Throughout the years, there have been a few television shows depicting a person who can solve crimes with some sort of extraordinary mental power that can either see into the future or retell something occurred in the past. Psychometry deals with the “special gift or power” of being able to describe a life history by simply touching a person’s possessions. When this power is used to solve a murder or other police case, the term, “psychic detective” comes into play.
In Europe, there was a well-known psychic detective named Gerald Croiset, who was accredited with solving numerous murder cases. Croiset claims that throughout his childhood, he experienced numerous psychic encounters. He was able to tell the life history of those he came in contact with, just by touching one of their belongings.
After Croiset married, he suffered a nervous breakdown and upon recovery, he began to go out a bit more, including a visit to a watchmaker’s workshop that would change the course of his life. While visiting the shop, he picked up a ruler and was overtaken with an overload of images that he felt belonged to the watchmaker. After engaging in a conversation with the watchmaker, he was correct in assuming that the visions he experienced were from the watchmaker’s time as a youth.
After surviving two trips to a concentration camp during World War II, Croiset survived the war and met a professor at Utrecht University, who studied parapsychology. The two joined forces in the exploration of psychometry.
Croiset’s first helped the police with his abilities in 1949 when he was asked to describe what was contained inside two sealed boxes just by touching them alone. Not only did he describe the contents, but also stated detailed information regarding the crime scene. The police were impressed and decided to call upon him for assistance with future dilemmas. Croiset’s visions and descriptions were able to locate lost daughters, apprehend murderers, as well as lead police to additional clues of a crime case.
His reputation gained so much recognition that he had to relocate many times. Now don’t get me wrong, he was not an absolute ace when it came to solving every case. In fact, one of his most public psychic blunders involved the description of a serial killer referred to as the Yorkshire Ripper. As with anything that is scientifically unexplainable, many skeptics denounce psychometry as a series of parlor and mind tricks. Others who back his abilities stated that he never received any money for his efforts and the only payment that he asked for in return was documentation sent out to keep track of his psychic accomplishments.
Psychometry is a hard pill to swallow, but there is evidence to show that some sort of mental power does exist. The connection between this power and crime scene detectives remains inconclusive. You may ask yourself “how does one receive such a power?” and “are they born with it?” Often someone who exhibits psychometric powers noticed their gift after experiencing various mental trauma or head injury.