Extra! Extra! Woman Accused of Witchcraft!
Witches aren’t prone to being squashed by flying farmhouses from Kansas; they aren’t green, and don’t zoom around on brooms threatening young girls and their little dogs, too. Nonetheless, people deemed witches have been misunderstood and feared for millennia.
The term “witch” originates from the Old English noun wicca and describes those who practiced ancient pre-Christian mysticism. By the 16th century, the spelling evolved into “witch,” and was associated mainly with women who were considered healers, diviners, and magic users, hence the term “witchcraft.” In modern times, followers of these practices are referred to as Wiccans.
Historically, people with paranormal abilities have been accused of witchcraft.
This included “sensitives” who we know now as psychics and mediums. Psychics are sensitive to the frequency of a person, place, or thing. Mediums are sensitive to the energetic frequency of spirits. In short, if you’re curious about your future, see a psychic; if you want to communicate with loved ones in spirit, consult a medium.
There are three types of mediums. First, there are mental mediums like myself. We receive information from spirits via waves of electromagnetic frequency, which our brains convert into recognizable information, which we can then convey to the recipient.
Second, there are trance mediums, aka channelers, who enter a trance-like state, enabling spirits to speak directly through the medium. The most respected and highly documented channeler was Edgar Cayce (1877-1945), known as the “sleeping prophet.” Cayce is credited with receiving vast amounts of accurate information, including treatments for medical conditions.
Third, there are physical mediums who theoretically emit a white misty substance from their bodies known as ectoplasm, which forms the image of the spirit communicating. Anyone who has seen the movie “Ghostbusters” has heard of ectoplasm. I’ve observed people who claimed to be physical mediums. Their “demonstrations” were conducted in total darkness, during which they spouted fortune cookie philosophy in cartoonish voices and claimed ectoplasm had emerged from their bodies.
In my opinion, true spiritual communication is evidential and conducted in the light. If not, it isn’t authentic. Hucksters notwithstanding, it is entirely possible ectoplasm and legitimate physical mediums actually do exist.
It’s human nature to fear the unknown. Throughout medieval Europe, fear drove the Christian Church to regard folk magic practitioners, psychics, and mediums as evil. This led to widespread witch hunts that even found their way into the New World with the notorious Salem Witch trials in the 1690s.
Across the Atlantic, the Age of Enlightenment saw the rise of education and science, which resulted in massive skepticism toward the supernatural. England even passed the “Witchcraft Act of 1735,” where witchcraft was no longer classified as a felony punishable by death. Instead, occult practices were deemed as criminal fraud, with the maximum penalty being one year in jail. In other words, if convicted of witchcraft, the accused was no longer burned at the stake but could still go to jail for being a con artist.
This law should have ended witchcraft trials in Great Britain once and for all—except it didn’t.
By the early 1900s, psychic phenomena became very popular in Europe and the United States. This coincided with the rise of spiritualism, a belief system based on spirit communication. While still on the fringe element of society, séances to communicate with spirits through a medium were all the rage in many social circles. Even members of the British royal family, including Queen Victoria, reportedly consulted with mediums.
Then came World War II. By November 1941, Britain was locked in a stalemate against the Axis Alliance of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. In Eastern Europe, Hitler’s armies had invaded Russia, which appeared to be on the verge of defeat. The United States had still not entered the war, as the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor had not yet occurred.
German U-boats (submarines) inflicted devastating losses on shipping, bringing Great Britain close to starvation. The British Royal Navy desperately fought to keep shipping lines open in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.
In North Africa, Axis military forces were moving against British positions in Egypt. On November 25, 1941, a Royal Navy squadron in the Mediterranean was preparing to intercept Italian ships en route to supply Axis troops in Africa. Its flagship, HMS Barham, one of Britain’s best battleships, was targeted by German attack submarine U-331, which fired four torpedoes. The Barham exploded and sank within 4 minutes, taking 862 British sailors to a watery grave.
The Barham’s sinking was classified as top secret, as the British didn’t want their enemies to know the extent of their naval losses. Even U-331 Captain von Tiesenhausen didn’t know if the Barham sank. As soon as the torpedoes were fired, he ordered U-331 to dive and escape at full speed.
A few days later and two thousand miles away at a spiritualist church in Portsmouth, England, a 43-year-old Scottish woman dressed in a black silk dress sat alone on a dimly lit stage before a small audience. Her name was Helen Duncan, one of Britain’s most famous physical mediums. Suddenly, it appeared her body emitted a misty white ectoplasmic image of a young man wearing a Royal Navy uniform. The ghostly figure wafted toward the audience. The specter spoke softly and said, “My ship is lost.” The insignia on his sailor’s cap read “HMS Barham.”
Word of this “otherworldly” encounter spread like wildfire across England. The British Admiralty was flooded with requests from families demanding to know the fate of their relatives who served aboard the Barham. Since the Barham’s loss was classified, no one outside of the highest levels in the British Military and Parliament should have known about it.
Allegations of fraud were leveled at Helen Duncan, who insisted that her abilities were genuine. Whether genuine or not, Helen Duncan had attracted the attention of British Military Intelligence, which started spying on her.
Then on December 7, 1941, the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into the war. While Russia had borne the brunt of Hitler’s armies in Eastern Europe, it was clear that in order to help Russia and to win the war, Britain and the US had to invade Western Europe. Thus began planning for Operation Overlord, the largest amphibious invasion in history.
For the next three years, British spies infiltrated Helen Duncan’s mediumship demonstrations and compiled large files on her activities. By early 1944, British Military Intelligence concluded they needed to silence Helen Duncan. And there was only one legal way to do this, so Helen Duncan was arrested for violating the Witchcraft Act of 1735.
This high-profile case was the witchcraft trial of the century. Duncan’s prosecution was fast-tracked and tried between March 23-31, 1944. The British press extensively covered the trial, highlighting the demonstrations by protesters both supporting and opposing Helen Duncan, who was convicted and sentenced to nine months in prison.
Prime Minister Winston Churchill was enraged and sent the Home Secretary a scathing memo referring to the trial as “obsolete tomfoolery” and demanding a report on “why the Witchcraft Act of 1735 was used in a modern Court of Justice.”
But was she a fraud? In March 1944, Duncan’s arrest, trial, and conviction were expedited due to concerns from British Military Intelligence. They feared that the information she received from spirits could potentially compromise the security of the upcoming Operation Overlord, the D-Day invasion of France set for June 1944.
In British spiritualist circles, it was rumored Winston Churchill secretly met with Helen Duncan. Was it possible that Churchill’s political rivals wanted to embarrass him by putting his own personal medium on trial? This may explain why, in 1950, when Churchill was once again elected Prime Minister, he worked to repeal the Witchcraft Act of 1735 and replace it with the “Fraudulent Mediums Act.” This new law required prosecutors to prove direct, dishonest intent and fraud, which made convictions next to impossible.
Helen Duncan may not have been a witch, but she was the last person tried for witchcraft in Great Britain. After her release from prison, her health deteriorated, and she passed away at age 59 in 1956. Her conviction has long been considered a travesty of justice, and to this day her descendants continue to petition British courts for a posthumous pardon.
“This high-profile case was the Witchcraft Trial of the Century”
-Mark Anthony, JD, Psychic Explorer®
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