The Noah's Ark Society 1997 Cardiff Seminar
by Lew Sutton

Following last year's very successful seminar at the Cardiff Moat House Hotel it was with great expectations that we set out in brilliant sunshine for Cardiff on Friday the 12th September. As I have mentioned before it is amazing how the sun shines on our events!
The seminar's format this year was slightly different from recent seminars to give space for six important lectures and the two usual séances. Thus we had no workshops or other activities. But this is how it should be. It would become a little monotonous if each seminar exhibited the same format.
It is nice to see increasing benign interest in our Society from the academic world with three of the lectures given by respected professors. Professors Arthur Ellison and David Fontana are both members of the SPR (Society for Psychical Research) and also members of the SMN (Scientific & Medical Network). Arthur is Vice President of the SMN and David President of the SPR. Professor Kiyohiro Miura from Japan is a director of the Japan Psychic Science Association and is Professor of English at Meiji University. Professor Miura is also a member of the SPR. Not all members of the SPR are out-and-out sceptics like the ones we see on TV!

After the usual introductions George Cranley kicked off on the Friday evening with a talk entitled "O, for the touch of a vanished hand". For those who did not recognise these words, they are borrowed from Tennyson. Although many of us have heard George's fascinating early experiences before, it is still wonderful to hear again of the marvellous phenomena he experienced as a young man. In particular, the unique mediumship of Mona Van der Watt where spirit voices would be heard as she gave clairvoyance. Also the fine mediumship of Alec Harris where many full materialisations would occur at one séance. What awe-inspiring experiences he had. And of course, nobody can tell it like George with a liberal sprinkling of wit. His story is always worth retelling as it is uplifting to hear about the phenomena that we can achieve yet again as the interest in physical phenomena increases through the activities of our members.

Prof. Arthur Ellison spoke on "Some Experiences and Thoughts on Physical Mediumship of 40 years ago". The Professor started attending séances in the 1950's and experienced a variety of wonderful phenomena. Amongst the many things he witnessed were materialised figures (one of which melted into the floor on leaving), eight bunches of flowers apported at one séance and trumpets whirling around his hands in red light. Perhaps the most fascinating though was to see at one foot from his face and in red light the arrival of an apport. He saw a pink glow in the medium's dropped down into the cupped hands. It was a lovely pink rose. Most unusual - apports normally just seem to arrive with no indication of the mechanism involved.
Another aspect of his talk concerned reality as we see it. He explained how we all have our own "model of reality" of the world (how we make sense to ourselves of the world around us and our relationship to it). A model that we build upon right from birth when we first start to learn that we appear to be separate from what is out there. This is the dualistic concept of mainstream Western science as opposed to the Eastern originated spiritual teachings that we are all part of the one consciousness. The scientist or the philosopher have their models, and nearer to home, we can recognise that the Christians' model of reality is different to the Spiritualists' model. Arthur's enthusiasm for talking in terms of "models of reality" resulted in a good deal of playful leg-pulling by our spirit friends during the séances!

Professor Kiyohiro Miura next spoke on "Mediumship and Meditation in Japan and Britain. The Professor's first real encounter with Western Spiritualism came when he spent a one year sabbatical in the UK during 1978 and met Gordon Higginson and Joe Benjamin. Since then he met Felix through the mediumship of Colin Fry which helped inspire him to write several books. He showed us one that had been translated into English. Kiyo went on to explain about meditation in the Zen Buddhist tradition where the main goal is to still the mind in order to find one's true self. To find nirvana, or as we might say, to contact the God consciousness within. I particularly liked his analogy of comparing everyday consciousness to ripples on a pond. It is not until the ripples are stilled that we can see into the water. So it is with the mind. Until everyday thoughts are stilled we cannot contact the higher self.
Another aspect of the Zen tradition is the idea of total focus on what you are doing. Thus watching TV whilst eating or listening to a walkman whilst jogging are definitely non-Zen behaviour. As regards contact with the spirit world, the main difference between Western mediumship and Eastern is the fact that trance mediums in Japan do not work on their own. The medium always has a "minder" to test the spirits and send them packing if they are undesirable ones! Another difference is the acceptance in the East of contact with animal spirits as a matter of course. He quoted cases of animals that had been mistreated by humans making contact from the spirit world after passing on and causing havoc by giving false information whilst disguised as human spirits. So have respect for animal life forms. They may finally get their revenge on you!

"In Defence of Physical Mediumship" formed the title for Professor David Fontana. A brave title for a leading academic who may risk scorn from colleagues! In fact he started by saying this is an age when the sceptic speaks very publicly. A time when the scientific evidence for the paranormal is slowly building up so much so that it will finally make the sceptics stance untenable.
One of the interesting facts that came out of various scientific laboratory experiments that David covered in his talk was the results of the American Governments 20 million pounds worth of investigations. Information on their experiments have only been are added together, the chances of the positive results being due to pure chance are a billion billion to one against. That sounds pretty conclusive to me.
Another interesting fact that came out is that paranormal experiments work better at certain predictable times by a considerable amount. The best results occurred at about 1300hrs sidereal time. As a sidereal day is 23hrs 57min 4sec long it means that each day by our own local time the peak effect is at a different time each day. What this means is that the effects are best when our planet faces in a certain direction with respect to the rest of the universe. Now does that have astrological implications I wonder? Is this why mediumship works better some days than others? As regards understanding the sidereal day, at midday sidereal time we are always pointing in a certain direction with respect to the distant stars (Aries constellation) whereas midday local time we are always pointing towards our own star, the sun (A simple computer program can calculate sidereal time with respect to local time).
In spite of watertight experiments, the sceptics still claim that there must be flaws in the experiments. David claimed that this "can't happen" attitude is now inhibiting science. Sceptics cannot accept that the world is a very mysterious place.

'The Paranormal World of MENSA' formed the intriguing title of Andy Nisbet's talk. Andy's talk was based on a real potpourri of experience ranging from Billy Graham (the evangelist) to Arthur C. Clark and his 2001 odyssey. In between he covered members of the Wrekin Trust, College of Psychic Studies and many more. Andy's most interesting talk covered much subject matter and was amply lightened with his infectious Scottish humour. It was not until the next day that we saw the fine sight of Andy in his kilt and large sporran. If you want to hear the cheeky story about the sporran you will have to buy the NAS tape! (tapes normally only available to members).
It was a meeting with David Furlong of the Wrekin Trust that first gave Andy the idea of becoming seriously involved in the paranormal. At that time the Wrekin Trust ran the Mystic and Scientist conferences and he got to know people like Prof. Arthur Ellison. It was with Arthur's help that he brought MENSA and the paranormal together by starting "MENSA Malvern" thus starting on the path that finally brought him many years later to this seminar.
It is impossible to briefly cover the subject matter of Andy's talk but I will relate one of his stories. Apparently one morning he went for a walk up the lovely Malvern Hills near where he lived. On reaching the top found three fellow walkers resting there. As it was misty he felt sorry for them and went on to explain that if it were clear what a marvellous sight would be laid out before their very eyes. However, as he said that, a gap opened up in the mist like an oval window and remained just long enough for him to point out the salient features that lay before them!

Dominic Macquire gave us up-to-date information on his séance room research with his talk entitled "Direct Voice Mediumship - The Microphone in a Box Method". Although the method was tried as long that the method has been tried and improved upon using modern electronic equipment.
Dominic told us the fascinating story of how he came to be involved by clairvoyantly seeing old equipment that he then came across three months later whilst giving a reading in a house. The equipment turned out to have been left in the cellar for many years and had belonged to the father of the person receiving the sitting. Since then Dominic has set about improving the system using modern microphones and equipment. In fact he found that a Karaoke machine is ideal for listening to and recording what is happening inside the box! With help from Colin Fry's guide, Magnus, he has made great strides forward. It was hoped to try the system out during Colin Fry's séance the following day but Magnus wasn't happy with the particular box available that day.
The idea is to put the device in the séance room so that it acts like a miniature version of the cabinets used for a physical medium. In fact it is doing the same job - confining the ectoplasm to a small area to allow our spirit friends to manipulate it easier. He said most materials can be used to form a box up to a maximum size of about 12 by 12 by 18 inches but avoid lead or aluminium. He brought along a selection of boxes to show us. His latest version is a plastic expansion box for central heating systems! As regards aluminium, he thought that from his research, we might get better trumpet phenomena if we used say cardboard trumpets instead of aluminium.

Now onto the séances. As our membership is growing and now embracing more and more scientifically minded people (three of the lecture were by professors) I should like to point out that this report is written with my Spiritualist hat on and not as a retired research scientist. Thus statements such as "alleged communicator" or " claims to be" etc are omitted. Many of those who communicate have given evidence as to their identity at previous séances. As regards the actual phenomena, may I refer those of you with a more sceptical nature to my article titled "Be Alert" in the March '97 Newsletter of the NAS. Although not aimed specifically at the more sceptical, that article does contain information to help assess the authenticity of the phenomena.
Important statements from both circles concerning the effects of the mass grieving surrounding the passing of Princess Diana are reported verbatim and included as a separate item at the end of report. Both séances were taped in stereo and copies are available to members off the NAS.
Most of Saturday was taken up by lectures with the first séance in the evening with Stewart Alexander as the medium. The séance started with the usual greeting from White Feather followed quickly by the cheeky quick-witted Christopher who comes through as a child, although of course, he has now grown up in the spirit world. Christopher immediately spoke to Professor David Fontana and tried an experiment to show that he could see in the dark. Unfortunately the experiment didn't go quite as expected which caused a good messages to two ladies by the name of Kay and Jean.
Walter Stinson, a regular communicator came through next and stressed how important it is to have harmony between sitters in order to obtain good results. Next came an experiment that made us wince a bit when Siggy (nickname) from Iceland was asked to pinch Stewart's skin with a pair of pliers! He was asked to squeeze the pliers as hard as possible in order to prove that the medium was in trance. Amazingly I heard no complaints from Stewart afterwards.
Walter next gave the following very helpful information to give encouragement to our home circles for times when nothing much seems to be happening. "Providing you sit in total love and in harmony then you may always rely on and depend on the fact that there will be folks from my side of life who draw very close to you, who work with you. And we are all on our side so very grateful, so delighted that there are folks, that there are circles who are prepared to give their time to this wonderful work, this most important work. There are so few channels through whom we can converse with your side. We need every channel that we can find, every channel. And we do implore you to continue with your efforts. We can say that eventually they will be rewarded (with communication). But you must keep on, you must keep going. Have faith in our side, we shall not let you down. But the harmony is everything". A question followed concerning the effects of the mass grieving surrounding the passing of Princess Diana. As previously mentioned, this important matter is covered separately at the end of this report.

Next came the famous "passing matter through matter" experiment where the plastic strap holding the medium's right arm is momentarily de-materialised to allow his arm to be raised and a witness requested to feel the strap left dangling on the arm of the chair. This time the witness was a lady by the name of Velta. On this occasion the strap was then momentarily de-materialised yet again to release the strap from the arm of the chair and placed in Velta's hand. Then our spirit friends took a spare strap that had been left on a small table in the middle of the room and re-secured the medium's arm. For a fuller description of these experiments see the reports of the last seminars at Cardiff (Newsletter Nov'96) or Burton-on-Trent (Newsletter Jun'97).
After completing the experiment Walter made the unusual request to interrupt the séance so that the trumpets could be removed from the room to recharge the luminous bands. They had become so dim as to be hardly visible. The trumpets were duly recharged and the séance got under way again with trumpets glowing like mad! The Spirit entity Freda Johnson next came through and said that she was speaking through the medium rather than by direct voice so her voice was not quite right. She also said that by using this method what went into the channel was not always the same as what came out which left her rather puzzled! Freda then went on to add to the comments made by Walter concerning Princess Diana. This is reported verbatim together with the other comments in a supplementary report.

We were then asked by Christopher to join hands and within a minute rocking then a few minutes later it took off followed shortly by a second trumpet. For about ten minutes the trumpets whizzed around the room travelling up to about ten feet or more from the medium and often in opposite directions. They reached nearly as high as the ceiling and as far as the third row where they gently touched a gentleman's head. Other people were gently touched by the trumpets and some found them resting on their laps at times.
As often happens these days, Stewart became conscious for a few minutes and watched the trumpets flying around! The trumpets were than placed outside of the circle shortly followed by several people being gently touched by, I suspect, the drumsticks. These had been placed at the beginning of the circle on a small table in the centre of the circle. I assume that ectoplasmic rods were used to manipulate the drumsticks as usually happens. This phenomena occurred as far back as the second row of sitters.
Next came whispers at shoulder height near to where June Lister was sitting. It appeared to be independent direct voice rather than through the trumpet. Then we heard a voice asking for his granddaughter, Jean. However in spite of Christopher's encouragement, a successful link could not be made. Christopher than conveyed a message from a Mary in spirit to a lady present by the name of Julia. Several accurate details were given and also explicit instructions given about a book and its location in her house. He asked her to check it out when she arrived home. It will be interesting to hear from Julia in a future Newsletter how she got on.
Christopher withdrew and Walter returned to announce that he wanted two witnesses for an experiment in red light to materialise his hand. The two selected witnesses, a lady and gentleman were invited to sit at the small table in front of the medium. Within a short while they were able to discern fingers appearing, some solid and some transparent. Then the materialised hand touched and in turn shook their hands and the lady excitedly exclaimed "feels warm"!
After the witnesses returned to their seats Walter asked if anyone knew of Arthur Davis. A lady called Frances responded and then received a considerable amount of accurate evidence including several names, all of which was accepted. She was even told that her parents wanted a boy - that's why she was named Frances!
We were next told by Christopher that the energy was going and so White Feather returned for the closing prayer. When the lights came on we found Stewart still firmly tied up with ropes and plastic cable ties but minus his pullover. This was found a little distance away on a ladies lap! As this is normally impossible, it must have been another case of passing matter through matter.

The last event of the seminar was a séance with Colin Fry (also known as Lincoln) on the later part of Sunday morning. As usual we started off with lively singing to set the conditions for the séance. Within a few minutes of our singing Frances (Judy Garland) joined in. She included in her repertoire "Somewhere over the rainbow", sung at incredible volume. Quite remarkable. Then Magnus made his appearance and spoke with his usual eloquence. A question was asked concerning the upsurge of emotion caused by the passing is reported verbatim together with the other comments from Stewart's séance at the end of this report.
Magnus then became aware of someone standing up in the dark and requested they sit down before continuing the séance (this action is obviously disruptive to the finely balanced conditions in the séance room and could be serious if they stumbled).
Professor Arthur Ellison asked if it was possible to talk to those who have just passed over by lucid dreaming (awareness of being in the dream state which can enable one to control the dream). Magnus confirmed that this is quite possible. I then asked about the nature of time in his plane of existence and is he aware of the passing of time. He said he is aware of the passing of events.
Professor Kiyohiro Miura wanted to know what his impression of the Japanese people was and how does he see the future of Japan psychically? Magnus replied that from his plane of existence he is not concerned with separate countries or ethnic groupings. One should not restrict ones idea of spirituality to country boundaries.

A gentleman from Australia asked "If mental mediumship gives proof of survival why do you see materialisation as being important?". The gist of Magnus's reply was that whatever method of mediumship is used, the whole idea is to raise our consciousness on the earth plane.
Magnus then attempted to use the "Microphone in a Box" method as covered in Dominic Macquire's lecture. However Magnus was not satisfied with the arrangements and abandoned the experiment. No doubt changes will be made before another attempt is made. Next a voice was heard calling out asking to speak to David Fontana. He said his name was Boddington. It turned out to be Harry Boddington who made a study of Physical Phenomena and wrote on the subject. It sounded to me as if he was communicating by independent direct voice. A reflective discussion took place between the two and Harry spoke of the interesting but difficult method that he had to use to communicate with the physical world. He compared using the mechanism of speaking via the medium's mind to like going into a house with many rooms. No doubt he meant that the mind has many room-like compartments so he needed the right one to be able to communicate in this manner. When asked where he went to in his plane to communicate he said that he was called by "the masters" to "viewing platforms". He said there are many of these but that their location is never the same. Before Harry took his leave, David felt his hand being gently touched as a parting gesture.
A voice then called out asking for Joanie. It turned out to be Joan Hughes's aunt and gave evidence as to their time together when Joan was a little girl. She pulled Joan's leg about the fact that in spite of her encouragement, Joan never learnt to crochet properly!
Next to come through was the regular communicator known as Dolly. Dolly, who's proper name is Daniel worked on the stage as a female impersonator and still retains his show'biz extrovert style. He caused quite a laugh when he gave a message to a lady from a Gwen earth Gwen's sister had gone for a sitting with the lady whilst at the same time had been going out with her boyfriend! Dolly then spoke to Kiyo and talked of their meeting last year in Japan.
After this he touched Elisabeth Wheeler's hand and asked her to encourage the medium to get his headaches attended to. He didn't want to see Stewart over his side yet! He said he had enough problems when another popular Spiritualist passed over. He claimed it took him ages to sort out the huge crowd who wanted to greet Leslie Flint when he arrived in the Spirit world!

Dolly next spoke to a lady at the far end of the room and told her that her Grandma remarked that she couldn't get butterfly cakes right when she was young. The lady admitted she still has problems with the wings breaking! Next came whispers that as they became stronger it became quite obvious that it was Gordon Higginson