Season 06 Episode 34 Extra: Your Electric Feel

much for giving us a shot. I know there's a lot of other stuff out there that is equally deserving of your time, so again, it's much appreciated, whether you're a straight up fan of horror and the weird, or you just like listening because the monotonous tone of my narration sends you instantly to sleep. You're all welcome, and I remain forever your humble servant. We've just got one more unexplained extra few to conclude season six, but don't fret.

We'll be back very soon at the end of June with season seven for our seventh year of the podcast, which is frankly astonishing and once again all thanks to you listeners. So without further ado, thank you so much again and see you on the other side. Welcome to Unexplained Extra with Me Richard McLean Smith, where for the weeks in between episodes we look at stories and ideas that, for one reason or other, didn't make it into the

previous show. In last week's episode, She's Electric, we trace the strange tale of fourteen year old Angelique Cottan from Normandy in France, who, in eighteen forty six, after a series of heavy electrical storms, was said to have displayed

an unusual ability to move objects without touching them. Often, when I come across this kind of story, the first assumption made by the people exposed to the apparent supernatural event tends to be that some kind of haunting is taking place, or that Topesky poltergeist is to blame for the strange disturbances. It's unusual, then, that Angelique story seems to begin and end with the speculation that she was

single handedly responsible for the peculiar goings on. There have been similar reports of strange powers afflicting people before and since the case of Angelique Kotan. In the year sixteen eighty six, a man called Brigman's who lived in Brussels, was said to be similarly affected. A commission was appointed by local magistrates to investigate his condition, and the unfortunate sufferer was pronounced a sorcerer. Luckily for him, he managed to make an escape and might have been burnt alive

if he hadn't got away. Then, in America, in the early eighteen eighties, two so called electric girls were brought to the public's attention. Lulu Hurst, who took the name Georgia Wander, and Annie Abbott, whose sobriquet was the Little Georgia Magnet presented themselves as having powers very similar to those apparently exhibited by Angelique Cotan, making their names at stage performers. Their act involved them moving heavy pieces of

furniture around, often held down by seemingly strong men. However, Hearst subsequently wrote in an autobiography that her so called powers were in fact nothing more than a stage trick. To day, the hypothetical psychic ability, by which a person is said to be able to move objects without a

physical interaction, is known as psychokinesis. Experiments to prove the existence of this phenomenon of being criticized for lack of proper controls and repeatability, and are generally regarded as pseudoscience. One story that emerged out of Sweden in nineteen nineteen is certainly strange enough to make you think again. On April fifteenth, nineteen forty eight, a body was pulled out

of Shechechen Harbor in Poland. It was identified as forty year old Swedish sailor Gustave Zander Nord, who had last been seen in January after he disappeared from the steamship he worked on, which had been docked in Shechechen Harbor at the time. A great deal of mystery surrounded the man's death, with some claiming it wasn't gnawed at all. What was perhaps stranger, though, was the story that came

out two years previously concerning the man's early life. It was a priest named Ernest Bieker who revealed all to a Swedish newspaper in nineteen forty six. Some time toward the end of nineteen nineteen, Bieker received a letter from an elderly couple from the village of Jorgoa, just outside of Aorbloer in East Sweden. The couple had been having some problems with their grandson and had come to believe that he was possessed. They wanted Baker to conduct an

exorcism on him. Dismissing their concerns, Baker ignored the letter and forgot all about it until a few weeks later, when a friend of his brought more news at the peculiar grandchild and insisted that everything the grandparents were saying was true. Worried that he'd made a terrible mistake, the priest set out immediately to pay the family a visit. What he found in their home troubled him greatly. The couple's grandson was Gustav Nord, who was twelve years old

at the time. The boy was born in nineteen o seven and had endured a tough upbringing, frequently punctuated by violence at the hands of his father. By nineteen nineteen, his parents were separated and had effectively abandoned, leaving him to be brought up by his grandparents. Gustav was said to have been a relatively normal boy until sometime in the winter of nineteen nineteen, when he was caught up

in a fight between his uncle and his neighbour. He'd been so scared that he fled his home and hid in a barn until things had died down. That night, when he returned home, strange things began to happen. It started with wrappings on his bedroom wall, then chairs began to move, and eventually Gustave was apparently thrown out of his own bed. As things escalated, it said that the phone began to ring of its own accord, lights flashed on and off, and objects were levitated off the ground.

Unlike Gustav Nord's grandparents, the priest Ernst Bieker didn't think the boy was possessed, but instead was somehow directly responsible for the strange activity. This idea was in turn picked up by the boy's estranged father, who, on hearing about all the peculiar stories surrounding his son, returned suddenly in an attempt to exploit him, giving him the name the

Electric Boy. He is said to have taken him around local towns, forcing him to perform for money, until local authorities eventually stepped in and put a stop to the abuse. Gustave is then said to have been sent for treatment at a psychiatric hospital, though the precise details of what occurred there are unknown. The case eventually came to the attention of psychologist and sometime parapsychologist Sidney Ulrights at Sweden's

Uppsala University. Ulverretz collected numerous testimonies from the boy's family and several locally as officials who got involved in the case. Ulretz believed that Nord's power had something to do with animal magnetism. The idea was conceived by German physician Franz

Anton Mesmer back in the eighteenth century. Mesmer formulated the theory that all animate things are connected by some kind of magnetic force or fluid, which permeated the entire universe and was present all around and inside of us, Much like the way gravity affects the ocean tides. Mesmer claimed that our bodies could also be fundamentally acted on by outside electromagnetic forces. According to Mesmer, most illness was caused

by a disruption of this magnetic force insiderus. If the force could be manipulated back to its natural state, therefore, the illness would be cured. Despite his idea being roundly dismissed by the science establishment of the day, it became wildly popular in French society, where Mesmer applied his trade. At first, Mesmer encouraged his patients to swallow iron filings

that he then attempted to move through the body with magnets. However, he soon dispensed with his tools, claiming that he could instead just manipulate the magnetic force using only his hands and his mind. Perhaps Gustav Naud thought Sidney Alretz had similarly been able to tap into this universal force and had found a way to manipulate it. As Mesmer's popularity sowed, many attested to the undeniable efficacy of his technique, which

was credited with curing all manner of ailments. Medical practices at the time could often be quite brutal and disturbing, involving painful procedures applied without anesthetic. Part of Mesmer's appeal was the relatively benign nature of his treatments in comparison, which often amounted to little more than being touched or drinking what he claimed to be magnetized water. There's been

much speculation about Mesmer's intentions towards some of his patients. Certainly, his tactile processes, which included a fondness for touching women on the lower abdomen and inner thighs, could be said to be sexually abusive. Disturbed by Mesmer's emergence and the questionable nature of his work, France's then King Louis the

sixteenth appointed a scientific commission to investigate his theory. Members of the esteemed commission included founding father Benjamin Franklin and Joseph Ingne Schieton, after whom, as you may have guessed, the famed execution is instrument the guillotine is named after. The committee found Mesmer's theory to be completely without merit,

a conclusion which is maintained to this day. Interestingly, however, despite there being no truth to Mesmer's central idea, whatever he was doing often seemed to have a genuine physical impact on its patients. It is now widely considered that what he had inadvertently stumbled upon was the power of suggestion, and he's been credited with helping to pioneer what would

become known as the placebo effect. The term Mesmerism, named after Franz Anton Mesmer, has since come to be associated much more with the process of hypnotism, which was developed significantly by Scottish surgeon James Braid in the nineteenth century. After spending considerable time studying what it was about the idea of animal magnetism that actually had an effect on people. As for Gustave sander Nord, the Electric Boy, no definitive

conclusion was ever reached about his apparent powers. After his body was taken out of Schetchen Harbor in Poland, he was laid to rest in the city where he was found, where you can still find its gravestone to day. This episode was written by Richard McLain Smith and Diane Hope. Unexplained is an Avy Club Productions podcast created by Richard mc clain Smith. All other elements of the podcast, including the music, are also produced by Richard McLain Smith. Unexplained.

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