Sandra Taylor
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posted 07-17-2005 10:30 PM
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The Beare Sensation
The most sensational confession by a medium during the past fifty years was that of Charles Albert Beare, the trance and trumpet medium and psychometrist. It was in 1920 that Mr. Beare first began to take a serious interest in spiritualism, after having practised conjuring tricks. He joined a spiritualist organization called the Temple of Light and soon blossomed out into a full-blown 'medium.'
After a few years Beare became thoroughly sick of the whole business and, to ease his mind, made a full confession. This was published in the Daily Express(72) for September 18, 1931. The interview makes remarkable reading. Beare says: 'I have deceived hundreds of people... I have been guilty of fraud and deception in spiritualistic practices by pretending that I was controlled by a spirit guide... I am frankly and whole-heartedly sorry that I have allowed myself to deceive people... I believe that when they read my full and frank confession they will forgive me for the way I have deceived them, and I am convinced that spiritualists could not do better than clear their own ranks of the fraud and deception which I know exist in the greater part of these practices!'
(72) 'Medium's Amazing Confession ... Séance Frauds,' in the Daily Express, September 18, 1931, pp. 1 and 2.
An amusing feature of Beare's 'mediumship' is that he received a 'Diploma of Genuineness' (reproduced in facsimile by the Daily Express) from the Temple of Light. The certificate reads: 'This is to certify that Mr. C. A. Beare ... has duly established, before the Board of Examiners, his claim to possess certain Spiritual Gifts, to wit: Clairvoyance and Psychometry ... and the said person named herein was deemed to have successfully demonstrated such gifts to the satisfaction of the Board and is hereby passed as an Authorized Medium.'
Beare had to possess a 'spirit guide,' so he called it 'Shauna,' a Greek supposed to have lived 130 years ago. Sometimes the exotic 'Shauna' was a professor, sometimes a sheik - according to circumstances. Beare says: 'I used a sort of gibberish ... anything that came into my head ... in a muddled way. It was all for effect, but it usually went down all right.' Occasionally, the sitters declared that they could see 'Shauna' standing behind him.
On November 4, 1931, I persuaded Beare to address the members of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research. His talk, 'Adventures of a Pseudo-Medium' was very amusing. He told us how he used to speak down the trumpet, and he gave us imitations of 'Shauna' talking 'Greek.' When asked why he finally gave up his 'mediumship,' Beare replied: 'Because I got absolutely disgusted with what I saw and with myself!'
http://www.survivalafterdeath.org/articles/price/spiritualism.htm --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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