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Guest Article Number 4
An Article by John Wickham

An evening with the other side?

My attendance at an Independent voice physical mediumship séance

Towards the end of 2003, I was approached at a lecture in London and asked if I would like to attend a séance in January 2004. For confidentiality reasons, I will refer to the person who invited me as Mrs X.

I constantly seek new 'experiences' in my quest to seek 'the truth', yes, I am very sceptical and will not believe something unless I have absolute proof. Over the years I have experienced some weird and wonderful things, and because of this, I believe that there is life after death and that we survive our physical body and that we are being 'visited' by ghosts/spirits, it is important to remember this whilst you read through this article.

When Mrs X invited me she gave me three A4 sized pieces of paper to read which listed in quite some detail the 'strange occurrences' that this group had experienced at these séances during the past 10 years, which is the length of time they have been meeting, normally once each week. The alleged 'strange occurrences' are things such as: a sudden ice cold breeze filling a room; furniture levitation; legs visibly being unscrewed from tables then being firmly screwed back up; table tilting; things appearing out of thin air (apport's), strange mysterious voices being heard, attendees being touched, the list goes on. I must admit, I was quite excited, I wanted to go immediately, I didn't want to wait for a whole month.

MY VISIT INTO THE UNKNOWN

On Tuesday 20th January 2004, I headed off on a cold wet night to East London. Mrs X welcomed me into her home and into her lounge, I felt very relaxed in her company, her husband (Mr X) joined us a few minutes later, we conversed whilst we awaited the Medium and his wife to arrive, it was going to be just the five of us for the evening - the four regulars and me the only 'outsider'.

The Medium (Mr Y) and his wife (Mrs Y) arrived separately, once all were present, we again chatted for about 5 minutes to 'break the ice' and get somewhat familiar with each other. After this short period, the Medium went upstairs to 'prepare' himself, accompanied by Mrs X; I assumed the Medium needed to be on his own for a short while to enable him to relax so that the Spirits could use his mind and body to get through to us. After a further 5 minutes, Mr X, Mrs Y and I were asked to go upstairs and take off our shoes prior to going into a small room which upon entering I estimated to be approximately 13ft x 10ft in size.

Inside this room, there were five lightweight plastic chairs, the kind that are used in the garden during summertime. One chair was inside the Mediums 'Cabinet', the other four were facing it; from left to right (see diagram) in between the first and second chair was a portable radio/cassette player situated on a small table.

For those of you that don't know what a 'Cabinet' is, in this context, it is not a solid piece of furniture like that which you find in a kitchen, it is normally a three sided structure which is generally draped in a black cloth which covers the top and all sides, it is what the Medium sits within, sometimes with their forearms bound with such things as Velcro straps whilst the spirits allegedly take over their body. On this occasion, in place of a three sided 'structured' Cabinet, a black curtain was draped across two corners of the walls (see diagram) which were supported on a guide rail affixed to the ceiling; the Mediums chair was facing the other four (see diagram). Facing the Cabinet, to its right, approximately two feet away was a small book case with a couple of shelves on it which were almost empty, I estimated the size of the bookcase to be 2ft wide by 3ft high, on top of this was placed a piece of hardboard which had some form of fluorescent strip on it. To the left of the Cabinet was something hanging from the ceiling which resembled wind chimes, they were hanging down about 8 inches from the ceiling.

The room was dimly lit by a blue bulb which I thought was unusual, it meant that I couldn't see things very clearly and I was unable to inspect anything that could have been used as trickery, even though I was excited, I still had my sceptic head on.

Mrs X secured a Velcro strap to the Mediums right forearm, she asked me to do the same to his left, which I proceeded to do in the same manner. She asked me to confirm that the strap she bound was tight but not too much because the Medium would be uncomfortable, I confirmed in the affirmative. I wasn't invited to inspect anything else. The black curtain was then pulled from left to right across the front of the Medium so he was not visible to us, in the dim blue light I managed to see his feet stick out from under the curtain, he had white socks on, was this showing of his white socks a ploy to get me to concentrate my attention to his feet? If they didn't move but the curtain did, would this prove it was not his trickery that was causing any special effects but that it was a real phenomenon?

ARE PRAYERS TO BE ANSWERED?

Mrs X proceeded to say a prayer on behalf of us all, and thanked spirit for their manifestations at ALL previous séances and asked if we could have a repeat performance. As soon as the prayer ended, she pressed play on an audiocassette player, which began to play old songs from the past, such as 'Roll out the Barrel'. The music was played very loud, in my opinion too loud, this could easily drown out any other noises should they occur. Was this loud music meant to help create the right conditions for any spirits to come forward? Or was it to drown out the sound of the Velcro straps being ripped open to release the Mediums arms? The others sang along to the music, I didn't, this was because I wanted to concentrate my hearing on anything suspicious, such as the Velcro straps being slowly and gently pulled apart, if this type of strap is opened in a slow manner, a faint ripping sound is normally heard, but if this were to happen, it could easily have been drowned out by the loud music. I therefore sat on the edge of my seat with my head leaning over as far as possible towards the mediums curtain so that I could hear better should the straps be torn apart.

The four of us were approximately 4-5 feet away from the Mediums Cabinet and in the dim light I could still see his white-socked feet protruding from under the curtain. Approximately five minutes into the proceedings Mr X spoke (loudly to be heard over the music) in an excited voice, "can any one hear a knocking sound?" indeed I could! Was it Spirit knocking? Or was it the Medium or his wife or Mr or Mrs X knocking on the wall? The music was immediately turned down, the knocking continued for approximately 4 seconds. The music was then turned up to the same volume as before. Just over a minute later Mr X spoke loudly again asking me "can you hear birds singing?" the music was again turned down. I certainly did hear a noise but it was definitely NOT the singing of birds, it sounded more like someone rubbing their finger lightly and quickly back and forth over some form of shiny material such as that of a wax jacket, this lasted for less than a minute. The music was again turned up, a couple of minutes later Mr X shouted excitedly "can you see the curtain protruding at the top right hand side"? The music was again turned down, "Yes I can" I answered, in the dim blue light I could definitely see the shape of a head protruding from the top right hand side of the curtain. Was this a spirit? Not in my opinion, this didn't prove anything to me, simply because the chair the Medium was sitting on was very lightweight and he could easily have stood up with his hands still strapped to the chair and his feet still in the same position and leaned to his left and poked his head forward behind the curtain to give this effect! No proof yet of anything paranormal, these occurrences could easily be explained, perhaps if I was a bit more inexperienced, I may have been gullible enough to think it was all down to spirit, ………….or perhaps it was!

Moments later the music was turned up again, this continued for approximately 5 minutes then all of a sudden a voice could be heard coming from behind the curtain. The music was immediately turned down. The voice was that of the Medium speaking in a French accent supposedly his own voice being taken over by that of a spirit, it sounded similar to the actors in the old television sit-com 'allo allo'! I can't remember the words that were spoken, but I remember being welcomed by the alleged 'spirit'.

A minute or two later the voice stopped and the music turned back up. After a short while another voice could be heard from behind the Mediums curtain, yet again the music was turned down. The voice again spoke in a French accent and gave the impression it was that of a young girl, possibly pre-teens. It was very clear that it was the Mediums own tone of voice speaking again in a supposedly French accent. I do appreciate that if a spirit were to use a Mediums voice box it would still sound similar the mediums own tone. But so far - no proof of anything paranormal! The alleged 'young girl' spoke for a short while longer, the music was then turned up again. A minute later, I was asked if I would like to inspect the Velcro straps, I accepted this invitation, the lights were turned on fully and I did indeed inspect the straps, they looked to be in the same position as they were initially. I returned to my seat.

All lights were again switched off; the only light source in the room was that of a luminescent strip which was on top of a piece of hardboard, which was resting on top of the small chest of drawers to the right of the Cabinet. Although the strip was luminescent, it did not illuminate anything else. It was so dark, even when I placed my hands in front of my face I couldn't see them, it was therefore impossible for me to detect any movement from anyone or 'anything' else. The music was turned up again; nothing happened for about ten minutes, I must admit, I was getting rather bored. I again sat forward in my chair, I could hear the sound of what I thought was the Velcro straps being ripped open slowly, I therefore said quite clearly so that all could hear me of what I thought I could hear, I got no response from anyone, the music was not turned down. A few moments later Mr X asked if I could feel a cold breeze on my legs, I did feel a very slight breeze, was this the work of a spirit? It could have been but to me, it felt like someone fanning my lower left leg, this could have been done by Mr or Mrs X or Mrs Y if they were working 'with' the Medium.

After a few minutes the music was turned off and the lights switched on, low and behold, a bowl of water had mysteriously appeared on the floor in the middle of the room. Was this a miracle? Did the spirit put it there? Or was it the Mediums wife or Mr or Mrs X who had put it there in the dark? So far NO proof, only circumstantial evidence.

I was again asked to inspect the Velcro straps, this time I unfastened both of them and turned them around so that they had the 'sticking' part of the strap at the top of the Mediums wrist, therefore he could not possibly reach them with his fingers, which he could have easily have done so before and which I thought I had clearly heard being torn apart.

The lights were switched off again and the music turned up loud yet again. For what seemed like an eternity, nothing was happening, no noises and no sound of Velcro straps being ripped open. After an even longer period, a voice came from behind the curtain, it was the 'little French girl' again in 'her' French accent saying she was very sorry, she couldn't do anything! Mr X asked her if she would like the music turned up louder…… no reply, again he asked in a very loud voice "do you want the music louder?" I thought this was a very strange request, especially as it had been repeated. Was nothing happening the result of me turning the straps around and the Medium therefore being unable to undo the Velcro straps and thus perform his trickery? Was the repeated request to turn the music up a ploy to drown out the sound of an attempt to rip apart the Velcro straps that the Medium may have been struggling to open? In my opinion….yes, I think so.

Eventually, the 'little French girl' spoke, the music was turned down, and she said she was disappointed that nothing had happened, but said she would try one last thing. 'She' told us to watch the luminescent strip which was situated on top of the small bookcase to the right of the cabinet. The music was again turned up loud, after approximately five minutes the music was turned off and the lights switched on and it was apparent that the small bookcase had moved to the right approximately 10 inches. Again, was this the work of a spirit? Or was it the Medium using his left leg to push the small (virtually empty) bookcase along this short distance? If so, was this the furthest he could stretch out his leg to push the bookcase?

I was informed that this was the first time in ten years that nothing spectacular had happened. As previously mentioned, was this failure a result of me turning the Velcro straps around so that the Medium couldn't reach them to undo? …………What do you think? These things that 'occurred' on the night may have been the result of spirit interaction, but in my opinion, overall, I thought it was a complete farce, embarrassing to sit and listen to. I am not a young child that believes everything I am told, which is what it felt like, especially listening to adults asking me if I could hear birds singing and talking to me in excited voices about a bowl of water appearing in the middle of the floor and a head poking out of the curtain and the small bookcase moving slightly. ALL of which I have easily given an explanation for. This is not to say that all previous séances held here have not been genuine. As stated at the beginning, I have had what I would call many 'paranormal' experiences and I believe that there is life after death, and as some of you know, I have captured things (which some of you have seen) on camcorder that I would deem paranormal. Sadly, on this occasion, I was left feeling somewhat embarrassed that people had the audacity to attempt to pass these 'events' off as paranormal.

I paid my £10.00 fee, which I assumed was for the cup of tea and slice of cake I had (very expensive even compared to the Ritz); I promptly left after saying my goodbyes.

I will probably make a couple of enemies after writing this report, but the truth has to be told, I am not one for shying away, if something is fraudulent, it needs to be exposed and I will not hesitate to expose it. I can only report my views on what I experienced. I will leave the decision to you the reader to decide whether these 'occurrences' were paranormal or not. I will happily answer any questions relating to this, please send your questions/comments to the editor.