2023-08-24, 12:24 PM
(2023-08-24, 08:31 AM)MarcusF Wrote: [ -> ]Mixed medium argument is very convenient. When a medium is low on battery he cheats. But when he isn’t caught cheating, he is genuine. Sounds perfectly logical.The term “mixed mediumship” does sound like a cop-out but I think it depends on the context. Eusapia Paladino for example was apparently known to cheat when given the opportunity but investigators knew this and took measures to prevent it. There are many detailed records of sittings with her where the sitters were satisfied that the phenomena were genuine in controlled sittings. Does that mean we must accept it? No of course not but neither is there a good basis for confidently rejecting phenomena properly observed in controlled sittings by unbiased observers. I used to be of the school of thought “once caught in fraud, always fraudulent” but I no longer subscribe to that blunt instrument which excludes a lot of interesting and potentially valid research.
I don’t know when Nielsson became a spiritualist, but Kvaran sure was well before he met Indridi.
As for the photo shutting incident where a photographer caught Indridi cheating here is what happened after, I used Google translation:
“After discussing the matter with Einar H. Kvaran, it was decided to investigate this incident not further to avoid humiliating the medium. Indrida was told that the attempt had failed and he was asked to attend a meeting three or four members of the Experimental Society. Indridi asked to get to see the film but to "keep his mind at ease" he was told that she would have been damaged by accident. At the meeting on December 7, the day after the photo experiment, the door was locked from the inside as was customary so that no one could enter. The meeting lasted four and a half hours in the dark. Some brightness seems though have come from a fire burning in the hearth. Attendees who were all seated the meeting was Júlíus Ólafsson, Haraldur Níelsson and Einar H. Kvaran who held both of Indrida's hands or held around him with both hands all the time. Indridi was in a trance throughout the meeting. At the meeting, the management announced that they had discovered that the man who committed suicide would have played a prank on them and interfered with the photo experiment. They said Jon was at the meeting, building over "the force" and would be in a bad mood. Literally they said, "God knows how this one." A medium meeting takes place where Jón is now a semi-materialized ghost"
Page 88
So, the Board decided the photo incident was a result of a “naughty” ghost. Crisis communication at work. To me this sounds like a convenient explanation afer someone was caught with his hands in a jar.
And we could go on like this forever…
I find it very difficult to reach a firm conclusion on phenomena observed by people I do not know, no matter how long ago it was. On the other hand I am reluctant to categorically reject evidence from people actually experiencing phenomena, even if the medium has been caught in actual fraud previously - depending on the context.
Whilst the discussion of investigations and phenomena is interesting (and all most of us have), there is nothing like personal experience to establish confidence that phenomena are sometimes genuine.
Wikipedia isn’t an authoritative source for information on parapsychology. Although it often looks well-sourced, in my experience the context of the references is sometimes dishonestly presented and the evidence supporting phenomena almost universally ignored.