The physical phenomena of spiritualism, fraudulent and genuine : being a brief account of the most important historical phenomena, a criticism of their evidential value, and a complete exposition of the methods employed in fraudulently reproducing the same / by Hereward Carrington.

  • Hereward Carrington
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The physical phenomena of spiritualism, fraudulent and genuine : being a brief account of the most important historical phenomena, a criticism of their evidential value, and a complete exposition of the methods employed in fraudulently reproducing the same / by Hereward Carrington. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    deem anything but good conditions — the natural igno^ ranee of the laws of conscious and unconscious suggestion frequently discrediting the cases — as affording any evidence for the supernormal. Burdin, a member of the Academy (of Medicine) offered a prize of three thousand francs to any one who could read without the use of the eyes. The offer was open for two years and subsequently the time was extended. Considering the large number who had claimed this power, few offered themselves for examination; and these either clearly failed to meet the test (being detected in the manipulation of the bandage, and the like), or those who had the somnambulists in charge refused to conform to the conditions required by the examiners; and so the prize was never awarded. ^ Doctor Hodgson, a man who has done more than any other in the detection and exposure of fraudulent mediums, conclusively proved that it is almost an impossibility to blindfold a shrewd person so that he cannot see a little from under the bandage.^ As this very limited amount of vision was all that was required, in the vast majority of cases, it is certain that the evidence for these cases is slight indeed, the testimony of the Seybert Commission going far to prove the statements here made.^ Those mediums who undertook to read sealed letters, etc., have all been detected in fraud at one time or another; while the great number of methods that could be employed, in order to deceive the sitter, would render it next to impossible for him to detect the method employed, — unless well in- formed of the possibilities of fraud in this particular field. The medium who gained the greatest reputation in this line was Charles H. Foster, a full account of whose life and doings will be found in a book entitled The Salem Seer, by George C. Bartlett. Though the author of this book is evi- dently a firm behever in the powers of Mr. Foster, it may be said that the cases he narrates are very easy to explain * Fact and Fable in Psychology, p. 205. '^Journal S. P. R., Vol. I., pp. 84-6. 3 Report, pp. 128-47.
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