As many people know, especially those who have read my book, THE GHOST
HUNTER'S GUIDEBOOK, I have long had a fascination with ghost hunter,
Harry Price. In my opinion, he was the founder of the modern ghost
hunter movement, mostly due to the fact that he was one of the first
to bring paranormal research out of the lab and into the real
world.... he was in pioneer in the use of ghost hunting equipment...
and he was the first ghost hunter to realize that ghost research has
to be entertaining before it can appeal to the general public. In this
way, I have tried to emulate him as much as possible, sometimes to the
good-natured barbs of my British acquaintances.. but that's another
story!
Still, many people ask me, who was Harry Price? So, I have included a
biography of him below that I prepared for the "Haunted Museum". If
you get a chance to read any of his books, I highly recommend them,
especially THE MOST HAUNTED HOUSE IN ENGLAND. Unfortunately, all of
the are out-of-print today but we do carry an in-depth book about his
most famous case in our catalog. It's called THE ENIGMA OF BORLEY
RECTORY by Ivan Banks.
I hope you enjoy this brief glimpse into the life of a fascinating
man. In the next newsletter, I will present a look at Price's most
famous, and controversial, case... BORLEY RECTORY.
There is no question that Harry Price was one of the most influential
figures in the formative years of ghost research. He was a highly
charismatic personality whose energy and enthusiasm for the paranormal
made him the first celebrity ghost hunter. Price was instrumental in
bringing ghost research to the general public, realizing that only by
making the research entertaining could he attract the attention of the
masses. Because of this, after his death in 1948, jealous “colleagues”
would attack not only Price’s research, but the man himself, staining
his reputation for years to come.
Price was regarded as an embarrassment during his time and lingering
effects from this still linger today. Despite more recent work
supporting his claims and methods, many British researchers still
regard Price as something of an enigma. Because of his flamboyant
manner and continuous self-promotion, Price made a number of enemies
within the psychic research field, especially within the Society of
Psychical Research (SPR). Much of the resentment revolved around that
fact that Price had no real scientific training (as most SPR
investigators had) and that he was so skillful at what he did. Price
was a skilled magician and an expert at detecting fraud so he was not
taken in by many of the fraudulent which plagued the SPR for years.
His success was a slap in the face to what many considered the
“established” psychical researchers. Regardless, his work is
considered ground-breaking for many today.
Harry Price was born in London in 1881, the son of a grocer and
traveling salesman. His interest in the paranormal began in 1889 when
he saw his first performance by a stage magician. From that point on,
he became an amateur conjurer and began collecting what would become
an immense library of books on magic.
Price had his first encounter with the supernatural at age 15, when he
and a friend locked themselves overnight in reportedly haunted house.
After hearing noises in an upstairs room which they could not explain,
and what appeared to be footsteps on the staircase, they set up an
old-fashioned powder-flash camera at the bottom of the stairs. About
an hour later, they clearly heard the footsteps descending the stairs
again and fired the camera. When the plate was developed, it showed
nothing but an empty staircase. Price would always consider this as
his first encounter with a ghost.
After graduating from school, Price worked at a number of jobs,
including as a journalist. Then, in 1908, he met and married a wealthy
heiress named Constance Mary Knight. He then settled down to become
what all of us wish we could be, an independently wealthy ghost
hunter.
By the time that Price joined the SPR in 1920, he had already begun
his career as Britain’s most famous ghost investigator. He had spent
many hours at alleged haunted houses and in the investigation of
Spiritualist mediums. He was also an expert magician and soon made a
name for himself within the SPR for using his magic skills to debunk
fraudulent psychics, then in keeping with what was the main thrust of
the current SPR investigations.
One of Price’s first efforts exposed the work of spirit photographer
William Hope, who was making a fortune taking portraits of people....
and portraits which always seemed to include the sitter’s dead
relatives. Price was sent to investigate and soon published his
findings. He claimed that Hope used pre- exposed plates in his camera,
which he learned by secretly switching the plates the photographer was
using with plates of his own.
It was only chance which led Price into another aspect of his career.
One afternoon, while taking the train from London to his country home
near Pulborough, Price met a young woman named Stella Cranshaw. The
two happened to strike up a conversation about psychic anomalies,
during which Stella, who was a hospital nurse, told the investigator
that she had been experiencing strange phenomena for years. She said
that rapping noises, cold chills and household objects inexplicably
taking flight had been bothering her for some time. Price, excited at
the prospect of a new test subject, told her that he was a psychic
investigator and asked if she would submit to being tested as a
medium.
Price, being an amateur inventor, immediately designed new equipment
to test the young woman’s abilities. One of them was the
“telekinetoscope”, a clever device that used a telegraph key that when
depressed would cause a light to turn on. The key was then covered by
a glass dome so that only psychic powers could operate it.
During 13 seances, conducted between March and October 1923, and
always conducted in front of witnesses, Stella managed to produce all
sorts of strange, physical phenomena. During one seance, for example,
she managed to levitate a table so high that the sitters had to rise
out of their chairs to keep their hands upon it. Suddenly, three of
the table legs broke away and the table itself folded and collapsed.
Needless to say, this ended the sitting.
Price kept a journal of the events and also noted a number of
temperature fluctuations during each seance and the fact that Stella
was able to manipulate the foolproof telegraph key device. In the end,
Stella’s career as a medium would be short-lived, but Price’s
investigations would earn her much respect in psychic circles. In
addition, Price’s handling of the investigations would earn him
prestige and respectability as well.
Price then journeyed to Munich to investigate the famous medium
brothers, Willi and Rudi Schneider, at the laboratory of Baron Albert
von Schreck-Notzing, a flamboyant investigator. Price was so impressed
with what he saw during the seances there, he invited the brothers to
his own laboratories in 1929. He was also impressed with the
publicity-seeking methods of von Schreck-Notzing too and decided to
emulate him in his own career.
Soon, Price began testing his own psychics and set about trying to
measure some aspects of the seances in a scientific manner. He managed
to record strange temperature drops and other phenomena that finally
convinced him of the reality of the paranormal. From this point on, he
devoted his time to pursuing genuine phenomena rather than debunking
mediums, which did not sit well with the SPR.
The relationship between Price and the society had always been
strained so Price had formed the National Laboratory for Psychical
Research in 1923. It would take three additional years for the
laboratory to get up and running and would be located in the London
Spiritualist Alliance. This was the final straw for the SPR and in
1927, they returned Price’s donation of a massive book collection. To
make matters worse, after Price’s death, it would be three members of
the SPR who would attempt to discredit him. The American branch of the
society apparently did not hold a grudge however and Price would serve
as the foreign research officer for the American Society for Psychical
Research from 1925 to 1931.
In 1926, Price came across the case of a Romanian peasant girl named
Eleonora Zugan, who was apparently experiencing violent poltergeist
phenomena, including flying objects, slapping, biting and pinching.
The girl had been rescued from an insane asylum by a psychic
investigator who Price had met in Vienna. Price returned to London,
with the girl, and began a series of laboratory tests which were only
partially successful.
Testimony and reports from the testing claimed that “stigmata”
appeared on the girl’s body under conditions that precluded the
possibility of the girl producing them by natural means. It was also
stated that she was able to move objects with her mind, although no
cause could be discovered for her abilities outside of the fact that
she had been severely abused as a young child. Eleonora’s abilities
ceased abruptly at the age of 14 when she entered puberty.
In 1929, Rudi Schneider, whose abilities were said to surpass those of
his brother, traveled to England to be tested by Price. The
investigator was still adding new scientific technology to his array
of gadgets and one device wired the hands and feet of Rudi, and
everyone else seated around the seance table, to a display board. A
light would signal if anyone moved enough to break the electrical
circuit.
Despite these controls, Rudi was said to have produced an array of
effects, including ectoplasmic masses, rappings and table levitations.
Lord Charles Hope, a leading SPR investigator, was astounded, as was
Price himself. At the end of the sessions, Price declared that the
phenomena produced by Rudi was “absolutely genuine” and “not the
slightest suspicious action was witnessed by any controller or
sitter.”
In the Spring of 1932, Price began testing Rudi again. In these
sessions, he planned to photograph Rudi’s manifestations as further
evidence of his psychic abilities. Although Price obtained some
favorable results, the sittings were not as successful as before as
Rudi’s talents seemed to have diminished with age. In the Fall, Lord
Charles Hope conducted more tests of the young man and while he too
noticed a decline in his abilities, still maintained that his powers
were genuine.
And then, even as Hope was preparing his report, Price rocked the
paranormal community with the announcement that Rudi was a fraud. As
evidence, he produced a photograph that was taken during a seance and
which showed Rudi reaching for a table. The camera had been set to go
off if there was any movement by the medium. The resulting image was
grainy and shadowed, but it managed to destroy Rudi’s reputation and
embarrass the investigators who had declared him to be genuine....
including Harry Price. Those who claimed that Price was simply a
publicity-seeking fraud were (and are) hard-pressed to explain why he
would have made himself look ridiculous in this matter.
By the time of Rudi Schneider’s downfall, the appearance of credible
new mediums had all but ceased. Soon, Price had turned his attention
from investigating mediums and psychics to investigating haunted
houses and bizarre phenomena.
But not all of Price’s cases (or publicity-seeking antics, as some
would call them) were as successful. One trip took him to Germany
where he went to test a spell that would convert a mountain goat into
a man. Needless to say, the spell failed and Price was the subject of
much ridicule.
Another of Price’s strangest (although possibly genuine) cases was
that of Gef, the Talking Mongoose of Cashen’s Gap, and yes, if you are
not familiar with the case, you did read that right.... a talking
animal! The case began in 1931 with a disembodied voice claiming to be
that of a mongoose, a weasel-like creature. It began at an isolated
place on the Isle of Man and according to the Irving family, who lived
at Cashen’s Gap, this creature ate rabbits, spoke in various
languages, imitated other animals and even recited nursery rhymes.
The case was personally investigated by Price in the company of RS
Lambert, then editor of a popular radio show called The Listener, but
the animal refused to manifest until after they had left. The case may
have been related to poltergeist phenomena as Voirey Irving, the
13-year old daughter in the family, was closely associated with the
manifestations of the talking mongoose. Price failed to detect any
evidence of fraud.
Lambert, who investigated other supernatural cases with Price, almost
lost his job over the Cashen’s Gap affair. The publicity around the
case caught the attention of his employers at the BBC and one of his
supervisors concluded that Lambert’s interest in the supernatural
reflected poorly on the broadcaster’s competence. Lambert sued him for
defamation of character and kept his job.
The Cashen’s Gap case was also investigated by Nandor Fodor who
interviewed a number of witnesses to the phenomena, many of them
hostile to the haunting, but couldn’t shake any of the testimony to
say that it was not real. Fodor did not accept the explanation of a
poltergeist and half seriously suggested that it may have actually
been a mongoose who learned to talk! Many years later, after the
affair had died down, a strange and unidentified animal was killed in
the area. Some suggested that it may have been Gef.
During this period, Price also made some serious contributions,
although they were not as widely publicized. In 1933, he persuaded the
University of London to open a library and set up a University Council
for Psychical Investigation. The library still exists today at the
university and consists mainly of Price’s enormous occult collection.
The year 1929 marked a turning point in Price’s career, although the
case would not be made public for several years yet. In was in that
year that he became involved in a case which would take over his life
and for which he would become most famous. The case involved a
deteriorating Essex house called Borley Rectory.
It would be during Price’s investigations of Borley Rectory that he
would become the best-known and most accomplished of the early ghost
hunters, setting the standard for those who would follow. He carefully
documented both his findings and methods and established a blueprint
for paranormal investigations.
Many of Price’s accounts from Borley would be first-hand, as he
claimed to see and hear much of the reported phenomena like hearing
bells ring, rapping noises and seeing objects that has been moved from
one place to another. In addition, he also collected accounts from
scores of witnesses and previous tenants of the house, even talking to
neighbors and local people who had their own experiences with the
rectory.
Price even leased the house for an extended, round-the-clock, one year
investigation. He ran an advertisement looking for open-minded
researchers to literally “camp out” at the rectory and record any
phenomena which took place in their presence. After choosing more than
40 people, he then printed the first-ever handbook on how to conduct a
paranormal investigation. A copy was given to each investigator and it
explained what to do when investigating the house, along with what
equipment they would need.
Price turned the Borley investigations into two books entitled The
Most Haunted House In England (1940) and The End of Borley Rectory
(1946). Both books became very popular and entrenched Price solidly as
the organizer of well-run paranormal investigations.
Despite what his detractors would claim, the books would set the
standard for future investigations and would mark the first time that
detailed accounts of paranormal research had been exposed to the
general public. While his critics saw this only as further
grand-standing, future investigators were able to use the books when
researching their own cases.
Regardless of what some may think of his methods and research, Harry
Price must be remembered today as a pioneer in paranormal research. He
is the one person who so many of modern researchers (even unknowingly)
emulate today with their investigations. Price managed to give ghost
research a place in the public eye and opened it up to those who don’t
fit into the categories of professional scientists, hard-headed
skeptics, nor fall into the realm of gullible “true believer”. If for
no other reason that this, we owe him a debt of gratitude.