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mysteries |
Daniel Dunglas Home |
Other Information |
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| One night in December 1868
three gentlemen of 'unimpeachable reputation' sat together in the dark
in an apartment on the upper floor of Ashley House in London. One of
them was Lord Lindsay, a notable scientist, the second was Lord Adare,
and the third his cousin Captain Charles Wynne. All three were silent,
nervous and tense as though waiting for something extraordinary to
happen. After a few minutes, they began to hear the window of the room
next to theirs raise, and then almost immediately after, they saw Daniel
Dunglas Home floating in the air outside the window of the room in which
they were sitting.
'He must have been at least 80 feet from the ground.' Lord Lindsay later wrote, 'The moon was shining full into the room...I saw Home's feet about six inches above the window sill. He remained in this position for a few seconds and then raised the window, glided into the room feet first and sat down.' Lord Adare gave his word: 'The fact of his having gone out of one window and in at the other, I can swear to.' Daniel Dunglas Home also had a number of other strange abilities, he could apparently at will:
Although in his mature years, Home could levitate at will and he became best known to the general public for this one feat, he also levitated on some occasions without being aware of it. To the end of his life he maintained that the only reason he could levitate was because he was lifted up by the spirits. 'Since the first time, I have never felt fear,' he wrote in his autobiography, 'Should I, however, have fallen from the ceiling of some of the rooms in which I have been raised, I could not have escaped serious injury. I am generally lifted up perpendicularly; my arms frequently become rigid and are drawn to my head as if I were grasping the unseen power which slowly raises me from the floor...' He continued to levitate and hold séances for 40 years, without anyone being able to accuse him of trickery. Most of his séances were given in houses he had never entered before, in rooms he had never seen, often in broad daylight. He scorned the use of the curtained alcove or 'cabinet' demanded by most mediums of the day. He would enter a room modestly, dressed in elegant clothes that fitted his slender body like a glove so that his audience had no gadgetry to assist him, no room for concealment. He never took payment in cash but stayed as a guest in great style at some of the most splendid houses and happily accepted rare and expensive gifts. Daniel Dunglas Home was born in Currie, a village near Edinburgh, on March 20th, 1833. Has father, William, an engineer, claimed to be the illegitimate son of the 10th Earl of Home, so on the paternal side the medium was connected with one of the most ancient and noble Border houses. His mother, Elizabeth, was said to have second sight. One of 8 children, Daniel was a nervous, delicate child, probably already prone to the tuberculosis that was to affect his health all through his life. He was adopted at an early age by a childless aunt who took him to live in Connecticut, US. During his adolescence, the visions he had were about the death of friends and relatives, and his aunt was not sympathetic when knocks and and raps shook the table as he took his seat for breakfast. Nor was she pleased when her best furniture began to move around mysteriously. Later on after particularly strong poltergeist activity, he was thrown out by his aunt, he then took refuge with some friends who were prepared to see his side. During this time spiritualism was sweeping America, and it was at this time that he gave his first séance. He levitated for the first time, when he was 19, in August 1852. It happened in the presence of Ward Cheney, a wealthy silk merchant, and a journalist called Frank Burr, who was editor of the Hartford Times, he later described what happened: 'Suddenly, without any expectation on the part of the company, Home was taken up into the air. At first his feet were only about a foot from the floor, but it happened twice more, and the third time he was carried to the ceiling of the apartment, with which his head and hands came into gentle contact. He was gasping and trembling as he rose.' His powers then came to full fruition in Boston that year, and he sailed home for England soon after, he was accepted by people of the highest social standing, which was fortunate for without them he would have been penniless. Not everyone believed that he could do what was claimed, but he soon won them over. He then went all over Europe, but when he got to Italy, he announced publicly that his powers were about to leave him, he thought that this was because he was being taught a lesson by his spirit guides, because of his snobbery and love of wealth, he went into seclusion and he was even nasty to Fanny Trollope the famous traveler, who responded by cutting his financing. He then joined a monastery, where his friend their, tried to persuade him to give up his life of medium-ship, which he considered next to witchcraft. But it was at this time he received a message from Napoleon, asking if his powers had returned yet, he answered yes. After this he went to Russia where he met his future wife, Sacha de Kroll, 12 days after their first meeting he was engaged, and four months later he was married. They travelled everywhere, and where received wherever they went. He died at the age 53 on June 21st 1886, at Auteuil, and was buried at a Russian cemetery at Saint-Germaine-en Laye.
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Sources: Worlds Greatest Psychics and Mystics. |