“Houdini, you are mistaken,” he replied.
Nevertheless I do not think that Dr. Crawford was the right man or had the right sort of a mind for an investigation. To me his credulity seemed limitless. E. E. Fournier d’Albe’s report of Dr. Crawford’s seance with the Goligher Circle coincides with my judgment. In a communication addressed to “Light” in August, 1922, d’Albe referring to his own tenth seance says:
“I found to my surprise that I could myself with some little management, produce the phenomena with my feet exactly as I had observed them.”
Dr. Von Schrenk-Notzing[101] charged d’Albe with entering his investigation with “prejudice against the genuineness of the Goligher phenomena.” This d’Albe denied, saying:
“I had gone to Belfast fresh from Eva C’s seance with a strong conviction of reality and with firm faith in Dr. Crawford’s reliability and accuracy. I expected a gifted medium surrounded by her honest folks, but then came the blows: first, the contact photographs, then the evidences of trickery. The sight of the ‘medium’ raising a stool with her foot, filled me with bitter disappointment. The simple, honest folks all turned out to be an alert, secretive, troublesome group of well-organized performers.”
Here is the experience of a man, who, with a mind prejudiced in favor, entered upon a series of tests expecting full confirmation of impressions already gotten from his experiences with Eva C., but though ready to believe, not biased against the conclusions or rational deduction. His summary, though brief, is worthy of note:
“The Goligher Circle has repeatedly been urged, by myself and others, to submit to further investigations by a fresh investigator, but so far without success. If it does consent, I can predict two things with confidence:
I. No genuine psychic phenomena will be observed.
II. No evidence of fraud will be obtained, as the members of the Circle are exceedingly wary, and the evidence of trickery which I obtained was gathered under conditions which they had not foreseen, but which they will doubtless avoid in the future.
“I also feel safe in predicting that if Miss Goligher’s feet and hands are controlled, and the cooperation of the other sitters eliminated, there will be no levitation of any kind.