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Henry Slade (1835-1905) was a famous fraudulent medium who lived and practiced in both Europe and North America. ==Biography== Slade was most well known as a slate-writing medium. During his séances he would place a small slate with a piece of chalk under a table and would claim spirits would use it to write messages. According to Joe Nickell, Slade was repeatedly caught faking the spirit messages in his séances and he produced his phenomena by a variety of magic tricks.〔Joe Nickell. (2007). ''Adventures in Paranormal Investigation''. The University Press of Kentucky. p. 40. ISBN 978-0813124674〕 Science writer Karen Stollznow has noted that: In 1872, Slade was caught in fraud in New York by John W. Truesdell, who had two sittings with him. During the séance Truesdell observed Slade using his foot to move objects under the table, and writing on a slate.〔Carl Murchison. (1927). (''The Case For And Against Psychical Belief'' ). Clark University. p. 242〕 In a séance Stanley LeFevre Krebs employed a secret mirror and caught Slade swapping slates and hiding them in the back of his chair.〔Gordon Stein. (1996). ''The Encyclopedia of the Paranormal''. Prometheus Books. p. 705. ISBN 978-1573920216〕 In a séance in 1876 in London Ray Lankester and Bryan Donkin caught Slade in fraud. Lankester snatched the slate before the "spirit" message was supposed to be written, and found the writing already there. He was prosecuted for fraud on October 1, 1876 in London and was sentenced to three months in prison.〔Joseph McCabe. (1920). ''Spiritualism: A Popular History from 1847''. Dodd, Mead and Company. pp. 160-161〕 However, Slade made an appeal, which was sustained, on the ground that the words "by palmistry or otherwise" had been omitted in the indictment. Before he could be arrested on the new summons, he fled to America.〔Paul Kurtz. (1985). ''A Skeptic's Handbook of Parapsychology''. Prometheus Books. p. 254. ISBN 978-0879753009〕 Slade also performed a trick where he would play an accordion with one hand under the table. The magician Chung Ling Soo exposed how Slade had performed the trick.〔Chung Ling Soo. (1898). (''Spirit Slate Writing and Kindred Phenomena )''. Munn & Company. pp. 105-106. "Dr. Henry Slade was, of course, identified and recognized as the principal slate-writing medium, but at various times he presented other phenomena, one of which was the playing of an accordion while held in one hand under the table. The accordion was taken by him from the table with his right hand, at the end containing the strap, the keys or notes at the other end being away from him. He thus held the accordion beneath the table, and his left hand was laid on top of the table, where it was always in plain view. Nevertheless, the accordion was heard to give forth melodious tunes, and at the conclusion was brought up on top of the table as held originally; the whole dodge consisting in turning the accordion end for end as it went under the table. The strap end being now downward, and held between the legs, the medium's hand grasped the keyboard end, and worked the bellows and keys, holding the accordion firmly with the legs and working the hand, not with an arm movement, but mostly by a simple wrist movement. Of course, at the conclusion, the hand grasped the accordion at the strap end, and brought it up in this condition. Sometimes an accordion is tied with strings and sealed so the bellows cannot be worked. This is for the dark séance. Even in this condition the accordion is played by inserting a tube in the air-hole or valve and by the medium's using his lungs as bellows."〕 Johann Karl Friedrich Zöllner, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Leipzig conducted several controlled experiments, using Slade, to evaluate his claims of paranormal ability in 1877. Slade failed some of the tests carried out under controlled conditions but still succeeded in fooling Zöllner in several other attempts. Hereward Carrington in his book ''The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism'' (1907) revealed the fraudulent methods (with diagrams of the rope tricks) that Slade used in the Zöllner experiments.〔Hereward Carrington. (1907). (''The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism'' ). Herbert B. Turner & Co. pp. 19-47〕 In 1882 in Belleville séance sitters caught Slade making "spirit" raps against the rung of his chair, using his foot to move a slate, writing "spirit" messages and substituting slates. He was also exposed as a fraud in 1885 by the Seybert Commission as it was discovered that the slates had prepared messages on them.〔Carl Murchison. (1927). (''The Case For And Against Psychical Belief'' ). Clark University. pp. 242-243〕 The magician David Abbott in his book ''Behind the Scenes with the Mediums'' (1908) revealed that Slade would also use his toes for writing messages on slates.〔David Abbot. (1908). (''Behind the Scenes with the Mediums'' ). The Open Court Publishing Company. p. 191〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Henry Slade」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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