Daniel Dunglas Home

The most notable physical medium in the history of Spiritualism. There was a certain mystery about Home's parentage. According to a footnote in his Incidents in My Life (1863), his father was a natural son of Alexander, the tenth earl of Home. Through his mother he was descended from a Highland family in which the traditional gift of second sight had been preserved. He was born on March 20, 1833, in Scotland.

Home was a sensitive, delicate child of a highly nervous temperament and of such weak health that he was not expected to live. Adopted by Mrs. McNeill Cook, a childless aunt, he passed his infancy at Portobello, Scotland, and was taken to the United States at the age of nine, growing up in Greeneville, Connecticut, and Troy, New York. It was noticed that he had keen powers of observation and a prodigious memory. He saw his first vision at age 13. A schoolfellow, Edwin, died in Greeneville and appeared to him in a bright cloud at night in Troy, thus keeping a childish promise with which they had bound themselves that he who died first would appear to the other. Home's second vision came four years later. It announced the death of his mother to the hour.

From that time on his thoughts turned more and more to the life beyond. One night he heard loud, unaccountable blows, the next morning a volley of raps. His aunt, remembering the Hydesville rappings that had occurred two years before, believed him to be possessed by the devil and called for a Congregationalist, a Baptist, and a Methodist minister for exorcism. This being unsuccessful, she turned him out of doors. Thenceforth, although he never asked for or received direct payment, Home appears to have lived on the hospitality of friends attracted by his curious gift.

The first scientist to investigate Home's phenomena was George Bush, a distinguished theologian and Oriental scholar from New York. The celebrated American poet William Cullen Bryant and a Professor Wells of Harvard University testified in a written statement to the reality of the phenomena. Professors Robert Hare and James Mapes, both famous chemists, and John Worth Edmonds of the United States Supreme Court owed much of their conversion to Spiritualism to this young man of frail health.

Home's first levitation occurred in the South Manchester house of Ward Cheney, an eminent American manufacturer. Strains of music were heard when no instrument was near.

Nobody understood at that time the part the physical organism plays in the production of the phenomena. The demands made on Home were very heavy and the drain of nervous energy excessive. His intended medical studies had to be broken off because of illness; a trip to Europe being advised, Home went to England in April 1855. He first stayed at Cox's Hotel in Jermyn Street, London, and was later the guest of J. S. Rymer, an Ealing solicitor.

The conversion of many of the later leaders of the Spiritualist movement in England was attributed to Home's phenomena. When these phenomena attracted public attention Home found himself in the midst of a press war. Among the first who asked Home to attend a séance was Lord Brougham, who came to the sitting with Sir David Brewster. Home was proud of the impression he made upon these two distinguished men and wrote about it to a friend in the United States. The letter was published in the United States and found its way to the London press, whereupon Brewster at once disclaimed all belief in Spiritualism and set down the phenomena to imposture. At the same time his statements in private supported Home, and they too found their way into the newspapers.

More lasting harm was done to Home's reputation by Robert Browning 's poem, "Mr. Sludge, the Medium," which was generally taken to refer to Home. Browning and his wife, who accepted Spiritualism, had attended séances with Home. The poem was a malignant attack, since Browning had never claimed in public to have caught Home at trickery and in private admitted that imposture was out of the question. The reason for this vicious attack may have been jealousy over his wife's enthusiasm for Home's phenomena.

Other famous men of the day, such as Bulwer Lytton and William Thackeray, never spoke of their experiences in public. Thackeray made Home's acquaintance in the United States when he lectured there. Both there and in London Thackeray availed himself of every opportunity of sitting with Home. He admitted to have found a genuine mystery and warmly endorsed Robert Bell's anonymous article "Stranger than Fiction," published in the Cornhill Magazine, which Thackeray then edited.

Bell's account of a séance with Home starts with a quotation of a Dr. Treviranus to Coleridge: "I have seen what I would not have believed on your testimony, and what I cannot therefore, expect you to believe upon mine." Thackeray was bitterly attacked for the publication of the article and it was said that the Cornhill Magazine dropped considerably in circulation as a consequence.

In the early autumn of 1855 Home went to Florence to visit Thomas A. Trollope. His name and fame soon spread there, too. False rumors arose among the peasants that he was a necromancer and administered the sacraments of the church to toads in order to raise the dead by spells and incantations. This rumor may explain an attempt against his life on December 5, 1855, when a man ambushed him late at night and stabbed him three times with a dagger. Home had a narrow escape. The attacker was never arrested, but Home was warned the following month by Signor Lan Ducci, minister of the interior to the grand duke of Tuscany, of his sinister reputation among the populace.

About this time he was told by the spirits that his power would leave him for a year. In Home's state of seclusion from supernormal contact, Catholic influences found an easy inroad into his religious ideas. He converted to Catholicism and decided to enter a monastery. He was received by Pius IX and treated with favor. Home changed his mind, however, and left Italy for Paris, where, to the day from the announced suspension, his powers returned. The news reached the French court and Napoleon III summoned him to the Tuilleries.

The story of Home's séance with Napoleon was not made public. The curiosity of the press was aroused, however, when the first séance was followed by many others.

An account of the first séance in Home's autobiography, Incidents in My Life, tells how Napoleon followed every manifestation with keen and skeptical attention and satisfied himself by the closest scrutiny that neither deception nor delusion was possible. His and the empress's unspoken thoughts were replied to, and the empress was touched by a materialized hand that, from a defect in one of the fingers, she recognized to be the hand of her late father.

The second séance was more forceful. The room was shaken; heavy tables were lifted and then held down to the floor by an alteration of their weight. At the third séance a phantom hand appeared above the table, lifted a pencil, and wrote the single word Napoleon in the handwriting of Napoleon I.

Prince Murat later related to Home that the Duke de Morny told Napoleon III that he felt it a duty to contradict the report that the emperor believed in Spiritualism. The emperor replied, "Quite right, but you may add when you speak on the subject again that there is a difference between believing a thing and having proof of it, and that I am certain of what I have seen."

When, soon after these séances, Home left Paris for the United States, rumors were rife that his departure was compulsory. On his return to Paris, however, he was speedily summoned to Fontainebleau, where the king of Bavaria was interested in a séance. Home was in great power at the time and so much sought after that the Union Club, where fashionable sophisticates congregated, offered him 50,000 francs for a single séance. Home refused. A book, privately printed in France, recorded the strange experiences of the high society with Home's mediumship.

Earlier, in Italy, Home had been introduced to the king of Naples. The German emperor and the queen of Holland soon joined the ranks of the curious who were besieging Home with requests for séances.

While enjoying the benevolence of crowned heads and the highest members of the aristocracy, Home had to wage a desperate struggle against the scandalmongers. Fantastic stories began to circulate as soon as he left Paris, and while he was regaining his shattered health in Italy it was even rumored that he was in the prison of Mazas.

In Rome during the spring of 1858 Home was introduced to Count Koucheleff-Besborodka and his wife. Soon after he became engaged to Alexandrina de Kroll, the count's sister-inlaw. The wedding took place in St. Petersburg. It was a great society affair. Count Alexis Tolstoy, the poet, and Count Bobrinsky, a chamberlain to the emperor, acted as groomsmen. Alexandre Dumas, a guest of Count Koucheleff-Besborodka, was one of the witnesses.

Many of Dumas's fantastic stories about spirits entering into inanimate objects were derived from Home's mediumship. In Russia, as well as in many other countries, rumors circulated regarding Home's mysterious powers. For instance, it was said that a great number of cats slept with him and by this means his body became so charged with electricity that he could produce raps at pleasure! In Paris the favorite story was that he carried a trained monkey in his pocket to twitch dresses and shake hands during the séances. From chloroforming and magnetizing the sitters, to possessing a magic lantern, to hiring secret police to obtain information for the sittings—every sort of wild explanation was attempted. Yet none of them could match the inspired inanity of one woman who was reported to have said, "Lor, sirs, it's easy enough, he only rubs himself all over with a gold pencil first."

From Home's marriage to Alexandrina de Kroll a son was born. Shortly after Home returned to England, friends tried to bring about a meeting between him and Michael Faraday, the famous scientist and proponent of the involuntary muscular action theory to explain table movement. As the Morning Star reported, Faraday was not satisfied with demanding an open and complete examination, but wished Home to acknowledge that the phenomena, however produced, were ridiculous and contemptible. Thereafter, the idea of giving him a sitting was abandoned.

Home derived more satisfaction from his experiences with Dr. Ashburner, a royal physician, and John Elliotson, sometime president of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London, a character study of whom, as "Dr. Goodenough," was drawn by Thackeray in Pendennis, and to whom the work was dedicated. When Ashburner became a believer in Spiritualism, Elliotson, who was one of the hardest materialists, became estranged from him and publicly attacked him for his folly. A few years later, however, Home and Elliotson met in Dieppe. The result was a séance, a strict investigation, and the conversion of Elliotson. On his return to London he hastened to seek reconciliation with Ashburner and publicly declared that he was satisfied of the reality of the phenomena and that they were tending to revolutionize his thoughts and feelings.

Home's phenomena also radically changed Robert Chambers, coauthor, with Leitch Ritchie, of the anonymous Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844), which startled the public by its outspoken skepticism. Chambers attended the séance Robert Bell wrote about in Cornhill Magazine. He was too afraid of losing his reputation to make a public statement, although he allegedly received startling evidence of continued personal identity from his deceased father and daughter. Nevertheless, Chambers anonymously wrote the preface to Home's autobiography in 1862. Eight years later, during the Lyon-Home trial, he abandoned his attitude of reserve and gave an affidavit in Home's favor.

For a time during 1859 to 1860, Home gave frequent joint séances with the American medium J. R. M. Squire, an editor of the Boston Banner of Light. Squire was introduced to London society under Home's auspices and later in the year he was presented at court.

Home's wife died in July 1862. Six months later his book Incidents in My Life was published. It attracted widespread notice in the press. The Morning Herald remarked, "We must note also the strangeness of the fact that Mr. Home has never been detected, if indeed he is an imposter." The book sold very well and a second edition was published in a few months. This, however, did not relieve the money problems Home began to experience. Relatives disputed his right of inheritance to the fortune of his wife, and, looking about for a means of livelihood, he decided to develop his keen artistic perception. He hoped to become a sculptor and went to Rome to study.

The papal government, however, had not forgiven the breaking of his promise to enter a monastery. In January 1864 he was summoned before the chief of the Roman police and ordered, on the grounds of "sorcery," to leave Rome within three days. Home claimed the protection of the English consul, and the order of expulsion was suspended on his promise that, during his stay in Rome, he would have no séance and would avoid—as much as possible—all conversations about Spiritualism. Because the manifestations were beyond his control, however, he was soon ordered to quit the papal territory. He left for Naples, where he was received by Prince Humbert, and returned in April to London to demand diplomatic representations on the subject of his expulsion. There was a debate in the House of Commons, but no representation was agreed upon.

Soon after, Home made another trip to the United States, hoping to achieve success as a reader because he had talent as a stage reciter. His public rendering of Henry Howard Brownell's poems was very well received; on returning to Europe he continued this new career with a lecture on Spiritualism in London.

His health, however, could not stand the strain. Friends came to the rescue with the post of residential secretary at the foundation of the Spiritual Athenaeum, a kind of headquarters for London Spiritualists.

Then came the disastrous proposition of Jane Lyon, a wealthy widow, that she adopt Home, with the intention of securing his financial stability. Lyon took a fancy to Home and proposed to adopt him if he added her name to his own, in which case she was prepared to give him substantial wealth. Home assented and changed his name to Home-Lyon. Lyon transferred £60,000 to Home's account and drew up a will in his favor. Later she repented her action and sued him for the recovery of her money on the basis that she was influenced by spirit communications coming through Home from her late husband.

While the suit was in progress, an attempt was made against Home's life. He parried the blow of the assassin's stiletto with his hand, which was pierced. The fantastic stories that were circulated around this incident are best illustrated by a reminiscence in the New York World on the report of his death, in which the paper stated that Lyon had a false left hand and Home actually made her believe that by mediumistic power he could create life in the artificial limb.

Lord Adare, in his privately published Experiences in Spiritualism with D.D. Home (1869), covers most of Home's work for the period 1867 to 1869, including some 80 séances. In 1869 the London Dialectical Society appointed a committee for the investigation of Spiritualistic phenomena. The committee, before which Home appeared, had some of the most skeptical members of the society on its list, including atheist spokesman Charles Bradlaugh. Four séances were held, but because of Home's illness the manifestations did not extend beyond slight raps and movements of the table. The committee reported that nothing material had occurred, but added that "during the inquiry Mr. Home afforded every facility for examination."

In May 1871 Sir William Crookes began an investigation of Home and reached a very favorable opinion of what he saw. Before this investigation other important events took place in Home's life. He won the lawsuit for his deceased wife's fortune, became engaged to an aristocratic lady of wealth, and gave several séances in the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. During a lecture on Spiritualism he referred to some particulars of a séance held in the presence of a distinguished professor at the University of St. Petersburg. At the end of the lecture a Professor Boutlerof rose from his place and announced that he was the investigator to whom Home had referred. This dramatic scene was followed by an investigation by a committee from the university. The results were negative, since Home's powers were allegedly at an ebb because of recurring illness.

In 1872 Home published the second series of his Incidents in My Life, including the principal affidavits in the Lyon lawsuit, and in 1873 he published his Lights and Shadows of Spiritualism. His opinions on fraudulent mediumship and his protest against holding séances in the dark were bitterly resented by other mediums. They said that he had little experience of the powers of others.

Kate Fox Jencken, of the Fox sisters, was the only medium with whom he was friendly. On a few occasions he sat jointly with William Stainton Moses. After the first such sitting, on December 22, 1872, Moses wrote in his notebook: "Mr. D. D. Home is a striking-looking man. His head is a good one. He shaves his face with the exception of a moustache, and his hair is bushy and curly. He gives me the impression of an honest, good person whose intellect is not of high order. I had some talk with him, and the impression that I have formed of his intellectual ability is not high. He resolutely refuses to believe in anything that he has not seen for himself. For instance, he refuses to believe in the passage of matter through matter, and when pressed concludes the argument by saying 'I have never seen it.' He has seen the ring test, but oddly enough, does not see how it bears on the question. He accepts the theory of the return in rare instances of the departed, but believes with me that most of the manifestations proceed from a low order of spirits who hover near the earth sphere. He does not believe in Mrs. Guppy's passage through matter, nor in her honesty. He thinks that regular manifestations are not possible. Consequently he disbelieves in public mediums generally. He said he was thankful to know that his mantle had fallen on me, and urged me to prosecute the inquiry and defend the faith. He is a thoroughly good, honest, weak and very vain man, with little intellect, and no ability to argue, or defend his faith."

Home slowly broke with nearly all of his friends and spent most of his time on the Continent. In 1876 his death was falsely reported in the French press. He lived in declining health for ten more years and died on June 21, 1886. His grave is at St. Germain, Paris, and his tombstone is inscribed "To another discerning of Spirits." In the Canongate of Edinburgh there is a fountain erected to his memory. It is not known who erected it nor why it was placed opposite the Canongate Parish Church.

Evaluating Home's Work

Home demonstrated every known physical phenomenon of Spiritualism except apports and direct voice. He even possessed a latent faculty of direct voice. Faint whisperings were sometimes heard in his séances, but only of single words. He was mostly in a normal state during the phenomena but went into trance during the fire test, elongations, and occasionally during levitations.

The spirit teachings delivered through Home's mouth by his control were sometimes absurd. The control, criticizing the knowledge of scientists, said that the sun was covered with beautiful vegetation and was full of organic life. When Lord Adare asked, "Is not the sun hot?" the control answered "No, the sun is cold; the heat is produced and transmitted to the earth by the rays of light passing through various atmospheres."

Lord Adare, then earl of Dunraven, describes Home's character in the 1924 edition of Experiences in Spiritualism with D. D. Home:

"He had the defects of an emotional character, with vanity highly developed (perhaps wisely to enable him to hold his own against the ridicule and obloquy that was then poured out upon spiritualism and everyone connected with it). He was liable to fits of great depression and to nervous crisis difficult at first to understand; but he was withal of a simple, kindly, humorous, lovable disposition that appealed to me…. He never took money for séances, and séances failed as often as not. He was proud of his gift but not happy in it. He could not control it and it placed him sometimes in very unpleasant positions. I think he would have been pleased to have been relieved of it, but I believe he was subject to these manifestations as long as he lived."

Sir William Crookes summed up his opinion as follows: "During the whole of my knowledge of D. D. Home, extending for several years, I never once saw the slightest occurrence that would make me suspicious that he was attempting to play tricks. He was scrupulously sensitive on this point, and never felt hurt at anyone taking precautions against deception…. To those who knew him Home was one of the most lovable of men and his perfect genuineness and uprightness were beyond suspicion…."

Frank Podmore, a most skeptical psychical researcher, said of Home: "A remarkable testimony to Home's ability whether as medium or simply as conjurer, is the position which he succeeded in maintaining in society at this time [1861] and indeed throughout his later life, and the respectful treatment accorded to him by many leading organs of the Press. No money was ever taken by him as the price of a sitting; and he seemed to have had the entree to some of the most aristocratic circles in Europe. He was welcomed in the houses of our own and of foreign nobility, was a frequent guest at the Tuilleries, and had been received by the King of Prussia and the Czar. So strong, indeed, was his position that he was able to compel an ample apology from a gentleman who had publicly expressed doubts of his mediumistic performance (Capt. Noble in the Sussex Advertiser of March 23, 1864) and to publish a violent and spiteful attack upon Browning on the occasion of the publication of Sludge (Spiritual Magazine, 1864, p. 315). His expulsion from Rome in 1864 on the charge of sorcery gave to Home for the time an international importance."

Podmore added: "Home was never publicly exposed as an imposter; there is no evidence of any weight that he was even privately detected in trickery."

Between the publication of his Modern Spiritualism in 1902 and The Newer Spiritualism in 1910, Podmore nevertheless succeeded in unearthing a single piece of so-called evidence of imposture in a letter from a Mr. Merrifield, dated August 1855 and printed in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research (1903), in which the writer claims to have noticed that the medium's body or shoulder sank or rose in concordance with the movements of a spirit hand and to have seen afterward "the whole connection between the medium's shoulder and arm and the spirit hand dressed out on the end of his own." This highly speculative statement was sufficient for Podmore to proceed to talk of Home as a practiced conjurer who dictated his own conditions in the experiments and produced his feats by trickery. The only admission Podmore made was that "we don't quite see how some of the things were done and we leave the subject with an almost painful sense of bewilderment."

Long after Home's death various writers speculated on how Home's feats might have been achieved by trickery, imputing that there must have been trickery. It is generally conceded that Home was never detected in trickery.

Attempts were also made to discredit Home's unfortunate association with Jane Lyon and to suggest that Home tried to take advantage of a wealthy widow. But the evidence suggests that Home was pressured by a foolish and unstable woman. Her claim that Home used undue influence "from the spirit world" is refuted by her transferring allegiance to a Miss Nicholls, another medium, at the time she reneged on her commitment to Home. It was also claimed that Lyon wanted Home to be "something nearer than an adopted son," and her change of heart stemmed from his repulsing her advances.

As far as Browning's spiteful attack in "Mr. Sludge, the Medium" is concerned, the veteran psychical researcher E. J. Dingwall suggests in his book Some Human Oddities (1947) that Home might have given the impression of latent homosexual tendencies, which might have incensed Browning.

Home remains an enigma. He was never caught in fraud but accomplished things far beyond that which even contemporary scientific opinion admits are possible. He operated at a time when numerous others where doing similar things and were caught in fraud, often after successfully deceiving many learned and seemingly competent observers. There are two possibilities: he was either a very unusual person, capable of doing the phenomenal things reported of him, or he was one of the most clever frauds in the history of humanity. We may never know which one he was.

Sources:

Adare, Viscount. Experiences in Spiritualism with D. D. Home. U.K.: Privately printed, 1869. Reprint, London: Society for Psychical Research, 1924.

Alexander, Patrick P. Spiritualism: A Narrative with a Discussion. Edinburgh, Scotland, 1871.

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. Letters to her Sister, 1846-1859. Edited by Laura Huxley. London: John Murray, 1929. Reprint, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1930.

Burton, Jean. Heyday of a Wizard: Daniel Home the Medium. London: George G. Harrap, 1948.

Chevalier, J. C. Experiments in Spiritualism; or, The Adjuration of Spirits, by a late member of Mr. Home's Spiritual Athenaeum. London, 1867.

Cox, Edward W. Spiritualism Answered by Science. London, 1871.

Crookes, William. Research in the Phenomena of Spiritualism. London: J. Burns, 1874. Reprint, London and Manchester, 1926.

Dingwall, E. J. Some Human Oddities. London: Home and Van Thal, 1947. Reprint, New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1962.

Gordon, Mrs. M. M. The Home Life of Sir David Brewster. Edinburgh, Scotland, 1869, 1870.

Home, D. D. Incidents in My Life. London: Longman, Green, 1863. 2nd series. New York: A. K. Butts, 1874. Reprint, New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1972.

Jenkins, Elizabeth. The Shadow and the Light: A Defence of Daniel Dunglas Home, the Medium. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1982.

Medhurst, R. G., ed. Crookes and the Spirit World. London: Souvenir Press; New York; Taplinger, 1972.

Molloy, J. Fitzgerald. The Romance of Royalty. London, 1904.

Pleasants, Helene, ed. Biographical Dictionary of Parapsychology. New York: Helix Press, 1964.

Porter, Katherine H. Through a Glass Darkly: Spiritualism in the Browning Circle. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1958.

Rymer, J. Snaith. "Spirit Manifestations." A lecture presented in London, 1857.

Stein, Gordon. Encyclopedia of Hoaxes. Detroit: Gale Research, 1993.

Verax [J. J. Garth Wilkinson]. Evenings with Mr. Hume and the Spirits. Keighley, England, 1855.

Wyndham, Horace. Mr. Sludge: The Medium. London: G. Bles, 1937.

Daniel Dunglas Home
Daniel Dunglas Home (pronounced "Hume")
Born	20 March 1833(1833-03-20) Currie, Scotland
Died	21 June 1886 (aged 53)
Occupation	clairvoyant, medium, psychic
Spouse(s)	Alexandria de Kroll (m. 1858–1862) «start: (1858)–end+1: (1863)»"Marriage: Alexandria de Kroll to Daniel Dunglas Home" Location: (linkback:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Dunglas_Home) and Julie de Gloumeline (m. 1871) «start: (1871)»"Marriage: and Julie de Gloumeline to Daniel Dunglas Home" Location: (linkback:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Dunglas_Home)
Children	Gregoire
Parents	William and Elizabeth Home (née McNeill)

Daniel Dunglas Home (pronounced 'Hume') (March 20, 1833 – June 21, 1886) was a Scottish Spiritualist, famous as a physical medium with the reported ability to levitate to a variety of heights, speak with the dead, and to produce rapping and knocks in houses at will.

When Home was young, he moved with his aunt and uncle from Scotland to America, where they lived in Connecticut. After becoming well-known he travelled to England in 1855, and conducted hundreds of séances, which were attended by many of the best-known names of the Victorian period.

There were speculations and one eyewitness account by Mr. F. Merrifield in the Journal of Psychical Research describing the conjuring methods and fraud that Home employed.^[1][2][3] He died in France in 1886, and was buried in the St. Germain-en-Laye cemetery in Paris.

Contents 1 Family 2 Early life 2.1 America 2.2 Fame 3 Europe 4 Acceptance and criticism 5 Notes 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External links

Family

Daniel Home's mother, Elizabeth ("Betsy") Home (née McNeill) was known as a seer in Scotland, as were many of her predecessors, like her great uncle Colin Uruqhart, and her uncle Mr. McKenzie. The gift of second sight was often seen as a curse, as it foretold instances of tragedy and death.^[4][5] Home's father, William Home, was the illegitimate son of Alexander, the 10th Earl of Home.^[4] Evidence supports the elder Home's illegitimacy, as various payments meant for William were made by the 10th Earl.^[6] Elizabeth and William were married when he was 19-years-old, and found employment at the Balerno paper mill. The Homes moved into one of small houses built in the mill for the workforce, in Currie (six miles south-west of Edinburgh).^[7] William was described as a "bitter, morose and unhappy man" who drank, and was often aggressive towards his wife.^[7] Elizabeth had eight children while living in the mill house: six sons and two daughters, although their lives were not fully recorded. The eldest, John, later worked in the Balerno mill and eventually managed a paper mill in Philadelphia, Mary drowned in a stream at 12-years-old in 1846, and Adam died at sea at the age of seventeen while on route to Greenland, which Home saw in a vision, and was confirmed five months later.^[8][9]

Early life

Daniel Home was Elizabeth's third child, and was born on 20 March 1833. He was baptised by the Reverend Mr. Somerville three weeks after his birth at Currie Parish Church(14 April 1833).^[10] The one-year-old Home was deemed a delicate child, having a "nervous temperament", and was passed to Elizabeth's childless sister, Mary Cook. She lived with her husband in the coastal town of Portobello, 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Edinburgh.^[11] It was at the Cook's house that Home's cradle rocked by itself and the infant had a vision of a cousin's death, who lived in Linlithgow, to the west of Edinburgh.^[12][13]

America

Home was known for his love of fanfare and show, as evidenced in this staged photograph in which he ponders a skull.

Sometime between 1838 and 1841, Home's aunt and uncle decided to emigrate to the United States with their adopted son, sailing in the cheapest class of steerage as they could not afford a cabin.^[14] After landing in New York, the Cooks travelled to Greeneville, near Norwich, Connecticut.^[15] The red-haired and freckled Home attended school in Greeneville, where he was known as "Scotchy" by the other students.^[16] 13-years-old Home did not join in sports games with other boys, preferring to take walks in the local woods with a friend called Edwin. The two boys read the Bible to each other and told stories, and made a pact stating that if one or the other were to die, they would try and make contact after death.^[16] Home and his aunt soon moved to Troy, NY, which is about 155 miles (249 km) from Greeneville, although Home in his own book stated it was 300 miles (480 km) away.^[17] Home lost contact with Edwin until one night when Home, according to Lamont, saw a brightly lit vision of him standing at the foot of the bed, which gave Home the feeling that his friend was dead. Edwin made three circles in the air before disappearing, and a few days later a letter arrived stating that Edwin had died of malignant dysentery, which was three days before Home's vision.^[18]

A few years later Home and his aunt returned to Greeneville, and Elizabeth Home emigrated from Scotland to America with the surviving members of the family to live in Waterford, Connecticut, which was 12 miles (19 km) away from the Cook's house.^[19] Home and his mother's reunion was short-lived, as Elizabeth foretold her own death in 1850. This was also confirmed by Home, as he saw his mother in a vision saying, "Dan, twelve o'clock", which was the time of her death.^[8][19] After Elizabeth's death Home turned to religion.^[20] His aunt was a Presbyterian, and held the Calvinist view that one's fate has been decided, so Home embraced the Wesleyan faith, which believed that every soul can be saved.^[21] Home's aunt resented Wesleyans so much that she forced Home to change to Congregationalist, which was not to her liking, either, but was more in line with her own religion.^[22] The house was then disturbed by rappings and knocking similar to those that occurred two years earlier at the home of the Fox sisters. Ministers were called to the Cook's house: a Baptist, a Congregationalist, and even a Wesleyan minister, who all believed that Home was possessed by the Devil, although Home believed it was a gift from God.^[23] The knocking did not stop however, and a table started to move by itself, even though Home's aunt put a bible on it and then placed her full body weight on it.^[24][25] As the noises did not stop, and were attracting the unwanted attention of Cook's neighbours, Home was told to leave the house.^[26]

Fame

William Cullen Bryant, a poet, and editor of the New York Evening Post, who witnessed one of Home's séances.

The eighteen-year-old Home stayed with a friend in Willimantic, Connecticut, and later Lebanon, Connecticut. Home held his first séance in March 1851, which was reported in a Hartford newspaper managed by W. R. Hayden, who wrote that the table moved without anyone touching it, and kept moving when Hayden physically tried to stop it.^[27][28] After the newspaper report, Home became well-known in New England, travelling around healing the sick and communicating with the dead, although he wrote that he was not prepared for this sudden change in his life because of his supposed shyness.^[29]

Home never directly asked for money, although he lived very well on gifts, donations and lodging from wealthy admirers. He felt that he was on a "mission to demonstrate immortality", and wished to interact with his clients as one gentleman to another, rather than as an employee.^[30][31] In 1852, Home was a guest at the house of Rufus Elmer in Springfield, Massachusetts, giving séances six or seven times a day, which were visited by crowds of people, including a Harvard professor, David Wells, and the poet and editor of the New York Evening Post, William Cullen Bryant. They were all convinced of Home's credibility and wrote to the Springfield Republican newspaper stating that the room was well-lit, full inspections were allowed, and said, "We know that we were not imposed upon nor deceived".^[32] It was also reported that at one of Home's demonstrations five men of heavy build (eight hundred and fifty pounds together) sat on a table, but it still moved, and others saw "a tremulous phosphorescent light gleam over the walls".^[33] Home was investigated by numerous people, such as Professor Robert Hare, the inventor of the oxy-hydrogen blowpipe, and John Worth Edmonds, a Supreme Court judge, who were sceptical, but later said they believed Home was not fraudulent.^[33][34] Home's breakthrough came in August 1852, in South Manchester, Connecticut, at the house of Ward Cheney, a successful silk manufacturer. Home was seen to levitate twice and then rise to up to the ceiling, with louder rappings and knocking than ever before, more aggressive table movements and the sounds of a ship at sea in a storm, although persons present said that the room was badly lit so as to see the spirit lights.^[35][36]

The levitation at Ward Cheney's house interpreted in a lithograph from Louis Figuier, Les Mystères de la science 1887

New York was now interested in Home's abilities, so he moved to an apartment at Bryant Park on 42nd street. His most verbal critic in New York was William Makepeace Thackeray, the author of 'Vanity Fair'. Thackeray dismissed Home's abilities as "dire humbug", and "dreary and foolish superstition", although Thackeray had been impressed when he saw a table turning.^[37] Home thought that Thackeray was "the most sceptical inquirer" he had ever met, and as Thackeray made public his thoughts, Home faced public scepticism and further scrutiny.^[38] Home travelled between Hartford, Springfield, and Boston during the next few months, and settled in Newburgh by the Hudson River in the summer of 1853.^[39] He resided at the Theological Institute, but took no part in any of the theological discussions held there, as he wanted to take a course in medicine. Dr. Hull funded Home's studies, and offered to pay Home five dollars a day for his séances, but Home refused, as always.^[40] His idea was to fund his work with a legitimate salary by practicing medicine, but he became ill in early 1854, and stopped his studies. Home was diagnosed with Tuberculosis, and his doctors recommended recuperation in Europe. His last séance was in March 1855, in Hartford, Connecticut, before he travelled to Boston and sailed to England on board the Africa, at the end of March.^[41]

Europe

Home's name was originally Daniel Home, but by the time he arrived in Europe he had lengthened it to Daniel Dunglas Home, in reference to the Scottish house of Home, of which his father claimed to be a part.^[42] In London Home found a believer in spiritualism, William Cox, who owned a large hotel at 53, 54 and 55 Jermyn Street, London. As Cox was so enamoured of Home's abilities, he let Home stay at the hotel without payment.^[43] Robert Owen, an 83-year-old social reformer, was also staying at the hotel, and introduced Home to many of his friends in London society.^[44] At the time Home described as tall and thin, with blue eyes and auburn hair, fastidiously dressed but seriously ill with consumption. Nevertheless, he held sittings for notable people in full daylight, moving objects that were some distance away.^[45] Some early guests at Home's sittings included the scientist Sir David Brewster, the novelists Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton and Thomas Adolphus Trollope, and the Swedenborgian James John Garth Wilkinson.^[30] Home converted most sceptics, but Robert Browning, the poet, proved more difficult. After attending a séance of Home's Browning gave his impression of Home in the unflattering poem, "Sludge the Medium" (1864). His wife, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, was convinced that the phenomena she witnessed was genuine and their discussions about Home were a constant source of disagreement.^[46]

Robert Browning, who wrote "Sludge the Medium" about Home.

Home's fame grew, fuelled by his feats of levitation. William Crookes claimed to know of more than 50 occasions in which Home levitated "in good light" (gas light) at least five to seven feet above the floor.^[47] Homes' feats were recorded by Frank Podmore: "We all saw him rise from the ground slowly to a height of about six inches, remain there for about ten seconds, and then slowly descend."^[48] In the following years Home travelled across continental Europe, and always as a guest of wealthy patrons. In Paris, he was summoned to the Tuileries to perform a séance for Napoleon III. Home also performed for Queen Sophia of the Netherlands, who wrote: "I saw him four times...I felt a hand tipping my finger; I saw a heavy golden bell moving alone from one person to another; I saw my handkerchief move alone and return to me with a knot... He himself is a pale, sickly, rather handsome young man but without a look or anything which would either fascinate or frighten you. It is wonderful. I am so glad I have seen it..."^[49]

In 1866, Mrs Lyon, a wealthy widow, adopted Home as her son, giving him £60,000 in an attempt to gain introduction into high society. Finding that the adoption did not change her social situation, Lyon changed her mind, and brought a suit for the return of her money from Home on the grounds that it had been obtained by spiritual influence. Under British law, the defendant bears the burden of proof in such a case, and proof was impossible since there was no physical evidence. The case was decided against Home, Mrs Lyon's money was returned, and the press pilloried Home's reputation. Home's high society acquaintances thought that he behaved like a complete gentleman throughout the ordeal, and he did not lose a single important friend.^[50]

Home met one of his future closest friends in 1867; the young Lord Adare (later the 4th Earl of Dunraven). Adare was fascinated by Home, and began documenting the seances they held. One of Home's levitations occurred the following year, and in front of three witnesses (Adare, Captain Wynne, and Lord Lindsay) Home was said to have levitated out of the third storey window of one room, and back in through the window of the adjoining room.^[51]

Home married twice. His Best man was the writer Alexandre Dumas. In 1858, he married Alexandria de Kroll, the 17-year-old daughter of a noble Russian family. They had a son, Gregoire, but Alexandria fell ill with tuberculosis, and died in 1862. In October 1871, Home married for the second, and last time, to Julie de Gloumeline, a wealthy Russian, whom he met in St Petersburg. In the process, he converted to the Greek Orthodox faith. At the age of 38, Home retired, as his health was bad – the tuberculosis, from which he had suffered for most of his life, was advancing –and his powers, he claimed, were failing. He died on the 21 June 1886, and was buried in the St. Germain-en-Laye cemetery.^[52]

Acceptance and criticism

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who witnessed Home's mediumship and detailed the four individual types Home possessed.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stated that Home was unusual in that he had four different types of mediumship: direct voice (the ability to let spirits audibly speak); trance speaker (the ability to let spirits speak through oneself); clairvoyant (ability to see things that are out of view); and physical medium (moving objects at a distance, levitation, etc., which was the type of mediumship had no equal).^[53] Home was suspicious of any medium who claimed powers he himself did not possess, particularly the materializing mediums (such as the Eddy Brothers), who claimed the ability to produce solid spirit forms, and he marked these as fraudulent.^[53] Since materializing mediums always work in darkened places, Home urged that all séances be held in the light.^[53] Home, in his 1877 book Lights and Shadows of Spiritualism, detailed the conjuring tricks employed by false mediums.^[54]

Lord Adare stated that Home "swung out and in" of a window in a horizontal position.^[55] "He [Home] came in [through the window] again, feet foremost, and we returned to the other room. It was so dark I could not see clearly how he was supported" [outside of the three story window].^[56] Podmore recorded that Home had a constant companion that sat opposite of him during his séances.^[57] A lady acted as a medium and used to help Home during the seances attended by Henrietta Ada Ward.^[58] Between 1870 and 1873, Crookes conducted experiments to determine the validity of the phenomena produced by three mediums: Florence Cook, Kate Fox, and Home. Crookes' final report in 1874 concluded that the phenomena produced by all three mediums were genuine, a result which was roundly derided by the scientific establishment.^[59] Crookes recorded that he controlled and secured Home by placing his feet on the top of Home's feet.^[60] Crooke's method of foot control later proved inadequate when used with Eusapia Palladino, as she merely slipped her foot out and in of her sturdy shoe. Alexander von Boutlerow, Professor of Chemistry at the University of St. Petersburg and Home's brother-in-law, also obtained positive results in his tests of Home.^[61]

Frank Podmore and Milbourne Christopher provide a source of speculation on the ways in which Home could have duped his sitters.^[62][63][64] Some testimony suggests that Home often conducted his demonstrations in dim light. For example, there is this report from a witness: "The room was very dark...Home's hands were visible only as a faint white heap".^[65] The light conditions during Home's most famous feat of levitation were disputed, but some witnesses recorded that it was quite dark. Gordon Stein speculated on the deception of Crookes' testing devices (with diagrams) and gave a third-hand account of Home being caught with a vial of oil of Phosphorus. During a Crookes test when Home "is not touching with his hands." there are objects just lying beneath his hands that his fingertips are touching, a small match box and a small bell. The measuring arm of Crookes' gauge does not exactly "move." It trembles.^[66][67] It was reported by sitters and Crookes Home's accordion played only two pieces, Home Sweet Home and The Last Rose of Summer. Both contain only one-octave. Home played his accordion with only one hand beneath a table. ^[67] James Randi stated that Home was caught cheating on a few occasions, but the episodes were never made public, and that the accordion Home is supposed to have played was a one-octave mouth organ that Home concealed under his large moustache. Randi writes that one-octave mouth organs were found in Home's belongings after his death.^[68] According to Randi 'around 1960' William Lindsay Gresham told Randi he had seen these mouth organs in the Home collection at the Society for Psychical Research. ^[69] Eric Dingwall^[70] who catalogued Home's collection on its arrival at the SPR does not record the presence of the mouth organs. It is unlikely Dingwall would have missed these or did not make them public.^[69]

Notes

1. ^ F.W.H. Meyers and W. Barrett,D.D. Home, His Life and Mission, Journal of the Society fo Psychical Research 4(July 1889) Appendix D, pages 121-122
2. ^ .Merrifield statement appears as A Sitting With D. D. Home, Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 11 (May 1903): pages 76-80
3. ^ The Sorcerer of Kings by Gordon Stein, Ph.D, Prometheus Books, pages 101-102 and page 126
4. ^ ^{a b} Lamont 2005 p5
5. ^ Home “Incidents in my Life” 1863 p22
6. ^ Journal of the Society For Psychical Research, vol 70, no.4, 246-48
7. ^ ^{a b} Lamont 2005 p6
8. ^ ^{a b} Home “Incidents in my Life” 1863 p20
9. ^ Home “Incidents in my Life” 1863 p30
10. ^ Lamont 2005 pp6-7
11. ^ "Altered Dimensions". SparTech Software. http://www.spartechsoftware.com/dimensions/mystical/DanielHome.htm. Retrieved 2008-01-03. 
12. ^ Lamont 2005 p8
13. ^ Home “Incidents in my Life” 1863 p17
14. ^ Lamont 2005 p13
15. ^ Hoare, Philip (2005-09-10). "A talent for ectoplasm". The Guardian. http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/books/story/0,10595,1566310,00.html. Retrieved 2008-01-05. 
16. ^ ^{a b} Lamont 2005 p14
17. ^ Home “Incidents in my Life” 1863 pp18-19
18. ^ Lamont 2005 p15
19. ^ ^{a b} Lamont 2005 p16
20. ^ Fodor, Nandor. "News and articles on Mediumship Psi and survival". Survival after death. http://www.survivalafterdeath.org.uk/mediums/home.htm. Retrieved 2008-01-05. 
21. ^ Lamont 2005 pp16-17
22. ^ Lamont 2005 p17
23. ^ Lamont 2005 p18
24. ^ Lamont 2005 p19
25. ^ Home “Incidents in my Life” 1863 p25
26. ^ Lamont 2005 p20
27. ^ Lamont 2005 pp28-29
28. ^ Home “Incidents in my Life” 1863 pp26-27
29. ^ Lamont 2005 pp29-30
30. ^ ^{a b} Doyle “The History of Spiritualism” volume 1, 1926 pp186-190
31. ^ Home “Incidents in my Life” 1863 p62
32. ^ Lamont 2005 pp30-31
33. ^ ^{a b} Lamont 2005 p31
34. ^ Griffin, A. M.. "Experiences of Judge J. W. Edmonds, in Spirit Life. With a Poem, "The Home of the Spirit."". Mrs. Cora L. V. Tappan, 1876. http://www.assumption.edu/whw/Hatch/EdmondsInSpiritLife.html. Retrieved 2008-01-06. 
35. ^ Lamont 2005 pp31-33
36. ^ Home “Incidents in my Life” 1863 pp62-63
37. ^ Lamont 2005 p37
38. ^ Lamont 2005 pp34-35
39. ^ Lamont 2005 p35
40. ^ Home “Incidents in my Life” 1863 pp70-71
41. ^ Lamont 2005 p36
42. ^ Lamont 2005 pp36-37
43. ^ Lamont 2005 p43
44. ^ Lamont 2005 pp43-44
45. ^ Doyle “The History of Spiritualism” volume 1, 1926 pp188-192
46. ^ Lamont 2005 p50
47. ^ Doyle “The History of Spiritualism” volume 1, 1926 p196
48. ^ Podmore “Mediums of the Nineteenth Century, Part 1.” 2003 p254
49. ^ Een Vreemdelinge in Den Haag, Hella Haasse, 1984
50. ^ Doyle “The History of Spiritualism” volume 1, 1926 pp207-209
51. ^ Doyle “The History of Spiritualism” volume 1, 1926 pp196-197
52. ^ Lamont, 2005 p. 222-223
53. ^ ^{a b c} Doyle “The History of Spiritualism” volume 1, 1926 pp204-205
54. ^ This book contains no discussion of the making of raps and fire-proofing oneself. Explanations for creating raps and fire-proofing oneself can be found in Revelations of a Spirit Medium by Harry Price and Eric J. Dingwall, Arno Press, 1975 reprint of 1891 edition by Charles F. Pidgeon. This rare, overlooked, and forgotten, book gives the "insider's knowledge" of 19th century deceptions.
55. ^ Adare “Experiences in Spiritualism” 1976 p82
56. ^ Adare “Experiences in Spiritualism” 1976 p83
57. ^ Podmore “Mediums of the Nineteenth Century, Part 1.” 2003 p45
58. ^ Memories of Nintey Years by Mrs E. M. Ward (Henrietta Mary Ada Ward), Henry Holt,2nd edition, 1925, page 102
59. ^ Doyle “The History of Spiritualism” volume 1, 1926 pp230-251
60. ^ Crookes 1874
61. ^ Lamont 2005 p222
62. ^ Christopher “ESP,Seer & Psychics: What the Occult Really Is” 1971 pp174-187
63. ^ Doyle “The History of Spiritualism” volume 1, 1926 p207
64. ^ Milbourne “ESP,Seer & Psychics: What the Occult Really Is” 1971 pp174-187
65. ^ Podmore “Mediums of the Nineteenth Century, Part 1.” 2003 p233
66. ^ The Sorcerer of Kings by Gordon Stein, Prometheus Books, 1993
67. ^ ^{a b} The Spiritualists: The Passion for the Occult in the Nineteeth and Twentieth Centuries by Ruth Brandon, Alfred A. Knopf, 1983,
68. ^ Randi, James. "An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural". James Randi Educational Foundation. http://www.randi.org/encyclopedia/Home,%20Daniel%20Dunglas.html. Retrieved 2008-01-05. 
69. ^ ^{a b} Lamont 2005 p 302
70. ^ Eric Dingwall

References

• Adare, Viscount (1976). Experiences in Spiritualism With Mr D D Home. Ayer Co Pub. ISBN 9780405079375. 
• Christopher, Milbourne (1971) ESP,Seer & Psychics: What the Occult Really Is. Thomas Y. Crowell Company ASIN: B000O8Z6AC
• Crookes, William. 1874. "Notes of an Enquiry into the Phenomena called Spiritual during the Years 1870-1873." Quarterly Journal of Science. link
• Doyle, Arthur Conan (1926). The History of Spiritualism, Volume 1 Volume 2. New York: G.H. Doran. ISBN 1-4101-0243-2. 
• Home, Daniel Dunglas (2005). Incidents in My Life link. Adamant Media Corporation. ISBN 9781402159299. 
• Home, Daniel Dunglas (2007). Lights and Shadows of Spiritualism. Cosimo Classics. ISBN 9781602068179. 
• Lamont, Peter (2005). The First Psychic: The Extraordinary Mystery of a Notorious Victorian Wizard. Abacus. ISBN 0349118256. 
• Oppenheim, Janet (1988). The Other World: Spiritualism and physical research in England, 1850-1914 link. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521347679. 
• Podmore, Frank (2003). Mediums of the Nineteenth Century, Part 1. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 9780766128538. 
• Podmore, Frank (2003). The Newer Spiritualism. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 978-0766163362. 

Further reading

• Mediums, Mystics and the Occult by Milbourne Christopher, Thomas Crowell, 1975
• Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women by Ricky Jay, Villard Books, 1987; See pages 37–42, Photos on page 40.
• Revelations of a Spirit Medium by Harry Price and Eric J. Dingwall, Arno Press, 1975 reprint of 1891 edition by Charles F. Pidgeon. This rare, overlooked, and forgotten, book gives the "insider's knowledge" of 19th century deceptions
• Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death by Deborah Blum, Penguin Press, 2006; Briefly discusses Home's career and the scientific investigation of his abilities, in the larger context of the 19th century and the scientific inquiry into life beyond death.

External links

• Experiences In Spiritualism with D. D. Home - Lord Adare's report of Home's seances, sadly incomplete, PDF format
• Home, Daniel Dunglas - An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural by James Randi
• Daniel D. Home, the Celebrated Medium
• Map location of Currie and Balerno, near Edinburgh

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