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//-->POST OFFICE BOX 144 • FREEHOLD, NEW JERSEY 07728"~e~~teJtItcetJlJ,t/,t,....:';,.;,."/~"'...,.',,"~..".CHARLES H. FOSTER.(201) 431-2429POST OFFICE BOX 144 •FREEHOLD, NEW JERSEY07728"- - These experiences are not simply strange, unaccountable, mysterious, or any ofthe words which denote the idea of things unaccounted for by natural causes; they are simply"awful." The writer feels as though he were drifting into sacrilege in his endeavor to giveor to conceive of an idea of the power of this man. When the reporter saw this man look backover long years of time and long miles of space, and down deep into the moldering dust oflong-forgotten graves. and drag up to the clear light of the present noonday sun of Phi-ladelphia thoughts from the inmost recesses of the heart of a woman who, in life, wouldhardly have confessed those thoughts to herself - when he saw the name of the WOman and thatof the man she loved (names which the enquirer had himself almost forgotten, time and cir-cumstance having almost completely blotted them out of memory) - when he saw those nameswritten in plain distinct characters, in letters formed of the living blood at that momentcoursing through the hand of Foster - he could not refrain from yielding to the impulse tocry out in ideal pain and awe-striking fear, stagger up from the table, and walk about theroom till a modified calmness came to his excited feelings. And yet these were but the mererudiments of the "art," if it may be so called; but it may not be so called, even though theloss of a word leaves the sentance unfinished, for it was no "art" that enabled this Ian toread the events of the past and its dead, the present and its living; to tell of deeds doneyears ago and forgotten by their actors, of thoughts conceived of at the passing moment andunshaped even in the brain of the thinker. It was no "art" that gave this man the power tolook into the heart of a woman far away and tell her secret, which she had concealed reli-giously for years. It was no art; it was - but the pen of the journalist refuses to writethe impious thought, when he knows that he writes about the power of a mortal such as youand I and all of us are.Mr. Foster spoke truth when he made the remark, "Mr. ,I will reveal to you thingsthat you would not dare publish; they are too sacred; they toUCh family, social and heartrelations too nearly even to be mentioned by the faintest allusion." - And the listenerpaid the penalty for his skepticism and scoffing even to the uttermost farthing, such apenalty, the amount of which he dare not publish. It is "too sacred." - "laudatory is an~xc~rptof an~ws articl~thatapp~arpdin Thp PhiladplphiaPr~ssfor April 1, 1873, abouta spancp. that took placp. thp. day bpforp.Amazingly, it waswritt~nbyth~city~ditorwho wasa thoroughsk~pticand hadth~rp.putation of being a sarcasticwritpr~Th~ pap~rsold outcompl~t~lyto thev~rylast copyand by populard~mandit wasr~print~din the weekly edition!Th~abov~1(201) 431-2429POSTOFFICE BOX 144 • FREEHOLD, NEW JERSEY 07728?Ize-;ltJA.~eJ£#'ICe,fJUI4,-cCopyright by Al Mann Exclusives(1983)"1I!.IItu-e4:."~aJe~."With these four words, Charles H. Foster, of SalemMassachusetts, challenged the worldS And the world beat a path tohis doorlThe names of the celebrities that sat with Foster can be foundin the Encyclopedia Britanica. A partial lista Emperor NapoleonIII, King Leopold of Belgium, Lord Lytton, Dickens, Thackeray,Tennyson, Robert Chambers, William Howitt, Lincoln, Gen. Sheridan,Walt Whitman, Gen. Butler, Jay Gould ..•..WHAT WAS FOSTER'S POWER? Foster said that he had the power tocommunicate with the spirits of the dead! That he could see, hearand converse with these spirits. That these spirits would tell himthe answer to the questions of the living relatives or friends.Under this premise, many marvelous and incredible feats wereaccomplished at Foster's Seances.Charles H. Foster started pro-ducing mediumistic phenomena at the age of14 (1847,the year be-fore we heard of the Fox Sisters!), when raps were heard at hisdesk during school hours. At night he was awakened by loud andviolent noises and the furniture was tossed about the room. Thisalso occured in daylight hours and furniture was heard beingmoved around when no one was present.Perhaps his first thoughts of becoming a 'medium' go back toyounger years, considering that very young children love to hearabout the supernatural, and his birthplace of Salem was indeed theright place for it.The following year, March of1848,the Fox sisters set the fusefor a new religion that would soon capture the imagination of theworld.During his early years,inpreparation for a carrer as a medium,Foster collected a 'bag' of psychological tricks which would givehim the awesome power to answer any question put to him by anyoneanywhereinthe world and practicallyinany language!That, Gentlemen, is a tall order.It was his ability to answer any question, however difficult,that catapulted Foster into world fame!1+i,~6(A,A'C-t"l,tli.H·t'M.,,:2THE FOSTER ACCOUNTAN AL MANN EXCLUSIVE9~.4tetArma.IA~'Je,JJi'eJ"Before setting out to amaze the world, Charles Foster madea set of rules for himself to follow in his seances:1. He would sit with anyone at a seance. With the lowly andthe mighty. No one would be refused. He personally invited thepress and the clergy, and the psychic investigators, the skep-tics and men of science.seance could last for15minutes orseveral hours. Seances were held all day long and into the night,seven days a week •2.No time limit.Th~.3.No negative seances. All questions would be answered!Believers and skeptics alike said that they got their money'sworth. They were all amazed and mystified.notice. On any tablepin anyone's room, preferably in broad day-light. Foster also held seances in total darkness if requested.The above is a formula for success. And it is also a formulafor much hard work. It was the hard work and itsamaz~ng r~sultsthat separated Foster from other billet workers of the times. Itis what brought him world fame and also unfortunately and earlydeath.',',.Almost everyone of Foster's seances resulted in newspapercoverage. These WI'ite ups in the papers were done by the sittersthemselves who WI'ote to testify as to what they had seen. Thisincluded also newspaper reporters and editors.Foster took on all challengers and some came in with somevery difficult tests, such as sealing the questions in sheetmetal. Foster answered all the questions and sometimes it tookhim hours to get results. He got ,the questions through crook orhookpbymuch.talk~ngand misqirection. In the difficult caseshe haq to inventmet~odsof getting to the sealed questions righton the spot, since hehadnot had prior \'laming...But getting the question was on,ly thee~sypart. Giving thecorrect answer, which he did in every seance was what amazed theworld.He got his answers from the 'spirits' he said. He was a 'spi-ritualist medium,' he claimed.His novelist friend, Bulwar of Knebworth,~ngland,who modeledthe hero of "A Strange Story" after Foster, told Foster to pose asa scientist instead of a spiritualist, but Foster would hear noneof it."Speaking to the dead' made good reading. The newspapers thatprinted Foster's seances sold out as soon as they hit the streets!4.Seances would be held anywhere at any time, at a momentsT~FOSTER ACCOUNTJAN AL MANN EXCLUSIVEEvp.ry Mentalist that hasdone the 'question and answer act' knows what difficult questionsare. "What is the name of my pet beagle?" "In what bank do Ihavemymoney?" etc., etc.These test questions are not necessarily 'traps.' Usually theyreflect a belief in your powers and the spectator is testing you.If you can answer his question then he will believe in you 100%.Foster was asked such questions as, "What ismygrandfather'sname? What was his profession? How old was he when he died? Whatwas my grandmother's maiden name?"etc.Foster answered all questions correctly to the consternationof his detractors. His enemies, some were newspaper reporters,others were jealous magiciansl ,claimed that Foster visitedthe cemeteries and read off the information from the tomb stones!The assumption was of course most ridiculous. The sitter'sgrandfather may have been burried in Afganistan! Yet this accusa-tion became so real in the minds of the skeptics that even to thisday, the reader will find the same statement offered as a solutionin magic books.Going to the local cemetery in. search of information is amyth! -.with much waist of time and energy. One would have to doa lifetime study in one city alone to get anything of value ..Afaster source would be the family bible. But Charles H. Fosterdid neither. He just sat in his hotel room and let the world cometo him. As I said before, he had a clever 'bag of tricks' witha ready source of answers for any question!.AM~.~4C""()(/,-7)t./lt·cut t.(JUeA.l<()/4A:",(,.~t...'01A""""!1.,.A'~'~MA..,.....r"...uIN'\'O·r.~·•Now, Gentlemen, how do youanswer difficultquestions~There are many clever wayso~circum-venting aquestion and turning it into a fabulous answer, _.BUTFoster gave direct answers, without equivocation! How did he doit? NO! He was not clairvoyant. NOl He did nothspeak with spiritsas he claimed. He was a billet worker.Amiracle man if you wish.Foster had a ready source ofan~wersto any question. He fQundthe answers in the mind of the sitter, sitting across. the table!.!!The sitter asking the question also knew the.answer and, Fosterhad, amazingly, many methods of getting theaanswer from the, mindof the sitter.! Let's take a sample case. The followingappe~reo..in the Philadelphia 'Evening Day' ofAp~i~4,1873. It is refferedto in "The Salem Seer" by Bartlett, page 18." We now thought it our turn, and asked the name of our infant brother who died in 1852. Itwas at once written on a piece of paper, in a large, scrawling hand. the medium exclaimimg,"Ah, now we have one very near and dear to you." It was correct. Then we asked what desease broughtdeath to him, and were requested to write a number of deseases on paper. We wrote about a dozenand the medium, taking a pencil, half closed his eyes and ran his pencil through until he hitthe right one, which he marked and threw to us. Our lips we bit slightly. How could he know that?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]