Leonora Piper

Who was Leonora Piper?

Leonora Piper was a famous trance medium in the area of Spiritualism. Piper was the subject of intense interest and investigation by American and British psychic research associations during the early 20th century, most notably William James and the Society for Psychical Research.

Researchers and scientists who studied Piper's mediumship have described mentalist techniques such as cold reading, muscle reading and "fishing" she may have used to gather information about séance sitters. Science writer and mathematician Martin Gardner dismissed Piper as a "clever charlatan."