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Crystalai: Our new Future beyond this plane
Krystalai: Our Creation Mission
Crystalai: Our new Future beyond this plane
Krystalai: Our Creation Mission
Krystalai: How is manifestation related to DNA Activation + Universal memory +
Krystalai: GOING THROUGH OUR LIGHT REVIEW
Krystalai: GOING THROUGH OUR LIGHT REVIEW
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FAIRY MAGIC - OUR NEW REALITY
+ (P2) REAL PICTURES OF FAIRIES
++(P3) THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES
Soon there will be a mass landing of our original creation races including the Maharaji, the Sirius B Eiyani and the Azurites. We will meet the ZionA's who are the mermaids and fairies who become elemental liquid light in order to transform our bodies. We will meet the Wizards who planned this entire Crystal River Plan to remove us from this matrix of illusions. We will meet our Cosmic Dolphin Families from the seventh sun, and thousands of other families.
YES, this is happening, it did happen. I saw it happen.
My new mission was given to me on December 21,2012. This was the day that the Elohim and other Aquarian Guardian Councils implanted the 12 Code Divine Blue Print, or Encryption Lattice through the Plasma Mirror surrounding Earth to begin the rebirth of Earth and the Angelic Human/Taran race line through the upgrade of the Indigo Children's frequencies. Once that Divine Encryption Lattice was encrypted into the Crystal Grids of Earth, the NET Lattice lost its power forever. The NET was the Nibiru Electric Technology overlay that sent reversed magnetic fields into and around the Earth to scramble the messages coming from the Mind of God. That NET machine had created seals and miasms in the structure of the physical, etheric, light and crystal bodies of the Angelic Human Template.
The Net intentionally scrambled the coding between the first, second and third chakras to the seventh through twelfth chakra. This created a complete separation between the lower bodies of consciousness and the higher bodies of consciousness. As long as there were miasms in the first chakra, the body was receiving scrambled, negative input concerning everything concerning sex. The Divine Encryption Lattice placed in the first chakra returns sacred sexuality of creation through the divine frequencies of the Cosmic Silver Seed of Aquafarian. The result of this first upgrade in consciousness will result in the removal of all perverse sexual innuendo on Earth. This will also allow adults to begin to see Fairies as their Children see them.
The correction in the second and third chakra will result the removal of social consciousness and control consciousness from outside forces. When the third chakra is rewired to the 12th chakra - as it will be in the Divine Encryption, controlling consciousness fields including the second chakra's social consciousness of all third dimensional behavioral pattern modifications, cultural, religious, educational, government, control groups, banking, real estate and anything that is promoted through fear and manipulation will become meaningless. Fear will not exist because fear is the result of the scrambling and unplugging of the third chakra from the 12th chakra.
When fear does not exist, the supreme consciousness of Divine Mind will stream into the pineal from the medulla oblongata, blast down into the heart chakra area emitting a flow of stardust stream liquid light etheric energy into and between every quark in every atom in the body. Once the body is filled with the 82% of stardust in the endoplasm and ectoplasm, the body will become ready for full transmutation into the Crystal Orb Body, and will be able to Slide into the stardust flows of Aquafarians Rainbow Bridge to the Aquarius Matrix and beyond.
This is a very basic explanation of what is happening on Earth right now. Most people think nothing happened on December 21, 2012. Well, everything happened on that date, but could only be experienced by those who have been delving deeply into the study of Frequencies of Light and Sound - or Stardust Frequencies. Those who know of my work know that I have been recording the highest frequencies coming to Earth through the Elohim of Hearing breathing through my right ear into my pineal gland and then holding the crystal spheres of plasma - crystal light, gel and dust in my hands and breathing that new frequency into those spheres in order to replicate the frequency at the hertzian level of recording technology. If you have been listening to my recordings, just imagine the frequencies that I've recorded in the past raised exponentially by the power of the speed of light. That is what happened on December 21st.
The other thing that happened on December 21st, that I witnessed with my own eyes was the gelaisic snowflakes falling from the winter lands in Urtha. These angelic water fairies were the size of baseballs and each of their bodies and eyes could be seen woven in the crystalline cocoon of a perfect snowflake mandalla of each frequency signature. Moments after the snowflakes fell from the sky there was light that allowed the fairies to appear as orbs reflecting through the windows. I could still see each of their tiny little bodies and eyes inside of the tiny little orbs. These orbs were different than the ones that have been photographed at so many workshops in the past several years. The observer orbs that are usually caught on film are the size of a tennis ball and they are entities from various planets who would be about 6 to ten foot tall if they materialized. The fairy orbs are the size of a dime and they would be about 12 inches high if they flew out of their cocoon.
Immediately after I met the fairies, a group of Ranthians appeared to me explaining that water is the most important ingredient in time portal ascension. These were the entities who were waking me up in the middle of the night for the past five years telling me to drink more water, and telling me that I must turn into water. Ranthians are the most advanced group in time travel technology and they always use the form of water to be seen. So, now I realize that there is a direct relation between the Aquafarians that I have been communicating with and the Ranthians. Aquafarians are the model that the Human Angelic was created from and Ranthians are from another star system that are here to help us in time travel technology.
So, it is clear that I have begun my new mission. And it began the same way the last mission began. Books start appearing to me and the pages fly open to the page they want me to read. The computer opens to a page in a website that they want me to read. They appear as orbs. They appear as sounds. They start singing songs in my ears. Next whispers of ideas that I have considered pursuing come up again and again. They dangle ideas and plans around me and wait for me to make up my own mind about my next mission. There is a lot of fear and concern that I may not be ready to take on such a big mission, and my choice to just learn to manifest lots and lots of money keeps returning. Then they leave and give me time to think about it until a new set of ideas pop into my head.
Then the final decision flashes before my eyes. I am given the Tinker Bell Wings DVD. I had a very strong desire to watch it, even though I really disliked all of the conflict in the last two Tinker Bell movies. I couldn't believe my eyes. The movie is the most accurate description of exactly what I saw on December 21st. The winter fairies from the winter land cloud cities were reborn into alignment or atunement with the spring fairies. The portrayal of how the twin fairies were born from the breath of a baby through the Spark of Source and then separated as the Partiki and the Partiki two (the first Crystalai - the crystal form of the pre omni particle that contains the complete template of a divine idea to become manifest that connects directly from Source and then back to Source at rebirth) , just as every idea is created from the Breath of Source. The return of oneness of Tinker Bell and her adjugate twin Periwinkle is the most perfect visualization of how our Spirit Body or Eirodonis Body is stationed behind us facing backward, and when we realign with that Spirit Body our broken wings become mended and we regain our atunement into our Crystal Body. The training that the Aquafarians and Ranthians had put me through for the past five years all came together in an instant when I watched that movie. The movie opened the reality that there needed to be a blending zone just like the Aquafarians are creating the rainbow bridge through the Aurora Zone back into Aquarius for Angelic Humans beginning December 21, 2012. Now that rainbow bridge is created and re-opened we will begin to perceive of our other half - our spirit bodies - our other half - our adjugate twins. You see, we first become at one with our spirit body in this Veka- Universal System One and then reunite with our twin and it's spirit body on the parallel Veka.We are uniting with Earth's parallel five rather than parallel two.We are being shifted into a new time line portal that will free us from the NET. The parallel two of Earth would had locked us into the Zeta NET.
After that we make our parallel alignments, we must reunite with Harmonic Universe Two- which is TARA. Our Guardians had to create special time portal to allow us to go through the inner domains of ascension rather than the outer domains. The good news is that it will be thousands of years faster this way. We can all do that now, with a little work. The children will always be able to transition faster because they believe in fairy tales. The adult's disbelief came from the seals planted in the lower chakras. Once those seals are transmuted, the adult will be able to learn from the children and the fairies more easily.
I've wanted to find a way for parents to explain the truth to their children without all of the lengthy quantum physics that is needed to prove that this is a scientific valid reality that must begin to be known and understood and demonstrated very, very soon on Earth because the children on Earth will all need to be Orb ready by 2047. The children on Earth are growing up on the New Earth which is preparing us to transition completely back to Tara, Gaia, Aquarius and into Universal Travel. It is time for adults to learn that there is more truth in Fairy Tales than any other teaching method.
I will get back to the quantum physics of the Tinker Bell show later. First, I will share what was given to me next. I was directed to the movie, Fairytale: A True Story a couple of years ago, but I didn't know why until last week.
I rented the DVD and scrolled the fast forward roller to the exact place where my Guides wanted me to listen. The words that came out of Peter OToole's mouth were my direction for my next mission.
Peter O Toole Played the part of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the movie. Doyle was the investigator and writer of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries. He was a very famous and respected author until he decided that the proof of the reality of fairies was much more important than his own credibility. So, he has gone down in history as a lunatic instead of a credible source. I made the same choice. I would rather be a lunatic proving the reality of the entities who live in our world than a credible tool for the illuminati to create a prison for our minds.
"ANYTHING THAT EXTENDS man's mental horizon, and proves to him that matter as we have known it is not really the limit of our universe, must have a good effect in breaking down materialism and leading human thought to a broader and more spiritual level." DOYLE
Doyle suggests that the fairies are woven within a chrysalis and born out of a cocoon of liquid light energy. This sounds exactly like what our Aquafarian family was describing as our rebirth when we flash through our 12 DNA sequence. The description of the ectoplasm and endoplasm that the children were able to ignite within their quarks of their atoms created the shift in multidimensional consciousness that allow the fairies to become the movie that is projected out the movie screen of the third eye or the mid brain. This sounds like the exact same process that we go through when we bring in the frequencies of Aquafaria into our atoms at the quark level and ignite them with the endoplasm on the inside and the ectoplasm between the cells to bring in the aurora field frequencies or plasma realm. This ignition allows the sparking of the Eiron Flow, which is the spark of Source ignited through the Elohim of Hearing in the Aquarius Matrix and being brought into ignite the new picture of the new reality into every atom in the body. The new picture is sent through the synaptic cleff of the Soma of the DNA in order to create the new picture or new reality.
This creation of the reality of the Fairies will be the precursor to the understanding of how we create all of our new multidimensional realities in the future.
This is all evidence that the aquafaries are the tiny entities made of crystal light and gelaisic energies that ignite their frequency signatures into our DNA so that we become reborn at a higher frequency. It almost seems like the girls who are seeing the fairies and taking pictures of them are projecting the images of the fairies who live within them out through the infra red mid brain frequencies and using their pineal gland to project god's movie out around themselves. This one incident included a few phenomena that none of the other incidents involving people seeing or trying to take pictures of fairies involved. First, there were two children who were both clairvoyant. Meaning they could see the within in the without. They could project images of etheric reality. They could both see that same reality. The one child was taking a picture of the other child seeing the fairies. The child wasn't looking through the camera lenses. She was using her mind to create the picture first and then the camera just aimed at what she saw.
This is different than modern day pictures of orbs where it is the digital camera doing the seeing the projecting of the photosynthesis infra red vision. Usually those taking the pictures don't see the images the camera does. However, there is often one within the workshop who is clairvoyant and is seeing the orbs before the pictures are taken, and she tells the class where to point their cameras. So they are taking pictures of the reality fields being projected by the leader of the class.
This is the exact same finding that I had with recording the music fairies. If I used my own voice to sing, or the microphone to sing through I would not have captured the voice of the singing fairies. I had to connect my consciousness to Aquafaria and Aquarius and run the frequencies into my pineal gland and then down into my heart chakra and then create another sphere of crystal light energy in my hands in order for the music of the spheres to be sung from Aquafaria.
This exact approach to breathing, singing or seeing is the exact process of creating through the mind of God which connects into us at our medulla oblongata at the base of the neck and creates a backflow into Aquarius Matrix. The Aquafarian streaming of light and sound allows us to connect our mind of God stream into the instant manifestation stream of the spark of source as the eiron white light ignites within the pineal gland.
"ANYTHING THAT EXTENDS man's mental horizon, and proves to him that matter as we have known it is not really the limit of our universe, must have a good effect in breaking down materialism and leading human thought to a broader and more spiritual level.
It almost seems to me that those wise entities who are conducting this campaign from the other side, and using some of us as humble instruments, have recoiled before that sullen stupidity against which Goethe said the gods themselves fight in vain, and have opened up an entirely new line of advance, which will turn that so called religious, and essentially irreligious position that has been used to bar our way. They can't bar fairies.
The human race does not deserve fresh evidence, since it has not troubled itself to examine the realities that have already presented themselves. And I must confess that my soul is filled with a cold contempt for the muddled \cowardice I see around me." DOYLE
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes.
This investigation into the reality of fairies on Earth began in 1918 when the pictures were verified as authentic by top photographers who worked for Kodak at that time. The company Kodak refused to validate its own findings in order to maintain their credibility among the Illuminati brainwashers of the world. And that unreality has maintained it's implantation in the NET(Nibiru Encryption Lattice)
It is now time for everyone on Earth to make their choice to stay in the NET or to get out. Those who are ready to get out will see the fairies and all of their own families and friends from other dimensions beginning in 2013. Why? Because the NET was removed on December 21, 2012.
The Bible said it took 7 days and 7 nights to create the Earth. The New Earth is being created NOW. The seven days and seven nights actually mean that each of the fifteen spheres of multidimensional reality of the Earth's matrix required three days of light for its creation. As in all of the Biblical mistranslations, there is a little bit of truth there, if you turn it to a different angle of light. Each of the 12 Codes or DNA strands that implant the Divine Blue Print back into the Earth's crust via the cosmic mirror of transmutation will require two or three days of light. The light is a crystal liquid light taken from the gamma radiation. It can't be seen so much as it can be felt. I feel it very intensely.
December 21, 2012 is the date the Cosmic, Universal and Galactic Guardians of this Matrix along with the Founders of this Cosmic Trinity of Earth Tara and Gaia restated the Stargate Activation Cycle which was cancelled about 22,000 years ago. This is not a normal Eugo Cycle of the Involution or Evolution of Man -we haven't had anything normal on this planet for millions of years. This planet was in a NET - it was completely removed from REALITY. This is an extreme evacuation to save the human angelic race from extinction from the universe. Our Ascension is being sped up by two thousand to five thousand years depending on the amount of DNA strands each individual has acquired.
The story of how we got into this Divine predicament is about 250 billion years long, and more recently 550 million years long. I highly recommend reading the long version in Voyagers 1 and Voyagers 2 by Ashayana Deane, who was given the complete CDT silver disk files that was originally given to Jesus Christ Avatar 12 before it was broken apart and destroyed by the Annunaki, Jehovians and Luciferian Races who broke it up into 12 Religions with a little trace of the original teaching in each of them. Now, we have the complete truth returned to Earth to begin our ACCELERATED ASCENSION PROCESS.
WE all have until January 31st to decide if we remain in the NET or get out of it and jump back into reality with the FAIRIES.
Conan Doyle's lifelong research and documentation already proved the reality of the fairies who live in our multidimensional reality. We each choose which reality we want to live in. We have continuous proof of fairies, UFO's Light Beings, etc., and yet we continuously choose to follow the crowd, fit in with social beliefs, never go outside of the box. Well, our time is up. The in crowd will soon be the ones laughed at when those of us who can see reality begin to create and live in a wonderful new world where the magical manifestation of the fairy will become the norm.
The past twelve years on Earth has provided us with knowledge that could not be conceived of fourteen years ago. There have been countless attempts made to make the truth be known on Earth. I love what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle says about those who refuse to open their minds.
" The human race does not deserve fresh evidence, since it has not troubled itself to examine the realities that have already presented themselves. " Their time is up. There will now be those who can see and those who can't. Those who will continue to live with the NET over their reality and those who will not.
The world was given these wonderful pictures of fairies almost a hundred years ago. The pictures were proven to be true and real. That is called evidence and proof of this reality. And yet, it is just easier for people to find every reason in the world why this can't be true. I have run accross this same phenomena in every of life from education, intercultural research, religion, mystic phenomena. It is time for a great separation to happen between those who have been examining the realities that have already presented themselves and those who want to remain blind to the reality of the universe.
This is the true story of the girls who took the pictures of the fairies. The short story was first told by Doyle in the Christmas Issue of Strand Magazine. Next Joe Cooper wrote the entire story of the incident. Finally Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did extensive research into the case of the pictures and provided extensive proof and validations of hundreds of others who had seen fairies and taken pictures of fairies. This event was made into the movie, Fairy Tale :A True Story.
These are some exerpts from the book, FairyTale: A True Story (1997) JOE COOPER
Elsie had borrowed her father's camera–a Midg quarter-plate–one Saturday afternoon in July 1917 in order to take Frances's photo and cheer her up (for her cousin had fallen in the beck and been scolded for wetting her clothes). They were away for about half an hour and Mr. Wright developed the plate later in the afternoon. He was surprised to see strange white shapes coming up, imagining them to be first birds and then sandwich papers left lying around; in vain Elsie behind him in the dark-room said they were fairies.
In August it was Frances who had the camera, when she and Elsie scaled the sides of the beck and went up to the old oaks. There she took a photograph of Elsie with a gnome. The print was under-exposed and unclear, as might be expected when taken by a young lady rising 10 years old. The plate was again developed by Elsie's father, Arthur, who suspected that the girls had been playing tricks and refused to lend his camera to them any more.
Parents turn sleuth
Both Arthur and his wife, Polly, searched the girls' bedroom and waste-paper basket for any scraps of pictures or cut-outs, and also went down to the beck in search of evidence of fakery. They found nothing, and the girls stuck to their story–that they had seen fairies and photographed them. Prints of the pictures were circulated among friends and neighbors, but then interest in the odd affair gradually petered out.
The matter first became public in the summer of 1919 when Polly Wright went to a meeting at the Theosophical Society in Bradford. She was interested in the occult, having had some experiences of astral projection and memories of past lives herself. The lecture that night was on `fairy life', and Polly mentioned to the person sitting next to her that fairy prints had been taken by her daughter and niece. The result of this conversation was that two `rough prints' (as they were later called) came to the notice of Theosophists at the Harrogate conference in the autumn, and thence to a leading Theosophist, Edward Gardner, by early 1920.
Mr. Gardner was a precise, particular man. Even a look at his photograph conveys this precision, which is also suggested by the neat copies he kept of his letters. Gardner's immediate impulse after seeing the fairy pictures was to clarify the prints and, in a letter to a photographic expert, Fred Barlow, he describes the instructions he gave to his assistants:
Then I told them to make new negatives (from the positives of the originals) and do the very best with them short of altering anything mechanically. The result was that they turned out two first class negatives which ... are the same in every respect as the originals except that they are sharp cut and clear and far finer for printing purposes...
It seems incredible to us today that he could be so naive, not anticipating the inevitable questions from critics as to shutter speed, figure definition, the suspicious resemblance of the fairies' clothes and hairstyles to the latest fashions ... But Gardner only wanted the clearest pictures–as a Theosophist he had been studying fairy lore for years and had heard many accounts of fairy sightings, so the possible reactions of skeptics never entered his head.
By a striking coincidence, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (creator of Sherlock Holmes and fanatical Spiritualist) had been commissioned by the Strand Magazine to write an article on fairies for their Christmas issue, to be published at the end of November 1920. He was preparing this in June when he heard of the two fairy prints in circulation and eventually made contact with Gardner and borrowed copies.
From the beginning, contrary to the impression the public later gained of him, Conan Doyle was on his guard. He showed the prints to Sir Oliver Lodge, a pioneer psychical researcher, who thought them fakes–perhaps involving a troupe of dancers masquerading as fairies. One fairy authority told him that the hairstyles of the sprites were too `Parisienne' for his liking. Lodge also passed them on to a clairvoyant for psychometric impressions–Gardner's photo printer, Mr. Snelling (who had prepared the second batch of prints from the originals) was described accurately.
Conan Doyle found thousands off clairvoyants who had seen the same thing, and yet the world has been led to believe that only normal vision holds the correct reality. It is time to stop being normal. It is time to see reality. The wonderful reality that has been hidden from our vision is ready to reappear all around us in 2013. It is time to believe your children. They are the ones who can see reality.
Doyle's extensive research can be found in, THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES BY ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE.
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REAL PICTURES OF FAIRIES
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CottingleyFairies4.jpg
Cottingley Fairies Images
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottingley_Fairies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cottingley_Fairies_1.jpg
The first of the five photographs, taken by Elsie Wright in 1917, shows Frances Griffiths with the fairies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CottingleyFairies2.jpg
The second of the five photographs, showing Elsie with a winged gnome\
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CottingleyFairies3.jpg
Frances and the Leaping Fairy, the third photograph
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CottingleyFairies4.jpg
The fourth photograph, Fairy Offering Posy of Harebells to Elsie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cottingley-sunbath.jpg
Fairies and Their Sun-Bath, the fifth and last photograph of the Cottingley Fairies
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http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Coming_of_the_Fairies
The Coming of the Fairies
The Coming of the Fairies (1922)
by Arthur Conan Doyle
Hodder & Stoughton. New York, Toronto and London
1 PREFACE
2 THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES CHAPTER I HOW THE MATTER AROSE
3 CHAPTER II THE FIRST PUBLISHED ACCOUNT--"STRAND" CHRISTMAS NUMBER, 1920
4 CHAPTER III RECEPTION OF THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPHS
5 CHAPTER IV THE SECOND SERIES
6 CHAPTER V OBSERVATIONS OF A CLAIRVOYANT IN THE COTTINGLEY GLEN, AUGUST 1921
7 CHAPTER VI INDEPENDENT EVIDENCE FOR FAIRIES
8 CHAPTER VII SOME SUBSEQUENT CASES
9 CHAPTER VIII THE THEOSOPHIC VIEW OF FAIRIES
PREFACE
This book contains reproductions of the famous Cottingley photographs, and gives the whole of the evidence in connection with them. The diligent reader is in almost as good a position as I am to form a judgment upon the authenticity of the pictures. This narrative is not a special plea for that authenticity, but is simply a collection of facts the inferences from which may be accepted or rejected as the reader may think fit.
I would warn the critic, however, not to be led away by the sophistry that because some professional trickster, apt at the game of deception, can produce a somewhat similar effect, therefore the originals were produced in the same way. There are few realities which cannot be imitated, and the ancient argument that because conjurers on their own prepared plates or stages can produce certain results, therefore similar results obtained by untrained people under natural conditions are also false, is surely discounted by the intelligent public.
I would add that this whole subject of the objective existence of a subhuman form of life has nothing to do with the larger and far more vital question of spiritualism. I should be sorry if my arguments in favour of the latter should be in any way weakened by my exposition of this very strange episode, which has really no bearing upon the continued existence of the individual.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE.
CROWBOROUGH, March 1922.
THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES CHAPTER I HOW THE MATTER AROSE
The series of incidents set forth in this little volume represent either the most elaborate and ingenious hoax every played upon the public, or else they constitute an event in human history which may in the future appear to have been epoch-making in its character. It is hard for the mind to grasp what the ultimate results may be if we have actually proved the existence upon the surface of this planet of a population which may be as numerous as the human race, which pursues its own strange life in its own strange way, and which is only separated from ourselves by some difference of vibrations. We see objects within the limits which make up our colour spectrum, with infinite vibrations, unused by us, on either side of them. If we could conceive a race of beings which were constructed in material which threw out shorter or longer vibrations, they would be invisible unless we could tune ourselves up or tone them down. It is exactly that power of tuning up and adapting itself to other vibrations which constitutes a clairvoyant, and there is nothing scientifically impossible, so far as I can see, in some people seeing that which is invisible to others. If the objects are indeed there, and if the inventive power of the human brain is turned upon the problem, it is likely that some sort of psychic spectacles, inconceivable to us at the moment, will be invented, and that we shall all be able to adapt ourselves to the new conditions. If high-tension electricity can be converted by a mechanical contrivance into a lower tension, keyed to other uses, then it is hard to see why something analogous might not occur with the vibrations of ether and the waves of light.
This, however, is mere speculation and leads me to the fact that early in May 1920 I heard, in conversation with my friend Mr. Gow, the Editor of Light, that alleged photographs of fairies had been taken. He had not actually seen them, but he referred me to Miss Scatcherd, a lady for whose knowledge and judgment I had considerable respect. I got into touch with her and found that she also had not seen the photographs, but she had a friend, Miss Gardner, who had actually done so. On May 13 Miss Scatcherd wrote to me saying that she was getting on the trail, and including an extract from a letter of Miss Gardner, which ran as follows. I am quoting actual documents in this early stage, for I think there are many who would like a complete inside view of all that led up to so remarkable an episode. Alluding to her brother Mr. Gardner, she says:
"You know that Edward is a Theosophist, has been for years, and now he is mostly engaged with lecturing and other work for the Society--and although for years I have regarded him as bathed in error and almost past praying for, I now find a talk with him an inspiring privilege. I am so very thankful that I happened to be in Willesden when his bereavement took place, for it was so wonderful to watch him, and to see how marvellously his faith and beliefs upheld and comforted him. He will probably devote more and more of his time and strength to going about the country lecturing, etc.
"I wish you could see a photo he has. He believes in fairies, pixies, goblins, etc.--children, in many cases, really see them and play with them. He has got into touch with a family in Bradford where the little girl, Elsie, and her cousin, Frances, constantly go into woods and play with the fairies. The father and mother are sceptical and have no sympathy with their nonsense, as they call it, but an aunt, whom Edward has interviewed, is quite sympathetic with the girls. Some little time ago, Elsie said she wanted to photograph them, and begged her father to lend his camera. For long he refused, but at last she managed to get the loan of it and one plate. Off she and Frances went into the woods near a water-fall. Frances '’ticed' them, as they call it, and Elsie stood ready with the camera. Soon the three fairies appeared, and one pixie dancing in Frances' aura. Elsie snapped and hoped for the best. It was a long time before the father would develop the photo, but at last he did, and to his utter amazement the four sweet little figures came out beautifully !
"Edward got the negative and took it to a specialist in photography who would know a fake at once. Sceptical as he was before he tested it, afterwards he offered £100 down for it. He pronounced it absolutely genuine and a perfectly remarkable photograph. Edward has it enlarged and hanging in his hall. He is very interested in it and as soon as possible he is going to Bradford to see the children. What do you think of this? Edward says the fairies are on the same line of evolution as the winged insects, etc., etc. I fear I cannot follow all his reasonings, but I knew you would be keenly interested. I wish you could see that photo and another one of the girls playing with the quaintest goblin imaginable!"
This letter filled me with hopes, and I renewed my pursuit of the photographs. I learned that they were two in number and that they had been sent for inspection to Miss Blomfield, a friend of the family. My chase turned, therefore, in that direction, and in reply to a letter of inquiry I received the following answer:
The Myrtles, Beckenham, June 21, 1920.
DEAR SIR,
I am sending the two fairy pictures; they are interesting, are they not?
I am sure my cousin would be pleased for you to see them. But he said (and wrote it to me afterwards) that he did not want them to be used in any way at present. I believe he has plans in regard to them, and the pictures are being copyrighted. I don't think the copyright will be his. He has not yet finished his investigations. I asked him if I might photograph them myself so as to have a few prints to give to friends interested, but be wrote that be would rather nothing was done at present.
I think my cousin is away from home just now. But his name is Edward L. Gardner, and be is President of one of the branches of the Theosophical Society (Blavatsky Lodge), and he lectures fairly often at their Hall (Mortimer Hall, Mortimer Square, W.). He lectured there a few weeks ago, and showed the fairies on the screen and told what he knew about them.
Yours sincerely, E. BLOMFIELD.
This letter enclosed the two very remarkable photographs which are reproduced in this volume, that which depicted the dancing goblin, and the other of wood elves in a ring. An explanatory note setting forth the main points of each is appended to the reproductions. I was naturally delighted at the wonderful pictures, and wrote back thanking Miss Blomfield for her courtesy, and suggesting that an inquiry should be set on foot which would satisfy me as to the genuine nature of the photographs. If this,were clearly established I hoped that I might be privileged to help Mr. Gardner in giving publicity to the discovery. In reply I had the following letter:
The Myrtles, Beckenham, June 23, 1920.
DEAR SIR ARTHUR,
I am so glad you like the fairies! I should be only too glad to help in any way if I could, but there is so little I can do. Had the photographs been mine (I mean the negatives), I should have been most pleased that anything so lovely in the way of information should have been introduced to the public under such auspices. But it would, as things are, be necessary to ask my cousin. I believe he wants people to know, but, as I wrote before, I do not know his plans, and I'm not sure if he is ready.
It has occurred to me since writing to you that it would have been better had I given you his sister's address. She is a most sensible and practical person, much engaged in social work, with which her sympathetic nature and general efficiency make her very successful.
She believes the fairy photographs to be quite genuine. Edward is a clever man--and a good one. His evidence on any of the affairs of life would, I am sure, be considered most reliable by all who knew him, both for veracity and sound judgment. I hope these details will not bore you, but I thought perhaps some knowledge of the people who, so to say, "discovered" the photographs would help in taking you one step nearer the source. I do not see any opening for fraud or hoax, though at first when I saw the prints I thought there must be some other explanation than the simple one that they were what they seemed. They appeared too good to be true! But every little detail I have since heard has added to my conviction that they are genuine; though I have only what Edward tells me to go upon. He is hoping to obtain more from the same girls.
Yours sincerely, E. BLOMFIELD.
At about the same time I received a letter from another lady who had some knowledge of the matter. It ran thus:
29 Croftdown Road, Highgate Road, N.W., June 24, 1920.
DEAR SIR ARTHUR,
I am glad to hear that you are interested in the fairies. If they were really taken, as there seems good reason to believe, the event is no less than the discovery of a new world. It may not be out of place to mention that when I examined them with a magnifying glass I noticed, as an artist, that the hands do not appear to be quite the same as ours. Though the little figures look otherwise so human, the hands seemed to me something like this. (There followed a sketch of a sort of fin.) The beard in the little gnome seems to me to be some sort of insect-like appendage, though it would, no doubt, be called a beard by a clairvoyant seeing him. Also it occurs to me that the whiteness of the fairies may be due to their lack of shadow, which may also explain their somewhat artificial-looking flatness.
Yours sincerely, MAY BOWLEY.
I was now in a stronger position, since I had actually seen the photographs and learned that Mr. Gardner was a solid person with a reputation for sanity and character. I therefore wrote to him stating the links by which I had reached him, and saying how interested I was in the whole matter, and how essential it seemed that the facts should be given to the public, so that free investigation might be possible before it was too late. To this letter I had the following reply :
5 Craven Road, Harlesden, N.W. 10. June 25, 1920.
DEAR SIR,
Your interesting letter of the 22nd has just reached me, and very willingly I will assist you in any way that may be possible.
With regard to the photographs, the story is rather a long one and I have only gathered it by going very carefully. The children who were concerned are very shy and reserved indeed. . . . They are of a mechanic's family of Yorkshire, and the children are said to have played with fairies and elves in the woods near their village since babyhood. I will not attempt to narrate the story here, however--perhaps we may meet for that--but when I at length obtained a view of the rather poor prints it so impressed me I begged for the actual negatives. These I submitted to two first-class photographic experts, one in London and one in Leeds. The first, who was unfamiliar with such matters, declared the plates to be perfectly genuine and unfaked, but inexplicable! The second, who did know something of the subject and had been instrumental in exposing several "psychic" fakes, was also entirely satisfied. Hence I proceeded.
I am hopeful of getting more photographs, but the immediate difficulty is to arrange for the two girls to be together. They are 16 or 17 years old and beginning to work and are separated by a few miles. It may be we can manage it and thus secure photographs of the other varieties besides those obtained. These nature spirits are of the non-individualized order and I should greatly like to se. cure some of the higher. But two children such as these are, are rare, and I fear now that we are late because almost certainly the inevitable will shortly happen, one of them will "fall in love" and then--hey presto!!
By the way, I am anxious to avoid the money consideration. I may not succeed, but would far rather not introduce it. We are out for Truth, and nothing soils the way so quickly. So far as I am concerned you shall have everything I can properly give you.
Sincerely yours, (Sgd.) EDW. L. GARDNER.
This letter led to my going to London and seeing Mr. Gardner, whom I found to be quiet, well-balanced, and reserved--not in the least of a wild or visionary type. He showed me beautiful enlargements of these two wonderful pictures, and he gave me much information which is embodied in my subsequent account. Neither he nor I had actually seen the girls, and it was arranged that he should handle the personal side of the matter, while I should examine the results and throw them into literary shape. It was arranged between us that he should visit the village as soon as convenient, and make the acquaintance of everyone concerned. In the meantime, I showed the positives, and sometimes the negatives, to several friends whose opinion upon psychic matters I respected.
Of these Sir Oliver Lodge holds a premier place. I can still see his astonished and interested face as he gazed at the pictures, which I placed before him in the hall of the Athenæum Club. With his usual caution he refused to accept them at their face value, and suggested the theory that the Californian Classical dancers had been taken and their picture superimposed upon a rural British background. I argued that we had certainly traced the pictures to two children of the artisan class, and that such photographic tricks would be entirely beyond them, but I failed to convince him, nor am I sure that even now he is whole-hearted in the matter.
My most earnest critics came from among the spiritualists, to whom a new order of being as remote from spirits as they are from human beings was an unfamiliar idea, and who feared, not unnaturally, that their intrusion would complicate that spiritual controversy which is vital to so many of us. One of these was a gentleman whom I will call Mr. Lancaster, who, by a not unusual paradox, combined considerable psychic powers, including both clairvoyance and clairaudience, with great proficiency in the practice of his very prosaic profession. He had claimed that he had frequently seen these little people with his own eyes, and I, therefore, attached importance to his opinion. This gentleman had a spirit guide (I have no objection to the smile of the sceptic), and to him he referred the question. The answer showed both the strength and the weakness of such psychic inquiries. Writing to me in July 1920, he said : "Re Photographs: The more I think of it the less I like it (I mean the one with the Parisian-coiffed fairies). My own guide says it was taken by a fair man, short, with his hair brushed back; he has a studio with a lot of cameras, some of which are 'turned by a handle.' He did not make it to sell Spiritualists a 'pup,' but did it to please the little girl in the picture who wrote fairy stories which he illustrated in this fashion. He is not a Spiritualist, but would laugh very much if anyone was taken in by it. He does not live near where we were, and the place is all different, i.e. the houses, instead of being in straight lines, are dropped about all over the place. Apparently he was not English. I should think it was either Denmark or Los Angeles by the description, which I give you for what it is worth.
"I should very much like the lens which would take persons in rapid motion with the clarity of the photo in question, it must work at F 4.5 and cost fifty guineas if a penny, and not the sort of lens one would imagine the children in an artisan's household would possess in a hand camera. And yet with the speed with which it was taken the waterfall in the background is blurred sufficiently to justify a one second's exposure at least. What a doubting Thomas! I was told the other day that, in the unlikely event of my ever reaching heaven, I should (a) Insist on starting a card file index of the angels, and (b) Starting a rifle range to guard against the possibility of invasion from Hell. This being my unfortunate reputation at the hands of the people who claim to know me must discount my criticisms as carping--to a certain extent, at all events."
These psychic impressions and messages are often as from one who sees in a glass darkly and contain a curious mixture of truth and error. Upon my submitting this message to Mr. Gardner he was able to assure me that the description was, on the whole, a very accurate one of Mr. Snelling and his surroundings, the gentleman who had actually handled the negatives, subjected them to various tests and made enlarged positives. It was, therefore, this intermediate incident, and not the original inception of the affair, which had impressed itself upon Mr. Lancaster's guide. All this is, of course, quite non-evidential to the ordinary reader, but I am laying all the documents upon the table.
Mr. Lancaster's opinion had so much weight with us, and we were so impressed by the necessity of sparing no possible pains to get at truth, that we submitted the plates to fresh examination, as detailed in the following letter:
5 Craven Road, Harlesden, N.W. 10, July 12, 1920.
DEAR SIR ARTHUR,
Just a line to report progress and acknowledge your kind letters and enclosure from Kodak's.
A week back, after your reference to Mr. Lancaster's opinion, I thought I would get a more careful examination of the negatives made than before, though that was searching enough. So I went over to Mr. Snelling's at Harrow and had a long interview with him, again impressing him with the importance of being utterly certain. I told you, I think, that this Mr. Snelling has had a varied and expert connection of over thirty years with the Autotype Company and Illingworth's large photographic factory and has himself turned out some beautiful work in natural and artificial studio studies. He recently started for himself at Wealdstone (Harrow) and is doing well.
Mr. Snelling's report on the two negatives is positive and most decisive. He says he is perfectly certain of two things connected with these photos, namely:
1. One exposure only;
2. All the figures of the fairies moved during exposure, which was "instantaneous."
As I put all sorts of pressing questions to him, relating to paper or cardboard figures, and backgrounds and paintings, and all the artifices of the modern studio, he proceeded to demonstrate by showing me other negatives and prints that certainly supported his view. He added that anyone of considerable experience could detect the dark background and double exposure in the negative at once. Movement was as easy, as he pointed out in a crowd of aeroplane photos he had by him. I do not pretend to follow all his points, but I am bound to say he thoroughly convinced me of the above two, which seem to me to dispose of all the objections hitherto advanced when they are taken together! Mr. S. is willing to make any declaration embodying the above and stakes his reputation unhesitatingly on their truth.
I am away from London from Wednesday next till the 28th when I go on to Bingley for one or two days' investigation on the spot. I propose that you have the two negatives, which are carefully packed and can be posted safely, for this fortnight or so. If you would rather not handle them I will send them to Mr. West of Kodak's, or have them taken to him for his opinion, for I think, as you say, it would be worth having, if he has had direct and extensive practical experience.
I am very anxious now to see this right through, as, though I felt pretty sure before, I am more than ever satisfied now after that interview the other day.
Yours sincerely, EDW. L. GARDNER.
After receiving this message and getting possession of the negatives I took them myself to the Kodak Company's Offices in
B. ELSIE AND THE GNOME
Photograph taken by Frances. Fairly bright day in September, 1917. The "Midg" camera. Distance, 8 ft . Time, 1/50th sec. The original negative has been tested, enlarged, and analysed in the same exhaustive manner as A. This plate was badly under-exposed. Elsie was playing with the gnome and beckoning it to come on to her knee.
ELSIE AND FRANCES
A snapshot taken by Mr. Wright in June 1917, with the "Midg" camera he had just obtained--his first and only camera.
COTTINGLEY BECK AND GLEN
Sites of photographs are marked A, B, C, D, E, and the cottage with an X.
Kingsway, where I saw Mr. West and another expert of the Company. They examined the plates carefully, and neither of them could find any evidence of superposition, or other trick. On the other hand, they were of opinion that if they set to work with all their knowledge and resources they could produce such pictures by natural means, and therefore they would not undertake to say that these were preternatural. This, of course, was quite reasonable if the pictures are judged only as technical productions, but it rather savours of the old discredited anti-spiritualistic argument that because a trained conjurer can produce certain effects under his own conditions, therefore some woman or child who gets similar effects must get them by conjuring. It was clear that at the last it was the character and surroundings of the children upon which the inquiry must turn, rather than upon the photos themselves. I had already endeavoured to open up human relations with the elder girl by sending her a book, and I had received the following little note in reply from her father:
31 Main Street, Cottingley, Bingley, July 12, 1920.
DEAR SIR,
I hope you will forgive us for not answering your letter sooner and thanking you for the beautiful book you so kindly sent to Elsie. She is delighted with it. I can assure you we do appreciate the honour you have done her. The book came last Saturday morning an hour after we had left for the seaside for our holidays, so we did not receive it until last night. We received a letter from Mr. Gardner at the same time, and he proposes coming to see us at the end of July. Would it be too long to wait until then, when we could explain what we know about it?
Yours very gratefully, ARTHUR WRIGHT.
It was evident, however, that we must get into more personal touch, and with this object Mr. Gardner went North and interviewed the whole family, making a thorough investigation of the circumstances at the spot. The result of his journey is given in the article which I published in the Strand Magazine, which covers all the ground. I will only add the letter he wrote to me after his return from Yorkshire.
5 Craven Road, Harlesden, N.W. 10, July 31, 1920.
MY DEAR CONAN DOYLE,
Yours just to hand, and as I have now had an hour to sort things out I write at once so that you have the enclosed before you at the earliest moment. You must be very pressed, so I put the statement as simply as possible, leaving you to use just what you think fit. Prepared negatives, prints of quarter, half-plate, and enlarged sizes, and lantern slides, I have all here.
Also on Tuesday I shall have my own photographs of the valley scenery including the two spots shown in the fairy prints, and also prints of the two children taken in 1917 with their shoes and stockings off, just as they played in the beck at the rear of their house. I also have a print of Elsie showing her hand.
With regard to the points you raise:
1. I have definite leave and permission to act as regards the use made of these photographs in any way I think best.
Publication may be made of them, the only reserve being that full names and addresses shall be withheld.
2. Copies are ready here for England and U. S. A.
3. . . . The Kodak people and also the Illingworth Co. are unwilling to testify. The former, of course, you know of. Illingworths claim that they could produce, by means of clever studio painting and modelling, a similar negative. Another Company's expert made assertions concerning the construction of the "model" that I found were entirely erroneous directly I saw the real ground! They, however, barred any publication. The net result, besides Snelling's views, is that the photograph could be produced by studio work, but there is no evidence positively of such work in the negatives. (I might add that Snelling, whom I saw again yesterday evening, scouts the claim that such negatives could be produced. He states that he would pick such a one out without hesitation!)
4. My report is enclosed and you are at perfect liberty to use this just as you please.
The father, Mr. Arthur Wright, impressed me favourably. He was perfectly open and free about the whole matter. He explained his position--he simply did not understand the business, but is quite clear and positive that the plate he took out of the Midg camera was the one he put in the same day. His work is that of electrician to an estate in the neighbourhood near. He is clear-headed and very intelligent, and gives one the impression of being open and honest. I learnt the reason of the family's cordial treatment of myself. Mrs. Wright, a few years back, came into touch with theosophical teachings and speaks of these as having done her good. My own connection with the Theosophical Society she knew of and this gave them confidence. Hence the very cordial reception I have met with, which somewhat had puzzled me.
By the way, I think "L. W' guide ran up against innocent little Snelling! He matches the description quite well, as I realized last night. And he did prepare the new negatives from which the prints you have were made, and he has a room full up with weird machines with handles and devices used in photography. . . .
Sincerely yours, EDW. L. GARDNER.
I trust that the reader will agree that up to this point we had not proceeded with any undue rashness or credulity, and that we had taken all common-sense steps to test the case, and had no alternative, if we were unprejudiced seekers for truth, but to go ahead with it, and place our results before the public, so that others might discover the fallacy which we had failed to find. I must apologize if some of the ground in the Strand article which follows has already been covered in this introductory chapter.
CHAPTER II THE FIRST PUBLISHED ACCOUNT--"STRAND" CHRISTMAS NUMBER, 1920
Should the incidents here narrated, and the photographs attached, hold their own against the criticism which they will excite, it is no exaggeration to say that they will mark an epoch in human thought. I put them and all the evidence before the public for examination and judgment. If I am myself asked whether I consider the case to be absolutely and finally proved, I should answer that in order to remove the last faint shadow of doubt I should wish to see the result repeated before a disinterested witness. At the same time, I recognize the difficulty of such a request, since rare results must be obtained when and how they can. But short of final and absolute proof, I consider, after carefully going into every possible source of error, that a strong prima-facie case has been built up. The cry of "fake" is sure to be raised, and will make some impression upon those who have not had the opportunity of knowing the people concerned, or the place. On the photographic side every objection has been considered and adequately met. The pictures stand or fall together. Both are false, or both are true. All the circumstances point to the latter alternative, and yet in a matter involving so tremendous a new departure one needs overpowering evidence before one can say that there is no conceivable loophole for error.
It was about the month of May in this year that I received the information from Miss Felicia Scatcherd, so well known in several departments of human thought, to the effect that two photographs of fairies had been taken in the North of England under circumstances which seemed to put fraud out of the question. The statement would have appealed to me at any time, but I happened at the moment to be collecting material for an article on fairies, now completed, and I had accumulated a surprising number of cases of people who claimed to be able to see these little creatures. The evidence was so complete and detailed, with such good names attached to it, that it was difficult to believe that it was false; but, being by nature of a somewhat sceptical turn, I felt that something closer was needed before I could feel personal conviction and assure myself that these were not thought-forms conjured up by the imagination or expectation of the seers. The rumour of the photographs interested me deeply, therefore, and following the matter up from one lady informant to another, I came at last upon Mr. Edward L. Gardner, who has been ever since my most efficient collaborator, to whom all credit is due. Mr. Gardner, it may be remarked, is a member of the Executive Committee of the Theosophical Society, and a well-known lecturer upon occult subjects.
He had not himself at that time mastered the whole case, but all he had he placed freely at my disposal. I had already seen prints of the photographs, but I was relieved to find that he had the actual negatives, and that it was from them, and not from the prints, that two expert photographers, especially Mr. Snelling of 26 The Bridge, Wealdstone, Harrow, had already formed their conclusions in favour of the genuineness of the pictures. Mr. Gardner tells his own story presently, so I will simply say that at that period he had got into direct and friendly touch with the Carpenter family. We are compelled to use a pseudonym and to withhold the exact address, for it is clear that their lives would be much interrupted by correspondence and callers if their identity were too clearly indicated. At the same time there would be, no doubt, no objection to any small committee of inquiry verifying the facts for themselves if this anonymity were respected. For the present, however, we shall simply call them the Carpenter family in the village of Dalesby, West Riding.
Some three years before, according to our information, the daughter and the niece of Mr. Carpenter, the former being sixteen and the other ten years of age, had taken the two photographs--the one in summer, the other in early autumn. The father was quite agnostic in the matter, but as his daughter claimed that she and her cousin when they were together continually saw fairies in the wood and had come to be on familiar and friendly terms with them, he entrusted her with one plate in his camera. The result was the picture of the dancing elves, which considerably amazed the father when he developed the film that evening. The little girl looking across at her playmate, to intimate that the time had come to press the button, is Alice, the niece, while the older girl, who was taken some months later with the quaint gnome, is Iris, the daughter. The story ran that the girls were so excited in the evening that one pressed her way into the small dark-room in which the father was about to develop, and that as she saw the forms of the fairies showing through the solution she cried out to the other girl, who was palpitating outside the door: "Oh, Alice, Alice, the fairies are on the plate--they are on the plate!" It was indeed a triumph for the children, who had been smiled at, as so many children are smiled at by an incredulous world for stating what their own senses have actually recorded.
The father holds a position of trust in connection with some local factory, and the family are well known and respected. That they are cultivated is shown by the fact that Mr. Gardner's advances towards them were made more easy because Mrs. Carpenter was a reader of theosophical teachings and had gained spiritual good from them. A correspondence had arisen and all their letters were frank and honest, professing some amazement at the stir which the affair seemed likely to produce.
Thus the matter stood after my meeting with Mr. Gardner, but it was clear that this was not enough. We must get closer to the facts. The negatives were taken round to Kodak, Ltd., where two experts were unable to find any flaw, but refused to testify to the genuineness of them, in view of some possible trap. An amateur photographer of experience refused to accept them on the ground of the elaborate and Parisian coiffure of the little ladies. Another photographic company, which it would be cruel to name, declared that the background consisted of theatrical properties, and that therefore the picture was a worthless fake. I leaned heavily upon Mr. Snelling's wholehearted endorsement, quoted later in this article, and also consoled myself by the broad view that if the local conditions were as reported, which we proposed to test, then it was surely impossible that a little village with an amateur photographer could have the plant and the skill to turn out a fake which could not be detected by the best experts in London.
The matter being in this state, Mr. Gardner volunteered to go up at once and report--an expedition which I should have wished to share had it not been for the pressure of work before my approaching departure for Australia. Mr. Gardner's report is here appended:
5 Craven Road, Harlesden, N.W. 10, July 29, 1920.
It was early in this year, 1920, that I heard from a friend of photographs of fairies having been successfully taken in the North of England. I made some inquiries, and these led to prints being sent to me with the names and address of the children who were said to have taken them. The correspondence that followed seemed so innocent and promising that I begged the loan of the actual negatives--and two quarter-plates came by post a few days after. One was a fairly clear one, the other much underexposed.
The negatives proved to be truly astonishing photographs indeed, for there was no sign of double exposure nor anything other than ordinary straightforward work. I cycled over to Harrow to consult an expert photographer of thirty years' practical experience whom I knew I could trust for a sound opinion. Without any explanation I passed the plates over and asked what he thought of them. After examining the "fairies" negative carefully, exclamations began: "This is the most extraordinary thing I've ever seen!" "Single exposure!" "Figures have moved!" "Why, it's a genuine photograph! Wherever did it come from?"
I need hardly add that enlargements were made and subjected to searching examination--without any modification of opinion. The immediate upshot was that a "positive" was taken from each negative, that the originals might be preserved carefully untouched, and then new negatives were prepared and intensified to serve as better printing mediums. The originals are just as received and in my keeping now. Some good prints and lantern slides were soon prepared.
In May I used the slides, with others, to illustrate a lecture given in the Mortimer Hall, London, and this aroused considerable interest, largely because of these pictures and their story. A week or so later I received a letter from Sir A. Conan Doyle asking for information concerning them, some report, I understood, having reached him from a mutual friend. A meeting with Sir Arthur followed, and the outcome was that I agreed to hasten my proposed personal investigation into the origin of the photographs, and carry this through at once instead of waiting till September, when I should be in the North on other matters.
In consequence, to-day, July 29, I am just back in London from one of the most interesting and surprising excursions that it has ever been my fortune to make!
We had time, before I went, to obtain opinions on the original negatives from other expert photographers, and one or two of these were adverse rather than favourable. Not that any would say positively that the photographs were faked, but two did claim that they could produce the same class of negative by studio work involving painted models, etc., and it was suggested further that the little girl in the first picture was standing behind a table heaped up with fern and moss, that the toad-stool was unnatural, that in the gnome photo the girl's hand was not her own, that uniform shading was questionable, and so on. All of this had its weight, and though I went North with as little bias one way or the other as possible, I felt quite prepared to find that a personal investigation would disclose some evidence of falsity.
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