Loftur continued the work and co-authored with William Swatos, the book Icelandic Spiritualism: Mediumship and Modernity in Iceland (Swatos and Gissurarson, 1997), much of it dealing with Indridi and the history of Mediums and Spiritualism in Iceland. Shortly after the year 2000, two Experimental Society minute books dating back to the Indridason period were unexpectedly found that contained new information (Haraldsson, 2009). Some time later, Haraldsson delved into the new material which resulted in three major articles being published in the Proceedings and the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research (Haraldsson, 2011, 2012a) and the Journal of Scientific Exploration (Haraldsson and Gerding, 2010). It soon became obvious that only a book would do justice to Indridi, as he deserved to be known to the wider international public. This is that book.

Background

Note: Icelandic names are patronymic and Icelandic individuals in this article are referred to by their first (given) names. 

Indridi Indridason was born in 1883 and grew up on a farm in northwestern Iceland. When he was 22, he moved to the capital Reykjavik and became a printer’s apprentice. In 1904, Einar H Kvaran, a prominent writer and editor, started a spiritualist circle, hoping to produce spiritistic phenomena, at first with little result. But then a meeting was held in the house where Indridi was living, and he was invited to join. He had barely seated himself when the table round which the party was gathered moved violently. Indridi was afraid and wished to leave; however, he was persuaded to stay, and later consented to take part regularly in these gatherings.

Sittings started with Indridi falling into a self-induced trance, whose genuineness was often tested by pricking him with pins on sensitive areas of his body; there was no reaction. Séances were held in darkness for the most part, although sometimes the lights were switched on. The movements of objects could be monitored by attaching luminescent materials to them. Indridi was usually controlled by two sitters, one on each side, restraining his hands, legs and feet.

A variety of phenomena were observed of the kind reported with DD Home, Eusapia Palladino and other physical mediums, including sharp knocks or raps, cold breezes, movements of objects, levitations, lights and scents (see below). They were so striking that a group calling itself Experimental Society was founded to study Indridi, and academics and prominent citizens were invited to participate. A special house was built for these activities; it also contained an apartment for Indridi. The proceedings were written up in Minute Books immediately after the sitting or the following day and were usually signed off for accuracy by a second person who had been present.  

Einar gave lectures and published articles about Indridi’s phenomena in the Icelandic media. Haraldur Nielsson, a theology professor, presented papers about Indridi at psychical research conferences in Copenhagen and Warsaw in 1921 and 1923.

Sittings were held over a period of five years. In 1909, Indridi fell ill with tuberculosis and died at Vifilstadir hospital on 31 August 1912, aged 28. Einar saw him the day before he died, by which time he could barely speak, except to say that he could see deceased friends about him. 

Information in this article is drawn from Indridi Indridason: The Icelandic Physical Medium by Erlendur Haraldsson and Loftur Gissurarson,1 except where noted.

Indridi's Mediumship - Physical Phenomena

The following recurring phenomena at Indridi's séances were described by Haraldsson in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research.2

• Raps, cracking sounds in the air. Knocks, some of them loud and heavy, were heard responding to the sitters questions or demands. Knocks were also heard on the body of the medium.

• Gusts of wind. Cold or hot winds, strong enough to blow paper, were common. Sometimes these winds seemed to emanate from points far away from Indridi.

• Olfactory (odour) phenomena. Sometimes a sudden fragrant smell occurred in Indridi's presence; sometimes there were other smells, such as seaweed. The odour would sometimes cling to a sitter after being touched by Indridi.

• Movements and levitations of objects. Frequently objects, small and large, light and heavy, were observed to move over short or long distances within a room or hall and sometimes flew quite high. Some of these objects moved as if thrown forcefully; at other times their trajectories were irregular. Sometimes objects were found to tremble. Curtains were pulled back and forth on request of the sitters.

• Levitations of Indridi. Many instances of the levitation of Indridi are reported, often with him holding onto another person. During violent poltergeist phenomena, he was dragged along the floor and thrown up into the air, so that his protectors had difficulty pushing him down.

• Playing of musical instruments as if by invisible hands. This might occur while the instruments were levitating and moving around in mid-air.

• Light phenomena. Fire-flashes or fire-balls, or small and large fire-flashes, appeared on the walls. Sometimes there were luminous clouds as large as several feet across. These might be described as a ‘pillar of light’, within which a human form appeared.

• Materializations. The shadow or shape of materialized fingers, a hand or foot, or a full human figure were seen. Sitters touched materialized fingers, limbs or trunks that were felt as solid.

• Dematerialization of Indridi's arm. Indridi’s shoulder and trunk was inspected through touch by several sitters, yet the arm was not detected.

• Sensations of touch. Sitters often reported the sense of being touched, pulled and punched by invisible hands, also of being kissed.

• Strange sounds. Odd sounds were heard around Indridi – laughter, footsteps, buzzing sounds, the clatter of hoof beats, the rustling noise of clothes as if someone was moving.

• Direct writing. Writing appeared on paper without human touch.

• Disembodied voices that spoke and sang (see below).

• Responsive xenoglossy. There were conversations between sitters and the disembodied voices in languages unknown to Indridi (see below).

• Direct voices.  Whispers were heard, voices spoke, also through trumpets moving through the air. Voices were heard singing, also a male and female voice at the same time. A choir was heard in the distance.

• Two  or  more  phenomena  occurred  simultaneously,  which  was  deemed impossible for one man to do, such as  a  musical  instrument  moving fast  around  in  mid-air  and  at  the  same  time  being  played  upon,  or two widely different voices singing at the same time.

• Automatic writing.  Then Indridi’s handwriting would change greatly.

• Mental   phenomena   were   also   reported;   that   is,   information   was communicated that was not available to any of the sitters by normal means.  The  core  of  this  paper  will  deal  with  one  such  case,  when a  fire  in  Copenhagen  was  described  at  a  time  when  there  were  no telephone or radio contacts with Iceland.

• Controls and direct communicators revealed knowledge that the medium could not have known about then.

Direct Voices and Xenoglossy

Voices, heard mostly about Indridi, were amongst the most persistent of his séance phenomena. They were recorded in more than three quarters of his ordinary sittings. Each had its own characteristic and style of speech: male or female, high or low-pitched, loud to the point of shouting or softly spoken, or merely a whisper in the ear of a sitter. The voices were in most cases recognized as those of deceased people known to one or more of the sitters (but not to Indridi), addressing individuals and responding to questions. They frequently offered convincing evidence of their identity by describing incidents from their life or possessions they had once owned.  A few spoke in French, Norwegian, Dutch or Danish, languages not known to Indridi, possibly apart from some Danish words. A few voices sang as well.

One of the frequently heard singing voices, a female, was also heard to speak in French (and sometimes in English and German). Few Icelanders spoke French in those days, but some present were able to test her: In September 1907, GT Zoega addressed her in French and found that she understood him. Zoega clearly heard French words and phrases in her speech, although not whole sentences. This singing itself was of a highly trained quality, far beyond that possessed by the medium or anyone present (no opera singers lived in Iceland at this time). The singer was eventually identified as the celebrated mezzo-soprano Maria Felicia Malibran, who died in a riding accident when she was 28. On one occasion, Indridi said he saw her standing between the cabinet and a chimney close by. 

Another incident is reported by Brynjolfur Thorlaksson:

Once in the middle of the day, as often occurred, Indridi was at my home. While he was there I played on the harmonium a melody by Chopin. Indridi sat to the left of the harmonium. I expected that Mrs. Malibran knew the melody that I was playing for I heard her humming it around Indridi. Then I saw him falling into trance. … I heard many voices, both of men and women singing behind me, but especially to my right with Indridi being on my left. I did not distinguish individual words, but the voices I heard clearly, both higher and lower voices, and they all sang the melody that I was playing.

This singing differed from ordinary singing as it sounded more like a sweet echo. It seemed to come from afar, but was at the same time close to me. No single voice was discernible except the voice of Malibran. I always heard her distinctly.3

The female voice sometimes sang duets in French with a male voice, seemingly coming from empty space.

Copenhagen Fire

In one notable sitting, a communicator appeared who identified himself by the name Jensen and described a fire raging in a factory in Copenhagen, on a street in which he had lived. This event, and the details described by ‘Jensen’, were confirmed when newspapers of that date later arrived by boat from Denmark. For details, see Copenhagen Fire.

Trance Control Personalities

Certain ‘control’ personalities appeared at every sitting, communicating with séance organizers verbally or by automatic writing. They seemed motivated to produce a variety of different phenomena to convince observers of the reality of spirit survival.

The Society‘s records show that in fifteen sittings between December 1905 and January 1906, eleven identified communicators appeared: Konrad Gislason (1808–1881) at every sitting, Rev Steinn Steinsen (1838–1883) at fourteen sittings, Jensen at six sittings. Three communicators appeared two or three times; amongst them was one who spoke Dutch. Four appeared only once. There are occasional mentions of ‘disturbing entities’, without further description. 

In a sample of fifteen sittings between September 1907 and February 1908, nine communicators appeared on average in each sitting. Gislason and Sigmundur Gudmundsson (1838–1897) were always present; Steinsen appeared eight times. Two new foreigners had appeared: a Norwegian doctor, Danielsen, who was constantly present as a control, and the French singer Malibran.

Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg (1843–1907) appeared several times, the first time in September 1907, ten days after his death. In one recorded incident, Brynjolfur was alone with Indridi in his apartment, playing the organ while Indridi hummed the melodies. Brynjolfur tore out a page from a pocket notebook and placed it with a pencil on a table in an adjacent bedroom.

We listened and after a short while we hear the pencil fall on the table. I go into the bedroom to fetch the paper and the pencil. On the paper had been written: ‘Edvard Grieg’.

 I had never seen Grieg´s handwriting so now I was very curious to know if it looked like what was written on my paper. Somewhere – I do not remember where – I succeeded in digging up Grieg’s signature. It was exactly the same writing as on the paper I had torn out of my pocket book.4

Gudmundur Hannesson Investigation

A thorough investigation of Indridi was carried out by Gudmundur Hannesson, a highly regarded scientist who later became professor of medicine at the University of Iceland and founded the Icelandic Scientific Society. Gudmundur was known for integrity and impartiality, and also for a strong disbelief in the claims of mediums. He carried out investigations over several months and reported his observations in articles published in 1910 and 1911. English translations were published in 1924 in the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research.5

Gudmundur’s reports describe detailed examinations of the séance room in which every item was scrutinized and the doors locked and sealed. The medium was stripped and his clothes examined. Gudmundur sat next to Indridi holding his hands, having separated him from the other people present by means of a net strung across the room from floor to ceiling, standing by the only opening to be certain that no one could get in or out without him knowing. He often varied these precautionary measures to try to catch Indridi out.

Nothing seems too trivial to be suspected that it may in some way serve the purpose of the impostors. This is no joke, either. It is a life and death struggle for sound reason and one’s own conviction against the most execrable form of superstition and idiocy. No, certainly nothing must be allowed to escape.6

Gudmundur was specially interested in the movement of objects. He ordered from abroad some phosphorescent tape which glowed well in the dark (nothing like this was to be found in Iceland), and fixed it on some objects to enable him to track their movements in the dark. A lamp was also lit for brief moments, and some phenomena were seen in full light. One object was a zither, a bulky stringed instrument, which he saw move in entirely unnatural ways – at lightning speed or floating with varying speeds in different directions, in straight lines, curved lines, and sometimes spiral lines.

These investigations were interrupted by Indridi’s illness. However, by this time Gudmundur had conceded defeat:

Often I could see no conceivable possibility that anybody, inside or outside the house, was moving the things. … The movements were often of such a nature that doing them fraudulently would have been exceedingly difficult, e.g. taking a zither, swinging it in the air at enormous speed and at the same time playing a tune on it. This was, however, frequently done while I was holding the hands of both the medium and the watchman [controller], and there seemed no way for anybody to get inside the net.7

Criticism

Descriptions of Indridi’s phenomena aroused fierce controversy in the Icelandic media. Vitriol was directed at Einar in response to his lectures and articles; he was denounced for ‘practising sorcery and conjuring up the dead’, and newspapers that published his reports were bitterly attacked. The phenomena were dismissed as ‘ridiculous, ludicrous superstitions, farce and fraud produced by charlatans and clowns’. Agust H Bjarnason, later professor of psychology and philosophy at the University of Iceland, dismissed Indridi as a ‘hysteric or epileptic or at least something in this direction’, adding that he had heard his mother was, or had been, a hysteric, and frequently fell into an extended comas.8 The controls were considered inadequate and the methods unscientific.9

Defenders have pointed out that most of the criticism was religiously motivated opposition to claims of spirit communication, made by people who had little or no first-hand experience of Indridi’s phenomena, as occurred in every country where physical mediumship was reported. Claims of fraud – for instance that Indridi had been once seen to kick a chair said to have been moved by spirits – were few and were unsubstantiated.

Erlendur Haraldsson

Literature

da Silva Mello, A. (1960). Mysteries and Realities of This World and the Next. Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

Hannesson, G. (1924). Remarkable phenomena in Iceland. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 18, 239-72.

Haraldsson, E. (2011). A perfect case? Emil Jensen in the mediumship of Indridi Indridason, the fire in Copenhagen on November 24th 1905 and the discovery of Jensen´s identity. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 59, 195-223.

Haraldsson, E. (2012). Further facets of Indridi Indridason’s mediumship; including ‘transcendental’ music, direct speech, xenoglossy, light phenomena, etc. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 76, 129-49.

Haraldsson, E., & Gerding, J.L.F.  (2010). Fire in Copenhagen and Stockholm. Indridason’s and Swedenborg’s ‘remote viewing´ experiences. Journal of Scientific Exploration 24, 425-36.

Haraldsson, E., & Gissurarson, L.R.  (2015). Indridi Indridason. The Icelandic Physical Medium. Hove, UK: White Crow Books.

Nielsson, N. (1922). Some of my exeriences with a physical medium in Iceland. In Le compte rendu officiel du premier congres international des recherches psychiques a Copenhague, ed. by C. Vett, 450-65.

Swatos, W.H., & Gissurarson, L. R. (1997). Icelandic Spiritualism: Mediumship and Modernity in Iceland. Piscataway, New Jersey, USA: Transaction Publishers.

Thordarson, T. (1942). Indridi midill. Reykjavik: Vikingsutgafan.

Events

Anew communicator appeared at a séance of Icelandic medium Indridi Indridason1 briefly on 24 November 1905. He spoke Danish and introduced himself as ‘Mr Jensen’, a common Danish surname. No sitter recognized him. Later in the evening Jensen returned. He stated that he had been to Copenhagen (1,300 miles distant) and described a fire raging in a factory there.

Three witnesses described Jensen’s statements. Haraldur Nielsson, a theology professor, wrote:

The first evening he [Mr Jensen] manifested himself through the medium, he told us that in the half-hour pause while the medium was being allowed to rest in the middle of the sitting, he had set off for Copenhagen and had seen that a factory was on fire in one of the streets of the city. He told us that the firemen had succeeded in conquering the fire. At that time no telegraphic connection between Iceland and the outside world had been established, so there were no means of recognizing that event.

This happened on 24th November 1905. Next day I went to see the Bishop of Iceland, the Right Reverend Hallgrimur Sveinsson, who was my uncle, and stated to him what Jensen had told us, and asked him to write it down and be a witness, whether it proved true or not.

At Christmas the next boat came from Denmark, and my uncle looked with curiosity through the Danish paper, Politiken, and to his great content, observed the description of the fire. Both day and time were right. About the factory Jensen was also right. It was a lamp factory in 63 Store Kongensgade [a major street in Copenhagen].2

Einar H Kvaran gave a more detailed account in a lecture given in Copenhagen and spoke about when Jensen appeared for the first time:

This your fellow countryman whom we have come to like so much, presented himself for the first time as he appeared through the medium in a very distinct and elegant manner. He [Jensen] told us that he had come directly from Copenhagen, and that there was a fire there: a factory was burning. The time was about 9 o’clock when he came. Then he disappeared and came back an hour later. Then they [the firemen] had conquered the fire, he said. We did not have any telegraph at that time, so we had to wait to have this statement verified. But we wrote down his account and kept the document with the Bishop [who had taken part in earlier séances]. With the next ship [from Copenhagen], the papers brought us the news that there had been a large fire in Copenhagen that evening—in Store Kongensgade, I think it was—where amongst other things a factory had burnt. It also said that at about 12 o’clock the fire had been brought under control. As you know, the time is about 12 o’clock here in Copenhagen when it is 10 o’clock in Reykjavik.3

There are discrepancies with regard to timings between the accounts of Nielson and Kvaran, but the essential facts are the same, and were further corroborated by Kvaran’s wife.4 As well as stating the fact of a fire that evening in Copenhagen, Jensen added specifics:

• The fire was in a factory.

• The fire started around midnight on 24 November 1905.

• The fire was brought under control within an hour.

On the day following the séance, Saturday the 25th of November, two major Danish newspapers reported a fire in Copenhagen. Politiken writes:

Factory Fire in St. Kongensgade. Copenhagen’s Lamp and Chandelier Factory in Flames

Last night at about 12 o’clock the janitor of number 63 Store Kongensgade [Kongensgade Street] discovered that there was a fire in “Copenhagen’s Lamp and Chandelier Factory,” which is located on the ground and first floor of a side house in the back yard.

He called the Fire Brigade and soon fire-extinguishing carriages from Adelsgade Fire Station and the main Fire Station arrived under the direction of Fire Chief Bentzen. The first floor was already ablaze with powerful flames reaching out of the windows and breaking the glass in the windows on the second floor where there is a factory for making cardboard boxes.

The Fire Brigade quickly attached two hoses to fire hydrants. One of the hoses had to go across the street so all tram traffic came to a halt. The water from the two hoses soon subdued the fire but then it was discovered that the fire had gone through the ceilings to the floors above the factory. [There follows a detailed description of the work of the fire brigade].

In about half an hour the fire had been diminished to such an extent that the firemen could remove the hoses across the street to let about a dozen trams pass that had been waiting, after which the hoses were connected again. … It became obvious that the fire had caused quite a substantial damage. Walls and floors had been burnt out and both stocks and machines of considerable value had been destroyed. There was still fire in some places. … Around 1 a.m. some of the firemen and equipment were able to leave but a fairly large number of firemen had to remain at the location for a further hour and a half. The fire is assumed to have started by a breakdown in an electric circuit.

In researching this claim in Copenhagen city archives, Erlendur Haraldsson found the fire brigade’s report of the fire at 63 Store Kongensgade on 25 November 1905. This report states that the fire was violent. In the house there were three workshops with much flammable material. The fire had been fully extinguished at 2 am. The cause of fire was unknown.

Nielsson gives no exact time for Jensen’s statements about the fire, only that they occurred during a pause for the medium to rest, which would presumably have been late in the séance which took place on Friday evening. The sittings started at 8 pm and lasted up to a few hours. Kvaran writes that it was around nine when Jensen told them about the fire, and then an hour later that the fire had been brought under control. The time in Copenhagen would then have been 11.15 pm, as the time difference between Reykjavik and Copenhagen was two hours and fifteen minutes at this time.

According to the Fire Brigade, it was called at 11.52 pm (9.37 pm Icelandic time). The fire may have been burning for a while before it was noticed, and then it would have taken a few minutes for someone to run to the nearest fire alarm. Kvaran’s statement about the time when Jensen spoke of the fire must be an estimate; the records indicate that it is likely to have started sometime after 9 pm. There is a reasonably close correspondence.

The fire was brought under control in half an hour, according to Politiken. Kvaran’s timing here comes quite close: he writes that Jensen came back after one hour and claimed that the fire was under control.

Analysis

How frequent were newsworthy fires in Copenhagen at the beginning of the twentieth century? Could it be a fluke of chance that this fire coincided with Jensen’s statements?

Haraldssson checked the frequency of fires reported in Politiken. In a four-week sampling period from two weeks before the fire in Store Kongensgade to two weeks afterwards, four fires were reported in the newspaper, including the fire in Store Kongensgade. Only one fire took place in the evening, and only one fire took place in a factory, namely the Store Kongensgade fire; it was the largest fire, and caused most damage.

Jensen got it right that a fire took place in Copenhagen in the evening of 24 November 1905, that it was in a factory. and that it was brought under control in about an hour. Telephones did not come to Reykjavik until almost a year later, and telegraphy not until 1918. It is difficult to identify a normal explanation for the fact that Jensen – or for that matter the medium Indridi Indridasson – was able to describe in detail and in real time an emergency taking place some thirteen hundred miles away.

Search for Jensen’s Identity

Who was Jensen? Was he just a figment in the mind of Indridi, or had he been a real living person?

The only information given in the account of Nielsson is that Jensen was a manufacturer (fabrikant).5 Kvaran6 describes him as a clothing manufacturer (klædefabrikant) and a native of Copenhagen which, he writes, could easily be determined from his ‘genuine Copenhagen accent’. That is all we know from those who wrote about Indridi and his phenomena. Kvaran wrote of Jensen: ‘never did we come to know anything about who he was when he was living’.7 Following this first appearance on 24 November, Jensen made frequent appearances, often in relation with light phenomena and attempts to produce materializations. However, not a word is found about his identity.

Two volumes of minutes of séances recorded by the sitters came to light in the 1990s. One starts with a sitting on 4 December 1905, ten days after the sitting in which the fire in Copenhagen was described. Jensen appears again at a sitting on 11 December 1905. Here, apparently in response to a request for information, he makes several specific statements about his personal life.

• It (my Christian name) is Emil. My name: Emil Jensen, yes.

• I have no children, yes.

• I was a bachelor.

• I was not so young when I died.

• I have siblings.

• My siblings are not here in heaven (they are living).

• I was a manufacturer.

No attempt was made at the time to verify if any person had lived in Copenhagen who fit this description. Copenhagen is far from Reykjavik, a major city, and such an undertaking might have seemed unfeasible, considering the length of time that had elapsed and that the name ‘Jensen’ is extremely common in Denmark.

Questions remained: Had there lived in Copenhagen a Jensen who was a manufacturer? Had there perhaps been several people to whom this applied? Was there any connection between such a person or persons and the location of the fire described by the communicator who called himself Jensen?

In Copenhagen’s Royal Library, Haraldsson found Köbenhavns Vejviser, a reference work published annually in the nineteenth century, listing professionals and business people in alphabetical order according to family name, Christian name, profession and address.

Hundreds of Jensens were listed in 1890, including several manufacturers of that name. But only one manufacturer had the Christian name Emil. His address? 67 Store Kongensgade, two doors from number 63, where the fire broke out. This verified that the manufacturer Emil Jensen had in fact lived in Copenhagen, and – even more remarkably –  had lived virtually next door to the site of the fire.

Search in census documents revealed that Emil Jensen was born in Copenhagen. He was listed as a ‘manufacturer’ and ‘coffee merchant’; he was single, had no children, and died in 1898. Emil Jensen had three sisters and two brothers, all of whom survived him.

In short, all seven statements that Jensen made about his identity at Indridi´s séances matched a real individual in a distant city, as did his description of an event taking place there.

Clairvoyance or Spirit Communication?

In the absence of a normal explanation – such as a deliberate deception on the part of the medium or sitters, or unwitting exposure to true information – explanations in such cases are often sought in terms of a psychic faculty on the part of the medium, raher than spirit communication. It could be hypothesized that the medium Indridi, in a trance state, had experienced a clairvoyant vision of the event in distant Copenhagen (also termed ‘remote viewing’), or perhaps an out-of-body experience that brought him into direct contact with it.

On the other hand, it is not obvious why Indridi would attach importance to such an event, in a city with which he had no relationship and had never visited. His ability to manufacture a ‘communicator’ who was a real, identifiable individual in this city would also need to be explained.

Haraldsson points out that a motivation for observing the event is far easier to ascribe to Jensen, as a discarnate personality who, having introduced himself to the circle, was distracted during a break in the proceedings by a violent event elsewhere that impacted on him directly, since it took place where he had lived for most of his life.8 Indridi, by contrast, had no discernible reason to pay it any attention. This being the case, Haraldsson argues, the balance is in favour of spirit communication.

Swedenborg: Fire in Stockholm

Indridi/Jensen’s description of the fire in Copenhagen is strikingly similar to the famous vision reported to have been experienced by Emanuel Swedenborg in 1759. During a visit to Gothenburg, the Swedish scientist and seer described to friends a fire that was raging in Stockholm, some three hundred miles distant. The German philosopher Immanuel Kant asked an English friend – a merchant who sometimes visited both cities – to investigate this case, and Kant described his findings in a letter:

The following occurrence appears to me to have the greatest weight of proof, and to place the assertion respecting Swedenborg’s extraordinary gift beyond all possibility of doubt. In the year 1759, towards the end of September, on Saturday at four o’clock p.m. Swedenborg arrived at Gothenburg from England when Mr. William Castel invited him to his house, together with a party of fifteen persons. About six o’clock, Swedenborg went out [not stated if out of the house or only out of the room], and returned to the company quite pale and alarmed. He said that a dangerous fire had just broken out in Stockholm, at the Södermalm, and that it was spreading fast. He was restless and went out often. He said that the house of one of his friends, whom he named, was already in ashes, and that his own was in danger. At eight o’clock, after he had been out again, he joyfully exclaimed, “Thank God! The fire is extinguished three doors from my house.” The news occasioned great commotion throughout the whole city, but particularly amongst the company in which he was. It was announced to the Governor the same evening. On Sunday morning, Swedenborg was summoned to the Governor, who questioned him concerning the disaster. Swedenborg described the fire precisely, how it had begun, and in what manner it had ceased, and how long it had continued.9

The news was only verified when a messenger arrived from Stockholm by road. The fire was the largest in Stockholm for many years, and destroyed some 250 houses; it started about half a mile away from Swedenborg’s home, and was extinguished less than three hundred feet from his house.

There are obvious similarities between the two accounts. Both tell of observations of a fire in a distant city and end with the observation that the fire has been brought under control. The descriptions were witnessed by many people, details also being given to a local dignitary before the events were verified some time later.

In addition, the location of the fires must have been of utmost importance to both percipients (assuming that discarnate Jensen was the percipient). The Stockholm fire threatened Swedenborg’s home and property. Similarly, the Copenhagen fire broke out in an area where Jensen had lived all his life, and where he must have had many close friends.

The cases also differ in at least one respect. Indridi was in trance when he, or a communicator speaking through him, described the fire. Swedenborg was apparently in his normal state of consciousness.

It should be noted, however, that Swedenborg wished to be alone and undisturbed while receiving impressions of the fire, during which time he may have entered an altered state of consciousness similar to the mediumistic trance experienced by Indridi. In such a state he might have communicated with spirits of the deceased, as he was reputed to do habitually in later life. In that case, the two situations would be closely comparable.

Erlendur Haraldsson

Literature

Haraldsson, E. (2011). A perfect case? Emil Jensen in the mediumship of Indridi Indridason, the fire in Copenhagen on November 24th 1905 and the discovery of Jensen’s identity. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 59, 195-223.

Haraldsson, E., & Gerding, J.F.L. (2010). Fire in Copenhagen and Stockholm: Indridason's and Swedenborg's ‘remote viewing' experiences. Journal of Scientific Exploration 24, 425-36.

Haraldsson, E., & Gissurarson, L.R. (2015). Indridi Indridason, the Icelandic Physical Medium. Hove, UK: White Crow Books.

Nielsson, H. (1922). Some of my exeriences with a physical medium in Iceland. In Le compte rendu officiel du premier congres international des recherches psychiques a Copenhague, ed. by C. Vett, 450-65. Copenhagen:

Kvaran, E.H. (1910). Metapsykiske faenomener i Island. Sandhedssögeren 6, 42-51.

Thordarson, T. (1942). Indridi Midill. Reykjavik, Iceland: Vikingsutgafan.

Trobridge, G. (2004). Swedenborg: Life and Teaching. Whitefish, Montana, USA: Kessinger.