William Crookes's guest appearances

William Crookes

SER Historia

Podcast de "El Ultimo Peldaño" - Onda Regional de Murcia

Strange Stories UK

STEMs and Seeds

OwlTail

Florence Cook

Florence Cook Spiritualism

This is Part 2 of a two part story.The William Crookes, Florence Cook affair  was the major scandal regarding spiritualism in the UK. Cook was a fraudulent medium, trained by her family to make money from spiritualism. For a number of reasons Spiritualism had proved very popular in the English speaking world since the mid 19th century.The spirit guide/control that Florence Cook was relying on up until June 1874 was Katie King who was claimed to be a spirit guide/control for a number of other mediums. After being exposed during a séance in December 1873, Florence was grabbed by a sitter while she pretended to be the spirit Katie King, they turned to Crookes who was a pro-spiritualist, famous scientist who had claimed to have discovered another medium, D.D.Home as being gifted with special powers. No other scientists believed Crookes although he was popular with spiritualists. The Cook family hoped that he would ‘prove’ that Florence Cook was a genuine medium.Crookes investigated other young female mediums. Crookes would not have been guilty of any crime in 1974. The age of consent was 12 until 1875 when it was raised to 13 in the UK! Cook was 17 when she was first investigated by Crookes. Crookes was infatuated with Florence Cook, or perhaps with the spirit of Katie King. Crookes was manipulated and played by Florence Cook.Crookes who was vain, intolerant and ego-centric refused to believe that he was being made to look a fool. There were various other scandals interwoven with the Crookes/Cook entanglement. This all to the backdrop of the spiritualist media and the main stream media trying to establish the truth of the new Spiritualist movement.Few people came out of the scandal with their reputations intact. One who did was the pro-spiritualist Edward W. Cox. Many spiritualists seemed to be delusional but Cox, who was a friend of Crookes, was a reliable witness.There was false information and cover-ups. Crookes later became president of the Society of Psychical Research (SPR) and rather disappointingly the society never had the courage to question him about his work on investigating spiritualism, instead it seems that the SPR destroyed the files on the Crookes investigation and any other files that reflected badly on previous Presidents.Cook did not have a particularly long or happy life, dying in poverty in her 40s. Crookes died in 1919 as the grand old man of British science aged 86. Although there is no doubt that he was a brilliant scientist, his character was suspect and hypocritical.www.strangestoriesuk.gmail.com

This is Part 2 of a two part story. The William Crookes, Florence Cook affair  was the major scandal regarding spiritualism in the UK. Cook was a fraudulent medium, trained by her family to make money from spiritualism. For a number of reasons Spiritualism had proved very popular in the English speaking world since the mid 19th century.The spirit guide/control that Florence Cook was relying on up until June 1874 was Katie King who was claimed to be a spirit guide/control for a number of other mediums. After being exposed during a séance in December 1873, Florence was grabbed by a sitter while she pretended to be the spirit Katie King, they turned to Crookes who was a pro-spiritualist, famous scientist who had claimed to have discovered another medium, D.D.Home as being gifted with special powers. No other scientists believed Crookes although he was popular with spiritualists. The Cook family hoped that he would ‘prove’ that Florence Cook was a genuine medium.Crookes investigated other young female mediums. Crookes would not have been guilty of any crime in 1974. The age of consent was 12 until 1875 when it was raised to 13 in the UK! Cook was 17 when she was first investigated by Crookes. Crookes was infatuated with Florence Cook, or perhaps with the spirit of Katie King. Crookes was manipulated and played by Florence Cook.Crookes who was vain, intolerant and ego-centric refused to believe that he was being made to look a fool. There were various other scandals interwoven with the Crookes/Cook entanglement. This all to the backdrop of the spiritualist media and the main stream media trying to establish the truth of the new Spiritualist movement.Few people came out of the scandal with their reputations intact. One who did was the pro-spiritualist Edward W. Cox. Many spiritualists seemed to be delusional but Cox, who was a friend of Crookes, was a reliable witness.There was false information and cover-ups. Crookes later became president of the Society of Psychical Research (SPR) and rather disappointingly the society never had the courage to question him about his work on investigating spiritualism, instead it seems that the SPR destroyed the files on the Crookes investigation and any other files that reflected badly on previous Presidents.Cook did not have a particularly long or happy life, dying in poverty in her 40s. Crookes died in 1919 as the grand old man of British science aged 86. Although there is no doubt that he was a brilliant scientist, his character was suspect and hypocritical.<a href="http://www.strangestoriesuk.gmail.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.strangestoriesuk.gmail.com</a>

Strange Stories: William Crookes / Florence Cook spiritualism scandal Part 2

This is a well known scandal from the 1870s. Florence Cook one of the best known materialisation mediums of her day had been suspect of fraudulent behaviour (not being genuine). To restore her reputation she tried to get the famous scientist William Crookes to investigate her and prove her genuine. Crookes had already investigated D.D.Home and found that he had powers unknown to science, this may had caused some ridicule from the scientific community, but Crookes was famous, he had discovered one of the elements listed in the periodic table and was a member of the Royal Society. Would Crookes be able to prove that Florence Cook was genuine and at what cost to himself?This is part 1 of the story which also includes other stories intertwined, including that of the ruthless Cook family who intended to achieve financial security by milking gullible supporters of spiritualism.The original inspiration for this podcast was the book by Ronald Pearsall 'The Table Rappers' although many books and periodicals have been read to produce this podcast, to name but two: Trevor Hall's 'The Spiritualists' and various publications of the Society of Psychical Research. I will post part 2 within the week.  www.strangestoriesuk.gmail.com

This is a well known scandal from the 1870s. Florence Cook one of the best known materialisation mediums of her day had been suspect of fraudulent behaviour (not being genuine). To restore her reputation she tried to get the famous scientist William Crookes to investigate her and prove her genuine.  Crookes had already investigated D.D.Home and found that he had powers unknown to science, this may had caused some ridicule from the scientific community, but Crookes was famous, he had discovered one of the elements listed in the periodic table and was a member of the Royal Society. Would Crookes be able to prove that Florence Cook was genuine and at what cost to himself? This is part 1 of the story which also includes other stories intertwined, including that of the ruthless Cook family who intended to achieve financial security by milking gullible supporters of spiritualism. The original inspiration for this podcast was the book by Ronald Pearsall 'The Table Rappers' although many books and periodicals have been read to produce this podcast, to name but two: Trevor Hall's 'The Spiritualists' and various publications of the Society of Psychical Research. I will post part 2 within the week.  <a href="http://www.strangestoriesuk.gmail.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.strangestoriesuk.gmail.com</a>