In the following article from Psychic News written by Maurice Barbanell, he recounts the amazing evidence given at one of Gordon’s materialisation seances held at Stansted Hall. As he recorded most of the seance on a tape recorder, he is able to share an accurate transcript of the evidence provided by Gordon’s guides Paddy and Cuckoo that accompanied the materialised forms. This gives us great insight into the quality of Gordon’s trance and physical mediumship where materialised forms are supported by trance clairvoyance from Gordon’s guides, where they bring forward excellent evidence of survival from the spirit world.
Electrocuted in New Zealand – He Returns at an Essex Materialisation Seance – Full Name and Family Details are Communicated
By Maurice Barbanell
A man who died in New Zealand after being accidentally electrocuted on August 30 returned at a materialisation seance at Stansted Hall, Essex, last week. The medium was SNU, president Gordon Higginson, who demonstrated this rare form of psychic phenomena for over an hour to 60 people. They had attended the “awareness class” he conducted that week. No charge was made for the seance.
They sat in rows in a room at first illuminated by two dim red lights and one over the home-made cabinet. A semi-circle was formed on each side of the cabinet, which I examined so that I could report it contained nothing extraneous.
Promise fulfilled
On its left sat Frank Tarns, the friend who has been associated with Gordon since this phase of his mediumship developed. He has been a regular member of his home circle where he witnessed materialisation scores of times. On his left was my wife Sylvia. On the cabinet’s right was Mrs Ruth Lewis, who testified (PN July 15) to the evidence, she has received and the fact that a 20-year-old spirit promise was fulfilled when she was allowed to handle the ectoplasm. I sat on her right at a distance of about four to five feet from the cabinet. The light at first was good enough to see by, but not to read.
Tape Recorded
The two shaded.red lights on each side of the middle of the room were extinguished at one of the control’s request and the one over the cabinet made brighter. I tape-recorded most of the seance until my cassette ended without my knowing it. Another tape recording was made by a visitor, with copies offered to those who requested them.
Gordon announced he had submitted to a search beforehand. And this the man who did so confirmed. The medium wore only trousers, swimming trunks and a borrowed blue jersey.
At first he sat outside the cabinet. Through him there came greetings from an Oriental control (Choo Chow). Then Gordon went inside the cabinet, the curtains were closed and we heard his stertorous breathing throughout the seance.
There, were some half-dozen materialisations garbed in typically white luminous ectoplasm which occasionally flowed out of the cabinet and once over Ruth’s left foot. She said it felt warm. Though I clearly saw the materialised figures, I could never distinguish the features.
At one stage, Gordon stood with a long strip of ectoplasm emerging narrowly from his nostrils and/or mouth, and broadening as it reached the floor. The forms always gradually sank and vanished when they touched the floor. Ruth said that she could see an ectoplasmic cord connecting some forms with the medium.
At one stage Cuckoo, the child control, who played a prominent part, appeared at the cabinet opening with Gordon standing behind her. Her head was above his chest. His nearly bald pate was clearly visible to me in the light reflected from the bulb above the cabinet.
Voices Vary
A fascinating feature of the seance was the marked difference in the voices of Cuckoo, who spoke softly and not always easily audible, Paddy, an Irish control who was loud, clear and witty, and that of the medium. Sometimes the voices of both controls conversed and cut into one another. I listened intently, but never heard any tone of Gordon’s voice or even intonation when, they spoke.
Paddy’s evidence was outstanding in its details of names and addresses and reminiscent of similar proofs given by Gordon in demonstrating clairvoyance.
The first to speak was Cuckoo, who announced it would not be long before forms appeared, but first she had’ to make a “voice box.”
Names given
The New Zealand figure was mentioned by Cuckoo, who spoke of his spirit presence and said he had passed in that country. Paddy said, ”He wants Eunice”, which brought an immediate response. “He has not been with us very long,” said Paddy. “He is not old and he has left behind a wife and children. I think her name is Carole.” The recipient said, “I had a letter from her last week.” “Could you tell her?” asked Paddy.
He added this man was also sending a message to Hilda. “Hilda is my friend,” said the recipient. She confirmed Paddy’s next statement that Carole was related to Hilda. Later I discovered that Hilda was the woman’s friend who had emigrated to join her daughter Carole in New Zealand. “He thanks you for the prayers you .sent,” said Paddy, adding that the communicator mentioned Wellington and sent his love to his wife and children. Paddy was told by the recipient that she knew Carole when she was a little girl.
To Make Certain
Later in the seance Paddy spoke to Eunice again, saying the young New Zealander who had materialised was Barry Vaughan and that he had left a wife, and four children behind. “I had to come back to make certain all this is clear.”
A feature of Paddy’s communications was that every time he gave evidence he asked if it was clear so that there could be no mistake. Later l learnt that when Barry Vaughan passed, he left behind his wife, a new baby and three little boys.
The first to materialise was a man whose name, said Paddy, was Murphy. His wife was still on earth. When a woman responded, she was told the communicator was her father-in- law. The spirit figure, addressing her in a loud whisper, asked: “How’s Christine? Is George all right? What about Stan? Is he still leaving cigarette ash everywhere?” All this was immediately understood. Paddy told the recipient the communicator “has been to Garden Terrace to see that your mother is all right. It has something to do with King’s Cliff Road” These statements were quickly acknowledged.
Typical of the way that recognition was brought when recipients hesitated came when Cuckoo said someone named Ellis was asking for Jim. An American with this first name who answered was asked, “Do you know someone going to Capri?” .He replied, “No.” When Cuckoo mentioned “Doreen” the recipient said “Oh, yes, Richard and Doreen are going to Capri.”
This-communicator when he appeared was concerned, as were others, if the materialisation caused a strain on the medium. Cuckoo or Paddy, always said Gordon was alright.
Never met on Earth
Before the next figure, appeared, Paddy said this was a man who wanted “Lall”. (I may not have this spelling correctly.) The woman who answered was told it was her father-in-law. “I am pleased to meet you because I never knew you on this side,” she said. Cuckoo told. her, “He hasn’t come yet” adding, “He says he is related’ to Reg (“My son”) and Jerry (“My husband “).
Paddy chipped in with, “He says something about a dog” (“I left my dog with my father.”) “Is his name Will?” (“It is William.”) “There is a woman who says she’s your mother. Her name is Mrs Hooper” (“That’s right.”) “William is her husband. I think the dog is Tessie” (“Yes.”) “Will has something to do with Surrey. The number on the door is 10.” He would ask Cuckoo to go and have a look. Seconds later she said that the name of the street began with Wood. The recipient gasped, as she said all this was accurate.
Knowing from long experience that the best way to avoid tension, which makes conditions difficult at materialisation seances, is to introduce laughter, I said to Paddy it was the first time I had heard about ‘someone in the spirit world going to see a man about a dog!
House is named
Quick as a flash he replied, “We have been to see about a cat as well.” This was Mabel. “My daughter,” said a woman.
She was told about her husband’s spirit presence. He materialised saying: “Mabel, it’s me. You have left the old house. I saw you go.” Paddy told her this was an old Tudor house named Cherry Trees. “Wonderful,” she said. Her husband’s message was that now he knew some of the things she had tried to tell him were true. When the recipient said she wanted her husband to help their daughter, Paddy told her, “That’s where I went to about the cat.” The woman told us it was a special cat, a Siamese.
My wife then learnt that her brother who is a frequent communicator was present. He did not, however, materialise.
Policeman returns
The next, said Cuckoo, was someone sending love to Marilyn. When acknowledged by Marilyn, she was asked, “Who’s David?” – “Her little boy and my grandson.” “This has something to do with Alderley Edge” – “She’s at Alderley Edge.”
“There is a policeinan here asking for Leonard his brother”, said Cuckoo. When Leonard Jolly answered, he was told “You are not like him. You are softer than him. He used to think that.”
Now there was a man, said Cuckoo, who wanted to talk to his daughter, Joyce. “You are going to Kew Gardens on October 1”, the-recipient was told. “You are going to see Mrs James.” All this was confirmed, as was the message that the woman had had a rough time, but her knowledge had pulled her through. “You plucked a flower and put it in your coat.” This proved to be an amusing reference. Actually the woman had picked some parsley and put it on her dress, as she later showed me.
An amusing but highly evidential communication followed. Paddy said the spirit figure in the cabinet was talking about a Peter who had not been well for some time. The recipient had asked him to try spirit healing, but he had not done so.
Lost their way
“You are going to Arneside ” (This is what I heard phonetically, but the name was understood.) “The first time you went,” said Paddy, “you had a job finding your way,” a fact which she and her husband confirmed. “You went through Wolverhampton. You got lost. You went past it and came to a. wood, when you should have turned off and gone to an estate. Instead you went to Tentenhall Wood. You should have gone to Tentenhall itself.”
This statement produced gasps of surprise. “It’s your father’s father,” Paddy told the woman. “I never met him.”. “Then it’s time you got to
know him.”
He is soon normal
Here my cassette ended, but there were evidential references to men named Max and WiIf, which my wife understood, as she did a communication referring to her animal welfare work.
The lights were put on and Gordon came out of the cabinet. His Oriental control gave a benediction. The medium was led away from the seance room. About 20 minutes later, seemingly quite normal and with no sign of stress or strain, he joined us for a meal.
Source: Psychic News 30th September 1972
