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. 

More Newspaper Accounts of Spiritual Manifestations

Let us look at some newspaper accounts of spiritual manifestations, accounts different from those in my earlier post "Newspaper Accounts of Spiritual Manifestations." Below is a newspaper account of spiritual manifestations from 1867.  We read of mysterious rap sounds that seemed to be able to answer questions correctly. 

"The people of our neighborhood have been for a week past very much excited by spiritual manifestations in a house at the Springfield Furnace Mine Bank. The inmates of the house are persons of integrity and good standing. An orphan girl, a member of the family, who was the special medium or victim of this phenomenon of spiritual communication, also bears a good character. The rapping always commenced about nine o'clock in the evening, and continued until after midnight. Before appearing each night, the medium experienced a dullness beginning at her feet and extending upwards. Then a low tapping was heard over the floor, like some one walking, growing louder as it approached the girl, ending in loud knocks, like the stroke of a mallet. One moment, it was overhead, then under the floor, on the wall, &c. It would respond by distinct raps to every question. It was asked how long since Mr. Lincoln died, and the number of years was immediately given. So in regard to the lapse of years since Stephen A. Douglas died.

A member of the family becoming vexed at the noise and confusion, remarked, 'I am not afraid of you, my trust is in God,' when there was such a succession of 'thundering knocks' that a portion of the plastering fell from the wall. People came from a distance to investigate the matter, believing it to be collusion or trickery, and went away firmly convinced that it was an intangible, unsubstantial
spirit, and found that 'there are more things in heaven and earth than were dreamed of in their philosophy.'  The rappings continued one week. The girl had several convulsions, after which she
sank into a partial trance and the noises  were heard no more."

You can read the account here:

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85054846/1867-09-12/ed-1/seq-1/

N. P. Tallmadge served two terms as the US Senator from New York and served as the governor of a US territory.  A newspaper account  from 1853 has a letter by Tallmadge. Tallmadge describes a seance in which there were communications claiming to be from the then-deceased US senator John Calhoun. He describes movements and levitations of a heavy table, which very many respectable witnesses claimed to see during this period. Tallmadge states this:

"During the above communication of Calhoun, the table moved occasionally, perhaps a foot; first one way and then the other. After the communication closed, we all moved back

from the table, from two to four feet—so that

no one touched the table. Suddenly the table

moved from the position it occupied some three

or four feet, rested a few moments, and then

moved back to its original position. Then it

again moved as far the other way, and returned to the place

 it started from. One side of

the table was then raised, and stood for a few

moments at an angle of about thirty-five degrees,

 and then again rested on the floor as us

usual.

The table was a large, heavy, round table, at

which ten or a dozen persons might be seated

at dinner. During all these movements no person 

touched the table, nor was any one near it.

After seeing it raised in the manner above mentioned. 

I had the curiosity to test its weight

by raising it myself. I accordingly took my

seat by it, placed my hands under the leaf, and

exerted as much force as I was capable of in

that sitting posture, and could not raise it a

particle from the floor. I then stood up in the

best possible position to exert the greatest

force, took hold of the leaf, and still could not

raise it with all the strength I could apply. I

then requested the three ladies to take hold

around the table, and try altogether to lift it.

We lifted... and did not raise it a particle. We

then desisted, fearing we should break the table. I then said, 'Will the spirits permit me to raise the table?' I took hold alone, and raised it without difficulty. After this the following conversation ensued:

'Q,. Can you raise the table entirely from

the floor? A. Yes - '

'Q. Will you raise me with it? A. Yes;

get me the square table.'

The square table was of cherry, with four

legs, a large size tea table. It was brought out

and substituted for the round one, the leaves

being raised. I took my seat on the centre;

the three ladies sat at the sides and arms resting upon it. This, of course, added to the weight to be raised, namely, my own weight of the table. Two legs of the table were then

raised about six inches from the floor, and then

the other two legs were raised to a level of the

first, so that the whole table was suspended in the

air about six inches above the floor. While thus

seated on it, I could feel a gentle vibratory motion as if floating in the atmosphere. After being thus suspended in the air for a few moments, the table ... let down again to the floor....

I was then directed to put the guitar on the

drawer. We were all seated as before, with

our hands and arms resting on the table.

The guitar was touched softly and gently,

and gave forth sweet and delicious sounds like

the accompaniment to a beautiful and exquisite

piece of music. It then played a sort of symphony, in much 

louder and bolder tones. And

as it played these harmonious sounds, becoming

soft and sweet, and low, began to recede, and

grew fainter and fainter till they died away on

the ear in the distance. Then they returned

and grew louder and nearer, till they were

heard again in full and gushing volume as when

they commenced.

I am utterly incapable of giving any adequate

idea of the beauty and harmony of this music.

I have heard the guitar touched by the most

delicate and scientific hands, and heard from it

under such guidance, the most splendid performances. But never did I hear any thing that fastened upon the very soul like these prophetic strains drawn out by an invisible hand from the Spirit World."

The account by Tallmadge has further astonishing details, such as the mysterious production of a line of text, written in handwriting matching Calhoun's.  You can read the rest of the account using the link here:

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88064476/1853-06-11/ed-1/seq-1/

Accounts like the one above were very commonly given by many distinguished witnesses at this time, as you can read about by reading my posts   here, here, here, here and here.  Accounts like the one above were often the best type of testimony, in the sense that they appeared as newspaper accounts published a small number of days after the claimed observations, accounts signed by multiple named witnesses, often more than four. 

The account below appeared in the February 22, 1851 edition of the widely respected anti-slavery newspaper The Liberator. We have an account of events on January 22, 1851, which were received by the newspaper with a cover letter dated January 25, 1851, which means the account below must have been written within a few days of the occurrence of the events. The first sentence of the account implies it was written on the same day as the events reported. We read this:

"We, the undersigned, having witnessed, this day,

at the house of Mr. Leroy Sunderland, (No. 28

Eliot street, Boston,) the following phenomena, deem

it proper, in this way, to make mention of them.

When we entered the room, there were some ten

persons surrounding a table, conversing with the

spirits; and as many more in the room as spectators, 

watching the movements of the others. Mrs.

M. Cooper was the medium. There were constant

and frequent rappings upon the table, and responses

to various and ingenious test questions, all of which

were admitted to be answered correctly; and the

company expressed themselves as being satisfied

with the answers given. We saw no motion of the

medium which would indicate that she had, personally, any thing to do with the responses given ; and we think she could not have had. The rappings were made on the table, without exception.

After this circle had retired, we, the undersigned,

surrounded the same table, when the following occurrences were observed:—

1. In answer to the question, ‘If any of our

guardian spirits were present?’ loud and prompt responses were heard

 upon the table, the vibrations of

which were distinctly felt by our hands ; and we are

positive that Mrs. Cooper did not touch the table at

all.

2. We then asked the spirits if they would give

us some physical manifestations, and we were promptly answered by raps in the affirmative. The table

was then immediately moved in various directions,

from one to two feet; and, at our request, was, quite

a number of times, turned over into the laps of those

surrounding it. In two instances, it was raised entirely from off the floor, and we are positive that no human instrumentality was employed in producing these results.

For the purpose of varying the experiment, we all

took hold of the top of the table, holding it clear of

the floor in our hands, when it was violently shaken,

while yet so suspended, as if its standard had been

seized by strong hands, and it apparently varied in

weight from twenty to two hundred pounds.

3. Among the test questions proposed and satisfactorily answered, 

was one by G. F. Farley, Esq., of

Groton, Mass , substantially as follows: —

‘ What relation is this spirit to me?’ 

Ans. ‘Your brother.’

‘ What was your given name?’ 

Ans. ‘Perez' which was spelled out promptly by the alphabet. Mr. Farley then stated, to the astonishment of the company,

that this was his brother’s name, and that he died

some fifty years ago—facts unknown to any other

person present.

[Mr. Farley himself may be referred to for the

truth of what is here stated.]

In the evening of the same day, we met again,

with an addition to our circle. [Mr. Farley, of Groton, and G. A. Somerby, of Wayland, were present

at both sittings,] and in the evening, Mr. George E.

Haskell, Dr. Z. Rogers, Moses Babcock, and Dr. L.

B. Larkin, of Wrentham, were also present. The

circle was formed in Mr. Sunderland’s back parlor,

as before, when the following, among other phenomena, were produced. On holding each other’s hands,

so that no hand was at liberty in the room, a centre

table, around which we were sitting, was raised up from

the floor five times, and let down with considerable

force, so as to shake the floor. Once or twice, the

raps were made, not on the table, but with it, the

table being used by the spirits, as we were assured,

to rap with, on the floor. Five times the table was upset and turned over, so that it fell sideways upon the floor, with violence....

We can only say, that we have been profoundly

impressed with the conviction that no human agency whatever was used in the production of  the phenomena we have described.

Signed, Boston, Jan. 22, 1851.

C. P. Kibbee, M. D., Springfield, Mass.

Rufus Elmer, 

Nelson L. Elmer, 

Theodore M. Smith, Boston,

George E. Haskell, 

Z. Rogers, Charlestown, 

Moses Babcock"

You can read the full account using the link below:

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84031524/1851-02-28/ed-1/seq-4/

An 1876 newspaper article notes the death of the medium 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."

Home being tested by a leading scientist (in tests described here)

Such was the fame of Daniel Dunglas Home in 1874 that when Scientific American on January 31, 1874 published a summary of the investigations of the eminent scientist William Crookes regarding Home, Scientific American merely referred to "the medium Home," without giving his first name, as if it thought everyone knew his first name. At the time Scientific American was more of a newspaper than a magazine. The first part of the summary is below:

Most of the second part of the summary is below:

The third part of the summary is below:

The items above are all a summary of the book of William Crookes that can be read here, where you can read the details in nice clear type. Crookes (discoverer of the element thallium) said he detected no trickery from Home, who he had subjected to very careful tests. By the 20th century a publication such as Scientific American always showed a complete amnesia about such observations. Its writers never mentioned a word about such matters. It became a taboo to ever mention that one of the leading scientists of the 19th century (William Crookes) had reported observing such wonders as levitation and the appearance of luminous spirit hands floating about.

Spookiest Years, Part 6: 1854 - 1855

In previous posts in this intermittently appearing "Spookiest Years" series on this blog (here, here, here, here and here), I had looked at some very spooky events reported between 1848 and 1853. Let me pick up the thread and discuss some spooky events reported in 1854 and 1855. 

In 1854 William Lloyd Garrison (publisher of the leading anti-slavery newspaper The Liberator) remarked on the spiritual manifestations so widely reported during the previous few years:

"When we first heard of the ' Rochester knockings,' we supposed (not personally knowing the persons implicated) that there might be some collusion in that particular case, or, if not, that the phenomena would, ere long, elicit a satisfactory solution, independent of all spiritual agency. As the manifestations have spread from house to house, from city to city, from one part of the country to the other, across the Atlantic into Europe, till now the civilized world is compelled to acknowledge their reality, however diverse in accounting for them ; as these manifestations continue to increase in variety and power, so that all suspicion of trick or imposture becomes simply absurd and preposterous ; and as every attempt to find a solution for them in some physical theory relating to electricity, the odic force, clairvoyance, and the like, has thus far proved abortive, — it becomes every intelligent mind to enter into an investigation of them with candor and fairness, as opportunity may offer, and to bear such testimony in regard to them as the facts may warrant ; no matter what ridicule it may excite on the part of the uninformed or sceptical.

As for ourselves, most assuredly we have been in no haste to jump to a conclusion in regard to phenomena so universally diffused, and of so extraordinary a character. For the last three years, we have kept pace with nearly all that has been published on the subject; and we have witnessed, at various times, many surprising 'manifestations;' and our conviction is, that they cannot be accounted for on any other theory than that of spiritual agency."

As reported here, Baron de Guldenstubbe claimed that on the night of March 16, 1854 he witnessed a column of bluish vapor gradually change to become the form of a man. We are told that this happened after the apparition was viewed for a while:

"By slow degrees the outlines lost their distinctness ; and, as the figure faded, the blue column gradually reformed itself, inclosing it as before. This time, however, it was much more luminous...Very gradually the light faded, seeming to flicker up at intervals, like a lamp dying out. From the time the figure appeared until it began to fade mingling with the column, there elapsed about ten minutes : so that the witness of this remarkable apparition had the amplest opportunity fully to examine it."

The Baron also claimed that upon reporting this apparition to a resident of the house, that person said that the place the Baron slept that night had been unoccupied for two years, and that the Baron's report of the features of the apparition exactly matched the appearance of the last person who had slept in the room before himself.  The Baron also claimed that two other people had seen the same apparition previously. 

An account by John James Bird of Great Malvern (dated February 11, 1856) describes inexplicable events witnessed by Bird in 1855.  The account appeared in the March 2, 1856 Spiritual Herald. We read the following:

"One of the ladies brought a guitar, and placed it under the table ; as the table was large, it was easily seen; presently the strings were faintly agitated, the sounds became gradually louder, and a tune was fairly played out by invisible means. I observed the instrument to move twice, but I am sure no one touched it. After this the heavy table at which we were sitting gradually rose from the floor, our hands resting upon it; it rose at least six inches, and remained in a state of suspension some time, then tipped backwards and forwards ; this was succeeded by a vibration in the table, that was communicated to our bodies and the chairs upon which we were sitting, as if some powerful fluid were escaping. The sensation, as of the grasp of a hand, was felt on the knee of two of the party successively, followed by very loud raps from the table. A little before twelve o'clock we removed to a room upstairs, and took our seats at a large square table.; here we had loud raps on the table, and from some parts of the room. The lady, to whom I have before alluded, was sitting next to me, and we were both of us, with the chairs on which we were sitting, forced violently from the table, nearly to the end of the room, and then drawn round. I tried to resist this, but without success; the table followed us, leaving the rest of the circle behind it. Our host, who is a learned and most accomplished gentleman, watched the phenomena with a jealous eye, and he has since tested Mr. Home, and is satisfied that there could have been no trickery; he leaves it for science to explain. I am convinced there could have been no collusion or delusion."

In the May 4, 1856 edition of The Spiritual Herald, we have an account by S. W. Brittan of a prediction made near the end of 1855 (Brittan's name is misspelled as Britton):

"On the evening of December 23, 1855, while the writer was engaged, in conversation with several friends who had assembled in the room of S. B. Brittan, at the Tremont House in this city, Mrs. Harriet Porter being also present, was employed at the time in making magnetic passes over one of the editor's daughters, with a view to remove a neuralgic pain in the head. The writer was sitting near the parties. observing the movements of Mrs. P., when the latter suddenly turned round and said with a peculiar emphasis, ' You have asked for a test; I will now give you one: THE STEAMSHIP PACIFIC WILL BE WRECKED AND ALL ON BOARD WILL PERISH. Put that in your pocket and keep it for a test.'  The Spirit purported to be my son Edward, and on my enquiring for further particulars, he added, 'I will tell you nothing more now; there will be an excitement on the subject, and you will come to see me again. There will also be a report that she is safe, but it will prove to be false.' There were present on the occasion, Mrs. S. B. Brittan, Emma Frances Jay, E. Virginia Brittan, Mrs. Wells, Mr. and Miss Vail, the medium and myself, any of whom will verify the truth of the foregoing statement. I have still in my possession the original memorandum, on the back of which is the following indorsement, made at the time the communication was received-' Spiritual prediction given through Mrs. Harriet Porter, December 28, 1855.' Soon after the announcement respecting the loss of the Pacific was made, I communicated the same to the editor of the Telegraph and to Mr. Charles Partridge. Subsequently, and before any apprehension of the loss of the Pacific had been awakened, I mentioned the subject to many others, and exhibited the memorandum to some twenty persons, including several who had little or no confidence in the claims of spiritualism. The names of the persons here referred to can be given if necessary."

At the modern site here, we read what happened to the steamship Pacific within the next month:

"On 23 January 1856, Pacific departed Liverpool for her usual destination of New York, carrying 45 passengers - a typically small number for a winter voyage - and 141 crew. For this voyage, she had both a new captain and first mate, neither of whom had much transatlantic experience, and also a new chief engineer, who was unfamiliar with Pacific's engines. After the ship failed to arrive at New York, other ships were sent to conduct a search, but no trace of the vessel was found. The cause of Pacific's demise is still unknown."

In Brittan's account, he says he contacted the medium Mrs. Harriet Porter after the Pacific was reported missing, and asked for details on what happened. He was told that the ship had struck an iceberg.  We read this on page 115 of the May 4, 1856 Spiritual Herald:

"Not many days had elapsed, when the writer of this again found himself at Mrs. Porter's table: the company on this occasion consisted of twelve persons. We had been seated but a short time, when the medium was entranced by a Spirit who said his name was --Faulkner, that he was purser on board the Pacific, had a brother in New York, who was a silversmith, etc. In reply to questions, propounded by the writer and others, the following additional particulars were elicited: When six days out, the Pacific struck an iceberg, at 11 o'clock on the evening of Jan. 29th, and very soon went down, stern foremost. As the vessel sunk, three persons escaped from the wreck and found a temporary resting place on the ice, but they were subsequently frozen to death. It was further alleged that there were forty-eight passengers on board - forty males and eight females; that, at the time of the catastrophe, the ship was in lat. 40 degrees north; that the Captain was at fault in taking the course he did, his object being to make a quicker trip than the Persia, which was then on her first voyage."

The notion of so large a ship being lost in such a way may have seemed far-fetched at such a time, but in 1912 a very large ship was lost in such a way, when the Titanic sunk from striking an iceberg. The latitude of 40 degrees north is just where we would expect a 19th century steamship from Liverpool to be if it was traveling to New York City and was about six days out on its journey. The page here lists 45 passengers, close to the 48 stated above. 

According to this web page, in 1861 a bottle was discovered "washed ashore on the Hebrides island of Uist" (an island near Scotland) with a message telling what happened to the ship:

"On board the Pacific from Liverpool to N.Y. - Ship going down. Confusion on board - icebergs around us on every side. I know I cannot escape. I write the cause of our loss that friends may not live in suspense. The finder will please get it published. W.M. GRAHAM." 

According to another source, it was confirmed that W. M. Graham was aboard the ship. So it seems that the Pacific was sunk after striking an iceberg, just as the medium had said years before anyone knew how the Pacific was lost. This blog post is to the best of my knowledge the first time anyone has ever noted the remarkable match between the report inside the found bottle and the years-earlier seance claim (reported above) saying that the Pacific disappeared because it struck an iceberg (an idea unknown to authorities at the time the claim was made).  Around 1856 it was very rare for ships crossing the Atlantic to be sunk by hitting icebergs. Around that time ships crossing the Atlantic did not travel very fast, and a helmsman seeing an iceberg would tend to have had lots of time to evade the iceberg by steering away from it. When the Titanic sunk in 1912 after hitting an iceberg, it was traveling much faster than ships of the nineteenth century. 

In the January 13, 1885 edition of The Spiritual Telegraph, we read G.T. Moulton making these claims:

"After sitting five or six minutes in silence, with our hands lying on the top of the table, it began to tip and rock to and fro very rapidly, and stamp its legs on the floor as if trying to break itself to pieces. We asked the Spirits if they could raise the table clear from the floor with our hands lying on the top. Immediately it rose in the air about two feet, with all our hands lying on on its top ; and this was repeated at our request five times, and all done within fifteen or twenty minutes—thus completely upsetting Professor Faraday’s theory of mechanical pressure. Two of the circle then sat down on the top of the table and were immediately thrown off by my hands being placed on its top....After the two were thrown off the table, we formed a circle all around it by taking hold of hands and not touching or being within two feet of it, and then asked the Spirits to move it if they could without any person touching it. Soon the table began to move, and tip, and jerk, and for ten minutes we had questions answered by the tipping of the table without any human being touching it. It would move or tip any way at the request of any one in the circle."

In the April 14, 1855 edition of The Spiritual Telegraph, we read of a death threat received by those reporting manifestations like those above. In general those making the reports discussed in this "Spookiest Years" series were often subjected to extremely horrible psychological abuse, libel and vilification by the media, clergy and scientists of their time, and in general such people tended to conduct themselves in a very respectable way, particularly given such abuse that might have broken many people.  

In the July 28, 1855 edition of The Spiritual Telegraph   we read this:

"—Mr. P. Demarest, of this city, has just related to us the following occurrences, which he witnessed some time ago at a circle at the house of a gentleman at Green Point....They were requested to sit hack from the table so that they could not- touch it, when the table, a heavy one, surmounted by a marble top, rose bodily into the air, from a foot to two feet above the floor, and swayed about with various undulatory motions.... These movements of the table, which were continued, with variations, for some two or three hours, were accompanied with every variety of concussive sounds, which it was utterly out of the power of any one present to produce ; and when a question was asked, the sound given in answer to it seemed to correspond to its nature and subject. "

In the October 6, 1855 edition of The Spiritual Telegraph we read a letter from a G. W. Gage published in a Cincinnati newspaper. He says this, referring to a levitating fourteen-year-old:

"I have spoken to the people several times, and attended their circles as often. They have writing, speaking, healing, prescribing and other kinds of mediums. The night circles are for physical demonstrations, and are somewhat remarkable. The violin and tambourine are carried about the room with great rapidity, and played ; a bell is also carried about and rung in fine time with other instruments. At these meetings I have also felt the spirit-hand. What is most remarkable here is, the medium, a miss of about fourteen years of age, is taken up in her chair and carried rapidly around the room as high as the heads of the audience, and without the aid of human touch or contact. Prescriptions have been written out by spirits, which have cured the sick and afflicted by scores. The blind have been made to see, the young and old have been aided by this invisible and to many non-existent agency. And still the good work goes on."

We read the following about physicist and optics expert David Brewster in an 1855 event in an 1869 book, a passage discussing a meeting with the medium Daniel Dunglas Home:

"The late Sir David Brewster was almost as unfortunate as Faraday in his relations to this perplexing subject. In the early part of 1855, on the invitation of Mr. William Cox, of Jermyn Street, London, Brewster was at a seance, where Mr. Home was the medium. The late Lord Brougham, the late Mrs. Trollope, her son Mr. Thomas Trollope, and Mr. Benjamin Coleman, were also present. Seated in a private room, in the open light of day, the party saw among other extraordinary things, a heavy table rise from the floor...In a letter to Mr. Coleman (Oct. 9, 1855), Brewster writes, 'It is true that, at Mr. Cox s house, Mr. Home, Mr. Cox, Lord Brougham, and myself sat down to a small table, Mr. Home having previously requested us to examine if there was any machinery about his person ; an examination, however, which we declined to make. When all our hands were upon the table, noises were heard, rappings in abundance; and finally, when we rose up, the table actually rose, as appeared to me, from the ground. This result I do not attempt to explain.' "

In a public statement dated September 29, 1855, published as a letter to the Morning Advertiser,  the scientist Brewster lied by claiming this: "But though I could not account for all these effects, I never thought of ascribing them to spirits stalking beneath the drapery of the table ; and I saw enough to satisfy myself that they could all be produced by human hands and feet, and to prove to others that some of them, at least, had such an origin."  No such thing was seen, as can be proven by Brewster's letter to Coleman quoted above.  The same thing is proven by a letter Brewster privately wrote in June 1855 describing the encounter.  In that later Brewster stated this, which includes a reference to the mysterious "spirit hands" so often seen around this time:

"Last of all I went with Lord Brougham to a seance of the new spirit-rapper, Mr. Home, a lad of twenty. ... We four sat down at a moderately-sized table, the structure of which we were invited to examine. In a short time the table shuddered, and a tremulous motion ran up all our arms ; at our bidding these motions ceased and returned. The most unaccountable rappings were produced in various parts of the table, and the table actually rose from the ground when no hand was upon it. A larger table was produced, and exhibited similar movements...A small hand-bell was then laid down with its mouth on the carpet, and after lying for some time it actually rang when nothing could have touched it. The bell was then placed on the other side, still upon the carpet, and it came over to me and placed itself in my hand. It did the same to Lord Brougham. These were the principal experiments; we could give no explanation of them, and could not conjecture how they could be produced by any kind of mechanism. Hands are sometimes seen and felt, the hand often grasps another, and melts away, as it were, under the grasp. The object of asking Lord Brougham and me seems to have been to get our favourable opinion of the exhibition, but though neither of us can explain what we saw, we do not believe that it was the work of idle spirits." 

After Brewster's lying letter to the editor claiming he saw nothing paranormal, another person present at the event (William Cox) promptly wrote to the same editor, addressing Brewster, expressing "much surprise" at his statements, and saying, " I have a distinct recollection of the astonishment which both Lord Brougham and yourself expressed, and your remarkable and emphatic exclamation to me : — ' Sir, this upsets the philosophy of fifty years.' " 

A day earlier one of the other witnesses of the event (Mr. Coleman) also gave an account of the meeting sharply contradicting Brewster's insinuations about it. Coleman wrote that this exchange occurred between him and Brewster:

"I was as much astonished at what I saw, felt, and heard in the presence of Mr. Home, as any man ; and when I found that Sir David Brewster had been a witness of similar phenomena at the house of my friend, I called upon Sir David, accompanied by my neighbour, and in the course of conversation, Sir David said, that what he and Lord Brougham saw ' was marvellous — quite unaccountable.'

" I then asked him, ' Do you, Sir David, think these things were produced by trick ?' "

" ' No, certainly not,' was his reply."

" ' Is it delusion, think you ?'

" ' No, that is out of the question '

"'Then what is it?'

" To which he replied, ' I don't know ; but spirit is the last thing I will give in to.'

" I added, ' I can well understand the difficulty which a man like you would have in pronouncing an opinion on a subject which, if it be what it appears, would upset in a moment the philosophy of your life.'

" Sir David then told me what he and Lord Brougham had witnessed. ' The table — a large dinner-table, I believe — moved about in the most extraordinary manner ; and among other things, a large accordion was conveyed by an invisible agency to my hand, and then to Lord Brougham's, in which, held by his Lordship's right hand, apart from any person, it played an air throughout.' "

A thorough discussion of the Brewster scandal (including the quotes above) is contained in an appendix of Home's biography, an appendix which can be read here. An equally thorough discussion is found on pages 139-142 of the book Nineteenth Century Miracles by Emma Hardinge Britten, which can be read here. The evidence here is clear, with three witnesses (and Brewster himself in private letters) giving testimony showing that the distinguished scientist Sir David Brewster lied when he wrote to a newspaper vaguely insinuating he could explain what he saw when meeting Daniel Dunglas Home, and vaguely insinuating that some trickery was involved.  The reality of the paranormal phenomena involving Home would later be confirmed by a scientist greater than Brewster, the scientist Sir William Crookes (discoverer of the element thallium) who thoroughly tested Home, and reported the same type of inexplicable phenomena described above, finding no evidence of any trickery. 

No one should be the least bit surprised to read the case above of a scientist lying about the paranormal, as lying and misspeaking on this topic routinely occur from professors. In his book The Enchanted Boundary, Walter Franklin Prince documented very many cases of professors speaking or writing dishonestly on this topic. In the 93 years since 1930 the kind of dishonesty and intransigent denialism documented by Prince in his 1930 book has continued full blast from professors, who tend to make generalizations about evidence of the paranormal indicating a great lack of scholarly diligence, and tend to sound exactly like people who failed to do their homework and people who developed unshakable convictions on such topics which they regarded as a substitute for seriously examining the relevant evidence. 

There is an expression that history is written by the winners. We see that very dramatically in the case of the rare mentions today of the inexplicable manifestations reported around this time.  The lies regarding such manifestations occurred mainly from those trying to heap scorn on those who reported the inexplicable effects rather than from such witnesses. History's winners ending up in professor positions after 1850 have given us a bogus history of these events, in which the gaslighting liars are depicted as the good guys, and the good honest witnesses are depicted as crazy or cheats. 

In 1855 Canadian author Susanna Moodie described a meeting she had with the medium Kate Fox, who Moodie describes as having the most beautiful eyes she ever saw:

"Miss F. [Kate Fox] told me to write a list of names of dead and living friends, but neither to read to her, nor to allow her to see them. I did this upon one side of a quire of paper, the whole thickness between her and me, writing with her back to me. She told me to run my pen along the list, and as a test the spirits would rap five times for every dead, and three times for every living, friend. I inwardly smiled at this. Yet strange to say, they never once missed."

Moodie reports a name being spelled out by raps, apparently under the common system of this time by which the alphabet would be recited, and a letter would be written down whenever a mysterious rap occurred after a letter was named.  The name spelled out (Anna Laura Harral) was someone whose name was unknown to Kate Fox, but who Moodie had made a compact with, under which either of the two people surviving death would try to communicate evidence of survival to the surviving person.  Moodie reports a wide variety of inexplicable sound phenomena occurring around Kate Fox (as did quite a few distinguished authors), including sounds (combined with vibrations) coming from the dirt or rocks Moodie stood on. Moodie reports a piano playing by itself, soon after Kate Fox suggested that it would. 

Moodie reports asking that the birth year and death year engraved under a ring Mr. Moodie was wearing be identified by the mysterious raps. The correct years were given, she says, as was her father's name and the date of his birth and death, and the place and cause of her father's death. Like countless other witnesses, she reports such questions were correctly answered, even though posed only mentally rather than orally. Could it all have been some super-elaborate fraud by some mastermind of a trickster? On the page here, former congressman Robert Dale Owen says that he had known Kate Fox for years, and that she was "one of the most simple-minded" persons he had ever met, and that she was "as incapable of framing, or carrying on, any deliberate scheme of imposition as a ten year-old child is of administering a government."

Below is an image of an 1854 newspaper account describing how 13,000 people petitioned the US Senate to investigate paranormal phenomena. 

Spookiest Years, Part 5: The Year 1853

In previous posts in the intermittently appearing "Spookiest Years" series on this blog (here, here, here and here), I had looked at some very spooky events reported between 1848 and 1852. Let me pick up the thread and report some spooky events reported in 1853. 

In 1853 we saw the publication of "A discussion of the facts and philosophy of ancient and modern spiritualism" by S. B. Brittan and B. W. Richmond. Samuel Byron Brittan MD was much later the writer of a work I called a classic of parapsychology,  the work Man and His Relations, which I review here.  The book is a back-and-forth dialog between Richmond and Brittan, with Richmond often making skeptical speculations trying to minimize spiritual manifestations like the ones mentioned in the quote below, speculations that Brittan tries to rebut. The book shows a very healthy tendency of thinkers such as Brittan to study and respond at great length to objections by skeptics. 

On page 14 of the book we have some remarkable testimony by nine named witnesses, four of them medical doctors. In the middle of their testimony, quoted by Brittan, they state the following:

"Persons at the circle have been unexpectedly turned round with the chairs in which they were sitting, and moved to and -from the table ; chairs and sofas have suddenly started, from their positions against the wall, and moved forward to the center of the room, when they were required in the formation of the circle ; the persons in the circle have each successively lifted his own side of the table, and the invisible power has raised the opposite side correspondingly ; occasionally the spirits have raised the table entirely, and sustained in air, at a distance of from one to three feet from the floor, so that all could satisfy themselves that no person in the flesh was touching it ; lights of various colors have been produced in dark rooms ; the table has often been rocked with great violence, and suddenly — and unexpectedly to the whole company — it has been instantly arrested and held firm and immovable, with the upper surface inclined to an angle of some forty-five degrees, when the lamp, pencils and other objects on the table, would slide or roll to the very edge, and there remain fixed as if riveted to the table ; a man has been suspended in, and conveyed through, the air, in all a distance of fifty feet or more. The communications have been given in various ways, but chiefly in writings and by the rappings, after the ordinary alphabetical mode."

Page 16 of the book lists the following people as asserting the claim above: R. T. Hallock, M. D. , A. G. Hull, M. D.,  John F. Gray, M.D., L. T. Warner, M.D., W. J. Baner,  Samuel T. Fowler, Almira L. Fowler, and Mr. and Mrs. Charles Partridge. 

In the book here (pages 101 to 102)  we have an account claiming a miraculous healing. We are told that a medium identified only as Mrs. French was strangely compelled to go to a place where a blind boy was found, and strangely found her self unable to leave. We are told that after some vaguely described manipulations there soon occurred a healing of the boy's blindness.  

An 1853 book quotes an account submitted to a Philadelphia newspaper:

"Visiting at the house of a friend when a medium was present, I heard, for the second time, the 'rappings ;'  but, such is the uncertainty in locating sound, and the many ways of producing it, that these were, to me, not convincing proofs of either spiritual or electrical agency. I was induced to form one of a circle; and the table we surrounded soon began to oscillate rapidly. My right arm was seized with a convulsive tremor, and though then in a ‘positive condition,' it refused obedience to my will. I looked upon it with the same surprise that I would have regarded the arm of another, subject to the same wild and wondrous spell. A pencil and paper were lying on the table. The pencil came into my hand; my fingers were clenched on it! An unseen iron-grasp compressed the tendons of my arm—my hand was flung violently forward on the paper, and I wrote meaning sentences, without any intention, or knowing what they were to be. Such messages were thus addressed to me, and through others in the circle, so unexpected, and bearing strong interior evidence in structure of thought and language of having come from the loved and gone from whom they purported to come, that I yielded to the gush of bewildering emotion, as I would have done had I found myself suddenly in the society of all most dear to me."

In the April 2, 1853 edition of The Spiritual Telegraph, we have an account claiming spiritual manifestations at the house of Mrs. Brown at #78 West 26th Street, occurring a week previously. The listed witnesses were J. F. Gray, George Willets, E. F. Capron, Mrs. Brown and the medium Catherine Fox (the same as Kate Fox, one of the famed Fox sisters).  We read of mysterious events in a well-lit room. We are told that first the handle of a bell mysterious disappeared, and was just as mysteriously restored. We are told that a pocket knife, a set of keys and a quarter coin were placed under a table, and that all disappeared. We are told that a search could not produce them, but that the keys and knife suddenly reappeared as if thrown. 

The same edition gives this account of clairvoyance from the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

"A Mr. Jackson, of Ohio City, came into our office yesterday with his little daughter, a fine, rosy girl about seven years of age. It surprised us to learn that so young a person should be a clairvoyant. Mr. Jackson states that she has possessed such powers of vision for about seven weeks—that she received intimations one evening from the Spirit-world that she would be magnetized [hypnotized] and receive the the gift next day. Such accordingly was the case. She also became a medium, produced the rappings, and has frequent intercourse with the spirits of the departed inhabiting other spheres. In the experiments performed in our office, the most doubting skeptic admitted that there was no collusion, and that her mortal vision was completely obstructed.  A kid glove, filled with cotton, was placed upon each eye, a bandage applied over them , and securely tied around her head, A Spanish quarter of a dollar was then thrown upon the table and she was requested to tell the date. She took it up, and instantly rend—'1700.'  A bank bill was next presented, and she  read it off promptly, ' That's one dollar. State Bank of Ohio.'  On one bill a steam ­ boat and sail vessel were engraved in the vignette so minutely as to be just discernible by the naked eye. She described them exactly. In fact, anything that was placed before her was read or described just as correctly as if she were examining it with the natural eye. She has the power of putting herself into the clairvoyant state, as also of throwing it off."

Similar powers were previously demonstrated innumerable times in public exhibitions by the clairvoyant Alexis Didier. 

In the July 2, 1853 Spiritual Telegraph we have evidence of the utter obstinance of mainstream scientific authorities in encountering paranormal phenomena. We read a long newspaper account of a public investigation of the phenomenon called table tipping or table turning, conducted before a large audience at a public hall in Liverpool, England, one called the Atheneum. On a stage before many public spectators, various tests were done. Some of them clearly produced inexplicable phenomena. We read this: 

"The experiments commenced at eight o’clock. The first table which moved was a round one, about three feet in diameter, standing upon three legs, without castors, and having a leather top. At this table four ladies took their places, and in five minutes it began to turn rapidly, the ladies running round with it. After several stoppages, for which the experimenters could not account, the table moved round so rapidly that several of the ladies appeared to be getting giddy, until two of them became so much alarmed that they discontinued the experiment. These ladies had simply placed their hands upon the table, without touching those of each other....After each successful experiment, a member of the committee, or the chairman, inquired of each of the operators whether he or she had abstained from muscular action upon the table, and in every instance a decided assurance was given in the affirmative.”

We hear mention of a Dr. Braid giving a nonsensical claim that such effects were produced by unconscious muscle action.  A table of the described size with no castors (no wheels) could not be spun rapidly by four people merely touching it, no matter how much they pressed it. In the same edition we read this:

"The great table-moving question, which has excited such an extraordinary degree of interest in this city [Paris] as to be the universal topic of conversation for a period much longer than the nine days’ life generally enjoyed by a wonder, has at length forced itself on the attention of the Academy of Sciences. Among the vast mass of letters and reports detailing experiments, which have been sent to the Academy, the presiding authorities selected one by M. Scguin, a distinguished savant, to be read at its last public sitting. The statements made in this document were of the most extraordinary kind, one of them being, that a table when acted on was made to move to the notes of a piano."

In the July 9, 1853 Spiritual Telegraph we have a report from the Paris correspondent of the New York Times:

"It seems to me that I have said enough about table turning in France, and that l am becoming repetitious, if not tedious. I must say, however, that such is the fever, that there is hardly a house in Paris that the phenomenon has not invaded.  Experiments are daily made at the Observatory, at the Hotel Dion, at the Institute, at the Eeole Poly technique...The American savans [experts] have kept aloof, and, in the space of two years— three years, perhaps—no explanation has been offered of a fact which has stared then in the face the whole time...All the professors, the instructors, those who study far those who have not the time to study for themselves, have kept clear of a matter which they did not discover, and which they consequently can not recognise. ...The Feuilleton of Jules Jan in this morning, treats of nothing but table turning ; and that of Auguste Lireux, in the Constitutionnel, contains an account of a series of extremely successful experiments, in which he, Emile Angier, Baroche, Ferrien, of the Academy of Sciences, and others, all skeptics when they began, wore convicted believers when they finished." 

In the August 6, 1853 Spiritual Telegraph we have a comment on the attempt of Michael Faraday to explain the table turning phenomena as mere unconscious action by the muscles: "As for the Professor’s conclusion which resolves the wonders of table-moving to mere muscular and quasi voluntary action, we are willing to leave it in the hands of the thousands who have repeatedly seen heavy tables, and other articles of furniture, move with great freedom and power when no living being or other visible agency was in contact with them, and who have witnessed many other phenomena to which his tests fail to apply." In the same edition a J. C. Hall gives this testimony:

"I refer to instances of table moving, in my presence, without any hands touching them. Chairs have been upset in the room, and made to revolve faster than the persons present could possibly move. I have seen with my own eyes a common wooden table, while standing on the floor, made to tremble and quiver every fiber of the wood, as if it was live flesh—effects which all the men in the world could not produce, and the aid of all the sciences could not effect. I have also seen the same table move in different directions around the room with no one near it, and on stepping back, as if to leave the room, the table followed with no one near it, until it struck the door-casing, and, turning upside down, and from that lip edgewise, seemed not to be contented till it had chased me completely out of the room, coming quite through the door into an adjoining hall."

The legend that Michael Faraday explained the phenomenon of table turning is one of the most groundless legends of the many groundless legends told by science professors.  It is an example of what goes on very often when skeptics try to explain things: what we may call "weakest examples" explanation. It works like this: you claim that you can explain some baffling phenomenon beyond your explanation, by the method of ignoring all of the stronger examples of the phenomenon, and offering something that might explain only the weakest examples. So, for example, a skeptic might try to explain UFO sightings by saying they are caused by misidentifications of the planet Venus. Such an explanation only handles the weakest examples of UFO sightings, not the strongest examples in which people reported seeing something very large in the sky or something moving incredibly fast. 

Faraday's explanation was a similar example of "weakest examples" explanation. His "ideomotor effect" explanation of unconscious muscle action could only explain the weakest examples of the table turning phenomenon, cases in which lots of people put their hands on a table, and the table slightly moved. His explanation completely failed to explain all of the stronger examples of the phenomenon, which included:

(1) Very many reports of tables levitating in the air when no person touched the table.

(2) Very many reports of tables standing on two legs, with the other end rising high in the air, or a table standing up on only single leg. 

(3) Very many reports of tables violently moving about suddenly, often when no one was touching the table. 

(4) Very many reports of tables spinning around rapidly, with or without someone touching the table. 

Whenever any mainstream source attempts to repeat the groundless legend that Michael Faraday explained table turning, the source will inevitably describe table turning by only citing the weakest examples of its occurrence, never the stronger examples, even though thousands of witnesses (many very reliable professionals) in many different countries reported the stronger varieties of the phenomena.  As an 1855 book states, "Next comes the theory of Professor Faraday of world-renowned fame, that the moving of the table is by the unconscious force of the medium, when there are thousands of witnesses to the fact of the movement of tables, where neither a medium nor any other person was near them !"

This phenomenon of table turning was also scientifically investigated at length by Count Agenor de Gasparin, who published in 1857 a two-volume scientific book describing countless paranormal effects (such as table levitation and mysterious rappings) observed under controlled conditions. Gasparin's research is well-summarized in Chapter VI of the book Mysterious Psychic Forces by the astronomer Camille Flammarion.  For example, Gasparin described this happening on September 20, 1853:

“Some one proposed the experiment which consists in causing a table to rotate and give raps while it has on it a man weighing say a hundred and ninety pounds. We accordingly placed such a man on the table, and the twelve experimenters, in chain, applied their fingers to it. The success was complete: the table turned, and rapped several strokes. Then it rose up entirely off the floor in such a way as to upset the person who was upon it.”

Such a result is inexplicable through any result of subconscious muscle movement. Gasparin reported the following occurring on October 7, 1853:

“Let us turn again to the finest of all demonstrations, that of levitation without contact. We began by performing it three times. Then, since it was thought by some that the inspection of the witnesses could be carried on in a surer way in the case of a small table than in that of a large one, and with five operators more certainly than with ten, we had a plain deal centre-table brought which the chain, reduced by half, sufficed to put in rotation. Then the hands were lifted, and, contact with the table being entirely broken, it rose seven times into the air at our command.”

The original text of this report (in French) is contained here. I used Google Translate to verify that the translation above is accurate. 

Here is what Gasparin reported occurring on November 9, 1853:

"Our first care was to renew the experiment of the levitation of an inert weight. It was agreed among us this time that we would always start from the state of absolute immobility in the object: we wanted to produce movement, not to continue it.

The centre of the table, then, having been fixed with nice precision, a first tub of sand, weighing 46 pounds, was placed upon it. The legs easily rose from the floor when they got the order.

[Pg 241]A second tub, weighing 42 pounds, was next placed in the middle of the other. They were both lifted—less easily, but very neatly and clearly.

Then a third tub, smaller, and weighing 28⅗ pounds, was placed on top of the two others. The levitations took place.

We had still further got ready enormous stones weighing altogether 48½ pounds. They were placed on the third tub. After rather long hesitation, the table lifted several times in succession each of its three legs. It lifted them with a force, a decision, an élan, which surprised us. But its strength, already put to so many proofs, could not resist this last one. Bending under the powerful swaying motion imparted by the total mass of 165 pounds, it suddenly broke down, and its massive centre-post was split from top to bottom—to the great peril of the operators on the side of whom the entire load rolled off."

The original text of this report (in French) is contained here. I used Google Translate to verify that the translation above is accurate. 

Since the reports above were of levitations of a table without contact by humans, they obviously cannot be explained through Faraday's “ideomotor effect” of subconscious muscle movement. Shockingly, the phenomenon of table turning had stood up well to rigorous scientific experiments, with the investigators finding it to be a mysterious paranormal reality rather than something they could debunk.

In his 1859 book Mystic Hours, or Spiritual Experiences, George A. Redman describes having some astounding experiences at a time that seemed to be 1853 (since he says they occurred at about the time of Faraday's hypothesis appeared, which was in 1853).  He reports this example of the table phenomenon (using the term pirouetting to refer to spinning around in a circle):

"Simultaneously with the sound of his skillfully wielded bow, the table commenced pirouetting like some votary of Terpsichore. It would balance itself, first on one of its legs, then on one of its leaves, then wheel round again, till it ultimately reached the parlor door, against which it then began thumping as if to say, 'Let me out.' "

This is a reference to a table standing up on only one of its legs. Redman elsewhere says that around the same time he saw "the table slowly tipped to an angle of 45 degrees."  On another page he says a table mysteriously rose so that the "table was next lifted to a level with our heads." On another page he says, "Soon after taking my seat in our friend's comfortable parlor, the old table, as if conscious of our needs, came sliding into the room, no one touching it, and all present, nothing loath, assembled round it." On another page we read this: "Mrs. Green being lifted by the spirits from the floor, and placed on the bed-piece of the table,  it started down stairs, not stopping till it regained the lower hall, when Mrs. G-. stepped off, to the no small amusement of those who had thus had an opportunity of testing the reliability of Professor Faraday's expositions." On another page Redman reports a table levitating into the air and then mysteriously shattering into pieces. On another page Redman says, ""The table rose and came down on the floor with a tremendous thump; it danced to and fro without human contact, at each of its movements making the

very house shake."

Redman also reports being mysteriously levitated with two other people:

"I was raised in a half stupified state from the chair, conveyed to the ceiling of the room, which was some ten feet from the floor, and I floated alone in the air for a few moments. I was then joined by Mrs. Shepherd, and soon after by her daughter. Here were three of us, all suspended in the atmosphere, in no contact with any material object, but upheld by an unseen power, and wafted by it over the heads of some dozen individuals all wide awake, and in the perfect possession of their reasoning faculties."

In an 1853 work John Edmonds (a judge of the New York State Supreme Court) listed some of the paranormal manifestations he had seen that involved tables:

"Thus, I have known a pine table with four legs lifted bodily up from the floor, in the center of a circle of six or eight persons, turned upside down and laid upon its top at our feet, then lifted up over our heads, and put leaning against the back of the sofa on which we sat. I have known that same table to be tilted up on two legs, its top at an angle with the floor of forty-five degrees, when it neither fell over of itself, nor could any person present put it back on its four legs. I have seen a mahogany table, having only a center leg, and with a lamp burning upon it, lifted from the floor at least a foot, in spite of the efforts of those present, and shaken backward and forward as one would shake a goblet in his hand, and the lamp retain its place, though its glass pendants rang again. 1 have seen the same table tipped up with the lamp upon it, so far that the lamp must have fallen off unless retained there by something else than its own gravity, yet it fell not, moved not."

On another page of his 1853 work, Edmonds quotes a letter from N. P. Tallamadge who discussed seeing something else involving a table, something that could never be explained by any theory of unconscious "ideomotor force" as advanced by Faraday:

"The table moved occasionally, perhaps a foot, first one way and then the other. After the communication closed, we all moved back from the table, from two to four feet — so that no one touched it. Suddenly it moved from the position it occupied some three or four feet — rested a few moments — and then moved back again to its original position. Then it again moved as far the other way, and returned to the place it started from. One side of it was then raised, and stood for a few moments at an angle of about thirty-five degrees, and then again rested on the floor as usual.

The table was a large, heavy, round one, at which ten or a dozen persons might be seated at dinner. During all these movements no person touched it, nor was any one near it. After seeing it raised in the manner above mentioned, I had the curiosity to test its weight by raising it myself. I accordingly took my seat by it — placed my hands under the leaf, and exerted as much force as I was capable of in that sitting posture, and could not raise it a particle from the floor. I then stood up, in the best possible position to exert the greatest force — took hold of the leaf, and still could not raise it with all the strength I could apply. I then requested the three ladies to take hold around the table, and try altogether to lift it. We lifted upon it until the leaf and top began to crack, and did not raise it a particle. We then desisted, fearing we should break it. I then said, 'Will the spirits permit me to raise the table?' I took hold alone, and raised it without difficulty !"

On the same page and the next page of his 1853 work, Tallamadge  describes sitting on a table while the entire table (with him sitting on it) levitated six inches above the floor. 

The 1853 book "Sights and sounds: the mystery of the day: comprising an entire history of the American 'spirit' manifestations" by lawyer Henry Spicer is a long and balanced look at the reports of inexplicable phenomena between 1848 and 1853. Constantly addressing an imagined skeptical reader, the book "bends over backwards" to consider every possible natural explanation for the reported phenomena, finding none of them satisfactory.  The author sounds like someone who would have been much happier dismissing all the reports as fraud, but who finds himself unable to do that. Near the end of the book (page 461-462) he states that the extraordinary character of the manifestations have been proven, that all attempts to explain them have failed, and that what remains is an important mystery that is unsolved. 

Most professors fail to seriously study the paranormal