Research source

A considerable number of his extras, indistinct though they were, were recognised by the sitters and their…

Date of account: Published 1923
Source: The Case Against Spirit Photographs
Reference: The Case Against Spirit Photographs · selected passage 10
Rights: public_domain
Language: English
Record updated: 2026-08-24

Record summary

A considerable number of his extras, indistinct though they were, were recognised by the sitters and their friends as the dead person whose photograph they were expecting

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

A considerable number of his extras, indistinct though they were, were recognised by the sitters and their friends as the dead person whose photograph they were expecting. (The value of these recognitions is dealt with in a later section.) Naturally, cries of fraud were raised, and investigators, consisting of men of science and newspaper representatives, devised “test conditions” to eliminate this possibility. This they did to their own satisfaction, and obtained spirit extras; but on reading their accounts it is easy to see that ample loopholes were left for fraud. In some cases the camera and lens were minutely inspected, and Mumler’s operations carefully supervised, but a glass plate provided by Mumler was used for the sensitised emulsion.

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

This source supplies historical scientific, skeptical or conventional context. Its terminology and conclusions may not reflect current scholarship.

Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

Lattice uses this as an alternative-explanation source, not as an automatic dismissal of testimony. Claims still need to be compared with the actual evidence and current knowledge.

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