1934
May 6 - May 23
May 6, 1934.
Ethel Muir; Ada Turner; Harold Turner; Mercedes; Ewan; W. Barrie; T. G. H.; J. A. Hamilton; Mary Maclean, Secretary.
8:55 p.m. Sitting commences. Mercedes is in trance a few minutes after sitting.
Mercedes: "Follow me and I will take you. I came before. I wanted to give you a picture such as I used to give you through the little woman; but I could not make you understand that I was using the other woman - Dawn - I tried ..."
(R. L. Stevenson speaking, she says.)
"The boys are here again tonight. They want me to go some place is with them ; I will try to go and see where they want to take me to ..."
"We are going up a long steep road - a high mound of earth, and the two boys are in front of me, beckoning me forward. A big fort of stone walls - thick. It is two boys that I have helped one time; I kept them from being sent to prison. It was just for some little youthful misbehavior. They have both made the change just the same as me; but they have a purpose in coming to me again. They are showing me the prison that I saved them from. It is in Edinburgh, a little out of it, not exactly in the city."
"If you could have known it was me last night: I had the picture all ready to give you; but it is difficult to bring it back again - I can't do it again."
"I am going to give you something that will be very interesting and very soon, in your little group. (Continues). There is a young man in the cabinet. He is very like Walter; but I don't think it is Walter. Not the same features. He lifted up the chair and he seemed to be examining the bottom of it; and he turned as if he was speaking to someone at the side. said it was all right; whatever it was, he was satisfied, and it seemed to be as if he was examining the bell; and he did not seem to be so satisfied with it ..." (trails off ... silence for about five minutes)
9:25 p.m. Mercedes: "Good evening, friends. This is Lucy speaking. The bell may not ring in the absence of Dawn; and I also want to tell you from Walter, you must not think that he is not here if the bell does not ring. He also wants me to say to you that my medium is not aware of what transpired last meeting. It was very difficult to get control: she was in a very poor condition, and that he himself was not with you until it was almost time for dismissal. But you are not to be discouraged. The medium was very tired, and very hard to get control of ..."
"I want to make it very clear to you that the trip that Dawn was on was not the same as these other two; that she was on an entirely different journey, and if she had been in good condition it would have been explained to you. Walter could not use her; that was why she was away. I know that he is here and is working in your cabinet. I don't know if he will make himself known to you or not. You must just be content to sing and wait."
Ewan: "She is going away - quite a long way - but she's got a return ticket. She is going in a little box. (Ewan goes through the movements of sealing down a little box.) There is glorious sunlight in the country you are going to ..."
Mercedes: "Take the ball of fire away - I don't want to go in there again; I want something cool. Oh, it has grown since I was there before; he says that I will find it quite changed - it is like a gondola - it is round like a balloon, and you sit in that little box."
Ewan: "I am going to keep on the ground - she is going to be up in the air."
Mercedes: "I want to try to explain the falling off - the losing of your heavy material body - it is a wonderful feeling. It is just like as if there were chains round your neck; it is just like as if they were round your wrists, too; and if you were suddenly set free, a wonderful sensation to know that for a few seconds of time that your body is just a featherweight - a lightness of spirit that is very, very exhilarating - you don't feel at all strange."
"I don't think I am in the same globe as I was before. I see vast plains with people on them in more or less attitudes of doing nothing, friends; they don't seem to be at all active; they seem to be lying around; they all seem to be waiting on something and looking towards the west as if they're expecting something coming from that direction. Look of expectancy on every face; something is coming that they have waited long for. I think they are waiting to be set at liberty from some condition that is affecting their sphere, because it is a very bare place; there is nothing of any beauty to it at all."
"I have asked my guide why he has taken me here - he says it is to show me that I may return to my plane and tell the people of my plane that they are not the only ones who are waiting on deliverance from some condition that is troubling them at the present time - that the conditions on the earth plane have touched this sphere, and that these people looking there are waiting for deliverance from a depressing condition. (She laughs). It is funny, friends; they look at me as if I am their deliverer. It is the plane of waiting souls."
"It is not a plane of darkness, friends; it is just a plane (plain?). Well, they wait until someone comes for them - I will go further ..."
"I can see the material plane again.
"Is it really - (as though she is talking to someone) - did you ever think, friends, that there were inhabited spheres besides your own earth plane?"
Ewan: "There are those that go among you that you wot not of."
Mercedes: "The majority have no comprehension of your globe. This gentleman, our guide, says that he has been to your earth plane, that he lived here."
"He seems desirous of making those pictures as complete as possible, but he says that there has sometimes come inside your room people who have never lived on the material plane; but you have not been aware of it because your guides have kept them from coming in; but that someday there will be a reliable control who will come and give you a very splendid knowledge of the universe - there are good angels and there are dark angels that come among you ..."
Ewan: "These are mysterious words. You are of a different kind, but you cannot escape contacting them . At times the dark angels are like a cloud covering your life, but they will go. We are going now to give them battle."
Mercedes: "Yes, there will be a mighty war - the steadfast will keep your thoughts on things that are good - In the darkest time glad tidings will be given to you when these things are accomplished."
"The souls of men go on forevermore ..."
"My guide says to me, friend, that I have not to be depressed at the picture that he has shown me. He also makes a prophecy. He says that men of the material plane will conquer that which lies above the clouds, and that there will be voyages back and forth and nothing will be strange to those who live in that age. He also says that the insight in the spheres is growing. In your material plane people are now anticipating the fact that there are other places that can be inhabited."
Ewan: "Great men will arise."
Mercedes: "I must give this message; the quiet please ..."
Ewan: "Great men will arise ..."
Mercedes: "Yes, great men will arise who will take their places among the rulers of the earth. They will give their hands to one another in common love. We wait only for an example: like calls to like; and there will be three great men. Do not give up hope. Things are coming that you know nothing about; let all people of good will take heart and give prayers to God, and ye will conquer and overcome those who set to naught these things. Out of this work there will come a great message. Men's thoughts will turn again to Christ. After five years it will be accomplished. Remember that, friend. (She breaks off suddenly and shouts 'Oh, I am falling, falling.' She falls to the floor and is quiet.)
Ewan: "Give heed to the next things that she will speak to you."
Mercedes: "I am one who has descended from a great height to speak to you, friends; and I want to give you confidence in your work. I am informed by those who work for you and with you that many difficulties arise in their way and retard their progress; but you must on no account be discouraged, because what was once a little stone is now a mighty boulder, and is growing and growing. You may not, friend, think that the seed that you planted is very fruitful, and you may have to cut the cord that binds you to this plane before you see the far-reaching results of your experiences and your experiments. I am also told by those that work for you that progress is very slow. It is slow because you are aware of time. But those that are the sentinels of your group have been taken up a long long way, to a plane that is beyond time; and we will try and show them the futility of time, as you call it, because eternity is long, and time is nothing, and space is endless, and work such as you're doing is something that is slow in progress, but is mighty in effect; and there will be new avenues open to you, friend, mark these words, that come through your instrument; there may have been words to that effect said to you before, but I wish you to remember, take heed of these words, that avenues will be open to you that you will be able to make progress."
Ewan: "Holy, Holy, Holy; give thanks to the Lord God Almighty. Eternity, everlasting, without beginning, without end. How can you conceive a measurement for such things? It is as nothing; it is a bargain that men have taken to themselves."
Mercedes: "Goodbye."
Mercedes (A few moments later): "What is the matter; you all look as if you had been in church ... You have got the aristocracy of the planes, the Nobility here with you tonight; they didn't like you; they didn't have any use for any of you here. (Everyone laughs).
Walter/Mercedes: "Just get all of you (laughter). You know I couldn't get into her old skin last time at all; Ewan is shutting himself away from me, but you all look as if the flowers are blooming in the spring again."
"I had another helper tonight - the boy that came in and looked at the chair." (she talks some nonsense)
Ewan: "This woman was in a condition where she could not be released unless she was brought back by me getting her faculties under a more natural control. This nonsense talk has got no meaning except as exercised by me to get her in a physical condition where she could come back without any undue excitation of her nervous system ."
Sitting ends.
May 8, 1934
[Letter from W. H. Johnson - pastor of Congregational Church of Detroit Lakes, Michigan - note in the upper right corner - handwritten - by Lillian Hamilton .]
"The only minister apart from Reverend W. R. Wood to write at all. Let alone in the broad-minded fashion."
"I am deeply interested in placing beyond the slightest shadow of a doubt, the survival of what we call the soul.
"I know we have much to overcome, we are so creed bound, and shall I say, so literal in our interpretation of the Bible, and that interpretation is so strongly and strangely influenced by the old idea of inspiration.
"It seems strange that any thought of communication with those who have crossed over should be deemed so incredible by people who profess to be followers of Jesus; and they will ransack the Bible to find some verse - which has to do with magic- and fasten on to it with might and main, to comfort themselves in their narrow belief.
"You are doing a great work, and when that book of yours appears, I will immediately take steps to secure one.
"I got a great deal of help from "On the Edge of the Etheric" by Findlay, also the more recent book "The Door of the Psychic" and needless to say I have simply devoured everything by Sir Oliver Lodge.
"If ever you come this way, I will be delighted to arrange a lecture by you in my church, if you feel so inclined."
May 9, 1934.
L. H.; Ewan; Ada Turner; Harold Turner; W. Barrie; G. Snyder, Secretary; Mrs. Marshall (Dawn); Norman; Ada Turner; T. G. H.; Ethel Muir; Mr. Barrie; Lillian M. Hamilton; Ewan.
8:50 p.m. Sitting commenced. There seemed to be considerable delay in the oncoming trance, Ewan being the first to go.
9:10 p.m. Ewan: "what has she got under her cloak?"
Dawn protests that she is not going to do anything. Ewan asserts that she will do as she is told.
Ewan: "Did you know that Margery is going to come here? I am going to get them together. (To T. G. H.). Have you everything ready?"
Dawn: "I can't say it. I can't read very well. It is a Bible book he wants me to read in; but I can't read it. What do I know about the Bible? Let him read it. I can't see it to read. I'm going away. I'm going with her; I'm not going with you. Let me stay. I'll watch what's going on."
Norman and Ewan both in trance. Norman is going into a dark place and expresses some fear.
Ewan: "Don't say a word or you'll be thrown into a worse place."
Dawn: "Can I sit down beside those other ones?"
Ewan: "Be careful."
Dawn: "I'll sit down and be quiet."
Ewan: "Keep away."
Dawn, clapping her hands, is seated on the floor and remarks: "I'd like a Punch and Judy show."
Ewan: "Take her hand."
Norman takes her hand.
Ewan further comments: "Dawn has been going somewhere, somewhere else. She has been under control. It's a control that shouldn't come here. I'll give her something to think about."
Dawn: "Are you going with them ? I want to go with them ."
Ewan: "Get up and dance."
Dawn dances for several minutes, a shuffling step on the floor.
This was evidently a tactful move on the part of Walter to change the control of Dawn, eliminating the one control undesired and substituting himself in its place.
Walter/Ewan: "Will you seat the medium, please?"
Dawn: "I am not going anywhere."
Ewan: "Come with me."
Dawn: "Take Norman. I will stand beside you. I have my own work to do and cannot follow you. You must work with your own control. I will take care of your medium. Do not go too far."
Ewan (to Norman): "Can you tell where you are gone to?"
Norman: "We have gone down into the night where the sun comes not. It is a black ocean. There is no boat to get you back. How will we get back?"
Ewan: "Courage will get you back."
Norman: "What is that? Is it land?"
Ewan: "It's the end of the universe. I'll let you look over it. There is no life here."
Norman: "No trees, no grass, nothing - just tall cliffs. Oh, here, the boat's landing. We'll go up that path."
Ewan: "This boat is his own soul. Note you must leave all behind to go to the end of the world."
Norman: "It's a hard place to climb."
Ewan: "If you fall over you will never get back."
Norman: "I can't go back to the boat. It's gone back. I'm all alone on the cliff. No wind, no waves, all is dead, purple, black."
Ewan: "Nothing has ever existed here."
Norman: "I'll never get to the top. It gets higher as I go."
Ewan: "You can't fall while you keep on this side."
Norman: "What are those lights?"
Ewan: "It's where you came from."
Norman: "Doesn't the sun ever come here? I can't see where I am going. I have to feel."
Ewan: "Can you still feel? Then you have far to go."
Norman: "Something has picked me up off the rock. I am flying now."
Ewan: "They got frightened in case he was going too far. I am going to give you an illustration of how he goes."
Norman: "That is the universe, changeless, unchangeable, yet ever different."
Ewan: "Go out beyond the first figure."
Norman: "I am nearing the center of the inscrutable."
Ewan: "In the beginning was the Word. Can you comprehend that before, before the Word was spoken? There was a condition of nothingness."
Norman: "Nothingness is the veil which the inscrutable wears before his face. Before there was nothingness there was the Absolute. If you would become God you must become formless and uncreated. Form came with the figure 1. Before 1 was nothing; that is eternity."
Ewan: "God came out of the absolute and created. Where there was no beginning there is no ending. You cannot destroy God for He Himself is a destruction."
Dawn: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending."
Ewan: "God spoke and things were fixed in place. All of these we see written upon the curtain that veils God. We are winging around the curtain that hides His face. Five fingers he gave to man, to indicate the five-fold way in which he goes."
Norman: "In my dreams I created worlds. I gave them man; Man creates time; I wake from my dream and time is destroyed. Worlds are destroyed and time is not."
Dawn: "There are infinite worlds of grandeur."
Norman: "It's dark."
Dawn: "The mind inspires to know."
Ewan: "Man spoke in six tongues; the seventh shall come in the darkness like a flame."
Dawn: "Deeper than the ocean, deeper than the mighty ocean rose the tide of human thoughts that are beyond recall."
Ewan: "Like the beating of the eagle's wings whose thunders drown the waves."
Norman: "Oh, don't bring me back."
Dawn: "It's time for all to come back."
Norman: "I've been in splendor; I don't want to come back."
Ewan: "Take care where you go. Do not go backwards. The press of thought is onwards."
Dawn: "Come back."
Ewan: "Both paths are parallel. They come to the same place in the end. But it matters a great deal which way you go."
Dawn: "A glorious thought that the higher forces hold a universal sway. Bring back your mediums. Raise Ewan and place him in his chair.
You may think that your evenings are wasted. But it is leading up to something of value to the community at large. It will dovetail with work coming from another direction."
[Note: six minutes to closing time Ewan and Norman still in trance. Dawn announced accurately the amount of time still remaining; six minutes. This we frequently notice; the full period being 90 minutes, which is carefully observed.]
May 10, 1934.
Jack MacDonald (medium); Lillian Hamilton; M. Hamilton.
Sterge, as usual, speaks to us first, and we chat for about five minutes, while he is establishing control. Then Arthur slips in, and we talk about family matters, and he tells us a little of his work; he says, among other things, that his work is to fortify all that is good at around us. "You need people to help sustain those who work here, just as you need food." After a few minutes' chat he goes, and there is a brief silence before Robert speaks:
Robert: (dictating):
"Fine clothes and fifteen years had wrought no change in Dimmit. The years had not passed over him, rather Dimmit passed over the years, that was all, passed them over quite as lightly as he passed over smaller more minute sections of time. Seeing him as I did at this time, I could find no visible change in his physical make-up. His face, his frame, his expression, and the speech representative of his thoughts, they were quite the same. Dimmit was unchangeable at college and still unchanged. The only visible difference, and that difference was one that was slowly borne in upon you, one that did not strike you immediately, rather one that was ultimately arrived at by a process of minute observation - was this: Dimmit had on fine clothes, good clothes, but he wore them so illy that their fineness, their goodness was lost, and there hung about them the illusion of the shoddy, ill fitting, ill worn garments of years before. Somehow Dimmit had that faculty of transmitting his personality to his clothing; and it too, however new, however fine, shaped and slopped itself around those massive bones and sagging hollows the old garments used to accentuate."
"That seems to be about all I can get him to do. He's been very slow the last few times. It's such hard work to drive through ... he's soggy. I'll be saying goodnight, and I'll be back next time to do my best."
May 12, 1934.
Dawn; Mercedes; Harold Turner; Ada Turner; J. A. Hamilton; Mrs. Muir; J. D. Hamilton; Lillian M. Hamilton; H. Green; T. G. H., taking notes.
9:00 p.m. Sitting commenced sharp.
9:06 p.m. Dawn reports a light as coming from a porthole in the ceiling.
9:15 p.m. Group number.
9:20 p.m. Walter/Dawn: "Good evening." The phonograph is playing "Jingle Bells."
Walter: "I like that." On further inquiry the part he liked was where the Jew's Harp came in. To the comment that he is a Canadian he curtly replies: "I'm not a Canadian. I'm a spirit."
To Jimmy's presence he remarks: I see the little Nipper. He's too big. Hit him on the head and knock him down."
Mercedes: "Hello, Walter. I hear bells ringing. I can't say whether in imagination or not."
Dawn: "Shut up."
Mercedes: "I have a weak heart."
Dawn: "You will have a weak head; don't be so frivolous."
Mercedes: "I got the fright from you."
9:40 p.m. Ewan: "I'm going a long way."
Walter/Dawn: "You're all asleep." (Referring to the way we were singing - he suggests we equip the room with beds so we can all lie down while the work's going on.)
L. H. protests that Jimmy is wide awake.
Walter/Dawn suggests they get matches to prop Jimmy's eyes open. I'm sure Hamish has had his first sleep over."
9:52 p.m. Ewan: "I'm going to talk to Mercedes and give a little encouragement. Stand up, you stand up (to Mercedes). Words of wisdom are going to come from one of the sleeping beauties. I don't think it's Hamish. Come along."
Mercedes, standing, goes forward to Ewan.
Ewan: "She comes when I call her. Why have you been so long coming?"
Mercedes: "I was just waiting."
Dawn: "Just two more sittings, just two more."
Mercedes (to some entity entering): "Come right in."
Ewan: "I am going to take her completely away. I want to put her right away as soon as I take her further. We will place her on a chair and put a support under her heels" ( his referred to the deep trance condition into which he was taking Mercedes and required a comfortable position reclining during the trance.)
Mercedes: "I can't go up there; it is too high."
Ewan: "Quickly now, quickly. (Mercedes falls upon the floor.). I want her on the chair. (With some difficulty Mercedes is raised from her position on the floor to the chair and the support under her feet is placed by Lillian Hamilton.) Is that correct? Give me an answer."
Mercedes: "Yes. He should have told you that was right."
Ewan: "Take those things off her feet."
Mercedes: "I've got no feet. Yes, and I've got no hands. I can't shake hands with you. Yes, I can nod my head. I have no feet, no hands; I can just nod my head, like that. This man will come and speak to me. He has no hands and I have no hands. "Great are the wonders. Great is the universe, for out of the universe will come secrets that men do not know. That is what he says. Yes, my comrade, I will follow. I have taken on your likeness. Where you go I will go. I am no longer an earth being. You must keep contact with Mercedes" (said to Ewan).
Ewan: "Let us continue our journey. Complete your circle and do not take Ewan away."
Mercedes: "I am going with him. I follow him. I have lost my material body; and once again I have that glorious free feeling. The beings who people this plane do not regard me with curiosity as before when I came here. I am passing where people still are looking towards the west for someone. My guide beckons me to follow; but not with his hand, for he has no hand; but in his looks he beckons me to follow. We are now in the palace of the great tubes. From these tubes a confusion of sounds is coming. He tells me it is music. There is one very large tube. It is attached to a wooden block. It is different from the others. To it he leads me. This is a peculiar place. Surrounding it there is no roof but I am conscious of a mist of blue overhead. It is as near blue as I can tell."
Ewan: "You are going further. Go on, go on. What do you see now? You have only commenced your journey."
Mercedes: "The tube has now opened and I am no longer a being of any particular spaces. I have become a ball, a Globe, and I fit into this tube. I am assured I shall return in perfect safety and I am not afraid."
At this juncture Mercedes suddenly screamed. She then explained "I was shot through the tube; and I am on an entirely different plane. It all seems nonsense that I am talking."
Ewan: "Keep quiet."
Mercedes (much perturbed): "Now it's your turn. Tell them where I am."
Ewan: "You have gone to where all form is beginning to dissolve, all energy is fluid; it comes and goes but it does not take shape."
Mercedes: "It is the most peculiar place. There is a smell like the decaying of vegetables. What is its purpose, and why must I do this?"
Ewan: "You have to get the fact that the fixation of energy is an uncommon form of life. It's a waste of thought that controls your being. You are a combination of good and evil. The good is fluid and the bad is fixed. It is a waste of power when it is fixed; and when fixed it is as a contradiction in space."
Mercedes: "My guide says to me that when I come back to your plane I will give you the message."
Ewan: "I am going. Thought is power, and then in fixation you have a loss of power. You are a contraction of energy. You are not allowed to give you a fixed form because through it there is continuously flowing the things which come to you as thoughts."
Mercedes: "There was a scientist who used to use his tubes and globes. He used them to wonderful research; but he could not find a subject willing to trust in these. With these he could have sent them on journeys such as I have now been on. He is showing me the man who had this power in your land."
Ewan: "Let this light come. Let it bathe you. Be quiet."
Mercedes: "I've got to come back. He is afraid to keep me longer. I will not go further at this time. This I don't like. I don't like to come back. There, it's coming again. Oh!"
Ewan: "It's all right. You must be ready from now on: because he who is working is now almost ready. She could not convey her impressions, for your speech has no terms to convey them in. She has been where thought has been continuously used for the purpose of going forward. Matter is just a form of thought, as you have had occasion to learn, and can only be kept in continuous existence by the employment of thought force, as you get it. She has been where all thought force goes forward constantly. Can you tell us where you have gone to, Mercedes?"
Mercedes: "It was not cold there. I will tell you where and when we go downstairs. (In normal mind). I am alright. Nobody is with me. I am just a little dizzy. Walter wants to speak to you. Dawn has been under Black Hawk while Walter has been taking energy. Black Hawk was on guard. It was important that you get this message from Mercedes. Dawn was used for other purposes. I could take her away again, but not on this occasion."
Dawn: "There will be two more sittings. Two more sittings for this, and then we will start our work that will conclude the six. So long."
Mercedes?:
"I saw everything very clearly. I went under very slowly. When Ewan came over I seemed to see a globe like a ship or boat to voyage in.
"The same man always comes. He seems to beckon me. He has no hands. I go into this globe with a rocking motion. Then he took me to where many were sitting expectantly. (This is the place where on a previous night we saw large numbers of people gazing earnestly and expectantly at the west.)
"Then I passed where it was like a radio station - a lot of tubes, etc., and there was a lot of noise. There was something that looked like an organ, but it was not an organ. I saw one particular tube. It opened and I felt as if I were about the size of a small rubber ball; and as such I was shot through the tube. Then I was in a peculiar place. There was no life. And there was a strong odor; the smell of cabbages rotting.
"Then I felt as if I had no natural body. It seemed a desolate place, a haze. I saw Ewan there with the man.
The man said: "You go back and tell them to be ready."
The man appears to be a white man. He was very old. He is shrouded as if in a mist. I am just conscious that he is there. He did not cause me to be afraid. I saw a great light at last. It seems to have enveloped me all over.
May 16, 1934.
T. G. H.; L. H.; Ada Turner; Harold Turner; J. A. Hamilton; W. Barrie; Ewan; Ethel Muir; Dawn; Mercedes; Norman; Ada Turner; J. A. Hamilton;
8:45 p.m. Sitting commences.
8:55 p.m. Bell rings.
9:01 p.m. Numbering. Ewan evidently in trance.
9:10 p.m. Walter/Dawn: "I don't want you to touch the slate. I am trying to outline upon the slate, before I use your crayons. Then I'll put it on yours. I am outlining on a slate, and will place it on your slate, and draw it. One sitting more and I think the drawing will be completed. After I give you the drawing you will remove the slate. I will be finished with it for a time. I do not seem to get enough power to do this work through this medium. I don't know that the drawings will help you very much, but we will see. I think it would be a much better plan if you could arrange a time for these experiments. That is, other sittings; and you would get better results. I cannot understand these conditions. Those who are making these pictures are not with me; that is, those who are describing these things. I have to stand back and look on. I have succeeded in sketching or drawing whatever it may look like. I am building a guard around my medium to shut her off. I will guide her hand over lines as she holds the pencil, for you to photograph. I am going now, but I will keep my medium quiet. I will stand back for others to come and give the world a message.(To T. G. H.). You are sitting out (that is, out of the circle.). There are too many. That's right. There are several new controls in the room. They are anxious to speak. Talk to your medium. Get him to give his message."
Mercedes (not in a trance) tells us that Power has been wanting to come through, but she refused to let him. It will only be an interruption."
[On further questioning I am advised that Power is really not an individual but a group of six personalities; and it is the combination of the six which gives a powerful effect - T. G. H.]
9:25 p.m. Dawn's coat removed.
Mercedes: "There is a man with Ewan who says to put him in a comfortable position and he will tell you what he sees."
Chairs are put under Ewan's knees and feet.
Ewan (to Mercedes): "You must come, too."
Mercedes: "Yes, I will go with you. Connect his hand to mine. It is hard to keep Dawn from getting the power of this one. It will be all right to just connect for a few minutes. Now that is all right."
9:30 p.m. Mercedes: "He's making faces at the men in bottles. There are bottles walking up and down. They are looking at him as a curiosity."
Dawn's chair having been used for Ewan at this stage, she is seated upon the floor. Ewan and Mercedes take hands.
Mercedes: "Come on, now. Let them to you, and you talk to them . We are not in a beautiful place this time. It's like a brewery. There are huge barrels or vats steaming and boiling all around. I don't see anything in them . Now, one of the bottle men touches me."
Ewan: "I can. I can see higher than you. I am quite upright. Come on. This is the works."
Mercedes: "He's taking you. He pays no attention to me. This may seem strange, but we are in the works. This man will tell you."
Ewan: "It's like a great room or shed, one after another. They have big barrels of steaming; and I can see the men - they are so tiny, something like little insects. I don't know how they contrive to manage these big vats."
Mercedes: "Now they are all hurrying away. It must be 12 o'clock. There are great big gates, and they are opened. The bell has gone."
Ewan: "A lot of little bottles are walking out. They are all leaning forward."
Mercedes: "Did you see the soup cans all walking - all of one size, everything the same, and they go up through the same door, the same gate, the same road, all the same. So much sameness. The doors open without being touched. They are all going into little tin houses, never more than two to a house. They never speak. They are just mechanical bottles."
Ewan: "This is an allegory of the works of man. All going up in smoke."
Mercedes: "I have a funny man who is making fun of it all."
Ewan: "They can't escape. They must go on and do their work, and no results."
Mercedes: "It means they all have to do their work here."
Ewan: "The bottles represent glass that will run into a thick shape. It takes a firm shape. You cannot break the fluid glass, but you can break the cold glass. It is not good to keep your shape. The bodies of men must be broken and thrown back into the great vats before they can resume their proper course. The degree of permanency to which you have got is not good. When power is fixed it loses its power, and that is the reason we cannot compel the forms which come to you. The power resides in them as long as they are in flux. You are only powerful as long as you are changing. Do not become like a bottle that has got one shape, for you cannot change it. A bottle is a cold dead thing. That is the secret of good and evil. All things have got rhythm. Power cannot be made. Our guide says that he will paint a brighter picture. I just cannot get it out. Power must go on as far as you are caught in that you have become evil. The loss of power is evil; and according as you lose motion you become evil. That is the sterility. You can't understand. Oh, when you take power to use your bodies, we contrive to make the matter come and go. We cannot go so far as to give a permanent lodgment in your world. We have to combat a great impediment when we come to your world. It is like a stone wall. It is practically inert. We have got one stage further in flowing things. It is the difficulty of getting through your inert consciousness. You have it, as it, were under a blanket. There is less motion in the dark. We cannot make matter. Power is sufficiently slow moving to become visible in a good light. If I could only get this medium to tell further, I could make it clearer. Perhaps some day we will reduce him to greater flexibility. It is as if I had to take his mind and move him like this to make it correspond. I wish to give you one more effort. Tell Mercedes she is not to give suggestions to him. She gets these things in a different way and she must take her place and do as she is told. She must follow, and not lead. After this we will say goodbye and we will allow Walter to experiment with matter. The difficulty lies with you and not with us. The difficulty is to give motion to your inertia."
"Time, which you think is measuring movement, is really measuring a static condition. It is a deception. You cannot see the real nature of motion or progress because you are measuring them by a faulty standard. Time is a befogging ... All of these are an indication that progress is eternal. I think you had better take him back. I will come again for the last time, and give you what I can. Keep before you these ideas and you will make it easier for your control, Walter, to give you results. The only benefit of your singing is that it releases you for a minute degree from the possession of your possessive personality (your constant personality). If you could think of any other way of escaping, of coming and going ..."
Mercedes (after the close of the sitting, but still in trance): "I want to stay here. I got away from that other place. I waited, but they never came out. The man came and said 'You needn't wait. They won't come out.' He took me to a place where it is all water. I am sitting on a stone bench with him beside me and looking at the clear water - no ships. He said he just showed me this place to link up with the bottles."
At this stage the control Power suddenly seized Mercedes in characteristic voice and vigor, saying: "Why wouldn't you let me come through? I want her."
I explained that his interruption at this time was out of the question; that later we hoped that he would be given the privilege.
Mercedes quickly recovered and left the room. It took several minutes to have Ewan recover and then he left the room. Dawn, still seated upon the floor in the back of the cabinet, muttered: "There is someone kneeling beside me. He wants me to kneel beside him. He wants me to pray, too. He was praying for me. I don't know how to pray like him on your knees in the street."
The sitting closes.
May 18, 1934.
Jack MacDonald (medium); Lillian Hamilton; Glen; Jim; Margaret Hamilton (note-taker)
Sterge comes within two or three minutes, greets everyone and teases Glen, who has just received his degree in medicine.
"We now have Glen no longer: he is 'M. le docteur', a typical physician except for his pointed beard. He will never cultivate a long pointed beard, eh?"
Glen: "Never!"
Sterge: "That is a good resolution."
L. H.: "Sterge, you used to have a pointed beard, didn't you?"
Sterge: "Ah, yes; I cultivated it in those days when it was fashionable. I had to cover my head else it would be like a huge rock ..."
L. H.: "Can you get your medium into deeper trance? We have more here to give power."
Sterge: "I will try. It is helpful to have more sitters, especially sympathetic sitters ... There, that is so much easier, not half so difficult as it was ..."
"I think, no matter how strong the armor-plate of the scientist may be, there is one (reference to Glen) who is non too strongly armed against us. Perhaps he would not be so, yet I am happy it is so. He is impressionable, and I think he will always be so; and moreover will he find that to be exceptionally useful to him; not now, but later ... At times he may be more medium than medical ..."
"Now we are between two phases of the moon, and that is a time when the fairies come out to play. And the little streams have subsided from the rough torrents they were into slow-sweeping streams. Then it is the fairies come out to play. The fairies are people without any particular emotional reaction, but they are so light-hearted and happy. The leaves are out now and the leaves are fairy boats. But no real wood-fairy could take down a new leaf, and so they allow a little time to pass so that each leaf may know the magic of a moonlight night and the softness of spring. So no leaves have fallen yet. No wood fairy would tear down a leaf before they have known all the magic of sun and all of the moonlight. But shortly after, when the new crescent of the moon appears in the sky, and the moonbeams lace themselves through the leaves, then will some leaves fall into the streams, for their time is come, and they have arrived at that stage, having lived at least once ... They are the fairy boats."
Sterge goes, and Robert speaks:
"Dimmit's friends, and those among his acquaintances who might be superficially termed his intimates, like his clothing and heavily jointed hands, never seemed quite to fit him nor to belong to any part of him or his life. Incongruity was the one word which expressed Dimmit's choice in friendship, and incongruous certainly was successively his appearance, his clothing, and his friendships. In saying those of his acquaintances whom one might term his intimates, I do so with an idea of intimacy in mind similar to the smoothness and intimacy and cohesion one might expect in a building that has been built of alternate blocks of square stone and then a cone. There could be no real intimacy, no real cohesion. Friends, of the majority of the human race, generally speaking, take on or possess characteristics similar to the object of their friendship. Indeed, Dimmit's friends were strange, there was no gainsaying that. Whether their very queerness was something they absorbed from him or not I cannot say; but this much am I sure of: Dimmitt never, at any time of his life, nor in any particular thought or action, ever absorbed any influence from his diverse friendships. He remained the odd-shaped pebble in the basket, flinty hard, and though rubbing against other human pebbles in his daily human intercourse, never as much as received a scratch on his wrinkled, diamond-hard surface, - the same, yesterday, today, tomorrow and forever, could be said of Dimmit as of the Divine powers; and although I was not present when he died, I could formulate no other plan for a coffin then one built for some fabulous centaur, hurled headlong from a rocky cliff, patched up and re-assembled for his especial bier..."
Robert chats with us for a little:
"We'll relax now. I was just getting so tense I was almost falling away, and Sterge was sustaining me ..."
"I hope and pray I may be able to do work that is satisfying and ennobling, and that is to some extent in a satisfactory relationship with what I have done before when I was in the flesh. I do feel that I am gaining more in poise and polish than I was; I do feel that!"
L. H.: "Ye're no' the temperamental laddie you were a few years ago."
Robert: "No, I'm gaining, through this laddie, and yet, it seems so slow. And yet at times I do come through even to surprise myself, who am at the same time my most severe and most charitable critic. If I do poorly I am most charitable; if I do well then I am double severe. Not only must I control
[Difficulties of control of communication.]
my medium, but I must control my moods and my flow of language through this instrument, doubly so since I must stand aside and listen to myself speak. Often, when he is in error (and he often is), then must I adjust my phrases and sentences to cover up the maximum of error with a minimum of effort, and so cover up the roughage that the canny reader will perhaps never even notice it.
"That, then, is my work for tonight, and I'll bid ye all a very happy good night."
Arthur next comes and chats with his family. He and Jimmy pun outrageously. He tells us a little of his work:
"I am constantly busy, learning new things and trying to apply them to my life ... I am happy, Glen; I congratulate you upon your degree. You need not worry about the next exams ... I did want to come when all my family were here. I am here really in spirit, but it does seem better to you when I come locally as well." Arthur then says good night.
Sterge returns and closes the sitting.
May 20, 1934. Wednesday evening.
T. G. H.; L. H.; Ada Turner; Harold Turner; J. A. Hamilton; W. Barrie; Ewan; Mercedes; Ethel Muir; Mary Maclean, Secretary.
8:52 p.m. Sitting commenced.
The secretary, Mary McLean, was late, coming in at about 9:05 p.m..
Immediately after Mary McLean's entrance the bell rings.
9:10 p.m. Ewan is standing.
Walter/Dawn: "Dawn and Ewan are to change seats. Don't cross your feet." Dawn goes through a lot of nonsense talk about drinking Adam's ale, then repeats "bright, bright, bright."
Ewan: "Have you got everything ready?" and, "Are you quite sure? Katie has come and taken Mercedes completely away."
Mercedes commences in lots of seamen's talk.
Dawn: "I am not going to scrub the deck."
Ewan tells her she has to. Dawn is up walking about throwing her hands and arms about. She says she is not an ordinary seaman, and Ewan tells her she will do as he says because he is Captain of this ship. He ends by saying "You are yellow."
Dawn gets in a fighting mood and has to be brought out of trance by Dr. Hamilton.
9:32 p.m. The bell rings again.
Ewan: "That was an exceedingly lucky escape from wrecking all our work."
Ewan (to Mercedes): "You must come, and go where you were going when that unfortunate interruption took place. I am going to place her a long way. Please don't talk to Ewan, he has got to give what he is told, go where he is told."
Mercedes: "Good evening."
Dawn: "I cannot go in where John is; I cannot interfere with any of his controls, whether they are good or whether they are not. I have no power to interfere: you must just wait."
Dawn continues: "There has been no harm done. They would have been better if they hadn't changed places. It is just one of those things that come in now and again - other controls interfering. You cannot avoid it."
9:50 p.m. Mercedes: "Have you got a camera that could take the floor of the cabinet?"
T. G. H.: "Yes, one camera will take the floor."
Mercedes: "I would like you please not to say anything about pictures being taken. I am putting you all on your honor not to mention to anyone, and above all to the mediums. If you do there will be no pictures. It makes your mediums nervous when you tell."
Ewan: "You must come with me quickly ..." There is a general circling of the room by Ewan, he seems to be taking Mercedes with him and saying, "Come, come, come with me," etc.
(Secretary hands notebook to Dr. Hamilton; the currents are so strong, she is carried away quite helplessly. Notes now taken by Dr. Hamilton.)
Ewan: "We greet you, friends, who have come to us. Our ship is mythical. It has failed on no earthly sea but seas of the Universe. We have been permitted to see many strange and wonderful sights of which we bring knowledge to you.
"I want to take a picture of your ship; the control wishes Dawn to take a picture of your ship (paint). I am the Captain of the craft and they are all on board."
Dawn: "I will remain here."
Ewan: "I am the captain of the craft; I come to you with the greetings."
Dawn: "Put Katie forward that I may see her. Now, John, stand you further back. Where is your hat?"
Mercedes: "Now he has got it on. This is a very beautiful place that you have brought us all to. Our ship has taken us to shore. Those on the landing seem surprised to see us here. I will let John describe the place and the people."
John/Ewan: "There is a golden strand that comes up from the sea, a deep beach of golden sand, and a clearing of scattered breaks; and beyond that the people come; white-skinned and noble looking, they carry no arms. They wait gladly to talk. They have come forward anticipating to greet the conquerors from another land. We have a good welcome, and they say "Be of good courage. This is the golden shore where the ships of .... we are the friends who come and take those who have not come over; we say 'John King, the messenger.'"
Mercedes: "Our friend is making a good attempt at his work."
Ewan: "This is conducted with the approval of the Guide who took the mediums on these other journeys. Katie King, the giver of light; now you must tell the people farewell. We must return to our ship. I ask you to be on guard, to be ready. We have got everything completed ..."
(A few moments of silence pass. Mary McLean resumes note taking again.)
Ewan (to Mercedes): "Give me your hand and give me your promise you will give no word of this to anyone."
Mercedes: "Very good, I will, and they must all promise."
Everybody: "We promise. Good night, Katie."
Mercedes: "Take heed of the word which Dawn will speak to you."
Dawn: "No one is to enter this room except those who are here tonight."
Mercedes: "Don't keep your sittings overtime."
Dawn: "As you come into your sitting at your next meeting, when the bell has been rung, you will remove the cloak from Dawn if it has not already been removed, and kindly take it off her chair entirely. You can stand her on her feet and take away the cloak. That is all the instructions that I want to give you; but I would just like you to be here one time and see that Ewan washes his hands. He has not done so for quite a little while. He has neglected to do that. See that he does so. No further instructions.
"The mediums may not go right under control at once. Don't get fussing, and don't get tense; just sing, and if you want to make a little fun, all right. Please don't get tense. Don't mention anything about pictures to the mediums further than we are perhaps going to get a picture soon; it all depends on you. Do your part and we will do our part. Good night, friends"
All: "Good night."
Ewan: "I am glad to have got the aid in courage of such a comrade as your control who has just gone; he has overcome great difficulties. The ship is going out to sea, darkness comes, we are quite alone."
10:20 p.m. Ewan: "Go forward, and you will see the dawn come up; the dawn of a great light. Dawn breaks and comes to the world. Good night."
All: "Good night, John."
10:25 p.m. Circle closes.
May 23, 1934.
Ethel Muir; Dawn; L. H.; Ada Turner; Howard Turner; Mercedes; W. Barrie; Ewan; J. A. Hamilton; T. G. H.(operator); Mary Maclean, Secretary.
8:59 p.m. Sitting commenced.
9:07 p.m. Started.
Dawn says: "I hear somebody calling Elizabeth."
Ewan is saying: "Take it away" repeatedly.
9:19 p.m. They commence to get noisy in the singing, and shouting starts. Dawn is laughing boisterously and saying "Good, good" and, "My, there is a big light beside Susan there."
9:20 p.m. The bell rings. Dawn is getting noisier, thumping. She says: "There is somebody trying to take Mercedes."
9:25 p.m. Ewan: "Good evening."
Dawn: "There are two people here with Ewan."
Ewan: "Can you help me? We are going to have a good sitting."
Dawn says she doesn't care what is going to happen. Says there is a tall young man standing at the back of Florence - dark, like a soldier, with very deep set eyes - he is gone ...
Mercedes shouts: "That is the way half of the people go away from here. You must let your friends be described unless Walter says 'no.'"
She becomes quieter after he few moments and says "Good evening, this is Lucy. Don't be afraid; the gentleman has gone; he was very much annoyed at not being described. He is a good, kind man, and is trying to help give you something. I discussed with Walter if he should let this friend be described because he is an asset. That is why Mercedes would not let the friend with the light take control of her."
She continues after it a few moments of silence: "I am very much troubled in mind about our friend, our doctor. You are not well, friend; and I am very anxious for you. I want you to take care of yourself, great care; you must not even let this work take too much out of your physical body. You must rest for next week. I am warning you that you must rest, or you will have to resort to the little bottle more often. Remember, Lady, you must take care of him. I do not wish to alarm you; but one ounce of prevention is worth a lot more cure. I cannot afford to lose you on this material side, yet. Someone is controlling Dawn." She stops.
Ewan: "Take care; be very careful to record this."
Dawn: "I am not speaking to you. I am gathering what I can to try and do what I promised. Just have patience and go on with your singing. You didn't carry out my instructions. It is useless to give instructions to you."
T. G. H. points out that everything is in order as Walter suggested.
Dawn repeats: "The secretary was late; she should be on time."
Dawn says instructions are not carried out; that Dawn's cloak was not taken off at the right time; that she was not in trance when the bell rang, and nobody here is doing his or her best, that the mediums are worse than the sitters. She complains about everything in general."
9:55 p.m. Dawn continues to criticize. She blames the chalk, the board, the chairs, and everything is wrong.
Ewan: "Come now, shoot your arrows quickly."
Mercedes: "I have accomplished my work. I will not sever my cords of connection between these two mediums; but we have now to stand aside and let our friend continue his work. He promised you a series of pictures which we tried to make as complete as possible. There is still another one; but it will not be portrayed to you at this time. We will now have to wait on the sanction of your control for the final picture. I would request that the cords not be severed between the four - I mean the boy and the girl who have helped in the portrayal of these pictures, and including this machine that I have been using, and the other that has been used. The other connections are broken. I would still request that this be still continued if it is at all possible. I would ask you at this time if you have been able to attach anything of importance to the portrayal of these pictures?"
T. G. H.: "Yes, there are certain interpretations; they are allegorical."
Mercedes: "We would have liked if it had been in our power to make them more clear to you; but the conditions are sometimes not always of the best."
Dawn: "We will have to leave it until next time. I don't think it would be at all wise to waste our power here. There is nothing here to photograph. I think that if you had French chalk, - but this is not satisfactory, and neither is the medium in very good condition - she just seems to have her mind all in the topsy-turvy whirly condition and at the next sitting you will have that chalk for me, please. We still have that other picture to give you, but we will not give it to you at this time."
Ewan: "A dark mystery coming and going."
T. G. H.: "We will take it that these pictures are representative of certain general states ..."
Mercedes: "Yes, friend, that is what they are."
Dawn: "Your mediums do not seem at all anxious to give themselves to the work. I had great difficulty in getting hold of this medium. Someone takes control almost the moment you enter. There are different controls who gather here. They know, and come in before you come in to your sitting; but it is all right, I will do the best I can."
Ewan: "I have tried, I would like to do the thing I promised, the work is not good, it is very far from good."
Ewan: "I could do better work if I had mediums who would submit themselves to me without fear. This is not so of these mediums. None of the mediums that you have brought me, that you have given to me for some time, have been at all (not?) anxious; they don't understand."
T. G. H.: "You mean Elizabeth ..."
Ewan: "She was a great asset to the other controls. A great many controls come who are not helpful to me: they are curious. I could not begin to assemble them and try to work with them : a great many of them are very, very intelligent people."
Ewan speaks, tells her she is always complaining; and the sitters and the mediums and everybody is doing their best, what more does she want?
Dawn: "Then I will withdraw; you are more capable than I am to do this work. I don't boast and I don't complain when conditions are good. I am trying to do what I can do with the material that I have; it is not very comforting to you on the material plane to get such poor pictures as come through when from this side we do our very best to make them good; and it would be good if the mediums were submissive and (not?) anxious. Perhaps our good friend here will be better able to bring a better condition into your circle."
T. G. H.: "Tell me before you withdraw, are you the Artist who is speaking? Would you mind letting us know?"
Dawn: "I have been with you so long and yet you ask me who I am. It is very annoying that even yet you have not got (it?) into your mind. I will leave the other control to do the work. He will very probably do it much better. He has talents that I do not possess. Yes, we must give him the opportunity; and now, friends, I think it would be right to give you, to tell you, he is a very able and cultivated person. I am not a clever control and cannot use the persons - he could draw and write - he may not be able to give you the ectoplasm."
T. G. H.: "Well, we hope you will be able to make a settlement satisfactorily. Have you any more ectoplasmic pictures ready, Walter, or are you not going to give us more?"
Walter/Dawn: "Oh no, my friend, my work has scarcely begun; what I hoped to do, what I would have liked to do, I am only blaming the material that I have to use. I don't quite understand the difficulties altogether; I do know there is something wrong in the mind of this medium; there is something lacking - she is not what she was when I began to use her. There are too many conditions that she mixes in that are not good for me. You told me some time ago that you had someone lined up and I would give them the once over: because, forcing someone to come to your sitting is not a good condition. If they cannot voluntarily come and voluntarily give themselves without fear, it is not good to use them . Lucy wants to speak."
Lucy/Mercedes: "I want to speak to you, friends, and I want to try if possible to clear up this little difficulty. When our friends speak to you of the mediums not coming themselves in giving themselves to him, it is perhaps difficult for the mediums themselves just to understand what our friend means; but I want to point out to you that they will give themselves entirely to him.
"These other entities who come to you are excellent controls in their particular lines, have tried to work along with Walter, but have not been successful. You have also, I know, friend, tried to find a medium who has the ability to produce the ectoplasm through the control. Walter and I know that you have not been able to find one. But as far as physical mediumship is concerned, we cannot now produce pictures; and until you find someone like that you will not have pictures."
T. G. H.: "Do you think we ever will find one?"
Mercedes: "She does not seem as willing to give herself to Walter as she was at the beginning. I could not say, friend."
"She is not willing to give herself to coincide with his work; and she has had far too many interruptions - she allows too many things to interfere."
"But it is the only way you will get pictures, friend. You are traveling along wrong lines: you are divided. David has not helped Walter as much as I thought he would have. Walter has not found David so helpful. He hoped Harold would, and he has done a lot of good work through him, but there is something that does not just seem - well, it's not harmonious with the two sides working; and that is how it stands, friend."
T. G. H.: "Then it is almost like searching for pebbles in the ocean."
Mercedes: "I have worked hard through my medium for you. I have done my work; and I work in other places that I have been approved of, but Walter is disappointed in his medium."
Ewan: "Walter wanted to speak again."
Dawn: "You had better disperse. There is nothing that I can say to you that will alter the conditions that exist."
T. G. H.: "Do you wish us to meet again in a few days?"
Dawn: "That, my friend, you must decide yourself. I have told you that if you come I would come with you. I had hoped that we would be able to do some great work for humanity. My work and my thought was for those who were laboring on the earth plane. I will still go where I am welcome and where I can get mediums who will cooperate and give themselves to me."
T. G. H.: "Do you think it is in my power to find a medium?"
Dawn: "You must try, friend. I was not able to use Dawn when she entered this room first. There are many mediums of physical ability if I could get in touch with them ."
Ewan: "Take her."
Dawn: "I have not lost her. I could not. I can do my work in other spheres. This medium - I would like the physical power that she possesses. I would like to transplant it into another medium who would give herself to me without any thought of gain or any thought of herself."
Florence speaks: "Could you use me, Walter?"
Walter/Dawn: "I could, but you are as stubborn as a mule. Possibly I could use the physical side of you, but your mind is away woolgathering, and you always do what you want to, friend; and you are too anxious, but I am working with you.
Dawn was a medium before I had anything to do with her."
