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SEANCES AND SPIRITUALISTS by Christine Andreae

SEANCES AND SPIRITUALISTS

By

Pub Date: Sept. 23rd, 1974
Publisher: Lippincott

(Wierd and Horrible Library) Andreae is more credulous than Georgess McHargue who investigated many of the same mediums in Facts, Frauds & Phantasms (KR, 1972). Or perhaps, given Andreae's disappointing report on her own private sitting with a spiritualist church minister, she is simply reluctant to disappoint a readership that wants to believe. Thus older mediums, such as Daniel Home and Arthur Ford, are treated with respectful equivocation while current favorites -- Edgar Cayce and Jane Roberts' Seth -- are judged much more impressive. At one time or another, Andreae considers just about every well known spiritualist practitioner or phenomenon and her competent, noncomittal journalism will please librarians in need of catchall survey material. However, she neither fires the imagination of the faithful nor gives skeptics any encouragement. Like so many exploitations of popular subjects, the author's responsibility and interest seem to end with compilation.