Chapter 5

PHYSICAL PHENOMENA ALLEGED TO HAVE OCCURRED IN THE PRESENCE OF DANIEL DUNGLAS HOME

Scientific evidence of the reality of the Physical Phenomena alleged to have occurred in the presence of D. D. Home is scarcely to be looked for in the two volumes written by himself, nor even in the two volumes published after his death by Madame Home. The alleged phenomena failed to attract the attention of more than a very few men of science during Home's lifetime. Of these the most eminent is Sir William Crookes, F.R.S. With regard to Sir William Crookes' evidence the reader is referred to two paragraphs on page 124.

THE REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE DIALECTICAL SOCIETY.

Again, the Report of the Committee of the Dialectical Society, or rather the documents which accompany it, supplies some good evidence. Home had four sittings with one of the Sub-Committees, but the phenomena were of a trifling and inconclusive character. This was attributed to the state of Home's bodily health. He was on the eve of a severe illness. Several persons subsequently sent to the Committee statements of what they had seen and heard in Home's presence. The only one of these which can be said to possess scientific value is a report of a seance held with Lord Lindsay--now the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres--and Mrs. Honywood, and two other persons. The report is as follows. It is written by Mrs. Honywood, and Lord Lindsay adds a few words, his own personal testimony.

"I met Mr. Home at the house of a friend on the 17th March 1869. We sat down, five in number, at a round table in the back drawing-room. There was an oil lamp on a table in the front drawing-room, and fires in both grates. After a while Mr. Home became entranced, walked into the front room, and stood on the hearth-rug. He began to dance slowly, raising first the one foot and then the other, his hands hanging loosely as I have read of Easterns and Indians, moving in time to music. He then knelt down, rubbing and clasping his hands together in front of the fire. I asked, 'Are you a fire worshipper?' He nodded and looked pleased. 'Are you a Persian?' He smiled and nodded assent, after which he rose and placed four chairs in a row near the folding doors, signing to us to sit there. He now went to the table on which stood the moderator lamp; taking off the globe, he placed it on the table, and deliberately grasped the chimney of the lamp with both hands; then, advancing to the lady of the house, he asked her to touch it, but she refused, knowing it was hot. Mr. Home said, 'Have you no faith? Will you not trust in Dan if he says it is cool?' She replied, 'Certainly,' and placed her finger on the glass, exclaiming, 'Oh, it is not at all hot!' This was corroborated by Lord Lindsay and myself, who in turn both laid our finger on the glass several times to test it. Mr. Home laughed and said, 'I will make it hot for you, old fellow,' and holding it towards Mr. ----, he turned, apparently addressing some one, and said, in a sad tone of voice, 'It is necessary to confirm the faith of others that the glass should be made hot for him.' Mr. ---- now touched it, and exclaimed, 'You have indeed,' shaking his hand and showing me a red mark. So hot was the glass when a fourth person touched it, that it raised a blister, which I saw some days subsequently, peeling. I leave it for the scientific to determine how the heat was re-imparted to the glass, after being withdrawn.

"Mr. Home now returned to the fireplace, and thrust the chimney into the red-hot coals, resting the end on the top bar; he left it there about four or five minutes, then, lifting it, he clasped it in both hands, went to the table, took a lucifer match from a box, and handing it to the lady of the house, desired her to touch the glass--the match instantly ignited; and having called our attention to this fact, he observed, 'The tongue and lips are the most sensitive parts of the body,' and thrust the heated glass into his mouth, applying, especially, his tongue to it. He once more returned to the fire, and again placed the chimney on the upper bar, the end of the glass resting amidst the red coals. He left it there and walked about the room, selected a small fern-leaf from a vase of flowers, and raising the chimney, placed it within, and replaced the chimney among the coals. After a few moments he told us to observe very carefully, as the experiment would be very pretty. Mr. Home now held up the glass, and we perceived the fern-leaf within apparently on fire. He replaced it after a few seconds, and holding it up again, exclaimed, 'Is it not pretty?' The fern appeared red-hot; each little leaf edged with gold, yet flameless, like clouds at sunset--rich glowing crimson tinged with molten gold. After we had all looked at it and admired it, he advanced to Mrs. ----, and laughingly shook it out on her muslin dress. I expected to see it crumble away; but no, it was still green, though dry and withered. Unfortunately it was not preserved.

"Again Mr. Home returned to the fire, and once more placed the glass on the coals, where he left it, and walked about the room; going to the lamp, he passed his hand slowly backwards and forwards through the flame, not an inch from the wick; returning to the fireplace, he lifted the chimney, and moving the coals about with his hand, selected a small flat red-hot coal, and placed it in the chimney--shook it up and down, and advancing to us, playfully said, 'H----, here is a present for you,' and threw out the coal on her muslin dress. Catching it up in dismay, she tossed it to Lord Lindsay, who, unable to retain it in his hand, threw it from palm to palm till he reached, the grate and flung it in. While we were all looking at the muslin dress and wondering that it was neither soiled nor singed, Mr. Home approached, and in a hurt tone of voice said, 'No, no, you will not find a mark; did you think that we would hurt your dress.' Mr. Home then selected a small spray of white flower, and going to the lamp, he passed it two or three times through the flame, then carried it to the grate, and held it first in the flame and then in the smoke above the coals, moving it gently about. He now brought it back to us, asking us to look at it and smell it, calling our attention to the fact that the flower did not smell of smoke, and that it was unchanged by the heat and flame of lamp and fire. He then bid us notice that his hand which held the flower smelt of smoke, while the flower remained uninjured. Then addressing us, he said, 'The spirit now speaking through Dan, and that has enabled him to show you these curious fire-tests, in which he hopes you have all felt interested, is the spirit of an Asiatic fire-worshipper, who was anxious to come here to-night, as he had heard of seances held here. He now bids you farewell, as he will return no more.'

"After this Mr. Home awoke. "BARBARA HONYWOOD."

"I was present at this seance, and can corroborate the truth of the above statement.

"LINDSAY."[22] [NOW EARL OF CRAWFORD AND BALCARRES.]

TESTIMONY OF THE EARL OF DUNRAVEN.

Lord Dunraven--then Lord Adare--had a number of sittings with Home. He printed a small volume--for private circulation only--under the title of "Experiences in Spiritualism with Mr. D. D. Home." This volume is exceedingly scarce.

AN INQUIRY BY PROFESSOR W. F. BARRETT, F.R.S., AND MR. F. W. H. MYERS.

In the year 1889, Professor Barrett and Mr. Myers undertook an "Inquiry into the Evidence for the Mediumship of D. D. Home." They collected the testimony of a large number of persons who were witnesses of the Home phenomena, carefully examined its evidential value, and summarised it in a Joint Report. This was printed in the _Journal_ of the Society for Psychical Research for July 1889.[23] It is to be regretted that the Society has not seen its way to publish this Report in a form accessible to the general public. It is true that in his great work, "Human Personality, and its Survival of Bodily Death," Mr. Myers gives a brief summary of the Report; but he condenses the thirty-six pages of the original Report and its appendices into four pages of "Human Personality," which are quite insufficient to convey an adequate idea of the Report itself. Also, the cost of Mr. Myers' book debars from it the mass of readers. This Report was followed up a little later by a brief article by Mr. Myers, forming an important supplement.[24]

In the Report itself its joint authors say: "We propose the question--Have Home's phenomena ever been plausibly explained as conjuring tricks, or in accordance with known laws of nature? And we answer--No; they have not been so explained, nor can we so explain them."[25] In commenting on the Joint Report, by Professor Barrett and himself, Mr. Myers puts the problem as to Home in this form: "There is thus a considerable body of evidence as to Home, which enables us to discuss the three questions: (1) Was he ever convicted of fraud? (2) Did he satisfy any trained observer in a series of experiments selected by the observer and not by himself? (3) Were the phenomena entirely beyond the scope of the conjurer's art?"[26]

In the Joint Report the writers say--(1) As to fraud: "We have found no allegations of fraud on which we should be justified in laying much stress. Mr. Robert Browning has told to one of us the circumstances which mainly led to that opinion of Home which was expressed in 'Mr. Sludge, the Medium,' It appears that a lady (since dead) repeated to Mr. Browning a statement made to her by a lady and gentleman (since dead), as to their finding Home in the act of experimenting with phosphorus on the production of 'spirit lights,' which, so far as Mr. Browning remembers, were to be rubbed round the walls of the room, near the ceiling, so as to appear when the room was darkened. This piece of evidence powerfully impressed Mr. Browning; but it comes to us at third-hand, without written record, and at a distance of nearly forty years.

"We have received one other account from a gentleman of character and ability, of a seance in very poor light, when the 'spirit-hand' moved in such a way as to seem dependent on the action of Home's arms and legs. This account is subjoined [in the Report] as Appendix D. We may add that few, if any, of the lights seen at Home's seances could (as they are described to us) have been contrived by the aid of phosphorus.

"There is also a frequently repeated story that Home was found at the Tuilleries (or at Compiègne, or at Biarritz) to be using a stuffed hand, and was consequently forbidden the Imperial Court. We have tried in France to get at the fountain-head of this story, but without success."[27]

(2) "With regard to our second question--whether his powers were tested by competent observers"--Mr. Myers says: "Home in this respect stands pre-eminent; since we have the evidence of Sir William Crookes, corroborated by the testimony of the Master of Lindsay (now Earl of Crawford and Balcarres), himself a _savant_ of some distinction, and the privately printed series of careful observations by the present and the late Lords Dunraven.[28]

(3) "As to our third question--whether the phenomena could have been produced by conjuring"--Mr. Myers says: "Many of them, especially the fire-tests, and the movements of large untouched objects in good light, seem inexplicable by this supposition. The hypothesis of collective hallucination on the part of the sitters seems very improbable, because, in most cases, all those present saw the same thing; and often without receiving from Home any audible suggestion as to what was about to happen."[29]

In the Joint Report by Professor Barrett and Mr. Myers, a considerable space is devoted to a discussion as to conjuring being the explanation of the Home manifestations. It is dismissed as utterly inadequate. In conclusion, the authors of the Report say: "And we find that experts in conjuring (several of whom we have consulted), however little they may believe in Home's pretensions, are disposed rather to reject wholesale than to explain in detail the more remarkable records."[30]

Professor Barrett and Mr. Myers proceed to quote thirty-five cases of the identification of alleged communicating spirits from Madame Home's book, entitled "D. D. Home, His Life and Mission." They remark, "This list of identifications is a long one, and quite unique in the history of Spiritualism."[31] After analysing this list of cases, they say near the conclusion of their Report, as implying their final verdict: "If our readers ask us--'Do you advise us to go on experimenting in these matters as though Home's phenomena were genuine?'--we answer, 'Yes.'"[32] In the supplementary article above referred to sixteen more cases of identification are added to the thirty-five.

In Appendix E to the Report is given some striking testimony to the reality of the "fire-test." The following letter from Mr. W. M. Wilkinson, the well-known solicitor, is included:--

"As you ask me to write to you of what occurred at our house at Kilburn, where we were living in 1869, with reference to the handling of red-hot coal, I will merely say that one Sunday evening in the winter of that year, I saw Mr. Home take out of our drawing-room fire a red-hot coal a little less in size than a cricket ball, and carry it up and down the drawing-room. He said to Lord Adare, now Lord Dunraven, who was present, 'Will you take it from me? It will not hurt you.' Lord Adare took it from him, and held it in his hand for about half a minute, and before he threw it back in the fire I put my hand pretty close to it, and felt the heat to be like that of a live coal.--Yours very truly, W. M. WILKINSON.[33]

44 LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, LONDON, W.C., _February_ 7, 1869."

Appendix M to the Report consists of some particulars verbally given to Mr. Myers by Mrs. Honywood, of 52 Warwick Square, London, in further explanation of her printed testimony to phenomena she had witnessed in Home's presence. She was well acquainted with him for twenty-five years, attended many seances, and took notes of them at the time. In the early part of this chapter, a statement she sent to the Dialectical Society has already been quoted. She told Mr. Myers that most of her friends were complete disbelievers in Spiritualism, and that they frequently repeated to her rumours to the discredit of Home. But she never heard any first-hand account of any kind of trickery on his part. She considered him a man of open childlike nature, thoroughly honest and truthful, and that in her opinion his utterances in the trance state were much superior in thought and diction to his ordinary talk. She said she should like to give Mr. Myers a few additional details with regard to the fire phenomena reported in Madame Home's book, "D. D. Home, His Life and Mission," on her authority. Madame Home's secretary, she said, had slightly abbreviated her words in a way which made the occurrences seem rather less wonderful than they actually were. Mr. Myers gives the following, as having been signed "BARBARA HONYWOOD, June 1889."

"As to the burning coal placed in my hand. I saw Mr. Home take this coal from the fire, moving his hands freely among the coals. It was about the size of a coffee cup, blazing at the top, and red-hot at the bottom. While I held it in my hand the actual flame died down, but it continued to crackle, and to be partially red-hot. I felt it like an ordinary stone, neither hot nor cold. Mr. Home then pushed it off my hand with one finger on to a double sheet of cartridge paper, which it at once set on fire. I am quite certain that I was in my usual condition at the time....

"As to the hot lamp-chimney which I touched. There was a row of four or five persons sitting side by side, and Mr. Home asked us each in turn to touch the glass. When I touched it, I felt as though a wave of heat were receding before me....

"I have repeatedly taken Mr. Home in my own carriage to the houses of friends of mine who were strangers to him, and have there seen the furniture at once violently moved in rooms which I knew that he had never entered till that moment. I have seen heavy furniture moved; for instance, a heavy sofa in my own drawing-room, with myself upon it, and a heavy centre table, moved several feet away from Home, and then back again, in the light, while his hands and feet were visible. Not horse-hairs, but ropes, would often have been necessary to pull the furniture about as I have seen it pulled."[34]

A brief reference must now be made to what is perhaps the most sensational alleged event in Home's mediumistic career, the one which is most frequently spoken of by the general public, with more or less forcible expressions of scornful incredulity; his "levitation" out of the window of a room at a great height from the ground, and in at a window of the next room on the same story. In the Report by Professor Barrett and Mr. Myers, no detailed account of this is given. The Report says: "Lords Lindsay and Adare had printed a statement that Home floated out of the window and in at another in Ashley Place (Victoria Street), S.W., 16th December 1868."[35] At a meeting of the Committee of the Dialectical Society, held on 6th July 1869, a paper was read from Lord Lindsay, describing some of his personal experiences with Home. This paper makes no reference to the above case of levitation. But at the same meeting of the Committee, Lord Lindsay and others gave evidence as witnesses, and Lord Lindsay thus described this particular case:--

"I saw the levitations in Victoria Street, when Home floated out of the window; he first went into a trance, and walked about uneasily; he then went into the hall; while he was away, I heard a voice whisper in my ear, 'He will go out of one window and in at another.' I was alarmed and shocked at the idea of so dangerous an experiment. I told the company what I had heard, and we then waited for Home's return. Shortly after he entered the room, I heard the window go up, but I could not see it, for I sat with my back to it. I, however, saw his shadow on the opposite wall; he went out of the window in a horizontal position, and I saw him outside the other window (that in the next room) floating in the air. It was eighty-five feet from the ground. There was no balcony along the windows, merely a strong course an inch and a half wide; each window had a small plant stand, but there was no connection between them. I have no theory to explain these things. I have tried to find out how they are done, but the more I studied them, the more satisfied was I that they could not be explained by mere mechanical trick."[36]

There is one episode in the career of D. D. Home which, although it does not affect the reality of the phenomena alleged to have taken place in his presence, claims a brief mention. The gift to Home by Mrs. Lyon of a large sum of money, the subsequent lawsuit, and the judgment in accordance with which the money was returned to its original owner, excited much attention at the time. Public opinion frequently takes up sensational occurrences in a most illogical and unscientific manner. But a permanent effect may thus be produced, which is extremely difficult to eradicate, even if shown to be unjustifiable. This episode with Mrs. Lyon has probably had more effect than any other circumstance in causing the feeling of aversion with which large numbers of people regard Home and all his doings. He is looked upon, and spoken of, as if he were an unprincipled adventurer, convicted of fraud, and of obtaining money under false pretences.

The remarks at the end of this chapter are based mainly upon Appendix III. to the Report by Professor Barrett and Mr. Myers, and which deals with the case of Lyon _v._ Home.[37] The Appendix commences thus: "Our colleague, Mr. H. Arthur Smith [barrister-at-law], author of 'Principles of Equity,' has kindly furnished us with the following review of the case of Lyon _v._ Home." The following are a few extracts from this review:--

"I have looked carefully into the case of Lyon _v._ Home as reported in the Law Reports (6 Equity, 655), ... and perhaps the following comments may be useful to you.

"It is certainly the fact that the judge discredited the evidence of Mrs. Lyon. He said: 'Reliance cannot be placed on her testimony.... It would be unjust to found on it a decree against any man, save in so far as what she has sworn to may be corroborated by written documents, or unimpeached witnesses, or incontrovertible facts.'

"Having, then, eventually decided against Home, it follows that the judge must have considered that her evidence was corroborated in some or other of the ways mentioned."

Mr. H. Arthur Smith further says: "There was also an admitted letter from Mrs. Lyon to Home, in which she stated that she presented him with the £24,000 as an '_entirely free gift_.' This, she said, was written by her at Home's dictation, under magnetic influence."

Mr. H. Arthur Smith proceeds to discuss the "corroborative evidence which led to the judge's final opinion." He then remarks:--

"Now it must, I think, be admitted that considering the extraordinary character of Mrs. Lyon's conduct, and the swiftness with which she reached her decision to transfer her property to Home, such evidence as the above may reasonably be deemed corroborative of her assertion that she was induced to act as she did by the effects of Home's spiritualistic pretensions.... There was sufficient ... in my opinion, to establish the plaintiff's case. It is not then true that 'Home was made to restore the money, because, being a professed medium, it was likely that he should have induced her in the way he did.' The Court held the law to be that such transactions as those in question cannot be upheld, 'unless the Court is quite satisfied that they are acts of pure volition uninfluenced.' ... There was evidence of considerable weight, that as a matter of fact ... Home did work on the mind of Mrs. Lyon by means of spiritualistic devices, and further that he did so by suggesting communications from her deceased husband. Whether this is to Home's discredit or not of course will be decided according to one's belief in Spiritualism and the reality of her husband's interference.... H. ARTHUR SMITH. 1 NEW SQUARE, LINCOLN'S INN, _October_ 19, 1888."

In order that this episode should have its rightful effect, and no more, it is needful that several things should be borne in mind. In the first place, the action was in a Court of Equity. It was not a prosecution in a Criminal Court. The decision of the Court was not a verdict of guilty against a prisoner, to be followed by punishment for wrong-doing, but an order to refund certain money. In ordinary circumstances a judgment of this kind does not brand a man with infamy, nor affect his character and position in the eyes of society. Again, after the judgment of the Court, Home promptly repaid the money. He had not appropriated or expended any part of it. What more could he have done?

Mr. Myers' remark in "Human Personality"--"The most serious blot on Home's character was that revealed by the Lyon case"[38]--seems, therefore, rather severe under the circumstances. Especially as Mr. Myers has expressed himself so strongly in favour of the reality of the Home phenomena, and has said, in conjunction with Professor Barrett, that they found no allegations of fraud on which they were justified in laying much stress. Much more to the purpose is Mr. H. Arthur Smith's comment: "Whether this is to Home's discredit or not of course will be decided according to one's belief in Spiritualism and the reality of her husband's interference."

Had this Report of Professor Barrett's and Mr. Myers', with its Appendices, been placed before the public, it might have mitigated the prejudice which hangs about the name of D. D. Home in the minds of so many. The unique position which Home occupies in regard to the Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism seems a sufficient reason for dwelling somewhat fully on this episode as it affects his character as a man.

FOOTNOTES:

[22] Report of the Committee of the London Dialectical Society, pp. 360-363.

[23] Vol. iv. pp. 101-136.

[24] _Journal S.P.R._, vol. iv. pp. 249-252.

[25] Ibid., p. 115.

[26] "Human Personality," vol. ii. p. 579.

[27] _Journal S.P.R._, vol. iv. p. 102.

[28] "Human Personality," vol. ii. pp. 580-581.

[29] Ibid., p. 581.

[30] _Journal S.P.R._, vol. iv. p. 107.

[31] _Journal S.P.R._, vol. iv. p. 114.

[32] Ibid., p. 115.

[33] _Journal S.P.R._, vol. iv. p. 122.

[34] _Journal S.P.R._, vol. iv. pp. 135-136.

[35] _Journal S.P.R._, vol. iv. p. 108.

[36] Report of the Committee of the Dialectical Society, p. 214.

[37] _Journal S.P.R._, vol. iv. pp. 117-119.

[38] "Human Personality," vol. ii. p. 580.