Incidents in My Life

Incidents in My Life is a book by Daniel Dunglas Home, first published in 1863. In this autobiographical account, Home—one of the most celebrated and controversial Victorian mediums—recounts the unusual phenomena he claimed to experience from childhood onward, including visions, table raps, séances for aristocratic and scientific audiences, and dramatic physical manifestations such as levitation.

Written in a direct, anecdotal style, the work reads as both memoir and catalogue of psychic phenomena, offering a first-hand view of nineteenth-century spiritualism and the era’s fascination with the paranormal. The book has long attracted interest from students of spiritualism, the occult, and Victorian social history, and is frequently cited in discussions of mediumship, séance culture, and debates surrounding evidence and fraud in psychical research.

Whether approached as a historical source or as a striking example of popular Victorian belief, Home’s detailed episodes—from intimate domestic manifestations to séances attended by prominent figures—continue to be read by those researching paranormal phenomena, early psychical investigation, and the cultural life of the Victorian period.