By The Good Time Girls
Over 170 years ago, a new religion called Spiritualism offered people the chance to communicate with the dead. Great minds of the time flocked to séances hoping for a shred of proof. More often than not, they found fraudulent mediums and psychics preying on a grieving public for financial gain. People were divided on whether Spiritualism was a breakthrough to the afterlife or a swindler’s trick. Academics of all kinds set out to put Spiritualism to the test. One such case involved a well respected physicist and a young psychic who tried to prove that life after death was a scientific certainty.
In 1870, Sir William Crookes invented the earliest version of a cathode-ray tube, commonly called “Crookes Tubes.” Crookes designed these vacuum tubes to better understand electrical discharges in gas. Upon applying 10,000 volts of electricity through the tube, a brilliant, fluorescent green light appeared. This experiment would open the door for the discovery of the electron and x-ray machines. Crookes achievements also include the discovery of the element thallium, the creation of an early radiometer, the invention of UV filter lenses for sunglasses, and more before his own demise in 1919.
Among all of these various scientific disciplines, Crookes also found time to research the paranormal. After a friend suggested a séance as a means to communicate with Crookes’ recently deceased brother, Crookes was drawn into the growing movement of Spiritualism.
Séances had become all the rage after three teenage sisters in Hydesville, New York claimed that they could communicate with the dead in 1848. The Fox Sisters paved the way for a tidal wave of psychics and mediums to appear across the world in the following decades. Spiritualism appeared to welcome scrutiny and investigation, and was touted as the ‘scientific religion’ where proof of the afterlife could be seen, heard, and felt!
Crookes attended a séance and clearly found the experience compelling as he shifted his focus entirely to the study of spirits. He attended many séances led by different psychics, choosing Florence Cook for a case study in 1871.
Medium Florence Cook, seeking to secure her status as a leading Spiritualist, invited Crookes to rigorously test her under any circumstances he chose. Cook had been producing a full body apparition of a spirit entity named ‘Katie King’ in her séances in London. Many people questioned the validity of this teenage girl’s psychic abilities. Crookes accepted Cook’s invitation and began a series of articles in “The Quarterly Journal of Science” about his progress:
“I consider it the duty of scientific men who have learnt exact modes of working, to examine phenomena which attract the attention of the public, in order to confirm their genuineness, or to explain, if possible, the delusions of the honest and to expose the tricks of deceivers.”
Luckily for Crookes, the amicable ghost of Katie King was a willing participant in these studies. Upon being summoned by Cook, Katie King would appear at each séance and allow Crookes to measure her height, weight, length of her limbs, photograph her, take her pulse, and ask questions. Crookes observed these séances in various locations, including his own home, trying every method available to him at the time to better understand these strange phenomena. According to his detailed records,
“Katie’s height varies; in my house I have seen her six inches taller than Miss Cook. Last night, with bare feet and not “tip-toeing,” she was four and a half inches taller than Miss Cook. Katie’s neck was bare last night; the skin was perfectly smooth both to touch and sight, whilst on Miss Cook’s neck is a large blister, which under similar circumstances is distinctly visible and rough to the touch. Katie’s ears are unpierced, whilst Miss Cook habitually wears earrings. Katie’s complexion is very fair, while that of Miss Cook is very dark.”
Attended only by Cook, Crookes and a handful of observers, the séances were held in dimly lit or totally dark rooms as it was believed that spirits reacted poorly to bright light. Cook required time, energy, and sometimes seclusion to summon Katie King. She often utilized an adjoining room or “Spirit Cabinet,” a large box that was said to amplify a psychic’s power. Cook went to great lengths to prove that she was actually in a meditative trance while obscured from view. She volunteered to be tied to a chair or to have her hair “nailed to the floor” as insurance that she hadn’t moved from her position.
The strong resemblance of the ethereal Katie King to the medium Florence Cook fueled speculation that they were one and the same. Cook explained that the energy she used to manifest the spirit also transferred some of her personal features. To quell the argument and prove her authenticity to Crookes, Cook and King appeared side by side on several instances. Crookes noted:
“ I have the most absolute certainty that Miss Cook and Katie are two separate individuals so far as their bodies are concerned.”
For several years, Katie King astounded her audience with tales of her past life and her surprisingly life-like presence. By 1874, Crookes felt that he had all the proof he needed. That same year, Katie King announced that she would not be returning ever again. In her ‘final appearance’, Crookes recorded her last moments:
“Having concluded her directions, Katie invited me into the cabinet with her and allowed me to remain there to the end. After closing the curtain, she conversed with me for some time, and then walked across the room to where Miss Cook was lying senseless on the floor. Stooping over her, Katie touched her, and said, “Wake up, Florrie, wake up! I must leave you now.” Miss Cook then woke and tearfully entreated Katie to stay a little time longer. “My dear, I can’t; my work is done. God bless you,” Katie replied, and then continued speaking to Miss Cook. For several minutes the two were conversing with each other, till at last Miss Cook’s tears prevented her speaking. Following Katie’s instructions I then came forward to support Miss Cook, who was falling on to the floor, sobbing hysterically. I looked round, but the white-robed Katie had gone. As soon as Miss Cook was sufficiently calmed, a light was procured and I led her out of the cabinet.”
This final publication on Katie King from the esteemed scientist clearly shows his belief in Florence Cook’s powers. Crookes was convinced.
“Indeed, I do not believe she could carry on a deception if she were to try, and if she did, she would certainly be found out very quickly, for such a line of action is altogether foreign to her nature. And to imagine that an innocent school-girl of fifteen should be able to conceive and then successfully carry out for three years so gigantic an imposture as this, and in that time should submit to any test which might be imposed upon her, should bear the strictest scrutiny, should be willing to be searched at any time, either before or after a séance, and should meet with even better success in my own house than at that of her parents, knowing that she visited me with the express object of submitting to strict scientific tests..”
Other scientists continued to question the practice of mediums and spiritualism. The three years Cook and Crookes spent together remained a hot topic for debate for decades to come among the supporters of spiritualism and the non-believers. William Ramsay, Nobel Prize Chemist of 1904, said Crookes’s physical eyesight was “so shortsighted that, despite his unquestioned honesty, he cannot be trusted in what he tells you he has seen.” Yet others like Sir Oliver Lodge, an English physicist whose work helped to bring about the wireless radio, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, backed Crookes’s claims with their own research into spiritualism.
After backlash from the Katie King episode, Crookes retreated from public discussion of the events, but never quite ‘gave up the ghost’ on spiritual research. Crookes continued his pursuit of more orthodox scientific truths and went on to be knighted by Queen Victoria for all of his contributions. Nevertheless, when Crookes’s wife died in 1916, he attended seances to try and contact her. Lodge, Doyle, and Crookes were all members of multiple organizations like ‘The Ghost Club’ and ‘ The Society for Psychical Research’ at the turn of the 20th century. These high profile groups set out to study and better understand all that was paranormal.
Florence Cook saw her seance attendance dwindle after further incidents called her abilities into question. At the time of her death from pneumonia at age 48 in 1904, she was living in near poverty.
Cook was able to convince Crookes, with scientific evidence, that Katie King was a genuine, spiritual enigma. Crookes clearly felt strongly about Cook’s abilities. Perhaps the personal grief he experienced from his brother’s death made him more susceptible to persuasion. Many people attending séances want to know that their lost loved ones are doing alright on the other side and are eager to believe. Regardless of what you think happened back in 1871, the case of Cook and Crookes is a curious one.
Stay grounded. Or if you’re a spirit, perhaps it’s best to stay afloat.
This strange chapter of scientific history is brought to you by The Good Time Girls, purveyors of local history tours and more. We’re teaming up with The Spark Museum this Halloween to present a spooky, yet educational look at Spiritualism! Join us for ‘Spirits at Spark’ on Thursday, October 31st for a deeper look into how people in the past attempted to communicate with the dead, featuring a historic reenactment of a séance, and more! Click here for more information and tickets!