Florence Cook and Katie King: Spiritualist Medium
The story of 19th century physical medium Florence Cook and her ‘spirit control’ Katie King is a controversial one to say the least. Allegedly the possessor of psychic abilities from a young age, Cook was to become famous in Victorian Spiritualist circles and beyond for producing the full materialisation of the spirit ‘Katie King’ in front of numerous witnesses and for undergoing methodical testing of her alleged psychic abilities by the eminent scientist Sir William Crookes. However, the genuineness of Cook’s mediumistic abilities and the objectivity of Crookes investigations have been called into question by some researchers who view the behaviour of both the medium and the scientist as highly questionable.
Early ‘Psychic Abilities’
Born on 3 June, 1856, Florence Cook came from a respectable working class home in Hackney, east London. In poor health since childhood, she had apparently always possessed psychic abilities, and was able to see spirits and hear the disembodied voices of angels, though little notice was taken of this within the Cook family. After the age of fourteen Florence began going into trances in front of the family and soon began to develop her own peculiar psychic gift, initially at informal séances held in the family house and in the house of a friend.
According to Florence Cook’s own account published in The Spiritualist in May 1872, an array of incredible psychic phenomena occurred at these table turning sessions. Objects flew around the room, loud rappings were heard, tables were levitated and flung against the wall, and Florence herself was lifted up to the ceiling and carried over the sitters. We do only have Florence’s description of these psychic wonders, but the similarity of the phenomena to poltergeist activity is interesting.
During one of these séances Florence received a ‘spirit message’ which she proceed to note down in mirror writing, which explained that she should make contact with a nearby Spiritualist group called the Dalston Association of Enquirers into Spiritualism. Florence’s psychic abilities and mediumship developed as she gave impressive séances for the Dalton Society and she acquired some fame as a medium when Thomas Blyton, secretary of the Dalton Spiritualists, wrote an account of her mediumistic and psychic powers which was published in the June 1871 issue of The Spiritualist.
In January 1872, Florence allegedly became the focus for unexplained happenings in the school where she worked as an assistant teacher. Apparently the school owner Miss Eliza Cliff was reluctantly obliged to terminate her employment due to the effect the strange phenomena were having on the pupils.
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