Bianchi, P. Benigno (ca. 1890)
Bianchi, P. Benigno (ca. 1890)
Professor of psychiatry at Naples, director of the Salerne Insane Asylum, and later minister of education, who investigated the phenomena of medium Eusapia Palladino. He was present at the sitting in March 1891 that was also attended by Cesare Lombroso.
On Marco Falcomer's invitation, Bianchi attended a séance with Nilda Bonardi and, in a spirit of skepticism, asked if the intelligent force directing the movement of the table could indicate the names of two of his uncles, deceased, and also reveal a family secret. The table immediately gave the name of both and proceeded to disclose the secret with so much exactitude that Bianchi hastily cried "Stop!" Subsequently he wrote in a letter to Falcomer: "The entirety of the facts observed and noted by me in the course of various sittings have profoundly shaken my scepticism; and now I can no longer give myself out to be a sceptic, as, for the time being, numerous facts incline me to believe in spiritualism."