Franek Kluski

Franek Kluski, real name Teofil Modrzejewski (1873-1943), was a Polish medium.

According to French psychical researcher Gustav Geley, Kluski's claimed psychic powers manifested themselves during childhood and after undergoing a psychological change he became Franek Kluski. Kluski's powers during séances were said to include physical manifestation of human limbs and various animals. Between 8 November and 31 December 1920 Geley of the Institute Metapsychique International attended fourteen séances with Kluski in Paris. A bowl of hot paraffin was placed in the room and according to Kluski spirits dipped their limbs into the paraffin and then into a bath of water to materialize. Three other series of séances were held in Warsaw in Kluski's own apartment, these took place over a period of three years. Kluski was not searched in any of the séances. Photographs of the moulds were obtained during the four series of experiments and were published by Geley in 1924. Skeptics have pointed out that the experiments were not conducted in fraud proof conditions and the moulds could have easily been produced by fraudulent techniques.

Magicians have been able to easily replicate the "materialization" moulds. The magician Carlos María de Heredia revealed how fake materialization hands could be made by using a rubber glove, paraffin and a jar of cold water. There was also an incident in which a séance sitter claimed "Kluski dropped... his pants and placed his buttocks in the paraffin".

The spiritualists Arthur Conan Doyle and Gustav Geley objected the medium had used a rubber glove. In response, Harry Houdini demonstrated that a glove was not even needed as he replicated the Kluski materialization moulds by using his hands and a bowl of hot paraffin.

Harry Price wrote regarding Kluski "His mediumship is unsatisfactory from the point of view that no scientific body has investigated the alleged miracles. On each of my two visits to Warsaw I attempted to obtain sittings with Kluski, without results." Researchers have compared Kluski's mediumship to the medium Eva Carrière and have speculated that he introduced items in the séance room by fraud. A psychical researcher sent a letter to Hereward Carrington claiming Kluski had been detected in fraud.

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