William Crookes
From The Red Pill
Scientific Achievements
The Dictionary of National Biography refers to Crookes as a "Victorian Man of Science" and tells of his many contributions to physics and chemistry. However, it makes only passing reference to his controversial "excursions into psychical research," seemingly excusing him for such an indiscretion by explaining that Sir William thought all phenomena worthy of investigation, and refused to be bound by tradition and convention.
A Fellow of the Royal Society, Crookes studied and taught at the Royal College of Chemistry before becoming a meteorologist at the Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford. In 1858, he inherited enough money to set up his own laboratory in London, In 1861, he discovered the element thallium, and later invented the radiometer, the spinthariscope, and the Crookes tube, a high-vacuum tube which contributed to the discovery of the X-ray. He was founder and editor of Chemical News and later served as editor of the Quarterly Journal of Science. Knighted in 1897 for his scientific work, he was not someone to be easily duped or to fabricate strange stories.
He was awarded the Order of Merit in 1910 and received honorary degrees in law and science from Birmingham, Oxford, Cambridge, Ireland, Cape of Good Hope, Sheffield, and Durham universities.
Psychical Investigations
"When I first stated (in the Quarterly Journal of Science, October, 1871) that I was about to investigate the phenomena of so-called Spiritualism, the announcement called forth universal expression of approval," Crookes wrote in his 1904 book, Researches into the Phenomena of Modern Spiritualism. "[It was said] that 'if men like Mr. Crookes grapple with the subject, taking nothing for granted until it is proved, we shall soon know how much to believe.’ These remarks, however, were written too hastily. It was taken for granted by the writers that the results of my experiments would be in accordance with their preconception. What they really desired was not the truth, but an additional witness in favor of their own foregone conclusion. When they found that the facts which that investigation established could not be made to fit those opinions, why – ‘so much the worse for the facts.’ They try to creep out of their confident recommendations of the enquiry by declaring that ‘Mr. Home is a clever conjurer, who has duped us all.’"
Over a period of some three years, ending July 2, 1873, Crookes had 29 sittings with Home and observed many different phenomena, including levitations, phantoms, a floating accordion playing music, luminous hands, luminous clouds, and communication from invisible entities. A number of his fellow scientists were present at some of the sittings, but few of them would go public with their observations. Alfred Russel Wallace, co-originator with Charles Darwin of the natural selection theory of evolution, was an exception.
Crookes became convinced that Home was no charlatan and that some form of "psychic force" was taking place through him. "There is a wide difference between the tricks of a professional conjurer, surrounded by his apparatus, and aided by any number of concealed assistants and confederates, deceiving the senses by clever sleight of hand on his own platform, and the phenomena occurring in the presence of Mr. Home, which take place in the light, in a private room that almost up to the commencement of the séances has been occupied as a living room, and surrounded by private friends of my own, who not only will not countenance the slightest deception, but who are watching narrowly everything that takes place," Crookes further wrote.
From 1872 to 1874, Crookes studied Florence Cook, whose mediumship involved the materialization of a spirit calling herself Katie King. Because darkness and a materialization cabinet were required, there was much suspicion that Cook was changing costumes in the cabinet and impersonating a spirit. However, Crookes reported observing both of them at the same time, thoroughly examining Katie King, and photographing her. "...to imagine, I say, the Katie King of the last three years to be the result of imposture does more violence to one’s reason and common sense than to believe her to be what she herself affirms," Crookes stated.
The scientific community was shocked by Crookes’s endorsement of Home and Cook. As a result, he came under attack by many closed-minded scientists – those who shared Sir David Brewster’s attitude that such phenomena were completely opposed to scientific law and therefore there was no explanation other than that Crookes had been duped. Various theories were offered as to how he had been deceived. It mattered not that Wallace had observed Home’s ability as had a number of other scholars and scientists, nor that Dr. Charles Richet, an esteemed French physicist and winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize in medicine, also witnessed Katie King materializations and, like Crookes, concluded that they were genuine. Moreover, rumors circulated that Crookes had a romantic interest in Miss Cook and that his fogged his judgment.
Apparently wearied by the attacks and rumors, Crookes gave up psychical research and returned to orthodox science. While he maintained a private interest in psychical research, he spoke very little of the subject in public, often very guarded and occasionally indicating that the "psychic force" he had witnessed may not have been the work of spirits. However, in a speech before the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1898, he said he had nothing to retract. His writings in subsequent years indicate that he returned to a belief in spirits and, concomitantly, the survival of consciousness at death. In 1917, a year after his wife’s death, Crookes is said to have had a lively conversation with her at a London séance. He died in 1919 at age 86. Whether he ever again met up with Home has not been recorded.
One of the scientists who lambasted Crookes for not debunking Home and Cook was Dr. Julian Ochorowicz, professor of psychology and philosophy at the University of Warsaw and one of the founders of the Polish Psychological Institute in Warsaw. After he began investigating psychical phenomena, he changed his views. "I found I had done a great wrong to men who had proclaimed new truths at the risk of their positions," he confessed. "When I remember that I branded as a fool that fearless investigator, Crookes, the inventor of the radiometer, because he had the courage to assert the reality of psychic phenomena and to subject them to scientific tests, and when I also recollect that I used to read his articles thereon in the same stupid style, regarding him as crazy, I am ashamed, both of myself and others, and I cry from the very bottom of my heart. ‘Father, I have sinned against the Light.’"
(this Red Pill entry written by Michael E. Tymn (reproduced with permission)
External Links
- Researches Into the Phenomena of Spiritism, by Sir William Crookes
- Wikipedia entry for Sir William Crookes
