Sawyer, Carrie M.

American materialization medium with whom Paul Gibier, director of the Bacteriological Institute of New York, conducted experiments in his own laboratory for ten years. According to Gibler's report, published in 1901 in the Annales des Sciences Psychiques, he enclosed the medium in a large wire cage, the meshes of which were so small that they only admitted his little finger. The cage was darkened. After the appearance of several spirit forms, Gibier was asked to tend to the medium, who required his care.

Stepping before the door of the cage, he was astounded to see the medium fall into his arms through the door, which was locked with intact paper slip fastenings and a stamp over the keyhole. The phenomenon was repeated on three occasions. According to sitters, the wire cage felt burning hot when the medium exited it, though Gibier could not confirm this observation.

Gibier intended to take Sawyer on a three-years tour of England, France, and Egypt, but he died in an accident before the project could be realized.

E. A. Brackett, a Boston sculptor, attended a séance in the mid-1880s during which he was led into the cabinet by a spirit. Sawyer was not entranced. Arm in arm, the three of them walked out of the cabinet in full view of 25 sitters. In his account of Sawyer, Brackett also wrote of evil influences that were sometimes noticeable in her séances.

Sources:

Brackett, E. A. Materialized Apparitions. Boston: Colby & Rich, 1886.