SPIRITUALIST FRAUD.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4579, 27 June 1923, Page 1

SPIRITUALIST FRAUD.

TRICKERY IN SYDNEY. I have been attending spiritualistic sea?ices in Sydney for the last few years (writes “One of the Dupes,” in the Sydney Sun). At first I was so astounded by the revelations witnessed that I was almost persuaded. But calm and patient observation convinced me in a month or two that the whole thing was either a downright sham on the part of the medium, or the medium herself! (for it is nearly always a woman) was the unconscious conjurer of a Having convinced myself that the symposia, were all pretence and make 1 belief,, I did not, for all that, discontinue attendance ait the circles, nor did I endeavour, by any physical action, to expose the medium, even when the deception to a watchful eye was grossly palpable. It was not worth while. Besides, having acquired an attitude of entire detachment, from the awe and blind reverence of other sitters, it was amusing to notice the gullibility of the worshippers? and to confound the medium, without her knowing it, by recognising, and receiving recognition in return, by means of table raps and oral messages, of characters in fiction, like Steerforth and Sir Lester Dedlock, who never lived, except in the imagination of Dickens, but whose spirits came in filmy outline to tell the circles they were happy in the world beyond. DANGEROUS ROGUES. It is astonishing that the police, who very properly make fortune-tell-ing a precarious sort of livelihood, do not turn their attention to the much more plausible and more dangerous rogues who play the same swindle under the guise of spirit manifestation. There are public circles in Sydney which anybody may attend, where “readings” are given and sitters may receive messages from the departed telling him or her, about his prospect in life,, whether he will be successful in business, the approximate date bt a marriage or other personal happenings,, the prospect of one’s going a journey, and all the other twaddle that used to be retailed by Gipsy Lee. One medium (who holds seances in private, to which you must have an introduction) has the effrontery -o disguise her voice in the dark and declare that the statements she herself utters are messages from the departed fathers, mothers, wives, husbands, sons, and daughters of people seated at the table, and communiwhat is called “the guide of the circle,” who uses the same ignorance of history and science that mark the medium’s ordinary conversation. At this particular circle apparitions, supposed to be the wandering . souls of dead relatives,, are a regular feature. The “ghosts” never speak; they only. bow in reply, say, to a query: “Are you Aunt Margaret ?” For the spirit is certain to be yours if it is your turn for a visitor from “the other side.” NO TROUSERED SPIRITS, A singular thing about these “materialisations”—an exaggerated term, for they are the vaguest shadows;—is that the forms are always . those of females; never a man comes along unless it be a bishop or some ecclesiastical functionary in flowing vestments. Of course, the explanation is that the illusion is easier to produce with diaphanous robes than with bifurcated nether garments. Some of these spiritualistic gatherings are merely advertisements for crystal reading, palmistry, and other kinds of humbug given to individual sitters during the week. These readings cost 5s a head, and as I have known a medium to do eight, in a ,day (in addition to the weekly or bi-week-ly classes, which pay well), faking of the occult must be a highly lucrative employment. ... * Spiritualistic imposture is something more than a mere amusement for. people who want to dabble in the unknown. It is an active agency of evil, for many of the dupes actually believe the messages they gefc, and shape their lives accordingly—to the dismay of medical men* whom they ignore for the “therapeutic Clairvoyant,” and to the despair of friends and advisers, who see the credulous simpletons embarking on foolish and ultimately disastrous schemes because of some alleged direction that comes through an impudent charlatan.