Massimo Polidoro. (2003). Secrets of the Psychics: Investigating Paranormal Claims. Prometheus Books. ISBN 978-1-59102-086-8 Willis Dutcher. (1922). On the Other Side of the Footlights: An Expose of Routines, Apparatus and Deceptions Resorted to by Mediums, Clairvoyants, Fortune Tellers and Crystal Gazers in Deluding the Public. Berlin, WI: Heaney Magic. Between 8 November and 31 December 1920 Gustav Geley of the Institute Metapsychique International attended fourteen séances with the medium Franek Kluski in Paris. A bowl of hot paraffin was placed in the room and according to Kluski spirits dipped their limbs into the paraffin and then into a bath of water to materialize. Three other series of séances were held in Warsaw in Kluski's own apartment, these took place over a period of three years. Kluski was not searched in any of the séances. Photographs of the molds were obtained during the four series of experiments and were published by Geley in 1924. [126] [127] Harry Houdini replicated the Kluski materialization moulds by using his hands and a bowl of hot paraffin. [128]

Hereward Carrington. (1907). The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism. Herbert B. Turner & Co. pp. 206–23 In the 1930s Harry Price (director of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research) had investigated the medium Helen Duncan and had her perform a number of test séances. She was suspected of swallowing cheesecloth which was then regurgitated as "ectoplasm". [150] Price had proven through analysis of a sample of ectoplasm produced by Duncan, that it was made of cheesecloth. [151] Helen Duncan would also use a doll made of a painted papier-mâché mask draped in an old sheet which she pretended to her sitters was a spirit. [152] The photographs taken by Thomas Glendenning Hamilton in the 1930s of ectoplasm reveal the substance to be made of tissue paper and magazine cut-outs of people. The famous photograph taken by Hamilton of the medium Mary Ann Marshall depicts tissue paper with a cut out of Arthur Conan Doyle's head from a newspaper. Skeptics have suspected that Hamilton may have been behind the hoax. [153] Everard Feilding, William Marriott. (1910). Report on Further Series of Sittings with Eusapia Palladino at Naples. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research. Volume 15. pp. 20–32. Rodger Anderson. (2006). Psychics, Sensitives and Somnambules. McFarland & Company. p. 90. ISBN 978-0-7864-2770-3 The wisdom of these spirit beings is still being read today and so their legacy continues, alongside a new generation of trance mediums in the UK who as the world is changing and seeking guidance, are being called upon by spirit to act as messengers.Often with channelling, there is little or no change to the medium's appearance or voice. More contemporary mediums are now working at the channelling level. Channelling is the level most often used for automatic writing, where a degree of physical control is required to move the pen, but no other physical changes are needed. Channel Mediums allow their mouths and hands to be used to deliver messages through speaking and writing. In a series of experiments holding fake séances, (Wiseman et al. 2003) paranormal believers and disbelievers were suggested by an actor that a table was levitating when, in fact, it remained stationary. After the seance, approximately one third of the participants incorrectly reported that the table had moved. The results showed a greater percentage of believers reporting that the table had moved. In another experiment the believers had also reported that a handbell had moved when it had remained stationary and expressed their belief that the fake séances contained genuine paranormal phenomena. The experiments strongly supported the notion that in the séance room, believers are more suggestible than disbelievers for suggestions that are consistent with their belief in paranormal phenomena. [52]

a b c Sofie Lachapelle. (2011). Investigating the Supernatural: From Spiritism and Occultism to Psychical Research and Metapsychics in France, 1853–1931. Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 144–45. ISBN 978-1-4214-0013-6 Nicola Holt, Christine Simmonds-Moore, David Luke, Christopher French. (2012). Anomalistic Psychology (Palgrave Insights in Psychology). Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-30150-4 In mediumship, different layers of communication are required for different work. As a general rule, spirit communication starts at the mind level with mental mediumship. It then begins to deepen through channelled speaking, automatic writing and light and medium trance. Finally, the spirit being can completely enter the physical body of the medium. This is what is known asdeep trance. Woliver, Robbie (July 16, 2000). "An Encounter With a Television Psychic". The New York Times . Retrieved 24 December 2011.In Spiritism and Spiritualism the medium has the role of an intermediary between the world of the living and the world of spirit. Mediums claim that they can listen to and relay messages from spirits, or that they can allow a spirit to control their body and speak through it directly or by using automatic writing or drawing. Harry Price. (1931). Regurgitation and the Duncan Mediumship. (Bulletin I of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, 120pp with 44 illustrations.) Ruth Brandon. (1983). The Spiritualists: The Passion for the Occult in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Alfred E. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-394-52740-6 With today’s Photoshop technology the original 80 year old photographs have been given a little more contrast for this publication but absolutely NO other changes have been made to them. (AH Publisher)

In a true trance mediumship state, the essence of the spirit communicator will be felt by those watching and listening. The spirit communicator will be able to impart not only their thoughts but also a sense of their personality. Joseph McCabe. (1920). Spiritualism: A Popular History from 1847. Dodd, Mead and Company. pp. 110–12. A Mr. Merrifield was present at one of the sittings. Home's usual phenomena were messages, the moving of objects (presumably at a distance), and the playing of an accordion which he held with one hand under the shadow of the table. But from an early date in America he had been accustomed occasionally to "materialise" hands (as it was afterwards called). The sitters would, in the darkness, faintly see a ghostly hand and arm, or they might feel the touch of an icy limb. Mr. Merrifield and the other sitters saw a "spirit-hand" stretch across the faintly lit space of the window. But Mr. Merrifield says that Home sat, or crouched, low in a low chair, and that the "spirit-hand" was a false limb on the end of Home's arm. At other times, he says, he saw that Home was using his foot." Direct voice communication is the claim that spirits speak independently of the medium, who facilitates the phenomenon rather than produces it. The role of the medium is to make the connection between the physical and spirit worlds. Trumpets are often utilised to amplify the signal, and directed voice mediums are sometimes known as "trumpet mediums". This form of mediumship also permits the medium to participate in the discourse during séances, since the medium's voice is not required by the spirit to communicate. Leslie Flint was one of the best known exponents of this form of mediumship. [29] Channeling [ edit ] Janet Oppenheim. (1988). The Other World: Spiritualism and Psychical Research in England, 1850–1914. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-34767-9 Massimo Polidoro. (2003). Secrets of the Psychics: Investigating Paranormal Claims. Prometheus Books. pp. 65–95. ISBN 978-1-59102-086-8Some scientists of the period who investigated Spiritualism also became converts. They included chemist Robert Hare, physicist William Crookes (1832–1919) and evolutionary biologist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913). [14] [15] Nobel laureate Pierre Curie took a very serious scientific interest in the work of medium Eusapia Palladino. [16] Other prominent adherents included journalist and pacifist William T. Stead (1849–1912) [17] and physician and author Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930). [18] O'Keeffe, Ciaran (May 2005). "Testing Alleged Mediumship: Methods and Results". British Journal of Psychology. 96 (2): 165–179. doi: 10.1348/000712605X36361. ISSN 0007-1269. PMID 15969829.

Edward Clodd. (1917). The Question: A Brief History and Examination of Modern Spiritualism. Chapter Mrs. Leonard and Others. pp. 215–41 a b LeCron, Leslie; Bordeaux, Jean (1970). Hypnotism Today. Wilshire Book Co. p.278. ISBN 0-87980-081-X. When in a trance... the medium seems to come under the control of another personality, purportedly the spirit of a departed soul, and a genuine medium undoubtedly believes the 'control' to be a spirit entity... In the trance, the medium often enters a cataleptic state marked by extreme rigidity. The control then takes over, the voice may change completely... and the supposed spirit answers the questions of the sitter, telling of things 'on the other plane' and gives messages from those who have 'passed over.' Donald Serrell Thomas. (1989). Robert Browning: A Life Within Life. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. pp. 157–58. ISBN 978-0-297-79639-8 Ann O'Delia Diss Debar ("One of the most extraordinary fake mediums... the world has ever known" -Houdini) A fraudulent medium may obtain information about their sitters by secretly eavesdropping on sitter's conversations or searching telephone directories, the internet and newspapers before the sittings. [48] A technique called cold reading can also be used to obtain information from the sitter's behavior, clothing, posture, and jewellery. [49] [50]No doubt a great importance in the paranormal field is the problem of fraud. The field of psychic research and spiritualism has been so notoriously full of charlatans, such as the Fox sisters and Eusapia Palladino–individuals who claim to have special power and gifts but who are actually conjurers who have hoodwinked scientists and the public as well–that we have to be especially cautious about claims made on their behalf. [61] Trance mediumship allows a spirit being to take control of the body, mind and energy of the medium, to a varying degree, for the purpose of communication, spoken or written. This happens while their consciousness steps aside. Itis the deepest level of mediumship.CollegeTutorand trance mediumSarah Tyler-Walters reveals what trance mediumship is, who can do it and how to recognise when someone is in trance...