Testing the Spirit

I apologise for the infrequency of my blogs but perhaps many of you find those already published are helpful and even return to them from time to time.

Today I want to discuss an aspect of Spiritualism which is talked about all too infrequently these days – days when many people involved seem to fall over themselves to accept that anything that is claimed to come from spirit is not only genuine but also infallible. I refer to the cautionary words of early Spiritualists to “always test the spirit.” There is every reason to follow this advice because just as there are good and bad, even mischievous, people here on earth, so it is in the spiritual world. Passing to spirit does not immediately change one’s character – that can often take many of our years to achieve. Therefore, it behoves us to satisfy ourselves of the genuineness of both the personality and the words of those claiming to speak to us from spirit, no matter what type of mediumship is used.

This is particularly the case where claims are made that the person speaking from the spiritual world is someone who was famous whilst on earth. The problem in accepting that a person speaking is who they claim to be is that so much detail is on public record about famous people that most information given for identification purposes can be gleaned by the medium from various publications. By saying this I am not accusing mediums of deliberately misleading us but they could, quite innocently, be giving information they have previously read and which their conscious mind may well have forgotten. It is also the case that sceptics will never be slow to use this argument and as usual will not concern themselves with testing the medium’s veracity. It is for this reason that many helpers and guides speaking from spirit, say their names are unimportant. However, there are occasions when formerly famous people do want their names known to the listeners. This happened to me as a trance medium on one occasion and it might help understand the point I am making if I relate what happened.

Some years ago I became aware that Arthur Conan-Doyle the famous author and Spiritualist wished to speak through me when I was entranced. My initial reaction was,

“No way! So much about you and your life is on public record people would not be willing to accept you as bona fide.”

So far as I was concerned, that was that but some months later I attended a course at The Arthur Findlay College run by Maureen Murnan. Knowing I was a trance medium, Maureen asked me one day to demonstrate in front of her students. There was one young lady there who was an artist and interested in developing Psychic Art. Maureen asked her that while I was demonstrating, she should draw any person she felt was present with me. Conan-Doyle didn’t speak because of my reservations but nonetheless the young lady drew an almost photographic likeness of ACD even though she claimed never to have heard of him or to have read any of his books.

I was impressed by this but said to ACD,

“My attitude is still the same – you are just too well known for me to risk it.”

Things continued as before until about a year later I was working in Phoenix, Arizona and on one evening demonstrated trance. Again Conan-Doyle did not speak but he must have been around because during the supper which followed the demonstration, my hostess, Janet Tisdale, who is a working medium and was present at the demonstration said,

“By the way who is Doyle? He was with you tonight even though he did not speak.”

That convinced me! I capitulated and since then he has spoken through me in trance many times. He always introduces himself by saying, “Doyle here” and he speaks a great deal about working with a group in the spiritual world who focus on encouraging earthly Particle Physicists to extend their researches, particularly into the number of dimensions which exist in the universe. Doyle says the researchers are right in their assumptions that there are many more dimensions than the four at present accepted by physicists. What, he says, they do not know yet but will discover, is that most of the additional dimensions are non-physical. He believes that by proving this to be the case through their research, particle physicists will bring about a huge change in public perception. Their findings will convince large numbers of people of the existence of the spiritual world and the continuance of human life beyond what we call death, than have so far been convinced by the work of mediums. This is the reason he has attached himself to the group in spirit.

I hope my explanation convinces you that it is not only possible to “test the spirit” but that it is desirable and sensible to do so. Bear in mind that Spiritualism has long claimed to be a science and not just a religion and a philosophy. Such “testing” follows the scientific approach favoured by the pioneers of Spiritualism.