SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2573, 6 August 1909, Page 4

SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY.

In recent years the tendency to give increasing credence to the claims of those who assert the possibility of direct communication with the spirit world has been very marked, and the natural consequence is that professing spiritualists arc becoming much bolder than before in their contentions. Thus wo find Mr William Stead, after openly declaring liis constant intimacy with the spirit of his dead son, opening a medium exchange in London for public use. Another recent development of spiritualism which has received a good deal of attention has been what) is known as spirit photography. In many cases most circumstantial accounts have been given of the spirits of departed humans having been photographed. Obviously if tlio photographs wore accepted as genuine tlio whole world must perforce admit the truth of a doctrine which has in the piast been restricted to a few enthusiasts. Wherefore the proprietors of the London “Daily Mail” appointed a committee of experts to investigate the matter. It was appointed last November, at the instance of Mr Sinnett, the well-known spiritualist and writer on theosophy, who invited the “Daily Mail” “to investigate the whole matter and take evidence in a systematic way.” The commission was composed of seven members. Three were spiritualists and three were expert photographers, while the seventh member was an independent investigator representing the “Mail.” The three spiritualist members report that the experiments failed because the experts had not undergone any preliminary study of spiritualism, though they go on to add that “with perseverance it might have been just possible to arrange” experimental demonstrations. Y T et, as the experiments have been protracted over a period of several months, it would seem that ample opportunity had been given for the' ghostly forces to manifest their power, and as they did not do so -the public will draw the obvious conclusion. The three photographic experts state plainly that “no evidence whatever, experimental or otherwise,” has been forthcoming to support the contentions of the spiritualists, and that what, spirit photographs were produced or submitted were, if not deliberately faked, at any rate, capable of a matter-of-fact explanation. Unbiased men, after this, will conclude that spirit photographs aro really due, when any image or writing appears on the plates, to defects or fog in the plates, to double exposures, or to adroit manipulation, and are not the result of some mysterious psychic force.