Many thanks to Vi Kipling for writting the text and supplying the photos for this section

The photos we are going to look at today are taken from a collection of some 500 original glass slides which a Spiritualist Minister, Mr Alan Millichamp, holds in trust. The ones we are looking at on this site are all those where the spirit extras have been positively identified and are not "just somebody who appeared on the print".

Whilst the original pictures have been copied to use in our modern projectors, you will be able to see from the quality of the photographs on the slides, just how very old some of them are. Many were taken in the early days of photography when it was necessary to sit for five minutes because the camera lens was left open for this period of time in order for the image to be imprinted on the photograph plate. It was vital that the sitters did not move during this period of time and it can be seen on one or two of the slides where the sitters did actually move - perhaps they sneezed?? It was not unknown for sitters' heads to be placed between unobtrusive wooden clamps which would hold them still without too much undue distress to the sitter.

When Spiritualism came to England there were many forms of psychic phenomena manifesting and with the advent of cameras spirit extras were only too happy to use all available energy to impress their images upon the photographic plate as a message to their loved one of their continuing existence.

It was found that some people had the appropriate energies for the world of spirit to use them as photographic mediums and it was possible to actually book a Photographic Sitting and know that the chances of a friend, or loved one, appearing on the photograph were very high indeed.

Psychic Photography is a phenomenon which requires a physical medium for its production. In physical mediumship everyone is able to witness the phenomena produced and in the case of spirit photography, we can all, even today, witness the phenomena produced by these mediums.

Even though it was known that it was possible for a spirit extra to be found upon the photograph at a Photographic Sitting it was still very necessary to preclude all possibility of fraud and people used to take their own photographic plates to the medium, and after signing it, they would place it in the camera and remove it once the photograph had been taken, in order to prevent the medium from ever actually touching the plate.

There were many circles set up in which to develop photographic mediumship and one of the most well known is probably the circle in Crewe in which the medium William Hope sat and he was responsible for the production of many of the photographs we are going to look at today.

(You may ask Vi (T+Sibyl) about these photos in her online classes)