“I also feel safe in predicting that if Miss Goligher’s feet
and hands are controlled, _and the cooperation of the other
sitters eliminated_, there will be no levitation of any kind.
(Signed) E. E. Fournier d’Albe.
21 Gower Street,
W.C.1
Poor Dr. Crawford! He committed suicide in Belfast in 1920 and left a
note saying that his research into Spiritualism had nothing to do with
his self-murder. I am very sorry indeed that this sincere investigator
became his own judge because what he had written had been done in good
faith.
A short time after Dr. Crawford’s death his literary executor requested
Dr. d’Albe, early in 1921, to undertake a further series of researches
with the same medium and circle in order, if possible, to obtain an
independent confirmation of his results and theories and to collect
more data concerning the nature of these manifestations. d’Albe tells
in his book how he caught Katie Goligher manipulating and how he saw
against the dim, red background of the wall the stool held by Katie’s
foot and a portion of her leg. In some of these manipulations the
people around the table assisted.
When he left Belfast he wrote a very nice letter in which he intimated
that the result of his three months’ experience with the Goligher
Circle did not furnish any definite proofs of the psychic origin of the
numerous phenomena witnessed by him, and as they were of no scientific
value he had decided to have no more sittings. It was suggested that
Katie Goligher give twelve more sittings under test conditions, but she
refused on the ground that her health would not permit her to entertain
such a proposal for at least a year.
I sat with d’Albe at one of Mlle. Eva’s seances. I liked his methods
and believe him to be a sincere investigator. I have the following note
from him in answer to a letter of mine.
Kingston-on-Thames.
October 10, 1922.
“Dear Houdini:
“Yours of the 26th ult. just received. Yes, the Goligher legend
has lost its glamour. I must say I was greatly surprised at
Crawford’s blindness....
“Sincerely yours,
“d’Albe.”
In 1920, Capt. C. Marsh Beadnell, of London, published a pamphlet in
which he offered twenty pounds if Dr. Crawford’s mediums would produce
a single levitation under conditions which would preclude trickery. I
am certain that any magician with a circle of six of his own choosing
and with only one observer of the Crawford type could, under the same
conditions, produce effects much more startling than any of those
recounted by the trustful doctor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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