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THE STORY of Bobbie Newlove's messages would, in earlier days, have seemed incredible or miraculous. It was made possible by experience gained during years of investigation and experiment.
Quite early in life it was my good fortune to meet a lady whose unusual mentality had afforded experiences such as come to few. She had not sought them and had no explanation to offer except that God had permitted her to see and hear things to which the majority are blind and deaf. The incidents she described made a deep impression, and aroused in me a desire to learn the laws which govern and make possible such experiences.
 |
| Plate 1: Bobbie, aged
nine, with his mother. |
By reading and inquiry it later came to my knowledge that, as with St. Paul in New Testament days, the condition of mind termed
trance opens the way for communications from those who, having passed through death, wish to speak to their friends on earth.
I resolved to study the trance state, and this became possible in 1917 when making the acquaintance of one whose psychical constitution permitted her to fall into trance as easily as if it were natural sleep. To her goodwill in allowing me to study with her is due the result now to be recorded.
As I understand it some change takes place with the oncoming of trance which enables one to remain resting in unconsciousness while mind and brain are at the disposal of those who, having left behind at death their physical body, require the temporary use of such an organism if they are to convey their thoughts to us in spoken words.
To use another's organism must be far from easy, and so those who come from realms invisible to speak usually avail themselves of the help of one who has long practised the process. This intermediary is technically termed the Control. The one I work with has co-operated in this manner for many years and delights to help those wishing to speak. She is named Feda.
The process, therefore, as I understand it, is that the invisible visitors give Feda an idea of what they wish to say and Feda then proceeds to influence the entranced brain and mind in such a way that the substance of the message is spoken by the sleeper's lips.
Sometimes Feda phrases the message in her own words, while at other times she is able to give it verbatim. More often than not the process is half-and-half; much depends upon causes which, like the weather or one's moods, are frequently altering and cannot be relied upon to remain the same from hour to hour.
Since February, 1917, I have enjoyed frequent conversations, through Feda's help, with my father, John Drayton Thomas, a Wesleyan minister for forty years, who died in 1903. When in 1920 my sister Etta joined him she, too, began to converse with me by the same method.
Had it not been for their help it is probable that my attempt to bring Bobbie Newlove into touch with his sorrowing family would have been less successful than it happily proved to be.
My reasons for certainty that it is my own father and sister who speak during these trances have been given in previous publications and need not be repeated here.
It was in September, 1932, that I first heard of Bobbie. A letter came from Nelson, in Lancashire, asking if I would attempt to obtain information from a boy of ten who had recently died from diphtheria. The writer, a Mr. Hatch, gave no unnecessary information, the relevant portion of his letter ran
thus:
"For ten years my stepdaughter has lived with me and my wife, and her little boy has been the life and centre of our lives. He was particularly intelligent and extraordinarily loving and lovable. A few weeks ago he died suddenly of diphtheria, aged 10. The loss is so dreadful that we feel we must ask if you can in any way obtain comfort similar to that recounted in your book,
Life Beyond Death.
"We feel that the very strong love and comradeship we had should make communication possible, if it is ever possible. I confess that my education (I have an honours degree in science) makes my faith in such matters very halting.
"If it is too soon for the boy to communicate, could not other friends or relatives who have passed over give us some knowledge and
consolation?"
My reply discouraged expectation of success; but as I had helped bereaved people on previous occasions, I resolved to make the attempt. Readers who wish to know about those earlier efforts and their varying results are referred to the account in
Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, May, 1935, entitled 'A Consideration of a Series of Proxy
Sittings'.
I asked Divine aid and then sought to inform the boy of my willingness to help him, addressing him mentally from time to time with instructions how to do his part. I also asked my father and sister to assist by seeking out the boy and inviting him to accompany them to my next trance conversation.
Meanwhile the family remained unaware that I was attempting to make contact with the child. It was in these circumstances that I took the letter to my sitting of November 4th, 1932, and at an appropriate moment said:
"I have a very earnest request for news of a little boy Bobbie." I then suggested that Feda should hold the letter. She accepted the idea. Needless to say I had folded it in such a way that no information could be ascertained by glancing at it. Added to this I watched carefully during the few minutes it was in the medium's hands, and observed that her eyes did not open.
Here is part of the first report which the Newlove family received from me, together with their replies.
The numbers in brackets are those used in the unabbreviated account published in
Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, December, 1935, and are retained here for convenience in referring to that
account.
8)
FEDA: Do you know if he was connected with a town, not London but a town, not one of the biggest in the
provinces?
[This was, as I knew, correct for Nelson where Bobbie had
lived.]
9)
FEDA: Is there something to do with a place - does anybody go there to do some special study, not like Oxford or Cambridge, Eton or Harrow?
C.D.T.: No, it is a manufacturing town.
FEDA: The studying they are doing is not so much of a scholastic kind. It is more as if they are learning to do something in a practical way.
C.D.T.: And who is this that is studying?
FEDA: Somebody connected with the boy, like making a study of how to make something, like specializing in the making of something, not just making it and turning it out with a machine, but a kind of study of
it.
[After a short break this subject was continued, see
below.]
10)
FEDA: It is a busy place, but not one of the very biggest of those towns. I don't think you would call it the biggest of those towns, and yet it is a largish place where they are concentrating on important things.
C.D.T.: I should say that is correct, so far as I know.
[Mr. Hatch wrote: "This is unquestionably an accurate description of Nelson."](1)
(1) Short comments interspersed between quotations from the record of the sittings are in square brackets. These comments, unless there is some statement to the contrary, are based upon information received from Mr. Hatch or Mrs. Newlove, either in letters or verbally when I made their acquaintance during my visits to Nelson in June and July,
1933.
11) FEDA: Do you know if some manufacturing places are on the banks of a canal or river there? It does not feel pretty enough to call a river because of the buildings and the things on the side of
it.
[There is a river and a canal, and there are factories on the banks of the river. Bobbie knew both river and
canal.]
FEDA: (Resuming previous theme 9.) Oh, are they partly making some stuff, there in this place, is it earthenware or pottery, something like stone? I think they are making more than one thing there, but I do get a feeling of something being made of a hard nature, something like stone, something is being put together, I get a feeling of it being put together very closely in lumps; it is not steel or iron or metal, it is more like things being made, and I think it is rather a new
industry.
[Mr. Hatch replied: "Bobbie had a great friend who is a working man engaged usually in making mortar and cement. He took a great interest m the boy and was most distressed when he died. Later he suggested that he should make a concrete cross for the grave. We thankfully agreed, feeling that work with real love behind it was better than anything bought from a monumental mason. This friend has never made one before and had to 'make a study of how to make something'."]
 |
| Plate 2: The grave
with its concrete surround. |
Readers will feel that this is not convincing. When, however, after the conclusion of these sittings I visited Nelson and met the person above alluded to, Mr. Burrows, and saw the grave-the cross not yet erected, but blocks of concrete making a curb with a concrete platform round the grave and noticing that the concrete was made in small portions fitted together, I realized how apposite had been the above description. Mr. Burrows will be mentioned hereafter. Bobbie greatly admired him; for, in addition to teaching Bobbie gymnastics and boxing, Mr. Burrows was the professional at the skating rink, and captain of the Rink Hockey Club. See Plate 2.
It is only my fear that readers will not be in a position, at this point, to share my opinion that Feda's remarks actually apply to the concrete-and-cement work around Bobbie's grave, that restrains me from pointing out in detail how clear it is that Feda did not know what it was she was describing. But it is unwise to build upon inadequate foundations, and there will be other opportunities, as we proceed, for illustrating this fact, namely, that the mind originating the message is not Feda's and that Feda is frequently unable to realize what it is that she is describing. There is abundant evidence indicating that Feda's part is simply to transmit from one who knows the facts, and who is trying amid difficulties to convey information which can be recognized by those for whom it is intended.
Several further statements were made, all proving more or less correct; but on the whole I considered the result poor.
Mr. Hatch's reaction to the first sitting may be judged from the following passage which I extract from his letter of
comments:
"If Bobbie were trying to communicate I cannot believe that he would refer to any of the matters mentioned. Still, as you say, it is a foundation, and if you will be good enough to try again we shall indeed be grateful.
"I have heard it said that those who are desperately anxious for evidence are very credulous. I do not think it is so with me. My fear is lest I should be deceived by evidence that can be explained by some other faculty of the mind, perhaps one that has not been investigated as
yet."
Before passing from this first attempt it may be interesting to draw attention to the difficult problem of Psychometry. This is the term applied to the gathering of information about the history of in object or its owner, merely by handling it. The information goes far beyond anything which might be gleaned from inspecting the object. Although this has been demonstrated by repeated experiment, there is as yet no satisfactory and generally accepted explanation of the process involved. The psychometrist knows no more how it happens than does the observer. We do not understand what part the object psychometrized plays in the process of eliciting information. Some have supposed that information is fixed upon the object in some way, and that the faculty of psychometry develops, or interprets, this cryptic impression. It is not easy to imagine how information can be thus fixed upon an object, although we have rough analogies in the gramophone record, and in exposed but undeveloped photographic plates, also in writing with invisible ink which can be made legible by chemical treatment. Let us accept the hypothesis, however, and call it No. 1.
There is the further hypothesis, No. 2, which is that a psychometrist obtains the information from some person incarnate or discarnate, who is familiar with the facts required.
No. 1 explains psychometry as perception and interpretation of something recorded on the article.
No. 2 explains it as reception of information relating to the article.
What exactly happened when I placed Mr. Hatch's letter in the hands of the medium one cannot say, but it may well be that there was a combination of both the above methods.
Before Feda had been speaking many sentences she said:
FEDA: I don't know whether I am getting things from the letter or because the boy is near or here. I am not quite sure yet, I can't be sure whether I am getting it there or here.
C.D.T.: It might be coming from either side, here or yonder?
FEDA: Yes.
C.D.T.: Do you think that Etta (i.e., my sister, who is an experienced communicator) could get into touch with the boy through this letter?
FEDA: That is why I am holding it. I think the boy is linked up with them. I keep feeling a pull from this, but I get a pull from someone else
also.
Thus there was uncertainty whether, at this early stage, information was being obtained by psychometry, or whether it was being given to Feda by some mind in possession of the facts.
I have discussed Psychometry in my book The Mental Phenomena of Spiritualism (published by the L.S.A., 16, Queensberry Place, London, S.W.7.) from which is taken the further description placed in the Appendix of this book.
A second attempt some weeks later was more successful.
31)
FEDA: They had been trying to make something - this is nothing to do with what I said about building - they had been doing something intricate in the house that Bobbie was interested in, they got a lot of parts for it, like fixing them all up together. They were wanting some other parts for it not long before Bobbie passed
over.
[Mr. Burrows was fitting up a gymnasium for Bobbie and it was not yet finished. They still required a horizontal ladder and other items. It was being made in an upstairs room and Mr. Burrows added to it each time he called. Bobbie's diary has the following references:
March 31. The instructor came and put up two parts of gymnasium.
May 10. Instructor came and fixed up parallel bars.
June 15. Got bell-bar for gym.] See Plate 3. (ISS note: Plate 3 is currently
unavailable).
34)
FEDA: What is that you are showing me? Will you ask is there a photograph of Bobbie in a rather peculiar position? I see him full faced, or very nearly full faced, but with something in front of him, as if there is a board in front of
him.
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| Plate 4: Bobbie as
Jack of Hearts. |
[Mr. Hatch writes: "This is certainly remarkable. The last photograph we have of Bobbie is in fancy dress. He is the Jack of Hearts with boards back and front like a sandwich-man. On his head is a crown as in a pack of cards.] See Plate
4.
35)
FEDA: Will you ask also if he had been given - think it must have been a joke - something new that he was fond of using or wearing on his head, something round; if it was a cap it had no peak to it. He used to put it on his head and I think he liked it. It was as if he thought it was rather important putting this round thing on his
head.
[This apparently refers to the crown. He was so fond of putting it on that his mother had to check him lest it should be worn out.]
Six months later this jack of Hearts cap was again alluded to.
111)
FEDA: His mother has been thinking something about a cap, thinking something rather special of it lately. It is only a little thing, but he just wanted her to know
it.
[Mr. Hatch writes: "Yes, she has been thinking about his
cap."]
112)
FEDA: She came across something with a special badge on it. It is not a heart exactly, but the lower part is rather shaped like a heart, at the bottom it is heart-shaped. It is something like a straight line goes through the top of it, and a little upstanding piece comes out of the
top.
 |
| Plate 5: (B) The
special cap. (C) Sandwich boards worn at the Gala. |
Mr. Hatch replied that they knew no badge of this shape. On my visit to Nelson I asked whether Bobbie had a badge on his school sports jacket, or other kind of badge. They knew of none. I therefore marked this as a failure. Later in the day I was shown the boards and cap which had been spoken of in an earlier sitting, and of which I wished to take a photograph. On seeing the Jack of Hearts cap I recognized it as answering exactly to this description. Cf. photograph (Plate 5) and notice the heart on the front of the crown or cap, with the line going each side the top of the heart, and the "little upstanding piece at the top". The one inaccuracy was the statement that "it is not a heart exactly", unless one takes this to refer to the cap itself, upon which the heart is fixed. Referring to my notes I saw the words, "she came across something with a special badge on it". A question elicited the reply that Bobbie's mother had turned out this paper crown while spring cleaning. The date of this sitting agrees closely with the time when it had come under her notice.
The photograph of Bobbie's little diary, see Plate 6, shows under June 4th, the words: "Went to Gala, walked in fancy dress."
(ISS note: Plate 6 is currently unavailable.) This outstanding event in the child's life would certainly have remained a pleasant memory and was therefore suitable to be given to his people as an evidence that it was their boy Bobbie who sent the messages.
A letter from Mr. Hatch contained the following appreciation of the earlier reference to boards and cap (34,
35).
"The first two items of your notes are certainly remarkable. If one were to take at random a huge number of photographs of children there might be somewhere a child behind some kind of board or tray. Probably, however, the proportion would not be more than one in a thousand. The second point,
something round without a peak on his head, of the nature of a joke, and that he was pleased at
having, is certainly a fifty to one chance. So that the chances against the two
being coincidence are, I think, at least fifty thousand to one."
I was by this time assured that my effort to convey messages from Bobbie to his friends was going to be successful. Had this been the first occasion of my receiving indubitable evidence of identity from one who had been unknown to me in life, I should have felt profoundly thrilled. But this was not the first time by many. My mind goes back to a day in 1917 when I first felt the overwhelming wonder, the rush of a new realization, which came with the conviction that I had obtained
complete proof that those who had passed through death were able to resume intercourse with earth. It is one thing to believe on hearsay that this happened in Bible times, but it is something very different to find it happening now, and to realize that it is happening to oneself. The wonder increases on discovering that not only one's nearest and dearest are speaking, but that the laws of communication are such that one can sometimes be the means of transmitting messages from strangers to their sorrowing friends.
In previous attempts to obtain evidence from people beyond death, whom I did not know, and on behalf of their friends on earth whom I had not seen, one or two sittings had sufficed. In the present case there emerged a special feature which decided me to persevere. It may be called "The Mystery of the Pipes" and will be described fully in the second part of this book.
Passing over messages of affection, and references to other matters, we will confine ourselves for the present to a study of the
evidence by which the boy established his identity.
Only a selection is given here, and it will be understood that it was obtained in the course of a number of sittings, which were mostly occupied by matters relating to myself and having no reference to Bobbie Newlove. The items selected are given for the most part in the order I received
them.
36)
FEDA: What does Bobbie want to say about his nose, his nose hurt? (Hand rubs nose.)
He is making me feel as if something had hurt his nose on the side towards the end of his earthly life. Oh, he doesn't think it caused his passing or anything of that
kind.
[Mr. Hatch writes: "Bobbie was learning to box, and on the last lesson his instructor, usually very gentle with him, gave him a blow on the nose 'which brought tears to his eyes. He complained afterwards that it hurt when washed." When, on visiting the house, I was shown Bobbie's little diary, I noticed that he humorously referred to this under its date thus: "June 14. The instructor came. Burst my nose." This happened shortly before Bobbie's death.] See Plate
3. (ISS note: Plate 3 is currently unavailable.)
39)
FEDA: Did I tell you last time about a girl a little older than Bobbie that he was fond of? She seemed as if very kind to him, like giving up things to him and being very nice to him, and this girl has been I can't get this quite - but it is something to do with a ball that belonged to Bobbie. I don't think this is much good - you see I am not getting this from Mr. John now, I am getting it from Bobbie. Something this girl has been doing about a ball that Bobbie was fond of when he was here. the girl has been doing something with
it.
[There was a child Marjorie at the Rink who had a special part which she played at the commencement of hockey matches. The team termed her their mascot, and she began their competitions by an exhibition of skating in which she finally drove a ball into the goal. Bobbie enjoyed watching this. She was twelve years old and they were great friends. While Marjorie was away on a visit Bobbie said to his mother: "If I don't see Marjorie soon I shall go mad." This was only a month before his death. The sittings allude to her several times. The ball did not, of course, belong to Bobbie although he may at times have joined in playing with it; for he often skated with Marjorie.]
As we shall presently see, these messages show intimate knowledge of places in which Bobbie had been interested. Here is a description of a favourite
walk.
40)
FEDA: And will you ask them if he went to a place where there was a broken stile? At least it may not have been the stile itself that you put your foot on was broken, but a part of the construction through which the stile was made was broken.
41) And there was a long footpath there too, part of it seems to go between something, like as if you were going between something rather high, I get like a high wall on one side. There is not usually building near stiles now, but I get the feeling of something close to the path and the stile.
42) When you get over the stile it is more open.
43) Then I think there is a church with a group of trees round it.
44) I feel you have only to go a little way over the stile, and there is something that would be dangerous near to this stile, something you can fall down, as if you would say to children: "Now, don't go that way." It is something you could fall down into.
45) And it is wet too; I can't see the water - think they want me to say that - and yet it feels sticky and wet there.
46) This is a place that Bobbie would know very well, would have reason to know. He has been thinking of it lately when he has been with his people on the earth. He must have been near this place with them and it made him think about it again, whereas he would have forgotten
it.
 |
| Plate 7: Path by
quarry, now protected by railings; a stile was formerly at its upper end. |
[Mr. Hatch writes: "This is very good. A favourite walk was by a stile. Whether it is damaged I do not know, but I will find out. And beyond it is a church with trees. His body is buried in the churchyard. Past the stile the path leads to a quarry, at the foot of which is water. (See Plate 7.) Bobbie wanted to go there to play, but we forbade it." Mr. Hatch wrote later: "I have been the walk described in your last notes, but cannot find any damaged stile; however, these last messages are the best we have had."]
Mr. Hatch enclosed a plan of his walk, which is here reproduced (Plan A). (ISS
note: Plan A is currently unavailable.) The stile, which had been there in Bobbie's time, and
was broken, had now been completely removed. Beyond the site of this stile a footpath runs along the precipitous edge of a quarry. Bobbie's mother tells me that she used to regard this unprotected path as dangerous. It is now made safe by a fence. There is no high wall on the side opposite the quarry but a row of houses; these houses might be described as "something rather high" and "like a high wall on one side". "When you get over the stile it is more open"; yes, there is an extensive view over the quarry on the left. (See Plate 8) "Church with a group of trees round it"; this is a few minutes' walk from the quarry, not connected with it, but part of a walk which the family often took. "He must have been near this place with them," etc.; Mr. Hatch adds: "Yes, almost every time we have gone out since his passing we have been either to the grave or to a friend who lives near."
 |
| Plate 8: View over
quarry from the path. |
On re-reading the above, while preparing this paper, I mistakenly assumed that the walk which the family often took included the path by the stile. It therefore seemed inexplicable that, if passing the site of the stile "almost every time we have been out since his passing" - a period of several weeks - they should have been unaware of the stile and its subsequent removal.
To my letter of inquiry about this Mr. Hatch replied on February 24th, 1935: "You are mistaken in thinking that we had often taken the walk by the stile
after Bobbie's death. The walk we did take was up the road to the grave. Gwen (i.e., Mrs. Newlove) went the walk after your sitting and could not find the stile, though she had thought there was one. We then wrote you that the description of the walk was correct except that there was no broken stile. Some weeks afterwards I found from a friend that a broken stile had been there but had been removed shortly before Bobbie's death."
Conspicuous among Bobbie's communications were detailed descriptions of the neighbourhood given from the boy's point of view. This was not the sort of information which could have been gathered from map or guide-book but exactly the kind which would result from a boy's memory of favourite walks near his home. The first of these descriptions had, as we have just seen, several points, all given with accuracy except one, which referred to a broken stile. But that in itself was particularly interesting because the broken stile
had been there during the boy's lifetime but was removed before the date of the sitting. This shows us that the description was given from the memory of one who had known the facts in Bobbie's lifetime, and not from any clairvoyance whether of medium or control. The latter hypothesis would lead us into the difficulty of having to suggest how clairvoyance could be directed to the right town, and then trace, amidst its many scores of streets and paths, the particular route which had been the favourite walk of the family.
It is important to remember that I gave away no least clue of any sort as to the town in which Bobbie had lived.
The description of a broken stile which no longer exists, but which did exist in the communicator's lifetime, was paralleled in one of my previous proxy experiments where was given a detailed and minutely accurate description of a garden. But that description, in its most striking features, was correct only for the
summer time, whereas it was received in the winter. In that case, as in the above, clairvoyance is entirely ruled out.
In January, 1933, Mr. Hatch wrote as follows:
"Is it possible for you to put two or three questions? If they were answered correctly it would be well-nigh overwhelming proof of survival. I leave it to you, of course, but to save time I append the questions:
"1. What did Bobbie keep in the bathroom cupboard?
"2. Where did he like to go with his Mummie last winter in the evenings and was looking forward to going again this winter?
"3. What did he do in the attic besides boxing?"
I put these questions, and it will be observed as we proceed that two of them were answered with some detail. It is as well to mention here that I thought it would be interesting to compare the result with my own guesses. I therefore wrote to Mr. Hatch that I guessed:
1) Boat, 2) the Pictures, or Ice Skating-rink, 3) playing with trains. It became clear after the next few sittings that my alternative guess for number 2), Skating-rink, was partly correct. I did not learn until the sittings were completed that my guess for 1), Boat, was also correct. But it is, perhaps, of some significance in view of the telepathic hypothesis, that this never emerged in replies to these questions, nor did my third guess, which proved completely
wrong.
FEDA: Etta says that she has brought the boy; you know, Bobbie Newlove, and that he wanted to say one or two things before they went on to anything else.
C.D.T.: Bobbie. I can't think what it was you used to do in the attic besides boxing. I have been trying to guess.
8) FEDA: What are you showing me? Did you pull a string out of the wall? Bobbie did some funny things for a boy, now look, he is going to the wall and he seems as if he is untwisting something and he is pulling something from the wall, either thick string or rope, and on the end he seems to be fixing something carefully. That is important, what he is doing with it. It is the pulling it out that seems to be the important thing. It is something about drawing it out as far as is possible and then letting it go back to the wall again. It is something that he seemed to do rather
regularly.
 |
[Mr. Hatch: "This is good; in the attic he had among other things, an arrangement for strengthening the muscles. The drawing appended will show you the idea. Drawing it out was the important thing, and he did it rather regularly." (See drawing.)
This is evidently the answer to question No. 3, which was: "What did he do in the attic besides boxing?"]
On a later occasion I repeated these questions because unaware at the time whether or not they had been
answered.
C.D.T.: Bobbie, have you given the answers to those three things your mother asks, they were - 1) What was kept in the bathroom cupboard? 2) What did you do in the attic besides boxing? and 3) Where did you go last winter evenings with your mother and were hoping to go again this winter? It may be that you have given the answers already.
71) FEDA: When he went with his mother didn't he carry something for her? I feel it is rather important that he carried something for her, not something that he put under his arm, but something swinging a
bit.
[Mr. Hatch: "Bobbie was keenly interested in roller-skating and it is curious that you guessed correctly this answer to the question about what he did on winter evenings. Bobbie used to carry his skates swinging. His mother sometimes offered to carry them but he would never allow her to do so. Possibly he feels that he carried them to save her
trouble."]
72)
FEDA: And when they walked did he hold her arm? I don't know if he always did this, but I get a very strong feeling of holding her arm. Boys don't usually do that, but I seem to get him doing this when they went out at
night.
[Mr. Hatch: "Yes,
correct."]
73)
FEDA: They had spoken and thought about buying something new for this winter that was going to be rather expensive in connection with where they were going together. It was a bit expensive, but it would be rather an improvement on what they had. He enjoyed going to this place, and he would talk about it a lot afterwards, and about the progress they had
made.
[Mr. Hatch: "There was some talk of a pair of skates for his mother. She had none, but used a pair from the rink. It is true that he enjoyed going and would talk about the progress they had
made."]
74)
FEDA: What a funny place it is, there did not seem much furniture there. Will you ask if it was rather a bare place, because I am getting a feeling of a place that is rather bare, perhaps it is purposely bare? It feels as if it was a place where they cleared the furniture; it feels as if there were a lot of other people there too. I keep hearing voices. That has to do with where they went on winter evenings, and they hoped to go again, only after buying something special.
C.D.T.: He has not told you what it is?
FEDA: No, I can't get what it is.
[Mr. Hatch: "A correct description of the
rink."]
C.D.T.: Can you show Feda what you did in the attic?
78) FEDA: He is lying on the floor. I suppose you are lying on the floor? He is showing me something like stretched on the floor. I think he wants me to go flat on the floor or something. It feels as if I have got to lie on the floor and move something. I want to waggle altogether, sort of squirm about. I think my hands and feet and head is going. That is all I can get about
it.
[Mr. Hatch: "Lying on the floor is
correct. Bobbie was given drills there; raising legs while on his back, raising the body from the hands and toes, and various tricks."]
Two weeks later I returned to the question.
C.D.T.: And what else did you do in the attic besides exercises to strengthen the muscles? You boxed, but you did other things there too?
95) FEDA: What is he pretending to be? Is he being silly? He is jumping about, putting his hands like that - (here medium's arms were thrown upward), bowing and like that. He is pretending to be acting, like clowns or something; it is something like that he did, because he made me feel he wanted to be something like posing and all
that.
[Mr. Hatch: "I think this is good. We had fitted up the attic as a gymnasium. The 'bowing' is a good description of his movements when lifting dumb-bells or other
weights."]
FEDA: Some of the things I have got for them I don't understand, and just a little bit of a twist would make them get the wrong meaning.
91) FEDA: And did he use something made of celluloid, something that he used and they wanted him to stop using it? They thought it might make a flame or
explosion.
[Mr. Hatch: "Yes, he had bought a secondhand cinematograph lantern, and we were a little nervous about the celluloid
films."]
92)
FEDA: Will you ask his mother whether she had the bathroom done after he passed over, the walls, because he remembers she wanted to have them done? There was something that she was talking about having done before he passed over, about the bathroom; talking about the bathroom reminded
him.
[The family say that parts of the bathroom wall and ceiling needed attention where the lincrusta was loose. This had been put right since Bobbie's
passing.]
106)
FEDA: Are Bobbie's people helping a very old person? I forget what Bobbie told me, but I think it was an old lady, whom they were sorry for and doing their utmost for, and Bobbie is very pleased about it. Bobbie's people feel they must give special help for the time
being.
[The family informed me that, at the date of this sitting, they were thinking of sending daily dinners, and were inclined to select as the recipient a certain old lady whom they knew. Shortly after this they decided upon this widow, aged 63, but who looks older and is toothless. They were still sending dinners to her when I visited them in June,
1933.]
113)
FEDA: Wait a bit, don't be in a hurry. (Long pause.) "Church." Wait a minute, Bobbie. I don't see quite what you mean. (This was all whispered.) "Church," something about a church. I don't know - anyhow he is showing me a church, the outside of a church, and the churchyard.
C.D.T.: Church and churchyard?
FEDA: Yes, he is taking me to the side. I think the right-hand side of the church as you face it. I think it is somewhere his mother has been lately. Not going into the church, but going down into the churchyard to the right, and I think the ground slopes down a bit just there too. It is somewhere his mother has been lately, and where she was thinking of him very
much.
(The above was whispered softly and with long pauses between the sentences.)
[Mr. Hatch: "This is quite correct; his grave is in just the position indicated."
On visiting Nelson I found that this description was exact. One enters the gate, passing the stocks, which are on the left side of the path; then, going along the right-hand side of the church, the ground distinctly sloping downwards, one comes to the grave. It was true that his mother had been there shortly before this sitting, indeed, she frequently goes there, and naturally thinks then of
Bobbie.]
(127 and 128) FEDA: He thinks his mother wants a new dressing-gown for
herself.
[His mother had been to Manchester and, while there, purchased material for a dressing-gown, as requested by her mother. It was not for Bobbie's mother herself, but she had thought much about
it.]
129) FEDA: He wanted to tell his mother that he is usually with her early in the mornings. Will you ask her if cardboard boxes made her think of him just
lately?
[Mr. Hatch: "Correct. It was in connection with the spring
cleaning."]
C.D.T.: I expect she thinks of you a great deal, Bobbie.
130) FEDA: She and I were such chums. We were not so much like mother and son, we were chums. He says he felt so grown up, sometimes she felt as if he was taking her out, felt really as if he was taking her. He says: "I think she will understand if you tell her." And she used to love to plan things she and I would do and go to together, especially that last year in which I was on the earth. I seemed to have got more grown up than ever, and she depended on me so much that last nine months. I had grown more, so that she and I could enjoy things together that usually are enjoyed by two people of just the same age, and we really enjoyed them as if we were the same age; and she used to tell me things that she had done, and even about things she had bought, you know. She would even mention things about her clothes which I suppose most mothers don't do, but she used to often tell me about things she had bought.
"I was always happiest when I was with her," he says. "She was like another boy as well as a mother. When you know her better you will think she is a boy too."
"She is not mannish to look at, but I could always talk to her like I could to another boy." He says: "She always talked to me as if I was grown
up.."
[Mr. Hatch: "This is a remarkably correct description of his relations with his mother."
"When you come to know her better," etc. Having now met Mrs. Newlove, I can entirely agree with
this.]
136) FEDA: The swings, the place where the swings are, he used to go there and his mother did not like it much. Jolly at this time of the year. Mother will
remember.
[Mr. Hatch: "The Fair comes soon to Nelson. Bobbie loved the swings, but his mother did not like him to go on them
much."]
137) FEDA: Will you ask her whether she remembers the track I was so interested in, that she did not like, the track where there was some racing? I think something had happened, I think it was rather dangerous, and I know I wanted to go, and I think it must be this time of the year. It was a sort of circular track. It was something I wanted to look at, and I don't think mother liked
it.
[Mr. Hatch: "This is good. There was a kind of motorcycle racing at the Fair which he wanted to see, but his mother disapproved. An accident had happened there."]
Proper names are sometimes given easily and correctly, but usually present a difficulty.
An attempt to give the name Catlow Bottoms illustrates this. It was at the end of a description of the neighbourhood in which he had lived that Feda, speaking for Bobbie,
said:
140) FEDA: "There is a place 'C' close by, a long name sounding like Catelnow, Castlenow. There seemed to be two or three syllables, like a Ca sound, cattle or castle
something."
The family comment was: "The name given is like Catlow, a hamlet near here. Bobbie and I went there the day he was taken ill, the last occasion that he left the house." When studying Bobbie's diary I noticed that almost the very last entry read - "Went to Catlow Bottoms. Sore throat. Went to bed."
Remove two letters from Catelnow and we have Catlow.
Feda can sometimes give a name without difficulty but should there be any hitch, necessitating a second or third try, it is rarely she achieves success. Her explanation is that, even when she hears the name clearly, anxiety to get it voiced affects the medium's brain, causing a tension which hinders expression of the required word.
But often Feda cannot hear the name distinctly.
142) FEDA: Wait a minute, there is a young
girl Bobbie is interested in at home, her name begins with an "M", and a boy with
the initial "R", and also another one beginning with "E"; they are all special friends of Bobbie's and people his mother has been thinking of and doing things with just
lately.
[Mr. Hatch: "This is exactly correct if you take 'home' to mean the town but not the house."
In conversation they gave me particulars as follows: "M". Marjorie of the rink, several times previously alluded to. "R": a boy Roy whom Bobbie knew at the rink. They had given some of Bobbie's toys to Roy. "E": a youth, Earle, whom Bobbie knew at the rink, aged 19.]
In a recent letter Mr. Hatch had written: "Bobbie used often to cycle in a garden; will you ask him where?" I therefore now put that
question.
144) C.D.T.: You often cycled in a garden. Why you did it in the garden I can't think; it wasn't your own garden, was it?
FEDA: Wait a minute, I wonder who it belonged to. Bicycle through a gate, when you got to the gate you could turn to the left down a side path and you could bicycle there if you wanted to.
145) I think there is another boy with him, and I see a tall lady. Is there a clergyman, minister, connected with this place? I don't think he lives there, and yet I get a feeling of clergy and ministers. I see a tall lady and another
boy.
[Mr. Hatch: "This is remarkable, as the garden referred to belongs to the family of a minister who died about three years ago. The description is exact, except that there was no other boy."]
When discussing this with the family I learnt that a tall lady" lives there; so that item is also correct. How shall we account for the reference to another boy which does not apply to that garden? Since writing the foregoing I have received the following note in answer to my
inquiry.
"'Another boy with him, and I see a tall lady.' We have discovered since you asked us about this that on one occasion only Bobbie wished to take another boy with him into this garden. The owner, however, did not allow him to do so, as she felt, quite naturally, that if she allowed one she might be expected to allow more, and the garden would be overrun. This other boy did not go into the garden, but only to the gate, while Bobbie tried to obtain permission to have him in. On no other occasion did Bobbie bring a boy with him while in that garden, nor did any other boy friend of the family go there. The owner of the garden herself told me
this."
In order to make sure that the above account was accurate in every detail it was submitted to the "tall lady" who owns the garden, with the request that she would correct it where necessary. It was returned unaltered and with her signature appended in testimony to its complete agreement with fact.
8) I here abbreviate some further items from Bobbie's messages.
The boy told me of an important engagement which his mother had made for the Saturday afternoon following his death, and said that his being taken ill must have interfered with that engagement.
Mrs. Newlove replied that such an engagement had been fixed for the Saturday after Bobbie's death. It was the Brownies, of which she was an officer, and the boy had known that she was to have spent that afternoon with them. He was taken ill on the previous Sunday. Directly his illness became serious the engagement was postponed; so that Bobbie's death on the Thursday
did in fact prevent her taking the Saturday engagement, exactly as the message said.
9) Bobbie also stated that some foods that most boys like he always objected to, and that there was one particular food about which he was very difficult, and yet it had been given him only a little while before he passed over. It was, he said, one of his pet aversions, although quite an ordinary food which most boys would have enjoyed.
This statement proved to be correct. The boy had been funny about food. He never touched jam, nor even a cake that had jam in it. He also disliked milk. But his pet aversion was the white of egg. His mother wrote: "Bobbie hated it and always left it, but I was beginning to insist that he should try to eat it."
10) Bobbie also reminded them that he had been interested in going to something like a chemist's shop, not really a shop but a place with bottles and weighing things, instruments and such-like. It was described as "a clean, white place with bottles and measuring things."
Mr. Hatch replied: "This is very good. I had much to do with a laboratory in the town, and Bobbie liked to go there with me. The reference to taps, bottles and weighing things is quite correct."
Many other messages relating to the boy's home and personal interests are omitted lest the reader should weary. Those wishing to see the complete list, together with a full discussion of its evidential value, are referred to
Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, December, 1935. The selection already given may suffice to show that the evidence for Bobbie's identity passed far beyond anything attributable to chance
coincidence.
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