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The Spirit of Dr. Bindelof
focuses on one little known episode of physical mediumship. Gilbert
Roller's utterly charming and disarming auto-biographical account of a
group of teenagers who experimented with séance phenomena
and contacted an alleged spirit named Dr. Bindelof.
Author Rosemarie Pilkington follows up with the history of these
extraordinary physical mediums and the remarkable feats they perform,
placing the Bindelof case within this wider framework and bringing it
up to date with a review of contemporary "secular" mediums. |
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THE SPIRIT OF DR. BINDELOF
The Enigma of Séance Phenomena
by Rosemarie Pilkington, Ph.D.
An Anomalist Books Original
Trade Paperback,
$15.95
ISBN: 1933665130
248 pages, fully illustrated, index
Order from AMAZON here:
or from
Barnes & Noble or your local bookstore |
Most
people think all physical mediums are fakes because of the
frauds who sought to capitalize on the success of real mediums and
because of arch skeptics who refuse to accept what they don't
under-stand. This book demonstrates that mind-boggling feats such as
the movement and levitation of tables or other objects, ectoplasmic
apparitions, direct voices and raps are indeed real. Their existence
illustrates just how little science knows, and shows us that we need to
revise our understanding of reality in order to explain these phenomena.
ROSEMARIE PILKINGTON, a writer,
musician, and educator, has a Ph.D. in psychology (consciousness
studies) from Saybrook Institute. In addition to writing many articles
and book reviews on psychic phenomena, she compiled and edited Men and
Women of Parapsychology: Personal Reflections, published in 1987 by
McFarland, an anthology that earned praise in Europe and the Americas
and spawned several similar books in the years that followed. Visit her
website at AreSpiritsReal.com.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part One: The Bindelof Case
Prologue: Gil’s Story
Chapter 1 Family And Friends
Chapter 2 The Saturday Night Sitters
Chapter 3 A Shot In The Dark
Chapter 4 Bindelof’s Boys
Chapter 5 Larry’s Story
Chapter 6 The Doctor Gets Annoyed
Chapter 7 Trumpet For A Dead Man
Chapter 8 See Me, Feel Me, Touch Me, Heal Me
Chapter 9 The Portrait
Chapter 10 Speak To Me
Chapter 11 Bindelof Missing
Chapter 12 The New Bindelof Society
Part Two: A Brief History Of Physical Phenomena
Chapter 13 It Didn’t Begin With The Fox Sisters
Chapter 14 The Extraordinary Powers Of D. D. Home
Chapter 15 Sir William Crookes
Chapter 16 The Phantom Of Katie King
Chapter 17 The Neapolitan Wonder
Chapter 18 The Case For Ectoplasm
Chapter 19 The Unique Pole
Chapter 20 Indridi Indridason Of Iceland
Part Three: Twentieth Century Mediumship
Chapter 21 Last Of The Old Time Mediums?
Chapter 22 The Russians Are Coming
Chapter 23 A Mini-Kulagina
Chapter 24 The Man Who Could Put His Thoughts On Film
Chapter 25 Breaking Mental Barriers
Chapter 26 The Impact Of Kenneth Batcheldor
Chapter 27 There’s Something To Be Said For Spirits
Epilogue
Appendix: So You Want To Do It Too?
Sources: For Exploring On Your Own
Acknowledgments
Index
From the book...
PROLOGUE:
GIL’S STORY
It was a Saturday night in the first week of October 1933. In Mayor
Jimmy Walker’s Manhattan people who had labored hard all week
splurged on movie tickets to Flying Down to Rio featuring the new dance
team of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, while young men put protective
arms around the shoulders of their dates in the dark theaters where
Edward G. Robinson menaced the populace. Six floors above the street at
38 Fort Washington Avenue, behind drawn shades in a small bedroom, a
group of teenage boys also sat in the dark.
I was with them, crowded around a small two-tiered nightstand, our
hands resting lightly on top of the table, fingers touching those of
the boy on either side. On the floor our feet touched also so that any
movement by one would be felt by his neighbor.
We listened intently to the sounds of the pencil we had placed on the
lower shelf as it raced across a piece of yellow paper, guided by an
unseen hand. The writing stopped abruptly. The pencil was slapped down
sharply. We heard the sound of crumpled paper. Then silence.
One boy sprang up to turn on the lights. Another reached under and
retrieved the tightly crumpled ball, opening it carefully as the others
impatiently crowded around to read. Near the end of a long printed
message, written faster in the dark than any of us could have managed
in the best of circumstances, we read the words "MY NAME WAS DR.
BINDELOF . . . WILL YOU BE THE DISCIPLES OF A DEAD MAN?"
This is not a scene from a Stephen King novel. This is a true story of
mind-boggling but actual occurrences. How did this scene come about?
Who was Dr. Bindelof? Who were these intense young men?
My name is Gil Roller. The first part of this book is my story, a story
that may change the way you look at reality. But I’m getting
ahead of myself. Let’s start at the beginning.
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What they're saying...
"This
fascinating book recounts a series of seances held in the early to mid
1930s by teenage boys. The Bindelof account is well worth reading for
its own sake, but in addition the book provides an excellent overview
of "physical" (as opposed to mental) mediumship and related psychic
phenomena." – Michael Prescott
"For years
insiders in the sciences dealing with anomalies and psychic events have
heard accounts of the legendary Bindelof Society, a group of teenagers
who reported a series of remarkable experiences in the 1930s. Rosemarie
Pilkington and two of the original Bindelof group bring these
experiences to life providing us with a compelling glimpse into the
world of séance phenomena. Dr. Pilkington provides an
historic setting to this gem of a story and we are treated to a
singular and unique adventure that even the most skeptical reader will
appreciate.” — Stanley Krippner, PhD, Professor of
Psychology, Saybrook Graduate School,
co-editor of Varieties of Anomalous Experience
"Contemporary parapsychology has tended to become rather anemic in its search for
scientific respectability, studying tiny statistical effects in an oh
so very rigorous fashion. That has its place, but we tend to
forget that the laboratory study only exists because dramatic and
important and inexplicable events happen
in real life that remind us there's something important to try to
understand - like the question of whether the mind survives death!
Pilkington's book gives the full story of Dr. Bindelof, an apparent
spirit who changed the lives of several teenage boys through seance
manifestations. One of those boys was Montague Ullman, a
psychiatrist who spearheaded research into telepathic dreams decades
later. It's a fascinating story, and a frustrating one -
frustrating because we devote almost no energy and resources to
thoroughly investigating paranormal phenomena. A good read!" –Charles Tart, States of Consciousness
"..the boys who carefully recorded the
supernatural events resulting from their contact with Dr. Bindelof are,
as this book shows, undeserving of any suspicion either of fraud or of
ulterior motive. Their records speak for themselves, and the phenomena
they experienced were real; leading to yet another urging to all of us
that we consider such happenings as both genuine and as enlightening. "
– Bob Girard, Arcturus Books
"The
first third of [the book] is about a group of teenage boys formed ...
to explore the phenomenon they had evoked. It is a first in the history
of parapsychology in that the protagonists were young and the phenomena
strong and varied...the Bindelof case is of great importance. [Rosemary
Pilkington] has done us all an important service by bringing this
material to our notice." – William Roll, Journal of Scientific Exploration
"This compelling account is consistent with
an expanded vision now emerging from scientific research:
that our consciousness is not confined to our brain or body, but is
nonlocal or infinite in space and time. This book should capture the
attention of every thoughtful person." – Larry Dossey, MD, author of The
Extraordinary Healing Power Of Ordinary Things
"There
is much to be learned from this lively and informative book. For the
absolute beginner, it is an ideal guide to the history of home sitter
groups, with practical advice on how to start your own. For the more
advanced, there is much to be learned here about how to get positive
results." – Guy Lyon Playfair, Journal of the Society for Psychical Research
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