In November 1857, during a séance in Jersey City, the medium Leah Brown claimed her body produced luminous particles. So intense was the luminosity emanating from her, she recalled in her memoir, that it almost burned her hands. She rinsed her hands under a tap and then pushed them into the damp earth outside.
The following evening, luminous particles were discovered in the soil where she’d pressed her hands. They were later identified as phosphorous. In her memoir, Brown admitted to the presence of phosphorous but insisted her body had produced it.
