1934
Mar 22 - May 4
"So, too, in the art of writing, when one searches one's mind for the basis of a plot, one may secure them easily - one may secure this plot-complication easily in the common matter, in the common fields milled over by the indolent author. But if one seeks material that is different, that is unique, one must go to the cliffs and crags of life. We, as writers, having spied the nest, or having imagined we spy it, climb up for our specimen, or let ourselves down toward it. In doing this, as in bird-nesting in dangerous places, we must, more than ever, plot out our manner of descent or ascent, feeling our way carefully and methodically along what they feel to be the most secure, direct and certain method of approach to secure the desired effect. It is not an easy matter as careless meandering searching is on the level of beach where stories and birds nests are easily picked out and their potentialities easily explored and exploited. But in choosing this rarer field we undoubtedly, if successful, secure admirable specimens quite unique and perhaps beyond compare. But the element of danger, of error, is ever present and omnipresent ..."
Medium falls forward, muttering, "peace, peace, peace ...". Then his head goes up, and a new control attempts to speak. He at first gasps and mutters, and finally speaks in a clear firm voice:
"From my experimental work, I believe we can transmit evidence in a sufficiency to satisfy any materialist. Further experimental work will be conducted under my guidance. Tonight I have transmitted a message to materialists for you ... It is my message too, as well as a message ... And no message in this work should have value unless we label it and stand behind it with our good name, be it good. For my experimental work in cross-evidence I submit my name for your information. It is Frederic Myers, and I bid you good evening."
Still another control speaks, muttering at first:
"Makes him come ... no stay away ... makes him not satisfied ... I makee him come... me come backee to talkee to you from talkee to him ... I come from talkee to him ... I come, Toki ... Me Toki ... Toki talkee to him ... to my medium ... I talkee to him ... no not worry ... just a message ..."
Sterge returns, announcing himself as Julius Caesar:
"I think the Ides of March are upon us ... we must beware of long lean men. Give me fat men like Ham who sleep. But I do not want long lean men ... they lie awake nights plotting ... this is the Ides of March, so beware!
"...That is foolishness, but it brings him around ...We have Ham here, the most Roman of all Romans ... He is stabbing my cloak now ... You will find the marks in it. (T. G. H. says he has been testing the medium with a needle poked into his knee.) I told you to beware of Ham. He stabbed me in the right knee. Beware the Ides of March ... and here lies Sterge, the greatest liar of them all."
"So the play comes swiftly to an end with a burst of applause, and in spite of numerous requests, we cannot repeat it. So I say 'au revoir', Ham, and get more rest. He should not eat so fast ... You are a doctor, and you'd think you were some sort of an eel, the way you gobble it in ... Get lots of rest, Ham. Au revoir, Madame. Au revoir, Mademoiselle."
March 25, 1934.
L. H.; Ada Turner; Harold Turner; Ethel Muir; G. Snyder; W. Barrie; Ewan; Mr. Reed; T. G. H.; J. A. Hamilton; Mary McLean, Secretary; Jack MacDonald (medium); T. G. Hamilton; Lillian Hamilton; Margaret Hamilton (recorder).
[Both Dawn and Mercedes absent.]
Sterge at first, then Robert:
"I'm glad we've got the doctor. You can help us, and I think we can help you. We can put a good atmosphere around you for the other sitters. The others have such a highly charged atmosphere: so much nervous energy is used, and I think we give you a less nervous atmosphere. But there is a strange foreign gentleman who will talk to you about it. He's coming later. He calls himself Old Dan Tucker.
"I heard you conversing the other night. You thought I'd killed off Dimmit, but that was just a parenthetical insertion. Really I wasn't responsible for his death. He really lived; he was a man I knew and went to school with. You recall I told of him at the college; that's where I knew him. So I cannot be held in any way responsible for his death. The Stevensonian slayer didna' do it this time."
Dictates:
"Dimmit was a man who through his college years gathered to himself many theories, strange theories; theories all bumpy with knowledge and hollow in spots from constant squeezing of hands to make them fit; they were never reasonable theories, they were monstrous theories. Perhaps somewhere in that very curious brain sheltered within Dimmit's skull we could have found, had we autopsical powers while he was still alive, that the very brain-box itself would be shaped in some outlandish fashion, and we might thus in some way account for the extraordinarily apparent misfitting of everything within his life.
"He was, as I recall, articled to a legal firm; but so far as I am aware, he never achieved his degree, nor was he ever called to the bar. I doubt if he was sufficiently interested to seek his sheepskin ..."
Robert stops speaking quite suddenly, and the medium mutters and lies back in his chair. A new control now speaks, in a loud clear and brisk voice, giving the impression of a totally different personality:
"I have always maintained and still do, that when we devote ourselves to this work of psychical investigation, standing on the bedrock of science, we should keep our eyes fixed upon the spiritual skies. By maintaining a balance, and by that method only, have I maintained, and do I still feel we will attain the ultimate and the greater end in our investigations. There is undoubtedly security in science, but there is balance in the spirit, in religion. Scientific work is a robot without proper consideration for the affairs of our individual souls, and I maintain still, and I believe I always will maintain, that any scientific psychical work, while basing its security on the foundation of scientific data, must give consideration, however unscientific it may seem, for a due allocation of the spiritual food, spiritual in-gathering and spiritual up-reaching within the confines of the circle and within the time at your disposal. We feel, I should say, I feel, that with individuals with whom you are dealing, you will find relationships rubbing and grating without the solace of the spirit ... thank you, my friends, thank you ..."
"... I am not going, I am come to talk as I have talked to you before. In the flesh I have come, and in the spirit I have come, and in the spirit I am here, and let us hope in the proper spirit. I have come as a friend among my friends."
T. G. H.: "Your control is excellent."
A. C. D.:( Arthur Conan Doyle) "Yes, it is excellent."
L. H.: "Your voice is good."
A. C. D.: "Yes, I can hear it. You see, I am ringing with conviction. That is why I speak so well. You probably say to yourselves, 'I don't blame you', and you could not. 'The old man is harping on the same things again.' So I am, I admit. So I shall ever be.
"But come, I have come to converse, not to dictate. No, no, I certainly couldn't do that, not to my friends."
T. G. H.: "What do you think of the prospects for the work?"
A. C. D.: "You have heard what I said, and I do feel that."
L. H.: "You mean, we should have more deeply religious feeling in the circle?"
A. C. D.: "Yes. I know we do not feel together on all things, and I only say what I feel. I sympathize with your viewpoint and you with mine, and at least if we are not convicted in the one manner, we are convicted in friendship. That is an even greater thing than being convicted in the same way, since it speaks of general friendship which is hence a greater friendship. I congratulate you on your work. I do indeed. I feel the very greatness of it, yet I do deplore the lack of spiritual outlook; yet, as I say, that is a personal viewpoint."
L. H.: "We have the spiritual outlook, but doctor is so anxious to establish the facts first."
9:00 p.m. Sitting commences.
Singing.
9:10 p.m. Gordon is making clicking noises with his tongue.
L. H.: "Norman has gone into the cabinet."
Gordon: "Good evening."
All: "Good evening, David."
Answer: "I want to tell you something, because Stead was here and there was nobody he could use. (He speaks in a hesitating whisper.) "He has got some message he wants to give."
Ewan: "Good evening. Why haven't you got your mediums? I have taken great difficulties to come to you, and now you haven't ..."
"Mercedes has gone to another place; she has gone to have a good time. She is laughing because she has not come. I am going to give her a sign in a few moments that will get her in a different mood."
Florence: "The room was flooded with light a moment ago."
Gordon: "Katie is looking for her medium. I am trying to speak. I am almost lost. You may find a chance in my ... in my medium. I am going to give him up. I have work to do and I cannot do it here. Oh, I can help. No, no, it is a waste. The little I can do here is not needed here. He has done a lot for me; I won't leave him all alone. It is different kind of work."
David says there is someone standing in the center of the room in long white robes. "It is Sister Lucy, I think, and she looks sad. She is facing this way." He says there is a queer feeling in this room.
Florence: "The skies opened. A space opened in the wall by the door in the shape of a triangle."
L. H.: "Ewan seems to be quite deep - he is laid out quite flat. I was touched on the temple just now.
L. H.: "It is getting cold in the cabinet and on the floor. Ewan and Norman are in deep trance."
Gordon describes an Oriental street scene of Orientals so thickly walking they are swaying like grain.
Singing and quietness alternately.
10:22 p.m. Sitting closes.
March 27, 1934
[Letter from Dr. Hamilton to Mr. W. R. Wood - Austin - Manitoba:]
"... I feel that your suggestion is a worthwhile one. All we would need would be a few vigorous individuals of sufficient attainment and influence to manage the affair successfully. In discussing the matter with Mrs. Hamilton, she is likewise greatly impressed. Your experience in connection with your own work shows, as we too have found, that there is a value in this work which will benefit humanity very much more than any other form of teaching. This, I think, is especially true since it makes such an emphatic thrust at the foundations of materialism and at the same time builds up such strong support in behalf of the unseen and of survival.
"...The last few days have been very interesting as accentuating this. About a week ago I spoke to the Science Club of the University students. There would be a hundred out and their interest was intense; and last evening I spoke to the psychological Club, about forty strong, at the home of Professor Wright. Here again the interest was as before. We did not get away from the house until 12:30 midnight. The value is seen especially in the young plastic mind which has not yet formed a crystallized estimate of life, its way, and its meaning and its purpose.
"... Next Sunday I have the privilege of speaking at Robertson House to about seventy-five, many of them Polish and Ukrainian, varying from twenty to twenty-five years of age and largely students of the University. I find these people are very eager. About a month ago a similar meeting at Stella Avenue Mission shows that their minds are quite open and all they need is something to strengthen their faith which is so frequently shattered by our present day University teachings together with the general world attitude as expressed through men of influence in industry and commerce.
"... We were just remarking how much we regretted that you are not stationed at a closer proximity, for there is great work to be done and few indeed competent to do it. Especially do we need a closer link with the Church. There is no reason why others in theology might not have the same values to offer their people as you have had. On the other hand, one has to allow for different types of mind, and I find certain types of mind which are so foreign and so obdurate that it would require a charge of dynamite to awaken them.
"... We think your suggestion could be very effectively put into action; but, of course, as you say, it will have to have a small beginning. We found in England, as here, there is a tremendous handicap in the burden imposed by the Spiritualists who are actuated largely by commercialism, and who, no matter how earnest they may be, are so frequently gullible and imposed upon not only by those within their own ranks but also by imported imposters from across the line.
"... We will be very glad, indeed, to think this all over and glad to hear from you again at your convenience.
"... Since seeing you we have received several photographs of teleplasm, only one of which, however, contained a partial face. Of this I have pleasure in enclosing a copy. It is supposed to be John King - Katie's adopted father."
Sitting:
J. A. Hamilton; Ethel Muir; Ada Turner; Harold Turner; Dawn; Mercedes; Ewan; Mary McLean, Secretary. All present except Mr. Reed and Mr. Barrie and Mr. Snyder.
9:15 p.m. Sitting started.
Dawn in the cabinet. "Up and down, up and down; he says it is pretty rough. See that it is good and dark. Says it is all right now; it will be quite all right. That's why it is so rough."
She is talking now about French chalk, and says to have the pencils and crayons; and she is giving instructions.
Walter/Dawn: "I have not got control of the body ... just the speech centers. She is very conscious of anything else at the present time. There has been a lot of work done, although she has not been with you."
T. G. H.: "Did you have good control when you gave the signal for the last picture?"
Dawn: "The last picture ... I don't know."
T. G. H.: "Well, there was nothing in the last time; did some other control get in?"
Dawn: "I don't know anything about that. The last picture I gave you was a picture of John King."
T. G. H.: "Well, Dawn gave the signal at the last sitting and a flash was taken."
Walter/Dawn: "I didn't give you any signal at all; perhaps it was her sub-conscious mind that gave you the signal."
T. G. H.: "At any rate, there was nothing."
Dawn: "You didn't get any ectoplasm coming from Ewan's chin. Perhaps you were too late, or she perhaps gave it to you too quickly. She was ready, and perhaps gave it to you sub-consciously; I have to give all my time, and Black Hawk or someone else usually stands on guard at that time. But don't let that disappoint you, friend, because you will get it; because I want to give it to you through Ewan when I get him really under control: get him so he doesn't know his own religion; then that will be the time that you will get it. There is all kinds of controls around waiting and anxious to control him; but if he doesn't respond to the others any better than he responds to me, it is going to be a long job. Of course, for us it doesn't matter how long, days or weeks or months or years, because we don't measure it by hours. Time is just one long endless chain of love and brightness."
Mercedes has been making queer noises.
Ewan: "We are going to have a temperance meeting here sometime."
Dawn and Ewan change places; and Dawn says "There now, I have given Ewan front seat. You know every time you have a sitting here Lucy takes down a lot of notes.
"Do you think, Ham, there is always a person behind a purpose; or is it sometimes a purpose without anyone behind it? That ectoplasm that you take photographs of, do you think there is a purpose behind it?"
T. G. H.: "I think there is."
Ewan: "Can you tell the direction of it?"
T. G. H.: "No, I cannot; I can surmise ..."
Ewan: "Well, don't surmise. What is it doing?"
T. G. H.: "It is either ebbing or flowing."
Ewan: "But is it north, south, east or west?"
T. G. H.: "What do you mean ...?"
Ewan: "Well, I asked you the direction as well as I could. (There is quite an argument in regard to the direction, in which Ewan does most of the talking and gets sarcastic.)
Ewan: "Well, don't you see it was neither coming or going?"
T. G. H.: "I said it was either coming or going ..."
Ewan: "You are a hypodermist, sir."
Mercedes and Ewan hold a conversation about curiosities in a cage; tadpoles; mummified people; and an "ectoplasmic breast" -- say it goes back to the "time of Abraham."
"Katie is going to speak to you."
Ewan: "Dawn will come out of trance in order that she may take an interest in what Katie is going to say to you. Katie is going to give you your instructions in regard to this next experiment; and I would like Dawn to be quite wide awake so she can hear them."
Mercedes: "Good evening, friends. I have been here quite a long time but I didn't want to come through. I want to say to you that this new work that we are going to do: I do not say that it is going to be a photograph of myself or anyone else. I don't want you to think that that is what we are always trying to do. It is something entirely different; but it will be done with Walter's consent, and with our cooperation. I want, then, next time you meet, no one at all to be in the cabinet. You must stay out of the cabinet, you understand, unless when your good friend is trying his new experiment with your blackboard. He will give the signal for his own medium to be taken there, or placed there; but for next time, at least, we want no one at all in the cabinet. Bring the chairs out, too. They have not to be placed directly inside the cabinet, but near enough to the cabinet so Dawn can be placed in it if so desired.
"We will very likely be working in a different way; and I don't want you to question our methods. If you desire to know, you may be sure we would tell you; but perhaps, if it would retard the work, we will not tell you. And I want also to say to you that we don't promise that these instruments will be successful; but you must just hope for the best and give us your very best attention, and your very best sympathy. We would call for sittings not too far apart, and that they be of a kind - the same persons, the same sitters, as far as possible at each sitting, and a group that is entirely sympathetic one towards another and towards the mediums.
"They don't necessarily need to be prolonged or frequent; but they must be in accord. Harmony in the group is essential. Do you understand me, friend?"
T. G. H.: "Yes, I do."
Mercedes: "And also, I must again warn you to ask the mediums that they must not be taken up by outside influences; that they must guard against sittings with promiscuous strangers while this work is being carried on.
"There is a little man here, perhaps he will work with you - I would like to introduce him to you through the medium. He also comes with our friend's consent; but he will work with you and you had best know that he is a friend. He will speak to you just a few moments."
T. G. H.: "Yes, Katie."
Greeting: "Helloo, friends! I ain't never been here before, have I? They call me Halbert."
T. G. H.: "Yes, I think I have heard of you ..."
Halbert: "Yes, yes, I am a good worker, I am. So long, me lad; I want to meet all of these good people ..."
Ewan: "Don't forget to call him "Hallburt".
Halbert: "Yes, and I was always fond of ham and eggs. I worked with this old fellow, this old Johnny, Old Welsh Johnny, bullet-headed he was, and whiskers, the old boy." (He has a very broad accent and rough, talks and laughs; he makes everyone laugh.)
"Katie says I gotter come; well, I come, Katie says. I gotter work, you know; I usually precede work of this kind; I work in the gas works, you know."
(Everybody laughs and calls him 'chappie'.) "Yes, you knew. How did you know?" (He says goodbye and Katie returns.)
Katie/Mercedes: "Don't forget to leave the cabinet empty. I want to use the cabinet for something else: we want to try and get busy. Just let Mercedes sit alongside of Dawn."
Dawn: "If there is anything ... any drawing going on, we don't wish to have any of the mediums in the cabinet. Maybe if one has to go in to start the work we will draw her away, or perhaps we will put her back again. Leave a duster or a cloth handy so that she may rub off things ..."
10:25 p.m. "Lucy is here", Katie says, and reminds everybody, "Don't forget, I just asked you to remember who are your sitters and to place them in sympathy and accord with each other.
"I would like you, if you can, to rearrange your circle and get it in a better condition. You have got far too many men together."
Lucy speaks: "Katie is going away. When Katie goes you can put on all the light you like. You must keep the light off Katie. You can turn it on to Lucy all you like to. This refers to red light as well as a white."
Dawn is making gurgling sounds. She says "Walter is gone."
Circle closes.
March 30, 1934.
Jack MacDonald; all the Hamiltons; M. L. H. recording.
Sterge speaks first, greets Glen and Jim, and teases T. G. H., calling him 'Pop'. He says: "Pop is the Sphinx, just a riddle. He has been there since time began and will be there when time ceases to be. (T. G. H. grunts). Oh, he awakes! O Sphinx, what is your riddle? (No answer). He has lapsed back into sleep." Sterge continues to tease us all in this manner for some two or three minutes. Then the medium becomes silent, with head lowered between knees, and remains so for two minutes.
Robert: "Good evening. I'm here now. I came as quickly as I could to be nearer the first because I think that there may be others coming after me. I thought I would be less of a gentleman and get my material to ye first and not get in the backwash of another personality. It's rather a difficult task driving my frail craft up and down and through the narrow gorge through eddies and swirls, and cross-currents and whirlpools and the like and always have to contend with the constantly surging impulses from the backwash of another personality who has gone just prior to my arrival and whose impulses still reach me and take me into still more insecurity on my insecure perch in my insecure craft.
"However, should this mariner come to grief tonight little excuse could be offered by him except that be have not yet discovered any pilot for the dangerous undercurrents of the stream; for it is a stream sometimes wide, sometimes deep, with a shifting bottom; sometimes a slow stream, sometimes a rushing one. It is a stream to the outward eye, but to one sailing on its treacherous depths and its seething shallows, it is quite different to that which might greet the eyes of an outside individual.
"I often think that personality is more comparable to a river than to a lake since there seems to be a constant flow within the confines of the banks which hold it; and I do think that frequently we find the directional flow of that current varying and changing with the tides, which may be represented by human affairs. It is as though we sometimes have a reversible falls where the water climbs up instead of falling down. Imagine, if you can, the problem confronting the boatman on a river where there is a constant danger of the river simply reversing its course. Add this to all the known hazards, and add a good measure for all the unknown, unseen and unsuspected dangers and you may have a fair conception of a few of our problems and difficulties. And navigation conditions, such as wind and weather, also we have to contend with. And they are comparable to the conditions governing this séance on both your and our side."
Pause.
"Dimmit always wrote in a large scrawly hand which, due to the erratic motions he frequently made with his pen, was generally well spattered with devastating blots which he carefully smudged over with his fingers. Indeed, I have memories of his stained cuffs and I can still visualize, even with the considerable passage of time, that there has been, those huge red chilblained hands with the bulging knuckles and ink-smeared tips. I used to think how comparable they were, if one could focus one's attention wholly on the hands, to those of some great and untidy giant, loose-limbed and slothful. Dimmit wore his clothes in exactly the same way as he wrote. He more or less shrugged and scrawled himself into them, and their frayed edges made me think of his non-too-well-turned words, while their mottled nondescript colorings made one wonder if the designer and dyer of the cloth had not also himself been a Dimmit and had impressed the dominant family characteristic of smudges into them. Dimmit's character, personally, was in keeping with his writing and his clothing. He was always in trouble, never badly, it is true, - there were never, during his school career, any black marks on the page of his life, but there were continual smudges, not because he did not lay himself open to the convicting black mark, but that somehow he struggled out from under it ... each time, and succeeded in, while not avoiding it or obliterating it completely, transforming it into the usual characteristically dissipated blot ..."
"That's all. Goodnight."
Sterge:
"He (Robert) says that was more than a usual characterization; that was a continuous characterization. He says to 'thumb back to the pages of your diary'."
Arthur: "Who didn't know who was coming? Nobody, nobody but my father ... I'm Hannibal."
We have a jolly conversation with Arthur, with much teasing. Arthur calls T. G. H. 'Pop' also. He tells Glen that he will be used in his work as an instrument through his own motivation, but with the help of his unseen friends.
Sterge returns: "Your son does not tire the instrument very much, nor does he leave any traces behind since he was so little of the earth. He is one of the easiest controls we have. This control is less of a driving and more of a blending than any of the others.
"I must go now. Au revoir."
[Lecture at Robertson House - 75 present - University Students - Polish and Ukrainian descent - very keen.]
April 8, 1934.
G. Snyder; Ada Turner; Harold Turner; J. A. Hamilton; Mr. Reed; W. Barrie; Mercedes; L. H.; Dawn; Ewan; Ethel Muir.
Sitting closed abruptly. Deterrent influence said to be present.
April 11, 1934
[Letter from Dr. Hamilton to Mr. Theodore Besterman - London - England:]
"... Your inquiry in regard to the possibility of obtaining some sittings with our mediums next Autumn came to hand some time ago. Due to unusual pressure of medical work, my psychic duties have, I am afraid, been rather badly neglected, an answer to your letter among them. I trust that this delay will have caused you no inconvenience.
"... After five years of experimentation in the teleplasmic field it is abundantly plain to me that the production of this mysterious substance, with us at any rate, is the outcome of certain unknown supernormal processes of accumulation and storage going until such time as sufficient for the anticipated experiment, when it is speedily materialized and utilized for the completion of the work in hand. Out of 430 sittings held to date (1928 - 1934) only fifty have culminated in flash light photographs registering teleplasmic or materialized forms. This season's work has been no exception: out of forty regular sittings held since the beginning of November, five only have led to registrations (One showed a materialized finger; two revealed a fairly well defined face; others were purely amorphous, some of them being residues obtained on the second exposure made a few seconds after the initial flash). This, of course, does not mean that the intervening experiments are wholly without valuable manifestations of other types, but it does mean that there are with us many periods anywhere from two weeks to three months during which there are no objective manifestations of any kind, periods which try our patience, sometimes to the utmost.
"... The work we are attempting to do is being carried out under difficulties of still other kinds.
"... Not only are the Dawn teleplasms the product of certain unknown supernormal storage processes, as I have just said, but they are also undoubtedly the product of several mediums' organisms functioning simultaneously - an entirely new departure, you will observe, in teleplasmic experiments. The evidences for this are both abundant and conclusive. In other words we are using, not a single mediumship as in the case of Eva C. or Margery, but a multiple or group mediumship.
" ... With the exception of Dawn herself and one of the leading auxiliaries, Mercedes by name, who are both women of the working class, the members of our group, including two exceedingly valuable mediums, are all professional people, leading exceedingly busy lives (Including our note-takers, nine hold university degrees, - three being doctors, one a lawyer, three professional educationists, one an electrical expert, and one a professional musician). It is, therefore, as a rule, impossible for our members to meet at best more than twice a week. All this militates against the frequent appearance of worthwhile phenomena.
"... From all this, then, you will see how precarious is our hold on our teleplasmic researches and how involved have been the mediumships leading to the results we have so far obtained. Only the remarkable nature of the phenomena, which finally appeared under circumstance irrefutably establishing their supernormality, has enabled us to endure the rather trying and complex situation we were continually called upon to face.
"... My object in outlining our various problems to you will be apparent: as matters now stand you will see that it is impossible for us to make plans ahead either for ourselves or for those who may desire to see some of the Dawn teleplasm phenomena at first hand. So far, visitors - and we have had a goodly number in the last three years, Miss May Walker among them, - have come to us on very short notice, their visits usually being arranged by telegraphic communication a few days or weeks before their arrival. If we are sitting and there seem to be reasonable prospects of obtaining phenomena we shall be very glad to welcome you to Winnipeg. Should no manifestations occur while you are with us - and I think I have shown how impossible it is to forecast these matters, - I feel sure that we could still make your visit worthwhile. I should be glad to show you our photographic and electric equipment and also our many photographic records, many of which are stereoscopic, including those presented under the auspices of the British Medical Society which met in this city in 1930."
April 15, 1934.
J. A. Hamilton; Dawn; Ada Turner; Mercedes; Ewan; Ethel Muir; G. Snyder; W. Barrie; L. H.; T. G. H.
Controls insist that group be re-arranged, as this present constitution is poor. Katie and John are to come for the final thirty minutes. Group too large; return to original group.
9:00 p.m. Dawn seems to go into trance. Shortly after, the bell rings twice.
Dawn control: "Good evening. I just came to let you know I was here."
9:05 p.m. Ewan: "Would you like to get a good photograph of Katie?
(Caustically, he remarks). "I can make better music than that standing on my head. I always liked music. (Then to questions) Don't use energy to give answers a couple of times. Ewan is to change places with Norman, that is.)
9:25 p.m. Ewan goes into the cabinet.
Walter/Ewan: "You're all half dead here."
Lucy/Mercedes: "A penny to see the dancing bear. Good. Tell us what's good. It may be enough, but it's not sufficient. What's good about it?"
Ewan: "You're no good. I'm no good. This medium's no good. We are all no good."
Mercedes: "They're no d--n good."
Ewan: "They can't get past me if they're no good ... I'll put the bars across, Ham. I wish you could see what's going on in the cabinet. It's quite empty."
Dawn: "Correct. There is no one in the cabinet."
Mercedes: "Empty. All empty."
Ewan: "Get up, Katie."
Mercedes: "I'm not Katie. Take two more guesses and you may strike it. I'll give everybody a guess."
Ewan: "What's the difference between a leg of mutton and a hunk of pork? Hang her up high as she can go." (By Mercedes).
Ewan: "Katie is quite a ... She is going to talk to you over the back of the cabinet."
Dawn (Dawn is quite out of the cabinet): "We caught this leg of mutton. This one got water on the head and was running around and around in a circle. And this is exhibit 2. What about it?"
Mercedes: "What's that fellow doing there?"
Ewan: "We are staging a performance of our own. You don't know what it's all about. Get a good dictionary."
Dawn: "Your world gives the wrong impression. You have no thought of what is meant. Be very careful of the standard who is with you always."
Spurgeon/Dawn: "There is something very wrong here that must be righted. Something all wrong. Conditions are not as they should be. It is partly dependent upon us, but your numbers are not correct, and your conditions are not right. Let this control explain."
Mercedes: "Let us clear the atmosphere; if your controls can tell us, let us know. Why should I come here and waste my time? We must clear the air. I beseech Walter to tell us what he wants."
Ewan: "I will."
Mercedes: "He will come and speak to you. Dawn is not in a good condition. She is not well. (Katie speaking). There is such a vast difference between your preacher and your different spheres and different outlooks."
(This referred to the objects or aims of the work in its purpose.) Our circle at this stage was again composed of two circles merged at the beginning of the year's work; but in these two circles which are operating with different viewpoints as objectives there appears to be throughout the winter a clash of the controls. Now one and now another set coming to the front to develop their particular objective."
Katie/Mercedes: "If need be, my father and I will retire. Your group seems to get along harmoniously. At any rate, we will abide by what your friend has said. We would love to give you a materialization of Mercedes, but no one but yourselves could have benefitted, since you would see it, but could not photograph it. Walter is desirous of producing material for the public. Therefore, to avoid discord, we will go. We wish to be honest. We know that we are not making good progress. Just sing one of Walter's little jingles."
Dawn: "I have said what I said. "Never have two negatives together! I can say that things are not right. Others wish to come. Take your papers, your slates and pencils away, and have none of it. Never have two negatives together. Ask one to sit out (this referred to the necessity of having never two ladies sitting in the circle together; a mistake we had frequently tolerated.) Similarly, where two men are together, have one sit out. Come to this work with one mind. You come, one wanting writing and drawing, and another, pictures. This difference of opinion and objective is destructive."
Ewan: "I give advice to you. When I say to come here in one mind, you have opened the channels for other forces to come through as through a half closed gate. Your circle is too large. There must be no halfway house. Do you know what faith can do? Some come in fear, fear of what is going to happen."
Mercedes: "I am not coming to smooth over matters, to pour oil on troubled waters; I am not reproaching you. You have much to contend with. The atmospheric conditions bring bad conditions. It may not be your fault. Get permission for changes, always; before making changes, ask him at the beginning. Meet as you met years ago and build up, even if you have not the same sitters; start as closely to the foundations as you can."
Walter/Ewan speaks of the mediums' disappointment. They both, when they meet, are very disappointed. They have nothing to show for their work and it depresses them . They are anxious to make good.
The circle having closed, the following from Katie/Mercedes: "We have made our peace with Walter. He will be your sole leader. No entity must come unless by his consent. We will work with him. My father also is subject to him, because he is the only one that can produce through Dawn work so important. If he calls we will gladly come. But we will not interfere in any way. There was misunderstanding regarding the blackboard work. That was where the trouble lay, and there was a clash of opinions. Wait instructions. Make others not of your circle sit at the back. Our friend spoke of those who would not give themselves up. You have three sitters who have not given themselves. Norman's control does not allow him to be used; Florence is willing but has a very ... and stubborn streak; and Mr. Snyder will not give himself up. They are not much use under these circumstances. This is a condition which cannot be eliminated."
T. G. H.: "You put them in."
To this he gave no answer.
Walter: "I am not complaining. They have not the same faith. Give Walter the first sixty minutes and the last thirty to John and Katie. I will take charge of the meeting at first through the Dawn and Ewan channels. No one else is to be permitted through. Leave the blackboard but take the table. Leave the water outside the cabinet at the side. Put Dawn in the cabinet alone. Leave one chair in there for her. Mercedes will go on the left of the cabinet. Understand that when I take Dawn she is negative. She is a dividing line in the group that must be (there) cut. Do not exceed ninety minutes. You know the power and influence of Walter."
"You can understand it does not exist from others. There is an influence from one to the other. Walter does not control in this area outside of any members of this circle."
April 18, 1934.
Ada Turner; Harold Turner; Ethel Muir; Ewan; J. A. Hamilton; Mercedes; Dawn; L. H.; T. G. H.
Group has been rearranged as nearly like old group as possible. See diagram. R. L. S., Flammarion, Spurgeon and Sterge manifest. Conditions said to be good.
April 25, 1934.
Ada Turner; Harold Turner; Ethel Muir; T. G. H.; Mercedes; Dawn; L. H.; Ewan; W. Barrie; Dr. Bruce Chown; Gladys Chown; Mary McLean, Secretary.
[Photo: Caption: "First exposure. Wide angle view."]
[In photo are: Lillian Hamilton; Ewan; Mrs. Marshall ( Dawn); Mercedes; Norman ( all in deep trance); Mr. Reed.]
April 29, 1934.
Dawn; Mercedes; Ethel Muir; Ada Turner; Harold Turner; L. H.; Ewan; J. A. Hamilton; Dawn; Mercedes; Norman; Ada Turner; J. A. Hamilton; Ethel Muir; W. H. Barrie; Lillian M. Hamilton; H. Green;
L. H. and T. G. H. outside circle.
9:00 p.m. Sitting commences and bell rings. Dawn is singing. Ewan is not in trance, nor Mercedes. Bell ringing therefore takes place without any trance of a deep type.
[Dawn reported to me after the sitting that when the bell rang she felt as if the interior of her nose had been pricked by the upward thrust of a probe or toothpick. This sensation she has experienced before. She says it is always confined to the nasal mucous membrane. - T. G. H.]
9:05 p.m. Dawn ceases singing.
9:10 p.m. Group number. Dawn and Ewan are silent. They are evidently in trance.
9:11 p.m. Ewan control: "Good evening."
Dawn control: "I'm here. I told you I would ring."
[The control further suggested that I should try the bell to make sure of it ringing, adding "When your room is so hot it is liable to go dead on you. Every day is the same to me; but when I come here I feel your room temperatures from the medium. It is not so easy for me to do so when there is electricity in the air. You can sing all you want to. I want you to know that I am right on the job. Sing and rest. I want to talk to Ham. I would like this chair changed; and give her a chair that has no wires in contact. See that there is no wire on her chair."- T. G. H.]
[To my questioning he added, "I can't touch wire. All metals are bad. They draw a great deal of power, just as if you cover wires in a solution. I do not work with electricity, but with something different. It is not of this world; but the energy is of the physical." - T. G. H.]
[To further questioning he added he did not want to take the chair away then and there. I remarked on the blackboard and how he liked it. He remonstrated "Let me find out things. Let me tell you." He wanted these matters to establish as a cross-evidence of his supernormal knowledge; but further added that he had not yet inspected the blackboard, but that after the next sitting he would draw. He further added "It would be good if you would put a little rubber on the ends of the chair feet." And again "I like the little box. I see you put little ends on it." - T. G. H.]
[This referred to the box which I had glued to the bottom of the blackboard to hold the chalk. He asked "Did you put half a dozen little pieces in it?" I replied "Not so many." He said "I see you've got two pieces. (correct). I want you to place Mercedes just in front of the cabinet wall. Also Ewan. There is a current." - T. G. H.]
9:24 p.m. Mercedes: "Tell them we are going. There it comes now. There it comes." (Her voice is quite dramatic.)
Ewan: "We are going across time. We have gone into a ship that is kind of a floating shell. I can't give you any idea of this. We are going backwards against the current. We have to keep quite still because it is going to be quite rough. It is just a kind of shell we have. You think you can blow it away. We are going out of time, out of time completely. This girl does not understand what's going on. She has gone away from herself. She was quite confused. She can see herself going on and she is going backward. She can see her body going forward through time, and she is going backwards. We have gone away from your room."
Mercedes: "What is the shell sailing on? It is not a water. Oh, colors! I can't look at them . I can't look at those colors - they are so bright!!"
Ewan: "We are going upside down. We are going into the vortex. This is where the colors come from."
Mercedes: "I didn't know there could be such beauty."
Ewan: "Can you believe me? I can feel that boat going round and round beneath me and I cannot move. I am fixed."
Mercedes: "I wish your cameras could photograph these beautiful colors."
9:40 p.m. Ewan: "I am going to take her. Come, come. I can see you all as you are in a glass case. I have got you all quite clearly. I can see the whole great world. It is contained in a case. I can see great ships going up and down the waters, and great airplanes going across, all in the glass case. We are outside of your time completely. We are so big it cannot affect us."
Mercedes: "What does our guide say?"
Ewan: "I can see it all. Kings are being crowned and buried and carried away in state. Would you like to talk to these people again? Oh, it would be so easy for you to understand all going on before you, but you are taken up in the stream. You are like a section cut, a section cut out of the universe and set in a glass case. You are so much quicker and busier. We continue always the same. I have the impression that I have only to take your case up, turn it over, and let it begin again. How would you like to go back to being monkeys in the trees? You are quite close to it, even now."
Mercedes: "No. I would not touch it, his old box. There is nothing on this side at all, just nothing at all."
Ewan: "It is all just what you create yourselves. Oh, isn't that curious? I can see now that the whole thing goes on continuously."
Mercedes: "Very curious."
Ewan: "I can't go yet. I have to see this more clearly. Please allow me to come again. Your perception is stronger at one contact. Your perception is getting stronger. It is stronger at one contact, but it goes on. You have created an impression that what goes before and after is not co-existent because of the superiority of that immense contact. It is like an army coming to the saluting point, and when their eyes are all in one direction, they salute. So, things come past you. How is it, it goes that I can see you there and yet you seem to be outside yourselves."
Mercedes: "I must go back."
Ewan: "I'm going to take one more good look at that. Can you see what is going on?"
Mercedes: "Yes, they have taken us to a place to view the earth plane - a hustling mass of humanity. We stand outside of time and are impressed with the utter inconsequence of this hustle. But you are fighting for time."
Ewan: "Time is given ..." Time is not equal. It is what you make it. Each one has your own idea. It is but a figment of your mind, like everything else that goes on around you. Could you understand ... I am looking down on a great plane and see the people going on along it?"
Mercedes: "We have been told that we were to get these descriptions and pictures. There is an explanation."
Dawn: "I will endeavor to draw what you give as you speak of conditions."
Ewan: "I have a vision of a life that is continuous: one that has been spoiled by something coming into it as a wound in your body, in some part of the body. If you get a wound you are existing ... you are going as a long ribbon with a wound as a stab across it; and that wound is the past of your contemplation. That is not present when the past is good, when good and healthy. That's what you have got to get away from ... these wounds. Your co-existent."
Mercedes: "Here is the shell come for us again."
Dawn: "Examine Dawn."
[I did so. She was sitting on the chair within the cabinet, her arms folded, and the palms and fingers outstretched and placed firmly against the opposite shoulders."
Walter/Ewan: "Have you appointed the chalks?"
Ewan: "There is no beginning and no end. It is all a matter of consciousness ... or of unconsciousness, of what we are conscious of, and what we are unconscious of, in the days that are gone. Consciousness gave us time, and time gave us the world and our mortality. I say to you, when you can escape from this consciousness - I don't mean this waking life - but from the complete knowledge of things that seem to you to be, whether waking thoughts or dreams, you will get away to that place where you can laugh again and see how circumscribed was your present state, your consciousness. There is no past, and no future. There is a forgetting and a knowing and an anticipation because you have limited yourselves to your consciousness. Get away from the consciousness, and you will be heirs."
Mercedes: "Get away. The work this evening has been very successful. Walter has done well through Dawn while the other two were away on this trip. These who take the medium are working to give you a complete set of pictures. I only hear them talk and say that it is successful. They say more successful than they had anticipated. Your work should go on successfully - good science work."
(All of this was from Lucy, through Mercedes.) She continued: "Your medium is not back yet. Your numbers are fewer."
Ewan: "What is going on?"
Dawn: "I am not an old philosopher."
Ewan: "How can any philosopher understand these things? If I could get him further from consciousness, I could tell you more. Time is just a creation of your mind, exactly as the chairs you sit upon. You say we have got to register to have something, so we will not come out. Come, can you not give them a photograph? That's what they like."
Mercedes: "I'm not going with that fellow."
Dawn: "You are not going."
They were then brought out. Ewan experienced some difficulty in recovering his orientation. He had been very, very deep.
April 30, 1934
[Letter from Theodore Besterman - thanking for letter - spending week with Sir Oliver Lodge - has been sitting with medium Rudi Schneider for six months - 'practically no results' during that time.]
May 2, 1934.
T. G. H.; W. Barrie; Ethel Muir; Ada Turner; Harold Turner; Ewan; J. A. Hamilton; Dawn; Norman; Ada; J. A. Hamilton; Florence; Mr. Reed; Lillian Hamilton; Ewan; T. G. H., note-taker. Mr. Snyder also took notes.
Ewan: "Can't you all come? I notice Mercedes is away."
Norman: "Come a little closer. It is too bad Mercedes could not come."
Norman is moved a little more closely to the left of the cabinet.
Ewan: "Things are not going well tonight, are they? He (Walter) gets so bad tempered; you can't tell when he gets like that whether he wants to go ahead or not. He can't take up his head to give an answer. I think we will go on as if things had gone all right. I'm going to get it. Oh he's pretty good, now. I'm going to take you away with me tonight. Can you see where you are going to?"
Norman: "High up. Look out. It's a great big green place. Those great big things - those lizards."
Ewan: "They are quite tame. What are those lizards like?"
Norman: "They are big as elephants. Everything here is green."
Ewan: "Can't you see anything else?"
Norman: "They are human. They can think. They know what I am thinking. They are all around me."
Ewan: "What kind of place is this?"
Norman: "I can't see anybody; but I know they are there. I can hear them whispering. You come, too. I'm not going into this alone. What do you want to put me into that great black thing for? It's moving."
Ewan: "Quick! Take care of Norman. I have more than I can do. See that he does not go down too quickly."
Norman: "Stop it! Stop it!"
Ewan: "He has got to go himself. I've got to take care of Dawn."
Norman: "Tell him to stop it. We are going too fast."
Ewan: "You can't tell him he is all right because he's gone away now."
Norman: "Oh, isn't that beautiful - a great big yellow circle of light."
Ewan (to Dawn): "You're quite all right."
Dawn: "Open the door. Go right out and fall over the edge and break your neck. You didn't expect to."
Norman: "He has put a steel cap thing down over my head. It must be the way they see your brains."
Dawn: "What are these people doing down there? Marching around and around - making my head dizzy. What is that place? It looks like a prison."
Ewan: "Can't you see that scorching sand? They are on that track. They are held there by their own thoughts. Nothing to confine you but your own thoughts keeping you there. What is that box? That is where those who course about with these seem to be held there. They can't go. They can't be released until they do their own releasing."
Dawn: "I'm going down."
Ewan: "Go on down and take a place among them ."
Dawn: "Please take me away. That is a prison."
Dawn: "Look at that poor girl. She is walking beside me. Her eyes staring. Her face is all burnt. Poor girl. Come with me. We'll get out of that circle."
Norman: "But you can't leave a girl like that there."
Ewan: "But she has to do what she is told. She will give a good account when she comes back. (This referred to Dawn). It'll make her think and say her prayers."
Norman: "What is that stone?"
Dawn: "I don't know what these men are wanting."
Norman: "They are those who come to choose the ones that can get free. How can they get away when they are held by going in circles. There is no use in that. Come, help me take the rock away. Oh, the poor things."
Ewan: "Oh, you should go and see the great crowds - men and women and children going around and around."
Dawn: "Why, these big men are watching them . Why do they watch?"
Ewan: "They are the guards who come to take them away."
Dawn: "I don't like that place at all."
Norman: "Come down with me."
Dawn: "I am afraid I'll fall."
Norman: "Come, help me take this rock."
Dawn: "Can't I go down this side? Why is there a rail here and not there?"
Ewan: "It is to keep them from going down."
Norman: "What are those things crawling on those people? They're all gray. They're all chained up."
Dawn: "What is that water there?"
Norman: "Don't they take them there for a drink? Look at those spiders, and their hands are all tied, and they can't take them off. (excitedly). Oh, they put one of those things on me, a horrible, great hairy spider."
Dawn: "Here is somebody. Oh, you get into a worse place."
Norman: "Take me out of this dark place. Oh, those spiders are eating them . Come on, we must get free. I can't wait for you."
Ewan: "You can't get up. There is a road, but you can't go up."
Norman: "Come on down this road. Look, there is a light. We are coming out of it. Look, a great big desert. There is just one little house; a stone house with pillars."
Ewan: "Do you see the man?"
Norman: "An old man bent up, long hair."
Ewan: "Can you see what he used to look like? He had great beauty in youth."
Norman: "He was a great tall man; black, black hair. He gazed at himself all the time. Nothing to do but look at himself. Oh, he is so alone. I wouldn't want to be here."
Ewan: "Dawn, you went to sleep on the rocks. She said she was quite comfortable."
Norman: "Oh, where is Dawn? This is a nice place for her. (Norman is apparently scouting around the house). Oh, excuse me (he had discovered a bed with high posts and curtains hanging about and thought it would be a good place for Dawn to have a rest.) Excuse me. I didn't know they were in there."
Ewan: "Who?"
Norman: "A man and a woman. This is a great big bed with curtains."
Ewan: "But they are just puppets."
Norman: "I thought they were alive."
Ewan: "No, they are just puppets. He carved them . Come on, get up. They have a name carved on their foreheads. See, SIN and DEATH."
Norman: "I'm not going alone across that great desert."
He describes a great limitless waste of slightly undulating expanse of desert.
"I'm not going alone (fearfully). Dawn, come with me."
Ewan: "Come on. Get up, and see all you can."
Norman: "Look, who are all those men coming? They are running. Their robes are flying. They are after that poor man. I'd better hide. Has she gone and left me? I'm not alone. They have gone on, after that man. Now I'm on top of a hill and I can see farther - more desert, desert, desert everywhere. There is a great house there; I'm going to that house. Look, a man is standing in front of a door with a great sword dripping red with blood."
Dawn: "I was with a boy."
Ewan: "................................"
Norman: (referring to the man at the door of the house): "He won't let me into the house. Can't you make this man let me into it? I must just go away if they won't let me in the house."
Dawn: "I was afraid I was going to fall. I could see all the prisoners walking. There were two boys; and I was left with one of them .
[This was a dual conversation by Dawn and by Norman, not always correlated, each having different experiences.]
Ewan: "Oh, what a cruel man to do that."
Dawn (apparently trying to save the boy): "I would save you with a stick of candy. (To coax him to come)."
They now look at the house.
Norman: "They are all waiting for someone. There is a man looking out of the window. Look! There is a great white horse coming across the desert. It is coming nearer and nearer. Oh, now it is here. It is mounting up the steps and into the hall. Look at them run. He (the rider) is bright. But the others are not. He'll take them away from the sand and the hills. I want to get out of it. Yes, he's looking at me. I'll get behind him on the horse. Take me back."
Ewan: "You've got to call him back."
Dawn: "Norman, come back."
Dawn tries to stand. "I can't stand on my limbs."
Norman: "Oh, my leg hurts."
Ewan: "That'll give them something to think about."
Norman: "Oh, that hurts."
Dawn (now partly normal): "What's the idea; putting us like this? I can't stand on my legs!"
Ewan: "That's pretty good, I calls it. I don't care. You took him there."
Dawn: "I was climbing till my legs were sore."
Ewan: "Look at his leg. (Norman's). He's crying; it hurts so."
Norman: "I'm not crying."
Ewan: "He is knocked out."
Sitting closes.
[The mediums coming back to normal. At removal of Dawn and Norman from the room, Ewan still in trance. The control urges me that it is essential for Mercedes to be present in order to give the proper power for these pictures. He says that the night's effort has been quite successful; that they can get the lower levels in this way, but that it is essential to have Mercedes in order to ascend to the higher levels, and give descriptive details of them .- T. G. H.]
May 4, 1934.
Jack MacDonald (medium); Lillian Hamilton; M. Hamilton.
Sterge comes first, greets us. L. M. remarks that he came to the 'big' sitting.
Sterge: "I just came to the big circle, to the outer circle. That was just for fun. I might come again but not while the work is on. We are quite hopeful for your success before you should have to abandon the work for the summer months. There is a greater spirit of tranquility - much of the stress is due to the pressure forced upon your instruments, due to heightened sensitivity and pent-up storage of surplus psychic energy within them. You will find them as nervous and excitable as expectant mothers ..."
Robert next speaks:
"It's glad I am to talk again through the instrument I have here. I'm very happy to be back, not only with you but more near to you through the mediumship of my voice. I should be very sorry if at any time I should really cease living, and withdraw into myself and cease human intercourse such as I have here on my plane and with you who are my dear friends in the physical - I should cease living, should cease being useful.
"We live, if we live at all, wholly in service for others. Life, real life, all life ultimately springs from service to others, helpfulness and supporting strength to the fellow-weaklings, and more than that, when we catch a vision of greater things and when we know of fuller joys or deeper, more soul-satisfying beauties, we must, with the voice God gave us, tell, paint and picture the vision for others, and help them to see it and to bring the vision's beauteous inspirational strength into their lives. No man is useful who lives unto himself. Moreover, he is worse than useless, since he may represent the un-relayed messages, the un-transmitted vision. Poor indeed is the man who is without a friend. We live to serve; in service we are useful and facilitate the ends of creation. Hence to really live we must be useful, but no one can be useful in any shape or form unless we are useful one to another. No cog has value unless in contact with or correlated to other cogs.
"We must actively live. Food of various types is necessary for the sustenance, nourishment and up-building of our physical bodies. Living actively and living usefully is a form of spiritual and mental food necessary for the sustenance, nourishment and growth of our minds and of the spirit ..."
"... I was a bit mixed there, but I feel that you can help me rearrange my message ..."
Robert says a few more words, and then bids us goodnight.
Sterge returns to close the circle.
