- Part two -
The first appearance of reliable photographs of perfumes dates back to 1861. They were received by William G. Mumler from Boston (USA). Prior to that, in 1851, the Englishman Richard Bursnel apparently received similar results, but, unfortunately, none of his photographs have survived to this day. The first reliable image of perfume in England was obtained by the photographer Hudson in 1872.
This new direction, like the revival of modern spiritualism in general, was predicted by the inhabitants of the afterlife. In 1856 Mr. Thomas Slater, an optician of 136 Euston Road, London, was conducting a session with Lord Brugham and Mr. Robert Owen. They received a message from the spirit world that Mr. Slater was destined to pursue spiritistic photography. Mr. Owen noticed that as soon as the time comes for him to pass into another world, his portrait will certainly appear on a photographic plate. In 1872, while Mr. Slater was practicing perfume photography, he got the faces of Mr. Robert Owen and Lord Brugham on the plate. Mr. Slater showed them to Alfred Russell Wallace, who said:
“The first and undoubted success was the appearance of the image of two heads on the back of a photographic plate with a portrait of his sister. One of these heads, no doubt, belonged to Lord Brugem; the other, less clear-cut, depicted Robert Owen, with whom Mr. Slater communicated in person until the moment of his death."
Dr. Wallace goes on to describe other photographs of the spirits taken by Mr. Slater: “Regardless of whether it is possible to recognize the faces depicted on the records, it has now been established that there were clear human figures that appeared on the records. His friends, an optician and an amateur photographer, helped him to get these photos, who assembled the device with their own hands. At the same time, members of their families were present in his studio, who recognized these images as a real miracle. In one case, an additional figure appeared on the plate, which showed Mr. Slater posing for himself, sitting in a chair …"
Mr. Slater showed me all these images and described the conditions under which he displayed them. It is clear that this is not a fake, and the first objective confirmation of this was the recognition of their authenticity by professional photographers. The significance of this was invaluable.
In the period from 1861 to the present day, from Mumler to William Hope, a whole line of twenty or thirty recognized psychic photography mediums passed before us. During this time, they obtained thousands of those supernatural images, which are known as "ghost doubles". In addition to Hope and Mrs. Dean, we can name a number of well-known psychics - these are Hudson, Parkes, Wiley, Buget, Boursell and Dugide.
Mumler, who worked as an engraver for a large Boston jewelery firm, was neither a true spiritualist nor a professional photographer. In his free time, he tried to take photographs in his friend's studio and one day he got the vague outlines of a figure on the plate. The method he invented himself was to first focus the lens on an empty chair, remove the lens cap, and then quickly position himself by the chair and stand there until the exposure worked. On the back of the photo, Mr. Mumler wrote: “This photo was taken by me on Sunday, and besides me there was not a soul in the room. In the figure on my right, I recognized my cousin, who had died twelve years ago. U. G. Mumler."
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In the photo, you could see a young girl sitting in an armchair. The armchair and part of the table were clearly visible through the arms and body. The figure, according to eyewitnesses, dressed in a dress with a low neckline and short sleeves, dissolves into an obscure haze. It is interesting to note that this haze was visible in other photographs as well.
The news quickly spread in society, and Mumler was simply inundated with invitations to seances. At first he refused, but eventually gave up. After the images of "ghosts" were obtained again and again, his fame reached such a scale that he was forced to give up his profession and devote himself to a new job. We started our story with Mumler, as all other psychic photographers relied on his experience. We will mention some of his followers in this chapter.
Some well-known gentlemen posed in front of the camera of their own free will, while obtaining clear portraits of their friends and relatives and not questioning the authenticity of the results. Then came the turn of professional photographers, who were convinced that these portraits were nothing more than a clever fake. The photographers tried to take every opportunity to test the process of obtaining these images by setting their own experimental conditions. Thus, they could control the entire photographic process, including the development of images. They came one by one with their own records, cameras and chemicals, but even after conducting the experiment under their own guidance, they could not detect any shenanigans. Mumler, in turn,came to their studio and let them take pictures, after which they got the same results. Andrew Jackson Davis, who was the editor and publisher of the Herald of Progress in New York at the time, dispatched a professional photographer, Mr. William Guay, to Mumler to conduct thorough research. Mr. Guay reported that after he was allowed to control the entire photographic process, an image of a spirit still appeared on the plate. He experimented with this medium several times and each time received confirmation of the authenticity of his mediumistic abilities.sent a professional photographer, Mr. William Guay, to Mumler for a thorough research. Mr. Guay reported that after he was allowed to control the entire photographic process, an image of a spirit still appeared on the plate. He experimented with this medium several times and each time received confirmation of the authenticity of his mediumistic abilities.sent a professional photographer, Mr. William Guay, to Mumler for a thorough research. Mr. Guay reported that after he was allowed to control the entire photographic process, an image of a spirit still appeared on the plate. He experimented with this medium several times and each time received confirmation of the authenticity of his mediumistic abilities.
Another photographer, Mr. Horace Weston, was sent to investigate the work of Mr. Black, a renowned portrait photographer. After his return, he testified that he had received a photograph of the spirit and did not notice anything unusual in the conduct of the entire photo process - it was carried out just like any other. Then Black arrived in person and independently demonstrated all the actions that he performed when developing photographic plates. After the development of the plate, a silhouette appeared on the background of his own image: it was a man whose hand lay on Black's shoulder. Black exclaimed in amazement, "My God, is that possible?"
Mumler received a lot of invitations to sessions, which he physically did not have enough time: weeks passed before he could visit this or that society. He was invited by ministers, doctors, lawyers, judges, mayors, professors and businessmen, who for some reason were especially interested in this issue. A complete list of Mumler's results can be found in publications of that time.
In 1863, Mumler, like many other photographic mediums of his contemporaries, often found "doubles" of living people on the plates. Even his most devoted supporters were unable to understand and accept this fact. Although they did not question his gift, they still believed that it could not have done without tricks. Dr. Gardner, in a letter addressed to Banner of Light, Boston, February 20, 1863, reviewing Mumler's recent achievements, wrote:
“Despite the fact that I am completely sure that, thanks to his mediumistic abilities, he received genuine images of spirits, nevertheless, in at least two cases, I received evidence of deception, and very convincing … Mr. Mumler or someone else from among the people gathering at Mrs. Stewart were involved in deception by substituting the image of the spirits with the image of a person now living in this city."
The appearance on two different discs simultaneously of the image of a "spiritual double" of a living person enabled the accusers to honestly fulfill their duty to society. This exposure caused a wave of public outrage against Mumler, and in 1868 he was exiled to New York. Here his affairs flourished until, with the approval of the mayor of New York, he was arrested at the request of a newspaper reporter, who received a suspicious (in his opinion) image of a "ghost." After a lengthy trial, Mumler was released, and his reputation has not suffered. Below is the testimony of a professional photographer who was not a spiritualist but supported Mumler.
Testimony from Mr. Jeremiah Garney: “I have been photography for twenty-eight years and have studied Mumler's photo process with utmost meticulousness. I did not find anything reprehensible in him - nothing that would indicate a fraud or a trick … the only thing that was unusual was his hand, which he kept on the camera all the time."
Mumler, who died in complete poverty in 1884, left behind an interesting and compelling account of his career in The Personal Experiences of William G. Mumler in Photographing Perfume, a copy of which can be seen in the British Museum.
It is said that Hudson, who received the first photograph of the spirit in England (and we have incontrovertible evidence of this), was about sixty years old in March 1872. A certain Miss Georgiana Houghton posed for him, who left a full description of this case. There is ample evidence to support the authenticity of the photographs taken by Hudson. Mr. Thomas Slater, whom we have already quoted, used his own camera and records and after a brief examination stated that "all charges of conspiracy and forgery are completely ruled out by him." Mr. William Howit, having visited the medium without prior arrangement, received the well-recognized images of the "ghosts" of his two deceased sons. He stated that the photographs were "convincing and accurately reproduced their appearance."
Dr. Alfred Wallace received a clear image of his mother. Here is what he says about his visit to the medium (March 1872):
“I posed three times and always chose the pose myself. Each time an additional figure appeared next to me on the negative. The first was a male figure with a short sword, the second figure fit into the photo full-length and stood about a few feet behind me, holding a bouquet of flowers. The third time, as soon as the record was placed in the camera and I was comfortably seated in the chair, I mentally asked the figure to stand very close to me. On the third plate, an image of a female figure appeared, standing very close in front of me, so that the folds of her clothes covered the lower part of my body. I saw how all three plates appeared and in each case an additional figure began to emerge at the moment when the developer was poured,at the same time, my portrait remained invisible for almost twenty seconds after the appearance of the vague outline of the spirit. I could not recognize a single figure on the negatives, but when I received the developed images, at first glance I unmistakably recognized the image of my mother in the third one. He accurately reproduced her appearance and facial expression, but differed from all her lifetime portraits: it was an image of a brooding woman, somewhat idealized, but one that I will never confuse with anything. " In the second portrait, albeit vague, Dr. Wallace also recognized the image of the mother. The "ghostly figure" of the man who appeared first was not recognized by him. He accurately reproduced her appearance and facial expression, but differed from all her lifetime portraits: it was an image of a brooding woman, somewhat idealized, but one that I will never confuse with anything. " In the second portrait, albeit vague, Dr. Wallace also recognized the image of the mother. The "ghostly figure" of the man who appeared first was not recognized by him. He accurately reproduced her appearance and facial expression, but differed from all her lifetime portraits: it was an image of a brooding woman, somewhat idealized, but one that I will never confuse with anything. " In the second portrait, albeit vague, Dr. Wallace also recognized the image of the mother. The "ghostly figure" of the man who appeared first was not recognized by him.
Mr. J. Trail-Taylor, who later became editor of the British Journal of Photography, witnessed a supernatural result with the participation of the same medium, using his own records. He argued that "during the preparation, exposure and development of photographic plates, Mr. Hudson did not move closer than 10 feet to the camera or dark room."
Mr. F. M. Parkes, who lives in a cul-de-sac on Grove Road, London's East End, was a true psychic who received reliable visions from his childhood. He did not know anything about Spiritualism until 1871, but early the next year, he conducted an experiment in photographing spirits with his friend Mr. Reeves, the owner of a diner near King's Cross. Parkes was thirty-nine years old at the time. At first, individual marks and light spots appeared on the plates, but after three months the image of a certain "ghost" was obtained. They were posed by Dr. Sexton and Dr. Clarke from Edinburgh. Dr. Sexton brought in Dr. Bowman from Glasgow, who was an accomplished photographer, to conduct a thorough examination of the camera, darkroom, and all instruments used. Dr. Bowman checked everything carefully and said that forgery by Parkes is out of the question.
For several years this medium did not take any remuneration for his services. Mr. Stanton Moses, who dedicated an entire chapter of his book to Mr. Parkes, writes:
“As I leafed through Mr. Parkes' album, I noticed the incredible variety of images; I was really struck by the fact that the images did not look like one another and were completely different from our idea of the image of a ghost. Among the 110 photographs that lie in front of me now, taken between April 1872 and the present day (with some interruptions), there are no two completely similar images - with the exception of one pair, which has some similar features. Each image has its own character and personality. He emphasizes that a significant number of photographs were identified by the participants in the sessions.
Monsieur Edmond Buguet is a French spiritualist photographer who visited London in June 1874. His studio at 33 Baker Street was home to many famous personalities. Mr. Garrison, editor of the Spiritualist magazine, spoke of an experiment carried out by the photographer, in which a corner of a glass plate was cut off and applied to the negative after development. Mr. Stanton Moses gives the following description of Buge: "… a tall, thin man with a serious expression and well-defined features, with lush black hair." He is said to have been in a partial trance during the disc's exposure. The images he obtained were not of high quality and were not as distinct as those obtained by other mediums.
It should be noted that many of the spiritualistic portraits obtained have been identified. The funniest thing was that Buge received several portraits of the people present at the session, as well as his friends who were in good health in other places. So, Stanton Moses, who at that moment was in a state of trance in London, suddenly found himself on a record in Paris, where Mr. Gladsteinz posed for the camera during a session.
In April 1875, Bugay was arrested and convicted by the French government for producing false photographs of perfumes. For self-preservation, he admitted that all the results were obtained by him through fraud. He was sentenced to a fine of 500 francs and a year in prison. At the hearing, several well-known public figures confirmed their belief that his "ghosts" were not "rag dolls", but were genuine. However, the misadventures of the medium could not affect the truth of his results. Those who would be interested to get acquainted with the details of his arrest and trial can form their own opinion about the personality of Buge by referring to the publications. After the trial, Mr. Stanton Moses said: "I not only believe - I know, as I know myself, that some of Buge's photographs were true."
James Coates speaks of Bugue as a weak-willed person who, instead of proving his case, in fright makes a false confession. In his opinion, a new phenomenon in mediumship will lose nothing without such a person. As for the confession, it was literally ripped out of Buge's mouth, since the accusation against him and the Revue Spirite was brought forward by none other than the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church in Toulouse. At the same time, the editor of the publication was also tried and convicted. Buge said that the only chance for him was a sincere confession. Thus, he did what many victims of the Inquisition did before him - he confessed under pressure, but this did not save him from twelve months in prison.
Richard Bursnel (1832-1909) played a prominent role in the heyday of Spiritual photography. He was partnered with a professional Fleet Street photographer and was known to have received “traces of spiritual presence” in the form of hands and faces on records as early as 1851. His partner accused him of poorly processing the plates (this was the time of the appearance of the wet-colloidal process in photography), and after a prolonged argument, Bursnel said that he did not want to have anything to do with this case.
The wet-colloidal process in photography, invented in 1851 by the Englishman F. Scott-Archer, was no less complicated than the daguerreotype, but much cheaper than the latter. It used a glass plate covered with a layer of colloid - the basis for light-sensitive silver crystals. It made it possible to obtain a negative, which significantly improved the image quality. The plate was light sensitive only when wet and therefore had to be used immediately after preparation. This was one of the inconveniences of the new method, which did not allow the use of pre-prepared plates. (E. K.)
It took about forty years before he again began to receive light spots on the plates, and then the figures of "ghosts" in his photographs, which only irritated him, as it caused some damage to his main occupation and "spoiled the mass of the plates." It was with great difficulty that Mr. W. T. Steed persuaded him to continue the sessions. Having established his own experimental conditions, Mr. Stead repeatedly received what the old photographer called "portraits of shadows." At first they were indistinct, but later several portraits were obtained that were fully identified. Mr. Stead gives a detailed list of the precautions he took, in particular the use of marked records and so on, but notes that he never attached much importance to them.considering the appearance on the plate of images of relatives of a model unfamiliar to the photographer is a much more important result than the observance of precautions, which any magician or trick photographer could evade in case of verification.
He says:
“Again and again I sent my friends to Mr. Bursnel, without informing him of who they were, without telling him anything about the identity of the deceased friend or relative, whose portrait they wanted, and about the time of the visit. After the negative was developed, the portrait would appear behind and sometimes in front of the model's figure. This happened so often that I was quite convinced of the impossibility of any fraud. One French editor, seeing in his developed portrait the image of his deceased wife, was overjoyed and began kissing Mr. B., which confused the old photographer a lot. Or another case that happened to an engineer from Lancashire, who himself was engaged in photography. He used scribbled plates, following all possible precautions. At the same time, he received portraits of two of his relatives and another with the image of a famous person with whom he was in close friendly relations. The same thing happened with the closest neighbor of Mr. B., who, by pure chance, entered the studio and received a portrait of his deceased daughter."
In 1903, the medium was presented with a purse of gold coins and an award sheet signed by one hundred famous London spirits. At the same time, the walls of the premises of the Psychological Society on George Street, near Portman Square, were hung with 300 specially selected spiritualistic photographs provided by Bursnel.
As for Mr. Stead's point of view regarding "true similarity," critics have argued that the model often simply imagined similarities and at times two models simultaneously recognized their relatives in the same image. In response, one can recall the case of such a serious expert as Dr. Alfred Russell Wallace, who recognized his deceased mother in the image on the plate. Dr. Cashman (which we will discuss below) showed the photographic "ghost" of his daughter Agnes to many friends and relatives, and they all confirmed the complete resemblance. But even controversial cases aside, there is overwhelming evidence of thousands of such supernatural portraits that have been identified.
Mr. Edward Wiley (1848-1911) possessed genuine mediumship, which was verified by many qualified researchers. Born in Calcutta, his father, Colonel Robert Wiley, served as a military adviser to the Indian government. Wiley Jr. was promoted to captain during the Maori War in New Zealand, after which he took up photography.
Maori War in New Zealand (1840-1872) - a war of the indigenous population of this country (Maori) against the British colonialists. (E. K.)
However, the regular appearance of bright spots on the negatives threatened his business with complete collapse. He had never heard of photographing spirits until a lady posing for him brought Wylie's attention to a spiritistic treatment of light spots on negatives. He tried to experiment with her, and on a plate in a spot of light he obtained images of faces. Subsequently, these spots began to appear very often and already with other people posing for him.
Wylie decided to abandon his business and devote himself to photographing perfume. Here he had to face new problems: he was accused of fraud, and this shocked him so much that he tried to completely change his life, but failed and returned to work as a photo medium (that's what he was called). On November 27, 1900, a committee of the Pasadena Society for Psychical Research held a meeting in Los Angeles with his participation. The questions asked by members of the committee are of undoubted historical interest:
“Question: Did you advertise your sessions, promised to get portraits of spirits or anything unusual to those present at your sessions?
Answer: Not at all. I have never guaranteed or promised anything. I have no control over this process. True, I charged a small fee for my time and materials, as you saw - there is a price card on the wall. I charged one dollar per session; and in case the first session was unsatisfactory, then I gave the second one at no extra charge.
Question: Have you ever failed in a session?
Answer: Oh, and quite often. Last Saturday I worked all day, gave five sessions and got no results.
Question: How often do you get negative results?
Answer: I must say that on a normal working day there are 3-4 failures, sometimes more, sometimes less.
Question: How often do those who pose for you recognize their relatives or acquaintances in the images they receive?
Answer: For several months last year, I wrote down all my results and found that about two-thirds of all meetings do not go through without one or two faces being identified by my models. Sometimes it can be one person, sometimes five or six, and sometimes even eight. I don't count, I only know the total number of people present, which is reflected in my notebook.
Question: When you conduct sessions, then, as a psychic, are you able to predict in advance how many “ghost” faces you could get on the record?
Answer: Sometimes I saw a glow around the posing and then felt confident that the result in this case could be obtained, but which one - I did not know until I received the negatives after the manifestation and brought them to light.
Question: If a visitor had a very strong desire to see his deceased friend on the record, could he hope for the result more than others?
Answer: No. Excitement, emotional tension, longing desire, anxiety or internal conflict make it difficult for the forces of the spirits of magnetism to use those present for their manifestations, thus reducing the reality of receiving an image on the plates. A relaxed, calm and welcoming atmosphere is most preferable for good results.
Question: Those who call themselves spiritualists get better results than those who are not followers of this teaching?
Answer: No. I achieved the best results when the most notorious skeptics posed for me."
The committee was not able to obtain portraits of "ghosts", while during the work of the preceding Committee of Seven in 1899, which subjected the medium to severe tests, four out of eight records "showed results to which the Committee could turn their attention." In addition to a brief listing of the precautions taken, the report contained the following findings:
“Since the Committee does not have its own theory on this matter, we only testify what we are sure of. Personally, we do not deny the possibility of such cases, but unanimously confirm only objective facts … We will pay $ 25 to any photographer from Los Angeles who, through a trick or forgery, obtains similar results under similar experimental conditions.
Signed: Julian McCrae, P. C. Campbell, J. W. McKee, W. N. Slocum, John Henley."
David Dugid (1832-1907), a renowned writing and painting medium, has made considerable progress in thoroughly investigating the nature of spiritualistic photographs he obtained with Mr. J. Trail-Taylor, editor of the British Journal of Photography. On March 9, 1893, the latter acquainted the meeting of the London Regional Association of Photographers with a series of newspaper articles on the topic and the minutes of the last sessions conducted by Duguid.
He's writing:
“My conditions were extremely simple … Since at that time they were all scammers for me, in order to prevent the possibility of tricks, I used my own camera and an unopened pack of blank records bought from reliable shopkeepers. Besides, I was going to keep the records from my hands until the very end of the development process. But just as I took my precautions against them, so they could retaliate, so I demanded that everything take place in the presence of two witnesses. I warned that I wanted to put my watch on the camera under the pretext that I wanted to set the exact same exposure. In other words, I was going to use a binocular stereoscopic camera and demanded that all my conditions be met."
After the end of the experiment, carried out in accordance with the conditions put forward by him, he recorded the appearance of additional figures on the plates:
“Some of them were harsh, some were not; some were lit from the right, while the posing was lit from the left … some were beyond the size of the plate, presenting distorted images of real people; others looked like the common man in a poor quality portrait decorated with vignettes. Sometimes one got the impression that the piece of the photograph, where the image of the "ghost" was located, was cut out with a can opener (an oval with uneven edges) and crookedly attached to the portrait of the model herself. But one thing is clear: I did not see any of those figures that were so clearly visible on the negatives until after the time of manifestation. I can seriously vouch for the fact that no one had any opportunity to access any of these records and could neither place anything on its light-sensitive side, nor influence the development process. Technically, the images were of poor quality, but how did they get there?"
Several other famous personalities who attended Dugid's sessions also described the remarkable results he was able to achieve.
- Part two -