Speaker 1: Welcome to Unexplained Extra with me Richard mcclained smith. For
Speaker 1: the weeks in between episodes, we look at the stories that,
Speaker 1: for one reason or other, didn't make it into the show.
Speaker 1: In this week's episode, where Darkness Plays, we touched briefly
Speaker 1: on the supernatural theories of the eminent Sir William Barrett.
Speaker 1: Sir William passed away in nineteen twenty five, roughly forty
Speaker 1: years previously, however, he had been a founding member of
Speaker 1: a fascinating collective known as the Society for Psychical Research,
Speaker 1: counting among its early members such luminary figures as Arthur
Speaker 1: Conan Doyle, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and John Ruskin. The Society
Speaker 1: had been established in an attempt to legitimize the investigation
Speaker 1: of paranormal phenomena. Rather than dismiss reports of strange occurrencies
Speaker 1: that might not tally with conventional wisdom, the Society made
Speaker 1: it their mission to approach each case impartially adopting a
Speaker 1: strict scientific method with each investigation. You might say they
Speaker 1: were nothing less than the original Ghostbusters. The Society for
Speaker 1: Psychical Research had been established in response to a peculiar
Speaker 1: craze that was sweeping the Western world, a craze that
Speaker 1: had its origins in a small wooden house in the
Speaker 1: hamlet of Hydesville, New York. In eighteen forty eight, two
Speaker 1: sisters named Kate Margaret Fox claimed to have made contact
Speaker 1: with the spirit of a dead man. The sisters alleged
Speaker 1: that the spirit had communicated with them through a series
Speaker 1: of knocks and bangs. In short, they professed to have
Speaker 1: made contact with a poltergeist, and in so doing inadvertently
Speaker 1: created a movement that would come to be known as spiritualism.
Speaker 1: As news of the Fox sisters incredible claims spread, it
Speaker 1: wasn't long before everybody, from the Romanovs to Queen Victoria
Speaker 1: were conducting seances in an attempt to replicate the apparent
Speaker 1: communications with the dead. Inevitably, as the movement's popularity increased,
Speaker 1: so did the number of bogus mediums, psychics and clairvoyance,
Speaker 1: ever ready to take advantage of a gullible public. For
Speaker 1: the Society of Psychical Research, it was these charlatans that
Speaker 1: posed the biggest threat to what they believed was an
Speaker 1: otherwise perfectly legitimate area of study. It wasn't until eighteen
Speaker 1: eighty six that the society established itself with the publication
Speaker 1: of what is now considered the first classic text of
Speaker 1: Paris psychology, titled Phantasms of the Living. The book was
Speaker 1: the work of three Oxbridge graduates, the psychologist Edmund Gurney,
Speaker 1: the poet Frederick Myers, and author and founder of the
Speaker 1: Fabian Society, Frank Podmore. The fascinating book, which can be
Speaker 1: found online, provides an exhaustive study of the paranormal taking
Speaker 1: in witchcraft, dreams, hallucinations, telepathy, and of course, the Poltgeist phenomena.
Speaker 1: In conclusion, the authors believed that rather than describing the
Speaker 1: workings of the spirits of the dead or paranormal phenomena
Speaker 1: was merely the result of extrasensory perception, or, as Frederick
Speaker 1: Meyer's notes, instead of describing a ghost as a dead
Speaker 1: person permitted to communicate with the living, let us define
Speaker 1: it as a manifestation of persistent personal energy. The trio,
Speaker 1: who also went by the brilliantly titled Committee of Apparitions
Speaker 1: and Haunted Houses, soon caught the attention of controversial newspaper
Speaker 1: editor William Thomas Stead. Stead, a pioneer of investigative journalism,
Speaker 1: is perhaps most well known for a series of articles
Speaker 1: published in the Palmar Gazette exposing the dark underbelly of
Speaker 1: Victorian society and its proclivity for child prostitution. The articles
Speaker 1: not only helped to raise the age of consent from
Speaker 1: thirteen to sixteen, but are also considered to mark the birth,
Speaker 1: for better or worse, of something we now take completely
Speaker 1: for granted, the power of the media to influence public opinion.
Speaker 1: As a commentator on popular culture, Stead had grown increasingly
Speaker 1: interested in the spiritualist movement, and so it was to
Speaker 1: him that the society turned for their next extraordinary venture.
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Speaker 1: com slash Unexplained podcast. This time a team consisting of
Speaker 1: Frederick Myers, Frank Podmore, Eleanor Sedgwick, and Alice Johnson, the
Speaker 1: Society Secretary set about compiling the data for what would
Speaker 1: become known as the Census of Hallucination. Just as an
Speaker 1: aside as was regrettably standard for the time and in
Speaker 1: many cases still is, the contribution of women was often
Speaker 1: criminally undervalued, but this was certainly not the case in
Speaker 1: the Society for Psychical Research. Eleanor Sedgwick in particular, was
Speaker 1: a very highly regarded member of the Society and would
Speaker 1: later be elected its first female president in nineteen o eight.
Speaker 1: After six years of hard work, the Census of Hallucination
Speaker 1: was finally completed and the results were published in eighteen
Speaker 1: ninety five by William Stead in the pall Maw Gazette.
Speaker 1: What the data revealed was nothing short of astounding. After
Speaker 1: collating the responses of over seventeen thousand participants, they found
Speaker 1: that as many as ten percent of respondents had experienced
Speaker 1: some form of waking hallucination. After further cross checking and verification,
Speaker 1: the team concluded that of the seventeen hundred reports that remained,
Speaker 1: at least two percent claimed to have experienced a hallucination
Speaker 1: that revealed information they were highly unlikely to have known before. Furthermore,
Speaker 1: many of the people who claimed such experiences had recently
Speaker 1: suffered a profound moment of crisis, suggesting that such occurrences
Speaker 1: may make the mind more receptive to such an experience.
Speaker 1: Although of course the validity of the research is wide
Speaker 1: open for debate, it remains a fascinating document. The Society
Speaker 1: for Psychical Research continues its work today, as ever, employing
Speaker 1: the because of science in its tireless investigation of paranormal phenomena.
Speaker 1: For the original Committee of Apparitions and Haunted Houses, their fates, however,
Speaker 1: were somewhat more tragic. Edmund Gurney had stated much of
Speaker 1: his reputation on his investigations into the existence of telepathy.
Speaker 1: In the spring of eighteen eighty eight, he discovered his assistant,
Speaker 1: George Albert Smith, had in fact faked many of his
Speaker 1: successful results. Broken hearted by the deception, Gurneus believed to
Speaker 1: have taken his own life in the June of that year.
Speaker 1: In nineteen o seven, Frank Podmore was forced to resign
Speaker 1: from a senior position in the Post Office due in
Speaker 1: large part to the revelation that he was gay. Shunned
Speaker 1: by his family and friends, Podmore later drowned in the
Speaker 1: town of Malvern in nineteen ten. Neither his family or
Speaker 1: any members of the society are believed to have attended
Speaker 1: his funeral. For William Thomas Stead, his fate was sealed
Speaker 1: as one of the two thousand, two hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: four passengers of the maiden voyage of the Titanic, sinking
Speaker 1: beneath the freezing waters of the North Atlantic Ocean on
Speaker 1: the morning of April fifteenth, nineteen twelve. And as for
Speaker 1: Frederic Myers, he died a peaceful death in Rome in
Speaker 1: nineteen oh one, or so was thought. Surely before his death,
Speaker 1: the classicist Myers had informed his friends of his intentions
Speaker 1: to prove the existence of life after death by contacting
Speaker 1: them from beyond the grave. One such friend was the
Speaker 1: world renowned physicist Sir Oliver Lodge. Not long after Myers
Speaker 1: passed away, Sir Oliver was contacted by a medium. She
Speaker 1: had a message for him. She said, it's from a
Speaker 1: man called Frederic Myers. What ensued over the course of
Speaker 1: several years was a series of messages of supposed that
Speaker 1: be relaid to mediums all over the world, none of
Speaker 1: whom had previously met. The obscure, highbrow illusions and snippets
Speaker 1: of Latin verse contained in the messages meant little on
Speaker 1: their own, but when piece together were found to form
Speaker 1: a cohesive set of communications, known as the Cross Correspondences,
Speaker 1: it is considered by many a compelling proof of life
Speaker 1: after death. All elements of Unexplained are produced by me
Speaker 1: Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe and rate the show on iTunes.
Speaker 1: Feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or
Speaker 1: ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps
Speaker 1: you have an explanation of your own you'd like to share.
Speaker 1: You can reach us online at Unexplained podcast dot com
Speaker 1: or on Twitter at Unexplained Pod. Now it's time to
Speaker 1: take care of yourself to make time for you. Teledoc
Speaker 1: gives you access to a licensed therapist to help you
Speaker 1: get back to feeling your best. Speak to a licensed
Speaker 1: therapist by phone or video any time between seven a m.
Speaker 1: To nine p m Local time, seven days a week.
Speaker 1: Teledoc Therapy is available through most insurance or employers. Download
Speaker 1: the app, or visit teledoc dot com Forward slash Unexplained
Speaker 1: podcast Today to get started. That's t e l a
Speaker 1: d oc dot com slash Unexplained podcast