CONFESSIONS OF A GHOST-HUNTER BY HARRY PRICE HONORARY SECRETARY, tMIVBESITY 07 LONDON COUNCIL FOR PSYCHICAL INVESTIGATION PUTNAM COVFNT GARDFN T.ONDON First Published February tçy6 valkmg over red-hot embers during first fire-walk r held m Great Britain, September 9, 1935. (s« P W 369) By the same Author T b b Sceptic (Psychic Play) IlBTmAiTONS OF A Spirit M edium Qomt Editor with E. J. Dingwall) C o n » L ight o n Spiritualistic ‘ Phenomena’ Stella C.: a n A cco u n t of So m e O riginal E xperi­ ments in Psychical R esearch Illusionismo (Enctclopcdialtaluma) R u di Schneider: a Scientific E xam in atio n op H a M bdiumship R egurgitation a n d the D unc an M ediumship A n A ccoun t of Som e Further E xperiments w ith R udi Schneider L eaves from a Psyc h bt ’s C ase-B o o k T hb H aunting of C ashbn’s G a p : a M odern ‘M iracle’ Investigated (in Collaboration with R. S. Lambert) Fa it h a n d Ptrb-W a l d n g (Encyclopaedia Briumnica) A R eport o n T w o Experimental Fire-W alks Contents Foreword - -- -- -- 7 I. The Ghost that Stumbled - - - - i j II. T he M ost Haunted House in E ngland - 25 HI. Some Adventures in Haunted Houses 36 IV. T he Strange Exploits of a London Polter­ geist ------ - 55 V. ‘Grand Hotel* and Other M ysteries - - 65 VI. T he T alking M ongoose 85 VII. Some C urious C laims to M ediumship 98 VIE. From Kensington to the Planet M ars - - 117 IX. T he Strange C ase of M adame X - - 131 X. How to T est a M edium 140 XI. Secrets of ‘Shrit* Photography - - - 168 XII. C onvincing Experiments with a French C lairvoyante ------ 209 Xm. R udi Schneider: the Last Phase 226 XTV. N ew Light on the A brams ‘M agic B ox’? - 237 X V . Stage T elepathy and V audeville ‘Pheno­ mena* ------- 253 XVI. A C lever A merican Hyper^ sthetb - 278 XVH. A T yrolean N ight’s Entertainment - - 286 XVm. A dventures with a Showman-Hypnotist - 297 XEX. ‘T he M an with the X -ray E yes’ - - - 312 X X . Pale B lack M agic ----- 322 4 C o n ten ts XXL ‘I H av i Seen the Indian R ope T rick’ - - 344 XXIL How I B rought the Firb-W alk to E ngland - 355 Index - -- -- -- -383 List o f Illustrations Kuda Bux walking over red-hot embers during first fire-walk ever held in Great Britain, September 9 , 1 9 3 5 -------- Frontispiece T h e author’ s ghost-hunting k it ----- 3 2 Madame Eugénie Picquart m the impersonations of (1) ‘Coquehn’; (2) an old French judge; (3) Mephistopheles; (4) Egyptian mummy - - - 102 ‘Spirit’ photographs o f Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, etc., showing cut-out effect ------ 17 8 Effect of radio-active minerals on a sealed box of photographic plates ______ 20 4 Marion ‘finding’ a pre-selected playing card - - 254 Marion psychometrismg a letter ----- 2 6 2 ‘Sentry-box’ apparatus used m Manon experiments - 266 Marion making a ‘trial’ o f a tin box as to whether it contains a hidden object _____ 2 7 2 Plywood shroud and visor, constructed for tests with Manon - - - - - - - - 276 Kuda Bux, blindfolded, duplicating shorthand characters drawn on a blackboard ------ 3 1 6 Mr. Harry Pnce on the site o f the Brocken G o e t h e ja h r experiment ------- - 3 3 8 Karachi and his son, Kyder, performing the Indian rope trick - - - - - - - --348 K u d a B a x ’s feet b eing m edically exam ined b y physician immediately before final fire-walk, September 17, 1935 - -- -- -- --364 6 List o f Illustrations Mr. Digby Moynagh attempting the fire-walk at final test, September 17,1935 - - - - - 364 Kuda Bux’s feet, quite uninjured, after first fire-walk, September9,1935 ------- 3 7 0 Kuda Bux performing the fire-walk at final test, Sep­ tember 17,1935 - - - - - - - 374 Illustrations in the Text The Martian alphabet, complete - 126 Signature of Oomaruru ------ 1 2 6 ‘Thank you!’ in Martian ------ 12 6 Head of Pawleenoos, ‘cultured Martian giant’ - - 127 ‘Symphonic chant’ of the Martians _ 127 Detector used m radio experiments - - - - 243 Kuda Bux’s signatures, in Kashmiri characters - - 313 Collection o f eighteenth-century Sussex love-tokens, charms, or witch-scarers (reduced) - 325 Reproduction o f handbill o f James Hallett, the Sussex charlatan. Note the reference to the cure o f W itch­ craft. Chichester, 1795-97 ----- 3 2 7 Reproduction of halfpenny bronze token of James Hallett, the Sussex charlatan ----- 328 Foreword he science o f investigating alleged abnormal phenomena T has, like m ost other sciences, ad vanced b y leaps and bounds during die last few years. Before die W ar a back parlour, a red lamp, a circle o f credulous sitters and a vivid imagination were all that was thought necessary in order to ‘investigate’ a medium. O f course, psychic science made no progress. The methods o f these researchers were derided by official science and orthodoxy refused to listen to them . But with die W ar came a change. A wave o f interest in the possibility o f an after-life swept the country like a tornado. This interest was purely emotional, based as it was on the fact that tens o f thousands o f the flo w er o f ou r m anhood w ere b eing shot down. Relatives mourned them, but with their grief was the hope— almost the belief—that their sons, though dead, would survive in another world. The ranks o f the spiritualists over­ flo w ed w ith those w h o hoped ____ B u t the great w a v e o f em otion that sw ept the cou n try carried on its crest a few sane people who, while admitting the possi­ bility o f an after-life, demanded that the alleged phenomena said to be produced in the sta n c e -room should be scientifically investigated by qualified and unbiased persons. T o meet this de­ mand I founded (1925) the National Laboratory o f Psychical Research which, in June 1934, was taken over by the Univer­ sity o f London Council for Psychical Investigation. Most o f the cases recorded in these Confessions were investigated by me as Director o f the National Laboratory. W here shall w e go when we die? I am afraid there is nothing in this volume that will supply an answer. The answer m a y be 8 F o rew o rd there, but perhaps I cannot read it. For thirty years I have been en gaged u pon an intensive quest as to w h a t happens after death, and the solution o f the eternal problem still eludes me. The spiritualists w ill tell you that they have evidence that die soul, ego, or personality not only survives the grave, but that the dis- camate entities o f their loved ones 'come back’ and converse with diem through a person o f abnormal sensibility who is called a 'medium’. M y reply to die spiritualists is dut, though I admit some o f die phenomena which they obtain at séa n ces, there is no scientific proof o f survival. The evidence upon which the supporters o f the spirit hypothesis base their claims is obtained principally through ‘mental’ mediums (such as clair­ voyants) who purport to interpret supemormally the voices o f those who, as they term it, have ‘passed over’. Let me say at once that much o f the evidence obtained through clairvoyants and trance mediums is very impressive; that is, impressive as to the abnormality o f the communications which they deliver in a state o f what is called a trance— though what a mediumistic trance is, n o one k n o w s, and it cannot be tested. But I cross swords w ith the spiritualists as to the ca u sa tio n o f the phenomena which we both admit. I am told that the 'messages’, etc., obtained through an entranced psychic are ‘evidential’. I agree, but evidential o f what? They are evidential only o f their abnormality— not that they were uttered by, or inspired b y , the spirits o f those w h o w ere o nce living . Our knowledge o f the conscious mind is really very limited; our ignorance o f the subconscious mind is profound. Is it, then, very remarkable d u t science suggests that these so-called spirit messages (even when uttered by mediums who are honest) m ay come from die subconscious mind o f the entranced medium, or (by telepathy) from the conscious or subconscious mind o f the sitters? Unfortunately, w e have no scientific evidence that even telepathy is a fact. But, the spiritualists argue, the mediums tell us things which were unknown both to themselves and their Confessions o f a Ghost-Hunter 9 sitters. This I am prepared to admit, but does that prove spirit origin? O f course it does nothing o f the kind; it proves merely that the m ediu m has, in som e obscure w a y , obtained kn ow led ge unknown to any person present at the sé a n c e .