Glimpses Of The Next State.Pdf - Spiritualists' National Union

31Irish gentleman; Cerise, a Frenchwoman who cannot talk English; Abdullah, a Ghazi; andJoseph Grimaldi, alleged to be the famous clown of the early part of last century. I have not anydoubt as to the reality of Graem, Amy, Alder, Cerise and Grimaldi as spirit entities, though, forobvious reasons I cannot vouch for their identities. Abdullah and Amy were the only two whohabitually materialised. There is good reason to suppose that Craddock has, on certain occasions,personated Abdullah. For a man of his build to attempt to make himself up as a slender woman,such as Amy, with small hands and arms, and to act and speak as she did, would be impossible.She manifested at nearly every séance, whether it was held in her medium’s house or in privatehouses. Perhaps, however, the most convincing evidences of the genuineness of Craddock’s giftwere the simultaneous appearances of two faces at different parts of a circle, and the small astralfigures that that formed and disappeared outside the cabinet. Both these phenomena occurredvery rarely.As regards the genuineness of Amy, if I had not satisfied myself of it in various ways thefollowing incident would have sufficed. A long-legged and not over-scrupulous acquaintance onceput out a leg when she was apparently standing close in front of him and showing her face by theilluminated slate. His leg swept in an arc under the form, and met with no resistance, showing thatthe phantom was not standing but floating a foot from him.On March 18, 1906, a party of ten people, eight of whom were spiritualists, assembled, at therequest of Mr. Craddock, in his house at Pinner, to take part in a séance; there was an invitationalso to pay half a guinea for the privilege. After the dark section of the séance had proceeded fortwenty-five minutes, Colonel Mark Mayhew, one of the sitters who had previously convincedhimself of the fraudulent character of one of Craddock’s séances, seized a figure that was showingits face to him; the figure endeavoured to step back into the cabinet, and the sitter and form fell onthe floor, the sitter being on top. A light was turned on and Craddock was found in the arms ofColonel Mayhew, looking the picture of terror. He was apparently in trance; for when hescrambled up into his chair he chattered volubly in the voice of Graem, his principal control. Hiswife rushed into the room, closed him into the cabinet and bandaged his eyes. The door waslocked, the room was lighted up; and when the medium emerged from the cabinet, which he did inabout eight or ten minutes, he and his wife were invited to submit their persons and their room to asearch, in order that the medium might clear himself from the imputation of conscious fraud. Inthe meantime, Colonel Mayhew found an “ever-ready” electric torch in the drawer of a table in thecabinet which was not there before the séance began.The situation, then, was this: - The medium, who was supposed to be in his chair in thecabinet, had been detected wandering about four feet outside the curtains, personating a spirit todeceive a sitter. This was a prima facie evidence of fraud upon the circle, which had beenassembled to witness genuine phenomena. It was not necessarily conscious fraud on the part of themedium, as he might have been brought out in a somnambulistic condition by being on anotherplane of existence; but it was unquestionably fraud of some sort, and the sitters had a right todemand and explanation and a proof that no preparations had been made by Craddock, before hehad entered the room, to simulate phenomena of spirit return. The discovery of an electric torch,which has no function in a genuine séance, was evidence of conscious fraud; and it wasstrengthened by the assertion of Mrs. Craddock that the torch had been brought into the house byColonel Mayhew, and placed in the drawer by him in order to discredit the medium – an obviousfalsehood, which deceived no one present. As to this, a letter appeared in Light of March 31, 1906,from an indiscreet friend, stating that Craddock had often shown this torch to him.Though now in his normal senses, and able to appreciate the true effect of his words andactions, Craddock refused to be searched, offering instead to “give a test séance at the rooms of theAlliance.” He was asked three times to clear himself, but obstinately refused, and showed afeverish desire to leave the room. Five men consulted together, and decided that the refusal wassufficient evidence of trickery; the door was unlocked and the medium was allowed to escapeupstairs. To use force would have been unseemly and unnecessary. Moreover, a search ofCraddock would have been incomplete, unless his wife had also been examined; for she had enjoyedample opportunity for secreting some of his accessories about her person.