Daniel Dunglas Home - Critical Reaction

Critical Reaction

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stated that Home was unusual in that he had four different types of mediumship: direct voice (the ability to let spirits audibly speak); trance speaker (the ability to let spirits speak through oneself); clairvoyant (ability to see things that are out of view); and physical medium (moving objects at a distance, levitation, etc., which was the type of mediumship in which he had no equal). Home was suspicious of any medium who claimed powers he himself did not possess, particularly the materializing mediums (such as the Eddy Brothers), who claimed the ability to produce solid spirit forms, and he marked these as fraudulent. Since materializing mediums always work in darkened places, Home urged that all séances be held in the light. In his 1877 book Lights and Shadows of Spiritualism, he detailed the conjuring tricks employed by false mediums.

Lord Adare stated that Home "swung out and in" of a window in a horizontal position:

"He came in again, feet foremost, and we returned to the other room. It was so dark I could not see clearly how he was supported" .

Outside the house there is an extending ledge connecting the balconies of each described window. Frank Podmore recorded that Home had a constant companion that sat opposite of him during his séances. A lady acted as a medium and used to help Home during the seances attended by Henrietta Ada Ward.

Between 1870 and 1873, chemist and physicist William Crookes conducted experiments to determine the validity of the phenomena produced by three mediums: Florence Cook, Kate Fox, and Home. Crookes' final report in 1874 concluded that the phenomena produced by all three mediums were genuine, a result which was roundly derided by the scientific establishment. Crookes recorded that he controlled and secured Home by placing his feet on the top of Home's feet. Crooke's method of foot control later proved inadequate when used with Eusapia Palladino, as she merely slipped her foot out and in of her sturdy shoe. In addition, Crookes' motives, methods, and conclusions with regard to Florence Cook were called into question, both at the time and subsequently, casting doubt on his conclusions about Home. Alexander von Boutlerow, Professor of Chemistry at the University of St. Petersburg and Home's brother-in-law, also obtained positive results in his tests of Home.

Frank Podmore and Milbourne Christopher provide a source of speculation on the ways in which Home could have duped his sitters. Some testimony suggests that he often conducted his demonstrations in dim light. For example, there is this report from a witness: "The room was very dark...Home's hands were visible only as a faint white heap". The light conditions during Home's most famous feat of levitation were disputed, but some witnesses recorded that it was quite dark. Gordon Stein speculated on the deception of Crookes' testing devices (with diagrams) and gave a third-hand account of Home being caught with a vial of oil of Phosphorus. During a Crookes test when Home "is not touching with his hands." there are objects just lying beneath his hands that his fingertips are touching, a small match box and a small bell. The measuring arm of Crookes' gauge does not exactly "move." It trembles. it was reported by sitters and Crookes that Home's accordion played only two pieces, Home Sweet Home and The Last Rose of Summer - both contain only one-octave. Home played his accordion with only one hand beneath a table In 1869, at the residence of Miss Douglas, Crooke's assistant watched Home play the accordion, enclosed in a cage, while he watched beneath the table. He saw nothing suspicious. Skeptic James Randi stated that Home was caught cheating on a few occasions, but the episodes were never made public, and that the accordion Home is supposed to have played was a one-octave mouth organ that Home concealed under his large moustache. Randi writes that one-octave mouth organs were found in Home's belongings after his death. According to Randi 'around 1960' William Lindsay Gresham told Randi he had seen these mouth organs in the Home collection at the Society for Psychical Research. Eric Dingwall, who catalogued Home's collection on its arrival at the SPR does not record the presence of the mouth organs, and Lamont speculates that it is unlikely Dingwall would have missed these or not made them public. The accordion in the SPR collection is not the actual one Home used; a duplicate is displayed.