Photographing Invisible Beings

BY WM. T. STEAD



"Millions of Spiritual creatures walk the earth

Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep."



--MILTON





It was during the South African War that my father obtained one of his

best authenticated spirit photographs, so I think that it is well to

give here his own account of his experiments in that direction. He

writes:
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"While recording the results at which I have arrived, I wish to

repudiate any desire to dogmatize as to their significance or their

origin. I merely record the facts, and although I may indicate

conclusions and inferences which I have drawn from them, I attach no

importance to anything but the facts themselves.



"There is living in London at the present moment an old man of

seventy-one years of age, a man of no education; he can write, but he

cannot spell, and he has for many years earned his living as a

photographer. He was always in a small way of business, a quiet,

inoffensive man who brought up his family respectably, and lived in

peace with his neighbors, attracting no particular remark....



"When he started in business as a photographer it was in the days when

the wet process was almost universal, and he was much annoyed by finding

that when he exposed plates other forms than that of the sitter would

appear in the background. So many plates were spoiled by these unwelcome

intruders that his partner became very angry, and insisted that the

plates had not been washed before they were used. He protested this was

not so, and asked his partner to bring a packet of completely new plates

with which he would take a photograph and see what was the result. His

partner accepted the challenge, and produced a plate which had never

previously been used; but when the portrait of the next sitter was

taken, there appeared a shadow form in the background. Angry and

frightened at this unwelcome appearance he flung the plate to the ground

with an oath, and from that time for very many years he was never again

troubled by an occurrence of similar phenomena.



"About ten years ago he became interested in spiritualism, and to his

surprise, and also to his regret, the shadow figures began to re-appear

on the background of the photographs. He repeatedly had to destroy

negatives and ask his customer to give him another sitting. It did his

business harm, and in order to avoid this annoyance he left most of the

photographing to his son.



"I happened to hear of these curious experiences of his and sought him

out. I found him very reluctant to speak about the matter. He said

frankly he did not know how the figures came; it had been a great

annoyance to him, and it gave his shop a bad name. He did not wish

anything to be said about the matter. In deference, however, to repeated

pressing on my part, he consented to make experiments with me, and I

had at various times a considerable number of sittings.



"At first I brought my own plates (half plate size). He allowed me to

place them in his slide in the dark room, to put them in the camera,

which I was allowed to turn inside-out, and after they were exposed I

was permitted to go into the dark room and develop them in his presence.

Under these conditions I repeatedly obtained pictures of persons who

were certainly not visible to me in the studio. I was allowed to do

almost anything that I pleased, to alter the background, to change the

position of the camera, to sit at any angle that I chose--in short to

act as if the studio and all belonging to it was my own. And I

repeatedly obtained what the old photographer called 'shadow pictures,'

but none of them bore any resemblance to any person whom I had known.



"In all these earlier experiments the photographer, whom I will call Mr.

B----, made no charge, and the only request that he made was that I

should not publish his name, or do anything to let his neighbors know of

the curious shadow pictures which were obtainable in his studio.



"After a time I was so thoroughly satisfied that the shadow photographs,

or spirit forms, were not produced by any fraud on the part of the

photographer, that I did not trouble to bring my own marked plates--I

allowed him to use his own, and to do all the work of loading the slide

and of developing the plate without my assistance or supervision. What I

wanted was to see whether it would be possible for me to obtain a

photograph of any person known to me in life who has passed over to the

other side. The production of one such picture, if the person was

unknown to the photographer, and he had no means of obtaining the

photograph of the original while on earth, seemed to me so much better a

test of the genuineness of the phenomena than could be secured by any

amount of personal supervision of the process of photography, that I

left him to operate without interference. The results he obtained when

left to himself were precisely the same as those when the slides passed

only through my own hands. But, although I obtained a great variety of

portraits of unknown persons, I got none whom I could recognize.



"In a conversation with Mr. B-- as to how these shadow pictures, as he

called them, came on the plate, I found him almost as much at sea as

myself. He said that he did not know how they came, but that he had

noticed that they came more frequently and with greater distinctness at

some times than at others. He could never say beforehand whether they

would come or not. He frequently informed me when my sitting began that

he could guarantee nothing. And often the set of plates would bear no

trace of any portrait save mine.



"He was very reluctant to continue the experiments, and used to complain

that after exposing four plates with a view to obtaining such pictures

he felt quite exhausted. And sometimes he complained that his 'innards

seemed to be turned upside-down,' to use his own phrase. I usually sat

with him between two and three in the afternoon, and on the days which I

came he always abstained from the usual glass of beer which he took with

his midday meal. If I came unexpectedly, and he had had a single glass

of beer, which formed his usual beverage, he would always assure me

that I need not expect any good results. I, however, never found any

particular difference in the results.



"We often discussed the matter together. And he was evidently working

out a theory of his own, as any one might under such circumstances. He

knew that when he was excited or irritated he got bad results. Hence he

often used to keep a music-box going, for the music, in his opinion,

tended to set up good and tranquil conditions. He said he thought

something must come out of him--what, he did not know, but something was

taken out of him, and with this something he thought the entities,

whoever they were, built themselves up and acquired sufficient substance

to reflect the rays of light so as to impress the sensitive plate in his

camera. He also thought that his old camera had become what he called

magnetized, and although it was an old-fashioned piece of furniture,

which I not only examined myself, but have had examined by expert

photographers, nothing could be discovered within or without it which

would account for the results obtained. He also was of the opinion that

even although he did not touch the photographic plate, it was necessary

for him to touch or to hold his hand over the photographic slide, and

also to hold his hand over the plate when it was in the developing bath.

His theory was that in some way or other this process magnetized the

plate and brought out a shadow portrait.



"One peculiarity of almost all the shadow pictures obtained in all these

series of experiments is that they have around them the same kind of

white drapery which is so familiar to those who have taken part in a

materializing seance. Sometimes this drapery is more voluminous than at

others; often, when the conditions are good, the form which at first

appears with its head encompassed with drapery will appear on the second

plate without any drapery. On asking Mr. B-- what explanation he could

give for this, he said he did not know, but he believed that the bodily

appearance assumed by the spirit was very sensitive and needed to be

shielded from currents, which might harm it. But when harmony prevailed

they could venture to remove the drapery, and be photographed without

it. Whatever may be the value of Mr. B--'s theory, there is little doubt

that something is given off from his body which can be photographed. The

white mist that appears to emanate from him forms into cloudy folds out

of which there protrudes a more or less clearly defined face with human

features. Sometimes this white and misty cloud obscures the sitter, at

other times it seems to be condensed as if it were in the process of

being worked up into a definite form for the completion of which either

time or some other conditions were lacking. It was also noticeable that

the entity--whoever it may be--which builds up the form, who is giving

off sufficient solidity to impress its image upon the plate in the

camera, having once created a form, will use it repeatedly without any

change of position or expression. This will no doubt seem a great

stumbling-block to many. But the fact is as I have stated it, and our

first business is to ascertain facts, whether they tell for or against

any particular hypothesis. It may be that the disembodied spirit, in

order to establish its identity, constructs, out of the 'aura' given off

by the photographer or other medium, a mask or cast bearing the

unmistakable resemblance to the body which it wore in its sojourn on

earth. Having once built it up for use in the studio, it may be easier

to employ the same cast again and again instead of building up a new one

at each fresh sitting. Upon this point, however, I shall have something

to say further on.



"I was very much interested in the results I obtained, although as none

of the photographs were identified I did not deem the experiment

completely successful. I was very anxious to induce Mr. B-- to devote

some months to an uninterrupted series of experiments, and asked him on

what terms I could secure his services. But he absolutely refused; he

said he did not like it, it made him unwell, made people speak ill of

him, and it did not matter what terms were offered, he would not

consent. He was an old man, he said, and he could not find out how these

things came; and, in short, neither scientific curiosity nor financial

consideration would induce him to consent to more than an occasional

sitting. I therefore dropped the matter, and for some years I

discontinued my experiments.



"I had a friend who often accompanied me to Mr. B--'s studio, where she

had been photographed both with and without shadow pictures appearing on

the background. We often promised each other that if either of us passed

over we would come back and be photographed by Mr. B-- if possible, in

order to prove the reality of spirit return. Shortly after this my

friend died. But it was not until nearly four years after her death, at

the request of a friend who was very anxious to know whether she could

communicate with those on the other side, that I went back to Mr. B--'s

studio.



"He had always been slightly clairvoyant and clairaudient. He told me

that a few days before I had written asking for the appointment, my

deceased friend had appeared in the studio and told him that I was

coming. This reminded me of her promise, and I said at once that I hoped

he would be able to photograph her. He said he didn't know; he was

rather frightened of her, for reasons into which I need not enter, but

if she came he would see what he could do. My friend and I sat together.

The first plate was exposed, nothing appeared in the background. When

the second plate was placed in the camera Mr. B-- nodded with a quick

look of recognition. We saw nothing. After he had exposed the second

plate and before he developed it he asked us to change seats. We did

this, and as he was exposing the third plate he said, 'I am told to ask

you to do this,' and then when he closed the shutter he said, 'it is

Mrs. M--.' On the fourth plate there appeared a picture of a woman whom

I had never seen before, and whom my friend had never seen, neither had

Mr. B--. When the plates came to be developed I found the second and

third plates contained unmistakable likenesses of my friend Mrs. M--.

These portraits were immediately recognized by my friend as unmistakable

likenesses of the deceased Mrs. M--. It will be objected that she had

frequently been photographed by the same photographer, and that he had

simply faked a photograph from one of his old negatives. I don't believe

that this is possible, for these portraits, although recognized

immediately by every one who knew her, including her nearest relative,

are quite different from any photograph she ever had taken in life. She

certainly never was photographed enveloped in white drapery, nor do I

believe that Mr. B-- had any negative of any of her portraits in his

possession. But I fully admit that from the point of view of one who

wishes to exclude every possibility of error, the fact that Mrs. M-- had

been frequently photographed in her lifetime by the same photographer

renders it impossible to regard these photographs as conclusive

testimony as to their authenticity as a photograph of a form assumed by

a disembodied spirit. I have mentioned that on the fourth plate there

appeared a portrait of an unknown female. On my return I was showing the

print of this shadow picture to a friend when she startled me by

declaring that the shrouded form which appeared behind me in the

photograph was a portrait of her mother who had died some months before

in Dublin. I had never seen her mother, my friend did not know of her

existence, neither did the photographer, nor does he to this day. It was

only many months afterwards that I was able to obtain a photograph of my

friend's mother, but it was taken when she was a comparatively young

woman and bore no manner of resemblance to the portrait of the lady who

appeared behind me. Her daughter, however, had not the slightest

hesitation in asserting that it was her mother, that she had recognized

her instantly, and that it was a very good portrait of her as she

appeared in the later years of her life. This startled me not a little,

and convinced me that I had a good prospect of attaining some definite

results as an outcome of my experiments.



"Mr. B--, encouraged by this success, was willing to continue his

experiments, and this time I insisted upon paying him for his work.



"From this time onward the occurrence of photographs that were

recognizable on the background of the photographs taken by Mr. B--

became frequent. Sometimes the plates were marked; but not invariably.

For my part I attach comparatively no importance to the marking of

plates and the close supervision of the operator. The test of the

genuineness of a photograph that is obtained when the unknown relative

of an unknown sitter appears in the background of the photograph, is

immeasurably superior to precautions any expert conjurer or trick

photographer might evade. Again and again I sent friends to Mr. B--,

giving him no information as to who they were, nor telling him anything

as to the identity of the persons' deceased friend or relative whose

portrait they wished to secure; and time and again when the negative was

developed the portrait would appear in the background, or sometimes in

front of the sitter. This occurred so frequently that I am quite

convinced of the impossibility of any fraud. One time it was a French

editor, who finding the portrait of his deceased wife appear on the

negative when developed, was so transported with delight that he

insisted on kissing the photographer, Mr. B--, much to the old man's

embarrassment. On another occasion it was a Lancashire engineer, himself

a photographer, who took marked plates and all possible precautions. He

obtained portraits of two of his relatives and another of an eminent

personage with whom he had been in close relations. Or again, it was a

near neighbor, who, going as a total stranger to the studio, obtained

the portrait of her deceased daughter.



"I attach no importance whatever to the appearance of portraits of

well-known personages, which might easily be copied from existing

pictures, but I attach immense importance to the production of the

spirit photographs of unknown relatives of sitters who are unknown to

the photographer, who receives them solely as a lady or gentleman who is

one of my friends.



"Although, as I have said, I do not attach much importance to

photographs appearing of well-known men, I confess that I was rather

impressed by one of my most recent experiments. I received a message

from a medium in Sheffield, who is unknown to me, saying that Cecil

Rhodes, who had then been dead about nine months, had spoken to her

clairaudiently, and had told her to ask me to go to the photographer's,

and that he would come and be photographed. The medium was a stranger to

me, and I confess that I received the message with considerable

skepticism. However, when she came up to town I accompanied her to the

studio. She declared that she saw Cecil Rhodes, and that he spoke to

her, and that he was standing behind me when the plate was exposed. When

the plate came to be developed, although there was one well-defined

figure standing behind me and several other faces half visible in the

background, there was no portrait of Cecil Rhodes. I was not surprised,

and went away. A month afterwards I went to have another sitting with

the photographer. I chatted with him for a short time, and then he left

the room for a moment. When he came back he said to me: 'There is a

round-faced well set-up man here with a short moustache and a dimple in

his chin. Do you know him?' 'No,' I said, 'I don't know any such man.'

'Well, he seems to be very busy about you.' 'Well,' I said, 'if he comes

upstairs, we shall see what we can get.' 'I don't know,' said he. When I

was sitting, he said, 'There he is, and I see the letter R. Is it Robert

or Richard, do you think?' 'I don't know any Robert or Richard,' I said.

He took the picture. He then proceeded with the second plate, and said,

'That man is still here, and I see behind him a country road. I wonder

what that means.' He went into the dark room, and presently came out and

said, 'I see "road or roads." Do you know any one of that name?' 'Of

course,' I said, 'Cecil Rhodes.' 'Do you mean him as died in the

Transvaal lately?' said he. I said 'Yes.' 'Well,' he said, 'was he a man

like that?' 'Well, he had a moustache,' I said. And sure enough, when

the plate was developed, there was Cecil Rhodes looking fifteen years

younger than when he died.



"Some other plates were exposed. One was entirely blank, on two others

the mist was formed into a kind of clot of light, but no figure was

visible, the fifth had a portrait of an unknown man, and on the sixth,

when it came to be developed, there was the same portrait of Cecil

Rhodes that had appeared on the first, but without the white drapery

round the head.



"Of course it may be said that it was well known that I was connected

with Cecil Rhodes and that the photographer therefore would have no

difficulty in faking a portrait. I admit all that, and therefore I would

not have introduced this if it had stood alone, as any evidence showing

that it was a bona fide photograph of an invisible being. But it does

not stand alone, and I have almost every reason to believe in the almost

stupid honesty, if I may use such a phrase, of the photographer. I am

naturally much interested in these latest portraits of the African

Colossus. They are, at any rate, entirely new, no such portraits, to the

best of my knowledge--and I have made a collection of all I can lay my

hands on--exactly resembling those portraits which I obtained at Mr.

B--'s studio.



"I will conclude the account of my experiments by telling how I secured

a portrait under circumstances which preclude any possibility of fake or

fraud. One day when I entered the studio, Mr. B-- said to me, 'There is

a man come with you who has been here before; he came here some days ago

when I was by myself; he looked very wild, and he had a gun in his hand,

and I did not like the look of him. I don't like guns, so I asked him to

go away, for I was frightened of the gun, and he went. But now he has

come with you, and he has not got his gun any more, so we will let him

stop.' I was rather amused at the old man's story and said, 'Well, see

if you can photograph him.' 'I don't know as I can,' he said, 'I never

know what I can get,'--which is quite true, for often the photographs

which he says he sees clairvoyantly do not come out on the plate. While

he was photographing me, I said to him, 'If you can tell this man to go

away, you can ask him his name.' 'Yes,' said he. 'Will you do so?' I

said. 'Yes,' he said. After seeming to ask the question mentally, he

said, 'He says his name is Piet Botha.' 'Piet Botha,' I said, 'I know no

such name. There are Louis and Philip, and Chris Botha. I have never

heard of Piet; still they are a numerous family and there are plenty of

Bothas in South Africa, and it will be interesting to ask General Botha,

when he arrives, whether he knows of any Piet Botha.' When the negative

was developed, sure enough there appeared behind me a photograph of a

stalwart bearded person, who might have been a Boer or a Russian moujik,

but who was certainly unknown to me. I had never seen a portrait of any

one which bore any resemblance to the photograph.



"When General Botha arrived I did not get an opportunity of asking him

about the photograph, but some time afterwards I asked Mr. Fischer, one

of the delegation from the South African Republics, to look at the

photograph, and if he got an opportunity to ask General Botha if he knew

of such a man as Piet Botha. Mr. Fischer said he thought he had seen the

face before, but he could not be certain. He departed with the

photograph. Some days afterwards Mr. Wessels, a member of the delegation

with Mr. Fischer, came down to my office. He said, 'I want to know about

that photograph that you gave Mr. Fischer.' 'Yes,' I said, 'what about

it?' 'I want to know where you got it.' I told him. He replied

disdainfully, 'I don't believe in such things; it is superstition;

besides, that man didn't know Mr. B--; he has never been in London; how

could he come there?' 'What,' I said, 'do you know him?' 'Know him!'

said Mr. Wessels. 'He is my brother-in-law.' 'Really!' I said. 'What did

they call him?' 'Pietrus Johannes Botha, but we always called him Piet

for short.' 'Is he dead, then?' I said. 'Yes,' said Mr. Wessels, 'he was

the first Boer officer who was killed in the siege of Kimberley; but

there is a mystery about this; you didn't know him?' 'No,' I said. 'And

never heard of him?' 'No,' I said. 'But,' he said, 'I have the man's

portrait in my house in South Africa, how could you get it?' 'But,' I

said, 'I never have had it.' 'I don't understand,' he said, moodily, and

so departed. I afterwards showed the photograph to another Free-State

Boer who knew Piet Botha very well, and he had not the slightest

hesitation in declaring that it was an unmistakable likeness of his dead

friend.[8]



[Footnote 8: Referring to this photo elsewhere, he wrote:--"This at

least is not a case which telepathy can explain. Nor can the hypothesis

of fraud hold water. It was by the merest accident that I asked the

photographer to see if the spirit would give his name. No one in

England, so far as I have been able to ascertain, knew that any Piet

Botha ever existed.



"As if to render all explanation of fraud or contrivance still more

incredible, it may be mentioned that the Daily Graphic of October,

1889, which announced that a Commandant Botha had been killed in the

siege of Kimberley, published a portrait alleged to be that of the dead

commandant, which not only does not bear the remotest resemblance to the

Piet Botha of my photograph, but which was described as Commandant Hans

Botha!"]



"This is a plain, straightforward narrative of my experiences; they are

still going on. But if I continue them forever I don't see how I am

going to obtain better results than those which I have already secured.

At the same time I must admit that when I have taken my own kodak to the

studio and taken a photograph immediately before Mr. B-- had exposed his

plate, I got no results. The same failure occurred with another

photographer whom I took, who took his own camera and his own plates,

and took a photograph immediately before and immediately after Mr. B--

had exposed his plate, and secured no result. Mr. B--'s explanation of

this is that he thinks he does in some way or other magnetize, as he

terms it, the plate, and that there is some effluence from his hand

which is as necessary for the development of the psychic figure as the

developing liquid is for the development of an ordinary photograph. This

explanation would no doubt be derided as, I presume, wiseacres would

have derided the first photographers when they insisted upon the

necessity of darkness whilst developing their plates. What I hold to be

established is that in the presence of this particular individual, Mr.

B--, who at present is the only person known to me who is able to

produce these photographs, it is possible to obtain under test

conditions photographs that are unmistakably portraits of deceased

persons; the said deceased persons being entirely unknown to him, and in

some cases equally unknown to the sitter. Neither was any portrait of

such person accessible either to the sitter or the photographer; neither

was either the sitter or the photographer conscious of the very

existence of these persons, whose identity was subsequently recognized

by their friends.[9]



[Footnote 9: Miss Katharine Bates was present when the Piet Botha

photograph was taken under the exact conditions specified by my father.]



"I am willing to admit that no conceivable conditions in the way of

marking plates and supervising the actions or the operations of the

photographer are of the least use, in so much as an expert conjurer can

easily deceive the eye of the unskilled observer. But what I do maintain

is that it is impossible for the cleverest trick photographer and the

ablest conjurer in the world to produce a photograph, at a moment's

notice, of an unknown relative of an unknown sitter, this portrait to

be unmistakably recognizable by all survivors who knew the original in

life. This Mr. B-- has done again and again. And it seems to me that a

great step has been made towards establishing the possibility of

verifying by photography the reality of the existence of other

intelligences than our own."



The photographer alluded to in this article is Mr. Boursnell. He died

shortly after it was written, and although father experimented with

others, he never obtained such convincing and satisfactory results.