Daniel Dunglas Home (1833-1886)

Daniel Dunglas Home is a true one of one - in some circles, even close to 150 years after his death, remains —arguably the most puzzling figure in the entire history of physical mediumship. Daniel Dunglas Home (pronounced Hume) was born on March 20, 1833, and died June 21, 1886. He was a Scottish physical medium with the reported ability to levitate to a variety of heights, speak with the dead, and to produce rapping and knocks in houses at will He was born in Scotland in 1833, an illegitimate son (as the neighbors whispered) of some aristocrat. A pale, sickly child, coughing up blood from early childhood—tuberculosis would become his eternal companion and, ultimately, what took his life far too early. There are many extraordinary stories about Home's mediumship, and his extraordinary gifts, but the most famous of them is the Ashley House Levitation. A quick overview (that no doubt, will not make believers, nor skeptics happy) In 1868, Home was said to have levitated out of the third story window of one room, and back in through the window of the adjoining room in front of three witnesses (Adare, Captain Wynne, and Lord Lindsay). Lord Adare stated that Home "swung out and in" of a window in a horizontal position. Captain Wynne wrote: "The fact of Mr. Home having gone out of one window and in at another I can swear to. Anyone who knows me would not for a moment say I was a victim of a hallucination or any other humbug of the kind" There are many fascinating accounts of this incident, and of course, many others well. As they are simply so extraordinary, there are many who will attempt to debunk the entire history of his Home's many "feats" and as they are so head scratching and extraordinary, it's not hard to believe some sort of fraud must have been afoot. Home was never found to be doing anything fraudulent in any of his public "performances" although others argue, in private sessons that weren't well publicized, he was. Douglass Home remains one of the most extraordinary (and now, in 2026 little known) physical mediums of the last 200 + years, and even today, reading some of the things he purportedly was able to do, for me......is both puzzling, astonishing and i'm simply not sure what to believe is ultimately true.