Shame on Frank Kluski! How to Make Your Own Ghost Hand Cast

In this article, we will explore the fascinating story of Frank Kluski, a Polish medium who, in the 1920s, claimed to be able to create casts of spirit hands. Kluski conducted experiments in the controlled conditions of séances, aiming to prove the existence of spiritual matter. After years of searching, in 1997, two skeptics succeeded in reproducing these casts, opening a new avenue for research into this phenomenon. The article will provide details on the experimental methodology, as well as practical tips for making your own cast.

In 1919 and later, from 1922, Franek Kluski (born Teofil Modrzejewski), a Polish medium, through experiments during strictly supervised spiritualistic séances, provided "ultimate proof of the existence of spiritual matter." This proof was said to be what Kluski called a ghost hand cast—a wax cast of a hand.

Kluski claimed that he placed an ectoplasmic hand in wax melted in hot water, and when the wax covered the entire ectoplasmic hand or hands and cooled and hardened, it dematerialized the spirit's hands, leaving only the resulting form.

Then, to maintain the shape, the researchers who accompanied Kluski filled the mold with plaster and removed the wax. This is how the final shapes of the so-called ghost hand casts materialized by Kluski were created.Wax molds are so delicate that it's impossible to remove anything with bent fingers, or even an entire hand, from one without destroying the mold. This could only be accomplished by using something like a ghost that can dematerialize.

During the experiment, two participants sitting next to Kluski held his hands so that the medium could not move or use them. Furthermore, to determine whether the wax or one of the wax molds had been brought in and replaced, a small amount of a chemical reagent was secretly added to the wax before the experiment began.

If, after cutting off a small amount of wax from the finished mold and adding another chemical reagent, the wax turned red, it was known that the mold had been made in wax with the reagent added. This allowed the researchers to prove that the mold had been made in wax in Kluski's room. This test was successful and proved that Kluski had not brought the mold made outside with him and that no alterations had been made to it.

The method of making the mold remained unknown for a long time.

After Kluski's casts came to light, researchers and skeptics alike spent over 80 years searching for ways to replicate them. Some methods were too complex, while others found the molds too clumsy compared to those made by Kluski, leaving the casting method an unsolved mystery for decades.

In 1997, two Italian skeptics, Massimo Polidoro and Luigi Garlaschelli, finally succeeded in reproducing the casts of Kluski's ghost hands using a method they developed, which turned out to be quite simple. You don't have to be a ghost to pull the hands from the mold without damaging it—you just have to work carefully and slowly. Essentially, the only thing that matters is changing your mindset that doing so is impossible.However, in their description of the cast reproduction, the gentlemen didn't include any photographs of the wax mold before it was filled with plaster. In my opinion, this omission made their description less convincing. Therefore, I wanted to make such a mold myself, knowing from reading the description that such an experiment doesn't require special equipment.

So I decided to conduct such an experiment. After a series of trials and errors, I can say I succeeded. As my report states, and as skeptics have previously stated, humans are capable of creating such forms. Below, I provide my description of the form-making process, along with photos. I will also describe how the medium frees his hands when it seems impossible, because the people sitting next to him are holding his hands.