Harry Price by Lisa of LIPRI

On January 17, 1881 in Britain, Harry Price entered this world. Through his life, he was known as a British psychic researcher, author, and photographer. He is described by most as a talented writer, conjuror, engineer, and inventor.1 However, others described him as flamboyant, unorthodox and extremely controversial. He is known as one of the most influential figures in the early days of psychical research. 2 Harry Price performed varying types of experiments and examinations throughout his time here, ranging from investigations in haunted places to holding séances. According to research, he is said to have held many interests during his life aside from his curiosity in paranormal phenomena including, space telegraphy, coin collecting, and archaeology.

Harry Price used his teenage years to write plays based upon an encounter with a poltergeist that he experienced in a haunted mansion. As he grew older, he wrote for several London newspapers. He married Constance Mary Knight in August of 1908. In his autobiography, Search for Truth, he said the “Great Sequah” in Shrewsbury was "entirely responsible for shaping much of my life’s work".3 He became an expert amateur conjurer, and he joined the Magic Circle in 1922. His lifelong interest in stage magic and conjuring never dissipated. His expertise in magic tricks led to what would eventually become an enveloping passion of his, that of investigation into paranormal phenomena.

Price's first major success in psychical research came in 1922 when he exposed the “spirit” photographer William Hope.4 Harry Price found that William Hope was using pre-exposed plates in his camera, so he switched them out with his own plates to be used as evidence. Price held séances with Stella Cranshaw who was a medium that let him test her mediumistic abilities with witnesses present. He then investigated a case involving a Romanian girl, Elenore Zugun, a supposed human poltergeist. Price also traveled to Mount Brocken in Germany to conduct a “black magic” experiment in connection with the centenary of Goethe, involving the transformation of a goat into a young man. In another investigation, he studied a mongoose that supposedly could talk and eat food. Some people believed this was also a case involving a poltergeist.

Harry Price made an offer to the University of London to equip and endow the Department of Psychical Research, and in 1934 the University of London Council for Psychical Investigation named him Honorary Secretary and Editor. During that same year, the National Laboratory of Psychical Research entered into its most memorable case involving medium Helen Duncan. Helen Duncan was to be examined under scientific conditions to study a sample of her ectoplasm. Harry Price deduced that Helen Duncan’s spirit manifestations were merely pieces of cheesecloth that had been swallowed and regurgitated by Duncan. He then wrote about the case in Leaves from a Psychist’s Case Book in a chapter called "The Cheese-cloth Worshippers".5 Harry Price's psychical research continued on with investigations into Karachi's Indian rope trick and the fire-walking abilities of Kuda Bux in 1935. The following year, Harry Price did a broadcast from a supposed haunted house for BBC and then went on to publish The Confessions of a Ghost-Hunter and The Haunting of Cashen's Gap. In 1937, he conducted more experiments that were also televised, and in this same year, he rented the Borley Rectory.

Harry Price rented it for one year and it proved to be the link paving the way to the pinnacle of his career. This was, without a doubt, a defining moment in the career of Harry Price. The Borley Rectory came to be known as the most haunted house in England. The house was originally built by Henry Bull. Price was asked by a newspaper to investigate the varying degrees of phenomena in the house, including bells ringing, knocking, strange lights, a headless man, as well as to investigate the story involving a phantom nun who wandered through the garden, and the sight of Henry Bull’s apparition. Price used tape measures to test the thickness of walls, still cameras for indoor and outdoor photography, a remote control motion picture camera, and even portable telephones for communication between the investigators. The way in which he collected his evidence and experiences from others, gave him the reputation as someone who conducted extremely organized investigations clearly setting the bar for anyone who dared to follow.

In 1938, Harry Price drafted a Bill for the regulation of psychic practitioners. In 1939, he organized a national telepathic test in the periodical John O’London’s Weekly. During the 1940s, Harry Price wrote The Most Haunted House in England, Poltergeist Over England and The End of Borley Rectory. He later died on March 29, 1948.

1. Harry Price Investigates, Richard Morris, Fortean Times, December 2007, #229

2. Harry Price, Biography of a Ghost Hunter by Paul Tabori. Page 21.

3. Leaves from a Psychist’s Case Book by Harry Price, Page 213.

4. Leaves from a Psychist’s Case Book by Harry Price, Pages 201-209.

5. The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits, Rosemary Ellen Guiley, (Facts on File, Inc.), 1992