WOMAN MEDIUM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 309, 31 December 1931, Page 5

WOMAN MEDIUM.

COMPLETE EXPOSURE.

SWALLOWED " TELEPLASM."

An almost incredible account of how a woman medium produced streams of "teleplasm" and "materialised by disgorging cheese cloth, safety pins, rubber surgical gloves, and a photograph which she had previously swallowed is contained in a bulletin of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, issued in London. Mrs. Duncan, aged 32, who weighs 17 stone, had earned a considerable reputation in Scotland as a materialising medium, and early this year she was brought to London by the London Spiritualist Alliance so that her phenomena might be tested. She astonished everybody by her ability to sit-in a special one-piece seance suit and swathe herself in yards of what was alleged to be teleplasm—the energy of the medium exuded from the body and controlled by a mind. , • She sat behind closed curtains. When she had gone into a trance, which required only a minute or two, the curtains would open suddenly, ostensibly by some psychic force, and Mrs. Duncan would walk out among the sitters with "teleplasm" streaming from her mouth and trailing behind her. Facetious Control She was searched beforehand to ensure that nothing was concealed on her body and dressed by someone in the onepiece seance garment. The seance room would be flooded with light, for "Albert," her control, a very facetious spirit, insisted that all mediums should perform in the light. Mr. Harry Price, director of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, formed a circle of eminent scientists and doctors, including Professor W. McDougall, the psychologist; Dr. William Brown, of Harley Street; Professor J. C. Flugel, assistant professor of psychology in University College, London; and Professor D. F. Fraser-Harris, to test Mrs. Duncan scientifically. The result of their investigations at four seances was a complete exposure. They found that she disgorged the cheese cloth which was alleged to be teleplasm. Mrs. Duncan submitted to all tkinds of tests, but when an X-ray photograph was suggested she fiesv into hysterics, struck her husband, aimed a blow at Dr. William Brown, and fled screaming into the street. .