Fake Psychic - Lamar Keene BBC Radio Documentary

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PapaG
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Fake Psychic - Lamar Keene BBC Radio Documentary

Postby PapaG » November 2nd, 2022, 4:36 pm

If you can get past the awful accents adopted by some of the actors, this is an interesting multi-part documentary well worth a listen:

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j ... bLS6BhRU6w

Tarotist
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Re: Fake Psychic - Lamar Keene BBC Radio Documentary

Postby Tarotist » November 2nd, 2022, 8:32 pm

I know something about that matter from a fellow psychic reverend who was in Camp Chesterfield at the time all the psychic mafia stuff was going on. The famous book on the subject was written as a result of a gay lovers quarrel. I bet they didn't mention that in the documentary!
Of course I don't know for sure if it was mentioned so I suppose I will have to force myself to listen to the documentary.

I was amused to see recently that Camp Chesterfield is still going strong!

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Re: Fake Psychic - Lamar Keene BBC Radio Documentary

Postby Tarotist » November 2nd, 2022, 11:13 pm

Here is where all the wickedness was going on! https://campchesterfield.net/ I expect they have cleaned up their act since the Psychic Mafia days. My informant of what used to go on there was this gentleman who passed away last year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvwhjb_HuTo

He told me that he was down in Camp Chesterfield when all the crooked mediums were rampant and he was quite horrified by it. He had never seen anything like it and was astonished at all the billet switching etc; that was going on. He said "Even my teacher who I respected was doing it'. He said the famous book about Lamar Keene was written out of spite because of a gay lovers quarrel. He worked in Lilydale in his later years. He was Canadian and he worked the same psychic fairs I did. I asked him how he obtained permission to work in America and he amused me by saying it was because he was a reverend. He said, "Spiritualism is my religion so they had to accept me"

I don't know any psychics who deal in those mediumistic tricks. That stuff must have died out by now. All that spirit trumpets and producing ectoplasm is no more. You can't get away with physical mediumship any more. There are plenty of mediums around but in the main they are very sincere. The crooked ones are the ones you see on television! But even they don't use physical mediumship. I am not sure that seances take place any more except when magicians amuse themselves with that stuff.

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Re: Fake Psychic - Lamar Keene BBC Radio Documentary

Postby MagicbyAlfred » November 3rd, 2022, 1:14 pm

This is a fascinating series. I'm only halfway through the second episode and already I fear I am hooked. The information is well-documented, as Lamar bared his soul in a series of private interviews/exposes with a pastor of a church in New Jersey, who was also an aficionado of spiritualism and psychic phenomena, and a prolific author on the subject. 75 hours of interviews were compiled and transcribed, and provide the main source material for the series. Private though the sessions between Lamar and the pastor may have been, Lamar definitely intended them for public consumption.

As Mark mentioned, Lamar began ratting on the so-called "psychic mafia," of which he was a prominent member, soon after a falling out and break-up with his romantic partner. However, I have not seen any indication, at least as of yet, that he made the disclosures regarding the pervasive psychic bunco scheme to spite his ex. It appears to have been more of a crisis or catharsis of conscience, and a need to unburden himself as to the horrible misdeeds he and many others had committed, and the gnawing guilt he was suffering. But timing-wise, the shocking revelations that unfolded in the interviews did happen to coincide with the break-up.

To say Lamar was a colorful character would be an understatement. He became exceedingly wealthy through cons and predatory practices that would make a 3 Card Monte gang blush, and he was incredibly flamboyant. He was characteristically decked out in a white suit, and rode around in a white limousine. In any event, I've only seen the tip of the iceberg so far.

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Re: Fake Psychic - Lamar Keene BBC Radio Documentary

Postby Tarotist » November 3rd, 2022, 3:50 pm

I am not 100 percent sure but I suspect the pastor in New Jersey may well have been Reverend William Rauscher, a somewhat different type of reverend to the ones under discussion. He has written several interesting books about magic, not so much about tricks but more of a biographical nature. Here is my favourite of the ones he wrote:

https://mysticlightpress.com/index.php@page_id=137.html

Of course the fact that there are several pages devoted to me while only a paragraph or two devoted to legends of mentalism has biased me in its favour despite the fact he made rude remarks about my psychic reading activities. However, what annoyed me most is that he said I "was an Englishman living in Toronto". I am not a bloody "Englishman" and I consider that to be an insult beyond redemption. I am SCOTTISH not English. England is only a tiny peninsula jutting off the south coast of Scotland and as such is of no importance whatsoever.

Anyway, I think it is a rather good book and very readable indeed. Alas however, it got a very bad review in some magic magazine or other particularly because of what the reviewer considered inaccuracies of a mainly historical nature and of course there were some inaccuracies about me personally which I wasn't particularly concerned about since there was so much about me and so little about other supposed worthies of mentalism.

Alas the good reverend was so irritated by the review that he demanded to reply to it but alas the request was denied. Anyway I recommend the book despite the review and I found it very enjoyable. I think Lamar Keene is mentioned in the book and in fact I would be very surprised if he wasn't since Reverend Rauscher had a great deal to do with the Psychic Mafia book which is also worth reading:
https://www.amazon.ca/Psychic-Mafia-Lam ... 1573921610

Note this critical comment though:

"I read this book many years ago and always wondered why Mr. Keene waited so long to indict so many legendary spiritualists. I recall his assasination of Mabel Riffle, long-time president of Indiana's Camp Chesterfield, a long and ugly section of the book making her out to be a greedy, cranky fraud. But Mabel Riffle died in 1960, and Keene waited until 1976 to write this book. I recall also Ethel Post-Parrish-Riley, Camp Silver Belle medium, also attacked as a complete fraud and confidance woman. Ethel too died in 1960. What chance do either of these women have to reply to Keene's charges? Why were the only identifiable people in his books already dead and unable to respond (unless through a spiritualist medium!) to his many charges? I remember trying to find reference to any living person in his book years ago and there were none. What was or is Keene afraid of?"

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Re: Fake Psychic - Lamar Keene BBC Radio Documentary

Postby Tarotist » November 3rd, 2022, 4:06 pm

UH OH! I just had another look at the Camp Chesterfied website and found that I know this lady! https://campchesterfield.net/?s=marilyn+rossner A very famous psychic lady indeed! I used to do the psychic fairs where she was an exhibitor, particularly in Montreal. She always got a great crowd for her lectures.

I am highly tempted to relate a tale where Paul Pacific exchanged messages with her via their respective spirit guides but I suspect I had better refrain from doing so. On the other hand he is a member here and might tell you himself. He calls himself Barefoot Boy on here but has probably not mentioned that he has a spirit guide named Avery.

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Re: Fake Psychic - Lamar Keene BBC Radio Documentary

Postby MagicbyAlfred » November 3rd, 2022, 4:45 pm

Tarotist wrote:I am not 100 percent sure but I suspect the pastor in New Jersey may well have been Reverend William Rauscher, a somewhat different type of reverend to the ones under discussion.


Yes, said pastor is, indeed, the Reverend William Rauscher. He was about 90 years old and recovering from open heart surgery when he was interviewed by Vicki Baker, the principal investigator and narrator of the series. I learned this in listening to Episode 2 (of 6), entitled, "The Showman."

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Re: Fake Psychic - Lamar Keene BBC Radio Documentary

Postby Tarotist » November 3rd, 2022, 5:55 pm

I think he is still alive although I can't say for sure. Anyway, I think I will relate the tale of Reverend Marilyn and Paul Pacific. Paul also works psychic fairs and it seems he approached Marilyn who is actually a very important person in the world of spiritualism and has a spirit guide named Daisy. Paul asked her, "How is Daisy?" She responded suspiciously, "Daisy is fine-----but how do you know about Daisy?" He replied, "Oh, Avery told me about her" whereupon she enquired "Who is Avery?" Paul responded "Avery is MY spirit guide!"

It seems from what Paul told me Marilyn scampered away quite hurriedly. I can't say I blame her!

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Re: Fake Psychic - Lamar Keene BBC Radio Documentary

Postby MagicbyAlfred » November 3rd, 2022, 8:01 pm

Born in 1932, the Reverend William Rauscher, pastor, scholar, and author, is still alive. He has been an amazingly prolific writer -- not as prolific as Richard, but 16 books is nothing to sneeze at. The books he has written or co-written encompass spiritualism/the supernatural, psychics and psychic phenomenon, religion, magic, and magicians. To hear him speak in the BBC documentary, he is, not surprisingly, quite articulate and insightful.

https://geniimagazine.com/wiki/index.ph ... m_Rauscher

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Re: Fake Psychic - Lamar Keene BBC Radio Documentary

Postby Tarotist » November 3rd, 2022, 11:21 pm

I do have another book by him. An autobiography of John Calvert.

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Re: Fake Psychic - Lamar Keene BBC Radio Documentary

Postby MagicbyAlfred » November 4th, 2022, 3:09 am

Tarotist wrote:I do have another book by him [the Reverend William Rauscher]. An autobiography of John Calvert.


A couple of interesting factoids:

Rauscher's middle name is "Vernon."

John Calvert lived to be 102 and performed at the London Palladium when he was 100.

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Re: Fake Psychic - Lamar Keene BBC Radio Documentary

Postby Tarotist » November 4th, 2022, 8:55 am

I saw John Calvert perform when he was 100. He was bloody awful! But then that is to be expected at that age. However, I also saw him when he was much younger, say 60 or so. Of course he was much better then. The trouble was that he, no doubt for reasons of economy, hired assistants for his show when he got to the locality rather than having them as permanent staff the way Sorcar Jr did at the time. Sorcar Jr was touring the UK at the same time as Calvert and I got the impression from speaking to Calvert that he was very annoyed by it and bad mouthed the Indian illusionist to me, saying "You haven't seen a good full evening show" after I had praised Sorcar Jr to him. The truth is that the Sorcar Jr show was far superior to the Calvert show and one aspect of this was the fact that all the assistants in the show were permanent assistants rather than people picked up when the show got to the venue. These new people fumbled around and made the show look amateurish. I still remember sitting near the front of his show and saw through the dark exactly how the Rising Piano trick worked. I could see all the secret equipment that wasn't meant to be seen.

His best stuff was the small stuff where he did the performing himself. Things like the dancing handkerchief and cigarette manipulations were pretty good. He was highly honoured by magicians whereas Sorcar Jr didn't want anything to do with magicians who wanted to visit him backstage. I was highly amused when Edwin of Supreme Magic came along with some local magicians to the show and wanted to see Sorcar Jr backstage. His assistants sent them all away and I remember Edwin was furious!

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Re: Fake Psychic - Lamar Keene BBC Radio Documentary

Postby BarryAllen » November 4th, 2022, 8:56 am

I've never heard of the above Psychics; and have had very little exposure to this field other than watching the TV charlatans in the UK - such as Derek Akorah! Here's one of his classics from a popular UK series -'Most Haunted':

https://youtu.be/uz_F_t0B5No

I'm sure she did! :D

Also on this show was Dr. Ciaran O'Keeffe; an English psychologist, specialising in parapsychology and forensic psychology. Although himself open-minded, he knew only too well that Derek Akorah was about as genuine as a five quid Rolex from Thailand.

This is from the UK Neswpaper - The Daily Mirror:

Ciaran, who joined Most Haunted in April 2004 became suspicious of Acorah's antics on a shoot at Castle Leslie, Co Monaghan in Ireland where a 17th Century four-poster bed has been claimed to levitate.

Ciaran recalls: "As we walked into the bedroom, Derek touched the bed and came out with extremely accurate information. He insisted he got all the information just from touching the bed. But it was the wrong bed."

Antix Productions (who own the Most Haunted TV series) claims that Akorah has no idea where he will be filming or know any details about the history of the locations. But Ciaran says: "Derek must have had prior knowledge of the locations."

He devised a plan to see if Derek was deliberately deceiving the public.

While on a shoot at Bodmin gaol he invented a long-dead South African jailer called Kreed Kafer - an anagram of 'Derek Faker'.

"I wrote the name down and asked another member of the crew to mention it to Derek before filming I honestly didn't think Derek would take the bait. But during the filming he actually got possessed by my fictional character!"

On the next shoot at Prideaux Place, Cornwall, Ciaran made up another fictional character, highwayman Rik Eedles - an anagram of 'Derek Lies'. Sure enough, Derek made contact with the dead outlaw.

Ciaran says: "In my professional opinion we're not dealing with a genuine medium. When Derek is possessed he is doing it consciously - all we are seeing is showmanship and dramatics."

Ciaran went a step further at Craigievar Castle, near Aberdeen. "I made up stories about Richard the Lionheart, a witch, and Richard's apparition appearing to walk through a wardrobe - the lion, the witch and the wardrobe! True to form, Derek mentioned all Ciaran's stories - even though Richard I reigned 500 years BEFORE Craigievar Castle was built".

By comparison, I believe Clinton Baptiste truly is the real deal:

https://youtu.be/Rd79Ie_vWyQ

I put that show down to a bad audience! ;)

Now, you may imagine that I'm a sceptic. That really isn't so - I do like to remain open-minded on most things. For example, it never ceases to amuse me when I remember back at the number of jaws that have dropped when I've been reading a 'disbelievers' palm over the years.

In fact, I have just finished reading a superb biography of an English Psychic - Nella Jones. Much of what she relates within the book; including her assistance tracking Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper and many other high-profile cases; have been confirmed within the book by (named) Senior CID Detectives from the Metropolitan Police at Scotland Yard.

I find it all truly fascinating.

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Re: Fake Psychic - Lamar Keene BBC Radio Documentary

Postby Tarotist » November 4th, 2022, 9:11 am

The famous ones tend to be the fakers! Anyway, here is my favourite of the "bent" psychics. Exposed many times but it didn't make the blindest bit of difference. He is still highly respect in the spiritualist community to this day>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8yVzk-FVcg

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Re: Fake Psychic - Lamar Keene BBC Radio Documentary

Postby Tarotist » November 4th, 2022, 9:19 am

I watched the Clinton Baptiste video. It turned my stomach somewhat until I realised the audience were all probably actors! It was a very realistic depiction of the British working mens clubs we were talking about earlier.

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Re: Fake Psychic - Lamar Keene BBC Radio Documentary

Postby BarryAllen » November 4th, 2022, 10:26 am

Tarotist wrote:I watched the Clinton Baptiste video. It turned my stomach somewhat until I realised the audience were all probably actors! It was a very realistic depiction of the British working mens clubs we were talking about earlier.

It's from a comedy series Mark called Phoenix Nights; written by comedian Peter Kay (who plays many parts, including Club owner Brian Potter, sitting in the wheelchair within that clip). The club is based in Bolton; as you'll know, a town from which the poor inhabitants travel to Blackpool in the Summer, as it's probably the nearest that they'll ever get to Paradise.

I'd rate Phoenix Nights itself as probably one of the top 5 comedy series that I've ever watched.

Maybe I'm swayed by the authenticity of the working man's club environment portrayed throughout the series. For someone who has worked in many and now frequents one regularly for that beautiful dark Irish water called Guinness, the reality depicted is quite superb.

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Re: Fake Psychic - Lamar Keene BBC Radio Documentary

Postby MagicbyAlfred » November 4th, 2022, 11:23 am

Tarotist wrote:The famous ones tend to be the fakers! Anyway, here is my favourite of the "bent" psychics. Exposed many times but it didn't make the blindest bit of difference. He is still highly respect in the spiritualist community to this day>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8yVzk-FVcg


As fake and untruthful as Lamar Greene may have been (by his own admission), he surely spoke the truth when he stated in an interview: "People believe what they want to believe."

BarryAllen
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Re: Fake Psychic - Lamar Keene BBC Radio Documentary

Postby BarryAllen » November 4th, 2022, 4:26 pm

Tarotist wrote:The famous ones tend to be the fakers! Anyway, here is my favourite of the "bent" psychics. Exposed many times but it didn't make the blindest bit of difference. He is still highly respect in the spiritualist community to this day>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8yVzk-FVcg

Gawd......that was truly painful to watch.

I think I prefer Clinton Baptiste!

I can only imagine that because Gordon looked smartly dressed, well groomed and talked very posh, people believed he was both honest and knew what he was talking about. Look no further than how UK tory politicians get votes.

Seriously though - are all Psychic events like that? I don't think I've been as bored watching something that uninspiring since enduring most lectures at magic clubs. The reason I ask is because according to Nella James in her book, the shows at Spiritualist Churches are quite entertaining. I was therefore thinking of going along to one sometime. I'd love to make contact with my old man - and ask him what he thinks of the modern-day Magic scene. Are Psychic Guides allowed to swear?

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Re: Fake Psychic - Lamar Keene BBC Radio Documentary

Postby Tarotist » November 4th, 2022, 9:41 pm

Barry. You must remember that psychic mediums are not in showbusiness. They are not there to put on a show although some are more entertaining than others. The purpose of a medium is merely to convey messages from the departed. Gordon was quite humorous I thought and unlike a lot of the crooked mediums was terribly accurate and did not use cold reading. I suspect from what I have heard on the grapevine he used hot reading techniques.

This is not to say that all mediums are crooked. I personally don't believe in mediumship and do not practice it. However, I have many psychic colleagues who are spiritualist mediums and they are very sincere in their beliefs so in that case they are NOT fakers. Now whether they are deluded in their beliefs is a matter of debate. Maybe they are or maybe they aren't. I have no idea since I don't listen to their readings since it is none of my business. However, they are sincere in their beliefs and are not out to scam people.

Anyway if you thought Gordon was boring you should see him when he is being serious! Here is an example. And bear in mind he is revered to this day in such a way that Clinton Baptiste will never be! In fact I can imagine sincere spiritualists would be very disapproving of the way Baptiste sends up spiritualism in the manner of a comedian rather than as a medium. Anyway here is Gordon being serious:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ovYvvPtX_0

I also think this Wikipedia entry may give you some insight to Gordon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Higginson_(medium)


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