Maurice Barbanell On the Different Aspects of Estelle Roberts's Mediumship

Estelle Roberts (1889-1970)

Estelle Roberts would enter a trance state and then the voices of unseen people in Spirit would converse with sitters during 'Direct Voice' seances.  (See preceding article.)  At other trance seances, her guide 'Red Cloud' would speak through her and these accounts correlate with what today is observed under the category of psychic phenomena known as 'deep trance,' 'overshadowing' or 'total takeover'  'channeling.'  (See preceding article.)  Occasionally there were 'apports' (materialized objects) and at one seance Spiritualist journalist Maurice Barbanell witnessed the full body materialization of 'Red Cloud.'  Maurice wrote about the various manifestations of Estelle's mediumship—including clairvoyance and clairaudience—in several chapters of Power of the Spirit, a 1949 memoir about the many people whom he personally witnessed to manifest the 'power of the spirit' in diverse ways. 

In Power of the Spirit, Maurice identified Estelle Roberts and Helen Hughes as mediums who were well-known for public displays of their psychic abilities with Estelle having "twice filled the Royal Albert Hall."  This article presents passages from the book about Estelle's mediumship.
 

Long experience has taught her that when she meets with a blank "No" or with "I do not remember," the fault is usually with the recipient.  Memory cannot always be spurred in a hurry, especially as some people find that their recollections freeze when they are addressed in public.

When Estelle meets with this class of individual she provides additional links in the chain of evidence until recollection comes.

The evidence piles up as the communicator mentions names of relatives and friends with whom there has been a reunion in the spirit world.  Finally, there is a recital of names of mutual friends on earth.  There is built up, as a result, a complete test of Survival which removes every vestige of doubt.  She rejoices when she has an avowed sceptic to deal with, for she knows that in the ensuing duel her clairvoyance will emerge triumphant.

Here are instances taken from notes I made during her clairvoyance at two large meetings in Sheffield and Leeds which were held about the time this chapter was written.  The first communication is from a dead brother returning to his sister:

"He has brought Jim with him."

"I can't place a Jim."

"He's your mother's brother."

"Yes, that's right!"

"He's met Aunt Jinny."

"I don't remember her."

"She's an in-law connected with your mother.  Her name was Mary Anne Jane."

"Oh, yes!"

Here is a part of the evidence given to a man who was told all his four dead brothers were present:

"They have brought Mary with them."

"Mary?  I can't recall her."

"Well, I must help you.  She is your father's sister."

"Oh yes!"

In another case, the message began by the medium saying to the spirit form standing by her, "I will find her if I can."  Then, her eyes scanned the audience until she paused and pointed to one woman.  "There is a young airman who wants to talk," the medium told her.  "You are his mother.  Before this meeting, you went to his portrait and asked him to get through tonight, if he could."

"Yes," admitted the woman.

Estelle gave the boy's age correctly, twenty-two, and asked, "Who is Ken?"

"A friend," was the reply.

Here the medium quickly added, "Ken belongs to the lady sitting next to you."  Estelle, when told that this was true, went on to transmit messages from both boys.  Ken, she said, knew that "my Mum asked me to get a look-in if I could."

The two war victims were laughing and joking she informed their mother, adding significantly, "If these are the dead. . . ."  Estelle smiled as she announced that the boys addressed her as "Auntie."

Ken was an excellent communicator.  He described how he had watched his mother go to a drawer and take out his "wings."  He referred to his "old writing book" which has, at the end, "a figure of an airman with a hand that is cock-eyed."  Naturally, all this was understood by his mother, who was overjoyed when Estelle said that she saw Ken reproduce his favourite habit, pushing his hat over his head until it came on to his nose.  This incident, which sceptics might regard as trivial, was excellent evidence for the mother.

The editor [London Sunday Pictorial] decided that readers living in the provinces should  have an opportunity to witness these displays.  The largest halls in Manchester, Birmingham and Sheffield were taken.  The response for tickets surprised the editor when he found that it had reached the sixty thousand mark!


This was clear evidence that the man in the street was intensely interested and was determined to find out for himself whether Survival was capable of being demonstrated.

I am always interested in the mechanics of mediumship.  For that reason, I asked Estelle to tell me what she actually saw and heard when she gave public demonstrations.  Her psychic vision, she said, could be subjective or objective.  When it came within the first category, she could see spirit forms even though her eyes were closed.  It was a mental or inner process.  When the dead appeared to her objectively, they seemed to be as real and solid as living people.

Her gift of clairaudience functions simultaneously.  She can hear the voices of the spirit communicators who address her, and when they are close enough she is able to watch the movements of their lips.  Their speech, she told me, has a softer tone than the voices of living people, but she definitely hears what they say.

Links to more recent videos made of psychic mediums demonstrating their abilities have been presented in previous blog articles (1, 2) and a great many more videos of mediums conducting psychic readings are available via a You Tube search (including Rosemary Altea, John Edward, Sally Morgan).

A portion of Power of the Spirit offers an attempt to articulate the medium's predicament among the 'communicators' of the 'Other Side' and portions of this section were reworded for This Is Spiritualism (1959), an alternate edition of Maurice Barbanell's memoirs.  In following decades, many books and other forms of documentation have offered perspectives about life in the ascended realm through quotations and transcripts of the explanations from the 'communicators,' as reported in many articles at this blog.

‘Psychometry' is a form of mediumship where an inanimate object creates a pattern for psychic information concerning the circumstances involving it.  Several examples related in Maurice’s books were taken from notes made by the author upon witnessing Estelle’s interaction with the public during exhibitions.  One of these anecdotes is presented in the following excerpts from This Is Spiritualism.
 

Public demonstrations of psychometry are frequently given at Spritualist meetings.  The procedure is for an official to go among the audience with cards numbered in duplicate.  Those who wish to have an article psychometrised take a numbered card, attach one portion to the object and retain the other for reference purposes. 


The owner places his object on a specially constructed tray divided into compartments, each large enough to hold only one article.  The medium picks up an object and gives the delineation, calling the number attached so that the person to whom it belongs can follow what is said.


Reporting her impressions upon handling a watch, Mrs. Roberts stated that it had been associated with troublesome times.  One of its owners had passed over.  It had been possessed first by a man, then by a woman, and lastly by another man.  "It has not been worn for a considerable time," declared the medium.  "I sense a wonderful character.  The present owner of the watch is someone who is very patient and who, at some time, experienced two great shocks.  Whose watch is this?"

"Mine," answered a member of the audience, "and all that you say is perfectly true."

"Do you know that the owner passed through a great tragedy?" asked the medium.

"Yes, I do."

"Did you know that he appeared in court where someone was fighting for life and he gave evidence which was the turning-point?"

"I know that he appeared in court."

"The owner met with a very bad accident," went on the medium.  "This watch is between eighty-five and ninety years old.  Do you know the young boy, who now wears it?"

"I do."

"And do you know the lady who wore it on a thin chain round the neck?"

"Of course I do; I gave it to her."

"Do you know this watch has been in a folded, coloured handkerchief, close to a small claps-knife?"

"Yes, I know that."

"What has happened to the coin that used to be attached to the watch?"

"I have it now.  It is on the thin chain."

The medium then referred to the fact that, when the watch was given to the member of the audience, the glass was cracked and another one was consequently put in.  Once, the watch was mislaid and was later found inside the covers of a book.  "Before that," said Estelle Roberts, "it used to lie in a long, square book.  The book had a red cover."

"All that is perfectly true," said the person who had brought the watch.

Psychometry can be a useful form of mediumship in cases where an inquirer lives many miles away.  When the inquirer sends an article used or won by one who has died, the medium can link up the spirit owner with the one left behind on earth.

As described in Power of the Spirit, the materialization of Red Cloud at an Estelle Roberts seance occurred among a group of around 60 participants.  The 'guide' had previously announced his intention to materialize so that the sitters could all see him.  In preparation for this seance, Red Cloud requested two luminous plaques and a red torch (lantern) be placed in the seance room.  Maurice recalled: "These were put in the curtained recess which became the improvised 'cabinet' for the materialization."

After Estelle Roberts entered the 'cabinet' and became entranced, the phenomena commenced.  The two luminous plaques floated in the air and the phosphorescent glow made discernible the face of Red Cloud.  Maurice shook hands with the materialized Red Cloud and was directed to feel his shoulder-length hair that at touch was found "long and silky."  Maurice wrote that he could see the ectoplasm which was draped around the figure —

These are the words I used in an account I wrote shortly afterwards to describe what I had seen.

"Here was a 'miracle'—a materialisation of a dead man who could move and speak, who had life and volition.  Incidentally, the voice that came through his moving lips was a little softer than I have usually heard it.  But it was undoubtedly the voice of Red Cloud as I have often heard it through his entranced medium and through the trumpet at his voice seances."

Maurice also described occasions when he saw the materialization of people at seances with other mediums: Helen Duncan, Mrs. Ashdown (Louisa Bolt), Ethel Post-Parrish, and Kathleen Barkel.  The following photographs show several examples of materialized beings representing the ascended realm of human existence, as mentioned in previous blog articles.  The photo captions are links to these articles.

'John King'
 

'Katie King'

materialized hand during Margery Crandon seance

a Helen Duncan materialization

     

The Trumpet Shall Sound

seance 'trumpet'
 

The title page of The Trumpet Shall Sound (1933) presents a Bible passage concerning a 'trumpet':

 

"In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible . . ."

I Corinthians 15.  52.

A vast quantity of documentation of Direct Voice mediumship cases has been profiled in articles at this blog, including more than 20 articles concerning Leslie Flint.  (1, 2, 3, etc.)  The Flint case is especially noteworthy due to the numerous audio recordings made and readily available for listening online without charge.  In an alternate form of Direct Voice (disembodied voice) seance, 'trumpets' are a significant tool — as in the John Campbell Sloan case.  (1, 2, 3)  During seances conducted by Sloan, the phenomenal voices were heard speaking through levitating and sound-amplifying 'trumpets' (or megaphones) similar to the one shown in the photo above. 

Maurice Barbanell's The Trumpet Shall Sound chronicles Direct Voice seances with medium Estelle Roberts and the 'guide' known as 'Red Cloud.'  In addition to the author's descriptions and transcripts of seances, accounts are included that were contributed by participants.  These recollections have titles such as "Mrs. Varley's Story," "Mrs. D. Yano's Story" and "Hugh Macleod's Story."

Beginning with the book's Foreword by Maurice's fellow journalist, Spiritualist and friend Hannen Swaffer, the widow Lady Segrave's participation in the direct-voice circle is chronicled throughout the book.  At each of the biweekly seances, the voice of her late husband Sir Henry Seagrave was heard for an interim.

The book begins with Maurice Barbanell's description of the seances.

 

The séances are always held in the house of the medium, Mrs. Estelle Roberts, in an upper room not used for any other purpose.  It is only a small room and will hold about twenty-five people seated in a circle.  The circle is composed of four or five regular sitters, the rest are there at the invitation of Red Cloud or with his approval.

Mrs. Constance Treloar is in charge all the time.  Much of the success of the séances is due to her charming personality.  She encourages the spirit voices, which are generally weak at first, gives wise counsel to new-comers and leads the singing when it is necessary.

The séances are always held in darkness.  Often at the beginning Red Cloud complains that he can see a chink of light.  He says it interferes with the psychic rods he has to make.

Two trumpets are used, ordinary tin trumpets with a strip of phosphorescence painted round the broad end.  You can always see when the trumpets move.  The extraordinary thing is, that no matter how quickly they move, they never make a mistake in the dark.  They never fumble, they never bump against anybody, nor touch the wrong person.  It is obvious that the intelligences who use them can see perfectly.

The shorthand-writer  who records the sittings is seated in a small alcove which has been partitioned off.  This enables her to have a red light and to hear all the voices which come through.

The rest of the sitters just take their seats.  They are told to link their hands with their neighbours.  Then Mrs. Roberts gives an invocation.  Soon you hear rather stertorous breathing, an indication that she is being entranced.

Her séances always start with "Onward, Christian soldiers," then an electric gramophone is played.  It plays all the time during the sitting.  After a while you do not notice the music.  Singing and music give vibrations which are helpful to the spirit voices.  Strangely enough the record always played is "Rose Marie," the Drury Lane musical comedy.

After the circle has been started for about ten minutes you see one of the trumpets move.  This always gives me a thrill.  Soon the voice of Red Cloud is heard, "God bless you all."

When a trumpet dropped out of the air, this was equated with a fluctuation in the "power."

Maurice recalled an incident that occurred when he attended his first voice seance with Estelle Roberts.  A gentleman whose name wasn't known to Maurice participated in the seance.  Red Cloud referred to the stranger upon saying, "Hold on!  This is for the new little man."  Maurice explained that Red Cloud always said "Hold on!" before each spirit voice spoke.  Maurice added: "To Red Cloud we are all little men and women."  The trumpet moved towards the stranger and a boy's voice said: "Dad, I want you to know that I did not commit suicide . . . I tried to shoot a bird, and stumbled and shot myself.  That's how it happened."  After the seance concluded, Maurice asked the man if he was sure that the voice was his son's.

 

"Yes," he replied, "that was my boy's voice.  They said he committed suicide four months ago, but my wife and I found it difficult to believe it of our son."

Maurice mentioned that he was told to leave the man's name out of the book because the man was afraid to tell his wife about the seance as she was a Christian Scientist and opposed to Spiritualism.

During the March 18, 1932 seance, the voice of an 'old friend' who'd passed over informed his wife and the other sitters: "Look here, you people, I was a Spiritualist, and I want you all to know that it is far more wonderful over here than ever I had realized."

Here are some of Maurice Barbanell's notes accompanying the 1932 seance transcripts.

 

Red Cloud's healing forms an important part of his work.  Through his medium he has trained several people who constitute his band of psychic healers


Red Cloud is always keen on making his séances evidential, hence his constant warning not to give information away.


Notice that it is the spirit who gives the names, which often the sitters have forgotten.


A long conversation followed concerning a story that the sitter was receiving "inspirationally."  The spirit voice knew all about it and gave some advice.


Red Cloud often refers to the spirit doctors who work with him.  They include some well-known English medical men who have passed on.


The trumpet floated until it touched the ceiling.  It moved round the circle and touched the five people present, who were all members of Mrs. Mayer's circle.


Red Cloud always corrects mistakes, whether made by us, or if a voice is occasionally indistinct.

Memorable events of the June 10, 1932 seance include the materialization of a rose — a recurring symbol throughout the annals of transcendental communication.
  

Red Cloud told Lady Segrave she was going to be rewarded for her bravery.  She had made public, a few weeks previously, the fact that she had proved her husband's survival.  This, of course, had caused quite a sensation, and had proved rather a trial for her.

During the sitting, she felt something placed on her lap.  When the lights went up she saw there, hot though the room was and stifling, a perfectly fresh red rose, still covered with moisture.

At the same seance, Red Cloud told the sitters that there was a spirit who has asked permission to address them and the author provides "Hannen Swaffer's Description" of what then occurred — excerpts follow of this passage in the book that includes a warning correlating with warnings heard decades later as quoted of the communicator known as 'Tom' in the transcripts of transcendental communication published in The Only Planet of Choice (1993).  'The opposition' was described by Tom to signify "the negative forces"/"the opposing forces" in a complex explanation for unfortunate occurrences in life.  (See one of the recent blog articles about 'The Nine' case.) 

 

"You must watch and protect your mediums in the next two months."

It was the voice of [the late] Arthur Conan Doyle, speaking loudly to twenty people.  The scene was the same séance-room in which Lady Doyle and her family heard Sir Arthur's voice at a previous sitting.

Doyle, vigorous, powerful, full of force, very earnest and very grave, came back and spoke of the great battle being waged between Spiritualism and the blundering forces that oppose everything that stands for progress.


The séance was a remarkable one.  Lady Hardinge, a newcomer, got three spirit friends through, one after the other, all of them clear-cut entities, full of personality, who showered evidence upon her.  The voice of the late Earl of St. Germans was particularly characteristic.  She told me afterwards that the three people nearest to her in the other world had all come through.

Red Cloud, full of counsel, poured wisdom and inspiration upon the sitters.  Dr. Rust, whom none of us knew by name, heard the highly-evidential voice of his wife, talking to him from Beyond.  The evening was crammed with drama, yet holy as a sacrament.

Then towards the end of the evening, Doyle came through.

"Doyle speaking," he said.  "I asked permission just to come for a moment to offer congratulations on the new paper.¹  (¹ This was a reference to the Psychic News, a newspaper recently launched.)

"Go forward.  Always stand for the truth.  Fear no man.  Do that which is good always.  Do not worry over things.  You have much to accomplish yet."


Again came the warning: "You must watch and protect your mediums in the next two months.

"Listen to me, Swaffer.  There is a great battle taking place, and you must watch our interests.  You are able to forestall that which is being put into being.  They will seek the best roses from your tree."

When [former president of the Marylebone Spiritualist Association present at the sitting Mr.] Craze suggested that this was only the prelude to a greater fight, Doyle said, with an impressive forcefulness, "There is a great force opposing us, but we must go forward.

"Craze, they can never stem the tide.  We are going to deluge the world.  Truth is here at last."

In the description of the May 27, 1932 seance, Maurice mentioned: "The evidence is made up of trivialities—that is why it is evidence."  An example of the gamut of earthly experiences and "evidence" includes the following paragraph concerning a child's voice that was heard at a seance.

 

A childish girl's voice, which gave her age as four, spoke to her mother.  She brought her own evidence.  She referred to her toys and she described in detail the frieze in her nursery and the animals embroidered on her flock.  The child reminded them of her birthday which was due shortly, and promised to be present at the party which they were giving in her honour.

At the same seance, messages from the voice of 'Sir Earnest Shackleton' came through a trumpet for his widow who was present: "I want to tell my dear one that her sister is here with me tonight.  We are all together here . . . I am waiting for you, dear, waiting for you . . . I am still endeavoring to do those things which will be of help to humanity."

 

About a December 3, 1932 seance transcript passage, Maurice commented about the husband conversing with the questioning voice of his wife in Spirit: "He was astonished that his wife should be familiar with details happening around him as trivial as this . . ."  The husband had been asked about a "path" at the premises of his home as the pathway had been requested by the County Council.

Maurice noted about this seance:

 

The last voice to speak was that of Sir Henry Segrave, who has now a perfect mastery of the trumpet.  He conversed in whispers with Lady Segrave, and it was done so well that the rest of the circle could hardly hear what he said.

The following excerpt is from the transcript of the December 30, 1932 seance.

 

"Fred Roberts speaking," announced the next voice.  "I have called my name three times—can you not hear me?  It is the first time I have spoken like this."

"It is nice of you to come," said the sitter to whom he spoke.

"Have you brought anyone with you?" she asked him.

"Shall I tell you whom?  Bob," Fred replied.

"Do you know who he was called after?" he was asked.

"Of course I do," he replied, "the loveliest dog that ever breathed.  There are three here.  How is John?" he asked.

John was the sitter's nephew.

He told her that her sister was there, and also a woman named Margaret Allen.  He referred to some automatic writing that he gives through a friend of hers, and discussed, very naturally, matters of interest to them.

Then he made way for Margaret Allen, a very determined personality.

Margaret Allen told this sitter all about her dogs who had died.  She gave all their names.

When Red Cloud followed her, he said the dogs were still alive.  The love showered upon them by human beings gave them sustenance.  In the animal spheres they grew upon love.

"The love you give dogs and cats puts a soul into being," he explained.  "The friendship of a dog, the love of a dumb animal can teach human beings something sometimes."

 

From the same seance transcript, the following passage is the quoted concluding statements of Red Cloud about the coming new year.

 

"Open up your hearts and respond to the music of your God.  Grant unto all men peace upon earth, unto all peoples the necessities of life, the at-oneness with your Maker.

"In so doing, let the next year respond to the voice of the spirit and so help your dark old world to light.  God bless you all."

Maurice Barbanell's description of the February 10, 1933 seance included some remarks about the Direct Voice phenomena: "No theories of telepathy or 'sub-conscious mind' can apply to this evidence.  No suggestion of fraud or collusion can be entertained."  One should consider that the concept of a shared subconscious Mind among all living things may have brought a different response from the author.

The concluding seance transcript in The Trumpet Shall Sound is dated March 12, 1933.  Among the 15 "spirit voices" heard at this sitting was one recognizable to several of the sitters.  Here is the beginning of this passage in the transcript.

 

Then there came a spirit voice which said firmly and distinctly, "You do not recognize me, I presume?"

"Who is it?" we asked.

Louise Owen, however, had quickly detected the personality of her Chief, Lord Northcliffe.

The spirit voice, however, refused to be greeted as Lord Northcliffe, but insisted on being called Alfred Harmsworth.  "Titles mean nothing over here," he said.

"I thought it was you," said Shaw Desmond.

"Yes," replied the Northcliffe voice, "being fey, you would."

"The futility of it all," the Northcliffe voice continued.  "War and starvation.  Are you binding yourselves together in unity and strength?  Or are you all standing in groups?  It is so futile, if you don't all get together and accomplish something."

Red Cloud mentioned to one sitter: "Your little baby is here.  Your little son who passed on.  He has grown up into a man now."

Maurice Barbanell concluded the book with "an example of Red Cloud's inspired teaching."

 

The glory of life is to love,
Not to be loved;
To give, not to get;
To serve, not to be served;
To be a strong hand to another in the time of need,
To be a cup of strength to a soul in a crisis of weakness
That is to know the glory of life.

Maurice Barbanell: Journalist for the Power of the Spirit

Maurice Barbanell (1902-1981)

 

Maurice Barbanell was among the authors to chronicle the phenomena associated with Spiritualism during the 20th Century after the Spiritualist Movement took shape during the mid-1800s.  Maurice was founder/editor of the newspaper Psychic News that commenced publication in 1932.
 
The books of the metaphysical journalist document a variety of manifestations sometimes equated with the 'supernatural' or categorized as 'paranormal'/'unexplained phenomena'; however, Maurice commented in This Is Spiritualism (1959, revised edition 1967):

 

I do not use the word "supernatural," for I do not believe there is anything greater than natural law.  All happenings, psychic or otherwise, are due to the operation of universal laws.

 

Maurice also was, himself, a trance medium.  Maurice's manifesting 'guide' was given the name 'Silver Birch' with transcribed portions of these communications published in many books.  Transcripts of the teachings evidently became the primary source of Maurice's spiritual insights concerning mediumship and spiritual healing.  A 'Silver Birch' audio recording may be heard online with a sequence of six short videos.  Here are some of the opening statements:

 

Let us try to achieve the closest possible harmony with one another so that we become one in our desire to aspire to the highest that we can reach.  And none and nothing can be higher than the Great White Spirit, the Infinite Power [or Pourer] of Divine Love and Wisdom, which is responsible for the boundless universe in which we live; and Whose Intelligence has devised and sustains all the natural laws that control and regulate every facet of being, whether mighty or minute, complex or simple, all operate according to inexorable laws that know no possible exception.

 
We recognize too that we have behind us all the time the mighty hosts of liberated beings whose one desire is to serve us so that we in turn may serve others less fortunate than we are.

As common with transcripts of authentic transcendental communication, there are manifold correlations between cases (including with the 'talking poltergeist' cases although usually in an esoteric manner).  Many examples of these parallels are noticeable in recent articles presenting teachings of "the spokesman for the Council of Nine" through Phyllis V. Schlemmer and of "a collective energy that has come to this plane to manifest the Christ in man" through Paul Selig. 

 

A book by Maurice Barbanell chronicling Direct Voice (disembodied voice) séances with medium Estelle Roberts, The Trumpet Shall Sound was published in London 1933.  Before learning about the 'voice séances' that occurred in her presence, Maurice knew Estelle as "a remarkable trance medium and the foremost public clairvoyant in England."

 

The Foreword of The Trumpet Shall Sound was contributed by prominent Spiritualist and journalist Hannen Swaffer, who wrote about Estelle's guide 'Red Cloud':
 

Often he breaks into poetry, blank verse and rhyme mixed up, much of it perfect metre and rhythm and occasionally almost Shakespearean in its beauty.


Sometimes he quotes modern poetry which the medium has never read.  When asked where he obtains it, he tells you he has access to all the literature and poetry that has ever been written.

He speaks of the "Council" on the other side.  He personifies a Plan.

 
Other books by Maurice Barbanell include Power of the Spirit (1949) presenting reports about various manifestations of 'psychic phenomena'; He Walks In Two Worlds (1964) is a case study of 'psychic photographer' John Myers; and there are several books about spiritual healers.
 
In the Foreword of Power of the Spirit, Maurice defined some of the momentous lessons learned.
 

To millions of people all over the world today the phrase, "power of the spirit," does not represent some theological idea but is a living reality which has completely transformed their lives. 


All forms of mediumship are expressions of spirit power.

Mediumship is the nexus between this world and what is called the next, though in reality there is no next world.  There is only one life.


The power has a tremendous potency, for it is capable of performing remarkable physical acts.  When it reaches its climax, you often get results like the direct voice . . .


Then, in rarer cases, you get materialisation, where something akin to the process of physical birth is accelerated.  In a few moments there appears in front of you a complete replica of the spirit communicator's former physical body, a living form that speaks, moves and breathes, that has solidity—as I know because I have shaken hands with and handled many materialisations.  The eyes are living, there is warm breath and the pulses beat.

In healing, the most efficient demonstrators are able to be the vehicles of this power, occasionally producing spontaneous cures in cases which the medical profession has regarded as incurable.

My own view, for what it is worth, is that the power of the spirit is akin to the life force itself.  It has all the properties of consciousness.  Residing within it are the vitality and dynamic which are part of the process of creation.


I have witnessed many varied manifestations of spirit power which could be explained only by the simple fact that they are due to the intervention of intelligences from the larger life.  As friends have passed beyond the veil they have returned with the assurance of continued affection and interest in our association.  Our companionship has not ended with the incident of death.  They have returned because the bond of love is an attracting force.

 
There may be read a recent Psychic News profile article about Maurice Barbanell.  Here is an excerpt from the article.
 

From their earliest association, long before Psychic News was mooted, Red Cloud had called Barbanell "John the scribe."  Barbanell gave the reason for this . . .


"When I asked why I had to embark on this task, Red Cloud said that in a past life I had promised to return to do so."  White Hawk [guide of trance medium Kathleen Barkel] told him exactly the same.

 
The beginning of Maurice's investigation of Spiritualism is described in This Is Spiritualism.
 

I began my inquiry into Spiritualism as a sceptic, with a bias towards incredulity.  My mother was a deeply religious woman with an orthodox outlook.  My father, however, was an atheist.  From childhood onwards I constantly heard my parents discuss the pros and cons of religion, without reaching unanimity.  The years of dissension had the effect of making me first of all an atheist and later, in my teens, an agnostic.  My outlook was unashamedly materialistic.  My ambition was to carve out a successful commercial career and make a fortune.  Fate, however, had other plans.

Thirty-seven years ago I was a secretary of a literary debating society at which famous authors were usually the speakers.  It was one of my functions to ensure that we had a good discussion by opening the debate and always opposing the speaker, irrespective of what he said.  I followed this course regularly, except on one fateful evening.  Our speaker that night, instead of being a famous author, was a Spiritualist—I forget now why he was invited—who narrated his psychic experiences, outlining what seemed to him to be their implications.  The speaker sat down, and I stood up.


"This is a matter for investigation," I stated.  "I have not  investigated.  Others who have inquired are better fitted to express their viewpoints, either for or against it."  When the session was over, the speaker approached me.  "Were you serious in what you said?" he asked.  "Ye-es," I replied.

"Will you put it to the test by making your own investigation?" was his challenge.  Because I was in a dilemma and could not refuse without appearing to be foolish or frivolous, I announced myself as willing to conduct an inquiry.  Moreover, I added, to stress the honesty of my agnostic outlook, I would express no opinion until six months had elapsed.

He invited me to attend a weekly séance held in a dingy tenement in the East End of London.  Though, doubtless snobbishly, I was not impressed with the surroundings, I was surprised at what transpired.  At the second séance a psychic phenomenon occurred for which I could find no alternative explanation other than it was genuine.


A fascinating example of supernormal activity is the fact that, on many occasions, I have received spirit messages through different mediums, each confirming what has been said through the other, though normally none of them could have known what had transpired at the other séances.


I write this book for the same reason that all my adult life has been spent in addressing public meetings in every large town in this country, in the U.S.A., Canada and on the Continent, and in contributing articles to national newspapers and journals published at home and abroad.  What is my reason?  I have come into possession of startling facts which have revolutionised the whole of my outlook on religion and philosophy and, indeed, on life itself.


Survival  [after death] is not a reward or a punishment for our actions on earth.  We must continue to exist beyond the grave simply because we have no alternative.


. . . man is a spiritual being with a spiritual heritage and with a spiritual destiny to fulfil.