Report of a Widow Briefly Reunited with Her Husband During a Materialization Seance

Seance participant Lady Zoe Caillard was photographed at her home 'The Belfry' in the Belgravia district of London.  She is reported to have opened her own chemist shop at her home in 1927.

 
 

British Spiritualist journalist Maurice Barbanell commented about materialization seances in his 1949 memoir Power of the Spirit.  He described seeing visitors from the ascended realm take shape "in what is, to all intents and purposes, a complex duplicate of the human body":

You see and handle forms which are solid and life-like.  They are not ghosts.  These materialised forms have a heartbeat and a pulse beat; their faces are perfectly formed with normal hues; their hands, complete even to fingernails, are warm to the touch and the grip is firm.  The eyes have the usual pigmentation.  The materialisations speak with voices which are replicas of the ones they had on earth.  They move with human gait towards you.  The colour of the hair follows the usual mortal fashion, blonde, brunette or grey as the case may be.  Sometimes they even reproduce the clothing that they wore, but usually they are garbed in robes that drape the figure.
 
The substance that makes this possible is ectoplasm, which has been analysed.  It is highly plastic and malleable.  Just as protoplasm is the basis of material construction, so ectoplasm is the foundation for these materialised formations.
 
Materialisation is the apex of Spiritualism's phenomena, so far as a physical demonstration is concerned.  Its purpose is to provide the supreme evidence for Survival.

Maurice's 1959 memoir This Is Spiritualism includes a detailed description of a materialization seance with medium Louisa Bolt (Mrs. Ashdown) that he personally witnessed circa 1935; otherwise, he attended Direct Voice (disembodied voices) seances with her.  During this epoch, it was common for materialization mediums to be fastened to their chairs with ropes so there could be no suspicion for any kind of duplicity among sitters and scientific researchers.  At one of the voice seances attended by Maurice, his wife—who loved animals—received an apport (materialized object) of "a beautifully coloured glass miniature of a dog's head which probably once formed part of a locket."  He mentioned about Louisa in an ironic way: "Her slight, pale figure suggested anything but a materialisation medium." 

The following paragraphs are from Chapter Fifteen "A Spirit Signature" of This Is Spiritualism.
 

The seance that I am about to describe is one that will always live in my memory, for a spirit promise was fulfilled that night.  A materialised form stood in front of me and, as he said he would do, some months earlier, wrote his signature on a piece of paper which I held out to him.

As is usual for this type of seance, a "cabinet" had been made by curtaining off a recess in the room.  Mrs. Bolt, at her request, was roped to a chair in the cabinet.  The red light was strong enough for me to see clearly the time on my watch and to be able to read the notes I was making.

A few minutes after the seance began, the four other visitors and I felt the cold psychic breezes which always accompany the production of these phenomena.  Just as the cabinet, we are told, is used to store and condense the spirit power necessary to produce materialisations, so the cold breezes are said to indicate part of the process used by the invisible operators to obtain their results.  The drop in the temperature is unmistakable.

From within the cabinet there appeared a small, white hand, which, we were informed, belonged to Ethel, the guide in charge of the phenomena.  In a soft, gentle voice we heard her ask: "Can you see my face?"  Then she appeared in front of the cabinet, a beautiful figure, clad in dazzling white raiment.  I noticed, as I have frequently done, that although a red light illumined the room the ectoplasmic robing was snowy whited.  Neither did it reflect the red light.

Ethel insisted on showing us her strikingly beautiful face—incidentally, it bore no resemblance to that of the medium.  Mrs. Bolt is good-looking, but she would be the first to admit that her features could not compare in beauty with those of her guide.

Ethel asked each one of us to step forward and shake hands with her.  Her hand was soft and warm.  To all intents and purposes it resembled a completely formed human hand.  When I shook hands with her, she allowed the drapery over her arm to brush me.  I asked permission to handle this spirit robing, and it was readily given.  I can only describe it as having a gossamer texture, far softer than the finest silk, and giving me the impression of feeling cobwebs.

One of the five visitors was Lady Caillard, whose husband, Sir Vincent, had promised to materialise.  In earth life he was a well-known industrialist who had been president of the Federation of British Industries.  I had not met him, before his passing, but had got to know his voice through hearing it at seances with Estelle Roberts and Louisa Bolt.  The voice I heard coming from the cabinet was similar to Sir Vincent's speech as I had heard it at the other seances.  The best testimony, however, came from his wife, who was easily able to identify it.

"I am doing my best," he said to her; "it all seems so difficult, because I am excited.  I shall be with you in a moment.  Let me get strong enough to bear the light."  This clearly indicated that, in addition to the labours of the guides, the manifesting entity also had his contribution to make.

Next Sir Vincent addressed me, saying: "I shall keep my promise."  A few moments later I heard him say to Lady Caillard: "I am quite ready.  I am more than ready."  In an earnest tone he prayed: "Oh God, give me strength."

Then he appeared in front of the cabinet's curtains.  He was several inches taller than Ethel.  I would have guessed his height as six feet.  His features were completely materialised, even to his distinctive moustache.  He called his wife by the nickname that she said he always used when addressing her.  Then he turned to the side of the cabinet where there were some roses, brought by his wife, which had been placed in a bowl on the table.  "My flowers," he exclaimed.  With a clearly visible materialised hand, he took two roses out of the bowl and asked her to come forward.  When she did so, he handed the flowers to here.  "This is our final accomplishment," he said.  First he took her by the hand, and then he embraced her.

Lady Caillard, a practising Roman Catholic, had started her inquiry into Spiritualism when her husband's passing left her grief-stricken with bereavement.  Gradually the evidence for his survival had accumulated through many mediums and varied phases of phenomena.  This, however, was the first time that he had materialised, to keep a promise he had made at earlier seances.

The materialised Sir Vincent kissed his wife several times and, during their embraces, whispered words of endearment and encouragement to her.  He had already told his wife, a very sick woman, at previous seances, that their reunion was not far away.  He referred again to their forthcoming reunion which, incidentally, took place five months later, when she died.

When she returned to her seat in the seance room, Sir Vincent insisted on shaking hands with each one of us.  Like Ethel's, his was a real hand.  I know it was.  When he shook hands with me, he slapped me with his other hand.  They certainly belonged to a man!  His hands were harder than Ethel's, which I had clasped earlier in the seance.

Sir Vincent announced that he would have to withdraw for a few moments inside the cabinet to get "more power."  When he reappeared, Lady Caillard drew his attention to the fact that she was wearing on her wrist a watch which she had had specially made for him.  By pressing a little raised catch, the watch chimed first the hours, then the quarters, and lastly the minutes, so that the time could always be told, even in the dark.

"Look, here is your watch," she said.  As she held out her wrist, his materialised hand released the catch, and the watch chimed the time.

Then he asked me for my notebook on which to write his signature, and so fulfill his promise made at an earlier seance.  I had been taking notes in a "braille" notebook, a type I always used at seances because it contains raised lines and enables me to write in the dark if necessary.

I moved forward to the cabinet and proffered my notebook, which I had turned over so that his writing should avoid the raised lines.  After he wrote part of his signature, he complained of the ridges, and asked for a plain sheet of paper.  This I gave him.  His wife handed him a pencil.  I held my notebook with the plain sheet of paper on top of it.  "Now we can see through a glass darkly, but then face to face," he said.  [1 Corinthians 13:12]

Then he wrote his signature.  "Have I kept my promise?" he asked.  I assured him that he had.  Sir Vincent stepped right out of the cabinet and showed us that he was a fully-formed, materialised figure.  "It has been a grand reunion," he said.

Even this was not the end of the seance.  I was asked to step forward to see Ivy, a little coloured control who helps Mrs. Bolt.  Ivy asked me to hold a toy piano which she wanted to play.  I knelt down to comply with her request.  In my kneeling position I observed that she was just my height.  I could see her black face, white teeth, thick lips and pink tongue.

Thus, at one seance, three distinctive, yet different materialisations had been made visible to us.

Maurice Barbanell wrote about Louisa in Power of the Spirit (1949):

In any accounts of outstanding voice mediumship I must include Louisa Ashdown, whose husband was associated with her for many years in devising scientific appliances to improve spirit communication.  Their spirit co-operator was a man who had been a pioneer in this country of telephone, electric light and X-ray apparatus.

Maurice reported in This Is Spiritualism about the mechanical appliances implemented during Louisa's mediumship:

First came an apparatus, the Reflectograph.  This consisted of a keyboard connected with a screen, on which illuminated letters appeared when the keys were depressed by spirit power.

Next came the Communigraph.  This was in the form of a circular table with a glass top, through which illuminated letters were shown when spirit operators made contact between a pendulum and electrical points attached to a keyboard below the table.  After each word was finished, a star was flashed on the screen.  At the end of every communication a bell was rung.  Two books were written on this instrument, every word being spelled by the communicator and recorded by a stenographer.

The final achievement involved sealing a Morse key so that it could not be operated in any normal way, and receiving spirit communications through it.

The "two books" mentioned by Maurice Barbanell were brought to publication by Lady Zoe Caillard: a pamphlet entitled Sir Vincent Caillard Speaks from the Spirit World (1932) and the published book A New Conception of Love by Sir Vincent Caillard, written on his communigraph (1934) transcribed and with an appendix by Lady Caillard.
  
Some materialization photos have been presented in previous blog articles.  (1, 2, 3, 4)

 

Maurice Barbanell's Memories of Mediumship

Photo from Spirit Healing (1960) by Harry Edwards: "Doctors observe the freeing of the joints of a spastic child."

  
 
Diverse occurrences associated with 'psychic phenomena' are recounted in Maurice Barbanell's memoirs Power of the Spirit (1949) and This is Spiritualism (1959).  Maurice wrote in the Foreword of the later book: "As Editor of two psychic journals, I have been invited to many seances that are not usually available to ordinary inquirers . . . I began my inquiry into Spiritualism as a sceptic, with a bias towards incredulity . . . My ambition was to carve out a successful commercial career and make a fortune.  Fate, however, had other plans."

Maurice reported about the cases of 'supernormal activity' he had observed firsthand and knew to be authentic due to such occasions as him having "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 seances."

Maurice explained in This Is Spiritualism:

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 revolutionized the whole of my outlook on religion and philosophy and, indeed, on life itself.

The following passage is the beginning of the first chapter "Beyond The Five Senses." 

Mediumship is the unique contribution that Spiritualism has to offer.  It provides the foundation of evidence from which everything else in Spiritualism follows.  It is, in my view, the basis of demonstrable fact which the honest enquirer can ascertain for himself.

Preceding blog articles report about Maurice's acquaintances with mediums Margery Crandon, Helen Duncan (1, 2), Helen Hughes and Estelle Roberts (1, 2); 'psychic artists' Frank Leah and Coral Polge; and 'psychic photographers' Ada Emma Deane, William Hope and John Myers.  The memoirs provide details of incidents in Maurice's life involving dozens of people experiencing different forms of mediumship, including clairvoyance/clairaudience, automatic writing, and 'psychic healing' (or 'spiritual healing').  The following quoted passages in this article are from Power of the Spirit.

Maurice wrote about England's famous healer Harry Edwards:

This modern saint—a description which I consider wholly justified—divides his time between giving public healing demonstrations in some of the largest halls in Britain, treating patients at his sanctuary thrice weekly and answering a mailbag that at the time I write this has reached the astonishing figure of 4,000 letters a week which pour in from sufferers all over the world.


It was soon after he began his inquiry into Spiritualism that Edwards was told he possessed the gift of healing.  He followed the usual rules laid down for the unfolding of incipient mediumship by joining a developing circle which held regular seances.  It was not long before his gift was strong enough for him to demonstrate to sufferers that he could really help them.  As we all know, nothing succeeds like success.  One cured patient told another and the numbers of those who sought his ministry began to swell.

The spectacular public demonstrations are a recent innovation which started unexpectedly in a small Spiritualist church in Baker Street.


From that small beginning, he has reached the stage where it is usual for him to demonstrate psychic healing before audiences of two thousand people and more at least once a fortnight.  I, who have witnessed four of these demonstrations, regard them as being among the most remarkable happenings of my long psychic career.


To one demonstration in Manchester I brought a friend who has spent forty years in giving manipulations.  He watched with fascination while Edwards took a man's arm made almost rigid by rheumatoid arthritis.  In a few seconds the healer lifted the bended arm above the patient's shoulder and the sufferer was touching the back of his own head.  This was done without causing a twinge of pain.  Afterwards my friend and I saw this man, who had still not recovered from his amazement at the moving of an arm which had been rigid for years.
 
"What Edwards did in that case," said my friend, "is 'impossible.'  It proves that some supernormal power was at work.  No ordinary individual could have moved that arm without causing great pain."


Let me describe what I have seen accomplished.  At one of his first demonstrations at Tooting, South-West London, I was asked to give an address beforehand.  Then Edwards followed with a simple explanation that he was the medium for a spirit power which was able to help sufferers.  Next he asked for volunteers for healing, choosing two or three people in each category of disease where treatment could be demonstrated, to come forward one at a time.


Edwards always asks for the "incurables" to be treated, the ones who have made all the rounds and have been told their cases are hopeless.

For over an hour and a half I watched him at work.  Within a few moments, after only a few passes had been made over her ears, a woman who had been deaf from childhood was able to repeat the words he spoke, even though he repeatedly increased the distance he stood from her.  Similar successes were achieved in cases of blind people who were soon able to describe the colour, shape and details of objects which previously they could not see.

I recall two cases of patients suffering from curvature of the spine, an affliction which, alas, is easily discernible.  A young woman sat on a chair with her back to the audience.  Edwards outlined the curvature with his fingers.  He placed one hand over the affected region, put his other arm round the patient and seemed to jerk one hand.  That was all.  Yet now her back was almost straight.  The woman felt no pain, but so intense was the concentrated power that streamed through the healer that he was covered with perspiration.


. . . Edwards makes no charge for his services.  He accepts voluntary donations towards the upkeep of his sanctuary, but until recently the expenditure exceeded the income.  The deficit was made good from a printing business in which he was formerly engaged but which is now directed by his brother.

The last time he compiled statistics he discovered that eighty per cent of his patients reported improvement and thirty per cent testified that they had been cured.  And remember that the large majority of correspondents are of the class described as incurable.  Now it is not uncommon to find letters from doctors seeking help for themselves, relatives and patients.

Another healing medium profiled by Maurice in his book is trance healer Mrs. Margaret Lyon of Glasgow, "the woman who can X-ray with her eyes shut."  Maurice mentioned that the manifesting 'guide' was known by the name 'Kahasdee,' a pen name which translated means 'I serve.'  Some accounts of successful treatments of sufferers are related in the book.

I, who have spoken to Kahasdee, can testify that she is a separate individual from her medium.  She possesses a wide range of medical knowledge, is familiar with all the technical phraseology used by doctors and is conversant with the latest research on the subject.  She speaks softly and works with a competence that is highly impressive.  Her sense of humour is of the quiet variety, except that she chats merrily all the time she gives treatment.  Typical of her humour is her statement, "I expect I am the chattiest ghost you have ever met."


"I was taught by a Jesuit priest who had belonged to Stonyhurst College," she told me.  She was a [Japanese] woman doctor attached to the royal household at Korea in 1895, at the time it was attacked by the Japanese.  The invaders burned and buried alive the queen and all members of the royal household.  Kahasdee ended her earthly life at the early age of twenty-three as a result of exposure.


Kahasdee has stated that she had attached herself to Mrs. Lyon for the best part of her medium's life.  The spirit doctor knew that it would need some great experience, like the sorrow caused by her son's passing, to pave the way for her mission to begin.


For the last ten years, she [Mrs. Lyon] has specialized in utilising her healing gift.  Kahasdee's skill in diagnoses has brought her in touch with some of Glasgow's leading medical practitioners.  She asserts that when patients consult her, their bodies are transparent to her spirit gaze and thus diagnoses and treatments are simplified.


Generally, the treatment consists in laying on of hands, by means of which the spirit doctor says she transmits spirit power to the affected parts of the body.


When it comes to cases of arthritis, Kahasdee resorts to manipulation.  Bearing in mind that her son's passing by tuberculosis was the means by which Mrs. Lyons was drawn to psychic healing, it is interesting to record Kahasdee's statement that this disease is the easiest to cure.  She declares that it only takes fifteen minutes for the spirit rays to become effective.


Apart from healing at a distance, Mrs. Lyon told me that personal treatment is given to four thousand people each year.  When a sick person first consults the medium, an hour is devoted to the case, because a diagnosis is necessary.  After that, treatment generally lasts about half an hour.  A charge is made except where the patient is unable to pay it.  No case is ever refused because of lack of means.

Helen Duncan is among the well-known mediums whose seances were personally witnessed by Maurice Barbanell and among his books is The Case of Helen Duncan (1945).  Helen was known as a 'materialization' (or 'physical') trance medium.  Maurice recalled:

I must have sat at her seances at least a score of times, and these include one memorable occasion at which a remarkable demonstration of her faculty for materialization was given a few hours before her trial.  At the zenith of her powers, Helen Duncan's mediumship produced full-form materialisations that were completely identifiable.  I recall the appearance of my old friend, Alfred Vout Peters, one of the outstanding clairvoyants of his day.  Peters materialised and I saw his face, complete even to his moustache and beard, which at his request I handled.  Not only was there evidence of identity in the appearance of these solid-looking spirit forms, but frequently I have heard them give their names and mention incidents that added to their testimony.

In Power of the Spirit accounts of Direct Voice seances include those of medium Frank Decker in New York City and in England during a visit. Maurice remembered:

I was on a lecture tour in America when he [Frank Decker] invited me to attend a voice seance which was held in a cellar, the coolest place available, but even then the temperature registered ninety five degrees!
 
Decker's spirit control is Patsy, a perky and vivacious youth whose wit and repartee produce rounds of laughter.  Because of the heat, I had left my jacket in a room two floors above the cellar.  

In the jacket was an envelope containing four photographs purchased that afternoon at a museum.  During the seance Maurice found himself suddenly handed a postcard while Patsy was heard to say: "I have brought the one of Joan of Arc.  I like your choice."

There was on one postcard, a reproduction of a painting of the Maid of Orleans listening to the voices of her spirit inspirers, one of whom was depicted.  When the seance ended, I went up the two flights of stairs to the room where my jacket lay.  I took out the envelope in which previously there had been four postcards.  Now there were only three.
 
Patsy does not hesitate or fumble.  He makes positive statements, such as the following which I recorded, "Your grandfather John is here and he wants to send messages to your sister Emily, your aunt Susan, and your nephew Henry."  I counted a score of spirit voices, each different and characteristic, always giving evidence that they emanated from those who are called dead.  One spirit voice maintained a long conversation in a foreign language with a sitter, who afterwards told me that it was Polish.
 

. . . he ['Patsy' or 'They'] removed, unerringly in the dark, a pair of spectacles from the nose of one woman and placed them on another who was already wearing a pair.  He handed me a harmonica, which I was asked to put inside my pocket and then cover the musical instrument with my hand.  While I did so Patsy played a tune on it!  He showed what he called his spirit light, a soft ball of phosphorescence which appeared in different parts of the room.  Another surprise was a welcome breath of cold air . . .
 

This strong, cool breeze, accompanied by the scent of violets, was wafted round the circle.

The climax of the seance was a demonstration by another guide who, unlike Patsy, spoke in a deep, cultured voice.  He asked two members of the circle to take their seats, one on each knee of the medium in the middle of the room, while I stood behind Decker.  "Where is my voice coming from?" boomed the guide.  "From the right of me," answered the man on Frank's left knee.  "Where is it now?" was the next question.  "From my left," was the answer by the same man.  Then, making his voice travel right round the circle, the spirit guide repeated his question.
 
A few months later, on a visit to this country, Frank gave a sitting in my flat.  Soon after the first spirit voice was heard, we had to make a break in the seance because brilliant sunlight was filtering through the curtains.  We tried to make the room completely dark, but we were unsuccessful.  Streaks of light were visible during the rest of the seance.  Yet there was a remarkable variety of phenomena.
 
This seance was held shortly after an International Spiritualist Congress, to which a lawyer, G. C. Sajnani, had come from India.  He was addressed by his fiancee, who had died in the terrible Quetta earthquake.  It was a touching moment when she told Sajnani that she heard his nightly prayer and mentioned its chief request.  "Krishna, Krishna," she called to him in pleading tones, "this is your Krishna."  Her body was buried beneath the debris of an earthquake five thousand miles away, but she had successfully communicated with the man she loved in a London flat which they had both visited for the first time.  While an affectionate reunion took place between them, these two seemed to be the only real persons in the room.  Sajnani told me that not only was the pronunciation of her name striking evidence, but that she gave the name of her dead sister, which was unknown to anyone in England, and referred to his mother's spirit presence.

A friend of mine who had arrived from America the previous day was invited to attend, to have her first experience of a seance.  She and her sister were asked by their dead mother's voice to stand up.  The mother was able to materialise sufficiently to embrace both daughters and to kiss them.

Lastly, Patsy enlivened the proceedings with a demonstration of what he could do when he really tried.  Three men were asked to sit on the medium's knees and to control his hands, while all the other sitters had to clasp the hands of their neighbours.  Thus everybody in the flesh was accounted for.  Then the fun began.  Coats were removed from two sitters and thrown across the room to two others.  A necklace was taken from one woman's neck and placed round that of another.  A row of pearls was unfastened and handed to somebody seated in the opposite direction.  In response to a mental request, Patsy removed treasury notes from one man's pocket and placed them in the hands of a sitter ten feet away.  These feats were accomplished without any trace of fumbling.

Patsy sat on the lap of one man, who declared that he could feel the guide's face and hair.  There was laughter as each sitter announced what was happening during Patsy's playful performance, with a reporter recording each statement as it was made.  Finally, he declared that he could not do any more recording because Patsy had stolen his note-book!

The following passage from Power of the Spirit again reminds the reader of the gamut of manifested phenomena universally witnessed and documented throughout America and Europe with the commencement of the modern Spiritualism Movement during the mid-19th Century.

By way of a contrast let me tell you about a home circle which developed the direct voice.  It was a joint mediumship belonging to Mr. and Mrs. L. R. Hodges, the husband being a hairdresser in Brighton.  They started a developing circle with friends as regular sitters, determined to get the direct voice if it was possible.  Once a week for four years they met and held their usual seance.  There was no indication that psychic powers were being developed by the Hodges.  If there was any suggestion that a sitter might go into trance or give clairvoyance the Hodges discouraged it at once because they thought it might retard to coming of the direct voice.  They continued to sit patiently until they received their reward.  First they felt the cold psychic breezes that are characteristic of the physical phenomena of Spiritualism.  They then heard what sounded like the snapping of fingers.  Finally, there came the Voice.

At the seances I attended, husband and wife remained normal and conversed with the spirit voices, which were distinctive and characteristic of their owners.  When a breezy voice acclaimed me with, "Hullo, Mate!" I recognized the speaker immediately.  So that he should provide the evidence, I asked, "Tell them what I did for you."  Without hesitation came the reply, "You put my body into the grave."  That was true.  He was an old fisherman named Bridges, a member of a Spititualist church at Southend-on-Sea, who had made me promise to conduct his funeral.  This may sound gruesome to the non-Spiritualist, but at the time of writing I have made at least a score of similar promises.  Spiritualists do not regard death with the dread that fills other people when they contemplate its coming.

Several times during one seance I heard two and three voices speaking simultaneously, with the Hodges breaking into the conversation.

Before the sitting, when we were having tea, the heavy table on which all the food was laid—and I am referring to pre-war days—was levitated in full light!  It rose several inches clear of the ground.  After the seance while we were discussing this phenomenon, the table was levitated again.  I tried to raise it myself, but could shift it only a little with the utmost effort.

Maurice was able to observe British medium Mary Methven at a sitting where he "received first-class evidence of Survival from friends and relatives who had passed on."  Mary was "a trance medium who has consoled and helped hundreds of people."  Maurice wrote about the Mary Methven seance:

My father, who frequently communicates at seances, proved his identity and repeated the nickname by which only he and other members of my family knew me in my youth.  I had not heard it for over thirty years.
 
The Red Indian guide of my own home circle manifested and cleverly indicated his identity.


Another good communicator was my mother-in-law, whose references to her daughter and to myself were both characteristic and evidential.  And her messages were similar in content to those she has sent through other mediums.
 
I felt, when the seance ended, that though they were invisible to me the room was filled with living presences who had triumphed over death to prove their closeness.

One of the well-known clairvoyant mediums with whom Maurice Barbanell was acquainted is Tom Tyrell of Blackburn, England.  A passage from Power of the Spirit offers a remembrance of his mediumship.

As a young man, I went, while on holiday, to a Spiritualist church in Paignton, and Tom was giving clairvoyance.  He specialised in reading memorial cards.  His recital included the full name of the communicator, the address where he had lived on earth, complete with the number of the house, the street or road, the district and town, the age when he passed on and the date, and a word-by-word recital of the memorial card. 
 

. . . he had another extraordinary gift.  Small articles, such as coins or a penknife, would fly from his pockets and be scattered all over the floor.  Sometimes they would vanish and be hidden where no one could find them and later on they would as mysteriously reappear.  He used to joke with his friends by getting them to make a search of his pockets to be sure there were no holes in them.  Then he would ask them to fill the pockets with coins.  As fast as the money was put into his pockets the coins fell to the ground. 
 

The power of the spirit takes many forms. . . .

In the final pages of Power of the Spirit, Maurice Barbanell wrote about "personal application" in relation to "the power of the spirit" revealed through many and varied forms of mediumship.  Here are some of the insights shared by the author —
 

As a spiritual being, you are an integral part of the infinite spirit which is responsible for the whole of the universe and all the manifold activities which it embraces.  You are part of the vast cosmic power which controls every facet of universal life.  You are God, and God is you.  By virtue of your spiritual nature, you are in possession of an eternal relationship with God which no event in life or death can sever.
 

If we practice goodness, kindness, toleration and unselfishness, we are better off, because our spiritual natures thrive as a result. 
 

When these facts are known by all mankind, then the whole of the earthly scene will be transformed. 
 

The world will have realised that malnutrition and slums are not consistent with man's spirit.  And the body, the temple to the spirit, will live in conditions more appropriate to its setting as the casket of a brilliant jewel. 
 

The same spirit which is within you is within every human being in the world.  This is a divine and eternal relationship, stronger than the ties of blood or family.  They will not persist, but our spiritual relationship will endure for ever.

 

The Phenomenal Photograph of Mary Todd Lincoln

This photograph of Mary Todd Lincoln that was taken by William Mumler is included in The Strange Case of William Mumler Spirit Photographer (2008) and is from the archive of the College of Psychic Studies, London.  Forty other examples of the 'spirit photography' of William Mumler may be seen at The J. Paul Getty Museum website.
  
  

Perhaps the most famous portrait in the annals of 'spirit photography' (or 'psychic photography') was taken by William Mumler (1832-1884).  Mary Todd Lincoln is shown accompanied by a luminous image of her late husband Abraham Lincoln. 
 
An account of the circumstances involved with the photo is found in The Personal Experiences of William A. Mumler in Spirit-Photography: Written by Himself (1875).  The memoir was featured in seven issues of the weekly Spiritualist newspaper Banner of Light.  The entire memoir is included as a chapter of The Strange Case of William Mumler Spirit Photographer (2008) by Louis Kaplan.  The following excerpt is William Mumler's description of what happened when Mary Todd Lincoln was photographed by him in 1872.  He was residing in Boston and Mary Todd Lincoln was "widow of the late lamented President."

 

I had just finished taking a picture for a gentleman who resides in Canada, when the door-bell rang, and a lady dressed in black, wearing a crape veil, was ushered in.  The veil was so thick it was impossible to distinguish a single feature of her face.  Without raising her veil she spoke to the gentleman for whom I had just taken a picture, saying, "Have you had a picture taken, sir?"  He replied in the affirmative.  "Do you recognize it?" she asked.  He answered, "Well, I am not much used to looking at a negative, but I think I know who it is."  Then, turning to me, she said: "What do you charge for these pictures?"  I stated the price, and she decided to sit for one.  I requested her to be seated; would be ready for her in a moment.  I went into my dark room and coated a plate.  When I came out I found her seated, with her veil still over her face.  I asked if she intended to have her picture taken with the veil?  She replied, "When you are ready I will remove it."  I said I was ready, whereupon she removed the veil, and the picture was taken.  I then requested her name for the purpose of recording it in the engagement book.  "Mrs. Lindall" was given.  Mrs. L. asked when she could have the pictures; and was told, in about three days.  The negative, marked "Mrs. Lindall," was sent with the others to my printers.  The pictures were returned only a few moments before Mrs. Lincoln called, and laid on my desk, in envelopes, with the names on the outside that were on the negative—Mrs. Lindall's among the rest.  I was away at the time, and consequently had not seen the pictures, and did not recognize the form on her negative, as I had not the slightest idea that I had had such a distinguished sitter.

My wife was engaged in conversation with a lady-friend when the door-bell rang, and a lady was shown in.  She asked if her pictures were ready?  My wife asked, "What name?"  The lady replied, "Mrs. Lindall."  Mrs. M. then went to my desk, and looking over the packages of pictures, found one marked Mrs. Lindall, which she handed to her, and then continued the conversation with her friend, who by-the-way, being of an inquisitive turn of mind, asked Mrs. Lincoln (who was at the time examining her picture closely,) if she recognized the likeness?  Mrs. L. replied, hesitatingly, "Yes."  My wife was almost instantly entranced, and, turning to Mrs. L., said: "Mother, if you cannot recognize father, show the picture to Robert; he will recognize it."  "Yes—yes, dear," Mrs. Lincoln said; "I do recognize it; but who is now speaking?" she asked.  The control replied: "Thaddeus!"  A long conversation ensued.  Mr. Lincoln afterwards controlled and talked with her—so the lady-friend informed me who had thus unexpectedly been a witness of this excellent test.

When my wife resumed her normal condition, she found Mrs. L. weeping tears of joy that she had again found her loved ones, and apparently anxious to learn, if possible, how long before she could join them in their spirit home.  But this information of course could not be given.  Mrs. Lincoln then related how she left Springfield, Ill., for the sole purpose of visiting my studio, and having a picture taken as a test.  For that express purpose she traveled in cog.  When she arrived in Boston, she came directly to my house, before visiting a hotel, for fear that some one who knew her might see and recognize her, and thus defeat the object for which she had taken such a long journey.

The picture of Mr. Lincoln is an excellent one.  He is seen standing behind her, with his hands resting on her shoulders, and looking down, with a pleasant smile.

Louis Kaplan commented about the photographer's wife, Hannah, in his case study book and also about another woman who was a significant acquaintance, the trance medium Mrs. J. H. Conant: ". . . Hannah Mumler is described by her husband in The Personal Experiences as 'a natural clairvoyant for diagnosing and treating disease, and has been subject to this influence since her earliest recollection' and as someone with 'wonderful magnetic powers' . . . Clearly, Mumler's energetic and energized description of his wife (as a 'perfect battery') and her own abilities as a medium . . . shares much with the personal powers that were attributed to [manifest with] Andrew Jackson Davis.  Another important female figure in Mumler's life was Mrs. J. H. Conant, who served as the official medium for the Banner of Light and whose seances featuring spirit communications from the dead who sent 'messages of love to those who yet remain in the earth-sphere' were published in the newspaper on a regular basis.  Conant was a frequent sitter for Mumler, and one of these images shows her with her spirit-guide Vashti, who was said to be an outcast half-breed girl of a white mother and a Native American father.  The appearance of Native American spirit-guides such as Vashti or the image of the Indian chief Wapanaw with Luther Colby (who was Fanny Conant's boss at the Banner of Light) in another one of Mumler's images points to another type of spirit-photography subject quite different from the familial function of departed relatives."

 

When appraising the photographs of William Mumler, one should consider that the people who received the photos often recognized family members or friends who'd made the transition to the ascended realm of existence.  Some of the images and motifs found in the photos (including spirit arms and flowers) offer parallels with chronicled seance rooms occurrences.  Mumler's work as a photographer medium offers evidence of an omnipresent spiritual Force involved with this and other forms of 'supernormal phenomena' for the gradual accelerated spiritual understanding of all humanity. 

 

People skeptical of cases of 'paranormal' or 'supernormal' phenomena often have not taken the time to research such subjects as Spiritualism, the diverse manifestations chronicled to take place with human mediumship, nor published transcripts and anthologies of transcendental communication.  Numerous books have been published over the course of many decades that present transcripts of communication expressing the experiences and wisdom of human beings in the afterlife.  For example, the following excerpts of 'Silver Birch' speaking through the entranced medium (or 'channel') Maurice Barbanell are from The Silver Birch Book of Questions & Answers (1998).

Spirit is perfect in its origin, spirit possess intrinsically the creative forces of all life.  Spirit is not subject to age, infirmity, wastage or to any of the defects that affect the physical body.  The line of spirit evolution is from immaturity to maturity.  Part of its evolution is accomplished through a physical body, which it has created for that purpose.  Spirit is dominant, spirit is the king, spirit is the ruler.  But here comes the paradox.  There is an interaction between spirit, mind and body, and the body restricts the activity of the spirit on earth because the spirit can express itself on earth only through the body at its disposal.


The Great Spirit is the natural law of the universe: the creative force behind all life, whether registered in the plane of matter or in the plane of spirit.  The Great Spirit is perfect love and perfect wisdom.  The Great Spirit pervades all the universe, whether it is that tiny portion known to you or that larger part which, as yet, has not been revealed to earthly gaze.
 
The Great Spirit fills all life.  The Great Spirit is within all beings.  The Great Spirit is within all laws. The Great Spirit is the Great Spirit.  He is life.  He is love.  He is everything.  How can we, who are but the servants, describe the master?  How can we, whose conceptions are puny, describe that which is of immeasurable magnitude?


The Great Spirit is not a person.  The Great Spirit is not a deified individual.  The Great Spirit is beyond personality.  The Great Spirit is the epitome of law, love, wisdom, truth.  The Great Spirit is the law, the infinite intelligence operating ceaselessly in a mighty universe.


Love takes many forms, ranging from friendship founded on sympathetic attraction, and mutual interest to the supreme heights where, without thought of self, it seeks to serve wherever it can.

There is a great power in the universe which has never been subject to the analytical scrutiny of laboratories, which cannot be resolved by chemicals or scalpels, yet it is so real that it transcends all other forces which have been measured and weighed and dissected.  That love is deathless because it is part of the Great Spirit, the creative spirit of all life, part of the power that has fashioned life; it is indeed the very breath and the very essence of life.  And wherever life exists, sooner or later those who are united by its willing bonds will find one another again despite all the handicaps and obstacles and impediments that may be in the way.

First let us be clear: the real love is the love of selflessness, the love that seeks nothing for itself, and in its highest form embraces the whole of humanity.  You are not an evolved soul until you can say, because you believe it, "I love all mankind."


. . . live a life of service, forgetting self, try to help wherever you can to raise those who are fallen, drive out all iniquity, and by your own life prove that you are worthy of your divine heritage.


The motive is the all important qualification.  If patriotism means only love of one's country and the people who dwell in it, and there is no wish to extend that love to other countries and other people, then that is a form of selfishness.

The supreme guiding principle is love which expresses itself in service, compassion, humility, tolerance and co-operation, seeking harmony wherever it can.  Love is the greatest power in the universe.