WHATEVER HAPPENED TO PSYCHIC MIRACLES?

By Emma-Louise Rhodes

One hundred and fifty years ago spirit materialisations would perch on the laps of sitters and kiss their cheeks, apports from dead relatives would fill the séance table and ghosts would appear clearly in photographs. Yet today no such phenomena occur and instead we consider it a spiritual thrill when a simple and forgettable orb is recorded on camera. Have the spirits suddenly become shy now that society has progressed to refined methods of recording their movements, or do the fakers now realise that it will take more than a darkened séance room and a group of susceptible individuals to validate their claims?

The advent of Spiritualism in 1848 prompted a whole range of previously unknown psychic phenomena to occur. If everyday folk had been practising contacting the dead long before the Fox sisters of Hydesville fraudulently produced spirit raps by cracking the joints of their feet, then why did they keep such happenings hushed up and behind closed doors? Of course this, along with the huge gap in the history of Spiritualism (between Swendeborg in the1740s and the aforementioned Katie and Margaret Fox), is a thorn in the side of the faith and one which cannot be easily explained.

The spate of copycat psychic experiences that followed the revelations of the Fox sisters is possibly even harder to comprehend. If, as many Spiritualists claim, mediums had, up until 1848, been too frightened to come forward due to being branded witches, then the Hydesville incident opened the floodgates for the ‘gifted’ to come forward. However, looking at the matter objectively, it is clear to see that the immediate fame achieved by the sisters along with the money that was being made by them (most of which was taken by their older sister, Leah Fish) was instantly appealing to many. Thus the early Spiritualist movement attracted a great number of hangers on with both good and ill intentions – some simply weak and misguided, others aware and calculating.

Psychic phenomena of the Victorian era developed from simple table rapping (demonstrated by the likes of Palladino) to full blown materialisations of spirit forms. The more influential the faith grew, the more people were ready to believe. In 1869, H.D. Jencken, the barrister husband of Katie Fox, produced the following list of séance phenomena.:

• The movement and raising of ponderable bodies, including levitation of the medium;
• The production of raps or knocks;
• The uttering of words, sentences, sounding of music, singing, imitations of birds;
• Playing on musical instruments, the drawing of flowers, figures and writing by direct spiritual unseen agency;
• The fire test;
• Elongations of the medium’s body;
• Holding fluids in space without bottles or containers, the perfuming of water, the extraction of scent from flowers, or alcohol from spirits or wine;
• The appearance of hands, arms and spirit forms.

The last grouping was one which Katie King, perhaps the most obviously fraudulent spirit materialisation of the time, fell into perfectly and where this study of spiritual phenomena begins.

THE KATIE KING MYSTERIES

At the age of fifteen, Florence Cook allegedly levitated off the floor whist at a tea party with some friends. After attending some meetings at the Dalston Society in 1872, Cook produced the materialisation of the spirit Katie King, who proclaimed that she was the daughter of John King (the spirit who was often said to materialise in the 1850s). Katie King was well-known in predominantly American psychic circles as being the spirit of a murderess who had returned to convince the world that Spiritualism was real and, in doing this, expiate her earthly sins. After witnessing the materialisation produced by Cook, the wealthy Spiritualist Charles Blackburn guaranteed that Cook would be paid an annual retaining fee in exchange for her to produce such phenomena at will.

In 1873, fellow medium and bitter rival Mrs Guppy, who was later married to William Volkman, decided to outwit her younger and prettier counterpart, and enlisted the help of Volkman and several other men. Volkman bribed himself into the séance by presenting jewellery to Cook and, once the spirit appeared, proceeded to seize her and then hold the ‘spirit’ and declare that she was, in fact, none other than Cook dressed up. Edward Elgie Corner, Cook’s fiancé, assisted by other sitters, swiftly intervened and Katie King escaped back into the cabinet, leaving Volkman with a bloodied and scratched nose. On entering the cabinet (after an unknown elapse of time) Volkman found Cook tied as she had been at the start of the séance, but with her clothes in disarray.

Sir William Crookes investigated the materialisation in 1875 and took photographs of Katie King. Many depict the spirit (who bears an incredible resemblance to Cook) with Crookes, whilst others show Cook in a state of trance with the form of the spirit behind her. In those featuring both Cook and the spirit, either Katie King is draped in white and her face unseen, or Cook’s features are out of shot. To prove the fact that Katie King was four inches taller than Cook, one photograph depicts her kneeling on a piece of furniture which is hidden under her white dress. Regardless of the highly dubious nature of the photographs, Crookes defended Florence Cook to the last (it was rumoured at the time that the couple were lovers).

During this time, the magician S.S Baldwin along with his wife Clara toured the world with their show ‘Spiritualism Exposed and the Katie King Mysteries’. Baldwin had been keen to expose the Davenports by replicating their spirit cabinet trick and thus did the same with Florence Cook, proving to thousands that the materialisation was nothing but cleverly orchestrated deception.

In 1880, Cook produced the materialisation of the spirit of the twelve year old girl ‘Marie’ at a number of séances that had been supported by the British National Association of Spiritualists. In attendance was Sir George Sitwell who detected a corset beneath the spirit’s garments, which he found curious due to the fact that the materialisation was meant to be a child. Sitwell decided, on the next occasion, to take hold of the spirit and draw aside the curtains of the cabinet. Florence Cook, of course, was no longer there, only her boots, stockings and other garments remained. When the lights were turned up Marie was found to be none other than Cook in her undergarments.

Amazingly, the First Spiritualist Temple website (which promotes Spiritualism in the US) writes of the incident:

‘Did Florence Cook cheat at this sitting? She, alone
knows for sure ... But, as with the famed Boston
medium, Margery Crandon, we must not assess a
medium's whole career based upon one isolated
sitting … to dismiss all the genuine phenomena
because of one incident would be unwise, even
though it will cast a shadow of doubt on the whole.’1.

Obviously the FST is blissfully unaware of the 1873 near exposure of Cook by Volkman which lost her some faithful followers and led to the eventual end of the Katie Cook materialisations.

MRS GUPPY AND HER PSYCHIC DELIGHTS

Despite her dislike of Florence Cook’s fraudulent ways, Mrs Samuel Guppy (also known as Agnes Nichol) was not above suspicion with her own spirit apports. Although never producing a full blown spirit presence, Guppy would, instead, present her sitters with gifts from deceased loved ones and flowers, fruit and large ice cubes would all fall onto her séance table or into the laps of the unknowing sitters.

In 1873, Guppy had approached the two American mediums she was working for at the time, Mr and Mrs Nelson Holmes, to recruit them in the scheme to bring down Florence Cook (interestingly, the Holmeses had claimed that both John and Katie King were their spirit guides). On hearing her plans, Nelson Holmes threw Guppy out of the house and a bitter battle ensued. The scorned Guppy had confederates attend the Holmeses séances and attempt to discredit them, along with employing a gang to break up their spirit cabinet. However, it was not long before the Holmeses materialisations of Katie King were found out to be fraudulent when their landlady confessed to having dressed up as her (further discredit came to them whilst in India with Helena Blavatsky and Henry Olcott 2.).

Guppy’s apports were, indeed, thrilling to all those who witnessed them. How, for example, could a huge cube of ice descend onto the séance table from the ceiling above and show no signs of melting until it actually reached human contact? Ronald Pearsall in his book The Table Rappers explains how Guppy produced such phenomena:

‘For the more spectacular and flashy displays of Mrs
Guppy, a lot depended on the place where the séance
was held. It did not have to be her own house; it
could be at a confederate’s. Apports could be
arranged in secret compartments in the ceiling, and
dropped on to the table by means of a primitive time
mechanism or a crafty tug of an inconspicuous thread
by a confederate. When the apport was the principal
modus operandi of the medium, it was probable that a
tap would be made between the séance room and the
room above, and a confederate could shower down
whatever the medium requested.’

Pearsall goes on to examine Guppy’s apports further and, in particular notes the fruit that was bestowed upon the sitters during a séance. During a séance in 1868 she had produced oranges, grapes, apples, pomegranates and currants to name but a few. Also present was a slice of candied pineapple. Pearsall wrote:

‘The slice of candid pineapple would seem to imply
the real pineapple was not available to the spirits.
The selection includes the kind of things that
greengrocers would be stocking up for Christmas –
the session was in October. There are no exotic
items, nothing that the medium could not have got
from a quality shop.’

THE LEGACY OF HOME

The most flamboyant Spiritualist of the Victorian era was, without doubt, Daniel Dunglass Home. Born in Scotland in 1833, Home moved to America at the age of nine and was said to have demonstrated mediumistic powers from a young age. His career is one of the best known in the Spiritualist world, due to his apparent levitation out of a third story window and back into another, which was witnessed by three individuals, all who maintained that they had seen Home float out and then in again (all gave varied and therefore slightly confused descriptions of the event afterward). Yet Home was not without disrepute as, throughout his prolific career, he was caught trying to steal precious jewels from the Russian Court, along with fraudulently extorting money from an aging British widow.

Home first fell foul in the 1850s when, whilst showing off his talents of mediumship in Petrograd, he was subjected to a search by the chief of police. In his 1918 book The Other World, Stuart Cumberland wrote of Home’s Russian trip:

‘He had dematerialised a splendid row of emeralds
… but up to the time of his departure from the
séance the emeralds, for some occult reason, had
declined to materialise … before leaving the palace,
Home was searched, and – so the story came to me –
the dematerialised emeralds were found materialising
in his coat-tail pocket. They had been placed there
by an evil spirit, of course, but the chief of police
impressed upon him that the Russian capital might
not be good for his health – that an early departure
might benefit him.’

In 1867, Home had claimed that the seventy-five year old Jane Lyon’s dead husband had stated that he ‘is to be our son; he is my son therefore yours’ and proceeded to swindle her out of first £24,000, then £6,000 and then mortgage securities to the value of £30,000. Home was arrested and a law suit for the recovery of the money commenced. The court found that the transfer had been void as it was accomplished by fraud; the judges closing remarks being that Spiritualism was a ‘system of mischievous nonsense well calculated to delude the vain, the weak, the foolish and the superstitious.’

Home produced many psychic ‘miracles’ throughout his career, his alleged fire immunity being one which baffled many spectators and turned Home into an untouchable psychic figure that the public and critics alike had never before witnessed.

Ronald Pearsall wrote of Home and his supposed psychic marvels:

‘The truth about Home will never be known. If
one dismisses the whole fabric of Victorian
Spiritualism as humbug, self-deception and fraud, it
is difficult to account for him.’

However, in his book, A Magician Among the Spirits, Houdini stated:

‘It may or may not be true that he was never
completely exposed but many of his
manifestations were discovered to be
fraudulent and every one of them can be
duplicated by modern conjurers under the same
conditions.’

Regardless of the documented wrong doings of Home, Spiritualists to this day still pronounce him as one of the greatest mediums who ever lived. The difference between Home and the run-of-the-mill psychics of the Victorian era was his ability to mix with the aristocracy. Throughout his career, Home attracted a great deal of support from the upper class and this gave authenticity to his psychic claims. It was thought that he was the illegitimate son of the tenth Earl of Home and, whether or not this was the truth, his mannerisms, ability to converse in a number of languages and intellectual approach set him apart from anyone else in the field. Home gave séances for Napoleon III and Queen Sophie of the Netherlands and was welcomed in circles that few mediums of the time were ever privileged to.

Another interesting aspect of Home was his exposure of fraudulent mediums. His book Lights and Shadows of Spiritualism uncovered a number of fake psychics, particularly those who produced the materialisation of spirit forms (a ‘skill’ which Home himself did not possess). This was an exceptionally clever tactic employed by Home in terms of the admission that there were some aspects of Spiritualism which were deceptive. In citing mediums such as Rosina Showers (a co-conspirator of Florence Cook) as fraudulent, Home presented himself as an exemplarily Spiritualist who saw no room for trickery or deceit in the religion. Such actions immediately confirmed him as honourable and therefore above any kind of fraud himself.

Whilst Home’s psychic legacy continues and he is considered by millions to be a Spiritualist hero, had he lived today it is questionable whether his talents would have withstood modern psychic testing. Home may have pleased the misguided investigator Sir William Crookes with his spiritual charms, but James Randi might not have been so flattering. Sadly the medium managed to slip through any entirely legitimate scrutiny and, due to this, lives on in the hearts of the naïve as the greatest sorcerer Spiritualism ever produced.

SLATE WRITING AND SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY

If spirits could materialise from a cabinet, speak through a medium to those still on the earthly plane, and bestow special powers upon a handful of highly privileged Spiritualists then there seemed no reason why they should not write messages too.

One of the principal mediums in this field was William Eglinton who amazed many by apparently channelling spirit messages onto a locked slate under the table while both his hands were resting above. The sceptic Mrs Sidgwick, along with F.W Bentall devised a method of inserting a sheet of glass or, when the spirits failed to write, wire gauze into the slates, however on such occasions the spirits would not oblige, declaring that the ‘vital fluid’ could not be retained in a confined space for long enough to produce the power to write. Englinton was caught out a number of times after these experiments, in particular by Professor H. Carvill Lewis who asked three direct scientific questions, which the spirits struggled to answer correctly. Carvill also consulted a handwriting expert after his sitting and it was confirmed that the writing was none other than Eglinton’s.

A whole range of trickery was employed in the business of slate writing and the most famous Spiritualist to fall foul was the American Dr Henry Slade in 1876. Slade had previously made a name for himself by producing spirit writing in full light via his locked slates and was cited by the Medium and Daybreak to be the first to ‘discover’ such writing. However, Slade’s methods were scrutinised by Sir Ray Lankester and Sir Horatio Donkin and their close examination of the process led to his arrest. The London trial of Henry Slade culminated in him being sentenced under the Vagrancy Act (which, alongside the Witchcraft Act, was at that time used to convict fraudulent mediums) to three months imprisonment with hard labour, this being nullified on technical grounds during his appeal.

Unbelievably, spirit writing is still practised to this day and demonstrated on programmes such as Most Haunted, although the messages received are usually simply a letter signifying the beginning of a name, as opposed to numerous words from spirit. One has to question just why the psychic world is slipping in its communication with the living. Although spirit drawing is still a popular and lucrative past time of psychic artists, the majority of images created show beings (either human, animals or spirit guides) who used to inhabit a certain place and not a recognisable relative (unless the artists has been able to obtain a photograph beforehand).

In 1862 Boston engraver William A. Mumler was said to have discovered an image of his cousin who had died twelve years previously in a self-portrait that he had taken of himself. The photograph was published and Mumler continued to set up a business as ‘ a medium for taking spirit photographs’. However, the very next year an image which was meant to be that of a spirit transpired to be a man who was very much alive and who had been photographed by Mumler just a few weeks previously.

The craze of spirit photography spread to England where, in 1872, Frederick Hudson, friend of the infamous medium Guppy, had established himself as a prominent photographer of the spirits. Soon, however, it became apparent that Hudson was a fraud, using double exposures to produce the fake phenomena.

Another leading spirit photographer and one whose images still exist to this day in large quantity, was William Hope. Although Hope was ‘tested’ by the gullible Archbishop Colley in 1908 and found to be genuine, further examinations were carried out and his method of photography proved him to be a fake. In 1922, he was accused of fraud by psychic investigator Harry Price who exposed the fact that Hope switched the photographic plates that were sometimes provided to him by sitters for those with images of so called spirits already on. Hope was never convicted for the fraud and his pictures are still poured over by Spiritualists, particularly in the north of England, where most of his photography took place.

MATERIALISATIONS TODAY

Spiritualists today are not treated to the same delights of the psychic world as their contemporaries were a hundred years ago. Since the spirit cabinet went out of fashion, those who have crossed over seem to have literally ‘given up the ghost’ in terms of the materialisation of spirit forms, apports or letters. Katie King has never returned to rest on the lap of a curious sitter and kiss him on the cheek and spirit guides are now only ever described and not seen. Of course, individual mediums will declare that they regularly see their guide but, unfortunately for any onlooker not involved in their circle of psychic pals, nothing whatsoever materialises. I have been told several times by a medium that my personal guide (who changes wildly in description, sex and nationality depending on the psychic) is standing behind me, although I have never been privy to such a sighting. If those from ‘the world unseen’ were so eager to show themselves to us in the early days of the spiritualist movement, why have they shied away from such appearances now, when we have the technology to capture them perfectly?

Of course, the answers are simple. Katie King never existed and was merely the fraudulent form of Florence Cook draped in white who had cleverly got loose from the ropes binding her before making sure that she was securely tied up again. The apports presented to Mrs Guppy by the spirits were cleverly aimed onto the table and the laps of the paying sitters through an unseen gap in the ceiling by a confederate. The shrewd Daniel Dunglass Home was, in essence, a magician who, with charisma and skill, managed to outwit thousands and leave people awestruck to this day. And lastly, spirit writing which appeared on locked slates was that of the medium himself who used a variety of different methods (including a trick table) as an aid in his endeavours.

Another form of psychic amazement practised by many mediums was the ability of the spirits to pick up and play instruments. Again, such spiritual amusements are hardly ever attempted by psychics, although recent years have yielded an interesting incident involving Colin Fry (where one of his séance party hastily turned on the light when the supposed spirits were playing the trumpet, to find that Fry held it in his hand) which will, no doubt, stay with him for the rest of his career.3.

It is interesting to note exactly what Spiritualist have to say about the lack of materialisations witnessed by a whole group of sitters in modern day. Of course, they will swiftly cite incidents which have been recorded on camera, such as the infamous spoon throwing in Most Haunted (where an old spoon, which had been previously tied up in the adjoining room, tumbled through the air whilst the crew were filming in the dark), or any sighting of orbs. Yet it does not and cannot explain the fact that a whole spirit form, such as Katie King, has today been reduced to a small and insignificant light anomaly. Instead of apports from the spirit world, sitters are now given virtual gifts, with mediums uttering words such as: ‘Your grandmother is giving you a red rose’. In spite of her obvious fraud, Mrs Guppy seems to have been far better value for money in terms of the bereaved actually going away with gifts as opposed to being given imaginary spirit offerings.

There will always be the belief by Spiritualists and mediums that, if someone is sceptical of paranormal phenomena of any kind, then it will not occur. Therefore the presence of one non-believer in an apparently haunted room will stop any activity taking place and/or being recorded on camera. A very obvious and predictable answer.

Regarding the list complied by H.D. Jencken to separate different type of psychic phenomena, it is extremely difficult to think of one significant category on the list that could be applied to open circle séances today, apart from raps and knocks and spirit drawing. Medium levitation, elongation of the body, fluids being held in space without the aid of a receptacle and the appearance of any kind of spirit form are all unheard of in anything other than closed circle meetings by Spiritualists where outsiders are forbidden. The reason: such phenomena would not stand up to the scrutiny of modern sceptics and, more importantly, state of the art cameras and equipment. Spiritualists can write and speak of the wondrous psychic experiences they themselves have witnessed, but won’t dare demonstrate these in public for fear of being found out to be nothing more than cheap tricksters who prey on the weak and susceptible.

MODERN PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE PSYCHIC WORLD

One psychic phenomenon which seems to have had somewhat of a rebirth is spirit photography. The likes of Hudson and Hope who posed as professional photographers have been replaced by amateurs who have access to programmes such as Photoshop or Image Ready and, in the case of video, Final Cut or Pinnacle. Just as in the Victorian era when the control of the print was in the hands of the photographer, now those keen to display spirits caught on camera do not need a middle man and can instead produce the images themselves.

Spirits captured on film have, within the last decade or so, become clearer and more detailed than the odd shadow seen in a photograph twenty years previously and identified as a ghost. The use of layering, colour change and effects on certain areas of an image are frequently used to create fake spirits. 4. The internet, also, has provided frauds with the perfect place to flaunt their self-created photographs or videos (You Tube/Google Video being crammed with such bogus footage). Incredibly, the majority of fraudulent photographers still believe that spirits should be greyish white sheet-like objects which fade strangely into the background. Thus the public’s need to see ‘real’ ghosts is quelled and their expectations are fulfilled.

It is easy to prove modern spirit photography as fake by replication of the image. What should be remembered with both photographs of ghosts and videos showing apparitions is that the anomaly is hardly ever seen by a large group of people at the time the image is taken and the photographer is usually on his/her own or with a couple of associates. Also videoed evidence of poltergeists aired on TV shows or circulated on the internet is, on the whole, taken by the residence of the house when they are alone and not a team of experts who are called in at a later date. After several viewings of a clip or close examination of a photograph (sometimes resulting in its duplication) an investigator will generally find fault with the supposed spirit or discover exactly how the incident took place. Of course, proving that an image is fraudulent is one thing, but pointing the finger of suspicion at the photographer, especially if he/she claims that they have in no way tampered with the image or had access to computer programmes, is another. In some cases, photographs are doctored by others after the event, therefore making the spirit in the image seem all the more plausible.

Regardless of the time lapse of just over a century and a half, the majority of those who view such images are still inclined to believe what they see without taking a step back and rationally questioning them. Of course, few are taken in by the spirit photographs of old, apart from diehard Spiritualists who firmly maintain the validity of such artefacts and proclaim that they play an important and prominent part in the history of the movement (which is true, but for reverse reasons).

To conclude, medium Craig Hamilton-Parker, in a Daily Express article dated 2 June, 2004 in which he attacked the sincerity of Derren Brown’s Channel 4 programme Séance (where Brown staged fraudulent Victorian séance techniques to convince a modern audience), wrote:

‘I have seen ectoplasm appear over the face of
mediums and according to some in my circle it has
occasionally transfigured over my own face during
trance sessions. One of my most trusted friends, a
member of Mensa and a down-to-earth person, saw
her dead mother materialise at a séance with a
medium. When you see these things with your own
eyes a million Derren Browns will not convince you
that these are tricks.’

Yet what Hamilton-Parker fails to explain and what cannot be explained is why such phenomena rarely occurs to a large group of people or, when it does, why there are always members of the group who fail to see such miracles. Collective hallucinations are, in the modern world, few and far between and the ghosts of yesteryear now seem to have vanished back to the realms of Summerland, never to return. Surely, if Katie King was so intent on proving the validity of the Spiritualist cause over one hundred and thirty years ago and therefore expiate her murderous ways, she might at least have the decency to return again and prove the sceptics wrong once and for all. But then, she never existed and was simply the alter ego of a repressed Victorian, like so many apparent materialisations and manifestations of the era that are now credited as shining examples of Spiritualism by the credulous and calculating alike.

REFERENCES

Cumberland, Stuart, The Other World, 1918.
Hamilton-Parker, Craig, ‘We’re No Frauds’, Daily Express, 2 June, 2004
Houdini, Harry, A Magician Among the Spirits, 1924.
Pearsall, Ronald, The Table-Rappers: The Victorians and the Occult, Sutton Publishing, London, 1972.

1. First Spiritualist Temple – www.fst.org
2. Maskelyne, J.N, The Fraud of Theosophy Exposed, George Routledge and Sons Ltd, London, 1912.
3. Full details of this incident can be found at http://www.tonyyouens.com/psychic_news.htm
4. A number of fraudulent spirit photographs can be found on the site www.badghosts.co.uk