Is all mediumship fraud?

[Darryl_Forests]

I have just been reading about the direct voice medium Leslie Flint.

Lamar Keene in his book The Psychic Mafia wrote:

A medium still riding high in England is Leslie Flint, famed as an exponent of direct voice. William Rauscher and Allen Spraggett, who attended a sitting Flint held in 1970 in New York, said that it was the most abysmal flop of any seance they had endured. All the spirit voices sounded exactly like the medium and displayed an incredible ignorance of nearly everything pertaining to the sitters. The "mediumship " was second-rate ventriloquism.

I did a search for Leslie Flint and discovered he was a fraud. His ectoplasm was made of cheesecloth!

rationalwiki.org/wiki/Leslie_Flint

James H. Foreman in an article for The Skeptic Report wrote:

1. Every single one of the speakers on the audio files has an English accent. Even Bessie, the stereotypical cotton picker from Alabama. Her accent fluctuates from a lame attempt at an American south accent to British cockney to Scottish. Listen to her recording and see if you don’t agree.
2. Chopin speaks perfect English. He was Polish, and ostensibly only visited England a few times. 3)The speakers all have the same basic speech pattern, with little to no deviation between them. They all talk about the same stuff, about how wonderful it is on “their side.” They all use the same terminology, no matter what time period or part of the world. Also, the English of 18th Century England is very different from the English of the 20th century, which is something that obviously has slipped Elizabeth Fry’s mind.

It amazes me how many people have become duped into believing mediumship! The entire basis of mediumship is a dishonest scam. Do you agree?

 

[MaryT777]

I agree completely.

 

[CarolNoel]

I agree.

 

[eggsbenedictine]

Yup.

 

[classica87]

I remember my mom was talking with me about that Long Island Medium woman. Then we read an article that says she speaks with the people beforehand and already knows everything. And my mom thought she might be legitimate… all this medium and ghost stuff on TV is a bunch of phooey. Just people wanting to make good television. It’s a shame that people will believe this and actually pay for the frauds.

 

[Rete]

If the medium is not a fraud, then the “person” with whom the medium communicates has to be a demon. So I would certainly hope they are frauds. It would be like opening the front door on Halloween to hand out candy to kids only to find a real monster standing there.

 

[edwest2]

There is a great deal of history about this. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, spiritualism, which included contacting the dead, ectoplasm, and human levitation, was a craze in certain circles. In the United States, there was a great collection of ghost stories and similar things happening in other countries that the immigrants brought into the mix. When photography was young, fraudsters discovered they could manipulate photos. One famous example is photos of faeries which consisted of photo-manipulation, according to one source, and the addition of painting cutouts among some grass and rocks that were placed on wires or pins and then photographed, with a bit of retouching, according to another source.

Anyway, I’ve seen photos of a woman sitting in a tent with an open entrance with ectoplasm streaming from one corner and manifesting a life-sized, Indian maiden in what appeared to be authentic tribal dress. No, not all mediumship is fraudulent but it comes from demonic sources. The majority is fraud and manipulation for money. Now, there is some evidence that so-called psychics have helped police locate missing persons. If true, this would be a gift from God. The Bible mentions ghosts.

Do not go to a medium or “psychic reader.” It’s only about the money. According to the Catechism:

“2116 All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to “unveil” the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.”

Peace,
Ed

 

[Darryl_Forests]

There is a great deal of history about this. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, spiritualism, which included contacting the dead, ectoplasm, and human levitation, was a craze in certain circles.

All ectoplasm is cheesecloth, muslin or other home materials. Search ectoplasm in Google images, the stuff looks absolutely ridiculous it amazes me how anyone took it seriously to begin with but some spiritualists still do! The “ectoplasm” dolls of the medium Helen Duncan are hilarious!

Anyway, I’ve seen photos of a woman sitting in a tent with an open entrance with ectoplasm streaming from one corner and manifesting a life-sized, Indian maiden in what appeared to be authentic tribal dress.

That photograph was a fraud. You can read about it here:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethel_Post-Parrish

The Indian “spirit” was made of cardboard. I have read this subject for years and have never seen a case where demonic forces have to be invoked. Every time there has been a naturalistic explanation. I see no reason to invoke demonic forces in mediumship. All of it can be explained by fraud and psychology. There is absolutely nothing supernatural about mediumship. The people that believe there is, have been duped.

I am not saying spirits are impossible, just they haven’t been invoked in mediumship. If spirits exist then anyone should be able to see them, the idea that only “selected” mediums can communicate with spirits is a scam, and anyone with a bit of common sense should be suspicious and see right through it.

Despite my criticism of mediumship, I believe in the afterlife.

If you read through mediumship reports all their claims are contradictory and stupid. The spiritualists don’t have a single “clean” medium on record. Both the old and new ones all have downright deliberate fraud associated with them.

 

[adrift]

Harry Houdini crusaded against them exposing them as frauds.

 

[Rete]

Houdini would have known a fraud when he saw one too… Just saying…

 

[edwest2]

All ectoplasm is cheesecloth, muslin or other home materials. Search ectoplasm in Google images, the stuff looks absolutely ridiculous it amazes me how anyone took it seriously to begin with but some spiritualists still do! The “ectoplasm” dolls of the medium Helen Duncan are hilarious!

That photograph was a fraud. You can read about it here:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethel_Post-Parrish

The Indian “spirit” was made of cardboard. I have read this subject for years and have never seen a case where demonic forces have to be invoked. Every time there has been a naturalistic explanation. I see no reason to invoke demonic forces in mediumship. All of it can be explained by fraud and psychology. There is absolutely nothing supernatural about mediumship. The people that believe there is, have been duped.

I am not saying spirits are impossible, just they haven’t been invoked in mediumship. If spirits exist then anyone should be able to see them, the idea that only “selected” mediums can communicate with spirits is a scam, and anyone with a bit of common sense should be suspicious and see right through it.

Despite my criticism of mediumship, I believe in the afterlife.

If you read through mediumship reports all their claims are contradictory and stupid. The spiritualists don’t have a single “clean” medium on record. Both the old and new ones all have downright deliberate fraud associated with them.

The Church has a definite position about this. Mediums under any name are not always frauds and there are real demonic spirits. You can say it’s not the case, but the fact is, they exist - today. Right now. The Church has been calling for more exorcists.

Common sense? What’s that? The term con-artist is derived from the word confidence. Just check your newspaper sometime. “Man duped out of $10,000 by con artist.” I happen to know what local “psychic readers” charge and they’ve been around for years. Hey, someone has to pay the rent and utilities and if I had just ten customers a day, wow.

I suspect I’ve done a bit more research than yourself. It’s not all cut and dried.

Peace,
Ed

 

[Aussieman88]

Hello Everyone,

Anyone who doesn’t believe some mediums are real either doesn’t know whats in the bible or they don’t believe what’s contained in the bible.

Being able to communicate with spirits is a Gift from God and God doesn’t take back His gifts. If someone chooses to use his gift to contact demons then they are heading down the path to hell. The thing with mediums telling the future is that demons don’t know the future. They know all available information about what has happened and guess the future from that. That’s why they sometimes get fore telling the future right and sometimes not. They are able to tell them something that poor old dead Robert said to Susan because they were there listening. We’ve all got demons assigned to us just as we all have guardian angels from God.

Only God can tell the future.

 

[Darryl_Forests]

Anyone who doesn’t believe some mediums are real either doesn’t know whats in the bible or they don’t believe what’s contained in the bible.

Mediumship is fraud, no “demonic” forces are involved, if you believe there is please cite evidence please. There’s no scientific evidence “demons” exist.

 

[Rete]

Hello Everyone,

Anyone who doesn’t believe some mediums are real either doesn’t know whats in the bible or they don’t believe what’s contained in the bible.

Being able to communicate with spirits is a Gift from God and God doesn’t take back His gifts. If someone chooses to use his gift to contact demons then they are heading down the path to hell. The thing with mediums telling the future is that demons don’t know the future. They know all available information about what has happened and guess the future from that. That’s why they sometimes get fore telling the future right and sometimes not. They are able to tell them something that poor old dead Robert said to Susan because they were there listening. We’ve all got demons assigned to us just as we all have guardian angels from God.

Only God can tell the future.

Demons are very capable of making extremely accurate predictions. They are quite a lot more intelligent than us. They have access to more information and knowledge than us. We can make predictions about outcomes too, just not as likely. Furthermore, if a demon knows what other people are doing, then they can appear to provide accurate information about the future. Such as: *a woman you work with will ask you out on a date. *It will know this because she could have been discussing you with her friend on the phone the previous day.

Think about what a fraudulent medium can figure out when he plays a crowd. He picks up on a lot of little details and can convince a person he has access to all sorts of information about their lives. A demon can do this but far more effectively than a human could ever dream. If a medium taps into that sort of thing, then you could end up needing more than just the sacrament of reconciliation.

Don’t ever go to these people, even if you think they are frauds. It’s always a sin, and the worst case is a living nightmare.

Pick up a book by an exorcist to learn about the crazy things those monsters are capable of. Then you won’t even be tempted to play games with them.

 

[bcuster]

Don’t ever go to these people, even if you think they are frauds. It’s always a sin, and the worst case is a living nightmare.

Pick up a book by an exorcist to learn about the crazy things those monsters are capable of. Then you won’t even be tempted to play games with them.

Another good book is The Rite (not the movie–it stinks). I learned so much about what the Church teaches by reading it.

 

[NeedsMercy]

Mediumship is fraud, no “demonic” forces are involved, if you believe there is please cite evidence please. There’s no scientific evidence “demons” exist.

Umm, yes and no. I believe that the overwhelming portion of mediums, psychic-mediums, whatever, are frauds. That includes Teresa Caputo. She’s a fake and proof is all over the Internet. However, I also believe that God has gifted certain people–an extremely minute number of people–with the grace to communicate with the deceased, to predict future events, to read hearts, etc. I suppose the most notable examples would be St. Faustina and Padre Pio. Note that both–particularly the latter–were also tormented by demons. Of course, they also had the grace of discernment.

 

[Darryl_Forests]

Umm, yes and no. I believe that the overwhelming portion of mediums, psychic-mediums, whatever, are frauds.

I am convinced that God and the afterlife exists, but I am skeptical about mediumship. I have lost interest in mediumship, when you study it you find that all the mediums were frauds. I am moving to New Zealand so won’t be on the internet anymore. Take care all.

 

[thistle]

I have just been reading about the direct voice medium Leslie Flint.

Lamar Keene in his book The Psychic Mafia wrote:

I did a search for Leslie Flint and discovered he was a fraud. His ectoplasm was made of cheesecloth!

rationalwiki.org/wiki/Leslie_Flint

James H. Foreman in an article for The Skeptic Report wrote:

It amazes me how many people have become duped into believing mediumship! The entire basis of mediumship is a dishonest scam. Do you agree?

They are either frauds or from Satan.