Dr Phinuit
LEONORE PIPER, the celebrated American medium, is said to have
discovered her mediumistic ability in 1884, after being persuaded by her
husband’s parents to sit with Mr. J. R. Cocke, a blind healing medium,
because of a tumour. Cocke claimed to be controlled by a French
physician named “Finny.” During her second sitting with Cocke, Piper,
then 27, lost consciousness and was controlled by the spirit of a young
Indian girl who gave the name “Chlorine.” Apparently, Finny was the same
control later identifying himself as Doctor Phinuit, who replaced
Chlorine. Whether Phinuit left Cocke for Piper or decided to use two
organisms - Cocke for healing and Piper primarily for communication - is
unknown.
Phinuit told Dr. Richard Hodgson, who was investigating Piper in the
United States, that his full name while in the flesh was Jean Phinuit Sclivellee but that he was known as Doctor Phinuit. He said he had died
at the age 70 “about” 1860. He gave his wife’s name as Marie Latimer.
However, he later told Professor Oliver Lodge (later Sir Oliver), who
sat with Piper in England, that his name was John Phinuit Schelevelle
and his wife’s name was Mary. While Jean/John and Marie/Mary have the
same meaning, it was never determined why he gave different versions of
the name or different spellings of his last name. He told both Hodgson
and Lodge that he had studied medicine at “Metz” in Germany. An attempt
to find some documented evidence of Phinuit’s existence was
unsuccessful.
According to William James, the distinguished Harvard professor who
discovered Piper, Phinuit would often introduce other spirits and at
times would give long lectures about things he (James) was certain were
well beyond Piper’s intellect.
“The most remarkable thing about the
Phinuit personality seems to me the extraordinary tenacity and
minuteness of his memory,” James wrote. “The medium has been visited by
many hundreds of sitters, half of them, perhaps, being strangers who
have come but once. To each, Phinuit gives an hour full of disconnected
fragments of talk about persons living, dead, or imaginary, and events
past, future, or unreal. What normal waking memory could keep this
chaotic mass of stuff together? Yet Phinuit does so… So far as I can
discover, Mrs. Piper’s waking memory is not remarkable, and the whole
constitution of her trance-memory is something which I am at a loss to
understand.”
On September 6, 1888, J. Rogers Rich, an artist, had a sitting with
Piper. He observed a remarkable change in Piper’s voice as it became
unmistakably male and “rather husky.” He was at once addressed in French
and he responded in French. Dr. Phinuit diagnosed Rich’s physical
ailments for him and prescribed various herbs, giving the manner of
preparing them. Phinuit told him that his mother was beside him and
accurately described her. In a second sitting, a month later, Phinuit
told Rich that his deceased niece was at his side. To test him, Rich
asked the niece, who had lived all her life in France, for his name in
French, to which Phinuit accurately relayed “Thames Rowghearce Reach”
entirely in the French alphabet.
In another sitting, Phinuit’s foreign accent gave way to a pure English
accent and Rich was greeted by his old friend, “Newell.” Rich noted that
the entranced Piper was twiddling her fingers as if twirling a
moustache, a habit very characteristic of Newell. Rich was later told by
Phinuit that his sister was often in his surroundings and had much
influence over him. Rich replied that he had never had a sister. Phinuit
corrected him, saying that he had a sister who died in infancy before he
was born. Rich questioned an aunt about this and was informed that it
was true.
On December 21, 1889, Phinuit told Lodge that “Edmund sends his love.”
Then, the personality possessing Piper seemed to change and
Edmund
Gurney, who along with Frederic Myers and Professors
William Barrett and
Henry Sidgwick founded the Society of Psychical Research in 1882, began
speaking. Gurney had died in 1888 and had been introduced to Lodge by
Myers.
Lodge questioned Gurney about both Piper and Phinuit. Gurney told him
that Piper was a true medium. As for Phinuit, he said, “He is not all
one would wish, but he is all right.” In another sitting, Gurney
described Phinuit as eccentric and quaint but good hearted.
“I wouldn’t
do the things he does for anything. He lowers himself sometimes; it’s a
great pity. He has very curious ideas about things and people, he
receives a great deal about people from themselves … and he gets
expressions and phrases that one doesn’t care for, vulgar phrases he
picks up by meeting uncanny people through the medium… A high type of man
couldn’t do the work he does.”
None of the many investigators who observed Piper considered her a
fraud, but most of them questioned whether Phinuit had ever lived. The
early theory held by almost all the researchers was that he was some
kind of “second personality” buried away in Piper’s subconscious. In
addition to the fact that no record of his name could be found, there
were strange inconsistencies, including his inability to speak French to
some sitters fluent in French. The fact that he wasn’t sure about the
year of his birth or death also went to his credibility, although other
communicating spirits have said they lose a sense of time in the spirit
world.
What seems to have swayed most of the researchers away from the
secondary personality theory is the fact that beginning in 1892, Phinuit
started turning over his “control” function to “George Pelham,” (a
pseudonym for George Pellew), a spirit whose human existence was known
to Hodgson and others. If Phinuit’s successor could be confirmed as
having been alive in the flesh at one time, then why not Phinuit?
It was not until Pelham began using her organism that Piper fully
developed the ability of automatic writing. Hodgson reported that there
were many times when Pelham would be communicating through Piper’s hand
while Phinuit would be transmitting through her voice - each relaying
information from different spirits on different subjects. On one
occasion, both of Piper’s hands were writing and a voice speaking from
her - apparently three spirits communicating at the same time.
Gradually, Pelham took over from Phinuit as Piper’s primary control
while Phinuit continued as a secondary control. Phinuit would sometimes
complain that Pelham was too domineering.
“I never saw the like of that
fellow George,” Phinuit grumbled to Hodgson. “There’s another here
trying to say something but he gave no chance at all. When he gets hold
he keeps hold I tell you Hodgson.”
Pelham and Phinuit gradually gave way to “Rector” of the Imperator band
of 49, who had earlier controlled Rev. William Stainton Moses. Rector
told them that Piper’s organism was weakening and needed more rest and
better management. While Rector continued to use Piper’s organism, it
was with more care than Pelham and Phinuit could provide. Rector said
they were substituting a “softer melody” for the rough, inharmonious and
uncultivated dialect, referring primarily to Phinuit. While not “earth
earthy,” Rector said that Phinuit was too bound by the attractions of
earthly minds. Phinuit made his last appearance on January 26, 1896.
In 1906, when Piper returned to England, Lodge asked Rector about
Phinuit and was informed that he had advanced and gone on to other work.
References:
Holt, Henry, On the Cosmic Relations (Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Company, 1914).
Myers, F. W. H., Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death
(University Books, 1961).
Lodge, Sir Oliver, The
Survival of Man (London: Methuen & Co., 1909).
Source: Michael E. Tymn, vice-president of The Academy of Religion and
Psychical Research. |