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The Mediumship of Attila von Szalay – Raymond Bayless [from Experiences of a Psychical Rsearcher]

IN THE last part of the year 1948 I first met Mr. von Szalay at his photographic studio in Hollywood, California. He became a close friend of mine, and to this day we share investigations and various experiments. He is a medium and, even though he possesses paranormal abilities, he does not in any way act as a professional psychic but prefers to privately experiment with his own phenomena or on occasion to sit with friends.

His phenomena are, in the main, spontaneous in nature and in some part cannot be turned on and off at will. His chief effects have been the production of very sporadic paranormal photographs; numerous spontaneous effects such as the paranormal displacement of objects, lights, odours, both pleasant and strangely unpleasant at times; very rare telepathic and clairvoyant manifestations; and a paranormal "voice."

This last phenomenon, at the present, interests him the most and he has devoted a great deal of time to it. In spite of the sporadic and spontaneous nature of a percentage of his psychical effects, I have been fortunate to have been present when much of it occurred. For example, one phase (to term it that) of his medium- ship featured the production of psychical odours and, after that had apparently run its course, other manifestations took its place. His phenomena are, to my observation, cyclic in nature, and one series of effects succeeds another.

To describe the odour phenomenon, I will relate in some detail the first occasion on which this manifestation occurred. I was visiting Mr. von Szalay at his studio and we were seated on a couch conversing about psychic phenomena when I noticed that a very pleasant, flowerlike odour was pervading the room. It swiftly grew in intensity and soon had filled our part of the room in heavy concentration.

We were both amazed but could not find the source of the mysterious scent. I might add that the room was fully lighted. As the essence grew and grew in strength I finally sniffed my way to its source; it was pouring out of von Szalay's chest just as though a water faucet had been turned on. I asked him to open his shirt so I could examine his skin and found that it was coming from one small area.

His chest was free from any preparations which could have normally produced the odour, and the outpouring of scent continued in spite of my examination. Suddenly the odour disappeared just as though someone had turned off a spigot-and the room was instantly free from any suggestion of the perfume.

In spite of the incident's informality, it was very impressive and a splendid example of paranormal activity. For months, an occasional trace of this perfume would sporadically occur. It took place when we were in theaters and once when we were in a building housing a religious picture on the grounds of Knott's Berry Farm, a well known institution in southern California. This occurrence manifested again when I was involved in moving into an upstairs apartment and Mr. von Szalay was helping me.

I was upstairs in the apartment when he opened the downstairs door to enter. Just as he did and began to climb the staircase, I suddenly noticed that the room contained definite traces of the strange perfume.

Again, in spite of the perfectly spontaneous and "informal" nature of the incident, it was an impressive display of psychical action.