William Stainton Moses

William Stainton Moses (1839-1892) occupies a special position in spiritualism and psychic research.

Initially, like most of the clergy, he was deeply hostile to the notion of spirits of the dead being conjured up by trance mediums.  Persuaded by a friend to attend a séance, he received striking evidence of a deceased friend, started attending seances with other mediums, and after a few months became convinced of the truth of survival of death. He also became the focus of varied physical phenomena during sittings held with a circle of close friends.

In 1894 and 1895 the Society for Psychical Research published two articles about Moses and the phenomena that occurred in his presence. They consist of his notes and diary entries, signed statements of members of his circle, and comments by Frederic Myers (one of the SPR's founders). The significance of this testimony for Myers and many of his contemporaries - apart from the depth and variety of the phenomena -  was that Moses, as a clergyman and educator of repute, was considered to be in altogether a different category to the common run of mediums and could not therefore plausibly considered to be carrying out a hoax, which in any case would have had to be hugely convoluted. This also applied to the witnesses, a closed circle of friends and people of good standing.

The articles offer a vivid picture of what might occur during a Victorian séance. You can download the first of them here, in Word format (it contains some uncorrected typos from the scanning process).  The second article can be accessed from Lexscien.  Also below is the relevant abstract from the SPR Catalogue, with references to follow up commentary and articles in the SPR Journal. 

A biography of Moses can be found at SurvivalAfterDeath.Org.

FROM THE SPR CATALOGUE: Myers, Frederic.  THE EXPERIENCES OF W. STAINTON MOSES 1 & 2, Proceedings 9, 1893-4, pp. 245-353; Proceedings 11, 1895, pp. 24-113. Extracts from the notes and diaries of a leading spiritualist are published posthumously in two articles, offering substantial evidence of séance phenomena, automatic writings and trance utterances in the period 1872-83. In the first, Moses's life as a curate and teacher are briefly described, also his relationship with Dr and Mrs Speer in whose presence much of the phenomena was witnessed. Testimonials of his honesty and sanity are given. Three types of personalities communicating during the séances are described (257): recently deceased; earlier generations (including a friend of Erasmus); 'higher spirits' who call themselves 'emanations from higher spheres' (258). Extracts from Moses's writings and statements from other witnesses describe furniture levitations (259); apports (266); scents (269); lights (273); sounds (277). Séance notes are given (283); others present include William Crookes and D.D Home (306), when substantial materialisations are recorded.  Finally, the author considers the possibility of fraud (340), which he concludes is in the highest degree unlikely.
    The second article gives more extracts from séance notebooks (26) and a description of automatic writings (64). The rest of the paper concerns the communications as evidence of survival, giving Moses's own reflections (70) and other apparently convincing evidential communications (96), including one from the recently-deceased Dr Speer involving a pet-name (103). On the other hand the possibility that the 'higher spirits' have no identity beyond Moses's subliminal consciousness is also considered (104).CORRESPONDENCE. Journal 6, 1893-94, pp. 200-7, 214-23, 232-7, 251-6, 265-72. ABSTRACT & DISCUSSION, Journal 6, 1894, pp. 175-6, 228-30, 261-2, 274-80. 

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