A closer look
Daniel Dunglas Home was the most famous mystical medium of the nineteenth century because he allegedly possessed the ability to levitate out of windows and casually float around the ceilings of darkened aristocratic drawing rooms. Unlike his peers, Home never got caught faking his powers, mostly because he exclusively performed for very small, highly sympathetic audiences of wealthy believers and strictly controlled the lighting in the room to be almost completely pitch black. Skeptics pointed out that in the dark, a man slipping off his shoes and using a specialized stool or simply balancing on the fireplace mantle looks remarkably like supernatural flight to a group of terrified aristocrats. He basically built a legendary occult career out of being incredibly good at quietly climbing on the furniture while his rich friends had their eyes closed
