In the nineteenth century, Spiritualism was entertainment with a core of earnest conviction, religious faith, and profound grief. The Society for Psychical Research was founded in 1882 to scientifically investigate the claims of psychic mediums. Victorian scientific advancements had made possible what had once seemed supernatural. In this climate, why would it not seem possible to talk to the dead? The SPR archive contains thousands of pages of séance diaries, documenting how Victorian mediums used hands and touch to convince their patrons. Below are just some of the eerie examples from our research.

Hands in the Cabinet

Saturday Dec. 7th (1872) Private séance with Herne and Williams.

I asked permission to shake hands and Peter [the Spirit] at once told me to come up & put my hand into the cabinet. I did so, and he gave me a very hearty grip & shake of the hands; the hand apparently coming down from the top of the cabinet. The hand was as I have felt it before, warm, moist, and very like a human hand […] The phenomena were much stronger in the afternoon. Hands and arms were put out from the Cabinet, and played with the head of anyone who was near. The hands were abnormally large, & the arms abnormally long.

(Stainton Moses, ‘Extract from Notebook No 2(b), September 1872 SPR 13/2/16)

Frank Herne and Charles Williams were cabinet mediums. Cabinet mediums would be placed in a controlled, enclosed space and restrained, often tied to a chair. They would enter a trance and produce spirit forms. Herne and Williams were early supporters of the teenage Florence Cook, who famously photographed her physical manifestations of Spirits that could walk, talk and be touched. The image of physically distorted hands reaching out from the cabinet in the dark is thrilling. However, as the magician William Marriott would later prove, it was possible for mediums to trick audiences, manipulating model hands in the style of puppetry.

William Marriot ‘the hands are merely dummies, either stuffed with sawdust, or better still, inflated, and painted with luminous paint.’ Pearson’s Magazine Vol 29: 171, March 1910.

We promise you a perfect hand, but not tonight.

Thursday, July 6th, 1871.

The piece of soft clay was held under the table by Mrs Crookes. She said she felt hands and fingers moving it about and pressing it […] asking if it had been touched a message was given: - “We have.” “We promise you a perfect hand but not tonight.” On examining the clay, marks something as if formed by fingertips were seen to be impressed on it.

(SPR.MS 13/1/1 – William Crookes’s Notes on D.D.H, 1870-71)

Daniel Dunglas Home gained notoriety for impressive levitation displays during seances, claiming to be lifted by invisible spirit hands. These performative displays made Home a celebrity. In this séance, Home channels unseen hands, using the grounded materiality of clay to convince his sitters of the spirit presence. Home was adept at combining different channelling techniques, including planchette writing, musical instruments played by invisible hands, moving objects, and the feeling of being touched. Diaries recording Home’s seances give the impression of an immersive, multisensory display. Who are the mysterious ‘we’ who touch the clay? Neither the diary, nor the spirits disclose.

Plaster cast of the hand of Daniel Dunglas Home. SPR 28-972 Photograph by Fiona Mann.

Darling Richard

Nov 28, 1893 – Fingers, real human fingers. Oh if I could only recall myself to the only man that I ever truly loved.

Jan 1, 1894 – Darling Richard, are these your fingers – Oh I saw you put those fingers out to me the day before this, and the myrtle you gave me. I tried to put some of those little leaves into your hand, dear.

( SPR/46/68 - Transcripts of various sittings dating c.1891-1907)

Leonora Piper was an American medium who used automatic writing to channel spirits. She would enter a trance, permitting spirits to control her hand, or speak using her vocal cords. Richard Hodgson, Executive Secretary of the American SPR led a lengthy investigation of Piper. A known sceptic who had discredited several mediums, Hodgson believed Piper’s claims. In the winter of 1893-4, Hodgson records a series of interviews in which Piper channels ‘Jessie’ – a woman Hodgson loved who had died. It is striking in these interviews how often Piper uses hands and fingers as a means for the alleged spirit to recognise Hodgson and prove herself to him. Spiritualism offered a captivating opportunity to touch lost loved ones.

A sample of Leonora Piper’s Spirit Writing (SPR/46/66 - Early sittings (various) with Mrs. Piper, 1886-1890)

Victorian psychic mediums used materiality and touch to convince even the most rigorous sceptics that they were speaking with the dead. Whether we believe in the paranormal, or embrace full scepticism, these diaries still have the capacity to chill and intrigue us.

Thanks to the University of Cambridge for access to their Manuscript collections.