Daniel Dunglas Home (March 20, 1833 - June 21, 1886) was a Scottish
spiritualist, famous during his lifetime for his claimed powers
as a medium and his reported ability to levitate to a variety
of heights, elongate and to handle fire and hot coals without
injury. He conducted hundreds of seances over a period of 35 years
— at which were present many of the best-known names of the Victorian
period — without being conclusively, or publicly, exposed as a
fraud.
According to Arthur Conan Doyle, Home was unusual in that he had
powers in four different types of mediumship: direct voice (the
ability to let spirits audibly speak); trance speaker (the ability
to let spirits speak through oneself); clairvoyant (ability to
see things that are out of view); and physical medium (moving
objects at a distance, levitation, etc.--the type of mediumship
in which Home had no equals).
Home was suspicious of any medium who claimed powers he himself
did not possess, particularly the materializing mediums (such
as the Eddy Brothers), who claimed the ability to produce solid
spirit forms, and he marked these as faudulent. Since materializing
mediums always work in darkened places, Home urged that all séances
be held in the light (Doyle 1926: volume 1, 204-205). Home, in
his 1877 book Lights and Shadows of Spiritualism, detailed the
conjuring tricks employed by false mediums Home himself, of course,
was widely suspected of fraud, but it was never proved (Doyle
1926: volume 1, 207). Frank Podmore (1910, 31-86 and 1902, 223-269)
and Milbourne Christopher (1970, 174-187) provide a particularly
rich source of speculation on the ways in which Home could have
duped his sitters.
Some testimony suggests that Home often conducted his demonstrations
in dim light.[2] The light conditions during Home's most famous
feat of levitation were disputed, but some witnesses recorded
that it was quite dark.[3] Podmore (1910, p. 45) records that
Home had a constant companion that sat opposite of him during
his séances.
