Posted on 12 August 2024, 11:33

The mediumship of Mina Crandon, aka “Margery,” is probably the most controversial case in the annals of psychical research.  Only that of Eusapia Palladino rivals it in that respect. The Margery case has been previously discussed at this blog, the most recent being March 14, 2022.  As stated there, Dr. Joseph Rhine provided the most damning evidence against Margery.  That was based on one sitting, on July 1, 1926, a sitting he didn’t even complete, so certain was he that Margery was cheating. Since Rhine is the scientist most responsible for the change from psychical research to parapsychology, the latter avoiding mediumship and any discussion of spirits or survival, the Margery case may even outweigh the Eusapia case in its historic value.

It would take far too many words to again summarize the arguments for and against Margery (upper left photo) I personally found the evidence for far exceeding the evidence against and concluded that most of the evidence against Margery was based on ignorance or an assumption that mediumistic phenomena must fit into a materialistic paradigm.  This blog will simply summarize the report of Dr. Robert J. Tillyard (upper right photo) as set forth in the December 1926 issue of the The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research and leave it to the reader to judge his testimony.

An eminent English-Australian biologist and entomologist, Tillyard studied Margery on April 29 and May 1, 1926, two months before Rhine, and then reported on his observations in a lecture before the National Laboratory of Psychical Research on July 6, just five days after Rhine’s sitting with Margery. His lecture was edited for both the British and American journals.  Tillyard refers to himself in the third-person, as the “lecturer” and as “he.”

In planning a trip to America and England, Tillyard was anxious to observe several mediums and wrote to Sir Oliver Lodge, the famous British physicist and psychical researcher, for a recommendation. Lodge recommended Margery. “It was the one of the most extraordinary experiences he had ever had in his life,” Tillyard said in his lecture and essay (again the “he” refers to himself).  “He did not know whether those present realized the stir Margery had caused in that quaint old city of Boston, the center of American intellect and culture. It was strange to find the intellectual University of Harvard in the throes of a mental, if not moral, revolution because of one woman.”  (Both Margery’s husband, Le Roi Crandon, M.D. and Mark Richardson, M.D., were professors of medicine at Harvard and strong supporters of Margery’s mediumship.  Richardson subjected her to many tests, one of them depicted in the lower left photo.)

Tillyard was warned by one Harvard professor not to see Margery, telling him that it was “thoroughly a bad place, and that his honor would be stained forever if he went, that no decent man or woman should set foot inside that door,” and that she was a vampire and a descendant of Mary Magdalene. He then visited Professor William McDougall, head of the Harvard psychology department, who also warned him that the “the whole thing was a gigantic conjuring trick,” though he could not provide Tillyard with any definite evidence of fraud on the part of Margery. “…and upon going later through the various departments of Harvard he (again, Tillyard referring to himself) could see that that the University was thoroughly materialistic.  It was the most materialistic university he had ever come across. They had no time for anything that contravened the tenets of materialism. They held that if a thing was not provable on a materialistic hypothesis it must be a fraud.”

Strict Controls

On his first sitting with Margery at the Crandon home, Tillyard thoroughly inspected the séance room and the cabinet to rule out any kind of fraud. The cabinet was designed to restrain Margery and rule out trickery on her part.  Tillyard then tied up Margery as tightly as he possibly could with picture wire, as it was suggested by others that she must be double-jointed and able to escape from such binding as well as the cabinet in order to perform her tricks.  He padlocked her neck, so that she was entirely immobilized.  After Margery was bound and secured in the cabinet, a small group, including Dr. Crandon, Mrs. Tillyard, and three others, formed a small circle around the cabinet.  Tillyard sat on her right and, for additional control purposes, held her right hand, which protruded from the cabinet, while one of the others held her left hand.

“The light was turned down and Margery went into trance after ten minutes’ waiting, during which time a gramophone with an automatic repeating device went on and on with a beautiful soft melody with a gentle lullaby,” Tillyard continued his report. He was told that the musical vibrations gave Walter, Margery’s deceased brother who often spoke in the direct voice (independent of Margery’s vocal cords) power to work with.  When it had become clear that Margery was in a trance state, the lights were turned up. 

Tillyard then heard a voice, “like a hollow stage whisper,” come from the floor.  “Hello! Hello, everybody! I am here. I am fine. I am coming along all right,” the voice, identified by others as that of Walter, said with a chuckle. Tillyard watched Margery to see if there was any movement of her lips, and saw none. He concluded that ventriloquism could be ruled out.  During his two visits, he said Walter spoke in the dark, in red light, and in white light, but his time in white light was limited due to the harmful effect it had.

“Walter had many absurdities,” Tillyard continued. “He was a very human being, a bad boy at swearing, and when he got annoyed he let out some good American expressions.” He was full of quips and jokes.  When Dr. Crandon introduced Walter to Tillyard, Walter said, “Hello, here’s an insect man.  Hello, bugologist.”  Dr. Crandon then asked Walter to whistle, which he did. He was then asked to whistle in tune with a melody coming from a gramophone, which he also did. Walter then began talking with various sitters and became something of a master of ceremonies.

Tillyard was now prepared to accept Walter as a distinct and engaging personality. He considered the claim that Walter was an extension of Margery’s personality, but Walter had a completely distinct personality, clearly unlike Margery’s.

Various phenomena were observed by Tillyard, beginning with ringing of the bell-box by Walter (held by Tillyard well out of Margery’s reach). He also carried out the scales experiment that McDougall had warned him about.  One pan on the weight scale was loaded with weights, but Walter brought down the empty side as the weighted side went up.  Tillyard referred to it as a “remarkable” experiment. When asked how he did it, Walter explained that he “filled the interstices of the matter with psychic stuff,” which made the empty side heavier than the pan holding the weights. Walter further explained that the production of the independent voice was done by means of a teleplasmic (ectoplasmic) lung and voice-production apparatus, while certain delicate manipulations were carried out by a finger-like process from a kind of teleplasmic arm.

Psychic Stuff

In the case of Margery, the teleplasm usually came out by a fine white cord from the nose or ear (lower right photo). Walter further explained that the teleplasm was drawn from the medium’s central nervous system. “This formed just a fine film, and was apparently hardened up and made turgid and also visible to the eye by being filled with some kind of psychic stuff,” Tillyard explained, adding that Walter had the ability to mold or develop it into various instruments suitable for the particular work at hand. “Thus, Walter used a long, straight rod or ‘terminal’ for many of his experiments, and was able to make the end of the terminal.luminous or phosphorescent.

Tillyard examined a mass of teleplasm and stated that it “was white and somewhat shiny, rather like the white part of a large cauliflower cooked and served with white sauce, or perhaps a better simile would be that it was like a plate of cooked sheep’s brains. As for what it looked like, it was most difficult to describe this, he (himself) could not think of any living tissue which gave him either the appearance or feeling of it exactly. One got a very strong impression of great turgidity and firmness, something like that of a well-blown pneumatic tire, but there was also a suggestion of a living response to pressure, like reciprocation from a friendly hand-pressure.”

Tillyard observed the formation of a “psychic hand” from the teleplasm.  He was told by Walter that one of the sitters, referred to as “Dr. Jones” provided most of the teleplasm but Margery provided most of the power.  “In this experience, two buckets were provided, one containing almost boiling water on which was floating about four inches of hot melted paraffin wax, while the other contained cold water. The lecturer (himself) had control of these two buckets and sat with his face almost over them so that he could see and hear everything that went on in them.”  Walter asked Tillyard what part of his (Walter’s) anatomy he would like to have dipped into the pail for the psychic mold. Tillyard asked for a hand and wrist. 

After a lot of splashing and dipping, the hand with wrist was produced and was unlike the hand of any person in the room. All agreed that it was a male hand and not Margery’s.  Walter claimed that it was a model of his own hand.  On a second try, the hand of a small child was produced.  Tillyard said it floated up like a luminous cloud, formed a complete hand, and then disappeared.
Tillyard concluded that he was not sure whether the spiritualistic hypothesis was correct, but he thought it reasonable to suppose a distinct personality.  He added that he was not opposed to the spiritualist theory, but that if he became a spiritualist he would not join the spiritualist church and would endeavor to leaven the phenomena with a new truth, which he would urge on every man.

Michael Tymn is the author of The Afterlife Revealed: What Happens After We Die, Resurrecting Leonora Piper: How Science Discovered the Afterlife, and Dead Men Talking: Afterlife Communication from World War I.
His latest book, No One Really Dies: 25 Reasons to Believe in an Afterlife is published by White Crow books.

Michael,
I will apologize in advance for too many posts but for the sake of continuity of thought , I seek your indulgence.
In the recent Scole article I had an explanation about why we were not better guided in our search for an understanding of the life after death area. I was advised. “These may be very sensible and well meaning groups but many want to take away the element of free will. They want to instruct”.

I always like when I get given something and by a strange coincidence I get told some more.
I visited my friends bookshop last weekend and while I was waiting for him to get some lunch I found a book Akanthos a book of channeled insights by Rev Marcy Foley channeled by Phillip Young Jr. Akanthos is not a book that would normally appeal to me but I opened the book and found some additional information on free will.

‘I call myself Akanthos. I could use any of the names I have had in any of my incarnations, for it does matter. Akanthos is a name I had in one lifetime upon the place you now call Greece. On my plane our names are telepathically communication in an instant. Our true names are composed of many experiences we have had in all of our past and future lives. I am a composite soul. I am composed of one thousand souls who work in true harmony together. I am part of a group mind, a group energy consciousness.

On page 5 Some entities think they want me to limit their free will and to predict the future for them. I’ll put it frankly. I am not allowed to. Divine Law forbids me from interfering with your free will. You experience indecision when you come to different cross roads in your three dimensional reality where you exist now. This indecision is vital for you and your development. Because of my tremendous love for each of you I would not take this experience from you.”

Thanks,
Bruce

Theo,

I enjoyed seeing “Gerard Croiset, a Dutch medium of which the newspapers said on his death that he has given psychic information of more than 800 disappeared persons.”

Croiset was brought to Adelaide, Australia to search for three missing children - the Beaumonts. This disappearance affected all Australians.
A biased review is below:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_the_Beaumont_children

Australians believed in Gerard and greatly appreciated his assistance. The Dutch are well liked in our history https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/dirk-hartog-lands-off-western-australia.

Me, I loved his chair tests.One of my favourite books as Croiset was very humble and helped many with his gifts.

I would like to connect you with an article on Dutch paranormal history. Again thanks to a friend for finding this article.
http://iapsop.com/psypioneer/psypioneer_v10_n6_jun_2014.pdf
Thanks,

Bruce

A great piece of research, with impressive assists from Theo, Bruce, and August. Margery is for real. How sad that Materialists like Rhine and company can’t cross the Boggle Threshold and spend their lives in the grip of such a gloomy worldview.

Stafford

Rhine was not keen on examining real phenomena:

In the early fifties, J B Rhine visited professor Tenhaeff in the Netherlands, a parapsychological professor at the university of Utrecht.  Tenhaeff did weekly experiments for years, with Gerard Croiset, a dutch medium of which the newspapers said on his death that he has given psychic information of more than 800 disappeared persons.  Tenhaeff and later professor Hans Bender did both several “chair experiments” (“stoelenproeven”), in which Croiset predicted 2 weeks on the forehand “who would sit FIRST in a certain chairnumber”, (a number pulled by chanche by Tenhaeff) in Japan, with TV filmstudio’s present.  Croiset then wrote 20 variables of that person sitting in that chair. (Like: young woman, lives in an appartment on the second floor, has 2 kids, went to the dentist last week, works for Tv, etc etc )

In Japan, on the day in question, Tenhaeff on stage explained the test and proceeded with telling the 20 variables, then asking the person in chair number X to stand up and comment.

Consternation ! The chair person said that none of this was accurate, all was wrong!  At that moment, the Japanese TV script girl stood up and said, all is correct, the cameraman asked me to sit in that chair FIRST this afternoon, so he could test his camera view… 

Such and more were the excelent capabilities of Croiset.  When Tenhaef told J B Rhine about his feats, Rhine’s drily commented “tell him to learn to predict numbers”...
(Written from memory out of Dutch parapsychological literature)

The May and June 1926 issues of the ASPR Journal carried articles (Parts I and II) by Dr Karl Gruber, a German physician, biologist, and zoologist, reporting on his research of the physical mediumship of Willie and Rudi Schneider. His report included the ‘synchronous movements’ between the medium and objects out of the medium’s reach. ‘If this connection is broken by movements of the hand or other object across the field of activity, or if it is roughly torn away, either temporary or lasting bodily injury to the medium results,’ Gruber stated, noting that his research involved more than one-hundred experiments. “This fact has been repeatedly misunderstood by the skeptical, who have seen in it the unmasking of a frightened medium.”  It is ironic because Louisa W. Rhine translated the article from the German to English and the articles must have appeared just before the Rhines sat with Margery on 1 July, thereby suggesting that Joseph Rhine gave no consideration to the movement he claimed to have observed with Margery’s foot that prompted his conclusion that it was fraud on her part.  (Louisa Rhine did not see such movement.)

Michael,

I had a little help finding this article but there was a good article written by my old friend Garth (now in spirit) about Tillyard.

(We claim Tillyard as Australian due to his work here but “Tillyard had spent most of his life in a remote portion of the British Empire; he stated
that many people supposed him to be either an Australian or a New Zealander, were mistaken. He was a simple Englishman, educated in England and graduated from Cambridge. In 1920 he was elected Honorary Fellow of Queens College, Cambridge.”)

There is an excellent coverage in Garth’s article:

The Margery Mediumship

At another Farewell lunch, given by the NLPR, also at the Piccadilly Hotel Restaurant, Dr Tillyard gave an account of his experience with the medium Margery.  This was on July 12 1928, and was reported in LIGHT July 28 1928.

“Experiments closely similar to the above are now being done twice a week regularly by `Walter’, and it is therefore within the power of any man who wishes to do so to verify the phenomena stated in this article. My own conclusion is that Walter Stinson, who died in 1912, has fully proved in a scientific manner his claim that his personality has survived physical death.”

http://iapsop.com/psypioneer/psypioneer_v1_n19_nov_2005.pdf

Thanks,
Bruce

Consider this quote from “The Risen: Dialogues of Love, Grief & Survival Beyond Death” as an expression of my thoughts:
“There are scientists who maintain a healthy measure of skepticism about skepticism, and remain open while questioning. This openness has led to emerging, revolutionary scientific models, such as R. A. White’s “Experiential Paradigm”.  Inspired in part by psychologist Abraham Maslow’s classic work on cognitive-being and his insights from what he called exceptional “plateau” or “peak” human experiences, White asserts that there’s a form of knowing that can only come from having been immersed in a particular experience. This means that the worldview of a medium can only be objectively analyzed after the analyzer has also subjectively experienced it. Mediumistic experiences often take place outside the constraints of space and time and therefore may pose serious challenges to those scientists who have always relied on such matrices in their laboratories.”

[White, Rhea A., “Exceptional Human Experience and the Experiential Paradigm,” ReVision, 1995; #182, 18-25.]

August Goforth