materialization (paranormal)

{{short description|Alleged creation or appearance of matter from unknown sources}}

File:Sir William Crookes and Katie King.jpg confronting the alleged spirit materialization of Katie King]]

In Spiritualism, paranormal literature and some religions, materialization (or manifestation) is the creation or appearance of matter from unknown sources. The existence of materialization has not been confirmed by laboratory experiments.{{cite book|last1=Roach|first1=Mary|author-link=Mary Roach|title=Six Feet Over: Adventures in the Afterlife|date=2008|publisher=Canongate|location=Edinburgh|isbn=9781847670809|pages=122–130}} Numerous cases of fraudulent materialization demonstrations by mediums have been exposed.

History

In the early 20th century a series of exposures of fraudulent activity led to a decline of materialization séances.{{cite book|last1=Melton|first1=J. Gordon|author-link=J. Gordon Melton|title=The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena|date=2008|publisher=Visible Ink Press|location=Detroit, Michigan|isbn=9781578592098|page=96}} The poet Robert Browning and his wife Elizabeth attended a séance on 23, July 1855 in Ealing with the Rymers.{{cite book|last1=Thomas|first1=Donald|author-link=Donald Serrell Thomas|title=Robert Browning: A Life Within a Life|date=1989|publisher=Weidenfeld and Nicolson|location=London|isbn=9780297796398|pages=157–158}} During the séance a spirit face materialized which Home claimed was the son of Browning who had died in infancy. Browning seized the "materialization" and discovered it to be the bare foot of Home. To make the deception worse, Browning had never lost a son in infancy. Browning's son Robert, in a letter to The Times on 5 December 1902, referred to the incident and said that "Home was detected in a vulgar fraud."{{cite book|last1=Houdini|first1=Harry|title=A Magician Among the Spirits|date=2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=9781108027489|page=42|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aNUo2iJ5wZIC&q=%22london+times%22+browning+home&pg=PA42}}{{cite book|last1=Casey|first1=John|author-link=John Casey (academic)|title=After Lives: A Guide to Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory|date=2013|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=9780199975037|page=373|quote=The poet attended one of Home's seances where a face was materialized, which, Home's spirit guide announced, was that of Browning's dead son. Browning seized the supposed materialized head, and it turned out to be the bare foot of Home. The deception was not helped by the fact that Browning never had lost a son in infancy.}}

The British materialization medium Rosina Mary Showers was caught in many fraudulent séances throughout her career.{{cite book|last1=Lyons|first1=Sherrie Lynne|author-link=Sherrie Lynne Lyons|title=Species, Serpents, Spirits, and Skulls: Science at the Margins in the Victorian Age|date=2010|publisher=State Univ Of New York Pr|location=Albany|isbn=9781438427980|page=100}} In 1874, during a séance with Edward William Cox, a sitter looked into the cabinet and seized the spirit, the head dress fell off and was revealed to be Showers.{{cite book|last1=Owen|first1=Alex|title=The Darkened Room: Women, Power and Spiritualism in late Victorian England|date=2004|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago|isbn=9780226642055|pages=70–71}} On March 29 and May 21, 1874 Florence Cook in her own Home held séances with William Crookes. It was alleged that a spirit called "Katie King" materialized, however according to the author Walter Mann "Katie was a confederate introduced by Florrie Cook. It was the easiest matter in the world to carry out this trick, since the room, described by Sir William as the 'cabinet', was Florrie Cook's bedroom."Walter Mann. (1919). The Follies and Frauds of Spiritualism. Rationalist Association. London: Watts & Co. p. 89

Frank Herne. a medium who formed a partnership with Charles Williams, was repeatedly exposed in fraudulent materialization séances.{{cite book|last1=McHargue|first1=Georgess|author-link=Georgess McHargue|title=Facts, Frauds, and Phantasms: A Survey of the Spiritualist Movement|date=1972|publisher=Doubleday|isbn=978-0385053051|page=113}}{{rp|113}} In 1875, he was caught pretending to be a spirit during a séance in Liverpool and was found "clothed in about two yards of stiffened muslin, wound round his head and hanging down as far as his thigh".{{cite book|last1=Oppenheim|first1=Janet|title=The Other World: Spiritualism and Psychical Research in England, 1850-1914|date=1985|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, Cambridgeshire|isbn=9780521265058|page=19}} Florence Cook had been "trained in the arts of the séance" by Herne and was repeatedly exposed as a fraudulent medium.{{cite book|last1=Kurtz|first1=Paul|author-link=Paul Kurtz|title=A Skeptic's Handbook of Parapsychology|date=1985|publisher=Prometheus Books|location=Buffalo, New York|isbn=9780879753009|page=29|quote=Florence Cook was caught cheating not only before her séances with Crookes but also afterward. Furthermore, she learned her trade from the mediums Frank Herne and Charles Williams, who were notorious for their cheating.}}{{cite book|last1=Keene|first1=M. Lamar|last2=Rauscher|first2=William V.|author-link=M. Lamar Keene|title=The Psychic Mafia|date=1997|publisher=Prometheus Books|location=Amherst, New York|isbn=9781573921619|page=64|quote=The most famous of materialization mediums, Florence Cook-- though she managed to convince a scientist, Sir William Crookes, that she was genuine-- was repeatedly exposed in fraud. Florence had been trained in the arts of the séance by Frank Herne, a well-known physical medium whose materializations were grabbed on more than one occasion and found to be the medium himself.|title-link=The Psychic Mafia}}

The psychical researchers W. W. Baggally and Everard Feilding exposed the British materialization medium Christopher Chambers as a fraud in 1905. A false moustache was discovered in the séance room which he used to fabricate the spirit materializations.{{cite book|last1=Wiseman|first1=Richard|author-link=Richard Wiseman|title=Deception & Self-Deception: Investigating Psychics|date=1997|publisher=Prometheus Books|location=Amherst, New York|isbn=9781573921213|pages=12–23}} The British medium Charles Eldred was exposed as a fraud in 1906. Eldred would sit in a chair in a curtained off area in the room known as a "séance cabinet". Various spirit figures would emerge from the cabinet and move around the séance room, however, it was discovered that the chair had a secret compartment that contained beards, cloths, masks, and wigs that Eldred would dress up in to fake the spirits.

File:Cardboard cut out with Eva C.png with cardboard cut out figure of King Ferdinand of Bulgaria]]

Albert von Schrenck-Notzing investigated the medium Eva Carrière and said that her reputed ectoplasm materializations were the result of "ideoplasty" in which the medium could form images onto ectoplasm from her mind.{{cite book|last1=Brower|first1=M. Brady|title=Unruly Spirits: The Science of Psychic Phenomena in Modern France|date=2010|publisher=University of Illinois Press|location=Urbana|isbn=9780252077517|page=120}} Schrenck-Notzing published the book Phenomena of Materialisation (1923) which included photographs of the ectoplasm. Critics pointed out the photographs of the ectoplasm revealed marks of magazine cut-outs, pins and a piece of string.Carlos María de Heredia. (1922). Spiritism and Common Sense. P. J. Kenedy & Sons. pp. 186-198. Schrenck-Notzing admitted that on several occasions Carrière deceptively smuggled pins into the séance room. The magician Carlos María de Heredia replicated the ectoplasm of Carrière using a comb, gauze and a handkerchief.

Donald West wrote that the ectoplasm of Carrière was fake and was made of cut-out paper faces from newspapers and magazines on which fold marks could sometimes be seen from the photographs. A photograph of Carrière taken from the back of the ectoplasm face revealed it to be made from a magazine cut out with the letters "Le Miro". The two-dimensional face had been clipped from the French magazine Le Miroir.Donald West. (1954). Psychical Research Today. Chapter Séance-Room Phenomena. Duckworth. p. 49 Back issues of the magazine also matched some of Carrière's ectoplasm faces.{{rp|187}} Cut out faces that she used included Woodrow Wilson, King Ferdinand of Bulgaria, French president Raymond Poincaré and the actress Mona Delza.{{cite book|last1=Stein|first1=Gordon|author-link=Gordon Stein|title=The Encyclopedia of the Paranormal|date=1996|publisher=Prometheus Books|location=Amherst, New York|isbn=9781573920216|page=520|edition=2nd}}

After Schrenck-Notzing discovered Carrière had taken her ectoplasm faces from the magazine he defended her by claiming she had read the magazine but her memory had recalled the images and they had materialized into the ectoplasm. Because of this Schrenck-Notzing was described as credulous. Joseph McCabe wrote "In Germany and Austria, Baron von Schrenck-Notzing is the laughing-stock of his medical colleagues."{{cite book|last1=Harris|first1=Frank|title=Debates on the Meaning of Life, Evolution, and Spiritualism|date=1993|publisher=Prometheus Books|location=Buffalo, New York|isbn=9780879758288|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780879758288/page/77 77]|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780879758288/page/77}}

In 1907, Hereward Carrington exposed the tricks of fraudulent mediums such as those used in slate-writing, table-turning, trumpet mediumship, materializations, sealed-letter reading and spirit photography.{{cite web|last1=Carrington|first1=Hereward|title=The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism|url=https://archive.org/stream/physicalphenomen00carr#page/n7/mode/2up|publisher=Wayback Machine|access-date=19 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160603123943/http://www.archive.org/stream/physicalphenomen00carr|archive-date=3 June 2016|date=1907}} Between 8 November and 31 December 1920 Gustav Geley of the Institute Metapsychique International attended fourteen séances with the medium Franek Kluski in Paris. A bowl of hot paraffin was placed in the room and according to Kluski spirits dipped their limbs into the paraffin and then into a bath of water to materialize. Three other series of séances were held in Warsaw in Kluski's own apartment, these took place over a period of three years. Kluski was not searched in any of the séances. Photographs of the molds were obtained during the four series of experiments and were published by Geley in 1924.{{cite book|last1=Chéroux|first1=Clément|title=The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult|date=2005|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven, Connecticut|isbn=9780300111361|page=268}}{{cite book|last1=Rogo|first1=D. Scott|author-link=D. Scott Rogo|title=Minds and Motion: The Riddle of Psychokinesis|date=1978|publisher=Taplinger Pub. Co.|location=New York|isbn=9780800824556|pages=245–246|edition=1st}} Human skin hairs were found on the moulds which has indicated fraud.Michael Coleman. (1994). The Kluski moulds: a reply. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research. Volume 60: 98-103. Harry Houdini replicated the Kluski materialization moulds by using his hands and a bowl of hot paraffin.{{cite book|last1=Polidoro|first1=Massimo|author-link=Massimo Polidoro|title=Final Séance: The Strange Friendship Between Houdini and Conan Doyle|url=https://archive.org/details/finalseance00mass|url-access=registration|date=2001|publisher=Prometheus Books|location=Amherst, New York|isbn=9781573928960|pages=[https://archive.org/details/finalseance00mass/page/71 71–73]|quote=At the time Houdini didn't press the argument further, but later on, experimenting with paraffin, he found no artifice was needed to duplicate Kluski's molds. As a series of pictures for a newspaper of the time shows, he immersed his hand in the hot paraffin, let it dry, and then carefully removed the hand from it. When one experiments with this technique, one realizes that it is not the plaster cast that has to be removed from the thin wax mold, which would be impossible to do without breaking the mold. One almost forgets that what has to be removed is the living hand, possibly the best-suited object to slip out of a mold without damaging it. In fact, a real hand is even more effective than any other artifice dreamed up to substitute for it. First, the paraffin doesn't stick to skin, only to quite long hair. Nonetheless, if one moves the fingers very slowly, one will realize that every small bit one pulls out will gradually allow the rest of the hand to be removed; that's similar to what happens when one pulls off a tight glove.}}

Erlendur Haraldsson investigated one of the Hindu swamis, who are associated with frequent and widely accepted claims of materializations of objects or substances, namely Gyatri Swami, and reached a negative conclusion regarding his claims.{{cite journal|last1=Haraldsson|first1=Erlendur|last2=Houtkooper|first2=Joop M.|title=Report on an Indian Swami Claiming to Materialize Objects: The Value and Limitations of Field Observations|journal=Journal of Scientific Exploration|date=October 1994|volume=8|issue=3|pages=381–397|url=https://www.scientificexploration.org/docs/8/jse_08_3_haraldsson.pdf|access-date=9 October 2017}}{{rs?|date=February 2020}}

Indian gurus Sathya Sai Baba (died 2011) and Swami Premananda have claimed to perform materializations. Spontaneous vibuthi (holy ash) manifestations are reported by Sai Baba's followers on his pictures at their homes.{{cite web|url=http://www.saibabamiracles.com/ |title=Gallery Of Miracles |publisher=Saibabamiracles.com |access-date=2016-12-19}}{{Unreliable source?|sure=yes|reason=Source appears to be a user-generated site.|date=October 2017}}{{cite book|last1=Brown|first1=Mick|author-link=Mick Brown (journalist)|title=The Spiritual Tourist. A Personal Odyssey Through the Outer Reaches of Belief|date=1999|publisher=Bloomsbury|location=New York|isbn=978-1582340340|pages=[https://archive.org/details/spiritualtourist00mick/page/29 29–30]|edition=1st|url=https://archive.org/details/spiritualtourist00mick/page/29}}{{cite web|last1=Pillay|first1=Prinella|title=Divine blessing|url=http://www.thepost.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=154&fArticleId=375687|website=The Post|publisher=Wayback Machine|access-date=19 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041010222501/http://www.thepost.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=154&fArticleId=375687|archive-date=10 October 2004|date=17 March 2004}} Skeptics have suspected the materializations of Sathya Sai Baba were fraudulent and the result of sleight of hand tricks.{{cite journal|last1=Shaffer|first1=Paul|title=The Life and Death of 'Living God' Sathya Sai Baba - CSI|journal=Skeptical Inquirer|date=September–October 2011|volume=35|issue=5|url=http://www.csicop.org/si/show/the_life_and_death_of_living_god_sathya_sai_baba/|access-date=9 October 2017}} The magician P. C. Sorcar wrote Sai Baba's vibhuti feat was a "common trick" conjured with an ash capsule.{{cite web|title=P.C. Sorcar: "Baba's a bad trickster"|url=http://www.india-today.com/itoday/20001204/cover3.shtml|website=India Today Magazine|publisher=Wayback Machine|access-date=9 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924034512/http://www.india-today.com/itoday/20001204/cover3.shtml|archive-date=24 September 2015|date=4 December 2000}}

materialization (paranormal)

History

See also

References

Further reading