MEDIUM ADDRESSES THE JUDGE

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 6839, 21 April 1932, Page 7

MEDIUM ADDRESSES THE JUDGE

“Hearken to My Voice” VERDICT IN MORRIS CASE United Press Association.—By £!oc:ric Telegraph.—Copyright. LONDON, April 19. In the caso in which Mrs. Mourig Morris, a well-known trance medium, is suing the Daily Mail in an action for libel, the newspaper having sug gested that all her sermons wore similar and her subconscious mind was crammed with spiritualistic jargon which sho could hang on any text, the jury were absent for four hours. Finally they announced a verdict on behalf of the Daily Mail regarding the plea of fair comment, but holding that the allegation of fraud had not been proved.

Mr. Justice McCardie held that Mrs. Morris was entitled to costs regarding the pica of justification. Mrs. Morris has appealed. His Honour’s summing-up was interrupted by Mrs. Morris standing with licr eyes closed and exclaiming in a deep voice: “Hearken to my voice, Brother Judge,” whereupon the Judge said: “We’vo had so much of this,” and ordered her to bo taken out. As the usher approached her Mrs. Morris said: “Don’t touch her until I’ve left tho body.” Bhc then collapsed and was carried out. She was unconscious for two hours. While Mrs. Morris was under crossexamination during the trial sho swayed in the witness-box, and counsel suggested that an attendant should go to her aid. Spiritualists in Court shouted, “Don’t touch her. She is under control.”

The Court watched in complete silence. Tho woman stood erect in a trance-like attitudo in the witness-box, Dr. Lamond, an Edinburgh spiritualist, rose, waved his arms, and shouted: “Oh, this indignity.” Spiritualists rose in their places and gazed intently at the witness. Mrs. Morris recovered her composure in a few minutes, and quietly apologised to Mr. Justice McCardie for tho interruption, adding: “I’ve just had a vision of Christ.”

Mr. Justice McCardie adjourned the Court for ten minutes, and friends helped Mrs. Morris out of the Court. When the proceedings were resumed the hysterical atmosphere returned when a gramophone record was played of a sermon by tho spirit “Power” delivered in a baritone voice quite different from Mrs. Morris’s speaking voice. Tho cross-examining counsel suggested that the sermou was full of incomprehensible jargon. Mrs. Morris admitted that there were many things recorded in “Power’s” sermons that she did not understand.

Mrs. Mourig Morris came to notice in London early last year, when she gained much attention from the daily Press because,of her sermons at the Fortune Theatre every Sunday night. Sho talked in a man’s voice, claiming that the sermons were delivered through her by her “control” whom she termed “Power.” She stated that sho had been eight years under his control, and that when sho went into a trance she “felt herself becoming big, enormous, and important, and then lost consciousness.” Under the influence of her controls she said she had talked and sung in Hindustani, of which language .sho know nothing. In her sermons sho adopted a masculine air-and preached with great fluency and with nice choice of words. ’ ’