Italian spiritualist Eusapia Palladino became a global sensation in the late nineteenth century for her ability to levitate tables and materialize spectral hands during seances.

A closer look

Italian spiritualist Eusapia Palladino became a global sensation in the late nineteenth century for her ability to levitate tables and materialize spectral hands during seances. Scientists and skeptics repeatedly caught her using clever tricks, like slipping her foot out of her shoe to lift the table or using hairpins to manipulate objects in the dark. Instead of ruining her career, her defenders simply argued that she only used fake magic when her real magic was feeling tired, which is a truly spectacular level of cognitive dissonance. Honestly, you have to respect a scammer who gets caught red-handed and immediately blames it on her authentic mystic powers being on a temporary lunch break