Saturday 27 June 2009

Miss Lizzy Lightman



‘Lizzy’ Lightman has been a practising medium for 3 years, making a living by performing primarily at private dinner-party séances. She has worked for the past year with Mr Brookes, as he has attempted to use scientific methodologies to prove the events of the séance. She is unforthcoming about her background, but claims she has always had this ‘gift’, that she herself is alarmed at her supernatural powers, and that her elderly father (with whom she lives) strongly objected to her displaying it when young. She defends her actions against the attacks of Wendell at the meeting, yet is enigmatic when asked to elaborate on how exactly certain effects were created, appealing to ‘spirit forces’, ‘magnetism’, ‘mesmeric’ or ‘hypnotic’ charges. It is unclear to what extent she believes her performance at the séance is ‘acting’, ‘chanelling’, or some mixture of the two.