The Levitating Medium: The Strange Life of Daniel Douglas Home

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All right,
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welcome back to our podcast. I'm the Gentleman, accompanied by the Disturbed
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Southern Belle. Hello! And in this episode, we're going to be talk—
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we're going to be continuing our series talking about some of the most notorious
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psychics, mediums, and paranormal investigators throughout history. In this segment, we'll be discussing
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a man who could subjectively, I guess, be called the world's
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first psychic, right? So Daniel
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Douglas Home, he was born on March 20th,
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1833, and went on to become a Scottish physical
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medium with the reported ability to levitate
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to varying heights. He was also reported to be able to speak with the
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dead and to produce rapping and knocks at houses
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at will. Uh, Harry Houdini once described him
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as one of the most conspicuous and lauded of his types and
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generation, and the forerunner of the mediums whose forte
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is fleecing by presuming on the credulity
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of the public. His mother, um,
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Elizabeth Betsy Hume McNeill, was known
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as a seer in Scotland. As were many of her predecessors, such as her
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great-uncle Colin Urquhart and her uncle Mr.
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Mackenzie. The supposed gift of Second Sight
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was often seen as a curse, as it often foretells impending tragedy and death.
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Danielle's father, William Hume, was reportedly
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the illegitimate son of Alexander, the 10th Earl of Hume.
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Evidence of this is supported by various payments meant for William being
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made by Alexander. So William married
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Elizabeth when he was 19 years old, and he
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soon found employment at the Belerno Paper Mill. They were soon moved
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into one of the small houses provided by the mill for its workforce.
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William was described as a bitter, morose, and unhappy man who
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drank and was often aggressive towards his wife. His parents had 8 children
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while they were living in a small— in a mill house.
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6 sons and 2 daughters. Uh, one of
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Daniel's brothers, Adam, died while at sea at the age of 17 while he was
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en route to Greenland. Home— or Hume says
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he saw it, he saw this in a vision, and it reportedly
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was confirmed 5 months later. Daniel was
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the third-born of his siblings. At, uh,
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year one of his life, he was deemed a delicate child,
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having a nervous temperament, and this led to him being placed
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with his childless aunt, his mother's sister Mary Cook.
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According to Daniel, his cradle rocked on its own, and while he lived
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at the Cooks' home, he also claims to have had a vision of a,
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of a cousin's death. Sometime between 1838
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and 1841, Hume's aunt and uncle
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decided to immigrate to the US with their adopted son,
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sailing in the cheapest class of steerage as they could not afford a cabin.
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After landing in New York, the Cooks traveled to Greenville, uh,
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north of or near Norwich, uh, Connecticut.
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The red-haired and freckled Hume attended school in Greenville,
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where he was known as Scotchy by the other students.
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The 13-year-old Hume did not join in sports, uh, with other
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boys, preferring to take walks in the local woods with a friend called
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Edwin. The 2 boys read the Bible to each other and told stories.
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They made a pact stating that if one or the other were to die,
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they would try to make contact after death. Daniel and
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his aunt soon moved to Troy, New York. Uh, Hume lost contact
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with Edwin until one night when, according to,
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uh, Lamont, Hume saw a brightly
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lit vision of him standing at the foot of the bed, which gave Hume the
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feeling that his friend was dead. Edwin made 3 circles in
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the air before disappearing, and a few days later a letter arrived
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stating that Edwin had died of malignant dysentery
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3 days before Hume's vision. A few years later,
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Hume and his aunt returned to Greenville, and Elizabeth Hume immigrated
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from Scotland to America with the surviving members of the family, all to
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live in Waterford, Connecticut, which was 12
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miles or 19 kilometers away from Cook's house.
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Uh, Hume and his mother's reunion was short-lived, however,
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as Elizabeth appeared to foretell her own death in 1850.
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Uh, Hume said he saw his mother in a vision saying,
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Dan, 12 o'clock, which was the time of
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her death. The house was soon after reportedly disturbed
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by rapping and knocking similar to that Similar
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to those that had occurred 2 years earlier at the home of the Fox sisters.
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Ministers were called to the Cooks' house— a Baptist,
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a Congregationalist, um,
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and even a Wesleyan
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minister— who all believed that Hume was possessed by the
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devil, although Hume believed it was a gift from God.
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According to Hume, the knocking did not stop and a table started
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moving by itself. Even though Hume's aunt put a Bible on
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it and then placed her full body weight on it. The noises did not
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stop and began attracting unwanted attention from the neighbors, which led
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to Daniel being asked to leave the home. The 18-year-old Hume
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stayed with a friend in Willimantic, Connecticut,
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later— and later Lebanon, Connecticut. Hume held
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his first séance in March of 1851, which was reported
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in a Hartford newspaper managed by W.R. Hayden. Who wrote that the
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table moved without anyone touching it and kept moving when Hayden physically
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tried to stop it. After the newspaper report, Hume became
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well known in New England, traveling around healing the sick and communicating
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with the dead, although he wrote that he was not prepared for the sudden change
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in his life because of his supposed shyness.
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Hume never directly asked for money, although he lived very well on gifts,
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donations, and lodging from wealthy admirers. He felt
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that he was on a mission to demonstrate immortality and
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wished to interact with his clients as one gentleman to another
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rather than as an employee. In 1852,
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Hume was a guest at a house in Rufus Elmer— or
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the house of Rufus Elmer in Springfield, Massachusetts,
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giving séances 6 or 7 times a day, which were visited
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by crowds of people, including a Harvard professor by the name of David
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Wells. And a poet and editor of the New York
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Evening Post by the name of William Cullen Bryant. They were
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all convinced of Hume's credibility and wrote to the Springfield
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Republican newspaper stating that the room was well-lit,
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full inspections were allowed, and quoting here,
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we know that we were not imposed upon nor deceived,
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end quote. It was also reported that one of Hume's demonstrations
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Um, or that at one of Hume's demonstrations, 5 men of heavy build
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with a combined weight of estimated 850 pounds sat
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on a table and yet it still moved, while others saw a tremulous
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phosphorescent light gleam over the walls.
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Hume was investigated by numerous people such as Professor Robert
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Hare, the inventor of the oxyhydrogen blowpipe,
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and John W. Edmonds, a trial court judge who
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were skeptical but later were said to have
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believed Hume was not fraudulent.
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So, all righty then. In his book Incidents
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in My Life, Hume claims that in August of 1852
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in South Manchester, Connecticut, at the house of Ward Cheney,
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a successful silk manufacturer, he was reportedly seen
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to levitate twice then rise up to the ceiling with louder
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rapping and knocking than ever before, more aggressive table movements,
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and the sounds of a ship at sea in a storm. Good grief.
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Although persons present said that the room was badly lit, or too badly lit
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to see the spirit lights, uh, New York was now interested
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in him and his abilities, so he moved to an apartment at Bryant Park
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on 42nd Street. His most verbal critic
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in New York was William Makepeace Thackeray,
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the author of Vanity Fair at the time.
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Thackeray dismissed Hume's abilities as dire humbug
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and dreary and foolish superstition,
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although Thackeray had been impressed when he saw a table turning.
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Hume thought that Thackeray was the most skeptical inquirer
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he had ever met, and as Thackeray made his thoughts public,
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Hume faced public skepticism and further scrutiny.
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Hume traveled between Hartford and Springfield, or Hartford, Springfield,
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and Boston during the next few months and settled in
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Newburgh, uh, by the Hudson River in the summer of 1853.
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He resided at the Theological Institute but took no
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part in any of the theological discussions held there, as he wanted to take a
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course in medicine. Dr. Hull funded Hume's studies
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and offered to pay him $5 a day for his séances. But Home
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refused, as always. His idea was to fund his work with a legitimate salary
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by practicing medicine, but he became ill in 1854
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and had stopped his studies. Home was diagnosed with tuberculosis,
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and his doctor— doctors recommended recuperation— recuperation
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in Europe. I don't know why I wanted to say England. In Europe.
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His last séance in America was March 1855 in Hartford,
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Connecticut. Before he eventually traveled to Boston and sailed
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to England on board the Africa at the end of March.
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Hume's name was originally Daniel Hume, but by the time he arrived in
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Europe, he had lengthened it to Daniel Douglas Hume
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in reference to the Scottish House of Hume, which his father claimed
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to be a part of. In London,
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Hume found a believer in spiritualism by the name of William Cox, who owned
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a large hotel at 53, 54, and 55
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Jermyn Street, London. Ascoxe was so enamored of,
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or by, Hume's abilities, he let him stay at the hotel
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without payment. Robert Owen, an 83-year-old social reformer,
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was also staying at the hotel and introduced Hume to many of his friends in
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London society. At the time, Hume was described as tall
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and thin, with blue eyes and auburn hair, fastidiously dressed
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but seriously ill with consumption. Nevertheless,
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he held sittings for notable people in full daylight,
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moving objects that were some distance away. Home's fame
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grew, fueled by his ostensible feats of levitation.
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William Crookes, an English chemist and physicist,
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claimed Home could— Home could levitate 5 to 7 feet above
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the floor. Crookes wrote, we all saw him rise from the ground slowly
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to a height of about 6 inches remain there for about
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10 seconds, and then slowly descend. In the following years, Home traveled across
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continental Europe, and always as a guest of wealthy patrons.
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In Paris, he was summoned to the Tuileries,
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uh, to perform a séance for Napoleon III. He also performed
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for Queen Sophie of the Netherlands, who wrote, I saw him 4 times.
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I felt a hand tipping my finger. I saw a
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heavy golden bell moving along from one person to another.
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I saw my handkerchief move along and return to me with
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a knot. He himself is a pale, sickly, rather handsome young
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man, but without a look or anything which would either fascinate
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or frighten you. It is wonderful. I am so glad to have seen
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it. In 1866,
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Mrs. Jane Leon, a wealthy widow, adopted Hume
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as her son, giving him £60,000 in an attempt to gain
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an introduction into high society. Finding that the adoption did not change
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her social situation, Leon changed her
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mind and brought a suit for the return of her money from Home on the
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grounds that it had been obtained by spiritual influence.
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Under British law, the defendant bears the burden of proof in such a case,
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and proof was impossible since there was no physical evidence. The case
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was decided against Home, Mrs. Leon's money was returned,
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and the press pilloried Home's reputation. Hume's high
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society acquaintances thought that he behaved like a complete gentleman throughout the ordeal,
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and he did not lose a single important friend.
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Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a spiritualist who supported the mediumship
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of Hume, stated he was unusual in that he had 4 different
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types of mediumship: direct voice, the ability to let spirits audibly speak;
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trance speaker, uh, the ability to let spirits
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speak through oneself; clairvoyant, ability to see things
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that are out of view, and physical medium, moving objects
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at a distance via levitation or any other means,
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right? Um, which was the type of mediumship in which
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he had no equal. So a
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few of the alleged, alleged levitations. Um,
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a feat of low levitation was recorded by paranormal
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historian Frank Podmore Quoting here, uh, we all saw
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him rise from the ground slowly to a height of about 6 inches,
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remain there for about 10 seconds, and then slowly descend,
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end quote. Home made one of his future closest
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friends in 1867, the young Lord Adair,
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uh, later the 4th Earl of Dunraven.
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Uh, Adair was fascinated by Home and began documenting the séances
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they held. The following year, Home was said to have levitated out of the
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3rd-story window of one room and back in through the window of the adjoining
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room in front of 3 witnesses, being Adair,
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Captain Wynne, and Lord Lindsay. Uh,
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Lord Adair stated that Home swung out and in of a window
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in a horizontal position. However, John Sladek had pointed
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out that all 3 witnesses gave contradictory information about the levitation.
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Each contradicting themselves about specific details.
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So Adair would say the incident took place at 5 Buckingham Gate,
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Kensington. Um, he would also then say
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at Ashley Place, Westminster. Uh, Lindsay would say
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at Victoria Street, Westminster. Um,
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Adair would then say there was a ledge 4 inches wide below the
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windows. Uh, Lindsay would then say a ledge 1.5
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inches wide. But then also would say no foothold at all.
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Adair would say balconies 7 feet apart. Lindsay would
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say no balconies at all. Lindsay would say
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the windows were 85 feet from the street, but then would also say 70 feet.
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Hume would say 80 feet. Adair would say
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on the 3rd floor, and he would then later— or he would then say on
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the 1st floor, and then say it would
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was dark. Lindsay would say there was bright moonlight. Adair would say Hume was
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asleep in one room and the witnesses went into the next.
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And he would then say Hume left the witnesses in one room and went himself
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into the next. So they were just all over the place. All over the
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place. Everybody was saying one thing and then turning around saying something else and blah
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blah blah blah blah, basically. Pretty much couldn't even get it straight where they were
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even at. No, not even the address. Nope.
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That's kind of nuts. But anyway, so Trevor H. Hall,
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who researched the case in detail, established the levitation took place
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at Ashley Place in Westminster at a height of 35 feet
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and suggested that rather than levitating, Hume had stepped across
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a gap in 4 feet between 2 iron balconies.
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Gordon Stein, or same Stein,
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also noted that the gap between 2 balconies was only 4 feet,
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making passing between them entirely feasible. Joseph McCabe
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wrote regarding the alleged levitation, no one professes to have seen Home
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carried from window to window. Home told the 3 men who were
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present that he was going to be wafted and then set up a state
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of very nervous expectation. Both Lord Crawford
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and Lord Adair say they were warned. Then Lord Crawford say
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that he was the shadow on the wall of
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Home, or that he saw the shadow on the wall of Home
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entering the room. Horizontally, and then as the
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moon whom— or by whose light he professes to have seen the shadow was
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at most only 3 days old, his testimony was absolutely worthless.
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Lord Adair claims only that he saw Hume
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in the dark standing upright outside the window.
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In the dark, it was an almost moonless December night. One could
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not, as a matter of fact, say very positively whether Hume was
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outside or inside. But in any case, he acknowledges that
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there was a 19-inch windowsill outside the window, and Home
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could stand on that. Another possible natural explanation
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for Home's famous levitation was proposed
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by the physical researcher Guy William Lambert,
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who suggested he had attached a rope to the chimneys of the roof of
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the building and hung the rope down unseen to the 3rd floor. During the alleged
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levitation, Home swung out and into
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the room by using a double rope maneuver.
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Lambert's rope hypothesis was supported by the magician John
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Booth. Author Arthur Conan Doyle
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says there were many cases on record of Home levitating—
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Home levitating, sorry— but skeptics assert the alleged
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levitations occurred in darkened conditions, susceptible to
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trickery, right? Science historian Sherri Lynn Lyons has stated
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that a possible explanation for Hume's alleged levitation
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phenomenon, or phenomena, was revealed in the 12th century
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by Clarence E. Willard, who lived from 1882
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to 1962. Uh, William revealed
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his technique in 1958 to members of the Society
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of American Magicians. He demonstrated how he could add 2 inches
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to his height by stretching. According to Lyons,
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it is quite likely that Hume used a similar technique to the one that
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Willard used for decades— like, used decades later,
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right? Author Donald Sorell
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Thomas has asserted that Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin,
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the French stage magician, was refused admission to
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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.