Year: 2021

He did so and, in turning to his old friend Hannen Swafer for enlightenment, he could not have chosen a better mentor. Swaffer, who had his own home circle of sitters, invited Segrave to come and meet their medium. There Sir Henry had his first experience of psychic phenomena – a piano being lifted clear off the floor. He said that it was the only time in his life he had been too frightened to do anything but stare! His death on Lake Windermere came as a great shock to…

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The characteristic tones of the spirit communicators were not always recognizable – which is not entirely surprising when you remember that all were reproduced through the same artificially constructed larynx – but occasionally sitters were dumbfounded by the resemblance. One such was a Mrs. Ellen Hadgeld who was so deeply impressed by what she had heard that she wrote to the Press about it. It was not, she said, so much the characteristic of phrasing which had convinced her that she was speaking to her departed daughter, though these would…

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We sat every fortnight in an upper room in my house at Teddington, and for the first ten months we made no progress. It was most disappointing. Only the knowledge that we were sitting in response to Red Cloud’s request prevented me from giving up in despair. Nevertheless, he gave us his blessing and encouragement from time to time. At an early stage he asked that any donations resulting from these meetings should be paid to a medium who had fallen ill and was unable to work. Useful sums were…

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It was not until I had had three or four years’ experience of trance mediumship that Red Cloud asked me to form a circle so that I could train for direct voice development. I was more than willing. There was no difficulty in organizing a circle having as its nucleus Maurice Barbanell, Hannen Swaffer, Shaw Desmond, and Constance Treloar. These four attended regularly and were augmented by some fifteen to twenty other persons, who varied from séance to séance. None attended without Red Cloud’s prior approval. Occasionally their names would…

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Many times I have been asked what are the sensations of the deep trance state. It is a question I have never found easy to answer, any more than it is possible to describe the sensations of sleep. I sit in my chair, relaxed yet with a strong awareness of what is about to occur. What happens next can best be likened to the effects of an anaesthetic. From full consciousness there comes a brief period of light-headedness during which I hover between consciousness and oblivion. This is the moment…

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CHAPTER NINE,DIRECT VOICE In clairvoyance, clairaudience, and psychometry the medium never loses consciousness. If she is a good medium she may lose some awareness of the material things about her, but no more than one would expect of any other artist who becomes completely absorbed by the work in hand. To all outward appearances she is as much alive to what is going on around her as anyone else who happens to be present. Inevitably there are certain dangers attaching to this, since it is one of the characteristics of…

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The other instance occurred in late summer towards the end of a six weeks drought. The countryside was tinder dry and common sense should have told us not to smoke while lying comfortably back in the long brown grass. But Eveline is fond of her cigarettes. She relaxed with her eyes closed, a cigarette between her fingers. We must all have drowsed off because the next thing we knew was that the grass was on fire, and the blaze was spreading with alarming speed. We jumped up and tried to…

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As a family we have always been fond of picnics, taking every opportunity to get into open country whenever the weather is fine. I have been on many such excursions with my daughter, Eveline, and her husband Bill, and on two of these there occurred unexpected psychic phenomena which are certainly worthy of record. We had driven to an unspoiled beauty-spot, enclosed on two sides by fine forest trees. Lunch was over and we were basking in the hot sunshine. Bill, always of an inquiring mind, was quizzing me about…

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The circle comprised ten people and no sooner had I been entranced than Red Cloud delivered a lecture to those present. His subject, abstruse and involved, was the passage of matter through matter but its purport, several members of the circle later confessed, passed largely over their heads. Doubtless Red Cloud became quickly aware of this, for he said: “I will demonstrate the meaning of the words I have used. Here we sit within four walls, in an upstairs room, with its windows shuttered to exclude all light, and beyond…

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The demonstration ended with an avalanche of a dozen or more apports gushing from the trumpet like water from a tap. Everyone present had been named and given an apport, but most remarkable of all was the unexplained manifestation of a piece of garnet on the bedside table of a women who had hoped to attend our meeting but had been prevented from doing so at the last minute. On another occasion Red Cloud used a different technique to bring an apport to a sitter. It was the more remarkable…

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Iris, knowing that it would probably be her task to hand out the apports as they came from the trumpet added: “I hope it is a dead one. I hate beetles.” There were fifty sitters when we met to receive Red Cloud’s gifts and there was a strong atmosphere of expectancy as I took my chair in the center of the darkened room. Red Cloud entranced me and then addressed the company through the trumpet. He was in high good humor as he welcomed us to his “party” and hoped…

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The lock was subsequently examined by Clarksons, the theatrical wig-makers, and pronounced to be genuine hair. I have it in my possession today and also a document signed by all those present testifying to what they had seen. One of the most pleasing forms of psychic phenomena are apports, gifts from spirit world to friends on earth. As has already been shown, they usually comprise gems of a semiprecious nature, though occasionally they include small precious stones like rubies and emeralds. Generally speaking they have no very great intrinsic value,…

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The most striking part of the materialization was the fact that in the center of the forehead there was a bright, scintillating jewel.After that came the apports. We saw, by the two luminous spots painted on the trumpet, that it was moving. It tap- tapped on the ground. Soon we heard a rattling sound inside it. ‘This is for John; hold out your hand, Rachel,’ said Red Cloud, addressing Constance Treloar – Rachel is the name that he has given her.When she did so, the apport fell into it. She…

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It did not take long for the materialization to begin. The two luminous plaques were lifted by invisible hands from the floor. Soon there could be seen between them the silhouette of a face. It was Red Cloud.‘John,’ he said, calling me by the nickname he gave me years ago, ‘come forward.’ I felt my seat and stood within three or four inches of the cabinet opening. ‘Give me your hand,’ I was told. A masculine hand – certainly not that of Estelle – grasped mine.‘Feel my hair!’ said Red…

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But all was not over. Eschewing the use of the trumpet, Red Cloud’s voice again filled the room. “I have something for all of you,” he said. During the next two minutes he presented each sitter with a jewel, varying in size from tiny little brilliants to hexagonally cut pieces of onyx and jet measuring an inch-and-a quarter in length. Gifts such as these are known as “apports.” They are highly treasured by those lucky enough to receive them, and were especially cherished on the present occasion as mementos of…

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