Reports of Dramatic Paranormal Activity in the House of the Physicist Dolbear

 The book Forty Years of Psychic Research by Hamlin Garland is an astonishing account of observation of the paranormal. At its beginning Garland says that he was living in Boston in 1891, a young novelist who was an agnostic evolutionist who enjoyed the Darwinist writings of Herbert Spencer. He was asked to join a new research society that would research paranormal phenomena, one called the American Psychical Society. Although inclined to disbelieve in the type of things that might be investigated, Garland was attracted to the idea that a physicist (Professor Amos E. Dolbear) would be one of the investigators, so he agreed to serve on the board of directors of the new society. Journals published by this society (which included some articles by Garland) can be read here. 

On page 10 Garland reports observing the phenomenon of slate writing, the mysterious appearance of writing on slates either untouched by human hands or tied together. Usually when this would occur a piece of chalk would be put between two bound slates observed to be blank before the tying; and the bound slates looked rather like this:

Here is Garland's account:

On pages 13-14 Garland reports a favorable experience with another slate-writing medium:

On page 16 Garland gets an amazing account from the physics professor Dolbear:

On pages 19 to 20 we have a narrative from Garland that is one of countless narratives by respectable reliable witnesses testifying to the paranormal movement of a table. Garland is introduced to a young medium, and he and the medium merely touch the top of a table with their fingertips. He says, "With both of us standing and only the tips of our fingers touching its top, the table rose completely from the floor and hung about twenty inches from the carpet." In full light he asked the young medium to stand away from the table, and the table continued to levitate, even though he could see there was no contact between the medium and the table. Garland says, "The table was being lifted by an unknown force, and was held suspended in the air for a minute, possibly longer." See my six posts with a tag of "table turning" to read many similar accounts. 

On page 25 Garland reports a variation of the phenomenon of slate writing, one in which writing mysteriously appears under the base of goblet filled with water. He says this:

Garland requests that a specific name be written underneath the base of the goblet, the name William Dean Howells. He reports the name was mysteriously written under the round base of the water-filled goblet. On page 27 Garland says he was extremely satisfied with the result of this test, and convinced it was evidence of something supernormal:

On page 28 Garland is involved in another test of slate writing, one involving a medium identified as Mrs. Flower. Garland requests that the word "Constantinople" be written on the slate, but is told that "they" don't know the spelling. Garland then requests that there be written something like a lightning bold, in yellow, within a circle. On the next page he reports that this request succeeded:

No one who has read my two previous posts with the tag of "slate writing" should be surprised by this account. Successes in very strict tests of paranormal slate writing were very widely reported in the years before Garland's tests. 

Garland states this:

About page 34 Garland begins to discuss some tests he made with what is called a trumpet medium, a type of medium who may be involved in seances in which there seems to occur mysterious voices, sometimes identified with spirits of the dead. On page 36 Garland asks the medium a good question, and gets a response that will "ring a bell" with any serious scholar of out-of-body experiences. We read this:

When Garland first got this report, he probably thought to himself something like:  well, that's a weird claim --no one else has reported something like that. At the time almost no one had reported out-of-body experiences. But anyone today who has studied this topic will recognize these claims. They are two of the most common features in reports of out-of-body experiences.  You can read many other cases of people reporting both of these things in my post here. 

Pages 38 to 45 discuss various tests with the same medium, which Garland says were highly successful. Garland tied up the medium with silk threads (which he says are impossible to untie once they are knotted). Then in a state of darkness various objects seemed to be levitated mysteriously, and also mysterious voices were heard.  Garland says this all occurred in front of several seated witnesses. The account is less convincing as evidence than some other accounts of similar phenomena, because (1) no exact observation date is given; (2) the real name of the medium is not given, only a pseudonym of "Mrs. Smiley"; (3) we lack an observation report that was published soon after the phenomena were observed; (4) the only person writing an account of these events is Garland. 

Garland said he arranged for the same medium to travel to Boston, so that tests could be done to some members of the American Psychical Society. The first of these were failures. But still remembering the previous successful test, Garland arranged for a test at the home of the physicist Dolbear. The test was very successful. The date of the test is given: November 10, 1893.  The only people present besides the  medium were Garland, Dolbear and his wife. 

On pages 56 to 57 we read of how the medium was elaborately tied up to a chair with silk threads that are supposedly impossible to untie. Also a newspaper was placed on her knees, to cause a sound alert if she tried to move. On page 60 we read that something like two dozen books started flying mysteriously from bookshelves in the room. We also read that when Mrs. Dolbear (the physicist's wife) requested that a candy box be brought, the candy box was retrieved from part of the room and "shoved down upon Mrs. Dolbear's hand," as if by some invisible hands. We read this:

We read on pages 61-63 of disembodied voices speaking and performing various wonders. A personality of "Mitchel" identifies himself as a deceased soldier who fought in the American Civil War. This is the strange phenomenon called "direct voice phenomenon," discussed in my post here. On page 64 we read this: 

"The table was grasped and shaken violently from side to side as if by a powerful impatient man; and yet the newspaper on the psychic's knees uttered no sound and the threads tied to the chair legs remained unbroken! Such violent side-to-side motion requires two hands."

On page 66 Garland reports that when the lights were turned on, the medium was found just as she had been set up, tied up in the chair, her legs still tightly tied to the table legs. She was found with a weak pulse and cold skin. She had apparently been in a deep trance as all the strange phenomena were occurring.

On page 68 we have Garland confronting the skeptical physicist Dolbear with the results they have just observed, such as something like two dozen books inexplicably flying out of Dolbear's own bookcase:

Page 69 of the book is rich in the psychology of stubbornness. We have a portrait of a physicist who simply won't give up his belief dogmas, no matter what he has observed. 

Showing excellent psychological insight, Garland predicts on the next page that if the physicist Dolbear meets one of his colleagues, he will not mention a word of what he saw during this seance in which so many inexplicable things happened such as dozens of books flying out of a bookcase. Sure enough, Dolbear wrote in 1897 a long book First Principles of Natural Philosophy which talked for hundreds of pages about scientific investigation, but which failed to make any mention of Garland, mediums or the paranormal phenomena Dolbear had seen. It was just as if Dolbear's rule was "I will banish from my memory everything I see or read about that contradicts my belief dogmas." And that seems to be the rule of the great majority of scientists today. 

There follows in Garland's book a description of quite a few experiments in which many equally strange things happened in seances of the same medium, although results on any one day seemed to be unpredictable, with quite a few days producing unimpressive results. Conversely, on other days, under the strictest test conditions in which the medium was all tied up to a chair, there reportedly occurred results such as writing on sheets of paper that were blank at the beginning of the test, with all witnesses present denying they did anything to produce such writing. 

Around page 112 and the following pages, Garland gives more reports of dramatic successes doing experiments with slate-writing.  On page 118 he reports a dramatic success when testing an unnamed medium in Chicago. While he held the medium's hands and also controlled the medium's feet, a metal cone was seen rising up from the floor and flying around the room mysteriously:

On page 187 Garland quotes a later letter from Dolbear, in which Dolbear states this:

"I didn't make out how some of the things were done. For instance, how the books, 24 of them, got off of the shelves, without Mrs. Smiley's hands being free, she was tied good." 

I will in a later post discuss many other equally striking claims made in Garland's book. If the topic of this post interested you, check out my free 292-page book "Eeriest Events," now available on www.archive.org using the link here. The book discusses phenomena such as near-death experiences, out-of-body experiences, apparition sightings, deathbed visions and precognitive visions.  Using the native www.archive.org file viewer in single-page mode,  you can conveniently read the whole book by finger swiping. Scholars who are interested in following the links may prefer to download the book as a PDF file, which will allow opening links by right-clicking on a link. 

Spookiest Years, Part 17: The Years 1885-1889

In previous posts in this intermittently appearing "Spookiest Years" series on this blog (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here,  here, here, here, here and here) I had looked at some very spooky events reported between 1848 and 1880. Let me pick up the thread and discuss some spooky events reported in the years 1885 to 1889.

In the year 1885 the periodical Golden Gate had in its August 1 edition on page 4 a report of the phenomenon of slate writing, the mysterious appearance of writing on clean slates. A writer describes a visit to the home of a young medium named Fred Evans.  We read this:

"Two slates were taken, and ...they were cleaned with a wet sponge and wiped dry, to show that they had not been prepared in any way. They were then placed together, with a number of bits of pencil between, and sealed with sealing wax at the edges, all under the supervision of a committee, of which the writer was one, and who placed a private mark upon each slate whereby he could not be deceived in the matter of their identification. The Committee then placed their hands upon the slates, along with those of Mr. Evans and Miss Hance. Soon the pencil tips were heard fluttering between the slates.. Mr. Evans then took the sealed slates and held them successively upon the shoulder of each person present. The writing could be heard almost instantly. Thus messages were written to every one present excepting two, including two messages to the writer, numbering fourteen messages in all, all written in different hands, and generally in facsimile of the writing of the persons they were supposed to represent. The messages were written in patchwork form all over the surface of the lower slate, some of them so small that they could be covered with a dime, and so finely written that they could scarcely be deciphered. Each message was a test of spirit identity to the person to whom it was written, and some of them were of  a very surprising character. At the conclusion of the writing the seals were found intact, and were broken by the writer, the messages appearing within as stated."

The editor of the Golden Gate (James J. Owen) would eventually write a book on the mysterious slate writing observed in the presence of Fred Evans, a book that can be read online using the link here. On a page of that book we have an example produced in one of the sessions with Evans, where we see something matching the description above:

On page 16 of he book Owen says he had "had hundreds of experimental seances with this psychic [Fred Evans]." On the same page he recalls " one instance where some twelve hundred words were finely written over the surfaces of two large slates in what seemed to us an incredibly short space of time."  On the same page Owen states this, "We have often, in his presence, sent out our thoughts to the spirit we would like to communicate with, and straightway the message would appear under our hands, and frequently in writing identical with that of the mortal whose spirit we had evoked."

In the next two pages Owen claims that Fred Evans was in touch with two spirits, one named John Gray, and another an artist spirit named Stanley St. Clair. On page 18 Owen states this:

"The frequent writing in colors that appears upon the slates, and that apparently without the use of colored crayons, is a most mysterious phase of this phenomenon. We have obtained as many as thirty-three shades of colors on a single slate. This color writing, we are aware, is not peculiar to Mr. Evans' guides alone, but we have never known a psychographist through whom the colors came in such great variety and profusion."

On the same page Owen states this:

"We called at the residence of Mr. Evans on Tuesday evening, December 27, 1892, when, under the usual crucial conditions, a personal message was written to the author, signed by eleven of his friends in spirit life, and all in different shades of color — some of them most delicate and exquisite. There were in all twelve shades of color upon the slate. The writing was produced under our own hands, no mortal hand touching the slate except those of the writer and his wife. The names and message are all of a personal character, but its chief merit to investigators is in the variety of colors, and the fact that they are written over a cross first placed upon the slate with a common slate pencil, to show that there was no false bottom to, or chemical preparation of, the slate, as jugglers or skeptics are disposed to assert."

On page 25 of the book we have this statement (signed by three witnesses) of seemingly paranormal events occurring in 1885:

"We, the undersigned committee, chosen by the audience at a public exhibition of independent slate-writing, given by Mr. Fred Evans at Washington Hall, on Sunday, June 21, 1885, testify that the slates used were washed and sealed in our presence and to our satisfaction, and during the time the slates were in use they were not removed from our sight. We distinctly heard the fragments of pencil between the slates writing, whilst holding them in our hands. When the writing was finished, which was denoted by three raps on the slates, Mr. R. B. Hall was selected by the audience to break the seals on the slates. When separated, one of them was completely covered with writing in patchwork form, embracing thirty communications, all in different handwriting. Each member of the Committee received messages signed by relatives or departed friends; the remainder of the messages was recognized by different persons in the audience. The exhibition was given in daylight before an audience of about 400 persons, and under conditions which excluded all chance of trickery or fraud.

Dr. Thos. C. Kellev, 946 Mission St.

Mrs. F. C. Lane, 3010 Folsom St.

William Kelly, 202 Second St."

On pages 28-29 of the book, we get an account telling us Fred Evans did very well in public tests of the slate writing phenomenon, tests held in San Jose, California before a large audience that included writers from newspapers. We are told that the San Jose News wrote up an account on March 14, 1887, and that the San Jose Times wrote up an account on March 15, 1887.  I cannot find the editions for these dates, but would like to do so.

But on the front page of the May 8, 1886 edition of Golden Gate, we do have an account of a meeting with Fred Evans occurring on April 2, 1886. We are told the following:

"There were present at this seance fourteen persons in all, besides the medium and his wife. Six of those present were entire strangers to the medium, who also had no previous knowledge as to the proposed attendance of any members of the circle, with the exception of the writer and two others. There were no ballots written, and care was taken that the names of the strangers present should not be made known to the medium. Therefore no introductions were had; nevertheless, all present, except two, received messages upon the slate, some receiving two and three. The names given of the spirit friends of the persons unknown to the medium, is a most convincing test of spirit power.

The manner of the writing was as follows: A committee of two was appointed to see that the slates were properly cleaned and sealed. This was done first by thoroughly rubbing the slates with a damp cloth, and then, after placing a few minute bits of pencil between them, they were sealed together with sealing-wax at the edges. The committee then tied a cord around the slates and hung them to the gas jet in the center of the room. In a few moments the rapid moving of the pencil tips was distinctly heard, and in about four minutes light rapping announced that the writing was completed. The committee then removed the cord and seals, when the inner surface of one of the slates was found written over, as seen above."

The paper has the image below, which it says is a facsimile of what was found on a slate. The image is reproduced on page 50 of the Owens book. We are told Evans never touched the slate. 

Owen states that on September 25, 1886 he observed a blank slate that seemed to mysteriously receive writing in more than nine different languages. We read this:

" He [Evans] then handed the slate to us, and we (Mrs. Owen and the writer) were both fully satisfied that there was no writing upon the slate. From that moment the slate never left our hands, nor was it for an instant out of our sight. A small bit of slate pencil was placed upon the table, and we placed the slate over it, with our four hands resting thereon. Mr. Evans, sitting upon the opposite side of the table, touched the outer edge of the slate frame for a few moments, and then removed his hands entirely. In about five minutes loud raps signalled that the writing was finished. We raised the slate and found the under side covered as seen in the engraving."

We are told that the result was the slate shown below.

On page 45 we are given this translation of the writings:

"German — I have found an easy way for making known to science the proof of the return of the dead to this earth, and I shall soon give it to the world. Professor Zollner.

Italian— I am glad to be able to write you a few lines to aid in proving the truth of a future life. Count Rozzia.

French — Monsieur Gray. — I have acquitted myself of your commission. M. Fremont.

Greek — I come to say this — seek for better things — think well of all. Socrates.

Spanish — My Dear Friend, Sr. Don Orven: — Rich or wise as a man may be, don't let him be proud. It is from a King, Agesilaus, we have that grand maxim, 'that one is not great only as far as he is just.'  Don Juan Alviso.

Norwegian— I am here. — Herr Holle.

Chinese — I write a few words for you. — Lu Yeun.

Japanese — How do you do? — Oyama Centura.

Hebrew — [This is a name of a book, describing the killing of animals according to the Jewish rites.]"

We are told on page 48 that the young Evans knew none of these languages. 

On page 4 of the June 4 1887 edition of Golden Gate, we have an account of a session with Fred Evans that occurred only several days earlier, on May 27, 1887. We are told, "The most remarkable seance for independent slate-writing we ever witnessed occurred on Friday morning, May 27th, in presence of the eminent scientist. Dr. Alfred Russell Wallace, his brother, Mr. John Wallace, of Stockton, Dr. David Wooster, one of our leading physicians and a member of the Academy of Sciences, and the writer— four persons in all besides the medium, Mr. Fred Evans." We are told, "The slates were all thoroughly cleaned and examined by the brothers, and were, from, first to last, directly under their hands and sight." We are told, "All being done in the light and above board, with the slates in the hands of the investigator, there is not the slightest suggestion or possibility of deception." We have a quote from Alfred Russel Wallace saying, "I have never on any occasion witnessed phenomena of so wonderful a character appear with such rapidity and in a manner so entirely free from suspicion," and a quote from his brother saying, "I agree with the above remarks of my brother." 

Pages 61-92 of Owen's book deals with a tour Fred Evans took (accompanied by Owen) throughout cities and towns of southern California in the spring of 1887. We read quite a few newspaper quotes by reporters who sound impressed after attending public exhibitions in which mysterious slate writing was witnessed in the presence of Evans, sometimes before an audience of hundreds.  We are given this example of the mysterious output, which we are told was produced under test conditions under the direction of a committee. The figure depicted is Benjamin Rush, a figure in early American history. A person looking at the Wikipedia.org article on Benjamin Rush will see that the portrait and the signature are close to those shown in that article. 

Later in the book we have an extensive account of Fred Evan's journey to Australia, where he underwent extensive testing before committees and audiences in places like Melbourne. On page 180 this impressive-sounding testimony is quoted:

"Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, May 8, 1889.

We, the undersigned, do hereby testify that we and each of us have investigated the phenomenon of independent slate-writing, occurring through the mediumship of Mr. Fred Evans, of San Francisco, Cal., U. S. A., and have obtained writing on the inner surfaces of slates that we and each of us have furnished ourselves, and which were not for a moment permitted to leave our sight.

The messages appearing thereon were always signed by the names of our departed relatives and friends, and information given that we are sure the medium could not have had any previous knowledge of whatever.

Whilst many of us are not Spiritualists, yet we and each of us agree that the messages appearing between our slates were placed there by some invisible intelligent power, independent of the medium.

SIGNATURES.

John Williams, Grain Dealer, Stock Street, Coburg, Victoria.

Edwin Gill, Justice of Peace, Balaclava, Victoria.

James T. Praagst, Government Land Office, E. Melbourne, Victoria.

R. Stewart, Esq., Bourke Street, Melbourne, Victoria.

Charles C. Bell, Esq., 4 Gordon Terrace, Mary Street, St. Kilda, Victoria.

John Carson, Esq., Kew, Victoria.

W. B. Rodier, Justice of Peace, ' Rougemont,' St. James' Park, Hawthorn.

John Henshaw, Manufacturer, Council Street, Clifton Hill, Victoria.

Thomas Martin, Manufacturer, 122 Rokeby Street, Collingwood, Victoria.

Richard Bond, Builder, Carpenter Street, Middle Brighton, Victoria.

Wm. Overton, Esq.

John Melville, Accountant, 24 Shiel Street, N. Melbourne, Victoria.

William Jackson, Builder, Armadale, Victoria.

E. Sharpe, Illawarra Road, Hawthorn, Victoria.

Daniel Clay, 33 Michael Street, N. Fitzroy, Victoria.

M. Bond, Middle Brighton, Victoria.

William Brown, 47 Napier Street, E. Melbourne, Victoria.

E. L. Melville, Shell Street, North Melbourne, Victoria.

E. Overton, Melbourne, Victoria."

On page 182 we have an equally enthusiastic testimony by an equally long list of named witnesses living around Sydney, Australia. The witnesses state, "We are satisfied that the manifestations of spirit or direct writing witnessed by us through your mediumship were beyond the possibility of fraud or deception."

Spookiest Years, Part 13: The Year 1876

In previous posts in this intermittently appearing "Spookiest Years" series on this blog (here, here, here, here, here, here, here,

here, here, here, here and here), I had looked at some very spooky events reported between 1848 and 1874. Let me pick up the thread and discuss some spooky events reported in the year 1876. 

On page 68 of the February 11, 1876 edition of The Spiritualist, we read of several remarkable cases. The author Emma Hardinge-Britten states the following about herself, using the term "the somnambulic condition" to refer to a kind of trance:

"The author, for instance, has been known to rise in her sleep, proceed in thick darkness to her study, and there inscribe musical compositions, and write abstruse exercises in harmony and composition, entirely beyond her normal capacity to achieve. On the other hand, she has frequently been known in the ' somnambulic condition ' to recite original poems, sing original compositions, and make what were pronounced to be 'splendid orations,' in a style totally different to her ordinary methods, and though at the early period of childhood when these feats of abnormal wonder were enacted, her friends and associates...attributed them all to the same somnambulic state, there were marked differences between the various phenomena exhibited, proving that some were the  action of the sleeper’s own spirit in a state of high exaltation,  whilst others must have proceeded from the influence of  foreign spiritual intelligences taking advantage of the somnambulist’s unconscious organism to manifest their presence." 

On the same page Emma tells of a sleepwalker who displayed similar behavior, writing perfectly in darkness, and having no memory of what was written.  We then hear this remarkable claim:

"Dr. A. 0. Stiles, of Bridgeport, Couu., claimed to have, from a boy, possessed the faculty of perceiving, by a clairvoyant sense, the interior conditions of the human system, and pointing out its locale. In his medical practice he used to give the most invariably correct diagnoses of the diseases of distant persons by holding a lock of their hair in his hand."

On page 246 of the May 26, 1876 edition of The Spiritualist, we have an account by William Oxley (dated May 22, 1876) of events of May 11, 1876. We hear of an astonishing transfiguration of a handkerchief into a human figure, audibly identified with a woman who died four days ago:

"There were present seven of us, including Dr. Monck, the medium. Taking our seats round an oval table, I sat at one end, a good light from a gas lamp being behind me ; Dr. Monck sat at the other end of the table. After a time he became entranced, and, rising from his seat, came up to me on the left-hand side, close to where I was sitting. Samuel  was the controlling spirit. He took a white lawn handkerchief from Dr. Monck’s pocket, and placing it on his right  hand, the handkerchief appeared to be 'absorbed,' or meta-morphosed, and in a few seconds there, at the extremity of his arm, appeared a beautiful, unmistakable feminine face,  as large as a good-sized infant’s; it was a perfect human head, with the features clearly delineated. So clearly are the features and form impressed upon my memory, that if I were  an artist I could even now produce them on canvas,  The head and face were of pure classic form, and very beautiful to look upon. While I was looking intently on the object before me I heard a whispering voice, at first very  faintly, issuing from the head; the words were, 'Do you hear me?' I replied, 'No, not distinctly,' as Samuel,  through Dr. Monck, was speaking at the same time. I then said, 'Come closer, so that I may hear you.' The reply was, ' I will try.' I now saw that the lips moved in giving articulation to the words. Dr. Monck then pressed his lips close to my right cheek, which I felt distinctly all the time  that the head was within a few inches of my left ear. Listening intently I heard the words, ' My name is Rhondda,  and I wish to write to my parents in Cardiff, and tell  them not to grieve for me, as I am very happy. I have seen in my beautiful and glorious home, and I shall often try to  come through this medium, and hope to be very useful'....From what I have learnt, the spirit of Rhondda passed out of the body on Sunday evening, May 7th, at 8 p.m., and on the fourth day between 8 and 9 p.m. (three clear days and nights intervening), she appeared to us in the manner above described."

On page 316 of the July 7, 1876 edition of The Spiritualist, we have an account of a seance involving the medium James T. Morris on May 10, 1876.  The account states that the medium (Morris) was disrobed and thoroughly examined, and then placed on the right side of a small wooden cabinet divided into two halves, with the two halves separated by wire mesh. We are told the cabinet had been thoroughly examined by the witnesses. We read of several figures mysteriously emerging from this cabinet, including (1) a tall German with blue eyes and a red mustache (unlike the medium with brown eyes and a height of five feet two inches); (2) a blue-eyed man six feet two inches in height  (unlike the medium with brown eyes and a height of five feet two inches);  (3) a bearded man three inches taller than the medium; (4) a woman. We read this of the disappearance of the woman;

"She remained about fifteen minutes, and on returning slowly to the cabinet, commenced gradually to dematerialise, so that by the time she reached the door she had diminished fully two feet in height, and correspondingly in size of form. Then she seemed to be slowly drawn by some unseen power into the cabinet, and, while standing within the door, in full view of all, gradually dematerialised to the size of a babe not more than eighteen inches in height. She reached out her little hand and arm, and waved it to and fro, then the door closed, and she was gone from our sight, to the regret of all.....The next to appear was a gentleman about five feet ten inches in height, with dark hair and long dark beard, who was recognised by a gentleman present as his father-in-law, who passed away in August last."

The account ends up like this:

"The committee again overhauled the cabinet, examined every seal and every bolt and screw, and announced to the audience that everything about the cabinet was satisfactory. The medium then offered to be searched again, but the committee said it was not necessary. The hard sceptics admitted that this seance completely puzzled them, and overturned all theories of the medium personating different characters. At the request of some, the medium stood up inside of the cabinet, when it was found that his face merely reached a little above the opening. A gentleman present then drew up a paper and read it before the company, and requested them to sign it as an endorsement of Mr. Morris as a materialising medium. It was very readily signed. The following is a copy of the statement, with the signatures:

— Marion County, Indianapolis, Ind., May 10th, 1S76. We, the undersigned, attended a test seance for materialisation, given by James T. Morris on the evening of May 10th, 1876, and are fully satisfied that under the test conditions the faces which appeared at the aperture, and the forms which stepped from the cabinet, were not that of Mr. Morris; also that it was impossible for a confederate to be introduced into the cabinet without  being detected.  Dr. Wesley Clark, Mrs. Mary A. Potts,  Jno. S. Wright, W. B. Potts,  Mrs. E. Eveland, Dr. B. Atkinson,  Mr. J. Eveland, J. F. Baker,  J. W. Garrison, Aug. Siekert,  J. Donnelley, Jacob Eldridge,  M. B. Moore, Miss C. M. Sharpe,  Mrs. J. Donnelley, Dr. W. H. Thomas, H. L. Austin, S. W. Peese, Thos. Jordan, A. M. White. B. Atkins." 

There is no imaginable "secret trap door" trickery that can explain such a report.  A skeptic's only resort here is to imagine a conspiracy to defraud among the named witnesses, or perhaps a lying writer who made up the names of all the witnesses. 

On page 23 of the August 11, 1876 edition of The Spiritualist, we have an account by J. T. Rhodes of a seance of Miss Fairlamb, attended on  July 30 1876. We hear of the materialization of a figure called Cissy who grows from "a small white patch, about the size of a lady’s handkerchief" to "a draped white figure, about two-and-a-half to three feet in height" who speaks in monosyllables. 

On page 42 of the August 25, 1876 edition of The Spiritualist, we have an account by Alfred Russel Wallace, co-founder of the theory of evolution by natural selection. It is one of very many reports made in 1876 of inexplicable phenomena occurring around the medium Henry Slade. Slade was famous for seances in which witnesses would report writing inexplicably occurring on slates. Wallace gives this account of a meeting with Slade "in broad daylight" on August 9, 1876, there being no one present but himself and Slade: 

"Writing came upon the upper part of the slate, when I myself held it pressed close up to the under-side of the table, both Dr. Slade’s hands being upon the table in contact with my other hand. The writing was audible while in progress. This one phenomenon is absolutely conclusive. It admits of no explanation or imitation by conjuring."

Wallace reports additional paranormal phenomena occurring. On page 67 of the September 8, 1876 edition of The Spiritualist, we hear a more dramatic account of a session with Henry Slade, one written by Louisa Andrews:

"Several of the stances which I attended daring my late stay with Dr. Slade in New York, were held during the day, the clear sunlight  streaming in through two large windows. Under these conditions, no  one being present but the medium and myself, a double slate placed upon the top of the table was filled inside with writing. This slate was  not touched by the medium, whose hands were clasping mine while the  communication was being written. Chairs several feet from us were overthrown and lifted again, being, at my request, replaced as they had stood before, and sometimes held for several seconds suspended in the air. Hands were felt and seen,...At one of these light seances a copy of  Webster’s unabridged dictionary, which lay upon a desk some distance off, was brought and fell upon the table, striking the hand of the medium  and bruising it severely. On another occasion a large walking-stick, which had been standing  against the wall at a distance from where we sat, came towards the table  and danced about on the floor, at my right hand and opposite the medium, as if it were alive....During my last visit to Dr. Slade I had only one sitting for materialization,..The medium used no cabinet or curtain, but simply turned the gas partially down in the room in which we had been sitting the greater part of the day. The forms gathered like a rapidly forming cloud, becoming gradually more dense, and taking shape before our eyes. They were extremely ethereal, so much so that objects were sometimes visible through them."

On page 84 to 88 of the September 22, 1876 edition of The Spiritualist, we have a long article by scientist William Barrett. Barrett describes witnessing people put under hypnosis who seemed to have powers of telepathy and clairvoyance that blossomed in such a state. On page 87 Barrett becomes the latest of innumerable distinguished witnesses testifying to the reality of mysterious raps. He states this:

"About twelve months ago I was told that the daughter of a gentleman of good position in society, a child not quite ten years old, was troubled with knockings, for which no cause could be assigned. These sounds came on whenever the child was in a passive condition, and apparently displayed  some intelligence, as they would keep time to a tune, or by rapping at certain letters, would spell out words. As the family were living in my neighbourhood, I made their  acquaintance, and obtained permission to examine these  mysterious knockings. I found that, in the full, glare of sunlight, when every precaution to prevent deception had been taken, still these raps would occur in different parts of the room, entirely out of reach of the child, whose hands and feet I was watching closely. A dozen times have I tested the phenomena in every way that the ingenuity of sceptical friends could suggest, and the result was that I could come to no other conclusion but that the sounds were real objective raps, displaying intelligence, and yet certainly not produced by any visible cause. I have often had the sounds occurring on a small table, above and below the surface of which my hands were placed, and have felt the jarring of the taps on that part of the table enclosed between my hands. I have taken sceptical friends to witness these phenomena,  and their testimony agrees with mine. It must be borne in mind that the conditions of the experiment are singularly unfavourable either for fraud or hallucination. To avoid the possibility of the former I have held the hands and feet  of the child, and still obtained the knockings ; they have occurred on the lawn, on an umbrella, far removed from the possibility of deception by servants."

On page 104 of the September 29, 1876 edition of The Spiritualist, we have a letter by a Professor Lankester describing a meeting he had with the previously mentioned Henry Slade. Lankester states a theory of some trickery going on by Slade, one he fails to back up by any good evidence. On the next page we read a quote by anatomist C. Carter-Blake, stating this about Lankester's theory:

"If Dr. Slade plays tricks, his modus operandi is something very different from that which Professor Lankester would suggest. The observers who have visited him, including some of the cleverest minds in science, have failed to detect any fraud. Professor Lankester has found out simply nothing." 

Similarly, on page 106 Alfred Russel Wallace (a biologist more accomplished than Lankester) disputes Lankester's claims:

"As I have now shown that Professor Lankester commenced his letter with an erroneous statement of fact, and a ' more than questionable ' statement of opinion, it is not to be wondered at that I find the remainder of his communication equally unsatisfactory. His account of what happened during his visit to Dr. Slade is so completely unlike what happened during mv own visit, as well as the recorded experiences of Serjeant Cox, Mr. Carter Blake, and many others, that I can only look upon it as a striking example of Dr. Carpenter’s theory of preconceived ideas. Professor Lankester went with the firm conviction that all he was going to see would be imposture, and he believes he saw imposture accordingly. The 'fumbling,' the 'manoeuvres,' the 'considerable interval of time ' between cleaning the slate and holding it under the table, and the writing occurring on the opposite side of the slate to that on which the piece of pencil was placed, were all absent when I witnessed the experiment ; while the fact that legible writing occurred on the clean slate when held entirely in my own hand while Dr. Slade’s hands were both upon the table and held by my other hand, such writing being distinctly audible while in progress ; and the further fact that Dr. Slade’s knees were always in sight, and that the slate was never rested upon them at all, render it quite impossible for me to accept the explanation of Professor Lankester and Dr. Donkin as applicable to any portion of the phenomena witnessed by me."

Based on his dubious speculations about what Slade was doing and not actual observations of Slade doing anything fraudulent, Lankester caused Slade to be arrested and put under trial for violating the Vagrancy Act prohibiting things such as fortune telling. Alfred Russel Wallace and other witnesses testified in the trial that they had observed inexplicable phenomenon when sitting with Henry Slade, and saw no sign of fraud.  You can read Wallace's testimony on page 161 of the document here.  He testified to have seen what appeared to be paranormal writing on a slate, occurring in three different meetings he had with Slade. We have this testimony by Wallace in response to questions:

"From beginning to end of your sitting was there anything indicative of imposture ?—I could see nothing whatever indicative of imposture. Were there any raps or movements that attracted your attention ?— I heard the raps and felt the touches which have been described, but the most remarkable thing was that the flat table, when my hands and those of Dr. Slade were clasped together, rose up, and almost instantaneously turned completely over on to the top of my head and slid down my back. (Laughter.) Was it possible that this could have been produced by Slade's feet or legs ?—I think not. It appeared to me to be absolutely impossible."

So not only did Wallace testify in court to seeing inexplicable writing produced in the presence of Slade, but also mysterious raps and the inexplicable levitation of a table (something reported by very many reliable witnesses of the nineteenth century, usually when Slade was not present).  The court also allowed to be introduced into evidence the written testimony of Edward W. Cox (sometimes referred to as Sergeant Cox because of some office he held).  The testimony is from page 18 of the August 11, 1876 edition of The Spiritualist. Cox testified this about a meeting he had with Slade:

"Instantly upon taking our seats very loud rapping came upon the floor. This was followed by a succession of furious blows upon the table, jarring my hands as they were laying upon it. These blows were repeated at any part of the table desired, by merely touching that spot with the finger, while the blows, as forcible as if given with a sledge hammer, were being made. Dr. Slade’s hands were on the table upon my hands, and his whole body to his feet was fully before my eyes. I am certain that not a muscle moved. Then he took the slate after I had carefully inspected it, to be assured that no writing was upon it, and placing there a piece of slate pencil, the size of a small grain of wheat, he pressed the slate tightly below but against the slab of the table. Presently I heard the sound as of writing on a slate. The slate was removed, and on it a zigzag line was drawn from end to end. At this moment the chair that I had described as standing by the table was lifted up to a level with the table, held in that, position for several seconds, and then dropped to the floor. While the chair was so suspended in the air, I carefully noted Dr. Slade. It was far beyond his reach. But his hands were under my hands, and his feet were fully in view near my own on the side of the table opposite to that on which the chair had risen."

We have here not merely a report of mysterious slate writing, but also a report of dramatic inexplicable raps and also a report of a dramatic levitation of a chair. On and on Edward Cox's account goes, with him reporting many other inexplicable phenomena such as the appearance of mysterious hands that touch and grab and shake Cox. Cox's report casts no suspicion on Slade.  

In the same edition on page 165 we have this written testimony addressed to Slade, testimony by attorney Clarke Irvine:

"I went to see you one afternoon at your house in New York. My name was never given to you ; I went from here almost direct, and was a perfect stranger in New York—never was there before; no one in your room but our two selves, and the sun shone into the window. As soon as I entered your room it seemed to me that invisible hands manipulated my person; my hands were seized by invisible hands. You did not offer to hold the little slate; I alone held it, you sitting off quite a distance. The slate, which I cleaned, was written upon both when I held it in my hand and when I held it under against the table top. My own name was written on the slate, and names of friends deceased twenty or twenty-five years were subscribed. I will swear you did not know the names, for no name was given to you by me—not even my own. You tried to hold an accordion, which was violently wrested from you, to your apparent alarm; I took hold of it and held it tightly in one hand, with the keys turned toward me. The force pulled violently and pushed, and the keys raised and fell to the tune of ' Home, sweet home.' I could not have started the tune had my life been the forfeit. I silently requested (mentally as it is called) that 'Hail, Columbia,' be played, and it was played. Also a dinner bell was rung in mid air, while whirled about by a power to me unseen."

Despite so many witnesses testifying in writing to have seen a wide variety of extremely dramatic paranormal phenomena in the presence of Henry Slade, with some of this testimony being introduced into court, we learn on page 162 of the November 3, 1876 edition of The Spiritualist that Slade was found guilty in the court case, and sentenced to three months of hard labor on a charge of violating a Vagrancy Act prohibiting fortune-telling and similar activity. On the same page we read the judge's ruling, which makes it clear that he paid no attention to all the testimony that was providing indicating that authentic paranormal phenomena had been produced near Slade, but that he only paid attention to the speculations of Lankester.  According to the document here, Slade was "released on a law quibble," which makes it sound like the case was eventually dismissed on a technicality. The page here says that " the conviction was afterwards quashed on appeal to the Middlesex Sessions, for a formal error in the conviction."

Skeptics mentioning Slade typically claim inaccurately that he was convicted of fraud. He was merely convicted of the much lesser charge of vagrancy, and that charge was later overruled and thrown out, as the two previous quotes show. In the Psi Encyclopedia we read this about the trial:

"Finally, Slade’s trial is typically reported as a case in which Slade was convicted of fraud. But as a matter of fact, the testimony presented against Slade at the trial was weak in the extreme, and the judge based his verdict largely on the intuition that Slade’s phenomena could not possibly have been genuine because they conflicted with established natural laws."

In the coming years the astronomy professor Johann Carl Friedrich Zöllner published an account of a test he did with Slade on May 8, 1877, one in which Zöllner reported a paranormal-seeming result that apparently could not possibly have been produced by fraud. On page 165 of his book Transcendental Physics, we read this:

"I obtained one of the most remarkable confirmations of this apparent suspension of the law of impenetrability of matter in a sitting on the 9th May, 1878, from eleven to a quarter-past eleven in the morning. Immediately after I had sat down with Slade at the card-table, I conversed with him at first on the power of his invisible intelligent beings, by means of which material bodies could be apparently penetrated with as much facility as if they were permeable. Slade shared my amazement, assuring me that never until now had such an abundance of this sort of phenomena been observed in his presence. Immediately after this remark he took up with his left hand two slates of equal size from among the slates which lay on the table at his left, and which had been bought and cleaned by myself. He handed me these two slates, and desired me to press the one upon the upper surface, the other against the under surface of the table, with my left hand, so that the thumb of my left hand pressed the upper, my other four fingers the under slate, against the flat of the table, as may be seen from the woodcut, Plate  VII. Beneath the upper slate on the table, a splinter of slate-pencil had first been laid, so that it was thus completely covered by the upper slate. Slade then placed both his hands on the middle of the table, about a foot from the two slates, and requested me to cover his hands with my right hand. Scarcely was this done when I distinctly heard writing on one of the slates which were pressed firmly by me against the table. After the conclusion of the writing was signified, as usual, by three ticks quickly in succession, I took the slates apart, and of course expected that the one which had been above the table would be that written on, since on the table still lay the bit of pencil in the same place in which I had laid it a minute before. How great was my astonishment to find the under slate written on, on the side that had been turned to the table. Just as if the bit of pencil had written through the three-quarter inch of oak table, or as if the latter had, for the invisible writer, not been there at all. Upon the slate was the following message in English : —

"We shall not do much for you this morning, — we wish to replenish your strength for this evening; you will require to be very passive, or we shall not be able to accomplish our work."

Below is the Plate VII referred to in the text above:

Faced with this testimony of the paranormal and much other testimony of the paranormal in Zöllner's book, a book by an accomplished scientist, skeptics resorted to the worst type of gaslighting, by claiming that Zöllner had lost his mind. But the book shows no sign of any such mental decline, but instead reads exactly like the work of a calm and careful observer.  

On page 126 of the October 13, 1876 edition of The Spiritualist, we have an account by Henry D. Jencken.  He describes a seance occurring on September 6, 1876  "at 51, Holland-street, Kensington, the house of Mr. S. C. Hall, the well-known Editor of the Art Journal." Several witnesses are named, including "Mr. and Mrs. Hall,

Mr. and Mrs. Mayo, Dr. Nethereliff of the Chelsea infirmary," Jencken and his wife. We are told of the appearance of an apparition:

"After a short pause, the door of the room in which we 

were sitting was gently opened, and a form was distinctly 

seen in the semi-light, as it streamed into the darkened room, from the hall lamp. The apparition—for I cannot describe it otherwise—appeared to be semi-transparent. I could all but see objects through it, and yet the outline was complete. To make sure that no optical delusion was carrying us away, questions as to who saw the figure were put all round, and answered affirmatively, save in the case of two members present who were seated with their backs to the door."

We are told of the appearance of a spirit hand, which raised a pencil and wrote briefly:

"A luminous, small, beautifully-shaped hand then descended from the side at which I was sitting, that is to say, at, the opposite side to Mrs. Jeneken. The hand seized a pencil which was lying on the table and wrote the letters  ' E. W. E.' . The power of holding the pencil then evidently failed, The pencil, which had been held between the forefinger and  third finger, dropped on the table, and the hand raised itself high, over head, and disappeared. After a short pause it reappeared, descended, touched the table, took hold of the  pencil, and wrote the words ' God bless y—.' At the letter  y the strength again appeared to give way, the pencil dropped, the hand rose quickly, and was gone."

Jencken provided a sketch of what he saw, and stated five others saw it.  His sketch is below.  He stated, "The luminosity around the wrist was singularly beautiful." 

Many people in the nineteenth century made claims similar to the one above. For example, there had occurred in the January, 1874 edition of the Quarterly Journal of Science the publication of the paper "NOTES OF AN ENQUIRY INTO THE PHENOMENA CALLED SPIRITUAL, DURING THE YEARS 1870-73" by the leading physicist William Crookes, inventor of the Crookes tube that was the technological ancestor of the television set, and the co-discoverer of the element thallium.  On this page, Crookes describes seeing a writing "spirit hand" similar to that reported by Jencken above. Crookes states, "A luminous hand came down from the upper part of the room, and after hovering near me for a few seconds, took the pencil from my hand, rapidly wrote on a sheet of paper, threw the pencil down, and then rose up over our heads, gradually fading into darkness."

The Jencken account quoted above meets high standards of evidence, as it is a first-hand account, it was published within a month after the reported sighting, and several witnesses are listed. The account is only one of many cases in which more than one witness reported seeing the same apparition. For many other cases, see my posts below:

When Two or More See the Same Apparition

When an Apparition Is Seen by Multiple Observers: 17 Cases

When an Apparition Is Seen by Multiple Observers: 17 More Cases

More Apparitions Seen by Multiple Observers
Many an Apparition Is Seen by More Than One
Still More Apparitions Seen by Multiple Observers

When an Apparition Is Seen by Not Just One

The 1878 book Psychography by the respected scholar William Stainton Moses (writing under a pen name) documents numerous cases of witnesses reporting mysterious writing occurring in the presence of Henry Slade, with the accounts often describing observation conditions seeming to allow no possibility of fraud, or events (such as furniture levitations) seemingly incapable of being faked. On page 123 of a later (1882) edition we have an interesting list of distinguished people who reported seeing paranormal phenomena. We get this list (with an asterisk indicating someone no longer living when the list was compiled):

"TESTIMONY TO PSYCHICAL PHENOMENA.

Science. — The Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, F.R.S., President E.A.S.; W. Crookes, Fellow and Gold Medallist of the Royal Society; C. Varley, F.R.S., C.E. ; A. R. Wallace, the eminent Naturalist; W. F. Barrett, F.R.S.E., Professor of Physics in the Royal College of Science, Dublin ; Dr. Lockhart Robertson ; *Dr. J. Elliotson, F.R.S., sometime President of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London; *Professor de Morgan, sometime President of the Mathematical Society of London; Dr. William Gregory, F.R.S.E., sometime Professor of Chemistry in the University of Edinburgh ; *Dr. Ashburner, *Mr. Rutter, *Dr. Herbert Mayo, F.R.S., etc. etc.

* Professor F. Zollner, of Leipzig, author of 'Transcendental Physics,' etc.; Professors G. T. Fechner, Scheibner, and J. H. Fichte, of Leipzig ; Professor W. E. Weber, of Gbttingen ; Professor Hoffman, of Wiirzburg ; Professor Perty, of Berne ; Professors Wagner and Butleroff, of Petersburg ; *Professors Hare and Mapes, of U.S.A. ; Dr. Robert Friese, of Breslau ; Mons. Camille Flammarion, Astronomer, etc., etc.

Literature. — The Earl of Dunraven ; T. A. Trollope; S. C. Hall; Gerald Massey ; Captain R. Burton ; Professor Cassal, LL.D. ; *Lord Brougham; *Lord Lytton; *Lord Lyndhurst; * Archbishop Whately; *Dr. Robert Chambers, F.R.S.E.; * William M. Thackeray; *Nassau Senior ; *George Thompson ; *Wm. Howitt ; *Serjeant Cox ; *Mrs. Browning, etc., etc.

Bishop Clarke, Rhode Island, U.S.A.; Darius Lyman, U.S.A.; Professor W. Denton ; Professor Alexander Wilder ; Professor Hiram Corson; Professor George Bush; and twenty-four Judges and ex Judges of the U.S. Courts ; Victor Hugo ; Baron and Baroness von Vay ; *W. Lloyd Garrison, U.S.A.; *Hon. R. Dale Owen, U.S.A.; *Hon. J. W. Edmonds, U.S.A.; *Epes Sargent; *Baron du Potet; *Count A. de Gasparin ; *Baron L. de Guldenstubbe, etc., etc.

Social Position. — H. I. H. Nicholas, Duke of Leuchtenberg ; H.M.S.H. the Prince of Solms; H.S.H. Prince Albrecht of Solms ; *H.S.H. Prince Emile of Sayn Wittgenstein; Hon. Alexander Aksakof, Imperial Councillor of Russia ; the Hon. J. L. O'Sullivan, sometime Minister of U.S.A. at the Court of Lisbon; M. Favre Clavairoz, late Consul-General of France at Trieste ; the late Emperors of *Russia and *France....etc., etc".

Postscript: An 1876 newspaper article notes the death of Daniel Dunglas Home. Below is a quote from the article (I'll correct the misspelling of Home's middle name):

"The death of Daniel Dunglas Home, as reported by cable dispatch from Paris, recently, terminates the career of the most famous Spiritualist and medium of modern times. The New York World affects to doubt his departure from this life, as if only the half of what has been told of Mr. Home is true. To suppose him dead merely because he happened to leave his corpse would be as absurd as to suppose so because he happened to leave his great-coat or his umbrella behind him.

He was born in Scotland, and came to this country when a mere child. He made his first conspicuous successes in Springfield and in Boston between the years 1851 and 1853. In this city he was hailed as a prophet by numbers of highly-educated persons, but. finally in 1855 he went to Europe. In London he was warmly welcomed by several coteries of the aristocracy, and he made a very strong impression upon the mind of Queen Victoria herself. The Duchess of Sutherland was one of his most open proselytes and believers. In Paris be was made for a time 'the rage' by the undisguised interest which the Emperor Napoleon took in him and in his alleged miracles. He was frequently summoned to the Tuileries, and he gradually acquired a very considerable influence with the Emperor.

He married a Russian lady of noble birth in 1856. She died in 1862, and Mr. Home married a Russian princess. He was a particular favorite at the court of the Czar, and claimed in private to have converted the Czar to spiritualism. The many strange tales of spiritual phenomena contain nothing to rival the demonstrations of Mr. Home. Besides the ordinary phenomena of rapping, table tipping, writing and playing upon musical instruments, they include in his case visions seen by the medium, appearances of hands, arms and spirit forms seen by other persons, 'levitation' or the preternatural uplifting of the medium, elongation and shortening of his body by several inches, and his handling of fire and heated objects without hurt. It has been again and again affirmed of Mr. Home by witnesses of unimpeached character that they have seen him plunge his hands with impunity into a blazing coal fire, seat himself upon heavy mahogany dinner-tables and rise with them several feet into the air, and after floating horizontally head foremost out of the window at a height of many yards from the ground, sail tranquilly around a castle tower and come in again unharmed at the other side."