On 28 November 1995, together with George Cranley and two other NAS members, I sat with the four members of Lincoln's home circle. Careful measures were taken that Lincoln knew nothing about the sitters; on arriving, there was little more than a smile or nod of acknowledgement, and conversation was restricted to current news events.

I would also comment on the extraordinary care and meticulous attention given to the seance room; this includes various items to assist in communications, e.g. an electronic organ, microphones, and recording and sophisticated lighting equipment; additionally, a trumpet, ping-pong balls and plaques, all of which were luminous. Moreover, the room was comfortable and homely, and there was the unmistakable impression of the very great care and devotion given to doing everything possible to produce phenomena and communication of the highest quality.

I witnessed Lincoln being securely bound to his chair in the cabinet, and was requested to examine this. The cabinet is an area at the end of the room that was curtained off. With all sitters inside the seance room, the door was locked, with he key being given to me; all light was extinguished whereupon the room was in absolute darkness. As this was my first experience, I found this somewhat disorientating and I 'anchored' myself by watching the luminous items in the room. After a prayer and some rousing songs, the first communicator made himself known. This was a strongly-accented 'drop-in' communicator who gave his name, and was welcomed by the sitters; he told the circle that he had sat with the physical medium, Hunter Selkirk and described his experiences. He added that he had met Hunter since passing over.

Felix, one of Lincoln's controls, then spoke and confirmed the conditions were good for speaking; in fact his voice was outside the cabinet. After asking whether he could be heard, he greeted the sitters. When he enquired whether I had any questions, I asked whether he was aware of anyone wishing to communicate to the sitters, and he replied 'Straight to the point!'; he explained that it was really a matter of whether those present were actually able to make themselves known.

I then asked how he became aware of those on 'his side' - did he see, hear or sense them? He replied by saying that awareness arose through a type of sensing, although it was not really possible to draw parallels of existence between the two worlds. It could be best described as 'a touching of one's life force', i.e. 'a touching of spirit'. The problem was the explanation of existence in the afterlife in terms that were comprehensible in, and comparable to this world. Felix then elaborated upon this subject, and discussed the mechanics, purpose and problems of communication, and I mentioned my growing frustration with the difficulty in securing good communication/evidence. While Felix was replying, we heard footsteps in the room and on being asked about this, Felix replied that something had caught his attention and he had moved towards it. This was followed by him answering questions from other visiting sitters, e.g. how we appear to those in the next life.

We heard the noise of a pen writing quickly on the paper that had been left on the floor - in a place that would certainly be very awkward to reach by normal means in these conditions. Within, literally, a second of the pen ceasing to write, a piece of A4 paper was placed down by my side with a forceful push as if there was a firm intent behind the message written thereon. The next event was the trumpet rising into the air and whirring around in the same area, and then crashing to the floor with a loud thud. Almost immediately, one of the luminous balls was lifted into the air and thrown at one of the home circle sitters, hitting his knee.

Following this, a communicator began to speak, and while his voice was initially weak, this became stronger; it was Leslie Flint, and he conversed with George, and they reminisced about earlier times. What was striking was Leslie's relaxed manner of speaking and his dry sense of humour. He spoke to one of the visiting sitters about a personal matter, and then spoke to me concerning something about which he was being advised by others there with him. He also referred to his own passing, and the circumstances before and subsequent to this.

At this point, the trumpet rose again; after some movement mid-air, it descended and rested upon my legs; as soon as this had occurred, a communicator began to speak very quietly. This was a fourteen-year old boy who had died in an accident and with difficulty, gave his name, and appeared to be in a state of distress; the circle advised him to look for, and go towards the light. Apparently as he had not made the transition, he was closer to this life than the next and would be more responsive to help given from this world.

There was an interval of silence and the sitters conversed with each other; after a short while, this was interrupted by someone having considerable difficulty in speaking. The communicator was only able to speak in high-pitched monosyllables repeating my name. We gave encouragement for quite some time, but it appeared the communicator was having trouble using the voice-box. I became very concerned as I envisaged the link being lost; the voice was becoming more and more frustrated and anxious.

There was a silence and I felt two hands on my legs. These, largeish male hands, then took hold of my hands, firmly but with care, and turned one over and began to impress alphabetical characters on it. I had difficulty following what was being 'written' and suggested that the next sitter, a member of the home circle would be better at following this. The words 'LOVE YOU' were spelt out. Attempts were made to continue writing, but it was very difficult and on realizing this, the voice resumed trying to speak from the cabinet. However, the problems continued; in view of the voice quality, it was not possible to determine whether the speaker was male or female, although I now knew that it was the former due to the hands that had held mine. As the difficulty in speech persisted, despite every possible encouragement, I wondered if the 'old reliable' method of rapping might work, still very anxious that the link was going to be lost. I asked him if he was agreeable but there were a few more attempts to speak and it appeared the communicator was about to give up. I then asked again if he could communicate by rapping and there was a loud rap on the walls to signify that he was. After repeating the alphabet several times, a series of words were spelt out; in some instances, the raps were very loud and forceful. What was spelt out would be absolutely meaningless to anyone else listening; however it was absolutely evidential for me.

I now realized who was communicating, and perhaps I should explain why I believed this to be the case. This communicator has communicated reasonably well through clairvoyance, and would be the most likely to communicate given the opportunity; however, communication by him has never been effected, or even tried through a physical medium. I had sent thoughts to him during the previous week, and said that if he was able to manifest himself, there would be a few relatively straightforward things that he could say to identify himself. One of the suggestions that I made, and the one to which I thought he would respond, was what action a certain person should take. This person being someone about whom he would care very much. It would be a choice of two things. Not only did the message that was rapped out give an answer, it even gave the name of a second person involved in the matter. The answer given was not worded as I would have phrased it (therefore telepathy, the favourite 'explanation' of the sceptic, cannot apply here), but it was a clear, unamibiguous statement as to what action should be pursued. This type of occurrence more than adequately demonstrates the validity of physical mediumship in providing evidence of survival.

As the communicator had little power and yet the rapping was so loud and forceful, I would suspect the communicator was working with another, this being someone with considerably more power and/or experience. After the message was spelt out, I confirmed my belief about the identity of the communicator by asking questions about gender and the destination of the message, and the answers given, by speech, albeit fragile, did provide the confirmation. There were yet further attempts to speak, with the communicator saying that it was 'hard' to do this; the penultimate word spoken was 'energy' to denote little more could be done. After congratulating the communicator for his perseverance, who by now sounded quite exhausted, the last words spoken were 'Thank you'.

We are told that the communicators cannot hear themselves speaking, so it is obvious that those who have not done this before will have considerable difficulties. During the seance, the voices of the different communicators were sometimes from a low level, or high up; sometimes from behind the cabinet curtain, while at other times, in front of it. There are two other points with regard to the experience; firstly, while the room was of good size, there were eight sitters, furniture and other objects, and we were in absolute darkness, and yet this caused no problem to the next-world visitors who moved amongst us. Secondly, with regard to my hands being held, before this happened, my left hand was on my knee and my right was by my side and without any difficulty, or hesitation, the materialized hands took hold of them, apparently knowing exactly where they were, despite being in absolute darkness.

Towards the latter part of the seance, I realized that the light from the trumpet (which was by now much closer as it was resting on my leg) and the ping-pong balls, was not so bright; the luminosity was alternating between reasonably clear and almost non-existent, and it appeared there was a substance now present in the room that was moving, and consequently affecting the brightness of the light available. The seance ended after Daphne communicated and said that no further energy remained; the very last piece of information was that the boy, who had spoken earlier, had followed the advice that he was given. After some rousing songs, a truly phenomenal evening was concluded. Lincoln came out of trance and I was asked to examine his ties which were secure and intact. I would like to add the important note that the success of the seance was surely due to the expertise and warmth of Lincoln's home circle.

After we all retired to another room, I had the opportunity to examine the note given to me during the seance: it read 'Be Patient'. Is someone trying to tell me something?(!).