William Hope (paranormal investigator)

Infobox Paranormalpeople1
Class = Paranormal Researcher


Image_Caption =
Name = William Hope
Born = 1863
Blocation = Crewe, Cheshire, England
Died = death date|1933|3|8|mf=y
Dlocation = Salford, England
Phd =
Djob = Spiritualist
Pjob =
Affiliates = Crewe Circle|

William Hope, (1863 - March 8 1933), was a pioneer of so-called "spirit photography". Based in Crewe, England, he was a member of the well known spiritualists group, the Crewe Circle and died in Salford hospital on March 8 1933."Leaves from a Psychist’s Case Book", by Harry Price]

Paranormal claims

As a young man Hope was employed as a carpenter, but he quickly came to prominence in paranormal circles after claimed to be able to capture images of spirits on camera.

Hope produced his first spirit image in 1905. Soon afterwards he formed the Crewe Circle Spiritualist group, with himself as the leader.

Fraud claims

On February 4 1922 the Society for Psychical Research and the paranormal investigator Harry Price attempted to prove that Hope was a fraud during tests at the British College of Psychic Science.

Price secretly marked Hope's photographic plates, and provided him with a packet of additional plates that had been covertly etched with the brand image of the Imperial Dry Plate Co. Ltd. in the knowledge that the logo would be transferred to any images created with them. Unaware that Price had tampered with his supplies, Hope then attempted to produce a number of Spirit photographs. Although Hope produced several images of spirits, none of his materials contained the Imperial Dry Plate Co. Ltd logo, or the marks that Price had put on Hopes original equipment, showing that he had switched the materials provided for preprepared materials with fake spirit images on them.

Price later re-published the Society's experiment in a pamphlet of his own called "Cold Light on Spiritualistic "Phenomena" - An Experiment with the Crewe Circle."

In 1932, a former friend and supporter of Hope’s work, Fred Barlow; the former Secretary of the Society for the Study of Supernormal Pictures, along with Major W. Rampling-Rose gave a joint lecture to the Society for Psychical Research to present findings gleaned from an extensive series of tests on the methods Hope used to produce his spirit photographs.

Barlow and Rampling-Rose concluded that the “spirit extras” that appeared in Hope’s photographs were produced fraudulently. The pair would later present their case in depth in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research. ["Report of an Investigation into Spirit-Photography", by Fred Barlow and Major W. Rampling Rose, Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, XLI.]

Despite Price's findings, Hope still retained a noted following, including author and spiritualist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who refused to accept any evidence that Hope was a fraud and went to great lengths to clear his name, going so far as to write a pro spirit photography book, "The Case for Spirit Photography", ["The Case for Spirit Photography" by Arthur Conan Doyle, 1922.] in response to Harry Price’s claims of fraud and trying to convince Price to withdraw his story.

Gallery

Examples of Hope's work.

ee also

Harry Price

References

Bibliography

*"Leaves from a Psychist’s Case Book", by Harry Price, Victor Gollancz Ltd., hardback, 1933.
*"Cold Light on Spiritualistic "Phenomena" - An Experiment with the Crewe Circle", by Harry Price, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd, 1922. (Reprinted from the May 1922 edition of the Journal of the London Society for Psychical Research.)
*"Report of an Investigation into Spirit-Photography", by Fred Barlow and Major W. Rampling Rose, Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, XLI.
*"The Case for Spirit Photography" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1922.
*"Harry Price: The Psychic Detective by Richard Morris (Sutton Publishing 2006)