- THE HAUNTED MUSEUM -

the magicians & the debunkers
Early Investigators of Ghostly Phenomena

From the very beginning of the Spiritualist movement, there were magicians and skeptics who were adept at re-creating the allegedly "miraculous" phenomena of the mediums. They would do so by duplicating, then exposing, their effects. The methods practiced by the mediums were simple, these men claimed, and were merely stage illusions just like the ones being created before audiences in vaudeville theaters across the country. "If I can only get your attention intently," one magician claimed, "an elephant could pass behind me and you would not see it."

Perhaps the most famous of those who exposed fraudulent mediums was renowned illusionist Harry Houdini but another, a friend of Houdini's and nearly as famous, was Joseph Dunninger, a master hypnotist and well known investigator of supernatural claims.

JOSEPH DUNNINGER
Dunninger was born in New York City in April 1892 and from a young age, had an interest in the mysterious. He became entranced with the unexplained and went to see numerous stage magicians and spirit mediums. His life was changed though after he went to see a show performed by magician Harry Kellar and after that evening, he was determined to become an illusionist himself. He began performing on stage (while still a young boy) and traveled throughout the northeast, trying to become known in a competitive field. Eventually, he made his way back to New York and was booked into a single theater for an extended engagement. It became the longest consecutive show for any magician to play in New York -- 65 weeks at the Edsen Museee. After his contract expired, Dunninger accepted offers from several traveling vaudeville shows and toured the country for the next several years.

Dunninger's career continued to rise and he became known for what other magicians called "his unusual and interesting method of handling the art of magic". Even his mentor, Harry Kellar, stated at a banquet for American magicians that Dunninger "would become one of the greatest conjurers the world has ever known."

Soon however, the young magician realized that being an adept practitioner was not enough -- he needed to make a name for himself and to create a trademark that would forever be linked with his name. At this point, he began to perfect a part of his act that dealt with mind-reading and telepathy. He soon became a student of Eastern studies and cultivated his already strong interest in the occult and psychical studies. He didn't realize it at the time, but this became a turning point in his career and he was soon to become known as one of the greatest mentalists of all time.

Dunninger soon became famous as a society entertainer as well, performing for audiences and celebrities all over the country, including four United States presidents -- Calvin Coolidge, William Howard Taft, Warren Harding and Theodore Roosevelt. He also became the first man to give a successful demonstration of hypnotism via radio in July 1923. As his popularity grew, he began to book shows that would earn him as much as $1500 per performance. His mind reading act puzzled and mystified audiences and skeptics alike, although he always maintained that it was done simply by illusion and that no supernatural powers were at work.

Dunninger later became the chairman of the Committee for Psychical Research, which was established by Science and Invention Magazine. Through this publication, a total of $31,000 was offered to any spirit medium who could produce a supernatural effect or manifestation that Dunninger could not duplicate by artificial or scientific means. Hundreds of mediums applied but in every instance, Dunninger was able to re-create any phenomena they offered. Soon, mediums throughout the country began to insist that the magician was a medium in his own right. They claimed that he had occult powers, but Dunninger insisted this was not true.  "Any child of 12 could do what I do," he often exclaimed, "... with 30 years experience!"

Dunninger died in March 1975, after decades as an entertainer and investigator.  He was the last of the great showman and investigators to pass on and he left a wonderful library of books and articles on magic and the illusions of the spirit mediums. Like Houdini though, Dunninger did not debunk the frauds because he did not believe. He did so in a search for true phenomena and during his lifetime, he did admit to experiences that were beyond his ability to understand.

DEBUNKING THE FRAUDS
Despite the showmanship and entertainment value of the magicians and their "spirit shows", the popularity they enjoyed did little to curb the impact of the flourishing Spiritualist industry. Although some of the worst mediums were driven out of business, most simply devised new and better effects to go on dazzling their sitters with. Ultimately, the success of phony mediums owed more to the public's eagerness to believe than to the skill of the individual practitioners.

The method of the phony mediums were exposed in stage shows, in books and small brochures. Many of these methods are discussed in more detail in an article on this site called "How to Hold a Séance". The photos below illustrate some of the tricks that were used by the fraudulent mediums.

In this vintage photograph, a medium in a dark room frees his hands and uses a telescoping rod to hoist a tambourine high into the air. In this way, the sound in heard high above the heads of the sitters and it would be assumed that the object was dangling in the air by supernatural means. Sometimes, the instrument would be coated with glowing phosphorous for an eerie and more dramatic effect.

The bound "medium" has also managed to move a guitar from the table and with his other hand will be able to pluck at the strings to create more "spirit music". While this sees very simple, the room is not only very dark -- but is filled with believers, who likely would not have been looking for any type of fraud. This type of sitter is essential to a fraudulent medium's game.

In this photograph, the "medium" has announced that he is levitating, but of course no one can see him in the dark séance room. Carefully, he walks about the room and brushes the heads and hair of the sitters with the bottom of his shoes, creating the illusion that he has just floated past them. As silly as this sounds to the reader, such suggestions planted into the heads of the sitters were surprisingly effective.

All that one has to remember is that most of the mediums became skilled at freeing themselves from simple rope ties and séances were almost always conducted under very dark conditions. With a room full of people who were eager to believe -- the rest was simple.


This photograph shows another phony Spiritualist debunker, William Marriott, displaying the skills used by some mediums during the practice of "Table Tilting". Demonstrated without the benefit of a darkened room, he shows that a floating table does not necessarily mean that the spirits are present.

In this photograph, magician Joseph Dunninger grips a piece of chalk in his teeth to produce a sample of "spirit writing" on a slate. This hoax was also carried out in the dark and of course, without the knowledge of the sitter. With practice, good hoaxers could not only writer legible messages in complete darkness, but also upside down as well.

There were a variety of different tricks that could be done with slates and could be passed off as the work of the spirits. Often the mediums would present a slate for examination to the sitters and then in the darkness would remove a cover over an alternate side of the slate, on which writing had already been placed.

In this photo, Dunninger appears again, this time tied to chair inside of a spirit cabinet and out of the sight of the sitters for the séance. After freeing himself from his ropes (phony mediums had to be excellent escape artists), he removes a telescoping rod from his pocket and attaches a towel to it that has been coated with phosphorous. Both items could be easily hidden inside of his clothing , passed to him by an accomplice or even hidden somewhere inside of the cabinet.

The glowing "spirit form" would then appear outside of the cabinet and would stun and amaze the gathered sitters. At the end of the session, the "medium" would tie himself back into his ropes and wait to be freed by an assistant. Again, the belief systems of the sitters would play an important part in the success of the illusion.

William Marriott appears again with an collection of "ghostly forms" that he confiscated from phony mediums. These ghosts, which are actually sheets and masks, were used by mediums to produce what seemed to be plausible spirit forms. Although the figures do appear crude to the camera, darkness, glowing paint and the heightened expectations of the sitters made them look very convincing.

By the late 1920's, interest in Spiritualism and exposing the fraudulent mediums had mostly died out. The popularity of the movement had waned by this time and the investigators began to turn their attention to other things, including the investigation of haunted houses and ghosts. Men who would make themselves known as famous ghost hunters, like Harry Price, began their careers as debunkers of mediums and for this reason, these early investigators have been credited with starting the field of ghost investigation.

(C) Copyright 2003 by Troy Taylor. All Rights Reserved.

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