In this case there was neither excitement nor desire to believe, but a strong wish to disbelieve and to expose Home.  If two such witnesses could be hallucinated, we must greatly extend our notion of the limits of the capacity for entertaining hallucinations.

One singular phenomenon was reported in Home’s case, which has, however, little to do with any conceivable theory of spirits.  He was said to become elongated in trance.[8] Mr. Podmore explains that ’perhaps he really stretched himself to his full height’—­one of the easiest ways conceivable of working a miracle, Iamblichus reports the same phenomenon in his possessed men.[9] Iamblichus adds that they were sometimes broadened as well as lengthened.  Now, M. Fere observes that ’any part of the body of an hysterical patient may change in volume, simply owing to the fact that the patient’s attention is fixed on that part.’[10] Conceivably the elongation of Home and the ancient Egyptian mediums may have been an extreme case of this ‘change of volume.’  Could this be proved by examples, Home’s elongation would cease to be a ‘miracle.’  But it would follow that in this case observers were not hallucinated, and the presumption would be raised that they were not hallucinated in the other cases.  Indeed, this argument is of universal application.

There is another class of ‘physical phenomena,’ which has no direct bearing on our subject.  Many persons, in many ages, are said to have handled or walked through fire, not only without suffering pain, but without lesion of the skin.  Iamblichus mentions this as among the peculiarities of his ‘possessed’ men; and in ‘Modern Mythology’ (1897) I have collected first-hand evidence for the feat in classical times, and in India, Fiji, Bulgaria, Trinidad, the Straits Settlements, and many other places.  The evidence is that of travellers, officials, missionaries, and others, and is backed (for what photographic testimony is worth) by photographs of the performance.  To hold glowing coals in his hand, and to communicate the power of doing so to others, was in Home’s repertoire.  Lord Crawford saw it done on eight occasions, and himself received from Home’s hand the glowing coal unharmed.  A friend of my own, however, still bears the blister of the hurt received in the process.  Sir W. Crookes’s evidence follows: 

’At Mr. Home’s request, whilst he was entranced, I went with him to the fireplace in the back drawing-room.  He said, “We want you to notice particularly what Dan is doing.”  Accordingly I stood close to the fire, and stooped down to it when he put his hands in....

’Mr. Home then waved the handkerchief about in the air two or three times, held it above his head, and then folded it up and laid it on his hand like a cushion.  Putting his other hand into the fire, he took out a large lump of cinder, red-hot at the lower part, and placed the red part on the handkerchief.  Under ordinary circumstances it would have been in a blaze.  In about half a minute he took it off the handkerchief with his hand, saying, “As the power is not strong, if we leave the coal longer it will burn.”  He then put it on his hand, and brought it to the table in the front room, where all but myself had remained seated.’