Herne, Frank (ca. 1870)
Famous nineteenth-century English medium. His first séances
were given in January 1869. He began with clairvoyant
descriptions of spirits and of the sitters aura, but physical manifestations
soon developed. In 1870 at the house of a Dr. Dixon
he was said to have manifested elongation of the human body.
Florence Cook held her first sittings with Herne, from whom
she may have learned some of the techniques of physical mediumship.
In 1871 Herne joined partnership with Charles Williams.
Their séances at 61 Lambs Conduit Street, London, were very
impressive. Voices, psychic lights, independent music, apports,
and levitations were often allegedly witnessed. Agnes GuppyVolckmans
famous transportation occurred in one of these
joint sittings. In 1875 St. George Stock made an attempt to expose
Herne as a fraud but did not succeed, and two years later
in The Spiritualist apologized for the attempt.
Much suspicion surrounded the mediumship of Herne and
Williams. Williams, who worked closely with Herne, was caught
cheating in séances in Paris in 1874 and in Amsterdam in 1879.
Sources
Alleged Mediumship of F. Herne. Proceedings of the Society
for Psychical Research 7; Journal of the Society for Psychical
Research 10.
