Daniel Dunglas Home (1833-1886)

The First Person To Ever Be Called "Psychic"

If the power of Florence Cook was that of the innocent young child, the power of Daniel Dunglas Home was that of the brooding mystic, the frail and sickly and sensitive lover of nature and things mysterious.

Like Madame Blavatsky, the founder of the Theosophical Society, who herself began as an spiritualist medium, Home`s power was in his eyes, as all existing photographs attest.

Daniel Dunglas Home, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. In later years he claimed that his father was the illegitimate son of Alexander, the 10th Earl of home, a claim which, no doubt, gained him entrance to otherwise forbidden places. He was adopted by his mother`s sister while a baby and taken by her to the United States when he was nine years of age.

Daniel Dunglas Home claimed to have discovered his mediumistic powers while still a child. He claimed that he clairvoyantly knew that his mother would die three days before it actually happened. Because of his mediumistic activities, his aunt turned him out of her home in 1850, three years after the events in Hydesville, when Home himself was but seventeen years of age.

From 1850 to 1855 he lived with a variety of generous people who were interested in his mediumship. At this time he exhibited the usual phenomena such as raps, table tipping, moving objects at a distance, ringing bells, spirit hands and especially his spirit-playing accordion.

The accordion was held under the table with one of Home`s hands holding the non-playing end of the instrument. The spirits then played tunes on the accordion to the delight of Home`s sitters. These sitters included Judge John Worth Edmunds and William Cullen Bryant.

Along with this spirit-playing accordion three other effects became associated with Home over the years. The handling of red-hot coals taken directly from the fire (the spirits were supposedly protecting him), the elongation of the medium`s body and various feats of levitation, sometimes of the sitters present (in their chairs) and sometimes of Home himself.

His most famous feat of levitation took place in December of 1868 and is generally referred to as "The Ashley Place Levitation".

In the spring of 1855 Home went to London. He was then but twenty-two years of age and he created a great stir. Maskelyne writes: "A concourse of fortuitous circumstances crowding together soon after his arrival in London, placed Home in a position which neither by ability nor zeal could he have occupied". (MODERN SPIRITUALISM, p. 33)

Daniel Dunglas Home did not remain in England long during his initial visit, nor does it appear that he attempted to reach moret han a few of the very wealthy.

Daniel Dunglas Home`s expences for this London visit were paid by the subscriptions of American spiritualists. Home became a great topic of conversation. Because of his presence and influence and example, spiritualism in England began to grow and spread until it became a most fashionable craze for bored and curious members of the London society.

In the fall of 1855 we find Home in Florence, then in Naples, and then in Rome where he was baptized a Roman Catholic on Easter Monday, 1856. In June of 1856 Home was in Paris where he was presented to the Emperor and Empress. In early 1858 Home was in St. Petersburg.

There are two claims which appear over and over again in regard to Home`s mediumship. First, that he never charged a fee for his seances, and second that he was never detected in fraud. As Carrington states:"....though home was under far more careful and prolonged scrutiny than any other medium, fraud was never detected at any of home`s seances,nor was it even suspected on any occasion." (PHYSICAL PHENOMENA, p. 372)

And again:".....there is not one iota of evidence against Home`s character so fas as the records indicated." (p.373) These two claims, that Home never charged a fee and that he was never detected in fraud (Carrington, notice, adds: "..or even suspected."),have been made about him since the late 1850`s and are still made about him today by many writers on this subject. At best, I am afraid, neither claim seems obviously true.

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