Indridi Indridason's contact with Emil Jensen

Yeah, I do, I found the same short news report in an archive of the Danish Newspaper Berlingske Tidende, containing exactly the same key facts Indridi had provided at the sitting (according to Haraldsson's paper). As for Emil Jensen, there was no Emil Jensen at that sitting, there was just Jensen...

The Copenhagen fire was just one of many uncanny phenomena that Indridi demonstratrated during his career. In order to validly claim that Indridasson was totally fraudulent you need to convincingly, plausibly, debunk all of these other mediumistic phenomena which he was witnessed producing, as actually fraud, which means finding plausible "normal" explanations.

Regarding criticism at the time, according to Haraldsson, "Defenders have pointed out that most of the criticism was religiously motivated opposition to claims of spirit communication, made by people who had little or no first-hand experience of Indridi’s phenomena, as occurred in every country where physical mediumship was reported. Claims of fraud – for instance that Indridi had been once seen to kick a chair said to have been moved by spirits – were few and were unsubstantiated."

As a matter of observation, a number of the most highly verified and investigated mediums of the past were indeed caught occasionally faking it, but that turned out to be only when they just weren't able to manifest much due to fatigue or some other condition. They so strongly felt the need to demonstrate the phenomena and maintain their reputation that they resorted to fraud on those occasions. Eusapia Palladino was one of most prominent of these.


Some samples from the article in the Psi Encyclopedia:

"Indridi Indridason (1883-1910) was an Icelandic trance medium who produced physical phenomena of strength and variety comparable to that of DD Home, but who, unlike Home, was unknown outside his own country. The phenomena were closely observed by investigators and detailed records were kept. A sceptical Icelandic scientist subjected Indridi to close scrutiny with strict controls, but was unable to detect fraudulent behaviour, while continuing to observe striking phenomena.

Physical phenomena

Raps, cracking sounds in the air. Knocks, some of them loud and heavy, were heard responding to the sitters questions or demands. Knocks were also heard on the body of the medium.
Gusts of wind. Cold or hot winds, strong enough to blow paper, were common. Sometimes these winds seemed to emanate from points far away from Indridi.
Olfactory (odour) phenomena. Sometimes a sudden fragrant smell occurred in Indridi's presence; sometimes there were other smells, such as seaweed. The odour would sometimes cling to a sitter after being touched by Indridi.
Movements and levitations of objects. Frequently objects, small and large, light and heavy, were observed to move over short or long distances within a room or hall and sometimes flew quite high. Some of these objects moved as if thrown forcefully; at other times their trajectories were irregular. Sometimes objects were found to tremble. Curtains were pulled back and forth on request of the sitters.
Levitations of Indridi. Many instances of the levitation of Indridi are reported, often with him holding onto another person. During violent poltergeist phenomena, he was dragged along the floor and thrown up into the air, so that his protectors had difficulty pushing him down.
Playing of musical instruments as if by invisible hands. This might occur while the instruments were levitating and moving around in mid-air.
Light phenomena. Fire-flashes or fire-balls, or small and large fire-flashes, appeared on the walls. Sometimes there were luminous clouds as large as several feet across. These might be described as a ‘pillar of light’, within which a human form appeared.
Materializations. The shadow or shape of materialized fingers, a hand or foot, or a full human figure were seen. Sitters touched materialized fingers, limbs or trunks that were felt as solid.
Dematerialization of Indridi's arm. Indridi’s shoulder and trunk was inspected through touch by several sitters, yet the arm was not detected.
Sensations of touch. Sitters often reported the sense of being touched, pulled and punched by invisible hands, also of being kissed.
Strange sounds. Odd sounds were heard around Indridi – laughter, footsteps, buzzing sounds, the clatter of hoof beats, the rustling noise of clothes as if someone was moving.
Direct writing. Writing appeared on paper without human touch.
Disembodied voices that spoke and sang (see below).
Responsive xenoglossy. There were conversations between sitters and the disembodied voices in languages unknown to Indridi

Direct Voices and Xenoglossy

Voices, heard mostly about Indridi, were among the most persistent of his séance phenomena. They were recorded in more than three quarters of his ordinary sittings. Each had its own characteristic and style of speech: male or female, high or low-pitched, loud to the point of shouting or softly spoken, or merely a whisper in the ear of a sitter. The voices were in most cases recognized as those of deceased people known to one or more of the sitters (but not to Indridi), addressing individuals and responding to questions. They frequently offered convincing evidence of their identity by describing incidents from their life or possessions they had once owned.  A few spoke in French, Norwegian, Dutch or Danish, languages not known to Indridi, possibly apart from some Danish words. A few voices sang as well.

One of the frequently heard singing voices, a female, was also heard to speak in French (and sometimes in English and German). Few Icelanders spoke French in those days, but some present were able to test her: In September 1907, GT Zoega addressed her in French and found that she understood him. Zoega clearly heard French words and phrases in her speech, although not whole sentences. This singing itself was of a highly trained quality, far beyond that possessed by the medium or anyone present (no opera singers lived in Iceland at this time). The singer was eventually identified as the celebrated mezzo-soprano Maria Felicia Malibran, who died in a riding accident when she was 28. On one occasion, Indridi said he saw her standing between the cabinet and a chimney close by.

Another incident is reported by Brynjolfur Thorlaksson:

Once in the middle of the day, as often occurred, Indridi was at my home. While he was there I played on the harmonium a melody by Chopin. Indridi sat to the left of the harmonium. I expected that Mrs. Malibran knew the melody that I was playing for I heard her humming it around Indridi. Then I saw him falling into trance. … I heard many voices, both of men and women singing behind me, but especially to my right with Indridi being on my left. I did not distinguish individual words, but the voices I heard clearly, both higher and lower voices, and they all sang the melody that I was playing.

This singing differed from ordinary singing as it sounded more like a sweet echo. It seemed to come from afar, but was at the same time close to me. No single voice was discernible except the voice of Malibran. I always heard her distinctly."

The Copenhagen fire was just one of many uncanny phenomena that Indridi demonstratrated during his career. In order to validly claim that Indridasson was totally fraudulent you need to convincingly, plausibly, debunk all of these other mediumistic phenomena which he was witnessed producing, as actually fraud, which means finding plausible "normal" explanations.

Regarding criticism at the time, according to Haraldsson, "Defenders have pointed out that most of the criticism was religiously motivated opposition to claims of spirit communication, made by people who had little or no first-hand experience of Indridi’s phenomena, as occurred in every country where physical mediumship was reported. Claims of fraud – for instance that Indridi had been once seen to kick a chair said to have been moved by spirits – were few and were unsubstantiated."

As a matter of observation, a number of the most highly verified and investigated mediums of the past were indeed caught occasionally faking it, but that turned out to be only when they just weren't able to manifest much due to fatigue or some other condition. They so strongly felt the need to demonstrate the phenomena and maintain their reputation that they resorted to fraud on those occasions. Eusapia Palladino was one of most prominent of these.


Some samples from the article in the Psi Encyclopedia:

You want me to debunk everything from some show that took place over 100 years ago, lol. But all you have are 2nd and 3rd hand stories from the same show, and such shows had been common in Europe and the USA, all using similar phenomena.

I spent ages, doing research on Haraldsson's paper on the Copenhagen fire, I spent weeks trawling through foreign newspaper archives, translating everything, in the hope I would find that Marconi wire item on the fire in a newspaper... and I did. Haraldsson initially admitted he had made a mistake in his paper, which he would correct in his book, in fact he tried to flatter me... by calling me a "born researcher" and inviting me to Edinburgh, then tried to suggest that it made no difference anyway. But as I revealed more and more of my research, he constructed weak explanations of why it was of no significance, in the end his tone became acidic, and he stopped responding.

The Icelandic population was poorly educated, and way behind the curve on technological advances in the world, whereas Bjorn Jonsson, a member of the Althingi, and owner of the newspaper isafold was not. To illustrate his interest in new technology, in 1899, the first electric lights in Iceland were turned on in the house of Eyjólfur Thorkelsson in Austurstræti 6, and in the same year he illuminated the Ísafold offices in the building next door, Austurstræti 8.

The group of fraudsters that controlled the Experimental Society, and who also controlled Indridason, built a small hall for his acts... I mean, they controlled the fabric of the building. Similar technology to speaking tubes, wax cylinder gramophone, and electric magic lanterns etc., were probably used for the shows. To many poorly educated Icelanders, they had never been exposed to such technology, and it probably sounded and looked inexplicable, as it had done elsewhere previously.

Regarding the Jensen case, Haraldsson wrote this in the comments section of Michael Tymn's blog:

In 1905 there was much discussion in Iceland about whether the country should have a telephone cable connecting it with other countries, or wireless radio communication. The Marconi Company set up a station in Reykjavik in the summer of 1905 in the hope that the government would favor a wireless station. It chose the telephone cable. The station in Reykjavik was only able to receive radio messages from the powerful Poldhu station in Cornwall that transmitted news and messages to America. The Reykjavík receiving station distributed only major world news from the Cornwall station and gave it without cost to all newspapers in Reykjavik until it was closed in 1906.
The fire in Copenhagen was far from being world news. It caused no loss of life and only damage to one building. Also, report of the fire would not have been transmitted until the short lived fire had been quelled. First it would have to be sent to Cornwall, then manually morsed and transmitted, typed up at the Reykjavik receiving station and brought to Indridi who was in deep trance in the locked up Experimental House and held by one or two sitters.  If at all possible, this would have taken so much time that the séance would have been over when the message arrived. Let us not forget that Indridi/Jensen described the fire as it took place, not afterwards. This criticism of this remarkable case has obvious flaws and fails to explain it in a satisfactory manner.

Thank your comment. Nielsson writes that Indridi had some rest of half an hour during the séance on the 24th of November.  It is not stated that he left the séance room, still less the house. (Haraldsson, 2011, PSPR,59, p. 205).
The Marconi receiving station (photo exists) was erected where Katrinartun is now and Hofdi where Reagan and Gorbachev met in 1986.  It was near the sea on a field belonging to the farm Raudara some distance away from the small town that Reykjavik was then. Indridi´s sitting took place at Mjostraeti.  These streets can be looked up at Google maps. The walking distance between these locations is given as 27 minutes. Walking back and forth would take 54 minutes. Assuming that Indridi had gone there he must have been spent a few minutes with the two men at the station, so at least an hour altogether.  Indridi being a fit young man this might have taken him somewhat less time, but still far beyond his 30 minutes rest.
This explanation is highly unlikely. It also opens up the question, how Indridi could have known that Marconi was dispatching news that evening that something interesting was happening in Copenhagen. Also, had he already come to know the two Englishmen, Wm. Densham and his assistant? They surely did not know Icelandic and Indridi did not know English.  For this explanation a third man, an Icelander knowing English, was necessary.
This explanation is extremely far-fetched. Equally far-fetched must be the explanation that the Marconi men informed Indridi at the séance in Mjostraeti that something interesting for him was happening. How could they have done that without the sitters observing it? Why should the Englishmen and Indridi get involved in fraudulent behaviour that would greatly damage their reputation?
Another part of your comment:
It seems at least possible that this break was long enough for Indridi to have gotten the information from the newspaper editor member of the Society (who certainly had access to the news feed). 
My reply:
As I already pointed out in my last comment, news of the fire in Copenhagen could not have been dispatched until after midnight Danish time. During the night the Englishmen as well as the newspaper editor are likely to have been sound asleep. Besides, the newspaper editor (Bjorn Jonsson) was probably present at the séance when Indridi/Jensen described the fire in Copenhagen, namely a day before the Marconi message could have arrived at the newspaper offices. Also, all newspaper editors in Reykjavik received the same dispatches from Marconi, also those who were critical of Indridi.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indri%C3%B...%C3%B0ason

Antônio da Silva Mello has criticized the experiments conducted with Indriðason as non-scientific. He noted they were performed in the dark and it was suspicious as Indriðason refused to take off his shirt so his body could be examined after a séance.[34]

34.^ Mello, Antônio da Silva. (1960). Mysteries and Realities of This World and the Next. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p. 411

You want me to debunk everything from some show that took place over 100 years ago, lol. But all you have are 2nd and 3rd hand stories from the same show, and such shows had been common in Europe and the USA, all using similar phenomena.

I spent ages, doing research on Haraldsson's paper on the Copenhagen fire, I spent weeks trawling through foreign newspaper archives, translating everything, in the hope I would find that Marconi wire item on the fire in a newspaper... and I did. Haraldsson initially admitted he had made a mistake in his paper, which he would correct in his book, in fact he tried to flatter me... by calling me a "born researcher" and inviting me to Edinburgh, then tried to suggest that it made no difference anyway. But as I revealed more and more of my research, he constructed weak explanations of why it was of no significance, in the end his tone became acidic, and he stopped responding.

The Icelandic population was poorly educated, and way behind the curve on technological advances in the world, whereas Bjorn Jonsson, a member of the Althingi, and owner of the newspaper isafold was not. To illustrate his interest in new technology, in 1899, the first electric lights in Iceland were turned on in the house of Eyjólfur Thorkelsson in Austurstræti 6, and in the same year he illuminated the Ísafold offices in the building next door, Austurstræti 8.

The group of fraudsters that controlled the Experimental Society, and who also controlled Indridason, built a small hall for his acts... I mean, they controlled the fabric of the building. Similar technology to speaking tubes, wax cylinder gramophone, and electric magic lanterns etc., were probably used for the shows. To many poorly educated Icelanders, they had never been exposed to such technology, and it probably sounded and looked inexplicable, as it had done elsewhere previously.

This is mainly made up of whole cloth, as the saying goes, almost all being speculation, without substance. 

You ignore all the extraordinary phenomena demonstrated by Indridi without a word, and then when that is pointed out refuse to make even an attempt to debunk them, other than vague hints that they just must have been fraud, casually dismissing a raft of reports from credible witnesses including some scientist investigators, who had no motivation to lie. Extraordinary effects of a magnitude that had been demonstrated by few other mediums. One was the famous Scottish medium Daniel Dunglas Home, who was thoroughly tested by expert scientists and other investigators. Despite great pressure to debunk him, Home was never ever caught faking an effect. 

Sure enough, this dismissal of Indridi's mediumistic phenomena is based just on suspicious speculation with no specific evidence.

You then accuse the group that controlled the Experimental Society of being fraudsters, again with no evidence, just pure speculation that this group just must have set up the performance hall with an array of trick devices and used them to totally fool and  defraud the audiences. With a liberal use of the word "probably". I'm curious what motivation this group of mainly business and scientific men had to resort to such a scam on local society. If you deign to respond, no doubt it will be more speculation with no evidence.

The following needs research to confirm but this is part of a comment from internationalskeptics.com

http://www.internationalskeptics.com/for...stcount=39

1. The fire didn’t happen on the night of the séance, but most probably the night before

The Copenhagen fire happened earlier, a night before the séance took place. It probably started late in the night of Thursday, November 23, when the fireman got alarm. The fire was extinguished early in the morning of Friday, November 24, around 2 am. And fireman left the scene around 4 am just to come again because the fire started again. The Danish newspapers reported about the fire on November 25. That would be only possible if the fire happened on the night of 23/24.11.1905., one night before the séance took place, because of the newspaper printing deadlines. For example, on November 25 the Horsens Social Demokrat newspaper writes about the fire with all the important details in the telegram column dated on 24.11.1905. Horsens is 172 kilometres away from Copenhagen. So, if the fire happened the same night when the séance took place that means that the Horsens newspapers issue for November 25 should had been printed the same day, and only after the editor got telegram form Copenhagen – probably later in that day! And that is not possible because of the printing deadlines. As a former journalist I know that the printing deadline is around midnight. So, if you want to have your newspaper on the streets early in the morning you must close it by midnight. In the 19. century that deadline would have to be even earlier because all the letters had to be adjusted manually because of the printing technology. The same telegram feed about the fire was published in other newspapers published in cities of Aarhus and Fredericia, which are not close to Copenhagen.

2. The telegraph service was installed in Iceland before the séance took place and it was possible for medium’s associates to read telegraph feed about the fire and give it to him

Reports in the Iceland newspapers Isafold published on 1.7.1905. says that there was a Marconi station operating in Reykjavik as from summer 1905. Also, one of the medium associate/manager was a journalist and a newspapers owner who most probably could read reports from that station.

3., 4. There was actual Emil Jensen and there was his obituary published in the Danish newspapers Dannebrog on August 4, 1898 that contained precise information that was spoken by “Jensen”

Someone could have searched old newspapers between the first and second sitting (10 days difference) and give more info on “Jensen” that is a common Danish surname. Obituary contains all the needed info that medium “channelled”.

Original report can be found in “A Perfect Case? Emil Jensen in the mediumship of Indridi Indridason. The fire in Copenhagen on November 24th, 1905 and the discovery of Jensen´s identity. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, 59 (223), 195-223.”

If this is a perfect case it has a lot of holes in it… I just wonder how many holes are there in other examples reported in the documentary.

Sure enough, this dismissal of Indridi's mediumistic phenomena is based just on suspicious speculation with no specific evidence.

Lol...

Haroldsson claim of a perfect case in his paper "A perfect case? Emil Jensen in the Mediumship of Indridi Indridason, the Fire in Copenhagen..."  hangs on Telegraphy not being available in Iceland at the time, and Elendur claims in his paper it was not available until 1918.

The lack of telegraph was a major public issue in Iceland at the time, and was front page news in all the newspapers when it officially went live on the 1st July 1905 (see front page of isafold on that date - below)

http://thinkingdeeper.files.wordpress.co...7-1905.pdf

Translated (by google) it begins with the headline...

Marconi rocket.
Arrested in Reykjavík from Poldhu in Cornwall, England.
The distance 1850 rastir (= about 240 Danish miles).
June 26, 1905, at 1038 in the afternoon.

The PDF of the isafold newspaper provides evidence that Haroldsson was wrong... his paper "The Perfect Case..." hangs on Telegraphy not being available in Iceland at the time, and Elendur claims in his paper it was not available until 1918. The key claim in Haroldsson's paper goes up in smoke.

Björn Jónsson, Haraldur Níelsson, Einar Kvaran were all leading members of The Experimental Society who built the small Hall where Indridi performed, and where Indridi slept in a shared room at the back, they also paid him a small wage, as long as he agreed to only to perform for them.

Björn Jónsson was owner/editor of isafold, so he he had access to the Marconi telegraph feed, and knew it was available at the time of Indridi/Copenhagen-Fire, Haraldur Níelsson, Einar Kvaran would also have known. Yet here we have Haraldur Níelsson, and Einar Kvaran later lying...

The witness Haraldur Níelsson writes (1922)...

The first evening he [Mr Jensen] manifested himself through the medium,
he told us that in the half-hour pause while the medium was being allowed to
rest in the middle of the sitting, he had set off for Copenhagen and had seen
that a factory was on fire in one of the streets of the city. He told us that the
firemen had succeeded in conquering the fire. At that time no telegraphic
connection between Iceland and the outside world had been established, so
there were no means of recognising that event.
This happened on 24th November 1905. Next day I went to see the Bishop
of Iceland, the Right Reverend Hallgrimur Sveinsson, who was my uncle, and
stated to him what Jensen had told us, and asked him to write it down and
be a witness, whether it proved true or not. At Christmas the next boat came
from Denmark, and my uncle looked with curiosity through the Danish paper,
Politiken, and to his great content, observed the description of the fire. Both
day and time were right. About the factory Jensen was also right. It was a
lamp factory in 63, Store Kongensgade [a major street in Copenhagen].

The witness Einar Kvaran says (lecture 1910)...

This your countryman whom we have come to like so much, presented
himself for the first time as he appeared through the medium in a very distinct
and elegant manner. He [Jensen] told us that he had come directly from
Copenhagen, and that there was a fire there: a factory was burning. The time
was about 9 o’clock when he came. Then he disappeared and came back an
hour later. Then they [the firemen] had conquered the fire, he said. We did
not have any telegraph at that time, so we had to wait to have this statement
verified. But we wrote down his account and kept the document with the
Bishop [who had taken part in earlier séances]. With the next ship [from
Copenhagen], the papers brought us the news that there had been a large fire
in Copenhagen that evening — in Store Kongensgade, I think it was — where
amongst other things a factory had burnt. It also said that at about 12 o’clock
the fire had been brought under control. As you know, the time is about 12
o’clock here in Copenhagen when it is 10 o’clock in Reykjavik.

From Haroldsson's paper, the medium Indridi Indridason made 4 specific claims:

1. There was a fire in one of the streets of Copenhagen.
2. The fire was in a factory.
3. The fire started around midnight on 24 November 1905.
4. The fire was brought under control within an hour.

Now look at the brief newspaper report I found published later in the Danish Newspaper Berlingske Tidende

Last night at around twelve o’clock the Fire Brigade was called to Store
Kongensgade 63, where fire had broken out in a house in the backyard in the
warehouse of the Copenhagen Lamp Factory. The fire had spread considerably
when the fire brigades arrived from the Main Fire Station and Adelsgade
Station. Still, the firemen managed to get the fire under control in about an
hour. The damage was substantial.

Its not just close, it's amazingly close, it's the same report. All Indridi Indridason has done is report the contents of an even shorter telegraph news item from the Marconi feed, and made a sensational claim about it. Zero doubt about it in my view, Indridi Indridason was a fraud. The leaders of The Experimental Society (above) were also fraud's.

So how did Haroldsson, who lived in Iceland, and taught at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik, just 3km from the Marconi telegraph station, make such a crucial error in his key claim about there being no telegraph in Iceland at the time of the Copenhagen fire?

Some extra stuff, I found in my archive...


map of Reykjavik in 1912


the following morning (25th Nov 1905) the weekly edition of Björn Jónsson newspaper 'Isafold' printed the following column entitled 'Marconi Messages'