It’s not often that one gets to participate in creating a genuine piece of timeless American cultural history … but that’s exactly what I did yesterday.

Because yesterday was P.T. Barnum’s 200th birthday, and members of the press joined P.T. Barnum experts and representatives of The Greatest Show On Earth as a psychic medium contacted the great man himself.

I’ve wanted to arrange something like this for years, ever since I helped bring the first version of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Web site online nearly 15 years ago. That site featured Barnum’s voice, which was recorded by Thomas Edison, and in which he welcomed listeners to “this new technology.” Barnum was, appropriately, welcoming site visitors to “this new technology” of the Internet.

Barnum would have loved the Internet. He was many things, but perhaps above all he was a great communicator, and the Web is the most profound advance in human communications since the invention of paper. The mind boggles at the ways he might be using social media today.

As you may know, there are three units of Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey traveling the country. As you probably didn’t realize, only one of them — The Coney Island Illuscination — was performing on his 200th birthday.

Where else would the spirit of P.T. Barnum be on his very special day?

So yesterday, we saluted Barnum on his 200th birthday and held a press conference. It was, appropriately, chronicled live on Twitter: We used hashtag #ptconey and you can see the full account of the press conference over here.

(By the way, Barnum would undoubtedly love the fact that the Library of Congress is archiving tweets — so Barnum’s 200th birthday press conference will appropriately be forever part of the Library of Congress official archives!)

Our psychic medium for the day was Gemma Deller. Check out her Web site; she’s completely for real and serious about what she does, and I wouldn’t have wanted to be involved in this event if the medium in question were anything else.

Which is why it was annoying that a member of the press (who shall remain unnamed) from a local teevee station was so insistent on breaking Gemma’s concentration prior to the start of the mediumship session. She (the reporter) wanted to ask Gemma how long the heat wave was going to last. Oy and vey.

(Memo to said reporter: First of all, Gemma is a psychic medium, not a fortune teller; you ought to know the difference. Second, interrupting someone’s obviously intense concentration to ask an irrelevant question is profoundly disrespectful to the person and the occasion. Then again, what more does one expect from local news? But that’s a different blog post entirely…)

Gemma was initially concerned about being able to contact Barnum, as it’s been so many years since he crossed over to the other side. That’s why we gathered some remarkable Barnum artifacts, so that connection with the other side could be facilitated.

Those artifacts, as you can see in the photo above, included the original Feejee Mermaid and a letter hand-written by Barnum himself, as well as postcards that were on Barnum’s desk the day he died.

Some of the artifacts were on loan from Coney Island USA, courtesy of Dick Zigun. That’s Dick in the photo up there (my thanks to Norman Blake of Coney Island USA for the pic). In the absence of a close family member, a psychic medium needs someone to validate any information that comes across. Dick is a world-renowned expert on Barnum and graciously donated his time to serve that purpose.

The best accounting of the session is over on the Twitter link above, but allow me to point out a few of the truly memorable moments.

Barnum was asked about the Feejee Mermaid, which was famously described as a hoax. Was it indeed a hoax? “Does it matter?” was all Barnum would say on the issue.

When asked if there are any modern-day Barnums, the great man interestingly didn’t look to the entertainment world. He cited Bill Gates and the founders of Google — those entrepreneurs who take chances to build a better world.

I also found it interesting that when asked about all the tragedies in his life — the fires that burned down his museums and home, for example — it came across that “tragedy” is an odd word, because if what comes out of that tragedy is an opportunity or a new success, can it really be deemed a tragedy?

Perhaps I was most struck by the reactions of those assembled to bear witness to the mediumship session. People did not know what to expect, but they definitely didn’t expect what they witnessed.

Several people told me they had goosebumps at various portions of the session. Others told me that what they heard Barnum saying through Gemma, and what they heard Gemma say about mediumship itself, was consistent with their readings about near-death experiences. Many were fascinated by the answers to the questions posed to Barnum, and were utterly convinced that those answers were authentic.

The session was not intended to raise questions about the afterlife, but such questions are, of course, unavoidable.

Did Barnum’s spirit really appear in the center of the ring yesterday to answer questions from the press? Or was it merely a celebration of the spirit of  P.T. Barnum?

Each of us will have to answer that question for ourselves. I know where I stand on the issue, and I know where Barnum does, too:

“Does it matter?”

JULY 6 UPDATE: AOL ran a story; see it here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 at 11:43 am and is filed under Internet Stuff, Rants 'n' Such, Social Media.