Mrs. H. W. Cushman and Her Spirit Guitar “Musical Medium” of Charlestown, Massachusettsstereoview p
Mrs. H. W. Cushman and Her Spirit Guitar “Musical Medium” of Charlestown, Massachusettsstereoview photograph - 1870′sMrs. Cushman was a psychic and a ‘Musical Medium’ who conducted singing séances accompanied with a ‘spirit guitar’ played by a ghostly hand - the strings plucked by disembodied fingers. She gave private sittings and held circles at a number of addresses, and practiced at Onset Bay and Lake Pleasant camp meetings in the summer.Mr. Edgar W. Emerson, of Manchester, New Hampshire, relates the following experiences with Mrs. Cushman:“A guitar was held by Mrs. Cushman, with her right hand on the key end, above the upper bearing of the strings, joining her left hand with my right, my left hand holding the body of the guitar in my lap, outside of the table. In this position, in the presence of a dozen or more persons, strangers to me, music was played on the instrument both as an accompaniment to our singing and also alone. I saw the strings vibrate as if touched in the proper place by fingers, and several times I saw fingers come up through the hole in the guitar under the strings and touch them and then disappear. They looked like materialized fingers coming from inside of the instrument. I examined the guitar, and found it perfect, with no chance for any deception, and am satisfied that it was a genuine spiritual manifestation. Her right hand, which held the head of the guitar, was firmly fastened as it were the grasp of death.”source -- source link