Around the Circles - Update from a London Home Circle |
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To say that we were pleasantly surprised at the range and intensity of phenomena that developed during our first six months of sitting would be something of an understatement. This included prolonged table levitations (sometimes without any human contact); removal of the table legs (no matter how tightly they had been screwed in); a couple of apports; the opening of a chest of drawers in the seance room and the removal of the contents onto the floor; and, the movement of objects that had been placed on the table (a luminous plaque being the best example)...without any human contact, in full view of all present under red light.
However, the manifestation of spirit power that I found the most perplexing during this early period (Sept. 93 to Feb. 94) was something that I have seen mentioned as having occurred at an NAS circle in The NAS Newsletter only once, although there are reports of it from the earlier age of physical mediumship (see 'The Mediumship of D.D. Home', The NAS Newsletter, Jan/Feb. 1997). This is what we came to call the 'earthquake effect'...successive waves of deep vibrations that seem to issue from the floor of the seance room and travel through everything in it...including the members of the circle!
This phenomenon first occurred on 14 December 1993 when, towards the end of the seance, I noticed that someone appeared to be gently shaking my chair. However, upon placing my hand on the floor, I realised that the vibrations could be felt there too, and also in a large table which was situated to my rear. Over the course of 30 seconds or so, this vibration increased in intensity until the other circle members remarked that they could feel it also. The vibrations finally reached a peak where a low rumble could be heard, together with the slight resonance of lighter objects in the room, such as ornaments and picture frames, vibrating gently on the surfaces against which they were resting. These vibrations then subsided until a low ebb of intensity was reached. Then the whole process was repeated, about a dozen times in all until, finally, the vibrations died away completely.
This phenomenon repeated itself many times over subsequent weeks and perhaps I ought to add, for the benefit of sceptical readers, that it only occurred during sittings and also that there are no tube lines running under that part of London. It was almost as if someone had attached an extremely powerful low-frequency oscillator to the foundations of the house to send pulses of energy up through the floor and into the bones of the sitters. I can honestly say that I was surprised after each occasion to find that the plaster of the seance room was not covered in cracks. Nevertheless, during one seance, we accidentally stumbled upon the means by which the earthquake effect is produced.
We have one spirit communicator who specialises in producing
rhythmical patterns of 'raps' from the surface of the table.
Being a musician myself, I had got into the regular habit of
accompanying these displays of percussive prowess by drumming
along in time with my fingers. Sometimes I would beat out a
pattern and our spirit percussionist would finish of the phrase
in reply or vice versa until, inevitably, I would get too big
for my boots, only to be answered by a cavalcade of raps that
were so fast and perfectly timed that they merged together,
sounding more like a continuos vibration, or creaking in the
wood of the table, rather than a series of separate beats.
After one such occasion, when I had been forced to retire with
sore fingers, I said to the unseen drummer...'I bet you can't do
that on the floor!' I was immediately answered by a series of
deep thumps behind my chair which slowly speeded up into the
earthquake effect!
One further aspect of the 'earthquake effect' that puzzled us
was the realisation that anyone who happened to be sitting in
the corner of the room reserved as the 'cabinet' (at this point
our medium had not been chosen and we were taking turns to sit
here) failed to feel it, although the resonance already
mentioned could still be heard.
After only six months of sitting we experienced what we guessed might be the first attempts at direct voice. This took the form of the sound of deep, laboured breathing which slowly circled around the outside of the group who were all seated, as usual, with fingertips resting on the table. When this sound had faded away we asked whether this was indeed a first attempt at speech, and received an affirmative tilt in reply. But, it was not until six weeks later that this phenomenon was repeated, only this time the 'breathing' was accompanied by the tell tale sounds of gentle whistling and lip-smacking. After a few minutes of this we heard, in an extremely faint whisper...'I am' which was repeated a number of times, until the sitter who was nearest to the apparent source of the sound, said that he thought he could make out the name 'Sadiq'.
A week later we received confirmation of this name via the
table, and also that 'Sadiq' was the leader of the spirit group.
Over the course of the next few months Sadiq and others
gradually improved the voice production until a point was
reached where they could utter more than monosyllables.
However, for a very long time any attempt to say anything more
than 'good evening' or 'you're progressing' caused the voice
quality to break down. Even with this, one would have to
strain to hear what was being said and, as the spirit team never
showed any desire to use the trumpet provided, we would use this
as a sort of primitive hearing aid by holding it to one ear and
pointing it towards the source of the sound which, at this early
stage, was usually somewhere close to the cabinet.
Gradually however, it was found that one communicator in
particular, 'Robert' (a Scotsman), seemed to be able to speak
with the most ease and for the longest time, his voice being
just loud enough to be heard on recordings. For this reason,
Robert was the main voice communicator for a time, until one
evening in May 1994 when 'Jonathan' first manifested.
The spirit team had occasionally involved the circle in 'rescue' work since the first occurrence of the voice phenomenon, and I had often been struck by the strange fact that the subjects of these cases were often more successful at speaking than the spirit team proper. One evening, just after someone else had been sent into the cabinet, a relatively loud male voice suddenly asked 'where did the other one go?', followed by...'I am lost'. This communicator quickly gave us his name...Jonathan Taylor, followed by a confused account of his passing and other personal details. To cut a long story short, Jonathan has since become our main voice communicator after apparently being pressed into service by Sadiq who described him, via the table, as being 'ideal'. Jonathan seems to be delighted with this role although, initially, he seemed to find some aspects of the task rather daunting, frequently telling us...'I am doing my best, I'll get better!'
Almost two years later the voice phenomenon has progressed by a considerable degree, although this progress has been slow. We have gone through long phases during which we actually appeared to be going backwards...evenings when we would sit for two hours, only to receive a barely audible 'sorry!', or the same message conveyed by coded table tilting or raps. At other times Jonathan has spoken for up to forty minutes, on one occasion being joined by Robert. Overall, however, the general timbre and volume of the voices has improved to a point where they can usually be recorded with ease. We have been told that this is due to the fact that the spirit team are now using ectoplasm to manufacture a 'voice-box', whereas previously, this was done using the 'pure energy' technique that we have heard so much about in The NAS Newsletter. In our case, the former method would appear to be more effective.
The spirit team are currently trying produce direct voice with the 'medium' sitting with the rest of the circle under red light. Naturally, when these experiments started, the voice quality declined for a while, only improving again as these more challenging conditions were gradually overcome. Things have now developed to a point where Jonathan can move around reasonably freely when conditions are at their best. We have also been told that it will not be long before other members of the spirit group will try to speak more often and that there will soon be attempts by others outside of the group to speak (communicators personally known to us when on Earth). Hitherto, Jonathan has had to relay evidential information rather like an earthly medium. At time of writing however, it is still the case that we receive the most impressive survival evidence by coded raps or table tilts...directly from the communicators themselves!
So, as always, the watchword would appear to be patience!! Even if, as in our case, a new circle appears to hit the ground running, with the rapid occurrence of the more easily produced phenomena, it is unlikely that this will continue. Early success only means that you have hit on a good combination of sitters who, for one reason or another, can be used to produce such manifestations with the minimum of initial preparation! And, during the development of the more advanced phenomena, it is unlikely that the circle guides will consider the entertainment of the human half of the equation to be of paramount importance. We have to accept that, apart from the well known responsibilities that go with the territory, a great deal of 'development' only requires our dedication, energy and time...not necessarily our active participation!