American researcher Andrew Jackson Davis is considered to be the founder of spiritualism. As a child, he did not differ in special abilities and received only the first rudiments of knowledge. Everything changed in 1843. The 17-year-old boy met with Magnitezer Levingston, who discovered in whom the abilities of an outstanding medium. In this capacity, Davis traveled to many cities in America. During his travels, he diligently studied medical, natural science books and mystical works.
In May 1845, Davis had a vision in which extraordinary revelations were given to him, with instructions to publish them for the benefit of present and future people. He settled in New York and in a somnambulistic state dictated his book "The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations and Voice to Humanity", which became the Bible of Spiritualism for a century and a half. First in America, and then in Europe, numerous followers of Davis appeared. Stories about unexpected encounters with the souls of dead people began to come from different countries. The words of eyewitnesses could not be believed if there were no objective evidence of the existence of an invisible, or, more precisely, invisible in ordinary conditions, world. First of all, photographs were such evidence.
The first documented case of a ghost displaying in a photograph dates back to 1862. It was made by the American photographer Memler. Alone in his friend's studio on Sunday, he tried to take a photographic portrait of himself. Imagine his surprise when, during the development of the plate, he found on it, besides himself, some other figure. Memler was not yet interested in spirits or ghosts. At first, he decided that the second figure arose because the photographic plate was not entirely clean and traces of another photograph were preserved on it. With the colloidal method of obtaining a photographic image, this sometimes happens. Interested in what had happened, Memler set up several experiments using completely clean records. On some of them, strange fuzzy shapes reappeared. On the advice of his friends who were fond of spiritualism,Memler gave up his former pursuits and became a professional photographer and medium, evoking and photographing spirits.
The audience flocked to the successful photographer. But this did not last long. Several competitors accused Memler of fraud and demonstrated a way in which they could get another white, blurry figure next to the posing person. This could be the end of attempts to catch ghosts in a photographic lens. But, fortunately for researchers of the unknown, this did not happen. Memler's reputation was saved by a thorough check. Under the close supervision of several professional photographers, he nevertheless obtained images of spirits using someone else's camera and records.
At the beginning of the 20th century, a real "flurry" of amazing discoveries took place in traditional science, which completely changed the course of human development - it became on the rails of a machine civilization. People no longer had enough time to talk with spirits. The situation changed by the end of the century. The sciences that are considered the main engines of civilization: physics, biology, medicine - more and more often began to encounter inexplicable phenomena.
In many countries, people, organizations engaged in spiritualism have reappeared. Here is one of the typical examples of communication of spirits with a person, a young single woman turned to the head of one of the Russian societies for the study of the "unknown", Egor Usachev. For several years, to fill the spiritual emptiness, she successfully engaged in spiritualism, summoning the souls of famous people at will. Two years ago, the spirit of the recently murdered young man suddenly began to actively "wedge in" into her sessions. A little time passed, and the spirit began to disturb the woman, not only in the sessions. For several months she heard the voice of an uninvited spirit in transport, at work, at home. At first the voice told her about love, then it demanded physical intimacy. The woman sometimes began to see him, feel him physically and, speaking in protocol language, in the end,succumbed to his harassment.
During the meeting with Usachev, according to the woman, the spirit was also present. With her permission, the researcher took a picture of the area of the room where the spirit was located. In the photo, near the woman's figure, you can distinguish a blurry transparent silhouette through which the wallpaper of the room shines through.
The most spectacular case occurred in 1923 in England. A wet spot suddenly appeared on the wall of the Church of Christ in Oxford, which gradually turned into a portrait of a man with a high forehead and a large nose. One of the parishioners recognized him as the rector of the church Lidell, who died in 1898. Comparison of the photograph of the spot with the surviving portrait of the rector convinced the scientists who arrived at the scene that an inexplicable phenomenon had indeed taken place in the church.
Promotional video:
Researchers of anomalous phenomena are still arguing: "What is the reason for the voices that mediums hear, who controls the saucers at spiritualistic seances, how do images of 'spirits' appear in photographs?" So far, only one thing is clear to them. Spirits, whoever they are, cannot be joked. The cases when they helped someone can literally be counted on the fingers of one hand, but several psychiatric hospitals can be filled with unsuccessful amateurs who are carried away by causing them.
“Interesting newspaper. Incredible No. 17 2010