Gullible's travels

From Revelations of a Spirit Medium, a tell-all book by a phony 19th century medium, comes this amusing and pathetic story of an ardent Spiritualist who journeyed from the East Coast to San Francisco, where he left his bachelorhood behind:

The writer agreed to give the details of the courtship and marriage of a mortal and spirit, and this is a fitting place to give it. The real name of the gentleman will not be given, but the name of the spirit was supposed to be Isis, and she an inhabitant of the planet Jupiter....

The bridegroom, whom we will call Mr. Brown, began an investigation of Spiritualism in one of the Eastern cities. He was a man of wealth and traveled much as a means of pleasantly passing away the time. He was educated, a bachelor, and held that all the planets were inhabited by races of human beings similar to ourselves, though much in advance of us in everything. He believed that the inhabitants of Jupiter were once the people of this earth, but that since death they may have lived on several of the different planets, and as they progressed were placed on planets that contained everything and every condition that their state of development entitled them to.

How much of this strange belief was obtained through the "medium" the writer cannot say. However, when the 'Frisco "medium" learned these views he at once set to work to make them pay him. He, Mr. Brown, was first convinced that the "medium" was genuine. His own views were then made to appear as correct, thus he was certain to continue his investigations with this "medium."

At one of the "materializing seances" one of the female "spooks" was made as handsome as a new robe trimmed with satin and other things, a Rhinestone necklace, ear-drops, hair-pins, bracelets and brooch, along with plenty of powder and pencil-work would make her, and she "came" for Mr. Brown.

It was no one Mr. Brown remembered, and he was told that it was a spirit from Jupiter and was his spirit guide or guard, and his "affinity." He was also told that he had just begun to attain a Spiritual "condition" that would permit her to communicate with him.

In her "make-up" the "spook" was certainly very beautiful. Especially was this true when she was looked upon in the very dim light of the "seance-room." Mr. Brown fell in love with Isis, very much in love. So much so that he was present at every public "seance," and had one and two private "seances" each week. It may not have been so much the physical beauty of the spirit as the supposed exalted sphere of progression she existed in, and the thought that she was his guardian angel.

Besides this, her conversation with him was always of spiritual sciences and matters that were of interest to him. She also gave him to understand that they always had been "affinities," and that some time in the future they would be mated. He was informed that the reason he had never married was because of her "influence," that had she remained on earth they would as certainly have met and married as it was that the sun rose and set that day, also that it would have been infinitely easier for both to have reached the perfect state if it had transpired that way. He was told that these communions together would materially aid him in his progression when he came to that side of life. This was kept before him so constantly that he finally asked if it would not be possible to consummate the marriage between them.

This was rather unexpected and the "medium" and "spook" consulted on the matter and concluded they could get a little extra, perhaps, by getting up a mock marriage ceremony. The "medium" set his wits to work, and when Mr. Brown had his next private "seance" he was told that the marriage could be consummated if it could be arranged so as to not kill or injure the "medium," It was satisfactorily explained to him why there was danger of anything of the kind occurring, and that the "medium" ought to be handsomely rewarded if he could be persuaded to sit for him for that purpose. It was left to her to name the amount and she made it five hundred dollars. She bade him make the arrangements with the "medium" and confer with her again next day. This he did, and the "medium" after much persuasion was induced to accept a check for five hundred dollars, the "seance" to occur at any time named by the spirit Isis.

At the private "seance" the next day Isis informed Mr. Brown that a large amount of fine silks and jewelry would have to be purchased and placed in the "cabinet" so that she and the company would have abundance of material from which to "materialize" their clothing. He was told that the occasion should be honored with a grand supper after the ceremony, and would he see to it that it was arranged for. She said there would be six "materialized" spirits present and twenty who would be invisible. The date for the wedding was named and the number of private "seances" to be had previous to it. He was instructed to give the money to the "medium" to purchase the silks and other material they were to "draw from." These things were to be touched by no hand save the "medium's" else they would receive a "magnetism" that would prevent the purpose for which they were furnished. The "astral magnetism" would control all the proceedings, and none other must be allowed to contaminate it.

The wedding night came around and the "seance" room was decorated with flowers and shrubs, besides a long table being laid for twenty-one persons. It will suffice to say that the wines and viands on the table cost close to three hundred dollars. No one was present save the "medium" and Mr. Brown. The "medium" entered the "cabinet" and went into a trance.

Soon there stepped into the dimly-lighted room a tall and magnificently gowned and crowned person who appeared to be a priest or a high functionary of some sort. He was followed by the "bride'' and she by four other beautifully costumed "spirits," two ladies and two gentleman. The writer will only add that the tall spirit performed the marriage ceremony, after which all sat down at table although nothing was eaten, as Mr. Brown had not yet been brought to a point where he could believe a spirit could eat and digest solids. They were supposed to feast on the aroma or essence or spiritual part of the feast spread for them.

The "medium" had fine wines and high living for several weeks after the wedding. He did not purchase silks and laces with the money furnished but placed in the "cabinet" some bundles of paper. All the properties furnished for the wedding went to the "medium." He made in the entire transaction, including "private sittings," more than four thousand dollars in six months. This from one man, alone. He may have had three or four "suckers" beside Mr. Brown. To be sure, the "sucker" is cautioned to secrecy regarding all these occurrences, for were it to become known by any of his friends it might result disastrously to the "medium."

The recital of Mr. Brown's experience will not be believed by a great many who read this book ; but it is a fact.

Comments

[Vitor Moura]

I just would like to notice that the book "The Psychic Mafia" is online:

http://members.fortunecity.com/misteryo/pm1.html

And the book "Consciousness and the Physical World" too: http://noosphere.princeton.edu/papers/docs/stokes/

[Ian Seymour]

Michael, firstly your blog is an unending source of pleasure, sense and instruction!

I am a scientific historian, with a special interest in 17th century English occultism, and as such I found this story fascinating. I wonder if the medium was aware that he was working in a fine old tradition?

One of the classic ploys of the fraudsters and bogus occultists of the period was to extract money from a dupe in return for an introduction to the Queen of the Fairies - usually with the promise of knowledge, marriage or sex. The obvious example is fictitious - Ben Jonson's The Alchemist - but that is based on (and cites) a real incident in 1609-10, where an impecunious disgraced politician, Sir Anthony Ashley, was tried for attempting exactly such a fraud on Thomas Rogers, a Dorset country gentleman.

There are many such cases, the classic being that of Goodwin Wharton (1653-1704), a serious and significant politician and military figure, who was utterly convinced that he was married to Penelope, Queen of the fairies" and duped with complete success to his dying day by the London wise woman Mary Parrish - facts which only emerged in his posthumously discovered autobiography.

It really is intriguing that the same expressions of human gullibility (and spiritual aspiration) reoccur throughout history: perhaps this 19th century case is ` a missing link between the fairyland fraud and the various "sexy saucer people" of the contactee era.

Cheers, Ian

[Michael Prescott]

Thanks for your comments, Ian.

Doesn't this same plot device figure in The Merry Wives of Windsor? It's been a long time since I read it, but I seem to recall that Falstaff is taken in by a practical joke involving the "queen of the fairies."

[Ian Seymour]

Indeed so, Michael. There's an possible parallel with the way "alien abductions" suddenly became a soap-opera staple in the mid-late 80s. Contemporary audiences recognised such stories as both comic absurdities and yet something that "could happen". The idea of encounters with the Fairy Queen was very much part of the culture.

In this case it's interesting to compare signal to noise. Back in the 80s a friend of mine was cataloging the 17th century tract collection at St David's University College, Lampeter and brought me an astonishing pamphlet detailing the experiences of Anne Jefferies and her encounters with the Fairies in the 1640s. The author was Moses Pitt, a famous British cartographer, publisher and prison reformer, in whose family Jefferies had served as a maid during these events.

To cut a long story short, a Victorian folklorist later reinvented and rewrote the story as a ludicrous fairy romance, which has gravely distorted most subsequent retellings. I unearthed a number of contemporary accounts of the affair, which all confirmed Pitt's narrative. To my knowledge this is the only full version of the text on-line, and well worth reading if one can ignore the background. It is an evocative and intriguing piece - http://www.gandolf.com/cornwall/fairies/AnnJeffries.shtml

Ian