Daniel Dunglas Home

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Daniel Dunglas Home (March 20, 1833 - June 21, 1886) was a Scottish spiritualist, famous during his lifetime for his claimed powers as a medium and his reported ability to levitate to a variety of heights, elongate and to handle fire and hot coals without injury. He conducted hundreds of seances over a period of 35 years — at which were present many of the best-known names of the Victorian period — without being conclusively, or publicly, exposed as a fraud.

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[edit] Early life

Home was born in Currie, near Edinburgh. He claimed that his father was the natural son of the 10th Earl of Home, and his mother a member of a family credited with second sight. On the first point there can be some dispute, as until his career flourished as a medium in England his surname is always written "Hume", and indeed he was forced to negotiate over the issue of his surname with his parish minister when he married.

When he was nine years old, he was taken with his aunt and uncle to the United States. In 1850, his mother died, and soon after his aunt's house was beset by rappings and knockings similar to those that occurred two years earlier at the home of the Fox sisters. His aunt, afraid that the boy had called in the Devil, cast young Home out, and he found himself wandering about the country, staying at the homes of friends who wished to witness his powers as a medium. This mode of life was to last for over 20 years, as he never directly required money for the séances he held, although he managed to live very well on gifts, generous donations and lodging from his many wealthy admirers. There are apparently two reasons that Home refused direct payment: first, he saw himself as on a "mission to demonstrate immortality"; and second, he wished to interact with his clients as one gentleman to another, rather than as an employee (Doyle 1926: volume 1, 186-190).

[edit] His Career in Europe

In 1855, his trip financed by American spiritualists, he came to England. He is described at this time as tall and thin, with blue eyes and auburn hair, fastidiously dressed and seriously ill with consumption. Home would hold sittings for notable persons, in full daylight, and would produce phenomena such as the moving of objects at a distance (Doyle 1926: volume 1, 188-192). Some early guests at his séances included the scientist Sir David Brewster, the novelists Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton and Anthony Trollope, the socialist Robert Owen, and the Swedenborgian James John Garth Wilkinson (Doyle 1926: volume 1, 193-195). Home seemed to have a talent for converting most sceptics, but Robert Browning, the poet, proved more obdurate. Browning attended a séance and subsequently gave his impression of Home in the unflattering poem Sludge the Medium (1864).

His fame grew, fueled particularly by his extraordinary feats of levitation. William Crookes claimed to know of more than 50 occasions in which Home levitated, many of these at least five to seven feet above the floor, "in good light" (Doyle 1926: volume 1, 195-197). Perhaps more common were feats such as this, recorded by Frank Podmore: "We all saw him rise from the ground slowly to a height of about six inches, remain there for about ten seconds, and then slowly descend" (Podmore 1902, p.254).

In the following years he travelled in continental Europe, always as a guest of wealthy patrons. In Paris, he was summoned to the Tuileries to perform a seance for Napoleon III. He performed for Queen Sophie of the Netherlands, who wrote of the experience, "I saw him four times...I felt a hand tipping my finger; I saw a heavy golden bell moving alone from one person to another; I saw my handkerchief move alone and return to me with a knot... He himself is a pale, sickly, rather handsome young man but without a look or anything which would either fascinate or frighten you. It is wonderful. I am so glad I have seen it..."[citation needed]

In 1866 Mrs Lyon, a wealthy widow, adopted him as her son, and settled £60,000 upon him, in an apparent attempt to gain introduction into high society. Finding that the adoption did not change her social situation, she repented of her action, and brought a suit for the return of her money on the grounds that it had been obtained by spiritual influence. Under British law, the defendant bears the burden of disproof in such a case, and disproof was impossible since there was no physical evidence. Accordingly, the case was decided against Home, Mrs Lyon's money was returned, and the press enjoyed pillorying him. Tellingly, Home's high society acquaintances thought that he behaved a complete gentleman throughout the ordeal, and he did not lose a single important friend (Doyle 1926: volume 1, 207-209).

Home encountered one of his closest friends in 1867, the young Lord Adare (later the 4th Earl of Dunraven). Adare was fascinated by Home, and began documenting the seances they held. One of the most famous of Home's levitations occurred at one such séance the following year. In front of three witnesses (Adare, Captain Wynne, and Lord Lindsay) Home was alleged to have levitated out of the third storey window of one room, and in at the window of the adjoining room (Doyle 1926: volume 1, 196-197).

Home married twice. In 1858 he married Alexandria de Kroll, the 17 year old daughter of a noble Russian family. They had a son, Gregoire, but Alexandria fell ill with tuberculosis, and died in 1862. In October of 1871, Home married for the second time, to Julie de Gloumeline, a wealthy Russian lady, whom he met in St Petersburg. In the process, he converted to the Greek Orthodox faith. Now, at the age of 38, he retired. His health was bad – the tuberculosis, from which he had suffered for most of his life, was advancing –and his powers, he claimed, were failing. He died on the 21st of June 1886 and was buried along side his daughter at St. Germain-en-Laye cemetery. (Lamont, 2005 p. 222-223)

[edit] Fraud or Genuine?

According to Arthur Conan Doyle, Home was unusual in that he had powers in four different types of mediumship: direct voice (the ability to let spirits audibly speak); trance speaker (the ability to let spirits speak through oneself); clairvoyant (ability to see things that are out of view); and physical medium (moving objects at a distance, levitation, etc.--the type of mediumship in which Home had no equals). Home was suspicious of any medium who claimed powers he himself did not possess, particularly the materializing mediums (such as the Eddy Brothers), who claimed the ability to produce solid spirit forms, and he marked these as fraudulent. Since materializing mediums always work in darkened places, Home urged that all séances be held in the light (Doyle 1926: volume 1, 204-205). Home, in his 1877 book Lights and Shadows of Spiritualism, detailed the conjuring tricks employed by false mediums.[1]

Home himself, of course, was widely suspected of fraud, but it was never proved (Doyle 1926: volume 1, 207). Frank Podmore (1910, 31-86 and 1902, 223-269) and Milbourne Christopher (1970, 174-187) provide a particularly rich source of speculation on the ways in which Home could have duped his sitters. Some testimony suggests that Home often conducted his demonstrations in dim light.[2] The light conditions during Home's most famous feat of levitation were disputed, but some witnesses recorded that it was quite dark.[3] Podmore (1910, p. 45) records that Home had a constant companion that sat opposite of him during his séances.

Between 1870 and 1873, William Crookes conducted experiments to determine the validity of the phenomena produced by three mediums: Florence Cook, Kate Fox, and D.D. Home. Crookes' final report in 1874 concluded that the phenomena produced by all three mediums were geniune (Crookes 1874), a result which was roundly derided by the scientific establishment (Doyle 1926: volume 1, 230-251). Crookes recorded that he controlled and secured Home by placing his feet on the top of Home's feet. (Crookes, 1874) This method of foot control later proved inadequate when used with Eusapia Palladino. She merely slipped her foot out and in of her sturdy shoe.

Alexander von Boutlerow, Professor of Chemistry at the University of St. Petersburg and Home's brother-in-law, also obtained positive results in his tests of Home. (Lamont, 2005 p. 222)

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ The exposed frauds are presented in chapters eight and nine. The book contains no discussion of the making of raps and fire-proofing oneself.
  2. ^ For example, there is this report from a witness: "The room was very dark...Home's hands were visible only as a faint white heap" (Podmore 1902, p.233).
  3. ^ Lord Adare states Home "swung out and in" of the window in a horizontal position (Podmore 1902, p. 256 & Adare, 1871, p. 83). "He [Home] came in [through the window] again, feet foremost, and we returned to the other room. It was so dark I could not see clearly how he was supported" [outside of the three story window] (Adare, 1871, p.82 & 83).

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  • Crookes, William. 1874. "Notes of an Enquiry into the Phenomena called Spiritual during the Years 1870-1873." Quarterly Journal of Science. [http://www.survivalafterdeath.org/books/crookes/researches/notes.htm
  • Doyle, Arthur Conan. The History of Spiritualism. New York: G.H. Doran, Co. Volume 1: 1926 Volume 2: 1926
  • Incidents in My Life by Daniel Dunglas Home, 1864
  • Lights and Shadows in Spiritualism by Daniel Dunglas Home, G.W. Carleton, 1877
  • Experiences In Spiritualism with D. D. Home by Viscount Adare, 1869, Arno Press, 1976, reprint of 1871 extended edition
  • The First Psychic: The Extraordinary Mystery of a Victorian Wizard by Peter Lamont, Time Warner Books UK, 2005, an extensive biography by a prize winning historian of British history
  • Mediums of the Ninteeth Century, Volume Two, Book Four, Chapter Three, Daniel Dunglass Home and Chapter four, Was There Hallucination? by Frank Podmore, University Books, 1963, reprint of 1902 edition of Modern Spiritualism
  • The Newer Spiritualism by Frank Podmore, Arno Press, 1975, reprint of 1910 edition
  • ESP,Seer & Psychics: What the Occult Really Is by Milbourne Christopher, Thomas Crowell, 1970

[edit] Further reading

  • Mediums, Mystics and the Occult by Milbourne Christopher, Thomas Crowell, 1975
  • Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women by Ricky Jay, Villard Books, 1987; See pages 37-42, Photos on page 40.
  • Revelations of a Spirit Medium by Harry Price and Eric J. Dingwall, Arno Press, 1975 reprint of 1891 edition by Charles F. Pidgeon. This rare, overlooked, and forgotten, book gives the "insider's knowledge" of 19th century deceptions
  • Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death by Deborah Blum, Penguin Press, 2006; Discusses Home's career and scientific experiments seeking to prove or disprove his abilities, in the larger context of the era and scientific research into "spiritualism".
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