Fifty Years a Medium – Chapter 7, 2/16 by Estelle Roberts

At the advertised hour for the meeting to begin, I would leave the ante-room and take my seat on the platform. Sometimes we would begin with a hymn and a prayer; sometimes just a prayer. This would be followed by the chairmen’s introductory comments.

Usually he was famous in some other field of activity and had a number of well-known people seated on either side of him. When he sat down, it was my cue to rise. I would walk to the front of the stage and, speaking into a microphone, would quote the biblical phrase, “I heard a voice from heaven say . . .” I made a practice always of beginning with these words so that the audience would know that I was in touch with the spirit world.

A medium taking the platform at a mass meeting is in a very different position from any other lecturer or public speaker. The lecturer comes to the meeting prepared in advance; he knows for how long he proposes to speak and precisely what he is going to say.

The medium knows neither of these things. She is there to transmit the messages of others and continues to do so for as long as they come, or until her guide calls upon her to stop. In my case I cannot recall a demonstration when there were not many more spirit messages than I could possibly give.

As I listened I would hear perhaps as many as a dozen voices all excitedly claiming my attention: “Tell my mother this . . .” “Tell my brother that . . .” Often I would have to entreat them to be calm, begging them for a chance to do their bidding.

I remember once remarking on this to Red Cloud after a packed meeting at the Albert Hall. “Why is it,” I asked, “that all these dear ones crowd in on me with never a pause or break?” He replied:

“The hall was filled with the people of your world tonight because they know and trust you. Does it not enter your mind that you are no less known and trusted by the people in my world, too?”