The Vital Message
By SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

APPENDICES

[C] SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY

  
On this subject I should recommend the reader to consult
Coates' "Photographing the Invisible," which states, in a
thoughtful and moderate way, the evidence for this most
remarkable phase, and illustrates it with many examples.  It is
pointed out that here, as always, fraud must be carefully guarded
against, having been admitted in the case of the French spirit
photographer, Buguet.
  
There are, however, a large number of cases where the
photograph, under rigid test conditions in which fraud has been
absolutely barred, has reproduced the features of the dead.  Here
there are limitations and restrictions which call for careful
study and observation.  These faces of the dead are in some cases
as contoured and as recognisable as they were in life, and
correspond with no pre-existing picture or photograph.
One such case absolutely critic-proof is enough, one would think,
to establish survival, and these valid cases are to be counted
not in ones, but in hundreds.  On the other hand, many of the
likenesses, obtained under the same test conditions, are
obviously simulacra or pictures built up by some psychic force,
not necessarily by the individual spirits themselves, to
represent the dead.  In some undoubtedly genuine cases it is an
exact, or almost exact, reproduction of an existing picture, as
if the conscious intelligent force, whatever it might be, had
consulted it as to the former appearance of the deceased, and had
then built it up in exact accordance with the original.  In such
cases the spirit face may show as a flat surface instead of a
contour.  Rigid examination has shown that the existing model was
usually outside the ken of the photographer.
  
Two of the bravest champions whom Spiritualism has ever
produced, the late W. T. Stead and the late Archdeacon Colley--
names which will bulk large in days to come--attached great
importance to spirit photography as a final and
incontestable proof of survival.  In his recent work, "Proofs of
the Truth of Spiritualism" (Kegan Paul), the eminent botanist,
Professor Henslow, has given one case which would really appear
to be above criticism.  He narrates how the inquirer subjected a
sealed packet of plates to the Crewe circle without exposure,
endeavoring to get a psychograph.  Upon being asked on which
plate he desired it, he said "the fifth."  Upon this plate being
developed, there was found on it a copy of a passage from the
Codex Alexandrinus of the New Testament in the British Museum.
Reproductions, both of the original and of the copy, will be
found in Professor Henslow's book.
  
I have myself been to Crewe and have had results which would
be amazing were it not that familiarity blunts the mind to
miracles.  Three marked plates brought by myself, and handled,
developed and fixed by no hand but mine, gave psychic extras.  In
each case I saw the extra in the negative when it was still wet
in the dark room.  I reproduce in Plate I a specimen of the
results, which is enough in itself to prove the whole case of
survival to any reasonable mind.  The three sitters are Mr.
Oaten, Mr. Walker, and myself, I being obscured by the psychic
cloud.  In this cloud appears a message of welcome to me from the
late Archdeacon Colley.  A specimen of the Archdeacon's own
handwriting is reproduced in Plate II for the purpose of
comparison.  Behind, there is an attempt at materialisation
obscured by the cloud.  The mark on the side of the plate is my
identification mark.  I trust that I make it clear that no hand
but mine ever touched this plate, nor did I ever lose sight of it
for a second save when it was in the carrier, which was conveyed
straight back to the dark room and there opened.  What has any
critic to say to that?
  
By the kindness of those fearless pioneers of the movement,
Mr. and Mrs. Hewat Mackenzie, I am allowed to publish another
example of spirit photography.  The circumstances were very
remarkable.  The visit of the parents to Crewe was unproductive
and their plate a blank save for their own presentment.
Returning disappointed, to London they managed, through the
mediumship of Mrs. Leonard, to get into touch with their
boy, and asked him why they had failed.  He replied that the
conditions had been bad, but that he had actually succeeded some
days later in getting on to the plate of Lady Glenconnor, who had
been to Crewe upon a similar errand.  The parents communicated
with this lady, who replied saying that she had found the image
of a stranger upon her plate.  On receiving a print they at once
recognised their son, and could even see that, as a proof of
identity, he had reproduced the bullet wound on his left temple.
No. 3 is their gallant son as he appeared in the flesh, No. 4 is
his reappearance after death.  The opinion of a miniature painter
who had done a picture of the young soldier is worth recording as
evidence of identity.  The artist says:  "After painting the
miniature of your son Will, I feel I know every turn of his face,
and am quite convinced of the likeness of the psychic photograph.
All the modelling of the brow, nose and eyes is marked by
illness--especially is the mouth slightly contracted--but this
does not interfere with the real form.  The way the hair
grows on the brow and temple is noticeably like the photograph
taken before he was wounded."

 

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