ONE MAN'S CRUSADE
GAINST SPIRITUALISM
Famous Medium Family Last Holdout
From Truth & Consequences News & Courier, June 13, 1938
The reclusive Medium family of New Jersey may be among the last remaining popular spirtualists left in the United States. Spiritualism, which caught on big in the last century, has seen a decline since the onset of the Depression as citizens face the reality of bigger challenges.
For the past decade, Marsha McMedium (her maiden name) has crafted a traveling stage show with her husband Montrose Medium, whom she claims can predict what will happen 20 seconds into the future. Dressed like a circus ringmaster in her jodhpurs and sequined blouse, Ms. McMedium warms up the crowd with a few tricks before ushering in Mr. Medium. She has him predict what members of the audience will say and do just a moment before they say or do it.
Though often correct in his guesses, Mr. Medium's predictions are usually mundane, frequently referring to where the next cough will come from during an awkward silence in the crowd. Needing to liven up the act, the Mediums brought in her two daughters. Now 17, Ms. McMedium purports that they can talk to spirits, and furthermore that they live in parallel dimensions, which prevent either from being able see nor hear each other. Despite their eccentricity and impossibility of their act, the Mediums have managed to sell out houses all over the world while other such occultists have fallen out of favor.
Famed psychoanalyst Dr. Randall Harris takes part of the credit for the demise of mysticism. As a man of science, Dr. Harris has dedicated his time to debunking mediums, psychics, seers and paranormalists the world over.
Harris performs a debunking
“People label me a ‘debunker’ or ‘skeptic,’” says Harris. “I prefer to call myself ‘an investigator’ for I am here to seek the truth. I do not want people to be deceived into believing things that are simply not legitimate.”
Dr. Harris has visited hundreds of séances, tarot readings, crystal ball rooms, table-tipping parties, palmistry salons and the like—often in disguise—and each time he publicly exposes these sham actors for what they really are. But one bastion of spiritualism has remained out of Dr. Harris’s reach: the Medium Family, whom he hopes to reign in before the close of the decade