The Conjurer and Conan Doyle
The Conjurer and Conan Doyle is an article written by James Douglas published in the Daily Express on 9 december 1921.
Spook Spoof at Cambridge
By James Douglas.
Editor of the "Sunday Express."
Nearly all men of science admit that the claims of the new psychical research must be recognised by the open-minded as freely as the claims of the new psychology known as psycho-analysis. I am not a man of science, but it is my business as a journalist to signal from my watch-tower all the movements of the soul of man. For some weeks I have been studying some aspects of the vast and complex mystery of psychic phenomena. I was puzzled by the persistence of spirit photography in spite of the derision heaped upon it.
The most famous spirit photographer in this country is Mr. William Hope, of Crewe. He has been photographing spirits for seventeen years with the help of Mrs. Buxton. They are known as the "Crewe Circle." Bereaved persons travel to Crewe from all parts of the country in the hope of obtaining photographs of those they have loved and lost. Mr. Hope and Mrs. Buxton pay visits to London and to the principal provincial cities in order to give sittings. The spirit photograph is called an "extra" because it appears on the negative beside the person or persons who sit for the photograph.
RECOGNITION.
Hundreds of these "extras" have been reproduced, and many of them have been recognised by the sitters as portraits of dead relatives or friends. Mr. Hope delivers a lecture and exhibits specimens of his "extras" on lantern slides, together with facsimiles of the letters he has received from sitters. He is uneducated. He is homely. He is humorous. He is simple. He is religious. He seems quite artless and sincere. Altogether, he is an amazing character.
He photographed Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and myself at the British College of Psychic Science. On the negative was found a rather dim "extra," which was published in the "Sunday Express." In order to discover whether an "extra" could be produced by a normal process I invited any expert to endeavour to do so under the same conditions. Last Monday, at the College, in the presence of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, myself, and four other witnesses, the experiment "was carried out by Mr. William Marriott, a professional conjuror.
HOW IS IT DONE?
The critics were there in force. If the conjuror had "anything up his sleeve" his audience were going to find it out.
Two "extras" were produced. One of them appears upon a photograph of Sir Arthur and myself. The other appears upon a photograph of Sir Arthur alone. These photographs will be published in the next issue of the "Sunday Express."
How was it done?
Are the methods of Mr. Marriott the methods of Mr. Hope?
How will the spiritualists explain it?
Sir Arthur will give his conclusions in this week's "Sunday Express." So will Mr. J. Howat McKenzie, the Resident Principal of the College. So will Mr. Marriott. So will I . We were all there and saw what we saw.
