Fanny Moser

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Swiss zoologist and pioneer of parapsychology; her wealthy father Heinrich Moser, from Schaffhausen, was 67 when she was born, her mother, Baroness Fanny Louise von Sulzer-Wart from Winterthur, was only 24. Her father died on 23 October 1874, when she was only two years old. Her mother was later considered the wealthiest woman in Europe, aside of royalty, and became a patient of Sigmund Freud. Her sister Mentona Moser (born Luise Moser on 19 October 1874) became a famous Swiss communist. Fanny Moser was privately educated, she studied in Munich and received a PhD in 1902. Afterwards she worked in the marine biology research station in Naples, Italy. An experience (1913) convinced her that the "supernatural" like telepathy, appearances had to be seen without denying that there existed also cases of fraud. So she did read all she found and made her own researches in many cases to decide what really was serious. Her two standard works still today - are "Occultism" (Okkultismus, 1935) and "Spuk". She had the intention to write the second book of "Spuk", but, working on it, she died 24 february 1953 in Zurich. She is with no doubt a woman which has shown in her books all possible aspects of prophecy, clairvoyance, telepathy and much more. Her "pro and contra" of poltergeist and her critical view concerning media impressed also C.G.Jung who knew her work and wrote a preface to her second book. She left her large parapsychological library and a substantial part of her wealth to Hans Bender's "Institut für Grenzgebiete der Psychologie und Psychohygiene (IGPP)" in Freiburg („Moser-Foundation“). A detailed biography in German is found in the Stadtarchiv Schaffhausen, but with an error for her birthday (21 May instead of 27). Link to Wikipedia biography (German)