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Title: The Case for Spirit Photography With corroborative evidence by experienced researchers and photographers Author: Arthur Conan Doyle Release Date: June 25, 2019 [EBook #59809] Language: English Character set encoding: UTF-8 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CASE FOR SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY *** Produced by Tim Lindell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) THE CASE FOR SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE By SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE On the Life Hereafter THE NEW REVELATION THE VITAL MESSAGE THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES THE CASE FOR SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY THE WANDERINGS OF A SPIRITUALIST OUR AMERICAN ADVENTURE A History of the Great War THE BRITISH CAMPAIGN IN FRANCE AND FLANDERS—5 Vols. Poems THE GUARDS CAME THROUGH [i] [ii] Novels and Stories DANGER! And Other Stories THE DOINGS OF RAFFLES HAW HIS LAST BOW Some Latin Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes NEW YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY THE CASE FOR SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY BY ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE WITH CORROBORATIVE EVIDENCE BY EXPERIENCED RESEARCHERS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1923, BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY THE CASE FOR SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY. I PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA PREFACE The publicity given to the recent attacks on Psychic Photography has been out of all proportion to their scientific value as evidence. When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle returned to Great Britain, after his successful tour in America, the controversy was in full swing. With characteristic promptitude he immediately decided to meet these negative attacks by a positive counter-attack, and this volume is the outcome of that decision. We have used the term “Spirit Photography” on the title-page as being the popular name by which these phenomena [iii] [iv] [v] are known. This does not imply that either Sir Arthur or I imagine that everything supernormal must be of spirit origin. There is, undoubtedly, a broad borderland where these photographic effects may be produced from forces contained within ourselves. This merges into those higher phenomena of which many cases are here described. Those desiring fuller information on this subject are referred to “Photographing the Invisible,” by James Coates. It was only when editing the matter for these pages that I fully realised what an overwhelming mass of reliable material we had to work upon. In restricting this book to the necessary limits it has only been possible to make use of a small portion of this evidence. Many more cases have been placed on record and may be published on some future occasion. Most of the letters accompanying these descriptions display a deep and genuine affection for the maligned mediums of the Crewe Circle. Our hearty thanks are due to all those friends who have so readily co-operated in this work and who are so willing to brave the discomforts of publicity for what they know to be the truth. Fred Barlow. CONTENTS PAGE Preface by Fred Barlow v CHAPTER I THE CREWE CIRCLE 13 II SOME PERSONAL EXPERIENCES 21 III EVIDENTIAL TESTS AND THEIR RESULTS 28 IV AN EXAMINATION OF MR. HOPE AND HIS CRITICS 38 V FURTHER DIFFICULTIES CONSIDERED 55 VI THE ATTACK ON MRS. DEANE AND MR. VEARNCOMBE 60 VII THE GENESIS AND HISTORY OF THE CREWE CIRCLE BY MISS F. R. SCATCHERD 70 VIII EVIDENTIAL AND SCIENTIFIC ASPECTS OF PSYCHIC PHOTOGRAPHY BY FRED BARLOW 79 IX CONCLUSIVE PROOF FROM MANY SOURCES 96 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Barlow, Mr. H. D., Psychic and Normal Photographs of 127 Burgess, Mrs., with Psychic Picture of Her Uncle 127 Buxton, Mrs., and Daughter, with Psychic Picture of Her Father 47 Colley, Archdeacon, Psychic Message in the Handwriting of 14 Colley, Archdeacon, Normal Handwriting of 14 Colley, Archdeacon, Photomicrograph of Portion of Normal Signature 78 Colley, Archdeacon, Photomicrograph of Portion of Signature in Psychic Message 78 Crawford, Dr. W. J., Psychic Message in the Handwriting of 15 Crawford, Dr. W. J., Normal Handwriting of 15 Crookes, Sir William, with Psychic Face 31 Cushman, Agnes, Psychic Picture of 63 Cushman, Agnes, Normal Photograph of 63 Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan, and Group, with Psychic Message from Archdeacon Colley 14 East, Mr. and Mrs. H., with Psychic and Normal Pictures of Son 47 Foulds, Mrs. R., with Psychic Photograph of Her Mother 110 Foulds, Mrs. R., Normal Photograph of the Mother of 110 Griere, Mrs. A. E., with Psychic Likeness of Husband and Father 111 Griere, Mrs. A. E., Photograph of the Husband of 111 Jeffrey, Mr. Wm., and Daughter, Showing Ectoplasmic Bag 62 Jeffrey, Mr. Wm., and Daughter, with Psychic Likeness of Mrs. Jeffrey 62 Maddocks, Mr. S., with Psychic Likeness of First Wife 95 Maddocks, Mr. S., Normal Photograph of the First Wife of 95 Pickup, Mrs., with Psychic Likeness of Husband 126 Pickup, Mrs., Photograph of the Husband of 126 [vi] [vii] [viii] [ix] [x] S.S.S.P., Group Photograph with Psychic Face 30 Spencer, Major R. E. E., with Psychic Face 31 Tweedale, the Rev. C. L., and Wife, with Psychic Likeness of Mrs. Tweedale’s Father 46 Tweedale, the Rev. C. L., Photograph of the Father-in-law of 46 Walker, Mr. and Mrs. Harry, and Friends, with Psychic Likeness of Mr. Wm. Walker 79 Walker, Mr. Wm., with Psychic Message in Handwriting of Mr. W. T. Stead 79 Walker, Mr. Wm., Psychic Message in Handwriting of 94 Walker, Mr. Wm., Specimen of Handwriting of 94 THE CASE FOR SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY CHAPTER I THE CREWE CIRCLE An accusation of a damaging, and, as I believe, of an entirely unfounded character, has been brought forward by Mr. Harry Price against Mr. Hope, whose name has for more than seventeen years been associated with the strange phenomenon which has been called spirit photography. I will deal later with this accusation with which the Society for Psychic Research has unfortunately associated itself by publishing the report of it in their official journal. Before touching upon it I should wish to take a broader sweep and to show the overpowering weight of evidence which exists as to the reality of Mr. Hope’s most remarkable gift. If a man were accused of cowardice it would be natural that his defender should not confine himself to the particular case, but should examine the man’s whole career and put forward instances of valour as an argument against the charge. So also if a man is accused of dishonesty a long record of honesty would be his most complete defence. Therefore in considering the case of Mr. Hope, and the value of his mediumship, one must not limit one’s investigation to a single case, where errors of observation and of deduction may creep in, but must take a broader view which will embrace an account of a long series of cases, vouched for by men and women of the highest character, and incompatible with any form of fraud. If the reader will have the patience to follow my facts and my argument, I hope to make it clear to any unprejudiced mind that there is overwhelming evidence that we have in Mr. Hope a man endowed with most singular powers, and that, instead of persecuting and misrepresenting him, it would be wiser if we took a sympathetic view of his remarkable work, which has brought consolation to the afflicted, and conviction to many who had lost all belief in the independent life of the spirit. Many speak of Mr. Hope and of the Crewe Circle without any definite idea of what the words mean. Let me explain, then, that Mr. William Hope, who is a working-man, discovered, some seventeen years ago, quite by chance, that this remarkable power of producing extra faces, figures or objects upon photographic plates had been given to him. In the first instance he was taking a fellow-workman, and the plate, when developed, was found to contain an extra figure which was recognised as being a likeness of his comrade’s sister, who had recently passed away. This form of mediumship is rare, but from the days of Mumler, who first showed it in 1861, there has never been a time when one or more sensitives have not been able to demonstrate it. [11] [12] [13] [14] FIG. 1.—IMPRESSION RECEIVED UPON A MARKED PLATE WHICH NEVER LEFT THE AUTHOR’S HANDS, SAVE WHEN in carrier. (See p. 21.) FIG. 2.—SPECIMEN OF ARCHDEACON COLLEY’S WRITING during his lifetime. (See p. 22.) FIG. 3.—PSYCHOGRAPH IN THE HANDWRITING OF DR. W. J. CRAWFORD. ( See p. 25.) FIG. 4.—SPECIMEN OF DR. W. J. CRAWFORD’S WRITING DURING HIS lifetime. Hope was greatly surprised at his own results, but he had the good fortune in early days to meet the late Archdeacon Colley, an enlightened member of the Anglican Church, who tested his powers, endorsed them and appreciated their [15] value. It was he who gave Hope his first stand camera, the old-fashioned instrument to which he still clings, and which, with its battered box and broken leg, is familiar to many of us. No one knows the story of these beginnings so well as Miss Scatcherd, who was the intimate friend of the Archdeacon and shared the evidence which had so impressed him. Miss Scatcherd has kindly consented to jot down her reminiscences of these early days, that I may include them in the later pages of this volume. Suffice it if I say, at present, that Hope has been before the public for seventeen years, that during that time many special tests have been demanded of him and have been successfully met, that he has been closely observed by experts of all sorts—scientific men (including Sir William Crookes), journalists, professional photographers and others—that he has patiently submitted himself to all sorts of experiment, and that he has emerged from this most drastic ordeal with the complete support and approval of far the greater part of his clients. That he has been fiercely attacked goes without saying, for every medium has that experience, but each fresh allegation against him has ended in smoke, while his gifts have grown stronger with time, so that the percentage of blanks in his results is, I should say, lower than it used to be. No medium can ever honestly guarantee success, but it would probably be within the mark if one claimed that Hope attained it three times out of five, though the results vary much in visibility and value, being mere vague outlines in some cases, and in others so detailed in their perfection that the extra is clearer and more life-like than the sitter. These variations seem to depend upon the state of health of the medium, the qualities of the investigator, the atmospheric conditions and other obscure causes. In person, Hope is a man who gives the impression of being between fifty and sixty years of age, with the manner and appearance of an intelligent working-man. His forehead is high and indicates a good, if untrained, brain beneath it. The general effect of his face is aquiline with large, well-opened, honest blue eyes, and a moustache which is shading from yellow to grey. His voice is pleasant, with a North Country accent which becomes very pronounced when he is excited. His hands with their worn nails and square-ended fingers are those of the worker, and the least adapted to sleight-of- hand tricks of any that I have seen. Mrs. Buxton, who aids him, is a kindly, pleasant-faced woman on the sunny side of middle-age. Her mediumistic powers seem to be akin to those of Hope, and though the latter had all his earlier results independently, he is stronger when he combines his forces with Mrs. Buxton’s. They both give an impression of honesty and frankness, which increases as one comes to know them more closely. I have never met two people who seemed to me from manner and appearance to be less likely to be in a conspiracy to deceive the public. They and all their circle are spiritualists of a Salvation Army type, much addicted to the hearty singing of hymns and the putting up of impromptu prayers. Hope, the most unconventional of beings, has been known in the midst of one of his photographic lectures (which he delivers occasionally in his shirt-sleeves) to say, “And now, my friends, we will warm up with a hymn,” in which the audience, unable to escape, has to acquiesce. It is a type of character which associates itself sometimes, I admit, with a loathsome form of hypocrisy, but which has in it something peculiarly childlike and sweet when it is perfectly honest and spontaneous as it is, to the best of my belief, in the case of the two mediums in question. Some prejudice can be excited against Hope by the mere assertion that he is a professional medium. The public is aware that fraud—sometimes unhappily real, sometimes only alleged—is too often associated with this profession. Sufficient allowance is not made for the fact that the papers only take note of psychic things when they go wrong, and never when they go right. The dishonest medium is so easily found out that one could hardly make a living at so precarious a trade. In a very extended experience, which covers many hundreds of séances, I have only encountered fraud three or four times. Had I registered those cases and omitted the others, I would have given the impression of continued fraud, which is exactly how the matter is presented to the public who are continually hoodwinked, not by the spiritualists but by the critics and so-called “exposers” who represent what is exceptional as being constant. It is exactly this prejudice which prevents a medium or his friends from bringing an action for libel, so that the unhappy man or woman becomes a butt for any charge or any ridicule, the assailants knowing well that the ordinary legal rights of a Briton are hardly applicable to one who can be represented as living from a profession which is not recognised by our laws. This cowardly medium-baiting will cease only when the public show, by abstaining from the purchase of the journals which pursue it, that they have no sympathy with such persecutions. I would wish to point out, however, that Hope is not in a strict sense a professional medium. I have never met anyone who seemed to me less venal than he. I am aware of a case where an exploiter approached him with a proposal to turn his gift into money, but was received in the coldest possible manner. Twice when I have sat with him at Crewe he has refused to take a fee, though he could never have known that the fact would be made public. It is true that on each occasion I disregarded him to the extent of leaving some remembrance upon the mantelpiece when his back was turned, but I have been assured by others that he has again and again refused all remuneration for his sitting, and has charged the ridiculous sum of 4s. 6d. per dozen for prints from the negatives obtained. This sum is calculated upon the average time expended at the rate of his own trade earnings. I do not wish to overstate this side of the question or to pretend that he would not be open to a present from a grateful client. Of how many of us could that be honestly said? But my point is that his gifts have been as open to the poor as to the rich—which all spiritual gifts should be. It is, of course, another matter when he comes to London and gives sittings by appointment at the British College of [16] [17] [18] [19] Psychic Science. That college is an expensive and most useful establishment, which is run, with a yearly deficit, through the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Hewat McKenzie, and it is only right that those who use it should contribute an adequate sum to its maintenance. To illustrate my remarks upon Hope’s character and the general lines upon which the Crewe Circle is conducted, I would like to give this extract from the letter of a miner, Mr. East, of 36, New Street, Port Talbot, who describes an experience which he had in 1920. After giving an account of the precautions taken, and of the appearance upon the plate of his son’s face: [See Figure 11.] “Hundreds of persons who knew him have seen the photo and recognised him.” He adds: “When I asked what their charges were, Mr. Hope replied: ‘Four and sixpence a dozen. For the sitting, nothing. This is a gift from God and we dare not charge for what is freely given us. Our pay is often the wonder and joy depicted on the faces of those, like yourselves, who have found that their loved ones are not entirely lost to them. We get all kinds and classes of people here. Some even are threadbare and too poor to pay train-fare, but we treat them all alike as we recognise in each a brother or sister.’ “I could not but be impressed by the Christ-spirit of the two friends, whom we had never seen before that short half-hour, and not since. And when I read of men who try to make those two persons appear something detestable I go back in memory to that day when it was our good fortune to meet them and recall their more than kind attitude to two bruised hearts. God bless them, say I.” With these preliminary remarks I will now lay before the reader a selection of cases which I have taken from Mr. Hope’s record, and I will ask him to read them carefully and see if they can be reconciled with any possible system of fraud. We are, of course, always open to the objection that a man may be perfectly honest fifty times and fraudulent the fifty-first. That is undeniable and constitutes the great difficulty in dealing with isolated cases where no impartial witness was present, and where both the accusation and the defence are equally ex-parte statements. We can only say in rebuttal that previous honesty must predispose us to assume that there is no fraud, and remind our readers that if we can only show one single case, which is absolutely beyond criticism, then we have for ever settled the larger contention, that it is possible in the presence of certain individuals, whom we call mediums, to produce effects which are supernormal and which would appear to indicate separate intelligences acting visibly quite independently of ourselves. CHAPTER II SOME PERSONAL EXPERIENCES I will first give an account of my own visit to Crewe which was in the summer of 1919. I bought my plates in Manchester and then travelled over to keep the appointment which had been made a week before. Arriving at Crewe, I went down to the little house in Market Street, which is so modest and humble that it furnishes an argument in itself against any undue cupidity on the part of its tenant. Two spiritualistic friends, Mr. Oaten, editor of the Two Worlds, and Mr. Walker, were my companions. Mr. Hope and Mrs. Buxton were waiting for us, and, after a short religious service, Mr. Hope and I went into the dark room. There I opened the packet of plates, put two into the carrier and marked them then and there. The carrier was then taken into the room and Mr. Hope inserted it into the camera. We three spiritualists sat in front with a rug, or blanket, as a background. The exposure having been made, the carrier was taken back into the dark room where, with my own hands, I took out the plates, developed them and fixed them. So far as I could judge, there was at no stage any possibility of changing the plates. But this question does not really arise. No changing of plates would account for the effect actually produced. This effect I have shown in Figure 1. There is a hazy cloud covering us of what I will describe as ectoplasm, though my critics are very welcome to call it cotton-wool if it eases their feelings to do so. In one corner appears a partial materialisation of what seems to be the hair and forehead of a young man. Across the plate is scrawled, “Well done, Friend Doyle, I welcome you to Crewe. Greetings to all. T. Colley.” I have already explained that Archdeacon Colley was the founder of the Crewe Circle, and if, as we believe, we continue our interest after death it would seem not unnatural that he should send a kindly word to a visitor who was working for the cause. How can we determine that the message was really from Archdeacon Colley? The obvious way would be to get a sample of his writing in life and to compare it with that upon the plate. This I have done, as shown in Figure 2. Can anyone deny that the handwriting is the same in both instances, or can anyone suppose that the rough script of Hope could possibly be modified into the scholarly handwriting of the Archdeacon? Whence, then, did this message come? Does anyone imagine that a private forger is retained by Hope and lurks somewhere in that humble abode? It is a problem which calls for an answer, and no talk about conjuring tricks or transposition of plates has the least bearing upon it. It may be remarked incidentally that my own strong desire was to obtain some sign from my son who had passed away the year before. The result seemed to show that our personal wishes do not effect the outcome. [20] [21] [22] Having failed to get what I desired, I remained at Crewe for the night, and next morning went down to Market Street again. On this occasion I used Hope’s own plates, having left mine at the hotel. He gave me the choice of several packets. The result obtained under all the precautions which I could adopt (it would only weary the reader if I gave every point of detail) was a photograph of the face of a young man beside my own. It was not a good likeness of my son, though it resembled him as he was some eight years before his death. Of the three results which I obtained at Crewe it was the one which impressed me least. On examination with a lens it was noticeable that the countenance was pitted with fine dots, as in the case of process printing. This is to be noticed in a certain proportion, possibly one in ten, of Hope’s results, and occurs in the case of persons whose faces could by no possibility have appeared in newspapers. One can only suppose that it is in some way connected with the psychic process, and some have imagined a reticulated screen upon which the image is built up. I am content to note the fact without attempting to explain it. I have observed the same effect in other psychic photographs. The third result was the most remarkable of any. I had read that Hope can get images without the use of the camera, but the statement sounded incredible. He now asked me to mark a plate and put it in a carrier, which I did. We then placed our hands on either side of the carrier, Mrs. Buxton and her sister joining in. At the end of about a minute Hope gave a sort of shudder, and intimated that he thought a result had been obtained. On putting the plate into the solution a disc the size of a shilling, perfectly black, sprang up in the centre of it. On development this resolved itself into a luminous circle with the face of a female delicately outlined within it. Under the chin is a disc of white, and two fingers which are pointing to it. The disc is evidently a brooch, and the pointing seemed to indicate that it was meant to be evidential. The face bore a strong resemblance to that of my elder sister, who died some thirty years ago. Upon sending the print to my other sisters they not only confirmed this, but they reminded me that my sister had a very remarkable ivory brooch in her lifetime and that it was just the one object which might best have been chosen as a test. I regret that this picture is so delicate that it will not bear reproduction. Such were my three results at Crewe, and I should, I hold, have been devoid of reason had I not been deeply impressed by them. Here was a message in Archdeacon Colley’s own handwriting. Here was a test from my own dead sister which seemed to be beyond all possible coincidence, apart from the extraordinary way in which the picture was obtained. Neither sleight-of-hand nor transference of plates could have any bearing upon such results as those. Their full significance was not realised until I had made enquiries, but after that time I felt it impossible to doubt the supernormal nature of the powers which had produced such effects. It might perhaps be argued that as Archdeacon Colley’s writing was familiar to Hope, he had, in spite of his disabilities, made some special effort to master and reproduce it. As a matter of fact, however, this case does not stand alone, and many evidential writings have been obtained at Crewe, notably those of W. T. Stead and of the late Dr. Crawford. The latter is a recent incident, and I would take it as my next example, since it illustrates this phenomenon of writing, and is again free from the bogey of transposition. Upon June 30 of this year (1922) three delegates from Belfast, Mr. Skelton, Mr. Gillmour and Mr. Donaldson, were coming over to the London Spiritualists’ Conference. They broke their journey at Crewe in order to have a sitting with Mr. Hope, who was in deep distress at the time on account of the attack made upon him in Mr. Price’s report. It is worth noting that Mrs. Crawford, the widow of Dr. Crawford, had come over with them on the boat, and that Dr. Crawford’s affairs had been under discussion, though Hope had no means of knowing it. Under good fraud-proof conditions, on their own specially-marked plate, the visitors obtained a message in Dr. Crawford’s handwriting, which runs thus, I supplying the punctuation: “Dear Mr. Hope, “Needless to say I am with you where psychic work is concerned, and you can be sure of my sympathy and help. I know all the difficulties and uncertainties connected with the subject. I am keenly interested in your circle and will co-operate with you. Regarding your enemies who would by hook or by crook dispose of the phenomena, leave them alone. I, W. J. Crawford, of Belfast, am here in Crewe on Friday, June 30th. “W. J. Crawford.” Each word is on its own little patch of ectoplasm, or upon its own pad of cotton-wool, if the critics prefer it, though it would puzzle them, I think, to reproduce the effect which is given in Figure 3. The plate alongside (Figure 4) shows a reproduction of an actual note of Crawford’s which will enable the reader to judge the extreme similarity of the script. Once more we confront the critic with this fact and ask him to face the difficulty and to tell us whence this writing came; whether it is a production of Mr. Hope’s, or whether the theory of a private forger upon the premises can be sustained. Apart from these cases of the reproduction of handwriting, copies of documents have appeared upon the plates at Crewe which could by no means have got there in a normal fashion. A case in point is given in detail by the Reverend and venerable Professor Henslow on p. 217 of his Proofs of Spiritualism. In this case, the truth of which is vouched for by the Professor, although it did not actually occur to him, the plates were held between the hands of the sitters in the manner already described, but the packet had not been opened and was as it had come from the chemist. When the packet was opened and the plates developed there was found impressed upon the fifth plate a number of Greek characters, which proved to be a copy of four lines of the Codex Alexandrinus, a rare Greek text kept in a glass case in the British Museum. The interesting point appears that the two documents are not facsimiles, and that there is some [23] [24] [25] [26] slight difference in the formation of the letters, thus meeting the objection that the text photographed might have been got from some facsimile of the original Codex. The photographs of the original Greek and of the Crewe reproduction are given in Professor Henslow’s work. Here, again, we may well ask the critic to face the facts and give us some feasible explanation as to how this Greek text was precipitated on to a plate in a sealed packet under the mediumship of an unlearned carpenter at Crewe. CHAPTER III EVIDENTIAL TESTS AND THEIR RESULTS We will now turn to the reproduction of faces, and I will give an instance where all the stock theories about changing or superposition of plates become untenable. At the annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Supernormal Pictures, I being present, a photograph of the members was taken in the normal way as a souvenir. As Hope was present, it was suggested that a second photograph be taken by him in the hope that we might get some psychic effect. The plate was taken from an unopened packet in the pocket of the secretary, and some fifteen of us were witnesses of the whole transaction. Hope had no warning at all, and could have made no preparation. The plate was at once developed by one of our own members, and a well-marked extra, amid a cloud of ectoplasm, appeared upon the picture. This extra was claimed by one of our members as a good likeness of his dead father. This result, which is illustrated by Figure 5, was obtained before an audience of experts, if any men in this world have a right to call themselves experts upon this subject. How can it be explained by fraud and how can such a case be lightly set aside? Granting for argument’s sake that the sitter may have been mistaken in the recognition, how can the actual psychic effect be accounted for? It happens, occasionally, that these ghost-faces which appear upon the plates retain some remarkable physical peculiarity which prove beyond all question who they represent. One such case has been handed to me by the Countess of Malmesbury, whose own account is so clear and condensed that it could not be bettered: “I sat with Mr. Hope and Mrs. Buxton on Friday, December 9th, 1921, and was accompanied by ‘Val L’Estrange,’ a lady professional photographer, who watched the proceedings on my behalf, as I do not understand photography. She states that from first to last she could not detect any fraud. As I sat for the photograph the wish just crossed my mind that I might obtain a photograph of J. H., who died in 1880, and that I could receive a definite sign that it was genuine. “J. H. died as the result of an operation for the removal of the lower jaw, which had been seriously injured. No one saw him after this terrible misfortune except five persons, of whom I am the only survivor, and I need not say that no photograph was then taken of him. “I showed the photograph to Dr. Fielding Ould, who at once recognised it as that of a man who had had his lower jaw removed. This opinion was confirmed by several of his medical friends, to whom he showed the picture. “I should add that the plates were bought by ‘Val L’Estrange’ direct from the manufacturer, and that we brought them with us. The exposure was forty seconds. The plate which produced the portrait was manipulated by Mr. Hope under the supervision of ‘Val L’Estrange.’ We both superintended the development and fixing of the negative. “As an impartial investigator of psychic matters I have stated exactly what took place, without comment. (signed) “Susan, Countess of Malmesbury.” It must be admitted that this case, so exactly recorded, would be a difficult one to explain away. I would now quote the case furnished by Major Spencer, who is an experienced and careful observer, and has given much attention to psychic photography. In this experiment he used his own camera, his own carriers and his own plates. What could be more drastic than that! He says, if I may abbreviate his account: “The box of plates was never out of my sight and was cut open in the dark room by myself; Hope or Mrs. Buxton in no instance touching them.” The red light, he explains, was a good one and he could see all that occurred. “Hope stood on my left hand for the whole time in the dark room and I kept the box of plates under my right elbow during the operations of initialling and inserting the plates in the slides.... My own camera remained closed in my despatch-case (also closed) till I returned from the dark [27] [28] [29] [30] room, when I set it up on its tripod, extending it, and focussing it upon the chair afterwards used. When the exposures were made by Hope I had to explain to him how to actuate the shutter, as the lever on the camera front was new to him. The only contact with the camera was when he touched this lever. Exposure thirty-five seconds. Neither Mrs. Buxton nor Hope knew that I had intended using my own camera and dark slides till we met in the studio. These slides are metallic and each contains one plate.” FIG. 5.—GROUP OF MEMBERS OF THE S.S.S.P. THE PSYCHIC FACE WILL BE SEEN IN THE CENTRE OF THE PLATE AND situated horizontally to the sitters. (See p. 28.) FIG. 6.—MAJOR R. E. E. SPENCER AND PSYCHIC FACE obtained in special test. (See p. 31.) FIG. 7.—SIR WILLIAM CROOKES WITH PSYCHIC FACE OBTAINED IN HIS OWN LABORATORY THROUGH THE mediumship of the Crewe Circle. (See p. 33.) (For the benefit of the uninitiated, let me explain that the carrier and the dark slide are different names for the same thing, the receptacle into which the plates are put in the dark room, which is then inserted into the back of the camera.) Now this is a case which any reasonable man would say eliminated every possible source of error. The actual result was that out of six plates, two showed unrecognised extra faces. One of the results is reproduced in Figure 6. How came those faces upon the plates? How can our critics explain it? They cannot explain it, and yet they have not the honesty to admit their inability. Among our chief enemies is that inner circle which for the moment controls the destinies of the Society for Psychical Research. What flaw do they find? I am sure the honest common-sense reader would never guess. The flaw adduced is that Major Spencer left his camera inside his despatch-box in the studio while he was in the dark room. Mrs. Buxton was in the studio. She might have dashed at the box, pulled it open, dragged out the camera, and then ... well, what then? No one can imagine what the next stage would be. Dr. Abraham Wallace has publicly [31] asked the critic to state what could then be done which would have put two human faces upon different plates and none on the others. If Major Spencer had locked his box it would then have been claimed that Mrs. Buxton had a skeleton key in her pocket. It is puerile criticism of this sort which has lowered that intellectual respect which we older members had once for the S.P.R. It is intellectually dishonest and the sign of a frame of mind which is not there to follow facts or to ascertain the truth, but only to argue a preconceived case as a lawyer speaks from his brief. The S.P.R. (or their present spokesmen) are against psychic photography, and therefore it is better to put up the most childish and preposterous objections rather than to say that a case is clearly proved. I would appeal to any impartial mind whether this case of Major Spencer’s does not absolutely cover every objection. I would now give the case of the dream-hand of Lady Grey of Falloden. When I was going to Australia this lady most kindly wrote out the facts for me and gave me a copy of the photograph, which I used upon my screen. Lady Glenconner, as she then was, dreamed that if she was photographed at Crewe she would see her son’s hand resting upon her left shoulder. She said nothing to Hope, but she put the fact of her dream upon record. Sure enough, in the photograph there is a small cloud of ectoplasm, and emerging from it a hand, which is resting even as it rested in the dream. Where does fraud come in, in such a case as that? Surely those who circulated a libellous pamphlet against Hope upon the strength of a single case must feel ashamed when they consider such a result as that, where no possible manipulation could have affected the picture. Psychic caution is an admirable quality, but extreme incredulity is even more disastrous than extreme credulity. The psychic investigator should be a filter, not a block. I would now quote the case of Mr. Pearse, a well-known business man of Manchester. This is no psychic fanatic, but a hard-headed Northern man of business. He visited Hope at Crewe, taking with him his own new camera and his own carrier, which was loaded by his daughter. No chance of transposition here, unless Hope had a duplicate carrier. “The result,” he says, “was an undisputed likeness to my father. No photograph of him in that position is in existence. Everyone who has known him has recognised him, and my mother treasures the photograph very much.” In this account the sting lies in the statement that no such photograph is in existence. Again and again—it would not be too much to say that fifty instances could be produced—this statement can be made. Is it not incredible that people should be found who cannot see that such a fact is evidential of supernormal action? I have alluded to the fact that Sir William Crookes received such a photograph at Crewe, and that it bore a close resemblance to his deceased wife. I have not been able to get any copy of this photograph, but it is devoutly to be hoped that it, and Sir William’s invaluable psychic papers, are being duly cared for by his executors and biographer, for they have there a precious trust, and any tampering with it on account of their individual opinions would entail upon them the censure of generations yet unborn. In an interview in the Christian Commonwealth (December 4th, 1918) the interviewer, Miss Scatcherd, asked, “And may I say how you went north with another friend and myself and procured on your own marked plate, under your own conditions, a likeness of your beloved wife, the late Lady Crookes?” To which Sir William answered: “You may say that, since it is the truth.... You may add that the picture obtained after her passing on is unlike any of the many which I possess, but certainly resembles my dear one in her last days of failing health.” In a private letter, which I have seen, Sir William, writing on December 14, 1916, shortly after the incident, says: “The photograph is easily recognised by all to whom I have shown it. I find that it is very similar in likeness to one I took about ten years ago, although by no means a facsimile reproduction. This makes it all the more satisfactory to me.” Though I am unable to reproduce this photograph, I have been able, by the kindness of Miss Scatcherd, to reproduce (Figure 7) the preliminary experimental photograph got in Sir William’s laboratory, which induced him to take the Crewe Circle seriously. Only Mr. Hope and Miss Scatcherd were present on this occasion. It was taken, says the latter, “under the strictest conditions that the genius of Sir William Crookes, backed by his unusual common sense, could suggest.” The face here is not that of Lady Crookes, and was not recognised. But surely such a result must show the public how superficial is the view which on the strength of a single experiment endeavours to discredit the whole life’s work of Mr. Hope. Several examples of Crewe photographs are reproduced (Figures 8, 9, 10) which show the similarity to the living man, and yet are declared by the relatives to be unlike any existing picture. That which is shown on Figure 8 is the result obtained by that brave psychic pioneer, the Rev. Charles Tweedale, who from his little Yorkshire vicarage beckons the Church on the road that it should go. In this case Mr. Tweedale called upon Hope without any appointment and obtained, as has several times been obtained on surprise visits, an excellent result. The psychic face is that of his wife’s father, whose features in life, for purposes of comparison, are shown by Figure 9. The picture is unlike any in existence. I have said that the psychic faces are sometimes more animated and life-like than the original photographs taken in life. In support of this assertion I would point to Figure 10. The old man who smiles so happily is Mrs. Buxton’s own father, then very recently dead. I do not think that the most cynical of my readers will contend that a daughter is likely to make a blasphemous faked picture of her own father, even if it had been possible to produce so vital an effect. Anyone who is familiar with Hope’s results is aware that over many of the psychic faces there appears a roll or arch of some peculiar substance which has never been explained upon any supposition of fraud, but is so constant that it would appear to be part of the psychic process. Some of us have always contended that probably this arch represents a formation corresponding to the Cabinet upon this side—an envelope or enclosed space within which psychic forces [32] [33] [34] [35] are generated and condensed. The arch is by no means peculiar to Hope, though the exact form and texture of it is such that one could pick out a Hope photograph among a hundred others. This psychic arch, as it has been named, appears in many forms and many places, some of them very unexpected. I have, as an example, a photograph before me as I write which was taken by Mr. Boyd, the respected provost of a Scotch borough, upon a recent journey which he made upon the West Coast of Africa. On taking a small group of natives he found an extra of a woman and child (negroes) upon his plate. This extra figure is surrounded and surmounted by the psychic arch in an exaggerated form. Mr. Boyd has no axe to grind, and, so far as I know, he is not even a spiritualist. How comes it, then, that his result fits so definitely into the arch system, if it be not that there is some general law which regulates results whether they be obtained in Crewe or on the Gold Coast? Again, I have a friend, an amateur, who has himself developed psychic photography from the time that it was a mere luminous blur upon his plates, until now he receives very graceful and perfect pictures which are in some cases recognised faces of the dead. In his case the arch adjusts itself into the form of an artistic hood or mantilla. But the arch principle carries on. It is only by a comprehensive view of this sort, and by the comparison of different independent results, that we are likely to get at some of the laws which underlie this matter. At present the system adopted in quarters which should be responsible ones is to concentrate attention upon whatever may seem to be failure or deception, and to take no notice at all of the broader aspects of the question. In every science the methods of advance are to pay strict attention to the positive results and to regard the negative ones as mere warnings of what to avoid. This process has been reversed in considering psychic photography, and the world has been deceived by those who should have been its guides. Truth will, of course, prevail, but its progress has been grievously retarded by this unhappy and unscientific mental attitude. On one occasion remarkable evidence was afforded that we were right in our surmise that a cabinet of ectoplasm for concentration is first constructed, and that the psychic effect is developed inside it. The result, which is depicted in Figure 12, was got by Mr. Jeffrey, of Glasgow, who was, I may add, the President of the Scottish Society of Magicians, and is therefore the last person to be deceived by any sort of trick. In this case the exposure seems to have been too early so that the ectoplasmic bag is exposed in its complete form, without any contents. In the second picture, Figure 13, taken immediately afterwards, the face of Mr. Jeffrey’s deceased wife has appeared, and the bag has split to show it, forming the familiar fold over both sides of the face. This picture seems to me to be quite final in showing us exactly how the matter is worked by the forces which direct things upon the other side. Each of these cases which I have given is impressive, I hope, in itself, but their cumulative effect should be overpowering. They are but selections out of a very long list which I could provide, but repetition would be unprofitable, for if those which are here quoted fail to convince the reader then he is surely beyond conviction. One or two might conceivably be the result of imperfect observation or incorrect statement, but it is an insult to common sense to say that so long an array of honourable witnesses, with their precise detail, with their actual photographic results, and with the complete exclusion of any possible trickery, should all be explained in any normal fashion. CHAPTER IV AN EXAMINATION OF MR. HOPE AND HIS CRITICS Having said so much in support of Mr. Hope’s mediumship, let me say what I can in the way of personal criticism, for I hold no particular brief for him, and am only anxious to follow truth wherever it may lead. I have written this pamphlet because I think that truth has been grievously obscured, and that the fruit of seventeen years of remarkable psychic demonstration is, for the moment, imperilled by the attention of the public being directed entirely to a single case which is, admittedly upon the face of it, of a damaging character. We spiritualists should be, in Stevenson’s fine phrase, “steel-true and blade-straight,” and we should never avoid an issue, or fall into the error of our opponents who have no sense of balance and can only focus their gaze upon one side of a question. It has been said that Hope is suspiciously restless and fussy in the dark room. This, so far as my own observation goes, is correct. It may be that he is nervously anxious for success, or it may be that he is not in a normal condition—for he usually holds a service and occasionally goes into apparent trance immediately before the experiment. Whatever the cause, I am not prepared to deny the fact, or that not unreasonable suspicions might be awakened by his attitude in the minds of those who are brought for the first time in contact with his personality. I can only point to the cases already given, and say once more that no action upon his part could have produced them. Again, it is said of Hope that he is impatient of tests and restrictions. Some of his best friends have been alienated by this fact. Mediums are touchy people—more delicately organised in many cases than any other human type. They may occasionally show an irrational annoyance and resentment against any action which implies personal suspicion. And yet, though he certainly prefers to be left to his own methods unrestrained save by ordinary observation, it is a fact that he has in the past consented to a great number of tests and has come out of them remarkably well. I have heard him say, “What have I to gain from tests? I am put to a deal of trouble, I do what I am asked to do, I get result, and then I hear no more about it except that perhaps I have convinced the person. Or perhaps, even if I have done all he asks in his own way, he still says he is unconvinced.” I can bear him out in this latter statement, for I have knowledge of three separate sittings which he had with a well-known London editor, where, under the latter’s ever more stringent [36] [37] [38] [39] conditions, Hope got results certainly twice, and, I think, thrice, and yet when I asked this editor to vouch for these results that I might quote them in this pamphlet, in the interests of truth and justice, I could get no reply to my letter. This seems to indicate either that he was not yet satisfied, though his own conditions had been carried out, or else that he had not the moral courage to help the medium at the time when he needed testimony. The incident shows that there is some truth in Hope’s contention that tests are often a waste of energy. At the same time, it should be known that when the S.P.R. made their recent attack, founded upon a single case, Hope at once offered to give fresh sittings and to submit to the most drastic tests so long as those who were in sympathy were also associated in the experiment. For some reason the S.P.R. refused this, and it is a serious flaw in their position. None the less, we must make the admission that, in general, Hope is not fond of tests. But there is another and more serious admission which I would make, although in doing so I may possibly be doing Hope an injustice. He is, in my opinion, not only a spiritualist, but a fanatic, which is a dangerous thing in any line of thought. We are aware that one must “test the spirits,” but I believe that Hope has such childlike and blind faith in his guides that he would obey their directions whatever they might be. I recollect one case where a distinguished man of science sent Hope a sealed packet, upon which the latter placed it in a bucket of water, under the alleged prompting of some spirit message. The natural result was to alienate the scientific man from psychic photography for many years. It is easy to say that this was simply a case of vulgar fraud, but fraud would be done in some manner which could be concealed and not in so drastic a manner as that, and, as I have shown, fraud does not at all fit in with Hope’s usual results. I make the critic a present of the case, merely adding that I believe Hope’s account of his motives to be absolutely true, however incomprehensible it might seem. I have now, I hope, convinced any reasonable reader of the genuine nature of Hope’s powers, which, after all, wonderful as they may seem, are by no means unique, but are to be matched by those of several contemporaries both in England and in America—not all of them professionals. We will next turn to the particular case treated...