The Materialization Mediumship of Helen Duncan and Afterlife Orientations

Alan E. Crossley in a 1993 book wrote about his experiences while attending materialization seances of Helen Duncan.  At one of them this photograph resulted: "It was taken at a Helen Duncan séance by my late friend John Kinsella . . . Careful study of the photograph indicates the density and transparency of the 'ectoplasm.'  The texture of this substance appears to consist of millions of minute particles suspended in space . . . The tube-like protuberance from the side of the head is the umbilical link with the medium from whom the ectoplasm is drawn.  The medium was in trance behind a black curtain."

 

 

There are many reasons that evidence of so-called 'paranormal phenomena'—revelatory of the afterlife and 'the God Force'—has been perpetually ignored throughout mainstream media during recent decades while fear-oriented and superstition-oriented videos and articles pertaining to anomalous phenomena proliferate across the Internet.  Journalists may have little correct knowledge about these subjects and there may be assumed imperatives encompassing mistaken perspectives of social consciousness in addition to corporate news topic directives from their company executives.
 
A medium known for manifestations of people and 'simulacrums' of people from the ascended realm was Helen Duncan (1895-1956).  Psychic News founder/editor Maurice Barbanell wrote The Case of Helen Duncan (1945) at the time of Duncan’s release from the Holloway Jail of London.  She had been sentenced to nine months imprisonment due to prosecution initiated under the Witchcraft Act of 1735.  Barbanell was among the many people who considered this a flagrant miscarriage of justice.  Helen became a person of renown to thousands of people who'd witnessed firsthand the phenomena at her sittings yet there would be further persecution by law enforcement authorities.  As recounted at a commemorative website (and by biographers), the end of Helen's Earth life resulted after the entranced medium was seized by a plainclothes police officer during a séance.  The team of police were completely unaware of potential hazards upon disrupting séance room conditions.

 

The spirit voice of Dr. Williams warned Henry [Helen's husband] that no light must ever be shone on the ectoplasm or it would be extremely dangerous to Helen.  But a dim red light was always on during séances so sitters could see what was happening.

The spirit voice of Dr. Williams announced that Helen’s ‘spirit guide’ could now form from the ectoplasm and would look after Helen from then on.

To the sitter’s amazement, the ectoplasm swirled into the shape of an elderly but distinguished man over six foot tall who had an upright stature and an educated voice with a trace of an Australian accent.  Always polite and with a sense of humour, he announced his arrival with a request for those present not to be alarmed at the sight of him and introducing himself as Albert Stewart who had been born in Scotland but had emigrated to Australia where he had drowned in 1913.

‘Uncle Albert’ as he became known, became the Master of Ceremonies at séances.  He announced to sitters what spirit was about to come out of the cabinet.  Sometimes Helen had another spirit guide – a young girl called Peggy who would skip around the room singing songs.

In 1951, the Witchcraft Act was repealed partly due to pressure from Winston Churchill.  In its place came the Fraudulent Mediums Act, and some four years later in 1954, Spiritualism was officially recognised as a proper religion by an Act of Parliament.  Spiritualists everywhere knew why and were pleased that whilst frauds would be properly prosecuted the authorities would stop harassing true working Mediums.

They were wrong because in 1956 another of Helen’s séances held in Nottingham was raided by police.

Once again, no evidence of fraud was found but in their ignorance the police had committed the worst possible sin of physical phenomena – that a medium in trance must never, ever be touched or a light be shone on the medium.  If this happens the ectoplasm returns to the medium’s body far too quickly and can cause immense – sometimes even fatal – damage.

And so it was in this case.  A doctor was summoned and discovered two second degree burns the size of saucers on Helen’s stomach and breast.  In severe pain and shock, she was rushed to hospital.

The burns never healed and five weeks after that police raid she was dead. 

 

Alan E. Crossley observed in A Journey of Psychic Discovery (1993; revised edition 2012) how recourse to the Witchcraft Act was "simply a smokescreen so as not to give prominence to the fact that, through her mediumship, information of a 'secret' nature was being divulged prior to official release . . ."  A sailor having made the transition to the afterlife had materialized at a seance attended by his mother whose shock compelled her to send a letter of inquiry to the Admirality.  "They communicated with her immediately, asking her where she obtained her information, as no official news had been released that the Barham had been sunk."   

 

Here are some excerpts from Maurice Barbanell's book about Helen Duncan.

 

Like many others, after her interest in Spiritualism was aroused, she started a home circle at which her mediumship was developed.

It was not long before the psychic phenomena she obtained of materialisation—one of the rarest forms of mediumship—attracted local attention.  The news spread . . .

You must remember that, in materialisation, what is akin to the whole process of birth is accelerated and takes place within a few minutes.  The spirit form which manifests is apparently solid.  It has a heart-beat; it has lungs; it can see, hear and talk.  To all intents and purposes it is a living, breathing, human being, albeit the manifestation is temporary.

The medium has no control over the phenomena . . .

. . . a cabinet, which consists of the recess made by drawing a curtain across a corner of a room, is used so that the power can be condensed and conserved, and the medium sits behind the curtain.

The whole test of materialisation is in the evidence provided by the forms which build up.  They give proof by showing themselves in their earthly likeness, by reproducing the voice by which they were known, by the repetition of familiar idiosyncrasies and characteristics and by referring to incidents which establish their identity.

Helen Duncan refused to take her chair in the seance room until the examiners had stated they were quite satisfied that the precautions taken made fraud impossible.  She donned black for the obvious reason that the ectoplasm which appeared was always white in colour.

I can speak from personal testimony about her mediumship.  In my own home, under conditions which I imposed, I was present at nine seances in three weeks.  In addition, I have attended seances with this medium in several towns.  I have witnessed materialisations which I could recognise of people I had known on earth.

 

Duncan’s daughter Gena Brealey co-wrote with Kay Hunter a 1985 biography of the medium, The Two Worlds of Helen Duncan, that provides details about Helen’s life.  Brealey revealed that the suggestion for a home circle was made by 'Dr. Williams,' the first ‘guide’ to successively become known to Helen and her husband.  Ectoplasm is described as being a transformational substance that sometimes could in appearance take a form comparable to cheesecloth or butter muslin yet at other times it could also resemble such things as a spider’s web or even solid steel.  On one occasion when a sitter was greeted by her late father for a fleeting reunion, he returned to the cabinet and reappeared leading a horse before he “seemed to melt into the floor, taking his horse with him.” 

 

Prominent journalist and author Hannen Swaffer in My Greatest Story (1945) commented about Helen's arrest:

 

While she was giving a seance at Portsmouth, a whistle was blown.  Policemen rushed into the room, took part in a sort of Rugby scrum, and, because they could not find the white "sheet"—that is what they called the ectoplasm the medium had exuded—were childish enough to believe that she had swallowed it, or else that the sitters, who demanded in vain that they should be searched, had secreted it on their persons.

Although a common aspect of seances, the police seemed to know nothing whatsoever about the ectoplasm that thousands of Spritualists had seen to have "built up solid spirit forms that walked about the room, talked with their earth relatives . . . Sir William Crookes took lots of photographs of a materialised 'Katie King' which a member of his family destroyed after his funeral, although some of the pictures still survive . . . But the Portsmouth police said it was a sheet!"

 

Hannen Swaffer made the entreaty, "Did the Treasury, the Public Prosecutor, or the Home Office underling who afterwards boasted of his cleverness in remembering the Witchcraft Act know that this Duncan prosecution would put every Spiritualist, every medium, and every psychical researcher in Britain in perpetual jeopardy?  Someone must have known."
 
Swaffer also appraised about the trial: 

 

You did not know that it might be destined to rank, one day, with the trial of Socrates, who was condemned to death because he said he has a spirit guide, and with the conviction of Joan of Arc because she obeyed spirit voices, that, remembering Helen Duncan's conviction, Spiritualists recalled Rome's threat to torture Galileo, whom it forced to recant, because he said the sun did not move round the earth.

 

The book includes Swaffer's account of himself having been one of 40 witnesses who gave testimony about "the genuineness of her powers . . . I was risking obloquy and scorn.  Yet Truth is Truth, and you have to stand for it."

 

Well, having been refused a chance to demonstrate her powers in court, Mrs. Duncan was sent to prison for nine months; the Court of Appeal refused to reverse the judgement; and then the Attorney-General denied us leave to take the case to the House of Lords, saying, "It is not a matter of sufficient public importance."

 

The following excerpts are from A Journey of Psychic Discovery by Alan E. Crossely.

 

I first met Helen Duncan in 1954 at the home of a friend in Liverpool, where she was staying for a full week.  Each evening of that week she consented to give a public seance which I was privileged to attend.  So, for six consecutive evenings I was able to observe very closely every aspect of phenomena of materialisation.

Mrs. Duncan's spirit guide was called Albert, when on earth, he had been a lumberjack in Australia and stood over six feet tall.  At the beginning of every seance he would materialise and remain throughout, introducing the many spirits wishing to communicate. 

Mrs. Duncan would take her seat facing the audience and slip into deep trance very quickly.  As soon as this happened the curtains, which were also black, were drawn across in front of her and the white light put out.  A red light was situated directly above and in front of the 'cabinet.'  A member of the audience, often about twenty in number, would lead in singing the 23rd Psalm to the tune of "Crimond."  Usually, about half-way through the second verse, a figure clothed in white would peer over the top of the curtain.  Introducing himself Albert, he would ask: "Is anyone going  to say 'How do you do?'"  The audience would respond almost in unison "Good evening and God bless you."  The séance was under way, with Albert in charge of the proceedings.

Speaking with authority and in full command Albert declared "I am going to ask Mrs. Duncan to stand up now and I want you to look at the line of the face and tell me if you can see her."  The audience response was unanimous.  "Yes."  Then, moving to the side of his medium, Albert said, "Can you see me?"  "Yes," replied everyone.

There, in full view of everyone, stood both medium and guide together.  Albert appeared brilliantly white against the blackness of the curtains and against Mrs. Duncan, whose face alone was visible.  Her dress, of course, was black, as I have previously said.

The air nearest the cabinet became distinctly chilly, a characteristic of physical phenomena.  As soon as the introduction was over the guide escorted his medium back to her chair and, with a swish, pulled the curtains together.  The audience sang the "Lord's Prayer" softly until Albert again addressed the audience.  "The first person to come here from our side of life is a gentleman who passed as a result of a heart condition.  He has only been here for a short while . . . he is coming for someone sitting next to you, Alan."  There was a slight pause.  Continuing, Albert said, "Will that lady sitting next to Alan ask a gentleman out?"

 

Sitting next to me was a friend and her son, whom I had persuaded to attend in the hope that her husband would manifest.  He had died in hospital only a few days previously . . .

Slowly, the curtains parted revealing a figure smiling broadly.  I recognised him immediately.  Looking directly towards his wife he gasped excitedly: "Hello, darling."  His son jumped up from his seat and shouted: "Skipper!"  He had recognised his father.  The moment was dramatic and electrifying.

His wife tried to speak but was so overcome with emotion that she found it impossible.  "My dearest," said her husband, "I want you to carry on from where I left off."

He moved back a little, threw a kiss to his wife and son, and then dematerialised, seemingly through the floor!

Among the many other materialisations that evening, I must mention the mother who had lost her twin babies soon after they were born.  Both materialised in the arms of Mrs. Duncan, screaming their heads off!  The mother went up to the cabinet and took a close look at them.  From her reaction there was little doubt that they belonged to her.

Apart from the very cold air which surrounded the ectoplasm, I noticed that it gave off a strange earthy smell.  It appeared to be made up of a mass of minute particles suspended in space. 

 

The trial of Helen Duncan at the Old Bailey for offenses against the Witchcraft Act of 1735 is documented in the entirety with The Trial of Mrs. Duncan (1945) edited, with a foreword, by C. E. Bechhofer Roberts.  Helen Duncan's mediumship has been a topic of previous blog articles.  (incl. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)