The Fraud of Spiritualism.

Waikato Times, Volume 108, Issue 18076, 21 July 1930, Page 15

The Fraud of Spiritualism.

In London there is an organisation called the Magic Circle, which includes among its members all the principal professional conjurors in the country, as well as some amateurs. Owing to the great interest in spiritualism ■ which began to develop m Britain during the war, when the relatives of many of the soldiers killed in action sought a means of getting into communication with their dear ones, the Magic Circle appointed - from its members an occult- committee to investigate the claims of mediums. Naturally professional conjurors, who live by mystifying the public by. their tricks, are better than untrained inquirers to investigate the claims of mediums to produce supernatural manifestations. But the investigations of this occult committee were not welcomed by the mediums who were pracising during the war, and in the years that followed In fact, there has always been hostility between the professional magicians ana the professional mediums, and this hostility has been strengthened by the claims of the former to reproduce by trickery any of the spirit manifestations of the medium. The late J. N. Maskelyne, of the famous firm.of Maskelyne and Devant, which for more than a generation provided. London with a conjuring entertainment six nights a week, took an active share in exposing fraudulent mediums, and regarded all mediums as" frauds. Revelations.

Mr Harry Houdini, famous for his exhibitions in releasing himself when tied up with chains and ropes, has also been an opponent of fraudulent mediums and their spirit manifestations. . Both, of them wrote books and magazine articles explaining how fraudulent manifestations were performed, and Houdini also .explained how mediums released themselves after being tied to a chair in a cabinet from which they operated. In a new edition published in 1922 of “Revelations of a Spirit Medium,” the editors, Messrs Harry Price and Eric J. Dingwall, gave a list of hundreds of books and magazine articles as a “representative selection which throws some light upon the fraudulent aspect of physic phenomena. The object of issuing a new edition of this book, which had been out of print, was to warn those who were seeking in spiritualism a means of communication with relatives killed in the war, that spiritualism had always been permeated with fraud. As an exposure of the methods of fraudulent mediums, the editors of this new edition of the anonymous “Revelations of a Spirit Medium,” which was first published at the city of St. Paul, Minnesota, United State, in 1891, stated : “Many alleged exposures of mediumistic tricks have been published, but none with the inside knowledge contained in this remarkable book, which has the ring of truth in every line.” The author was a fraudulent medium, who travelled the United States for some years, and claimed M have mastered all the tricks of his profession, but he did not disclose his name.

Tying Up the MediumHow does the fraudulent medium release himself f r c« the ropes with which his hands, legs, and body are tied to a chair in the cabinet, with the object of preventing fraud in the production of spirit manifestations? In “Revelations of a Spirit Medium” the author, who declares that he never met a professional medium who was not a fraud, gives a detailed explanation of how he was always able to release himself, by “stealing some of the slack of the ropfe” while the\tying up process was proceeding. “By sitting well forward on his chair when the ends of the rope were made fast to the back rung, he could by sliding back »n his seat afterwards have the use of as much slack rope as any ordinary unselfish medium could wish,” he wrote. “The coat falls close up to the back of the chair, thus hiding a move of that kind. When the wrists have been tied, and are being drawn down to the knees to the chair legs or together at the back, one twist of the hand, and ' consequently the two ends of the rope, and bv a reverse twist, when the time arrives, you have all the slack you need, or should go out of the business. There is never any occasion to free but oue hand. It will astonish you to know what a number of things you can accomplish with one hand, your mouth, a’nd your elbow. If you fail to pet in the twist, do not allow it to disconcert you. and result in your .being helplessly tied. But if they proceed to tie your hands Li your knees, sit up straight, thus compelling them to tie around the fleshy part of the leg. All you have to do to obtain the coveted slack is to lean forward and force your hands towards your knees, where the leg is much smaller, and the slack is yours to command. If they proceed to tie your hands to either the front or back legs of the chair, and you do not have an opportunity to twist on them, without

their observing, which sometimes happens, sit very erect and shorten your arms by not allowing them to entirely straighten, and by elevating your shoulders, as in shrugging, thus making the distance from the point of your wrist where the rope is tied to the topmost rung, about four inches. It will always be their endeavour to tie below the top rung around the leg. By slipping down in your seat you ought to have all the slack you could possibly make use of. If they are tying behind you, turn the inside edges of your hands together, and when they make the ends fast to the bottom rung, or any point below the hands, sit up straight, drawing the hands up just far enough to avoid it being observed, and there will be plenty of slack. You can by reversing the tactics used to free yourself get back and leave every rope taut and drawing, by an extra twist to the ropes where they pass round your wrists.” As a rule the persons who tie the medium up are amateurs at the business, and so expert does the medium become in releasing his right hand from the ropes that as soon as the black curtain is pulled across the opening of the cabinet, leaving the medium inside, the manifestations begin before the persons who tied him have had time to reach their seats. The bell left inside the cabinet is rung by the medium and not by a spirit, the tambourine is throwm into the air, the strings of the guitar are twanged, and the sound of the trumpet is heard. Spirit Manifestation. All the tricks of the fraudulent mediums are exposed by the author of “Revelations of a Spirit Medium." He explains'how spirits are materialised and dematerialised; how spirit photographs are prepared; how spirit messages in reply to questions asked by the sitter are written on the inside of two slates that have been locked together; how thought reading_ is carried out. Sometimes the medium is not tied up, but goes into a trance in order to get into communication

Medium’s Confessions: An Illuminating Peep Behind The Scenes: How Spirits are “Materialised.”

So many “mediums,” professing to materialise the spirits of tftose who have “crossed-over,” have been exposed as frauds, that the majority of people refuse to regard the claims of spiritualists seriously.

with the spirit world. This amplifies the task of materialising spirit* whieh move about the room, but the author of “Revelations of a Spirit Medium” shows how spirits can be materialised and moved about by the medium tied in the cabinet, with only hi* right hand released from the ropes. But as a showman he prefers a well-staged sear.ce by a medium who has put money into his business and takes pride in giving a high-elass performance, materialising with the aid of eon federates eight or nine spirits, all or whom will be claimed as relatives by some of those attending the seance. When confederates are employed to impersonate spirits it is necessary to have a trapdoor in the wall, ceiling or floor, through which they can appear and disappear. “It is here to impossible to detect these traps by examination in the cabinet,” he states. “They were constructed to avoid discovery, and no pains spared to make them absolutely perfect. The proper place to seek for traps is in the adjoining room, upstairs, or in the cellar. One is foolish to undertake to find a trap by thumping the walls or floor, for if you happen to thump one, the mediuur who is smart enough to make use' of a trap is also smart enough to make provision for its being thumped, and your sounding method goes for nought. Bear in mind that when you are examining the cabinet you are seeking at the very place that is prepared most effectually to withstand vour investigations. Do not be deceived into a belief that each one of the sitters at the seance is a stranger to the medium. There may be from one to five persons present who pay their money the same as yourself, and who may appear to be the most sceptical of anyone in the room. They will generally be the recipients of some very elegant ‘tests,’ and weep copiously grief-laden tear\ when they recognise the beloved features of some relative. They art the most careful of investigators, and when the medium’s trap is located in the door jamb will pound the walls, and insist on the carpet being taken up, when they will get upon hands and knees and make a most searching examination of the floor. They are the closest and most critical of investigators, but they are very careful to examine everything except where the defect is located. Because one or two men seem to be making such a critical investigation do not allow that fact to prevent your making one on your own responsibility. Wait until they have finished, and then examine not only where they did, but most particularly where they did not.”