Daniel Douglas Home (1833 – 1886) was a famous medium and I am sure most of you have probably heard of him.
Home was a bit different than most other mediums of his time, first he did not give séances to the public, he was cautious and only selected his sitters (who were usually rich folk). Home would usually invite sitters back to his house, so Home had all the conditions in his favour for his mediumship. Home would not perform his mediumship in front of skeptics (this is well known).
So what I really want to talk about in this thread, is not Home's levitation myth (perhaps we can touch on that later on) but really this thread is to discuss the supposed "scientific" experiments into the mediumship of Home by the scientist William Crookes.
As you may know William Crookes was a convinced spiritualist and he has been unreliable on his statements on mediumship regarding other mediums but lets talk about these experiments that he carried out with Home.
The experiments
Firstly the experiments were rather strange they consisted of two experiments. One of these utilised a board and balance spring apparatus which Crookes said Home managed to alter the weight of objects without contact on several occasions via a "psychic force".
According to Crookes' report this experiment consisted of:
In the most famous experiment known as the accordion experiment Home would place one hand on the top of a dining table and the other hand under the table inside a cage with his fingers on the opposite end of the keys whilst his feet were said to be held down. According to Crookes' report two songs from the accordion were heard. It must be noted that before this experiment, Home had already been performing his accordion feat for over 15 years.
Crookes published his reports in the Quarterly Journal of Science but they are known to contain serious errors.
Problems with the experiments
1. The experiments took place in Crookes's self built laboratory at the back of his house (no description of this lab has survived) but the room was described by Crookes as "large".
2. Home was not personally searched before the experiments took place but was watched as he changed clothing according to Crookes' report but as Frank Podmore and others have suggested, Home could have easily placed fraudulent devices or materials in his pockets.
3. In the experiments Home refused for Crookes to sit near him - According to the reports Crookes was quite a bit of distance away from Home. Is this normal for a scientific experiment?
4. Contrary to what spiritualists have written the experiments with Home were not conducted in light conditions, report has it that only "dim light" occurred in part of the room. So most of the room was in darkness.
5. Crookes' report deliberately left out who was present in the room, it was only revealed later that six men were present during the Crookes-Home experiments and four women. As Ruth Brandon suggested Home could have easily had an accomplice. We know according to other séances that Home had a female accomplice.
6. According to reports of the experiment Home would draw attention to something on the other side of the room, or make conversation for diversionary signals with those who were in the room and Crookes was occupied most of the time with writing notes.
7. Crookes admitted that Home and himself had "tested" similar devices to the ones used in the experiments beforehand on other occasions. Home could have easily known how to cheat on the experimental apparatus before the experiments had even taken place.
8. Crookes was convinced that Home had proven the existence of a "psychic force" but as others have suggested the experiments had poor scientific controls and the movement observed on a piece of the apparatus could easily be explained by the vibrations of the trains (the lab was built under a train track at the back of Crookes house) but other things have been suggested such as home using a piece of resin on his finger etc.
9. Home largely directed the proceedings of the experiments, even giving those in the room instructions, of course this was not mentioned in Crookes' report but this is what happened.
10. The experiments were never repeated.
Questions to people on this forum
1. How do you believe the accordion trick was done, and what is your explanation for the board and balance experiment? Of course the board and balance experiment can easily be dismissed by natural causes and not fraud, some already listed, but others are convinced Home manipulated the apparatus perhaps with a piece of resin on his fingertip.
2. So far I have not been able to locate the names of the four females who were present during the Crookes-Home experiments. Why Did Crookes not mention any of the names of those who were present in his reports?
Home is supposed to be the "great" of spiritualism, and the supposed medium who was never caught in fraud. If you visit any parapsychology or spiritualist forum you will see people claiming the Crookes experiments were sound and that Home scientifically had proven a "psychic force". Well as you can see above, the experiments were far from scientific
Please comment if you are interested in this subject.
Sources
Peter Lamont. (2005). The First Psychic: The Extraordinary Mystery of a Notorious Victorian Wizard.
Ruth Brandon. (1983). The Spiritualists: The Passion for the Occult in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.
Frank Podmore (1910). The Newer Spiritualism.
Milbourne Christopher. (1970). ESP, Seers & Psychics.
Ronald Pearsall. (1972) Table-rappers: The Victorians and the Occult.
Nicola Bown, Carolyn Burdett and Pamela Thurschwell. (2009). The Victorian Supernatural (Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture).
William Hodson Brock. (2008). William Crookes (1832-1919) and the Commercialization of Science.
Also note that James Randi wrote a foreword to Gordon Stein. (1993). The Sorcerer of Kings: The Case of Daniel Dunglas Home and William Crookes - I have not read this book yet.
Home was a bit different than most other mediums of his time, first he did not give séances to the public, he was cautious and only selected his sitters (who were usually rich folk). Home would usually invite sitters back to his house, so Home had all the conditions in his favour for his mediumship. Home would not perform his mediumship in front of skeptics (this is well known).
So what I really want to talk about in this thread, is not Home's levitation myth (perhaps we can touch on that later on) but really this thread is to discuss the supposed "scientific" experiments into the mediumship of Home by the scientist William Crookes.
As you may know William Crookes was a convinced spiritualist and he has been unreliable on his statements on mediumship regarding other mediums but lets talk about these experiments that he carried out with Home.
The experiments
Firstly the experiments were rather strange they consisted of two experiments. One of these utilised a board and balance spring apparatus which Crookes said Home managed to alter the weight of objects without contact on several occasions via a "psychic force".
According to Crookes' report this experiment consisted of:
In the most famous experiment known as the accordion experiment Home would place one hand on the top of a dining table and the other hand under the table inside a cage with his fingers on the opposite end of the keys whilst his feet were said to be held down. According to Crookes' report two songs from the accordion were heard. It must be noted that before this experiment, Home had already been performing his accordion feat for over 15 years.
Crookes published his reports in the Quarterly Journal of Science but they are known to contain serious errors.
Problems with the experiments
1. The experiments took place in Crookes's self built laboratory at the back of his house (no description of this lab has survived) but the room was described by Crookes as "large".
2. Home was not personally searched before the experiments took place but was watched as he changed clothing according to Crookes' report but as Frank Podmore and others have suggested, Home could have easily placed fraudulent devices or materials in his pockets.
3. In the experiments Home refused for Crookes to sit near him - According to the reports Crookes was quite a bit of distance away from Home. Is this normal for a scientific experiment?
4. Contrary to what spiritualists have written the experiments with Home were not conducted in light conditions, report has it that only "dim light" occurred in part of the room. So most of the room was in darkness.
5. Crookes' report deliberately left out who was present in the room, it was only revealed later that six men were present during the Crookes-Home experiments and four women. As Ruth Brandon suggested Home could have easily had an accomplice. We know according to other séances that Home had a female accomplice.
6. According to reports of the experiment Home would draw attention to something on the other side of the room, or make conversation for diversionary signals with those who were in the room and Crookes was occupied most of the time with writing notes.
7. Crookes admitted that Home and himself had "tested" similar devices to the ones used in the experiments beforehand on other occasions. Home could have easily known how to cheat on the experimental apparatus before the experiments had even taken place.
8. Crookes was convinced that Home had proven the existence of a "psychic force" but as others have suggested the experiments had poor scientific controls and the movement observed on a piece of the apparatus could easily be explained by the vibrations of the trains (the lab was built under a train track at the back of Crookes house) but other things have been suggested such as home using a piece of resin on his finger etc.
9. Home largely directed the proceedings of the experiments, even giving those in the room instructions, of course this was not mentioned in Crookes' report but this is what happened.
10. The experiments were never repeated.
Questions to people on this forum
1. How do you believe the accordion trick was done, and what is your explanation for the board and balance experiment? Of course the board and balance experiment can easily be dismissed by natural causes and not fraud, some already listed, but others are convinced Home manipulated the apparatus perhaps with a piece of resin on his fingertip.
2. So far I have not been able to locate the names of the four females who were present during the Crookes-Home experiments. Why Did Crookes not mention any of the names of those who were present in his reports?
Home is supposed to be the "great" of spiritualism, and the supposed medium who was never caught in fraud. If you visit any parapsychology or spiritualist forum you will see people claiming the Crookes experiments were sound and that Home scientifically had proven a "psychic force". Well as you can see above, the experiments were far from scientific
Please comment if you are interested in this subject.
Sources
Peter Lamont. (2005). The First Psychic: The Extraordinary Mystery of a Notorious Victorian Wizard.
Ruth Brandon. (1983). The Spiritualists: The Passion for the Occult in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.
Frank Podmore (1910). The Newer Spiritualism.
Milbourne Christopher. (1970). ESP, Seers & Psychics.
Ronald Pearsall. (1972) Table-rappers: The Victorians and the Occult.
Nicola Bown, Carolyn Burdett and Pamela Thurschwell. (2009). The Victorian Supernatural (Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture).
William Hodson Brock. (2008). William Crookes (1832-1919) and the Commercialization of Science.
Also note that James Randi wrote a foreword to Gordon Stein. (1993). The Sorcerer of Kings: The Case of Daniel Dunglas Home and William Crookes - I have not read this book yet.
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) and was done with a harmonica hidden beneath his "soup strainer" moustache. After his death, a number of small worn harmonicas were found among his possessions.
