Medium in the Mask
Medium in the Mask is an article published in the Daily Express on 27 march 1919.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was among the members of the committee.
Medium in the Mask
TO-NIGHT'S SEANCE
A great test of the genuineness or otherwise of spiritualism will be made this evening, when the medium in the mask is due to produce before the "Sunday Express" committee a materialised phenomenon — a ghost.
Tremendous interest has been aroused in this event. Inquiries and requests to be present to-night have been received from distinguished readers in all parts of the country, but it has been found impossible to accommodate even's fraction of the number. Only the special committee formed by the "Sunday Express" will be present.
The claim of the medium in the mask is that she is able to produce a materialised phenomenon that will be recognised by one or more members of the committee.
It was a fortnight ago that the medium in the mask came to the office of the "Sunday Express" in response to the offer of a reward of £5.0 to be paid to the medium who could produce a bona-fide materialisation of the spirit of any person who has died within living memory. The woman, who was heavily veiled, declared her ability to do this, and a preliminary seance was held last week to establish whether it was worth while holding a test seance at which the committee formed by the "Sunday Express" would be called on to judge
THE £500 OFFER."
In the meantime, however, the masked medium, while prepared to submit to the test, withdrew from the £500 offer, because she decided that it would make her claim as an exponent of the truth of spiritualism less open to suspicion. The preliminary seance was held last Friday, and in the opinion of the "Sunday Express" special representative, fully justified the medium's claims to be seriously tested by the special committee.
He described "a thin curl of cloud , which grew in size and contour till it resembled an aged woman in a shawl. "It remained for a few seconds stationary, and then glided to the side of the medium."
Was this the ghost? If not, what was it? These and other questions will be decided by the committee of experts to-night.
Among the members of this committee, are the following:—
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,
- Sir Henry Lunn,
- Dr. Edwin Smith,
- (Lecturer on forensic medicine at St. Thomas Hospital.)
- Mr. Stuart Cumberland,
- Mr. David Gow.
- (Editor of "Light.")
The seance will be held in a flat in the West Central part of London. The proceedings will be opened with some mental manifestation by the medium. An endeavour to describe a departed spirit known to some one in the company, through the influence of a hidden article that once belonged to the dead person, will also be made.
Then the event of the evening — the production of a ghost — will be attempted.
It is significant to add that the medium in the mask as the only woman to come forward, in all seriousness, to submit to the test since the announcement in the "Sunday Express" of the £500 reward.
