TRANSKRIPTIO 🔗
WEBVTT
00:16.182 --> 00:20.125
All right,
00:20.141 --> 00:23.842
welcome back to our podcast. I'm the Gentleman, accompanied by the Disturbed
00:23.859 --> 00:27.178
Southern Belle. Hello! And in this episode, we're going to be talk—
00:27.678 --> 00:31.842
we're going to be continuing our series talking about some of the most notorious
00:32.342 --> 00:36.089
psychics, mediums, and paranormal investigators throughout history. In this segment, we'll be discussing
00:36.121 --> 00:39.605
a man who could subjectively, I guess, be called the world's
00:39.653 --> 00:42.913
first psychic, right? So Daniel
00:43.009 --> 00:45.948
Douglas Home, he was born on March 20th,
00:45.964 --> 00:49.159
1833, and went on to become a Scottish physical
00:49.271 --> 00:53.446
medium with the reported ability to levitate
00:53.946 --> 00:57.477
to varying heights. He was also reported to be able to speak with the
00:57.977 --> 01:01.619
dead and to produce rapping and knocks at houses
01:01.651 --> 01:04.830
at will. Uh, Harry Houdini once described him
01:04.926 --> 01:08.538
as one of the most conspicuous and lauded of his types and
01:09.038 --> 01:12.279
generation, and the forerunner of the mediums whose forte
01:12.568 --> 01:16.308
is fleecing by presuming on the credulity
01:16.485 --> 01:20.129
of the public. His mother, um,
01:20.418 --> 01:24.046
Elizabeth Betsy Hume McNeill, was known
01:24.546 --> 01:28.169
as a seer in Scotland. As were many of her predecessors, such as her
01:28.314 --> 01:31.881
great-uncle Colin Urquhart and her uncle Mr.
01:31.929 --> 01:35.882
Mackenzie. The supposed gift of Second Sight
01:36.382 --> 01:39.959
was often seen as a curse, as it often foretells impending tragedy and death.
01:41.520 --> 01:45.573
Danielle's father, William Hume, was reportedly
01:45.751 --> 01:48.702
the illegitimate son of Alexander, the 10th Earl of Hume.
01:49.660 --> 01:53.297
Evidence of this is supported by various payments meant for William being
01:53.329 --> 01:57.278
made by Alexander. So William married
01:57.406 --> 02:00.931
Elizabeth when he was 19 years old, and he
02:01.431 --> 02:05.242
soon found employment at the Belerno Paper Mill. They were soon moved
02:05.742 --> 02:08.896
into one of the small houses provided by the mill for its workforce.
02:09.425 --> 02:13.511
William was described as a bitter, morose, and unhappy man who
02:14.011 --> 02:17.725
drank and was often aggressive towards his wife. His parents had 8 children
02:17.822 --> 02:20.129
while they were living in a small— in a mill house.
02:20.722 --> 02:23.994
6 sons and 2 daughters. Uh, one of
02:24.494 --> 02:27.874
Daniel's brothers, Adam, died while at sea at the age of 17 while he was
02:27.922 --> 02:31.194
en route to Greenland. Home— or Hume says
02:31.611 --> 02:35.154
he saw it, he saw this in a vision, and it reportedly
02:35.555 --> 02:39.292
was confirmed 5 months later. Daniel was
02:39.628 --> 02:42.563
the third-born of his siblings. At, uh,
02:43.076 --> 02:46.299
year one of his life, he was deemed a delicate child,
02:46.315 --> 02:49.905
having a nervous temperament, and this led to him being placed
02:50.405 --> 02:53.671
with his childless aunt, his mother's sister Mary Cook.
02:54.328 --> 02:57.933
According to Daniel, his cradle rocked on its own, and while he lived
02:58.433 --> 03:01.138
at the Cooks' home, he also claims to have had a vision of a,
03:01.442 --> 03:05.368
of a cousin's death. Sometime between 1838
03:05.432 --> 03:08.781
and 1841, Hume's aunt and uncle
03:09.134 --> 03:12.306
decided to immigrate to the US with their adopted son,
03:12.675 --> 03:16.316
sailing in the cheapest class of steerage as they could not afford a cabin.
03:17.375 --> 03:20.474
After landing in New York, the Cooks traveled to Greenville, uh,
03:21.405 --> 03:24.696
north of or near Norwich, uh, Connecticut.
03:25.483 --> 03:29.240
The red-haired and freckled Hume attended school in Greenville,
03:29.433 --> 03:32.290
where he was known as Scotchy by the other students.
03:33.125 --> 03:36.738
The 13-year-old Hume did not join in sports, uh, with other
03:36.802 --> 03:40.334
boys, preferring to take walks in the local woods with a friend called
03:40.834 --> 03:44.247
Edwin. The 2 boys read the Bible to each other and told stories.
03:44.680 --> 03:47.599
They made a pact stating that if one or the other were to die,
03:47.807 --> 03:51.062
they would try to make contact after death. Daniel and
03:51.562 --> 03:55.600
his aunt soon moved to Troy, New York. Uh, Hume lost contact
03:55.648 --> 03:58.567
with Edwin until one night when, according to,
03:59.497 --> 04:02.688
uh, Lamont, Hume saw a brightly
04:02.784 --> 04:06.328
lit vision of him standing at the foot of the bed, which gave Hume the
04:06.828 --> 04:10.147
feeling that his friend was dead. Edwin made 3 circles in
04:10.179 --> 04:13.952
the air before disappearing, and a few days later a letter arrived
04:14.452 --> 04:18.496
stating that Edwin had died of malignant dysentery
04:18.609 --> 04:22.285
3 days before Hume's vision. A few years later,
04:22.302 --> 04:26.316
Hume and his aunt returned to Greenville, and Elizabeth Hume immigrated
04:26.816 --> 04:30.667
from Scotland to America with the surviving members of the family, all to
04:30.715 --> 04:34.071
live in Waterford, Connecticut, which was 12
04:34.087 --> 04:36.800
miles or 19 kilometers away from Cook's house.
04:38.101 --> 04:41.376
Uh, Hume and his mother's reunion was short-lived, however,
04:41.553 --> 04:44.748
as Elizabeth appeared to foretell her own death in 1850.
04:45.647 --> 04:48.762
Uh, Hume said he saw his mother in a vision saying,
04:49.437 --> 04:52.712
Dan, 12 o'clock, which was the time of
04:53.212 --> 04:56.550
her death. The house was soon after reportedly disturbed
04:56.582 --> 05:00.028
by rapping and knocking similar to that Similar
05:00.528 --> 05:03.871
to those that had occurred 2 years earlier at the home of the Fox sisters.
Load full transcript
05:04.792 --> 05:07.957
Ministers were called to the Cooks' house— a Baptist,
05:08.852 --> 05:12.354
a Congregationalist, um,
05:13.532 --> 05:16.566
and even a Wesleyan
05:16.759 --> 05:20.047
minister— who all believed that Hume was possessed by the
05:20.063 --> 05:23.460
devil, although Hume believed it was a gift from God.
05:23.992 --> 05:27.598
According to Hume, the knocking did not stop and a table started
05:27.630 --> 05:30.798
moving by itself. Even though Hume's aunt put a Bible on
05:31.298 --> 05:34.695
it and then placed her full body weight on it. The noises did not
05:35.195 --> 05:38.479
stop and began attracting unwanted attention from the neighbors, which led
05:38.979 --> 05:42.463
to Daniel being asked to leave the home. The 18-year-old Hume
05:42.963 --> 05:45.961
stayed with a friend in Willimantic, Connecticut,
05:46.480 --> 05:50.240
later— and later Lebanon, Connecticut. Hume held
05:50.740 --> 05:54.510
his first séance in March of 1851, which was reported
05:55.010 --> 05:58.719
in a Hartford newspaper managed by W.R. Hayden. Who wrote that the
05:59.219 --> 06:02.429
table moved without anyone touching it and kept moving when Hayden physically
06:02.929 --> 06:06.332
tried to stop it. After the newspaper report, Hume became
06:06.445 --> 06:10.347
well known in New England, traveling around healing the sick and communicating
06:10.363 --> 06:13.816
with the dead, although he wrote that he was not prepared for the sudden change
06:14.316 --> 06:16.129
in his life because of his supposed shyness.
06:17.607 --> 06:21.541
Hume never directly asked for money, although he lived very well on gifts,
06:21.622 --> 06:24.913
donations, and lodging from wealthy admirers. He felt
06:25.413 --> 06:28.743
that he was on a mission to demonstrate immortality and
06:28.824 --> 06:32.302
wished to interact with his clients as one gentleman to another
06:32.350 --> 06:36.100
rather than as an employee. In 1852,
06:36.293 --> 06:40.156
Hume was a guest at a house in Rufus Elmer— or
06:40.380 --> 06:43.554
the house of Rufus Elmer in Springfield, Massachusetts,
06:44.211 --> 06:48.362
giving séances 6 or 7 times a day, which were visited
06:48.394 --> 06:51.872
by crowds of people, including a Harvard professor by the name of David
06:52.001 --> 06:55.594
Wells. And a poet and editor of the New York
06:56.094 --> 06:59.573
Evening Post by the name of William Cullen Bryant. They were
06:59.605 --> 07:02.813
all convinced of Hume's credibility and wrote to the Springfield
07:03.313 --> 07:05.958
Republican newspaper stating that the room was well-lit,
07:06.600 --> 07:09.728
full inspections were allowed, and quoting here,
07:10.129 --> 07:13.899
we know that we were not imposed upon nor deceived,
07:14.220 --> 07:18.199
end quote. It was also reported that one of Hume's demonstrations
07:18.938 --> 07:22.970
Um, or that at one of Hume's demonstrations, 5 men of heavy build
07:23.470 --> 07:27.533
with a combined weight of estimated 850
pounds sat
07:27.613 --> 07:31.421
on a table and yet it still moved, while others saw a tremulous
07:31.630 --> 07:34.265
phosphorescent light gleam over the walls.
07:35.405 --> 07:39.181
Hume was investigated by numerous people such as Professor Robert
07:39.681 --> 07:42.747
Hare, the inventor of the oxyhydrogen blowpipe,
07:43.358 --> 07:47.056
and John W. Edmonds, a trial court judge who
07:47.088 --> 07:50.142
were skeptical but later were said to have
07:50.174 --> 07:51.945
believed Hume was not fraudulent.
07:54.110 --> 07:58.241
So, all righty then. In his book Incidents
07:58.741 --> 08:02.437
in My Life, Hume claims that in August of 1852
08:02.582 --> 08:06.415
in South Manchester, Connecticut, at the house of Ward Cheney,
08:07.398 --> 08:11.424
a successful silk manufacturer, he was reportedly seen
08:11.924 --> 08:15.400
to levitate twice then rise up to the ceiling with louder
08:15.900 --> 08:20.054
rapping and knocking than ever before, more aggressive table movements,
08:20.375 --> 08:23.600
and the sounds of a ship at sea in a storm. Good grief.
08:24.130 --> 08:28.206
Although persons present said that the room was badly lit, or too badly lit
08:28.239 --> 08:32.427
to see the spirit lights, uh, New York was now interested
08:32.927 --> 08:36.921
in him and his abilities, so he moved to an apartment at Bryant Park
08:37.049 --> 08:40.596
on 42nd Street. His most verbal critic
08:41.096 --> 08:43.597
in New York was William Makepeace Thackeray,
08:44.705 --> 08:46.550
the author of Vanity Fair at the time.
08:47.738 --> 08:51.590
Thackeray dismissed Hume's abilities as dire humbug
08:51.975 --> 08:54.286
and dreary and foolish superstition,
08:55.104 --> 08:57.977
although Thackeray had been impressed when he saw a table turning.
08:58.796 --> 09:02.070
Hume thought that Thackeray was the most skeptical inquirer
09:02.182 --> 09:05.376
he had ever met, and as Thackeray made his thoughts public,
09:05.472 --> 09:08.329
Hume faced public skepticism and further scrutiny.
09:09.148 --> 09:12.583
Hume traveled between Hartford and Springfield, or Hartford, Springfield,
09:12.615 --> 09:15.714
and Boston during the next few months and settled in
09:15.826 --> 09:21.140
Newburgh, uh, by the Hudson River in the summer of 1853.
09:21.349 --> 09:24.495
He resided at the Theological Institute but took no
09:24.995 --> 09:28.108
part in any of the theological discussions held there, as he wanted to take a
09:28.608 --> 09:32.250
course in medicine. Dr. Hull funded Hume's studies
09:32.442 --> 09:36.456
and offered to pay him $5 a day for his séances. But Home
09:36.956 --> 09:41.208
refused, as always. His idea was to fund his work with a legitimate salary
09:41.353 --> 09:44.997
by practicing medicine, but he became ill in 1854
09:45.206 --> 09:48.850
and had stopped his studies. Home was diagnosed with tuberculosis,
09:49.123 --> 09:52.816
and his doctor— doctors recommended recuperation— recuperation
09:53.316 --> 09:56.830
in Europe. I don't know why I wanted to say England. In Europe.
09:57.231 --> 10:00.827
His last séance in America was March 1855 in Hartford,
10:00.859 --> 10:04.492
Connecticut. Before he eventually traveled to Boston and sailed
10:04.992 --> 10:08.129
to England on board the Africa at the end of March.
10:09.430 --> 10:13.054
Hume's name was originally Daniel Hume, but by the time he arrived in
10:13.086 --> 10:17.033
Europe, he had lengthened it to Daniel Douglas Hume
10:17.389 --> 10:21.050
in reference to the Scottish House of Hume, which his father claimed
10:21.114 --> 10:24.366
to be a part of. In London,
10:24.399 --> 10:28.350
Hume found a believer in spiritualism by the name of William Cox, who owned
10:28.850 --> 10:32.367
a large hotel at 53, 54, and 55
10:32.463 --> 10:35.737
Jermyn Street, London. Ascoxe was so enamored of,
10:36.250 --> 10:39.764
or by, Hume's abilities, he let him stay at the hotel
10:40.264 --> 10:43.936
without payment. Robert Owen, an 83-year-old social reformer,
10:44.016 --> 10:47.626
was also staying at the hotel and introduced Hume to many of his friends in
10:48.126 --> 10:51.364
London society. At the time, Hume was described as tall
10:51.557 --> 10:56.017
and thin, with blue eyes and auburn hair, fastidiously dressed
10:56.146 --> 10:59.901
but seriously ill with consumption. Nevertheless,
10:59.981 --> 11:03.126
he held sittings for notable people in full daylight,
11:03.271 --> 11:06.946
moving objects that were some distance away. Home's fame
11:07.138 --> 11:10.556
grew, fueled by his ostensible feats of levitation.
11:11.134 --> 11:13.846
William Crookes, an English chemist and physicist,
11:14.344 --> 11:17.938
claimed Home could— Home could levitate 5 to 7 feet above
11:18.035 --> 11:22.271
the floor. Crookes wrote, we all saw him rise from the ground slowly
11:22.303 --> 11:26.137
to a height of about 6 inches remain there for about
11:26.637 --> 11:30.751
10 seconds, and then slowly descend. In the following years, Home traveled across
11:30.880 --> 11:34.372
continental Europe, and always as a guest of wealthy patrons.
11:35.045 --> 11:37.817
In Paris, he was summoned to the Tuileries,
11:38.634 --> 11:42.640
uh, to perform a séance for Napoleon III. He also performed
11:43.140 --> 11:46.950
for Queen Sophie of the Netherlands, who wrote, I saw him 4 times.
11:47.142 --> 11:50.427
I felt a hand tipping my finger. I saw a
11:50.491 --> 11:53.807
heavy golden bell moving along from one person to another.
11:54.352 --> 11:57.479
I saw my handkerchief move along and return to me with
11:57.979 --> 12:01.536
a knot. He himself is a pale, sickly, rather handsome young
12:01.648 --> 12:05.945
man, but without a look or anything which would either fascinate
12:06.057 --> 12:09.505
or frighten you. It is wonderful. I am so glad to have seen
12:10.005 --> 12:12.230
it. In 1866,
12:12.952 --> 12:16.335
Mrs. Jane Leon, a wealthy widow, adopted Hume
12:16.835 --> 12:20.280
as her son, giving him £60,000 in
an attempt to gain
12:20.408 --> 12:24.453
an introduction into high society. Finding that the adoption did not change
12:24.518 --> 12:27.984
her social situation, Leon changed her
12:28.484 --> 12:31.564
mind and brought a suit for the return of her money from Home on the
12:31.629 --> 12:34.528
grounds that it had been obtained by spiritual influence.
12:36.076 --> 12:39.228
Under British law, the defendant bears the burden of proof in such a case,
12:39.389 --> 12:43.121
and proof was impossible since there was no physical evidence. The case
12:43.137 --> 12:46.470
was decided against Home, Mrs. Leon's money was returned,
12:47.023 --> 12:50.704
and the press pilloried Home's reputation. Hume's high
12:51.204 --> 12:54.746
society acquaintances thought that he behaved like a complete gentleman throughout the ordeal,
12:55.195 --> 12:57.570
and he did not lose a single important friend.
12:58.340 --> 13:02.014
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a spiritualist who supported the mediumship
13:02.514 --> 13:05.784
of Hume, stated he was unusual in that he had 4 different
13:06.284 --> 13:10.693
types of mediumship: direct voice, the ability to let spirits audibly speak;
13:11.062 --> 13:14.318
trance speaker, uh, the ability to let spirits
13:14.784 --> 13:18.445
speak through oneself; clairvoyant, ability to see things
13:18.542 --> 13:21.871
that are out of view, and physical medium, moving objects
13:22.371 --> 13:26.125
at a distance via levitation or any other means,
13:26.468 --> 13:29.803
right? Um, which was the type of mediumship in which
13:29.836 --> 13:33.364
he had no equal. So a
13:33.864 --> 13:37.301
few of the alleged, alleged levitations. Um,
13:37.986 --> 13:41.229
a feat of low levitation was recorded by paranormal
13:41.729 --> 13:45.281
historian Frank Podmore Quoting here, uh, we all saw
13:45.329 --> 13:48.671
him rise from the ground slowly to a height of about 6 inches,
13:49.104 --> 13:52.526
remain there for about 10 seconds, and then slowly descend,
13:52.799 --> 13:56.043
end quote. Home made one of his future closest
13:56.156 --> 13:59.416
friends in 1867, the young Lord Adair,
14:00.091 --> 14:02.645
uh, later the 4th Earl of Dunraven.
14:04.026 --> 14:08.026
Uh, Adair was fascinated by Home and began documenting the séances
14:08.058 --> 14:11.688
they held. The following year, Home was said to have levitated out of the
14:12.188 --> 14:16.017
3rd-story window of one room and back in through the window of the adjoining
14:16.114 --> 14:18.884
room in front of 3 witnesses, being Adair,
14:18.965 --> 14:22.438
Captain Wynne, and Lord Lindsay. Uh,
14:23.139 --> 14:27.145
Lord Adair stated that Home swung out and in of a window
14:27.226 --> 14:30.948
in a horizontal position. However, John Sladek had pointed
14:31.013 --> 14:34.568
out that all 3 witnesses gave contradictory information about the levitation.
14:35.306 --> 14:38.094
Each contradicting themselves about specific details.
14:39.408 --> 14:43.253
So Adair would say
the incident took place at 5 Buckingham Gate,
14:43.317 --> 14:46.650
Kensington. Um, he would also then say
14:47.259 --> 14:51.216
at Ashley Place, Westminster. Uh, Lindsay would say
14:51.345 --> 14:54.245
at Victoria Street, Westminster. Um,
14:54.469 --> 14:57.722
Adair would then say there was a ledge 4 inches wide below the
14:57.754 --> 15:02.128
windows. Uh, Lindsay would then say a ledge 1.5
15:02.224 --> 15:05.191
inches wide. But then also would say no foothold at all.
15:06.373 --> 15:09.595
Adair would say balconies 7 feet apart. Lindsay would
15:10.095 --> 15:13.547
say no balconies at all. Lindsay would say
15:14.047 --> 15:18.012
the windows were 85 feet from the street, but then would also say 70 feet.
15:18.319 --> 15:21.558
Hume would say 80 feet. Adair would say
15:22.058 --> 15:25.834
on the 3rd floor, and he would then later— or he would then say on
15:25.931 --> 15:30.612
the 1st floor, and then say it would
15:31.112 --> 15:34.223
was dark. Lindsay would say there was bright moonlight. Adair would say Hume was
15:34.723 --> 15:37.380
asleep in one room and the witnesses went into the next.
15:38.549 --> 15:42.315
And he would then say Hume left the witnesses in one room and went himself
15:42.395 --> 15:45.936
into the next. So they were just all over the place. All over the
15:46.436 --> 15:49.541
place. Everybody was saying one thing and then turning around saying something else and blah
15:50.041 --> 15:53.114
blah blah blah blah, basically. Pretty much couldn't even get it straight where they were
15:53.614 --> 15:56.431
even at. No, not even the address. Nope.
15:56.640 --> 15:59.834
That's kind of nuts. But anyway, so Trevor H. Hall,
16:00.123 --> 16:03.767
who researched the case in detail, established the levitation took place
16:03.879 --> 16:07.716
at Ashley Place in Westminster at a height of 35 feet
16:07.828 --> 16:11.391
and suggested that rather than levitating, Hume had stepped across
16:11.536 --> 16:14.538
a gap in 4 feet between 2 iron balconies.
16:15.613 --> 16:18.358
Gordon Stein, or same Stein,
16:18.968 --> 16:22.082
also noted that the gap between 2 balconies was only 4 feet,
16:22.195 --> 16:26.191
making passing between them entirely feasible. Joseph McCabe
16:26.691 --> 16:30.589
wrote regarding the alleged levitation, no one professes to have seen Home
16:30.782 --> 16:34.585
carried from window to window. Home told the 3 men who were
16:34.618 --> 16:38.213
present that he was going to be wafted and then set up a state
16:38.309 --> 16:41.535
of very nervous expectation. Both Lord Crawford
16:41.760 --> 16:45.580
and Lord Adair say they were warned. Then Lord Crawford say
16:45.708 --> 16:48.966
that he was the shadow on the wall of
16:49.063 --> 16:52.257
Home, or that he saw the shadow on the wall of Home
16:52.353 --> 16:55.741
entering the room. Horizontally, and then as the
16:56.241 --> 16:59.819
moon whom— or by whose light he professes to have seen the shadow was
17:00.319 --> 17:04.075
at most only 3 days old, his testimony was absolutely worthless.
17:05.135 --> 17:08.443
Lord Adair claims only that he saw Hume
17:08.587 --> 17:11.638
in the dark standing upright outside the window.
17:12.120 --> 17:15.862
In the dark, it was an almost moonless December night. One could
17:15.878 --> 17:19.234
not, as a matter of fact, say very positively whether Hume was
17:19.330 --> 17:23.118
outside or inside. But in any case, he acknowledges that
17:23.618 --> 17:26.888
there was a 19-inch windowsill outside the window, and Home
17:27.388 --> 17:31.910
could stand on that. Another possible natural explanation
17:31.942 --> 17:35.487
for Home's famous levitation was proposed
17:35.987 --> 17:39.851
by the physical researcher Guy William Lambert,
17:40.284 --> 17:43.573
who suggested he had attached a rope to the chimneys of the roof of
17:44.073 --> 17:48.003
the building and hung the rope down unseen to the 3rd floor. During the alleged
17:48.051 --> 17:51.650
levitation, Home swung out and into
17:51.682 --> 17:54.510
the room by using a double rope maneuver.
17:55.458 --> 17:58.799
Lambert's rope hypothesis was supported by the magician John
17:58.912 --> 18:02.559
Booth. Author Arthur Conan Doyle
18:02.784 --> 18:06.591
says there were many cases on record of Home levitating—
18:07.105 --> 18:10.736
Home levitating, sorry— but skeptics assert the alleged
18:11.236 --> 18:14.798
levitations occurred in darkened conditions, susceptible to
18:15.298 --> 18:19.593
trickery, right? Science historian Sherri Lynn Lyons has stated
18:19.625 --> 18:22.912
that a possible explanation for Hume's alleged levitation
18:23.412 --> 18:26.761
phenomenon, or phenomena, was revealed in the 12th century
18:27.261 --> 18:31.411
by Clarence E. Willard, who lived from 1882
18:31.556 --> 18:35.084
to 1962. Uh, William revealed
18:35.584 --> 18:39.237
his technique in 1958 to members of the Society
18:39.269 --> 18:43.047
of American Magicians. He demonstrated how he could add 2 inches
18:43.080 --> 18:46.325
to his height by stretching. According to Lyons,
18:46.406 --> 18:50.342
it is quite likely that Hume used a similar technique to the one that
18:50.390 --> 18:54.210
Willard used for decades— like, used decades later,
18:54.355 --> 18:57.624
right? Author Donald Sorell
18:57.737 --> 19:02.374
Thomas has asserted that Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin,
19:02.873 --> 19:06.774
the French stage magician, was refused admission to
19:06.839 --> 19:10.830
Hume's séances. In opposition to this, spiritualists have
19:11.330 --> 19:14.652
said that Houdini, uh, was unable to explain
19:14.684 --> 19:17.831
the phenomena at a Hume
19:18.331 --> 19:22.247
séance. Right. Regarding both of these claims, Peter Lamont has noted,
19:22.953 --> 19:26.373
it is probably worth noting, if only to avoid confusion,
19:26.726 --> 19:30.869
that such claims, much like those made by spiritualists that conjurers
19:31.062 --> 19:35.077
were unable to explain the phenomena,
were often unfounded.
19:35.785 --> 19:39.546
For example, spiritualists claimed that Robert Houdin had been
19:39.900 --> 19:43.518
unable to explain what happened at a Home séance,
19:44.066 --> 19:48.107
and critics claimed that Home had refused an invitation to
19:48.607 --> 19:52.457
perform in front of Robert Houdin. There is, however, not a shred of evidence
19:52.474 --> 19:56.230
for either of these claims. As for allegations
19:56.730 --> 20:00.985
of fraud, it is often claimed in parapsychology and spiritualist books
20:01.142 --> 20:04.925
that Hume was never caught in fraud. However, skeptics have stated
20:04.973 --> 20:08.083
that this claim does not hold up to scrutiny, as Hume was
20:08.115 --> 20:11.770
caught utilizing tricks by different witnesses on different occasions.
20:12.683 --> 20:16.370
Gordon Stein noted that while the statement that Hume was never
20:16.434 --> 20:20.217
caught in fraud has been made many times, it simply is not
20:20.717 --> 20:24.530
true. It is simply that Hume was never publicly exposed in fraud.
20:25.572 --> 20:29.579
Privately, he was caught in fraud several times. In addition,
20:29.595 --> 20:32.945
there are natural explanations to both possible and
20:33.010 --> 20:35.212
unlikely for each of his phenomena.
20:36.755 --> 20:40.774
So at a séance in the house of the solicitor John Snaith Reimer
20:41.064 --> 20:45.468
in, uh, Ailing Ealing in July 1855,
20:45.903 --> 20:49.445
a sitter by the name of Frederick Merrifield observed that
20:49.510 --> 20:52.943
a quote-unquote spirit hand was in fact a false
20:53.057 --> 20:55.773
limb attached on the end of Home's arm.
20:56.695 --> 21:00.236
Merrifield also claimed to have observed, observed Home
21:00.349 --> 21:04.118
use his foot in the séance room. The poet Robert
21:04.618 --> 21:08.180
Browning and his wife Elizabeth attended a séance on June 23rd
21:08.437 --> 21:12.274
and July of 1855 in
21:12.932 --> 21:17.412
Ealing, whatever, with the Reimers. In 1895,
21:17.749 --> 21:22.068
after the deaths of Robert and Elizabeth, the journalist Frederick Greenwood
21:22.646 --> 21:26.548
alleged that Browning had told him that during the séance
21:26.917 --> 21:30.128
he had taken hold of a luminous object that appeared above the edge
21:30.628 --> 21:33.415
of the table which turned out to be Hume's naked foot.
21:34.120 --> 21:37.597
Oh my goodness. So that's funny. That is slightly comical, I won't lie.
21:38.623 --> 21:41.956
Just imagining being in the room for that. Oh yeah, that would
21:42.132 --> 21:45.625
be funny. You see some quote-unquote luminous object
21:45.898 --> 21:50.497
and some guy just reaches out and grabs it and it's the guy's foot.
21:50.705 --> 21:54.166
I know, so stupid. That would be so awkward
21:54.711 --> 21:57.611
for everybody involved. Yeah.
21:57.932 --> 22:01.361
It's just so dope. Oh my gosh,
22:01.458 --> 22:04.567
I love it. So later, Browning's son Robert,
22:04.663 --> 22:08.638
in a letter to the London Times, uh, on the 5th of December in
22:08.734 --> 22:12.035
1902, it also referred to
22:12.535 --> 22:16.923
the incident saying that Browning had caught hold of Holmes' foot— Hume's foot under
22:17.423 --> 22:20.994
the table. The allegation was repeated by Harry Houdini and
22:21.074 --> 22:24.696
later writers, uh, but detailed descriptions
22:25.196 --> 22:29.024
of the séance written soon afterwards by Robert and Elizabeth make no mention of any
22:29.524 --> 22:33.483
such incident. Browning's account states that although
22:33.595 --> 22:36.691
he was promised he would be allowed to hold a spirit hand,
22:37.909 --> 22:41.582
the promise was not kept. So, a writing
22:41.694 --> 22:45.383
in the Journal for the Society of Physical Research
22:45.447 --> 22:48.767
claims that Home was caught using his foot to fake supposed
22:49.267 --> 22:52.087
spirit events during a séance in 1857.
22:53.097 --> 22:56.802
It was written that Home wore thin shoes, easy to take off and draw
22:56.994 --> 23:00.122
on, and also cut socks that left the toes free.
23:01.004 --> 23:04.997
Quoting here, at the appropriate moment, he takes off one of the shoes and
23:05.029 --> 23:08.429
with his foot pulls a dress here, a dress there, rings a
23:08.541 --> 23:12.054
bell, knocks one way and another, and the thing done,
23:12.166 --> 23:15.357
quickly puts the shoe on again, end quote.
23:16.175 --> 23:19.944
Hume positioned himself between the Empress and Napoleon III.
23:20.249 --> 23:24.342
One of his séance sitters known as General Flurry also suspected
23:24.842 --> 23:28.589
that Hume was utilizing trickery and asked to leave, but returned
23:28.686 --> 23:31.759
unobserved to watch from another room behind Hume.
23:32.760 --> 23:36.186
He saw Hume slip his foot from his shoe and touch the arm of the
23:36.686 --> 23:39.549
Empress, who believed it to be one of her dead children.
23:40.360 --> 23:43.896
That's so sad. It is. And so scummy
23:44.009 --> 23:47.610
if true. It is. It's very scummy, and they
23:48.110 --> 23:50.663
do it though. I mean, it's true. I mean, you, you know,
23:51.015 --> 23:54.590
you've heard things like this happening. Oh, absolutely. And it's sad.
23:54.702 --> 23:58.036
It is. It's very sad. That's why I said it's—
23:59.527 --> 24:03.406
so on the assumption that this is true, what happens
24:03.518 --> 24:06.900
next is so satisfying. So the observer
24:07.400 --> 24:11.500
stepped forward and revealed the fraud, and Hume was conducted
24:11.837 --> 24:15.059
out of the country. The order was to keep the
24:15.559 --> 24:16.437
incident secret, however.
24:18.484 --> 24:22.117
So yeah. Oh well. Oh no,
24:23.393 --> 24:27.496
I guess, huh? So the journalist
24:27.723 --> 24:31.478
Delia Logan, who attended a séance with Hume in London, claimed that
24:31.543 --> 24:35.411
Hume had used a phosphorus trick during the séance.
24:35.508 --> 24:39.285
Luminous hands were observed, and the, the host told
24:39.785 -->
24:43.175
Logan that they had seen Hume place a bottle
24:43.675 --> 24:46.902
upon the mantle The host slipped the bottle
24:47.402 --> 24:50.230
from his pocket and when examined the next— or into his pocket,
24:50.423 --> 24:54.251
and when examined the next day, it was found to contain phosphorus
24:54.364 --> 24:57.845
oil. So speculations
24:57.943 --> 25:02.145
on trickery. The researcher— researchers
25:02.339 --> 25:06.117
Frank Podmore in 1910, Milburn Christopher
25:06.182 --> 25:09.377
in 1970, Trevor H. Hall in 1984,
25:10.086 --> 25:13.535
and Gordon Stein in 1993 were all convinced
25:14.035 --> 25:17.304
that Home was a fraud and have provided a source of speculation
25:17.384 --> 25:20.416
on the ways in which he could have duped his séance sitters.
25:21.410 --> 25:24.795
Skeptics have claimed the lighting condition of Home's
25:25.295 --> 25:28.628
séances— or criticized the lighting conditions anyway.
25:29.270 --> 25:33.617
Home and his followers claimed that some of the séances took place in quote-unquote
25:33.681 --> 25:36.841
light, but this was nothing more than a few candles or
25:36.905 --> 25:39.715
some glow in the from the fireplace or open window.
25:40.406 --> 25:44.053
Home would adjust the lighting to his needs, and with no objections from his
25:44.553 --> 25:48.311
séance sitters. Uh, for example, there was this report from a witness,
25:48.921 --> 25:52.681
uh, the room was very dark. Home's hands were visible only as
25:52.729 --> 25:55.943
a faint white heap. Home selected
25:56.443 --> 25:59.991
the séance sitters who sat next to him. His hands and feet were not controlled,
26:00.409 --> 26:04.169
and according to Frank Podmore, no precautions were taken against trickery.
26:04.924 --> 26:07.862
Home was never searched before or after his séances.
26:08.231 --> 26:12.599
Science historian Sherilyn Lyons wrote that the glowing or light-emitting
26:12.695 --> 26:16.372
hands in his séances could easily be explained
26:16.404 --> 26:19.021
by rubbing the oil of phosphorus on his hands.
26:20.017 --> 26:23.758
It has been suggested that the quote-unquote spirit hands in the séances
26:23.935 --> 26:27.772
of Home were made of gloves stuffed with the séance—
26:28.125 --> 26:31.498
or with the substance, sorry. Robert Browning believed that they,
26:31.579 --> 26:33.667
that they were attached to Hume's feet.
26:35.177 --> 26:38.567
A lot of foot stuff going on. Fair enough. It was like that with the
26:39.067 --> 26:42.608
Fox sisters as well in the last episode. Yeah, it's very much so. A lot
26:43.108 --> 26:46.476
of wrapping and feet involved, people grabbing feet, even in this one.
26:47.760 --> 26:51.295
Hume was a sculptor, uh, and his studio in
26:51.408 --> 26:55.072
Rome contained sculpted hands. Lyons has speculated
26:55.104 --> 26:58.314
that he may have substituted sculpted hands leaving
26:58.346 --> 27:01.522
his real hands free to perform phenomena in the séance room.
27:02.132 --> 27:06.013
Makes sense. Hume was known for his alleged feat of— feat,
27:06.447 --> 27:10.088
um, F-E-A-T— of handling a heated lump of coal taken
27:10.152 --> 27:14.371
from a fire. The magician Henry Evans speculated that this was a juggling
27:14.467 --> 27:18.236
trick performing— performed using a hidden piece of platinum.
27:19.520 --> 27:21.878
Uh, which also, to be fair,
27:22.824 --> 27:26.642
holding a piece of hot coal would not be terribly
27:26.658 --> 27:29.930
hard to trick people with. Not necessarily, just depend.
27:30.026 --> 27:32.898
I mean, there's a lot— like, even back then, I mean, there's lots of things
27:32.914 --> 27:36.651
you could do, right? So here, Ward Carrington
27:36.699 --> 27:39.876
described Evans' hypothesis as certainly
27:40.052 --> 27:44.126
ingenious, but pointed out William Crookes, an experienced
27:44.159 --> 27:47.495
chemist who was present at a séance whilst Home was
27:47.527 --> 27:51.056
performing the feat and would have known how to distinguish the
27:51.556 --> 27:55.052
difference between coal and platinum. Right. Frank Podmore wrote
27:55.552 --> 27:58.969
that most of the fire feats could have easily been performed by conjuring
27:59.001 --> 28:03.015
tricks and sleight of hand, but hallucination and sense
28:03.515 --> 28:07.622
deception have been explained, or have explained Crookes'
28:07.815 --> 28:11.250
claim about observing flames from human
28:11.282 --> 28:14.814
fingers. Right. Between 1870 and 1873,
28:14.975 --> 28:17.864
chemist and physicist William Crookes,
28:18.410 --> 28:21.926
uh, conducted experiments to determine the validity of
28:22.183 --> 28:26.302
the phenomena. Produced by 3 mediums: Florence Cook,
28:26.463 --> 28:30.279
Kate Fox, and Home. Uh, Crookes' final
28:30.779 --> 28:34.961
report in 1874 concluded that the phenomena produced by all 3 mediums
28:35.138 --> 28:39.784
were genuine, a result which was roundly derided
28:39.817 --> 28:42.907
by the scientific establishment. Uh,
28:43.584 --> 28:47.304
Crookes recorded that he controlled and secured Home by
28:47.804 --> 28:51.410
placing his feet on the top of Home's head. Okay, a lot
28:51.490 --> 28:55.103
of foot stuff. Definitely a lot of foot stuff in Hume's life.
28:55.360 --> 28:58.555
Very— yeah, very much so. Must have been a foot guy.
28:59.133 --> 29:03.453
Maybe so, maybe so. Uh, Crook's method of foot control later proved
29:03.469 --> 29:08.157
inadequate when used in, uh, Eusapia Palladino—
29:09.474 --> 29:13.006
or when used with, uh, as she merely slipped her foot
29:13.506 --> 29:16.844
out and into her sturdy shoe. In addition,
29:17.743 --> 29:21.613
Crookes' motives, methods, and conclusions with regard to Florence Cook
29:21.998 --> 29:25.049
were called into question both at the time and subsequently,
29:25.130 --> 29:28.887
casting doubt on his conclusions about Home. Home was
29:28.919 --> 29:32.580
investigated by Crookes in a self-built laboratory at the rear of his
29:32.613 -->
29:36.354
house at Mornington Road, North London,
29:36.402 --> 29:39.967
in 1871. No plans of the laboratory have
29:39.999 --> 29:43.339
been found, and there is no contemporary description of it.
29:43.836 --> 29:48.068
Crookes wrote, the board and spring balance experiment
29:48.100 --> 29:51.435
was a success with Home and has proven beyond doubt the
29:51.451 --> 29:53.823
existence of a psychic force.
29:54.657 --> 29:58.200
However, the experiment could be easily dismissed as the result of
29:58.700 --> 30:02.288
vibrations caused by the passage of Euston trains and
30:02.788 --> 30:06.023
the large railway cutting near his house in London. The experiment
30:06.055 --> 30:09.405
was not repeatable and sometimes failed to produce any phenomena.
30:10.367 --> 30:14.198
Uh, the experiment was rejected and ridiculed by the scientific community
30:14.294 --> 30:18.527
for lack of scientific controls. In the experiment, Home refused
30:18.559 --> 30:21.861
for Crookes to be near him and would draw attention to something on the other
30:22.361 --> 30:25.660
side of the room or make conversation for diversionary signals.
30:26.153 --> 30:29.299
In 1871, Balfour Stewart,
30:29.604 --> 30:32.890
in an article for Nature, wrote that the experiments were not
30:33.390 --> 30:36.514
conducted in broad daylight before a large unbiased audience,
30:37.060 --> 30:41.459
and the results were inconclusive. Stewart suspected the phenomena observed
30:41.475 --> 30:45.232
were subjective rather than objective, occurring in
30:45.264 --> 30:48.877
the imaginations of those present rather than the outward physical
30:49.377 --> 30:52.811
world. In the same year, P.J. Earwaker wrote a,
30:53.678 --> 30:57.307
uh, science review that heavily criticized the Crookes experiments
30:57.628 --> 31:01.160
for their poor design, concluding that they were pseudoscientific.
31:01.806 --> 31:05.140
According to Ehrweicker, for in truth they are the very opposite
31:05.640 --> 31:09.121
of scientific. Even to call them unscientific is not strong enough.
31:09.670 --> 31:11.858
Clumsy and futile are nearer the truth.
31:13.470 --> 31:16.825
The engineer Coleman Sellers questioned the origin and weight of
31:16.889 --> 31:20.729
the board used with the balance spring apparatus. Sellers wrote
31:20.794 --> 31:24.425
that a standard mahogany board weighs around 13.5
31:24.522 --> 31:28.276
pounds, but the one used in Crookes' experiment may have been at default
31:28.356 --> 31:32.187
only 6 pounds. Crookes responded to Sellers
31:32.283 --> 31:36.402
claiming the board weighed 6 pounds and this was not a mistake. He also
31:36.902 --> 31:41.035
stated he had the board for about 16 years and it was originally
31:41.535 --> 31:45.410
cut in a lumberyard. Regarding Crookes, the magician Harry Houdini
31:45.507 --> 31:48.937
wrote, this is not the slightest— or there is not the slightest doubt
31:48.953 --> 31:52.094
in my mind that this brainy man was hoodwinked and
31:52.594 --> 31:56.069
that his confidence was betrayed by the so-called mediums that he tested.
31:56.744 --> 31:59.957
His powers of observation were blinded and his reasoning
32:00.102 --> 32:04.360
faculties so blunted by his prejudice in favor of anything psychic
32:04.520 --> 32:07.673
or occult that he could not or would not resist
32:08.173 --> 32:11.484
the influence. In the accordion experiment,
32:11.597 --> 32:15.160
Hume sat at a table with Crookes and another observer on either side
32:15.660 --> 32:18.917
of him, each with a foot on one of Hume's feet. Hume inserted his
32:19.014 --> 32:22.324
hands inside a wire cage that was pushed under the table.
32:23.107 --> 32:26.363
One of Home's hands was placed on top of the table and the
32:26.395 --> 32:30.197
other inside the cage, which held an accordion on the non-key
32:30.697 --> 32:34.576
side, so the keyed end was hanging downwards. The accordion
32:35.076 --> 32:39.067
was reported to have played musical sounds. However, the amount of light
32:39.083 --> 32:42.452
in the room was not stated, and the accordion was not observed
32:42.952 --> 32:46.237
in good light. According to Frank Podmore, there was no evidence the
32:46.737 --> 32:50.312
accordion played at all, as the keys were not observed to have been or
32:50.812 --> 32:54.456
to have moved. Podmore suggested the musical sounds
32:54.553 --> 32:57.798
could have come from an automatic instrument that Home had concealed.
32:57.958 --> 33:01.958
In 1871, William Benjamin Carpenter wrote
33:02.458 --> 33:05.782
a critical evaluation of the Crookes experiments with Home in
33:05.814 --> 33:09.781
the Quarterly Review. Carpenter wrote that although Crookes,
33:09.990 --> 33:13.283
his assistant, and Sergeant Cox claimed to have observed
33:13.299 --> 33:16.528
the accordion float in the cage, Dr. Huggins did
33:16.560 --> 33:19.789
not testify to this. And no information was given on whether the
33:20.289 --> 33:22.937
keys and bellows were seen to move.
33:23.467 --> 33:26.905
According to Carpenter, no solid explanation
33:27.001 --> 33:30.840
could be given until the experiment is repeated. However, he suggested
33:30.872 --> 33:34.422
that the accordion feat that Home performed
33:34.952 --> 33:37.827
may have been a conjuring trick achieved with one hand.
33:38.421 --> 33:42.405
Carpenter concluded that Crookes could or should have repeated the experiment
33:42.437 --> 33:46.114
in open daylight Uh, without the cage and the presence of
33:46.194 --> 33:49.903
other witnesses. J.P. Earwaker heavily criticized
33:49.968 --> 33:53.789
the design of the accordion experiment as it took place under a dining room
33:53.853 --> 33:57.193
table. Earwaker, who read Crookes' report,
33:57.225 --> 34:01.063
noted that no reason for this strangest of all strange positions
34:01.563 --> 34:04.820
is even hinted at. He also wrote, it never occurred to Crookes
34:05.320 --> 34:08.722
to notice whether the keys were not depressed or were depressed
or not.
34:09.492 --> 34:12.914
It would be obvious if the keys were not pressed down. It was
34:12.946 --> 34:16.496
impossible for the music really to have come from the accordion, and its
34:16.625 --> 34:19.083
true source must have been looked for elsewhere.
34:20.095 --> 34:23.597
The writer Amos Norton Craft suggested a false keyboard.
34:24.015 --> 34:27.694
The trick has been, or has since been, often repeated and explained.
34:28.208 --> 34:31.373
The medium must have the semblance of keyboard, uh,
34:31.582 --> 34:35.277
made of some light material concealed in his coat sleeve or
34:35.777 --> 34:39.198
about his person. This he then attaches to the bottom of the accord— the
34:39.698 --> 34:42.780
bottom of the accordion, which he holds in his hand. Then,
34:43.616 --> 34:46.893
uh, when unobserved, while the learned professor is taking
34:47.006 --> 34:50.701
down his notes for the public press, he reverses the
34:51.201 --> 34:54.492
accordion and attaches the false keyboard on the bottom by means of a
34:54.992 --> 34:58.460
small hook attached to it, fastens it to the side of the basket.
34:59.038 --> 35:02.653
Having now the real keyboard in his hand, he can produce musical
35:03.153 --> 35:05.828
sounds. Afterward, the accordion floated about,
35:06.421 --> 35:10.493
uh, in the basket under the table without giving contact of
35:10.605 --> 35:13.908
Mr. Hughes' hand. The subsequent phenomenon was
35:13.972 --> 35:17.915
given to avoid immediate examination of the first by keeping Professor
35:17.979 --> 35:21.474
Crookes in suspense and giving the medium time
35:21.586 --> 35:25.722
to reverse the instrument and conceal in his clothing the false keyboard which
35:25.754 --> 35:29.569
had been on the bottom of the instrument. The keyboard which had been
35:30.022 --> 35:33.727
Uh, the accordion was now suspended by means of a small hook
35:34.051 --> 35:37.657
fastened to a dark thread, which be in— which would be invisible
35:37.786 --> 35:40.976
in gaslight. Gordon Stein then
35:40.992 --> 35:45.604
wrote, Hume could easily have produced the sound of the accordion concertina
35:46.185 --> 35:50.376
by the use of a small harmonica concealed in his mouth. The up-and-down
35:50.472 --> 35:54.277
movement of the accordion could easily have been produced by catching the bottom of
35:54.325 --> 35:57.138
the accordion in a loop of black thread or on a hook.
35:58.039 --> 36:01.775
Hume retired due to ill health. The tuberculosis from which he
36:02.275 --> 36:05.976
had suffered for much of his life was advancing, and he and his
36:06.040 --> 36:09.953
powers were failing. He died on the 21st
36:09.985 --> 36:13.192
of June, 1886, at the age of 53,
36:13.721 --> 36:16.944
and was buried in the Russian Cemetery of Saint-Germain-en-Laye
36:17.489 --> 36:20.119
in Paris. And that's it. Well,
36:20.536 --> 36:23.598
he's definitely an interesting character. I mean, at the very least, I mean,
36:23.662 --> 36:26.983
being able to trick people into thinking can levitate and do all these things.
36:27.047 --> 36:30.577
It's, it's interesting. Oh, absolutely it is. Now I know people can
36:31.077 --> 36:35.150
still do that today, but still, it's cool. I mean, especially back then, I imagine
36:35.650 --> 36:39.787
it would have been phenomenal, like unbelievable. But it is comical
36:40.287 --> 36:44.007
as well. Think, imagine a modern-day musician going back to then,
36:44.457 --> 36:47.297
right? They'd be called a witch. I mean,
36:47.409 --> 36:50.747
yeah, I know. Yeah, definitely some of the things they
36:50.795 --> 36:55.434
could do. But yeah, the sleight of hand, just very simple techniques.
36:56.334 --> 36:59.900
God, I imagine even the card tricks that I know how to do— phosphorus
37:00.012 --> 37:04.156
oil. I mean, just, yeah, it's crazy. And I'm definitely not anything
37:04.204 --> 37:07.834
near to a sleight of hand expert, right? Most of what I do are
37:08.334 --> 37:11.609
like magician forces and stuff. But yeah, very interesting.
37:11.978 --> 37:14.838
We hope you enjoyed that segment. We'll be continuing on, uh,
37:15.512 --> 37:18.644
next week with another. Uh, don't forget to like, follow, and subscribe,
37:18.660 --> 37:20.716
and don't forget to stay disturbed.