6: The Seances Are Never Held in the Dark

The existence of a secret world of spirits, only accessible through skilled mediums, was early 20th century’s favorite conspiracy theory. Today we’re reading reports on a Polish medium, Miss Tomczyk, who developed skills of telekinesis in the early 1900s – or did she? Let's find out!

[Dont_Tell_Anyone_Its_Me]

- I saw a thread in your hand.
- What thread ?
- In your hand, I saw a thread. So it wasn't magic after all ?
- Of course it was !
- Then how do you explain the thread ?
- ✨Magic thread !✨

[ellokittyca]

"King of delulu" killed me. I've been laughing for like 5 minutes as you continue to describe this thread.

[elisatantari]

Honestly this situation would be a great premise for a comedy

[fikanera]

I love these, espresso when you introduce us to little-known Polish personalities! Thankyou from Czechia!

[janerkenbrack]

Right at the end of the video you hit the nail on the head.
They were an act, a pair working together in a confidence game.
She, a medium for a precocious child, is unaware of what will happen; he, the ardent skeptic, refusing to be convinced, but seemingly convinced nonetheless.
Just enough obvious trickery to cast doubt, but still many instances of the truly unexplained, to leave the majority of suckers as true believers.

[KJayPlays]

He wanted a medium so he got himself one. She probably was in on it, got well taken care of, but I have no doubt that this was his project and he was the one orchestrating it.

[anastasialudwika]

You know, what's interesting? While listening to your podcast, YouTube showed me also a fair number of adds and all of them were some middle aged dudes posing as your stereotypical businessmen from some early 2000s cheap tv series, all of them were trying to sell some bs courses on starting business from scratch/personal grows/ being confident dude and similar stuff combined all together... and a thought came to me. Those are some charlatan "mediums" of our days and perhabs in the future they will be viewed and talked about (maybe, a lot) not alike Stanisława and her colleagues albeit with a way smaller share of romanticization.

[polygonvvitch]

It's important to note how much World War 1 also impacted spiritualism. After so much senseless death that established religions couldn't justify or soothe the pain of, people were desperate to find some solace.

[writinggamer]

"When I want to move an object a thread appears... you know, the thread that I use slight of hand to hide."

I will also say little Stacha reminds me a lot of the show What We Do in the Shadows and Nadja's little ghost dolly version of herself. I wonder if they were inspired by this medium for that.

[ErieRosewood]

oh boy do i have some family history for you.

back in 1928, some of my ancestors took part in a series of semi-famous seances in st. catharines ontario guided my William Cartheuser and written about in the book by Jenny Ohara Pincock "Trails of Truth". i own an original copy of the book that was passed down to me (having unpopular hobbies like old book collecting really benefits you sometimes). i read it last year, just the chapters including my family and oh boy did i learn some things. first of all, this hack had my great great grandparents fully speaking with one of their miscarried children which im sure was a fun experience, i found out my great great uncle fred was named after a ghost. and i also learned my great great grandpa was friends with a free mason and invited him to one of the seances. my dad tried to ask his great uncle ted about the experience, who was a child at the time, but never got any info. i think everyone likes to pretend it didnt happen cause william cartheuser is a very obvious hack. but i wouldve never shut up about it if that happened to me.

[SquabAttack]

It’s a great day when I can listen to Textory on the way to or from work. Thank you!

[jcasillas]

Little Stacha sounds like a Tulpa, a Tibetan concept. Basically a thought form that breaks off of a human consciousness that develops it's own will.

[helza]

My paternal grandmother was a spiritualist and when my dad was born there was a ceremony where he was "given a native american spirit guide"... this was in Scotland in the early 1930s.

[MeemsyD]

I was cracking up at the description of Little Stasia, a wispy milky 1-foot tall leprechaun just making mischief. Then I saw the actual "selfie" of Stasia and was sorely disappointed, just a regular young girl. 😂

[chrononautspodcast]

Fantastic episode! A number of legitimate scientists and engineers like Oliver Lodge and William Crookes were really taken with the Spiritualist movement, and plenty of more obscure figures tried to build "psychic telegraphs" to explore the phenomenon further. An endless rabbit hole of weirdness

[paigeellis]

I LOVE THIS PODCAST SO MUCHHHH PLEASE NEVER STOP POSTING IT!!

[darlenemahaney]

Just found this channel and so happy to see all the past videos
I can binge!

[triangle_cat]

"How did a snowball get itno the room???"
So... Maybe... Someone THREW IT IN???

[LadyDarkSunMoon]

Up to the part with the thread, I was thinking maybe she suffered from a form of schizophrenia, but that bit just flat out sold her out! And OMG, that picture must have looked like a really art class homework!

[Bildgesmythe]

Reminds me of the more modern Uri Gellar and his bending spoons and keys. He was very convincing.