history of Spiritualism was ever—willingly—so harshly treated by investigators.
Her nostrils tickled by a feather while she was in trance.
Her entire body pinched.
Lighted matches held to her arms.
Needles plunged into her hands while she in trance.
Pain pressure applied to her palms to a weight of twenty-five pounds.
A harsh price to pay for William James’ opprobrium that Mrs. Piper was the one “white crow” disproving the “law” that all crows (mediums) are black.
Two of the more noteworthy aspects of the mediumship of Mrs. Leonard and Mrs. Piper were Mrs. Leonard’s “book tests” and Mrs. Piper’s “cross-correspondence.”
One of Mrs. Leonard’s “tests” came about after the Reverend C. Drayton Thomas heard knocking sounds in his bedroom which he took to be spirit knocks.
At his next sitting with Mrs. Leonard he asked Feda if this was true.
Mrs. Leonard had never been in the Reverend’s house but Feda’s reply came as follows:
“You will be amused by the following test. There is a book behind your study door, the second shelf from the floor and fifth book from the left end.
“Near the top of page 17 you will see words which serve to indicate what Feda was attempting to do when knocking in your room.”
Thomas located the book, a volume of Shakespeare. Near the top of page 17 was a line from
King Henry VI
, Act I, Scene 3.
“I will not answer thee with words but blows.”
Between November 10, 1906, and June 2, 1907, Mrs. Piper gave 94 sittings during which 120 experiments in cross-correspondence were made.
These ran to allusions from classical literature and were like parts of a jig-saw puzzle being fitted together at a distance from each other.
A typical one follows:
The sitters—all educated men of great social respect—drew up a message in Latin so that Mrs. Piper could not possibly understand it. The message was directed to a similar group of deceased investigators.
We are aware of the scheme of cross-correspondence which you are transmitting through various mediums and we hope that you will go on with them
.
Try to give to A and B two different messages between which no connection is discernible
.
Then, as soon as possible, give to C a third message which will reveal the hidden connection
.
Mrs. Piper was A.
This experiment extended from December 17, 1906, to June 2, 1907.
The dictation of the first sentence of the message (in Latin) took place over four meetings.
The second part of the message—sent to a different medium—came through by the middle of February, again in Latin.
By June 2, the entire message had been transmitted through Mrs. Piper and to the other two mediums, all in Latin which none of them understood.
The message turned out to be an elaborate poem by Robert Browning.
Both Mrs. Piper and Mrs. Leonard retired from mediumship at relatively early ages.
Ironically both lived far beyond the period of their greatest achievements.
Mrs. Piper died in 1950.
Mrs. Leonard in 1967.
FRAUDS
It is appropriate, at this point, to bring up the subject of fraud in mediumship.
While the accounts of genuine psychics have their interest, it would be unbalanced to not take into consideration the opposite aspects of parapsychology’s beginning; that they were marked by—if not riddled by—dishonesty and outright swindling.
Of the Fox sisters, Houdini had the following to say. “They used Spiritualism as a means to ‘get while the getting was good.’
Fortunately for the general public, Spiritualism received a severe jolt in the confession of Margaret Fox.”
Of D. D. Home, Houdini said, “His active career, his various escapades and the direct cause of his death indicate that he lived the life of a hypocrite of the deepest dye.”
Of Palladino, he said, “In her crafty prime, she may have possessed the agility and abundant skill in misdirection, together with sufficient energy and nerve, to bamboozle her scientific and otherwise astute
Her nostrils tickled by a feather while she was in trance.
Her entire body pinched.
Lighted matches held to her arms.
Needles plunged into her hands while she in trance.
Pain pressure applied to her palms to a weight of twenty-five pounds.
A harsh price to pay for William James’ opprobrium that Mrs. Piper was the one “white crow” disproving the “law” that all crows (mediums) are black.
Two of the more noteworthy aspects of the mediumship of Mrs. Leonard and Mrs. Piper were Mrs. Leonard’s “book tests” and Mrs. Piper’s “cross-correspondence.”
One of Mrs. Leonard’s “tests” came about after the Reverend C. Drayton Thomas heard knocking sounds in his bedroom which he took to be spirit knocks.
At his next sitting with Mrs. Leonard he asked Feda if this was true.
Mrs. Leonard had never been in the Reverend’s house but Feda’s reply came as follows:
“You will be amused by the following test. There is a book behind your study door, the second shelf from the floor and fifth book from the left end.
“Near the top of page 17 you will see words which serve to indicate what Feda was attempting to do when knocking in your room.”
Thomas located the book, a volume of Shakespeare. Near the top of page 17 was a line from
King Henry VI
, Act I, Scene 3.
“I will not answer thee with words but blows.”
Between November 10, 1906, and June 2, 1907, Mrs. Piper gave 94 sittings during which 120 experiments in cross-correspondence were made.
These ran to allusions from classical literature and were like parts of a jig-saw puzzle being fitted together at a distance from each other.
A typical one follows:
The sitters—all educated men of great social respect—drew up a message in Latin so that Mrs. Piper could not possibly understand it. The message was directed to a similar group of deceased investigators.
We are aware of the scheme of cross-correspondence which you are transmitting through various mediums and we hope that you will go on with them
.
Try to give to A and B two different messages between which no connection is discernible
.
Then, as soon as possible, give to C a third message which will reveal the hidden connection
.
Mrs. Piper was A.
This experiment extended from December 17, 1906, to June 2, 1907.
The dictation of the first sentence of the message (in Latin) took place over four meetings.
The second part of the message—sent to a different medium—came through by the middle of February, again in Latin.
By June 2, the entire message had been transmitted through Mrs. Piper and to the other two mediums, all in Latin which none of them understood.
The message turned out to be an elaborate poem by Robert Browning.
Both Mrs. Piper and Mrs. Leonard retired from mediumship at relatively early ages.
Ironically both lived far beyond the period of their greatest achievements.
Mrs. Piper died in 1950.
Mrs. Leonard in 1967.
FRAUDS
It is appropriate, at this point, to bring up the subject of fraud in mediumship.
While the accounts of genuine psychics have their interest, it would be unbalanced to not take into consideration the opposite aspects of parapsychology’s beginning; that they were marked by—if not riddled by—dishonesty and outright swindling.
Of the Fox sisters, Houdini had the following to say. “They used Spiritualism as a means to ‘get while the getting was good.’
Fortunately for the general public, Spiritualism received a severe jolt in the confession of Margaret Fox.”
Of D. D. Home, Houdini said, “His active career, his various escapades and the direct cause of his death indicate that he lived the life of a hypocrite of the deepest dye.”
Of Palladino, he said, “In her crafty prime, she may have possessed the agility and abundant skill in misdirection, together with sufficient energy and nerve, to bamboozle her scientific and otherwise astute
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