Sir Edward Marshall Hall

I'm reading a biography by Sally Smith of Sir Edward Marshall Hall (1858-1927), who was probably the most famous barrister in England at a time when barristers were celebrities and murder trials were the reality TV of their day.

Hall became interested in spiritualism after the tragic death of his first wife in 1890. In 1894 he was persuaded by his sister to put a test question to the medium Kate Wingfield. He had just received a letter from his brother in South Africa, and he sealed it in a plain envelope and told his sister to ask Miss Wingfield where the writer of the letter was. By automatic writing Miss Wingfield produced the answer that the writer was dead, and that he had died yesterday in South Africa. Hall later heard that his brother had died unexpectedly, though apparently he had died three days before the test, not the day before. Hall considered this convincing evidence of post-mortem survival, ruling out telepathy and clairvoyance as possible explanations.

His account of the incident was published in 1924, in a collection entitled "Survival," edited by Sir James Marchant:
https://archive.org/details/survivalofma...ft/page/84

[Ninshub]

Interesting, never heard of that book.

Interesting, never heard of that book.

Apparently he also wrote about this experience in the foreword to a book published by Kate Wingfield in 1923, entitled "Guidance from Beyond." That seems to be pretty obscure, and I can't find a version online.

Interisting surely, although sadly most of these outstanding tales come from late 1800 early 1900, where controlled conditions or even knowledge of fraud was much lower than what it is now. Still, something to keep in mind.

I'm sure people have always been aware of fraud, it must be as old as Mankind.

Perhaps though there was a greater eagerness to accept things, just as nowadays there is a great eagerness to reject them. Both paths have their own pitfalls waiting to trap the unwary.

Interisting surely, although sadly most of these outstanding tales come from late 1800 early 1900, where controlled conditions or even knowledge of fraud was much lower than what it is now. Still, something to keep in mind.

People were very well aware of fraud in connection with mediums in the 1890s.

But it seems particularly strange to suggest fraud as an explanation for this incident, considering that Hall didn't learn of his brother's death until several weeks later.

Perhaps a more promising avenue for sceptical criticism might be that Hall's first account of the incident wasn't written until nearly 30 years after it happened. Though it doesn't seem likely that he would have misremembered the essential facts, and evidently he still had correspondence that he was able to check for some of the details.

Chris, I agree with you. In this context my comment was off-topic. It is important to distinguish between generalised views, and those which are applicable (or not) in a specific case.

Apparently he also wrote about this experience in the foreword to a book published by Kate Wingfield in 1923, entitled "Guidance from Beyond." That seems to be pretty obscure, and I can't find a version online.

Here are the relevant pages of Marshall Hall's introduction to the book, which is now out of copyright in both the UK and the USA: