Harris, Susannah (ca. 1920)
American direct voice medium (later known as Mrs. Harris
Kay), pastor of a Spiritualist church in Columbus, Ohio, whose
control was a child, Harmony. The last years of her life were
spent in England. After accusations of fraud against Harris,
Abraham Wallace applied the water test, filling her mouth with
water, which changed color according to the length of time it
was affected by saliva. Wallace claimed to have established the
independence of the mediums voices.
In 1913 and 1914 the Spiritualist journal Light contained
many testimonies in favor of Harriss mediumship. In 1919 at
Steinway Hall, London, while blindfolded, she executed a
painting in oils upside down and nearly completed another in
about two hours. However, in 1920 the Norwegian Society for
Psychical Research published a very unfavorable report on 25
sittings held in Christiania. Proof was adduced that the German
voice of Rittmeister Hermann was a fraud to which Harmony
was an accomplice (Light, May 1, 1920). Harris was also accused
of fraud at séances in Holland in 1914. She was defended
by James Coates in Is Spiritualism Based on Facts or Fancy
(1920).
Sources
Jong, K. H. The Trumpet Medium Mrs. Harris. Journal of
the Society for Psychical Research 16 (1914).
