Eileen Garrett and the "Fantastic Territory"

"psychic medium" and "trance medium" Eileen Garrett (1893-1970)

Ira Progoff is the author of The Image of an Oracle: A Report on Research Into the Mediumship of Eileen J. Garrett (1964).  The book presents transcripts of tape recordings of what was said during 12 sessions beginning in 1957 when Eileen went into a trance and four "control figures" ('Ouvani,' 'Abdul Latif,' 'Tahoteh' and 'Ramah') conversed with Progoff.  The author worked as a psychotherapist and "conducted pioneer research into the creative and social aspects of human personality."  One session was preceded by "an informal conversation with Mrs. Garrett which was picked up by the tape recorder."  The transcript of what becomes "Conversation No. 2 with Abdul Latif" begins with Eileen Garrett describing her appointment with a woman who was a cousin of a man that had consulted the medium six years previously.

And then she said, "I suffered a great loss."  And I said, "Yes, don't tell me any more.  Your husband, here he is, this is how he looked, his eyes, this is how he was, the mustache he wore.  This is what he did.  He was an engineer.  Yes?  Or he was a business man.  He should have been a priest.  These are all the things he was, these are all the things you lost.
 
She goes away and she says, "Perfectly remarkable."

Eileen went on to express to Progoff her intention of continuing to explore her own psychic abilities and extemporaneously described experiences when she found herself in a "fantastic territory."

EG:     . . . We can say that Eileen Garrett is communicating with the dead husband of Mrs. So-and-so.  And yet it is not certain.  Where does this thing come from?  Who is it?  So, Eileen Garrett came to the conclusion that she must push herself through contemplation beyond the light she sees in the tree, beyond expectation, beyond anticipation, and into exaltation, in other words, where the territory in which I am is boundless and endless.

In this territory I then see these people, living in houses in communities.  The houses are made of colored glass.  Their communities are quiet, are orderly.  They are going about something, but what they're going about, I don't know.  It's no good telling me that they had been people on earth because I don't believe it; but they are going about something.  They are taken up with themselves.  I have come across a bunch of philosophers sitting peacefully reclining, almost like Chinese vases.  I've gone so far that I have shaken one, to see if he is a piece of jade.  I find that he has flesh.  He is a person.  He lives.  I shake him.  He looks at me kindly.  I go my way.  All right.  Do they talk to me?  No.

While I am able to walk around them and examine them, they are in a strange community where there are bright, bright lights, blues, greens, yellows, but all kinds of lights and I cannot even conceive the color.  Here is the great difficulty that comes in a moment of emotion in all this, when you cannot any more find words.  So I am stopped.  I don't know what they are doing, I don't know what they are saying, and they don't seem able to communicate with me.  But I have walked around them; that's the thing.  I have touched their houses and have been within their halls.  They are objective; they are glassy; they're like sugar candy.

I've looked at their mountains.  I've looked at their green.  It's greener green than any green I can tell you.  The mountains are higher mountains than anything I can tell you.  And I have come back from that exhausted and said, "So?  What have I done now?  I have simply found that earth is no more than a modest reflection of what I have been looking at.  And after what I have seen, now that I'm here, it is pale.  It is insignificant.  It's colorless, it's small, it's constrained, and therefore all that I have done is to come back with a photographic impression of something that is happening over there.  Far from giving me peace of mind, this has left me in a further difficulty.  Now if I could remain longer with them maybe I could pinch some of them awake, maybe I could get some knowledge from them.  Maybe I'd find out why they were, who they were, and above all things, where am I.

IP:     When have you done this that you have been speaking of?

EG:     Two summers ago in France.

IP:     And how did you go about doing it?

EG:     I expanded myself until I had so much air that I myself was no longer.  But I had given myself directions beforehand what I wanted to do.

IP:     Yes.  And was anyone with you?

EG:     No.  I had come back.  I felt slightly nauseated.  I went home sick.  I went home and I wrote the whole thing down.  Now I would like to get out there again.  And be questioned when I'm out there.  But I would like someone who understood to be there to bring me back.  Now this would be the only use mescalin would have to me.  Because I have gone as far out as I can go in clairvoyance, to the edge of that cliff where the mind almost refuses to take in any more, because of the color, because of the need for more oxygen, because of the almost bursting point of exaltation in which one gets.

IP:     I'm wondering though if it could be done without that.  You said that what you saw there was an image.  How did you mean that?

EG:     They wouldn't talk to me.  And so when I broke into this place, they didn't any longer seem to be flesh and blood like they are when I sit down and tell Mrs. Doakes, "Your husband is there and this is what he says."  Now I have created another difficulty for myself: Is the husband there?  Is he saying this?  Where is he?  Where is he saying it from?  Is he saying it from this extraordinary fantastic territory and is that territory of the mind or is it territory into which I had escaped again?

As the conversation progressed, Ira and Eileen considered an 'unconscious' or 'subconscious' source of psychic information with Progoff observing: ". . . something took place spontaneously that got you onto another dimension or aspect.  Somehow your consciousness opened then."  Eileen asked:

EG:    Then what is the process by which it happens?  What happens?

IP:     Supposing that you wanted to do that deliberately.  Could you do that deliberately?  For example, now, at this moment?

EG:     No.

IP:     But if it would happen.  It happens when you are walking down the street.

EG:     It won't.  Not with then.  Why that one?  Why this one?  Why?  What choice?  What is the trigger?  What is it?  Do you see?  I'm not troubled about whether they live or die or whether I see death or I didn't.  I want to know what area I'm in.

Eileen soon thereafter stated: "At any rate, let me go to sleep and then explain it."  Ira replied: "All right, let's try it with Abdul."  The transcript continued with Ira spelling some of the utterances phonetically —

EG:     (Moans, groans, heavy breathing, yawns, etc., as Mrs. Garrett goes into trance.)   Eet ees I, Oo-way-nee [usually spelled 'Uvani' by Eileen].  I give you greetings, friend.

IP:     My greetings, Ouvani.

EG:     Peace be with you, your life, your work.  You would speak with me?

IP:     Well, Ouvani, I would like to speak with certain persons who are working with me psychologically and I wanted to discuss their qualities.  But I had thought that Abdul Latif would be the one for this.

EG:     Well, I will withdraw so that Abdul Latif, may his name be blessed, may present himself to you.  So be it.

IP:     Thank you very much.

EG:     (Further deep breathing, moans, groans as Mrs. Garrett deepens trance.)  Well, well, my friend, it is well with thee?  (Note: This was said in a hearty, extroverted manner with a much fuller tone of voice than that used by Ouvani.)

The transcript of the ensuing conversation provides what Progoff described as "a fairly representative instance of . . . a clairvoyant reading of the characteristics of a person who is not present." 
 
It is the concept of a shared subconscious and Superconscious Mind among humanity and all living organisms—an aspect of spiritual ‘Oneness’—that may have been meaningful for Eileen and Ira as they attempted to develop a perspective of her trance mediumship.   

During "Conversation No. 4 with Tahoteh," the transcendental communicator mentioned: "But you cannot take us away."  Ira then asked: "Who is 'us'?"  The following is the response transcribed by the author.
 

EG:     You cannot take us.  We must remain with her, for the sake of the conflict and for the sake of the work.  We are the ideas.  We are in a form.  We are in the cup which she hands to others.  We are the breath.  We are the life.  That we are fitted into the different aspects according to the need that we have—not you—the need that we have, to fulfill our obligations in this life experience.
 
IP:     All right.  And now let me ask you what is perhaps for me a most important question.  Now you have said some things about the life situation of your instrument and of your relation to her. That is, that . . .
 
EG:     And yet I have not the relation to her.
 
IP:     Yes?  How do you mean?
 
EG:     The wine that you pour into the cup is not very interested in the cup, is that true?
 
IP:     Yes, except that it must have the cup.  The cup must stay whole.
 
EG:     But in order that the wine reach your lips the cup stays whole.  But it does not matter to the wine whether the cup is of the most exquisite floral design or whether it is of a crude material.  It is sufficient to the wine that it is placed in a form which will hold it, and then it is given out from that form.  Does that clear a little bit?
 
IP:     Yes, now if I were to recall the whole context of our discussions, if I recall the point that was made at one time—I think again it was the first time, Tahoteh, that we spoke—that the person who comes to know the giver of the word will come to know him in the form in which his contact is made and in accordance with his unique life pattern.  Now, would this be correct or not: That your instrument has come into contact with you, Tahoteh, as giver of the word, has come into contact with the Giver of the Word, by means of these forms or entities in the way in which she has come to experience them.  That this is the form in which the word reveals itself and manifests itself to her and through her.  But would it be true that this may take place in another form, for another person?

EG:     To take place for you, I have fulfilled practically the thing which I have come to do with you.  Not quite, not quite, but what I have done, you see, is to come in a form that has for you a sympathy.  You like this form.  This form strikes a chord in you that you do not yet comprehend.  But this image, this system, call it now what you like, has impregnated you, for all time.  You are now going to look into every aspect of that that I have been.  You must; you cannot help yourself.  The seed has been sown.  And that seed is of this particular seeder that you call Tahoteh.  Now, you must go find the branches of him everywhere until the time will come that you will not know at what point is Tahoteh.
 
IP:     Yes.  At what point he is Tahoteh, and . . . ?
 
EG:     At what point . . . he is you.  This is the creativity of this force.  Therefore, I should be giving this to you in the quietude of your own senses because this is now part of that search, until you will yourself be gathered into that community.

Another book with transcripts of transcendental communication through Eileen's mediumship is Health: Its Recovery and Maintenance (1929) — a topic of a previous blog article.

 

This image accompanies the blog article "Visitors from the Ascended Realm in Comparison".

Trance Medium Gladys Osborne Leonard's Visits to the Other Side

This 'precipitated painting' anomalously created in the presence of the Bangs Sisters has been entitled "The Spirit World" and shows people in a canoe crossing a river toward a castle in a sphere of the ascended realm of human existence.

Descriptions of the ascended realm of existence may be heard in Direct Voice seance recordings.  Visits to the 'other side' of life are also chronicled in medium autobiographies.  One of these books is My Life in Two Worlds (1931) by trance medium Gladys Osborne Leonard (1882-1968).  The book is profiled in a previous blog article.  Gladys remembered that as a child in England there were initial experiences "of an entirely spiritual and psychic nature."  She described herself as a sensitive child who at the age of six surreptitiously taught herself to read and made use of her father's editions of the works of such authors as Shakespeare, Byron, Dickens and Zola.  She wrote about intermittent visions of 'the happy valley' during these early years of her life. 

Every morning, soon after waking, even while dressing or having my nursery breakfast, I saw visions of most beautiful places.  In whatever direction I happened to be looking, the physical view of wall, door, ceiling, or whatever it was, would disappear, and in its place would gradually come valleys, gentle slopes, lovely trees and banks covered with flowers of every shape and hue.  The scene seemed to extend for many miles, and I was conscious that I could see much further than was possible with the ordinary physical scenery around me.  The most entrancing part to me was the restful, velvety green of the grass that covered the ground of the valley and the hills.  Walking about, in couples usually and sometimes in groups, were people who looked radiantly happy.  They were dressed in graceful flowing draperies, for the greater part, but every movement, gesture and expression suggested an undefinable and yet positive way a condition of deep happiness, a state of quiet ecstasy.  I remember thinking to myself, "How different they are, how different from the 'Down here' people, how full of love and light and peace they are.  No fear, or doubt, or dreadful mystery is there."  It all looked too expressive of Life and Joy to be in any way connected with the unsatisfactory state in which I mentally lived.

"I did not at the time, look upon these visions as  anything abnormal or unusual."

Gladys commented about her family:

At first they thought I was "making it up," but as I was so persistent, and described many of the visions so minutely, they were forced to the conclusion that there was something in it—something which was not in line with their conventional way of looking at things.  I was sternly forbidden to see or look for the Happy Valley again!


. . . little by little, my visions disappeared.  This was a great deprivation.

As an adult, she experienced visiting the "Land Beyond" again.  She commented: "It seems so near.  Perhaps it is really all around us—the other side of this side."  She also described psychic experiences in her 'astral body,' including on one occasion: ". . . I opened my eyes and looked down and saw my physical body resting on the bed, and I, in my astral body, seemed to be resting above it . . ."  The interlude is what in 2016 is sometimes called an 'Out of Body Experience' (OBE) and included Gladys in her astral body conversing with Philip, who'd passed over about one year before.  Having previously seen him clairvoyantly on one occasion, Gladys recognized Philip as the son of a couple who attended her sittings.  Upon later describing to the couple the room where she'd encountered Philip, she learned that this was apparently the drawing-room of their home sixty miles away.

A week or two later I again went out of my body, but this time I was not in the least nervous.  I saw Philip standing close to my bed as if he were waiting to take me somewhere.  I lost again for a few moments the power of conscious thinking, until I suddenly found myself standing in a most beautiful garden at the edge of a small wood.  Philip and I walked along together, and he pointed out various beautiful places to me, in particular a wide stream running under a charming rustic bridge.  He said to me, “This is like my home on the earth-plane.”

Gladys wrote that on another occasion she was beginning to feel drowsy when she felt "that slight 'drawing out from,' or 'getting away' from my physical body, that usually precedes an experience of this kind."

I seemed to be floating or flying towards a very bright place.  On nearing it I saw a large stone house, with a veranda and terraces in front flanked by roses.  Several broad steps led up to a wide doorway, and standing on the top was a lady who had recently passed over, who used to visit me in order to communicate with her husband who had died four or five years previously, and whom she adored.  She always longed to join him, and used to say to me, "What will it be like over there?  Well, it doesn't matter much what it's like as my beloved George is there, and we can have our own home and garden as we had on the earth."

When she saw me coming towards her she smiled, and held out both hands to me, eagerly.  Her expression was of radiant happiness (how often one is forced to use the word radiant in describing the people and life on the Other Side!  It's the only word that fits.)  She was a handsome woman, and I noticed that she was dressed as carefully as ever, though I was puzzled to see that she was wearing a dress of somewhat old-fashioned design, and when she lived on earth every article of her clothing had to be the latest thing in fashion.

This particular dress was of the tight-fitting princess shape, made of cream-coloured "piece" lace, and it had a slight train.  Just as I noticed these details, I found myself being drawn back to my body again.  Somebody had knocked on my bedroom door, and I awoke, feeling rather disappointed that I had not been able to speak to my friend, or she to me; but I had brought back the knowledge that she was thoroughly happy.  I afterwards found out that the lace dress was one that her husband had loved her to wear when on earth.  I never saw her again, but occasionally she brought me the scent of red roses, and sometimes violets, of both of which she was very fond.

Gladys also described being reunited on the Other Side with a retired army officer whom she called 'Colonel Halifax' in the book.

A few weeks after his passing I was spending the week-end with friends near Harrow.  On the Sunday afternoon my hostess insisted on my going to my bedroom and laying down to rest.  I prepared to doze.  Instead, I began to feel very much awake, but felt the same sensation of leaving my body as I described before.  Suddenly I found myself standing in a very pretty garden, stocked with every kind of flower.  A little way to the left was a house.

Looking around, I knew I had been permitted to visit the Spirit World again.

As I stood in the garden, I noticed that close to me on the right was a wooden shed.  I walked in.  The place looked like a small engineering works.  Suddenly a man stepped quickly out of the adjoining room, and to my joy I recognized Colonel Halifax.

"Mrs. Leonard, I'm so glad you've come to see me," he said.  "now let me tell you something quickly, while there's time.  It's all true.  All I was told about the life here was true.  Only it's so much better than I was told it would be."  He said this with great emphasis, as if he longed to impress me with the sense of his happiness.

He told me that his wife had met him immediately after his passing, and that his joy in the reunion was great and deep.  Then he said, "There is someone here whom I wish you to meet, Mrs. Leonard, and please look at her well, so that you will remember her when you return to your physical body."  (He evidently was quite aware that I was only on a temporary visit to the Spirit World, and that I should be leaving again almost immediately.)

I turned, hoping to see his wife, but I saw at once that it could not be she, as during his earth life Colonel Halifax had given me a description of her, and the woman he now beckoned forward had a very different personality; indeed, she was so striking in colouring and figure that a description of her would not have fitted one woman in a thousand.

A moment after I felt myself being drawn away from the place and found myself in my physical body, lying on the bed in my friend's house.

About a fortnight later a sister of Colonel Halifax came to have a sitting with me.  I had not met her before, but her brother had told her, during his life here, about me.  After the sitting I told her about my visit to her brother's spirit home.  I omitted the description of the shed as it puzzled me, and seemed so unlike anything the Colonel would be interested in.  But when I described the—to me—unknown lady, she said, "That was one of the people he loved best in the world.  She was the aunt who brought him up, took the place of a mother to him.  He was devoted to her, right up to the time she died."

I was pleased to hear this, and felt sure that Colonel Halifax's critical and clever mind had arranged for me to meet his aunt instead of his wife, as he knew that I had never heard of the existence of the former, and it would be so much more evidential for me, and would prove to me that I had really been to his spirit home and seen him.  It was just like Colonel Halifax to think all this out, as he was always very keen on "evidence."

A few weeks later the sister passed over, too, very suddenly, and it was good to feel that her last days were happier because she had heard of her brother.

The engineering shed still stuck in my mind; I could not imagine what connection it had with Colonel Halfiax.

Several months afterwards I met a friend of the Colonel's, and while talking about him I felt impelled to ask if the Colonel had ever been interested in engineering.  The friend replied, "Of course he had.  He had been a very clever engineer, and was very fond of it, too!"  I was pleased with this information as it was something altogether outside my knowledge of him.

Gladys commented about these 'visits' —

How very much like the earth this other world looks!  At least, that portion of it that I have seen when visiting the different friends who have passed away.  There appear to be houses, gardens, meadows, woods, lakes, but I have never seen what I would call a manufacturing town, a colliery town, or anything approximating to one; at least, not on the plane where I have seen these normal, everyday sort of people like Colonel Halifax, and my other friends.

That there are other conditions than this third sphere, as it is called, I am well aware.  I have never been to the higher ones, or if I have, I have not remembered on returning to my physical condition again.  We probably often visit the "third sphere" during sleep, but we forget it on awaking.  Undoubtedly, just as there is the physical world, or condition, so is there the spiritual or etheric world, or condition.

Gladys recounted in her autobiography participating in Direct Voice seances and listening to descriptions of the 'etheric world.'  She mentioned that some people referred to 'the happy plane' as "the Summerland."  Also described are Gladys witnessing 'lower planes' or spheres of the ascended realm where inhabitants appeared troubled.

It has been my sad and painful experience to visit, during sleep, some of the lower planes, especially where the poor mistaken souls go who have committed suicide.


Oh, the difference between the sphere to which such a one goes, and the happy planes which I have described to you!


One visit to such a place remains in my mind above all others.  I realized that I had left my earth body, and after experiencing that "upward" motion which I have mentioned before, I found myself floating over a curious, desolate, rocky country.  Dark gloomy rocks, forming caverns and crevices, pools of dark water, and an overwhelming feeling of loneliness are what I remember most strongly about this sinister plane.


I found myself drawing nearer to one particular man.  I could see him distinctly, as I was so close to him.  His look of abject hopelessness was terrible, and changed occasionally to a kind of puzzled wonder as to what he was doing over there.  I felt overcome with pity for him.  My feeling was so intense, he seemed to feel it, or sense it.

Something that looked—or did I only imagine it?—like a faint ray of hope illuminated his face.  I wanted to speak to him, but immediately found myself being drawn back to my physical body again.  I awoke, remembering clearly every detail of the place, the people, and of this particular man's appearance.  I felt impressed to pray for him, and did so. 

Two days later, Sir Walter Gibbons [a theatre impressario who was a friend of Gladys] called to see me, looking very tired and exhausted.  I asked him what was the matter.  He replied, “I have had an awful time on the astral plane during sleep.  The night before last I was taken to the plane where some suicides go, and there I saw my old friend—who killed himself the previous day, because he had got so terribly into debt and financial trouble.”

“Wait a moment,” I said, “I think I have been there, too; wait till I describe some of it to you.”

I did so, and alternately Sir Walter and I described details of the place to each other, until we were certain we had actually been to the same plane, and seen the same man, at the same time, though I did not remember seeing Sir Walter, and he did not recollect seeing me.


This was not the only plane of which Sir Walter and I brought back complete and detailed memories.  Sometimes, on awakening from such an experience, Sir Walter would look at his watch and write down the exact time.  I did not do that, because in my bedroom I can hear the grandfather's clock chime in the hall below, and usually get a good idea of the time from that.  Several times I noticed that I must have “come back” about five minutes to six, as the clock chimed six almost immediately after I awoke.  Later, on comparing these notes, Sir Walter and I always agreed regarding the time of our return to our earth bodies.


The plane that Sir Walter and I disliked visiting even more than the one where we saw the suicides, was a place to which we went several times before we discovered what it was, and why it existed.

I have hesitated a great deal as to whether I should describe this particular sphere or not.  Yet I feel it cowardly to shirk truth because it is unpleasant, and it seems a very poor policy always to present one side of a picture, and purposely to ignore the other, when one knows it exists.  Let us dwell on the happy, hopeful aspects of life as much as we will, but we must not imagine there are no evils to be cleared away.  While we pretend there are none, or purposely avoid discussing, or trying to tackle them, we help them to accumulate, just as one would by ignoring the presence of dirt or dust in a room, because one didn't want to raise trouble by making an onslaught on it. 

While I was—wrongly, I know—considering the advisability of omitting this chapter, I put out my hand, without thinking, and reached for a book that stood on a table near by.  I opened it idly and at random, and staring me in the face were these words:

They are slaves who fear to speak
For the fallen and the weak;
They are slaves who will not choose
Hatred, scoffing, and abuse,
Rather than in silence shrink,
From the truths they needs must think.
They are slaves who dare not be
In the right with two or three.
                                               J. R. Lowell

This made me ashamed of my hesitation, so I must just tell you briefly what we saw in those lower regions.  I must give my own idea of them, but Sir Walter has seen the same, or some of the places, too.

On my first few visits I was so puzzled as to the nature of the places, that I only brought back a feeling of abhorrence, and a vague memory of animals being there.  I quietly thought it over during the day, and sent out a mental request that my Guides, or whoever was sending me to these places during sleep, would give me some enlightenment as to the purpose of their existence.  Otherwise it seemed a waste of time, if I was just going there to have my feelings harrowed by something I did not in the least understand. 

For some time after I did not see these places, and thought my visits must have been brought to an end by my instinctive dislike of them, and I felt that I must make a conscious effort to control such a feeling in which there might be lurking an element of fear, which often inhibits genuine “out of the body” travelling and experiences.


One night, soon after I recognized this fact, I found myself leaving the physical body, but instead of the soaring upward motion, I had a heavy weighted feeling, as if I were forced to travel in a horizontal position, and suddenly found myself in a narrow, dark street.  I found I could just stand upright now, as if I were adjusting myself more easily to the atmosphere, but I did not want to put my feet on the ground as it was covered with mud and slime.  Gloomy buildings, like stables, huddled against each other so closely that they almost touched, leaving only sufficient room for one to walk between.  Here and there I saw a wider opening, which appeared to lead into a kind of yard, into which the doors of some of the stables opened.  I looked in and saw that the yard was crowded with animals—bullocks, pigs and sheep—dead, and yet alive.  I knew they were dead,  but I could also see that they were alive, too.  They moved very slightly, many lay on the ground.  I understood at once from their appearance that they had just been slaughtered.

I pulled myself together with a tremendous effort.  The place and everything in it was so horrible that I did indeed have to make an effort—a great one.  I noticed that there was a great difference in the substance of this plane, compared with that of the planes where I had seen ordinary discarnate human life.  Even the suicides' plane was different, inasmuch as it seemed fixed and solid.  This dreadful place gave me the impression that it had but temporary existence.  I will not go into more details of the place and the condition of the animals, but only tell you that it was indeed most dreadful and repulsive in every possible sense.

I soon became aware that somebody was speaking to me, somebody whom I could not see, and who seemed to be a long way off.  This person, who I afterwards found out was one of my spiritual Guides, told me that the place lay between the earth and etheric planes.  Its misery was due to the tremendous slaughtering of animals for food that takes place daily; so much strong animal life is suddenly forced  out of the actual physical condition into one that is very close indeed  to earth, and yet is in no way part of the spiritual world.  What happens to the animal astrals, I do not know.  I was only shown this horrible scene on the astral side, which followed all the killing and pain on the earth side.  In the very air around me was a most definite feeling of terrible fear, suffering, and blind  resentment that was even more tangible than the buildings and walls. 


Now, up to a short time ago I had been a flesh-eater.  Every day I had my cutlet, cut off the joint, or piece of chicken.  It always looked so nice and appetizing that somehow one hadn't thought of it as being a piece of something that had walked and breathed, and felt pain and discomfort, just as we do ourselves.  From time to time Feda [Gladys's spirit 'control'] had tried to discourage me and other people, too, from eating meat, but as there is only a limited amount of power that can be used, I had been obliged to devote it to the needs of bereaved sitters, and so had little opportunity of questioning Feda on this point.  Now, after all I had seen, and the explanation given me of the reason for the existence of this horrible plane, I felt I wanted to ask several questions, so I got one or two sitters to ask Feda about it, while they were talking to her through me.

One thing we asked was, “What would happen if we all suddenly stopped eating meat?  Surely, the world would be overrun with cattle, sheep and other animals?”

“No,” said Feda.  “You wouldn't be overrun with them because you would stop breeding them.  There would not be anything like the number you have got if you hadn't purposely encouraged them by breeding them.”

She said that, in time, as people understood more of the Spiritual World, they would eat less flesh, and be better for it, and from my own more recent personal experience, I have come to the definite conclusion that Feda was right.  Since I gave up meat entirely a few years ago, my health has improved very much, in spite of strenuous work done under sometimes very difficult conditions.  My husband, too, has found great benefit through becoming a vegetarian, and the same has been told us by many of our friends.  My mind is clearer, and I am more “open” to direct spiritual guidance than I used to be.

You must not think that all animals that die, or have to be “put to sleep,” go to such places as I have described.  An animal that you have loved and who has loved you, whether it be horse, dog, cat, or bird, goes usually to the third sphere where somebody takes care of it, and where it leads a normal animal life (except that it doesn't reproduce its species as it would on earth), and is even brought to see you at times while you are still on earth.  I know you will meet your pets, the animal companions that you have loved.  I have seen my special cats, and also a dog, a pekinese, to whom my husband and I were much attached.  It seems as if the animals who love, and are loved, attain to spiritual rights and have an after-life in the spiritual world, just as we do.  Whether their “post-physical” lives continue for ever, I do not know.  I rather doubt it; that is, I doubt if they continue everlastingly in animal form, but they certainly live for a considerable time in the shape we loved and knew them by, and, thank goodness, they will live with us again when we pass over.

Some Observations about My Direct Voice Phenomena Articles

After writing many articles reporting about the audio recordings and books chronicling the Leslie Flint Direct Voice mediumship case, it is pitiable how such a profusion of evidence can remain unknown among most of society.  And yet numerous other 'paranormal people' are also ignored, including extensively documented 'channelers' as well as the contemporary family who witnessed phenomena of what is sometimes called the 'Centrahoma Talking Poltergeist' case.  As with the Leslie Flint case, the Centrahoma case involves a succession of diverse manifesting voices — the topic inspired 21 articles prior to this now concluding series of 21 articles about Flint and other Direct Voice mediums.

Hundreds of Leslie Flint Direct Voice audio recordings may be heard without charge on the Internet at wholejoy.com.  Some of the communicator voices have commented about the nature of life in the ascended state with Flint's control 'Mickey' quoted in the December 27, 2015 article while last week's blog article presented transcript excerpts concerning this subject as voiced by the often-recurring communicators 'Rudolph Valentino' and 'Dr. Charles Marshall.'

At times seance participants recognized earthly characteristics of one or more of the manifesting voices after having a personal relationship with the named individual/s prior to their passing to 'the other side.'  For example, in the memoir of one woman's metaphysical research encompassing Direct Voice seances The Voice of Valentino (1965), author Lynn Russell mentioned her mother's voice having "her very own, particular, infectious laugh."
 
In addition to Leslie Flint, previous blog articles have chronicled events during the seances of other Direct Voice mediums, such as John Campbell Sloan (1, 2, 3, 4), Peter Clarke (1, 2), Emily French (1), A. W. Kaiser (1, 2) and Henrietta Wriedt (1, 2, 3).  One variation between what Findlay has chronicled and the Leslie Flint audio recordings is a Direct Voice (disembodied speech) response to a question about reincarnation.  The following is an excerpt from a 1923 seance transcript included in Findlay's 1931 book On The Edge of the Etheric.

Question: Do we re-incarnate again on earth?

Answer: Now that is a question I find difficulty in answering.  I have known no one who has. I passed over many years ago, and I have round about me those who lived thousands of years ago on earth.  That is all I can say, because my knowledge does not permit me to say more.

As mentioned in a previous blog article, Flint's 'control' Mickey once stated during a seance: ". . . various people coming from various spheres can only give you an insight into the knowledge that they have appertaining to their particular advancement or development . . ."  Lynn Russell in The Voice of Valentino quoted Mickey on the topic of reincarnation: "Reincarnation is so obvious that I can't understand intelligent people doubting it!  The fact that you can't remember is neither here nor there.  The point is, if you remembered too much you would always be on the defensive, avoiding mistakes, instead of overcoming them . . ."

The reader who is a novice to the annals of transcendental communication may find that the statements given about life might differentiate from one's own perspectives of earthly experiences.  An example of this are some of the sentiments expressed by 'Shafir'—a guide of Direct Voice medium Peter Clarke—provided through seance transcripts in Behold I Live (1966) by L. C. Bridges and quoted in the blog article profiling this book.  The realization left unspoken is that what an individual desires to experience in life may not be possible when the totality of conditions are considered.  Factors encompass the influence and 'free will' of other individual people and perhaps even the will of 'God' or what Direct Voice communicator 'Douglas Conacher' is quoted as having expressed as "a force, a vital, living power that is dynamic, and within every human soul."  The Universal Mind being an omnipresent Superconsciousness greater than the expression of the totality of individual units or personalities is comprehensible through the selectivity involved with when, where and how manifests individual personalities or 'units of consciousness.'  The spiritual Oneness expressed by such terms as 'God' or 'the Christ Force' also manifests in other forms of 'paranormal' manifestation such as automatic writing, Ouija Board messages, Tarot cards, Electronic Voice Phenomena and Instrumental Transcommunication.

In my own case, I first learned about aspects of the life of medium Leslie Flint upon reading The Voice of Valentino.  At one sitting with Flint, Lynn expressed a worry that her experience of 'clairvoyant vision' "might be looked on as association of ideas or imagination."  The voice identified as that of 'Sister Teresa' was quoted: "You must believe it is given to you by us."  The following passage recounts some of the surprising moments chronicled by Lynn in the book.

During the years that we have been recording these sittings we have frequently noticed that a lengthy discourse comes to an end when there is no more than a few feet left on the tape, and at first we thought it was coincidence, but it has happened too often for this to be the case.  On this occasion I am positive a Spirit operator had noticed our recorder was not registering, and Mickey's thundering chorus fading away into a whisper was in actual fact a volume test, because he had never done such a thing before, and has never done it since.  Had anyone else been in the flat it might have been noticed that the cord was disconnected, because we leave the recorder in the lounge, and only the microphone is in the seance room.

One night in July in our home circle John described a clairvoyant picture of a tower from which came a peal of bells.  He did not hear them, but he saw the tone-vibrations of the notes as bands of colour flowing outwards in increasing circles.  Then he described a light that resembled a star in the sky, and as it came nearer to him it assumed the shape of the Cross.  He was very moved by this inspiring vision, and at the same moment I too saw a similar light, which as it descended became a cross made from amethyst.  This was carved out of one complete jewel, and the top and cross-members ended in rounded crosslets.

Some details about Valentino's second wife Natacha Rambova's interest in Spiritualism and Theosophy are provided in Madam Valentino — The Many Lives of Natacha Rambova (1991) by Michael Morris.  Rambova attended seances conducted by medium George Wehner, who wrote about his life and career in the autobiography A Curious Life (1929).  In Madam Valentino, Morris described the havoc that ensued when Valentino's corpse was presented for display at Campbell's Funeral Church in New York City.  When the doors of the funeral parlor swung open, the crowd surged forward.  As the mounted police attempted to control the frantic situation, windows were broken, cars overturned and more than one hundred people were injured.

survivalebooks.org—the website where I was introduced to an Internet edition of The Voice of Valentino—offers other free ebooks on the subject of psychical research and Spiritualism, including Raymond or Life and Death (1916) by Sir Oliver Lodge; and two case studies of Direct Voice communication: Proof (1933) by V. G. Duncan and Broadcasting From Beyond (1952) by A. E. Perriman.  The latter is about the mediumship of Perriman's wife Mollie and includes Dr. H. Coulthard's report on seeing the materialization of "a phosphorescent replica of a typical anatomical larynx."  Early in Perriman's account, the sitters are told that "a little girl, a daughter of a maharajah, would be attached to the circle in the role of doorkeeper and messenger."  Although the 'little girl' didn't know English at first, the sitters were told "the spoken word would be mentally interpreted by the spirit control to the little girl, and by this procedure she would in time get to understand."

We started with the alphabet, then with small words like cat, dog, top, etc., until we got her to repeat and understand small sentences.  Later, we introduced nursery rhymes, which she thoroughly enjoyed when she became proficient.  We taught her to sing many of the Sunday School hymns, her favourite being, "Now the day is over."  It was a sheer delight to hear her singing this hymn.  In the end, she spoke perfectly apart from her sweet little accent.  The spirit name of the child was Belle, known to Spiritualists all over the world who heard her speak on varying occasions.

One may compare the articles in this blog series with trivializing BBC coverage of Flint's mediumship.  One 13-minute "BBC Tonight" radio interview may be heard at the "Flint Speaks" page at The Leslie Flint Educational Trust website.  This BBC report presented Flint in relation to Valentino in 1976 at the time of the 50th anniversary of the Hollywood star's passing.  "BBC Tonight" interviewer John Pitman described Flint as "a widower in his 60s" who "has devoted his life to keeping alive the legend of the great lover . . . and he apparently has more power than most because he's a medium . . ."   The news and evidence—a clip of the voice of Valentino from a seance—apparently cannot be considered seriously by the reporter whose primary concern is probably how the audience and advertisers might react to new spiritual information beyond the reporter's ability to explain.

The voice of Valentino is heard to say in one 1958 seance audio recording: "Today more than at any time the voice of Spirit is needed to guide particularly those who hold the destinies of nations of the world."  
 
Today in 2016 it remains urgent for spiritually and metaphysically aware journalists to make the effort to help expand the spiritual awareness of the public.  Just as antipathetic mainstream media coverage of Leslie Flint during his lifetime seems to have inspired little interest in him, a television documentary segment about the Centrahoma 'talking poltergeist' case was broadcast in 1995 on the ABC network with the title "Ghosts, Mediums, Psychics: Put To The Test" and the footage also later presented on "20/20" only for the case to thereafter be left ignored among the mainstream media.  The anomalous phenomena on display in the video footage included a chair moving with no observable impetus.

When it comes to investigating books, perspectives, entities and cases involving so-called 'paranormal' or 'unexplained phenomena,' a novice reader must learn to differentiate the commercially sensational with the metaphysically relevant and persevere with the research to develop one's understanding because—quoting a proverb channeled in one documented case—"For as far as you shall look, that is as near as you shall come."

In last week's blog article, one of the quotations of  transcendental communication divulged that making sense of patterns may be an important aspect of developing metaphysical insight.  In many of the hundreds of extant Flint seance recordings, the voice of 'Mickey' can drolly be heard telling individual sitters: "You're a case."  Other Direct Voice or channeled communicators also have exhibited their own patterns of expression.  For example. in the Edgar Cayce channeled reading transcripts the comment is often found at the conclusion of a session "We are through for the present."

It is a revealing aspect of human creativity that artists of diverse media cannot always explain the basis of facets of self-expression in their own work beyond it all resulting from the functioning of their imagination.  Nobody should overlook that although the ways are perhaps less flamboyant than with mediums and channelers, each of us with our own talents and proclivities is a channel for the font of all possibilities.

 

 1994 Instrumental Transcommunication image (worlditc.org Klaus Schreiber page)

The Voice of Valentino

Rudolph Valentino (1895-1926) is most often remembered for his Paramount movie "The Sheik."

Lynn Russell's The Voice of Valentino Through Leslie Flint (1965 / PDF edition) is a case study of one woman's metaphysical research encompassing numerous Direct Voice seances conducted by Leslie Flint during the 1950s and '60s.  In her preface, Lynn Russell described herself as once having "held an administrative position of great responsibility."  After eight years of seances where her main interest was communication from the voice of Rudolph Valentino, the record of events encompassed 500 closely typed pages and an extensive collection of audio tapes.  Lynn noted that for the written records of the tapes "phraseology has occasionally been slightly altered in order to eliminate certain Italian characteristics which might make the reading a little difficult."  In any case, contemporary audio playback technology facilitates easier transcription.

In the preface, Lynn offered an example of Valentino's communication that included the following passage.

"I want you to know that everything I do is done in love and I am but the agent of Others more highly evolved than I am but who, through the medium and me, come in love to serve Mankind.  We are bound together by chains that cannot be broken, for each link is strong and secure, held together by love and faith.  We are linked through Time and Space by this chain which encircles, not only your world, but ALL WORLDS.  There are no limits imposed on the power of love."

Conversations with the voice of Valentino were appraised by Lynn as having revealed "the soul of the real man, as opposed to the pseudo-personality of the silent screen."  She was 11 years old when she first saw Valentino in "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" (1921).

Valentino's death in 1926 became for her "the first experience of death to affect me."  Having previously attended many Spiritualist services, Lynn was living in North London in May 1955 when she heard a radio program featuring Leslie Flint, who spoke about the influence upon Valentino of spirit guides Meselope and Black Feather.  Lynn commented about the book of ruminations entitled Day Dreams that Valentino published in 1923: ". . . the contents were through his own gift of mediumship and inspired by the people whose initials appear under each title."  She wrote to Flint and he replied with an invitation to his home.  Her first appointment for a seance with Flint was in December 1955.

As usual with Flint, the Cockney voice of his 'control' 'Mickey' was the first to be heard.  He asked, "You're not scared are you, love?"  She told him she was excited and Mickey said that there were many people who would like to speak to her.  A woman's voice with a French accent was then heard (later learned to be that of 'Sister Teresa'), followed by the voice of 'Dr. Marcel,' who gave her advice about clinical treatment for her "physically backward" son.  The voice of 'Dr. Charles Marshall' was next and then Lynn heard the voice of her mother, who'd passed in 1952.

One of the things mentioned by her mother was that she was sorry to have disposed of the collection of Valentino books and photographs that Lynn had accumulated as a teenager: "I will help you to replace them."  The next voice was that of "Val, Valerie" — Lynn's daughter (a twin of Anthony) who 'died' several days after birth.  When Lynn regained her composure, Valerie told her she was surprised at the reaction as Lynn should've been aware that a soul continues to grow if one passes over during infancy.

Lynn was accompanied by her husband John to another seance with Flint a week later and her mother and daughter were heard again.  Lynn mentioned being impressed by one of the communicators: ". . . we discovered afterwards it was the famous actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell . . ."  At a midsummer sitting, Lynn's friend and co-worker Jean accompanied the couple.  The voices of Jean's father and other relatives were among those heard.  The voice of 'White Cloud' told them that Jean's husband, Stanley, was more interested in the proceedings than he cared to admit and would soon sit with them and in fact become their medium: ". . . It would be well not to inform our brother of this for the time being . . . leave it to the Power of the Spirit to influence him."

Soon after Lynn, John and Jean started weekly sittings of their own, the somewhat bewildered Stanley began describing clairvoyant visions.  When Stanley joined them for a visit to Flint's seance room on September 21, the first 'Direct Voice' as usual was that of Mickey saying, "Ahem!  He's a sceptic."  Before Stanley could reply, a relative of Jean's known by Stanley began speaking.  Lynn commented about Stanley: ". . . the evidence had overwhelmed him completely, as it does most people when they hear this wonderful communication for the first time."

The following week, Lynn first heard the voice of 'Rudolph Valentino.'  She would come to regularly converse with 'Rudy.'  On this evening, his voice was preceded by that of the woman responsible for him being cast in "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse," 'June Mathis,' whom Lynn quoted: "I want you to know that Rudy and I have been together in other incarnations.  In Egypt, in Rome, and in Italy of the Middle Ages, as—you—have—also.  You have all lived on this Earth before, and when you are drawn inexplicably to someone, and perhaps do this person a great service, it is your Karma to do so."

Lynn quoted Rudy's first greeting to her: "Good evening.  Please do not be so tense . . . When you are so tense and over-anxious it makes it much more difficult for us.  Do not concentrate on me.  I am nothing."  He stated, ". . . we have a task that we have taken upon ourselves, and that is to help change the mind of Mankind."

As the seances continued, so did the home circle sessions with medium Stanley.  Lynn accepted his visions as evidence that they were making progress with the light trance state, showing that they had "achieved suitable conditions for our controls to work with us."  Her own first experience of light trance occurred during the twenty-first sitting as she witnessed "an extraordinary scene, of which I appeared to be a part and yet at the same time I was remote from it."  The location was Egypt and Lynn saw in "flashes of vision" the Pyramids, enormous statues, men wearing striped headdresses, and a Sphinx with undamaged nose.  "Strange to relate I 'saw' all this without moving from my vantage point which seemed to be on the steps of a large building."  Lynn wrote that she began to soliloquise about the Temple of Isis during the time of Ptolemy II as she simultaneously saw veiled girls.  Then, a swirl of smoke blotted out the scene and through the grey mist she saw a golden winged disc.  She next described the jeweled headband of a man approaching her.  A serpent emblem was on the jewel-encrusted uraeus.  When the man looked upward, she saw that it was Rudy.  "As our hands met I was aware of a terrible fear—fear for us—and the vision was gone."

Lynn commented that this vision allowed her to better understand Stanley’s demeanor when offering interpretations: "It is all very strange and until I had experienced this 'seeing' and then 'becoming part of,' I had not realized the difficulties which he had overcome in order to convey even an outline of the scenes, or a fraction of the awareness." 

As Stanley gained experience with describing the impressions he received, Lynn noticed recurrent themes and patterns.  Scenes of historical periods were punctuated by signs and symbols.  She interpreted the red rose to indicate love, a Latin cross for service, and a feather to denote wisdom.  She mentioned that the animals characteristic of each locality were always noticeable.  Stanley described startling panoramas in many different epochs and civilizations.  At a sitting with Flint, Lynn noted that the voice of the Scotsman 'David' showed "a particularly intimate knowledge of each one of us."  She would find this to be the case with many of the communicators.

Lynn wrote that her husband John was developing clairvoyance rapidly and that often the couple saw the same thing simultaneously but from a different aspect.  Lynn differentiated "possible imagination or association of ideas" from the experience of clairvoyant vision, which was "as comprehensive and rapid as the shutter of a camera."  She stated that one impressive example of their simultaneous clairvoyant image occurred when she saw "a man crucified on a rough cross" and John saw a man who "had been taken down from the cross and was leaning heavily against someone at its foot; he was not dead."  Lynn also described experiencing "two flash-backs to ancient Rome" where she saw Rudy dressed as first a Roman Centurion and then a different status was suggested by the sight of him wearing an imposing tunic and burnished helmet with a scarlet plume.

An example of the occasionally guiding aspect of the communication was provided when 'David' mentioned at a February 1958 sitting: "But you will be down here again before you go" when a vacation in Italy was planned.  Then Lynn's son Anthony's vision in one eye became impaired.  An operation was planned and an emergency sitting was arranged with Flint.  At the seance, Dr. Marshall explained how the malady had occurred.  The operation restored some of his sight in the injured eye.  The vacation was cancelled yet eventually rescheduled.

After the April 22, 1958 sitting with Flint, Lynn observed about the sitting: ". . . it was not just Rudolph Valentino who spoke, but the true individual whose spiritual identity remains obscure."  She referred to this higher aspect as 'Rudy-Plus.'

The voice is the same yet the quality can be quite different; the accent is barely discernible but the characteristics remain distinctly his own.  This can be likened to a piece of music played on two pianos, one an upright model of average tone, the other a concert grand.  The notes and theme would be the same, but you would know without doubt which piano was which.

Lynn's quotations in her book are a general reiteration of what she heard in the recordings.  In 2016 Internet files perhaps make transcription an easier process.  Although Lynn's deductions are presented in her book, one may listen to the recordings at wholejoy.com and evaluate them oneself.  The following are some verbatim excerpts from the April 22, 1958 (Part 2) recording of a Direct Voice seance conducted by Flint.

There's much that I and others here have long desired to be able to come and speak with you on these lines.  If I am perhaps not speaking as well as I would wish it is perhaps because in some ways I am unused to speaking often.  My appearances are rare yet I am often with you, often around and about but I have never made it a habit of coming to speak at length for various reasons and if I do not tonight say all that I would wish, it is because time does not permit the power and also because there are many things which it is impossible to put into words for we as you know who come to you from this side of life, thinking as we do purely and solely on spiritual lines, find great difficulty in transmitting into words, language, things which are in themselves essentially spirit and of truth.  But nevertheless I want you to know that I and all of us here are constantly with you.


We come with a great force, with a great purpose to unlock the closed minds of men that we might give forth truth and enlightenment and a way of life and a wisdom so sorely and sadly needed.


We have seen countless souls sent here before their time, unready and unprepared.  Lambs sent to the slaughter.  You who are so-called 'simple' as the world sees it are the wise ones for you know truth.  You know the Spirit and its power.  You know wisdom because your heads have not been necessarily crammed with knowledge, earthly knowledge, which one day must pass away and be of no cons[sequence].  Tis spiritual knowledge and truth that will open the doors of heaven and make you free.  We want that knowledge brought into being in your world among all peoples and nations . . .


There is one path of progress.  A path of Spirit.  God's path.  Our path.  Your path.  Those in high places who hold the destinies of nations — these rulers, these men of power — these men of 'wisdom' as the world sees it — these men without spiritual grace, without spiritual wisdom, without spiritual knowledge, can in their ignorance and foolishness, through fear, throw the whole world into chaos.  We who come to you, knowing you, small insignificant you, yet nevertheless it is you and others like you who can save the world. 


I see myself through generations of time, through many incarnations, in many guises and in many places, and I know that this has been my task to endeavor in some form to spread love, to show love, to express and experience love, and through love breaking all barriers, bringing peoples together in harmony and in peace.  These things have been my task as indeed have they been the task of many other souls.  Many who come with our group to you.  You are our instruments.  We have been brought together for this purpose.  You have known of me and I of you in past times.  Now you are still of me and I of you.  We are one spirit though we are separate in ourselves but it is that One Spirit that flows through us all and we can forget ourselves and as our friends have already said in humbleness we find our true selves and in love our true service.  You are bodies, you are peoples but you are with me One in spirit and in truth.  We are all of the same Soul Group . . .

At the Dec. 16, 1958 sitting, Lynn's transcript is again a general reiteration; however, verbatim quotations are used for the remainder of this article.  At this session, 'Rudolph Valentino' is heard saying: "So I am a film actor . . . I am very pleased to be able to come and speak to you tonight.  It is very difficult . . . but as I contact you tonight I don't seem to get clear myself.  I don't know how to explain it to you.  I think I've tried to explain it to you before.  I have had many earthly existences, many earthly lives and as I come back to Earth it is as if several are all confusing you.  I don't — when George said 'David' for a moment I thought well I — perhaps it is that I am getting over the Scots contact but I was not thinking — in fact I've been trying to obliterate completely any earthly memory particularly because I wanted to speak to you purely on the spiritual level.  But I find as I enter the Earth vibration it is as if several aspects of my earthly existences impinge themselves . . . We give you, for instance, from this side certain facts.  We give you certain threads connected with yourselves and your past existences and you have to try to put that into a pattern.  We try to help you, but it still revolves around yourself, as indeed do all things of any nature which means progress."

Lynn wrote in her book that at the end of the recording "Charles came through and summed up this wonderful night of communion" —

"That is most interesting inasmuch that he may have sensed it — I don't quite know exactly how you can realize the tremendous impact that — at least you must have been conscious of — in other words that was one soul and yet many, as he and others have told you.  We do go through many phases of existence.  Sometimes people in your world do not like the idea and object to it very strongly but nevertheless you have received a speech, a talk, a sermon, call it what you will, not from one but from many all flowing through the same channel of spirit yet all entwined one with the other into a complete whole.  You see we have come to you in love and harmony with you.  We are as one and that is what's so important in our work — that we do come and work as one body of peoples . . ."

Both the voice of 'Dr. Marshall' and in succession that of 'Mickey' wished the group a happy Christmas and prosperous new year before saying good-bye for the evening.

In August 1959 on the anniversary of Rudy's passing, Lynn collapsed.  Upon examination by a doctor, she was told that she would have to undergo a major operation.  There usually was a two month waiting period for a bed at the London hospital where she was to be admitted; however, Lynn reported that at an unrecorded September 1 seance "Rudy confidently stated that I would be in hospital within three weeks."  This proved to be precisely correct when an unexpected vacancy occurred.  Following the operation, Lynn described two 'supernormal' manifestations of Rudy while she was in the hospital with the second involving "my first experience of astral projection."

The October 23, 1959 seance took place for Lynn during a period of recuperation.  The communicator voice whom Lynn accepted as that of 'Rudy' told her: ". . . in this plan we all must experience many things.  And now you have come through the testing and a calm, placid period has begun . . . now we are going to get on with the work and we shall make the progress we have promised."  Her planned book was referred to as "a revelation.  And I think will be of comfort and help — an inspiration to many people."  There followed a discourse about so-called miracles and the power of thought, including the comment: "The truth sometimes cannot easily be accepted because it is too simple . . . within each one there is this power, this indestructible Force which is life itself and it can overcome all things once you learn how to use it, how to harness it . . . we are all instruments.  We are all working in harmony for the common good.  It is not 'self' that matters."

A 1960 recording (beginning at 14:34) includes a male voice who commented: "I have a long time been linked with you as indeed you have been linked with me for my name is Meselope and we are here as one.  And others you shall learn of also and you will see how we are gathered together through time, through space, made one compete."

During the sitting of May 5, 1960 'Rudolph Valentino' commented: "I am more concerned when we come to reincarnation to more recent incarnations within this last 4,000 years."  Referring to the time of Cesare Borgia, he stated: "I was linked in Italy at that time but I was not a Borgia myself . . . and so were you . . . You were on the Borgia side.”

Lynn asked about this and stated "Oh Lucia of course."  The voice corrected her: "Lucrezia.  She was not as bad as she was painted.  History has given her a much worse name.  Actually she's much maligned.  Her brother was much more dangerous of the two."

The conversation turned to Rudy's cinematic interests and he stated: "Most of my films unconsciously have had incarnation throwback.  For many years — in one incarnation I lived in India.  Another incarnation I was in the desert.  Another incarnation I was in ancient Egypt . . . I suppose much of the time my films was due to these throwbacks to my past . . . I have understood that I had 18 incarnations."

At the June 17, 1960 sitting, 'Rudolph Valentino' reminded: "I don't want you to think only of me."  Lynn soon mentioned that she had been reading about Italian history and the communicator said: "But you know there was a period in my Life when I was a member of the Borgia family but not Lucrezia."  Lynn asked "Who was?"

"You."

"Yes.   And you — Alfonso di Bisceglie?"

"Yes, that's so but this is a long time ago."

"I know it's a long time ago.  I want naturally to know it."

"At one time we have a very interesting history in Florence but that was a long time ago."

"Well it doesn't matter how long ago."

"Perhaps there was great excitement, great interest.  We have an extraordinary career.  I was very interested in art.  You were too.  The family quarrels and all the upsets.  ("NO")  We have learned from these things, thank goodness.  Sometimes you must wonder why you have to come back.”

"Yes."

"And many people do.  They don't see the reason ("OF") and they don't see the purpose.  And especially when their lives do not run according to the pattern which they desire or think it should be.  We can not always choose.  Sometimes it is chosen for us.  Sometimes we choose to come back because of it is essential.  Sometimes it is requested that we return to do a certain work.  You know, there are many things which I cannot explain because I do not know how — there are no words that I can think of that will explain certain aspects of life and experience.  I can say this — there is a reason and a purpose that you are there.  There is a reason and a purpose that my work is finished — that is, from a point of view of returning in a physical body.  But I, of course, am interested from this side to assist and to help. But, you know, I have tried to help in many ways at different times and I still continue through various people.  We must remember that we who come from this side — we are endeavoring to help the whole of humanity.  There are some souls that are sensitive.  There are some souls that are instruments, others who we can work through in other ways of the mind rather than perhaps more, well, physical or psychic, if you understand the meaning of the term but where we can influence — I'll put it like that — where we can influence we do influence.  It is very difficult sometimes but we try very hard . . ."

Considering the Lucrezia Borgia comment, it seems apparent that a metaphorical association is being made.  Throughout the annals of psychic phenomena, such metaphorical 'reincarnation' comparisons are often found.  These links usually seem to be inspired by some manner of parallel being made between the life of a contemporary individual and a perception of some manner of historical record concerning a famous person who lived during a previous epoch.

During an August 5, 1960 seance Lynn heard the voice of Valentino talk about poetry being written through her hand: "This will be something that you will be impressed to do.  I will impress you occasionally when you least expect it . . ."  Lines of a poem from Daydreams was recited and Lynn interjected one of the lines she knew by heart, commenting: "Who wrote that — Meselope through you."  The voice continued: "And through you I, Meselope, Black Feather and others will soon write.  And one day to speak."

Lynn described what happened thereafter:

Before a week had passed I had written a poem which had come laboriously into my mind while I was doing some ironing.  To anyone who is gifted in this direction it would mean very little, but to me who could hardly rhyme "June" with "moon" it was a wonderful thing.  A week later another came, and yet another.  At first I would be aware of a throbbing through my head; often I would see the subject clairvoyantly and then as I picked up paper and pencil the words would come, but not always in the right order.  If conditions were difficult only two lines at a time would be given, and usually I sensed the identity of the communicator.  When the "Hiawatha" beat began to sound I had to drop whatever I was doing and grab pencil and paper.  The poem "Prayer" by Blackfeather was done in eight minutes with not a single alteration, whereas "Light" took a day to complete.

Lynn wrote 16 poems.  Here is the poem that Lynn selected to conclude her case study.

EVOLUTION

The petals of a flower are each a separate life.
Contemplate upon this thought and it will quell the strife
That causes constant turmoil in the mind that seeks solution
To this ever present puzzle of human evolution.
Ever anchored to the centre is each and every section
Leisurely unfolding that it may reach perfection.
Not until each separate petal is ready to unfold
Can emblazon forth the blossom, a glory to behold,
Though complete in all experience, still finds there's more advancement
To be found before it's worthy to grace the Gardens of Enchantment;
When the bloom is ripe for plucking, it is then perhaps, who knows,
That we shall find twin hearts encircled deep within the single rose?

Dozens of Lynn Russell's Direct Voice seance recordings may be heard at wholejoy.com.