Speaker 1: Photographing Invisible Beings by William T. Stead. It was during
the South African War that my father obtained one of
his best authenticated spirit photographs. So I think that it
is well to give here his own account of his
experiments in that direction, he writes, while recording the results
at which I have arrived, I wish to repudiate any
desire to dogmatize as to their significance or their origin.
I merely record the facts, and although I may indicate
conclusions in inferences which I have drawn from them, I
attach no importance to anything but the facts themselves. There
is living in London at the present moment, an old
man of seventy one years of age, a man of
no education. He can write, but he cannot spell, and
he has for many years earned his living as a photographer.
He was always in a small way of business, a
quiet and offensive man who brought up his family respectively
and lived in peace with his neighbors, attracting no particular remark.
When he started in business as a photographer. It was
in the days when the wet process was almost universal,
and he was much annoyed by finding that when he
exposed plates other forms than that of the sitter would
appear in the background. So many plates were spoiled by
these unwelcome intruders that his partner became very angry and
insist that the plates had not been washed before they
were used. He protested this was not so, and asked
his partner to bring a packet of completely new plates
with which he would take a photograph and see what
was the result. His partner accepted the challenge and produced
a plate with which had never previously been used. But
when the portrait of the next sitter was taken, there
appeared a shadow form in the background. Angry and frightened
at this unwelcome appearance, he flung the plates to the
ground with an oath, and from that time, for very
many years he was never again troubled by the occurrence
of a similar phenomena. About ten years ago, he became
interested in spiritualism, and to his surprise and also to
his regret, the shadow figures began to reappear on the
background of the photographs. He repeatedly had to destroy negatives
and ask his customer to give him another sitting. It
did his business harm, and in order to avoid this annoyance,
he left most of the photography to his son. I
happened to hear of these curious experiences of his and
sought him out. I found him very reluctant to speak
about the matter. He said, frankly, he did not know
how the figures came. It had been a great annoyance
to him, and it gave his shop a bad name.
He did not wish anything to be said about the matter.
In deference, however, to repeat it. Pressing on my part,
he consented to make experiments with me, and I had,
at various times a considerable number of sittings. At first
I brought my own plates half plate size. He allowed
me to place them in his slide in the dark room,
to put them in the camera, which I was allowed
to turn and side out, and after they were exposed,
I was permitted to go into the dark room and
develop them in his presence. Under these conditions, I repeatedly
obtained pictures of persons who were certainly not visible to me.
In the studio, I was allowed to do almost anything
that I pleased, to alter the background, to change the
position of the camera, to sit at any angle that
I chose, in short, to act as if the studio
in all belonging to it was my own, and I
repeatedly obtained what the old photographer called shadow pictures, but
none of them bore any resemblance to any person whom
I had known In all these earlier experiments. The photographer,
whom I will call mister B made no charge, and
the only request that he made was that I should
not publish his name or do anything to let his
neighbors know of the curious shadow pictures which were obtainable
in his studio. After a time, I was so thoroughly
satisfied that the shadow photographs or spirit forms were not
produced by any fraud on the part of the photographer,
that I did not trouble to bring my own marked plates.
I allowed him to use his own, and to do
all the work of loading the slide and of developing
the plate without my assistance or supervision. What I wanted
was to see whether it would be possible for me
to obtain a photograph of any person known to me
in life who has passed over to the other side
the production of one such picture, if the person was
unknown to the photographer and he had no means of
obtaining the photograph of the original while on Earth, seemed
to me so much better a test of the geniusness
of the phenomena that could be secured by any amount
of personal supervision of the process of photography, that I
left him to operate without interference. The results he obtained
when left to himself were precisely the same as those
when the slides passed only through my own hands. But
although I obtained a great variety of portraits of unknown persons,
I got none whom I could recognize. In a conversation
with mister b as to how these shadow of pictures,
as he called them, came on the plate, I found
him almost as much at sea as myself. He said
that he did not know how they came, but that
he had noticed that they came more frequently and with
greater distinctness at some times than at others. He could
never say beforehand whether they would come or not. He
frequently informed me when my sitting began that he could
guarantee nothing, and often the set of plates would bear
no trace of any portrait to save mine. He was
very reluctant to continue the experiments, and used to complain
that after exposing four plates with a view to obtaining
such pictures, he felt quite exhausted, and sometimes he complained
that his ERDs seemed to be turned upside down, to
use his own phrase. I usually sat with him between
two and three in the afternoon, and on the days
which I came, he always obstinated from the usual glass
of beer which he took with his midday meal. If
I came unexpectedly and he had had a single glass
of beer, which formed his usual beverage, he would always
assure me that I need not expect any good results. I, however,
never found any particular difference in the results. We often
discussed the matter together, and he was evidently working out
a theory of his own, as any one might under
such circumstances. He knew that when he was excited or irritated,
he got bad results. Hence he often used to keep
a music box going, for the music, in his opinion,
tended to set up good and tranquil conditions. He said,
he thought something must come out of him. What he
did not know, but something was taken out of him.
And with this something, he thought, the entities, whoever they were,
built themselves up and acquired sufficient substance to reflect the
rays of light, so as to impress the sensitive plates
in his camera. He also thought that his old camera
had become what he called magnetized, and although it was
an old fashioned piece of furniture, which I not only
examined myself, but had examined by expert photographers, nothing could
be discovered within or without it, which would account for
the results attained. He also was of the opinion that
even although he did not touch the photographic plate, it
was necessary for him to touch or to hold his
hand over the photographic slide, and also to hold his
hand over the plate when it was in the developing bath.
His theory was that in some way or other this
process magnetized the plate brought out a shadow portrait. One
peculiarity of almost all the shadow pictures obtained in the
series of experiments is that they have around them the
same kind of white drapery which is so familiar to
those who have taken part in a materializing seance. Sometimes
this drapery is more volumeous than others. Often, when the
conditions are good, the form which it first appears with
its head encompassed with drapery, will appear on the second
plate without any drapery. On asking mister B. What explanation
he could give for this, he said he did not know,
but he believed that the bodily appearance assumed by the
spirit was very sensitive and needed to be shielded from
currents which might harm it. But when harmony prevailed, they
could venture to remove the drapery and be photographed without it.
Whatever may be the value of mister B's theory, there
is little doubt that something is given off from the
body which can be photographed the white mist that appears
to emanate from his forms into cloudy folds, out of
which their protrudes a more or less clearly defined face
with human features. Sometimes this white and misty cloud obscures
the sun. In other times it seems to be condensed,
as if it were in the process of being worked
into a definite form, for the completion of which either
time or some other conditions were lacking. It was also
noticeable that the entity, whoever it may be, which builds
up the form, who was giving off sufficient solidity to
impress its image upon the plate in the camera, having
once created the form, will use it repeatedly without any
change of position or expression. This will, no doubt seem
a great stumbling block to many. But the fact is
as I have stated it, and our first business is
to ascertain facts, whether they tell for or against any
particular hypothesis. It may be that the disembodied spirit, in
order to establish its identity, constructs out of the aura
given off by the photographer or other medium, a mask
or cast bearing the unmistakable resemblance to the body which
it wore in its sauzure in here on earth. Once
built it up for use in the studio, it may
be easier to employ the same cast again and again,
instead of building up a new one at each fresh sitting.
Upon this point, however, I shall have something to say
further on. I was very much interested in the results
I obtained, although as none of the photographs were identified,
I did not deem the experiment completely successful. I was
very anxious to introduce mister B to devote some months
to an uninterrupted series of experiments, and asked him on
what terms I could secure his services. But he absolutely refused.
He said he did not like it. It made him unwell,
made people speak ill of him, and it did not
matter what terms were offered. He would not consent. He
was an old man, he said, and he could not
find out how these things came, and in short, neither
scientific curiosity nor financial consideration would induce him to consent
to more than an occasional sitting. I therefore dropped the matter,
and for some years I discontinued my experiments. I had
a friend who often accompanied me to mister B's studio,
where she had been photographed both with and without shadow
pictures appearing in the background. We often promised each other
that if either of us passed over, we would come
back to be photographed by mister B if possible, in
order to prove the reality of spirit return. Shortly after this,
my friend died. But it was not until nearly four
years after her death, at the request of a friend
who was very anxious to know whether she could communicate
with those on the other side, that I went back
to mister B's studio. He had always been slightly clairvoyant
and clary audian. He told me that a few days
before I had ridden asking for the appointment, my deceased
friend had appeared in the studio and told him that
I was coming. This reminded me of her promise, and
I said at once that I hoped he would be
able to photograph her. He said he didn't know. He
was rather frightened of her, for reasons into which I
need not enter, but if she came, he would see
what he could do. My friend and I sat together.
The first plate was exposed, nothing appeared in the background.
When the second plate was placed in the camera, mister
B nodded with a quick look of recognition. We saw nothing.
After he had exposed the second plate, and before he
developed it, he asked us to change seats. We did this,
and as he was exposing the third plate, he said,
I am told to ask you to do this, And
when he closed the shutter, he said, it is Missus M.
On the fourth plate there appeared a picture of a
woman whom I had never seen before, and whom my
friend had never seen. Neither had mister B. When the
plates came to be developed, I found the second and
third plates contained unmistakable likeness of my friend, Missus EM.
These portraits were immediately recognized by my friend as un
stapable likeness of the deceased Missus M. It will be
objected that she had frequently been photographed by the same photographer,
and that he had simply faked a photograph from one
of his old negatives. I don't believe that this is possible,
for these portraits, although recognized immediately by everyone who knew her,
including her nearest relative, are all quite different from any
photographs she had ever taken in life. She certainly never
was photographed enveloped in white drapery. Nor do I believe
that mister B had any negative of any of her
portraits in this possession. But I fully admit that from
the point of view of one who wishes to exclude
every possibility of error, the fact that missus m had
been frequently photographed in her lifetime by the same photographer
renders it impossible to regard these photographs as conclusive testimony
as to their authenticity as a photograph of a form
assumed by a disembodied spirit. I have mentioned that on
the fourth plate there appears a portrait of an unknown female.
On my return, I was showing the print of the
shadow picture to a friend when she startled me by
declaring that the shrouded form which appeared behind me in
the photograph was a portrait of her mother, who had
died some months before in Dublin. I had never seen
her mother, and my friend did not know of her existence.
Neither did the photographer, nor does he to this day.
It was only many months afterwards that I was able
to obtain a photograph of my friend's mother, But it
was taken when she was a comparatively young woman and
bore no manner of resemblance to the portrait of the
lady who appeared behind me. Her daughter, however, had not
the slightest hesitation in asserting that it was her mother,
that she had recognized her instantly, and that it was
a very good portrait of her as she appeared in
the later years of her life. This startled me not
a little and convinced me that I had good prospect
of attaining some definite results as an outcome of my experiments.
Mister B in curse by this success, was willing to
continue his experiments, and this time I insisted upon paying
him for his work. From this time onward, the occurrence
of photographs that were recognizable on the background of the
photographs taken by mister b became frequent. Sometimes the plates
were marked, but not invariably. For my part, I attached
comparatively no importance to the marking of the plates in
the closed supervision of the operator. The test of the
geniusness of a photograph that is obtained when the unknown
relative of an unknown sitter appears in the background of
the photograph was immeasurably superior to the precautions any expert,
conjurer or trick photographer might evade. Again and again I
sent friends to mister B, giving him no information as
to who they were, nor telling him anything as to
the identify of the person's deceased friend or relative whose
portrait they wished to secure. In time and time again,
when the negative was developed, the portrait would appear in
the background, or sometimes in front of the sitter. This
occurred so frequently that I am quite convinced of the
impossibility of any fraud. One time it was a French
editor who, finding the portrait of his deceased wife appear
on the negative when developed, was so transported with delight
that he insisted on kissing the photographer, mister B, much
to the old man's embarrassment. On another occasion, it was
a Lancashire engineer, himself a photographer, who took marked plates
in all possible precautions. He obtained portraits of two of
his relatives, and another of an eminent personage with whom
he had been in close relations. Or again it was
a near neighbor who, going as a total stranger through
the studio, obtained the portrait of her deceased daughter. I
attached no importance whatever to the appearance of portraits of
well known personages, which might easily be copied from existing pictures.
But I attached immense importance to the reduction of the
spirit photographs of unknown relatives of sitters who were unknown
to the photographer, who received them solely as a lady
or gentleman who was one of my friends. Although as
I have said, I do not attach much importance to
photographs appearing of well known men, I confess that I
was rather impressed by one of my most recent experiments.
I received a message from a medium in Sheffield who
was unknown to me, saying that Cecil Rhodes, who had
then been dead about nine months, had spoken to her clariodiantly,
and had told her to ask me to go to
the photographers, and that he would come and be photographed.
The medium was a stranger to me, and I confess
that I received the message with considerable skepticism. However, when
she came up to town, I accompanied her to the studio.
She declared that she saw Cecil Rhoads and that he
spoke to her, and that he was standing behind me
when the plate was exposed. When the plate came to
be Deville, although there was one well defined figure standing
behind me and several other faces half visible in the background,
there was no portrait of Cecil Rhodes. I was not
surprised and went away. A month afterwards, I went to
have another sitting with the photographer. I chatted with him
for a short time, and then he left the room
for a moment. When he came back, he said to
me there was a round face, well set up man here,
with a short mustache and a dimple in his chin.
Do you know him? No, I said, I do not
know any such man. Well, he seems to be very
busy about you. Well, I said, if he comes up stairs,
we shall see what we can get. I don't know,
said he. When I was sitting he said, there he is,
and I see the letter R. Is it Robert or Richard?
Do you think I don't know any Robert or Richard?
I said. He took the picture. He then proceeded with
the second plate, and said, that man is still here,
and I see behind him a country road. I wonder
what that means. He went into the dark room and
presently came out and said, I see road or roads?
Do you know any one of that name? Of course,
I said, Cecil Roads. Do you mean him as died
in the travesol lately? Said he? I said, yes, Well,
he said, was he a man like that? Well? He
had a mustache, I said, And sure enough, when the
plate was developed there was a Cecil Roads, looking fifteen
youngers than when he had died. Some other plates were exposed.
One was entirely blank. On two others the mist was
formed into a kind of clot of light, but no
figure was visible. The fifth had a portrait of an
unknown man. And on the sixth, when it came to
be developed, there was the same portrait of Cecil Roads
that had appeared on the first, but without the white
drapery around the head. Of course, it may be said
that it was well known that I was connected with
Cecil Roads, and that the photographer therefore would have no
difficulty in faking a portrait. I admit all that, and
therefore I would not have introduced this if it had
not stood alone as any evidence showing that it was
a bona fide photograph of an invisible being. But it
does not stand alone, and I have almost every reason
to believe in the almost stupid honesty. If I may
use such a phrase of the photographer. I am naturally
much interested in these latest photographs of the African colossus.
They are, at any rate, entirely new. No such portraits
to the best of my knowledge, and I have made
a collection of all I can lay my hands on,
exactly resembling those portraits which I obtained at mister B's studio.
I will conclude the account of my experiments by telling
how I secured a portrait under circumstances which preclude any
possibility of fate fraud. One day, when I entered the studio,
mister B said to me, there is a man come
with you who has been here before. He came here
some days ago when I was by myself. He looked
very wild, and he had a gun in his hand,
and I did not like the look of him. I
don't like guns, so I asked him to go away,
for I was frightened of the gun. And he went away.
But now he has come with you and he has
not got his gun any more, so we will let
him stop. I was rather amused at the old man's
story and said, well, see if you can photograph him.
I don't know as I can. He said, I never
know what I can get, which is quite true, for
often the photographs which he says he sees clairvoyantly do
not come out on the plate. While he was photographing me,
I said to him, if you can tell this man
to go away, you can ask him his name. Yes,
said he will you do so? I said, yes, he said,
after seeming to ask the question mentally, he said, he
says his name is Piet Botha. Piet Botha, I said,
I know no such name. There are Lewis and Philip
and Chris Botha. I have never heard of a Piet. Still,
they are a numerous family, and there are plenty of
Bothas in South Africa. And it will be interesting to
ask General Botha when he arrives whether he knows of
any Piet Botha. When the negative was developed, sure enough,
there appeared behind me a photograph of a stalwart, bearded
person who might have been a Boer or a Russian Malejoui,
but who was certainly unknown to me. I had never
seen a portrait of any one which bore any resemblance
to the photograph. When General Botha arrived, I did not
get an opportunity of asking him about the photograph. But
some time afterwards I asked mister Fisher, one of the
delegation from the South African Republics, to look at the
photograph and if he got an opportunity to ask General
Botha if he knew of such a man as p
Ate Botha. Mister Fisher said he thought he had seen
the face before, but he could not be certain. He
departed with the photograph. Some days afterwards, mister Wessel's, a
member of the delegation with mister Fisher, came down to
my office. He said, I want to know about that
photograph that you gave mister Fisher. Yes, I said, what
about it? I want to know where you got it?
I told him. He replied disdainfully, I don't believe in
such things. It is superstition. Besides, that man didn't know
mister b He has never been to London. How could
he come there? What I said, do you know him?
Know him? Said mister Wesseles. He is my brother in law. Really,
I said, what did they call him Pietris Johannes Botha,
But we always called him piate for short. Is he dead? Then?
I said, Yes, said mister Westle's he was the first
Boer officer who was killed in the Siege of Kimberly.
But there is a mystery about this. You didn't know him, no,
I said, and never heard of him? No, I said,
But he said, I have the man's portrait in my
house in South Africa. How could you get it? But
I said, I never have had it. I don't understand,
he said moodily, and so departed. I afterwards showed the
photograph to another Free State Boer who knew Piate Botha
very well, and he had not the slightest hesitation in
declaring that it was an unmistakable likeness of his dead friend.
This is a plain, straightforward narrative of my experiences. They
are still going on. But if I continue them forever,
I don't see how I am going to obtain better
results than those which I have already secured. At the
same time, I must admit that when I have taken
my own Kodak to the studio and taken a photograph
immediately before mister B had exposed his plate. I got
no results. The same failure occurred with another photographer whom
I took, who took his own camera in his own plates,
and took a photograph immediately before and immediately after mister
B had exposed his plate and secured no result. Mister
B's explanation of this is that he thinks he does,
in some way or other, magnetize, as he terms it,
the plate, that there is some effluence from his hand
which is as necessary for the development of the psychic
figure as the developing liquid is for the development of
an ordinary photograph. This explanation would no doubt be derided,
as I presume Wiseacres would have derided the first photographs
when they insisted upon the necessity of darkness while developing
their plates. What I hold to be established is that
in the presence of this particular individual, mister B, who
at presence is the only person known to me who
is able to produce these photographs, it is possible to obtain,
under test conditions photographs that are unmistakably portraits of deceased persons.
The said deceased persons being entirely unknown to him, and
in some cases equally unknown to the sitter. Neither was
any portrait of such person accessible either to the sitter
or the photographer. Neither was either the sitter or the
photographer conscious of the very existence of these persons, whose
identity was subsequently recognized by their friends. I am willing
to admit that there is no conceivable conditions in the
way of marking plates and supervising. The actions or the
operations of the photographer are of the least use in
so much as an expert conjurer can easily deceive the
eye of the unskilled observer. But what I do maintain
is that it is impossible for the cleverest trick photographer
and the ablest conjurer in the world to produce a
photograph at a moment's notice of an unknown relative of
an unknown sitter, this portrait to be unmistakably recognizable by
all survivors who knew the original in life. This mister
b has done again and again, and it seems to
me that a great step has been made towards establishing
the possibility of verifying by photography the reality of the
existence of other intelligences than our own. The photographer alluded
to in this article is mister Borisnell. He died shortly
after it was written, and although farther experimented with others,
he never obtained such convincing and satisfactory results. End of
photographing invisible beams