WHY ECTOPLASM?
YEARS have passed since my first meeting with the Hon. Everard Feilding! Many times during those years I have discussed Spiritualism with him and no one has ever been more interested than he in the results of my investigations and study of it and it was through his help that I was able to investigate personally the famous Eva Carriere, better known perhaps as Mlle. Eva.
One evening in the spring of 1920 during a quiet dinner at his home in London the conversation drifted toward Ectoplasm. I told Mr. and Mrs.95 Feilding about attending a Sunday meeting of the London Psychical College through the courtesy of Hewat McKenzie. At this meeting Mme. Bisson and Mlle. Eva were introduced by Fornieur d’Albe and Mme. Bisson while delivering an impromptu talk seized the opportunity to resent the attack of a French magician and to explain in unmistakable tones her antagonism toward prestidigitators.
Mr. Feilding assured me I was correct about her antipathy towards magicians and suggested that the only way I could ever hope to attend one of her seances was to convince the medium that I was not one of the biased prestidigitator class, and proposed as a means to attain this end a theatre party to see my performance and thus enable Mme. Bisson and Mlle. Eva to judge for themselves. This was arranged and the night they came to the theatre to see me I did the Torture Cell Mystery, in which I am completely submerged, head foremost, in a tank of water, and it is a physical impossibility to obtain air while locked in the device. They were so much mystified that they expressed a desire to attend another performance of mine sometime in the near future. I had just accepted a challenge to escape from a packing case which was to be built on the stage by experienced carpenters and thinking that it would be an interesting performance for Mme. Bisson to witness I extended her an invitation and received the following letter in reply.
“May 19, 1920.
“Dear Mr. Houdini:
“We, Mlle. Eva and I, shall be charmed to see you at the performance of which you have spoken to me, on next Wednesday. Since you have had the great kindness to offer us several tickets, it gives me great pleasure to accept, and if you wish, you may send us four, as we expect to join in the applause with Mr. and Mrs. Feilding.
“I also wish to tell you something else!
“You know that we give seances here, showing the phenomena of materialization. These are not spirit studies. They are scientific.
“It would interest Mr. Feilding and ourselves to have at our seances a master in the art of prestidigitation, but I have always refused to admit to my house, an ordinary prestidigitator, or even one of better rank. Our work is serious and real, and the gift of Mlle. Eva might disappear forever, if some awkward individual insists on thinking there is fraud involved, instead of real and interesting facts, which especially interest the scientific.
“For you this does not hold! You are above all this. You are a magnificent actor, who can not call himself a prestidigitator, a title beneath a man of your talent.
“I shall therefore, (rather we shall) be proud to see you attend our seances and hear you tell us all, after you have been thoroughly convinced yourself, that their merit is far beneath your own, for these manifestations depend merely upon allowing the forces of nature to act, and lie simply in truth of fact. Whereas with you, it is your merit, your talent, and your personal valor that have enabled you to attain the place of King in your art.
“With kind and esteemed regards to Mme. Houdini and yourself,
(Signed) Juliette Bisson.”
(Translated.)
When I showed this letter to Mr. Feilding he was both surprised and pleased for it gave him an opportunity to invite me to become one of the Committee which was to investigate Mme. Bisson and Mlle. Eva’s seances to be held by the Society for Psychical Research, and so at the combined invitations of the mediums and Mr. Feilding I attended eight. Each of them lasted three hours and I firmly believe that a description of them and their results is important.
At these seances my word was pledged to give full and sacred thoughts and I tried to control my thoughts so that my whole attention could be given to the medium. There was no scoffing and there was the will to believe. I felt that if anything was manifested by the Spirits my conscience would be clear. However, I sat with my eyes open, taking in even the most minute details and keeping on my guard against any trickery. A number of times I occupied a “control” chair at the medium’s left with her left limb between mine and both of my hands holding her left hand and wrist, while Eric Dingwall had the Committee seat on her right. Eva was accompanied at all of the seances by Mme. Bisson and the method of procedure was always the same. After Eva had been stripped and searched96 in an adjoining room by the lady members of the Committee, she returned dressed in tights and Mme. Bisson would then put her into a mesmeric sleep. There is no doubt in my mind that the girl was really put to sleep. We were requested to all join in asking her in unison for about fifteen minutes at each crisis to “give”—“donnez”—then, after about three hours, she would bring forth this alleged ectoplasm.
At one of the seances the Hon. Feilding did insist on Eva’s eating crackers and drinking coffee, so that if she had anything concealed in her stomach, which she might by regurgitation expel, the coffee would discolor it.
The seance of June 22, 1920, was held at 20 Hanover Square, London. Mme. Bisson and Eva retired to another room and Eric Dingwall sewed a black lace veil to the tights which Eva wore. This veil completely enshrouded her and looked like a sort of bag or net. The object of this was to prevent her from placing anything in her mouth or get anything from her tights to the neck—in fact, it was a double security against fraud. We sat and waited and finally she expelled from her mouth a great deal of foam.
Feilding and Baggley stated that it looked as though it had come from her nose. I saw distinctly that it was a heavy froth and was adhering to her veil on the inside. Dingwall, who sat next to the medium, agreed with me it had emanated from her mouth, but when she leaned forward it looked as though it was coming from her nose. She produced a white plaster and eventually managed to juggle it over her eye. There was a face in it which looked to me like a colored cartoon and seemed to have been unrolled.
The last thing she produced that evening was a substance which she said she felt in her mouth and asked permission to use her hands to show. This was granted and she took a load from her mouth behind the veil which was wet and looked soaked. It appeared to be inflated rubber. No one saw a face painted on it. Presently it seemed to disappear. They all said it “vanished suddenly,” but my years of experience in presenting the Hindoo needle trick97 convinced me that she “sleight-of-handed” it into her mouth while pretending to have it between her fingers. I know positively that the move she made is almost identical with the manner in which I manipulate my experiment. Dingwall was very confident and told Mme. Bisson that he was nearly satisfied with Eva’s experiments. She showed her peevishness to Feilding so plainly that I could scarcely conceal my smiles.
In the course of conversation after the seance, Mme. Bisson told the Committee that at one time Eva had materialized on the top of her knees the head of an American soldier with a heavy mustache and blue eyes. It caused some merriment when Dingwall asked her how she could tell the color of a man’s eyes in the dark. Mme. Bisson, perplexed and in grieved tones, asked whether they were suspicious or simply did not believe her. They tried hard to pacify her but to no avail.
MME. BISSON, MRS. FEILDING (TOMCHICK), AND MLLE. EVA
At the seance of June 24th, held in the same place, I arrived somewhat late but the Committee allowed me to come in. That evening I felt that there was something wrong in the air and after the lapse of two hours Mme. Bisson told us that she was in grief and greatly disheartened because there was so much suspicion aimed at her. She was especially peeved at Dingwall, who had told her that he was only “almost” convinced. At no time was I antagonistic but, on the contrary, willing to help along.
Presently Feilding in a rather jovial mood left the room for a breath of fresh air. When he came back he was very serious and asked that they continue. Mme. Bisson thought he was trying to tease her and became very angry. She was wrong, in my opinion, but they argued and expostulated for half an hour and then the seance broke up. During the argument Eva, who was in a cabinet in a “trance state,” spoke out as though she had not been in a trance. I afterwards asked Mr. Feilding if this was not suspicious, but he told me that it was possible for a human being while in a trance or hypnotic state to carry on a conversation consciously. When Mme. Bisson left us Mr. Feilding told me that he was very sorry about the unpleasantness and would make all possible amends to her.
After a number of sittings with Eva during which nothing startling occurred I made up my mind to be lenient with the medium and help her, so I held her hands for some time and gradually withdrew both of mine, giving her all the leeway she needed in case there was any desire on her part to use the hand which I was supposed to be holding, but she made no move whatever.
I was not in any way convinced by the demonstrations witnessed. I believe that Eva’s feats are accomplished by regurgitation. If not, the work she is reputed to do is an “inside job.”98 I regret that I do not believe Mme. Bisson entitled to a clean bill of health. During the seances which I attended she kept up a quasi hypnotic work full of gestures and suggestions as to what could be seen, putting into the minds of those present “shadowy forms and faces.” In my estimation she is a subtle and gifted assistant to Eva whom I do not believe to be honest. On the contrary, I have no hesitation in saying that I think the two simply took advantage of the credulity and good nature of the various men with whom they had to deal.
In this conclusion I am not alone, for in reviewing the Villa Carmine seances of Mlle. Eva, Mr. Heuze states in the London Telegraph of September 4th, 1922:
“The whiteness supposed to have come from the ‘world beyond’ was nothing but a Communicant’s veil rolled up in the medium’s pocket.”
He also quotes Mlle. Eva as saying:
“Monsieur, I never made any confession.”
“In that case,” he comments, “all I can say is that M. Carborrnel, M. Coulom, Maître Marsault, Maître Jourman, Dr. Demis, Mlle. Mare, M. Verdier, Cochet M. Portal, Mme. Portal and others must have all lied in a body to persecute Mlle. Eva.”
Also the Sorbonne scientists at Paris, according to a report in the New York Times, stated officially that during fifteen seances with Mlle. Eva there was nothing beyond the simple act of regurgitation. In two instances there was no ectoplasm seen at any time in spite of the fact that Mme. Bisson suggested that two little discs produced by Mlle. Eva were assuming forms and faces. None of the professors, however, were able to see anything of the kind, but on the contrary declared that:
“The substance was absolutely inert, only moving as movement was given it by the medium’s mouth. The substance having been reabsorbed the medium seemed to be chewing for some seconds and then apparently swallowed it.”99
W. J. Crawford, Doctor of Science, and a lecturer on Mechanical Engineering, of Belfast, Ireland, became very much interested in a family of mediums consisting of a father, four daughters, a son, and a son-in-law and known as the Goligher Circle. Of the seven, the most successful was Miss Kathleen Goligher.100
While at Mr. Feilding’s home in London I had the pleasure of meeting this Dr. Crawford and talking with him for several hours. During the talk he showed me pictures of what he claimed was ectoplasm exuding from different parts of Kathleen Goligher’s body and told me he was going to use them in a forthcoming book.
“Do you honestly believe that everything you have experienced through your contact and experiments with the girl is absolutely genuine?” I asked him.
“I am positive in my belief,” he answered.
After he had gone Mr. Feilding turned to me and asked:
“What do you think of Dr. Crawford?”
“He seems mad to me,” I answered.
“Houdini, you are mistaken,” he replied.
Nevertheless I do not think that Dr. Crawford was the right man or had the right sort of a mind for an investigation. To me his credulity seemed limitless. E. E. Fournier d’Albe’s report of Dr. Crawford’s seance with the Goligher Circle coincides with my judgment. In a communication addressed to “Light” in August, 1922, d’Albe referring to his own tenth seance says:
“I found to my surprise that I could myself with some little management, produce the phenomena with my feet exactly as I had observed them.”
Dr. Von Schrenk-Notzing101 charged d’Albe with entering his investigation with “prejudice against the genuineness of the Goligher phenomena.” This d’Albe denied, saying:
“I had gone to Belfast fresh from Eva C’s seance with a strong conviction of reality and with firm faith in Dr. Crawford’s reliability and accuracy. I expected a gifted medium surrounded by her honest folks, but then came the blows: first, the contact photographs, then the evidences of trickery. The sight of the ‘medium’ raising a stool with her foot, filled me with bitter disappointment. The simple, honest folks all turned out to be an alert, secretive, troublesome group of well-organized performers.”
Here is the experience of a man, who, with a mind prejudiced in favor, entered upon a series of tests expecting full confirmation of impressions already gotten from his experiences with Eva C., but though ready to believe, not biased against the conclusions or rational deduction. His summary, though brief, is worthy of note:
“The Goligher Circle has repeatedly been urged, by myself and others, to submit to further investigations by a fresh investigator, but so far without success. If it does consent, I can predict two things with confidence:
I. No genuine psychic phenomena will be observed.
II. No evidence of fraud will be obtained, as the members of the Circle are exceedingly wary, and the evidence of trickery which I obtained was gathered under conditions which they had not foreseen, but which they will doubtless avoid in the future.
“I also feel safe in predicting that if Miss Goligher’s feet and hands are controlled, and the cooperation of the other sitters eliminated, there will be no levitation of any kind.
(Signed) E. E. Fournier d’Albe.
21 Gower Street,
W.C.1
Poor Dr. Crawford! He committed suicide in Belfast in 1920 and left a note saying that his research into Spiritualism had nothing to do with his self-murder. I am very sorry indeed that this sincere investigator became his own judge because what he had written had been done in good faith.
A short time after Dr. Crawford’s death his literary executor requested Dr. d’Albe, early in 1921, to undertake a further series of researches with the same medium and circle in order, if possible, to obtain an independent confirmation of his results and theories and to collect more data concerning the nature of these manifestations. d’Albe tells in his book how he caught Katie Goligher manipulating and how he saw against the dim, red background of the wall the stool held by Katie’s foot and a portion of her leg. In some of these manipulations the people around the table assisted.
When he left Belfast he wrote a very nice letter in which he intimated that the result of his three months’ experience with the Goligher Circle did not furnish any definite proofs of the psychic origin of the numerous phenomena witnessed by him, and as they were of no scientific value he had decided to have no more sittings. It was suggested that Katie Goligher give twelve more sittings under test conditions, but she refused on the ground that her health would not permit her to entertain such a proposal for at least a year.
I sat with d’Albe at one of Mlle. Eva’s seances. I liked his methods and believe him to be a sincere investigator. I have the following note from him in answer to a letter of mine.
Kingston-on-Thames.
October 10, 1922.
“Dear Houdini:
“Yours of the 26th ult. just received. Yes, the Goligher legend has lost its glamour. I must say I was greatly surprised at Crawford’s blindness....
“Sincerely yours,
“d’Albe.”
In 1920, Capt. C. Marsh Beadnell, of London, published a pamphlet in which he offered twenty pounds if Dr. Crawford’s mediums would produce a single levitation under conditions which would preclude trickery. I am certain that any magician with a circle of six of his own choosing and with only one observer of the Crawford type could, under the same conditions, produce effects much more startling than any of those recounted by the trustful doctor.
The book to which Dr. Crawford referred when he showed me the photographs he intended to use in it has, since his death, been published by David Gow, Editor of the Spiritualistic paper Light. In a prefatory note he writes:
“I could say much about the present book with its remarkable elucidation of many problems connected with the psychical phenomena of Spiritualism, but I content myself with a reference to such experiments as those with the soft clay and the methylene blue, which finally clear away certain suspicions which have always attached to psychical mediums in connection with materialization phenomena amongst uninstructed investigators. This is not the least valuable part of a valuable book.”
The above statement raises the question of what bearing any of these experiments, supposing every detail claimed were a fact, has on a future state. What possible information could impressions in clay, or stockings soiled by dye, furnish concerning the future state of a soul?
Ejner Nielson, of Copenhagen, was sponsored by Dr. Oscar Jaeger, Professor of Economics at the University of Christiania, Norway, and President of the Norwegian Society for Psychical Research. Professor Jaeger was invited by the Editor of the Politikon, at Copenhagen, to hold a seance with Neilson. He accepted and it took place in January, 1922, before a specially selected committee102 appointed by the president of the Norwegian University, Professor Frederick Stange. A few weeks later the committee reported that Nielson had not been capable of producing any so-called teleplasma or phenomena of materialization. Subsequently the Society for Psychical Research reported that teleplasma had been “artificially brought into the body of the medium.”
Paul Heuze, writing of the Polish medium, in the London Daily Telegraph of September 18, 1922, says:
“S. D. Stamislaski arrived in Paris on April 7th. On the 10th he had an interview at the Sorbonne with Professor Piéron and on the 11th I went, at his request, to take part in the initial seance which was held in a bedroom of his hotel. This was, of course, merely a preparatory seance. My impression was not at all favorable.”
In speaking of the subsequent seances of this medium he declares:
“The whole thing may be summed up in a single sentence; the result was pitiable. Suffice it to say that in spite of inadequate control, not only did I never see any of the luminous phenomena of the first seances but that hardly anything took place at all and when it did it was merely one of those clumsy pieces of deception that are practiced in the most ordinary Spiritualistic seances:—Articles moved, thrown forward, touchings, slaps, books dropped on the head, etc. The whole thing carried out in such a manner that there could not be the slightest doubt as to the gross trickery with which it was performed.”
I have personally attended seances held by two of the ectoplasmic mediums, Mlle. Eva and Mrs. Thompson, and I have no doubt that it is only a question of time when all such mediums, as well as these two, including Stamislawa, P. Frank Kluski, S. G. Stamislaski, Jean Guzek,103 Kathleen Goligher, Ejner Nielson, Frau Siebert and Willy Sch, will be authentically classified as questionable.
Bear in mind, I am not a skeptic. It is my will to believe and if convincing evidence is brought forward I will be the first to acknowledge my mistake, but up to the present day nothing has crossed my path to make me think that the Great Almighty will allow emanations from a human body of such horrible, revolting, viscous substances as Baron Von Schrenk Notzing claims, hideous shapes, which, like “genii from the bronze bottle,” ring bells, move handkerchiefs, wobble tables, and do other “flap-doodle” stunts.