James Cunningham
Scholar
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2013
- Messages
- 50
Erbsy,
I will give you other examples of parapsychologists ignoring evidence of fraud. Go onto Google books and type in "Creery sisters" "confessed" the results shown only skeptical books i.e. by Trevor Hall, Ray Hyman, Harry Price, Gordon Stein, Barry Wiley, Eric Dingwall, Paul Kurtz and Frank Podmore that mention their confession. Not a single spiritualist book mentions the Creery sisters... lol!
The Creery Sisters (Mary, Alice, Maud, Kathleen, and Emily) were tested in 1881 by the psychical researchers William Barrett, Frederic Myers, and Edmund Gurney of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) and announced them to have genuine psychic ability however, during a test in 1888 they were caught utilizing signals codes and they confessed to fraud. They had duped psychical researchers, there are many cases of this. A large embarrassment to the SPR so the psi and spiritualist believers ignore mentioning it in their publications... lol.
The same thing happened with the fraud of Samuel Soal. Dean Radin avoids mentioning Soal in his book The Conscious Universe.
If you want another example look up Anna Eva Fay, she was a stage mentalist/medium who managed to trick William Crookes into believing she had genuine psychic powers.
Fay confessed how she had performed her tricks to both Eric Dingwall and Harry Houdini. Look up Anna Eva Fay as no spiritualist books mention her and certainly not her confession only skeptical books do.
Many other examples can be given. You don't see skeptics doing this, only paranormal believers because they ignore evidence against their beliefs. The parapsychology/spiritualist community is corrupt. If you spend time reading dishonest believer publications and then comparing them to the honest skeptical ones you would see their lies. The skeptics are not scared to report the truth and they don't ignore things like the believers do.
If you want even more solid proof that believers deliberately filter out any evidence of fraud, then go onto Google books and look up Helen Duncan's former maid "Mary McGinlay". She published a confession that she helped make Duncan's cheesecloth ectoplasm, but this confession is only mentioned in skeptical books such as by psychical researchers Simeon Edmunds, C. E. Bechhofer Roberts and Harry Price, as well as skeptics such as Paul Kurtz. Not a single parapsychology or spiritualist book mentions the confession.
The same thing happened with Harvey Metcalfe during a séance in 1928, in which he took photographs of Helen Duncan's puppet face "spirits". Metcalfe is not mentioned in most spiritualist books. The user "Open Mind" from the Mind-Energy forum spins a conspiracy theory that the photographs were taken by the British Intelligence or CIA to frame Duncan, he ignores that they were taken by Metcalfe (a spiritualist). I have in the past sent him pictures of Duncan's ectoplasm like this:
The above photograph was taken in Harry Price's test laboratory, "Open Mind" has no response, he then says he has no definite opinion on the subject and that Duncan may or may not of been a fraud... The evidence is right there, she was a fraud! Her ectoplasm was indeed analysed to be made from cheesecloth by Price, William Brown and a group of researchers. Yet spiritualists still sit on blogs and forums claiming Duncan was genuine. It gets to the point where you just give up on believers. They have no interest in the truth.
The photographs that depict Duncan at her house with Dolls can be traced to Dundee press photographer W. M. Scott who showed the photographs to Esson Maule at the Edinburgh Psychic College. Esson Maule later showed the pictures to J. B. McIndoe who borrowed the photographs from Scott. Harry Price printed the photographs in one of his books. This is when the pictures became more wider known. This can be confirmed if you read page 153 in Hellish Nell by Malcolm Gaskill. But as explained above that isn't the full story.
The photographs were taken by a spiritualist called Harvey Metcalfe and they were taken in 1928 at the house of Duncan. The photographs ARE Duncan.
Malcolm Gaskill in his book Hellish Nell (2001) states:
Everyone has seen the hilarious photographs of Duncan depicting puppet-like masks. How do spiritualists get round this? They are not in agreement with each other. The spiritualist Open Mind employs a conspiracy in which he says the photographs are not really of Duncan but of a Duncan look-a-like set up by the CIA to make Duncan look bad. This is in opposition to other spiritualists and has no evidence to support it.
In his book, The Story of Helen Duncan (1975), spiritualist Alan Crossley gives us more information on the photographs from Metcalfe with whom he was in contact with:
Crossley tried to get round the evidence of fraud by claiming they were test "exercises" but he still claims the photograph depicts genuine ectoplasm (what he says makes no sense and does help Duncan, he's was not honest to admit Duncan was a fraud and would resort to anything to defend her). Now lets look at the photographs of these puppets:
Clearly not real ectoplasm. It's clearly a doll made from a painted papier-mache mask draped in an old sheet. This was later stated in a confession by Duncan's maid. There is no conspiracy. Other witness reports claim to have seen puppets in Duncan's séance.
So that's two nutty spiritualist theories employed to defend Duncan when all available evidence points to her being a fraud. The spiritualists will not give in, they will invent all kinds of lies and conspiracy theories to defend their mediums. That is not all. It turns out there is another spiritualist theory to why Duncan's ectoplasm looks like dolls (without just admitting they are dolls).
The spiritualist Michael E. Tymn claims that for ectoplasm to be produced the spirit must communicate through the medium telepathically and give the medium a good picture of him or himself. Tymn says the photographs only look like dolls is because the spirits forgot what they looked like when they were communicating with Duncan so they came out with those puppet faces. Unfortunately Tymn is not trolling, he genuine believes this.
Some information about Tymn here:
He claims practically every fraudulent medium was genuine:
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Michael_E._Tymn
So no matter the evidence the majority of these modern parapsychologists and spiritualists will go on believing, even though all their beliefs contradict each other and they have no evidence. It is a case of true-believer syndrome:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True-believer_syndrome
Randi has commented "no amount of evidence, no matter how good it is or how much there is of it, is ever going to convince the true believer to the contrary.
And yes, Chris Carter, John Beloff and Dean Radin have defended Duncan. Most parapsychologists have thankfully admitted she was a fraud. But there are many other cases where parapsychologists go on believing when all the evidence points the other way.
I will give you other examples of parapsychologists ignoring evidence of fraud. Go onto Google books and type in "Creery sisters" "confessed" the results shown only skeptical books i.e. by Trevor Hall, Ray Hyman, Harry Price, Gordon Stein, Barry Wiley, Eric Dingwall, Paul Kurtz and Frank Podmore that mention their confession. Not a single spiritualist book mentions the Creery sisters... lol!
The Creery Sisters (Mary, Alice, Maud, Kathleen, and Emily) were tested in 1881 by the psychical researchers William Barrett, Frederic Myers, and Edmund Gurney of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) and announced them to have genuine psychic ability however, during a test in 1888 they were caught utilizing signals codes and they confessed to fraud. They had duped psychical researchers, there are many cases of this. A large embarrassment to the SPR so the psi and spiritualist believers ignore mentioning it in their publications... lol.
The same thing happened with the fraud of Samuel Soal. Dean Radin avoids mentioning Soal in his book The Conscious Universe.
If you want another example look up Anna Eva Fay, she was a stage mentalist/medium who managed to trick William Crookes into believing she had genuine psychic powers.
Fay confessed how she had performed her tricks to both Eric Dingwall and Harry Houdini. Look up Anna Eva Fay as no spiritualist books mention her and certainly not her confession only skeptical books do.
Many other examples can be given. You don't see skeptics doing this, only paranormal believers because they ignore evidence against their beliefs. The parapsychology/spiritualist community is corrupt. If you spend time reading dishonest believer publications and then comparing them to the honest skeptical ones you would see their lies. The skeptics are not scared to report the truth and they don't ignore things like the believers do.
If you want even more solid proof that believers deliberately filter out any evidence of fraud, then go onto Google books and look up Helen Duncan's former maid "Mary McGinlay". She published a confession that she helped make Duncan's cheesecloth ectoplasm, but this confession is only mentioned in skeptical books such as by psychical researchers Simeon Edmunds, C. E. Bechhofer Roberts and Harry Price, as well as skeptics such as Paul Kurtz. Not a single parapsychology or spiritualist book mentions the confession.
The same thing happened with Harvey Metcalfe during a séance in 1928, in which he took photographs of Helen Duncan's puppet face "spirits". Metcalfe is not mentioned in most spiritualist books. The user "Open Mind" from the Mind-Energy forum spins a conspiracy theory that the photographs were taken by the British Intelligence or CIA to frame Duncan, he ignores that they were taken by Metcalfe (a spiritualist). I have in the past sent him pictures of Duncan's ectoplasm like this:
The above photograph was taken in Harry Price's test laboratory, "Open Mind" has no response, he then says he has no definite opinion on the subject and that Duncan may or may not of been a fraud... The evidence is right there, she was a fraud! Her ectoplasm was indeed analysed to be made from cheesecloth by Price, William Brown and a group of researchers. Yet spiritualists still sit on blogs and forums claiming Duncan was genuine. It gets to the point where you just give up on believers. They have no interest in the truth.
The photographs that depict Duncan at her house with Dolls can be traced to Dundee press photographer W. M. Scott who showed the photographs to Esson Maule at the Edinburgh Psychic College. Esson Maule later showed the pictures to J. B. McIndoe who borrowed the photographs from Scott. Harry Price printed the photographs in one of his books. This is when the pictures became more wider known. This can be confirmed if you read page 153 in Hellish Nell by Malcolm Gaskill. But as explained above that isn't the full story.
The photographs were taken by a spiritualist called Harvey Metcalfe and they were taken in 1928 at the house of Duncan. The photographs ARE Duncan.
Malcolm Gaskill in his book Hellish Nell (2001) states:
A great task lay ahead. Every Thursday, and sometimes twice a week, Helen laboured for many months to shape the diaphanous ectoplasm around otherwise invisible spirits, so that their sprawling and wobbling forms gradually grew in size and definition, thereby perfecting a performance which had been merely impressive but now became absolutely startling. Invitations were extended to selected guests. On numerous occasions in 1928, amateur photographer Harvey Metcalfe visited and, convinced by what he saw, arranged with the spirit guide Albert to take the earliest known flash photographs of the materialized spirits. As Walter had done. Albert gave directions and would not allow pictures to be taken until the medium was ready. Of about fifty glass positives taken by Metcalfe, a handful survive showing Helen sturdily seated, wearing a velour dress and a protective blindfold.
Everyone has seen the hilarious photographs of Duncan depicting puppet-like masks. How do spiritualists get round this? They are not in agreement with each other. The spiritualist Open Mind employs a conspiracy in which he says the photographs are not really of Duncan but of a Duncan look-a-like set up by the CIA to make Duncan look bad. This is in opposition to other spiritualists and has no evidence to support it.
In his book, The Story of Helen Duncan (1975), spiritualist Alan Crossley gives us more information on the photographs from Metcalfe with whom he was in contact with:
Mr Harvey Metcalfe, F.C.I.S., took a personal interest in Mrs Duncan’s mediumship and its development from the beginning and I am grateful to him for providing the four plates depicting some of the very first experimental materializations to manifest. It should be stressed, however, that these ectoplasmic formations do not represent deceased persons but are produced primarily as an exercise in manipulating and controlling the flow of ectoplasm from the medium.
Crossley tried to get round the evidence of fraud by claiming they were test "exercises" but he still claims the photograph depicts genuine ectoplasm (what he says makes no sense and does help Duncan, he's was not honest to admit Duncan was a fraud and would resort to anything to defend her). Now lets look at the photographs of these puppets:
Clearly not real ectoplasm. It's clearly a doll made from a painted papier-mache mask draped in an old sheet. This was later stated in a confession by Duncan's maid. There is no conspiracy. Other witness reports claim to have seen puppets in Duncan's séance.
So that's two nutty spiritualist theories employed to defend Duncan when all available evidence points to her being a fraud. The spiritualists will not give in, they will invent all kinds of lies and conspiracy theories to defend their mediums. That is not all. It turns out there is another spiritualist theory to why Duncan's ectoplasm looks like dolls (without just admitting they are dolls).
The spiritualist Michael E. Tymn claims that for ectoplasm to be produced the spirit must communicate through the medium telepathically and give the medium a good picture of him or himself. Tymn says the photographs only look like dolls is because the spirits forgot what they looked like when they were communicating with Duncan so they came out with those puppet faces. Unfortunately Tymn is not trolling, he genuine believes this.

Some information about Tymn here:
He claims practically every fraudulent medium was genuine:
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Michael_E._Tymn
So no matter the evidence the majority of these modern parapsychologists and spiritualists will go on believing, even though all their beliefs contradict each other and they have no evidence. It is a case of true-believer syndrome:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True-believer_syndrome
Randi has commented "no amount of evidence, no matter how good it is or how much there is of it, is ever going to convince the true believer to the contrary.
And yes, Chris Carter, John Beloff and Dean Radin have defended Duncan. Most parapsychologists have thankfully admitted she was a fraud. But there are many other cases where parapsychologists go on believing when all the evidence points the other way.
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