After it is stated that Lord Crawford, not long before, had fancied he beheld an apparition of a man seated in…
- Date of account
- Published 1908
- Source
- Historic Ghosts and Ghost Hunters
- Reference
- Historic Ghosts and Ghost Hunters · selected passage 117
- Rights
- public_domain
- Language
- English
- Record updated
- 2026-08-24
Record summary
After it is stated that Lord Crawford, not long before, had fancied he beheld an apparition of a man seated in a chair, it is easy to imagine the attitude of credulous expectancy with which he, at all events, would "wait for Home's return" via the open window
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 onlyAfter it is stated that Lord Crawford, not long before, had fancied he beheld an apparition of a man seated in a chair, it is easy to imagine the attitude of credulous expectancy with which he, at all events, would "wait for Home's return" via the open window. And the others were doubtless in the same expectant frame of mind. "Expectancy" and "suggestibility" will, indeed, work marvels. I shall never forget how the truth of this was borne home to me some years ago. A friend of mine--now a physician in Maryland, but at that time a medical student in Toronto--occasionally amused himself by giving table-tipping seances, in which he enacted the role of medium. There was no suspicion on his sitters' part that he was a "fraud." One evening he invoked the "spirit" of a little child, who had been dead a couple of years, and proceeded to "spell out" some highly edifying messages. Suddenly the seance was interrupted by a shriek and a lady present, not a relative of the dead child, fell to the floor in a faint.
Historical context
Contextual commentary · mention onlyThis 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 onlyThe 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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