Leap in the Dark: The Fetch (1977) explores one of the strangest stories in nineteenth-century Spiritualism: the alleged double of French schoolteacher Émilie Sagée.This BBC supernatural docudrama, presented by Colin Wilson, dramatizes Sagée's remarkable story and the mysterious apparition that allegedly appeared beside her, mimicked her movements, and was witnessed by students and other observers. The case became particularly important in Spiritualist literature after Robert Dale Owen included it in his 1860 book Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World.In this episode of Science of Spiritual Reality, we look beyond the 1977 television adaptation to examine Robert Dale Owen, Spiritualism, the nineteenth-century fascination with doubles and apparitions, and the strange place of the Sagée case within the history of psychical research and folk belief.What did Owen make of the case? Why did the story become so influential among Spiritualists? And what does The Fetch reveal about the continuing cultural fascination with the possibility that a person might somehow appear in two places at once?#LeapInTheDark #TheFetch #RobertDaleOwen #Spiritualism #EmilieSagee #Doppelganger #FolkHorror #PsychicalResearch #OccultHistory #ColinWilson #BBC #1970sTelevision
