New American Mediums in ParisThe American mediums are now in larger numbers and strength than those of the old continent, in the case of physical manifestations. Their reputation is well established in that area, particularly after Mr. Home who seems to promise prodigies of his own.
For many people Mr. Squire was simply called American medium, a charlatan that used to travel around towns and fairs some years ago, making presentations and announcing himself as an American medium, although he was perfectly French. We have just received two others now that only have the names of mediums and that we would not have mentioned here since their art is strange to our matters but their arrival was announced with a fuss and caused a certain sensation, given the nature of their pretensions. To the benefit of our readers and to avoid been charged with partiality, we fully transcribe below the text of their flyer that has inundated Paris.
“Fun in the Parisian salons – novelty, nothing more than novelty!!! Family soirees and private sessions given by the American Mediums, Mr. C. Edwards Girroodd, from Kingstown, Lake Ontario, and Mrs. Julia Girroodd, nicknamed by the English and American press as the Graceful Sensitive.”
“An album of more than 200 pages containing compliments from the greatest dignitaries of France, from nobility, magistrates, army and literature, as well as from sixteen archbishops and bishops of France and from a large number of ecclesiasts of elevated distinction, available to persons who would like to throw soirees but who wish to carry out a previous examination of the good taste, richness and novelty of the experiences.”
“Mr. and Mrs. Girroodd, the only one to carry out the experiences in France, spent only three months in Paris and provided forty two sessions in the top notch salons of Paris and in the Tuileries on May 12th 1861, as well as in the house of several members of the Imperial family.”
“They immediately placed the experiences well above anything that they could have seen before as entertainment in get-togethers. Their magic tricks, contrary to the habit of Mr. Physicists, does not required any preparation or special arrangement and the artists easily operate amidst a circle of attentive spectators unafraid of seeing their illusion destroyed.”
“The magic acts are only a tiny part of their varied talents. The world of the Spirits obey their commandments: Visions – Ecstasy – Fascination – Magnetism – Electro Biology – Rapping Spirits
– Spiritism, etc. everything that science and charlatanism invented and that stupefy the believers of our days, even giving them a robust faith in everything that is nothing but charlatanism, where are inadvertently accomplices. In one word, Mr. and Mrs. Girroodd after having shown themselves as witches – but high class witches – wise like Merlin, the enchanter, will demonstrate the secrets of their science, if needed.”
“Christian faith can only gain from the clear demonstration that everything that was not taught by that faith is nothing but brilliant charlatanism. For the little meetings or soirees with the children Mr. Girroodd hired the most skilled Physicists from the capital city and a nicknamed
The Man of the Talking Dolls who will give sessions at a reduced price.”
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As one can see the couple’s pretension is not but that of destroying Spiritism posing as the defenders of the Christian faith that no doubt is much surprised by finding deception at its service. This, however, can expand a certain clientele.
They pretend to be mediums and are not careful enough to omit the title of Americans, an indispensable passport, like the names ended by the letter “i” to the musicians, and that to demonstrate that mediums do not exist since – they say – they can be reproduced with support of some skills, mechanics and some particular means that allow them to do everything done by the mediums.
All this demonstrates one thing: the fact that everything can be imitated. Illusion is a matter of skill set. Nevertheless, just because something can be imitated does not mean that it does not exist? If trickery imitated lucid somnambulism in order to deceive, should one conclude that there is no somnambulist? Fake copies of Raphael were made and taken by originals. Was Raphael an illusion? Mr. Robert-Houdin changes water into wine; he takes thousands of objects out from a hat and fills up a big box with them. Does it harm the miracle of Cana and the multiplication of bread? He does better, however, than just transforming water into wine for he produces half a dozen of delicious liqueurs from a single bottle.
All physical manifestations are wonderfully prone to imitation and these are the ones exploited by the charlatans. They do much better than the Spirits, particularly in the case of transportation, since these are produced at will and whenever they wish to do so, something that cannot be done by the Spirits or the best mediums.
As a matter of fact, justice must be done to that gentleman and that lady once they do not intend to deceive the public. They do not pretend to be what they are not. They present themselves as skillful conjurers and that is more commendable than those who pretend to be mediums and even more respectable than the true mediums that add trickery to reality in order to produce more effects and win over competition. It is true that openness is eventually politically correct but trying to demonstrate through deception that the mediums are conjurers has a touch of novelty that will be abundantly compensated by curiosity.
As we said, their skills cannot prejudge the reality of the phenomena. Far from causing any harm, it will be of great utility. To begin, it will be another trumpet calling people’s attention to Spiritism, people who have not heard about it. As with every criticism, they will be willing to see the pros and cons. The result of the comparison is undisputable. An even greater utility is that of preventing fraud and subterfuge from the part of false mediums; demonstrating the possibility of imitation to those who risk ruining its credit.
If there could be something wrong found in their skills set so as to easily identify if they were true mediums. Unfortunately they are on the other side of the Atlantic and hence we do not have the privilege of observing Mr. and Mrs. Girroodd. If we can one day attend one of their sessions it will be a pleasure to inform our readers.
When we say that everything can be imitated we must take exception for the really normal conditions in which the Spiritist manifestations can be produced, hence one can say that every phenomenon that does not respect those conditions, must be considered suspicious. Now, in order to carefully judge something one needs to study it. The intelligent manifestations themselves are not exempt from charlatanism. There are some manifestations that, given their own nature and the circumstances in which they are produced, challenge the most established skill of imitation. As an example, the evocation of the dead who reveal details of their private lives that are unknown to the mediums and to the audience. Add to this the fact that these are dissertations, consisting of many pages, written in a surge, spotless, speedily, with eloquence, profundity, wisdom and sublimity of thoughts about certain subjects, are beyond the capacity, knowledge and understanding of the medium.
To achieve such a result one would need an omnipotent individual. Well, these type of individuals are rare and do not give public showings. This is, however, what is seen every day not by a privileged individual but by thousands of individuals of all ages, sex, social condition, education and whose honorability and absolute altruism are the best guarantee of honesty since charlatanism does not give anything for free. If Mr. and Mrs. Girroodd wanted to accept any challenge from us it would be on these terms; we would gladly leave the physical manifestations to them.
NOTE: A supposedly well informed person tell us that the name Edwards Girroodd must be translated Ontario replaced by Saint-Flour, Cantal (France).
