As I went into the room the mother sprang to her feet, anxious to know the result of the sitting. I assured her that the girl’s husband had returned and proved his survival. Tears were in the mother’s eyes as she clasped my hands, saying: “Mrs. Roberts, you have saved her life. Had he not come, I don’t know what she would have done. Several times the poor child has talked resolutely of taking her own life.” In that moment the full measure of the responsibility of my work dawned…

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But, of Will she could tell no more than other mediums. His father, she said, told her he was looking after the boy, who was still alive on earth.But, because Will was suffering from amnesia, it was difficult for them to influence his mind. She felt he had (gone) into Germany, perhaps into the Russian zone. She could not pinpoint his exact position. Naturally, Mrs. P. and her daughter were disappointed. But the experiment was by no means a failure.Mrs. Roberts gave them information which they could not possibly have…

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My visitor was much impressed by the events of our sitting; no less it seems by my involuntary hand gestures than by the message I had given him. He remarked to the newspaperman who accompanied him that while I was in communication with his wife, I kept clasping my hands in front of my face. I was unaware of having done this, nor could I later recall having done so. However, the significance of it was not lost on him. He explained that the movements of my hands had been…

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Some years ago The People published a series of articles on Spiritualism. Written by Maurice Barbanell, the series aroused so much interest and correspondence that the Editor invited readers who were bereaved and who had never attended a séance to send him their stories. From those submitted, the Editor undertook to select a few readers to have sittings under rigid test conditions. Maurice Barbanell had no hand in choosing the readers whose stories suggested they were most in need of psychic help; and neither, of course, had I. With one…

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And I say even though I cannot even yet regard their case as proved, the experience that happened to the mother of that murdered child in my presence last week has made it impossible for me to say any longer: ‘I do not believe.’ For it was something I shall never forget.” Suicide is no less an offense against the spiritual laws than it is against the laws of manmade civilization. And, as in the one so in the other; there are degrees of transgression. Both laws recognize there is…

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That was not my only experience in last week’s investigations, although after that almost incredible sitting with Mrs. Roberts, the others pale away in my memory . . .I had a séance with another medium, Lilian Bailey. To her I took another bereaved mother from Birmingham, Mrs. Ethel Wright. Mrs. Wright lost her five-year-old daughter nine months ago – and the medium told her that the child died ten months ago.Mrs. Bailey also described the child quite fairly and added: ‘She wants you to give her love to her daddy…

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Mrs. Wilson sat wide-eyed with wonder. Her whirling mind tried to grasp the immensity of the revelation.Mrs. Roberts turned to Mrs. Pugh. After a while she said:‘Your little boy is a dear kiddie, with brown curly hair. He is standing just beside you now.’ Mrs. Pugh gave Mrs. Roberts a toy which had belonged to her child. But the medium was not satisfied. She asked: ‘He says he wants to have the other toy you have brought with you in your bag.’Mrs. Pugh opened her handbag and produced a very…

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‘Your little girl’, she said, ‘passed into the spirit world with a terrific shock. I have a feeling of constriction round the throat – of choking. Your little girl was strangled.’Now do you remember the case of Sheila Wilson? She was, in fact, strangled by a man who has since been executed for his crime. ‘This spirit,’ Mrs. Roberts went on, ‘passed over only a short time ago. She has been dead less than six months. It is difficult for her to communicate . . . she has not yet…

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“Here and now I must admit that I am completely staggered and bewildered. The picture of the little girl you see on this page is that of Sheila Wilson. You may remember her, for three months ago Sheila, eleven years of age, was brutally murdered in a London house. I did not know Sheila. Until three days ago I had never seen her parents. But it happens that Mrs. Wilson read in the Sunday Pictorial that I was investigating claims of Spiritualists to be able to communicate with children in…

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Frederick Nodder’s name had been very much in the news. It was clear to readers of the newspapers that the police were very interested in Nodder’s movements at the time of the crime and just before it, but interest and suspicion are not enough to substantiate a charge at law. The police needed proof and they had not been able to get it. Neither had they been able to find Mona Tinsley, dead or alive. “Assuming the child has been killed, where would you say the murderer hid the body?”…

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Inside, the house was bare from top to bottom; every stick of furniture had gone. Left to roam as I pleased, I went first to the staircase and climbed to the two rooms above. I received no psychic impressions in the first room I entered, but in the second, at the back of the house, particularly near the water tank, I could feel the presence of Mona. I went downstairs again and walked around the two lower rooms. It was in the front one that Mona had spent her time…

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I wrote to the Chief Constable at Newark-on-Trent, and told him that I believed I might be able to bring some comfort to the unhappy parents if he would send me some garment belonging to the missing girl. I received a reply in which the Chief Constable, Mr. Barnes, said: “This is forwarded at the request of the parents of Mona Tinsley and I shall be glad if you will refrain from giving my action any official interpretation.” As this was in accordance with my desire for no publicity, we…

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CHAPTER SIX,MURDER AND SUICIDE When I had a telephone call from Douglas Sladen, an old friend whose books I enjoy, I guessed from his tone that he was diffident about coming to the point. After some humming and hawing he said: “Look Estelle, I have just been talking to an editor. He asked if I thought you could do anything to help find this child.” I knew at once whom he meant by “this child.” It was 1937, when the disappearance of tenyear–old Mona Tinsley had been making headline news…

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I was asked to investigate at a house whose occupants were suffering physical violence at the hands of an earthbound spirit entity. The attacks always followed a similar pattern. Every now and then one of the residents using the staircase would be pitched down the steps. This was not only disconcerting but dangerous. When I arrived at the house, I stood at the bottom of the staircase and looked up. There, half-way up, was the spirit figure of a grizzled old man who came directly to the point.“If you come…

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“It was what is known as a psychic rod,” I told them. “Red Cloud says that such a rod may build up anywhere where there is a strong concentration of wickedness.”“But there is no concentration of wickedness here,” they protested. “No longer perhaps, but who knows what happened here before your coming?”“ ‘The evil that men do lives after them. . .’” Somebody quoted. “Precisely that,” I agreed. “I think that if you care to do a little research you may find that this house was the scene of some…

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