| Joseph Dunninger’s Props | |
|---|---|
|
Origin |
Joseph Dunninger |
|
Type |
Magic Props |
|
Effects |
Can replicate any anomalous phenomenon |
|
Downsides |
Exact method only works one time each |
|
Activation |
Proximity to fraud |
|
Collected by |
Warehouse 13 |
|
Section |
|
|
Date of Collection |
1989, 1992, 2004, 2023 |
| [Source] | |
Origin[]
Joseph Dunninger (April 28, 1892 – March 9, 1975), known as "The Amazing Dunninger", was one of the most famous and proficient mentalists of all time. He was one of the pioneer performers of magic on radio and television. A debunker of fraudulent mediums, Dunninger claimed to replicate through trickery all spiritualist phenomena.
Dunninger was a debunker of fraudulent mediums. He claimed to replicate through trickery all spiritualist phenomena. He wrote the book Inside the Medium's Cabinet (1935) which exposed the tricks of mediumship. He also exposed how the indian rope trick could be performed by camera trickery. In 1935, Dunninger attended a séance of the fraudulent medium Emerson Gilbert. His testimony was used in court against the medium.
Dunninger had a standing offer of $10,000 to anyone who could prove that he used confederates or "stooges." Through Scientific American magazine and his own organization the Universal Council for Psychic Research he also made an offer to any medium who could produce by psychic or supernatural means any physical phenomena that he could not duplicate or explain by natural means. No medium ever won the reward. According to Dunninger "through all these long years, I have sought good honest ghosts, phantoms, spirits, astral beings, banshees, fays, wee folk, apparitions, fetches—the whole pack and passel of the unsubstantial world—and I have always been able to prove them frauds."
Effects[]
Able to replicate any unusual occurrence, whether through an eyewitness using it or gleaning the details from a secondary source. The more descriptive or complete the demonstration, the greater accuracy it will be copied. The same method cannot be used a second time however.
Attempts to continually repeat cause the effect to be further from the mark each time, often contradicting the original source as a means of “fighting back” against the misinformation originally presented. For this reason, the have sometimes been used to copy accounts of destroyed or theoretical artifacts to understand them better, with limited success. It seems to find the actual weirdness of artifacts, including themselves, in a strange mix of abhorrence and delight, not allowing any to be properly studied to the full degree.