Pansini Brothers (ca. 1904)

Italian mediumistic children, chiefly known for the reports of their mysterious bodily transportations. In 1901 their father Signor Mauro Pansini, a building contractor, went to live in an old house close to the town hall at Ruvo, in Apulia. A few days later poltergeist phenomena broke out in the house, articles were thrown about, and crockery was broken.

One evening Alfredo Pansini, then seven years of age, fell into trance and began to speak and recite in French, Latin, and Greek. These manifestations continued until he was sent to a seminary where he was entirely free from them.

When he returned home in 1904 at age ten, a new series of phenomena commenced in which, besides Alfredo, his eight-year-old brother Paolo was also involved. In a few minutes they were, according to reports, bodily transported to places ten to fifteen miles distant (see also teleportation ).

This phenomena created great bewilderment. The parents appealed to the bishop of Bitonto to deliver the children from the obsession of which they were supposed to be the victims. While their mother was talking to the bishop both boys mysteriously disappeared from the room.

Alfredo Pansini could answer mental questions by automatic writing. The spirit speaking through him explained that he achieved the transportation by the dematerialization of their bodies. No observer could explain the phenomena. Italian scientists who looked into the matter put forward the theory of "ambulatory automatism," moving about in a secondary state and forgetting it when returning to the normal state. This, however, did not explain how the boys ran nine miles in half an hour without anybody seeing them on the road.

Sources:

Lapponi, Joseph. Hypnotism and Spiritism. New York: Long-mans, Green, and Co., 1907.