(1) (Psychical Research) The Goligher Circle, May to August 1921 (2) The Case against Spirit Photographs (3) Cold Light on Spiritualistic “Phenomena”: An Experiment with the Crewe Circle

Abstract

(1) IN this book Dr. Fournier d'Albe records his experiments with the Goligher medium and Circle, undertaken to corroborate, if possible, the remarkable results claimed by the late Dr. Crawford. In order to explain certain alleged occult phenomena (“raps,” “levitations,” etc.) obtained with this medium, Dr. Crawford postulated as the agents invisible entities which he called “operators' and believed to be departed human beings (spirits). The modus operandi of the “operators” is as follows: From the medium's body, metamorphosed from her “flesh,” a substance, indifferently called “plasm,” “ectoplasm,” “psychic fluid,” etc., emanates as an extensible rod, the proximal end of which retains connexion with the medium's body, the distal free end being provided with a “suction grip “to hold, and move, objects. Dr. Crawford not only photographed this “psychic stuff,” but also in June 1920 saw it and felt it wriggling up the medium's legs like a snake. Shortly after this experience he committed suicide, and his researches ceased. Some ten months later Dr. Fournier d'Albe takes up the broken threads. The seance room he describes as feebly illuminated by a one candle-power gas-burner, enclosed in a box with red glass sides so arranged that the medium is in comparative darkness, the floor, the legs of the members of the Circle, and even some of their hands, being in total darkness. Kathleen Goligher, the medium, is seated at one end, so to speak, of the circle of sitters, her father being almost invariably next her. (1) (psychical Research). The Goligher Circle, May to August 1921. Experiences of Dr. E. E. Fournier d'Albe. With an Appendix containing Extracts from the Correspondence of the late Dr. W. J. Crawford; and others. Pp. 81 + plates. (London: J. M. Watkins, 21 Cecil Court, 1922.) 7s. 6d. net. (2) The Case against Spirit Photographs. By C. Vincent Patrick W. Whately Smith. Pp. 47. (London: Kegan Paul and Co., Ltd., 1922.) (3) Cold Light on Spiritualistic “Phenomena”: An Experiment with the Crewe Circle. By Harry Price. Pp. 15. (London: Kegan Paul and Co., Ltd., 1922.) 6d. net.