The Case for Spirit Photography: With corroborative evidence by experienced researchers and photographersDoyle, Arthur Conan
Religion
The Case for Spirit Photography: With corroborative evidence by experienced researchers and photographers
Doyle, Arthur Conan
Spirit photography; Spiritualism
It has been said that Hope is suspiciously restless and fussy in the
dark room. This, so far as my own observation goes, is correct. It may
be that he is nervously anxious for success, or it may be that he is not
in a normal condition—for he usually holds a service and occasionally
goes into apparent trance immediately before the experiment. Whatever
the cause, I am not prepared to deny the fact, or that not unreasonable
suspicions might be awakened by his attitude in the minds of those who
are brought for the first time in contact with his personality. I can
only point to the cases already given, and say once more that _no_ action
upon his part could have produced them.
Again, it is said of Hope that he is impatient of tests and restrictions.
Some of his best friends have been alienated by this fact. Mediums are
touchy people—more delicately organised in many cases than any other
human type. They may occasionally show an irrational annoyance and
resentment against any action which implies personal suspicion. And yet,
though he certainly prefers to be left to his own methods unrestrained
save by ordinary observation, it is a fact that he has in the past
consented to a great number of tests and has come out of them remarkably
well. I have heard him say, “What have I to gain from tests? I am put to
a deal of trouble, I do what I am asked to do, I get result, and then I
hear no more about it except that perhaps I have convinced the person. Or
perhaps, even if I have done all he asks in his own way, he still says
he is unconvinced.” I can bear him out in this latter statement, for I
have knowledge of three separate sittings which he had with a well-known
London editor, where, under the latter’s ever more stringent conditions,
Hope got results certainly twice, and, I think, thrice, and yet when I
asked this editor to vouch for these results that I might quote them in
this pamphlet, in the interests of truth and justice, I could get no
reply to my letter. This seems to indicate either that he was not yet
satisfied, though his own conditions had been carried out, or else that
he had not the moral courage to help the medium at the time when he
needed testimony.
The incident shows that there is some truth in Hope’s contention that
tests are often a waste of energy. At the same time, it should be known
that when the S.P.R. made their recent attack, founded upon a single
case, Hope at once offered to give fresh sittings and to submit to the
most drastic tests so long as those who were in sympathy were also
associated in the experiment. For some reason the S.P.R. refused this,
and it is a serious flaw in their position. None the less, we must make
the admission that, in general, Hope is not fond of tests.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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