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Psychic / Medium Levitation Photos (Colin Evans: London, 1938)

Analogue Boy said:
Oh come on. The guy sat in the chair, got everyone to sing and make a noise in the dark, got up on the chair and jumped off it, taking his own picture while he did so.
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It happened nearly 100 years ago. Back then Evans could use technology that looks simple to us but was beyond most people's understanding. He was in control of the photography at his events.

20 years before, people had been taken in by William Hope's 'spirit photography'. Hope used double exposure methods to fake photos of sitters with deceased relations.

He fooled Sir Arthur Conan Doyle despite being repeatedly exposed by investigators who included Harry Price. The two men bickered over Hope for years.

Different times.
 
Comfortably Numb said:
A bit more to this - 'spirit trumpets' as well?
This is from a spiritualist related web site and unfortunate there's no background information re date and location.
Edit: It does mention 'The Link': seance, if that helps.
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"The Link" refers to an organization, not a place. The trumpets - and even ectoplasm - were elements of his early seance performances and may or may not have been part of all his events.

Evans' own essay on his experiences and presentations, as well as third-party comments about him and his performances, can be found in this contemporary (1930s) spiritualist journal:

PSYPIONEER JOURNAL
Volume 10, No. 08: August 2014

http://iapsop.com/psypioneer/psypioneer_v10_n8_aug_2014.pdf

This documentation includes photos of Evans' performances other than his personal / self levitations. Some show him in the same audience setting as one of the levitation photos with a trumpet apparently levitating at their eye level.

It's unclear how many performances Evans gave in 1937 / 1938. Based on the audience members visible around him the photo you posted appears to have been taken at a different event than the ones in which his self-levitation photos were taken.
 
Coastaljames said:
Totally agree. I'm pretty sure that's because they were.

Fascinating case Enfield...the girl's basically admitted they faked it and it was still researched as a case of paranormal phenomena!
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The girls' defenders say the faked incidents were re-creations of actual phenomena, as with the Cottingley Fairies photographs.

It's the excuse offered by professional mediums when they're rumbled. The late Doris Stokes openly admitted it.

I have argued on this very message board about whether or not the existence of any form of faking exposed in an investigation automatically debunks the alleged paranormal phenomena.

In a word: yes. It's not that the spookiness definitely didn't happen, it's that you can't believe liars.
 
escargot said:
The girls' defenders say the faked incidents were re-creations of actual phenomena
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Yes. Weird case...a single Mum (presumably rather poor and isolated) in 1977...two teenage girls, no father in the house...suddenly a man visiting, and eventually living with them...a man who had tragically lost his own daughter...attention from the media, suddenly "stars".

I always thought there was a lot of weird stuff going on in that house in that case. But it had nothing to do with poltergeists.
 
EnolaGaia said:
"The Link" refers to an organization, not a place. The trumpets - and even ectoplasm - were elements of his early seance performances and may or may not have been part of all his events.
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The late stage medium Colin Fry was caught 'elevating' a trumpet in his hand when the lights were unexpectedly switched on.

Good old-fashioned mediumship, exposed by the simplest of technology. :chuckle:
 
'Right everybody, let's sit here in the dark, for which you have paid, but the spirits don't like the quiet, so a quick rousing chorus of 'Tea for Two' please!'

I, also, would love to hear how he got everyone who'd paid to see evidence of mediumship, to sing along. But there is a study somewhere, I think it's linked to face creams, to show how the more expensive something is, the more people try to convince themselves that they are seeing results. I'd guess a similar mechanism was at work in mediumship demonstrations like this.
 
catseye said:
would love to hear how he got everyone who'd paid to see evidence of mediumship, to sing along.
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Singing like this is seen in t'fillum Night of the Demon, where the sitters in a seance are required to join in with 'Cherry Ripe' because 'the spirits like it'.

Although it was (I reckon ) probably normally done to distract paying participants from chicanery, in Night of the Demon the seance is genuine and the spirit of a victim of the Demon is contacted.

It's coming! It's in the trees! :omg:
 
EnolaGaia said:
Evans' own essay on his experiences and presentations, as well as third-party comments about him and his performances, can be found in this contemporary (1930s) spiritualist journal:

PSYPIONEER JOURNAL
Volume 10, No. 08: August 2014
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That is crucial evidence, thank you.

Athough I can't, at present, locate any further background concerning our, 'spirit trumpet' picture, there's considerable regarding the photographer, Leon Isaacs.

Presumably it's well known he was responsible for numerous spirit or séance, infa-red photographs of that era, in addition to his involvement with levitation images of Colin Evans.

There are some examples, here:

http://psychictruth.info/PHOTOGRAPHS_8.htm

http://psychictruth.info/PHOTOGRAPHS_9.htm

A detailed article on the related history was published fairly recently in, 'The Pioneer', Volume 4, No. 1: February 2017 and is available as a .pdf document:

Leon Isaacs – Pioneer of infra-red séance photography
Britain’s Greatest Seance Room Photographer

https://www.sdubooks.com/downloads/psypioneer/psypioneer-feb-17/prod_330.html

This entire scenario also evidently includes the 'medium', Jack Webber, who orhestrated séances photographed by Isascs and there's some further insight here:

Life in B Flat (Science and Spirituality)

http://ncu9nc.blogspot.com/2012/05/medium-jack-webber.html?m=1

A fairly tangled web, apparently.

I'm not sure if any if this helps, however it has been intriguing!

One particular surprise was coming across the following article published by the, 'Church Times', on 31 January, 2020:

Spiritualism: Some element as yet unexplained

Georgina Byrne examines the fate of a 1930s report on spiritualism

https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/artic.../spiritualism-some-element-as-yet-unexplained
 
Analogue Boy said:
...in the dark, got up on the chair and jumped off it...
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Methinks this might be him caught just as he's ready for lift-off.

I certainly hope that's what it is, for the sake of those ladies seated close behind...

levitate4~2_resize_97.jpg
 
catseye said:
'Right everybody, let's sit here in the dark, for which you have paid, but the spirits don't like the quiet, so a quick rousing chorus of 'Tea for Two' please!'

I, also, would love to hear how he got everyone who'd paid to see evidence of mediumship, to sing along. But there is a study somewhere, I think it's linked to face creams, to show how the more expensive something is, the more people try to convince themselves that they are seeing results. I'd guess a similar mechanism was at work in mediumship demonstrations like this.
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It occurs to me that the song chosen would be a popular one of the time so everyone'd know it.
I have read that hymns and prayers were also used by Evans.
 
Coastaljames said:
Of course.

And they were different times, of course.

Not much entertainement anywhere else.

Minds collectively shell-shocked by the horrors of WW1.
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That's it in a nutshell of course. The "how did people fall for that stuff?" brigade forget that they are not looking through WW1 era eyes. I suspect that, even if this stuff had been immediately debunked, there would still have been some wonderment how the thing was achieved. A totally different time.
 
PeteS said:
That's it in a nutshell of course. The "how did people fall for that stuff?" brigade forget that they are not looking through WW1 era eyes. I suspect that, even if this stuff had been immediately debunked, there would still have been some wonderment how the thing was achieved. A totally different time.
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It's like the modern scams that draw in normal and perfectly intelligent people.

How did people fall for that stuff?
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It's because we trust the technology around our phones and computers so we're vulnerable to exploitation through them. Unless we're warned about romance or text scams we might be taken in.

The BBC covers this well, especially romance fraud. (A quick google of 'BBC romance fraud' brings up all sorts of programmes. Less tech-minded sections of its audience who are most likely to fall for scams are still likely to watch TV and listen to t'wireless.)

Spiritualism was an actual new religion with hymns and prayers and all the trappings of Christianity that worshippers would recognise. Its image was ripe for exploitation.
Add in some newish technology like electric lighting* and photography and there's your scam, almost ready-made.

That's why Spiritualism is so interesting to me: it's so easy to fall for the scams when you're vulnerable through grief or just curiosity.
Fraud after fraud is exposed but people still believe.

*The point about electric lighting is that it can be switched on and off instantly and safely. One person can have control of it.
 
^This. The entire seance was an "act" designed and orchestrated to mislead. We could equally say "How do we still get caught out my magic tricks?" The answer being because we buy into the situation and also don't have access to all of the facts.

I imagine Colin Evans also used the tactic of sound/voice placement. Whilst the crowd were signing Tea for Two, he probably would have drawn his feet up until he was standing on the chair (in a crouched position). Then by continuing to talk and exclaim things, he could simply stand up and give the illusion that he was rising towards the ceiling. In the darkness, the crowd would hear his voice from way above their own heads so therefore he must be in the air. Just as the spirits "let go" would be a great time to jump off the chair and take the photo.
 
Ringo said:
We could equally say "How do we still get caught out my magic tricks?" The answer being because we buy into the situation and also don't have access to all of the facts.
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Totally. I love stage magic. I want to believe a decent trick. It's called the joy of imagination and possibility!

We're taking part in some fine chronologically snobbery to look at those people and deciding they must be idiots.
 
Ringo said:
^This. The entire seance was an "act" designed and orchestrated to mislead. We could equally say "How do we still get caught out my magic tricks?" The answer being because we buy into the situation and also don't have access to all of the facts.

I imagine Colin Evans also used the tactic of sound/voice placement. Whilst the crowd were signing Tea for Two, he probably would have drawn his feet up until he was standing on the chair (in a crouched position). Then by continuing to talk and exclaim things, he could simply stand up and give the illusion that he was rising towards the ceiling. In the darkness, the crowd would hear his voice from way above their own heads so therefore he must be in the air. Just as the spirits "let go" would be a great time to jump off the chair and take the photo.
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What I think may also have happened is that his chair, or even the table and some or all of the chairs, might have been bolted to the floor.
This would appear to rule out trickery in some way but would also ensure Evans could do his climbing/leaping without fear of toppling over.

Liza Minelli's chair was screwed down for her act in Cabaret which is why it can't be reproduced by amateurs!
 
escargot said:
It's like the modern scams that draw in normal and perfectly intelligent people.



It's because we trust the technology around our phones and computers so we're vulnerable to exploitation through them. Unless we're warned about romance or text scams we might be taken in.

The BBC covers this well, especially romance fraud. (A quick google of 'BBC romance fraud' brings up all sorts of programmes. Less tech-minded sections of its audience who are most likely to fall for scams are still likely to watch TV and listen to t'wireless.)

Spiritualism was an actual new religion with hymns and prayers and all the trappings of Christianity that worshippers would recognise. Its image was ripe for exploitation.
Add in some newish technology like electric lighting* and photography and there's your scam, almost ready-made.

That's why Spiritualism is so interesting to me: it's so easy to fall for the scams when you're vulnerable through grief or just curiosity.
Fraud after fraud is exposed but people still believe.

*The point about electric lighting is that it can be switched on and off instantly and safely. One person can have control of it.
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And, of course, so many had lost loved ones in WW1 that they wanted, fervently, to believe in the continuation of the spirit. I suspect they would overlook any minor anomalies in favour of some demonstration that their loved ones still existed on some plane.
 
Ringo said:
I imagine Colin Evans also used the tactic of sound/voice placement. Whilst the crowd were signing Tea for Two, he probably would have drawn his feet up until he was standing on the chair (in a crouched position). Then by continuing to talk and exclaim things, he could simply stand up and give the illusion that he was rising towards the ceiling. In the darkness, the crowd would hear his voice from way above their own heads so therefore he must be in the air. Just as the spirits "let go" would be a great time to jump off the chair and take the photo.
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I've been wondering about Evans' leap strategy. I agree he probably launched from a position standing on the chair seat, because I don't give him credit for performing a vertical leap from the floor that appears to have been 30-some inches high.

If he launched from crouching or standing upon the chair he would have needed to ensure there was no interference from either side of his seat. In some of the (few) photos it appears the women sitting to either side of him were holding hands with the person next to them, but holding their hands nearest Evans' seat positioned so as to not touch him or interfere with his movements.

The one example that makes me wonder about the chair seat as Evans' launching point concerns the photo published in LIFE magazine (1938; see above).

This is the only photo in which it appears Evans' chair is different from the ones in which the people around him sit. In the others he had been seated in a chair which seems to match the ones everyone else is using. This chair seems to be robust enough to hold him without swaying or creaking. However ...

The woman seated to the right (Evans' left) beside Evans' chair has her right hand extended onto Evans' chair's seat at the moment of the leap. The flash caught her with eyes open looking upward at Evans' mid-air position - two things quite different from the others' orientations in this and all the other photos. These facts strike me as suspicious.

I can't confidently rule out the possibility that this same woman (in different dresses and parting her hair differently) is seated beside Evans in one or more of the other photos - always on the side opposite whichever of his hands is holding the camera trigger.
 
EnolaGaia said:
I can't confidently rule out the possibility that this same woman (in different dresses and parting her hair differently) is seated beside Evans in one or more of the other photos - always on the side opposite whichever of his hands is holding the camera trigger.
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Yup, for sure he'd have stooges in the seats nearest him.
 
EnolaGaia said:
I've been wondering about Evans' leap strategy. I agree he probably launched from a position standing on the chair seat, because I don't give him credit for performing a vertical leap from the floor that appears to have been 30-some inches high.

If he launched from crouching or standing upon the chair he would have needed to ensure there was no interference from either side of his seat. In some of the (few) photos it appears the women sitting to either side of him were holding hands with the person next to them, but holding their hands nearest Evans' seat positioned so as to not touch him or interfere with his movements.

The one example that makes me wonder about the chair seat as Evans' launching point concerns the photo published in LIFE magazine (1938; see above).

This is the only photo in which it appears Evans' chair is different from the ones in which the people around him sit. In the others he had been seated in a chair which seems to match the ones everyone else is using. This chair seems to be robust enough to hold him without swaying or creaking. However ...

The woman seated to the right (Evans' left) beside Evans' chair has her right hand extended onto Evans' chair's seat at the moment of the leap. The flash caught her with eyes open looking upward at Evans' mid-air position - two things quite different from the others' orientations in this and all the other photos. These facts strike me as suspicious.

I can't confidently rule out the possibility that this same woman (in different dresses and parting her hair differently) is seated beside Evans in one or more of the other photos - always on the side opposite whichever of his hands is holding the camera trigger.
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Most confidence tricksters have at least one plant in the audience
 
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