Comments of an Australian Doctor

mickyb wrote:The worrying issue is that after all the negative comments about David(Mistakes by guides not proving they did exist,Aspirin theory,string knots around cancer plus other claims.He still demonstrates publicly.

The mind boggles lol.

That's a good point micky. Did other mediums such as Flint, Harris etc attract such consistent criticism?

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The difficulty is obvious. Controls that do not appear to stand up to close scrutiny or give inappropriate or dangerous advice inevitably give rise to questions and doubt about the veracity of the mediumship. That, in the case of David Thompson the seance is held in total darkness adds to the problem. After the number of years David has been working as a 'physical medium' one might have expected his 'spirit team' would have moved on from the darkness.

It is often suggested that it would be impossible for a 'medium' to fraudulently impersonate spirits by walking round the room touching sitters when the room is in total darkness. The reality is it has been done and on numerous occasions in the past.

As it happens my attention was drawn today to a 'physical medium' who was working in the UK in the 1940s and 1950s, by the name of Robin Edwin Cockersell who held seances at his home in Notting Hill Gate where, "supported by his wife, and some faithful regulars, he produced 'physical phenomena' in pitch darkness." At these seances an 'entity' would travel "round the circle with the trumpet, giving messages or tapping sitters lightly on the knee or shoulder."

As one attendee would later write "the physical phenomena were patently fraudulent." Their opinion was eventually confirmed when the 'medium' wrote, in 1955, the book 'Clock without Hands' where in Cockersell, who had changed his name by deed poll to Ronald Edwin, confessed that all his physical phenomena were fraudulent and described the methods by which they were produced. One important chapter in the book is titled 'How to Rig a Seance.' The book and the 'medium's' seances are reviewed in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research Vol. 38. No. 687. pp. 221-4., and the above quotes are taken from that review.

So, it would seem that it is indeed possible for a person to impersonate a spirit in a totally darkened room and to move about to touch sitters, or indeed, to wave trumpets about in the air. We must, therefore, always be on guard when dealing with the dark seance situation. No doubt there are genuine physical mediums today, and there have been genuine physical mediums in the past, but we cannot assume that ALL mediums who claim to produce physical phenomena are in fact genuine.

A great deal of discernment, and strict testing of such mediums, especially when they only work in the dark, must be undertaken. Those who attend, should be on guard at all times to the possibility of fraud. Ultimately, it will only be when physical mediums come out of the dark that we will begin to gain any sense of certainty about their mediumship. I should add, if only to forestall some accusatory remark from supporters of physical mediumship, I am not prejudiced against physical phenomena mediumship at all, indeed I am undertaking significant research into the subject as I find it so interesting. I am, however, not such a fan of the 'dark seance' because of the potential for fraud in such situations, a fact that has been proved many, many times in the past, much to the embarrassment of the Spiritualist movement. The exposures of fraudulent physical phenomena mediums in the past sadly did much to damage the credibility of Spiritualism's claims of the survival of the human personality after death.

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I agree with the thoughts of both you and Lis Micky

[quote="mickyb If the evidence that comes is on the level that Mr Findlay experienced with John Sloan then the dark is not a problem, But as you know the PM's today do not get that level of evidence and in my opinion the one's that demonstrate now never will, as I believe the intention and character of the medium play a big roll in the ability.I have said this before on another forum if Arthur Findlay was around today would he write a book about PM I doubt it very much. [/quote]

I can only agree with you on both points, Mickyb!