Research source

Miss Johnson's discussion of Home's famous levitation out of one window and in at another is surely masterly,…

Date of account: Published 1921
Source: The Problems of Psychical Research Experiments and Theories in the Realm of the Supernormal
Reference: The Problems of Psychical Research Experiments and Theories in the Realm of the Supernormal · selected passage 149
Rights: public_domain
Language: English
Record updated: 2026-08-24

Record summary

Miss Johnson's discussion of Home's famous levitation out of one window and in at another is surely masterly, and is precisely the kind of criticism which psychic research needs

Published source text

Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.

Source passage

Source text · mention only

Miss Johnson's discussion of Home's famous levitation out of one window and in at another is surely masterly, and is precisely the kind of criticism which psychic research needs. After reading her account, I can only say that were this case an isolated incident, unsupported by any similar eases of a like nature, it would be so far "explained away" as to lose all evidential value. At the same time I think that Count Solovovo sums the whole argument up when he says that none of Home's phenomena were ever _proved_ to be hallucinatory; all that has been done by the discussion is to show that some of them _might possibly_ have been so. And there is a great difference between the two. There is a natural tendency in many minds to assume and take for granted that because a given phenomenon might possibly have been produced by fraud, it was unquestionably produced in that manner. That is quite an unwarranted supposition, and fraud should be clearly _proved_ in every given instance before a medium be charged with trickery.

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

This comes from historical psychical research. Methods, witness handling and standards of evidence differ from present-day research and should be assessed from the cited passage and edition.

Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

The passage can support a history of claims and recurring descriptions. It does not establish a paranormal mechanism, and competing psychological, social and physical explanations remain relevant.

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