Ethel Post-Parrish (died 1960) 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 ...

Biography

In 1932 Parrish founded Camp Silver Belle a Spiritualist summer camp situated at

Mountain Springs Hotel The Mountain Springs Hotel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is located in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, at the corner of East Main Street and Spring Garden Street. It was originally built in 1848 as a summer resort, capitalizin ...

Ephrata, Pennsylvania Ephrata ( ; Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Effridaa'') is a borough in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located east of Harrisburg and about west-northwest of Philadelphia and is named after Ephrath, an ancient Israelite town, Bethl ...

. In her

séance A séance or seance (; ) is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word ''séance'' comes from the French word for "session", from the Old French ''seoir'', "to sit". In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, spea ...

s Parrish claimed to materialize her

spirit guide A spirit guide, in Western spiritualism, is an entity that remains as a discarnate spirit to act as a guide or protector to a living incarnated human being. Description In traditional African belief systems, well before the spread of Christ ...

an Indian girl known as Silver Belle. In a séance at Ephrata, Pennsylvania, in 1953, Parrish materialized her spirit guide Silver Belle whilst sitting in her curtained cabinet. The pictures claimed to be taken at 50 second intervals in infra-red light by photographer Jack Edwards, show Silver Belle growing from a cloud of " ectoplasm".

Fraud

A related spiritualist camp known as

Camp Chesterfield Camp Chesterfield was founded in 1891 and is the home of the Indiana Association of Spiritualists, located in Chesterfield, Indiana. Camp Chesterfield offers Spiritualist Church services, seminary, and mediumship, faith healing, and spiritual ...

in Anderson, Indiana was managed by Mabel Riffle the cousin of Parrish. The camp was exposed in 1960 as infra red film had revealed that the materialized figures were all human and had entered the séance room through a side door. Camp Silver Belle was also practicing fraudulent mediumship, and had been exposed in various newspapers. Before exposures the camp took in up to a million dollars a year. The photographs taken by Jack Edwards of Silver Belle materializing were discovered to be a hoax. A photograph was taken of

smoke Smoke is a suspension of airborne particulates and gases emitted when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis, together with the quantity of air that is entrained or otherwise mixed into the mass. It is commonly an unwanted by-produc ...

and by a

double exposure In photography and cinematography, a multiple exposure is the superimposition of two or more exposures to create a single image, and double exposure has a corresponding meaning in respect of two images. The exposure values may or may not be ide ...

a cardboard figure was superimposed onto it. The woman standing outside the cabinet curtain was also an accomplice involved in the deception. M. Lamar Keene. (1997). ''

The Psychic Mafia Morris Lamar Keene (10 August 1936 – 11 June 1996), was a spirit medium in Tampa, Florida and at Camp Chesterfield Indiana, where he was known as the "Prince of the Spiritualists". He was also the trustee of Universal Spiritualist Association. ...

''. Prometheus Books.

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Post Parrish, Ethel 1960 deaths Year of birth missing American spiritual mediums People from Ephrata, Pennsylvania