Published in 1892 | 60 pages | PDF reader required
PREFACE
I am impelled to write this little book from a sense of duty; that I may, in some manner, make amends for the evil I have done as a medium.
My father was a Christian minister and I was raised as a Christian, but I married a Spiritualist, and, at his earnest request, entertained a number of celebrated mediums at our house. From them I learned all the "tricks of the trade," which, from the beginning, I thoroughly despised. After my husband's death, being left with three young children and no means of support, I was, in a measure, forced into an occupation which inspired me with disgust and which I have frequently tried to leave, but have always been driven back to, until now, when I have, thank God! done with it forever.
Having a natural gift of mind reading, I proved an adept pupil, and soon knew all there was to be learned.
I have sat with almost every medium of note; have read all the leading literature on the subject, and for twelve years have been before the public as a medium for "independent slate writings," materialisation, raps, platform tests, pictures, clairvoyance and clairaudience, trumpet talking, and every other phase of mediumship. During all this time I never had an expose, never had a line written or published against me, or any scandal connected with my name. I was considered peculiar by mediums, because I never would have anything to do with magnetic healers and other free lovers, for reasons given in this book.
After this long experience I now solemnly declare that all-absolutely ALL-the so-called spiritual phenomena are false; and, furthermore, that the mediums well know it, being engaged in the nefarious business of deliberately deceiving foolish people for money, in such varying ways as I point out in the following pages.
The more I saw of mediumship-the deeper I went into its wickedness-the more earnestly my soul cried out against it. I hated the whole thing with all my being, but I had a family to support, and, not having perfect faith in God, I was afraid that I and my children would starve if I gave it up. Yet I prayed daily for deliverance. I never went into a dark seance, or sat down to give a slate writing, or went up to the hall to hold a public meeting, that I did not ask God to forgive me.
One day, in October last, I was going up to Foresters' Hall, on Main street, in this city of Los Angeles, to assist the notorious Mrs. Rich in giving a mediums' meeting. In the street, opposite the hall, a meeting was being held by a Christian band-either Holiness or Salvation Army, I do not know which. With a heart that yearned for consolation I paused to hear their songs and prayers. A young colored man was telling how God had brought him out of sin. My eyes filled with tears, and 1 then and there resolved that this should be the last Sunday which I would spend in a meeting of mediums and Spiritualists.
On the Tuesday night following this Sunday matinee I gave my usual materialising seance. I had a severe cold and was ill, but I went into the cabinet and "spooked" as usual, taking a still more severe cold, which resulted in pneumonia. I lay for many weeks at death's door, and am now writing this in my sick room. I will never be strong again, and have but faint hope of ever getting well, as my lungs are badly affected. My soul, however, is at peace with God. I have prayed earnestly for forgiveness, and feel that I am indeed forgiven.
With that feeling came a strong impression that it was my duty to expose this terrible fraud. Some of the local Spiritualists, who heard that I was contemplating such a step, have tried hard to dissuade me, and some mediums have, I am told, left town, fearing the coming expose. The arguments of these people have no weight with me. Nor am I, indeed, under any obligations to them. In the early stages of my sickness some of the Spiritualists came to visit me, but seeing that I was seriously ill and likely to have a long spell of sickness, they ceased coming, much to my relief. Since then the Christian people of Los Angeles have done all in their power for me. None of them, have, however, influenced or advised me to write this exposure. I do it from the prompting of my own conscience.
I know there are many good, honest people who firmly believe in Spiritualism, and I feel sorry when I think how mediums deceive them, for there is neither truth nor honesty in mediumship. If God spares my life, I shall spend the remainder of my days in undoing, as far as lays in my power, the evil I did while I was known as a medium, and in exposing what I consider the greatest fraud on earth-so called "spiritual manifestations."
JULIA E. GARRETT.
Los Angeles, May 16, 1892.
