Daniel Home was the most famous of the nineteenth-century physical mediums. He was observed to levitate many times over a forty-year period. Home allegedly learned to control his "flights" and demonstrated his ability before audiences that included Emperor Napoleon III, Mark Twain, and William Crookes (later the president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science).
The Enigma of Daniel Home is the life story of this fascinating person, written by a well-known British historian. Trevor Hall is noted for his exposŽs of the fraudulence of the late Harry Price and the affair of the Borely Rectory, "the most haunted house in England."
In his book, Dr. Hall sheds light on many of the puzzles connected with this notorious medium. What are some of the possible explanations for Home's "fantastic feat" of levitation? Why do eyewitness accounts conflict in details, even though all of the witnesses were convinced at the time that they had witnessed a miracle? What is the "Mystery of Iniquity" said to surround Home in an unpublished portion of a letter from Elizabeth Barrett Browning to her sister? What other "inexplicable" feats did Home perform - before dozens of witnesses? This is the book for those who would like to learn about a man who has baffled parapsychological researchers and scientists alike for over a century.