Imperial Valley press., 1937-06-13

rINCE men first made hobby of collecting
= rare objects, they have priced every conceiv-
able thing from stamps to snuff boxes stuffed
animals to first editions. And what is perhaps
the most unusual hobby in the world is that of
the Canadian lecturer, James P. SHELTON who
collects spirit" pictures!
On a recent tour of western states he has
shown several hundred of these pictures flashed
upon screen from carefully guarded slides-to
societies and groups interested in this amazing
phenomena.
Everywhere find definite revival of inter-
est and research along psychic lines" he says.
First, people are intensely curious. Then they
are astonished and skeptical and suddenly they
begin to wonder whether these pictures which
were taken both in England and the United
States-are not indeed important evidence of
personal survival.
And in the minds of thousands arises the long
unanswered question: Do we survive? Does hu-
man life continue? Where is the proof? Of
course, believe that these pictures give con-
vincing indication"
Since 1909 Mr. Shelton has been a student of
various physical and mental phenomena, and he
speaks with a background of wide personal ex-
perence. He is general secretary of the Ma
tional Spiritualist Union of Canada founder of
the Belfast Association of Spritualists and for
three years served the National Council OF
the National UNION OI dS SSNlSldAy VI
its educational committee. In 1927 he sailed for
Canada and was instrumental in founding the
Canadian organization. His Pacific Coast trip
has been IAN organizing and goodwill visit
Among the famous spirit photographers and
mediums he has known Mr. William Hope
and Mrs. Buxton of the Crewe Circle England;
Mr. Vearncombe, Somersetshire, England; Mrs.
Dean London; Mr.. Edward Wylie of Los An
geles Calf; and Rev. Clarence M. Britton,
Seattle Wash.
Probably the best known Photographic work
was accomplished by William Hope" he be-
ueves "I experimental with him for several
years our Investigations ending only with his
death in 1881. The Crewe Circle produced some
remarkable evidence. And when I became
member of the Society for the Study of Super
normal Pictures determined to make repre-
sentative collection of photographs produced by
psychic methods.
III IOPE was a man of ordinary education,
humble and kindly he willing to help
anyone who asked for help, and he welcomed
any reasonable test His first spirit picture, he
said was an accident and had surprised him
much as anyone else.
my own Investigations and the tests of others
were held under simple, fool-proof conditions.
I took my own plates, unopened to his dark
room and there opened them myself-placed
them in the carrier of the camera. Subjects
wrote their names on edcn plate, 10 prevent pos
sible mistakes. The carrier was placed in the
camera the camera aimed at the sitter, or
group of sitters-and the plate exposed. Then
mot the apher-developed the plates.
In most cases Hope did not touch the plates at
all: he acted chiefly, as the medium. His pres
ence was necessary in some way for the phe-
nomena In eight cases out of ten the plates
exposed in his studio showed extras, faces and
often fgures-of relatives and close friends"
The picture which this collector treasures,
since it first aroused his intense interest in
psychic photography, is one taken of him by
william Hope-showing an extra over Mr..
Skeletons left shoulder.
1T is the face of my mother" he says. And
no man can mistake his mothers face for an
other. In this experiment I sat for Hope at
Crewe, January 80, 1922 1t was just 26 days
after my mothers death.
"A particularly strange psychic photograph
was taken under the jurisdiction Of Lieutenant
Colonel E. r. Johnson of the British College of
Psvchic Science, London. He focused his camera
on a small crystal globe-held it so near, in
fact that the sphere is a bit out Of focus When
the plate was developed, it carried the face of
a beautiful child which seemed very like the
reproduction of an oil painting
Another of Mr.. Skeletons experiments with
Hope produced an extra on one of the plates:
the head and shoulders of who bore some
likeness to his brother, then living in Victoria,
B. c. Occasionally he declares, faces and figures
of living people appear as extras, which has
led some investigators to insist that these
strange pictures are only the reproduction of
thoughts, rather than Of actual entities of men
and women who have died