1950
March 5, 1950 [550 Atlantic Ave.]
Sylvia Barber's Home Circle
Mrs. M. Koat, Mrs. M. Meder, Mrs. S. Barber (Patience)
Circle opened with usual songs and prayers.
Before closing Patience felt the presence of R. L. Stevenson
"He shows me a garden, it is a counterpart of the garden he had in his earth life. There is a flagstone walk - a sun dial and blue flowers. I seem to be high up. This is the garden in which Lillian walks with him. It is created like the one he had and loved when on the earth. I walk over to the corner of the garden and there is a place where I am able to meditate or rest - from there I can look down on to the water. He is slim. Lillian looks big beside him, for although he is not short he is very slimly built.
"Lillian is wearing a flowing garment - the sleeves are flowing - the garment fits her and it has very flowing lines. She is going over the different things he put through their circles, where he would give something and then show her the place it was taken from - the things he wrote about. They are having a wonderful time. He shows her what he created and what was real. Some of his writings were purely created. She tells him of the difficult time she had finding and placing the different things. There they compare the reality of what it was and what was of his own imagination and how she herself had seen it when she made her research. She tried to put herself in his place when she did the work.
"I feel that when the time comes for Margaret to go over that work they will be there with her; and then she, within her own mind, will get a glimpse of the places and they will be quite real to her, almost as if she were there. She will think it is her own imagination, but as she thinks of her mother and R. L. these things will come into her mind and they will be real because they will both be with her. I do not see her father but R. L. and her mother will be there because it was mostly their adventure. It seems all these character will step into their places.
"I feel you, too, will enjoy it and you will get a great deal out of it as you type it - as you read it you will benefit by it, and it will draw them closer to you, because it is one wonderful pattern.
"As Margaret works on that material the characters will be there. R. L. lays down purple heather, also some white bits of heather and I see a blue bit of heather.
"I go to the corner again - it is becoming quite familiar to me, and I look down - that is where many of his dreams came to him.
"I feel Walter is here, too - he tells me that the picture he drew of the train for Rickey was actually his wreck when he made his last journey."
Circle closes at 10:30pm
In the famous newspaper phenomena obtained by the Reverend Drayton Thomas it is a personal past (his own and his deceased father's) that we find linked up with the as yet unborn newspaper. With us here in Winnipeg it was an impersonal near-future event that we found shortly verified by an article appearing in one or both of our daily newspapers. Five examples of these mysterious phenomena as recorded here may be of interest to the readers of LIGHT.
The Mangled Arm
The Terrible Explosion
[Excellent Photo of Mrs. Lillian Hamilton of Winnipeg, Canada]
... consciousness. Curiously enough, as a rule, it is during this recovery period of the final near-normal period that she is most responsive to supernormal influences of one kind of another. Clairvoyance, clairaudience and other forms of supersensory mental receptivity often mark this period, many of these phenomena being of a highly veridical and evidential character.
What part this played in the transmission in question we shall presently see.
Two personalities, claiming to be surviving personalities, also played a part in this event - my husband, the late Dr. T. Glen Hamilton, and the young woman who, it was said, had recently died; the young woman by the name of Kitty A. Each manifested three times; each manifested through both mediums, Dr. Hamilton claiming that he himself had brought this young woman and had made it possible for her to communicate and herself make us aware of her recent death. He intimated further that she was in his care, and that along with others he was making her welfare his special task.
Granting for the moment that these two were living, as they claimed to be, this relationship seemed to those present who had known them both formerly, to be an eminently natural one, Dr. Hamilton having been not only Kitty's physician for many years, but also attending her mother and the members of her immediate family. The bond of friendship seemed to be unbroken. Dr. Hamilton still seemed to be Kitty's good friend and kind physician.
Still one other aspect of the case remains to be mentioned before we pass on to note this phenomenon as a whole and also in detail. This was the fact that the sitting at which this event took place was one of a series of sittings held for the purpose of obtaining eventually, we hoped, a teleplasmic extrusion of some kind sufficiently materialized to be photographed. At all these experiments one rule was strictly enforced - a rule laid down, not by the leading experimenter, Dr. Bruce Chown, but by the leading control, Walter - namely, that no outside or non-established communicator be allowed to use, for the time being, the chief functioning mediums, particularly Mary M. Communications waste psychic energies and psychic energies had to be conserved. I mention this to show why it was that the Kitty-entity was in this case, apparently, so often driven away and forced to cease manifesting through the main medium.
Two reports covering this phenomenon will now be given:
(a) a report based on one made by the writer immediately after this sitting closed; and
(b) a brief report by the Reverend W. R. Wood, covering this case so far as he knew it, and mentioning as well, his verification of Kitty's death a few days later. Following this will be given excerpts from a letter received from the deceased girl's mother, throwing still further light on other angles of this case.
Report A:
The usual sitters and mediums were present on the date mentioned: Dr. and Mrs. Bruce Chown, Mr. and Mrs. H. Shand, Reverend W. R. Wood, Mrs. J. F. Campbell, Mrs. T. Glen Hamilton (Lillian Hamilton) and mediums Mary M. (known also as Dawn), Mercedes, Ewan and Faith.
To our surprise, almost as soon as the sitting opened, following some preliminary bell-ringing by the control Walter, a voice spoke through Dawn in trance which seemed to be the voice of the communicator claiming to be Dr. Hamilton. His words were few but in the light of certain events to follow, significant:
"Lillian, look who's here," the inference being, of course, that I would know the communicator next to appear.
Second voice: "It's me, Mrs. Hamilton - Kitty - don't you know me?" This second communicator appeared to be in great distress of some kind and kept on calling for her little son. Following this Walter spoke through Ewan and demanded that we send this communicator away. We could have a special sitting for her but he had other work to do and she couldn't come at this time. Spurgeon next appeared, according to Mercedes, who claimed to see him clairvoyantly, and asked the group to sing a certain hymn, Mercedes under the impression that this hymn was to be sung as a means of comforting the sorrowing entity who had just manifested. The sitting over, and as Dawn was coming out of trance, the other mediums having left the room, the Kitty communicator again appeared. Again she cried for her child and again Dr. Chown forced her to leave. All the sitters downstairs except Faith, who was asleep in a room on the second floor (Room C) and the writer, who was with her and watching her, thought that once more our main medium was under "attack," this time not by the alleged Kitty but by a communicator who appeared to be Dr. Hamilton. Whether this was so or not, to Dawn it was a fact. She seemed to see him and hear him speak, and told her story first to the sitters in the living-room on the ground floor, and next to the writer in Room A on the second floor. Knowing Kitty well and having considerable attachment for her, Dawn's emotional reactions were most pronounced in regard to the news which Dr. Hamilton had given her and which, one could see, she believed implicitly; namely, that Kitty Alder was dead; that she had died giving birth to a child; that the child was a boy and living.
Then came the final episode in this strange drama. About ten minutes later Faith in Room C was heard to give a loud cry. The writer went to her, followed a few moments later by Mrs. Campbell, and found this medium also under attack from the Kitty personality. We found her crying and moaning, tearing her hair and saying, "Oh, I can't bear it! I can't bear it! Take me back! I didn't want to come here so soon!"
Up to this point I must confess that I had not been prepared to believe that there was "anything in it." Dawn might, I thought, have been suffering from an hallucination of some sort, as not infrequently happened, we had found, when she had been subjected to an unusually heavy drain on her vital faculties prior to the coming of the teleplasm in visible form. But now with Faith taking on this reaction I was considerably impressed, for Faith, as I have previously stated, did not know of Kitty's existence and also did not know of the manifestations just given in the other rooms.
[Note: The reader may be interested to know that a teleplasm did appear a few sittings later. Due to the fact that it did not manifest at the spot previously predicted by the controls (within the cabinet) only a few of the cameras recorded it, and then badly out of focus. A small face was seen in the lower portion of it, but it cannot be identified. Four mediums were used to bring this mass to visibility - Mary M., Mercedes, Faith, and Ewan, the latter giving the signal upon which the flash light was released that made the exposure. Psychically, the experiment was a marked success; photographically it was not.]
As the evidence for the supernormality of the whole case now shifts to Room C and to this mediumship I will at this point quote directly from my notes made at the time covering this last phase.
L.H.(Lillian Hamilton): "Who are you? Tell me."
Communicator: "Kitty - Kitty Alder. Oh, I want my little baby! I must have my little baby! Take me back!"
Again her anguish is very distressing.
L.H.: "Kitty, can you tell me what happened?"
Kitty: "No! No! It was all so sudden, so sudden!"
Mrs. Campbell tries to comfort her. Her sobbing ceases and Kitty appears to leave, and other controls come, among them one who purported to be T. G. H. With a calmness that was evidential he spoke as follows:
T. G. H.: "Lillian, we got through to you. Bring Dawn to me. She has done a magnificent piece of work tonight. She took my message correctly. Others have helped me. I feel that I have got through to you what we set out to give. Kitty is with me and I'm looking after her. The shock has been very great to her, but she will soon be herself. You will find it is all true."
A third communicator appears. He gives the name of Myers. He reminds Lillian through the boy (the medium, John) they had predicted the coming of more proof of survival of a mental type. This, he says, is the beginning.
(This was true, but the prediction had been made by communicators purporting to be Doyle and T. G. H.)
Faith passes into a brief cataleptic state, speaks for a control of great dignity, and does not recover consciousness until half an hour later, when she wakens considerably exhausted from her long period of trance-consciousness.
Report B:
During a sitting of the Hamilton group, Winnipeg, at the home of Mrs. Glen T. Hamilton, on the evening of Wednesday, April 29th, as the mediums were going under control, a voice, apparently of a young woman, came through the medium Dawn. She appeared to be under intense emotion, shaken with crying, "Don't you know me? Don't you know me? ... Kitty ... I want my baby; oh, I want my baby!" Then the directing control through Ewan said, "Tell her she must go away, that she may come another time, but not now. Send her away," and in a moment she was silent - apparently gone.
After the sitting closed, several of the group, and I with them, were downstairs, and soon Dawn came down and sat in a big chair. She seemed tired and leaned her head on her hand. In a minute or two she seemed to be in a semi-trance, but did not speak. Then she recovered her normal state and said to us, "Dr. Hamilton came to me just there and told me Kitty has passed over and is with them."
When speaking, Dawn was under considerable emotion and having told us she went upstairs where Mrs. Hamilton and Faith, a young girl medium, were. Up to this point I was a personal witness of what I have described.
Later we were told that after the sitting Faith had remained more or less in a trance condition and that 'Kitty' had manifested through her, crying as at the first. Then Dr. Hamilton spoke through Faith remarking, "Dawn has done a magnificent piece of work tonight."
Following the sitting I learned that a young woman, Kitty Alder, whom I had not known, had for some time, eight or nine years previously, been a member of the group. When she married - about 1930 - the wedding breakfast was served in Dawn's home. She and her husband went to British Columbia where they have since resided. No one of the group had heard anything of her recently, and no one had any reason to think that she had died.
(Signed) Wm. R. Wood.
The Scripts:
Many of the writings were all signed 'H. G.', with the exception of the last one which bore the signature "Henry Gratton". No such communicator had been previously encountered in the Hamilton researches, nor is there any inherent evidence tending to establish the claim that Henry Gratton was the Irish Parliamentarian who died in the early 19th century, and who was famed for his clarity of style and beautiful phraseology. Theses scripts are reported here since their intellectual content and fine literary form so greatly transcend the powers of the automatist, that we are forced to grant them revelatory standing. These teachings fall in line with those of later Dawn-scripts and touch on various problems succinctly and with forceful utterance.
THE NEED FOR A QUICKENED FAITH
"...There is much sin and sorrow in your material world. We see them and for you we feel much sadness. We try to remove them, but often we do not get the co-operation that we can use. The desire for the help that will remove them, oppresses, but not as it once did; for we see the other side, and we know that God well loves the sinner but hates the sin.
We need a religious revival to take place, but what Church would profit most by a revival? The churches have lost the knowledge of the meaning of death and the conditions beyond. It is a spiritual illumination that the Church needs today, a great Pentecostal outpouring, galvanizing its orthodoxy into an exuberant life, and opening its eyes to the New Life!"
THE NATURE OF MEDIUMSHIP
" ... Why are mediums necessary? Why cannot I myself obtain messages from the Great Beyond? Surely, if my loved ones would return to any one they would return to me rather than to some stranger of whom they never heard or had seen when on earth.
'And now, dear friends, I feel somewhat sad within me at the thought that this may be the last time that I may have the opportunity of communication with you.' My friends, I thank my medium for giving me the opportunity to use her. I will be back with you some other time. Some one else will take my place and I hope he will find conditions as good as I have found them. Good-bye, and may the blessing of our Father God be with you and your work..."
(Signed) " Henry Gratton."
DEATH AND THE HEREAFTER
The deep-trance scripts which are presented in this article came through the hand of the automatist "Dawn" at intervals throughout 1942 and the first six months of 1943; all were signed with the initials "W. T. S."
It will be recalled that on March 8, 1940, at a sitting in the Hamilton home in Winnipeg, Dawn, entranced, suddenly uttered these words:
"... Yes, yes, we will write ... Three new writers will join your group. Stead wants to re-write some of the things he wrote in life ... Yes, yes, what is written is written again ..."
Those who are familiar with the rich, eventful life of W. T. Stead - famous editor, social reformer, peace maker, avowed follower of Christ, and protagonist for the main teachings of Spiritualism - will recall that after he had published the LETTERS FROM JULIA, said to have been inspired by Julia Ames, it was pointed out to him that many of Julia's teachings were in accord with certain Theosophical teachings, particularly some of those of Mrs. Annie Besant. Later, Stead met and talked with Mrs. Besant, admitted the similarities; and judging by some of his later writings, came to regard certain of these Theosophical teachings as worthy of attention.
Whether this assumption is true or not, it is true that in the "Dawn" - scripts we do find a definite intermingling of these two older streams of thought, with the result that we now have a psycho-philosophical religious output which under any normal circumstances whatsoever, could not possibly have been accomplished by the automatist.
Thus were two objectives achieved: the Stead personality re-wrote some of the things he had written in life (as had been promised through "Dawn" in 1940; and certain selected Theosophical beliefs are re-emphasized by fresh, newly-created and vigorous phraseology.
THE NATURE OF DEATH
"... As we have only the eyes of flesh with which to see the invisible, and only our narrow pre-conceived ideas with which to understand these things, it is not to be wondered at that we have strange contorted ideas as to what takes place at the time of death.
"Slowly the ethereal double separates from the material body, held only by the fragile cord which holds it for a few hours after apparent death. It is then that the strictest silence in the death chamber is absolutely necessary, (for) the dying see the panorama of their entire life displayed before them; and if there is agitation they are called back, and it is so much harder for them to recover from the condition.
"We have said that the etheric double carries away the principles of man, leaving upon the bed of death the tabernacle of flesh, henceforth empty and unappropriated., all the energies that radiated the outer body are now brought into the interior, where, after a time, they become enfeebled and die away - a man's aggregate of matter, still alive, but deprived of the power of perception."
"After a spirit has dissolved its connections with the body it is tired, especially if there has been much strain of a mental nature. Then there is a period of rest and sleep. You are placed in a sleeping position where you lie in a dreaming state. The spirit friends hover around about, giving strength from their own magnetic influences, comforting and lulling you as a mother lulls her child.
"The loss of the physical body is of no effect on the intellectual and moral value of the deceased, and it is by reason of this permanence of being that there is found quite a variety of character among those whom we call dead. Do not let us ignore the fact that death does not modify in any way the psychic state of the man whose terrestrial career has just closed. Let us follow one of our loved ones who has just died in the terrestrial life, but who revives in another life no less distinct and actual than the one from which he has disappeared. To what sphere will he ascend? In what surroundings and conditions will he pursue his evolution? What will his environment be in the strange world into which he is entering?"
"The unknown regions exist quite close to us. Indeed it would be strange if the space between us be empty and deserted and the inhabitants of the earth the only form through which life could manifest. Its inhabitants are human beings and their new bodies are called "boundary transformation", particularly certain pure creations without which none could penetrate into the peaceful happy regions which they call home. And it is because of these spirits being totally different (in body L. M. H.) that it is possible to co-exist without even knowing each other except under extraordinary circumstances. Between you (on earth) and the astral plane there is no distance in space; though we do not recognize each other by our normal senses we are together; the difference is one of perception, not space. We, your spirit friends, have not dropped the tenor of our lives: We exist in the same universe.
"There is something that increases on this side more than any other thing, and that is the desire to learn. And such facilities! We shall never be able to say that we know everything about this world that we have been privileged to enter, for the marvelous wisdom of our Father God is past finding out. When we reach that which we think the ultimate, then a new and marvelous vista is before us. As we pass through there stretches before us a new marvelous world of beauty into which we may in time begin to enter." And we see its beauty unfolding always and forever for those who truly seek to enter.
CHRIST
"High above all is the Greater Spirit. This is not our loving Father God. God is so infinite that He is not in their ken. But this Higher Spirit is our Savior, Jesus Christ, Who is the Great High Spirit, and His special care is the earth plane. He came down upon the earth to live as His sisters and brothers lived, was crucified, and was placed in the earth, and after three days came back again and appeared to his friends and assured the world that there was no death, only a great new life. But we must prove ourselves worthy to receive His gift of love, which is eternal life."
"When you read your Bibles in the knowledge which you have, you will have a deeper conviction that the teachings of Christ were lost in many respects to the early Christian Church when you read so many references to phenomena with which you are familiar.
"Death brings its stores of knowledge, its planes of activity to every human being, and it rests with the individual."
[Footnote:- Quoted passages from LETTERS FROM JULIA, considerably condensed and here and there given partially new phraseology.]
WORDS OF ADVICE
"I want to talk to you about the soul - how to find it. There is only one way: there is no chance of saving it unless you give yourself time to think on those things that are timeless, that are when time shall be no more. You must become more and more spiritual. "You must realize that some men and women in this generation have lost their souls, and this is the awful truth. You must not go back to the old-fashioned idea of losing one's soul in hell when you lay aside this earthly body; but if your soul is lost you must find it before you can make progress. What is clear to me is the indifference one sees, the misunderstanding that the soul is the real self that lives forever. It is only through the soul that you can communicate with the spiritual world."
"There is another thing that may surprise you, and that is the nothingness of things. I mean the entire nothingness of much which seemed on earth the most important things. For instance, money, rank, worth, station, and all the things we prize most on earth are simply nothing. They do not exist any more. They are as the cloud passes and are not visible. I have told you this before."
"There is another thing I might have mentioned, and that is what lies under and over and under. It is love. If you enter this quest with any other thought but love I cannot suggest how far you will succeed. If you have any other thoughts you will meet with many difficulties. You will find (that) where there is love of abstract truth, there is added a spiritual longing for communication with other spirits who are on this side. The double current is more potent and your results will be very much better. The temperature depends on the thoughts you have in mind - curiosity or love. Learn from spirit friends; the power is one that ought to be under control. You, who can, should do these things"
THE NEED
"It is remarkable that so many learned men have closed their minds. What are the bare and simple truths that are known to so many people, those who are called Spiritualists? Theirs is a simple faith. They interpret their experiences in the most straightforward and unsophisticated manner. Some of them have often been in error; this is caused by unscrupulous persons. Nevertheless these are soon discovered for what they are. This cannot be used as an argument either way."
"The world is full of spirits longing to speak to their loved ones! What can be done to bring these forces together? You must help us all you can by these writings and by telling others the good news that we can communicate with those we have left behind. It is a strange spectacle - you on your side and we on our side trying so hard to speak to our loved ones. What is needed is a bureau of communications between the two sides; if only such a place could be established with trustworthy mediums! "You have a good writing medium. I hope she will keep on giving her hand for this good work. I hope to have another (opportunity) soon. The world is hungry for a spiritual message."
[Footnote: Scripts within single quotation marks also based on teachings found in LETTERS FROM JULIA, but condensed and re-arranged so as to form what is in effect new communications.]
THE SUMMING UP
"Death to the progressive soul is a glorious promotion, a stepping to a higher grade of all good, a change to a grand and better world. Not one to be voluntarily sought; not one to be gained by suicide, for that step would defeat the desired end by enmeshing the spirit in a web of earthly conditions; but one to be graciously accepted when Nature works her will with the worn-out body."
"Time passes for all on this earthly plane of abode. Soon, like the snow before the sun, you will all melt away from the earth. After a while you will realize that at last you have come into an inheritance; and you and your own people who have traveled before you will find, not death, but an everlasting life which grows more beautiful as you progress!"
"There is much love on earth; were it not so, it would indeed be very heard to live". Love, love, love!. It is the first word and the last! "All I have written is true and good. I have nothing to alter. With all that, I have much more to say which I do not say now. All that I wrote about the joy and the glory and the love of God is true."
(Signed) "W. T. S."
[Julia, through Stead's hand, had also asked for a bureau of intercommunication; many will know that the "Stead Bureau" operated for this purpose for many years in London, England; and that many persons received sound confirmation of the fact of individual survival through its agency. This Bureau was first operated under the oversight of W. T. Stead himself, and after his death, under that of his devoted daughter, Miss Estelle Stead, a widely known and beloved figure in Spiritualistic circles during the earlier years of this present century.]
KOMA LOKA
Before presenting the script which came through the hand of "Dawn" in October 1943, let us consider the following excerpt from Mrs. Annie Besant's book "THE ANCIENT WISDOM"
[Note: Annie Besant was an ardent follower of the teachings of Blavatsky. To see her quoted here shows that the Hamiltons were indeed acquainted with the teaching of reincarnation. W. D. F.]
"... Kama loka, literally the place of desire, is part of the astral plane, not divided from it as a distinct locality, but separated off by the condition of consciousness of the entities belonging to it ... This region represents and includes the conditions described as existing in the various purgatories and intermediate states, one or other of which is alleged by all the great religions to be the temporary dwelling of man after he leaves the body but before he reached 'Heaven'. It does not include any place of eternal torture, the endless hell still believed in by some narrow religionists ... but it does include conditions of suffering, temporary and purificatory in their nature, the working-out of causes set going in his earth-life by the man who experiences them ..."
In the "Dawn" script of October, 1943, Stead corroborated the Theosophical beliefs in certain remedial after-death experiences, beliefs which now apparently have become observed facts to our communicator. Considering the non-intellectual development of the automatist, one finds this script a most remarkable piece of writing, revealing not only strong fresh phrases, but doctrinal and philosophical teachings demanding open-minded attention from all thoughtful readers. In one section the medium's hand unfortunately ceased to function, leaving a blank; the words necessary to the argument have been placed in brackets by the editor.
"... The spiritually developed man whose astral body already finds itself purified does merely cross Kama Loka. Let me explain it. Kama Loka is a sort of Limbo or Hades, but must not be confused with the Purgatory of the Roman Apostolic Church, from which the souls of the people cannot escape before they have purchased a certain number of salvatory masses which must be duly paid for according to an established tariff! Is it not perfectly just that the effects of causes put into play by man during the course of his terrestrial life, have for sequel, sanctions similar to those that so-called social legislation supplies to our misdeeds? If there is justice in some parts, should it not remain without contest in a universe that administers the supreme law of harmony between cause and effect; between the germ of whatever nature that ought to develop and fructify according to its beneficial or hurtful kind (and its final fruition?). The idea, more or less prevalent, that death levels all, is an error born out of complete ignorance.
"Kama Loka is only a locality in the relative sense, for it has no circumference, no determined limits, and only exists in subjective space. Need we still add that it does not enclose any place of unlimited torture? The everlasting hell in which a number of poor ignorant souls and sectarian fanatics believe is only foolish fear and superstition..."
(Signed) "W. T. S."
[Footnote:- The Communicator's spelling of this term (Koma Loka) is as found in the script, not as it is in Mrs. Besant's book.]
IT IS NOT DEATH THAT I FEAR TO FACE
It is a highly significant fact that after a lapse of nearly fifteen years we should find manifesting, by way of the "Dawn" deep-trance scripts of 1942, a personality which exhibits mental habits and memories markedly similar to those displayed through the trance automatisms of Elizabeth M. from 1923 - 1927.
Before we examine the substance of the scripts of 1942, I think it would be well to recall some aspects of the Elizabeth M. mediumship with particular reference to the personality now under consideration.
... complete relaxation of her body, so great that had she not been supported in her chair by Dr. Hamilton she would have fallen to the floor. But the right hand and forearm were apparently under the control of a 'will' extraneous to her own; for in this deep trance sleep the hand was used to signal messages in this fashion: as the alphabet was called out by Dr. Hamilton, the hand vigorously slapped or thumped the seance-room table to indicate the desired letter. Thus were given terse condensed messages. In time, this type of hand-automatism gave way to a writing-automatism, where the hand grasped a pencil and wrote in a large script across a sheet of foolscap. All this, of course, took place in complete darkness. In addition, simultaneously with the hand or writing- automatism, the medium experienced a trance-vision, the memory of which was retained by her for a few moments after she had returned to a near-normal level of consciousness. The details of the vision, which to her had all the characteristics of a vivid dream, were related aloud by her and duly noted by the secretary. When the facts put forth in the trance-vision were compared with the facts (names, dates, etc,) found in the simultaneous deep-trance script, they were discovered to combine and make up a closely-knit texture of details pertinent to the poems, letters, essay, novels, and travels of Robert Louis Stevenson.
It will be recalled that the medium "Dawn" (Mary M.) became a member of the Hamilton group in 12928, and within a short time she too developed as a trance medium, with her chief control calling himself "Walter". Under the conditions now imposed by "Walter", the work of the group was to progress in a completely unforeseen direction. With Elizabeth M. and Mary M. as the main automatists, and with several other members of the group seemingly functioning as 'auxiliary' mediums, the next five years saw the appearance of several types of amazing phenomena, the most spectacular being the extrusion of various types of teleplasm from the crude and amorphous to the highly organized biological type of miniature faces.
While the 'telegram' method was also used by the communicator to write a condensed form of the Stevenson poem "To My Wife", yet a short time later the equally beautiful but much less widely known second poem, also addressed to his wife, was given almost verbatim. It had been written to commemorate Mrs. Stevenson's birthday which occurred at the time the Samoan war was at its height, an event which is mentioned in the poem. It is now quoted exactly as Dawn's hand wrote it, except for the editor's corrections which are placed in brackets. The poem was ultimately found to be contained in Stevenson's "NEW POEMS".
To the Stormy Petrel
Ever perilous
And precious like an ember
From the fire
Or gem from a volcano we to-day
When drums of war reverberate in lands (in the land)
And every face is for the battle blacked
No less the sky that over sodden woods
Menaces now in the disconsolate calm
The hurly burly of (the) hurricane -
Do now most fitly celebrate your day.
Yet amid turmoil (keep) for me my dear
The kind domestic faggot; let the hearth
Shine ever as (I praise my honest gods)
In peace and tempest it has ever shone.
My dear Stormy Petrel
Her birthday (March 10)
But Stevenson did write now and again of the life he was now living, and his first 'break-through' of this type was a simply worded letter to Mrs. Hamilton, which read:
"Let me say how much pleasure it gives me to be able to write you. I have been collecting notes together for years, always hoping to be able to get some one to dictate them for me ..."
This last sentence would seem to imply that he required help in this matter of communication, and would further seem to indicate that the whole process was much more difficult than one had supposed.
[Compare this with the thoughts expressed on the difficulties of communication in the 'Henry Gratton' scripts of May and June 1942.]
Like Stead, Stevenson places his seal of approval on certain teachings to be found in "LETTERS FROM JULIA", but like the R. L. S. of life, he expresses in a very few words that main ideas found in the original "JULIA" text. This is what he now writes in 1942, through Dawn:
"... On this side things do not always appear as you imagine. In some cases the last are first and the first last. I have seen convicts and murderers who worked their wickedness out in the material plane standing far higher in the scale of goodness than many who never committed a crime but whose minds were the breeding grounds for thoughts which were the seeds of crime in others. I do not want you to think that it is better to do wicked deeds than think them; but the doing of them is not always proof of wickedness. The sins of impulse and crimes done in the heat of passion - these do not harm the soul as much as thoughts of evil which in time poison the whole soul..."
With Stevenson's love for all sorts of men and his sympathetic understanding of the frailties of human nature, this choice of the "JULIA" teachings agrees with the Stevenson of life as revealed by many of his essays and letters.
But as in life, the Stevenson-communicator could be stern also, as he is in these two brief, crisp and commanding pronouncements made through the hand of his automatist:
"... I would also say this - which must be apparent to many however much they may deplore it - Christianity must change or perish! Change is the law of life! ..."
And this, which of course was aimed directly at students and researchers:
"Those who believe will of course say that they know that the future life is a fact ..."
R.L.S.
And as was Stevenson in life, so now, through "Dawn", he shows that he has not lost his gift for the tender and whimsical, as in this lovely little prose-poem for children in which he describes an angel seen in the land where now he lives:
But his most arresting message about the nature of death came at a sitting in the Hamilton home on October 20, 1942, when the following very beautiful poem was found to have been written by the entranced automatist:
' ... It is not death I fear to face - but dying!
The leaving those on earth I dearly love,
My books, my dog, the sound of wind-swept trees,
The scent of flowers, the glory of the stars,
My cherished work.
Must I leave, too, the dear wild birds
That cheer the lonely hours,
And no more tread on the heather bright,
Nor pluck the sweet hill-flowers?
Death is a glorious birth! No cause for sighing.
It is not death I fear to face, but dying ...'
(Signed) R. L. S.
Pc
As continued searching failed completely to discover the authorship of this poem in any Anthology, including Stevenson's "UNDERWOODS AND NEW POEMS", Mrs. Hamilton forwarded a copy of the script to the inquiry column of the journal "Edinburgh Scotsman" in the hope that some reader might see it and be able to supply the long-sought information. This final effort led to results. A reader informed us that the poem had been written by Sir Alfred E. Pease, a noted English traveler, but that lines five to nine (inclusive) were not in the original. These were additions. If R. L. Stevenson wrote these interpolated lines then the 'double' signature at last took on meaning, the 'Pc' simply indicating phonetically the name 'Pease', the original author!
Thus the Dawn-Stevenson, as he was in life, so he is now. His utterances are brief and to the point, saying much in little. In effect he says: "I live." I have disclosed memories of my earth-life, including lines from several of my poems, so that you may know that memory is still with me. Like Stead, I have re-written a portion of "JULIA". I have sent a message to the Church. I have pointed out to you who are researchers your duty in this matter of making known the evidence you have uncovered for survival. And by quoting this poem of Pease, I have intimated that while death is hard to face, it is a birth into a new and lovely country. In my addition to this poem I remembered the 'hills of home' and my literary work which I loved so dearly and from which I was called so soon - 'my cherished work ... must I ... no more tread on the heather bright, nor pluck the sweet hill flowers? It was not death I feared to face, but dying ...
And finally he gives a script which, brief as it is, brings to us teachings that as yet lie beyond our understanding, though they are in line with the germ-thought to be discovered in many of the world's noblest religions.
"... This life is but a fragment of our existence, a fragment which by itself has no meaning. Its meanings are rooted in an eternal past and carried on in an eternal future. We are on the top of a high step with many steps yet to climb. What we call dying is only going to this higher point ..."
(Signed) R. L. S.
[ Photo - Letter re the identity of Sir Edward Reed who is the uncle of the Mr. Reed who was so very helpful to Dr. Hamilton in his work. He was - I believe - an electrical engineer and with Dr. Hamilton did much of the work with the electrical aspects of wiring the flash lights and switches used in the Hamilton work. ]
[ Photo - photo of Sir Edward Reed ]
