In a paragraph of not more than 100 words, say simply what the witnesses thought happened, and what really happened.
A séance
A good example of this technique of investigating the reliability of
reports is an experiment reported by S. J. Davey. He was interested in the kind
of phenomena reported during séances and, using quite simple trickery,
which he had planned in advance, he reproduced some of the effects popular
among the mediums of the day. His audiences were asked to write down accounts
of what they had witnessed, and these observations were then compared with what
actually happened. Here is a report written by one witness of such a
séance. ‘On entering the dining-room where the séance was
held’, so the report runs, ‘every article of furniture was searched
and Mr Davey turned out his pockets. The door was locked and sealed, the gas
turned out, and they all sat round the table holding hands, including Mr Davey.
A musical box on the table played and floated about. Knockings were heard and
bright lights seen. The head of a woman appeared, came close and
dematerialised. A half-figure of a man was seen a few seconds later. He bowed
and then disappeared through the ceiling with a scraping noise.’
Another witness also described the searching of the room, the sealing of
the door, and the disposition of the medium and sitters round the table. She
alleged that a female head appeared in a strong light and afterwards a bearded
man reading a book, who disappeared through the ceiling. All the while Mr
Davey’s hands were held tightly by the sitters on either side, and when
the gas was relit the door was still locked and the seal unbroken.
A third
witness’s account was even more sensational. He reported that
‘nothing was prepared beforehand, the séance was quite
casual’. Having described the locking and sealing of the door, he went on
to say that he was touched by a cold, clammy hand and heard various raps. After
that he saw a bluish-white light which hovered over the heads of the sitters
and gradually developed into an apparition that was ‘frightful in its
ugliness, but so distinct that everyone could see it .... The features were
distinct ... a kind of hood covered the head, and the whole resembled the head
of a mummy’. After this an even more wonderful spirit appeared. It began
with a streak of light and developed by degrees into a bearded man of Oriental
appearance. His eyes were stony and fixed, with a vacant listless expression.
At the end of the séance the door was still locked and the seal was
intact.
So much for some of the reports. Now for the reality. The
séance was not a casual affair at all, but had been carefully rehearsed
beforehand. At the beginning, Mr Davey went through the motion of apparently
locking the door, but he turned the key back again so that the door was
actually left unlocked. The ‘props’ for the materializations had been
stowed away in a cupboard underneath a bookshelf; this was not looked into by
the witnesses who searched the room because, just as they were about to do so,
Mr Davey diverted their attention by emptying his pockets to show that he had
nothing hidden on his person. The phenomena were produced by a confederate who
came in by the unlocked door after the lights had been turned out, and while
the musical box was playing loudly to drown the noise of his entry. The
‘apparition offrightful ugliness’ was a mask draped in muslin with a
cardboard collar coated with luminous paint. The second spirit was the
confederate himself, standing on the back of Mr Davey’s chair, his face
faintly illuminated by phosphorescent light from the pages of a book he was
holding. The rasping noise made when the spirits seemed to disappear through
the ceiling was caused accidentally, but interpreted by the witnesses according
to their conception of what was happening. When the light was turned on the
gummed paper that had been used to seal the door had fallen off, but Mr Davey
quickly pressed it back into position and then called the witnesses’
attention to the fact that it was ‘still intact.’ Mr Davey’s
performances were so convincing that some leading investigators, including the
biologist A. R. Wallace, F. R. S., refused to believe him when he said that he
had no mediumistic powers and it had all been done by trickery. In effect the
conjurer was challenged to prove that he was not a medium!
(From Sense and Nonsense in Psychology by H. J. Eysenck)
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