Colin Evans was a Welsh medium who performed seances in London between 1937 and 1938, which were attended by many people. And he wrote the following article in which he described the phenomena he produced in these seances (and in purple I added my comments).
SPIRITUALISM THROUGH THE LENS
Colin Evans is well known in the Spiritualist movement as a medium, and as a speaker and writer. Some of the most famous mediums have not been men of literary or academic education, and although it may reasonably be argued that the case for the genuineness of their mediumship is strengthened by that fact, it has handicapped them in meeting opponents on the platform.
Mr. Evans is a university graduate who only discovered or developed his mediumship and active interest in Spiritualism some six years ago, since when most of his activities in that connection —and the whole of them during the
greater part of the time— have been as an amateur medium, in spare time taken from professional literary work quite unconnected with Spiritualism, though he occasionally uses his mediumship professionally.
The publication in Spiritualist and general newspapers of photographs taken by infra-red light at his seances, has largely been the means of making him so widely known.
_ _ _
In view of the enormous divergence of views regarding the reality or the explanation of psychic phenomena, the appropriate tone, from a journalistic point of view, to adopt in an article of this nature, in a journal neither spiritualist nor anti-spiritualist but devoted to an utterly different subject, would probably be a non-committal one. Such an attitude, however, would be a mere affectation in a contribution by a known spiritualist.
If, therefore, I write “such-and-such a thing occurs, the spirits often do so-and-so,” instead of the possibly less controversial “such-and-such a thing is claimed by spiritualists to occur; the spirits, or the subconscious ego of the medium, or some unknown terrestrial force, do, or appear or purport to do, so-and-so,” it must be understood that I expect such readers as find the latter reservations necessary from their own point of view.
I am confining myself to an attempt to indicate a little of what has been done or attempted in the way of using photography to throw additional sidelights on the subject.
Modern spiritualism has just celebrated its hundredth anniversary — though the same phenomena, and, to a large extent, the same inferences drawn from those phenomena, have a continuous history as old as history itself. (1)
But attempts at systematic study and research have to a large extent been handicapped till very recently by the necessity for every newcomer to the subject to “start all over again.”
Psychic phenomena, evidential communications from the “dead,” all those manifestations summed up by St. Paul as “spiritual gifts the discerning of spirits, prophecy, the working of miracles, the gifts of healing, divers kinds of tongues,” etc. (1 Cor. xii, 8-10) — might occur again and again before large and small groups of witnesses; but, the next moment, there would simply be the memory and testimony of those witnesses, which would become less and less convincing, as time went on, to others who had not been present.
This is where permanent records, or at least illustrations by which to check reports, in the shape of verbatim shorthand notes, gramophone records, and (especially) photographs, have made a very real difference.
Spiritist Photography
The difficulty with regard to photographic evidence at one time seemed almost insuperable. The mental phenomena of mediumship — trance control, whereby a person who has discarded the physical body at “death” is able to express his own personality through another man with a specially developed sensitivity, resulting in apparent “impersonation” of the dead person by the living medium, with the former’s mind and knowledge and mannerisms evidentially reproduced — clairvoyance and clairaudience, by which sensitives or mediums are attuned to see and hear spirit forms and voices imperceptible to the ordinary physical senses — obviously are not things that can be photographed.
But there are the so-called “physical” phenomena which do produce tangible, audible, physical effects external to the medium’s own body — material objects, even the medium’s body itself, are moved without visible physical manipulation or mechanism; parts or the whole of physical bodies reproducing the earth-bodies of the dead are made temporarily material so that they can be felt, touched, seen, heard.
If these things are true, as such scientific investigators as Sir William Crookes, Sir Oliver Lodge, Prof. Lombroso, etc., have testified, they should be photographable.
Photography depends on the chemical reaction of emulsions to etheric oscillations of certain wave-lengths or frequencies which definitely alter the chemical and physical constitution of the earlier and simpler (dye-less) photographic emulsions — hence the picture.
This is but one of the facts that lend credibility to the at first startling modern theories of the constitution of matter as essentially consisting of etheric vibrations , and to Sir Oliver Lodge’s theories of the etheric body, and some types of psychic phenomena, as dependent on, and consisting of, certain manifestations of the luminiferous ether. But if this be so, it is understandable that (as those with personal experience of psychic experiment have always claimed) etheric oscillations of certain frequencies are definitely liable to interfere seriously with unusual manifestations of the etheric “substance,” so that many of the most “material” or quasi-material phenomena can seldom be obtained in light, or if light is suddenly flashed during their production grave injury may be done to the medium.
In spite of the basic difficulty here involved — that photos need light, and light hinders phenomena or injures mediums.
(This story that light impedes spiritist phenomena and harms mediums was a lie invented by false mediums to carry out their activities in the dark and thus be able to deceive people.)
For example Sir William Crookes secured large numbers of photographs —some still extant— of the materialised form of a girl dead many years before, under conditions eliminating every possibility of error or trickery.
And Schrenck-Notzing obtained many photographs of “ectoplasm” —living substance normally not “material” but temporarily given “material” qualities— coming from a medium, and partially built up into materialisations of hands and other portions of a body.
(Most spiritist photographs have turned out to be fraudulent.)
These photographs were taken by flashlight — a sudden shock of white light, strong in the ultra-violet and blue parts of the spectrum, which would in most cases be mortally injurious to the medium and often did cause violent hӕmorrhage.
Personally, I would not risk it. I have known what it is to have a week’s illness as a result of a little light through an imperfectly darkened glass roof at night, when I have been used for materialisation or there has been levitation of my body to a height above the floor.
Fortunately, however, increased knowledge, and increased development of photographic materials, have partly —only partly— solved the difficulty. It appears that it is the shorter wave-lengths and higher frequencies of oscillations or “light” that do most harm in psychic experiments. The longer the wave-length, the less the interference caused by light’s oscillations with the etheric vibrations on which the phenomena depend, and the less the repelling effect on the ectoplasm.
Hence phenomena are often obtained in fairly strong red light which even a feeble blue or “white” light would render impossible. The development of infra-red-sensitive emulsions opened a new door in séance photography.
Infrared Spiritist Photography
Pure infra-red light is, of course, invisible to the human eye — pictures taken by it may be said to be taken “in the dark”; but it should be clearly noted that it is not the visibility or invisibility to the eye that matters.
Strong ultra-violet light, with all visible light filtered out, would take photographs much more easily, on much cheaper materials, and the room would still be “pitch dark” to the eye — but it would probably stop all phenomena, and/or kill the medium! Strong visible red light, would be far less harmful.
For much pioneer work in the taking of spiritualist séance photos by infra-red photography and psychic research are indebted to Leon Isaacs, now a staff photographer on one of the national dailies, who for a long time was mainly responsible for work on these lines carried out for the International Institute of Psychical Research, and by whom, later, most of the photographs illustrating phenomena through my own mediumship were taken — at meetings of the Link (an association of home circles for the development of amateur mediums) and elsewhere.
He uses a wooden box closed on five sides, the sixth side consisting of grooves within which slides an Ilford standard infra-red screen, about 10 in. by 8 in. (gelatine cemented between glass). Inside the back of the box is a reflector, inside the base a miniature lamp-holder to take photoflash bulbs, wired to a torch-battery outside the box, thus giving, when the switch is pressed, a flash —about 1/50th of a second— of light of which only the infra-red rays and an unavoidable minimum of the visible red can get through the screen. The camera, of course, must be loaded with infra-red plates, but needs no infra-red filter in front of the lens.
By using a camera of his own construction, with a very fast (large aperture) wide-angle lens, but taking small negatives (two exposures on a quarter-plate), he is able to get pictures at a reasonable distance, taking in a wide enough field of view to cover the whole séance-room, virtually, and well exposed despite the slowness of the infra-red negative stock and the amount of light lost through the infra-red screen. He focuses the camera before the ordinary lights are extinguished for the séance.
Development, of course, must be done either in total darkness or by a special yellow-green safelight.
Even this infra-red light is not perfectly harmless for psychic work, and should be “flashed” only when the spirit guides operating through the medium give permission. One of my own spirit guides at one séance explained that the wave-length chiefly involved in the phenomena was one of about 2,000 Angstrom units—which would correspond to the ultra-violet band— and that the light used in taking these photographs was mainly about 8,000 Ångstrom units, the “second sub-harmonic” of the former wave-length, and therefore did interfere perceptibly—and that if and when photographs could be taken by using only light of as low a frequency as about 20,000 Ångstrom units much more advanced phenomena could be subjected to the “shock” of the flash of light.
This, however, in the present state of photographic materials, would almost mean a reversion to a “wet-plate” process!
And, even so, whether suitable filter screens would be available is doubtful.
One of my disappointments up to now has been failure to secure a photograph of a complete materialisation of the human form of a “dead “person, though such materialisations frequently take place. The “dead” friend is seen by the faint light of a plaque covered with luminous paint, and often embraces or touches sitters.
My guides have, however, promised this —a materialisation fully photographed— eventually.
(Colin Evans used a lot of technical terms, but the following photographs appear to have been taken with normal flashes.)
Photographs showing ectoplasm
Meanwhile, several photographs by infra-red have been taken showing the
ectoplasm, of which such materialisations are built up, “oozing” from my, body — either in small “thick” bulk, or sometimes in considerably greater quantity.
In two pictures, taken by one camera in front and one at the side, a considerable mass of this ectoplasm is seen in front of me. The photograph taken from in front shows it apparently issuing from my nose, and “swirling” upwards to a height of some feet above head-level — a physical impossibility had it been a piece of any normal material, in a completely draughtless closed room, with no wind to raise it. (2)
The photograph taken from one side by the same flash shows that it has completely left my body and is some perceptible distance in front of me with no visible connection with my own person and no visible support in the air, and one may vaguely discern the beginnings of the suggestion of an outline of a human form, indicating that what was photographed may have been the first stage towards a complete materialisation such as did, in fact, take place a few minutes later.
(The false mediums' ectoplasms turned out to be very fine fabrics, and this appears to be the case.)
Evans is who controlling the flash
To obviate the difficulty of the photographer judging the best moment to take a “snap,” or the difficulty of his being prompt enough if he awaits a signal from the medium or from a spirit entity controlling the medium, the switch, which closes the circuit by which the photoflash bulb is ignited from the torch battery, is attached to a considerable length of flex, and held in my own hand or attached to my chair, it having been reasonably presumed (and proved correct) that, just as a medium in trance and not conscious can be made by spirit control to talk and move intelligently, so he could be “controlled” to press the switch at the right moment.
The camera shutter is left open the whole time; only after the flash (perceived by the visible red light which accompanies the infra-red through the standard infra-red screen) does the photographer close the shutter, change the plate, and change the burned-out bulb for a new one in the light-box, ready for the next exposure.
(Colin Evans appeared to be in a trance, and this method allowed him to photograph himself whenever he wanted.)
Photographs of a levitating cone
Other photographs taken by the same means have shown the levitation of a seance trumpet. This is a hollow cone, or megaphone, of metal, celluloid, cardboard, or almost any other material, used to facilitate the production and amplification of spirit voices. A “voice-box” or larynx substitute, something at any rate having a quality of life in it, and capable of being used to vibrate the air as a gramophone sound-box does, and make audible speech possible without having to use the medium’s vocal organs, is apparently built up by spirit operators, with ectoplasm drawn from the medium, in the narrow portion of this hollow cone, which serves as an enclosure to assist the process.
The cone, or “trumpet,” also amplifies and gives a directional quality to the otherwise possibly feeble and imperfectly audible voice of the communicating spirit. Almost invariably, the “trumpet” is supernormally raised in the air when spoken through (though I have known spirits to speak through it as it lay on the floor without raising it — this is unusual, however) and while numerous gramophone records have been made at my séances, giving permanent records of the spirit voices and messages, infra-red photographs have been taken showing the trumpet in the air, without “visible means of support.”
In some of those taken on earlier dates when the spirit guides were apparently a little uncertain of what risks they could take with the infra-red light, the trumpet is quite close to my face — “shadowing and shielding the actual ectoplasm extruded from the medium, against the direct rays of the infra-red light,” as one guide explained — but still evidential enough. My hands were, of course, held usually, and there was no projection or handle on the trumpet, but it had a band of luminous paint on the trumpet by which as many as three hundred people on several occasions (six hundred, once, at the Conway Hall) were able to follow its gyratory movements in the air up to the moment when the photograph was taken, so that no doubt can arise as to whether, in my trance, I might have been in some way supporting the trumpet against my face. (3)
(In none of the photos is Colin Evans's hands tied, and in the dark it was very easy for him to grab the cone and pretend it was levitating, and then choose the right moment to turn on the flash and take the photograph.)
Later, however, when the spirit people had got more used to the infra-red flash light, photographs were taken while the trumpet was at much greater distances from me and much greater heights in the air. The allegation sometimes made by those unable to be convinced of such phenomena, that a photograph might be taken while the trumpet was thrown into the air, has been disposed of by the band of luminous paint on the trumpet, enabling all the sitters to follow its movements while it floated slowly round, and up, and all about the hall, up to the moment of the flash, which shows it —after some five or ten minutes of such “floating”— 20 feet up, in one picture.
(To illustrate this phenomenon, I'm adding this photo that was published in another article, but it's not solid proof because an accomplice with a ribbon could have lifted the cone.)
Photograph of Evans levitating
Less obviously relevant to the great thesis of human survival and spirit communication, but even more striking as evidence of the super-normal in action, from the point of view of the materialist, is the phenomenon of human levitation. I am only one of many mediums who have many times been levitated, or made to float to a considerable height in the air, with no physical support.
The most famous instance, and one of the best attested, is that of D. D. Home, though this is now rather a number of years ago. But there are several contemporary instances besides my own. I only know of one other medium besides myself, however, who has been photographed during levitation.
The first conclusive photograph of my levitation, not a very good one technically, was taken by an amateur photographer; the second one, at home, by myself. I had placed and focussed my camera before the séance and retained the switch while sitting instructing somebody else in advance to close the camera before lights were lit when the séance should end.
Many subsequent pictures were secured by Leon Isaacs, and one by another Press photographer sent by the Daily Mirror to a public séance at Conway Hall, when the Editor of that paper preferred the photographic evidence of a completely disinterested member of his own camera staff who had not any previous knowledge of spiritualism, rather than that of Mr. Isaacs, known to be a spiritualist! (4)
(Most likely, Colin Evans jumped from his chair.)
That paper devoted a whole page to the photo and column eye-witness report by a Mirror reporter.
Prior to any of these efforts, however, Dr. Nandor Fodor, former research officer of the International Institute of Psychical Research, had been given permission to take some infra-red photographs at a séance at which I was the medium, on condition that he gave me prints of all photographs taken, and he informed me that one of the photographs showed me levitated, apparently, though in it my legs were hidden by a sitter (my wife) standing between me and the camera. He hoped to verify the levitation by comparison with a photograph taken, by the same flash of light, from the side, with another camera.
That side view photograph, however, was never given me, and by some misunderstanding or other I was led to think that ordinary film instead of infra-red had been loaded into the second camera in error giving no negative. Only a year later did I learn that the second camera had functioned and get a print of the photo taken by it—showing that the lady in question was not standing, but seated like everybody else, and showing also that I am, in that picture, not at the height from the floor misleadingly suggested by the front view. I still don’t know whether I was levitated or not, when that was taken—but if I was, it was only a few inches.
The later photographs show me a considerable distance above the floor, with a clear view of and under my feet—in an attitude as if supported under the armpits by an invisible “life-belt.” Two “snags” would make the evidence of these photos slightly inconclusive if not taken in con junction with the “living” testimony of persons present.
One “snag” is that although I am frequently levitated to a very considerable height—often “bumping” against the ceilings of lofty rooms and halls, often alighting lightly with my feet on sitters’ heads and floating off again—the spirit operators will not permit the risk of injury by flashing the infra-red light till I am down to within three or four feet of the floor—a distance from which I can safely fall if the flash destroys the conditions of the phenomenon and abruptly ends the levitation, as it sometimes does.
(That sounds like a lie Colin Evans made up to justify the fact that he appears near to the ground in the photos.)
The second “snag,” if it were not for the testimony of those present, might be the fact that usually, though not always, my legs and feet seem to twitch or dangle in such a way that they — my feet— are often blurred by movement, though the rest of my body is sharp and evidently supported motionless for the duration of the exposure. This has led some people to wonder if the photographs showed more than a “jump” — though I am told by more expert photographers than myself that a much faster exposure than the duration of the flash would be needed to “arrest movement” of my whole body in that case. One or two of the levitation photos show no such movement even of the feet.
(Most likely, Colin Evans had trouble keeping his feet still when he jumped, and that's why his feet often appear blurry in the photos.)
On the other hand, some spiritualists interpret the “transparency” of lower legs in a few levitation photos, as partial dematerialisation for a short time. I am by no means convinced of this, myself.
Spiritualist photos taken at Christmas
One rather interesting set of infra-red seance photographs was taken by Isaacs at a séance at my house attended by some twenty odd people, on the birthday of a “dead” little boy who has been a very frequent communicator at our séances and who was born near Christmas. A Christmas tree loaded with toys was in the centre of the circle — a large, heavy tree, standing some four feet high and imbedded in earth in a heavy wooden box.
We had held a similar “party,” the year before. On that former occasion, the principals of the Phonodisk Co., who are keenly interested in spirit phenomena, had been present with electrical recording apparatus. Many spirit children spoke and materialised and played with toys from the tree and even pulled crackers with earth-people in the room (all sitters’ hands and feet and my own being controlled to obviate suspicion of mental control of the medium leading to movements that might be mistaken for physical phenomena), and the gramophone records made during the séance, when played back afterwards, showed over twenty different and easily distinguishable and identifiable child voices chattering away, at times simultaneously.
This year, no gramophone records were made, but infra-red photographs taken. Two, taken at short intervals, show, first, the circle as seated at commencement of séance, with Christmas tree as it then was. (4)
And, next, the tree thrown by discarnate spirit hands to one side, and toys left scattered all over the floor.
A third photo shows, instead of the tree, a curious mere blur. At the moment of its being taken, all the sitters testified to seeing a great flash of light from (apparently) the centre of the tree—quite unconnected with the dim red flash, from across the room, of the infra-red light by which the picture was taken—and, at the same time, the tree was both seen and heard by sitters to soar up into the air to a height of several feet, whence it fell with a crash.
(These photos aren't solid proof because those individuals could have been accomplices and moved the tree and toys themselves.)
Whether the blur, which represents the tree in this picture, is the result of rapid movement of the tree, or of the flash of supernormal light over it, or of a partial dematerialisation, is a matter for argument by photographic and by psychic experts. Another picture taken at this séance shows a flow of ectoplasm from the nostril, and another shows me levitated.
It is believed that the movement of objects like trumpets is usually if not always effected by a system of rods or levers built of ectoplasm drawn from the medium — this is only sometimes visible or tangible, sometimes merely theoretically inferred from what it does. Several photographs of other mediums, not of myself, have shown the ectoplasmic rods in use.
Photograph taken to Jack Webber
One such photograph, which I have permission to reproduce, was taken at a séance with the Welsh miner medium, Jack Webber. He is in the habit of being securely tied up with ropes, with cotton threaded through the knots and through his buttons and button holes that would break at any interference, and of having white light flashed on suddenly at signals from his guides the very instant after and before phenomena, so that it can be seen that he has not moved, instead of being controlled by other sitters holding his hands or sitting very close to him as in my own case.
This picture shows two ectoplasm-rods coming from him, one from the solar plexus (a common source of extruded ectoplasm) and supporting two large heavy iron séance trumpets. At another seance with Jack Webber an infra-red photograph was secured showing the “voice- box” mentioned above, used for “direct voice” communications. (5)
So far, I have spoken only of normal photographs showing or illustrating supernormal occurrences.
Photographing spirits
Another aspect of the use of photography in spiritualistic experiments, however, is the supernormal production of photographs —or skotographs— or the supernormal super-position of images on a photograph. (6)
Probably most people have seen, or at least heard of, some “spirit photographs” in the ordinary sense of the term. In most cases—though there are exceptions — a mere inspection of the photograph itself is quite inadequate to determine whether we have to do with a genuine spirit phenomenon or with a piece of crude or clever trick photography, double exposure, double printing, or other “fake.”
To determine this question, collateral evidence of some kind is needed. This may take various forms — the plates or films may have been bought straight from a large independent photographic dealer by a trustworthy, disinterested, and perhaps sceptical, person; marked for identification; sealed; and handled under the eyes of independent witnesses from that moment to the completion of the finished print, under test conditions obviating any possibility of faking or substitution.
There are many striking photographs showing the faces or forms of “dead” people in addition to the photographs of the sitters, taken under such well-attested test conditions. But without such collateral evidence, they would be quite unconvincing, for any photographer could —and many have done so— easily imitate them by trick methods, with a resulting picture that would look just the same. There is, however, another class of evidence to authenticate spirit portraits — an evidential likeness of a known individual, whose appearance was not known to the medium, and of whom there was not available any ordinary normal portrait that could have been copied.
I have had a limited personal experience of actual spirit photography — have made about fifty exposures under psychic conditions with a hope of obtaining spirit portraits, and with complete success on two negatives only, incomplete success on about half of the other negatives, and nothing supernormal at all —just normal photographs of the “living” sitters— on the remainder.
One of the two completely successful spirit photos was the first one, or one of the first batch, I ever attempted. A number of persons were at my house, and I “snapped” each in turn twice, in slightly different poses, sitting in an armchair, against the ordinary background of my rather light-coloured room (no special dark background). I used a Piccochic roll film camera, taking sixteen exposures on V.P.K. film (each negative 3 by 4 cm.), with an f/2.9 anastigmat lens of 2 in. focal length, and compur shutter, giving 1 second exposure by the light of a 100 watt gas-filled electric lamp.
Having made fourteen exposures, I held the camera in my hands and was in trance for a moment twice, each time winding on the film without making any exposure, in case of the possibility of “skotographs.”
This is a name used for photographic images impressed on any plate or film or photographic printing paper by spirit agency, without exposure through a camera lens to anything external.
I posted off the roll of film the same night to a large firm that extensively advertises developing service for miniature films, with whom I thought it safer to entrust it than to my own clumsy handling or the local “d. and p.” shop; on its return, developed, still uncut in the roll, I got a local professional to make enlargements from the negatives.
Twelve of the fourteen exposures showed normal portraits of the sitters, with no psychic “extras”; one of the two unexposed portions of film remained blank. But two of the exposures showed, a little distance from, and above, the sitter’s head, a white cloud like a cushion of cotton wool with, apparently imbedded in it, a recognisable human face. One of these exposures was of a Mr. C., a middle-aged business man whose acquaintance I had but recently made.
The spirit face was that of a woman with a coquettish-looking kiss-curl over one side of the forehead and with very high, almost Chinese-looking, cheekbones. This he unhesitatingly identified as his mother, “dead” many years before, who wore that “kiss-curl” all her earth-life owing to her sensitiveness as to a blemish on the skin of her forehead, and whose cheekbones were of that peculiar Mongolian type. His brother, a business man in South Africa, confirmed the identification, though the brother is very sceptical of spiritualism.
Apparently, the rays emitted by spirit forms which affect the photographic emulsion when invisible to the eye, are of a different intensity from the normal light by which the visible is photographed — for the spirit face was much “over-exposed” by comparison with the rest of the picture, and some local shading — giving the spirit face longer exposure in the enlarging camera than the rest of the negative — was needed to get the features distinct without the rest of the picture being all black, or nearly so.
The other successful spirit photo on this spool was of similar character, but a different sitter and different “dead” friend. Similar experiments on later dates resulted in the same sort of white cushion with very imperfectly distinguishable faces in some cases—all, apparently, cases of what would have been successful spirit portraits, spoiled by undue density of the supernormal portion of the negative.
Of the two unexposed portions of that first roll-film, the one that should have been blank, and was not, proved to contain what looks like a photograph of a stone tablet with ragged thick edges, inscribed with what I am told is correct but quite modern-style Hebrew lettering.
When the only Jewish member of the company took it to a Rabbi to see if it could be read and translated, it proved to be a message urging him to study the Hebrew language, the sacred tongue of his race, and promising that his incipient mediumship would be most strongly developed with the help of eminent Jewish divines of past generations, if he did this, but not unless — a message, it seems, that had been given him in other forms, by various communicators, during his sittings with mediums, though I had no knowledge of this.
After this incident one sitter, without consulting or informing me, thought of getting me to experiment further with “skotographs.” To this end, he bought a packet of quarter-plates at Boots, and, as their darkroom was not available, went to Kodak House, Kingsway, I believe, where he knew somebody in the firm, and got a member of the staff there (in his presence) to take the box of plates into the darkroom and wrap each plate separately in light proof black paper.
He brought the parcel of plates to my house, and gave me one wrapped plate at a time to hold for a few moments while I was in trance, immediately taking them back, and took them the same day to Kodak’s to be developed at once, himself being admitted to the darkroom to watch.
Each showed a clear design in shimmering white on black ground — one, the two linked triangles which are the Jewish national symbol, one a Cross, and one the Crescent, symbolic of Islam. Spirit guides attached to me representing these three religions had just been using me for propaganda work in connection with a reconciliation of their various creeds.
It may be interesting to note that the spool of film which resulted in two successful spirit photographs and one successful skotograph, was developed the day after exposure — the unsuccessful attempts on other spools were on spools that I allowed to remain undeveloped for some weeks because only a few exposures at a time were made.
I have heard from others with more experience of spirit photography that spirit guides have frequently insisted on the importance of prompt development, as “extras” impressed on the plate or film tend to be evanescent, otherwise — though how this can be so, is beyond me.
A usefully economical device for experimenting with skotographs in home circles of friends trying out what psychic power they may possess, is the use of pieces of gas-light paper, each in a light-proof envelope made of black paper, held in the hand by each sitter during the circle, and developed later. Using gas-light paper, rather than plates or films or bromide paper, has several advantages—in smallish sizes it is so cheap that one can afford not to consider material’s cost in trying repeatedly, in case no results at all appear for a time; by its low sensitivity it is not easily fogged by a little light-porosity of the black-paper envelopes, and needs no special darkroom facilities or other precautions in handling and developing. I have seen interesting indications of supernormal power on what should normally have been pure white unexposed pieces of gas-light paper used in this way by amateurs.
Perhaps the greatest future possibilities in serious photographic aid to psychical research, however, lies with infra-red cinematography. In this Leon Isaacs is probably the pioneer — the first man to take successful cinematograph “shots” lasting for some minutes of the various physical phenomena under test conditions.
With more photographers interested, mediums better developed to withstand light and longer wave-length infra-red materials, the phenomena of spiritualism will be lifted more completely from the controversial to the exact science stage of investigation.
(This The article was published in Photography magazine in January 1939; and I added subheadings for ease of reading.)
NOTES
1. “Modern spiritualism has just celebrated its hundredth anniversary …” This presumably should read ninety years 1848 – January 1939!
2. “Ectoplasm issuing from Colin Evans, nose and ears; photographs by Leon Isaacs”
3. “Levitation of a seance trumpet. First photograph by Leon Isaacs, and second photograph by Dr. Nandor Fodor, courtesy International Institute for Psychical Research”
4. “The seance pictures referred to are taken by Leon Isaacs by infra-red light. The start of the seance is seen on the left (Colin Evans, centre of the picture); the middle picture shows the “spirit disturbance” of the toys and Christmas tree; and on the right is the “curious blur” referred to by Colin Evans in this article”.
5. “Ectoplasmic rods controlling seance trumpets. Medium, Jack Webber; photographer Leon Isaacs. Picture reproduced by courtesy of Harry Edwards, Fellowship of Spiritual Service”
6. Some of the best known “skotographs” (the term is said to have been proposed by Felicia Scatcherd) were produced by Madge Donohue, some showing the guides of well-known mediums. In 1932 she produced the guide of Estelle Roberts “Red Cloud”; other images included Arthur Conan Doyle on a “conducted tour of Hades,” 1934. Much of her work is illustrated in Experiments in psychics, by F. W. Warrick published around 1938 by Rider & Co, London.
(This article was first published by Photography revue, Vol. 7, No. 77, January, 1939; and later by Psypioneer revue, Vol. 10, No. 8, August 2014. And I added subheadings for ease of reading.)
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