, and disappear and reappear in bewildering fashion; and stigmatic, in which great -we.nJjS, bruises and scratches appear on her skin without apparent cause.