Leonora Piper (née Leonora Evelina Simonds; 27 June 1857 – 3 June 1950) was a famous American trance medium in the area of Spiritualism. Piper was the subject of intense interest and investigation by American and British psychic research associations during the early 20th century, including psychologist William James and the Society for Psychical Research.Gardner, Martin. (1996). The Night Is Large. "William James and Mrs. Piper". St. Martin's Press. pp. 213-243.
Researchers and scientists who studied Piper's mediumship have described mentalist techniques such as cold reading, muscle reading and "fishing", all techniques that she may have used to gather information about séance sitters, so she could appear to have unexplained insight.Tuckett, Ivor Lloyd. (1911). The Evidence for the Supernatural: A Critical Study Made with "Uncommon Sense". K. Paul, Trench, Trübner. pp. 321-395Rinn, Joseph. (1950). Sixty Years of Psychical Research: Houdini and I Among the Spiritualists. Truth Seeker Company. pp. 183-246Christopher, Milbourne. (1979). Search for the Soul. Thomas Y. Crowell, Publishers. pp. 152-175Gardner, Martin. (2003). Are Universes Thicker Than Blackberries?. "How Mrs. Piper Bamboozled William James". W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 252-62. Science writer and mathematician Martin Gardner dismissed Piper as a "clever charlatan."Irwin, Harvey J; Watt, Caroline. (2007). An Introduction to Parapsychology. McFarland. p. 19.
Biography Piper was born to Stillman and Hannah (Stevens) Simonds. She grew up in Nashua, New Hampshire, where, according to her parents, she first displayed psychic abilities as a child. At the age of 22 she married shopkeeper William Piper of Boston and settled in the city's Beacon Hill area. After the birth of her first child, Alta Laurette, on May 16, 1884, in Boston, she sought relief from recurring pain caused by a childhood accident. A second daughter, Minerva Leonora, followed on October 7, 1885. Upon visiting an elderly blind man who claimed he could contact spirits that could aid in healing, she said she heard voices that resulted in her ability to deliver a message by automatic writing to a local judge who claimed the words came from his recently deceased son. Before Piper was investigated by psychical researchers she worked as a paid medium at a dollar for each sitting.The Independent. Volume 53, Issues 2757-2769. Independent Publications. 1901. p. 2870
George E. Dorr, Piper's manager, set up six sittings with Dr. G. Stanley Hall and his associate Amy Tanner both from Clark University. A sitting with Mrs. Piper about 1910 cost $20.00.Tanner, Amy. (1994). Studies in Spiritism Prometheus Books. Originally published by D. Appleton, 1910 Piper made a fortune from her séances whilst being tested by psychical researchers, she was receiving around $1000 a year for her mediumship services.James, William. (1986). Essays in Psychical Research. Harvard University Press. p. 395. Piper was a trance medium but in her later séances preferred automatic writing.Luckhurst, Roger. (2002). The Invention of Telepathy: 1870–1901. Oxford University Press. p. 230. Piper died on July 3, 1950, at her home from bronchopneumonia. She was buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Massachusetts.James, Edward T. Notable American Women, 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary. Volume 1. Belknap Press. p. 75.
Career
Investigators Agreeing to do readings for other visitors in her home, she soon gained attention from members of the American Society for Psychical Research and later its British associate, the Society for Psychical Research. Among these were Minot Savage, Richard Hodgson and George B. Dorr. Later psychic investigators included Oliver Lodge, Frederic Myers, James Hyslop, and G. Stanley Hall and his assistant Amy Tanner.Amy Tanner with an introduction by G. Stanley Hall. (1910). Studies in Spiritism. New York and London: D. Appleton and Company.
In 1885, the year after the death of his young son, psychologist, philosopher, and SPR member William James had his first sitting with Piper at the suggestion of his mother-in-law. He advocated a "third way" as a sort of agnosticism for cases where things were not yet explained and held out for the possibility of belief. James was soon convinced that Piper knew things she could only have discovered by supernatural means. James expressed his belief in Piper by saying, "If you wish to upset the law that all crows are black, it is enough if you prove that one crow is white. My white crow is Mrs. Piper."Murphy, Gardner; Ballou, Robert O. (1960). William James on Psychical Research. Viking Press. p. 41 as well as stating, "My own conviction is not evidence, but it seems fitting to record it. I am persuaded of the medium's honesty, and of the genuineness of her trance; and although at first disposed to think that the 'hits' she made were either lucky coincidences, or the result of knowledge on her part of who the sitter was and of his or her family affairs, I now believe her to be in possession of a power as yet unexplained." However, James did not believe that Piper was in contact with spirits. After evaluating sixty-nine reports of Piper's mediumship he considered the hypothesis of telepathy as well as Piper obtaining information about her sitters by natural means such as her memory recalling information. James could find little "independent evidence" to support the spirit-control hypothesis. Most of it was ambiguous or only circumstantially relevant, and some of it was false. However, Piper and the Italian Eusapia Palladino became the most widely studied parapsychologists and mediums of their time, especially by the works of Hugo Münsterberg and G. Stanley Hall.
Later when Piper's "spirit contact" was claimed to be recently deceased Society for Psychical Research member Richard Hodgson, James wrote, "I remain uncertain and await more facts, facts which may not point clearly to a conclusion for fifty or a hundred years."Murphy, Gardner; Ballou, Robert O. (1960). William James on Psychical Research. Chapter 4 William James and Mrs. Piper. Viking Press. p. 209
James Hyslop wrote of his séance sittings with Piper and suggested they could only be explained by spirits or telepathy. Hyslop favored the spiritualist hypothesis.Wright, Henry W. (1907). Some Interpretations of the Supernatural. Le divin experience et hypothèse by Marcel Hébert; L'infinité divine depuis Philon le Juif jusqu'à Plotin by Henri Guyot; Science and a Future Life by James H. Hyslop; Borderland of Psychical Research by James H. Hyslop; The Spirit World by Joseph Hamilton. The American Journal of Theology. Vol. 11, No. 2. pp. 358-362. However, Frank Podmore wrote that Hyslop's séance sittings with Piper "do not obviously call for any supernormal explanation" and "I cannot point to a single instance in which a precise and unambiguous piece of information has been furnished of a kind which could not have proceeded from the medium's own mind, working upon the materials provided and the hints let drop by the sitter."Podmore, Frank. (1902). Modern Spiritualism: A History and a Criticism. Volume 2. p. 345
Hyslop's trance report on Piper and views on spiritualism were criticized in depth by psychologist James H. Leuba, leading to a dispute between them.Leuba, James H. (1903). Empirical Data on Immortality. International Journal of Ethics. Vol. 14, No. 1. pp. 90-105.Hyslop, James H. (1904). Remarks on Prof. Leuba's Criticisms. International Journal of Ethics. Vol. 14, No. 2. pp. 220-227.Leuba, James H. (1904). Rejoinder to Prof. Hyslop. International Journal of Ethics. Vol. 14, No. 2. pp. 227-229.
Richard Hodgson was one of the very few psychical researchers that believed Piper was in contact with spirits.Bell, Clark; Hudson, Thomson Jay. (1904). Spiritism, Hypnotism and Telepathy: As Involved in the Case of Mrs. Leonora E. Piper and the Society for Psychical Research. Medico-Legal Journal. Deborah Blum has written that Hodgson was personally obsessed with Piper. Hodgson would stand outside her house, observing her for long periods of time even in the winter blizzards of 1888.Blum, Deborah. (2006). Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death. Penguin Books. p. 142. The American psychologist Morton Prince who knew Hodgson well commented that the mediumship of Piper had "wrecked" his mind.Oppenheim, Janet. (1985). The Other World: Spiritualism and Psychical Research in England, 1850–1914. Cambridge University Press. p. 376.
Hodgson, during the latter days of his life, would allow no one to enter the privacy of his room in 15 Charles Street. During these years Hodgson believed that he constantly received direct communication with the regular band of spirits in charge of Piper. He received these messages when alone in the evening. He allowed no one to enter his room. Hodgson was afraid they would disturb the "magnetic atmosphere".Hereward Carrington. (1930). Story of Psychic Science. London: Rider & Co. p. 266 He told very few people about this.Alex Baird. (1949). The Life of Richard Hodgson. Psychic Press Limited, London. pp. 301-302 Hodgson's lover, Jessie D., died in 1879.Alex Baird. (1949). The Life of Richard Hodgson. Psychic Press Limited, London. p. 3 After Piper supposedly contacted the spirit of the deceased Australian woman Hodgson promised to marry, according to Hereward Carrington, Hodgson's reason deteriorated and he became a recluse in his dark room, believing he conversed with his lost love. Hodgson asked Carrington to keep this a secret.
American psychic investigator Gardner Murphy who attended three years of séance sittings with Piper concluded they were "uneventful and lacking in the types of phenomena which characterized the zenith of her career."Murphy, Gardner. (1979). Challenge of Psychical Research: A Primer of Parapsychology. World Perspectives Series. Volume 26. Greenwood Press. .
Controls
As with other mediums of the era, Piper claimed the use of spirit guides or "controls" in trance. In some of Piper's early sittings her control, supposedly Walter Scott, made absurd statements about the planets. He claimed beautiful creatures live inside Venus and the Sun is populated by "dreadful looking creatures" which he described as monkeys that live in caves made out of sand and mud.Gould, Rupert. (1965). Enigmas: Another Book of Unexplained Facts. University Books. p. 217