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Helen Duncan fake ectoplasm B
Summary
Photographs revealing the fraud mediumship of Helen Duncan. Malcolm Gaskill revealed in his book Hellish Nell: Last of Britain's Witches (Fourth Estate, 2001) that the photographs were taken by the photographer Harvey Metcalfe in 1928 during a séance at Duncan's house.
Helen Duncan (1898–1956) was a Scottish physical medium who was active in the early-to-mid twentieth century. She was best known for production of ‘teleplasm’ (more commonly called ‘ectoplasm’, a supposedly spiritual substance, and materializations of spirits, usually the sitters’ deceased loved ones. Investigations suggested that these phenomena were at least partly illusions created by the use of cheesecloth or other common materials. Duncan was prosecuted and handed a jail sentence, one of the last people to be convicted under England’s Witchcraft Act of 1735.
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