These eerie photographs are part of the University of Manitoba's most popular private collection
Mark Medley, National Post
Dr. Thomas Glendenning Hamilton was a Winnipeg physician, one-time chairman of the city's school board and member of the provincial legislature. He was also a paranormal investigator, delving into telekinetics, ectoplasm and other otherworldly phenomena not normally associated with early 20th-century Manitoba.
After his death in 1935, his wife Lillian carried on the experiments. The family amassed a huge collection of ghostly photographs and other supernatural ephemera, which the couple's daughter later donated to the University of Manitoba. Now, the school's archives and special collections department is shedding some light on this Canadian haunting by sharing the photos via a new video recently posted on YouTube.
"Even though it's our most popular private collection, it's popular with a certain segment of the population: people who are interested in the paranormal," says Shelley Sweeney, head of the archives and special collections. "The video brings the photos to a whole new audience."
Hamilton was driven to look beyond the grave after his four-year-old son died in 1918. The many lives lost to both the First World War and the influenza epidemic added to the surge of interest in the afterlife during the time period, and Hamilton was at the forefront of the movement in Canada. He began conducting seances, which they called "home circles," in a second-floor room of his home, the windows boarded up and a naked red bulb hanging from the ceiling. Those who took part in the experiments included William Lyon Mackenzie King and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes. (He visited in physical form in 1923, and allegedly returned in spirit form in 1932, two years after his death.) Eleven cameras were set up around the room to capture the proceedings.
"His wife encouraged him to pursue this as a means of finding out whether there was life after death," explains Sweeney. "That's what he was trying to prove, and he spent the rest of his life essentially searching for this."
The unnerving four minute and seven second video was created by archives assistant Robert Ross. It features levitating tables, floating faces and ectoplasm, which is supposedly the physical manifestation of the spirit world. The photographs are authentic -- Sweeney says a photographer has examined the plate-glass negatives and concluded no tampering was done -- but that doesn't mean the events weren't staged. Marshall Gauvin, head of the Winnipeg Rationalist Society, claims he met a woman who told him the ectoplasm was in fact regurgitated cheesecloth.
"I make no comment," says Sweeney. "Whether people believe in the ectoplasm or not, that's up to them."
Ross, who spent two weeks editing the video and composing the sound-track, doesn't count himself among the believers, but "if they are perpetrating a big scam, then they were so convincing. They just look so creepy and look so possessed. ... It's just fascinating to think, whether it was real or not, this weird moment in Winnipeg history was going on and was very popular."
The collection is well-known among paranormal researchers, but Sweeney thinks even those who are familiar with the photographs may see them in a new light.
"I think the way people interact with the material will be changed by this," she says. "It's a totally different experience." - To see the T.G. Hamilton video, follow the links from nationalpost.com/life.
Click on the source link to view a video
http://www.nationalpost.com/life/story.html?id=350803
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