Rasmussen, Anna (Melloni) (1898-?)

Danish medium for physical and intellectual phenomena. Her mediumship was first manifested at the age of twelve, when a table moved both with and without contact. Poltergeist phenomena developed, then died out to give place to a range of phenomena: telekinesis, raps, slate-writing, automatic writing, luminous phenomena and trance speech under the control of an entity "Dr. Lasaruz."

In October and November 1921, the mediumship was examined at Fritz Grünewald's laboratory at Berlin. The results were placed before the second International Congress for Psychical Research at Warsaw, Poland, in 1923. The electrical condition of the séance room was a particularly noticeable phenomenon.

In September 1922, Christian Winther, of the Polytechnic Academy of Copenhagen, commenced a series of scientific experiments in which a Professor Bondorff, of the Danish Agricultural High School, the Laboratory Director R. Dons, and Dr. A. Marner, a practicing physician also participated. According to Winther's detailed account in Psychic Research (1928) among 116 séances which he had with the medium not a single one was completely negative.

There appeared a steady outpouring of psychical energy and if a séance was not organized the medium became restless and felt ill. In many cases she gave two, three, or even four sittings in a single day. All the sittings took place in actual daylight or in very strong artificial light. The medium sat quietly in the circle at the table, took her share of the conversation, took refreshments, read a newspaper and had apparently no connection with what was going on. Trance, however, was always a great fatigue, and it was only employed when this was the special subject of study.

Some of the automatic scripts came in English. A unique feature of her mediumship was that raps emanated from her left shoulder and answered questions. The British psychical researcher Harry Price placed his ear against the medium's shoulder and distinctly heard decided thumps from her body (Psychic Research, 1928, p. 377).