Spirit Photography

Today and tomorrow I will be explaining about Spirit Photography, a subject that has fascinated me for many years now and I have a large number of genuine spirit photographs in my possession:


There have been several excellent Photographic Mediums, among them being W.H. Mumler, David Duguid, Ada Deane and probably the most prolific of all, William Hope. There are many examples in circulation of the photographs of Ada Deane and William Hope in particular, and many encyclopaedias include the famous photograph taken by W. H. Mumler of the late Abraham Lincoln, while photographing Mrs Lincoln. Mumler was the first photographic medium, beginning his work soon after photography was invented. This shows spirit is not slow to adapt new inventions to aid them in their mission to convince the world of eternal life. I myself have a large collection of William Hope’s photographs, chiefly because my Uncle Robert, (the same one whose boyhood trance convinced my grandfather to become a Spiritualist) was a member of Hope’s famous Crewe Circle where he produced most of his photographs.

Photographs are notoriously easy to ‘doctor’ and this is the argument sceptics use to dismiss spirit photographs as fraudulent. They conveniently overlook the fact that such ‘doctoring’ can equally easily be detected by professionals who know what to look for. Many spirit photographs in my possession were once examined by The National Museum of Photography in England, prior to them being included in an exhibition at their premises in Bradford, Yorkshire. They confirmed none of the prints show any sign of interference, double exposure or any other ‘doctoring’. What appears on them is what was detected by the camera lens and recorded on the film’s emulsion.

William Hope was meticulous in the steps he took to avoid any possibility of fraud being connected with his mediumship. He used a plate camera and if you wanted a sitting with him, you had to purchase your own packet of plates and bring them with you. Immediately before the sitting, you were asked to remove one plate from your packet, sign it across one corner and then insert it in the camera’s plate carrier yourself. The reason for the signature is that it would appear on the eventual print as verification that the print was taken from the plate you had inserted in the camera and no substitution had taken place. You will see signatures reproduced on most Hope pictures. The exceptions being those taken at public demonstrations and those for members of his circle, where there was total trust between them and the medium. As soon as the photograph was taken, you were asked to remove it from the carrier yourself, take it into the darkroom and stand next to him as Hope developed the plate and prepared the print. Furthermore, it was not until quite late in his career as a photographic medium that he began charging to cover his costs. There was no incentive therefore for him to defraud people.

He was often investigated by psychic researchers and it is significant that on the only occasion he was accused of fraud, it was proved that one of the researchers had himself interfered with the plates before putting them in the camera! Although Sir Arthur Conan Doyle made many attempts to receive an apology from the researcher, he was unsuccessful; all he got were vague excuses. This is often the case with the so-called exposure of mediums. There is nothing as intransigent as the dyed-in-the-wool sceptic, so determined to prove that any evidence of life after death is false, that not only does he refuse to believe the evidence of his own senses but he so arranges things that he will receive the answer he wants. It is unfortunately the case that some scientific investigators suffer from the same myopia and not just where mediums are concerned either. Many are the learned scientific reports, purporting to be independent and objective, whose conclusions are subsequently shown to be based on ‘evidence’ tailored to support the investigator’s own preconceived opinions. Readers of any reported scientific investigation are well advised to follow the old Latin maxim to purchasers, ‘caveat emptor’ – “let the buyer beware”.

I shall not spend time describing the lives and mediumship of photographic mediums as that has been done more than adequately by many people. Instead I shall put forward my theories of how such photographs are produced, having studied the subject for many years. I explained earlier that ectoplasm must, in my opinion, be present in all physical mediumship. The fact one not only sees, but can hold and keep the finished product of the spirit photographer, certainly classifies it as physical mediumship. Indeed it makes it unique amongst all the spiritual gifts. The phenomena produced by any other mediumship (except apports, which are hardly a proof of survival) have to be remembered by the recipient. Only a photograph can be taken away, examined at leisure and be a constant source of proof that your loved one has survived death.

If at First . . .

The most wonderful thing about life is that we are always given another chance; in terms of our growth and our understanding we can never reach the end of the road. This may sound a bit scary on first reading it; as though life is a matter of constantly retracing our steps along the same, boring old road. But it isn’t like that at all. The road along which we travel is as broad, as varied and as interesting as our imagination is prepared to make it. Living is all about learning – the old adage says, “Live and learn and learn to live.” Nothing can be truer, for the only vehicle we have for growth is life. Just as with any journey through uncharted territory, we will get lost and that can be confusing and even frightening sometimes. We get sidetracked and suddenly find that the broad, pleasant highway we were following has become a narrow, twisty lane winding through dangerous countryside.

We meet many travellers along the road; some are friendly, others who cannot be trusted or believed when they tell us something; others are sick and need nursing; others are even more lost than we might feel and beg us to show them the way; others are ultra-confident and so sure of their direction that they do not even pause to acknowledge the presence of other travellers. At different points along the road we ourselves need help; sometimes we don’t realise it and struggle on helplessly until we realise what we need and have the courage to ask. Some of us find the journey tedious because we are constantly anticipating the next obstacle in our path. In so doing, not only so we ensure that we find such an obstacle soon but we have spent so much energy worrying about what it might be, we don’t have sufficient strength to deal with it. We try and try but because we have exhausted ourselves with worry, we find ourselves overwhelmed and rapidly reaching the end of our tether. When we reach the point where we can do no more, when the dark clouds have excluded all the sunlight from our life, that is when help comes; it comes from unexpected sources but it always comes. We are never deserted by those who accompany us from Spirit, throughout our earthy lives. They are not permitted to interfere with our own free will; they will whisper suggestions in our ear if we will but listen but if we ignore their suggestions, at the point when we feel we can take no more, they will see that help is forthcoming.

It should not be like this. Our journey through this earthly life should be a challenging but exciting adventure, one that brings new interest as well as new challenges each day. Sure there will be dangerous areas to pass through and we will need to exercise great caution at certain times, but that makes up the variety that keeps life ever fascinating. Our attitude is all important; what we think will become what we experience. Expect the worst and all manner of ills will beset us and it will seem we no sooner overcome one bad thing when another occurs. On the other hand, be positive, accept that everything happens to us for good purposes and we will always have the strength and ability to deal with them, and life becomes sunnier and infinitely more enjoyable. Remember that we do not journey alone and that all we meet along the road we are intended to meet so that we can help one another. Those friendships, and the lessons we are taught by what we share with others, fill our lives with love and excitement if only we will permit them to. It is true to say that the most enjoyable and well-lived life is measured by the friends we have made and the love we have given, not by the things or the money we have accumulated. Things and money can become such a great weight to carry around that the effort tires us out and we have no energy to enjoy the real pleasures life has to offer. Of course we need money and we need possessions but within limits. Moderation in all things except love, is a good motto on which to base our lives. Love, unconditional love, should be the cornerstone of our existence and the more we practice it the easier it becomes.

Often we will fail but that is not a cause for misery because we will always receive other chances. There is no such thing as a ‘last chance’ where the Creator is concerned. Our life is eternal; the period we spend on earth is important but it is but a tiny part of our existence. Consequently, we have all the time there is in which to do better, to compensate for the mistakes we made, to make up to those people we know we have wronged. And one way or another, the opportunity to do just that will regularly present itself until we have done well enough to move forward. Sometimes the opportunity will arise here and sometimes in the hereafter but make no mistake, it will come. It is therefore foolish for us to waste time in recriminations for things we have done or said that we know we should not have done. True repentance is to recognise what we have done and then make a special effort to look for the opportunity to atone for those transgressions. Then we can try harder not to repeat the mistake. Mistakes are the Creator’s way of teaching us important lessons and we will learn little without them, especially so if we go about wringing our hands and weeping because we have done so. Look at mistakes from this perspective and we will be freed from remorse, find we make fewer of them and discover a new enjoyment enters our life.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY TO YOU ALL!

When the Cuckoo Calls

The cuckoo is a strange bird. Its call is unmistakeable and an indication in England that Spring has arrived with all the softness and gentleness that makes that season so special there. The season when pale colours predominate; yellow and white narcissus; bright yellow daffodils; yellow, white and pale purple crocuses; the palest of pale yellow Irises; pale, delicate snowdrops; Lilac blossom and yellow Forsythia; the pale, fresh green of newly opened leaves on bush and tree. No wonder Robert browning wrote:


Oh, to be in England
Now that April's there,
And whoever wakes in England
Sees, some morning, unaware,
That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
In England - now!


The cuckoo is one of those rare birds that do not build their own nests. Instead, the female lays its eggs in a nest already made by a bird of another species, ejecting any eggs that might already be there before laying her own. Sometimes she chooses to lay her eggs in the nest of a bird much tinier than herself and yet when the chicks hatch and soon become larger than the parent bird, that parent forages tirelessly to feed the ever open maw of this huge impostor who she thinks is her own offspring. It is nothing short of amazing that nature permits this deception so that the cuckoo may survive and with its singular call, brighten English hearts on a bright May morning.

How well I remember those long, sunny, Spring days we had in Wales during the wartime years that seemed to stretch on forever, as the lengthening days succeeded the short dark ones of winter. Those years seemed to produce fairer weather than has been the case since. I wonder why? My imagination; the wonder of youth that fills every passing minute with joy that makes it seem eternal; or God’s compensation for all to alleviate the suffering inherent in war? I can’t pretend to know but I do know they were days, the memory of which is indelibly fixed in my mind. Days of care-free wandering in the hills and fields, sometimes alone and sometimes with friends: Days when my imagination took flight and even when no friends were with me, I was accompanied by Romans, Celtic Priests and Princes and even sometimes, people from earlier times. It was a magical period of my life.

Sometimes we boys would climb trees to reach the nests of crows and magpies, searching for their eggs. They were such a pest when lambs were tiny that the farmers encouraged us to steal as many of their eggs as possible. At other times we would walk stealthily through the rushes and reeds on the wetlands and watch in amusement as Curlews pretended to have broken legs or wings to draw us away from their shallow nests on the ground. There were so many birds then that the few eggs we boys would steal to add to our collections had no adverse impact on their numbers. How we used to whoop with delight when we had an egg that nobody else had been able to find! Carefully we would blow the eggs and then lay them on a cushion of cotton wool in a cardboard box which would be hidden somewhere where it could not be discovered by some of the less scrupulous boys.

However, the prize par excellence amongst eggs was that of the cuckoo! We would patiently search the nests of Hedge Sparrows, Yellowhammers, Blackbirds, Thrushes and others seeing if we could spot that tell-tale huge egg and because Cuckoos were not that numerous, it was rare if we found one. The interesting thing was that the Cuckoo did not begin calling until after laying its eggs, so listening for that distinctive call and watching where its undulating flight would take it, did not help us, for by then it was too late.

Nevertheless that haunting “cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo,” echoing across the fields is an abiding memory of the carefree days of my childhood. I have only to hear it on a record or listen to the wonderful orchestral reproduction of it in Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, to be transported back to the gentle, rolling, hillside fields of Wales. I become a boy again and know that life stretches out endlessly and joyously ahead of me. All thoughts of ageing and uncertainties about the future, here and hereafter, disappear. Ah! The healing properties of nostalgia!

Thought for Today

I turn once more to Silver Birch that great teacher who visited us from the world of Spirit through the trance mediumship of Maurice Barbanel:

“Have faith, not blind faith, but faith founded on knowledge. Have confidence. It is the old, old cry. It is nothing new I have to tell you, but I do reiterate it with all the eloquence at my command so that it shall become part of the very fabric of your being. Have confidence. You do your part, we will do ours. We shall not fail you. There is a vast range of inspiration that you can have access to if you so desire, but fear, doubt, uncertainty, these are discords that interfere and should have no place in your consciousness. There is a lot of work to be done. I want you to help me by your faithful constancy of purpose. There are many obstacles that even I, with all my long experience, find difficult to conquer. You must help me by being faithful and confident and above all, fearless, by not allowing any thoughts of fear, no worry or anxiety to take root in your being.

Problems will cross your path, but you will cross them; they will not stay. There will be no difficulty so great that you cannot solve it, no load so heavy that you cannot bear it upon your shoulders. Have no fear. Face whatever the morrow brings you with a resolute heart and a determined spirit and all will be well. There are many thousands who will seek your aid and you must be ready to help them and thus fulfil the purpose of your own existence, for when all is said and done unless you serve, unless you give to others that which you have received, you are not living in your lives the implications of the knowledge that has been vouchsafed to you. There is much to be done. Let us with joyful anticipation take up our task knowing that here and there will be souls who will rejoice because of what we have done.”

Surprise! Surprise!

Do you like surprises? Well here is a very special surprise prepared for me some years ago.


It’s my birthday tomorrow. Mind you, now that fifty has passed, I don’t take much account of them anymore. It’s Friday and Laura, as a celebration has planned a mystery weekend. She won’t tell me where we’re going.
“You just drive, I’ll tell you where to go.”

With that she handed me a piece of paper that simply read Leominster for lunch. Leominster is an old country town about two hours drive from home. This gives me an idea about where we may end up. So doing as I’m told, like a good husband, I drive to Leominster. We have lunch at a favourite café and then I receive the next piece of paper.

Hay-on-Wye for dinner, it read.

I am a lover of books and of one book in particular, “Kilvert’s Diary”. Hay-on-Wye links them both. It is only a small town on the borders of England and Wales but it is full of bookshops, including what is claimed to be the largest second-hand bookshop in the world. It adjoins the village of Clyro, where Francis Kilvert was the curate in the early nineteenth century. The diary is his fascinating and moving account of life as a country curate at that time. It is a remarkable social commentary, written with wit, humanity and an uncanny insight into human nature. He died young, only a few months after marrying and although his wife removed from the diary whole passages, which she considered “indelicate”, it was an immediate and huge success when it was published in 1938, long after his death. An ‘industry’ grew up around him, a Kilvert Society was formed and houses mentioned in the diary are favourite places of pilgrimage for Kilvert aficionados.

It is in just one such house, owned by two sisters who adored Kilvert and whom he visited regularly and now a Bed & Breakfast establishment that we are to spend the night. I am of course thrilled to bits. After browsing the bookshops, we return to the B&B for dinner. We change and are shown into the lounge, given gin and tonics and asked to wait. We wait and we wait and we …! I ask Laura “What’s taking so long?”

“I expect they’re cooking something special.”

Another thirty minutes pass and the front doorbell rings. We hear new guests being welcomed. Suddenly the lounge door opens and in walks my elder son David and his wife Edi. They were the newly arrived guests! I might have known. I spent most of his childhood waiting for David, so why should it be any different now he’s grown up!

“Hello Dad. What a co-incidence. We were just passing and decided to stay here for the night.”

After kissing and hugging them I say,

“Co-incidence? A likely story!” and turning to Laura, “You arranged this ‘co-incidence’ didn’t you?”

Smiling, she nodded and we all had a good laugh and went in for dinner, which had of course been awaiting their arrival. Dinner was wonderful, including some excellent Welsh lamb, which showed great consideration, for Laura hates to eat lamb. We spent a wonderful evening with the children, whom we had not seen for some weeks and next morning we breakfasted together. It was a really memorable time for me and I thanked Laura for her thoughtfulness in arranging such a special birthday treat.

She wasn’t finished yet! At breakfast she handed me another piece of paper that said, Gaufron school for coffee.

Gaufron is a tiny hamlet in Radnorshire (now Powys), Wales where for five years during WW Two, I was evacuated. Like all children in the area, I attended the two-classroom, two-teacher school, which taught those from five to fourteen years of age. The school was now a café and Laura and I had become friendly with Liz, the current owner.

“How romantic to think of having my birthday morning coffee (for today was my actual birthday) in the classroom where I sat as a child”, I thought squeezing Laura’s hand in silent thanks. This was typical of Laura, who is both romantic and very good at thinking of unusual ways to celebrate special events.

When we arrived at the school I noticed several cars parked but thought no more about it because our friend Liz appeared.

“Happy birthday Lionel, come and have some coffee. I’ve made a special cake for you.”

We walked into the main classroom with Liz and immediately I was nine years old again. I could taste the chalk as I cleaned the blackboard; hear it screeching as Mrs Bacon wrote on it. I could smell the ink; feel the nib juddering against the paper in my exercise book. I … but my reverie was interrupted when Liz brought the coffee and cake. We were the only people in the place and I still didn’t think about the cars parked outside and where their drivers might be. I soon found out!

No sooner had I put the fork into the delicious birthday cake when the door between the café and the adjoining shop opened. I could hardly believe my eyes!! People, some I hadn’t seen since I was eleven years old, walked in and came over to wish me a happy birthday. They just kept on coming. I was overwhelmed. Liz had contacted all the local people who had been at the school with me between 1940 and 1945 inviting them to come along to celebrate my birthday. Some of course were unable to make it but most had, including Vera the daughter of Alice Thomas with whom I’d been evacuated. She gave me a lovely reproduction of John Constable’s The Haywain, which I treasure. The next hour or so became an orgy of nostalgia and I loved every minute of it.

What a birthday!!!

Take it Easy!

As cooling water quenches a raging thirst best if taken slowly, so if we would get the most out of our lives, it were best to move at a leisured pace. There is an old adage, “More haste, less speed,” and it is very true. As we become more practiced at certain tasks, we can complete them more quickly but there is every difference between the speed and efficiency of a skilled practitioner and the haste of the amateur under pressure. Unless we move slowly and take the time to “smell the flowers” we miss so much.

The glory of our lives is the journey, not the destination, no matter how wonderful that destination may be when we reach it. Sometimes, in our haste to reach the destination we rush along, single-mindedly looking neither to the left or the right, brushing others out of our way or ignoring their greetings. We are so determined to reach that destination all else becomes unimportant. You know what I mean. And when we get there? Is it as good as we expected? Yet had we taken our time, avoided brushing people aside, not ignored their greetings and taken time to pause and admire the scenery. Taken time to help someone in need, to listen to the birdsong, to stroke a kitten or pat a dog, we would have so many happy memories, that the failure of the destination to live up to expectations, would not matter.

It is a sad fact about modern life, that speed has become almost essential. We even have ‘fast food’! When I was younger, all families ate together at home and mother would lovingly cook their favourite dishes, no matter if they took a long time to prepare. People travelled to and from work by public transport and actually talked to one another. We were interested in our neighbours from a wholesome point of view and listened when they used us to unburden themselves when worried or rejoiced with them in their happiness. There always seemed to be time to “have a cup of tea and a chat”. In business it was similar. The heads of businesses took time to go out from their offices during business hours and meet their peers and clients or customers in the local Coffee House. They recognised that success in business gave them a responsibility towards their local communities and they formed and worked hard for organisations dedicated to that end. They would take lengthy lunch hours for these same purposes and yet, was business less successful, or profitable? Has spending every minute behind their desk at a computer screen or on the telephone made business life more amenable? What is certain is that the headlong dash for speed and ‘efficiency’ has reduced enormously the number of jobs available, has destroyed the concept of remaining in the employ of a single Company all our working life, made pension provision a lottery and raised the level of stress in business to record levels.

Is it any wonder therefore that our world is in chaos, that stress is the greatest killer of human beings in so called, advanced societies? It seems to me that in misunderstanding the meaning of efficiency and bending our wills to becoming ever more efficient in all walks of life, we have ‘thrown the baby out with the bath water.’ Life need not be like this and in reality haste is the arch-enemy of our true progress as eternal beings. We are spending just a brief time in an earthly environment but paradoxically, to obtain the most from it we need to take our time and savour the experience in full. The spirit, our true self, requires periods of silence, of quiet contemplation. It needs to reach out to human, animal, vegetable and mineral to feel our kinship with the whole of creation. The fact that time on Earth is short is only important to those convinced there is nothing else. Wherever we spend time, whether on Earth or in various Spirit realms, the experience we are undergoing at the moment is vital for our growth and it is essential therefore to try to get the most from every stage. Never can we do that if we are in a constant rush. To appreciate every nuance of life in any environment, we must be alert, conscious of all that goes on around us and determined to extract one thousand metres of understanding from every kilometre we travel along the road. Nothing happens around us or to us without there is a purpose. As Alexander Pope puts it, “All chance is direction we cannot see.”

So enjoy your journey; take your time; smell the flowers and learn their names; allow yourself to feel; permit yourself to slow down, stop and dream; move slowly enough to tell when someone needs your help and above smile and think happy!

A Thought!

Do we become upset and depressed too easily? Do we often forget that the real wonder and beauty of life on Earth are its contrasts? I think we may also forget the power of our own minds. The mind is what determines our emotional response to any given situation and the mind is capable of controlling how we react. What is required is a measure of personal discipline, a quality that is often derided in these days when so many wear their heart upon their sleeve. I am not talking here of the iron will that hardens the heart against almost every emotional involvement. I am talking about the discipline that makes it second nature for us to look on the positive side of all and any negative occurrence. This discipline does not freeze our emotions but instead subjects them to the mind’s positive energy. Becoming emotionally involved in things makes life worth the living and if occasionally that means a certain amount of suffering then it is more than adequately compensated by those times of joy and even ecstasy. It is a natural reaction to become upset and depressed when receiving bad news concerning ourselves or others but it is another thing to become so affected by it that it colours all our thoughts and actions.

Change is a constant feature of our lives, even though at times it seems certain things will remain the same forever. It is ironic therefore that most of us have a fear of change. We forget that many previous changes brought positive results. We cling to the status quo as though to lose it will bring such dire consequences. All our past experience should convince us otherwise but . . . ! If only we can teach ourselves to examine changes positively, to look at the benefits they offer, instead of the drawbacks. This is especially so where bad news affecting others is concerned. Instead of feeling as upset and depressed as they may be, should we not be working out how we can help? How we can help them to not only face and overcome the challenge with which they are faced, but to look for the benefits that could flow from it if the right attitude is adopted.

What about bad news in general; the negatively angled news bulletins that seek to manipulate our emotional responses? Here above all should we be on our guard. Just as the mind has the power to convert negative events into positive in our own lives, or vice versa, so it also has the power to spread alarm and despondency across the world very quickly. It has the power to influence others subconsciously, for good or ill. If we fail to control our thoughts and our emotional responses, which add energy to those thoughts, a dark cloud of depression can quickly spread outwards. The more people react in this way, the quicker will the dark clouds spread. Thoughts are real, tangible things; they are not inconsequential, private things that we can keep to ourselves. Scientists who persist in denying the separate existence of the mind from the brain have caused immense damage. It is because of this that most people do not understand the power of thought, which is the product of the mind – not of the brain. Consequently, few make any attempt to control their thoughts in the same way they try to control their actions.

We have tended to view the evolution of human beings from a physical point of view only. Here again we are bedevilled by this scientific assumption that the mind is synonymous with the brain. Therefore, the evolution of the brain has been studied as extensively as that of the body. However, let us assume for a moment, that this is not the case. Let us assume the mind is independent. This would mean we need to study how the mind has evolved too, and It certainly has. The brain is used by the mind to control and to use the body in many different ways. The fact that the brain has evolved so much since early man is because the mind has evolved and it needs more brain to accomplish what it wants in the physical world.

All human progress began with a thought! That is it began with the mind. Nothing we have ever invented or law of nature we have ever discovered happened without the first step taken being to think. Renee Descartes was so right when he wrote, “I think, therefore I am.” Yet of all human attributes, the mind and its product, thought receive the least attention. Until we become more focussed on our thoughts and trying to control them, I believe the Earth will continue to be far too unhappy a place. The Earth is a beautiful place and everything that happens to us while we are here is part of growing and evolving into a better physical representation of our inner, spiritual selves. Let us try to welcome the challenges rather than dreading them.