The Case Against Spirit PhotographsPatrick, C. Vincent
History
The Case Against Spirit Photographs
Patrick, C. Vincent
Parapsychology; Spirit photography; Spiritualism
But, as usual, the empirical test of experience is the best.
Considerations such as those outlined above may be valuable in
establishing _a priori_ probabilities, but it is far more important to
ascertain whether _as a matter of fact_ people actually do make false
recognitions with any frequency. The answer to this has already been
given by Mr. Patrick in his account of the Buguet case above.[12] The
most striking feature of the case, as he rightly points out, was the
way in which witnesses swore to having “unmistakably recognised” the
extras they obtained, _and stuck to their recognitions in spite of
Buguet’s own confession of fraud and his description of the methods
employed_. In the face of this sort of thing, who will be bold enough
to maintain that the recognition factor can be assigned any appreciable
weight?
VIII.--RECENT LITERATURE
(W. WHATELY SMITH)
Recent contributions to the literature of spirit photography are not
very numerous. I may first mention the very thorough exposure by Dr.
Walter Prince of the Keeler-Lee-Bocock photographs; this appeared in
the _Proceedings_ of the American Society for Psychical Research,
vol. xiii., part II, March, 1920. Keeler is a photographic medium
who has practised in the United States for a number of years. For
the benefit of Mrs. Lee he produced, at a price, a long series of
“spirit” photographs purporting to represent the deceased Mr. Bocock
in a variety of situations. Test conditions were either wholly absent
or absurdly inadequate, and the photographs are, on internal evidence
alone, so palpably fraudulent that it is surprising that they were
ever accepted at all. The most obvious indication of fraud is the fact
that through a whole long series of photographs Mr. Bocock’s facial
angle remains the same and identical with that of one of the only two
extant photographs of him, no matter what his posture may be or on
what occupation he may be represented as engaged. This circumstance
clearly points to the use of a single photograph of Mr. Bocock as the
basis of all the fakes. The case is not of sufficient importance to be
worth discussing at length, but it is an interesting example of the art
of critically studying internal evidence and of the almost incredible
effrontery of fraudulent mediums.
More important is Mr. Edward Bush’s “Spirit Photography Exposed,”
a small pamphlet published by the author as a contribution to the
“Nehushtan Crusade.” The object of the latter movement, of which one
gathers that Mr. Bush is the leading spirit, is to show that all the
physical phenomena of Spiritualism are fraudulent and to expose
dishonest mediums. This last object, at least, is admirable, and Mr.
Bush is certainly entitled to consider himself “one up” on Hope in the
matter of spirit photographs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account