Spirit Photography (Continued)

In order to produce ectoplasm, a medium who possesses a very special metabolism must be present. There will also be others there to help provide additional energy. Mentioned in my book "Please God Why?" is the explanation by a guide that he created ectoplasm by drawing to him by an effort of will, the energy circulating in the séance room. We have therefore, two necessary ingredients, 1)The medium and sitters. 2)The mind of the spirit operator (s). In spirit photography of course there must also be a camera and film. Sometimes, as we shall learn later, you can dispense with the camera.

The ectoplasm used in spirit photography is of a very refined type and is thus invisible to the naked eye. However, photographic emulsion is many times more sensitive to light, and to a wider spectrum of it, than the human eye. I repeat emulsion is sensitive to light. Indeed the etymology of the word ‘photograph’ means writing with light. Therefore light must be used by the spirit operators to illuminate the spirit figures they have made solid enough to reflect light by clothing them in ectoplasm. Because the light is detected by photographic emulsion but not the human eye, it follows the light must be outside the visible spectrum but within the spectrum to which photographic emulsion is sensitive. That spirit operators have the ability to generate light is beyond question, as anyone who has seen beautiful spirit lights in physical phenomena séances will testify. Thus a fourth element is brought into play.

The process appears to be this. The medium and the group he or she is sitting with, attune themselves to the spirit operators. The medium does not fall into trance like a materialisation medium but all mediums have said they feel much more alive and vibrant once they have successfully attuned themselves to spirit. After a while, the spirit operators are able to draw the particles of energy circulating in the room to themselves and create ectoplasm. Knowing in advance which people are coming to be photographed, arrangements have been made in spirit for some of their relations or friends, who have ‘died’, to be present. In due course the spirit forms of these good people are draped in ectoplasm and illuminated by spirit light. The photographer, knowing nothing of this, takes his photograph. The medium-photographer takes a photograph of the sitters. Although he is a medium, he cannot see the spirit forms himself. Usually a spirit photograph shows the physical sitters plus one or more ‘spirit extra’. Occasionally, a sitter is obscured by either a bright light or a thick mist, presumably of ectoplasm. The extras may appear anywhere on the photograph and may even be upside down compared to the sitters. It is also the case sometimes, that the medium is not the photographer. Hope for instance, claimed his pictures were always clearer when a trance medium friend of his was present.

It is important to understand that good photographic mediums produce, not merely blurred images that may or may not be recognised, but those that are sharply defined and clear. When placed alongside photographs taken of the ‘extras’ (the name given to the spirit people who appear on such photographs) when they were still on earth, there is no doubt these are the very same people. (The picture with yesterday's Blog demonstrates this) This is the true test of genuine spirit photography. I receive many supposed spirit photographs from people and they often consist of blurred images that might be anything, such as faults on the film, direct sunlight entering the lens, etc. Sometimes the photographs show patches of light or clouds of mist. In these instances, the photographs may possibly be of lights, similar to those seen in physical mediumship séances, or of ectoplasm. If that is so, the people involved should persevere and take more photographs whilst sitting in a development circle with others. Just like all forms of mediumship, practice and development make perfect.

Spirit Photography, like table tilting, is not always the result of discarnate influences. Tables can be tilted and objects moved through the process known as telekinesis and images have been produced on photographic film by concentrated human thought. Indeed, the Japanese, who have long studied and practised spirit photography, refer to it as ‘thoughtography’. They feel it is the mind of the photographer that produces the image. I and all with knowledge of western Spirit Photography, say it is the mind of the spirit operator, clothing the spirit forms with ectoplasm created by his mind and illuminating them with spirit light. Mind is involved, that is indisputable; whose mind is what the Japanese question. The best documented case of a thought image being transferred onto film involves a Frenchman, Commandant D’Arget, who experimented widely with photography. One day he decided to see if he could transfer onto film, the image of a vase, purely by concentrating his mind on it. He sat in his darkroom with a piece of unexposed film near him and the vase sitting on the table before him. He concentrated on the vase until it was firmly fixed in his mind. Once satisfied, he tried to will the image to appear on the piece of film. When he developed the film, the faint, but unmistakeable impression of the vase appeared. I submit however, there is all the difference in the world between the shape of a simple vase and that of a complex human form, instantly recognisable as an individual known to the viewer. That difference is the measure of the contrast between the concentrated focus of the spirit operator’s mind and the rest of us.

I will relate one fascinating experience in connection with two spirit photographs in my possession. The photographs were taken at sittings with William Hope, two years apart. In the first, the sole sitter was Miss Alice Williams, who was delighted to receive an excellent picture in February 1920 of her late fiancé Arthur Hurst, who was killed in action in France on August 19th 1918, aged 24. Two years later she returned to Hope with Arthur’s father and received another picture of Arthur, even clearer than the first. (Both were shown in yesterday's Blog) Imagine my surprise, when conducting a service at Macclesfield Spiritualist Church in Cheshire, England, to see on one wall of the church a memorial tablet to the self-same Arthur Hurst. The date of death on the tablet was exactly the same as appeared on the back of the photographs and what is more – there was a photograph of Arthur below the tablet! It was taken before the war and one has no difficulty at all in seeing that the man on the spirit photographs is identical to this photograph. In days when people rarely had photographs taken of themselves, this was excellent confirmation of the genuineness of the picture.

A different type of spirit photography came into being following a chance comment from the spirit world. A photographic medium and his circle that had overlooked releasing the shutter on the camera were told there was no need to worry because the image had already been placed on the film by spirit. So it proved. Following that, many experiments were held with the spirit people, where only unopened packets of plates were used – no camera. The plates, wrapped in light-proof paper by the manufacturers, were left in the centre of the circle and towards the end of proceedings, the members were told from spirit which plates to develop. In every case, either a person’s image, or writing appeared on the developed plate. The writing was often more evidential than the images. A new name “Scotography” was coined for this type of photography, meaning “writing in darkness.” There are many examples of scotographs reproduced in various publications including one or two in "Please God Why?".

With the advent of digital cameras, orbs have begun to appear increasingly on photographs and sometimes those orbs have faces in them. It is possible that Spirit are experimenting with a new form of Spirit Photography but research needs to be carried out to discover if that really is the case.

The photograph above was taken by William Hope and is of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who was satisfied that the "extra" was his son Kingsley who died in 1918.