Klaus Schreiber was born in Germany and grew up in poverty after World War II. He married Gertrude in 1946 and they had four children. Unfortunately, his life was marked by the passing of many close family members. Gertrude died shortly after giving birth in 1960 to their fourth child, Karin. In 1968, their son, Robert, died from a motorcycle accident. Schreiber’s mother died at the age of 81, in 1977. Karin was injured at work and died the next year. Their deaths were followed by the passing of his nephew, sister-in-law and brother-in-law.
Schreiber retired from being a fire protection technician in Aachen, Germany in 1982, due to health problems. One morning, while watching “Incredible Stories” on television he was inspired by the topic of electronic voice phenomena (EVP). After discussing EVPs with his friends, he decided to do an experiment. He purchased a tape recorder, put a new tape in and started a recording. He spoke to Peter, a deceased friend who knew all those present at the meeting. Peter responded: “hello friends” on the tape.
Schreiber was so impressed he turned his basement into an audio and video recording laboratory. During his experiments he heard the voice of his daughter, Karin, and the other family members. It was through these audio messages that he received directions to capture video images. In May 1984 he received the following message, “Record on TV.”
He tried several techniques to record images from the TV, tuning it to an empty channel, capturing images in slow-motion and fast motion, but everything failed. He combined a video camera, black-and-white TV, video recorders and two video amplifiers to try to improve the image and resolution. He also added UV and Infrared lamps to the ambient light and aluminum foil to reflect light on the TV screen. He finally ended up with the TV recording its own image in a feedback system. He ended up with a screen with a luminous effect that periodically oscillated.
Schreiber’s “Vidicom” was first used on September 30, 1985. Researcher and physicist Prof. Dr. Ernest Senkowski witnessed the phenomenon and vouched for its authenticity. Schreiber described the procedure as a way to activate a “morphogenetic” field. He photographed images of many strangers as well as his family and famous people, including Albert Einstein.
In 1986, Schreiber’s second wife, Agnes, died. Schreiber followed two years later in 1988 after suffering a heart attack. His obituary said, “There is no death – there is only a passing to another level of existence. – I am with you. “
Schreiber left behind a large collection of video images. Martin Wenzel continued working with the technique and captured additional images. According to the Luxembourg ITC group, Klaus Schreiber continues broadcasting images hoping to be picked up by researchers here on Earth. “We are told that pictures such as these remain in ‘the quantum of spacelessness and timelessness,’ and perhaps it is just ‘a matter of time’ and receptivity before they are captured by equipment of receptive ITC experimenters on Earth.”
Alice Kipling was born in 1868, three years after her famous brother, Rudyard Kipling, in Bombay, India. Their father was John Lockwood Kipling, an artist who was principal of the Jeejeebyhoy Art School. Their mother was Alice Macdonald Kipling, who was related to several painters and Stanley Baldwin, a future Prime Minister. In 1871, the Kipling family returned to England. When their parents left for India a second time, Alice and Rudyard stayed with the Holloway family in Southsea.
Alice Kipling was educated at private schools and moved back to India at the age of 16. There, she met and married British army officer, John Fleming, in 1889. Alice published poems and short stories about Indian life under the name Beatrice Kipling. She wrote prolifically in the 1890s, publishing her first novel, The Heart of the Maid under the name Beatrice Grange. Her second novel, A Pinchbeck Goddess, followed in 1897.
Alice met artist, Evelyn Pickering de Morgan, in 1897. De Morgan’s spiritualist-inspired paintings exemplified her interest in the social issues of her time, including poverty, socialism and women’s rights. It was in Evelyn that Alice found a kindred spirit. She was free to speak openly with de Morgan about spiritual topics that her husband and family refused to discuss.
Alice wrote poems to accompany at least four of De Morgan’s paintings. They shared an enthusiasm for spiritualism, specifically in automatic writing. Alice experimented with automatic writing and became a well-known psychic, working under the name “Mrs. Holland.”
Between about 1898 and 1901, Alice suffered from a deep depression. Some believe it was due to an unhappy marriage. She returned to England in 1902. She wrote articles under the name “Mrs. Holland” for magazines published by the Society for Psychical Research. She also participated in the society’s cross-correspondence tests, in which several automatic writers produced scripts that only became meaningful when combined.
After her brother’s death in 1936, Fleming focused her attention on the Kipling Society. She helped rebuild her brother’s tarnished reputation as an author. She died in 1948.
Additional Reading:
Berger, Arthur S., and Joyce Berger (1991) The Encyclopedia of Parapsychology and Psychical Research. Paragon House, New York.
Johnson, Alice (1908) “On the Automatic Writing of Mrs. Holland.” Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 21.
Oberhausen, Judy (2009) “Sisters in spirit: Alice Kipling Fleming, Evelyn Pickering de Morgan and 19th-century spiritualism.” The British Art Journal, Vol. 9, No. 3 (Spring 2009), pp. 38-42 Published by: British Art Journal
From the earliest days of Spiritualism, magicians have challenged mediums and scientists have put them to the test. Investigator and author, Hereward Carrington stated: “Many genuine mediums will frequently resort to fraud when their powers fail them, or when phenomena are not readily forthcoming.”
Francis Ward Monck appears to be one of those mediums who cheated when his abilities failed him. Monck was born in Portsmouth, England to Henry and Mary Monck in 1835. His father was a butcher, but Monck attended Metropolitan Tabernacle College and became a Baptist minister in 1860. He headed a congregation in Bristol shortly after graduation and was considered successful.
It wasn’t until after his father’s death in 1872 that Monck turned to Spiritualism. He advertised his mediumship, toured the British Isles and healed the sick in Ireland. In London he gave an impressive materialization séance before a group that included several noteworthy individuals, including Charles Darwin’s brother-in-law, Hensleigh Wedgewood.
Monck’s notoriety grew until November 3, 1876. He was challenged by a magician named Lodge, who demanded to search him. Monck ran from the séance, locked himself in an upstairs room and escaped through the window. Lodge discovered a pair of stuffed gloves in Monck’s room that could be used as materializing hands. Monck was arrested for fraud and his trial became a great sensation. The court found Monck guilty. He was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment.
Despite the trial, friends and faithful followers did not give up on Monck. Archdeacon Colley, who had been away in India during the trial hosted a séance the following year. He wrote: “Dr. Monck, under control of Samuel, was by the light of the lamp – the writer not being a yard away from him – seen by all to be the living gate for the extrusion of spirit forms from the realm of mind into this world of matter; for standing forth thus plainly before us, the psychic or spirit form was seen to grow out of his left side. First, several faces one after another, of great beauty appeared, and in amazement we saw – and as I was standing close up to the medium, even touching him, I saw most plainly – several times, a perfect face and form of exquisite womanhood partially issue from Dr. Monck, about the region of the heart.”
Monck rarely used a cabinet. Sometimes he was in trance, other times quite conscious. He had two spirit guides: Samuel and Mahedi. Evidence of his materializations was obtained by William Oxley in 1876 with paraffin molds of hands and feet. The Archdeacon recorded events that included the appearance of full-sized solid forms.
Monck moved to Switzerland where he lectured on the powers of writing, materializations and other psychic occurrences. In 1881 he traveled to America and demonstrated at Lake Pleasant Camp outside of Boston. He taught magnetic healing techniques in the New York City area and practiced weekly laying on of hands at the Apostolic Church of Divine Gifts, attracting thousands.
Monck’s Door of Hope healing facility offered help to those who could not be healed in a single session. Unfortunately, Monck was sued for back wages in 1883 and non-repayment of a loan in 1886. After filing for bankruptcy, he vanished from the records. He may have died in Cleveland in 1897.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote of Monck: “Of all mediums none is more difficult to appraise, for on one hand many of his results are beyond all dispute, while for a few there seems to be an absolute certainty of dishonesty.” It seems that Monck’s abilities will always be challenged.
Additional Reading:
Buckland, Raymond (2005) The Spirit Book: The Encyclopedia of Clairvoyance, Channeling, and Spirit Communication. Visible Ink Press.
Finucane, Ronald C. (1996). Ghosts: Appearances of the Dead & Cultural Transformation. Prometheus Books.
Fodor, Nandor (1934) An Encyclopaedia of Psychic Science. Arthurs Press, London.
Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston in 1706, one of 17 children born to Josiah Franklin. He attended Boston Latin School but never finished his education. Instead, at 12 he apprenticed at his brother James’ printing shop. By the time he was 15, Benjamin founded the New England Courant. He was not satisfied with life in Boston and moved to Philadelphia two years later where he worked for several printing houses.
And as they say, the rest is history. Franklin’s list of accomplishments is too numerous to mention here. His interests included electricity, demography, meteorology, ocean wave theory and refrigeration. He was a statesman, humorist, diplomat, abolitionist, and inventor. When Franklin died in 1790, he had had a full and productive life. But it seems that did not keep him from working after his death.
Andrew Jackson Davis said that Franklin invented the “Celestial Telegraph” by which the departed could communicate with our world through rapping sounds. On March 31, 1848, Davis heard Franklin’s voice say “Brother! The good work has begun—behold, a living demonstration is born!” At the time, Davis did not know that 300 miles away in New York, the first rappings began in the Fox house.
Franklin materialized at several seances given by Kate Fox. She held over 400 sessions with Charles F. Livermore, a New York merchant who came to communicate with his wife. In August 1861, a man appeared with Mrs. Livermore. When he returned in November, it was clear from his dress and appearance that the man was Benjamin Franklin. He continued to communicate with Livermore and left two written messages. “You can now say that you have seen me by the light of earth. I will come again, in further proof.” When he returned in June, they were able to touch his garments before he melted away.
Emma Hardinge Britten made many references to Franklin’s appearances and messages in her book, Modern American Spiritualism (1870). His communication gave Spiritualists reassurance that their souls would continue on in the Spirit World. He said to Isaac Post at one séance that his purpose was to “make the embodied realize their immediate continuance after leaving the body; the next is to give a true statement of our condition.”
Franklin also predicted what was to come to Mrs. Draper in Rochester, NY, during an 1850 seance run by Margaret Fox. “Things that now look dark and mysterious to you will be laid plain before your sight.”
Additional Reading:
Britten, Emma Hardinge (1870) Modern American Spiritualism. Reprinted 2017 Andesite Press.
Capron, Eliab W. (2017) Modern Spiritualism: Its Facts and Fanaticisms, Its Consistencies and Contradictions, (Classic Reprint) Paperback, Forgotten Books.
Conan Doyle, Sir Arthur (2011) Delphi Complete Works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Illustrated), Delphi Classics.
Sollors, Werner. Dr. (1983) Benjamin Franklin’s Celestial Telegraph, or Indian Blessings to Gas-Lit American Drawing Rooms. In American Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 5.
Alfred Vout Peters was born in England in 1867. He began seeing spirit children when he was very young and told his mother they were God’s angels who had come to play with him. He also had precognitive dreams and saw visions.
He was almost 30 before he attended a séance at his sister-in-law’s house in 1895. During the following three years, he developed his own mediumship skills and worked with a spirit guide named “Moonstone.” In 1898-1899, Peters, located in London, was controlled by a medium in Paris during several seances. During another event with Cecil Husk, a friend of Peters who was still alive materialized at Husk’s séance.
In 1902, Oscar Hansen, M.D. from Copenhagen reported on Peters’ accuracy during a séance. The medium described four spirits who appeared for Hansen and gave details of their various physical ailments. Hansen wrote, “It’s most important to observe that not only were all the descriptions so exact that I could not fail to recognize them, but Mr. Peters was absolutely ignorant of everything described.”
Peters’ mediumship was featured in Sir Oliver Lodge’s book Raymond, or Life & Death (1916). Sir Oliver was a British physicist and writer who described electromagnetic radiation and held key patents for the radio. Lodge also studied psychical research and spiritualism (mainly telepathy) in the late 1880s and was president of the Society for Psychical Research from 1901 to 1903. Lodge was a friend of Arthur Conan Doyle, and both men lost sons in World War I. Lodge’s book describes séances with both Peters and Gladys Osborne Leonard.
Along with messages to Sir and Lady Lodge, there are also some personal statements from Moonstone. During one sitting, Moonstone gave insights into his life and his goal as a spirit. He said,” I lived a selfish life, a good life, but a selfish one, though I didn’t know it then. I isolated myself and did not mix with people, not even with family life. When I go over, I find it was a negative goodness, so then I wanted to help humanity, because I hadn’t helped it. I had not taken on the sufferings even of a family man. I was useless.”
Peters joined the Theosophical Society in 1923. He participated in a research experiment, “Joanna Sothcott’s Box,” in 1927. Peters was one of several psychometrists who tried to identify the contents before the box was opened by the National Laboratory of Psychical Research. His identification was quite accurate and was published in the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, Volume XXI in 1927.
Peters died in May, 1934 at Longton, Staffordshire at the age of 67. His mediumship skills had taken him to 17 countries by that time. He was known for his trance mediumship, clairvoyance and psychometry abilities.
Additional Reading:
Hansen, Oscar (1902) Some Seances with London Mediums, In Light, Volume 22, November 22.
Lodge, Sir Oliver (1916) Raymond, or Life and Death. George H. Doran Publisher, London.
Alfred Vout Peters, Psypioneer, Vol 4, Number 2, Feb 2008 through Vol 4, Number 4, April 2008 (continuing series of articles) Paul J Gaunt, editor.
Mother Catherine Seals was born Nannie Cowin in Hustonville, Kentucky about 1876 to William and Sarah Cowin. In the 1880 census, she is listed as having two sisters, Lena and Jennie. She moved to New Orleans in her mid-teens and lived with Mrs. Nettles while working as a laundress.
In the early 1920s, Mother Catherine had a paralytic stroke. She went to a white faith healer but was refused treatment because she was black. Not long after, Catherine received a vision from God and discovered she could heal herself. When she recovered, she began using her healing powers for others.
Catherine founded a combination church and women’s shelter which she called the Manger in the early 1920s. She purchased undeveloped ground near Bayou Bienvenu in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans and encouraged her converts to buy the surrounding lots.
At a time of racial separation and strict segregation laws, the temple, called the Church of the Innocent Blood, was interracial. Members were known as “saints.” Men were called “banners” and dressed in suits with arm bands denoting the church’s emblem. Women, called “veils,” wore white tunics and cotton veils.
Mother Catherine entered the temple through a hole in the roof like she was descending from the heavens. She was known for her elaborate robes, and often went barefoot. The walls were hand-painted with religious icons, including a black Jesus. Discarded crutches that belonged to the healed lined the walls. Animals, including dogs, goats and chickens, roamed the compound. Thousands of followers supported her.
While Mother Catherine practiced spiritual healing, her other mission was to take care of women so that they could keep their children. The Manger was a haven for unwed mothers, abused women, and orphans. In the 1930 census, the church at 2420 Charbonnet Street was valued at $7000. It housed not only Mother Catherine, but 15 other women and children who were listed as aids. Being illiterate, Mother Catherine, made sure the children attended school. She even adopted one of the children, Sort Mayheir, a bi-racial girl with a Puerto Rican mother and African American father.
In 1930, Mother Catherine told her followers she needed to return to Kentucky to fight a spirit. She died on August 11th of that year, soon after arriving. Her funeral was attended by thousands and received nationwide newspaper coverage. Mother Rita took charge of the church after a legal battle because Mother Catherine’s will was found to be invalid. The church closed in the early 1940s.
Additional Reading:
Guillory, Margarita Simon (2017) Spiritual and Social Transformation in African American Spiritual Churches: More than Conjurers. Routledge and CRC Press.
Jesse Shepard was born in Birkenhead, England in 1848. His family moved to the United States when he was a baby and he grew up in Illinois. His musical training began at the age of twelve when he learned to play the piano. Singing was added to his repertoire nine years later when a spirit named Rachel came to him and advised him to develop his voice.
Shepard traveled to Paris when he was 21 years old. Wealthy patrons were impressed by his talent and in a short time he became one of the most famous mediums in Europe. He was known for his demonstrations in psychometry, clairvoyance, prediction, and diagnosing disease. Without extensive formal musical training, he claimed his abilities came from the spirits of many famous composers, including Mozart and Chopin. He performed for the duchess of Cumberland, the Queen of Hanover, the reigning duke of Saxe-Altenburg, and the Queen of Denmark. He even traveled to St. Petersburg and played for the Czar.
Shepard returned to the United States in 1874. After performing at an old mission in San Diego, he built a mansion, the Villa Montezuma, in the area. But he did not settle down. In the early 1880s, he sailed to Europe and Australia. He amazed audiences by singing soprano and bass parts simultaneously during his seances. He claimed to speak only English and French, but while in trance he was also able to communicate in German, Latin, Greek, Chaldean and Arabic. He sang in Saint-Eustache and the basilica of Montmartre and was invited by composer Leon Gasinelle to sing the leading parts in a Mass during the festival of the Annunciation at the Cathedral of Notre Dame.
In 1885, Shepard met Lawrence W. Tonner who became Shepard’s secretary and close friend for the next 40 years. Tonner worked with Shepard during his next European tour, after which Shepard ended his career as a medium and settled in London for a time. When they returned to Villa Montezuma, Shepard became more involved in Spiritualism, Theosophy and the Catholic Church. He began his writing career and used the house as a center for grand receptions.
Under the pen name Francis Grierson, he published philosophical essays in The Golden Era, a west coast journal. Their success encouraged him to move to France in 1888 to pursue a literary career. By the time he reached fifty, he had published his book Modern Mysticism and Other Essays (1899), The Celtic Temperament and Other Essays (1901), and other works.
Shepard eventually moved to Los Angeles in 1920. Destitute, he depended on Tonner for financial support while he occasionally demonstrated as a direct voice medium, continued writing and gave piano recitals. He died at the keyboard while playing at a benefit dinner given for him on the 29th of May 1927.
Additional Reading:
Fodor, N. (1964). Between Two Worlds: Amazing True Case-Histories of the Occult, the Mysterious, the Marvellous and the Supernatural. West Nyack, NY: Parker.
Gaddis, V. H. (1994). ‘Mystery of the Musical Medium’. Borderlands 50/3.
Grierson, F. (1899). Modern Mysticism and Other Essays. London: George Allen.
Grierson, F. (1901) The Celtic Temperament and Other Essays. London: George Allen.
Bela Marsh was one of eight children born to Lot and Lydia (French) Marsh of Hingham, Massachusetts. Hingham was a Massachusetts Bay colony, settled in the early 1600s, and Bela’s father was a private in the Revolutionary War. Bela was born in 1797, and was raised near Derby Academy, the oldest co-educational school in the county.
Bela married Mary Beal in 1827, and they had only one child,
Thomas, who was born about 1840. Mary must have maintained a boarding house,
because in 1850, they had 8 people living with them, including a teacher, a
machinist and Irish immigrants.
Bela moved to Boston where he became a publisher and bookseller.
His business partners were Nahum Capen, Gardener P. Lyon, T.H. Webb and George W.
Williams. Capen was interested in phrenology and founded the Boston
Phrenological Society. He was also an editor, author and publisher and frequently
contributed to newspapers and magazines.
Bela was not a Spiritualist. He was a Universalist and treasurer
for the House of the Fifth Universalist Society in Boston, a growing religion
in the city. Universalists believe that no one has a monopoly on truth,
and we should respect the beliefs of others and their right to hold those
beliefs.
Although he wasn’t a member of the Spiritualist movement, Bela
was an agent for the Spiritual Telegraph in the 1850s. His publishing
company printed books from many progressive thinkers of the time, abolitionists
and early spiritual thinkers, including Adin Ballou, Warren Chase and Henry
Clarke Wright.
Bela’s printing house also published the works of Andrew Jackson
Davis, including Revelations, the three-volume set of the Great
Harmonium and Philosophy of Spiritual Intercourse. Jackson was an uneducated
man, who is considered a prime forerunner to modern Spiritualism. Between 1845
to 1885, he wrote over 30 books which covered many subjects, including
cosmological philosophy, health, and the afterlife.
In Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations,
published by Marsh in 1859, Davis predicted the coming of Spiritualism:
“It is a truth that spirits commune with one another
while one is in the body and the other in the higher spheres—and this, too,
when the person in the body is unconscious of the influx, and hence cannot be
convinced of the fact; and this truth will ere long present itself in the form
of a living demonstration. And the world will hail with delight the ushering-in
that era when the interiors of men will be opened, and the spiritual communion
will be established such as is now being enjoyed by the inhabitants of Mars,
Jupiter, and Saturn.”
William Eglinton was born in Islington, England in 1857. He had no knowledge of Spiritualism until his father attended a debate at the Hall of Science in London in 1874. Dr. Sexton and Mr. Foote’s discussion piqued his father’s interest and he formed a home circle.
At first, Eglinton thought his father was crazy, but he joined the circle, determined that if anything happened, he would expose the fraud. After many nights with no activity, the table animated. The next evening William went into a trance with no effort. He came under the guidance of a spirit called Joey Sandy and then a spirit called Ernest who created materializations.
Word spread and so many séances were requested that Eglinton
gave up his job at a printing firm about 1875. He held seances for the Dalston
Association of Spiritualists, the Brixton Psychological Society and the British
National Association of Spiritualists.
There are reports of Eglinton being carried by invisible
power over tables and participants. Under test conditions, a Dr. Nichols witnessed
white-robed forms standing by Eglinton. Hands, arms, faces would appear and
disappear. Eglinton’s one-armed spirit guide, Abd-u-lah, materialized adorned
with jewels which were examined by attendees. This was seen in good under good
lighting conditions
Eglinton’s most extraordinary act was his own transposition at
the home of Mrs. Makdougall Gregory in 1878. During this séance he transported
through the ceiling into the room above. The account was published in The
Spiritualist of March 22, 1878.
Eglinton traveled the world, visiting Capetown, Stockholm, Denmark, Germany, Bohemia,
New York City and Calcutta. While in India, he was accused co-operating with
Mme. Blavatsky in a fraudulent demonstration.
Eglinton denied that he met Mme. Blavatsky, but it appears that he took
many letters of introduction to her and met her in Calcutta. After the scandal,
Eglinton attempted to retire from professional mediumship. He became a partner
in a publishing firm, Ross Publishing Company. That endeavor lasted about a
year.
In 1884, Eglinton turned to slate writing which he believed was
easier than materializations. He traveled through Europe the following year,
stopping in Paris and Vienna. In 1887 he
visited Russia and held a séance for Emperor Alexander III. He remained
for repeated experiments and was confirmed as a genuine psychic.
After returning from Russia, Eglinton married. He abandoned
mediumship and became editor of The New Age and The Tatler. As
a journalist his association with Spiritualism was never mentioned. He died March 10, 1933.
Additional Reading:
Fodor, Nandor (1933) An Encyclopaedia of Psychic Science.
Farmer, J.S. (1886) Twixt Two Worlds, Psychological
Press, London.
Thomas Lake Harris was born at Fenny Stratford, England in 1823, and moved to Utica, New York when he was a boy. He became a Universalist minister at age 20. When Andrew Jackson Davis published The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Relations, and a Voice to Mankind in 1847, Harris became one of his followers. Harris left the Universalist church and went on a lecture tour to spread his newly acquired knowledge. Although Harris was taken by Davis’ spiritual revelations, he did not agree with Davis’ more liberal views on marriage. They parted ways.
Harris became pastor of the First Independent Christian Society of New York, and then joined the Apostolic Circle in Auburn, NY, under J. L. Scott in 1851. Scott was a Baptist minister and trance medium who believed he spoke to St. John. Encouraged by Mrs. Benedict, the groups’ official medium, that St. John wanted to speak through him, Harris moved to Auburn. He became co-editor of the journal Disclosures from the Interior and Superior Care of Mortals.
Scott’s followers sold all their possessions and founded the Mountain Cove Community. Harris did not join them. When dissent threatened the community’s survival, Scott turned to Harris for help. Harris averted a crisis for a while, working as a medium, but the group broke apart. Harris left to preach Spiritualism at Dodworth Hall in New York City.
In 1853, Harris began to dictate poetry while in a trance state. His first composition, An Epic of the Starry Heavens, was 6,000 lines delivered in 21 sittings from November 24 to December 8, 1853. His second poem was A Lyric of the Golden Age, a 5,000-word poem. Harris hoped his trance poems would make him a leader of the Spiritualist movement, but that did not happen. He turned back to Christianity and published Song of Satan, in which communicating spirits were portrayed as demons.
In 1859, Harris left his congregation in New York on a mission to England. He preached “mystic” Christianity in London and several cities. In his first sermon, he warned the audience about “the danger of Spiritualists giving themselves up to production of physical phenomena and allowing their minds to be held captive by the teachings of the low forms of Spiritualism.”
It appears that Harris was a victim to the “low forms” he warned against. He attracted the attention of Laurence Oliphant, a writer and politician. Oliphant was diplomat, private secretary to Lord Elgin, and special correspondent of The Times in Crimea, and member of Parliament. When Harris began his Brotherhood of the New Life community in Wassaic, NY in 1861, he instructed Oliphant to give up his position and work as a laborer there. Oliphant complied.
In 1863, the group purchased a mill in Amenia, NY and then
moved to Brockton in the shores of Lake Erie, using Oliphant’s money. Harris
allowed Oliphant to leave the community but controlled his actions. When
Oliphant met his future wife in 1872, Harris didn’t allow them to have contact for
three years. Mrs. Oliphant eventually left the community penniless and alone.
It wasn’t until his mother died that Oliphant left Harris’ sphere of influence.
He charged Harris with fraud and recovered much of his fortune, but still believed
Harris was a genuine psychic.
Harris’ followers were very devoted, but by the 1870s his teaching were far removed from Spiritualism. He announced in 1891 that he’d found the elixir of life to renew his youth. When Harris died in 1906, it was three months before his followers accepted his death.
Additional Reading:
Cuthbert, Arthur A (1908) The Life and World Work of
Thomas Lake Harris, Written from Direct Personal Knowledge. Glasgow,
Scotland
Harris, Thomas Lake. (1891) Brotherhood of the New
Life: Its Fact, Law, Method, and Purpose. Fountain Grove Press,
Fountain Grove, CA.
Schneider, Herbert Wallace (1942) A Prophet and a
Pilgrim, Being the Incredible History of Thomas Lake Harris and Laurence
Oliphant: Their Sexual Mysticisms and Utopian Communities. Columbia
University Press, NY.
