Then came a period of investigation and exposure. Mediumship and trance exhibitions, slate-writing, etc., proved so profitable that many sleight-of-hand performers, legerdemain artists and clever people engaged in it for profit, and it seemed impossible to distinguish the genuine from the impositions. There was so much discussion and dispute that in 1882 the Psychical Research Society was formed in Lon don, and a few years later an American branch was organized. A large number of distinguished scientific men participated in this work, which many thought would result in demonstrating that Spiritualism was humbug and fraud from beginning to end. The American branch as sisted the University of Pennsylvania in form ing the Seybert Commission to investigate the phenomena of Spiritualism and Mediumship, and they promptly exposed a number of fraud ulent mediums and their work, presented a and dissolved. This was far from satisfactory, as it simply showed that a num ber of imitators of Spiritualist methods had hoaxed a large number of people. It left un solved the question whether others were not genuine and whether there were not definite natural laws underlying the phenomena. So the Psychical Research Society continued its work and has now been active for more than 35 years and published voluminous reports or proceedings. Several of its prominent members have committed themselves to a definite con viction as to the truth of many of the phenom ena and the genuineness of communications with intelligences called dead, but living on the higher planes. Their most exhaustive experi ments were made with Eusapia Paladino and Leonora Piper, and for particulars of their work the reader is referred to PSYCHICAL RE SEARCH in this Encyclopedia.
Mediumship and Its Spiritual ism is based on mediumship, or the use of a human being as a means of communication be tween discarnate intelligences (or dead people) and living persons. These mediums are usually persons of a nervous temperament, and they al ways must be passive to develop what is called the . °power? but which • might be better de scribed as the ability to interpret by submission of the will and voluntary senses. It is a sub jective psychic process, and very wearing and trying upon the nervous system of the medium, and it has been contended that the disposition of mediums to impose upon the public was largely due to the fact that the work so ex hausted them that they were unable to keep up with the demands of their sitters, and so "faked" interviews with the dead, to give them satisfaction. Impressional or inspirational mediums are those who do not go into a full trance, but are quite conscious of their sur roundings, and who, when under this slight control, make addresses or write that which is impressed on their minds from the "other side" of life. This has been done so frequently, and such wise and learned utterances have at times come so fluently from mediums of moder ate education, that the fact of their being more or less inspired by intelligences of greater abil ity than they themselves possess, has been widely admitted. The automatic writing form of mediumship is akin to this. The medium takes a pen or pencil and waits until some influence seizes his or her hand, and writing proceeds.
The composition may be good, bad or indiffer ent. But since such a reliable man of world wide fame as William T. Stead, in his
It has been explained that this is accomplished by the medium's control, who draws upon the medium and the sitters for magnetism, and a certain amount of material matter, and builds this about a spirit form so that such spirit form is rendered visible. For the reality or non reality of this phenomena the reader is referred to the bibliography at the close of this article. The subject is so disputed, and so difficult of proof, that it cannot be discussed at length here with profit. In addition to the foregoing, there are mediums who have practised a variety of cabinet tricks, as of speaking through trumpets, playing musical instruments, etc., while securely tied within a dark cabinet on the stage, the instrument being in full view of the audience and seemingly sounded without human agency. There is also a form of mediumship called °table tipping" which was very popular in Eng land in the early days of the Spiritualist move ment. Articles of furniture would be made to move about with no visible person or attach ment. This seems to have been a form of levitation and this is fully discussed under that word.