19 August 2024
So… I was planning on writing about an Autism scam that did the rounds on Australia news networks this month. Instead, Mark unintentionally sent me down a rabbit hole when he asked for an article about the approaching 100th anniversary of the Spiritualist Church Of New Zealand Act 1924 next month. It's branded a National Spiritual Day, which I'm anticipating may cause confusion and upset in other religious circles.
8 July 2024
I managed to attend the Spiritual Expo in Dunedin last month. A week later, I also went along to a two hour long medium session at the Dunedin Spiritualist Church. I will be talking about the medium experience later in this article but, first, the Expo.
1 May 2008
It always helps keep matters in perspective to read about skeptical episodes from days gone by. I've recently been reading The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America's First Superhero, by William Kalush and Larry Sloman; Houdini, of course, is regarded as one of the godfathers of the modern skeptical movement. Though he made his reputation from his magic act and, particularly, his miraculous-seeming escapes, he devoted much of his later life to an ongoing battle with fraudulent mediums. Always open to the possibility of communicating with the dead, he nevertheless knew better than anyone, from his background in magic, how easy it was to fool an observer unversed in the techniques of deception. Indeed, in his early years, struggling to put food on his table, he had performed a spiritualist act himself, before developing a full appreciation of the ethical issues involved with preying on the bereaved.
1 May 1988
Britain's spiritualist mediums are suffering a crisis of over-popularity, brought on by an apparent national urge to get in touch with The Beyond. The Spiritualist Association of Great Britain is finding it impossible to keep up with the demand from local churches for experts with access to "the room next door".