Kluski, Franek (1874-?)

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Kluski, Franek (1874-?)

Pseudonym of a distinguished Polish poet and writer whose remarkable physical powers coexisted with psychic gifts. As a child of five or six he had presentiments, visions of distant events, and saw phantoms. He thought the phantoms natural and talked with them familiarly. In 1919 Kluski's psychic gifts were discovered when he attended a séance with Jan Guzyk. His talent annoyed him at first, but curiosity prevailed and he consented to experiments. Various phases of physical phenomena developed, culminating in materialization, during which, like Elizabeth d'Esperance, Kluski retained consciousness.

For scientific research he placed himself readily at the disposition of the Polish Society for Psychic Research and the Institut Métapsychique of Paris, where his first sittings took place in 1920 in the presence of Charles Richet, Count de Grammont, and Gustav Geley. The paraffin casts of materialized limbs made in these séances were considered among the best objective evidence of supernormal power ever produced.

Another curious feature of Kluski's materialization séances was the appearance of animal forms, which included squirrels, dogs, cats, a lion, and a buzzard. One of the most disturbing manifestations was a large primitive creature like a huge ape or a hairy man. The face was hairy, and the creature had long, strong arms and behaved roughly to the sitters, trying to lick their hands and faces. This materialization, which Geley named "Pithecanthropus," exuded a strong odor like "a wet dog." Geley considered Kluski a universal medium, a king among his contemporaries. He found the clairvoyance that was manifest in Kluski's automatic writing scripts almost terrifying.

The best account of Kluski's mediumship is the 1926 book (in Polish) by Col. Norbert Ocholowicz, Wspomnienia Z, Seansow Z(Medium Frankiem Kluskim).