Heinrich Melzer (born 1873) was a German

spiritualist Spiritualism is the metaphysical school of thought opposing physicalism and also is the category of all spiritual beliefs/views (in monism and dualism) from ancient to modern. In the long nineteenth century The ''long nineteenth century'' i ...

medium Medium may refer to: Science and technology Aviation *Medium bomber, a class of war plane * Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design Communication * Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data * Medium of ...

History

Melzer was born in

Dresden, Germany Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth la ...

. For thirty years he gave séances and claimed to have the ability to materialize stones and

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s. In the séance room he would only materialize the flowers under the table, and as the table was not checked

skeptic Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the pe ...

s accused him of simply hiding the flowers under the table before his séances. When the room was checked and

scientific control A scientific control is an experiment or observation designed to minimize the effects of variables other than the independent variable (i.e. confounding variables). This increases the reliability of the results, often through a comparison betwe ...

s were introduced no flowers appeared. In 1926 Melzer was exposed as a fraud as he was caught with small stones attached to the back of his ears by flesh coloured tape.

E. Clephan Palmer Ernest Clephan Palmer (1883 – 4 July 1954) was a British author, journalist and psychical researcher. Biography Palmer was born in Ipswich and worked for forty years as an editor for the '' Daily News'' and the ''News Chronicle''. For twent ...

. (2003). ''The Riddle of Spiritualism''. Kessinger Publishing. pp. 35-39.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Melzer, Heinrich 1873 births Year of death missing German spiritualists Spiritual mediums People from Dresden