SPIRITUAL & PSYCHIC · UK HISTORICAL CASE
Location: Brighton, Hove and Hastings, Sussex, England
Period: January 1849 sittings, collected by Edwin Lee in 1866
At a series of Sussex gatherings, Alexis Didier played cards with covered eyes, attempted to read beyond an open page and described objects sealed in packets. Physician Edwin Lee’s account is unusually detailed: it gives dates, hosts, proposed tests and a mixture of striking matches, partial results and failures. The British sittings form a case of their own within Didier’s wider career.
A travelling somnambulist and his operator
Lee’s reports identify Didier’s operator as M. Marcillet. The language is that of magnetic or lucid somnambulism: a specially induced state in which Didier was believed to perceive beyond ordinary sight. The Sussex programme moved between private houses and assembly rooms, attracting doctors, clergy, members of local society and reporters.
Lee later collected his personal observations in Animal Magnetism and Magnetic Lucid Somnambulism, published in 1866. The section explicitly concerns Brighton in 1849 and proceeds through dated January sittings, then visits to Hastings and St Leonards. These are descriptions of a historical practice and its reported results, with the participants’ own explanations retained as part of the record.
Captain Ford’s house: cards and a book
At Western Cottages on 15 January, Didier’s eyes are covered with cotton and several handkerchiefs before he plays écarté. The observers report correct play, including the selection or identification of cards while their faces are down. The arrangement is then varied with books and small objects provided by the company.
A reading attempt asks him to identify words several pages beyond the page at which a book is open. Lee records successful examples alongside a word which cannot be found. Small boxes produce descriptions of carved heads, a portrait and a miniature tomb. The accounts often include the question, Didier’s written or spoken response, and the opening of the packet. That sequence is more informative than a later list of successful feats alone.
The difficult tests stay in the account
On 19 January, Lee records challenges involving writing enclosed with money. Didier fails to decipher them satisfactorily. Marcillet objects to further money tests, saying the personal stake and the proposer’s scepticism interfere with the conditions. Other attempts in the same sitting are described as more successful, including a parcel with a portrait and a letter associated with a man abroad.
Lee also preserves smaller discrepancies: words found at a different page number, a name confused with another, or an object only partly described. His interpretation sometimes invokes rapport with the person holding the object or knowledge present in another participant’s mind. Keeping those explanations with their specific trials shows what the sitters thought they were testing and how they responded when a result did not fit neatly.
Hove and the reporter’s mixed response
At Mr Howell’s house in Hove on 22 January, a report reproduced from the Brighton Gazette describes bandaging, a newly produced pack of cards and a book supplied by an opponent. In one exercise, another copy is used to check words said to be read while the first volume is held at Didier’s forehead. In another, he attempts to read ahead without turning to the requested page.
A sealed-paper test produces something much less exact: Didier suggests two names beginning with M but fails to supply the actual names, Mary Magdalene. The writer also notes that a glance during leaf-turning might explain a partial result in another exercise. Other descriptions impress the reporter, whose conclusion combines astonishment with a refusal to regard the matter as settled. This range of reactions is already present in the contemporary material.
The programme reaches Hastings
Lee follows Didier to St Leonards and Hastings on 25 January. The Assembly Rooms sittings combine card play, reading and descriptions of people or properties associated with the sitters. A description of a country residence is acknowledged as matching several features; another is identified with Alton Towers, although discrepancies remain in the reported details.
In the evening, fatigue becomes part of the record. Didier cannot identify an object in a reporter’s hand and is awakened after complaining of tiredness. Some requested descriptions are deferred or declined as the form of the tests changes. The account portrays a changing performance across a series of meetings, not an uninterrupted capacity which works identically for every proposer.
Why the Sussex record is worth reading in sequence
The dated reports allow the reader to follow repeated methods across different rooms and audiences. Blindfold card play is not the same test as sealed writing; a description accepted by its owner is not recorded in the same way as a printed line checked against a book. Lee’s detail allows those categories to remain visible.
The modern Psi Encyclopedia places these British experiments within Didier’s larger biography, including other observers and French demonstrations. This case keeps the January 1849 Sussex record at its centre. Experiences described elsewhere in his career can be compared later without becoming extra witnesses at Brighton.
The map uses Brunswick Square in Hove as an area reference for the programme: Lee records a sitting at Mr Stracey’s there on 20 January. The exact house is not identified by the pin. The photograph shows the square’s setting, while the source list leads to the original reports of tests, reactions and changing conditions.
Timeline
15 January 1849 — first Captain Ford sitting in Lee’s sequence.
18–19 January — further card, book, packet and money tests at Ford’s.
20 January — sittings in Regency Square and Brunswick Square.
22 January — Hove sitting reported in the Brighton Gazette account reproduced by Lee.
25 January — St Leonards and Hastings meetings.
1866 — Lee publishes the collected reports in Animal Magnetism and Magnetic Lucid Somnambulism.
Sources and further reading
Edwin Lee, Animal Magnetism and Magnetic Lucid Somnambulism (1866)
Public-domain primary source, section “Reports from Personal Observation … Alexis Didier in Brighton, in 1849”, printed pages 255 onward; includes local press accounts.
Psi Encyclopedia, Alexis Didier
Later biographical overview identifying Lee’s Sussex sittings and the broader source literature.
Location note
Brunswick Square area represents one documented stop in a wider Sussex programme. No precise private house is identified.
Map location source · Checked 4 November 2026.
Related cases
Leonora Piper in England: the Liverpool sittings, Uncle Jerry and the objects test
Anna Eva Fay in Crookes’s laboratory: the electrical test, the bell and the disputed letter