Adare, Lord (18411926)
Author of a remarkable work, Experiences in Spiritualism with
D. D. Home, printed privately in 1869 at the request of his father,
Earl of Dunraven. To make this book accessible to a large
public and in memory of his father to whose title he succeeded,
the author agreed in 1924 to a second edition by the Society
for Psychical Research, omitting the attestation of some of the
prominent witnesses of the phenomena. The probable reason
for the privacy of the first publication was that the Earl of Dunraven,
being a Roman Catholic, wished to avoid the censure of
the Church.
The friendship of Lord Adare and Daniel Douglas Home
dated from 1867. It began at Malvern in Dr. Gullys hydropathic
establishment, where Home was a guest and Lord Adare a
patient. For the next two years he spent a great deal of time in
Homes company. His friendship for Home (as stated in his
preface to the 1924 publication) never diminished or changed
thereafter.
The phenomena recorded in the book are of a wide range
and embrace almost every spiritualistic manifestation. Only the
absence of apport phenomena and the penetration of matter
through solid matter is conspicuous. Its possibility was stoutly
denied by Home. The records fail to meet scientific requirements
in many ways. The control was left to the senses, no instruments
were introduced, and many points in the narrative
were left incomplete.
No attempt was made to appraise the sittings in scientific
categories. Miracle worship might best describe the attitude
of Lord Adare and of his fellow-sitters. On the other hand,
while deficient in some ways, these records demonstrate the
conscientiousness of those who observed Home. Each wrote letters
addressed to the Earl of Dunraven shortly after the séances.
Lord Adare, for almost two years, lived most of the time with Home, which bolstered his belief that Home was not perpetrating
a large scale deception. The preface states: We have
not, on a single occasion, during the whole series of seances,
seen any indication of contrivance on the part of the medium
for producing or facilitating the manifestations which have
taken place.
