The physical mediumship of Helen Duncan

Development as a medium

One of the most famous physical (materialization) mediums in recent history was a lady named Helen Duncan (1897-1956). Helen Duncan was born and lived in Scotland and was alleged to have possessed paranormal abilities beginning in her early childhood. Helen married at the age of 20 and had six children. Employed as a factory worker, Helen had to work hard to support her family,  because her husband, Henry Duncan, had been injured during his involvement in World War 1 and was rendered unable to work. Despite caring for 6 children and working to support her family, in her spare time Helen continued to develop herself as a clairvoyant and around the year 1926, Helen developed abilities as a physical medium, able to summon spirits whilst in a trance state and emit ectoplasm, a substance which allows spirits to materialize themselves in a physical form.



World War 2 and the HMS Barham sinking

As would be expected, Helen found her claimed abilities as a medium in greatest demand during the time of World War 2 when many people were loving loved ones as a result of the war and there was a great deal of uncertainty and despair. During this period, Helen Duncan moved to live in Portsmouth which was essentially the home of the Royal Navy and not the best place to be at this time due to it being a major target for enemy attacks.

It was during this time, in 1941 when during a seance, Helen Duncan was able to fully materialize the spirit of a sailor who wore his naval cap which on it was written the name of his ship- HMS Barham. He announced that he had recently been killed as a result of his ship, HMS Barham being taken down by the enemy in the Mediterranean. This information had not at the time been made public by the government who had completely denied it and kept it a secret that HMS Barham was taken down when a German U-Boat U331 had torpedoed the ship. Apparently the government had only informed some individuals on a confidential basis that they had lost loved ones but kept secret from the public at large that 861 British seamen had been lost, in order to protect public moral and mislead the enemy.
Once news had spread, this incident lead to the authorities taking greater notice of Helen Duncan's activities.

1944 Arrest and trial

In January 1944, police raided one of Helen Duncan's seances in her then hometown of Portsmouth just as a spirit manifestation was taking place. It was rumoured that the reason for this raid was due to a paranoia on behalf of authorities that Duncan might reveal further details of classified information such as that of the imminent D-Day landings. In other words, she was viewed as a potential threat to national security.

Duncan, along with three members of her audience were arrested and taken to court. This court case was extensively covered by the media. The Times newspaper at the time reported that during this raid, Helen Duncan was caught red handed in the act of faking the spirit phenomena. It was alleged that the "spirit" which was apparently manifesting at the time was actually Helen Duncan herself, concealed in white cloth and that she was also found in possession of a HMS Barham hat-band which would have been used to fabricate the phenomena.

Left: Helen Duncan allegedly materializing the spirit form of her spirit guide "Peggy". Skeptics such as Harry Price believed that this "spirit" was simply being made from a combination of white cloth materials and a rubber dolls face attached to it both propped up by a clothes hanger. 
However, supporters claim that spirit materialization is a complex process and that spirits are not always able to mould the ectoplasm into a realistic and lifelike form.









Helen was brought on trial at the Old Bailey in London and would become the last person to be prosecuted under the Witchcraft Act 1735 for profiting from "fraudulent spiritual activity". This act had not been used to prosecute anybody for more than a century.

Supporters of Helen Duncan allege that she was effectively harassed by the police, made the subject of a number of false allegations and that there were powerful people out to get her in what amounted to a conspiracy emerging partly from wartime paranoia.

During the trial, Helen Duncan's defense suggested that she give a demonstration of her abilities in the witness box. In other words, Helen would conduct a seance in the courtroom. This proposal was rejected and Duncan was found "guilty" under the Witchcraft Act and sentenced to 9 months in prison. Duncan was released from prison on 22 September 1944.

The death of Helen Duncan

In November of 1956, police once again raided one of Helen Duncan's seances in Nottingham. Police allegedly grabbed hold of Helen Duncan, searched her and searched the seance room for "props" such as fake beards, masks and costumes that might be used as part of a hoax. They could find none on this occasion.

Shortly after this raid, Helen became very ill. Some say this was down to shock but spiritualists argue that Helen became ill as a result of being interrupted whilst in a state of trance- a time which a medium is said to be in a highly-sensitive and vulnerable condition. Apparently a Doctor confirmed that Helen did have two second degree burns on her stomach area, which spiritualists claim may of been the result of the ectoplasm re-entering her body too quickly. 

As Helen became more ill, she returned to her home in Scotland and some five weeks after the police raid incident, Helen Duncan was dead. Doctors listed the cause of death as related to her diabetes and heart failure.

Helen Duncan's mediumship verdict: real or fake?

Harry Price investigation. Helen Duncan's mediumship was put to the test by psychic investigator Harry Price. He claimed that the "ectoplasm" Mrs. Duncan was producing was nothing more than cheesecloth which she was somehow regurgitating from her stomach, a theory he developed having had the medium physically examined in every area other than her stomach. Price then purchased yards of cheesecloth and asked an assistant to pose with the cheesecloth in a similar fashion to which Helen Duncan would produce ectoplasm, and found that the ectoplasm and cheesecloth looked very similar.

In one photograph Harry Price took of Mrs. Duncan, there appears to be a hand materializing from the ectoplasm and moving, which Price says is nothing more than cheesecloth, with a rubber glove attached via a safety pin. On this picture, Price notes "the puffed cheeks" of the medium- implying that Helen Duncan is making a rubber glove move by blowing into it. This does not seem to make sense, because surely if you attach a rubber glove to the end of some cheesecloth and blow into the top of the cheesecloth, the material would be such that it would have no effect on the glove.

Although the regurgitation theory is indeed possible, I was unable to find any evidence that Harry Price was able to duplicate the effects Mrs. Duncan produced via regurgitating- either himself or with an assistant. The closest he got was to take six feet long strip of cheesecloth, roll it up and show that it would fit into the mouth of an assistant. However, this cheesecloth was never swallowed and regurgitated- and it is a wonder how anyone could carry out that process without choking, gagging and feeling extremely sick, yet no mention of choking noises or sickness was made and if yards of cheesecloth were coming up through Helen Duncans throat, how could she at the same time "fake" the voice of her spirit guide who was talking during this process? How might cloth even look having been in someones stomach? Surely its colour, appearance and feel would be completely different? So whilst the regurgitated cheesecloth theory is possible, it is also unfounded and does not seem a practical or demonstratable explanation.

This theory also ignores the fact that the ectoplasm can be seen to be being produced not only from the mouth but from other parts of her body such as ears. It is of course not physically possible to store yards of cheesecloth inside your ears!! The only other explanation could be that in addition to regurgitating the materials from her stomach, Helen then quickly took the cheesecloth and "poked it into her ears"- an explanation that seems unlikely since Helen Duncan was securely bound to the chair during the time which she produced the ectoplasm.

The photographs to which I refer from this investigation can be found on the Harry Price website: Harry Price and Helen Duncan.

Medium Maurice Barbanell who had the following to say about the Harry Price investigation:

"Harry Price, a researcher who thrived on publicity, propounded the extraordinary

theory that, instead of being a genuine materialisation medium, Helen Duncan

swallowed yards of cheesecloth which she later regurgitated. To show how

nonsensical this theory was, Mrs Duncan gladly submitted herself to X-ray

examination. Price’s “explanation” was that she had a secondary stomach, like a cow.

The X-ray examination proved that both her stomach and her oesophagus were

normal.

Counsel for the defence at the Old Bailey tried to introduce the X-ray photographs as

evidence, but these too were legally inadmissible.

More than once at Helen Duncan’s séances, I was invited to handle some of the

ectoplasm immediately after it had been produced. It was always bone-dry, and had a

curious stiff “feel”, proving that it could not have been regurgitated.

I conducted an experiment that was conclusive in its result. At my suggestion, Helen

Duncan, and every sitter at one séance, swallowed tablets of methylene blue. These

had the effect of dying into a bluish colour the contents of all our stomachs. Yet when

the materialisations appeared, they were their usual white colour."

- Maurice Barbanell - Read full article here

Helen Duncan was also investigated by the London Spiritual Alliance in 1931 who would also denounce her as a fraud. Apparently Helen attended a great many sittings with the LSA and produced large quantities of ectoplasm from which human figures of adults and children would manifest and many specimen samples of the ectoplasm were taken for scientific analysis, but the London Spiritual Alliance came to the conclusion that these were an elaborate hoax around the same time that claims of fraud were made by Harry Price.

It would appear that much of the focus is often on Helen Duncan's trial under the Witchcraft act and the events surrounding this rather than her actual supposed abilities as a medium. It can no doubt be argued that Helen Duncan suffered unfair treatment at the hands of the law, however just how genuine she was as a medium continues to be debated.

Further reading
http://www.helenduncan.org.uk/

Relavant video- Alan Crossley talks about his experiences of materialization seances with Helen Duncan:

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

The spirit photography of William H. Mumler

Do ghosts exist? Where's the proof? Well surely it would provide a solid case for the existence of ghosts if we were able to use cameras to photograph them? Many such claims have been made since the dawn of photography itself.

Primitive technology and equipment to take photographs began to emerge in the early 1800's and developed quickly throughout the decades ahead. 

Right from the early days of photography came the claim that ghosts could be captured using cameras, which began with a man named William H. Mumler (1832-1884).

William Mumler lived in Boston and originally worked as a jewel engraver. He practiced amateur photography in his spare time and one day in the early 1860's, he took a self-portrait photograph. When this photograph was developed, he was suprised to see that he was not alone in his photograph- as he saw behind him a ghostly figure who he recognised to be his cousin, who had died 12 years prior to this photograph being taken. This is widely credited as being the first spirit photograph.

As news spread of this story, people would then begin to ask Mumler to take their photograph in the hope that they too could capture images of deceased loved ones. As time went on, demand grew and Mumler was said to have reluctantly made the transition into making spirit photography a full time career. He then moved to New York and it was said that numerous photography experts examined Mumler and could find no evidence of fraud.

Skeptics would argue that despite the people investigating Mumler being learned and educated individuals, most people back then simply did not know what they were looking for when it came to identifying fraud, due to the fact these were still the early days of photography and they would have known little about what went on in the dark room.

However, William Mumler certainly did allow a great number of skeptics as well as photographic experts (who surely would of been aware of the tricks used to create fake ghostly images) to examine the process from start to finish and to inspect his equipment and people were unable to find evidence of fraud.

A professional photographer at the time named Mr. Jeremiah Gurney had this to say about William Mumler's photography:

"I have been a photographer for twenty-eight years; I have witnessed Mumler's process, and although I went prepared to scrutinize everything, I could find nothing which savoured of fraud or trickery. The only thing out of the usual routine being the fact that the operator kept his hand on the camera."

Despite this and many other supporters, there were ongoing accusations against Mumler including the accusation that Mumler would break into peoples homes in order to obtain photographs of deceased relatives which he could then use to create fake spirit photography. It was also stated that some of the "spirits" appearing in Mumlers photographs were recognised as living persons. These accusations eventually amounted to Mumler being taken to court charged with fraud in 1869.

One of Mumler's critics and a person who would testify against him in this court case was a man named Phineas Taylor Barnum. Barnum (pictured left) had gained a reputation in his day as being the "prince of humbugs" as he held a great deal of contempt for what he considered to be fraudulant mediums. In much the same way as some skeptics of paranormal claims have done today, Barnum offered a financial reward of $500 to any medium who could demonstrate proof of their ability to communicate with the dead.

Barnum felt that William Mumler was making profits by taking advantage of people at a time when they were unable to think clearly due to the grief they were experiencing after the loss of a loved one.

During the court case, Barnum hired a man named Abraham Bogardus, a professional photographer to create a picture which would appear to show Barnum photographed with the ghost of Abraham Lincoln, in order to demonstrate how easy it is to create fake spirit photography.

There were those in the court case who came out in support of Mumler, including a journalist by the name of Moses A. Dow who he produced a spirit photograph for.

Eventually the court decided that there was not enough evidence to prosecute Mumler of fraud. However, the accusations and court case had already done enough damage to Mumler's reputation to ruin his career. William Mumler died in poverty in 1884. It is said that Mumler destroyed all of his negatives shortly before his death, allowing for his photography to forever remain shrouded in mystery.

A selection of photograph's taken by William H. Mumler

Above: Perhaps one of the most famous photograph's taken by Mumler, this photograph shows Mary Todd Lincoln sitting with the spirit of her deceased husband Abraham Lincoln standing behind her. According to reports, William Mumler was not aware of Mary Lincolns identity before the photo was taken, as she had given a false identity by the name "Mrs. Tundall" and she turned up with her face almost completely covered wearing a black hooded robe and asked that she only reveal her face at the exact moment the photo was taken. As the photo developed, it revealed Abraham Lincoln himself to be the spirit "extra".

Above: There is a truly remarkable story behind this picture of Moses A. Dow. Read his testimony by clicking here. According to his own testimony, he had managed to make contact through spiritualist mediums with a deceased young girl who he once employed to work for him. She informed him that should he visit a spirit photographer, that she would make an appearance and also gave details as to what position she would take, what she would wear ect. William Mumler took the photograph, as far as I am aware with no prior knowledge of this and Dow even assumed a false identity. Needless to say the image produced a spirit "extra" of the exact description and likeness of the girl who Dow had been in contact with.

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.