Buzz
The Victorians are widely recognized for their enthusiasm for science, engineering, and eccentric innovations. Alongside their fascination with death, they also harbored a profound interest in spirituality, which naturally led to their obsession with spiritualism and the supernatural.
They tackled the mysteries of the paranormal with the same rigor as scientific challenges. Documenting experiments, linking their discoveries to philosophical theories, and exploring the irrational, the supernatural, and the utterly strange with curiosity and open-mindedness.
However, there were moments when their pursuits bordered on the eccentric.
10. Maria Hayden
Maria Hayden, an American medium, gained prominence in England during the mid-19th century. She was recognized as the first medium to showcase the practice of rapping, following the sensational impact of the Fox sisters in the United States.
The media often portrayed Hayden in a less-than-flattering light. Numerous Victorian publications mocked her abilities, especially after it was discovered that her rapped messages were coherent only when she could see the letters in front of her.
When she was asked to face away, the messages became nonsensical, leading many to believe they originated from Hayden herself rather than a spiritual source.
Hayden’s career as a medium came to an abrupt halt. She vanished from the public spotlight and returned to America, where she pursued a medical degree. For 15 years, she practiced medicine and was reputed to possess extraordinary healing abilities. Her skills were so exceptional that she was eventually offered a position as a medical professor at a university in the United States.
9. Annie Horniman
Annie Horniman hailed from a relatively unremarkable background. Her family revolutionized the tea industry by introducing prepackaged tea, a cleaner and more profitable alternative to loose tea.
As a wealthy Victorian woman, Horniman dedicated herself to a social cause. She played a pivotal role in establishing Manchester’s arts scene, making theater accessible to the general public. Her support for local playwrights left a lasting legacy, contributing to Manchester’s status as the most vibrant theater hub outside of London.
However, every lady needs a hobby. Horniman was deeply fascinated by tarot cards and mysticism. She incorporated card readings into all her business dealings, though her success with this practice was inconsistent.
Horniman joined The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, alongside figures like Aleister Crowley and Bram Stoker, to deepen her understanding of the paranormal. She also claimed the ability to astrally project to other planets, visiting them as casually as one might visit a local store.
During one of her cosmic journeys in 1898, she met a “tall, dignified, and winged” figure on Saturn. Clad in armor, he shared tales of his “dying world.” Fearing strangers, the man prompted Horniman and her companion to render themselves invisible to avoid startling him.
8. Annie Besant
Annie Besant was an extraordinary woman. She courageously abandoned her clergyman husband and two children due to her anti-religious beliefs, aligning herself with Charles Leadbeater, a former clergyman and member of Madame Blavatsky’s Theosophical Society. Besant was deeply intrigued by various forms of spiritualism, convinced that “matter exists in states beyond current scientific understanding.”
Besant authored a book titled Thought-Forms, which focused more on color than the paranormal. In modern terms, she would likely be diagnosed with synesthesia, as her work depicted emotions through a spectrum of colors and shapes. The book offered a captivating glimpse into the mind of a synesthete, revealing, for instance, that passion is represented by the color purple.
Later in life, Besant championed the cause of Indian Home Rule. She moved to India, where she adopted a son she believed to be the new Messiah and a rebirth of Buddha.
7. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
In 1873, Helena Blavatsky journeyed to New York from Russia. A philosopher and occult scholar, she co-founded the Theosophical Society, which aimed to uncover the divine potential she believed humans held, ultimately striving to save the world.
Blavatsky claimed extraordinary abilities, including visions, clairvoyance, and communication with the deceased. She alleged that she once disguised herself as a man to fight in the Battle of Mentana, where she was presumed dead but revived herself using her powers. She also recounted a miraculous escape after surviving a ship explosion at sea.
However, her stories lacked evidence and credibility. She struggled to justify why a Russian living in America would involve herself in an Italian-French conflict in Rome, eventually abandoning the tale.
Blavatsky’s most notable work was her book, The Secret Doctrine, which detailed the origins of humanity through four Root Races. The first race was described as white as the Moon, the second as gold, the third as red, and the fourth as brown, which she claimed turned “black with sin.”
6. Alexis-Vincent-Charles Berbiguier De Terre-Neuve Du Thym
Alexis-Vincent-Charles Berbiguier de Terre-Neuve du Thym, referred to as Berbiguier, was born in France in 1765. It’s safe to say he was deeply “troubled.”
In 1821, he released a three-volume autobiography chronicling his battles with dark forces, earning him the nickname “The Scourge of Hobgoblins.” Berbiguier claimed to have eliminated many of these creatures, only to find that killing them provoked their wrath.
Berbiguier rejected any mental health evaluations, convinced that doctors were agents of the hobgoblin realm. He intensified his campaign against the hobgoblin menace, filling his room with plants he believed were deadly to them and empty bottles to capture them.
He published his extensive work, spanning 274 chapters, complete with his own illustrations of the hobgoblins.
5. William Stead
William Stead is best known for being a passenger on the ill-fated Titanic. However, he was also a remarkable figure in other respects. A trailblazer in investigative journalism, he authored an exposé on child prostitution that played a key role in raising the age of consent for girls from 13 to 16.
In 1892, Stead shifted his focus to a different kind of narrative. He claimed to receive messages from “the other side,” specifically from a deceased journalist. He even hired a team to document these messages and relay them to the bereaved families.
Whether Stead truly communicated with the dead remains a mystery. However, he displayed an uncanny foresight, as evidenced by a short story he wrote in 1886 about a ship sinking in the Atlantic.
In his story, the high death toll resulted from lifeboats accommodating only a third of the passengers, leaving many to drown. He also cautioned readers that while the tale was fictional, it was entirely plausible.
William Stead was among those who did not secure a spot on the lifeboats when the Titanic met its tragic end.
4. William Wynn Westcott
William Wynn Westcott was a physician, Freemason, and occult enthusiast. He also served as a coroner and was briefly suspected in the Jack the Ripper investigations.
In 1887, Westcott asserted that he received mysterious documents from a man who died shortly afterward. The documents were written in a secret code, and Westcott coincidentally possessed the key to decipher them.
Upon decoding, the documents revealed instructions for an initiation ceremony, after which Westcott was “authorized” to establish the Isis-Urania Temple of the Golden Dawn.
Westcott’s society flourished, leading to the creation of additional temples. He was elevated to the role of Praemonstrator of the Kabbalah. However, it appeared that Westcott had angered some higher authority. After leaving some of his papers in a taxi, his extracurricular activities came to the attention of his employers, who disapproved of a coroner holding such a mystical position.
Faced with a choice between his secular career and his mystical pursuits, Westcott opted for the path that ensured financial stability and resigned from the society.
3. Philippe Nizier-Anthelme Vachod
Philippe Nizier-Anthelme Vachod, also known as Master Philippe de Lyon, was born in France in 1849. His birth was said to be extraordinary, with his mother experiencing no labor pains and delivering him while singing joyfully. At the moment of his birth, a fierce storm subsided, and a shooting star appeared in the sky.
How did this greatness reveal itself?
In 1874, while residing in Lyon, Philippe worked in a pharmacy and demonstrated the ability to heal the sick without medication. He later studied medicine, but his peers, feeling his healing powers undermined their profession, had his license revoked.
He became the personal clairvoyant to Tsar Nicholas II, predicting the birth of the tsarevitch and the impending revolution. Philippe was even credited with resurrecting a child from the dead.
However, he couldn’t replicate this miracle when his own child passed away. When questioned, Philippe claimed he allowed her death to prevent an unspecified and unverifiable cosmic disaster.
2. Daniel Dunglas Home
Daniel Dunglas Home considered himself extraordinary. As a teenager, he embraced spiritualism but chose to stand apart from the norm. He conducted his seances in well-lit rooms and asked participants to hold his hands instead of each other’s, ensuring transparency and proving he wasn’t manipulating objects.
Initially, his seances were relatively ordinary, featuring messages from the deceased and ghostly music appearing out of thin air. By 1857, they became more intriguing, with spectral hands materializing. Napoleon III’s wife reportedly recognized her deceased father’s hand by a distinctive deformed finger.
By 1868, Home had mastered levitation—not just hovering a few inches above the ground but floating through a third-story window. (He would enter a room alone and later appear outside the window, presumably levitating, before floating back inside.)
While these feats seem extraordinary, Harry Houdini dismissed Home as a mere magician, claiming he could replicate all of Home’s tricks. Despite this, Home was a celebrated figure of his era, attracting numerous wealthy admirers.
Controversy arose when a wealthy widow accused Home of defrauding her. He countered that she had paid him for his “spiritualistic services” and only sought a refund after realizing he wouldn’t provide other kinds of services. The case went to trial, and Home was ordered to repay her.
1. Dr. Hippolyte Leon Denizard Rivail
Dr. Rivail was a teacher, physician, translator, and attorney. Later, he adopted the name Allan Kardec, becoming a “teacher of souls.” Kardec founded his unique form of spiritualism, which he termed “Spiritism.”
After witnessing a “table turning” demonstration, where a “spirit” allegedly caused a table to spin, Kardec became convinced it was a form of communication. However, Michael Faraday had already explained the phenomenon of ideomotor response three years prior, where muscles move involuntarily, causing such movements.
Despite this, Kardec authored The Spirits Book, a manual for communicating with the afterlife. He believed our bodies are mere vessels for the spirit and that departed spirits remain with us, reincarnating at various stages of spiritual evolution.
