What constitutes proof of life after death? Is it a series of
messages received from a clairvoyant or trance medium? Is it seeing an
apparition of someone you know to be dead? Is it making objects paranormally
move, appear or disappear - or is it something more? Psychical researchers have
argued this point for years and the debate is likely to continue for many years
more but the most convincing evidence I have witnessed was when Gena Brealey
spoke for about an hour to her dead mother Helen Duncan through medium Rita
Goold.
RITA GOOLD, her husband Stephen, and friends Pat and Barry
Jeffery, had been sitting for some months developing a link with the dead when
one of their regular communicators claimed to be Helen Duncan, the
materialisation medium who died in 1956.
As with other communicators, Rita and the other sitters asked
for proof. Some of this could be checked out through articles and books already
available on Helen but the opportunity to check some of the more obscure
references came when Helen's daughter, Gena Brealey, visited a Spiritualist
church in Leicester. Rita and friends invited Gena to tea and by casually
guiding the conversation were able to check some of the other points made by the
spirit entity claiming to be Helen. The data checked out but they did not reveal
to Gena that her mother was apparently communicating to them. Rita broke the
news to Gena in August 1982 and it was arranged for her to visit the circle.
At the test séance were
Gena, Rita, Pat, Barry and myself. Not
surprisingly we were all a little nervous, not least Rita the medium. The séance
was held in the front room of Pat and Barry's home; as with all séances it was
held in complete darkness apart from light supplied by luminous paint on the
edge of the table and on some of the musical instruments or objects used during
the séances.
We lay our hands on the small table and it began to tilt. The
light was turned out and the table continued its gyrations. Some apports
(paranormally produced objects) were felt to land on the table and eventually we
put the light back on. The apports were several deep red carnations and a single
red rose which had been placed in front of Gena. Gena broke down in tears and
cried, "What greater proof could I have?" She revealed that at her
mother's funeral she had placed a single red rose - unbeknown to other relatives
and friends - in her mother's hands in the coffin and whispered, "I love
you." Years later a medium had told her of this (seemingly relaying the
message from Helen) and also said that one day her mother would return the red
rose to her. Now the rose had returned. The light was extinguished once more and
through raps the spirit communicators asked us to put the tambourine on the
table. This was heard to rattle vigorously and, thanks to the luminous paint,
seen to dance around the room. The tambourine was discarded and the
communicators asked for the séance trumpet, a metal cone with luminous paint on
the ends through which spirit voices had on many occasions been clearly heard.
Normally at this stage the outer circle removed Rita's shoes and
watch and threw them on the floor. However, Barry had expressed some concern
about Rita's watch possibly being broken by this and asked if they could be more
careful. This time the watch was placed in my lap. I estimate that it was
dropped from a height of no more than a couple of inches. Rita is sitting
perhaps seven or eight feet away and was by this time entering a trance state;
the room is pitch black. This was one of hundreds of occasions during my many
visits to the Leicester séances that whoever was causing the phenomena clearly
demonstrated their ability to see in the dark.
Rita was now in trance. Soon the trumpet was seen, with the help
of the luminous strips at the ends, to rise into the air. Helen had always been
the first to speak at the séances I had so far attended but that evening
Russell Byrne was the first to speak. Russell had died on 14 August 1963 from
cancer. He was nine years old. For most of the time he communicated as a
nine-year-old boy; he said this was for "identification" purposes. On
rare occasions he spoke as a man.
Speaking through the trumpet he introduced himself and welcomed
Gena to the circle. Laura, using the trumpet, sang to the circle, along with the
taped music playing softly in the background (a feature of every séance was the
use of taped music). Laura was another of the regular spirit communicators. Then
Helen came and spoke, through the trumpet, to Gena. She spoke first of the rose
and declared, "If I could I would bring you a thousand roses." There
was a break halfway through the séance but apart from that Gena spoke almost
continually to her mother for more than an hour.
Much of the conversation was of a highly personal nature and
Gena asked me not to release all the details. It contained not only information
about Gena's childhood and Helen's work as a medium but also about her family
today. It was difficult to follow carefully all the conversation because of the
use of unfamiliar Scottish slang and because they spoke about people and events
of which I, and the rest of the sitters, had no knowledge. For example, at one
point Helen said she had thrown all the illnesses she had suffered from during
her physical life in the 'midden'. Gena explained afterwards that this was
Scottish slang for a rubbish tip. Helen also used the term 'poke' saying Gena
could take her rose home in a poke. Gena explained afterwards that a poke is a
paper cone. Helen also told Gena to take the rose home to her husband, George.
This puzzled the rest of us until Gena explained her husband had "green
fingers" and would know how to make a rose bush from the one bud.
Gena, a Spiritualist, cried during the séance but she could
scarcely be called an over emotional person. I was quite convinced she would not
be afraid to denounce the voice if it was not her mother. But to make sure I
rang Gena three days after the séance and she reiterated there was no doubt it
was her mother. There were no 'difficult' moments during the test séance and
the conversation flowed freely and easily.
|