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Psychic/Fraud

The Resume

    (March 20, 1833-June 21, 1886)
    Born in Currie, Scotland, United Kingdom
    Psychic and medium
    Held numerous séances
    Last name pronounced ‘Hume’

Why he might be annoying:

    He began producing rapping and knocking noises a few years after the Fox Sisters created a sensation with the same effects.
    He liked to boast that he never accepted money for his seances, glossing over the expensive gifts his upper crust patrons lavished on him.
    He claimed he could levitate as much as seven feet, although the highest anyone claimed to see him levitate in bright light was about six inches – which could be managed by pushing himself up with a well-hidden rear foot (a la Criss Angel).
    He was reportedly deported from France after a séance for Empress Eugenie where an observer hiding behind a door witnessed Home slipping his foot out of his shoe and using it to pull at the sitters’ clothes (1857).
    At a séance with Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, he materialized the ‘spirit face’ of their son who died in infancy – despite the Brownings not having a son who had died in infancy.

Why he might not be annoying:

    His mother gave him away to be raised by his childless aunt, Mary Cook.
    At one séance, he was able to make a table move despite five men (with a combined weight of over 800 pounds) sitting on it.
    Alexander Dumas was best man at his first wedding.
    His admirers included John Ruskin, Lord Tennyson, Anthony Trollope, and Queen Sophia of the Netherlands.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 12 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 11 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 9 Votes: 77.78% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 12 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 7 Votes: 28.57% Annoying