The spirit photography of William Hope

Today I would like to write about the subject of spirit photography. Is it possible that ghosts and spiritual entities, assuming they exist, can be captured in photographs? Many such claims have been made and I'd like to focus in particular on a historical case of one individual in particular by the name of William Hope (pictured left) who lived between the years 1863 and 1933.

Originally employed as a carpenter, around the year 1905 Hope supposedly discovered his ability to take spirit photographs by accident. Hope was taking some photographs with a friend and found that when the photographs were developed, a transparent lady was present in one of these pictures. Hope's friend recognised this lady to be his sister who had been dead for many years.

William Hope said; "I knew nothing at all about Spiritualism then. We took the photograph to the works on Monday, and a Spiritualist there said it was what was called a Spirit photograph. He suggested that we should try again on the following Saturday at the same place with the same camera, which we did, and not only the same lady came on the plate again, but a little child with her. I thought this very strange, and it made me more interested, and I went on with my experiments."
Despite destroying many of these original photographs, Hope was pursuaded to start keeping them after
Archdeacon Thomas Colley who had been a psychical researcher for about 40 years, helped to bring William Hopes spirit photography to public attention.

Archdeacon Thomas Colley had set out to test whether Hope's photography was genuine and he went along to meet William Hope and he would apparently even bring his own camera and simply asked Hope to take the photograph. Colley would then develop the plates using his own chemicals. It was claimed that even under these conditions, spirits would still appear in the photographs, convincing Thomas Colley that Hope's abilities were genuine.

Hope then formed (and was leader of) what was known as "The Crewe Circle" Spiritualist group. The name was adopted because the group was based in Crewe, England and was set up to provide a service to the public where people would visit and have their photograph taken in the hopes of capturing an image of a deceased loved one. Thousands of photos were taken, capturing what were supposedly spirits of the dead. According to records, Hope would only charge a minimal fee to cover equiptment costs and time taken to take the photographs.

Believers in William Hope's abilities would say that he had no motives for fraud, since not only did he originally have no interest in or knowledge of spiritualism, but he was not making a huge fortune in doing it.
Controversy and claims of fraud

As has been the case with all spirit photography, there has been a great deal of controversy surrounding whether or not Hope's photography was genuine.
Dr. Nandor Fodor (1895-1964), was a parapsychologist, psychologist, author and one time associate of Sigmund Freud, wrote a book called the Encyclopedia of Psychic Science published in 1934. His write up summarizes nicely the main controversy that William Hope was faced with:

"controversy arose in 1922 and was, on the surface, damning for Hope. In a report published in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research he was accused of imposture by Mr. Harry Price. The accusations were later published in a sixpenny pamphlet. The basis of the revelation was that Mr. Price, in a sitting at the British College of Psychic Science, caught Hope in the act of substituting the dark slide, holding the exposed pates, by another; further that he (Hope) handed him two negatives (one of which contained a psychic extra) that did not bear the secret mark of the Imperial Dry Plate Company specially impressed on the packet of films by X-rays and which were different in colour and thickness from the original plates."

In other words, investigator Harry Price had apparently secretly marked the plates Hope was using in his photography equipment. Not knowing this, when Hope attempted to produce spirit photographs, none of the photos he produced contained the marks which Price had secretly etched on, which suggests that Hope had exchanged the materials to ones with fake spirit images. 

HOWEVER, Fodor continues to point out that there are two sides to every story and also presents us with the possibility that in fact William Hope was genuine in what he was doing but was "set up" and falsely accused of fraud. Again, I quote from his book Encyclopedia of psychic science: 

"Subsequent investigation proved that the counter-accusation raised by spiritualists of an organised conspiracy against Hope deserved examination. The wrapper of the packet was found, and it bore marks of tampering. Moreover, one of the original marked plates was returned anonymously and undeveloped to the S.P.R. a week after the experiment and three weeks before the revelation. On being developed it showed an image. As the packet of marked plates was lying about for four weeks in the office of the S.P.R. it was open to tampering and substitution, it being also likely, in the view of the Hope-apologists, that the abstractor sent back the missing plate out of pure mischief. Immediately after the revelation Hope offered new sittings and declared his willingness to submit himself to stringent tests. The offer was refused. Harry Price, however, signed a statement to the effect that the test of February 24, 1922, 'does not rule out the possibility that Hope has other than normal means.' Indeed, no less authority than Sir William Crookes bears out the true mediumship of William Hope in an authorised interview published in Christian Commonwealth on December 4, 1918. On his own marked plates, under his own conditions, he obtained a likeness of his wife different from any he possessed. On the other hand Sir Oliver Lodge was emphatic in stating concerning a test of his own with a sealed packet sent to Hope: 'I have not the slightest doubt that the envelope including the plates had been opened.' Again Sir William Barrett claimed to have received with Hope 'indubitable evidence of supernormal photography.'"

Hope also had a supporter in the form of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, one of the most famous proponents of spiritualism. In his book entitled the history of spiritualism, Doyle states:

"The attack upon Mr. Hope, the psychic photographer, was examined by a strong independent committee and was shown to be quite unsound, and even to bear some signs of a conspiracy against the medium."

The spirit photographs taken by William Hope

Here is a collection of some of the spirit photographs taken by William Hope. They are as interesting as they are creepy. Perhaps what makes these photographs even more creepy in my opinion is the fact that everybody in the photographs pictured with the alleged spirits are now themselves long since deceased.

To modern eyes these photographs may be immediately dismissed as fakes that can easily be explained as double exposures. My own view is they do simply look "too good to be true". There are to this day some examples of spirit photography where very solid looking figures will appear as ghosts in an image, but the idea that someone could take hundreds or thousands of these?

Despite my immediate reaction that these photographs are obvious fakes, I always try to approach every subject with a completely open mind. I think the story of William Hope is an interesting one and the notion that his abilities were put to the test by some individuals who were unable to find evidence of fraud, combined with the mystery and allegations of conspiracy surrounding those who did claim to expose Hope as a fraud, allow people to this day to continue to entertain the possibility that these photographs just might be genuine.
So, here are a collection of William Hope's spirit photographs.

The mediumship of Mina "Margery" Crandon

There were many in the past who claimed to have mediumship abilities and if you do a search on Google you will most likely eventually come across photos such as the one above. But who is the lady pictured? I wanted to research and find out..

Mina Crandon, who became known as "Margery" was a lady who lived between the years 1888 to 1941 and became famous for her claims to be a medium. The truthfulness of her claimed abilities became very controversial, with plenty of supporters claiming she was the real deal and had extraordinary abilities and skeptics saying she was an outright fraud.

According to records, Mina had no supernatural experiences early on in life and only developed an interest in spiritualism due to the influence of her husband Le Roi Goddard Crandon, who was a Surgeon at the time. Mr. Crandon was apparently very troubled by the idea of death and this lead him to develop an obsession with spiritualism and the setting up of  spritiualist "Home groups" which would meet up and regularly perform seances.

During the course of these seances, Mina had come into contact with a psychic who informed her that a young man was attempting to make contact with her from the spirit world. This young man would turn out to be Minas younger brother who was called Walter. Walter had died in 1911 as a result of a rail accident. As time went on, Mina claimed to be in contact with Walter and that her deceased brother was now acting as her spirit guide, which marked the real beginning of her abilities as a medium.

Mina then became well known by conducting many seances in which bizzare things would happen. She developed the ability to manifest ectoplasm and channel spirits and gathered many supporters.

In 1923, Minas abilities were put to the test when a contest sponsored by Scientific American magazine promised prize money of $2500 to any medium who could clearly demonstrate genuine psychic ability. This contest was devised by J. Malcolm Bird, an editor of the Scientific American magazine. A panel of judges were set up which consisted of Walter Franklin Prince, an American psychical researcher; Daniel Comstock, who introduced Technicolor to films;  Hereward Carrington, a popular occult writer; William McDougall, a professor of psychology a Harvard University; and finally- Harry Houdini the famous magician and escape artist.

Once the investigation got underway, it became apparent that the judges were completely divided as to how genuine Minas abilities were. J. Malcolm Bird, responsible for the idea in the first place and also responsible for observing and recording data about the invesitgations, became convinced that Mina was the real deal and that some paranormal phenomena was genuinely occuring. Hereward Carrington was similarly convinced. Most of the judges were becoming swayed toward the idea of awarding Mina the $2500 prize, however there was a great deal of disagreement from Houdini, which caused friction and conflict. Houdini maintained that Minas was a fraud.
Apparently, this conflict had been present throughout the invesitgation and Bird even wanted Houdini disqualified from the panel, presumably due to feeling that Houdini had an unreasonably hostile attitude toward any of the phenomena being produced and documented.
As the Judges considered awarding Mina the prize, Houdini was so outraged that he said he would travel to Boston where the seances were being held and was utterly determined to prove Mina to be a fraud. Mina and many of the other judges did not trust Houdini and felt he was deliberately out to get her.

Houdini claimed that during the seances, Mina was using a number of deceptive tricks, such as making noises with her feet and moving and lifting objects in the dark herself which had been claimed to of been lifted by the spirits. However, Houdini was not able to expose Mina right away and demanded further tests be carried out. The ultimate test came when Houdini demanded that during the seance, Mina be bound up in a box which only had holes in for her head and her arms and to continue to demonstrate phenomena such as the ringing of bells and so on. According to reports, Minas spirit guide Walter, was apparently very angry with what Houdini was doing and the top of the box Mina was bound up in appeared to be ripped off by an invisible force. On one occasion when Mina had been fastned back into the box which had a numerous padlocks, Walter came through when Mina was in trance and told the people present that Houdini had rigged the bell so that it could not work. Once examined, the bell was indeed rigged with a piece of rubber so that it could no longer work but Houdini denied any involvement.
On another occasion, Walter explained the Houdini had placed a ruler inside the box that Mina was bound up in, which was also found after examination. The theory was that Houdini would be able to accuse Mina of being a fraud and later people would investigate and find that Mina had a ruler which she could use to produce various phenomena in the seance room.
It would appear on these occasions Houdini had been caught deliberately trying to set up a medium and expose her as a fake when he was in fact lying.
Due to the Judges not being in agreement, the $2500 was never awarded.

After these incidents, Houdini then published a book entitled "Houdini Exposes the Tricks Used by the Boston Medium Margery" which claimed that he had debunked Minas abilities and exposed her as a fraud. This caused outrage amoung Mina and her supporters. J. Malcolm Bird would lead the fight back against these claims by also publishing a book in support of Minas abilities and what was witnessed, which woudl eventually convince many others. Hundreds of pages of the American Society for Psychical Research journal were also devoted to documenting Minas abilities.

One Minas most famous supporters was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote the Sherlock Holmes stories. Doyle was a firm supporter of spiritualism but also ironically good friends with Houdini. In one of Doyle's books "The Edge of the Unknown"- he devotes an entire chapter to the incidents described above involving Minas mediumship and Houdini's attempts to debunk her. I would recommend reading this. Here's the google books link which enables you to read the chapter about Houdini, in which Doyle also reveals that he believed Houdini possessed REAL paranormal abilities.

THE EDGE OF THE UNKNOWN By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Later during Minas mediumship, she began to produce a new type of physical phenomena. Two dishes would be placed on the table in front of her, one containing cold water, the other containing warm water. In one of the dishes was a piece of wax, which it was claimed when this wax softned, Walter- Minas spirit guide / deceased brother , was able to make an impression of his thumb in it.
This was later exposed to be fake, as the thumbprints were found to be those of Minas dentist!

Critics also claim that Mina flirted and had affairs with some of the people who would be present in her seances.

So was she the real deal? I do not know. But the importance of this story is that things are often much more complicated than they first seem and you need to do your research and read different eye witness accounts and so on. You cannot assume the skeptics are necessarily the good guys who only use honest means to investigate and have no biases of their own, because in many occasions, the skeptics will use deceptive tricks of their own. Also, certain claims made by various individuals become confused with "facts" over time. For instance, I note that the wikipedia article on Mina Crandon portrays her to of been successfully debunked by Houdini, when in actual fact I was unable to find evidence that this was definately the case. The more I research into the history of those who claimed to be mediums the more I find that things not as clear cut and simple as they seem and there is often a wealth of information for believers and skeptics alike to chew on. That's what makes it so interesteing.

The materialization mediumship of Minnie Harrison

I've just sat through an entire hour long video entitled "Visitors from the other side" which is basically an interview alongside clips of speeches made by a guy called Tom Harrison, who was the son of materialization medium Minnie Harrison, as well as interviews with other witnesses to her mediumship skills. Materialization mediumship is where phenomena is produced of an actual physical entity or spirit person using the subtance of ectoplasm. I have to say this is actually an amazing story and a lot of the time I admit my brain was in overdrive thinking "this has to be fake" and "this cannot be real". It was amusing at one point toward the end of the video when one lady was asked how she now feels about death reply "It sounds strange but I'm actually quite looking forward to it!". I think that speaks volumes for how convincing the evidence presented in the video is.

It is extraordinary to hear of how these people witnessed full body materializations of those who had been dead for MANY YEARS just being right there in the room- talking to them, able to touch them! In the video, many photographs are presented which were taken during the seances. We get to see examples of spirit writing, and toward the very end of the video we are treated to an actual audio recording which was made during one of the materializations. This is absolutely unbelievable and I think it is fair to say the vast majority of people are completely unaware that this level of proof for life after death is available and has been for many, many years. If you have a spare hour I'd highly recommend watching it.

Here's the google video link:  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4547643599106427733&hl=en

Why I rejected Christianity

In 2010, I approached many Chrisitan churches and spoke to many different Christians. I've had friends who were Christian over the years and a relationship with a Christian.

For a whole year I would stay up night after night researching Christianity and reading everything I possibly could about it. I was sincerely open minded to it, in fact that is not entirely true- I would say I actually wanted to believe in Christianity and I wanted to find the proof that the claims Christians made were true.
All I can say is that after a year of searching even trying out "sincere prayers" to the Christian God, that I have not found the evidence.

It is very easy when researching Christianity to get drawn straight into the different interpretations of the Bible, without stepping back and asking the wider questions like "what actually is the bible?" and "how did the bible come to get put together?" and "is the bible the literal word of god?".

My experience is that when you talk to Christians about what they believe and ask them to justify their beliefs, they will simply start quoting from the Bible to "prove" that what they are saying must be true. That's why it is so easy to get drawn into a debate where the underlying assumption is basically that the bible is true and it's just a matter of deciphering what the different parts of it mean.

I admit I was drawn in by this approach at first and spent a long time simply trying to figure out which variant of Christianity was the "true" variant and most accurately reflected what was taught in the Bible.
The trouble is that even with this method of approaching the question- you are met with literally numerous opinions as to what different people think the Bible is really teaching. With all the numerous different "camps" each claiming to have the right answers, it simply became overwhelming, confusing and frustrating.

I guess I was stuck in that mindset for almost a year - and approached lots of different Christians during that time.

I have to say that during my time pursuing Christianity and more specifically whether or not Christianity offered answers to lifes biggest questions, I was continually left feeling the the "answers" provided by Christians were simply unreasonable and backed by no evidence other than quotes from the Bible.

For example, can it be right that the only people going to heaven are a select group of Christians? The rest of the planet is doomed and will face eternal punishment at the hands of God. I found so many problems with this idea. Firstly, our lives are so short- is it reasonable of God to expect us in this short time to figure out what it is we need to do in order to determine our eternal fate? And secondly, what really is the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian who is a perfectly decent, perfectly "moral", perfectly kind-hearted human being? I think when you step back and look at that objectively, there's really nothing that makes the Christian any more "special" or somehow worthy of this eternal paradise than the average decent person.
If anything, the Christian comes off as slightly less of a well developed human being when they start asserting reasons why the other person is likely to go to hell or perish at the hands of God due to the fact they do not have a certain set of beliefs.

Continuing the last point, it can be witnessed time and time again that Christians make all of the same mistakes as any other ordinary person. Despite all the talk, all the rhetoric, there really is nothing that is "whiter than white" or "purer than pure" about the average Christian. The ONLY difference in this respect between a Christian and the average decent person in terms of making mistakes in life is that the Christian feels that all non-christians will face severe consiquences for their mistakes, whereas they only need to say "sorry" to God, and they are "forgiven". Given that God does not directly talk to people and tell them that they are forgiven, this is obviously a self-serving assumption on the part of the Christian. The idea that everybody else who makes mistakes is in the wrong, but the Christian is OK due to the assumption that God forgives them smacks of arrogance and double standards.

A great example when it comes to double standards is on the issue of sex. Christians are so happy to lecture everybody else about the "sins" in regard to sex outside of marriage or particular sex acts, or masturbation or controlling sexual urges and so on. Yet the fact is, I've known enough Christians to know that they have absolutely NO RIGHT what so ever to have this "holyer than thou" attitude. What they say in public will be completely different to what goes on "in secret". Before I knew too many Christians, I had no idea that all the supposedly "sinful" things that they preach against are all things they have been engaged in at one time or another anyway!! The Christian response to this is usually "well that was wrong what they did and you must have simply known some Christians who did not really measure up to what we aspire to" blah blah blah. The fact is that is just more TALK. They have no right to lecture anybody else and assume a "morally superior" position.

The simple fact is NO ONE has the right to tell you that because you do not believe in the things they believe or belong to their little group, that God rejects you and will throw you away into the lake of fire or to imply that they are somehow more special than you are. Just because someone reads the bible and says they believe in Jesus, makes them no more important, no more special and most definately by no means more morally developed than any other human being.

A good example of this is that I have witnessed a great many occasions where being met with situations where others are suffering in some capacity, a Christian will say "I will pray for you". This simply is another way of saying "I will do absolutely nothing to help you, but I will pray so that it makes me feel better about myself". It would be far better rather than saying "I will pray for you" simply to get off your arse and help the person out and take some action that is going to be of real benefit to people who are suffering.

This article might give the impression that I am bitter toward Christianity. I have to be honest and say there are certain charactaristics which I have found amoung the Christians I've met which annoy me. However - when it comes to the wider picture of Christianity itself, I can't say I have any hard feelings at all. These are all just my personal experiences and the people I've encountered and I'm by no means saying ALL Christians behave in the ways I have listed. I don't as a matter of fact rule out the existance of God nor of Jesus Christ, nor do I rule out the possibility that there is an afterlife. Nor do I reject major moral teachings found in Christianity. I simply reject the organised religion aspect and the whole organised religion mindset- the "I'm saved, you're eternally damned" attitude.

The most important question you can EVER ask yourself

"What happens when we die? Is there life after death?" Why is this question so important? I think it is the single most important question that faces us. Why? Because quite simply put- virtually every single thing in our entire lives is ultimately uncertain apart from the fact that is one day we shall die. We may live our lives as though this is not going to happen or as though death is something that is far away in the future and barely worthy of a moments concern. Nothing could be further from the truth. Death is not something we have a choice about. It is absolutely 100% certain to happen. One day, with 100% certainty, you will be dead. And so will all of the people you know, love and all the people see around you every day. And that is a terrifying thought, isn't it?

SO what happens when we die? We know that physically speaking, this body we have shall perish. It will turn to dust. This physical body we are so intimately bound up in all of our lives, it will no longer be. But what about us? What about that part of you- the part that thinks, sees, feels, remembers and so on? Will that part too simply perish? Will we cease to be conscious forever> Will it be as though we never existed in the first place and this entire life of ours rendered to literally nothing?

Well we know that we are intimately bound up with our physical body and we know that when parts of our physical body become damaged or stop working that we lose that corrisponding function. We seem to depend on properly functioning parts of our physical body for our entire experience and existance. This would suggest that when the physical body perishes, so too do we.

However, there is a large amount of evidence that has been collected over a period of hundreds of years that suggests that we continue to live after the physical body has died. This evidence is consistant and has repeated itself in cultures all over the world under numerous conditions. I therefor do not believe this evidence can simply be ignored.

I have been searching for answers as an open minded skeptic. However I can only be honest and admit that what one believes in regard to the question of "Is there life after death" can be strongly influenced simply by your own feelings- about life in general. Unless you take the time to thoroughly research the evidence, the only conclusions you can ever make on this issue will be emotionally based. For instance you might feel depressed or resentful and that life is pointless. From these emotions it would be easy to conclude there is no afterlife or any hope beyond whatever lot we have in life right now. On the opposite side of things, one might be bound up in the emotion of fear- that is, fearing death and adopt the viewpoint "there must be an afterlife" as an emotional crutch or comfort device to avoid facing up to this fear.
There are numerous examples of emotionally based belief setting that I could list, but I'm sure you get the general idea. The point is- the only way to get answers is to study the evidence scientifically and empirically. Subjective and emotionally based beliefs are simply faith- and faith is not evidence.

Does religion give us the answers to whether or not the afterlife is real?

What all organised religions do is present followers with a "holy text" which is a collection of subjective writings from people who lived thousands of years ago. The "holy text" may or may not even be able to be fully authenticated. In many cases they are not.

Religion means blind faith. Blind faith in living life according to what a book tells you and what people who follow that book tell you.

I have read numerous books and websites which claim to offer the "scientific case for..." or the "evidence for..." their religious claims. But ultimately all religions have to offer to you is quotes from their "divine scriptures". And those who follow organised religion endlessly bicker over the interpretation of their scriptures.
You are required to have faith and the evidence for the claims is lacking.

This pales in comparison to conducting an investigation into the phenomena supportive of life after death such as:

• Near Death Experiences
• Death bed visions
• After death communications
• Electronic Voice Phenomena
• Apparitions
• Out of Body Experiences
• Reincarnation and past life regression

..And so on. The fact is that if you approach this subject with a truly open mind, there is simply far more objective evidence to be studied when you look at afterlife evidence rather than organised religion.

Organised religion

Although there are numerous religions in the world, it is interesting to note that the belief in the afterlife amoung human beings predates organised religion.

The numerous religions in the world may appear to differ in many ways, but actually they all present a fairly similar set of concepts when it comes to the question "Is there life after death?".
Most organised religions offer the promise of an eternal life in heaven if one meets certain conditions. The concept is that right now the whole human race is of a fallen nature, we are all doomed to some terrible fate upon death unless we embrace a certain set of actions and beliefs.
This fate could be an endless number of reincarnations into so called lower life forms, an eternity in a firey hell, or being annihilated out of existance. In most of these religions, it is God who judges us and decides our fate, though in some it is simply the accumulation of our actions in our lifetime that decide our afterlife fate.
Note however, that in all of these religions, ones short lifetime right now is the deciding factor of our ETERNAL fate.

Thus in our very short time here on Earth we should all be in a blind panic and rush to discover exactly what it is we need to do to avoid such terrible eternal punishment before we die. We must quickly learn what it is we must do to avoid offending God and get into Gods good books, to become enlightened, to be spiritually "born again" and secure ourselves an eternal place in heaven and escape Gods wrath.

So what's the big problem with these concepts? The big problem is that God will, according to these religions, enflict eternal punishment upon the vast majority of his creation, upon beings which not only are of significantly lower intelligence, but also have an unreasonably short amount of time and very few "clues" with which to learn what it is they must do to avoid this wrath. Does this not seem just a little unfair?
What about all those perfectly kind and loving human beings who mistakenly believed the "wrong" things?

Proponents of all organised religions often like to use the "free will" argument at this stage and say that humanity is doomed due to human error/sin/mistakes and that we must use our "free will" to take certain actions and adopt certain beliefs that will now save us from Gods wrath. But what must be remembered is that the average person leads a busy life- with school, work, relationships and so on, and does not always have the time to reflect upon deeper issues and when they do, we live in a world full of people all claiming to have the answers! Do people really deserve to be punished for all eternity for not being able to figure out what is the "true religion" in their short time here on Earth? Do you think that is really what the actions of an all knowing and all loving God would be?