is spiritualism a fraud ?
is spiritualism a fraud? (robert w. paul, 1906). avi
is spiritualism a fraud? (robert w. paul, 1906). avi - youtube
the following is a list of spiritualists who ignore evidence of fraud in mediumship .
‎is spiritualism a fraud? (1906) directed by j. h. martin • reviews, film + cast • letterboxd
authors who were well known for exposing the fraud in spiritualism included the magician william robinson author of spirit slate writing and kindred phenomena, joseph mccabe author of is spiritualism based on fraud? , frank podmore the author of modern spiritualism: a history and criticism and the book the follies and frauds of spiritualism by walter mann .
no doubt a great importance in the paranormal field is the problem of fraud. the field of psychic research and spiritualism has been so notoriously full of charlatans, such as the fox sisters and
spiritualism is the belief that one can contact the dead through a medium leading a séance. the various tricks mediums use to perform this apparent miracle are described below .
the film' s main title, is spiritualism a fraud? is followed by the emphatic subtitle the medium exposed, and an opening sequence that shows the alleged medium conspiring with his bewigged friend prior to the seance that he' ll be masterminding. mere seconds into the film, the answer to the question is an unambiguous
yes
, and the remaining few minutes reinforces this view .
there is a long history of fraud in spiritualist practices such as those found in mediumship and séances. many mediums have been caught using tricks and even using theatrical props in their séances to convince their audience of the presence of spirits. on the subject of fraud paul kurtz wrote :
i think that it is about time that the truth of this miserable subject “spiritualism” should be brought out. it is now widespread all over the world, and unless it is put down soon it will do great evil. i was the first in the field and have the right to expose it .
presences. séances always take place in darkness, so the poor lighting conditions become an easy opportunity for fraud .
a belief in a god, often referred to as
infinite intelligence
.
there are people who pretend, quite wrongly, that dead people can speak. which they can' t. they' re dead. they won' t talk to you, they' re dead. but there are people, a class of fraud, and i' m saying this directly into camera, you are a fraud. if you are a medium, you are fraudulent, and ...
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all this, of course, is conjecture, as we know little of booth and paul' s actual views (and it' s not completely certain that booth directed the film, as it' s also been attributed to j. h. martin), but it seems likely that their film was intended to be read as an attack on spiritualism in general. the chase scene concludes with a very public humiliation as the fake medium (who has already suffered the indignity of being boxed up and thrown down the stairs) is tied to a chair and placed on a cart to create a makeshift tumbril, on which he is paraded through the streets as a warning to others .
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but the severest blow that spiritualism has ever received is delivered to - day through the solemn declarations of the greatest medium of the world that it is all a fraud, a deception, a lie. this statement is made by mrs. margaret fox kane, who has been able, through long training and early muscular development, to produce peculiar rappings and knocks which were affirmed to be spiritual manifestations, and which were so skillfully done as to baffle all attempts at discovery. it was this woman, then margaret fox, and the most expert of the world - famous “fox sisters, ” who was first brought before the public as a medium. her tour of the great cities of the united states is historical. she was seen by most of the prominent theologians, physicians and professional men, but there was not one who could solve the mysterious power that seemed to possess her nor imitate her alleged spiritual rappings .
a hot reading is when the medium is provided with some background information on their subject. for example, they may be provided the name of the dead person or details on the location. this can backfire, such as in the case when tv medium derek acorah contacted a fake ghost that had been invented by a sceptical member of his production crew. [ 6 ]
cold reading is a process in which the medium has little to no information regarding their subject, so they must rely on guesses. although guesses would seem random and easy to spot, many people are tricked into believing that the medium is indeed talking to the dead. this process is facilitated by the subject' s willingness to cooperate in order to assuage their grief by communicating with a dead friend or relative. this approach works well on a crowd, since this increases the chances of someone seeing relevance in the guesses. subjects are very good at volunteering information, particularly when correcting errors, and the medium will feed this information back to them later in the reading. many subjects don' t even realise this is happening, and tend to ignore the times when a medium is wrong, concentrating entirely on the random successes - this is known as selective reporting .
there is no scientific evidence that spirits can communicate through mediumship. there has been over one hundred years' investigation into mediumship and so far all results have proven natural explanations such as fraud and psychological factors, not spirits coming through. spiritualists are well known for quote mining early reports from parapsychologists and the society for psychical research (spr) in defence of the view that spiritualism has been scientifically proven. there are problems with this as most members of the spr did not endorse the view that spirits can communicate with mediums and the minority of experiments which claimed to have proven spiritualism were never replicated by any other scientists .
research and empirical evidence from psychology for over a hundred years has revealed that where there is not fraud, mediumship and spiritualistic practices can be explained by psychological factors. trance mediumship which is claimed by the spiritualists to be caused by discarnate spirits speaking through the medium have been proven in cases to be personalities from the medium' s subconscious mind. [ 13 ] [ 14 ] the psychologist andrew neher wrote
there is no conclusive evidence that mediums or psychics have produced phenomena that are not explainable in terms of either deception of ordinary psychological processes .
[ 15 ]
most nineteenth - century mediums were caught out in fraud at some point in their careers. (owen, 2004). mediums would even use acrobatic techniques during séances to convince audiences of
in addition to the evident quackery there is a more (shall we say) bodily side to the history of spiritualism. many female mediums of the 19th century took part in sexual activities with their male audiences in the séance room. [ 3 ] eusapia palladino and eva carrière were both known for their erotic and sexual behavior in the séance room. [ 4 ]
some mediums who perform trance mediumship claim that spirits take over their body and consciousness to communicate with people in the séance room. it is clear that many mediums fake these trances, but unconscious fraud by an alternate personality from the medium' s subconscious mind has also been suggested by some psychologists and psychical researchers .
on october 21, 1888, margaret, done with traveling, wrote to the new york world. she explained that everything the fox sisters had done was a fraud. they had begun in their house by pulling an apple connected to a string, and eventually discovered that by snapping toe joints against wood, the sound would resonate throughout the house. it is speculated that at the time of the confession, there were 8 million spiritualists in the united states .
another investigator, harlow gale, reported that many attenders of a séance claimed to see jesus, an italian girl playing a harp and a dove bringing herbs in an envelope to a séance sitter. gale and his wife who were at the séance wrote they had not observed any of these things. [ 17 ]
a belief that the soul continues to exist after the death of the physical body .
spiritualists believe in communicating with the spirits of dead people. according to spiritualism mediums are humans gifted to do this, often through seances. they believe that spirits are capable of growth and perfection, progressing through so called
higher spheres
or
planes
in the afterlife and that anyone may become a medium through study and practice .
a medium is someone who claims to speak with spirits. it' s the main belief of spiritualism. most mediums are charlatans helping people to part with their money and have been exposed as using tricks. while the majority of mediums claim psychic powers, there are a few - known as mentalists - who are honest about their use of the psychological principles and tricks that it is almost certain that the
real
mediums actually use. some mediums may even be unaware that they' re using these techniques and genuinely believe they have special powers - the rest that are well aware that they' re not really speaking with spirits from the spirit world but are usually considered to be the most reviled. some of the tricks that mediums use include :
perhaps the best tool to reveal mediums as less than accurate is a record of the entire session, ideally a recording or written transcript. a review of this record will reveal the sheer number of incorrect guesses made by the medium. mediums rely on manipulating their subjects into ignoring the misses, and elaborating on the hits—something that is clearly illustrated by reading the transcript. televised mediums can be more directly deceitful, dropping their missed guesses on the cutting room floor so that the vast bulk of their audience doesn' t even have the chance to notice the cold reading techniques in action. [ 8 ]
a visit to peek frean and co.' s biscuit works (1906) - extract
after her confession, margaret gave a demonstration of the tricks she used for her
spirit
rapping in front of a large audience. [ 5 ] the spiritualists were undeterred .
the psychologist gustav jahoda attended a séance during which he kicked the table leading other sitters to believe spirits were communicating. one of the sitters asked the non - existent spirit to materialize and the sitters claimed to have observed the spirit materialize in the corner of the room as
a little grey man
. jahoda claimed there was no man but just a faint shadow cast by a curtain in a slight breeze. a year after the séance he came clean to a séance sitter that he had faked the phenomenon of the table. the séance sitter did not believe jahoda and claimed the séance was genuine evidence for spirit communication. [ 22 ]
booth was a stage magician himself, so there may well have been an element of professional rivalry at play here. however, the crucial difference between his illusions and those of a medium is that booth' s audience knew that they were being deceived, but were happy to go along with the charade for the sake of both entertainment and the pleasure of working out how it was done. by contrast, the medium is using similar stage effects to fool people into believing that they might be able to contact their dead loved ones .
the unparalleled excitement caused by these young girls suggested to the minds of many unscrupulous persons the vast financial field that lay before anybody who should pretend similar mediumistic powers. at once there were hundreds of mediums in all parts of the country and the number of these impostors has increased year by year. now the fox sisters have come forward and as a matter of long - neglected duty to the public and for their own peace of mind say boldly that theirs has been a life of deception and fraud. as the first and greatest of all mediums the weight of their evedence cannot fail to sound the death knell of the abominable business which they, at an age when they knew not what they did, began and have seen flourish into one gigantic world - wide fraud .
there are over 300 spiritualist churches in the uk. [ 23 ] in april 2008 the british government intends to introduce a law which will make claims made by spiritualists subject to consumer legislation. consequently if a clairvoyant charges an individual for services and that consumer subsequently deems those services to be
defective
then the consumer will have a legal right to seek compensation and damages. [ 24 ] the spiritualist movement is unsure how best to respond to this situation. [ 25 ]
editor’s note: this article appeared originally in the newspaper the new york world, on october 21, 1888. it is the testimony of the first modern - day psychic, margaret fox, where she tells the story of how a simple childhood joke sparked the spiritualist movement that even today has a strong following, with numerous tv shows about psychics and how they talk to the dead .
the claims of the spiritualism regarding the reality of mediumship were investigated by the society for psychical research, founded in london in 1882 who came to the conclusion that many mediums were using fraudulent techniques and trickery in the séance room. psychical researchers who had exposed fraud in mediumship came from a variety of different backgrounds such as frank podmore and harry price. during the 1920s, professional magician harry houdini undertook a well - publicised campaign to expose fraudulent mediums. houdini wrote
up to the present time everything that i have investigated has been the result of deluded brains
. [ 10 ] other professional conjurers such as john nevil maskelyne exposed mediumship by appearing in the audience during their shows and explaining how the tricks were done. the american magician john mulholland had also exposed the tricks of mediumship. [ 11 ]
films screened at light industry, a brooklyn microcinema for independent, experimental, and avant - garde film .
* this film is included in the bfi dvd compilation' r. w. paul: the collected films 1895 - 1908', with music by stephen horne and optional commentary by ian christie .
joseph jastrow fact and fable in psychology macmillan, 1901 also see millais culpin spiritualism and the new psychology, an explanation of spiritualist phenomena and beliefs in terms of modern knowledge longmans, green & co. , 1920 and wilfrid lay man' s unconscious spirit the psychoanalysis of spiritism dodd, mead and company, 1921
in hydesville, new york in 1848, the farmhouse of john d. fox was allegedly filled with mysterious rapping sounds. the noises created a buzz throughout town, and the farmhouse became a local phenomenon. two of the fox daughters, margaret and kate (who the noises seemed to center around) attributed the sound to a spirit named mr. splitfoot. eventually, a pattern was established to the knocks in response to questions, whereby one knock meant yes and two knocks meant no. leah fox, the older married sister of margaret and kate, returned home for a visit and discovered the town' s fascination with the raps. sensing a great money - making scheme, she took her sisters on the road to rochester and founded the society of spiritualists. as the spirit seemed to follow them, people in rochester could, for a price, ask the spirit yes or no questions. the sisters went on a tour of cities, including philadelphia and new york. as spiritualism increased, so did the number of séances not involving the fox sisters. mediums would lead them, asking spirits yes or no questions, which were responded to with the same system of raps .
andrew neher. (2011). paranormal and transcendental experience: a psychological examination. dover publications. p. 222
was a substance that spirits use to take physical form, according to mediums and spiritualists of the 19th and early 20th century; however the substance was revealed to be made of cheesecloth, butter, eggs or soap. mediums would also use plastic toy dolls, or stick faces from magazines and newspapers onto props to pretend spirits were contacting them. ectoplasm has been an embarrassment for spiritualism, and recent spiritualist practices in the 21st century only focus on mental mediumship .
the importance of reading can be seen in the fact that mediums are very unforthcoming with details early on in a reading as they probe the mark participant, who unknowingly are filling in the details themselves! spirits may express regret at having missed seeing a child grow up, or they could relay information about their favorite clothes, but they forget the little things—such as their name. consider the following options and choose the one you feel is more likely to be accurate :
my sister kate and myself were very young children when this horrible deception began. i was eight, and just a year and half older than she. we were very mischievous children and we wanted to terrify our dear mother, who was a very good woman and very easily frightened. at night, when we went to bed, we used to tie an apple to a string and move the string up and down, causing the apple to bump on the floor, or we would drop the apple on the floor, making a strange noise every time it would rebound. my mother listened to this for a time. she could not understand it and did not suspect us of being capable of a trick because we were so young .
one of the last films made by r. w. paul in collaboration with the trick - film specialist w. r. booth, this combines elements of the previous year' s the unfortunate policeman (with which it shares a studio - bound first half, followed by a chase shot in the streets of muswell hill in north london) with a special effects sequence. however, unlike booth and paul' s other work, here the mechanisms are deliberately revealed: the dramatic centrepiece comes when the medium' s methods are exposed to his gullible patrons after the light is switched on to expose his assistant .
leonard zusne, warren h. jones anomalistic psychology: a study of magical thinking psychology press; 2 edition, 1989 isbn 0805805087
there is evidence séance sitters have experienced phenomena that have no objective existence. according to the psychical researcher eric dingwall, during a séance various sitters had reported hearing music such as an orchestra, and witnessing full - form phantasms and materialized dogs laying on the laps of the sitters. however according to dingwall he could not detect any of these phenomena, and all the experiences were purely subjective. [ 16 ]
and this is the way we began. first as a mere trick to frighten mother, and then, when so many people came to see us children, we were frighten ourselves and kept it up. we were then taken by mrs. underhill to rochester. there it was that we discovered how to make the other raps. my sister kate was the first one to discover that by swishing her fingers she could produce a certain noise with the knuckles and joints, and that the same effect could be made with the toes. finding that we could make raps with our feet – first with one foot, then with both – we practiced until we could do this easily when the room was dark. no one suspected us of any trick because we were such young children. we were led on by my sister purposely and by my mother unintentionally. we often heard her say, “is this a disembodied spirit that has taken possession of my dear children? ”
harlow gale. (1901). a study in spiritistic hallucinations. proceedings of the society for psychical research, 15. pp. 65 - 69 .
that encouraged our fun, and we went on. all the neighbors thought there was something, and they wanted to find out what it was. they were convinced some one had been murdered in the house. they asked us about it, and we would rap one for the spirit answer “yes” not three, as we did afterwards. we did not know anything about spiritualism then. the murder, they concluded, must have been committed in the house. they went over the whole surrounding country, trying to get the names of people who had formerly lived in the house. they found finally a man by the name of bell, and they said this poor innocent man had committed a murder in the house, and that these noises came from the spirit of the murdered person. poor bell was shunned and looked upon by the whole community as a murderer. as far as spirits were concerned, neither my sister nor i thought about it .
at last she could stand it no longer and she called the neighbors in and told them about it. it was this that set us to discover the means of making the raps. i think, when i reflect about it, that it was a most wonderful discovery – a very wonderful thing that children so young should make such a discovery, and all through mischief. children will always find means to accomplish mischief. and to the thought of spirits, this never entered our brains. we were too young to know anything about that .
the statement which the world gives was prepared by mrs. margaret fox kane, the widow of the famous artic explorer, dr. kane. this she will repeat to - nite at the academy of music, and she will demonstrate to all, as she has to a world reporter, exactly how she preforms the tricks which have deluded 8, 000, 000 people in this country alone. at the same time dr. c. m. richmond and mr. frank w. stecham will expose the many other tricks and illusions commonly practiced by mediums at their seances. the admission to the academy to - night has been placed at such a figure as to merely pay the expenses of the exposure, which is made purely in the interest of the public .
our eldest sister, mrs. underhill, was twenty - three years of age when i was born. she was in rochester when these tricks first began, but came to hydesville, the little village in central new york were we lived and were born, shortly after. my father and mother were very good, honest people and great friends with the hyde family for whom the village was named and who lived near. they took a great fancy to us and we were especial favorites of the hydes, both before and after the notoriety that our rappings made became widespread. all the people around, as i have said, were called in to witness these manifestations. my siter, now mrs. daniel underhill – she was mrs. fish then – began to form a society of spiritualists. there were so many people coming to the house that we were not able to make use of the apple trick except when we were in bed and the room was dark. even then we could hardly do it so that the only way was to rap on the bedstead .
the origins of the modern spiritualist movement can be traced to of the 19th century where, perhaps surprisingly, it became associated with more progressive ideas such as the support of women' s rights and the abolition of slavery. it initially seemed to offer the possibility of scientific inquiry into the afterlife, although hard evidence proved less common than fakery. because mediumship maintained that divine truth was accessible to any individual, female or male, it became associated with feminism as well. most mediums have been female. [ 2 ] according to (owen, 2004) mediumship maintained that women were uniquely qualified to commune with spirits of the dead and offered
female mediums a new independence, authority, and potential to undermine conventional class and gender relations in the home and in society .
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anyone can talk to the dead — it' s getting the dead to talk back that' s the hard part .
–individuals who claim to have special power and gifts but who are actually conjurers who have hoodwinked scientists and the public as well–that we have to be especially cautious about claims made on their behalf .
skeptics such as robert todd carroll have written that some psychical investigators did not use scientific controls in their experiments, so it made it easy for the medium to perform trickery, especially in dark séance conditions. [ 12 ]
psychical researchers have also set up fake séances with the sitters claiming to have observed genuine phenomena. [ 18 ] [ 19 ] [ 20 ] [ 21 ]
earl fornell. (1964). the unhappy medium. austin: university of texas press. p. 179
eric dingwall. (1947). some human oddities. london: home & van thal. p. 128
theodore besterman. (1932). the psychology of testimony in relation to paraphysical phenomena. proceedings of the society for psychical research, 40. pp. 363 - 387 .
richard hodgson. (1887). the possibilities of mal - observation and lapse memory. proceedings of the society for psychical research, 4. pp. 381 - 495 .
richard hodgson. (1892). mr. davey' s imitations by conjuring of phenomena sometimes attributed to spirit agency. proceedings of the society for psychical research, 8. pp. 253 - 310 .
joseph rinn. (1950). sixty years of psychical research. new york: truth seeker. pp. 200 - 205
gustav jahoda. (1969). the psychology of superstition. baltimore: penguin. pp. 50 - 51
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on many occasions, the world has been able to expose the fraudulent practices of so - called spirit mediums and turn the bright light of careful investigation upon the secret methods of these social vampires. several times have world reporters torn the white robes from the mediums as they groped about their darkened parlors deceiving their dupes into the belief that the returned spirits of their friends were before them. besides this many persons have been saved from the clutches of these soulless impostors just as the mediums were about to hold them within their avaricious grasp.
is spiritualism a fraud ? ( aka : the medium exposed ) is a 1906 british short silent drama film , directed by walter r. booth ( also credited to j.h. martin ) , featuring a medium exposed as a fake during a séance . the trick film is , " one of the last films made by r.w. paul in collaboration with the trick-film specialist w.r. booth , " and according to michael brooke of bfi screenonline , " combines elements of the previous year 's the unfortunate policeman with a special effects sequence . however , unlike booth and paul 's other work , here the mechanisms are deliberately revealed , " " the crucial difference between his illusions and those of a medium is that booth 's audience knew that they were being deceived , but were happy to go along with the charade for the sake of both entertainment and the pleasure of working out how it was done . " 
is spiritualism a fraud? (aka: the medium exposed) is a 1906 british short silent drama film, directed by walter r. booth (also credited to j.h. martin), featuring a medium exposed as a fake during a séance. the trick film is, " one of the last films made by r.w. paul in collaboration with the trick-film specialist w.r. booth, " and according to michael brooke of bfi screenonline, " combines elements of the previous year's the unfortunate policeman with a special effects sequence. however, unlike booth and paul's other work, here the mechanisms are deliberately revealed, " " the crucial difference between his illusions and those of a medium is that booth's audience knew that they were being deceived, but were happy to go along with the charade for the sake of both entertainment and the pleasure of working out how it was done. "
is spiritualism a fraud? (aka: the medium exposed) is a 1906 british short silent drama film, directed by walter r. booth (also credited to j.h. martin), featuring a medium exposed as a fake during a séance. the trick film is, " one of the last films made by r.w. paul in collaboration with the trick-film specialist w.r. booth, " and according to michael brooke of bfi screenonline, " combines elements of the previous year's the unfortunate policeman with a special effects sequence. however, unlike booth and paul's other work, here the mechanisms are deliberately revealed, " " the crucial difference between his illusions and those of a medium is that booth's audience knew that they were being deceived, but were happy to go along with the charade for the sake of both entertainment and the pleasure of working out how it was done. "