CONFESSION OF A MEDIUM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 262, 5 November 1931, Page 20

CONFESSION OF A MEDIUM.

ALL FRAUD

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

CAPETOWN, September 30,

"Because I got absolutely disgusted with what I saw and with myself," was the reason given in a confession that he was a fraud made by Charles Albert Beare who had earned a living for the past three years as a professional spirit medium.

He held a diploma for "proved mediumship," had established before the board of examiners of the Christian Spiritualists' Federation his claim to possess certain spiritual gifts, had successfully demonstrated the gifts of clairvoyance and psychometry to the satisfaction of the board and had passed as an authorised medium.

Beare described himself as a "bcrgue medium" and said he had deceived hundreds of people and had been guilty of fraud fcnd deception in spiritualistic practices. Pretending that he was controlled by a Greek "spirit guide" he uttered gibberish. A man who said he understood Greek actually told him he understood every word of it. Beare has given up all his spiritualistic practices and professional bookings extending into 1932. He said, "I feel free now. Never again will I return "to spiritualistic practice. I wish from the bottom of my heart that I had never lived such a life of deceit."

Beare described seances he had helped at which he spoke through a "spirit trumpet." He was even successful with "apporte" seances at which articles were supposed to come unseen through the windows and doors.