The last trumpet

The subject of "physical" mediumship - as opposed to the "mental" variety - has come up lately on this blog, so I thought I would link to a Web page that gives some idea of why this area is so controversial.

The page in question comprises four articles on an embarrassing incident from several years ago involving British medium Colin Fry, who remains active today. In a seance in 1992, a trumpet with illuminated tape on its side was apparently floating about the room in total darkness. Then suddenly, for no apparent reason, the lights in the room came on, revealing that Fry was actually holding the trumpet in his hand. He had escaped from the chair to which he had been secured by flex-cuff ties, and was obviously creating the "spirit" phenomena himself.

Although many people concluded that Fry was a fraud, others gave him the benefit of the doubt, claiming that an "intrusive spirit" had taken possession of Fry while he was in his trance, and that this same mischievous spirit had turned on the lights. Questions about how the flex-cuffs were cut apart also raised the possibility, in some people's minds, of paranormal interference.

Personally, I am not inclined to cut Fry any slack. He was caught manipulating the trumpet. But you know me - I'm one of those hardcore skeptics!

According to this discussion (dated 2003), Fry is at least loosely connected with David Thompson, the medium whose recent demonstration of his abilities in Sydney sparked our little controversy. Says one participant:

Thompson and Fry work together. I scheduled a seance for a family member with Fry at Hayward's Heath, less than an hour's  drive from Brighton. They both use the same venue there. There were about two dozen people present but Fry didn' show up and Thompson took his place. I later spoke to a radio talk show host in Australia since Thompson was going there to perform. I told him to look out if certain spirits would appear as they did in the UK. . Well these same spirits showed up in Australia as well.

Fry and Thompson jointly signed a letter turning down a request to subject their powers to scientific testing.

You may recall that one remarkable claim in connection with the Sydney seance was that David Thompson's sweater was reversed and rebuttoned, even though he apparently remained secured to his chair at all times. In the discussion linked above, another participant explains how it is possible to get out of flex-cuff ties without cutting them:

Magician Ian Rowland has demonstrated on TV how this is done. The ends of the arms of the chair are not securely connected to the posts as most people would assume. David can simply raise the arm up off the post, slip the cable ties off the ends of the arms and proceed to do all manner of things with his free hands. And then when the show is near the end, he slips the cable ties back over the ends of the chair arms and reconnects the arms to the posts, giving the impression that his hands were securely fastened to the chair the whole time, when if fact they were not, even though the cable ties were never broken.

In another discussion on the JREF forum, which is part of skeptic James Randi's site, someone professed bewilderment at the fact that I could find fault with one materialization seance while endorsing other ones. I guess the all-or-nothing attitude is not limited to one side or the other in this debate.

Really, is it so hard to grasp the concept of evaluating each claim on a case-by-case basis? Well, apparently it is hard, since a lot of people prefer to take the easy way out and simply decide that it's all genuine or it's all bogus - no exceptions. This at least saves them the trouble of thinking.

For people who do want to think about physical mediumship in a serious way, a good place to begin is Stephen E. Braude's book The Limits of Influence. You can learn more about Braude , a professor of philosophy at the University of Maryland, at his Web site.

Comments

[Matthew Cromer]

It is great to see someone actually willing to look at these things instead of coming with their mind already made up, one way or another.

[Darryn, London]

Agree with you entirely, and curiously I immediately thought of Colin Fry/Lincoln when I read mention of the trumpet present in Zammit's seance. My interpretation of the page you link to is a little different: it seems that the bonds were in fact cut, freeing him. An analysis was performed in an attempt to figure out how this was done, but was inconclusive. How Colin would have explained this once the experience was over, I don't know. Perhaps he had some clever method of replacing the ties.

Mini-synchronicity: I went to the library the other day looking for William BRAUD'S books. He's a parapsychologist who's done work on mental influence over matter. They had nothing by him, but did have Stephen BRAUDE'S book, whom I had not heard of before but came up on the screen thanks to their similar surname. Cool to see it mentioned here.

[Michael Prescott]

>Perhaps he had some clever method of replacing the ties.

I believe the ties were taken from a large package of ties that was kept in the room (they are sold in bulk). Possibly Fry hid some extras in his pockets, or had access to the package in the dark. I'm just guessing, of course.

Stephen Braude is well worth reading. His latest book, Immortal Remains, is an excellent (though quite technical) survey of afterlife evidence. I disagree with him on some points - f.i., I think NDEs are good evidence, and he doesn't. But his analysis is always interesting and provocative.