Fraudulent Spiritualist Materializations
By Editor
In a public address at the recent Spiritualist camp-meeting in Oakland, William Emmette Coleman said that in his opinion probably ninety-nine one-hundredths of the so-called materializations were fraudulent. A regular correspondent of the Golden Gate says that he should concur in the opinion, and honor him for the utterance, if he had said ninety-five per cent. And Hon. Amos Adams, one of the leading Spiritualists of California, and till recently the president of the State association, speaks as follows of the materialization séances at the Onset Bay camp-meeting:— "How in the light of reason and common sense these poor, deluded people can reconcile the fact that the child they laid away only weighing from thirty to fifty pounds, could, in the space of one short year, swell into such vast proportions, and weigh at least two hundred pounds, none but those who go to séances knowing they will not be deceived can answer. We believe we have seen people at these séances, who, if a bag of barley were placed at the aperture, with a potato on it for a head, would walk up and embrace it, and then get up in the next fact meeting and state that their long, long ago grandfather, who came to this country in 1690, materialized for them last night at Mrs. So-and-so's séance; and it was impossible for them to be deceived, because he was recognized by a scar on his forehead, caused by a wound made by a spear, when his long-ago grandfather was fighting the battles of William the Conqueror; whereat the relator of this 'fact' would be greeted with wild applause!" This, as told by the Spiritualists themselves, does not prove that there are no genuine Spiritualist manifestations, but simply that "materialization" affords the best opportunity for fraud. After all, we do not see why it should be thought a strange thing for mediums to practice fraud, when they are in constant communication with, and under the control of, lying spirits.