Indridason, Indridi (1883-1912)

Powerful Icelandic medium (discovered by the novelist Einar H. Kuaran) who was the subject of systematic experiments between the years 1904 and 1909 by the Psychic Experimental Society of Reykjavik, which was established for the purpose of studying this mediumship, the first that Iceland had known. Indridason, who was under exclusive contract to the society, began with automatic writing and trance speaking. After that telekinesis, levitation, materialization, and direct voice developed. He also had healing powers. The phenomena was so strong that direct voice was heard and levitations took place in the presence of 60 to 70 sitters.

Indridason's chief control claimed to be a brother of his grandfather, a university professor at Copenhagen. The power of the medium was at its height in 1909. During the summer he contracted typhoid fever and later consumption, dying in a sanatorium in August 1912.

The experimental society disbanded after his death. Harald Nielsson, professor of theology at the University of Reykjavik, was the chief exponent of the genuineness of Indridason's power (Light, October-November 1919). The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research (1924, p. 239) published a critical analysis of the phenomena by Prof. Gudmundur Hanneson of the University of Reykjavik. He concludes: "The phenomena are unquestionable realities."

Sources:

Gissurarson, Loftur R., and Erlendur Haraldsson. "The Icelandic Physical Medium Indridi Indridason." Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 57, 214 (January 1989).