Facets of the Schneider Brother’s Mediumship
Peter Mulacz
Austrian Society for Parapsychology and Frontier Areas of Science,
Vienna, Austria
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Willy (1903–1971) and Rudi Schneider (1908–1957), from Braunau (Austria), were famous “physical” mediums; their phenomena were very similar. Investigations into their mediumship were carried out by various researchers in several countries. Albert von Schrenck-Notzing published on Willy’s phenomena (Schrenck-Notzing, 1924), and his collected material on Rudi was, compiled by Gerda Walther, posthumously published as a monograph (Schrenck-Notzing, 1933). Austrian theoretical physicist Hans Thirring (Mulacz, 2017; Schrenck-Notzing, 1926; Thirring, 1925) investigated both brothers, alternating between them whoever was available. Their phenomena belong mainly to the category of telekinesis; the most impressive phenomenon was levitation (NB: The notion of telekinesis is different from psychokinesis used by Joseph B. Rhine. The theory underlying telekinesis is that the locomotion of objects in a distance from the medium is put into effect by some sort of ectoplasm, a substance emanating from the medium’s body and forming transitory pseudopods, being resorbed afterwards).
Though the brothers’ phenomena were similar, their personalities were not. The description of Willy’s character by Schrenck-Notzing is not too favorable, whereas Rudi was open and friendly, the type of person everybody liked. His major interests were football and motorcycles. Despite the remarkable difference in education and intellectual abilities, he and Gerda Walther, PhD, and former secretary of Schrenck-Notzing, were good friends, and he used to keep her informed about developments in his life, including his career as a medium (Schneider, 1935; Walther, 1960).
Rudi is best remembered for the experiments father and son Osty carried out with him at the Institute Métapsychique International (Paris) in March 1930 (Osty & Osty, 1932) that provided evidence for the existence of “ectoplasm.” This makes Rudi Schneider stand out compared to all other physical mediums. Hence, it may be worthwhile to study even minor aspects of Rudi’s mediumship.
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Prof Peter Mulacz is a former lecturer in Parapsychology/Frontier Areas of Psychology at the Sigmund Freud University, Vienna.
He has studied biology, philosophy, and psychology at the University of Vienna, specializing in parapsychology (his main area of interest since childhood), and in order to widen his knowledge in the field he has been visiting the IGPP (then still directed by Hans Bender) several times including one extended study stay. Long stays abroad, particularly in the Middle East, gave him ample opportunity for studies in ethno-parapsychology.
His main interests in the field are ESP, makro-PK (e.g. PMB) and physical mediumism, Mesmerism and Subtle Energies, poltergeist cases, philosophical aspects of issues such as OBE, Survival vs. LAP, TL, Reincarnation and, last not least, History of Parapsychology.
Besides being the president of the Austrian Society for Parapsychology he served several times on the Board of Directors of the PA and is a former Vice President of the latter.
Some of his more recent publications, both in English and in German language, are found on „http://academia.edu ” at https://parapsychologie.academia.edu/PeterMulacz —
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Published on November 1, 2026
