Carrington - True Ghost Stories

By

Hereward Carrington

Illustrated by Murat Ukray

ILLUSTRATED &

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Hereward Carrington, Ph.D. (17 October 1880 26 December 1958) was a well-known British investigator of psychic phenomena and author. His subjects included several of the most high-profile cases of apparent psychic ability of his times, and he wrote over 100 books on subjects including the paranormal and psychical research, conjuring and stage magic, and alternative health issues.

Early life

Carrington was born in St Helier, Jersey in 1880. He emigrated to the USA in 1899 and settled in New York City in 1904. Hereward previously lived with his brother Hedley in Minnesoda and appears in the 1900 census there. In New York he first worked as an asst. editor for Street and Smith magazines. Initially a sceptic about psychic abilities, his interest grew from reading books on the subject and at the age of 19 he joined the Society for Psychical Research (SPR).

Works & Career

Carrington became a member of the American Society for Psychical Research in 1907 and worked an assistant to James Hyslop until 1908, during which time he established his reputation as an ASPR investigator. However his connection with the ASPR ceased due to lack of funds.

An important early case Carrington investigated and described was that of the medium Eusapia Palladino in 1908. Carrington and two companions went to Naples to see her on behalf of the English S.P.R. an experience which strengthened his belief in the reality of psychic phenomena. He described her in his 1909 book Eusapia Palladino and Her Phenomena , invited her to the USA and helped arrange a tour for her, he detected her cheating at sittings but also claimed she had genuine supernatural ability. He also made a detailed enquiry into the case of Esther Cox (the Great Amherst Mystery) in 1910. The events surrounding Cox had occurred more than thirty years previously, but Carrington contacted surviving witnesses for statements and published a detailed account of the Amherst phenomena.

Among Carrington's best known subjects was Mina "Margery" Crandon whom he observed in 1924 on behalf of the Scientific American as part of an enquiry into Spiritualism, sitting on a committee alongside Harry Houdini, Malcolm Bird, William McDougall, Walter Franklin Prince and Daniel Frost Comstock. The committee had differing opinions on Crandon, and eventually only Carrington inclined to the belief that her powers were genuine, although subsequent evidence of possible fraud again led him to express doubts about her writing that he maintained a "perfectly open mind" about such phenomena pending the arrival of better evidence one way or the other.

Carrington was an amateur conjuror and was critical towards some paranormal phenomena. Carrington in his book The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism (1907) exposed the tricks of fraudulent mediums such as those used in slate-writing, table-turning, trumpet mediumship, materializations, sealed-letter reading and spirit photography. The book revealed the tricks of mediums such as Henry Slade and William Eglinton. He wrote in the book that after his investigations and studies into the subject of mediumship that 98% of both the physical and mental phenomena were fraudulent. He did however believe that some mediumship phenomena was genuine. He also wrote "I have no particular theory to defend, and no belief to uphold. I am not a convinced spiritualist; at the same time, I am willing to grant that the evidence for survival is remarkably strong."

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HEREWARD CARRINGTON, author of True Ghost Stories, is well known in this country, and in Europe, as a prominent scientific writer on psychical and occult subjects. He has been a member of both the English and American Societies of Psychical Research for more than 15 years; has written over a dozen books on the subjecta number of which has been translated into foreign languages (such as Japanese and Arabic), and he has lectured in London, Paris, Rome, Venice, Milan, Genoa, Turin, etc.before scientific organizations. His writings are well known, and have earned him a high place in psychical circles. Hes a late member of the Council of the American Scientific Society, of the American Geographical Society, and of the American Health League. He collaborated in the American Encyclopdia, The Standard Dictionary, etc. His experience in the investigation of psychical mysteries is unrivalled. He has travelled all over the country investigating cases, spending nights in haunted houses, and accounts of his investigations have appeared in the Reports of the various Psychical Societies, and also in his own publications.

In True Ghost Stories, Mr. Carrington presents a number of startling cases of this character; but they are not the ordinary ghost storiesbased on pure fiction, and having no foundation in reality. Here we have a well-arranged collection of incidents, all thoroughly investigated and vouched for, and the testimony obtained first-hand and corroborated by others. The chapter on Haunted Houses is particularly striking. The first chapter deals with the interesting question, What is a Ghost? and attempts to answer this question in the light of the latest scientific theories which have been advanced to explain these supernatural happenings and visitants. It is a book of absorbing interest, and cannot fail to grip and hold the attention of every readerno matter whether he be a student of these questions, or one merely in search of hair-raising anecdotes and stories. He will find them here a-plenty!

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True Ghost Stories

BY

HEREWARD CARRINGTON

Author of The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism, The Coming
Science, Death: its Causes and Phenomena,
Death Deferred, etc.

REPRODUCED BY

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The following little book endeavors to bring together a number of ghost stories of the more startling and dramatic type,but stories, nevertheless, which seem to be well authenticated; and which have been obtained, in most instances, at first hand, from the original witnesses; and often contain corroborative testimony from others who also experienced the ghostly phenomena. Some of these incidents, indeed, rise to the dignity of scientific evidence; others are less well authenticated cases,but interesting for all that. These have been grouped in various Chapters, according to their evidential value. Chapters II. and III. contain well-evidenced cases, some of which have been taken from the Proceedings and Journals of the Society for Psychical Research (S. P. R.), or from Phantasms of the Living , or from other scientific books, in which narratives of this character receive serious consideration. Chapter V., on the contrary, contains a number of incidents which,striking and dramatic as they are,cannot be included in the two earlier Chapters, as presenting real evidence of Ghosts; but are published rather as startling and interesting ghost stories . Chapter IV., devoted to Haunted Houses, contains brief accounts of the most famous Haunted Houses, and of the phenomena which have been witnessed within them. Appendix A gives a list of a few of the important Historical Ghosts, Appendix B describes the Phantom Armies lately seen by the Allied troops in Francewhile Appendix C lists a number of books of Ghost Stories which the interested reader may care to peruse. A short Glossary, at the beginning of the book, explains the meaning of certain terms used,which are not, perhaps, ordinarily met with in books of this character.