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Great Moments of Modern Mediumship vol.1

An exciting collection of more than 200 of the most interesting and intriguing cases in the history of psychical research and mediumship over the last 160 years.

Great Moments of Modern Mediumship Volume 1

Great Moments of Modern Mediumship Volume 1

By Maxine Meilleur (A.L.M. Harvard)

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Description

An exciting collection of more than 200 of the most interesting and intriguing cases in the history of psychical research and mediumship over the last 160 years. With first hand and re-recorded accounts of phenomena and mediumship from the earliest days of 1848 through to the 1970s and 80s this an easy reference book on the subject of mediumship across the world, whether trance, healing, physical or mental. The author has categorized each one into what amounts to something of an encyclopaedia on the subject.  This book makes excellent primer for anyone not acquainted with the subject and a good refresher for those familiar with it. Complete with bibliography and index this is a ‘must have’ for anyone interested in the subject.

Product Details
  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Saturday Night Press Publications (23 July 2014)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-13: 978-1908421104
  • Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14 x 1.9 cm  (5.5” x 8.5”)
Introduction

Today's mediums belong to a great lineage of wonderful souls and so it is imperative that they know their heritage. This book contains accounts of some of the greatest moments in modern mediumship. It is intended to educate and hopefully inspire.

The incidents detailed hereafter really happened. There were multiple witnesses to each one, and in some cases, physical evidence was produced which still stands today as a testament to what happened. These occurrences, these great moments, were not 'magic' and all of them can be explained by the phenomena of mediumship. Mediumship, governed by natural law and the philosophy of the religion of Spiritualism, has been scientifically tested, sometimes under the most controlled circumstances, by Nobel laureates and other prominent scientists since the 19th century. These great moments are not unexplainable miracles.

Ordinary people, not holy men or saints, performed these wonders. On many occasions, they occurred in the natural settings of people's homes. Yes, ordinary people performed all these great moments in modern mediumship, but as explained hereafter, each had the help of those in the spirit world.

Mediums have often endured severe hardships during the testing of their mediumship. Nandor Fodor reports in his Encyclopedia of Psychic Science:

Prof. James found Mrs Piper's lips and tongue insensible to pain while she was in trance. Dr Hodgson later confirmed this by placing a spoonful of salt in Mrs Piper's mouth. He also applied strong ammonia to the nostrils. Drastic experiments were also tried. Prof. James made a small incision in Mrs Piper's left wrist. During trance the wound did not bleed and no notice was taken of the action. It bled freely afterwards and the medium bore the scar for life. In England Prof. Lodge pushed a needle suddenly into her hand. At another time Prof. Richet inserted a feather up her nostril. Harsh experiments in 1909 resulted in a badly blistered swollen tongue which caused the medium inconvenience for several days, while another test resulted in numbness and partial paralysis of the right arm for some time afterwards.

And they allowed all this in the hope of convincing the researchers and skeptics that their wonderful gift was genuine.

Many readers may be mediums at various stages of their development and passionate about working with the spirit world but few may have any knowledge of those who have come before, blazed trails through hardship and left great legacies and teachings. Although history is replete with countless moments similar to those recorded in the following pages, this book limits the events described to 1848 and later. Each great moment is mind-boggling and leaves the reader 'gob-smacked'. There are many, many more great moments and this book will have Great Moments in Modern Mediumship: Volume II published soon.

What is Mediumship?

When Kepler found his long-cherished belief did not agree with the most precise observation, he accepted the uncomfortable fact. He preferred the hard truth to his dearest illusions; that is the heart of science. For it is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring. Carl Sagan

Like many things, mediumship is often misunderstood and needlessly feared. Mediumship is simply the ability to be in contact those in the spirit world. Whether expressed in mental, physical or healing forms, mediumship holds a sacred place in the religion of Spiritualism as it is the communion between us, as spiritual beings, and spirits in the spirit world. Through the love of God, or the Great Spirit, we all exist and commune.

As well as many instances of mediumship through Trance, Healing and Physical Phenomena there are included in this book a few great moments in Modern Clairvoyance. Mediumship does indeed rely on clairvoyance and other psychic abilities, but mediumship goes beyond the psychic impressions to link with spirit and provide evidence of spirit communication. Maurice Barbanell in Power of the Spirit gives the following example of superior clairvoyant ability, but this is not mediumship as it does not show spirit communication:

In the Pullman coach from New York, William Button [then President of the American Society for Psychical Research] had purchased two new packs of playing cards. These were handed to me. I broke the seals. The two packs had the same design on the back of the cards. From these I selected twenty-five cards – aces, kings, queens, knaves, and tens. One by one, I held up each card, its back to Margery, seven feet away, while my wife, Button, Captain John W. Fife, head of Boston’s naval dockyard, and I looked at the faces of the cards. Margery called twenty-one cards correctly without any hesitation. The four she missed were all tens. Of these, two were wrongly named, but on her own recall, she named them rightly. ... These corrections were voluntary on her part.

The psychic sensing of a residual vibration in an object, known as psychometry, can be a form of mediumship when it brings in a spirit communicator. So there are included in this book great moments of modern mediumship involving 'billet reading' or other forms of psychometry. An example of that mediumistic psychometry is described by Nandor Fodor in his Encyclopedia of Psychic Science:

Isaac Funk, the New York editor, handed a letter to medium Leonora Piper containing the word 'mother'. Mrs Piper gave the Christian name of Mr Funk's mother, told him that she was walking on only one leg and asked "Don't you remember that needle?" She hurt herself by thrusting a needle into her foot.

Mrs Piper also described a grandson, Chester, of whom Funk knew nothing. On inquiry, however, he found out that a grandson of this name died twenty years previously.

Harry Edwards, the great healer, expressed these thoughts on the purpose of mediumship in his book, A guide for the development of mediumship.

Harry EdwardsIt is not necessary for a person to be a man or woman of letters or to be versed in psychic science to become a medium. In the past there have been many instances of simple folk being outstanding mediums.

Many people wish to become mediums, to see the spirit people, to hear them speak, to obtain counsel, to heal the sick, to help the bereaved, to give advice and assist those who are in need. This desire is sometimes simply that of satisfying the personal ego, to be different from other people, the wish to be looked up to, and to put on the mantle of mysticism. This is an entirely wrong approach to mediumship.

However mediumship has a purpose, and that is to demonstrate to man that he is not just a physical being, but that he is a part spirit, that this life is but an apprenticeship for the greater and fuller life that commences with the physical death.

That through this knowledge mankind will receive the impetus to adopt an enlightened code of values that in its evolvement will outlaw war, poverty and the other ignoble trends in our present way of life. Thus the true motive that inspires mediumship is a spiritual one. If this is not so, then no reason can be found for the great efforts the evolved personalities in spirit life, the teachers, philosophers, doctors and others, make to use human instruments for the progression of all souls.

Therefore aspirants to mediumship should possess that inner yearning to be used for the higher purpose, and to view their search into mediumship as a means to help others. It should be the denial of selfishness and the giving of the self to a spiritual purpose. ... A true medium thereby becomes a participant in the divine plan for the furtherance of good.

Levitating dinner table and piano (Florence and Katie Cook)

Florrie CookFlorence Marryat writes in her book There is No Death that the first time she met Florence Cook was at the private house of Mr Dunphy of The Morning Post.

On that occasion, as we were sitting at supper, after the séance, – a party of perhaps thirty people – the whole dinner table, with everything upon it, rose bodily in the air, to a level with our knees, and the dishes and glasses swayed about in a perilous manner, without, however, coming to any permanent harm.

Florence Marryat also had a number of sittings with Florence Cook's younger sister Katie, also a powerful medium but worked more privately than Florence. She writes of another levitation, this time with Katie, in the house of a Mr Blackburn in Elgin Crescent, London.

We sat in a small breakfast room on the basement floor, so small indeed for the size of the party that as we encircled a large round table, the sitters' backs touched the wall on either side, this entirely preventing anyone crossing the room whilst we were established there. The only piece of furniture of any consequence in the room besides the chairs and table was a trichord cabinet piano, belonging to Mrs Cook (who was keeping house at the time for Mr Blackburn) and which she much valued.

Katie Cook sat amongst us as usual. In the middle of the séance her control 'Lily', who was materialized, called out "Keep hands fast. Don’t let go whatever you do!"

And at the same time without seeing anything (for we were sitting in complete darkness), we became conscious that something large and heavy was passing or being carried over our heads. One of the ladies of the party became nervous and dropped her neighbour’s hand with a cry of alarm and at the same moment a weighty body fell with a fearful crash on the other side of the room…

When lights were struck we found the cabinet piano had actually been carried over our heads to the opposite side of the room where it had fallen on to the floor and been seriously damaged [much to Mrs Cook's dismay]. The two carved legs were broken off and the sounding board smashed in.

He recognised his General's voice (Emma Hardinge Britten)

In the mid-1860s Emma was invited to speak at a settlement on the Pacific Coast to deliver the Fourth of July Oration. Her host told her of the struggle he had had when he had booked ‘a Spiritualist, a lady and an Englishwoman’ to give the Oration.

She describes the scene that day:

Emma Hardinge Britten"There was an immense concourse of people around the stand, some seated on the ground, others in traps, carts, or on horseback. What I had to say being upon the History of Nations, America in especial—The principles of true freedom—National life, and the history, power, and possibilities of the grand New World;  all shades of politicians and religions in that immense assembly were satisfied, none hurt, none dissenting. The cheers grew into shouts; the clapping of hands into perfect leaps and yells of applause; and at the end of about an hour’s address (without experiencing a shade of hoarseness), I was literally pelted with flowers. The women kissed my dress, and held up their dear little children for me to kiss."

Having arrived home, they were about to sit down to dinner, when Mrs Blood, her hostess, cried out, pointing to the front garden gate, "Look there!"

Round the gate was a party of at least a dozen men on horseback, who to Mr Blood’s anxious enquiry of what they wanted, replied, that they wished to see the lady. Emma went out to them, and one of their party, doffing his hat, said, "We are told, madam, that you claim to make all your public speeches through Spirit influence. May we ask, is that so?"

"Undoubtedly,"she replied.

"Why we ask, madam," said the spokesman, "is this. We have a heavy wager on the matter. I say I know for a certainty who the Spirit is that spoke to-day. Others say it isn’t so. Now, dear lady, won't you please decide the wager, and tell us who the Spirit was?"

"I will do so," Emma said, "If you write down the name of who you think it was. I will write the name of who I know it was. We will then compare notes."  In a few seconds, Mr Blood procured pens and paper and she wrote: "The Spirit that controlled me this morning was General Edward Baker."

The spokesman wrote: “If that was a Spirit that spoke this morning, it was my former General, Ned Baker, killed at the battle of Bull Run.”

When another of the party read out the two papers, consecutively, more shouts and cheers followed. Edward Baker was an Englishman, and a lawyer by profession. When the war broke out, being a warm partisan of the Northern side, he entered the army, rose step by step, renowned for his bravery, until he was killed at the battle of Bull Run.

"He was my commander, Mrs Hardinge,” said the first speaker, “but before the war I have heard him speak many and many a time. I knew his style, his manner, his very words, and if ever I heard Ned Baker in my life, I heard him this very morning on your platform."

6 Whiskies for 6 Days (Ted Fricker)

Ted FrickerTed Fricker was noted for his instantaneous cures and recounts the following story from his autobiography, God is My Witness (41-3). Early in his healing career, four men from the local press visited Fricker to see what his healing was all about. They stated that as a test one of them was the patient and if Fricker cured him they would give him a wonderful write-up in the newspaper, but if not, then they'd say it was just a load of rubbish. Fricker agreed, and he immediately heard a voice which guided him from spirit, "Don't worry, you must make this one of the fastest cures you've ever done. The man between the two on the sofa is the patient and he has an ulcer. Count the third button up on his vest, and when we tell you, put your hand across and touch him there and tell him he's cured." Fricker looked straight at the man telling him he was the patient and he had an ulcer. Without getting out of his chair, Fricker then reached across with one hand and touched him at the spot while putting the other hand on his side saying, "Right, you're cured then." The man said that was ridiculous but Fricker then suggested to have an X-Ray taken to prove it. The man's friends objected and said they had another way to check if he was cured – to take him to a restaurant, give him six whiskies followed by a huge steak and fried chips which he had not been able to have in years! The same treatment was meted out for six consecutive days and then the newspaper had a banner headline about a 'miracle' cure.

Reviews

Author and editor Maxine Meilleur has collected more than 200 of the most interesting and intriguing cases in the annals of mediumship and psychical research, summarizing each one in what amounts to something of an encyclopedia of the subject. I am unaware of any other single book containing more stories of evidential mediumship. An excellent primer for anyone not acquainted with the subject and a good refresher for those familiar with it.
Michael Tymn Editor, The Journal for Spiritual and Consciousness Studies

This is a flame-keeper's anthology, focused on accounts of mediumistic practice in Spiritualism's history - for its present-day practitioners.
Marc Demarest, of Chasing Down Emma
http://ehbritten.blogspot.co.uk/

A great source of reference of the spiritual gifts made available by the world of Spirit.
David Thompson, Pres. Edmonton Spiritualist Church, London

A new gem in defining spiritualist history. A compelling read, written in a bright and lucid style.
Rev. Leslie Saunders, San Diego CA

Maxine Meilleur has captured the heart and soul of mediumship. Her comprehensive guide is a must read.
Dr Heather Harder, Author

A very interesting collection of extraordinary cases from a wide range of sources. A few I am not familiar with but I always find these cases fascinating and challenging, scientifically. Do keep up the good work.
Richard Broughton, Ph.D. President of the Society for Psychical Research

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