It's always been standard practice for "physical" or materialization mediums to be restrained in some way during their performance. This is an attempt to ensure that in the darkness of the seance room, they will not impersonate the very spirits they are claiming to summon forth.
Sometimes the tactic backfires. The Davenport Brothers were a well-known pair of 19th century materialization mediums who traveled the country displaying their skills. They would allow volunteers from the audience to tie them up with strong rope inside the curtained "cabinet" that was used, allegedly, to concentrate their their spiritual energies. But on one occasion they apparently encountered a knot they could not undo. Answers.com tells us:
In Liverpool ... two members selected from the audience tied the mediums with a peculiarly intricate knot. The mediums protested that it was unfairly tight and injured their circulation. A doctor from the audience made an examination and pronounced against them. The Davenports refused to sit and asked Ferguson to cut the knot. The next night a riot broke out and the party left town. At Hull, Huddersfield, and Leeds they found a hostile public, inclined to lynch them. Since they did not find the police protection sufficient, they broke off their engagements....
The general conclusion regarding the Davenport brothers' phenomena is that their performance was simple stage conjuring. Trick cabinets and rope tying were standard items of stage magic at the time, and Harry Houdini and his students demonstrated feats equal to and surpassing those of the Davenports. The brothers' refusal to continue with a performance in England when their wrists were tied too tightly argues against spirit agency, since this should have operated even in such unfavorable circumstances considering other marvels that were demonstrated. They escaped any exposure of trickery though, in spite of observation by alert and intelligent investigators (which other mediums also accomplished only to be caught later), and their release from binding with strong ropes was phenomenally rapid?often taking only two or three minutes.
It should be pointed out that many aficionados of the Davenports still reject "the general conclusion" that the brothers were fakes.
Today, materialization mediumship is much rarer than it was in the 19th century, but a few people still practice it. Often they take advantage of the latest technology: plastic flexible handcuffs, or "flex-cuffs."
It is claimed that no one can slip out of flex-cuffs once the cuffs have been fastened. Since they operate in one direction only and cinch shut, supposedly the only way out is to cut the cuffs with special pliers. But is this really true?
A quick Google search for "flex-cuffs" + "escape artist" yields the Web site of Anthony Martin, who has made a career out of escaping from a variety of places, including the Marinette County Jail in Marinette, Wisconsin. A document allegedly verifying his escape is included on his site (my emphases in bold).
This is to verify that at the Marinette County Jail, ANTHONY was completely searched. He was then restrained in six (6) flex-cuffs which were previously checked to insure no tampering had occurred. Both of his wrists were tied inside his legs with the back of his hands to his ankles. Two additional flex-cuffs connected ANTHONY?S wrists and ankles to his neck.
In this immobilized position he was locked in an isolation cell of the old jail from which he escaped in less than four (4) minutes.
The same Google search als0 turns up a book by John Novak called The Art of Escape #3: Metamorphosis. The book is sold for $18. Here's the description, again with my emphasis in bold:
The Metamorphosis is covered in detail, along with variations and a complete treatise on the most modern form of police restraint - The Flex Cuffs. Also included is a basic television interview that can be used to advantage in promoting your feats of escape. Partial list of the contents: Costume Changes; the Substitution Trunk; Siegfried and Roy; Hatboxes and Elephant Stands; Houdini's 1910 Stock Escape; and An Essay in Speculation.
Another site informs us, "These books [Novak's series] have been very popular among escape artists for over 20 years." So it's not as if this is new information.
It would seem, then, that as "modern" as flex-cuffs may be, they are hardly escape-proof. In fact, a few people have literally made a career out of escaping from them, and information on how to do so has been readily available for two decades.
This doesn't necessarily mean that all materialization mediums are slipping out of their cuffs. It does mean that caution and vigilance are called for.
There's just no escaping that fact.
http://michaelprescott.typepad.com/mich ... othin.html
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