The genuine article

In the unauthorized online version of The Psychic Mafia, the self-styled Anonymous Typist adds various footnotes stating his own (highly skeptical) opinions. When the book's introduction states that there are some genuine mediums, Anonymous Typist contributes this combative comment: Name ONE!

This got me thinking. Who are some mediums I would name as genuine? The following is a partial, by no means complete, list. I am listing "mental" mediums only. I'm also listing some of the work that impresses me about each of these women (and they are all women, for some reason).

• Leonora Piper (research with Richard Hodgson, William James, and others)
• Gladys Osborn Leonard (the book and newspaper tests with Charles Drayton Thomas; the Bobby Newlove case, also with Thomas; much other research)
• Geraldine Cummins (Swan on a Black Sea)
• Margaret Verrall, Helen Verrall, Alice Kipling Fleming, Winifred Coombe-Tennant a.k.a. Winifred Willett (the cross correspondences)
• Eileen Garrett (the R-101 case)

There are others, of course. I tend to focus on those who have been the most thoroughly studied (Piper was studied continuously for twenty years!), or those who produced extraordinarily evidential material (Cummins, Garrett, the Verralls et al). None of these cases are recent; there has not been much sustained, high-quality investigation of mediums in the last few decades.

Some famous names didn't make the cut. Arthur Ford was found to have done research on his sitters. Edgar Cayce got many of his medical diagnoses uncannily right, but seems to have been way off base in his readings on history and archaeology. Emanuel Swedenborg was probably a genuine medium, but a case from the 18th century is a little too musty, even though it was well investigated at the time.

I think Pearl Curran ("Patience Worth") had genuine psi abilities, but since the earthly existence of Patience Worth was never established, it's hard to insist that she was a medium per se. Some of Jane Roberts' writings have the ring of truth to me, but again, there is no evidence for the earthly life of her principal communicator, Seth, and even Roberts herself was unsure who or what Seth was.

Any other names come to mind?

Comments

[Leo]

Here's a very bold statement out of body experiences are all in the mind and that it is just the imagination comes from new scientist http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/brain/dn12531-outofbody-experiences-are-all-in-the-mind.html

also brain connections cause rethink over human memory
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/brain/mg19526215.900-brain-connections-cause-rethink-over-human-memory.html

What does everyone think about these two articles to me it looks more materialist propaganda

[Tony M]

Marcel Cario.

At least he convinced me.

[Michael Prescott]

>Marcel Cairo.

I'm totally convinced of Marcel's sincerity, but I was thinking of mediums who've been tested or who have produced a lot of verifiable material that's on the record. Which is not to say that Marcel won't do so, in time.

[Markus Hesse]

I already mentioned him in a recent post but Daniel Douglas Home, not only for his mediumship but also his amazing feats of levitation, which have yet to be replicated by the naysayers.

Some interesting tidbits:

- had the most extensive repertoire exhibited by any medium

- never charged for his séances, and turned down attractive offers to perform in public

- gave only private séances

- could raise a table by merely touching it with his fingertips, and could tilt a table to 30 or 45 degrees without displacing objects on its surface

- demonstrated elongation of his body or parts of it dozens of times

- most famous phenomena was levitation where he would rise perpendicularly into the air and float horizontally over the heads of the sitters. There are at least 30 recorded instances

- in 1868 was witnessed by 3 individuals levitating out of a third-story window, and floating back into the building through another window.

What is important to note is that some of the most impressive accounts of his feats are from the private correspondence of witnesses to friends or family, in other words, they had no motive to exaggerate or lie about what they'd seen, unlike dodgy reporters trying to sell newspapers.

He is a perpetual thorn in the side of the skeptics because he's never been debunked, and although they will assure you he was a fraud they simply cannot reasonably explain just how that fraud took place. But trust them, it did.

Popular "explainations" include that he had a jack hidden inside his pants with which to levitate the tables or that he repeatedly and without fail managed to hypnotize entire groups of people into merely thinking that he was floating around the place when in reality he never left the ground.

[Michael Tymn]

I agree with Markus, but the problem with Home's mediumship is that few people, including Sir William Crookes, really documented the mental mediumship involved with Home. Frederic Myers, while applauding the courage of Crookes, felt that Crookes really missed out in paying too much attention to the the physical phenonmena and not recording the mental part.

William Stainton Moses, the man probably most responsible for the founding of the Society for Psychical Research, should be on the list; however, although his mediumship was observed by Myers, Gurney, Barrett, and other founders of the SPR, it is not well documented. He ranks right up there with Home on the physical mediumship side. His mental mediumship was, however, not so much circular (evidential) as it was spiraling mediumship (wisdom from advanced spirits).

Emily French was probably a better medium than Piper, Leonard, et al, in that her mediumship offered equal amounts of circular and spiraling material. She was closely studied for many years by Edward Randall, a prominent Buffalo lawyer, and Dr. Isaac Funk, a prominent publisher. I quote them:

Randall: "Hundreds, yea thousands [of spirits], have come and talked with me, and to many whom I have invited to participate in the work – thousands of different voices with different tones, different thoughts, different personalities, no two alike; and at times in different languages."

Funk: "About 14 years ago I became acquainted with [Emily French]. I was sure her phenomena were the result of fraud and I determined to expose it. After many sittings and exacting experiments, I became convinced that they were genuine, and finally at the suggestion of the spirit intelligences, I had fitted up a séance room in my own house in which my wife, the medium, and myself held séances, and we have done this now for more than a dozen years. I have tested Mrs. French in every way I can think of, and am thoroughly convinced that the phenomena are what they claim to be."

Unfortunately, many seem to assume that the SPR had to be involved before the medium can be validated.

The "best" from an evidential standpoint of what has been documented by the SPR, is not necessarily the "best" in terms of offering words of wisdom. French's mediumship was both circular and spiraling. She was a direct-voice medium, as was Etta Wriedt.

Wriedt probably offered more evidential stuff than Piper, but it was not for the SPR.

As for spiraling mediumship, Mrs. Piper offered very little. Leonard occasionally produced the direct voice, but she was primarily a trance voice medium, offering mostly circular but a good amount of spiraling mediumship.

[william]

Just finished a book by ena twigg but not sure she was ever tested by researchers but she appeared to be one of the most popular mediums in England during her life.

One of my favorite mediums was George Wright but he kept to himself and only worked within his family and never tried to make one dime from his mediumship. His goal was in seeking knowledge not money or even a living from his mediumship. His work in our 51st state during World War II saved hundreds if not thousands of lives.

The spirit that came through George by automatic writing who refused to sign a name is the most profound teachings I have found to date. The book has an interesting conclusion that reinforces that the spiritual entity was not George’s consciousness, but I don’t want to give it away. The book’s title is the open door.

The Margery séances were very good and the only so called fraud exposed was one finger print found not to be her brother’s but that of the dentist that supplied the dental wax. She never charged a dime for her séances so money was not the motive. She did not even believe in mediumship until she went to a medium to convince her husband it was all fraud.

Why were there so many more and better mediums in those times? Home circles appeared to flush out people with mediumship abilities whereas today we sit and watch TV and are entertained and not activity involved in discovering potential mediums. I believe Florence cook discovered her mediumship abilities this way.

[Vitor Moura]

These are good recent mediums:

01-Hafsteinn Bjornsson.

Scientific works:

a)An experiment with the Icelandic medium Hafsteinn Björnsson (1974) J.A.S.P.R., 68, 192-202.

Researchers: Erlendur Haraldsson, Ian Stevenson

b) A communicator of the "drop in" type in Iceland: The case of Runolfur Runolfsson Journal A.S.P.R, Vol. 69, pp. 33-59

Researchers:Erlendur Haraldsson, Ian Stevenson

02- Irma Maggi: she was a very good argentinian medium.

Researchers: Professor Ferdinando Cazzamalli, Enrico Morselli, Professor Cayetano Boschi, Eugene Osty (!!!), S. de Santis

03- Chico Xavier : he was a brazilian medium. He write a lot of books, many which are explanable by cryptomnesia, but the messages he received from the dead has so many names, facts and relations that makes him a medium better than Piper (very difficult - I would say impossible - to explain it by cold or hot reading): There's is an online studied in english, it can be downloaded here: http://sgny.org/main/Books/Life_triumph_SAB03.pdf

There are a lot of others scientific works of his mediumship, but all in portuguese.

[Ulysses]

Can we include mediums that are alive today? For example some of those who have been tested by Garry Schwartz et al. at the University of Arizona, like Laurie Campbell. Maybe others like John Edward, George Anderson, Allison Dubois, etc.?

[Michael Prescott]

>Can we include mediums that are alive today?

Sure. But no medium today that I know of has been tested with anything close to the thoroughness of Piper and Leonard.

I have some problems with Gary Schwartz's work. He is very, very slow to publish the full transcripts of the sessions, for one thing. Without transcripts it's impossible to evaluate his claims.

I know little about the three mediums Vitor mentioned, but will look into them. The same is true of Emily French - actually this is the first I've heard of her.

I think the dental wax scandal pretty much detroyed Margery's (Mina Crandon's) reputation. Anyway, she was a physical medium, not the mental type.

>Popular "explainations" include that he had a jack hidden inside his pants

Thus giving rise to the popular saying, "Is that a jack in your pants, or are you just happy to see me?"

:-)

[Michael Tymn]

Correction to my above comment: Nobody really documented the mental mediumship of Home as far as I know.

Also, James Hyslop investigated Emily French, but Randall and Funk were the primary researchers with her.

[Leo]

I just came across a review on new scientist about Stephen Braude's boolk limits of influence you can check out the review here written by a science writer http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg13017685.800.html

[drew hempel]

Well let's not forget China! The book "Qigong Fever: Body, Science and Utopia in China" by Dr. David A. Palmer (Columbia University Press, 2007) is an amazing and very balanced read.

I took classes from a qigong master who works with the Mayo Clinic here in Minnesota and he has his own healing clinic. http://springforestqigong.com.

He sees and communicates with dead spirits all the time! In fact I achieved this ability while I was doing intensive qigong training and I saw dead spirits coming to hear him talk.

I knew what I saw because I had read a very esoteric book on the top Thailand Buddhist Monk who always had dead spirits come to hear him lecture. I had to order that book through Interlibrary Loan as it was published out of Thailand.

I didn't say anything about seeing these dead spirits (it was at a Level III retreat back in 2000). But then Master Chunyi Lin told the retreat that since someone else had seen the dead spirits and asked him about it he confirmed that this was the case -- qigong masters help these dead spirits find peace (i.e. return to formless awareness).

Master Chunyi Lin is conducting a new N.I.H. study on pain relief and his healing ability is documented with x-rays from the Mayo Clinic. His first teacher was Master Yan Xin who had many tests done on him by high level physicists in China, the results are discussed in Dr. David A. Palmer's book.

I agree with the parapsychology author of "Between Two Worlds" -- Nandor Fodor -- that mind powers are the result of psychic projection through sublimation of sexual energy.

In qigong, which relies on the full-lotus, the process is well-documented. Ultrasound ionizes electrochemicals (emotions) into electromagnetic fields (chi) which turns into light-information (spirit or shen) that bends spacetime as formless awareness.

The right-brain vagus nerve is activated just as in the female orgasm which explains why your list, Michael, is mainly females. The vagus nerve secrets acid so spiritual masters eat a very alkaline diet but also avoid salt and eat a lot of potassium (read Dr. Andrija Puharich's book "Beyond Telepathy" to find out why!).

So formless awareness is the logical start and end of the paranormal process but only by converting the body into a harmonic oscillator is the mind power created -- via electromagnetic fields. The foundational practice is called "the small universe" or "microcosmic orbit" using the 12 harmonic nodes or acupressure points along the front and back outside center energy channels. This was the case in India (Mircea Eliade) and China. The 12 points are the 12 notes of the music scale from the "circle of fifths" with the fifth being YANG. In Western music it's a circle but in nonwestern music it's an infinite resonance of 2:3 as asymmetric complimentary opposite ratios -- 2:3 turns into 3:4, in violation of the commutative principle.

That's the secret of alchemy and the means to create paranormal energy -- complimnentary opposites using asymmetry. I know because I sit in full-lotus throughout the day with paranormal effects, mainly through the electrochemical center. Gurdjieff was teaching the same asymmetrical secret when he talked about the "shocks" in the diatonic scale -- only he converted it into western symmetry and everyone just followed Ouspenky since people hear what they already believe.

Braude states that paranormal effects are due to resonance -- this is why science can not document paranormal effects in a repeatable fashion: All of science is based on symmetry (as per math professor Ian Stewart's new book: "Why Beauty is Truth").

Paranormal energy is created through asymmetry of ratios that do not have a one-to-one correspondance (no divide and average and no logarithmic standard). So in nonwestern music the notes C to G are 2:3 while G to C is 3:4 -- in violation of basic symmetry. My masters thesis documents that 2:3 is Yang and 3:4 is Yin -- very directly.

For more details you can read my blogbook http://mothershiplanding.blogspot.com.

[Arthur]

Arthur Ford may have been an alcoholic and a shyster but he had a great name! There are very few of us around and we have to stick up for each other. - Arthur

[Michael Prescott]

There's an Arthur on the sitcom The King of Queens. The show is canceled but still in syndication.

Arthur Ashe, championship tennis player.

Art Garfunkel.

Artie Shaw.

Art Vandelay (George's alter ego on Seinfeld).

Bea Arthur ...

Chester A. Arthur ...

Okay, you're right. There aren't many of you.

[Ginny]

Arthur Godfrey, Arthur Schlesinger, Arthur Treacher, King Arthur, Arthur Conan Doyle, Arthur the lovable drunk from "Arthur" ... Artemus Gordon? :-)

[Ginny]

Arthur Anderson ...

[Ginny]

Arthur Miller...

[Ginny]

The Reverend Arthur Dimsdale ...

[Ginny]

Art Linkletter. '40s actor Arthur Kennedy. Bea Arthur's henpecked TV hubby on "Maude", Arthur Findley (you wouldn't want to be that one!).

[Ginny]

Arthur, the world's most famous aardvark (pbskids.org/arthur). See, you're in good company!

[Ginny]

Arthur C. Clarke. Tony Randall (real name Arthur Leonard Rosenberg). Dancin' fool Arthur Murray ....

[Ginny]

Correction: Maude's hubby was Arthur FindlAy, not Findley. Another Arthur Findlay was the Scottish Spiritualist of "On the Edge of the Etheric" fame.

[Ginny]

Arthur Branch, now departed from Law and Order.

[Ginny]

Art Bell of UFO fame, hot rod parts guy Art Carr, hot rod racer Art Christman, director Arthur Penn, Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli, philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, jazz pianist Arthur Satyan, N.J. Nets player Arthur Johnson, Nobel winner Arthur Kornberg (Physiology and Medicine, 1959), Arthur Weasley of the Harry Potter series. And Arthur Blessitt, who has carried on foot a 12 ft. cross for Jesus around the world since 1969.

[Ginny]

Arthur Martin, geeky trainee undertaker from Six Feet Under.

[Ginny]

Ex-Communist and anti-Communist Arthur Koestler, author of "Darkness at Noon".

[Ginny]

Arthur Vandenberg, who helped found the United Nations (dubious achievement).

[Ginny]

Pianist Arthur Rubinstein, Boston Pops conductor Arthur Fiedler, Prime Minister and psi researcher Arthur Balfour, composer Arthur Sullivan of Gilbert and Sullivan.

[Arthur]

See that's what I'm saying. The name "Arthur" is a lot of name to live up to and leads a person towards greatness. It's a powerful name that ties a person to destiny. - Arthur

[Ginny]

Absolutely! You are in an esteemed company! :-)

[Ginny]

Samantha's Uncle Arthur on Bewitched! (Paul Lynde)