Incidents In My Life: Part One

To those who knew him Home was one of the most lovable of men and his prefect genuineness and uprightness were beyond suspicion." Sir William Crookes - President of The Royal Society D. D. Home is regarded by many as the greatest medium of all time. The term 'psychic' was coined as a description for his unique gifts and in numerous tests, under laboratory conditions with imminent scientists of the era; he was never once found to be anything other than genuine. History paints Home as the star attraction of the 'spiritualist' drama that was all the rage on the stage that was the second half of the nineteenth century. He lived a life akin to that of a character in a Hollywood blockbuster, coming from a humble background to find himself moving between the royal courts of Europe at the behest of their figureheads and eventually marrying into the Russian royal family. One evening in August 1852 Daniel was at the home of Ward Cheney, a businessman in Connecticut, who is a distant relative of US Vice-President Dick Cheney. The following is a witness account of what occurred; "Suddenly and without any expectation on the part of the company, Mr. Home, was taken up in the air! I had hold of his hand at the time, and I and others felt his feet - they were lifted a foot from the floor! He palpitated from head to foot apparently with contending emotions of joy and fear which choked his utterance. Again he was taken from the floor, and the third time he was carried to the lofty ceiling of the apartment, with which his hand and head came in to gentle contact." The Cheney event is one of many incidents in Home's autobiography 'Incidents in my Life -Part .1'. The book documents the amazing psychic events throughout his life and the people who queued up to witness them. Regular sitters included Count Alexis Tolstoy, cousin of Leo Tolstoy, Prince Humbert - the future King of Italy, the Earl of Dunraven, Sir Francis Galton; Charles Darwin's cousin, Napoleon III and many more.