An Extraordinary Journey: The Memoirs of a Physical Medium

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Mediumship is the practice of purportedly mediating communication between familiar spirits or spirits of the dead and living human beings. Practitioners are known as "mediums" or "spirit mediums". [1] [2] There are different types of mediumship or spirit channelling, including séance tables, trance, and ouija. Ann O'Delia Diss Debar ("One of the most extraordinary fake mediums... the world has ever known" -Houdini)

In the 1920s the British medium Charles Albert Beare duped the Spiritualist organization the Temple of Light into believing he had genuine mediumship powers. In 1931 Beare published a confession in the newspaper Daily Express. In the confession he stated "I have deceived hundreds of people…. I have been guilty of fraud and deception in spiritualistic practices by pretending that I was controlled by a spirit guide…. I am frankly and whole-heartedly sorry that I have allowed myself to deceive people." [124] Due to the exposure of William Hope and other fraudulent spiritualists, Arthur Conan Doyle in the 1920s led a mass resignation of eighty-four members of the Society for Psychical Research, as they believed the Society was opposed to spiritualism. [125] The definition of a Medium, typically associated with connecting their clients with deceased loved ones on the other side, is much broader than that. Channeling Mediumship is much like Spiritual Mediumship, except rather than connecting with many Spirits, the Medium connects with only one spirit or the same group of Spirits time and time again. Harry Houdini. (2011 reprint edition). Originally published in 1924. Magician Among the Spirits . Cambridge University Press. p. 42. ISBN 978-1-108-02748-9 Demonstrations of mediumship [ edit ] Colin Evans, who claimed spirits lifted him into the air, was exposed as a fraud.Martin Gardner. (1988). The New Age: Notes of a Fringe Watcher. Prometheus Books. p. 175. ISBN 978-0-87975-432-7 After her death in the 1980s the medium Doris Stokes was accused of fraud, by author and investigator Ian Wilson. Wilson stated that Mrs Stokes planted specific people in her audience and did prior research into her sitters. [174] Rita Goold a physical medium during the 1980s was accused of fraud, by the psychical researcher Tony Cornell. He claimed she would dress up as the spirits in her séances and would play music during them which provided cover for her to change clothes. [175] The spirit guide Silver Belle was made from cardboard. Both Ethel Post-Parrish and the lady standing outside of the curtain were in on the hoax. Gordon Stein. (1996). The Encyclopedia of the Paranormal. Prometheus Books. p. 520. ISBN 978-1-57392-021-6 Rodger Anderson. (2006). Psychics, Sensitives And Somnambules. McFarland & Company. p. 26. ISBN 978-0-7864-2770-3

In the 1860s and 1870s, trance mediums, also known as trance speakers, were very popular; this allowed female adherents, many who had strong interests in social justice, to speak in public in an era where doing so went against existing social norms. [22] Many trance mediums delivered passionate speeches on abolitionism, temperance, and women's suffrage. [22] Scholars have described Leonora Piper as one of the most famous trance mediums in the history of Spiritualism. [6] [23] [24]God's World: A Treatise on Spiritualism Founded on Transcripts of Shorthand Notes Taken Down, Over a Period of Five Years, in the Seance-Room of the William T. Stead Memorial Center (a Religious Body Incorporated Under the Statutes of the State of Illinois), Mrs. Cecil M. Cook, Medium and Pastor. Compiled and Written by Lloyd Kenyon Jones. Chicago, Ill.: The William T. Stead Memorial Center, 1919. On 4 February 1922, Harry Price with James Seymour, Eric Dingwall and William S. Marriott had proven the spirit photographer William Hope was a fraud during tests at the British College of Psychic Science. Price wrote in his SPR report "William Hope has been found guilty of deliberately substituting his own plates for those of a sitter... It implies that the medium brings to the sitting a duplicate slide and faked plates for fraudulent purposes." [131] The medium Kathleen Goligher was investigated by the physicist Edmund Edward Fournier d'Albe. On July 22, 1921, in a séance he observed Goligher holding the table up with her foot. He also discovered that her ectoplasm was made of muslin. During a séance d'Albe observed white muslin between Goligher's feet. [132] Psychics: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)". Youtube. LastWeekTonight . Retrieved 25 February 2019. Mental mediums purportedly "tune in" to the spirit world by listening, sensing, or seeing spirits or symbols. Listen to your intuition. Doubt is one of the many inhibiting factors people face as they are trying to understand whether they are a medium and learn how to enhance their ability.