Jock Brocas is a spiritual author and teacher with books published internationally. Jock is also the president of the charity organization assmpi and works tirelessly to he others develop spiritually and live a more rewarding life. Join Jock Brocas on a spiritual journey.
http://jockbrocas.us
With regard to afterlife communication, over my many years in being of service to those who are grieving, and to spirit, there is one thing that I feel many mediums miss: “When does the medium’s journey end and the sitter’s begin? Many mediums will continually read for a sitter, believing they are always helping and while an aspect of this is true, much of it is self-serving.
Communication between grieving individuals and their loved ones in the Spirit World is a divine right and it must be recognized that the gift of communication with Spirit World is not only bestowed upon individuals who are destined to serve in that capacity. There is a latent ability in everyone to connect with their loved ones in spirit and this is why I believe that the next step in the grieving process is to learn the language of the soul - the subtle nuance of spirit language, tone and vibration that will allow you to receive that wonderful communication from your loved ones on the other side.
Whilst some of us can play a symphony it does not mean that you can’t learn the tune.
Our divine right to afterlife communication
A medium plays a role as an intermediary between those that have journeyed to the spirit world and those individuals left behind and lost in grief upon the earth plane. However, mediums also have the outstanding job of being the catalyst – not to the healing, but to the next stage in the grief journey. It is my opinion that a sitter would give anything to be able to move forward in their grief and learn how to communicate with loved ones on their own. What may seem impossible to many is entirely possible and is, in fact, your divine right. Though many proponents of mediumship would have you believe that it is such an extraordinary ability, the truth is that you have it, too. And yes, some of us have a unique mediumship ability but are no more special than you are as a divine being with divine power at your fingertips. This is the power that you need to become aware of and understand. Now.
The first step that you must take is to become aware of your afterlife communcation ability, which does not necessarily mean joining meditation groups, courses, and circles. All of this has a place, and is dependent on what your destiny is and the lessons you have to learn or teach. These days, there are many researchers and people advancing afterlife communication studies in leaps and bounds, including my good friend Dr Craig Hogan with his ADC (After Death Communication) and Dr Gary Schwartz’s Soul Phone work. This alone tells us that there is a need for people to awaken to the reality that afterlife communication is more than possible. Naturally, not everyone will be able to take part in these programs, but there are various steps you can take, the most important being to learn to be aware of being aware.
Learning to be aware of being aware
Now, that may sound rather far fetched and I hear you saying, “Jock, how can I become aware if I am aware or learning to be aware?” The answer is in between. It is the space between the words, between the letters, between the thoughts. It has always been there and always will be. If you hold your finger in front of your eye and move it, you complete a circle of events, such as motor neurons firing and the material aspect of the brain responding to that given stimuli. Contemplate this - what about the time and space between the intention and that action, the energy that evolves the thought process?
Afterlife communication is simple, all be it that we often drive ourselves away by allowing our ego to take control. The ego, rather like a crying child, needs to be loved and pampered. It is a part of you and a necessary aspect of Yin and Yang. But learning about the reality of you and recognizing that you have divine power, is the first stage of learning awareness.
The rest is as natural as breathing, and understanding that harnessing and cultivating our inner power is very much a part of the breath aspect. When you see something beautiful or listen to a song that makes your heart sing, breathe it in and capture all the wonder of that moment in your soul. Feel every rhythmic movement of your breath and its connection with nature. From opening your eyes in the morning and other simple things that you may take for granted.
The more you concsiously breathe it all in, the more aware and centred you will become. This is an integral part of learning the language of the soul; it calms you at a deep level within and without, and over time, you will feel ready to start connecting loved ones. Spirit responds through nature and not in words; it is in feeling and breathing; the energy of awareness is your language. Take up the art of soul language today, as it will soon have you on your way to a beautiful discourse. Enjoy exercising your divine right to communicate with the Spirit World and harnessing your inner power. Let us know about your experiences in the comments.
Notwithstanding the large post WWII influx of immigration from the Indian subcontinent, Leicester is not the place that would boast a centuries-old legend of witch ‘Black Annis’, described as possessing the blue features mirroring the Hindu Goddess Kali.
Black Annis (also called Black Anna or Cat Anna) was said to live in a cave in the now urbanized Dane Hills Housing Estate on the outskirts of Leicester. The first official mention of Black Annis was in 1764, in legal documents referring to an area of land ‘known by the name of Black Anny’s Bower Close’, where she has used her iron claws to dig a cave out of the side of a sandstone cliff.
By the mouth of the cave grew a pollarded oak in which the witch hid to pounce on local kids. After capture, she sucked them dry of blood and ate their flesh, before draping their flayed skins out to dry on the oak's branches. The old oak tree is also recorded as having stood over the entrance, as was noted by local historian, William Kelly, quoted in The Leicester Mercury back in 1999:
“On my last visit to the Bower Close, now several years ago, the trunk of the old tree was then standing, but I know not if it still remains," he said. “At that time, and long previously, the mouth of the cave was closed, but in my school-boy days it was open, and, with two or three companions, I recollect on one occasion snatching a fearful joy, by crawling on our hands and knees into the interior, which was some seven or eight feet long by about four or five feet wide, and having a ledge of rock, for a seat, running along each side.”
“Watch out or Annis'll get you”
Black Annis wore skirts sewn from these skins and also preyed on animals to such an extent, local shepherds blamed any lost sheep on the hag. Generations of Leicester's boys and girls, if either naughty or out after dark, were told, “watch out or Annis'll get you”.
Tales will tell you that when when Black Annis ground her sharp fangs, local people could hear her, giving them just enough time to bolt their doors and to keep away from the window. Cottages in Leicestershire were purposely built with tiny windows so that the witch could only get one withered blue arm inside. According to folklore, when Black Annis screeched, she could be heard from up to 5 miles away. On hearing her howl, villagers would fasten animal skins across the windows and place protective herbs above the sills.
Today, the cave is thought to be in a back garden of a home in Dane Hills, filled in with earth and turfed over - although the deeds to the house reportedly mention the land is named “Black Anna’s Bower Close”.
An ancient account of Annis was supposedly told by a WWII evacuee to folklorist Ruth Tongue in 1941: Three children were sent out by their wicked step-mother to collect fire-wood. As night descended they feared to see Black Annis who only came out after dark for, it was said, 'daylight would turn her to stone'. They heard a snuffling and, through a hole in their witch-stone, saw Black Annis. Unable to escape her whilst carrying the faggots, they dropped them and ran. Annis bloodied her legs on the bundles and, mumbling and cursing to herself, went to her bower to rub her legs with salve. Then she came back for the children and caught-up with them at their cottage door. Their dad came out with an axe and hit Annis full in the face. She began to run for her cave shouting 'Blood! Blood!' but just then the Christmas bells began to peal and she fell down dead.
Leicestershire poet, John Heyrick Jnr wrote of Black Annis in the 18th century:
“Vast talons, foul with human flesh, there grew In place of hands, and features livid blue Glar'd in her visage; while the obscene waist Warm skins of human victims close embraced.”
Black Annis apparently confronted King Richard III on his way to the nearby Battle of Bosworth in 1485 When the King’s spurs struck a stone pillar on Leicester’s Bow Bridge, the crone declared his uncrowned head would hit the post on the way back.
After Richard lost the battle to usurper Henry Tudor, the late king’s bare-assed body was thrown across the saddle of a horse and his head, hanging down as low as the stirrups, hit the very same stone.
A tablet was put on the re-rebuilt bridge in the nineteenth century saying “his head was dashed and broken as a wise-woman had foretold, who before Richard’s going to battle being asked of his success said that where his spur struck his head would be broken”. If it indeed existed, the tablet is no longer there.
Bow Bridge Richard III Plaque
Kerry L from London, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Black Annis and the Blue Boar
Black Annis featured in a Victorian Melodrama called ‘Black Anna’s Bower, or The Maniac of the Dane Hills’ about the murder of the landlady of ‘The Blue Boar’ pub.
Leicester has had a Boar Inn since the Middle Ages; its latest incarnation is a micropub selling craft ales situated down a side street. The original White Boar was a much grander establishment and played host to Richard III as he made his way to Bosworth Field, possibly chosen because the castle was in a ramshackle state and, importantly, the White Boar was also Richard’s personal symbol, or sigil, as called in Game of Thrones.
The King would not sleep in strange beds and so brought his own, and had it set up in the White Boar. When Richard left Leicester, his bed remained, ready for his expected return. This, of course, never happened. After his death, the bed stayed at the re-named Blue Boar, passing from tenant to tenant until it was eventually acquired by Leicestershire Museums Service, where it is today on display at Donington Le Heath Manor House.
In 1604, the tavern’s owner, Mayor’s widow Mrs Clarke was strangled to death because of a hoard of gold coins found hidden in the bed, which had partially funded her late husband’s mayoral campaign. The criminals, Thomas Harrison and Edward Bradshaw, aided by Mrs Clark’s servant, Alice Grimbold, were quickly apprehended and Bradshaw was hanged for his crime in 1605, whilst Alice – found to be an accomplice in the robbery and murder of her mistress – was burnt at the stake for ‘petty treason’. After the murder, the bed became notorious and in 1611, ‘King Richard’s bed-sted I’ Leyster’ was on the list of English sights and exhibitions to be seen for a penny.
The thieves’ 1604 haul was worth between £300-£500. Today, it would have been valued at between $98,853.68- $164,756.14 or £76,000-£126,000.
Shortly after Agnes Clarke’s death, the new owners and the locals noticed a white, misty apparition that resembled a woman manifesting about the Inn, presumed to be the restless spirit of Agnes Clarke. Agnes’s ghost remained peacefully enough in the Blue Boar until in 1836, when Leicester’s authorities decided the old timber medieval building was out of place in the vibrant new Leicester and demolished it.
The Blue Boar, Leicester
The Blue Boar, Leicester by Stephen McKay, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Another Blue Boar Inn was built a few streets away down Southgate Street, an ordinary, everyday tavern that became very popular with the locals. However, the ghost of Agnes Clarke appeared to be haunting the new Blue Boar Inn, becoming a fixture of the pub, that is until 1958 when landlord Fred Mason took over. Mason didn’t believe in ghosts and pooh-poohed the stories, chalking up various accidents he experienced to bad luck and clumsiness.
But when he woke one night to the sight of an eerie white figure moving towards the foot of his bed, Fred Mason instantly became a firm believer in the supernatural. Agnes was apparently happy that the new landlord had acknowledged her and never bothered him again.
By the 1960’s, a post-war desire to modernize Leicester saw much of Southgate Street designated for demolition/redevelopment. By 1965, the Blue Boar was abandoned and boarded up, but Agnes’s ghost remained there in the shell of the pub.
A patrolling policeman paused outside the inn but was suddenly attacked by a volley of stones from the empty building. Doesn’t really sound like Agnes though; more likely to be local yobs. Her spirit never relocated to the other Leicester pubs that have taken up the name of the Blue Boar Inn, but the misty figure of a woman continues to be seen in Leicester’s Southgate.
At the Dane Hills, Easter Monday was also known as Black Monday, an occasion when Leicester’s Mayor and the dignitaries set off for a ‘mock-hare hunt’ at noon. The hare was in fact a dead cat, soaked in aniseed (hence the cat annis?), and tied to the tail of a horse, which dragged it from Bower Bridge, through the town streets to the Mayor’s residence. Charming.
In later years, the hunt gave way to an annual event known as the Dane Hills Fair, which lasted until the 1920s.
Black Annis isstill believed to haunt the area of the Church of St. Mary de Castro and Leicester Castle specifically Prince Rupert’s Gate, where she sleeps in the castle cellars, reached from a tunnel in her cave.
Leicester_Castle,_February_2018
Richard Nevell, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Black Annis identities theories
Black Annis could be related related to pre-Christian winter goddesses, faces blue with cold, who heralded cold, dissolution and death. She may be a less appealing side to Mother Goddess Anu/Danu worshipped in the cave where she supposedly dwelt. Others posit her being an aspect of Brighid or Brigantia, who took the souls of human children into her care. The Dane Hills [possibly from Danu] being the nexus of her cult. Black Annis may then represent the crone goddess who brings on winter; the dark lady holds the souls of the dead in her cold embrace.
Or
One fifteenth century woman might just be the origin of Black Annis. The Dominican nun Agnes Scott was a religious recluse described as a 'hermit of the forest'. Nearby Swithland village church boasts a brass plaque in her memory and a three foot veiled statue of her. Agnes is surmised to have lived in a cave near the Dane Hills, running a leper colony. The connection between her and Black Annis was made by Robert Graves (1895-1985), writer of I Claudius.
Welsh medium Jack Webber is regarded as one of the best and most interesting physical and materialization mediums to have emerged in Britain in recent times. His death at the early age of thirty-three in March 1940 was a great loss to psychic research. He was a simple man, a coal miner who left school at the age of fourteen and worked in the pits until a few years before his death.
Until he was twenty-one, he not only had no inkling of his own psychic powers but treated all accounts of psychic phenomena with disbelief and scorn. It was only when he met his fiancée who belonged to a staunch spiritualist family, that he began attending séances and much to his astonishment, learned that he possessed considerable talents. Most of us tend to believe that great mediums are born, not made. This, of course, is true, but great mediums like other geniuses are not born fully fledged. Mediumistic development takes many years and requires constant practice and hard work.
Jack Webber demonstrated his mediumistic abilities throughout the the United Kingdom in home circles, and in public demonstrations to as many as five hundred persons; shortly before his passing, he gave up to two hundred demonstrations per year. He declined the use of a cabinet and insisted on being secured during a demonstration, as he was conscious of the possibility that accusations of fraud could be made against him.
Journalist’s eye-witness testimony of a Jack Webber séance
Journalist Maurice Barbanell was one person who testified to what he witnessed during a séance with Jack Webber as the medium; infra-red photography was permitted and high quality photographs were taken of trumpets, levitated by the ectoplasm originating from the medium, and of table levitation. Barbanell also detailed how the medium was secured to a chair and in fourteen-seconds, his jacket was both removed and replaced, the stages of this event also being photographed. He concluded that while this was not actual evidence of survival, it nevertheless clearly demonstrated the presence of other-worldly intelligence that was not only active, but fully capable of reasoning.
On several other occasions, a few seconds after Webber had been roped in the chair, the lights were switched on only to show the medium standing on the far side of the circle with the ropes resting on the chair precisely as tied. This was astonishing since it normally took close on five minutes for two people to tie Webber securely to his chair and much longer to untie him. Even more surprising was the fact that shortly after Webber had been seen standing on the other side of the circle he would begin to spin around rapidly, the lights would be put off and five-seconds later he would be found back in his chair, roped precisely as before with the cotton and the sealing wax unbroken.
Webber discovered his own gifts through the simple process of table-rapping. It was not until two years after this that he was able to fall into a trance. He was then for the first time controlled by entities who sometimes manifested themselves, in the early stages at least, with quite distressing violence. A year or so later, Webber developed healing powers. Under trance, thick oil would ooze from his hands. The oil had the consistency of Vaseline and he would massage the patient who was more often than not cured of their affliction. Often during the day, half-entranced, he would go out into the marshlands and open country near his home, gather certain herbs, return home and brew them into potions which he then administered to the sick.
Healing powers and fraud precautions
Webber’s healing powers were undoubted for he had many successful cures to his credit, but his ministrations exhausted him so much that they put a severe check on the physical phenomena which were then beginning to manifest themselves through him. Curiously enough, Webber was for many years afraid of the physical phenomena that built up around him. At night when he went to bed, loud rappings would be heard, bed clothes would be ripped off him and objects would fly wildly around the bedroom while voices spoke and muttered around him in the darkness.
Only when he fell into trance and still more powerful phenomena appeared, did Webber lose his fear of these manifestations. It was not until shortly before his death that he was able to accept the physical phenomena he himself produced without exhibiting a trace of fear.
Stringent precautions were taken to ensure that no fraud could take place during Jack Webber’s sittings, of which we can perhaps aspire to today. The sittings were held under conditions of strict control and, most importantly of all, were well-photographed. There were also times when a small amount of daylight was allowed in.
Jack was nearly always tied to a chair with a rope some fifteen yards long. When the tying-up had been completed the ends of the rope were sewn up, sealed with wax-and then impressed with a seal provided by a sitter. A piece of cotton was then tied at the base of Webber’s thumb, a piece of paper threaded on through a needle hole and the other end of the cotton tied to the base of his opposite thumb. This made it quite impossible for him to move his hands more than a few inches. However, such precautions did not stop the rope from being removed by unseen hands during the séance.
Extraordinary feats of apportation
Webber’s feats of apportation put him in the same class as the greatest teleplasts. British scientist William Crookes himself, working with medium Daniel Dunglas Home and others, witnessed the arrival of apports on no less than twelve occasions. Stainton Moses, on August 28, 1872, heard a small hand-bell move from a neighbouring room ringing loudly, pass through a closed door and finally, after completing a circuit of the room, materialize on the table close to his elbow. Enrico Morselli (1852-1929) Professor of Psychiatry at Genoa University, witnessed during the course of thirty sittings with Eusapia Paladino, “the sudden appearance, on the table or in the room, of objects come from a distance through doors and walls such as flowers, branches, leaves, nails, coins and stones”. Dr Julien Ochorowitz (1850-1918) when working with Stanislawa T. frequently observed the disappearance and reappearance of objects in full light.
Madam d’Esperance produced spectacular apports of flowers. On August 4, 1880, she caused a plant twenty-two inches in height with twenty-nine leaves, all of them smooth and glossy, to appear in a water carafe which it filled so completely that it could not be removed. In the photographs which were taken of this plant almost immediately after its appearance, it can be seen that the roots were wound around the inner surface of the glass as though they had germinated on the spot and never been disturbed. On June 28, 1890, the same medium excelled herself by apporting a golden lily seven feet in height bearing eleven large blossoms. After the plant had been photographed by Professor Boutleroff, it vanished as mysteriously as it had come, leaving behind only a couple of fallen blossoms.
On May 28, 1939, Bernard Gray, a leading journalist from the Sunday Pictorial, attested on oath as preface to a report in that paper that he had attended a séance on May 24 at which Webber had displayed remarkable physical phenomena:
“… I want to describe first two astonishing happenings which make the rest seem small in contrast. Happenings which I, personally, can only compare with the miracles of the New Testament. There was the appearance, in mid-air, so to speak, of a perfect human face. I am sitting, remember, only one removed from the medium…. I am my normal cool and vigilant self – alert for any sign of deception, accustomed to the eerie glimmer of light we get from the red bulb near the ceiling….Before me rises a kind of tablet – rather like a slate – and from the upper surface it sheds a luminous white light.
I watch it intently, not in the least perturbed. I saw it in its normal state before the séance started, an ordinary piece of four-ply wood, about a foot long and nine inches wide. Now it hovers in front of the medium’s face its soft radiance lighting his features so clearly I can see the closed eyes and the twitching lips. It moves gently down to his hands and I see quite clearly that the arms are still bound to the chair….The glowing tablet has moved over to me. It hangs motionless so close to my face that I feel that if I breathe hard I shall blow it away….Then above the tablet I begin to see something white emerging from the darkness. Almost invisible at first, it grows stronger every moment, like a motor-car head-lamp advancing through fog; until I can clearly see it as a diaphanous ellipse, standing on its end, as it were on the tablet….
Now, framed in this luminous halo, I can perceive dimly what appear to be features. They are becoming clearer, easier to trace. There’s the nose, and – yes – the mouth. The eyes and, my God! The eyelids are moving. The tablet moves still closer, the eyes soft and natural, are looking directly into mine. I jerk myself back to a detached, inquisitive state of mind, examine the thing in front of me closely and searchingly. It is not like the pictures of spirit faces many of us have seen in spiritualist papers.
It’s not white and unearthly, like the frame in which it is set. Rather it is a human face – but softer, finer and somehow different. I can trace the cheekbones fading back from the eyes. The lips, they are quite clear. The chin, rounded and delicate, is silhouetted against the lower rim of the halo. I recognise it suddenly as the face of a very old lady. Just like a lovely miniature – for it is much smaller now I come to think, than the face of any human adult….I am watching the lips.
They part a little, move with an effort. There’s a whisper. What is she saying? Why is she speaking to? Yes, Yes, I’ve got it. ‘My boy, my boy’, whispers a woman’s voice, in the tone of a wealth of love or maybe compassion…. The tablet and its burden move away. I can see it floating around our circle. Other sitters are exclaiming that they can see it quite plainly, that it’s wonderful. I am glad I am not the only one who can see it.”
Gray’s article caused something of a sensation, even when Britain was preoccupied with rumours of impending war. It was preceded in February by a lengthy article occupying two centre pages of the Daily Mirror written by ‘Cassandra’, a columnist well-known for his often vituperative opposition to spiritualism and all that it stood for. Cassandra had attended this séance, not because he wished to go, but because the Mirror’s staff photographer, Mr Leon Isaacs, had been asked to take infra-red photographs at the séance so Cassandra had taken him along there in his car.
The phenomena Cassandra witnessed were by no means as spectacular as those seen by Bernard Gray but were nevertheless quite impressive. Cassandra heard bells ringing, saw luminous trumpets shooting around the room “like fishes in a tank”, heard the splashing of water though there was none in the room, listened to voices and finally witnessed the levitation of numerous books and a heavy table.
Jack Webber produced ectoplasmic arms and rods
Jack Webber ectoplasm phenomena
Harry Edwards, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Webber’s chief interest for us, however, lies not so much in his materializations but in his production of ectoplasm which flowed from him in great quantities, always under strict control conditions. In his useful book devoted to Webber, the well-known British healer, Harry Edwards, points out that Webber produced two types of ectoplasm – namely ectoplasmic arms and ectoplasmic rods.
These arms were used to apport objects – for Webber was famous for his apports – as well as to construct voice boxes which either emanated from the medium or were attached to the trumpets. The arms were soft and flexible though coarse in texture. They were equipped with tentacles at the end which could be used for moving objects. At times, the ends of these arms were self-illuminated by a blue ring of light with a dark centre. These lights, which strongly resemble those produced by earlier mediums, first appeared near Webber’s solar plexus and then moved out to his sides and above his head. They were at all times responsive to the commands of the Guide.
The ectoplasmic rods were generally invisible and could not be photographed. Nevertheless , these rods were sometimes seen by sitters when a little daylight was allowed to filter in through the window. Edwards described them as strong, thick, straight structures, three to six inches in circumference, which attached themselves to any levitated object:
“At one sitting the author saw, against a dimly illuminated area lit up by the glow of luminous paint, a rod extending from the ceiling straight down to the far side of the medium. This looked like a plank about four inches wide (the thickness could not be gauged ) but this structure was perfectly straight and precise, the edges being as clean cut as a rule.
Again in a very dim red light, a structure has been seen by all sitters emerging from the solar plexus region as thick as the trunk of a medium-sized tree, about eight to ten inches wide at the base, close to the body and slowly tapering off to where the trumpet joined it. Experiences in sittings have given further knowledge of these rods. When a trumpet has been temporarily rested upon the lap of the sitter, three or four places removed from the medium, and is again taken into use, the rod has been felt across the linked hands or knees of the sitters.
It is felt to be rigid and extremely strong, as may be gathered from the downward pressure that the sitters in question have experienced. It can best be likened to a rod of iron. These rods are capable of great strength. At times the trumpet has been pressed against the sitter, forcing him back into his chair in spite of every effort to resist. A solid mahogany table, so heavy that it takes two people to lift it, has been taken from a corner of the room and deposited in the centre of the circle”.
Edwards describes one dramatic instance in which a ten foot tall Christmas tree fastened into a wooden crate and nailed to the floor with eight-inch nails through pieces of timber some four inches thick, was wrenched out of the fastenings, pulling up the floor boards in doing so, and levitated to the skylight [6]. The force needed to accomplish such a feat must have been formidable. Since telekinesis, as Richet remarked, is the first stage of materialization, it will be seen that Webber’s developing powers, so strongly telekinetic as they were, heralded the onset of the very promising materializations which were just beginning to develop before they were cut short by his early death.
Varied descriptions of Webber’s ectoplasm phenomena
Jack Webber was most famous for the quantity of ectoplasm he produced, far exceeding that of any other medium I am familiar with, which makes the above assertion more than credible. Webber produced most of his ectoplasm from his mouth. At the beginning of a séance he would lean over against the ropes that bound him with his head over his feet while the ectoplasm poured from his mouth like heavy vapour and spread across the floor. The whole process, which took place in silence, occupied only a few seconds. Almost immediately, this mass of vapour would condense and solidify into a length of material hanging from his mouth.
Several varied descriptions of this material were given by sitters: “closely woven silk of a rich quality”; “like wet toy balloon rubber”; or “a wide piece of thin seaweed”. The photographs show that this ectoplasm resembles a skin rather than a woven fabric and is quite distinct from the ectoplasmic mantle found swathing a phantom, which is far more intricate in its texture as well as being light gossamer. Edwards states that at one sitting, ectoplasmic hands detached the red bulb from the ceiling-hook and held it up against the ectoplasmic material in order to illuminate its semi-transparent texture. On another occasion, sitters in the circle felt ectoplasm cover their heads while the floor space around their legs was almost filled up with the substance. This phenomenon was accompanied by a marked drop in room temperature.
The photographs of Webber’s ectoplasm are quite remarkable. None of the early mediums, as far as we know, produced ectoplasm in such quantities. Eva C, born Marthe Béraud (1886–1943), for instance, produced only a fraction of the amount of ectoplasm that normally emanated from Webber. Frequently the ectoplasmic material was so long that the wide-angle lens of the camera was unable to cope with it. Nevertheless, no matter how much ectoplasm was produced, its reabsorption into the medium was virtually instantaneous.
It disappeared, as Edward’s puts it, “with a sound like the twang of a piece of elastic” for example; it disappeared almost instantaneously the moment the white light was switched on. This surely disposes of, once and for all, the “regurgitation theory” which asserts somewhat simple-mindedly that ectoplasm is simply cheesecloth or some other substance swallowed by the medium and brought up at will. It should be obvious, quite apart from other objections, that not even a python could possibly swallow five yards of material in the space of a second.
The final stage of Webber’s development consisted of the production of floating heads illuminated by luminous plaques, then of hands, and finally, full-sized figures. The heads were generally only four or five inches high, resembling those produced by Eva C. These heads, which were invariably surrounded by a white, ectoplasmic cowl and were fully formed, appeared to be linked to the medium by an ectoplasmic connection but could travel from him about six feet or so in any direction. All these heads could speak quite clearly, though it took some time after their formation for the sound to emerge. Xenoglossia (that is, the use of languages unknown to the medium, who, it will be remembered, was only semi-literate) was a frequent feature at these sittings.
I hope that you have found this of interest.
Light to all, always, Leo.
Note: This article was originally published in the Afterlife Magazine by The Otherside Press which has since been integrated with the PDN group.
I wasn’t familiar with many of the mediums mentioned and noted that whenever I researched their names, they were generally accused of being fraudulent. Tends to happen a lot on the internet.
Recommended Reading
Jack Webber, Physical Medium: the back story by Denzel Fairbairn
March 2020 marked the 80thanniversary of the death of the most photographed physical medium, Jack Webber. He was not 33 years old when he died, a few days after an act of kindness to a stranger on a train. This is an important piece of Physical Mediumship history. Never before has the story been told in detail of the years leading up to the last 16 months of his life, so well publicised by Harry Edwards in his book, "The Mediumship of Jack Webber".
I have written often about the many instances of teleportation that my wife Sandra and I have experienced over the last 44 years, both in and out of the séance room. This includes inanimate objects such as ‘apports’ which appear in the room almost magically from ‘nowhere’ during both ectoplasmic-based and energy-based physical séances; by way of small ‘presents’ for us from the Spirit Team that works with us during sittings.
What readers may not know, is that additionally, from Victorian times in the 1800’s, the Spirit World has used teleportation to transport live animals, insects and even human beings, often over considerable distances in a dramatic way - as I have personally witnessed. This shows that the technical knowledge of how to achieve this remarkable feat has existed in the Spirit World for over 150 years, although science in our earthly world has not yet been able to duplicate these amazing results!
That is not to say that our earthly scientists have not tried to teleport large objects from one place to another. A particularly striking example of their efforts can be found in the almost legendary ‘Philadelphia Experiment’ that took place during the Second World War in the USA. Exact details of this wartime project, unfortunately, remain in the ‘Top Secret’ military files – but the gist of that attempt (and partial accidental success) as I understand it, is as follows:-
The Philadelphia Experiment
USS Eldridge (DE-173)
U.S. Navy, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The Experiment was conducted by Dr. Franklin Reno (or Rinehart) as a military application of a Unified Field Theory. The theory, briefly, postulates the interrelated nature of the forces that comprise electromagnetic radiation and gravity. Through a special application of the theory, it was thought possible, with specialized equipment and sufficient energy, to bend light around an object in such a way as to render it essentially invisible to observers. The Navy considered this application of the theory to be of obvious military value (especially as the United States was engaged in World War II at the time) and both approved and sponsored the experiment. A navy destroyer escort, the USS Eldridge, was fitted with the required equipment at the naval yards in Philadelphia.
Testing began in summer 1943, and was successful to a limited degree. One test on July 22nd resulted in the Eldridge being rendered almost completely invisible, with some witnesses reporting a “greenish fog” in its place. However, crew members complained of severe nausea afterwards. Equipment was not properly recalibrated for this eventuality, but in spite of this, the experiment was performed again on October 28th. This time, Eldridge not only became almost entirely invisible to the naked eye, but actually vanished from the area in a flash of blue light. Simultaneously, the US naval base at Norfolk, Virginia, just over 600 km (375 miles) away, reported sighting the Eldridge offshore for several minutes, whereupon the Eldridge vanished from their sight and reappeared in Philadelphia, at the site it had originally occupied in an apparent case of accidental teleportation.
The physiological effects on the crew were profound. Almost all of the crew were violently ill. Some suffered from mental illness as a result of their experience; behavior consistent with schizophrenia is described in other accounts. Still other members were physically unaccounted for or supposedly vanished, and five of the crew were allegedly fused to the metal bulkhead or deck of the ship. Still others were said to fade in and out of sight. Horrified by these results, Navy officials immediately cancelled the experiment. All of the surviving crew involved were discharged; in some accounts, brainwashing techniques were employed in an attempt to make the remaining crew members lose their memories concerning the details of their experience.
One reason that the USA wanted to undertake this ambitious experiment was the rumour (not substantiated – but possibly true) that the Germans were undertaking similar bold experiments in invisibility for military purposes.
First Reported Instance of Human Teleportation
But I digress! The first well documented, reported instance of human teleportation during the time known as ‘Modern Spiritualism’ occurred at a séance in London, and has been substantiated by a number of evidential statements by reliable witnesses.
London Mediums Frank Herne and Charles Williams were holding a joint seance with a circle of eight visitors at 61 Lambs Conduit Street in London on June 3rd 1871, when they heard the Spirit voices of John King and his daughter Katie. Katie agreed to bring any particular thing to the circle at the request of the sitters and a Mr Harrison asked her (half jokingly) to produce well-known Medium Mrs Guppy. Katie laughed and despite her father’s protests, insisted that she would comply, even though Mrs Guppy was a very large lady!
The sitters all laughed until they heard a loud thump on the table just three minutes later. Several of them screamed and one of them lit a lamp, and there in the middle of the table sat Mrs Guppy. She seemed to be in a deep trance and held a pen and an account book in her hand when she was precipitated into the room. Unfortunately, she was only half dressed, with her shoes off but to save her modesty, the apportation of respectable clothes in which she could travel home, followed shortly afterwards.
When Mrs Guppy was gently roused from her trance, she was a little perturbed. The last thing she remembered was sitting at home three miles away in Highbury, London. The sitters escorted her home, where an anxious friend awaited. Apparently, the two had been in Mrs Guppy’s room together when Mrs Guppy suddenly disappeared, leaving only a slight haze near the ceiling.
Catherine Berry, in the book ‘Experiences in Spiritualism’ (1876), writes of many strange happenings through Mrs Guppy’s mediumship. She was a very powerful physical medium in her own right. A white cat and a Maltese dog belonging to Mrs Guppy appeared in a séance in Berry’s house during a Guppy sitting. On another occasion, three ducks prepared for cooking were brought into the circle in Mrs Guppy’s home. Showers of butterflies also descended from the ceiling.
Teleportation of Animals in the Foy Home
Shortly after Sandra and I were married in the early 1980’s, we ran a Physical Circle at our then home in Harold Wood, Romford, Essex. On one occasion after a séance, we discovered that our daughter’s cage for her pet hamster (although still locked) was empty. Eventually, after searching around the lounge on our hands and knees (with the help of our sitters), the hamster was found – happily wandering around the lounge.
The next week, after our home circle, we once again discovered that the hamster missing from his locked cage (which stood on a spare kitchen unit). This time, it occurred to us that Spirit might have had a hand in the hamster’s disappearance, and Sandra stood in the kitchen, loudly appealing for Spirit to bring back the hamster if they had it so our daughter wouldn’t be upset by her loss.
Moments later, Sandra saw a small patch of bright, shimmering light appear just in front of her on the kitchen unit – in full light – and noticed that it was beginning to form into the semi-translucent outline of a hamster. The outline intensified and became more solid until the hamster was back, completely solid and suffering no after effects from his ‘adventure’. The way the hamster came back was very reminiscent of the teleportation scenes in the TV programme ‘Star Trek’, when ‘Scotty beamed them up’!
A couple of weeks later after our circle sitting, Sandra locked our black collie-cross dog Ben outside in the garden so she could prepare some snacks in the kitchen. When another sitter brought our used water glasses into the empty kitchen, the rest of us heard a scream. Ben had been teleported from the garden through the solid wall or door and into the kitchen, and placed his wet nose on sitter Lisa’s leg!
The same thing happened to Ben on several other occasions in his lifetime, and to our other two dogs Jock and Brandy who joined us after Ben passed to Spirit. This unusual phenomenon continued regularly in full light when our first cat and ‘the Spanish cats’ joined us following our dogs’ passing, and it still happens from time to time today. None of the dogs or cats ever suffered any ill effects from teleportation.
Energy-based Teleportation of Scole Spirit Visitors
During the five years of ‘The Scole Experiment’ in the 1990s, we came to learn much more about teleportation through members of our Spirit Team and various other Spirit Visitors including Angels and E.Ts. Our ‘Scole Group’ sittings regularly enjoyed the solid presence of Spirit people in the room – moving round; interacting with us; touching us; holding our hands and demonstrating their presence in a very physical way.
The feeling that accompanied these teleported ‘Spirit Friends’ was amazing. The room was filled with tangible love. That is the only way I can describe it. These visitors became so familiar to us that they felt just like family, and we loved them dearly. On occasions, we had as many as eight solid Spirit Visitors with us in the room at any one time!
I must stress that this was not ‘Materialization’ in the classic sense, with the Spirit personalities being dressed in ectoplasmic white robes and drapes. There was NO ectoplasm involved in any of our experimental work at Scole or elsewhere. The work was totally energy-based. The fact was that our Spirit Visitors were indeed usually quite solid, but by personal mind control and by drawing on the reservoir of ‘creative energy’ supplied by the Spirit Team and stored in the glass dome, they were able to vary the density of their Spirit bodies (or Spiritual Essence aka ‘Soul’) from virtually invisible to totally (or partially) solid. They were invariably dressed in quite ‘normal’ clothes.
The ‘Spiritual Essence’ of each of our ‘Scole Spirit Visitors’ was initially teleported through a ‘Portal’ which our Spirit Team had constructed in the ‘Experimental Room’ – whether that was at Scole or elsewhere during one of our ‘mobile’ demonstrations in other parts of the world. The Spirit Person concerned (depending on specific need) would then mentally increase the density of all (or just part) of their body.
Sometimes this could be just their head, shoulders and arms. To show themselves to us, they frequently held a spirit light in front of their face as they moved around the room. It was not unusual for a spirit person to show themselves totally in the glow from a ‘sheet’ of Spirit Light. Then again, they might just solidify a hand and arm.
A lady who attended one of our demonstrations in Reseda, California (Tricia Loar), had quite a shock when she was touched in a loving way by a Spirit hand. When this happened, our Spirit Team would frequently encourage the sitter to ‘touch back’. Tricia did this and felt up from the hand. She noted the shirt, and then the jacket sleeve of the male Spirit who was touching her. The arm was still fully animated and solid, but when she moved her hand up to the Spirit Person’s shoulder, she discovered that the rest of the person was not there in solid form (although she was assured by the Spirit Team that the whole of that Spirit Person was indeed present)!
Note: This article was originally published in the Afterlife Magazine by The Otherside Press which has since joined the PDN group.
The Case for the UFO by Morris K Jessup (2016 Reprint Edition)
‘This 2016 Edition of the classic book “The Case For the UFO” published in 1955 brought the legend of the Philadelphia Experiment into the public sphere, and created saucer controversy for decades. Why has this book been suppressed for so many years? It is a well-reasoned review of the UFO record by an eminent astronomer, mathematician, and archaeologist: Dr. M.K. Jessup. His conclusions are breathtaking and incredible, but inescapable.
This special reprint edition features not only the familiar introduction by Frank Edwards, but also the "lost" introduction by noted zoologist Ivan T. Sanderson, as well as cover design based on publisher Gray Barker's original concept.’
(Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform by author Frank Edwards and Gray Barker, author and owner of publishing house, Saucerian Press.)
Jacket Text:
Flying saucers are not new! For thousands of years, men have seen mysterious objects in the skies. Now, a prominent scientist proves that unidentified flying objects originate here, on Earth.
If you have ever wondered about the things today's scientists do not, will not, or cannot explain, this book is for you. Such questions might be:
What is the hidden meaning of the comet's tail?
What caused the "Devil's Footprints" of Devonshire?
Why are we wrong to think of space flight only in terms of rocket power?
How was a soldier "teleported" from the Phillippine Islands to Mexico City within one hour?
What force lifted 1200-ton stones in ancient Peru?
How is acceleration achieved by UFOs?
What caused the disappearance of the crews of the SS Sea Bird and the Marie Celeste?
Was the "secret" of space flight known 50,000 years ago?
What is the strange truth hidden in the ancient ruins of Baalbek?
And finally, and most importantly: Are the UFOs friend, or foe?
This note was added to the Amazon listing: This original edition of "The Case For the UFO" does NOT include the scrawled "annotations" of the infamous Carlos Allende (who may or may not have tormented Jessup into committing suicide). You will find this version much easier to read than the Varo Edition, and probably much more meaningful.
The Case for the UFO - Varo Edition (original version)
’The original version of The Case for the UFO was first published in 1955. It is widely considered to be an excellent overview of UFO encounters and strange phenomena occurring throughout human history. This version, known as The Varo Edition, appeared later that year when one copy, containing additional material not penned by the author, was anonymously sent to Admiral N. Furth, Chief of the Office of Naval Research.
The notes and additional material reflected so much inside knowledge on the subject, that various military people took a special interest in the book. They had it privately published in very limited form, meant only for those with special access. It seems that three unknown individuals made color-coded notations that are preserved in this edition, now made available to the general public. Over the years this book has been one of the most rare and sought after manuscripts to be found within the UFO field.’
The oak is the national tree of England; symbolising Strength, Longevity, Wisdom, Spirituality, Nobility and Trustworthiness. Virtues sadly currently lacking in ALL England and the UK’s leadership cliques, regardless of party affiliation.
For the Greeks, Romans, Celts, Slavs and Teutons, the mighty oak ranked first amongst venerated trees and was associated with many of the supreme gods (or high ranking deities) in each Pantheon. Oak trees are more susceptible to lightning strikes than other trees, a perceived link with the Sky Gods. This is actually due to their tree’s natural high water content and their stature; all quite logical, really.
England’s oldest oak is considered by many to be King Offa's Oak in Windsor Great Park (Berkshire), estimated to be between 1,300 and 1,500 years old. The Bowthorpe Oak in Lincolnshire is the UK's widest oak with a 13-metre girth, it is estimated to be over 1,000 years old. Its immense hollow trunk was once used as a dining room, seating 12 people “with ease”.
An ancient 450 yera-old oak looms over my back garden; sometimes a forbidding presence it also reminds one of the continuity of life in the English Shires. It’s the home to a colony of rather cheeky squirrels, who now gather each morning for the daily handout of nuts (twenty of the critters at the last count). On June 11th, 2026, a huge part of the oak suddenly collapsed in my garden almost breaking through my drawing room windows, necessitating the urgent attendance of tree surgeons. ‘Sudden Branch Drop Syndrome’, apparently.
This occurred AFTER I had filed my Oak Tree investigation. Eerily reminiscent of the ‘evil tree’ scene in the 1982 horror movie, Poltergeist.
My garden. (Author’s image)
Poltergeist Evil Tree scene
Sherwood Forest’s Major Oak in Nottinghamshire is between 800 to 1,000 years old and linked of course to the legends of Robin Hood. It is the largest by mass, weighing around 23 tonnes. The Marton Oak in Cheshire is approximately 1,200 years old, famed for its 14-metre girth:
The Marton Oak
Hypercolius, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
The oak has royal connections in England, probably with the last monarch to display much in the way of personality, intelligence and political acumen - Charles II. The Royal Oak was the tree in which the future King Charles II of England hid to escape Cromwell’s Roundheads after his defeat at the Battle of Worcester in 1651.
The tree standing on the site today is believed to be a two or three hundred year-old descendant of the original and is thus known as 'Son of Royal Oak'. The original tree was destroyed during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by tourists who cut off branches and chunks of bark as souvenirs.
Restoration Day, more commonly known as Oak Apple Day or Royal Oak Day, was an English, Welsh and Irish public holiday, observed annually on May 29th, to commemorate the restoration of the Stuart monarchy in May 1660. The public holiday was officially abolished under the Anniversary Days Observance Act 1859, but in some parts of England the day is still celebrated with gusto.
Celebrations to mark the event included the wearing of oak apples or sprigs of oak leaves. Those who failed to wear a sprig of oak were pelted with bird's eggs or beaten harshly with stinging nettles. In Sussex, those not wearing oak were liable to be pinched on the backside, giving rise to the unofficial name of "Pinch-bum Day"; similarly it was known as "Bumping Day" in Essex.
Events still take place at Aston-on-Clun in Shropshire, Great Wishford in Wiltshire, Upton-upon-Severn in Worcestershire, Marsh Gibbon in Buckinghamshire and Membury in Devon. At All Saints' Church, Northampton, a statue of Charles II is garlanded with oak leaves at noon every Oak Apple Day, followed by a celebration of the Holy Communion according to the Book of Common Prayer. Oak Apple Day is also celebrated in the Cornish village of St Neot, with a vicar led procession through the village. In 2021, Oak Apple Day was celebrated at Eton Wick within sight of Windsor Castle, one of Charles II’s many homes.
Our old friend The Green Man is always depicted wreathed in oak leaves; here he is in his most savage aspect, as shown at the beginning of BBC1’s adaptation the Kingsley Amis’ classic chiller The Green Man (1990):
Generally, the oak is regarded as a benevolent plant but, as always, there are exceptions to every rule...
The Midsummer Tree, Sussex
The Midsummer Tree, by the Grove Lodge roundabout in Broadwater: legend says that every year on Midsummer’s Eve, June 23rd, skeletons would rise from the roots of the tree and dance underneath it.
A plaque states: "This tree, believed to be over 300 years old, was once celebrated in local folklore. Every year, at Midnight on Midsummer's Eve, it was believed that skeletons would rise up from its roots and dance to the rattling of their own bones until daybreak."
In 2006, local paper The Argus reported that the tree was under threat from the Highways Agency as it was suffering from brown cubical rot. Following a campaign by neighbours and folklorists, the tree was saved by conservationist Chris Hare, who proclaimed, “This tree is a vital part of Worthing's heritage. The origin of the Midsummer Tree is to be found in England's pagan past, when Midsummer, rather than Halloween, was viewed as the most auspicious time to commune with the spirit world."
The tale of the dancing skeletons was first recorded by Sussex folklorist Charlotte Latham in 1868, writing, “There stood, and still may stand, upon the downs, close to Broadwater, an old oak-tree, that I used, in days gone by, to gaze at with an uncomfortable and suspicious look from having heard that always on Midsummer Eve, just at midnight, a number of skeletons started up from its roots, and, joining hands, danced round it till cock-crow, and then as suddenly sank down again. “My informant knew several persons who had actually seen this dance of death, but one young man in particular was named to me who, having been detained at Finden by business till very late, and forgetting that it was Midsummer Eve, had been frightened (no difficult matter we may suspect) out of his very senses by seeing the dead men capering to the rattling of their own bones.”
According to Chris Hare, there has been a gathering of would-be believers at the tree every midnight on June 23rd in recent years...
The Chained Oak, Staffordshire
The Chained Oak, near the village of Alton, Staffordshire
Gary Rogers / Chained Oak
On an autumn night in 1821, the wealthy Earl of Shrewsbury was travelling through the village of Alton on his way home to the family estate of Alton Towers. Without any warning, an old woman (or man, according to alternative versions) popped up in front of his coach, startling his horses. The coach stopped to find why she was there, and the crone pleaded for the charity of a coin. The Earl cruelly dismissed her, so she placed a curse on him, croaking, "For every branch on the Old Oak Tree here that falls... a member of the Earl’s family will die.”
The Earl wasted little time with the wittering of the wretched old woman, dismissing any talk of a curse and headed back to Alton Towers. But that very evening, whilst the Earl snored in his grand bed, a terrible storm raged, tearing a single branch from the oak tree. That same night, a member of the Earl’s family mysteriously passed away. When the Earl awoke and learned the news, he was convinced of the hag’s curse, and thereby the power of the oak. The flustered Earl immediately ordered every branch of the oak tree be bound up in chains to prevent it from falling, and to this day, the old oak remains bound by chains.
A large branch fell from the old oak in 2007, but the Earl’s descendants confirmed that no-one had perished. Sadly, some of the oak has disintegrated, in part due to the action of chains; one had rusted so much as to cause the collapse of a large part of the tree. However, most of the tree still stands.
The 16th Earl, John Talbot, appeared to have learned Scrooge-lesson of his predecessor and was widely known for his philanthropy and support of local schools and churches; earning him the nickname ‘Good Earl John’.
In modern Alton life, the story of the chained oak lives on in Alton Towers theme park, where the story has been re-written and dramatised for the ride ‘Hex – The Legend of the Towers’, a walkthrough dark ride based around the chained oak legend.
In 2014, an independent horror film based on the legend was released.
Old Knobbley, East Anglia
A notable old Oak tree has stood in Mistley, Essex for 800 years, taking anchor around the time Bad King John signed the Charter of the Forest. Named Old Knobbley, due to its lumpy appearance, the trunk is 9.5 metres wide (more than twice its height), topped by gaunt branches.
Infamous 17th-century Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins lived in nearby Manningtree, making his name torturing those accused of witchcraft to extort false confessions, killing hundreds. Village folklore says some of the accused successfully sought shelter in the hollows and branches of Old Knobbley.
This is of course unlikely, but chimes with the folklore image of trees as protectors; comforting to think of Old Knobbley doing his bit to offer sanctuary to those in extreme peril.
One does wonder why Hopkins, with his propensity for arson, didn’t just set light to the tree and settle down comfortably to watch the fun.
According to local legend, Hopkins' ghost is said to haunt Mistley Pond.
Hywel Sele was a cousin of Owain Glyndŵr, self-proclaimed Prince of Wales, but was also friend of Henry IV of England and opposed Glyndŵr’s rebellion (1400-1415). After Sele was captured by Glyndŵr he accepted a gracious invitation to hunt with the ‘Prince’ on the Nannau Estate, but, after failing to kill the rebel leader Sele was slain and sealed up within the hollow of a gnarled oak tree. The oak naturally enough, was soon haunted by his shade, becoming known as Derwen Ceubren yr Ellyl ("The Hollow Oak of the Devils"), Ceubren yr Ellyll ("The Hollow Tree of the Ghost") or simply the Nannau Oak.
APPENDIX - WALES: Derwen Ceubren yr Ellyl ("The Hollow Oak of the Devils")/Ceubren yr Ellyll ("The Hollow Tree of the Ghost")
In 1778 one Thomas Pennant inspected the oak and noted that it was 27 feet 6 inches (8.38 m) in girth but that it was in an advanced state of decay, resembling the shape of a gothic arch. The oak collapsed on July 13th 1813; it was said Sele’s corpse fell from within it and was supposedly buried in the ruins of Cymer Abbey.
And finally, The Oaks of Avalon
The Oaks of Avalon iare a pair of ancient 2,000 year-old oak trees in Glastonbury (Somerset), named after the ancient apocalyptic figures Gog and Magog. Believed to have been originally part of a ceremonial druidic avenue at the entrance to Glastonbury Tor/Avalon, most of which was cut down in 1906 to make way for a farm. Christian belief has Joseph of Arimathea following the row of trees towards the tor upon his arrival in Albion.
In April 2017, though already lifeless, Gog was badly damaged by an accidental fire believed to be from an incense burning candle, but was extinguished by the Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service.
Ancient Glastonbury oak tree known as Gog damaged in fire: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/apr/27/ancient-glastonbury-oak-tree-known-as-gog-damaged-in-fire
