A Brief of History of Ghost Hunting Part II

Psychical Scientists

Eventually the calls for science to take an interest in Psychical studies started to take hold. Prior to the 19th century the investigation of ghosts and apparitions had concentrated upon eye witness testimony and personal experience as the primary method of study. Much of this renewed scientific interest in psychical research was driven by the claims being by the Spiritualist movement which began in 1848 in America and spread rapidly across the USA and into Europe.
As science started to understand the natural world and instruments for measuring it became available it was only a matter of time before scientists started to use instruments to try and measure the reported phenomena and collect objective rather than merely subjective information. Chemistry Professor Robert Hare in the 1850’s began his own investigations into the claims of the Spiritualist movement and devised a number of instruments which, contrary to his expectations, conclusively proved that a power and intelligence, not that of those present, was at work.
His book, 'Experimental Investigation of the Spirit Manifestation,' published in 1855, summed up the results as follows:-

“The evidence may be contemplated under various phases; first, those in which rapping's or other noises have been made which could not be traced to any mortal agency; secondly, those in which sounds were so made as to indicate letters forming grammatical, well-spelt sentences, affording proof that they were under the guidance of some rational being; thirdly, those in which the nature of the communication has been such as to prove that the being causing them must, agreeably to accompanying allegations, be some known acquaintance, friend, or relative of the inquirer.

By the mid 1860's, the main issues had become clear. One either had to accept the occurrence of psychical phenomena, however astonishing or incredible as a type of physical phenomena that had previously gone undetected or science had to admit that the senses of seemingly sane people could deceive them in an unprecedented manner. Whatever view was taken, the facts remained; Phenomena were being reported and observed which merited further investigations. It was therefore unfortunate that almost to a man; orthodox scientists of the day turned their backs on the problem. However a small number did take up the challenge presented by the claims of Spiritualism In the 1870's, Chemist & Physicist, Sir William Crookes reached the conclusion that science had a duty to study the psychical phenomena associated with Spiritualism. He was determined to conduct his inquiry impartially and described the conditions he imposed on mediums as follows:-

"It must be at my own house, and my own selection of friends and spectators, under my own conditions, and I may do whatever I like as regards apparatus”.

Crookes developed some of the earlier experimental designs used by Hare some years before to test a number of Mediums, Among those he studied were Kate Fox, Florence Cook, and Daniel Dunglas Home. Crookes used delicate spring balances in his sessions with Home and he pioneered the use of equipment for testing the claims of Mediums. His report on this research in 1874 concluded that these phenomena could not be explained as conjuring, and that further research would be useful.
Established in 1867, the London Dialectical Society passed a resolution in January 1869 “To investigate the phenomena alleged to be spiritual manifestations and to report thereon”
A committee of 33 including several leading academics and scientists was appointed to examine the evidence. The committee reported in July 1870 and include the following statements:

1. That sounds of a very varied character apparently proceeding from articles of furniture, the floor and the wall of the room – the vibrations accompanying which sound are often distinctly perceptible to the touch – occur without being produced by muscular action or mechanical contrivance.
2. The movements of heavy bodies take place without mechanical contrivance of any kind or adequate exertion of muscular force by the persons present, and frequently without contact or connection with any person.
3. That these sounds and movements often occur at the times and in the manner asked for by persons present and by means of a simple code of signals; answer questions and spell out coherent communications.
4. That the circumstances under which the phenomena occur are variable; the most prominent fact being that the presence of certain persons seems necessary to their occurrence and that of others generally adverse; but this difference does not appear to depend upon any belief or disbelief concerning the phenomena.

5. That nevertheless the occurrence of the phenomena is not insured by the presence or absence of such persons respectively.

The report was claimed to be biased in that little evidence was considered from those who opposed such phenomena and the press were generally highly critical of the Society’s findings.
The report concentrated solely upon the actual phenomena and did not consider the question of survival. The report drew the attentions of many qualified investigators to the subject which must be its most important and lasting legacy.

Around the same time a small group lead by the Philosopher Henry Sidgewick began to examine the question of ghosts and other psychical questions. As an undergraduate, Sidgewick had been a member of the Cambridge University Ghost Club which existed mainly for the collection and telling of ghost stories. In 1863 he had investigated a number of mediums and although these early studies were inconclusive he continued his interest and by 1873 had formed a small group of fellow researchers including Frederick Myers. Later Myers was to lead this small group along with Edmund Gurney, Sir William Barrett and Frank Podmore in the formation of the first real organised attempt by science to study Psychical phenomena. In 1882 The Society for Psychical Research was founded. Its stated purpose given in the first Proceedings was:-

 "...to approach these varied problems without prejudice or prepossession of any kind, and in the same spirit of exact and unimpassioned enquiry which has enabled Science to solve so many problems, once not less obscure nor less hotly debated."

Initially six committees were established: on Thought-Transference, Mesmerism and similar phenomena, Mediumship, Reichenbach Phenomena (Odic Force), Apparitions and Haunted Houses, physical phenomena associated with séances, and the Literary Committee which studied the history of these phenomena. One significant undertaking was the Census of Hallucinations, in which 15,000 persons were asked to report on hallucinatory experience while awake and in good health. Some 10% of those reported such experiences, and a small number of 'veridical hallucinations' were reported - that is hallucinations that appeared to convey information not known the person hallucinating at the time, which was believed by the authors to be suggestive of telepathy. Critical SPR investigations into mediumship and the exposure of fake mediums led to a number of resignations in the 1880s by Spiritualist members. However, the Society continued to investigate mediums, studying Leonora Piper and Eusapia Palladino among others.

The SPR's first substantial investigation of a Haunted House took place in the winter of 1897.
Ballechin House in Scotland had developed a reputation for being haunted. Members of the SPR were part of a group which took out several months rental of the property in order to document and investigate the reports of ghosts and other phenomena. An account of the investigation was published in The Times newspaper and lead to a dispute with the owner with the result that all subsequent attempts to continue with the investigation using sound and temperature recording apparatus were refused. One of the investigators published a book in 1899 The Alleged Haunting of 'B' House. The dispute with the owner and the attempt to preserve the anonymity of the house and its owners also resulted in the credibility of the case being damaged. However, this does represent the first attempt at trying to conduct a long term and well documented study of ghostly and haunting phenomena. The dispute meant that the investigation of B house was discontinued and plans to bring in phonographic and temperature recording equipment had to be abandoned.

Story Tellers & Ghost Hunters
The Church meanwhile, did nothing to discourage the popular belief in ghosts as shades of the murdered, the suicide or other unfortunates returning to haunt the living. The ghost story was one of the most popular forms of literature. The few amateur ghost hunters of this period pursued a subjective approach preferring to concentrate upon personal experience rather than objective measurement of any phenomena. Elliot O'Donnell and Marchioness Lady Townsend in the first half of the 20th century had long and fruitful careers as ghost investigators.
Both were content to visit haunted houses in the hope of seeing and experiencing the ghost for themselves and took no further action by way of investigation other than to simply document their various experiences in their numerous books. Lord Halifax, another who was passionate about collecting and re-telling ghost stories produced several volumes of his popular work Lord Halifax's Ghost Book.

Born in 1881, Harry Price was to become possibly the best known of all the Ghost Hunters. In time Price would establish Ghost Hunting in the minds of both the public and the media. But Price was first and foremost a man interested in investigating and understanding psychical phenomena. His first ghost investigation took place when he was just 15. Together with a school friend, Price attempted to capture photographic evidence of ghostly activity at an empty Shropshire house – an investigation which lead to him claiming to have “Shot the poltergeist to pieces!” following his misjudgement of the amount of powder required for the flash. From the very beginning Price was interested in developing equipment that could be used to obtain objective information to verify and test the paranormal claims that were being made, both within the séance room and also importantly in haunted houses. Price will forever be remembered for his investigation of Borley Rectory in Essex. Price first visited Borley in 1929, at the invitation of the Daily Mirror newspaper. He continued to visit the site from time to time throughout the next decade culminating in his hiring the rectory for a full year in order to conduct the fullest investigation possible. Through a newspaper advertisement Price recruited a team of 48 volunteers to carry out the year-long investigation and produced a book of notes and guidance for the investigators – known as The Blue Book this was the first attempt to set down some ground rules for the standardisation of ghost hunting methodology. Price was passionate that Psychical Research should become an academic pursuit and an Official science in its own right and throughout his life constantly championed this cause:-

“I said that it was our primary object to turn psychical research into a science, and it is of course, a corollary of that that psychical research is not or at any rate has not been up to the present, a science, at least in this country. As you probably know, official science tends to regard psychical research with a certain amount – I will not say of fear, but of disapprobation. There is a certain pulling up of the skirts on the part of official science when psychical research passes by. Now our object is to make an 'honest woman' of psychical research. If you look back over her past, it has been, I fear very dubious; so dubious that directly the word is mentioned, whether to scientists or to journalists, there is a tendency to raise the eyebrows, or to giggle, or to think of ghosts and spooks or to become factitious at the expense of those who are investigating this highly equivocal territory..

Official science, as I have said regards psychical research as something disreputable. But those who believe that here is a territory in which the methods of science, if carefully and scrupulously applied, would bear valuable and important fruit; those who believe that here are phenomena – perhaps not many, because when you sift the grain from the chaff there is not very much grain left, but there is some – those who believe that there is some grain that wants sifting and investigating cannot but regard this attitude of official science with regret...

Now wishes may father thoughts, but they do not breed evidence, and in my view there is no evidence from the séance room, whatever evidence there may be from other quarters, for the particular view, that abnormal psychical phenomena somehow point to or establish even the fact of survival... I have made many efforts to introduce psychical research into the universities and transform it into an official science. I have reason to be satisfied with the results to date:

1. The University of London, when discussing my offer to endow and equip a department of psychical research, declared that the investigation of paranormal phenomena was 'a fit subject of university study and research (1934).
2. The formation of the University of London Council for Psychical Investigation (1934).
3. The acceptance by London University of my psychic library and records, and the housing of the laboratory of the University Council (1936).
4. The German Government recognises psychical research as an official science (1937).
5. The German government and the University of Bonn seek my assistance in forming a Department of Parapsychology (1937).
6. Trinity College, Cambridge, accepts the Perrott bequest and establishes a Studentship in Psychical Research (1940).
7. New College, Oxford, accepts the Blennerhasset Trust for the promotion of Psychical Research (1941).

Since 1933, advances can be recorded in certain other universities, e.g. Duke, North Carolina; Utrecht, Leiden and John Hopkins so my fight for academic recognition has borne fruit. Further advances would have been made had it not been for the Second World War”.

Price was constantly accused of courting publicity and seeking personal fame, a charge which lead to attempt by some in the SPR to discredit his work at Borley. In 1956, this attempt resulted in the critical publication of The Haunting of Borley Rectory (J. Dingwall, K. Goldney, T. Hall) by three former colleagues of Price. The damage done to Price's reputation as a Ghost Hunter remains despite a reassessment and apology proffered in recent years by the SPR.
Price was however not the first Psychical researcher to use extensive instrumentation for the study of psychic phenomena. As already mentioned, Robert Hare, William Crookes and several others had taken instruments into the séance room and in 1915 a lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at Belfast University Dr. W.J. Crawford began a two year study of physical phenomena taking place at a home séance circle in Belfast. His use of properly calibrated scales and other measuring equipment, sound methodology and detailed recording of his many experiments must stand as a landmark in psychical investigation and the results still challenge the modern investigator. A series of phonograph recordings of the raps and other sounds were made but it is not known if they survive today.
Although lacking formal academic qualifications, Price was nonetheless a skilled engineer and amateur inventor, abilities that served him and psychical research well. He designed and indeed built many items of equipment such as the ‘Telekinetoscope’ which he used to test the abilities of Medium Stella C during the 1920’s. He used high sensitivity recording thermometers both in séances and for the first time at Borley and at other haunted houses, during which he documented some still inexplicable temperature fluctuations. Price put together what is the forerunner of all ghost hunters’ kits; such items as a bowl of mercury and hanks of bell wire might not be in a modern ghost hunter’s kit but we still need the notebook and pens, torch and many items that would be have been found in Price’s battered fibreboard suitcase (flight cases were still some years away!)
Price extensively used photography for psychical investigation and developed methods of photographing phenomena in low light using infra-red film and adapted cameras. One of his greatest wishes was to have the capability of recording movement using movie camera and IR film – an ability almost every modern investigator now finds readily available in the form of IR assisted night vision video cameras.

In next month's third and final part the history of Ghost Hunting concludes with a look at the modern ghost hunters

© Steve Parsons 2011
www.parascience.org.uk