July 22, 2025 • 16 mins
From the now infamous candle lit séances on the British circuit, to the sensational “ectoplasm revelations” captured in photographs, Helen Duncan captivated believers and skeptics alike.
These weren’t your average table-rapping, candle-flickering affairs.
Her séances were wildly theatrical.
In 1941, during World War II, Helen Duncan held a séance in Portsmouth. A sailor appeared to one of the attendees — a sailor who claimed to have died aboard the HMS Barham, a British battleship.
Problem with that is the ship had been sunk. The government hadn’t released the news. In fact, the public wouldn’t learn about it for months.
So how did Helen know?
Was it a spirit… or a security leak?
Helen Duncan was a spiritualist superstar. But not everyone wanted her to share her skills…including the British government.
Visit www.creepyconfidential.com for more creepy content.
These weren’t your average table-rapping, candle-flickering affairs.
Her séances were wildly theatrical.
In 1941, during World War II, Helen Duncan held a séance in Portsmouth. A sailor appeared to one of the attendees — a sailor who claimed to have died aboard the HMS Barham, a British battleship.
Problem with that is the ship had been sunk. The government hadn’t released the news. In fact, the public wouldn’t learn about it for months.
So how did Helen know?
Was it a spirit… or a security leak?
Helen Duncan was a spiritualist superstar. But not everyone wanted her to share her skills…including the British government.
Visit www.creepyconfidential.com for more creepy content.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
From the now infamous candlelit seances on the British circuit
to the sensational ectoplasm revelations captured in photographs, Helen Duncan
captivated believers and skeptics alike. Skeptics said it was nothing
more than cheesecloth regurgitated and shaped by shadows. Some even
(00:26):
accused her of hiding dolls and cutouts in her seance cabinet.
These weren't your average table wrapping, candle flickering affairs. Her
seances were wildly theatrical picture. This curtains drawn room was
packed with curious sitters, ectoplasm oozing from her mouth, spirits
(00:50):
materializing in the dark, and dead loved ones allegedly speaking
through her. In nineteen forty one, during World War II,
Helen Duncan held a sam in Portsmouth. A sailor appeared
to one of the attendees, a sailor who claimed to
have died aboard the HMS Barnum, a British battleship. Problem
(01:14):
with that is that the ship had been sunk. The
sinking of the Barnum by a German U boat was classified.
The government hadn't released the news. In fact, the public
wouldn't learn about it for months. Even elaborate attempts to
keep it from the families were acted out by the government,
(01:35):
including sending holiday cards from these deceased sailors even though
they were gone. So how did Helen know this? Was
it a spirit or a security league? Helen Duncan was
a spiritualist superstar, but not everyone wanted her to share
(01:56):
her skills, including the British government.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Welcome to Creepy Confidential. I'm your host, Noel your resident
weirdo Wisconsin. I open case files on cryptids, cults, conspiracies
and other worldly creepy with new cases, local lore and
live broadcasts. Get ready, creeps, It's Creepy Confidential.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Subcreeps. Welcome back. Before we get cracking today, there are
a few quick announcements. Creepy Confidential will be continuing the
library lectures, both in person and virtual in the fall.
To check out where I'll be next, go to Creepy
Confidential dot com and click the event pages. You'll see
those locations and classes populate later this summer. While you're
(02:58):
on Creepyconfidential dot com, feel free to creep around and
check out the taps. You can check out everywhere we
have been featured on like other channels TV and all
the After Dark livestream replays are there for you as well,
and don't forget a full audio episode catalog, so every
(03:18):
single one. It's your one stop shop for all your
creepy content. Okay, creeps onto the show. Spiritualism the view
that spirit is a prime element of reality, a belief
that spirits of the dead communicate with the living, usually.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Through a medium.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
This religion swept like wildfire through Europe and North America
during the nineteenth century. Amid world wars and global unrest.
People sought comfort, and mediums became beacons of hope. Stemming
at the end of the Civil War and even until today.
Helen Duncan a medium whose fame exploded across the interwar years,
(04:08):
and alongside her partner Henry, she conducted seances across Britain,
from hushed parlors to spiritualist churches, offering closure and connection
to the anxious public. Helen seances were far from quiet
whispers in the dark, though they were immersive performances. According
(04:30):
to reports, Henry would first screen her in front of
a female participant to ensure Helen had nothing hidden on
her body before the show. Then Helen would be dressed
in a black silk kind of dress, and she'd be
placed in her seance cabinet illuminated under a moody red light.
(04:55):
What followed was the emergence of ectoplasm. Just like our
previous Queen of the Seance, this gauzy white substance would
be produced from her mouth. Fully expected to manifest the
presence of spirits coupled with floating ethereal figures, her shows
(05:16):
were hypnotic and compelling, if I must say, Helen's dramatic
displays naturally attracted scrutiny, though now nineteen twenty eight, photographer
Henry Metcalf used flash photography to capture her ectoplasm in
action and revealed something shocking. Not so shocking when you
(05:37):
look at these images, though, kind of with the modern eyes,
it's immediately apparent what you're looking at. So it turns
out that this ethereal substance was not supernatural at all,
but a muslin or possibly cheesecloth soaked an egg white
and concealed in Helen's mouth.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yuck, just sounds so gross.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Even more damning, skeptics managed to snatch the floating quote
unquote spirits and expose them as paper mache heads draped
in cloth, very similar to ava that we mentioned in
our previous episode about sciences. Now, the London Spiritualist Alliance
in nineteen thirty one confirmed the ruse. But here's the twist.
(06:26):
Helen's popularity only grew. So why did Helen continue to
draw crowds even when her methods were exposed. It's about
more than deception. It's about emotional resonance. These patrons were
looking to communicate with loved ones, people they knew and
(06:48):
cherished and are now on the other side. Audiences craved connection,
even if they knew or suspected they were being fool
That split second feeling of reassurance and hearing a loved
one's name spoken was so powerful. Spiritualism offered hope, especially
(07:13):
when hope was scarce or gone completely during and after
these big times of war. Ellen Duncan sciences may have
been a theatrical ruse, but they echo loudly in modern
metaphysical practices. Her story raises and during questions though, is
(07:35):
spiritual comfort valid even if grounded in illusion? What responsibility
do spiritual practitioners have toward seekers and where do we
draw the line between wonder and ethics. So let's start
with a bit of background on Helen before we get
(07:56):
started now. Helen Duncan was born on November twenty fifth,
eighteen ninety seven in Calendar, Scotland, to a family with
a working class background. Her early life was unremarkable, but
what's fascinating is how she got into spiritualism and rose
to fame In the early twentieth century. Spiritualism was experiencing
(08:20):
a kind of revival in Europe and America, particularly after
World War One, when many people were trying to make
sense of their loss and grief. Helen claimed that she
started seeing spirits at a fairly young age, but it
wasn't until her twenties that she fully embraced her abilities.
(08:43):
She would hold seances and gatherings where people would come
to communicate with their deceased loved ones. But what set
her apart from other mediums was her ability to materialize
spirits during these sessions and ectoplasm being produced once again,
similar to Ava in Part one, but I must say
(09:06):
less scandalous like Ava was kind of a shock rocker, right.
We talked about that in Queens of the seance Part one.
I mean she was nude in these pictures that people
would take of her, and the ectoplasm was coming from
her delicate parts where it seems like Helen, it was
a little different. She was Oftentimes you maybe see an
(09:28):
ear or her mouth obviously, but you never saw anything
as ridiculous as ava. Now, of course, many skeptics dismissed
that it was a fraud, but for people who believed
in spiritualism, it was a tangible sign of contact with
the other side. I've talked about this material before in
(09:49):
part one, again where the medium would also have the
ability to produce this off substance, kind of strange substance. Now,
Helen became incredibly popular but also incredibly controversial. Like we've mentioned,
her sciances were held in a dimly lit room where
(10:09):
people would gather, and in these sciances, she would enter
this trance like state. You know you hear about a
trance medium, think like Lorraine Warren, right, trance like state,
and the atmosphere would grow and grow in intensity with anticipation.
People said that during this time they could feel the
(10:29):
presence of spirits and sometimes they even reported seeing figures.
Now it's important to note that not everyone was convinced
by Duncan's abilities. Skeptics were quick to point out that
many of these manifestations could be easily explained away as tricks.
(10:50):
In fact, Helen Duncan was the subject of several investigations
by skeptics, including the very famous Harry Price, well known
psychic researcher. Now side note, don't do ory creeps. I
will be talking about Harry Price in the future. He's
one of those founding fathers of the paranormal that I've
(11:11):
mentioned before, similar to like a Hans Holzer or somebody
like that, or even sometimes Houdini because he was trying
to debunk it. But I will do an episode on
Harry Price because that's somebody that really needs to be mentioned.
But back to Hellishnell as they called her. Now. Despite
the skepticism, Duncan had a devoted following right. It was
(11:36):
during World War Two that Helen Duncan's life took a
dramatic turn. Now, one of the most infamous incidences occurred
during a seance in nineteen forty one, when Duncan allegedly
contact the spirit of a sailor who had died on
the HMS Barnum, a British battleship that was sunk in
(11:57):
the Mediterranean. Now Duncan reported that the spirit had told
her the Barnum had sunk, despite the fact that the
British government had not released this information officially to the
general public about the sinking, This information sent shockwaves through
the British Navy. Some people in the military were worried
(12:19):
that Helen Duncan's mediumship could expose sensitive information about the
war effort and what a crazy time and what you know,
this is a world war and at the time Britain
was involved in a desperate struggle against Nazi Germany and
any leak of military secrets could have had serious consequences.
(12:41):
In fact, it was believed that Duncan had gained access
to military secrets from the spirits of soldiers, and this
was part of what ultimately led to her downfall. Some
even speculated that the government may have been aware of
her activities and was kind of keep an eye on her.
(13:01):
Now nineteen forty four, Helen Duncan was arrested by the
authorities for what was considered to be a breach of
the Official Secrets Act. The charge she was revealing information
about the war effort that she supposedly got from Spirits.
At the time, Britain was in the middle of a
(13:22):
brutal war and any rumors or leaks about the military
operations were taken extremely seriously. So the government believed that
Helen Duncan was exposing top secret information and they decided
to act. Duncan's trial in nineteen forty four became a spectacle.
The prosecution claimed that she had been fabricating the actoplasm
(13:46):
and tricking her followers into believing that they were in
contact with Spirits, and that was the part of tricking
them into believing it in what I was reading. That's
really what they nailed her on, and they sometimes you'll
hear that she was the last person tried under the
Witch Act over in Germany or in Britain, and that's
(14:12):
kind of kind of talked about within That is all
just because of that. Now. Her supporters, on the other hand,
argued that she was a genuine medium and that the
government had targeted her because of her supposed ability to
tap into sensitive information. So during the trial, Duncan was
found guilty of fraud and sentenced to nine months in prison.
(14:35):
The court's decision was controversial, with many seeing the arrest
and conviction as an attack on spiritualism itself and the
practice of mediumship. Her supporters were convinced that she had
been unfairly targeted, while skeptics believed it was long overdue
(14:55):
action against a fraudulent medium. So what became a Helen
Duncan after the trial? While after serving her prison sentence,
Duncan continued to hold sciences, though she was no longer
as prominent as she had been in earlier years. Her
reputation was forever tarnished by the arrest, and many of
(15:16):
her followers began to doubt her authenticity. She lived out
the rest of her life quietly and passed away in
nineteen fifty six. However, the debate over her legacy rages on.
Was she a genuine medium or was she a charlatan?
(15:36):
Was her arrest part of government conspiracy to suppress spiritualism
during a time of war. Perhaps In the years since
her death, Helen Duncan has become a bit of a legend.
Some people still believe in her abilities and see her
as a martyr for the cause of spiritualism. Others point
(15:59):
to the controversy surrounding her and use her case as
an example of why we should approach mediumship with skepticism.
There is a website devoted to her cause and trying
to get her name cleared even to this day, and
it said Helen Duncan dot org. I'd love to hear
your thoughts on Helen Duncan and even Ava. But with Helen,
(16:23):
did she have real psychic abilities or was she just
kind of an opportunist? Let us know what you think
on our social medias or by sending us a message.
Thanks for tuning in for today's episode, Queens of the Seance,
Part two, Helen Duncan, And until next time, stay creepy
my friends, and I'll catch you next time right here
(16:46):
on Creepy Confidential
From the now infamous candlelit seances on the British circuit
to the sensational ectoplasm revelations captured in photographs, Helen Duncan
captivated believers and skeptics alike. Skeptics said it was nothing
more than cheesecloth regurgitated and shaped by shadows. Some even
(00:26):
accused her of hiding dolls and cutouts in her seance cabinet.
These weren't your average table wrapping, candle flickering affairs. Her
seances were wildly theatrical picture. This curtains drawn room was
packed with curious sitters, ectoplasm oozing from her mouth, spirits
(00:50):
materializing in the dark, and dead loved ones allegedly speaking
through her. In nineteen forty one, during World War II,
Helen Duncan held a sam in Portsmouth. A sailor appeared
to one of the attendees, a sailor who claimed to
have died aboard the HMS Barnum, a British battleship. Problem
(01:14):
with that is that the ship had been sunk. The
sinking of the Barnum by a German U boat was classified.
The government hadn't released the news. In fact, the public
wouldn't learn about it for months. Even elaborate attempts to
keep it from the families were acted out by the government,
(01:35):
including sending holiday cards from these deceased sailors even though
they were gone. So how did Helen know this? Was
it a spirit or a security league? Helen Duncan was
a spiritualist superstar, but not everyone wanted her to share
(01:56):
her skills, including the British government.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Welcome to Creepy Confidential. I'm your host, Noel your resident
weirdo Wisconsin. I open case files on cryptids, cults, conspiracies
and other worldly creepy with new cases, local lore and
live broadcasts. Get ready, creeps, It's Creepy Confidential.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Subcreeps. Welcome back. Before we get cracking today, there are
a few quick announcements. Creepy Confidential will be continuing the
library lectures, both in person and virtual in the fall.
To check out where I'll be next, go to Creepy
Confidential dot com and click the event pages. You'll see
those locations and classes populate later this summer. While you're
(02:58):
on Creepyconfidential dot com, feel free to creep around and
check out the taps. You can check out everywhere we
have been featured on like other channels TV and all
the After Dark livestream replays are there for you as well,
and don't forget a full audio episode catalog, so every
(03:18):
single one. It's your one stop shop for all your
creepy content. Okay, creeps onto the show. Spiritualism the view
that spirit is a prime element of reality, a belief
that spirits of the dead communicate with the living, usually.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Through a medium.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
This religion swept like wildfire through Europe and North America
during the nineteenth century. Amid world wars and global unrest.
People sought comfort, and mediums became beacons of hope. Stemming
at the end of the Civil War and even until today.
Helen Duncan a medium whose fame exploded across the interwar years,
(04:08):
and alongside her partner Henry, she conducted seances across Britain,
from hushed parlors to spiritualist churches, offering closure and connection
to the anxious public. Helen seances were far from quiet
whispers in the dark, though they were immersive performances. According
(04:30):
to reports, Henry would first screen her in front of
a female participant to ensure Helen had nothing hidden on
her body before the show. Then Helen would be dressed
in a black silk kind of dress, and she'd be
placed in her seance cabinet illuminated under a moody red light.
(04:55):
What followed was the emergence of ectoplasm. Just like our
previous Queen of the Seance, this gauzy white substance would
be produced from her mouth. Fully expected to manifest the
presence of spirits coupled with floating ethereal figures, her shows
(05:16):
were hypnotic and compelling, if I must say, Helen's dramatic
displays naturally attracted scrutiny, though now nineteen twenty eight, photographer
Henry Metcalf used flash photography to capture her ectoplasm in
action and revealed something shocking. Not so shocking when you
(05:37):
look at these images, though, kind of with the modern eyes,
it's immediately apparent what you're looking at. So it turns
out that this ethereal substance was not supernatural at all,
but a muslin or possibly cheesecloth soaked an egg white
and concealed in Helen's mouth.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yuck, just sounds so gross.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Even more damning, skeptics managed to snatch the floating quote
unquote spirits and expose them as paper mache heads draped
in cloth, very similar to ava that we mentioned in
our previous episode about sciences. Now, the London Spiritualist Alliance
in nineteen thirty one confirmed the ruse. But here's the twist.
(06:26):
Helen's popularity only grew. So why did Helen continue to
draw crowds even when her methods were exposed. It's about
more than deception. It's about emotional resonance. These patrons were
looking to communicate with loved ones, people they knew and
(06:48):
cherished and are now on the other side. Audiences craved connection,
even if they knew or suspected they were being fool
That split second feeling of reassurance and hearing a loved
one's name spoken was so powerful. Spiritualism offered hope, especially
(07:13):
when hope was scarce or gone completely during and after
these big times of war. Ellen Duncan sciences may have
been a theatrical ruse, but they echo loudly in modern
metaphysical practices. Her story raises and during questions though, is
(07:35):
spiritual comfort valid even if grounded in illusion? What responsibility
do spiritual practitioners have toward seekers and where do we
draw the line between wonder and ethics. So let's start
with a bit of background on Helen before we get
(07:56):
started now. Helen Duncan was born on November twenty fifth,
eighteen ninety seven in Calendar, Scotland, to a family with
a working class background. Her early life was unremarkable, but
what's fascinating is how she got into spiritualism and rose
to fame In the early twentieth century. Spiritualism was experiencing
(08:20):
a kind of revival in Europe and America, particularly after
World War One, when many people were trying to make
sense of their loss and grief. Helen claimed that she
started seeing spirits at a fairly young age, but it
wasn't until her twenties that she fully embraced her abilities.
(08:43):
She would hold seances and gatherings where people would come
to communicate with their deceased loved ones. But what set
her apart from other mediums was her ability to materialize
spirits during these sessions and ectoplasm being produced once again,
similar to Ava in Part one, but I must say
(09:06):
less scandalous like Ava was kind of a shock rocker, right.
We talked about that in Queens of the seance Part one.
I mean she was nude in these pictures that people
would take of her, and the ectoplasm was coming from
her delicate parts where it seems like Helen, it was
a little different. She was Oftentimes you maybe see an
(09:28):
ear or her mouth obviously, but you never saw anything
as ridiculous as ava. Now, of course, many skeptics dismissed
that it was a fraud, but for people who believed
in spiritualism, it was a tangible sign of contact with
the other side. I've talked about this material before in
(09:49):
part one, again where the medium would also have the
ability to produce this off substance, kind of strange substance. Now,
Helen became incredibly popular but also incredibly controversial. Like we've mentioned,
her sciances were held in a dimly lit room where
(10:09):
people would gather, and in these sciances, she would enter
this trance like state. You know you hear about a
trance medium, think like Lorraine Warren, right, trance like state,
and the atmosphere would grow and grow in intensity with anticipation.
People said that during this time they could feel the
(10:29):
presence of spirits and sometimes they even reported seeing figures.
Now it's important to note that not everyone was convinced
by Duncan's abilities. Skeptics were quick to point out that
many of these manifestations could be easily explained away as tricks.
(10:50):
In fact, Helen Duncan was the subject of several investigations
by skeptics, including the very famous Harry Price, well known
psychic researcher. Now side note, don't do ory creeps. I
will be talking about Harry Price in the future. He's
one of those founding fathers of the paranormal that I've
(11:11):
mentioned before, similar to like a Hans Holzer or somebody
like that, or even sometimes Houdini because he was trying
to debunk it. But I will do an episode on
Harry Price because that's somebody that really needs to be mentioned.
But back to Hellishnell as they called her. Now. Despite
the skepticism, Duncan had a devoted following right. It was
(11:36):
during World War Two that Helen Duncan's life took a
dramatic turn. Now, one of the most infamous incidences occurred
during a seance in nineteen forty one, when Duncan allegedly
contact the spirit of a sailor who had died on
the HMS Barnum, a British battleship that was sunk in
(11:57):
the Mediterranean. Now Duncan reported that the spirit had told
her the Barnum had sunk, despite the fact that the
British government had not released this information officially to the
general public about the sinking, This information sent shockwaves through
the British Navy. Some people in the military were worried
(12:19):
that Helen Duncan's mediumship could expose sensitive information about the
war effort and what a crazy time and what you know,
this is a world war and at the time Britain
was involved in a desperate struggle against Nazi Germany and
any leak of military secrets could have had serious consequences.
(12:41):
In fact, it was believed that Duncan had gained access
to military secrets from the spirits of soldiers, and this
was part of what ultimately led to her downfall. Some
even speculated that the government may have been aware of
her activities and was kind of keep an eye on her.
(13:01):
Now nineteen forty four, Helen Duncan was arrested by the
authorities for what was considered to be a breach of
the Official Secrets Act. The charge she was revealing information
about the war effort that she supposedly got from Spirits.
At the time, Britain was in the middle of a
(13:22):
brutal war and any rumors or leaks about the military
operations were taken extremely seriously. So the government believed that
Helen Duncan was exposing top secret information and they decided
to act. Duncan's trial in nineteen forty four became a spectacle.
The prosecution claimed that she had been fabricating the actoplasm
(13:46):
and tricking her followers into believing that they were in
contact with Spirits, and that was the part of tricking
them into believing it in what I was reading. That's
really what they nailed her on, and they sometimes you'll
hear that she was the last person tried under the
Witch Act over in Germany or in Britain, and that's
(14:12):
kind of kind of talked about within That is all
just because of that. Now. Her supporters, on the other hand,
argued that she was a genuine medium and that the
government had targeted her because of her supposed ability to
tap into sensitive information. So during the trial, Duncan was
found guilty of fraud and sentenced to nine months in prison.
(14:35):
The court's decision was controversial, with many seeing the arrest
and conviction as an attack on spiritualism itself and the
practice of mediumship. Her supporters were convinced that she had
been unfairly targeted, while skeptics believed it was long overdue
(14:55):
action against a fraudulent medium. So what became a Helen
Duncan after the trial? While after serving her prison sentence,
Duncan continued to hold sciences, though she was no longer
as prominent as she had been in earlier years. Her
reputation was forever tarnished by the arrest, and many of
(15:16):
her followers began to doubt her authenticity. She lived out
the rest of her life quietly and passed away in
nineteen fifty six. However, the debate over her legacy rages on.
Was she a genuine medium or was she a charlatan?
(15:36):
Was her arrest part of government conspiracy to suppress spiritualism
during a time of war. Perhaps In the years since
her death, Helen Duncan has become a bit of a legend.
Some people still believe in her abilities and see her
as a martyr for the cause of spiritualism. Others point
(15:59):
to the controversy surrounding her and use her case as
an example of why we should approach mediumship with skepticism.
There is a website devoted to her cause and trying
to get her name cleared even to this day, and
it said Helen Duncan dot org. I'd love to hear
your thoughts on Helen Duncan and even Ava. But with Helen,
(16:23):
did she have real psychic abilities or was she just
kind of an opportunist? Let us know what you think
on our social medias or by sending us a message.
Thanks for tuning in for today's episode, Queens of the Seance,
Part two, Helen Duncan, And until next time, stay creepy
my friends, and I'll catch you next time right here
(16:46):
on Creepy Confidential
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