Episode 132: The Home Circle - Making Contact with the Spirit World

Each episode will discuss the reasons we now know that our loved ones have survived physical debt, and so will we. Welcome to Shades of the Afterlife. I may title this episode The Weird and the Wonderful. I want to talk about physical mediumship. I don't talk about it too much on this show, but it is one of the three predominant kinds of mediumship. One is evidential mediumship. That's when you go to a medium or you see one on zoom and they tell you about your loved ones, give

you messages and such. The second is trance mediumship, which you've heard Scott Milligan talking in the trance state with some very powerful words from here's spirit friend Eric. I did mention physical mediumship way way back. You can go back to episode three, which is called Beyond Sherlock Holmes talking about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and also episode seventeen called Seances and Ghostbusters exploring physical mediums, seances and ectoplasm.

I think I don't talk about this too much because it is weird, but it is wonderful Back in the day talking about the seventeen hundreds, the eighteen hundreds, the early nineteen hundreds, this was the predominant kind of mediumship on planet Earth. It is so easy for our skeptical mind to go this sounds really crazy, Sandra, and I

one hundred percent agree with you. I remember when I found out about electronic voice phenomena from Tom and Lisa Butler, and they had sent me an email talking about a medium by the name of David Thompson who they attended one of these seances with. My mind was so quick to throw out the information and not pay attention to it because number one, the word seance was kind of weird to me, and what they were describing was even more weird. A group of people sit in a circle

sing songs. There is a medium, but he is actually behind a curtain or what's called a cabinet. It can be made of fabric, or it can be three doors with a black cloth in front of it. Some people take a corner of their room and just stretch a shower curtain rod across and put a curtain in front of that. They were telling me the story of loved one's voices seeming to come out of the air, and people being touched by spirit people and things in a darkened room with glowing the dark tape on them, all

flying around the room. I took some time and I googled this David Thompson. It is very hard to find anything on him. And I think there are some physical mediums in the world, but their form of mediumship is so different that a lot of people think it can't be real, so they don't advertise. There are people sitting around the world in what's called home circles, singing songs, inviting loved ones to come through, and there's some amazing

things happening. But again, to you and me, not being part of it, it's so easy to think, oh, that can't be possible. After I googled David Thompson, that led me to a website that no longer exists, and I started reading some of the stories of things that would happen in these so called seance rooms and people being reunited with their deceased loved ones. This substance called ectoplasm a gas that would come out of the medium, and the loved ones could step into this gas their etheric

body and become real again. Doesn't this sound like science fic? That's how it sounded to me. But there was something that still interested me about it, so much so that I was digging around this David Thompson's website and he recommended another physical medium, Scott Milligan. That's the very first time I had heard of Scott. So what I had done is I went to Facebook and I found Scott Milligan and I sent him a friend request. Now he

didn't know who I was, but he accepted it. I went to his Facebook page and he was sharing about an event that took place back in Well it was twenty sixteen or twenty seventeen called Voices of the Past. David Thompson was there and Scott Milligan was there doing these seances. I was so scared because one I thought it was weird. Two, this stuff happens in the dark.

Three I'd have to take a flight from Boston over to London Heathrow Airport and then get a cab for an hour and a half drive to beat with people that I didn't know. But as an afterlife researcher, I had to know for sure one way or another is this stuff real or not? Then you know I did it right. It is real, It is wild, and it

is wonderful. Going back to those episodes I was telling you about, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote the Sherlock Holmes books, actually gave up writing Sherlock Holmes when he attended many of these seances and he had some experiences that were so out of this world literally that he felt it's more important to share with people the reality

of the afterlife than continue writing about Sherlock Holmes. In episode seventeen, talking about seances and Ghostbusters, I read a book by Peter Ackroyd, and if that name sounds familiar, it's because his son Dan wrote and starred in the movie Ghostbusters. Ghostbusters was a comedy, it was fiction. However, where did Dan get the idea His grandfather was part of these home circles, And if you listen to that episode you'll hear more about that and words from Dan

and his father Peter. There is so much credible information about the reality of these physical mediums. They were tested by science at the time, and again we're talking it was in its heyday over one hundred years ago. So I think for us living in twenty twenty three, it's easy to think that somehow or another, somebody was conning, somebody pretending that their loved ones were around in profiting

from it. That's always been my thought, first and foremost about most mediums, actually, because there are so many con artists in the world. But after sitting in these seances and certainly witnessing the impossible, hearing voices of loved ones coming out from what seems like mid air, having things float around the room being touched by children and there were no children in the room, and other incredible things.

It made me really delve into what's possible. I met another man named Stuart Alexander who at a younger age started one of these home circles to see if they could invite in the spirit world. Stuart Alexander is one of the most famous physical mediums alive right now. I'm not sure if he has retired. I think he has, but he has written a book that was just updated called Stuart Alexander An Extraordinary Journey, The Memoirs of a

Physical Medium. I want to read a little bit to you, and I want to also talk to you about these home circles and if you're wondering, did I thoroughly check to make sure this wasn't a scam? Yeah, absolutely I did. One thing that's important to know is it was very reasonably priced. It was only, oh, I think just a few hundred dollars for room meals and the workshop. That happened over four and a half days, so nobody was getting rich off of this. During the actual seances, the

room is checked by everyone. The medium is actually strapped down to a chair, and everybody gets to check to make sure he cannot get out so he cannot manipulate things and make it seem like things are happening like a magician would. Also, everyone in the circle had to hold hands, and if anyone broke the circle, we were supposed to speak up, because again, how easy would it be for one of the participants to do something. I can tell you I got hooked on going to these events.

I attended many of them, and just the year before COVID hit, I actually put on three of my own live events and we held many of these seances. It was the first time Scott Milligan had been to the United States demonstrating, and people got to witness with their eyes and their ears the weird and the wonderful. People

got reunited with their loved one. We could all hear these words coming from loved ones in the afterlife during these seances, and there was so much personal information that was shared from the deceased loved one to the person in the room, which they said no one could know about.

I asked Scott Milligan what would it take to have physical mediumship be real in the world again, And many years ago he thought it probably will never happen because years ago people would get together with families, there was no TV, there was no internet, they'd get together, they'd sing, there was a lot of love in the room, and with that these miracles would happen. I have had this passion since I met Scott to somehow get this form

of mediumship back in the world. We have been holding classes online since twenty twenty talking about trance, mediumship and how to sit for the spirit world. And my secret little project going on was to work with Scott and create an at home study course for sitting for the spirit world and being part of your own home circle, and we just launched it this past week. I'm so

proud of it. It's not just how to sit in a home circle, but there's so much of the history of home circles and bonus materials and videos and pictures and so many good things, so stay tuned about that. Next we're going to hear some words from Stuart Alexander's book and also tell you about some audios from people who had these home circles and witnessed some absolutely earth shattering, mind bending, oh my goodness experiences. There's a lot coming up in this episode. You don't want to miss it,

so we'll be right back. You're listening to Shades of the Afterlife on the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast AM Paranormal Podcast Network. Welcome back to Shades of the Afterlife. I'm Sandra Champlain and I'm delighted to dedicate this episode to the wonderful physical medium Stuart Alexander. I'm going to be reading some from his book An Extraordinary Journey also to talk about home circles, and Stuart Alexander put together a compilation of accounts of what people witnessed in the

seance room. I had the opportunity to meet him many years ago, and also in twenty eighteen, I attended a workshop with him and I got an opportunity also to sit in his seance. It's a bit different than attending with David Thompson or Scott Milligan. They sit in one of these cabinets that I described in the last segment where the energy really builds up and this gas gets produced where loved ones use their etheric body to step

into and become real again. Stuart Alexander certainly knows about the worry so many people have about sitting in the dark and could something like this be faked. I told you earlier that physical mediumship was in its heyday one

hundred years ago. Why it disappeared is because so many fraudulent con artists got involved after the Great War and conned people out of their money saying that your loved ones are here, and all those fake seance as you see on television all stemmed from that part of history. Stuart Alexander does not use one of these cabinets. Instead, he sits in the group with everybody else, but he has Glow in the Dark tape on him, so you know exactly where he is at all times. There's a

small red light that gets turned on. I was sitting way far away from him, but the people closest to him saw some pretty interesting things. One person saw the face of their loved one who had passed, which had transformed over the face of somebody who was in the circle. There was a small table and a red light was on while Stuart Alexander was strapped down to the chair. An ectoplasmic hand formed on this table and people could actually touch the hand, shake the hand, describe the hand,

and it was warm. A've so many other things happened as well. These ants went on for I think a little over two hours, and things floating around the room, voices coming out of what seemed like nowhere, inspiration from spirit helpers was amazing. I know this seems so far out there, and this truly is something to experience to know the reality of it. But for now you can get started on reading an incredible book and doing your

own investigation into home circles and physical mediumship. I'd like to start off by reading a little bit of the forward by David Fontana, who was a British psychologist, parasp psychologist and author. He was professor of psychology at Cardiff University and also the former president of the Society for

Psychical Research. He says in the forward, the literature on most aspects of medium shire is extensive and informative, but there is nevertheless a shortage of good first hand accounts by physical mediums of their experiences in the seance room and of the development of their gifts. The result is that we have insufficient knowledge of what it is actually like to be a physical medium. There are two obvious

reasons for this shortage. Firstly, physical mediums are usually deeply entranced when phenomena are produced, and therefore often know less of what takes place than do those attending the seance. And secondly, there have been all too few good physical mediums. Thus I warmly recommend and welcome Stuart Alexander's book. Stuart is not only an outstanding physical medium with a deep and extensive knowledge of his own gift. He also has a scholarly interest in physical mediumship in general, and is

a line of information on the subject. I have been involved in psychical research for more than thirty years and have been fortunate to have had sittings with Stuart, both as a member of public circles and as a guest at his private home circle, and I can therefore speak of his mediumship from personal experience. Moreover, having known Stuart as a personal friend for many years, I can bear witness to his integrity and to the unswerving dedication that

he has brought to his mediumship. A man of great modesty and humility, he regards his mediumistic gift as a trust to be used in the service of others, and as a channel for demonstrating the reality of survival of physical death, and thus for illuminating some of the deeper

mysteries of the human spirit. As Stuart makes abundantly clear in the book, he has been very fortunate in having a close knit and dedicated home circle, and members of which have stayed together over many years, devoting themselves to providing him with this essential support and protection. And long may this happy situation continue. A claim frequently made by skeptics is that all phenomena seen in physical seances could easily be duplicated in light or darkness by any good

professional conjurer. The answer to this claim is that any good professional conjuror is welcome to try, provided he or she does so under the same controls as those imposed,

for example, on Stuart Alexander. These include no unsupervised access to the room before the seance in order to hide conjuring equipment, submission to bodily searches as a precaution against concealing such equipment on the person, an agreement to be securely bound by full proof restraints in order to prevent movement during the In addition, the room must be available for searches by experienced observers to ensure there are no

hidden entrances or exits, including trapdoors, that the furniture is restricted to a table and a circle of chairs placed close together, so that movement anywhere in the room can be easily detected, and that each chair, together with the table and any other potential hiding places in the room, are available for thorough examination by the observers. Finally, the sitters must all be experienced in the sands room phenomena

and above suspicion. There must be no money or promise of money involved, and the conjuror must agree to have the results of the session made public. There's so much more in the forward about mediums of the past and other things you'll enjoy reading it. Next, i'll start reading a little bit of chapter one. This book came out in twenty ten, forty two years ago. When I first read Arthur Finley's classic book On the Edge of the Etheric, I did not suspect that my life was about to

be changed forever. As I turned its first page. I did so knowing nothing of spiritualism, nothing of mediumship, and having given little thought to the possibility of a life after death. Perhaps in common with most people who are in abject ignorance of such matters, I had always imagined that spiritualism attracted elderly ladies who sat around tables asking

is there anybody there? However, like many before me, that book was to introduce me to the movement and presented most intelligible and compelling evidence in support of the author's astounding arguments in respect of survival beyond the Grave and of two world canunication. Stuart goes on talking more about Arthur Finley's book and that he and his brother read it and then chose to read it again before finding a home circle and starting to participate in someone else's

He then talks about being disappointed. I have to be honest, and you probably know this too. In this world of spirituality, you can find some people that claim to be spiritual, but it is more about the ego, and you can also find some crazies out there, some people doing some really wild things saying it's coming from the spirit world. We always want to make sure there is intelligence and

that whatever happens doesn't insult your intelligence. So Stuart continues, almost two years had passed since I first read Finley's On the Edge of the Etheric, and I was still reading and still visiting local churches. Then one day I decided that I would form a home circle, and because my introduction to spiritualism and my intense interest had always been in respect of physical mediumship, it would of course

have to be a physical home circle. Since I was by then well aware of the necessary conditions required for such a circle, I would arrive home from work every Monday evening and then spend two hours achieving a total blackout in our front lounge with its large bay window. Anyone who has ever attempted to eliminate all light from a room will readily understand what a difficult task I was faced with two hours to achieve it and thirty

minutes afterwards to put everything back as it was. Darkness we fully understood was an absolute essential since we hoped to develop contact with the spiritual realms on a physical level. Such manifestations are believed to be inhibited by the presence of any form or degree of light. Understandably, this often leads to suspicion within the skeptical mind. However, irrespective of how it may appear to some, the fact is that

there are sound reasons for such conditions. In assuming that all seance rooms harbor fraud, one would be guilty of making a monumental error. One might as well argue that the dark room was unnecessary for early photographic development. No one today would question the absolute fact that light is fatal to particular microorganisms and to the germination of seeds, nor would anyone question the fact that the development of an embryo in the darkness of the womb is essential

for the creation of life itself. Like I said in the beginning, the world of physical mediumship is weird yet wonderful. I firmly believe that if this happened one hundred years ago, say till the early nineteen forties, that we can bring this alive again. When we come back from the break, you'll hear some stories of these materializations and also find

out about the Noah's Ark Society. Also a CD set that Stuart put together of seance room recollections, and if you're interested in either starting a home circle or sitting on behalf of the spirit world, what you can do to get involved. So let's go off to our break and then we'll be back. You're listening to Shades of the Afterlife on the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast am Paranormal Podcast Network. Welcome back, to Shades of the Afterlife.

I'm Sander Champlain and this episode is dedicated to my friend and wonderful longtime physical medium, Stuart Alexander, author of the book An Incredible Journey. Instead of reading anymore right now, I want to play some words from Stuart Alexander. I was lucky enough to find an interview with him on the great YouTube channel New Thinking Allowed by Jeffrey Mishlov. If you haven't checked out that channel, please do. Life

after Death is included and so much more so. Let's listen in to Stuart Alexander, who's been a medium for fifty two years, talking to Jeffrey Mishlov.

I think the important thing here, Jeff, for me to stress is the fact that, in spite of the fact that we were not receiving any results whatsoever, it was just nice for us to gather together once a week, family and friends, walk into that room, closed the door, and sit together in love. And it's wonderful that you can do that and shut the outside world and all the problems outside. They don't belong within the sea on Zoon.

So that was just nice. But the highlight of those nights, as I've said many times, was after we used to sit for an hour and then after the hour we would have a cup of tea a cup of coffee cakes, and that was the highlight of the night, the tea, cakes and coffee.

had any thoughts of personally developing mediumship. We just thought that by being together creating the correct conditions for the spirit, well perhaps in some way they could let us know of their presence, that they were there, and they never did.

eight o'clock and I would go home. And one particular night, it would be about probably seven forty five, go to eight on the telephone. Then I picked it up and it was my brother and he said, do you fancy coming round tonight for a sitting. We're thinking of having a sitting if you'd like to come. And my exact words were, well, listen, I'd love to come, but I've had such a stressful day, a hectic day in the office.

I said, I just can't you know, But I said, do ring me tomorrow and let me know if anything happened. Where nothing used to happen in those days, and he said to me, yes, I will do. So we talked for a little while, put the phone down, and then about five minutes later I thought it started to come into my mind. I thought, well, if I don't go, I know what's going to happen. It'd be ringing me tomorrow morning saying, guess what. We've had a breakthrough. I thought,

a better girl. So I telephoned him and I said, look, I will come, I said, but obviously I'll be a little late. Anyhow, I arrived at their home an hour or so later, and we just sat round the table with our hands resting on the top, music playing in the half light. It wasn't dark in the half light, and we sat for we used to sit for an

hour in those days. And I supposed them in like fifty five minutes past, and my man was starting to turn towards the tea, the coffee, the biscuits, the cakes, and suddenly, and it's the first time it ever happened. Yet suddenly in my left here I very clearly heard a voice say, turn the light out, continue to sit, turn the light out, continue to sit, And it was like a loop on a tape, just the same words again and again and again. And you know, for some reason,

I wasn't shopped by it. I was just sat there listening to this voice. And after a short while my brother said, well shall we Shall we bring it to and then put the kettle on. I said, no, just a minute, I said, just turn the light out, and without asking any questions, I reached up switched out the light. And then the most extraordinary thing happened, which I always have the greatest difficulty in explaining. Suddenly, something, something from

behind me came quickly towards me. And the only similarly I can use here is if people have seen the film Ghost will whoop it go back against the medium is suddenly entranced, that mischievous spirit jumps into hair. What it was like that, except it wasn't mischievers came towards me. Next moment he was inside me and I was outside, and I was watching myself, and my mouth opened and these words came out, I come speak, brother, sister. And no sooner had the word has been said, it was

out and I was back in. And that's how it began that night, That's how it all began. Just one short sentence. But that was beginning. That was the beginning, and.

to come down tonight for another sitting? And my exact words, pardon my French, was not bloody lightly because I have to say, I have to say that it really did fight me. But it would be the only term that I would ever be nervous within the sea on Zo just that one occasion, and it all started from there.

Probably it took about ten years before any other spirit guide, you know, came in and introduced himself, and slowly over a long long period of sound that we refer to them as the spirit Team and that began to expand and grow. But each one of them have their own individual responsibilities.

But like Stuart spoke about, it's a great time with family and friends to be together, to sit with that music on the anticipation of working with the spirit world. Even if you can't see anything happening, things are happening behind the scenes. You heard Stuart just mention about his spirit team. I'm closest, obviously to Scott Milligan, who you've heard on this show several times speaking in the trance state.

Same thing happened for him. He got an initial few words coming through the trance state, and it wasn't till another two years when more fluid conversation came about Scott started when he was sixteen years old and May second, twenty twenty three, we celebrate twenty six years of him being a medium. I've sat in seance with Stuart Alexander, with David Thompson, and probably over twenty times with Scott Milligan.

Plus for the last over three years, every Friday I spend being the moderator of an extraordinary conversation while Scott's in the trance state and having people ask questions of Scott's spirit friend Eric on life, death and the afterlife. Sometimes his spirit friends act as mediums and bring through loved ones to me. This is the miraculous. Is it worth it dedicating this time for development having no guarantee that something's going to happen in the future. Absolutely, So

let's go to the break and we'll be back. You're listening to Shades of the Afterlife on the iHeartRadio and Coast to Coast AM Paranormal Podcast Network. Welcome back to Shades of the Afterlife. I'm Sandra Champlain, and just to be sure we're on the same page, we are talking

about physical medium seances. That is, deceased loved ones being able to cloak themselves with a gas or vapor that emanates from the body of a physical medium called ectoplasm, and be able to speak and sometimes tout and even hug their loved ones again and on rare occasion now, but quite often in the past, they could be seen by all who were in the room. The home circle is the first step of this, and Stuart Alexander, who has spent fifty two years now as a medium, discusses

it in his book An Extraordinary Journey. I'd like to recommend that you visit his website, which is Stuart Alexander medium dot com. You'll find the new and revised version of the book. There some CDs that'll tell you about in just a moment in a link to the Noah's Arksociety archive dot org. Let me tell you about that. In nineteen ninety the Noah's Ark Society for Physical Mediumship was launched and it quickly spread and attracted members from

all over the world who created these home circles. Now, prior to its launch, physical mediumship had virtually disappeared. The Nozark Society's intention was to encourage people to form home circles, as it would help support and encourage people and advise them what to do and not to do, and that's what it did. Stuart Alexander subsequently became its very first member and was privileged to be appointed its archives officer and later its president. His articles about physical mediumship of

the past were published in its monthly newsletter. Stuart says, had the Society not have been launched, then it was a distinct possibility that I would have remained solely within my long running home circle and almost certainly not have emerged to occasionally hold public seances. Sadly, for various reasons, the society only lasted from nineteen ninety to two thousand

and four. Its monthly newsletters would have disappeared forever had it not been for this member of the Society named lou Sutton, who took the time and trouble and he put them all online. So literally you can go to Noah's Arcsociety archive dot org and read monthly journals from nineteen ninety to two thousand and four of people's home circles. Now the CD set it was created by Stuart Alexander. Elderly spiritualists who had sat with legendary physical mediums sent

Stuart their cassette recordings talking about their experiences. And these materializations that they witnessed in the seance room. These people are all now in the spirit world themselves, but Stuart and myself a committed that their stories live on. If you're interested, and I highly recommend them. You can order the CDs directly from Stuart's website, which is Stuart alexandermedium dot com, or you can find the digital copy on

my website, We Don't Die dot com. On the store page, just look for physical seance room recollections also when you're on that store page. Scott Milligan and I just launched a guide to home circles. Whether you are sitting alone, or you wish to start a home circle, or perhaps you want to experiment with a virtual home circle, you'll

find some great instructions. There are questions and answers with Scott Milligan and also questions and answers on home circles asked to his spirit team while he was in the trance state. We've included a seance that you can listen to. You can find out about Book X Mediums other home circles. We have five hours of music that you can sit to. All in all, there is over twenty hours of material for a low price, and of course you have a

money back guarantee. You can't beat that. As I said earlier, this type of mediumship is almost extinct from our planet. I do believe, however, that there are groups of people that remain silent that continue to do this. There is a small group of people, myself included, committed that by embracing the past, we can have these experiences again and so much more in the future. My friend, we are living in twenty twenty three right now, with all the

technology and all the advances we have. Can you even imagine what might be possible blending the past with all that we currently have at our fingertips. I think it truly is possible that the tipping point of afterlife communication on a regular basis will occur in our lifetimes, and what we now believe is the miraculous communicating with loved ones after they have passed can be regular, everyday conversation and just perhaps we won't need to go to a

medium to communicate. This all starts with our development in the home circle. I want to read one more thing to you from Stuart's book. He received correspondence from Bradley Harris, who is the son of one of the most famous physical mediums called Alec Harris. Like I said earlier, this cabinet that the mediums sit in builds up the energy the spirit. People step out of the cabinet, but their

energy only lasts so long. So Bradley says, on numerous occasions when witnessing forms slowly deemity realizing by melting into the floor, I personally found it to be an amazing experience also to see a white piece of ectoplasm on the floor just outside the cabinet rise up to form a head shape which in a matter of seconds rows into a fountain of ectoplasm to form a fully materialized spirit form which steps forward into the room and experience

one never forgets, and it was beautiful to behold. However, I can understand that a person could feel distressed when a loved one that they had been embracing would start to dematerialize outside the cabinet before stepping back into it. Sometimes the spirit would hold onto the loved one's hands, not wanting to go, but in being unable to hold

the power, they would melt into the floor. I want to share a few more words from Stuart Alexander and if you hear a few taps, he's so passionate that he's hitting the table in front of him.

the stars. As you know, it was born in America, and then like a forest fire, it traveled throughout America, through Europe into England, and men and women of letters, aristocracy, royalty, scientific people, men in the street, people were alsouccumbing to this wonderful new movement that promised to be able to prove conclusively that this life is merely a precursor to what happens afterwards, that the worst survival for every sort you know. And we were on track to do that.

But we've got to remember that for one hundred and fifty years, the Home Stable stood at the very center of spiritualism. It was almost the heartbeat of the movements. And it is within those home sabers that these wonder mediums of the past developed their gifts before eventually some of them, not all of them, came out to work before the public. Within the home saclep, there's no pressure to perform. People just sit together in love and in

harmony to make that contact with the spirit. Well, these days many people believe that by attending a few courses, then in some way development can be accelerated. Well, I'm sorry, but I think that is nonsense. A knowledgeable tutor can help advise, inform, support, encourage a potential medium, but you cannot shortcut the development of mediumshire. I firmly believe that, and everything that I say is based on over fifty

years of experience and study and research, you know. So I'm not just talking sort of at the top of my head because I've been invoked over the three years. No, not at all. So that's my field. I don't wish to offend anyone at all. And I'm sure there's some wonderful tutors out there, some wonderful courses. But for people to believe that they can shortcut the developments of mediumship,

M sorry, it's nonsense. And if you look at the general and I underland the word general Standard of Mediumship of yesteryear, and then compare it with the general standard of mediumship today, well, I think that speaks volumes. That saves everything. To me, spiritualism has gone backwards, and I think that in some respects innocently. We have betrayed the hopes and aspirations of these men and women of the past, many with unrisked their academic standing, their social standing, you know,

to stand up for what they believed in. They were prepared to do that, and they did do that. They put it all on the line. And what have we done with it? Spiritualism is a shadow of its former self. I'm sorry, but that's how I see it, and I don't wish to offend anyone, but to me, that is reality. The home circle is vitally important. And I remember a past editor of The Psychic News, which is spiritualism's all time well it's been around longer than any other journal,

the Psychic News. The editor a number of years ago wrote an article in The Psychic before the Psychic News, and it was an account of his visits to sit with Alec Harris, the materialization medium who lived in South Wales at the time, and it was absolutely wonderful to read this. But the one thing that stuck in my mind was the editor saying that he believed that down every road, every street, every avenue in South Wales there was probably a home circle sitting and that was it

home settles existed in considerable numbers. Now today very few, very few, And I think we've lost our way, and we've stopped listening to the spirit. Well, and when you stop listening to them, then the way we'll always be lost.