Can we talk to the dead? What we know about the power of mediums

Mar 16, 2023

“after weighing the evidence, I could no more doubt the existence of the phenomena than I could doubt the existence of lions in Africa.” – Arthur Conan Doyle

The medium is like a spiritual superhero. One with the claimed abilities to bridge the gap between our world and the mysterious world “beyond”. Channeling voices of the dead, holding séances, and employing telekinetic abilities are associated with Mediumship, among other things. The idea of communicating with the dead is a frightful terror to some, and a warm comfort to others.

Of all the mediums that have ever been written about or discussed, perhaps there is none more mysterious than Daniel Dunglas Home.

Here is an excerpt from the opening of his 1864 book, Incidents in my Life:

“there seemed to be a gleam of light, which I cannot describe ... This light increased, and my attention was drawn to the foot of my bed, where stood my friend Edwin. He appeared as in a cloud of brightness, illuminating his face with a distinctness more than mortal. His features were unchanged except in brightness, and the only difference I saw was that his hair was long, and that it fell in wavy ringlets upon his shoulders. He looked on me with a smile of ineffable sweetness, then slowly raising the right arm, he pointed upward, and making with it three circles in the air, the hand began slowly to disappear, and then the arm, and finally the whole body melted away ... I rang the bell, and the family, thinking I was ill, came to my room, when my first words were, "I have seen Edwin -he died three days ago at this very hour." This was found to be perfectly correct by a letter which came a few days afterwards, announcing that after only a few hours' illness, he had died of malignant dysentery.”

A great many people had observed Home, conducted tests of his purported abilities, and attempted to debunk his claims. Yet a shocking number of skeptical witnesses walked away from Home’s séances and displays convinced they had seen the supernatural in action.

Here’s one eyewitness account:

“Then suddenly 'a heavy armchair, placed against the wall at the further end of the salotto, ran violently out into the middle of the room towards us.' Other chairs rushed about 'with still greater velocity.' … The table rose 'three or four feet,' at highest, and remained in air 'from two to three minutes.' It rose so high that 'all could see Karr, and see also that no one's legs moved.' … and as Home, at one side, had his hands above it, clearly Home did not lift it.” - Historical Mysteries, 1905

Here are accounts of levitation:

“In August 1852, Daniel was at the home of silk manufacturer Ward Cheney in Manchester, Connecticut. There, he levitated several times during one séance, ascending as far as the ceiling.”
“...several witnesses testified that Home levitated out a third floor window, and returned through another window.” – The Norwich Bulletin

Since then, many people don’t know what to make of Daniel Dunglas Home. Similarly, with the story of Mary Hayes Chynoweth.

Mary Hayes Chynoweth was a medium who believed that a “compelling Power” spoke through her, allowing her to speak other languages. She was a renowned healer with high-profile patients and never charged money for her services.

Now, of all the weirdness surrounding her, here is the strangest part: according to the Wisconsin Historical Society, Chynoweth told her sons that the Power had located an area in the wilderness where they should mine, even though they were lawyers, not miners. Nevertheless, they went there. She even identified the exact locations that they should dig. Here comes the mysterious part:

The sons set up mining shafts in those areas, and they turned out to be the “some of the richest iron ore in the Gogebic Range”. They became extremely wealthy, and the mines became the reason for the founding of the town of Hurley, Wisconsin.

Mediumship has never faded from public interest. There have been academic studies performed on mediums with results that I found quite curious and surprising.

To quote the abstract of one from 2020:

The results of this meta-analysis support the hypothesis that some mediums can retrieve information about deceased persons through unknown means. - Anomalous information reception by mediums: A meta-analysis of the scientific evidence, 2020

And an even weirder one from 2022:

“...this study provides further evidence that some mediums are able to obtain accurate information about deceased people knowing only the deceased's name and with no interaction with sitters; it also supports the hypothesis that, in some cases, the sources of the information are the deceased themselves.” - Mediumship accuracy: A quantitative and qualitative study with a triple-blind protocol, 2022

Some of the most bizarre statements can be found in An Investigation of Mediums Who Claim to Give Information About Deceased Persons (2011) The “sitter” is the one analyzing the results the reading based on the photo of their family member or whoever, not the Medium:

“In another example, among many other details the sitter
commented especially on the statement “he said I don’t know why
they keep that clock if they are not going to make it work. So
somebody connected directly to him has a clock that either is not
wound up, or they let it run down, or it’s standing there just quiet.
And he said what’s the point in having a clock that isn’t running? So,
somebody should know about that and it should give them quite
laughter.” The sitter did laugh (and cry) over this, because a
grandfather clock that her husband had kept wound had not been
wound since his death.”

And my personal favorite:

“one of the main purposes of the
study was to identify mediums who can do well under controlled
experimental conditions. One medium clearly stood out: all of this
person’s 6 readings were ranked as number 1.”

Who this person is is another mystery, I suppose.

- Joe