The Conversion of Dr. Richard Hodgson -- Part 1 of 2

         Having heard that Dr. Richard Hodgson, an Australian teaching in England and serving as an investigator for the Society for Psychical Resarch (SPR), had supposedly exposed Madame Blavatsky as a charlatan, Mr. R. Pearsall Smith of Philadelphia instigated the offer to Hodgson to come to America and head up the American branch of the SPR.  Smith's intent was to debunk all mediums, as his grieving brother had been led astray by a charlatan.

       Soon after his arrival in the U.S. in April of 1887, Hodgson had his first sitting with medium Leonora Piper, who had greatly impressed Professor William James of Harvard University.  James had arranged the sitting for Hodgson, careful not to reveal Hodgson's name or purpose for being in the country.

       After Mrs. Piper went into the trance state, "Phinuit,' her spirit control at the time, took over her body and mentioned the name "Fred" to Hodgson.   "You went to school together, and Fred was very fond of playing leap-frog," Phinuit relayed the message from Fred.  "He was swinging on a trapeze when he fell and injured his spine, finally dying in a convulsion.  You were not present at the time of his accident or death."

        Phinuit continued: "Fred states his father was your mother's brother.  He also wants to remind you of Harris at school.  He was a very able man.  Fred says you come from Australia.   After your father's death you went to Germany.  Fred was with you then in spirit.  While there you got provoked with a lady.  You said she was deceitful, a story teller. He also says one of your chief reasons for choosing St. John's College (at Cambridge) was that Wordsworth was a Johnian."

         Hodgson was stunned by the accuracy of the communication, as he recalled his cousin Fred, whose father was his mother's brother, excelling at the game of leap-frog by taking long flying jumps that attracted crowds of schoolmates.  Fred injured his spine in a gymnasium in Melbourne in 1871 and died within a matter of days.   Hodgson was not present at either the accident or the death.  

         Harris was the name of their schoolmaster in 1868 or 1869.    While in Germany, Hodgson charged a lady with falsehood under somewhat peculiar circumstances, although Hodgson recalled going to Germany before his father's death in 1885, not after it.   And it was true that Hodgson chose St. John's College because Wordsworth had been educated there.   

        At a second sitting, Phinuit described a lady with dark hair, dark eyes and a slim figure, but he could not get her name. He could get only that her Christian named ended with an "sie."  "She was much closer to you than any other person," Phinuit communicated.  "Too bad, you were not with her at the time.  She died in England when you were across country.  The lady had two rings, one went with her body to the grave, the other ought to have gone to you...She had a brother and a sister.  She had a black lace collar, with a pin with a head, and a ring with a stone which she wanted given to you.  This lady had beautiful teeth. She wants you always to keep a book of poems which you had given her and had been sent back to you.  You had written her name in it in connection with her birthday." 

         Phinuit went on to tell Hodgson that the woman was a great friend of his sister's and that he (Hodgson) heard about her death from his sister.   Still struggling with the name, Phinuit suggested it might be "Ellerton,"  He then said that her left eye is brown and on the right eye there is a spot of a light color in the iris, the spot being straggly and of a bluish cast.  He said it was a birthmark.

        Hodgson was further impressed, although there were several bits of information that he was unsure of.  He did not recall a brother or sister, although he remembered that at least one sibling had been stillborn.  Not wanting to name his friend in his report, Hodgson referred to her only as "Q."  He confirmed that she was his sister's good friend and that his sister informer him of  Q's death.  Moreover, her name ended with a "sie."  (Hodgson's biographer Alex Baird later revealed that her name was "Jessie D----.")   Strangely, Ellerton was the surname of one of Q's other cousins. 

       "The description of "Q," her relationship to me, the manner of her death, and my absence from her side are true," Hodgson recorded. "She died in Australia while I was in England."    But Hodgson knew nothing about the rings.   He recalled the black lace collar distinctly and the pin vaguely, but not the stone in the ring.  He did not recall that she had beautiful teeth. Rather, he recalled that a year or two before her death she had some teeth extracted (which may have been replaced with "beautiful" teeth).

       As for the book of  poems, Hodgson remembered lending her Tennyson's The Princess and her having returned it. He remembered writing her name on one of the fly leaves.

       Hodgson further recalled the eye blemish, but thought it was grey rather than blue.  He asked Phinuit how he knew about the eye.  Phinuit replied that "Q" was standing close to him and showing him her right eye, so that he could see it plainly. 

        Phinuit went on to tell Hodgson that his mother was living but his father and little brother had died.  "There are two Toms in your family, both brothers, one alive and one in spirit," he continued.   Hodgson confirmed the facts as given by Phinuit.

       "Here is a schoolmate, with a lot of freckles, little fellow with red hair," Phinuit continued.  "Name like Wingford, he lived with his grandmother."   Hodgson knew to whom Phinuit was referring, although he recalled the boy's name as Grimwood, not Wingford.

       Another old schoolmate then presented himself to Phinuit.  Phinuit said he was lame when he was a boy and that his name sounded like Brookford.  Hodgson recalled the lame boy but remembered his name as Brooks.

      Phinuit informed Hodgson that his young married sister would soon have another child, a boy.  This prophecy turned out to be true, as his sister gave birth before the end of the year.

       As biographer Baird saw it, Hodgson's whole attitude about mediums began to change with those first few sittings.

       After Hodgson's death in 1905, fellow psychical researcher Hereward Carrington wrote that Jessie  ("Q") continued to communicate with affectionate and evidential messages for Hodgson, a life-long bachelor, in his many additional sittings with Mrs. Piper over the next 18 years.