South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1920-02-22
TRICKERY AT BASE OF
GHOSTLY PHENOMENA
Extraordinary Revival Of Interest
Laid to War; Fraud Lies at
Base, Says Briton.
lSY JOSEPH MCABE.
CWho j. shortly TO debate the claims OF
spirituaIism with Sir 4. Conan DoyIel


human thot gh there is nothing half curious the
modern development spirituaIisrr.
During the middle ages the landscape swarmed with
elves and ghosts and gobIns Haunted houses were az
common disorderiy houses. Headaches and night
engineered by ghostly tormentors.
You never passed graveyard at night without seeing
ghost Even II you went fishing n broad daylight
you aDt-there is instance given by medieval
chronicler-to get a wicked spirit your line
Then science. with its horrd broom. along and
Il prosy swept one department OF life after another
clean of these ghosts and fairies And just were
hattoring ourselves that the world really belongs us
1he planet begins 10 ring again with spsrt-rappings
'the beyond"
WARS AFTERMATH
science say this extraordinary revival2
Science in the proper sense Of the word has nothing
with it. Science deals with material things not
with the question whether there other kinds of
things well But as all these phenomena "a beauti-
1ul mOuth-nlling wOrd-Occur the physical plane
the of the hour the teaching of science
may very well be applied to them.
is quite clear in the first place. that the present
epidemic OF spiritualts requires little explanation.
Death has reaped CHASTITY harvest amongst Hun
ureds OF thousands nser tendery boy the ivory gates
sraning to catch some echo of the retreang footsteps
the other side.
A great American psychologist, William James, MIN
self something Of a sDrtuaIis, has told us that the
chief element Of belief is will to believe" Never
resoiute. more deaf the cold rules OF
the logicau than it is today The demand for com
munications from beyond is far advance of an pre-
cedents. Is it unnatural that the supply meets the de-
SIR oLIvE1vs CREDULrY
II is certainly not unnatural when reflect that this
supply the very nature OF the two
iahuences-self-deu by people whose Judgment is
weighted by deep emotion and trckery by professional
mediums.
when Sir oliver Lodge believes on such nimsy evil
dence he gives us IN RAYMOND that he has been
N communication with his dead son, ordinary spirit
uaiss may be very easily understood medium bold
ly details Raymond is in group he has stick
and 50 on.
What any reader who keeps his cool commonsenze
that the medium only speaks confidently Of
be- "A In a.
confidence any young oescer early the
Other details are left given i'll alter
native ways
Yet this distinguished scientist up hands
and eXcams that here is ncontesta0le proof OF spirit
communication
When he goes on TO describe ghosy barmaids mixing
ghosty whisky and sodas TOR ghostly TONNES ar
their deprayed tastes Uncorrected making
ghosty tweed suits for British officers who won't
the customary white sheet, too, throw our
hands In astonishment
The spiritualst bias makes sport of commonsense.
only few weeks Sir A Conan Doyle the creator
OF the super-detectves rushed print spirit
painted picture, and within a few days the painter
Rngrily replied that she had done it "al by her own
self and tore the story into rioands
THE FRAUDULENT MEDIUM.
We must then. notic, that these people with their
strained expectations and abnormal creduty depend
a rule professional mediums. There is no need
60 mince matters on this point
The frauds of mediums detected and exposed during
so years would nh a volume. The modern
spirituaIist movement born of srUsS rraud-the
t!ckery Of the Fox family at Hydesvle in 1S47-and
81 has bubtled with fraud down to the last medium
who publicly exposed in light only few weeks
ago
There is hardly single well known medium has
been submitted to serious criticism and not been eN
posed Even those who used the most unctuOus Ian
Fuage about religion such as Daniel Home and
Eusapa PaladiuO. detected in trickery The his
tory the movement reeks with dishonesty.
There plenty OF honest mediums but they dc
nc thing. The streams of commonplace stuff whicf
thev iTagine to be communications from the beyonl
have the value. There also plenty Of
paid mediums but If any person thinks that money is
the only incentive TO rickory he has strange idea
human nature
SIR oliver Lodge and Prof. Richet strongly recon-
:nended TO few years a French unpaid medium
good social standing She detected in trckerl
LORD WOLSEIEY DUPED
But what about the phenomena which are produced
in good light or even IN daylight? Here you have per
haps the oldest freak the spritualist mind. y,
Coniuror living ne could invent tricks
the secret of when was beyond every single meuBer
his audience. But the moment mediUm-conjuror doe
anything which IS not obvious asked to bow Il
the supernatural
ed nedum-and their name is legion-had duped ten
or thousands Of people before he exposed and Il
some cases afterwards. After Siade had been
posed in London by Sir +. Ray Lancaster, and con
Nicted court, he TO Germany and duped maj
OF science with tricks
A London medium, who convicted in court
years ago had for years duped distinguish
circle including Lord Wolsley, I'm my neighborhood.
invited attend the scances of another Londo
medium Cunpaid) who had reduced several brillian
and cynical young oxford OF childish be
lief. simple tests silenoed the mouthings
the spirit"
Nten OF science have investigated these things eve
since the movement began. There is nothing don
today and they decline 10 waste their time Wells
golfers and Cheshire photographers
Spirit photographs have been exposed hundreds o
times. our OF science not doSmatic material
lists, they know enough about life that tn
claims Of the spiritualists absurd
give ii concrete instance again from OF tn
most distinguished spirltualsts.
Prof. Richet once got "a materIalized ghost" Z
breathe flask OF b1rytavater, and the
olouded. This proved as he saw, that there car
bondioxde the breath. and every psychologist know
that this carbon must have come from a living ung
with a whole series OF complex chemical changes be
hind