Rosemarie Pilkington earned a doctoral degree in psychology, under the guidance of Stanley Krippner, at the Saybrook Graduate Institute. She is author of Men and Women of Parapsychology, Volumes I and II. She is also author of The Spirit of Dr. Bindelof: The Enigma of Séance Phenomena.

Psychologist and historian of parapsychology Rosemarie Pilkington discusses the mysterious case of Dr. Bindelof, a purported spirit communicator associated with a group of teenage séance experimenters in the 1930s. The group reported striking physical phenomena including raps, table movements, photographic anomalies, and communications attributed to a personality identifying itself as Dr. Bindelof. Pilkington explores the historical evidence, the later careers of some participants in parapsychology, and the enduring questions these unusual séance events raise about consciousness and survival.

00:00:00 Introduction

00:01:51 Teenage séance experiments in the 1930s

00:05:40 Emergence of the Dr. Bindelof communicator

00:11:20 Spirit photography and the mysterious portrait

00:18:05 Physical séance phenomena and table movements

00:26:30 Automatic writing and coded communications

00:34:10 The teenage experimenters and later parapsychology careers

00:41:45 Investigating fraud, psychology, and paranormal possibilities

00:49:10 What the Bindelof case suggests about survival research

00:55:40 Conclusion

(Recorded on March 7, 2026)

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Published on March 27, 2026