Public and scientific interest in mediums and Spiritualism increased when British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle publicly announced his total belief in the claims of mediums. When Dr. Le Roi Goddard Crandon suggested holding séances, his wife, Mina, agreed. The results, which exhibited a variety of paranormal phenomena, were amazing and would make her, as Margery, the foremost medium in the USA.
Margery: Mediumistic Seeds Sown
From the spring of 1923 to the early 1930s, séances were held in a fourth floor room at 10 Lime Street in Boston, Massachusetts’ Beacon Hill section, the Crandon’s home. Crandon, a successful Boston surgeon and a lecturer at Harvard Medical School, introduced Mina to Spiritualism. They attended their first séance in 1923, then decided to hold their own. There were table-tiltings and series of rappings.
Crandon encouraged his wife's mediumship and built a séance cabinet for her. Margery believed her spirit guide was her older brother, Walter, who died in 1911. Eventually, he spoke through Margery when she was in a trance, a phenomenon called direct- voice mediumship. Walter was impertinent, used salty language and taunted sitters.
Margery: Séances
Walter, allegedly, displayed his presence in various ways. He stopped all of the Crandon’s clocks. He said he would play taps, then trumpet sounds were heard in other rooms. Soon, Margery exhibited physical mediumship. Phenomena included materialization of ectoplasm – a misty or solid life-like substance, disembodied hands that rang bells, thumbprints imprinted in wax and floating lights. Some of these manifestations are Apports, Living or Inanimate Physical Objects Teleported by Telekinesis (TK). TK is the ability to materialize and dematerialize objects from a distance.
Margery: Scientific American Investigation
In 1922, Scientific American magazine announced a prize of $5,000 for irrefutable demonstrations, held before psychical researchers, that spirits exist. The five person committee included magician Harry Houdini who was rabid in his quest to expose mediums. In 1924, secretary of the committee, Malcolm Bird, published a favorable series of articles in the periodical.
Margery was on the brink of winning the prize when Houdini began a campaign to discredit her. He duplicated some of her, according to him, tricks on stage and published a pamphlet that described how they were performed. After Houdini died, there were Rumors that the Escape Artist and Magician was Murdered. He had antagonized many Spiritualists and mediums. The Scientific American committee finally published a report that stated the majority of its members was unconvinced about the authenticity of Margery's mediumship.
Margery: Harvard University Statement
In 1925, faculty members of Harvard issued a statement that they agreed the only conclusion was that chicanery accounted for all of the phenomena Margery produced and that the only difference of opinion was to what extent the deception was done consciously. A Boston dentist claimed he made the wax impressions of Walter's thumbprints for Margery. The Crandons didn’t respond to his allegation.
It was alleged, but never proved, that the ectoplasm Margery produced was animals’ intestines and human ligaments that could have been procured Crandon. Her physical mediumship was, for the most part, discredited; however the question of her direct-voice mediumship is still controversial. Dr. Crandon died in 1939. Margery continued to practice mediumship until her death in 1941.
Margery: An Author’s Opinion
Francis Russell dubbed her the Witch of Beacon Hill, but wrote that, for her to manufacture and maintain a conscious fictional Walter during hundreds of sittings over a number of years, would be too draining. Walter had his own personality and never stepped out of character. Instead of assuming that Margery was an adept actress, it seemed a more likely that her trances were genuine and Walter was a second personality within them.
Margery: Comparison to Other Mediums
Eileen Garrett was one of the most talented trance mediums. She had precognitive visions of the Dirigible R-101 unexpectedly crashing during its maiden voyage, which it did. During a séance held after the incident, she went into a trance and Uvani, her spirit guide, took control. There was communication with the R-101’s captain, Flight Lieutenant H. Carmichael Irwin, Ernest Johnson, Wing Commander R. B. Colmore and Major G. H. Scott who gave a detailed account of the disaster. Someone took notes in shorthand which were transcribed and given to the Air Ministry. The information matched every detail, as confirmed by the findings of the investigation.
The Paranormal Palm Sunday Case was Believed to Evidence Life after Death via spirit communication. The case was investigated by the UK’s Society for Psychical Research, SPR, for more than thirty years. The mediums involved held sittings at the same time, but were in different places. They had to piece together most of the information that came to them in symbolism and fragments. The conclusion was that the spirit of May Lyttleton was trying to tell Arthur Balfour, the man she loved, but died before he could propose marriage to her, that she still loved him and was with him. The case was closed when he died.
Margery: Impact on Psychic Research
The purpose of the Palm Sunday Case was to prove survival theory, that a part of humans continues to exist after death of the physical body, is valid. Although the investigation was done in a scientific manner, Spiritualism, a religion, was the major influence.
The findings made in investigating Margery’s mediumship and the controversy surrounding them influenced the course of psychical research. Spiritualism is no longer a factor in parapsychological research.
Parapsychological and psychological researchers are studying altered states of consciousness, ASC, which includes trances. Transpersonal Psychology, TP, the latest school of the field, is the only one that recognizes extraordinary human experiences, as some people call psychic phenomena. Spirituality, not Spiritualism, is also a factor. TP goes beyond traditional schools of psychology in that it’s also involved with the nature and meaning of mystical experiences while recognizing the principles of traditional psychology.
Today, parapsychologists are still looking for scientific evidence that proves there is life after death. So far, according to some researchers, the most compelling evidence is communication with the dead when information received is verified. Margery’s impact on communication with the dead is that this subject has been taken out of the realm of religion and the emphasis on physical phenomena. The emphasis is scientifically researching the mental aspects of mediumship and ASCs.
Sources:
- Martin Ebon, Ed., The Psychic Reader, The World Publishing Company, 1969
- Rosemary Ellen Guiley, The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits, Facts on File, 1992
- Rosemary Ellen Guiley, Harper’s Encyclopedia of Mystical anranormal Experience, HarperSanFransico, 1991
Jill Stefko - I'd rather deal with the paranormal than human abnormal - having dealt extensively with both.
