Spirit Photography

Today and tomorrow I will be explaining about Spirit Photography, a subject that has fascinated me for many years now and I have a large number of genuine spirit photographs in my possession:


There have been several excellent Photographic Mediums, among them being W.H. Mumler, David Duguid, Ada Deane and probably the most prolific of all, William Hope. There are many examples in circulation of the photographs of Ada Deane and William Hope in particular, and many encyclopaedias include the famous photograph taken by W. H. Mumler of the late Abraham Lincoln, while photographing Mrs Lincoln. Mumler was the first photographic medium, beginning his work soon after photography was invented. This shows spirit is not slow to adapt new inventions to aid them in their mission to convince the world of eternal life. I myself have a large collection of William Hope’s photographs, chiefly because my Uncle Robert, (the same one whose boyhood trance convinced my grandfather to become a Spiritualist) was a member of Hope’s famous Crewe Circle where he produced most of his photographs.

Photographs are notoriously easy to ‘doctor’ and this is the argument sceptics use to dismiss spirit photographs as fraudulent. They conveniently overlook the fact that such ‘doctoring’ can equally easily be detected by professionals who know what to look for. Many spirit photographs in my possession were once examined by The National Museum of Photography in England, prior to them being included in an exhibition at their premises in Bradford, Yorkshire. They confirmed none of the prints show any sign of interference, double exposure or any other ‘doctoring’. What appears on them is what was detected by the camera lens and recorded on the film’s emulsion.

William Hope was meticulous in the steps he took to avoid any possibility of fraud being connected with his mediumship. He used a plate camera and if you wanted a sitting with him, you had to purchase your own packet of plates and bring them with you. Immediately before the sitting, you were asked to remove one plate from your packet, sign it across one corner and then insert it in the camera’s plate carrier yourself. The reason for the signature is that it would appear on the eventual print as verification that the print was taken from the plate you had inserted in the camera and no substitution had taken place. You will see signatures reproduced on most Hope pictures. The exceptions being those taken at public demonstrations and those for members of his circle, where there was total trust between them and the medium. As soon as the photograph was taken, you were asked to remove it from the carrier yourself, take it into the darkroom and stand next to him as Hope developed the plate and prepared the print. Furthermore, it was not until quite late in his career as a photographic medium that he began charging to cover his costs. There was no incentive therefore for him to defraud people.

He was often investigated by psychic researchers and it is significant that on the only occasion he was accused of fraud, it was proved that one of the researchers had himself interfered with the plates before putting them in the camera! Although Sir Arthur Conan Doyle made many attempts to receive an apology from the researcher, he was unsuccessful; all he got were vague excuses. This is often the case with the so-called exposure of mediums. There is nothing as intransigent as the dyed-in-the-wool sceptic, so determined to prove that any evidence of life after death is false, that not only does he refuse to believe the evidence of his own senses but he so arranges things that he will receive the answer he wants. It is unfortunately the case that some scientific investigators suffer from the same myopia and not just where mediums are concerned either. Many are the learned scientific reports, purporting to be independent and objective, whose conclusions are subsequently shown to be based on ‘evidence’ tailored to support the investigator’s own preconceived opinions. Readers of any reported scientific investigation are well advised to follow the old Latin maxim to purchasers, ‘caveat emptor’ – “let the buyer beware”.

I shall not spend time describing the lives and mediumship of photographic mediums as that has been done more than adequately by many people. Instead I shall put forward my theories of how such photographs are produced, having studied the subject for many years. I explained earlier that ectoplasm must, in my opinion, be present in all physical mediumship. The fact one not only sees, but can hold and keep the finished product of the spirit photographer, certainly classifies it as physical mediumship. Indeed it makes it unique amongst all the spiritual gifts. The phenomena produced by any other mediumship (except apports, which are hardly a proof of survival) have to be remembered by the recipient. Only a photograph can be taken away, examined at leisure and be a constant source of proof that your loved one has survived death.