Harry Price

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Harry Price (January 17, 1881 – March 29, 1948) was a British psychic researcher and author.

Contents

[edit] Early life

He was educated in London at Waller Road School and Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham College, the Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham Boys School[1]. When he was 15 years of age Price founded the Carlton Dramatic Society [2] and wrote small plays including a drama about his early experience with a poltergeist[3], which he said took place at a haunted manor house in Shropshire.[4],

A few years later, Price came to the attention of the Press when he claimed an early interest in space-telegraphy. He set up a receiver and transmitter between Telegraph Hill, Hatcham and St Peter's Church Brockley and captured a spark on a photographic plate, though according to the most recent biography of Price by Richard Morris, this was nothing more than Harry writing a press release saying he had done the experiment. Nothing was verified. The young Price also had an avid interest in coin collecting and wrote several articles for The Askean, the magazine for Haberdashers' School. In his autobiography, Search for Truth, written between 1941 and 1942, Price claimed he was involved with archaeological excavations in Greenwich Park, London but in earlier writings on Greenwich denied he had a hand in the excavation. From around May 1908 Price continued his interest in archaeology at Pulborough, Sussex where he had moved to before marrying Constance Mary Knight that August. As well as working for paper merchants Edward Saunders & Sons as a salesman he wrote for two local Sussex newspapers the West Sussex Gazette and the Southern Weekly News where he wrote about his remarkable propensity for discovering 'clean' antiquities. One of these, a silver ingot, (later announced a fake) was stamped around the time of the last Roman emperor Honorius, a few years after another celebrated Sussex archaeologist Charles Dawson found a brick at Pevensey Fort in Sussex which was supposedly made in Honorius' time. Some years on, it was found the brick was bogus.

[edit] Interest in magic and conjuring

As a child, Price witnessed a performance by magician and quack potion seller the “Great Sequah” in Shrewsbury and later said that this event was “entirely responsible for shaping much of my life’s work”[5], and lead to him acquiring the first volume of what would become the Harry Price Library, Professor Hoffman’s Modern Magic.[6] Price became an expert amateur conjurer, joined the Magic Circle and maintained a lifelong interest in stage magic and conjuring. His expertise in sleight of hand and magic tricks stood him in good stead for what would become his all consuming passion, the investigation of paranormal phenomena.

[edit] Psychical research

Price's first major success in psychical research came in 1922 when he flukishly exposed the 'spirit' photographer William Hope.[7] During the same year, Price travelled to Germany together with Eric Dingwall and investigated Willi Schneider[8] at the home of Baron Albert von Schrenck-Notzing in Munich and published Revelations of a Spirit Medium. In 1923, Price had his first sittings with mediums Stella C, Jean Guzik and Anna Pilch. In 1925, thanks largely to the London Spiritualist Alliance, Price set up the National Laboratory of Psychical Research and was appointed foreign research officer to the American Society for Psychical Research, a position he was to hold until 1931. In 1926, the National Laboratory of Psychical Research moved to new premises in Queensberry Place, South Kensington, and Price was to experience his first sittings with Rudi Schneider in Braunau am Inn, Austria, and to conduct his first experiments with Eleanore Zugun in Vienna. One year later, Price publicly opened the 'box' of prophetess, Joanna Southcott in Westminster.[9]

In 1929, spiritualist Rudi Schneider was brought to London for experiments into his mediumship and Price began his 10 year investigation of hauntings at Borley Rectory in Essex. Shortly after, the National Laboratory moved again to Roland Gardens in South Kensington. In 1932, Price, along with C. E. M. Joad, travelled to Mount Brocken in Germany to conduct a 'black magic' experiment in connection with the centenary of Goethe, involving the transformation of a goat into a young man. The following year, Price made a formal offer to the University of London to equip and endow a Department of Psychical Research, and to loan the equipment of the National Laboratory and its Library. The University of London Board of Studies in Psychology responded positively to this proposal and, in 1934, the University of London Council for Psychical Investigation was formed with Price as Honorary Secretary and Editor.

In 1934, the National Laboratory of Psychical Research took on its most illustrious case. £50 was paid to the medium Helen Duncan so that she could be examined under scientific conditions. A sample of Helen Duncan's ectoplasm had been previously examined by the Laboratory and found to be largely made of egg white. Price found that Duncan's spirit manifestations were cheesecloth that had been swallowed and vomited by Duncan. Price later wrote up the case in Leaves from a Psychist’s Case Book in a chapter called "The Cheese-cloth Worshippers".[10] During Duncan's famous trial in 1944, Price gave his results as evidence for the prosecution.

Price's psychical research continued with investigations into Karachi's Indian rope trick and the fire-walking abilities of Kuda Bux in 1935. He was also involved in the formation of the National Film Library (British Film Institute) becoming its first chairman (until 1941) and was a founding member of the Shakespeare Film Society. In 1936, Price broadcast from a supposedly haunted manor house in Meopham, Kent for the BBC and published The Confessions of a Ghost-Hunter and The Haunting of Cashen's Gap. This year also saw the transfer of Price's library on permanent loan to the University of London, followed shortly by the laboratory and investigative equipment. In 1937, he conducted further televised experiments into fire-walking with Ahmed Hussain at Carshalton and Alexandra Palace, and also rented Borley Rectory for one year. The following year, Price re-established the Ghost Club, with himself as chairman, conducted experiments with Rahman Bey who was 'buried alive' in Carshalton and drafted a Bill for the regulation of psychic practitioners. In 1939, he organised a national telepathic test in the periodical John O'London's Weekly. During the 1940s, Price concentrated on writing and the works The Most Haunted House in England, Poltergeist Over England and The End of Borley Rectory were all published.

[edit] Published works

  • Revelations of a Spirit Medium, with Eric J. Dingwall, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd, London, hardback, 1922.
  • Cold Light on Spiritualistic "Phenomena" - An Experiment with the Crewe Circle, by Harry Price, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd, 1922.
  • Stella C. An Account of Some Original Experiments in Psychical Research, Hurst & Blackett Ltd., hardback, 1925.
  • Rudi Schneider: A Scientific Examination of his Mediumship, Methuen & Co. Ltd., hardback, 1930.
  • Leaves from a Psychist’s Case Book, by Harry Price, Victor Gollancz Ltd., hardback, 1933.
  • Confessions of a Ghost-Hunter, Putnam & Co. Ltd., London, hardback, 1936.
  • The Haunting of Cashen's Gap: A Modern "Miracle" Investigated - With R.S. Lambert, Methuen & Co. Ltd., hardback, 1936.
  • Fifty Years of Psychical Research: A Critical Survey Longmans, Green & Co. Ltd., hardback, 1939.
  • The Most Haunted House in England: Ten Years' Investigation of Borley Rectory, Longmans, Green & Co. Ltd., hardback, 1940.
  • Search for Truth: My Life for Psychical Research, Collins, London, hardback, 1942.
  • Poltergeist Over England: Three Centuries of Mischievous Ghosts, Country Life Ltd., hardback, 1945.
  • The End of Borley Rectory, Harrap & Co. Ltd., hardback, 1946.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Harry Price, Biography of a Ghost Hunter by Paul Tabori. Page 21.
  2. ^ Harry Price, Biography of a Ghost Hunter by Paul Tabori. Page 22.
  3. ^ The Sceptic, performed December 2, 1898 at Amersham Hall
  4. ^ Harry Price, Biography of a Ghost Hunter by Paul Tabori. Page 25.
  5. ^ Harry Price, Biography of a Ghost Hunter by Paul Tabori. Page 21.
  6. ^ Harry Price, Biography of a Ghost Hunter by Paul Tabori. Page 21.
  7. ^ Leaves from a Psychist’s Case Book by Harry Price, Page 213.
  8. ^ Harry Price, Biography of a Ghost Hunter by Paul Tabori. Page 93.
  9. ^ Leaves from a Psychist’s Case Book by Harry Price, Pages 287-304.
  10. ^ Leaves from a Psychist’s Case Book by Harry Price, Pages 201-209.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Harry Price, Biography of a Ghost Hunter by Paul Tabori, Athenaem Press, hardback, 1950.
  • Leaves from a Psychist’s Case Book, by Harry Price, Victor Gollancz Ltd., hardback, 1933.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

A third biography on Price, the first for 56 years, called Harry Price: The Psychic Detective by Richard Morris will be published by Sutton Publishing in December 2006

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