Leonora Piper, the White Crow
The philosopher William James spent years testing a Boston medium and never caught her cheating. To prove not all crows are black, he said, you need just one white crow.
What was reported
Leonora Piper was a trance medium from the Boston area. In trance, she spoke in other voices, said to be the dead, and gave people details about their lives and families that she seemed to have no way of knowing.
From 1885, the psychologist and philosopher William James studied her, followed by investigators from the Society for Psychical Research, who even had her followed by detectives to check she wasn't gathering information. James wrote that she was his 'white crow', the single case that showed something unexplained was happening.
Explanations offered
Sceptics suggest she used 'cold reading', picking up clues from sitters' reactions and fishing for details, and that investigators remembered her hits more than her misses. She was never caught in fraud, and in 1901 she said she had doubts herself about whether spirits were involved.
- When
- 1885–1911
- Where
- Arlington, Massachusetts, USA
- Witnesses
- William James and the Society for Psychical Research
- Status
- Unexplained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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