Miller, Charles Victor (d. 1943)

Materialization medium of San Francisco, born in Nancy, France. By profession he was a dealer in old pictures and Japanese art. Author Willie Reichel claimed to have witnessed many of Miller's performances. For example, Miller did not go into trance as a séance started. He stood outside the cabinet from which a procession of phantoms issued. Miller took them by the hand, asked their names, and introduced them to the sitters. Later he went into the cabinet, where he was seen with as many as six white robed figures. They came out one by one, spoke to the sitters, and usually dematerialized in front of the cabinet, sinking through the floor.

Although the materialization of figures suggests fraud and accomplices rather than genuine psychic phenomena, the variety of Miller's phenomena, the certainty of the witnesses, and the lack of a competent observer leaves the question somewhat open. On one occasion Reichel's nephew disappeared by floating upward through the ceiling. Miller was normally under the control of the spirits "Betsy" and "Dr. Benton."

The highest number of materialized spirits Reichel claimed to have seen in a séance was 12. The medium was conscious and kept talking. The phantoms spoke in various languages and many were recognized by the sitters. Once, in Reichel's own house, a materialized spirit walked out into the hall, a distance of 35 feet from the medium.

In the journal Psychische Studien (February 1904), Reichel described a séance at which a deceased friend of his materialized eight times, very near to him, at a distance of over three yards from the medium. Reichel stated: "He drew near me like a floating flame, which lowered itself, and in the space of about a minute and a half developed and stood before me quite formed. He held long conversations with me; then, retiring to the curtain, where I followed him, he dematerialised, speaking up to the moment when his head disappeared."

Reichel also witnessed rotating white and blue flames from which voices spoke to him, giving their complete names. In one séance the medium was completely dematerialized and transported to the first floor.

Miller made two visits to Europe. When he first arrived in 1906, much criticism was directed against him because he mostly sat with Spiritists (see Spiritism ) and avoided researchers such as Eugene Rochas, with whom he had corresponded, and a circle of scientists who had arranged to test him scientifically.

However, psychic researcher Gabriel Delanne concluded that the apparitions were genuine. Gaston Méry, chief editor of the Libre Parole and director of the Echo du Merveilleux (which was not a Spiritist journal) admitted that it was highly probable that the phenomena he witnessed were genuine but "until there is fuller information we must be satisfied with not comprehending." The séance took place in Méry's house in a room Miller did not enter before the proceedings. Moreover, he was completely undressed in the presence of three doctors and donned Méry's own garments.

Gérard Encausse ("Papus") also attended a séance and stated in L'Initiation that his expectation was fully satisfied and that Miller displayed "mediumistic faculties more extraordinary than he had hitherto encountered."

From Paris, Miller went on to Germany and gave many test séances in Munich at private residences. The accounts appear to corroborate Reichel's observations. The materialized form was often seen to develop from luminous globes and clouds that first appeared near the ceiling. If several forms were materialized at the same time, they were transparent. It often happened that at the end of the séance Miller was violently thrown out of the cabinet, yet he suffered no injury.

On his way back to the United States, Miller again visited Paris and gave a few more séances. According to Charles Richet, he would not accept the conditions imposed. Four of his séances were reported in the Annals of Psychic Science (vol. 4, 1906). Psychic researcher Count Cesar de Vesme, who attended the last séance, objected to not having been given an adequate opportunity to form a well-founded judgment and noted: "A white ball, as of gas, about a quarter of a yard in diameter appeared in the air at the upper extremity of the curtains. Finally it came down, rested on the floor, and in less than a minute, changing into a long shape, was transformed into a draped human form, which subsequently spoke" (Annals of Psychic Science, vol. 4, no. 21, 1906). The séance, however, was not sufficient to enable de Vesme to arrive at a definite opinion as to the genuineness of the manifestations.

In 1908 Miller paid another visit to Paris. On June 25, in the presence of 40 persons, a very successful séance was held at the house of a Mrs. Noeggerath under test conditions. The control committee consisted of one Mr. Benezech, Gaston Méry, Cesar de Vesme, and Charles Blech, secretary of the Theosophical Society. The medium was disrobed, medically examined, and put into black garments that were furnished by the committee and had neither lining nor pockets. Numerous phantom shapes evolved and disappeared.

Cesar de Vesme, however, remained unconvinced. In the Annals of Psychic Science (vol. 7, 1908), he complained that in the series of séances he attended in almost complete darkness, Miller never allowed the control of his right hand. Sitting on the left side of the cabinet, he could have used his right hand to introduce a white drapery, which he could have manipulated as a small phantom in the course of materialization. He had only been searched in a single séance when 40 people were present. There was no telling whether the drapery might not have been passed to him by one of the sitters. Leon Denis, Baron de Watteville, Charles Blech, de Fremery (director of the Het Toekomstig Leven, The Hague), Paul Leymarie (director of the Reuve Spirite ), M. W. Bormann (director of Die Übersinnliche Welt ), and Joseph Maxwell shared de Vesme's opinion. Of Miller's public séances no more was heard after this Paris series. Miller died on November 1, 1943 in New York.

Sources:

Reichel, Willie. Occult Experiences. N.p., 1906.