Ignath, Lujza Linczegh (b. 1891)

Hungarian clairvoyant, and healing and apport medium, controlled by "Nona," a pure spirit who claimed to have never been incarnated and came without trance, in the manner of an alternating personality. Ignath's unusual psychic powers were first described in a Hungarian pamphlet by William Tordai of Budapest. In Tidskrift for Psykisk Forskning (vol. 5), the journal of the Norwegian Society for Psychical Research, Lujza Lamaes-Haughseth, a high school teacher and experimental psychologist, published a long report of her observations with Ignath in Budapest. As a consequence the Norwegian Society for Psychical Research, headed by Professors Jaeger and Theostein Wereide, both of the University of Oslo, sent an invitation to Ignath, which she accepted.

According to a report in the Tidens Tegn (November 20, 1931), the medium produced direct writing in the presence of 100 people on places selected by the audience. In an experimental sitting for the Norwegian SPR conducted by Dr. Jorgen Bull, a chemist in Oslo, direct writing was produced on wax tablets in a specially prepared and closed box.

In religious ecstatic condition, stigmatic wounds were observed on Ignath's head. On such occasions "Nona" delivered moving lectures on the subject of religion.

Ignath's oddest phenomena consisted of miniature heads that she materialized in drinking glasses filled with water. "Nona" asserted that the heads, the size of walnuts, were "plastic thoughts." Having been shown a photograph of Haughseth's husband, Nona materialized his likeness. Flashlight photographs of these forms were published in the Psykisk Forskning (vol. 6).

In the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research (vol. 38, p. 466-71) Theodore Besterman describes some psychometric experiments with Ignath in Budapest. On November 18, 1928, he left a sealed vial with Lujza Haughseth for testing. His conclusion of the reading was that "the experiment is very instructive from a negative point of view."