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MEDIUMS & SPIRITUALISM

Spiritualism is as old as time, but what we are going to discuss is "Modern Spiritualism" which began in 1848 - before Houdini was born and before the Civil war. Two sisters, Kate and Maggie Fox, claimed to be able to communicate with spirits through rapping sounds. The Fox sisters claimed to have established a code with the "rapper" from the other side and began doing public demonstrations. Many who saw these demonstrations came to the conclusion that the only answer to the "raps" was that the sisters were in communication with the spirits and that this was certainly proof of life after death.

The Fox sisters demonstrations made them the "pop stars" of their era, and the demonstrations proved profitable so others took note of that and began their own quest to contact the spirits...for a price of course. Fraud became commonplace and many mediums were prosecuted in courts.

Despite the fraud, the religion continued to grow because people want to believe. Even now, would it not be a comforting feeling to know that anytime you wanted to talk with a departed friend or relative, they were just a stones throw away (and some cash) thanks to the mediums of spiritualism? Without modern communication (radio would not be broadcasting till 1906, television in 1928), tales of spiritualism spread via word of mouth unrestricted throughout the world.

Just as the two world wars would do in the next century, the American Civil War created a huge demand for mediums to provide comfort to the families of those who were killed, leading to the rise of seances and the mainstream acceptance of mediumship. even the First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln took comfort with spiritualism, having seances at the White House to try and contact her deceased sons.

The Fox sisters continued their act through the war and after, spending most of their lives as mediums and earning a very good living. However, in 1888, Maggie Fox confessed that it was all a hoax and then demonstrated how the raps were done - by snapping her toes. Thus the entire religion of Spiritualism had been founded on a hoax perpetrated by the sisters as children - who wanted to scare their mother.

Despite this confession, modern spiritualism continued to grow. Maggie, wanting to get back into the medium and seance trade, recanted her confession but had lost any credability with the public, but the religion did not. People wanted to believe! Another big reason is that Spiritualism offered many opportunites for women who had unprecedented authority during this period of time.

By the time Houdini came into the picture, spiritualist and mediums were probably better classified as an organization than a religion. They were very well organized and had members and memberships. In fact, the term "medium" is actually derived from the term "Mediumship" which is a term used for communicating between the living and the dead. While mediums of Houdini's era were in slight competition with each other, it was more important for the organization to be seen as legitimate and mediums as gifted and credible individuals. The reality was that these individuals completely misrepresented themselves and used deception and trickery to obtain their goals. Information about people who attended seances was freely shared by the mediums with each other. Sometimes this information was sold, sometimes it was traded.

Mediums of Houdini's era would often travel from town to town in the same way a circus would. In fact, many were with the circus as they traveled across the country. Like the circus they would send out advanced agents who would scout out the area looking for potential seance participants and finding out as much information about these people as possible. In fact, most towns already had "Blue Books" and "People Lists" with a wealth of information already made up. The mediums would get this information prior to visiting the towns, and after performing their seance would report this information back to the organization and the information would then be updated. With this organizational set up it was very possible that people of the general public (or marks) could begin speaking with a dead relative with one medium, and then continue the conversation days or weeks later with a completely different medium. The only logical explanation for these people was that mediums were genuine and that they were in fact talking to their deceased relatives.

Most of the top mediums of the Houdini era did very little walk in trade. Most of their sessions or seances (The word seance actually means session in French) were booked in advance as further research would continue once the mediums reached town.

In fact this organization was so fluid and well organize that agents often worked on a commission basis, receiving a cut for each advance seance they booked. When a person unknown to the medium came for a visit, the medium was usually engaged with other worldly matters (There may be a quick "cold read" of the individual done by the medium's staff to get the information ball rolling). That's when the organization began their investigation of the person through all the means available to them. Many of these methods are no different than what a detective would use, and may be as simple as talking to local gossipers about this person. The information about the new person is built, distributed, and when the new person returns for a session or seance, they are usually welcomed. Even if the original medium has left town it would matter little as the information is now available to all mediums in the organization.

With all this in place is it any wonder that spiritualism was the fastest growing religion in the United States from the 1840's to the 1920's with its membership peaking at 8 million? Houdini and his death took a toll on spiritualism, but it would receive a bump in popularity during World War 2 as grieving families wanted to speak with their loved ones who were lost in the war. These spiritualist were not as hard lined as their predecessors of the last century.

The question that arose out of this was - were all mediums and frauds cheats?

In 1948, Abbott's released a controversial book that addressed this very question. Below is the first chapter of "Come Good Spirits" which told a very different side of the story that neither the spiritualists or magicians had considered. It was written by a spiritualist who became a magician.

COME GOOD SPIRITS CHAPTER 1

Right Before Your Very Eyes.

The much controversial subject of spiritual interaction has been engaging the attention of the majority of thinking people since time immemorial. We have many supporters of Spiritualism in our midst today, and a far greater number of those who accept the cult with some degree of incredulity. Whether. one is for or against the subject, he is certainly not occupying a "terra firma" position for preaching his doctrine. People in either group will merely be groping in the dark, trying to reach an unknown region-a region which no living mother's son (or daughter) can know anything about. The region is in the Great Beyond-hence outside our ken.

Great writers of international repute have filled pages on the subject. They have even described the remarkable results encountered in their spiritual pursuits.

When one cannot explain an occurrence by the straight law of "physics" he tries to pin the course to Spiritualism. But by so doing, the position is not clarified, for Spiritualism in itself is a subject wrapped in obscurity.

However, we are not here to discuss this highly debatable subject. We belong to the entertaining world. Therefore, we shall broach the subject from this standpoint alone.

Our purpose, therefore, is to furnish an Act using as its theme, the reasonable supposition that the living can commune with the dead. My qualifications to provide such an Act has found its source twenty years ago. I was graduated into this sphere of entertainment from the school of solid practical experience and everything that is recorded here is real and concrete fact and not figments of the writer's imagination. Circumstantially, I was brought up in a tense atmosphere of the spiritualistic creed. I was living among the believers. Owing to my teens, I was denied admittance into the practitioners' secret chamber where, as I was told, spiritualistic phenomena were being produced. For long I had been yearning for that very much essential mediumistic quality so that I, too, could summon the "Spirit" at my pleasure.

Finally, I resolved on a plan and one night, in execution of this plan, I climbed to the roof of the secret chamber just before the session began. Peeping through the skylight, I saw a number of people seated around a table with their finger tips resting on its surface. I heard a short prayer and after five minutesor so-to my utter amazement – I saw that table sway from side to side. The leader of the band addressed the table as if it was a living thing and the table began swaying again from side to side in reply to the question put to it. This I understood to be its peculiar fashion of expression. With each sway, a knock was produced. I had heard of table rapping-this was it.

For over an hour I remained motionless. These strange creatures surely possessed some sort of power; or else how could the table move?

My desire to emulate these strange happenings intensified a hundred fold. I had no one to guide me, but I decided to copy the formula as closely as I was able to with the outside chance of succeeding even in a small way. I built a small table somewhat after the style of the one I saw in that chamber. Collecting three other associates, I got ready to give a seance.

After a suspense period of several minutes I became dumbfounded to see the table begin to sway gently. Just one sway to the side then it straightened upright. In that sway it produced a single knock. I felt a cold shiver run through my veins. I felt as if I was in another world. It was a rare thrill-I experienced a sensation the likes of which I never felt before or since. That was the moment I was dreaming about. The moment came unexpectedly for I never believed that success would come so soon, if at all. That single knock I knew was the signal that the Spirit was present. He had taken possession of the table. I was ready to converse with it. "Are you there?" I said. Once again the table swayed, and straightened itself. Just one single knock, implying "Yes." I asked its name and got it. I asked when he passed on to the other side, what was his profession on this earth. I asked a number of other questions. To each I received a fitting reply.

From that night onward, I held a seance once in twenty-four hours. Each night the Spirit was summoned. Sometimes the Spirit of the previous night returned; other times different spirits arrived. I continued the practice for a whole year. I believed myself to be a natural medium for I was told that the spirits would certainly not respond unless a medium was present. This was drilled into my head again and again by those supposedly knowing better.

My mediumistic reputation spread around the vicinity. I was sought by people who longed for news from their loved ones on the other side. I started holding seances in people's homes. I allowed each interested person to talk to the Spirit-the actual Spirit of their "passed on" relative. Each seance proved a bigger success than the others. Then came the time when I could sit alone beside the table and make that table sway for hours together.

I continued this practice for seven solid years. I had as much faith in my work as those before whom I demonstrated. There was not a bit of trickery in the whole thing. I never for a moment stopped to think what made the table sway. Why should I? People acclaimed me as a medium. Spiritualists, seeing me work, agreed that I possessed mediumistic qualities. No one could convince me to the contrary. I possessed something more than the normal beings.

Then one night came the "Great Awakening." After seven years of staunch belief and faithful practice came the moment of my first realization that I was no more a medium than the next man. I was living in a Fool's Paradise. How stupid those groups of believers were. Definitely stupid!

When one wants to believe in a thing, nothing on earth can stop him. But what I am about to disclose is so remarkable in its execution that one cannot help but believe in the manifestation whether he likes it or not. By "believe" I mean definitely-one will be fully convinced that the Spirits are responsible for everything that takes place and this includes the operator as well.

Although disappointed at first, my hopes were subsequently raised when I realized this fresh discovery was a blessing in disguise. I found I could put the idea to better advantage by presenting it as an entertainment. Thus, from that disappointment was born an Act, one which has proved not only lucrative but highly successful.

Right before your very eyes the table will sway and answer every question of yours or of those seated around it. Right before your very eyes a pencil held by one end by one of the collaborators will write a word in answer to your query. A regular Act of real convincing Spiritualism is presented, defying anyone present to dare even suggest how it is done. A playing card selected is named by the Spirit in possession of the table. A column of figures is correctly added. But these are only a few of the things that you can do. In short, the table will converse with you as if it was a real human being.

All this may sound like a passage from Grimm's Fairy Tales. I know that you will not believe a single word. I say here, but I guarantee you that once you finish with this book of words, and get down to the practical side of it, you will definitely make the table talk. You may even leave the table and without your connivance whatsoever the table will still sway and answer questions put to it. This is no course in Hypnotism that requires months of practice, but a study of a subject which should not take you more than seven days to understand and use in practice. To many the idea will work in the first hour. I have shown the way to scores of people and although all of them practice it today, to none of them did I reveal what I am going to tell you now. These people-a11 of them-actually believe that some spiritual force is behind it all. Surely this in itself is sufficient proof of the convincing nature of the manifestations.

I, therefore, request you to read through the words with an unbiased mind. Start the first practice with the belief that you are going to succeed and you will. Finally, although I never indulge in rash statements I give you my word of honor that as sure as God made apples, you will definitely make that table sway and talk to you.

Can I say more?

Eddie Joseph

The book caused quite a stir, especially overseas where a copy of the book was submitted to the editor of a spiritual newspaper in England. They wrote back to the party who sent the book that it was "trifling with a serious subject". Even some magicians interpretted the book as an attempt to turn magicians into spiritualist. The author responded that it was not spiritualism he was endorsing, but the theme of spiritualism to be used by magicians (essentially saying he was providing patter for magicians spiritualist routines).

In a followup book in 1951 called "In Tune With The Spirits", Eddie said the following to justify his book:

I am the last person on earth to discount another's belief as I always felt that each of us is free to hug his own conviction. My only objective in releasing that book was to give Magicians another line to work upon.

Magicians who go in for Spiritualistic effects are outwardly the staunchest supporters of this cult. Unless they uphold the cult they will never be able to convince an audience of their work. Supporting a cult and believing in it are two different things.

I am not telling you to change your religion. Just give the spiel about how Spirits aid us in this world - how every action of ours is guided by some good spirit. Every medium has a spirit guide. Whenever in trouble they seek the guide's direction, etc.

As this is a serious matter you request those present not to look upon it lightly. You are about to give a demonstration which will convince them in a short time that the different results could only be obtained through the aid of your spirit guide.

While it sounds like Eddy is splitting hairs, it really was a precursor to the state of spiritualism today. The religion of Spiritualism is experiencing a significant, long-term decline in the U.S. and other Western nations, but the belief in spirits is not. Today about 7 out of 10 Americans believe in spirits. People want to believe, but they also don't want to be scammed or ripped off by fraud. Spiritualism today, when presented properly as entertainment, can still be quite convincing, entertaining, and even refreshing.

In the 5th sub category articles above, "mediums and spiritualism of today", the author mentions his wife was surprised that they knew the name of her husband. Afterwards, the husband explained he had to write his name and phone number down to get her on the waiting list.

The wife, after a moment of thought, said "I really wish you hadn't told me that".

People still want to believe.