Elizabeth's real surname was Hope. When she married at 19 and became Mrs Reed in Newcastle, she began to experience contact with the ghostly (benign) figures she had known as a child. She was introduced to the public by Thomas Pallister Barkas (q.v.) of Newcastle, and embarked on a career as a spiritualist medium. She wrote an account of her activities in Shadow Land.
Other well-known mediums in Newcastle included Miss C.E. Wood and the celebrated Miss Fairlamb (later Mrs Mellon)., who specialised in physical materialisation. Her spirit guides were 'Cissie' and, endearingly, 'Geordie'. In 1875 and 1877 Henry Sidgwick president of the Society for Psychical Research conducted a series of sittings in Newcastle with Miss Wood and Miss Fairlamb. On the latter occasion separate meetings were required, as the two mediums had quarrelled.