Kathleen Goligher

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Kathleen Goligher

William Jackson Crawford

Kathleen Goligher (born 1898) was an Irish spiritualist medium. Goligher was endosed
by engineer William Jackson Crawford who wrote three books about her mediumship
but was exposed as a fraud by physicist Edmund Edward Fournier d'Albe in 1921.

Contents
 1 Investigations
 2 Critical evaluation
 3 See also
 4 References
 5 Further reading
Investigations
Goligher was born in Belfast. She held séances in her own home with seven of her
family members. The psychical researcher and engineer William Jackson Crawford
(1881–1920) investigated the mediumship of Goligher and claimed she had levitated the
table and produced ectoplasm.[1]

Crawford in his books developed the "Cantilever Theory of Levitation" due to his
experiments with Goligher. According to his theory the table was levitated by "psychic
rods" of ectoplasm which came out of the body of the medium to operate as an invisible
cantilever. Crawford took flashlight photographs of the ectoplasm, and described the
substance as "plasma". Crawford investigated Goligher's mediumship at her house for
six years.[2] He committed suicide on 30 July 1920 for unknown reasons. Crawford's
photographs of Goligher showed that the ectoplasm, frequently issued from her
vagina.[3]

There were no scientific controls in the Crawford's séances with Goligher as she and her
family members had their hands and legs free at all times.[4] After Crawford's death the
physicist Edmund Edward Fournier d'Albe investigated the medium Goligher at twenty
sittings and arrived at the opposite conclusion to Crawford. According to d'Albe no
ectoplasm or levitation had occurred with Goligher and stated he had found evidence of
fraud. On 22 July 1921 he observed Goligher holding the table with her foot.[5] He also
discovered that the "ectoplasm" substance in the photographs of Crawford was muslin.
During a séance d'Albe had observed white muslin between Goligher's feet.[6]

In a letter to Harry Houdini, d'Albe wrote "I must say I was greatly surprised at
Crawford's blindness."[7] The conclusion from d'Albe was that the Goligher family were
involved in the mediumship trickery and had duped Crawford. D'Albe published The
Goligher Circle in 1922 which exposed the fraudulent mediumship of Goligher and
because of the exposure she retired from mediumship in the same year.[8]

Critical evaluation
Goligher with muslin

Crawford's experiments were criticized by scientists for their inadequate controls and
lack of precaution against fraud.[9][10]

Physician Morton Prince in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology noted that Crawford's
psychic rod hypothesis "fails to account for much and cannot be reconciled with what is
scientifically known as matter, or force, or electricity, or energy."[9]

A review in the Journal of Applied Psychology suggested that Crawford does "not seem
to have been able to avoid self-deception, and his experiments are not convincing."[11]

Psychical researcher Hereward Carrington noted that the photographs taken by

Crawford look "dubious in appearance" and that "with rare exceptions, no other
investigators had an opportunity to check-up his results, since outsiders were rarely
admitted to the sittings."[12]

The surgeon Charles Marsh Beadnell published a booklet in 1920 that debunked the
experiments. He also offered a cash prize to any medium who could produce a single
levitation under controlled conditions.[7]

Bryan Donkin, M.D., studied the Crawford experiments called attention to "the
superabundant exposure of the massive credulity and total defect of logical power
displayed by Dr. Crawford," who gives "the most pathetic picture of a willing victim of
pernicious deception".[13]

Psychologist Joseph Jastrow criticized the Crawford experiments as unscientific and

wrote that "the minute detail of apparatus and all the paraphernalia of an engineering
experiment which fills the Crawford books must ever remain an amazing document in
the story of the metapsychic. As proof of what prepossession can do to a trained mind
the case is invaluable."[14]

Joseph McCabe suggested that Goligher had used her feet and toes to levitate the table
and move objects in the séance room and compared her fraudulent mediumship to
Eusapia Palladino who performed similar tricks.[15] Edward Clodd also dismissed the
experiments as fraudulent and noted that Goligher refused invitation to be examined by
a group of magicians and scientists.[16]

Researchers such as Ruth Brandon and Mary Roach have heavily criticized Crawford's
investigation, describing him as credulous and having a sexual interest in Goligher, such
as an obsession with her underwear.[8][17] Crawford held a deep fixation on underwear,
for example psychical researcher Theodore Besterman noted that before his suicide he
"spent all his money (consequently leaving nothing) on a stack of woollen underwear
for his family, sufficient to last for several years."[8]

In 1988, Susan Blackmore claimed that she had communicated with Dingwall about the
case. Blackmore stated that Crawford had confessed to Dingwall that all the Goligher
phenomena was fraudulent. Blackmore quotes Crawford as saying "Ding, I have to tell
you something. It was all faked, all of it."[18]
See also
 Eva Carrière
 Mina Crandon

References
1.

 Buckland, Raymond. (2005). The Spirit Book: The Encyclopedia of Clairvoyance,

Channeling, and Spirit Communication. Visible Ink Press. p. 164. ISBN 978-
1578592135
  Crawford, William Jackson. The Reality of Psychic Phenomena. (1918),
Experiments in Psychical Science. (1919) and The Psychic Structures of the Goligher
Circle (1921).
  Jones, Kelvin I. (1989). Conan Doyle and the Spirits: The Spiritualist Career of Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle. Aquarian Press. p. 151. ISBN 978-0850308372
  Franklyn, Julian. (1935). A Survey of the Occult. Kessinger Publishing. p. 233.
ISBN 978-0766130074
  C. E. Bechhofer Roberts. (1932). The Truth About Spiritualism. Kessinger
Publishing. p. 128. ISBN 978-1417981281
  Edmund Edward Fournier d'Albe. (1922). The Goligher Circle. J. M. Watkins. p.
37
  Houdini, Harry. (2011 edition, originally published 1924). A Magician Among the
Spirits. Cambridge University Press. p. 176. ISBN 978-1108027489
  Roach, Mary. (2010). Six Feet Over: Adventures in the Afterlife. Canongate Books
Ltd. pp. 110-116. ISBN 978-1847670809
  Prince, Morton. (1919). Review of Experiments in Psychical Science, by W. J.
Crawford. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 14: 355-361.
  Jastrow, Joseph. (1920). A Psychic Tragedy: The Case of Professor Crawford. The
Weekly Review 3: 412-415.
  Anonymous. (1920). Experiments in Psychical Science. Journal of Applied
Psychology 4 (2-3): 280.
  Carrington, Hereward. (2003). The Story of Psychic Science. Kessinger Publishing.
p. 197-200. ISBN 978-1161351118
  Jastrow, Joseph. (1935). Wish and Wisdom: Episodes in the Vagaries of Belief. D.
Appleton-Century Company. p. 377
  Murchison, Cark. (1927). The Case For And Against Psychical Belief. Clark
University p. 307
  McCabe, Joseph. (1920). Is Spiritualism Based on Fraud? The Evidence Given By
Sir A. C. Doyle and Others Drastically Examined. London Watts & Co. pp. 58–61
  Clodd, Edward. (1922). Occultism: Two Lectures Delivered in the Royal Institution
on May 17 and 24, 1921. London: Watts & Co. pp. 28–34
  Ruth Brandon. (1983). The Spiritualists: The Passion for the Occult in the
Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. pp. 150-151. ISBN 0-
297-78249-5
 18.  Blackmore, Susan. (1988). The Adventures of a Parapsychologist. Prometheus
Books. p. 211. ISBN 1-57392-061-4

Further reading
 Charles Marsh Beadnell. (1920). The Reality or Unreality of Spiritualistic
Phenomena: Being a Criticism of Dr. W.J. Crawford's Investigation into
Levitations and Raps. Watts & Co.
 William Jackson Crawford. (1921). The Psychic Structures at the Goligher
Circle. New York: E. P. Dutton & Company.
 Edmund Edward Fournier d'Albe. (1922). The Goligher Circle. J. M. Watkins.
 Joseph Jastrow. (1920). A Psychic Tragedy: The Case of Professor Crawford.
The Weekly Review 3: 412-415.
 Martyn Jolly. (2006). Faces of the Living Dead: The Belief in Spirit
Photography. Miegunyah Press. ISBN 978-0977282739
 Joseph McCabe. (1920). Is Spiritualism Based On Fraud? The Evidence Given
By Sir A. C. Doyle and Others Drastically Examined. London Watts & Co.
 Eleanor Mildred Sidgwick. (1917). Review: The Reality of Psychic Phenomena:
Raps, Levitation etc. By W. J. Crawford. Journal of the Society for Psychical
Research 18: 29-31.

Kathleen Goligher

Kathleen Goligher in 1916

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Kathleen_Goligher
Putting the psycho in

Parapsychology
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 Bruce Greyson
 Derek Ogilvie
 John Edward
 Julie Beischel

By the powers of tinfoil

 Clairvoyance
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 Attachment therapy
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v-t-e

Kathleen Goligher (born 1898) was an Irish medium.

Goligher held séances in her own home with seven of her family members. The
spiritualist William Jackson Crawford investigated Goligher and took various
photographs of her ectoplasm which he believed was genuine. Crawford believed that
Goligher could communicate with spirits that would levitate the table. The photographs
however that Crawford took are dubious, the ectoplasm looks like it was made from
muslin (which it was revealed to be). Some of the absurd photographs can be seen here
[1] [2] surprisingly some spiritualist woo websites still claim the photographs depict
genuine ectoplasm.

Crawford has been described as credulous when it came to the subject of mediumship
and "insane" as he had an obsession with underwear.[1] There were no scientific controls
in the Crawford's séances with Goligher as she and her family members had their hands
and legs free at all times. His experiments have been described as non-scientific and
have been refuted in detail by skeptics such as Edward Clodd and Harry Houdini.

The death-blow to Goligher's mediumship came when the physicist Edmund Fournier
d'Albe investigated her and discovered the fraud. During a séance he observed Goligher
holding the table up with her foot. He also had observed that the ectoplasm was white
muslin between Goligher's feet. D'Albe published The Goligher Circle in 1922 and
because of the exposure she retired from mediumship in the same year. Spiritualist
cranks such as Brian Inglis and modern day woo-believers on forums tend to ignore the
exposure by d'Albe or misrepresent his data on purpose.[2]
References
1.

 Ectoplasm at the Skeptic's Dictionary

2.  Spiritualist woo believer claiming Goligher's ectoplasm was real

Further reading
 Edward Clodd. (1922). Occultism: Two Lectures Delivered in the Royal
Institution on May 17 and 24, 1921. London: Watts & Co. pp. 28-34
 Edmund Edward Fournier d'Albe. (1922). The Goligher Circle. J. M. Watkins.

https://archive.org/stream/psychicstructure00craw#page/n3/mode/2up

https://archive.org/details/occultismtwolect00cloduoft

https://archive.org/stream/TheGoligherCircle/The%20Goligher%20Circle#page/n1/mode/2up

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015023537155;view=1up;seq=15