Pages

Sunday, September 17, 2017

The Trumpet Shall Sound

seance 'trumpet'
  
 
The title page of The Trumpet Shall Sound (1933) presents a Bible passage concerning a 'trumpet':
 
"In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible . . ."
I Corinthians 15.  52.

A vast quantity of documentation of Direct Voice mediumship cases has been profiled in articles at this blog, including more than 20 articles concerning Leslie Flint.  (1, 2, 3, etc.)  The Flint case is especially noteworthy due to the numerous audio recordings made and readily available for listening online without charge.  In an alternate form of Direct Voice (disembodied voice) seance, 'trumpets' are a significant tool — as in the John Campbell Sloan case.  (1, 2, 3)  During seances conducted by Sloan, the phenomenal voices were heard speaking through levitating and sound-amplifying 'trumpets' (or megaphones) similar to the one shown in the photo above. 

Maurice Barbanell's The Trumpet Shall Sound chronicles Direct Voice seances with medium Estelle Roberts and the 'guide' known as 'Red Cloud.'  In addition to the author's descriptions and transcripts of seances, accounts are included that were contributed by participants.  These recollections have titles such as "Mrs. Varley's Story," "Mrs. D. Yano's Story" and "Hugh Macleod's Story."

Beginning with the book's Foreword by Maurice's fellow journalist, Spiritualist and friend Hannen Swaffer, the widow Lady Segrave's participation in the direct-voice circle is chronicled throughout the book.  At each of the biweekly seances, the voice of her late husband Sir Henry Seagrave was heard for an interim.

The book begins with Maurice Barbanell's description of the seances.
 
The séances are always held in the house of the medium, Mrs. Estelle Roberts, in an upper room not used for any other purpose.  It is only a small room and will hold about twenty-five people seated in a circle.  The circle is composed of four or five regular sitters, the rest are there at the invitation of Red Cloud or with his approval.

Mrs. Constance Treloar is in charge all the time.  Much of the success of the séances is due to her charming personality.  She encourages the spirit voices, which are generally weak at first, gives wise counsel to new-comers and leads the singing when it is necessary.

The séances are always held in darkness.  Often at the beginning Red Cloud complains that he can see a chink of light.  He says it interferes with the psychic rods he has to make.

Two trumpets are used, ordinary tin trumpets with a strip of phosphorescence painted round the broad end.  You can always see when the trumpets move.  The extraordinary thing is, that no matter how quickly they move, they never make a mistake in the dark.  They never fumble, they never bump against anybody, nor touch the wrong person.  It is obvious that the intelligences who use them can see perfectly.

The shorthand-writer who records the sittings is seated in a small alcove which has been partitioned off.  This enables her to have a red light and to hear all the voices which come through.

The rest of the sitters just take their seats.  They are told to link their hands with their neighbours.  Then Mrs. Roberts gives an invocation.  Soon you hear rather stertorous breathing, an indication that she is being entranced.

Her séances always start with "Onward, Christian soldiers," then an electric gramophone is played.  It plays all the time during the sitting.  After a while you do not notice the music.  Singing and music give vibrations which are helpful to the spirit voices.  Strangely enough the record always played is "Rose Marie," the Drury Lane musical comedy.

After the circle has been started for about ten minutes you see one of the trumpets move.  This always gives me a thrill.  Soon the voice of Red Cloud is heard, "God bless you all."

When a trumpet dropped out of the air, this was equated with a fluctuation in the "power."

Maurice recalled an incident that occurred when he attended his first voice seance with Estelle Roberts.  A gentleman whose name wasn't known to Maurice participated in the seance.  Red Cloud referred to the stranger upon saying, "Hold on!  This is for the new little man."  Maurice explained that Red Cloud always said "Hold on!" before each spirit voice spoke.  Maurice added: "To Red Cloud we are all little men and women."  The trumpet moved towards the stranger and a boy's voice said: "Dad, I want you to know that I did not commit suicide . . . I tried to shoot a bird, and stumbled and shot myself.  That's how it happened."  After the seance concluded, Maurice asked the man if he was sure that the voice was his son's.
 
"Yes," he replied, "that was my boy's voice.  They said he committed suicide four months ago, but my wife and I found it difficult to believe it of our son."

Maurice mentioned that he was told to leave the man's name out of the book because the man was afraid to tell his wife about the seance as she was a Christian Scientist and opposed to Spiritualism.

During the March 18, 1932 seance, the voice of an 'old friend' who'd passed over informed his wife and the other sitters: "Look here, you people, I was a Spiritualist, and I want you all to know that it is far more wonderful over here than ever I had realized."

Here are some of Maurice Barbanell's notes accompanying the 1932 seance transcripts.
 
Red Cloud's healing forms an important part of his work.  Through his medium he has trained several people who constitute his band of psychic healers


Red Cloud is always keen on making his séances evidential, hence his constant warning not to give information away.


Notice that it is the spirit who gives the names, which often the sitters have forgotten.


A long conversation followed concerning a story that the sitter was receiving "inspirationally."  The spirit voice knew all about it and gave some advice.


Red Cloud often refers to the spirit doctors who work with him.  They include some well-known English medical men who have passed on.


The trumpet floated until it touched the ceiling.  It moved round the circle and touched the five people present, who were all members of Mrs. Mayer's circle.


Red Cloud always corrects mistakes, whether made by us, or if a voice is occasionally indistinct.

Memorable events of the June 10, 1932 seance include the materialization of a rose — a recurring symbol throughout the annals of transcendental communication.
  
Red Cloud told Lady Segrave she was going to be rewarded for her bravery.  She had made public, a few weeks previously, the fact that she had proved her husband's survival.  This, of course, had caused quite a sensation, and had proved rather a trial for her.

During the sitting, she felt something placed on her lap.  When the lights went up she saw there, hot though the room was and stifling, a perfectly fresh red rose, still covered with moisture.

At the same seance, Red Cloud told the sitters that there was a spirit who has asked permission to address them and the author provides "Hannen Swaffer's Description" of what then occurred — excerpts follow of this passage in the book that includes a warning correlating with warnings heard decades later as quoted of the communicator known as 'Tom' in the transcripts of transcendental communication published in The Only Planet of Choice (1993).  'The opposition' was described by Tom to signify "the negative forces"/"the opposing forces" in a complex explanation for unfortunate occurrences in life.  (See one of the recent blog articles about 'The Nine' case.) 
 
"You must watch and protect your mediums in the next two months."

It was the voice of [the late] Arthur Conan Doyle, speaking loudly to twenty people.  The scene was the same séance-room in which Lady Doyle and her family heard Sir Arthur's voice at a previous sitting.

Doyle, vigorous, powerful, full of force, very earnest and very grave, came back and spoke of the great battle being waged between Spiritualism and the blundering forces that oppose everything that stands for progress.


The séance was a remarkable one.  Lady Hardinge, a newcomer, got three spirit friends through, one after the other, all of them clear-cut entities, full of personality, who showered evidence upon her.  The voice of the late Earl of St. Germans was particularly characteristic.  She told me afterwards that the three people nearest to her in the other world had all come through.

Red Cloud, full of counsel, poured wisdom and inspiration upon the sitters.  Dr. Rust, whom none of us knew by name, heard the highly-evidential voice of his wife, talking to him from Beyond.  The evening was crammed with drama, yet holy as a sacrament.

Then towards the end of the evening, Doyle came through.

"Doyle speaking," he said.  "I asked permission just to come for a moment to offer congratulations on the new paper.¹  (¹ This was a reference to the Psychic News, a newspaper recently launched.)

"Go forward.  Always stand for the truth.  Fear no man.  Do that which is good always.  Do not worry over things.  You have much to accomplish yet."


Again came the warning: "You must watch and protect your mediums in the next two months.

"Listen to me, Swaffer.  There is a great battle taking place, and you must watch our interests.  You are able to forestall that which is being put into being.  They will seek the best roses from your tree."

When [former president of the Marylebone Spiritualist Association present at the sitting Mr.] Craze suggested that this was only the prelude to a greater fight, Doyle said, with an impressive forcefulness, "There is a great force opposing us, but we must go forward.

"Craze, they can never stem the tide.  We are going to deluge the world.  Truth is here at last."

In the description of the May 27, 1932 seance, Maurice mentioned: "The evidence is made up of trivialities—that is why it is evidence."  An example of the gamut of earthly experiences and "evidence" includes the following paragraph concerning a child's voice that was heard at a seance.
 
A childish girl's voice, which gave her age as four, spoke to her mother.  She brought her own evidence.  She referred to her toys and she described in detail the frieze in her nursery and the animals embroidered on her flock.  The child reminded them of her birthday which was due shortly, and promised to be present at the party which they were giving in her honour.

At the same seance, messages from the voice of 'Sir Earnest Shackleton' came through a trumpet for his widow who was present: "I want to tell my dear one that her sister is here with me tonight.  We are all together here . . . I am waiting for you, dear, waiting for you . . . I am still endeavoring to do those things which will be of help to humanity."
 
About a December 3, 1932 seance transcript passage, Maurice commented about the husband conversing with the questioning voice of his wife in Spirit: "He was astonished that his wife should be familiar with details happening around him as trivial as this . . ."  The husband had been asked about a "path" at the premises of his home as the pathway had been requested by the County Council.

Maurice noted about this seance:
 
The last voice to speak was that of Sir Henry Segrave, who has now a perfect mastery of the trumpet.  He conversed in whispers with Lady Segrave, and it was done so well that the rest of the circle could hardly hear what he said.

The following excerpt is from the transcript of the December 30, 1932 seance.
 
"Fred Roberts speaking," announced the next voice.  "I have called my name three times—can you not hear me?  It is the first time I have spoken like this."

"It is nice of you to come," said the sitter to whom he spoke.

"Have you brought anyone with you?" she asked him.

"Shall I tell you whom?  Bob," Fred replied.

"Do you know who he was called after?" he was asked.

"Of course I do," he replied, "the loveliest dog that ever breathed.  There are three here.  How is John?" he asked.

John was the sitter's nephew.

He told her that her sister was there, and also a woman named Margaret Allen.  He referred to some automatic writing that he gives through a friend of hers, and discussed, very naturally, matters of interest to them.

Then he made way for Margaret Allen, a very determined personality.

Margaret Allen told this sitter all about her dogs who had died.  She gave all their names.

When Red Cloud followed her, he said the dogs were still alive.  The love showered upon them by human beings gave them sustenance.  In the animal spheres they grew upon love.

"The love you give dogs and cats puts a soul into being," he explained.  "The friendship of a dog, the love of a dumb animal can teach human beings something sometimes."
 
From the same seance transcript, the following passage is the quoted concluding statements of Red Cloud about the coming new year.
 
"Open up your hearts and respond to the music of your God.  Grant unto all men peace upon earth, unto all peoples the necessities of life, the at-oneness with your Maker.

"In so doing, let the next year respond to the voice of the spirit and so help your dark old world to light.  God bless you all."

Maurice Barbanell's description of the February 10, 1933 seance included some remarks about the Direct Voice phenomena: "No theories of telepathy or 'sub-conscious mind' can apply to this evidence.  No suggestion of fraud or collusion can be entertained."  One should consider that the concept of a shared subconscious Mind among all living things may have brought a different response from the author.

The concluding seance transcript in The Trumpet Shall Sound is dated March 12, 1933.  Among the 15 "spirit voices" heard at this sitting was one recognizable to several of the sitters.  Here is the beginning of this passage in the transcript.
 
Then there came a spirit voice which said firmly and distinctly, "You do not recognize me, I presume?"

"Who is it?" we asked.

Louise Owen, however, had quickly detected the personality of her Chief, Lord Northcliffe.

The spirit voice, however, refused to be greeted as Lord Northcliffe, but insisted on being called Alfred Harmsworth.  "Titles mean nothing over here," he said.

"I thought it was you," said Shaw Desmond.

"Yes," replied the Northcliffe voice, "being fey, you would."

"The futility of it all," the Northcliffe voice continued.  "War and starvation.  Are you binding yourselves together in unity and strength?  Or are you all standing in groups?  It is so futile, if you don't all get together and accomplish something."

Red Cloud mentioned to one sitter: "Your little baby is here.  Your little son who passed on.  He has grown up into a man now."

Maurice Barbanell concluded the book with "an example of Red Cloud's inspired teaching."
 
The glory of life is to love,
Not to be loved;
To give, not to get;
To serve, not to be served;
To be a strong hand to another in the time of need,
To be a cup of strength to a soul in a crisis of weakness
That is to know the glory of life.

 


No comments:

Post a Comment

Use Chrome or Edge browsers to comment. The Firefox browser is not functional with this Blogger system.