Rudi Schneider (July 27, 1908 – April 28, 1957), son of Josef Schneider and brother of Willi Schneider, was an Austrian Spiritualist and physical medium.Underwood, Peter. (1978). Dictionary of the Supernatural. Harrap. Roach, Mary. (2005). Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife. W. W. Norton. His career was covered extensively by the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research,Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research: (Dates, Author). 1925-12-01 (Thirring), 1926-01-01 (Price), 1926-03-01 (Kogelnik), 1926-05-01 (Gruber) and he took part in a number of notable experiments conducted by paranormal researchers/debunkers, including Harry Price, Albert von Schrenck-Notzing and Eric Dingwall.Fodor, Nandor. (2003). An Encyclopedia of Psychic Science. Kessinger Publishing. (reprint) Some of these researchers declared him to be a fraud while others were unable to find evidence of trickery.Osty, Eugene. (1933). Super normal Aspects of Energy and Matter. Society for Psychical Research. A detailed biographyAnita Gregory, The Strange Case of Rudi Schneider. The Scarecrow Press, Inc., Metuchen, N.J., & London, 1985, ISBN 08108-1711-X of Rudi Schneider, presenting rare documents, like diaries kept by his father, was published by Anita Gregory. The author explicitly admits her positive bias.
Early career Schneider began participating in séances with his elder brother Willi Schneider at age 11. Both Rudi and Willi claimed to channel a spirit entity called "Olga" who in the séance room claimed to be "Lola Montez" the nickname of Eliza Eosanna Gilbert (1821-1861) the mistress of Ludwig I of Bavaria. Schneider held his first solo séance in 1919 and is said to have been able to summon the ghostly image of a human hand, as well as a number of other manifestations that are traditionally associated with séances. Schneider's other brother, Karl, also claimed to be a medium.Randi, James. (1995). An encyclopedia of claims, frauds, and hoaxes of the occult and supernatural: decidedly sceptical definitions of alternative realities. St. Martin's Griffin.
Investigations Schneider began giving demonstrations to the Vienna Institut für Radiumforschung der Akademie der Wissenschaften in 1923. In an investigation into the mediumship of Schneider in 1924 the physicists Stefan Meyer and Karl Przibram caught Schneider evading the controls in a series of séances. After Meyer and Przibram's accusations, the institute concluded that the abilities that Schneider had demonstrated up to that point were all, based on the balance of probability, the result of trickery and that he was no-longer of interest to them.Price, Harry. (1936). Confessions of a Ghost-Hunter. Putnam. p. 233. "Rudi has been accused of producing spurious phenomena many times, by many persons. In 1924 Professors Meyer and Przibram, of Vienna, accused him of evading control. On April 28, 1933, Professor Przibram wrote me: "We know that Rudi evaded control at the [Vienna] séances and we have no reason to believe that any of the phenomena we saw were of supranormal character."Thruelsen, Richard. (1961). Adventures of the Mind. Knopf. p. 325. "An analogous case was that of the Schneider brothers, Willy and Rudy, who performed a series of teleplastic manifestations that were carefully examined by Professor Przibram of the University of Vienna and discovered to be nothing but deceptions."Shepard, Leslie. (1991). Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology. Gale Research Company. p. 1463. "In 1923-24, Prof. Dr. Stefan Meyer and Prof. Dr. Karl Przibram, of the Institut fur Radiumforschung der Academie der Wissenschaffen, Vienna, detected Rudi evading control. After that they had no reason to believe that any of the phenomena were of supernormal character."
Between May 8, 1924 and February 1, 1929 Rudi Schneider was mainly investigated by Albert von Schrenck-Notzing, mostly in his lab in Munich. The sittings are documented in his Die Phänomene des Mediums Rudi Schneider (The Phenomena of the Medium Rudi Schneider) published posthumously in 1933, edited by his scientific secretary, the philosopher Dr. Gerda Walther (1897-1977),A first-hand account of Rudi Schneider's mediumship is provided in Gerda Walther's autobiography Zum anderen Ufer - Vom Marxismus und Atheismus zum Christentum. Otto Reichel Verlag, Remagen, 1960. with a preface by Eugen Bleuler. On November 2, 1924 Thomas MannThe relationship between Schrenck-Notzing and Thomas Mann is described in detail by the specialist in German studies and writer Manfred Dierks (* 1936) in his Thomas Manns Geisterbaron - Leben und Werk des Freiherrn Albert von Schrenck-Notzing Psychosozial-Verlag, Giessen, 2012. The sittings with the Schneider boys are covered in the chapter Das Thomas Mannsche Phänomen, pp. 310-315. The broader historical context is described in the doctoral theses of Corinna Treitel (2004). A Science for the Soul. Occultism and the Genesis of the German Modern. Baltimore & London: The Johns Hopkins University Press; and of Heather Wolffram (2009). The Stepchildren of Science: Psychical Research and Parapsychology in Germany, c. 1870-1939. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi. attended a sitting and again with his wife Katia Mann on January 24, 1925. On June 21, 1925 there was a sitting in Zurich attended by C. G. Jung,See also the end of Chapter 22 Bollingen and its footnote 64 of Deirdre Bair, Jung. A Biography, Little, Brown and Company, New York, 2003 all with good phenomena.
In 1926, American journalist Warren Vinton attended séances with Schneider and came to the conclusion that the movement of objects were fraudulently produced by other members of the Schneider family concealed in the room.Vinton, Warren. (1927). The Famous Schneider Mediumship: A Critical Study of Alleged Supernormal Events. No. 4 April in Ogden, Charles. (1995). Psyche: An Annual General and Linguistic Psychology 1920-1952. Routledge/Thoemmes Press. In April 1927, Vinton published an article in Psyche which accused Schneider of being a fraud and using a hidden accomplice. Another researcher, J. Malcolm Bird who attended a séance with Schneider also supported Vinton's accusations.Reuter, William. (1941). An Objective Study in Extra-sensory Perception. Temple University. p. 60. "In Rudi's home in Braunau, Vinton found that any of the phenomena were possible because of the cooperation of confederates both in the circle and in the cabinet, combined with the use of reaching rods."Douglas, Alfred. (1982). Extra-Sensory Powers: A Century of Psychical Research. Overlook Press. p. 202. "In August 1926 Dr. E. J. Dingwall, accompanied by the American journalist W. J. Vinton, again visited Braunau for sittings with Willi and Rudi. They hoped to substantiate Dingwall's theory that the sittings in the Schneider Home were fraudulent, perpetrated by the various members of the family. Vinton wrote a report in which he concluded that the phenomena observed during the ten séances he had attended were caused by someone who had entered the séance room secretly, unknown to the sitters."Guiley, Rosemary. (1994). The Guinness Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits. Guinness World Records Limited. p. 293. "The first major controversy erupted following publication in the metaphysical journal Psyche of a hypothesis of fraud that involved a confederate sneaking into the séance room unobserved. The article was written by an American journalist, W. J. Vinton, who had attended 10 séances along with Dingwall. Vinton's hypothesis was supported by Malcolm Bird of the American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR), who attended only a single séance during which he was supposed to have been guarding the door. Another skeptic was Walter Franklin Prince, who attended 10 sittings and saw only some curtains blowing, which he concluded could have been contrived."Franklyn, Julian. (2003). Dictionary of the Occult. Kessinger Reprint Edition. p. 228. "In 1926 Mr. W. J. Vinton sat several times with Rudi at the latter's home in Braunau and came to the conclusion that the movements of objects were fraudulently produced by other members of the Schneider family concealed in the room. In 1927 Mr. Malcolm Bird, the editor of The Scientific American, also had a sitting at Braunau and came to the same conclusion of a conspiracy of fraud."
The parapsychologist Walter Franklin Prince attended a series of sittings with Schneider and no paranormal phenomena was observed. In his notes in the Bulletin VII of the Boston SPR published under Experiments with Physical Mediums in Europe (1928) he wrote "despite my studied and unremitting complaisance, no phenomena have occurred when I had any part in the control, save curtain movement which were capable of the simplest explanation."Spence, Lewis. (2003). Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology. Kessinger Reprint Edition. p. 805 Whilst Prince did not detect any concrete evidence of fraud he found the red light too dim to observe the medium and suspected that Schneider's spirit guide "Olga" insisted the sitters talk loudly to act as a distraction and possible cover for an accomplice in the room.Douglas, Alfred. (1982). Extra-Sensory Powers: A Century of Psychical Research. Overlook Press. p. 203
According to Peter Underwood it was discovered that Schneider had a "sexual climax" during some of his séances.Underwood, Peter. (1972). Into the Occult. Harrap. p. 126 Schneider had an orgasm during some of his mediumship practices.Devereux, George. (1974). Psychoanalysis and the Occult. Souvenir Press. Psychologist D. H. Rawcliffe wrote that Schneider "had been repeatedly and comprehensively exposed" as a fraudulent trickster.Rawcliffe, Donovan. (1988). Occult and Supernatural Phenomena. Dover Publications. p. 313. "Rudi, and his brother Willi, had been repeatedly and comprehensively exposed as fraudulent tricksters, yet such is the faith of those imbued with a penchant for the mysterious that both spiritualists and psychical researchers alike continued to believe in the possibility of their supernatural powers. "Ectoplasm" and other "teleplastic manifestations" were their main specialities. These, however, were investigated by Professor Przibram of the University of Vienna and found to be nothing more than deceptions."
Harry Price
In 1929, Schneider took part in a number of experiments conducted by notable investigator/debunker Harry Price at the National Laboratory of Psychical Research. Price conducted a series of experiments in which Schneider was connected to a series of pressure switches that would alert observers if he moved his hands, feet or limbs in any significant way. Schneider was also physically restrained during some of the experiments. Price recorded that during his experiments various phenomena were observed; including the movement of objects placed around the room and the apparent manifestation of mysterious hands and shapes.
Schneider claimed he could levitate objects but according to Price a photograph taken on April 28, 1932, showed that Schneider had managed to free his arm to move a handkerchief from the table. After this, many scientists considered Schneider to be exposed as a fraud; however, there was a controversy over the photograph from the parapsychology community.Price, Harry. (2003). Fifty Years of Psychical Research. Kessinger Publishing. (reprint)Holroyd, Stuart. (1976). Minds Without Boundaries. Aldus Books. p. 63. Holroyd reprinted a large version of the photograph in his book and a zoom in on Schneider. The photograph depicts Schneider in a pajama jacket with a freed hand reaching out to move a handkerchief from the table. Price wrote that the findings of the other experiments should be revised due to the evidence showing how Schneider could free himself from the controls.Spence, Lewis. (2003). Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology. Kessinger Reprint Edition. p. 806