The Case Against Spirit Photographs

By C. VINCENT PATRICK AND W. WHATELY SMITH
LONDON: KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., Ltd. BROADWAY HOUSE, 68-74, CARTER LANE, E.C. 1921

THE CASE AGAINST SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHS By C. Vincent Patrick and W. Whately Smith.
(W. Whately Smith)
SPIRIT photographs have long been a source of controversy and discussion, and signs are not lacking that public interest in them is at least as keen as ever. A Society for the Study of Supernormal Pictures has, for example, been formed recently, and it is by no means uncommon to meet people who owe much of their belief in Spiritualism to the results they have obtained through photographic mediums. This considerable public interest would alone suffice to make the subject important, but, apart from this, it is clear that if all—or even a fraction—of what is claimed be true the phenomenon must be of unique value from the point of view of strictly scientific research.
Spiritualists commonly assert that photographic phenomena are easier to control than any others, and this is in a sense true. They would be easy to control IF one were allowed to take the necessary precautions. But one is not, and under the conditions which actually prevail at photographic séances the procedure lends itself to fraud more readily, and in more diverse ways, than any other form of mediumistic activity. Photography is a comparatively complicated process, and at every stage there is opportunity for the astute trickster to produce the effect he desires. Part of the proceedings, moreover, must take place in a light which is inimical to accurate observation, and it should not be forgotten that, as a rule, the “sitter” is immobilised and placed hors de combat , so to speak, for an appreciable period while his photograph is being taken. (The significance of this will appear later.)
But before discussing the various considerations which appear to justify this view I should like to make it clear that I, personally, am very willing to be convinced if and when adequate evidence is forthcoming . The question of what kind of evidence should be considered adequate is one which will be easier to answer after the various possibilities of fraud which must be eliminated have been pointed out. So far as I myself am concerned, I am prepared, further, to admit that photographic phenomena appear to me to be less improbable on general a priori grounds than many other alleged events of supposedly supernormal origin. We know that the camera can detect, or rather that the photographic plate is sensitive to, ether waves which produce no effect on the retina of the human eye, and it seems, on the whole, less improbable that “spirits,” if they exist, should produce subtle and relatively minor etheric disturbances of this kind than that they should be responsible for the movements of gross material objects in the way which is often claimed for them.