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THE CASE AGAINST SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHS

BY C. VINCENT PATRICK AND W. WHATELY SMITH.

Spirit photographs have long been a source of controversy and discussion, and signs are not lacking that public interest in them is at least as keen as ever. A Society for the Study of Supernormal Pictures has, for example, been formed recently, and it is by no means uncommon to meet people who owe much of their belief in Spiritualism to the results they have obtained through photographic mediums. This considerable public interest would alone suffice to make the subject important, but, apart from this, it is clear that if all--or even a fraction--of what is claimed be true the phenomenon must be of unique value from the point of view of strictly scientific research.

Photographic phenomena differ from practically all others studied by psychical researchers in being, so to speak, permanently objective. If one could be sure that the results obtained were not due to trickery one would be in a far better position as regards the problems of their origin and so forth than one is in the case of other types of "physical" phenomena. One could collect spirit photographs, compare them with one another, correlate their differences with the varying conditions of their production, and generally study them at leisure--a procedure which is not possible with table-levitations, materialisations, or direct-voice phenomena. The photographic plate would, in fact, be the most powerful of all weapons of research if only we could eliminate all possibility of fraud. This is, as usual, the crux of the whole matter, and, as my collaborator and I hope to show, it is not nearly so easy to do as might appear at first sight.

The various fraudulent methods which are or may be used and the question of the reliance which should be placed on the statements of those who believe that they have watched the proceedings so carefully as to exclude the possibility of fraud will be discussed at length later in this paper. I may as well say at once, however, that I see no reason for believing that any spirit photographs are, or have ever been, due to any cause other than fraud.

But in view of the many methods of trickery which are available and the known incapacity of untrained observers to detect fraud the evidence at present available seems scarcely worthy of serious consideration.

During the last half-century--that is, practically since the introduction of the photographic plate--various abnormalities have been reported in developed photographs. Some of these have appeared to reputable observers to be incapable of natural explanation, and have been eagerly seized upon by spiritualists as proof of survival after death--the sensitive emulsion being supposed to have recorded the presence of spirits, otherwise invisible. It is evident that a permanent photographic record, if its genuineness can be established, would stand almost alone as evidence of the presence of the spirit-forms described by clairvoyants.

Various types of such photographic abnormalities must be distinguished:

It is not perhaps surprising to find that the spirit photograph originated in America, where it dates back to the days of the wet-plate process. The first recorded case comes from Boston, in 1862. One Mumler, an engraver by trade, made chemistry and photography his hobby; and having among his friends a professional photographer, he was frequently dabbling with plates and chemicals in his studio. Up to this time he had shown no mediumistic tendencies, although it is safe to assume that he must have known something of spiritualism, since this was attracting much attention in America at the time.

One day Mumler suddenly produced a photograph of himself, standing, with a chair by his side supporting a shadowy female figure. The face of this figure was not clear, though the upper part of the body was fairly well defined; below the waist it faded away. The chair and background were distinctly visible through the extra. He alleged that this was an untouched photograph, which he had taken by focussing the camera on the chair, inserting the plate, and standing by the chair for the period of the exposure. This picture raised a considerable stir, and Mumler published the following declaration in the press: "This photograph was taken of myself, by myself, on Sunday, when there was not a living soul in the room beside myself--'so to speak.' The form on my right I recognise as my cousin who passed away about twelve years since.--W. H. MUMLER."

"The packet of three photos may be obtained from Mr. Pitman, 20, Paternoster Row; price 3s. 6d."

Very few copies of Mumler's photographs still exist; they are all similar in their general characters to the first. Noteworthy points are that the spirits are always without legs, and are usually on the right of the sitter. A considerable number of his extras, indistinct though they were, were recognised by the sitters and their friends as the dead person whose photograph they were expecting. Naturally, cries of fraud were raised, and investigators, consisting of men of science and newspaper representatives, devised "test conditions" to eliminate this possibility. This they did to their own satisfaction, and obtained spirit extras; but on reading their accounts it is easy to see that ample loopholes were left for fraud. In some cases the camera and lens were minutely inspected, and Mumler's operations carefully supervised, but a glass plate provided by Mumler was used for the sensitised emulsion. In other cases where tests were instituted the developing-room was in complete darkness, no ruby light being used, which put the investigators completely in the medium's hands.

On one occasion Mumler was persuaded to forsake his studio for the private house of an investigator. Here he was not allowed to use any of his own apparatus--camera, plates, and chemicals all being provided for him. The result was a complete failure to get anything abnormal on the plates. Mumler explained that he "thought his influence had not been sufficiently long in contact with the chemicals." This one can readily believe.

He presently became bolder, and his spirits' features became more distinct. This led to a bad mistake, for in February 1863 the sceptics were able to show that one of Mumler's spirit extras was the likeness of a man still alive, and living in Boston; and, worse still, that this man had had his photograph taken by Mumler a few weeks before. Such carelessness on the part of the spirits ruined a promising business, for after the outcry which followed we hear no more of Mumler for some six years.

In 1869 he appeared again in New York, and commenced business on his old lines. Before he had been practising many months, however, the public authorities arrested him, and prosecuted him for fraud. At the trial the Boston evidence was disallowed and consequently little positive evidence of fraud was brought against him, for he had only been practising in New York for a short time. The chief ground of the prosecution was a spirit extra which he represented to be a dead relative of the sitter's, whereas the latter declared it to be utterly unlike the relative in question. The trial was interesting, in that Mumler was defended by many of his sitters, who swore that they recognised his extras as their dead friends; and by others, including a professional photographer, who had investigated his processes and had found no evidence of trickery. He was acquitted for lack of evidence on the part of the prosecution; but he apparently gave up producing spirit photographs, for no more is heard of him.

Similar experiments were made by Dr. Williams, of Haywards Heath. He exposed plates, in the hope of obtaining spirit extras, over a period of eighteen months. Out of many hundreds, he obtained three plates with unexplained marks on them, one of which bore some resemblance to two eyes and a nose. He also claimed that a complete human figure developed on one of his plates, only to disappear again; this could scarcely have had any objective existence, since there was no trace of it in the finished negative. The value of his experiments, also, can only be considered as against the occurrence of spirit photography where trickery plays no part.

Before he had been back long, however, the French authorities intervened. His studio was raided by the police and a large stock of cardboard heads, a lay figure, and other incriminating paraphernalia were found. Buguet was arrested and charged with fraud. At the trial he made a complete confession. All his spirits had, he said, been obtained by double exposure. At first his assistants had acted as the ghosts, but this soon became dangerous on account of constant repetition of the same features, and he procured the lay figure and cardboard heads for the purpose. He also explained how he employed his assistants to extract all possible information from the sitters, as to the facial characteristics of the spirits they were expecting. And then came the extraordinary feature of the trial. In spite of the damning material evidence against him, and of his own confession, witness after witness came forward to defend him! They said they had sat to him and obtained unquestionable likenesses of their dead relations, and had satisfied themselves that no tricks were played upon them. In spite of Buguet assuring them in court that they had been deceived, they maintained that it could not be so. Buguet pointed out to the court one face which had been recognised as the mother of one sitter, the sister of a second, and the friend of a third. One spirit, recognised by a sitter as his lifelong friend, was declared by another man to be an excellent likeness of his still-living--and much annoyed--father-in-law. Buguet was convicted and sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment and a fine of 100 francs. It was maintained by spiritualists in England that he had been bribed to make a false confession; and after the expiry of his sentence he appears to have told the same tale. This, however, quite fails to explain the finds made at his studio by the French police.

In America the movement has always found rather more adherents than in this country. Spirit photography has been practised in different parts of the United States practically since Mumler's time to the present day; the same medium usually producing other kinds of spirit phenomena as well. The conditions under which most of these photographs have been taken, and the ridiculous results obtained, renders them unworthy of serious consideration. It is quite usual to find in the background of these photographs a dozen or more heads, of all shapes and sizes, and with all kinds of headgear; bunches of flowers often appear, and even a spirit buttonhole sometimes ornaments the lapel of the sitter's coat! An amusing account is given by Hereward Carrington of a visit to a medium of this type at Lily Dale in 1907:

"On arriving at Mr. Norman's house I was obliged to wait for some time on the verandah, as he was busy inside the house with a 'customer.' When he came out I was invited to sit 'just where I was,' and the medium disappeared into the house, and the next minute came out carrying a large camera and two plates, already in the slide, prepared. There was a white chalk-mark on one side of the double-back plate slide, and this side was carefully inserted foremost. Mr. Norman erased the chalk-mark with his finger as he inserted the slide into the camera. I posed, and the photograph was taken.

"Next we went indoors. The plate slide was reversed, and the room placed in total darkness. I was informed that 'the spirits would materialise their own light,' and that none was needed. This was 'where the mediumship came in.' The second plate was then exposed, the cap being removed about a minute. During that minute I was informed that I 'should sit for physical manifestations,' and the medium asked me if I had ever sat to a spirit photographer before....

"When, however, I asked the medium to allow me to examine the process of development of the plates, he flatly refused to allow anything of the kind! I said cautiously that I should think it would be very interesting to watch the development of a plate upon which might appear spirit faces; the answer was that these faces developed in exactly the same manner as any other faces. I replied that I should like to watch the process in order to convince myself that they developed in the manner stated, and that they were not already on the plate. The result was to bring forth a flat refusal to allow me to watch the process of development! It need hardly be said that this refusal to allow any test conditions of the most elementary order deprives the photographs of all evidential value; and definite evidence of fraud was brought against this medium at a later date. For when the photograph was examined, none of the faces bore the slightest trace of any family resemblance; and, more than that, the photograph showed unmistakable signs of fraudulent manipulation. One of the faces, that of a woman, upon being examined through a magnifying glass, clearly shows the miniature indentations made by the electric needle in reproducing newspaper cuts. This is clearly noticeable in the forehead, but can be seen to extend all over the face, even with the naked eye, examined carefully. This face was therefore copied from some newspaper or magazine, reproducing it from the paper in which it originally appeared. The other faces show clear marks of manipulation."

A new method of procedure in taking spirit photographs was apparently introduced by one Wyllie, of San Francisco, about 1903. No camera was used; the plates were unpacked in the dark-room and held by the sitter, Wyllie simply placing his hands on the plate for some seconds. On development, a face or faces, more or less blurred, would appear. These were never larger than the print of a thumb, which suggested to Dr. Pierce--who was investigating Wyllie's methods--that they were possibly produced by chemicals pressed into contact with the plate. He therefore made Wyllie wash his hands before entering the dark-room, but the extras still appeared. It would, of course, have been a simple matter for the medium to have had concealed about his person a slip of thin card or a small rubber stamp, with an "extra" sketched on it in some suitable chemical; when in the dark-room this would be palmed and applied to the plate. Dr. Pierce, however, evidently considered the results were genuine spirit manifestations, and the next year carried out a series of experiments by himself in London. Needless to say, he found that without Wyllie's mediumship no results could be obtained.

Another modern development, which has been largely exploited by Hope, of Crewe, is the "psychograph." For this, again, no camera is used; a plate is carefully wrapped up, usually sealed, and submitted to the medium's influence. The plate is then developed by the victim, and screeds of writing appear, usually arranged in circles instead of lines. Sometimes the plate is sent to the medium through the post, carefully wrapped and sealed, and returned apparently unopened a few days later. On development, the message appears--and the most banal rubbish it usually is. Yet many people actually believe that these productions are the means adopted by higher intelligences to communicate with us. Surely such folk must be lacking in a sense of humour?

The taking of spirit photographs under so-called "test conditions" has frequently been carefully investigated by men of high reputation in other walks of life, chiefly men of letters and men of science. In many cases they have been unable to detect any trickery, and after due consideration have decided that they know of no natural means by which the results obtained could be produced, under the conditions employed. This is in itself a perfectly fair conclusion; but it does not follow that because they know of no natural method, no such method can exist; unfortunately the argument is frequently carried to this stage. Let us suppose that an eminent physicist watches a sleight-of-hand conjuror, who produces a dozen or more eggs from a small velvet bag, which was unquestionably empty when examined by the audience a few seconds previously; he will certainly not assume mediumistic powers on the part of the conjuror, or postulate the materialisation of a spirit hen. He realises that he is being deceived; he has had no training in conjuring, and does not know what to look for in order to "see through" the trick. How, then, does he expect to be able to detect a trick played upon him, probably in the dim light of a photographic dark-room, by a clever medium who has every method of trickery at his fingers' ends? Even if he knew what to look for, the chances would be all in favour of the medium under the conditions which usually obtain; and in actual fact he probably has no idea of the multiplicity of methods which may be used for his deception. It seems therefore desirable to enumerate some of the many methods by which spurious spirit photographs may be produced. The following list makes no pretensions to being complete, but may give some idea of the variety of methods which the accomplished spirit photographer has at his service.

.--Methods involving substitution of the entire packet:

If these methods are employed, the medium usually finds it necessary previously to mark the plate or plates in the box that have the latent extras, in such a way that he may be sure of not getting the spirit inverted: a slight scratch on one edge will suffice for this.

.--Methods involving substitution of the faked plate only, after removal from the original packet:

I am aware that many will ridicule the idea of such a simple trick being played upon an intelligent observer; but any conjuror, whose business it is to do this kind of thing, knows that it is remarkably easy.

Substitution can, of course, be effected in many other ways; every medium probably has his favourite method which he chiefly practises.

It may be pointed out here that in the case of a regular sitter who always marks his plates in the same way, as most do, it would not be at all difficult to forge his signature on a prepared plate and substitute this for one of the marked plates.

.--Methods involving preparation of the studio:

.--Methods involving the camera and dark slides:

.--Dark-room methods.

There are undoubtedly many other methods used by mediums for this purpose; but if the sitter who has obtained spirit extras under test conditions carefully considers the procedure employed, in the light of the suggestions made above, he will probably find that several loopholes were left by which fraud might have been introduced.

I now quote their report on the next two meetings, omitting nothing except their names, which I have replaced by single letters, at their request.

"On the following Sunday, July 20th, at 8.15, there met in Patrick's rooms A, B, C, and D. Saturday being a Bank Holiday, the plates were purchased on Friday evening by B, and kept by him until the meeting. B produced his plates, unopened, and after some preliminary table-turning and rapping, more successful than at the previous meeting, it was decided to proceed with the photographs. A carried the plate-box unopened to the dark-room, and he and D sat closely on either side of Patrick, and watched him open the box and load two double dark-slides; they were satisfied there was no substitution or trickery, or anything in the least degree suggestive of it. The wrapper of the box was broken in full view of both, and Patrick loaded the top four plates into two double dark-slides, which were examined by A and D immediately before they were loaded; they did not leave their sight from the moment of examination until the photographs were taken. The camera was also subjected to careful and minute examination, especially by A, who removed the lens and examined both it and the interior of the camera. The lens was then replaced, and the focal plane shutter set in the open position, the exposures being made by the simple expedient of withdrawing the shutter of the dark-slide.

"At the request of C, before approaching the camera to focus it, Patrick removed his coat, rolled up his sleeves, and was carefully searched by him.

"It had been arranged that Patrick should take a photograph of each of the four others present, under identical conditions. The background was arranged, as before, of gowns hung over a cupboard, but was made more complete. The subjects occupied the same chair in succession; of the others, one stood by the light switch, and the two others by the camera, to watch the photographer. Patrick attended both to the camera and the flash production. The exposures were made, as stated, by withdrawing the shutter of the dark-slide; the focal plane shutter was not touched throughout. The electric light was therefore switched off for a few seconds while the shutter was drawn and the flash being lighted. Sufficient light came through the white window-curtains to enable those in the room plainly to see each other, and watch the photographer's movements. The four photographs were taken in rapid succession.

"The slides were taken back into the dark-room, and developed by A and Patrick in conjunction. B and C watched in turn, and D also watched part of the time. One of the plates was quickly observed to have an 'extra' developing on it. A bromide print was again taken from the wet negative, and showed on the photograph of D the head of an elderly man, besides a very fair photograph of the sitter. The extra face was above D's head, and to his right. The "spirit" was bearded, and partly bald, with a somewhat melancholy expression. There was a suggestion of a white collar. On the left of the face and somewhat above it was written in white on the black background what was apparently a signature, with two final letters of a preceding word. It was dubiously deciphered as '...ly S. Simmonds.' Neither face, name, nor writing were recognised by any one, either at the time or subsequently.

"The three other photographs were fair portraits, but showed no abnormality.

"A third meeting was held in the same place at 8.15 p.m. on Sunday, July 27th, when even more stringent conditions were imposed on the photographer.

"The plates were bought on Saturday evening by D; other men should have been present, but did not turn up at the arranged time. D took the plates to his own rooms, where Patrick sealed them for his own satisfaction. The box was kept locked up by D till he brought them to the meeting on Sunday, and he did not part with them till he gave them to E to take into the dark-room.

"At this meeting there were present A, B, C, D, E, F, and G, besides the photographer.

"When all had arrived, E carried the plates to the dark-room. C brought a dark-slide, which he had abstracted and kept since the previous meeting. Before going into the dark-room Patrick, again at the request of C and E, removed his coat, rolled up his sleeves, and was searched, C even going to the length of examining his socks for possible concealed plates or dark-slides.

"Patrick wished to load the slides himself, as they were rather delicate. Accordingly neither slide nor plates were passed into his hands until he was sitting in front of the ruby light, with E on one side of him and C and F on the other. He broke the seals, and in full view of these three loaded a single plate into compartment No. 3 of the dark-slide. This was then immediately taken from his hands again by E, and he and C locked it in a drawer of the desk, upon which stood a reading-lamp, which was never extinguished throughout all the subsequent proceedings. C kept the key of the drawer, and passed it to E when the slide was required.

"Some table-tilting was then carried out by all except C, who remained at the desk and acted as secretary. The lights were all put out except the reading-lamp he used, which was, as stated, over the drawer where the dark-slide lay locked.

"The dark-slide was taken to the dark-room by E, and he and C watched Patrick open it, remove the plate, and develop it. As before, E kept the slide till everything was ready, and passed it to Patrick in the full light of the ruby lamp, C checking the number of the compartment in which the plate had been loaded, and still remained . On development, Patrick pointed out that there was a hand at the top of the plate, which could not belong to any of those at the table, and was pointing with its index finger at one of the group. On fixing, it was examined more closely, both by Patrick and the two others. All three distinctly saw the image of a hand and wrist, pointing, the forearm being draped. It was in fairly sharp focus, and appeared, by its proportion, to be rather nearer the camera than the centre of the table, above which it appeared to hang suspended. A shadow cast by it was plainly seen, larger and less sharply focussed, apparently on the back wall of the room. There was a general appearance of drapery surrounding the group, particularly at the sides; there was in this the suggestion of a trunk to which the hand might belong. The appearance of the picture was very startling, and Patrick suggested that as the man at whom it should turn out to be pointing might suffer considerable uneasiness on seeing it, it might be well to destroy the plate without attempting to identify him. E and C, after a minute's thought, both agreed that this would be the wisest course, and it was accordingly done. Patrick did not wish to feel that he might be in any way responsible for causing anyone uneasiness or harm, such as might well result from such a picture. Accordingly the three returned to the other room, and explained the situation to the others, who, though obviously disappointed, did not condemn the course taken.

"This concludes the account of these first three meetings. We wish to record that all through the meetings Patrick desired and requested us to take all and any precautions we thought fit, to satisfy ourselves that he introduced no trickery.

"In conclusion, we, the undersigned, declare this to be an accurate account of the occurrences to the best of each man's individual knowledge. While not committing ourselves to any statements as to our belief or disbelief in the genuineness of the phenomena observed, we maintain that the greatest possible care was taken to prevent any possibilities of trickery; and we consider that, barring the possibility of Patrick having an accomplice among us, the evidence should be accepted as proof of the genuineness of the phenomena observed."

This is followed by their seven signatures. E added afterwards a paragraph of his own as to the interpretation of the word "accomplice." E was much the acutest observer and the most obstinate sceptic of the seven: I think he suspected D of being in some way my accomplice; some of the others suspected him of being a medium. He certainly was not an accomplice--for I never had one in the room; he may be a medium for aught I know--but I should doubt it.

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