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The publicity given to the recent attacks on Psychic Photography has been out of all proportion to their scientific value as evidence. When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle returned to Great Britain, after his successful tour in America, the controversy was in full swing. With characteristic promptitude he immediately decided to meet these negative attacks by a positive counter-attack, and this volume is the outcome of that decision. We have used the term Spirit Photography on the title-page as being the popular name by which these phenomena are known. This does not imply that either Sir Arthur or I imagine that everything supernormal must be of spirit origin. There is, undoubtedly, a broad borderland where these photographic effects may be produced from forces contained within ourselves. This merges into those higher phenomena of which many cases are here described. Those desiring fuller information on this subject are referred to Photo graphing the Invisible, by James Coates.
A charlatan is haunted by sinister secrets and spirits from his past in this Gothic novel of the Reconstruction Era. Boston, 1870. Photographer Edward Moody has gained fame and fortune capturing the images of spirits in his photo portraits. He lures grieving widows and mourning mothers into his studio with promises of catching the ghosts of their deceased loved ones with his camera. But his elaborate hoax is about to yield shocking results . . . While attempting to capture the spirit of an abolitionist senator’s young son, a different spectral figure develops before Moody’s eyes. The camera has seemingly captured the spirit of a beautiful young woman from Moody’s past—the daughter of an escaped slave he knew long ago. He immediately sets out for the Louisiana bayou to resolve their unfinished business?and perhaps save his soul . . .
In this 100 year old book the mechanics of spirit photography are explained by apparent spirits communicating through mediums. It has to do with ether and semi-materialization apparently. However, the presence of a medium before the taking of the photograph is essential, reportedly. In addition, the medium should be morally and physically healthy and able to maintain a passive mental state. Anxiety is reportedly a great hindrance. That way, the subconscious thought forms are liberated. There's a photo of Alfred Russel Wallace and his deceased mother. Wallace states, "The facts were too many for me." Photos of people's doubles were apparently also possible, such as the photo taken of medium Stainton Moses and his double. Mr. Coates includes a photo of himself and his dead wife. Thought photography is discussed towards the end of the book, which apparently dates from 1876. Images of objects enter and fix themselves in our brains through the retina, and then they can leave our brains by the same route, reportedly. Coates includes a letter from a correspondent who reportedly received evidence that there is a large band of workers in the spirit world who are "helping to convince the Western World that there are things and beings which cannot be cognised by ordinary sense faculty." A good book to generate conversation about
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1911 edition. Excerpt: ... Preface As a further contribution to psychic science I have written this work, which represents some of the results of my inquiries and personal research. In a former book, Seeing the Invisible, which his late Majesty King Edward was pleased to accept, I touched --among other studies--upon thought and spirit photography. Sir William Crookes, O.M., F.R.S., the distinguished savant, commended the book most favourably: -- It is written in a fair spirit which invites unbiassed criticism. The incidents related in it and the arguments put forward are such as to demand the careful attention of thoughtful men, and the author impartially points out some difficulties and discrepancies. In the present work I give a fuller and more complete record of spirit photography than was at all possible in the pages of Seeing the Invisible--I trust also in a fair spirit which invites careful reading before criticism. Spirit photographs, spirit portraiture, and spirit writings belong to the rarer phases of psycho-physics. They are either produced by the operations of Intelligences in the Invisible--through appropriate media-- or man possesses psychic faculties and powers which have not yet received the attention they demand. Spiritualists believe that spirits can be photographed. Experts--many of whom have never investigated--declare all spirit photographs fraudulent. To both my answer is: "The evidence does not support either hypothesis, but for the fact of spirit photography it is most conclusive." Many problems, puzzles, and difficulties met with in the course of investigation are clearly stated. I have, however, omitted all reference to the experiments of Dr Baraduc and the photographing of invisible radiations from radio-active bodies, and matters already...
The publicity given to the recent attacks on Psychic Photography has been out of all proportion to their scientific value as evidence. When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle returned to Great Britain, after his successful tour in America, the controversy was in full swing. With characteristic promptitude he immediately decided to meet these negative attacks by a positive counter-attack, and this volume is the outcome of that decision. We have used the term Spirit Photography on the title-page as being the popular name by which these phenomena are known. This does not imply that either Sir Arthur or I imagine that everything supernormal must be of spirit origin. There is, undoubtedly, a broad borderland where these photographic effects may be produced from forces contained within ourselves. This merges into those higher phenomena of which many cases are here described. Those desiring fuller information on this subject are referred to Photo graphing the Invisible, by James Coates.
"Can the camera show us those who have passed on? Yes!" Arthur Conan Doyle said upon publishing The Case For Spirit Photography in 1923. The book offers a thorough account of his own experiences with spirit photography and those of others. The first spirit photographer, William Mumler, began working in Boston in 1861. Faint figures believed to be lost loved ones appeared in photos behind those sitting in front of the camera. Over the years, Mumler took thousands of spirit photographs, including one of Mary Todd Lincoln showing the assassinated president behind her. P.T. Barnum, always one to enjoy a good humbug, was intrigued as well and displayed several Mumler photographs in his American Museum. But with growing success came more skeptics. And eventually, some of them noticed that several spirits were actually people still living. By 1869, the police were on the case and claimed Mumler was swindling people out of their money. The spirit photographer went to court, supported by the Spiritualist community who maintained their belief that he was innocent and genuine. Mumler was exonerated when no one could prove he'd faked his photos. His legal troubles ultimately hurt his business, but spirit photography lived on through other mediums wielding otherworldly cameras. Doyle believed many of them to be genuine and often came to the defense of photographers accused of fraud. He had been one of Spiritualism's loudest and best-known evangelists in the early twentieth century. He, and its millions of followers, believed that we never die-we merely move on to another plane that could amazingly be captured on film. The author's good friend, Harry Houdini, spent many years exposing fraudulent mediums that capitalized on Spiritualism and people's willingness to believe that the dead could talk. One example was spirit photographer Alexander Martin of Denver, Colorado. Doyle told Houdini that he was "a very wonderful man in his particular line." So the magician paid him a visit, and once inside the studio he attempted to explore the dark room. After a few secretive photographic shenanigans, Martin shared some ghosts. Houdini concluded the photos were simply double exposures. "From a logical, rational point of view, Spirit photography is a most barefaced imposition and stands as evidence of the credulity of those who are in sympathy with the superstitions of occultism," he wrote in 1924's A Magician Among the Spirits. "It is also evidence of how unscrupulous mediums become and how calloused their consciences." Doyle clearly disagreed. Genuine or not, the stories presented within these pages are fascinating and a hundred years later the photos remain extraordinary. And they are faithfully reproduced as published in 1923.
