IS SPIRITUALISM A FRAUD?

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 383, 7 May 1910, Page 10

IS SPIRITUALISM A FRAUD?

REMARKABLE SERIES OF REVELATIONS. London, March 5. A remarkable challenge has just been made to all who believe in spiritualism as practised at seances —whether in spirit forms, palmistry, spirit writing, telepathy, clairvoyance; or the visions of trance mediums. A well-known investigator, Mr. William Marriott, now comes forward to prove his opinion that every seance at which such phenomena occur is simply an exaggerated conjuring entertainment. Mr. Marriott declares that of twentyone mediums with whom he has sat he has proved twenty to be fraudulent. And he affirms that he is able to produce by physical or natural means all the effects of the spiritualists. He issues a challenge to such distinguished" investigators as Sir William Crookes, Sir Oliver Lodge and Professor Alfred Russell Wallace, who, with others, have lent their reputations to the furtherance of spiritualistic 'beliefs. Can they produce evidence of genuine phenomena, and will they or any one else allow Mr. Marriott to investigate seances which in their judgment are above suspicion? He points out that many people who go to seances have suffered recent bereavement. They are attracted by the chance of communicating with departed friends. And it is on their emotions and affections that the mediums trade.

At one seance Mr. Marriott caught a bogus spirit in his arms while a friend turned on a strong light—revealing a medium dressed in filmy robes. At another, a ghost who whistled without moving his lips was found to have an accomplice who whistled for him. The pretty picture of an angelic choir of three forms, singing melodiously, was found to be due to human beings singing in luminous garments on a light ladder covered! with black felt.

A well-known spirit produced at seances is for a spirit form to emerge from the side of a medium., who lies at length on a couiih in a trance. Mr. i Marriott received permission to photograph a spirit of this sort, and secured ] a very good piciture. He noticed that when the sitting began the couch was close to the wail. When the sitting was over there was a space between couch and wall. He then found that the skirting boafrV had been cut so as to allow a srl'll person to creep through. The <l,.eh had been moved slightly when til' room was darkened, and tlie medium'ft?onfederate came from behind the skirtl; and appeared as a ghost. jjlj Fraud after M vl of this sort is exposed by Mr \l '.,'iott in a remarkable ■paper published 'i the March number of Pearson's Ma jnne. It is illustrated with a series ( photographs showing ! Kv the ghostly effects were obtained. ',