Ada Maud Besinnet Roche (1890–1936) also known as Ada Bessinet was an American spiritualist

medium Medium may refer to: Science and technology Aviation *Medium bomber, a class of war plane *Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design Communication * Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data * Medium of ...

.Anderson, Rodger. (2006). ''Psychics, Sensitives and Somnambules: A Biographical Dictionary with Bibliographies''. McFarland. pp. 16-17.

Career

Besinnet was known for materializing 'phantom' faces, producing voices and '

psychic A psychic is a person who claims to use extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance, or who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws ...

' lights in her séances. Psychical researchers were convinced that all her phenomena were fraudulent but some suggested she may have been in a dissociated state. Researchers found the phantom faces suspicious, commenting that they had a strong resemblance to her own face. Polidoro, Massimo. (2001). ''Final Séance: The Strange Friendship Between Houdini and Conan Doyle''. Prometheus Books. pp. 74-111. Besinnet refused to sit with the magician Harry Houdini. She had been exposed as a fraud by an undercover magician

Fulton Oursler Charles Fulton Oursler (January 22, 1893 – May 24, 1952) was an American journalist, playwright, editor and writer. Writing as Anthony Abbot, he was an author of mysteries and detective fiction. His son was the journalist and author Will Ou ...

. During the séance he heard the medium leaving her chair, moved his shoe over the seat and discovered she was not there. Oursler in his exposure wrote that Besinnet had easily performed the phenomenon herself by getting up and moving around the room making noises. He had studied

ventriloquism Ventriloquism, or ventriloquy, is a performance act of stagecraft in which a person (a ventriloquist) creates the illusion that their voice is coming from elsewhere, usually a puppeteered prop known as a "dummy". The act of ventriloquism is ve ...

and stated all the voices were her own. As for the faces and lights, he suggested they were masks and observed a flashlight and, on another occasion, a rag in her hand. Besinnet was also caught cheating by psychical researcher

James Hewat McKenzie James Hewat McKenzie (1869–1929) was a British parapsychologist, and the founder of the British College of Psychic Science. McKenzie was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 11 November 1869 and died on 29 August 1929, in London.Buckland, Raymond ( ...

. In response, Besinnet claimed she was unconscious in her séances and had no knowledge of the events that took place.

Hereward Carrington Hereward Carrington (17 October 1880 – 26 December 1958) was a well-known British-born American investigator of psychic phenomena and author. His subjects included several of the most high-profile cases of apparent psychic ability of his times, ...

who investigated Besinnet wrote that "my own sittings with this medium left me entirely unconvinced of their genuineness." In

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...

the spiritualist Arthur Conan Doyle attended séances with Besinnet and claimed the faces were of his mother and nephew. Doyle endorsed her as a genuine materialization medium. This was disputed by other researchers who noted Besinnet had already been caught utilizing tricks by Oursler, but Doyle had ignored the exposure. Psychical researcher

J. Malcolm Bird James Malcolm Bird (September 2, 1886 – October 30, 1964) was an American mathematician and parapsychologist. Career Bird was born in Brooklyn to James Gedney Bird and Eliza (Baltz) Bird on September 2, 1886. He trained in mathematics and ta ...

who had attended a séance with Doyle was also skeptical and concluded "I saw these particular apparitions almost as well as well as he did... they were not sufficiently clear to be identified at all, save by a liberal contribution of desire and imagination". James H. Hyslop of the

American Society for Psychical Research The American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) is the oldest psychical research organization in the United States dedicated to parapsychology. It maintains offices and a library, in New York City, which are open to both members and the gener ...

concluded after attending 70 sittings that Besinnet was responsible for the all phenomena during the séances but her trance control was a "secondary personality".Hill, Douglas; Williams, Pat. (1965). ''The Supernatural''. Hawthorn Books. p. 127

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Besinnet, Ada 1890 births 1936 deaths American spiritual mediums