Mina Crandon

Mina "Margery" Crandon (1888-1941) was the wife of a wealthy Boston surgeon and socialite, Dr. Le Roi Goddard Crandon. She attempted to win a prize offered by Scientific American magazine for showing authentic telekinetic ability. Margery appeared honest in the public eye and was supported by the educated upper class of Boston and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. She was so popular nationwide that her prayers were read by the US Army. The prize committee consisted of William McDougall, professor of psychology at Harvard, Harry Houdini, the famous conjuror, Walter Franklin Prince, american psychial researcher, Dr. Daniel Fisk Comstock, who introduced technicolor to film, and Hereward Carrington, amateur conjuror, author, and sponsor for the Italian medium Eusapia Palladino.

Only Carrington voted in favor of Mina. Member Harry Houdini duplicated and explained her skills before the Scientific American committee and published a pamphlet exposing her methods. Later Houdini would present her effects on stage using different methods. J.B.Rhine refused to test her. An English teacher, Grant Code, a vistor to the Crandon home, became entralled by Mina's later astonishing performances, they improved, and learned how to duplicate them. Code's exchange of letters with Walter Franklin Prince are in the archives of the ASPR.

Mina's amazing production of teleplasmic hand has never been fully explained. Yet it was touched and recognized, as being without life or movement, and resembling sewn tracheas. Some conjuring historians of Houdini and medium-ship suggest that Mina's surgeon husband altered her vagina and this is where she concealed her teleplasmic hand as she performed in the nude. She refused to wear tights. The Crandons had no children. No one really knows, but there are surviving clues. See: Further Reading.

Mina was finally discredited when a fingerprint left on wax by her channelled spirit was discovered to belong to Mina's dentist.