|
ON the morning Of 3 March I had a sitting in Mrs. Kennedy's
house with a Mrs. Clegg, a fairly elderly dame whose peculiarity is that she allows direct control by the communicator more readily
than most mediums do.
Mrs. Kennedy has had Mrs. Clegg two or three times to her
house, and Paul has learnt how to control her pretty easily, and is able to make very affectionate demonstrations and to talk through
the organs of the medium, though in rather a. jerky and broken way. She accordingly kindly arranged an anonymous sitting for me.
The sitting began with sudden clairvoyance, which was
unexpected. It was a genuine though not a specially successful sitting, and it is worth partially reporting because of the reference
to it which came afterwards through another medium, on the evening of the same day; making a simple but exceptionally clear
and natural cross-correspondence:
Anonymous Sitting of OJL. with Mrs. Clegg
At 11-15 a.m. on Friday, 3 March 1916, I arrived at Mrs.Kennedy's, went up and talked to her in the drawingroom till
nearly 11-30, when Mrs. Clegg arrived.
She came into the room while I was seeing to the fire, spoke to
Mrs. Kennedy, and said, "Oh, is this the gentleman that I am to sit with?" She was then given a seat in front of the fire, being asked
to get quiet after her omnibus journey. But she had hardly seated herself before she said -
"Oh, this room is so full of people; oh, some one so eager to
come! I hear some one say 'Sir Oliver Lodge.' Do you know anyone of that name?"
I said, yes, I know him.
Mrs. Kennedy got up to darken the room slightly, and Mrs.Clegg ejaculated:
"Who is Raymond, Raymond, Raymond? He is standing close
to me."
She was evidently going off into a trance, so we moved her
chair back farther from the fire, and without more preparation she went off.
For some time, however, nothing further happened, except
contortions, struggling to get speech, rubbings of the back as if in some pain or discomfort there, and a certain amount of gasping
for breath.
Mrs. Kennedy came to try and help, and to give power. She
knelt by her side and soothed her. I sat and waited.
Presently the utterance was distinguished as, "Help me,
where's the doctor?"
After a time, with K. K.'s help, the control seemed to get a little
clearer, and the words, "So glad; father; love to mother; so glad," frequently repeated in an indistinct and muffled tone of voice,
were heard, followed by, "Love to all of them."
Nothing was put down at the time, for there seemed nothing
to record-it seemed only preliminary effort; and in so far as anything was said, it consisted merely of simple messages of
affection, and indications of joy at being able to come through, and of disappointment at not being able to do better. The medium,
however, went through a good deal of pantomime, embracing me, stroking my arm, patting my knees, and sometimes stroking my
head, sometimes also throwing her arms round me and giving the impression of being overjoyed, but unable to speak plainly.
Then other dumb show was begun. He seemed to be thinking
of the things in his kit, or things which had been in his possession, and trying to enumerate them. He indicated that his
revolver had not come back, and that in his diary the last page was not written up. I promised to complete it.
After a time, utterance being so difficult, I gave the
medium a pad and pencil, and asked for writing. The writing was large and sprawly, single words: 'Captain' among them.
While Raymond was speaking, and at intervals, the medium
kept flopping over to one side or the other, hanging on the arm of her chair with head down, or else drooping forward, or with head
thrown back-assuming various limp and wounded attitudes. Though every now and then she seemed to make an effort to hold
herself up, and once or twice crossed knees and sat up firm, with arms more or less folded. But the greater part of the time she was
flopping about.
Presently Raymond said 'Good-bye,' and a Captain was
supposed to control. She now spoke in a vigorous martial voice, as if ordering things, but saying nothing of any moment.
Then he too went away, and 'Hope' appeared, who, I am told,
is Mrs. Clegg's normal control. Hope was able to talk reasonably well, and what she said I recorded for what it might be worth, but I
omit the record, because though it contained references to people and things outside the knowledge of the medium or Mrs.
Kennedy, and was therefore evidential as regards the genuineness and honesty of the medium, it was not otherwise
worth reporting, unless much else of what was said on the same subjects by other mediums were reported too.
__________________________________
On the evening of this same 3rd of
March - i.e. later in the same day that I had sat with Mrs. Clegg-I went alone to Mrs. Leonard's
house and had rather a remarkable sitting, at which full knowledge of the Clegg performance was shown. It is worthy therefore of
some careful attention.
After reading this part, the above very abbreviated record of
the Clegg sitting, held some hours before in another house and other conditions, should again be read. I wish to call attention to
the following 3rd of March sitting as one of the best; other members of the family have probably had equally good ones, but
my notes are fuller. I hope it is fully understood that the mannerisms are Feda's throughout.
Sitting of OJL. with Mrs. Leonard at her House on
Friday, 3 March 1916, from 9.15p.m. to 11-15p.m..
(OJL. alone.)
No preliminaries to report. Feda came through quickly, jerked
in the chair, and seemed very pleased to find me.
(I asked if she had seen Raymond lately.)
Oh yes, Yaymond's here.
He came to help Feda with the lady and gentleman-on
Monday, Feda thinks it was. Not quite sure when. But there was a lady and gentleman, and he came to help; and
Feda said, "Go away, Yaymond!" He said, "No, I've come to stay." He wouldn't go away, and he did help them
through with their boy.
[The reference here is to a sitting which a colleague of
mine, Professor and Mrs. Sonnenschein, had had, unknown to me, with Mrs. Leonard. I learnt
afterwards that the arrangements had been made by them in a carefully anonymous manner, the
correspondence being conducted via a friend in Darlington; so that they were only known to Mrs.
Leonard as "a lady and gentleman from Darlington." They had reported to me that their
son Christopher had sent good and evidential messages, and that Raymond had turned up to
help. It was quite appropriate for Raymond to take an interest in them and bring their son, since
Christopher Sonnenscbein had been an
engineering fellow-student with Raymond at Birmingham. But there was no earthIy reason, so
far as Mrs. Leonard's knowledge was concerned, for him to put in an appearance; and indeed Feda
at first told him to 'Go away,' until he explained that he had come to help. Hence the mention of
Raymond, under the circumstances, was evidential.]
He's only been once to help beside this, and then he
said, Don't tell the lady he was helping. [See below.]
He's been with Paulie to-day, to Paulie's mother's. He
says he's been at Paulie's house, but not with Mrs. Kathie, with another lady, a medie, Feda thinks. She was older than
this one; a new one to him.(1) He wanted to speak through her, but he found it was difficult. Paul manages it all right,
he says, but he finds it difficult. He says be started to get through, and then he didn't feel like -himself. It's awful
strange when one tries to control anybody. He wanted to very bad; he almost had them. (Sotto
voce.- What you mean, Yaymond?) He says he thought he almost had them. He means he nearly got through. Oh, he says, he's not
given it up; he's going to try again. What worries him is that he doesn't feel like himself. -You know, father, I might
be anybody. He says, Do you believe that in that way, practice makes perfect?
(1)
This shows clear and independent knowledge of the sitting which I had
held with Mrs. Clegg that same morning (see early parts of this chapter).
OJL.-Yes, I'm sure it gets easier with practice.
Oh, then he'll practise dozens of times, if he thinks it
will be any good.
OJL.-
Did he like the old woman?
Oh, yes; she's a very good sort.
OJL.-Who was there sitting?
[This question itself indicates, what was the fact, that
I had so far given no recognition to the statement that Raymond had been trying to control a medium
on the morning of that same day. I wanted to take what came through, without any assistance.]
He's not sure, because he didn't seem to get all
properly into the conditions; it was like being in a kind of mist, in a fog. He felt he was getting hold of the lady, but
he didn't quite know where he was. He'd got something ready to say, and he started to try and say it, and it seemed as if he didn't know
where he was.
[Feda reports sometimes in the third person, sometimes in the first.]
What does she flop about for, father? I don't want to
do that; it bothered me rather, I didn't know if I was making her ill or something. Paulie said she thought it was the
correct thing to do! But I wish she wouldn't. If she would only keep quiet, and let me come calmly, it would be much
easier. Mrs. Kathie [Feda's name for Mrs. Katherine Kennedy] tries to help all she can, but it makes such a
muddled condition. I might not be able to get a test through, even when I controlled better; I should have to
get quite at home there, before I could give tests through her. He and Paulie
used to joke about the old lady, but they don't now. Paul manages to control; he used to see Paulie
doing it. I will try again, he says, and I will try again. It's worth trying a few times, then I can get my bearings, and I
feel that what I wanted to say beforehand I will be able to get through.
Feda has an idea that what he had saved up to say was
only just the usual messages. He had got them ready in his head; he had learnt it up--just a few words. Paulie told him
he had better do that, and then (oh, you had better not tell Mrs. Kathie this, for it isn't polite!)-and then Paulie told
him to spit it out. And that's what he tried to do-just to say the few words that he had learnt up. He just wanted to say
how pleased he was to see you. He wanted also to speak about his mother, and to bring in, if he could, about having
talked to you through Feda. just simple things like that. He had to think of simple things, because Paulie had told him
that it was no good trying to think of anything in-tri-cate.
[Feda always pronounces what she no doubt
considers long words in a careful and drawnout manner.]
He didn't see clearly, but be felt. He had a
good idea that you were there, and that Mrs. Kathie was there, but he wasn't sure; he was all muddled up. Poor Mrs.
Kathie was doing her best. He says, Don't change the conditions, if you try it again. He never quite knows
whether he is going to have good conditions or not. He wanted to speak about all this. That's all about that.
[This is a completely accurate reference to what had
happened with Mrs. Clegg in the morning of the same day. Everything is properly and accurately
represented. It is the best thing about the sitting perhaps, though there are many good things in it.]
[The next incident concerns other people-and I usually
omit these-but I propose to include this one.]
About the lady he tried to help-the one that he didn't
want Feda to tell who he was (p. 241).
He was helping through a man who had got drowned.
This lady had had no belief nor nothing in spiritual things before. The guides brought her to Feda, that she might
speak with a dear friend of hers. I helped him, he says, and got both of his initials through to her-E. A.
OJL.-
Do I know these people?
Yes, you write a lot to the lady.
[I remembered afterwards that I had had some
correspondence with a lady who was told at a sitting, apparently by Raymond, that I knew a Dr.
A. She was and is a stranger, but for this curious introduction.]
OJL.-
Is A the surname?
Yes, the spirit's, not the lady's. The lady doesn't know
that he [Raymond] is telling you this. And she doesn't know that he helped her. He says, It's for your own use,
father. It's given her a new outlook on life.
OJL.-I have no idea who she is. Can you get her name?
Oh yes, she's a lady called Mrs. D. [Full name given
easily, but no doubt got from the sitter in ordinary course.] And before, you see, she was
living a worldly life. She was interested in a way, but not much. She never tried to come into it. When she came, she
thought she would have her fortune told. Raymond was waiting for her to come, and brought up the right
conditions at once. The man was a nice man, he liked him, and he wanted to bring her into it. The man was fond of
her. Raymond has been helping him a lot. He says, I can only help in a small way, but if you could go round and see
the people just on the verge of learning something! I can't help them in a big way, but still, it's something important
even what I can do. For every one I bring in like that lady, there will be a dozen coming from that.
OJL. (still remembering nothing about these people.)Did the man
drown himself ?
Oh no, he wented down in a boat; they nearly all
wented down together.
The lady wasn't expecting him-she nearly flopped
over when he came.
OJL.-
Was be related to the lady?
No, but he had been the biggest thing in her life. He
says it seemed as though she must have felt something, to make her write to you.
OJL
- However did Raymond know that she had written to me?
Feda doesn't know. (Sotto
voce.- Tell Feda, Yaymond.)
Do you believe me, father, I really can't tell you how I
know some things. It's not through inquiry, but sometimes I get it just like a Marconi apparatus receives a message
from somewhere, and doesn't know where it comes from at first. Sometimes I try to find out things, and I can't.
[I perceived gradually that this episode related to
some one named E. A. (unknown to me), about whom I had been told at a Feda sitting on Friday,
:28 January 1916, Raymond seeming to want me to speak to E. A.'s father about him. And in a note to
that sitting it is explained how I received a letter shortly afterwards from a stranger, a Mrs. D.,
who consulted me about informing Dr. A. of the appearance of his son. The whole episode is an
excellent one, but it concerns other people, and if narrated at all must be narrated more fully and in
another place. Suffice it to say that the son had been lost in tragic circumstances, and that the
father is impressed by the singular nature of the evidence that has now been given through the
lady-a special visit to Scotland having been made by her for that express purpose. She had not
known the father before, but she found him and his house as described; and he admits the details as
surprisingly accurate.]
Here is the extract from my sitting of 28 January 1916
relating to this affair -.
Extract
from OJL's Sitting with Mrs Leonard, Friday, 28 January 1916
He has met somebody called E., Raymond has. He doesn't
know who it is, but wonders if you do.
OJL.-Is she an old lady?
It's a man, he says. He was drownded. I have helped him a
bit, at least I tried, he says. He passed on before Raymond did.
OJL.-
Did he drown himself?
Raymond doesn't say that. His name was E. He was from
Scotland. You will know his father.
Raymond says, I have got a motive in this, father;
I don't want to say too much, and I don't want to say too little. You have met E.'s father, and you will meet him
again; he comes from Scotland. Raymond is not quite certain, but be thinks be is in Scotland now. His father's
name begins with an A, so the other man is E. A. He was fighting his ship. Raymond thinks they was all
drownded. He's older than Raymond. Raymond says he's a pretty dark chap. You know his father best, I
don't know whether you knew the other chap at all. You have known his father for some years, but you don't often
get a chance of meeting. I have got an idea that you will be hearing from him soon. Then you will be able to
unload this onto him. They are trying to bring it about, that meeting with the father of E.
OJL.-
I could make a guess at the surname, but perhaps I had better not.
No, don't. You know I'm not always sure of my facts. I know
pretty well how things are, and I think I am pretty safe in saying that it is Scotland. He gives D. also. That's not a person, it's a
place. Some place not far from it, called D., he says. It's near, not the place, where he lives. 'Flanked,' he calls it, 'flanked' on the
other side by L. They never knew how E. passed on really. They know he was drowned, but not how it happened.
On receiving this message I felt that the case was a genuine one, and
that I did know a Dr. A. precisely as described. And I also gradually remembered that he had lost a son at sea, though I
did not know the son. But I felt that I must wait for further particulars before broaching what might be an unpalatable subject to Dr. A.
(End of extract from 28 January 1916.)
Ultimately I did receive further particulars as narrated above,
and so a month later I did go to call on the old Doctor, after the ice had been broken by Mrs.
D.,- who in some trepidation had made a special journey for the purpose, and then nearly came away
without opening the subject,-and I verified the trance description of his house which Mrs. D. had received and sent me. Indeed, all
the facts stated turned out to be true.
The sitting Of 3 March, now being reported, and interrupted
by this quotation from a previous sitting, went on thus:
He took his mother some red roses, and he wants you
to tell her. He took them to her from the spirit world, they won't materialise, but I gathered some and took them to
her. This isn't a test, father.
OJL.-
No. Very well, you just want her to know. I will tell her.
(A little talk omitted.)
OJL.-
Do you want to say anything about the other two people that you helped-last Monday, I think it was? [The
Sonnenscheins; still only known to Mrs. Leonard as a lady and gentleman from Darlington.]
No, there's nothing much to tell you about that, or
about them. But he brought a son to them.
He stood on one side so as not to take any of the power.
He just came at first to show Feda it was all right, and he just came in at the end to send his love.
OJL.-
Why did he help those particular people?
[I knew why, but I thought proper to ask, since from
the medium's point of view there was no reason at all.]
He says he had to. They have been worrying about
whether their son had suffered much pain before he passed on. There seems to have been some uncertainty
about as to whether he had or not. His body wasn't recovered as soon as it ought to have been. But he didn't
suffer much. He was numbed, and didn't as a matter of fact feel much. He throwed up his arms, and rolled
down a bank place.
[Christopher Sonnenschein was killed by falling down
a snow mountain, and his body was not recovered for five days.]
OJL.-
Did you know these people before?
Yes. He says, yes. But he won't tell Feda who they is.
OJL.-
Does he want to send them any message?
He says nothing further has come out, except that he
is getting on very well, and that he was pleased. You might tell them that he is happier now. Yes, he
is, since he seed them.
[The sitting referred to here, as having been held by a
lady and gentleman last Monday refers to my colleague and his wife and their deceased son
Christopher. Their identity had been completely masked by the arrangements they had made,
without my knowledge. The letters making arrangements were sent round by Darlington to be
posted, in order to cover up tracks and remove all chance of a discoverable connexion with me. (See
P. 240.) Hence it is interesting that Raymond turned up to help, for in their normal life the two
youths had known each other.]
He has been trying to help you since he saw you here
last time. He thought that you knew that he was. He did try hard. He says, I helped you in such a funny way. I got
near you and felt such a desire to help you and prevent you from getting tired. He was concentrating on the back
of your head, and sort of saying to himself, and impressing the thought towards you: "It's coming easy,
you shan't get tired, the brain is going to be very receptive, everything is going to flow through it easily in
order." I feel myself saying it all the time, and I get so close I nearly lean on you. To my great delight, I saw you
sit up once, and you said: "Ali, that's good." It was some little time back.
OJL.-
I speak to your photograph sometimes.
Yes. I can speak to you without a photograph! I am
often with you, very often.
He's taking Feda into a room with a desk in it; too big
for a desk, it must be a table. A sort of a desk, a pretty big one. A chair is in front of it, not a chair like that, a high up
chair, more wooden, not woolly stuff ; and the light is falling on to the desk; and you are sitting there with a pen
or pencil in your hand; you aren't writing much, but you are looking through writing, and making bits of writing on
it; you are not doing all the writing yourself, but only bits on it. Raymond is standing at the back of you; he isn't
looking at what you are doing. [The description is correct.]
He thought you were tired out last time you came here.
He knows you are sometimes. He's been wanting to say to you, "Leave some of it."
O.J.L.-
But there's so much to be done.
Yes, he knows it isn't easy to leave it. But it would be
better in the end if you can leave a bit, father. You are doing too much.
You know that I am longing and dying for the day
when you come over to me. It will be a splendid day for me. But I mustn't be selfish. I have got to work to keep you
away from us, and that's not easy for me.
He says that lots over here talk, and say that you will
be doing the most wonderful work of your life through the war. People are ready to listen now. They had too many
things before to let them think about them; but now it's the great thing to think about the after-life.
I want you to know that when first I came over here, I
thought it a bit unfair that such a lot of fellows were coming over in the prime of life, coming over here. But now
he sees that for every one that came over, dozens of people Open their eyes, and want to know where he has
gone to. Directly they want to know, they begin to learn something. Some of them never stopped to think seriously
before. "He must be somewhere," they say, "he was so full of life; can we find out? , Then I see that through this,
people are going to find out, and find out not only for themselves, but will pass it on to many others, and so it will grow.
He wants to tell you that Mr. Myers says that in ten
years from now the world will be a different place. He says that about fifty per cent. of the civilised portion of the
globe will be either spiritualists, or coming into it.
OJL.-
Fifteen per cent?
Fifty, he said.
Raymond says, I am no judge of that, but he isn't the
only one that thinks it. He says, I've got a kind of theory, in a crude sort of way, that man has made the earth plane
into such a hotbed of materialism and selfishness, that man again has to atone by sacrifices of mankind in the
prime of their physical life. So that by that prime self-effacement, they will bring more spiritual conditions on
to the earth, which will crush the spirit of materialism. He says that isn't how I meant to put it, but I've forgotten
how I meant to say it.
OJL.-
Well now, Raymond, Mr. Myers sent me a message to say that you had got some tests ready to get through, and
that I was to give you an opportunity of giving them.
Oh yes, he says. But I can't get anything through
about the Argonauts: that seems worst of anything.
He's showing Feda a thing that looks like a canvas
house. Yes, it must be a canvas house. And it looks to Feda as though it's on a place that seems to be
open - a wide place. Yes, no, there's not much green showing where Feda can see. There's a kind of a door in it, like that. (Feda
made some sign I didn't catch.) The canvas is sort of grey, quite a light colour, but not quite white. Oh yes, Feda feels
the sound of water not far from it-ripple, ripple. Feda sees a boy-not Raymond-half lying, half sitting at the door of the
tent place, and he hasn't got a proper coat on; he's got a shirt thing on here, and he's like spreaded out. It's a
browny-coloured earth, not nice green, but sandy-coloured ground. As Feda looks at the land, the ground
rises sharp at the back. Must have been made to rise it sticks up in the air. He's showing it as though it should be
in some photograph or picture. Feda got wondering about it, what it was for. It's a funny-shaped tent, not round, sort
of lop-sided. The door isn't a proper door, it flops. You ought to be able to see a picture of this. [See photographs opposite.]
OJL.-
Has it got to do with the Argonauts?
No.
OJL.-
Oh, it's not Coniston then?
No.
OJL.-
Is it by the sea?
Near the water, he says; he doesn't say the sea. No, he
won't say that; he says, near water. It looks hot there.
OJL
- Will the boys know?
You will know soon about it, he says.
Feda gets a feeling that there are two or three moving
about inside that tent.
OJL.-
Is it all one chamber in the tent?
He didn't say that. He was going to say, no, and then
he stopped to think. No, I don't think it was, it was divided off.
[See photographs of two forms of this tent.]
Now he is
showing something right on top of that. Now he is showing Feda a yacht, a boat with white sails. Now he is
going back to the tent again. The raised tip land is at the back of the tent, well set back. It doesn't give an even
sticking up, but it goes right along, with bits up and bits lower down.
[The description could not be completely taken down,
but it grave the impression of a raised bank of varying height, behind an open space, and a tent
in front of it. It quite suggested that sort of picture.]
[See photograph facing P. 252.]
Maps, what's that? Maps, maps, he says. He's saying
something about maps. This is something that the boys will know. Poring, he says. Not pouring anything out, but
poring over maps. Ask the boys. [See note after further reference to maps later in the sitting.]
OJL.-
What about that yacht with sails; did it run on the water ?
No. (Feda, sotto
voce.- Oh, Raymond, don't be silly!)
He says, no. (Feda.-It must have done!) He's
showing Feda like a thing on land, yes, a land thing. It's standing up, like edgeways. A narrow thing. No it isn't water, but it
has got nice white sails.
OJL.-
Did it go along?
He says it DIDN'T! He's laughing! When he said 'didn't'
he shouted it. Feda should have said, 'He laid peculiar emphasis on it.' This is for the boys.
OJL.-
Had they got to do with that thing?
Yes, they will know, they will understand. Yes, he
keeps on showing like a boat-a yacht, he calls it, a yacht.
[See note below and photographs.]
Now he is showing Feda some figures. Something flat,
like a wall. Rods and things, long rods. Some have got little round things shaking on them,
like that. And he's got strings, some have got strings. 'Strings' isn't the right word, but it will do. Smooth, strong,
string-like. In the corner, where it's a little bit dark, some one is standing up and leaning against something, and a
piece of stuff is flapping round them.
Now he is saying again something about maps. He's
going to the maps again. It isn't a little map, but it's one you can unfold and fold up small. And they used to go
with their fingers along it, like thatnot he only, but the boys. And it wasn't at home, but when they were going
somewhere-some distance from home. And Feda gets the impression as though they must be looking at the map
when it was moving. They seem to be moving smoothly along, like in one of those horrible trains. Feda has never
been in a train.
[The mention of folded-up maps cannot be considered
important, but it is appropriate, because many of the boys' common reminiscences group round long
motor drives in Devonshire and Cornwall, when they must frequently have been consulting the
kind of map described.]
[Note by OJL. on Tent and
Boat.- All this about the tent and boat is excellent, though not outside my knowledge. The description of the scenery showed
plainly that it was Woolacombe sands that was meantwhither the family had gone in the summer
for several years-a wide open stretch of sand, with ground rising at the back, as described, and with
tents along under the bank, one of which - a big one - had been made by the boys. It was on wheels, it
had two chambers with a double door, and was used for bathing by both the boys and girls. Quite
a large affair, oblong in shape, like a small cottage. One night a gale carried it up to the top of the sandhills
and wrecked it. We saw it from the windows in the morning.
The boys pulled it to pieces, and made a smaller
tent of the remains, this time with only one chamber, and its shape was now a bit lop-sided. I
felt in listening to the description that there was some hesitation in Raymond's mind as to whether
he was speaking of the first or the second stage of this tent.
As for the sand-boat, it was a thing they likewise made
at Mariemont, and carted down to Woolacombe. A kind of long narrow platform or plank on wheels,
with a rudder and sails. At first, when it had small sails, it only went with a light passenger and a
strong wind behind. But in a second season they were more ambitious, and made bigger sails to it,
and that season I believe it went along the sands very fast occasionally; but it still wouldn't sail at
right angles to the wind as they wanted. They finally smashed the mast by sailing in a gale with
three passengers. There had been ingenuity in making it, and Raymond had been particularly active
over it, as he was over all constructions. On the whole it was regarded as a failure, the wheels were
too small; and Raymond's 'DIDN'T' is quite accepted.
References to these things were evidently some of the
tests (P. 249) which he had got together for transmission to me. [See photographs.]
The rod and rings and strings, mentioned after the
'boat' I don't at present understand. So far as I have ascertained, the boys don't understand,
either, at present.]
I don't know whether I have got anything more that I
can really call a test. You will have to take, he says (he's laughing now)-take the information about the old lady as a test.
OJL - You mean what he began with? [ie. about Mrs. Clegg.]
Yes.
OJL.-
Well, it's a very good one.
He's been trying to find somebody whose name
begins with K. But it isn't Mrs. Kathie, it's a gentleman. He's been trying to find him.
OJL - What for?
He thought his mother would be interested. There's
something funny about this. One is in the spirit world, but one they believe is still on the earth plane. He hasn't come
over yet. [One of the two referred to is certainly dead; the other may possibly, but very improbably, be a prisoner.]
There's a good deal of mystery about this, but I'm sure he isn't actually come over yet. Some people think that
because we are here, we have only to go anywhere we choose, and find out anything we like. But that's Tommy-
rot. They are limited, but they send messages to each other, and what he sincerely believes is, that that man has
not passed on.
OJL.-
Mother thinks he has, and so do his people.
Yes, yes. I don't know whether it would be advisable
to tell them anything, but I have a feeling that he isn't here. I have been looking for him everywhere.
He keeps on building up a J. He doesn't answer when
Feda asks what that is. He says there will be a few surprises for people later on.
OJL.-
Well, I take it that he wants me to understand that J. K. is on our side?
Yes, he keeps nodding his head. Yes, in the body.
Mind, he says, I've got a feeling - I can only call it a feeling - that he has been hurt, practically
unconscious. Anyway, time will prove if I am right.
OJL
- I hope he will continue to live, and come back.
I hope so too. Except for the possible doubt about it, I
would say tell them at once. But after all they are happier in thinking that he has gone over, than that he's in some
place undergoing terrible privations.
Now he's saying something carefully to Feda. He says
they should not go by finding a stick. He wants you to put that down-they ought not to go by
finding a stick.
OJL
- Oh, they found a stick, did they?
Yes, that's how, yes.
[I clearly understood that this statement referred to a
certain Colonel, about whom there was uncertainty for months. But a funeral service has now been
held - an impressive one, which M. F. A. L. attended. On inquiry from her, I find (what I didn't know at the
time of the sitting) that the evidence of his death is a riding-whip, which they found in the hands of an
unrecognisable corpse. From some initials on this ridingwhip, they thought it belonged to him; and on
this evidence have concluded him dead. So far as I know, they entertain no doubt about it. At any rate,
we have heard none expressed, either publicly or privately. Hence, the information now given may
possibly turn out of interest, though there is always the possibility that, if he is a prisoner in Germany,
be may not survive the treatment. He was leading an attack on the Hohenzollern Redoubt when he
fell; he was seen to fall, wounded; there was great slaughter, and when at night his man returned to try
and find him, he could not be found. This is my recollection of the details, but of course they can be
more accurately given. At what period the whip was found, I don't know, but can ascertain.] (See also p.266.)
[No further news yet-September 1916. But I must
confess that I think the information extremely unlikely.- OJL.]
OJL
- Does he remember William, our gardener?
Yes.
Feda doesn't know what he means, but he says
something about coming over. (Feda, sotto voce. Tell Feda what you mean.)
He doesn't give it very clearly. Feda gets an idea that
he means coming over there. Yes, he does mean into the spirit world. Feda asks him, did he mean soon; but he
shakes his head.
OJL.-
Does he mean that he has come already?
He doesn't get that very clearly. He keeps saying,
coming over, coming over, and when Feda asked 'Soon?' he shook his head, as if getting cross.
OJL.-
If he sees him, perhaps he will help him.
Of course he will. He hasn't seen him yet. No, he hasn't
seen him.
[I may here record that William, the gardener, died
within a week before the sitting, and that Raymond here clearly indicates a knowledge, either of his
death or of its imminence.]
It's difficult when people approach you, and say they
knew your father or your mother; you don't quite know what to say to them!
OJL.-Yes, it must be a bother. Do you remember a bird in
our garden?
(Feda, sotto voce.-Yes, hopping about?)
OJL.-
No, Feda, a big bird.
Of course, not sparrows, he says! Yes, he does. (Feda,
sotto voce.-Did he hop, Yaymond?) No, he says you couldn't call it a hop.
OJL.-Well, we will go on to something else now; I don't want to
bother him about birds. Ask him does he remember Mr. Jackson?
Yes. Going away, going away, he says. He used to
come to the door. (Feda, sotto voce.- Do you know what he means? Anyone can come to the door!) He used to see
him every day, he says, every day. (Sotto voce.- What did he do, Yaymond?)
He says, nothing. (I can't make out what he says.) He's
thinking. It's Feda's fault, he says.
OJL.-
Well, never mind. Report anything he says, whether it makes sense or not.
He says he fell down. He's sure of that. He hurt
himself. He builds up a letter T, and he shows a gate, a small gate-looks like a foot-path; not one in the middle of a
town. Pain in hands and arms.
OJL.-
Was he a friend of the family?
No. No, he says, no. He gives Feda a feeling of
tumbling, again he gives a feeling as though(Feda thinks Yaymond's joking)-he laughed. He was well known among
us, he says; and yet, he says, not a friend of the family. Scarcely a day passed without his name being mentioned.
He's joking, Feda feels sure. He's making fun of Feda.
OJL.-
No, tell me all he says.
He says, put him on a pedestal. No, that they put him
on a pedestal. He was considered very wonderful. And he 'specs that he wouldn't have appreciated it, if he had
known; but he didn't know, he says. Not sure if he ever will, he says. It sounds nonsense, what he says. Feda has
got an impression that he's mixing him up with the bird, because he said something about 'bird' in the middle of
it - just while he said something about Mr. Jackson, and then he pulled himself up, and changed it again. just before he
said 'pedestal' he said 'fine bird,' and then he stopped. In trying to answer the one, he got both mixed up, Mr.
Jackson and the bird.
OJL.-
How absurd! Perhaps he's getting tired.
He won't say he got this mixed up! But he did! Because
he said 'fine bird,' and then he started off about Mr. Jackson.
OJL-
What about the pedestal?
On a pedestal, he said.
OJL.-
Would he like him put on a pedestal?
No, he doesn't say nothing.
[Contemporary Note by OJL.-The episode of Mr.
Jackson and the bird is a good one. 'Mr. Jackson' is the comic name of our peacock. Within the last
week he has died, partly, I fear, by the severe weather. But his legs have been rheumatic and
troublesome for some time; and in trying to walk he of late has tumbled down on them. He was found
dead in a yard on a cold morning with his neck broken. One of the last people I saw before leaving
home for this sitting was a man whom Lady Lodge had sent to take the bird's body and have it stuffed. She showed him a
wooden pedestal on which she thought it might be placed, and tail feathers were being sent with it.
Hence, the reference to the pedestal, if not telepathic from me, shows a curious knowledge of
what was going on. And the jocular withholding from Feda of the real meaning of Mr. Jackson, and
the appropriate remarks made concerning, him which puzzled Feda, were quite in Raymond's vein of humour.
Perhaps it was unfortunate that I had mentioned a bird
first, but I tried afterwards, by my manner and remarks, completely to dissociate the name Jackson
from what I had asked before about the bird; and Raymond played up to it.
It may be that he acquires some of these contemporary
items of family information through sittings which are held in Mariemont, where of course all family
gossip is told him freely, no outsider or medium being present. But the death of Mr. Jackson, and
the idea of having him stuffed and put on a pedestal, were very recent, and I was surprised that
he had knowledge of them. I emphasise the episode as exceptionally good.]
He's trying to show Feda the side of a house; not a
wall, it has got glass. He's taking Feda round to it; it has got glass stuff. Yes, and when you look in, it's like flowers
inside and green stuff. He used to go there a lot-be there, he says. Red-coloured pots.
OJL.-
Is that anything to do with Mr. Jackson?
He's shaking his head now. That's where mother got
the flowers from. Tell her, she will know.
[There is more than one greenhouse that might be
referred to. M. F. A. L. got the yellow jasmine, which she thinks is the flower referred
to, from the neighbourhood of one of them. And it is one on which the peacock used
commonly to roost; though whether the reference to it followed on, or had any connexion with, the
peacock is uncertain, and seems to be denied.]
Yes, he's not so clear now, Soliver. He has enjoyed
himself. Sometimes he enjoys himself so much, he forgets to do the good things he prepared. I could stay for hours
and hours, he says. But he's just as keen as you are in getting tests through. I think I have got some. When I go
away, I pat myself on the back and think, That's something for them to say, "Old Raymond does remember
something." What does aggravate him sometimes is that when he can't get things through, people think it's because
he has forgotten. It isn't a case of forgetting. He doesn't forget anything.
Father, do you remember what I told mother about the
place I had been to, and whom I had been allowed to see? What did they think of it?
[See M. F. A. L. sitting with Mrs. Leonard, 4 February
1916, Chap. XX.]
OJL.-
Well, the family thought that it wasn't like Raymond.
Ah, that's what I was afraid of. That's the awful part of it.
OJL.-
Well, I don't suppose they knew your serious side.
Before he gave that to his mother, he hesitated, and
thought he wouldn't. And then he said, Never mind what they think now, I must let mother and father know. Some
day they will know, and so, what does it matter?
He knew that they might think it was something out of
a book, not me; but perhaps they didn't know that side of me so well.
OJL.-
No. But among the things that came back, there was a Bible with marked passages in it, and so I saw that you had
thought seriously about these things. [page 11]
Yes, he says. Yet there's something strange
about it somehow. We are afraid of showing that side; we keep it to ourselves, and even hide it.
OJL.-
It must have been a great experience for you.
I hadn't looked for it, I hadn't hoped for it, but it was granted.
OJL.-
Do you think you could take some opportunity of speaking about it through some other medium, not Feda? Because at
present the boys think that Feda invented it.
Yes, that's what they do think. He says he will try very hard.
OJL.-
Have you ever seen that Person otherwise than at that time?
No, I have not seen Him, except as I told you; he says,
father, He doesn't come and mingle freely, here and there and everywhere. I mean, not in that sense; but we are
always conscious, and we feel him. We are conscious of his presence. But you know that people think that when
they go over, they will be with him hand in hand, but of course they're wrong.
He doesn't think he will say very much more about that
now, not until be's able to say it through some one else. It may be that they will say it wrong, that it won't be right; it
may get twisted. Feda does that sometimes. (Feda, sotto voce.- No, Feda doesn't!) Yes she does, and that's why I
say, go carefully.
OJL.
- Has he been through another medium to a friend of mine lately?
[This was intended to refer to a sitting which Mr. Hill
was holding with Peters about that date, and, as it turned out, on the same day. ]
He doesn't say much. No, he doesn't say nothing
about it. He hasn't got much power, and he's afraid that he might go wrong.
Good-bye, father, now. My love to you, my love to
mother. I am nearer to you than ever before, and I'm not so silly about [not] showing it. Love to all of them. Lionel is a
dear old chap. My love to all.
Don't forget to tell mother about the roses I brought
her. There's nothing to understand about them; I just wanted her to know that I brought her some flowers.
Good night, father. I am always thinking of you. God
bless you all.
Give Feda's love to SrAlec. OJL.-Yes, I will, Feda. We
are all fond of you.
Yes, Feda feels it, and it lifts Feda up, and helps her.
Mrs. Leonard speedily came-to, and seemed quite easy and
well, although the sitting had been a long one, and it was now nearly 11-30 P.M.
[I repeat in conclusion that this was an excellent sitting, with a
good deal of evidential matter.- OJL]
Don't forget to tell mother about the roses I brought
her. There's nothing to understand about them; I just wanted her to know that I brought her some flowers.
Good night, father. I am always thinking of you. God
bless you all.
Give Feda's love to SrAlec. OJL.-Yes, I will, Feda. We
are all fond of you.
Yes, Feda feels it, and it lifts Feda up, and helps her.
Mrs. Leonard speedily came-to, and seemed quite easy and
well, although the sitting had been a long one, and it was now nearly 11-30 P.M.
[I repeat in conclusion that this was an excellent sitting, with a
good deal of evidential matter. - OJ L.]
|
