Guzyk, Jan (1875-1928)

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Guzyk, Jan (1875-1928)

Polish materialization medium, the son of a weaver, whose fraudulent production of phenomena fooled several prominent psychical researchers into the conclusion that he possessed strange powers. He first began to show his mediumistic tendencies during his years of apprenticeship in the tanning trade at Warsaw. There were raps, blows on the walls, and a stirring of objects as soon as evening approached. At age 15, under the tutelage of a Mr. Chlopicki, a Spiritualist, he became a professional medium. Russian Spiritualist and psychical researcher Alexander N. Aksakof took him to St. Petersburg, where he achieved great success although he did not impress Julien Ochorowicz.

A systematic study of Guzyk's mediumship, however, did not take place until Gustav Geley had a series of 50 sittings with him in Warsaw in September 1921. Geley became convinced of the reality of the phenomena. He witnessed the perfect materialization of a human face, alive and speaking, and the displacement of heavy objects. He took Guzyk to Paris for further experiments at the Institut Métapsychique International. Since Guzyk's phenomena only took place in complete darkness, the measures to avoid fraud were very strict. He was disrobed and medically examined before the séance, put into a pajama suit without pockets, and his wrists were joined to those of the controllers by sealed ribbons.

After a series of séances during 1922 and 1923 a very cautious report was issued. Among its 34 signatories were Geley, Eugèn Osty, Roux, Moutier, Charles Richet, Rocco Santoliquido, Camille Flammarion, René Sudre, and Sir Oliver Lodge. Only those facts are mentioned that were positively observed by all present and the report concluded, "We simply affirm our conviction that the phenomena obtained with Jan Guzyk are not explicable by individual or collective illusion or hallucination, nor by trickery." Altogether more than 80 highly placed persons attended the séances and, with the exception of three or four, declared themselves convinced of the genuine nature of the occurrences.

Footsteps were heard passing around the circle when everyone's position was accounted for and no confederate could have entered the room. Psychic lights were seen near the sitters; they formed couples and became two eyes, with expressive and mobile pupils that regarded the sitter fixedly. A mass of cloudy matter formed around the eyes and finally took a human shape.

The most noteworthy and convincing, at least to the sitters, were manifestations that occurred toward the end of the séances, at the moment when Guzyk awoke from the trance. René Sudre writes in Psychic Research (1928, p. 605) "At such a moment as he mumbled some unintelligible words, Guzyk brought my hand into contact with a hairy creature, just as somebody turned on the red light. Between the medium and myself I saw a sort of dark nebulous mass, which disappeared rapidly like a melting fog." The apparition was what Geley termed the "Pithecanthropus," an ape-man with a hairy, tough skin who often licked the hands of the sitters. At other times sounds were heard as if of a materialized dog. Sudre further observes, "These phenomena of animal materialisation may appear incredible to those who have not experienced the proof of them, but in all honesty of conscience and in all scientific equanimity it is impossible for me to make any reservation whatever against their actuality."

Sudre was once embraced by a human figure of which he hardly saw anything more than the eyes and lips. The lips were quite cold. His wife, similarly embraced, perceived an odor of alcohol. Guzyk always drank brandy before the séances, but it appeared impossible for him to produce the phenomenon under the conditions of control.

It appears that Guzyk had fooled Geley, Sudre, and their colleagues at the Institut. In November 1923 a series of ten séances was held with Guzyk at the Sorbonne in Paris. The report, signed by four investigators, stated that their conviction of fraud was "complete and without reserve." The phenomena touches and displacement of objectswere produced by Guzyk's elbows and liberated leg. Yet it does not appear from the report that he was actually caught in fraud, and some observations cannot be explained by the liberation of a leg.

It is well known that Guzyk was often caught in fraud. His powers were highly commercialized, and he gave as many as five séances a day. Harry Price sat with him in August 1923 in Warsaw and found the phenomena childishly fraudulent. Max Dessoir wrote in Von Jenseits der Seele (1920) that he and a colleague repeatedly caught Guzyk using his foot for psychic touches and sounds. At Cracow in December 1924 the Metapsychical Society took a flashlight photograph at an unexpected moment. The picture showed Guzyk with his left hand raised to the height of the curtain, which he seemed to be grasping.

Following these séances M. Szczepansky wrote an article in Psychische Studien (June 1925), "The Career and Exposure of Guzyk." He drew a sharp reply from Baron Schrenck-Notzing who defended him by pointing out that Guzyk's frauds had been well known for years and did not detract from his genuine faculties. In 1927 Walter Franklin Prince sat with Guzyk in Warsaw. In Bulletin VII of the Boston Society for Psychical Research he gave an entirely negative report.