PSYCHIC RESEARCH.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2018, 21 August 1919, Page 1

PSYCHIC RESEARCH.

PHENOMENA EXPLAINED. TRICKS OP SO-CALLED MEDIUMS. Hereward Garrington, Ph.D., discusses in Popular Science Monthly a subject of interest to all. Incidentally ho exposes some of the tricks of so-called “mediums.” You sit around a table with ten other believers in spiritualism, the hands of all eleven of you spread out flat, and your little fingers touching. Next to you is the medium—a big, likeable fellow, with a kind, frank face. “If the spirit, moves,” says he, fixing his eyes on you, “ I shall produce some startling phenomena with the very hajid that your little finger now touches.” It sounds incredible. “Not if I know it,” you say to yourself, pressing your little finger harder against his. You are determined that he shall not remove that hand —not for the fraction of a second. Then the lights are lowered. Undercover of the darkness, the medium is seized with a scries of convulsive twitches and spasms. His hands shake, and the table trembles. However, you arc not to be caught napping. You exert still more pressure on your little finger, and his hand is still there —or was. For lo! a dinner bell is suddenly rung in your ears, a whistle is blown, a gong is struck, and a flashlight shines in your face. You are not only amazed and bewildered —you are really scared. And when the lights arc turned on, there, just as you anticipated, is his hand with your little linger resting on it. You could swear away your reputation that, he had not moved it. How, then, did it all happen? THE OPPORTUNITY. Do you recall the instant when he was seized with convulsive twitches? At that time he was drawing his hands nearer and nearer together, until,j in one violent spasm, he had withdrawn one hand altogether —the very hand under your little finger! Oh, yes, you regained control of it again instantly, and you forgot all about the loss of it a moment later. The fact is that the medium substituted the outstretched first finger of his other hand for the little finger of the hand you held — so that you and the man on the other side of him were both- controlling the same hand, leaving the remaining hand free lo perform the manifestations. Can you imagine any thing which would be more simple than this? But there are more elaborate demonstrations of (he same character. The whole medium blindfolded the siller, il the seance was held in the light, and with his teeth extracted a long feather from under his vest, ami with if produced soft “spirit touches” upon (he head, face, and hands of the gullible person. An ingenious “holding” test, made famous by the Eddy Brothers in their so-called “light seances,” was carried out as follows: —Three chairs were placed in a row in one corner of the room. The medium sat in one —(he righthand one, as viewed by the spectators. The other two wore occupied by investigators. The medium and the third man( in the opposite end chair) then grasped the arms of the man in the middle, one hand on the ■wrist and one hand high up on the arm. In this way the man in the middle was able to tell instantly if any hand was removed . A curtain was then pinned over the bodies of the medium and of his investigators. Presently manifestations took place. How 1 ? Under cover of the -cloth, the medium abstracted from his pocket a small piece of lead about the size of his hand. He bent this tightly around the arm of the man next to him, giving him the impression of being- held by that hand. Thus the hand of the midum may be apparently controlled; yet he manages to release it all the same. He sits in a chair and places his two hands on the knees, while an investigator sits on either side of him. The man on his right grasps his right wrist, while the medium himself grasps the wrist of the man on *his life side. FORMING A CIRCLE. Thus a circle is formed in which the medium is holding the wx-ist of one man, and is, in turn, having his other wrist held in the grasp of the other wrist held by .the other man. Obviously, the wrist in the grasp of the other man cannot possibly be used to produce the manifestations. But they do take place, nevertheless. -After the lights are turned out, the medium requests the-man on his right to remove his'hand for a moment. “I want to use my handkerchief,” he says. In a moment he returns his hand. Returns it? What he does, in reality, is this. He slips both feet forward and grosses his knees, the left knee being on top. Then, when he requests the man on his right to hold his hand again, he allows him to hold his left i wist—the one that is holding the

wrist of the man on his left. The right hand is now free. The man on the left cannot tell that the hand has been removed, as, indeed, it has not; and the man on fhe right cannot tell that any change has taken place in the position of the hands, since he grasps a wrist, which the medium tells him is his right hand. Since there is only one knee, the trick cannot lie discovered if the investigator feels the other knee. But some people will tell you that they have received “spirit touches” while they knew they held both hands of the medium securely all the time the manifestations were going on. In this ease, the hand could be removed and the impression remain —the left hand still grasping the arm lower down. Both hands were thus felt; while, as we have seen,

only one was actually employed in holding the man —the other being free to play musical instruments and produce other “phenomena.” Of course, various devices have been resorted to in an endeavour to- prevent mediums from producing “phenomena” fraudulently, particularly in dark circles. SOME OF THE DEVICES.

Among those may ho mentioned rope ties of all kinds, chains, padlocks, handcuffs, etc., and especially vax-ious ways of holding the medium so that he cannot escape. These are known ns holding tests. The aim is lo evade these, and by releasing one hand or foot, to produce “phenomena” with the free member. Sometimes “phenomena” are produced a long way from the medium —so Car, indeed, that the sitter feels sure ho could not have reached that spot, even had his hands been free. In such cases, the medium has produced from his pocket a long jointed rod, known as a “reaching rod,” and after opening it, is enabled to reach objects four or five feel: away—to ring bells, shake the tambourine, etc. The above are some of (he simple methods by which fraudulent psychical mediums” bamboozle their sitters. I do not wish to be understood, however, that

I do not believe in any genuine phenomena of this kind. On the contrary, I am quie convinced that they some times occur. And it is for this reason that we “psychical researchers” arc so anxious to eliminate the fraud. Suprious money docs not prove that no genuine money exists; it is the same with spiritistic phenomena. I merely wish to warn would-be investigators of possible disappointments.