Other Aspects of Mediumship

Further to our previous articles on mediumship, a look at other aspects of the field.

Apports and Asports

These are material objects that appear or disappear in the séance room. The object are brought forward and materialised by the Spirit workers as small token gifts for the sitters present, at times they can be personally meaningful and we know of those who treasure some small item that they have been given by Spirit. When enquiring where they come from, we have been told that they are lost objects or have been ‘borrowed’ from somewhere that they will not be missed, such as the red artificial rose given to one of our friends that had been removed from a funeral directors window display. Quite appropriate really!

Sometimes a small item is removed and this is termed as an asport, it is usually found at a later date in an unexpected place away from the room from which it was removed. The Scole Experimental Group had an incredible and diverse number of objects apported into their sittings, including a fresh copy of a 1936 Daily Mirror newspaper. The paper was tested and found to be genuine in origin and actually browned with age as time passed as would be expected of the paper used at this time.

Telekinesis

The manipulation of material or objects without the psychic or medium touching them. This was demonstrated under laboratory conditions by a number of people including Matthew Manning and Uri Geller during the 1970’s . It is also known as psychokinesis (PK) These phenomena, along with dematerializatation or teleportation are also common features of poltergeist activity and are usually centred around an individual who is entering their early teenage years, a time of great physical changes within the human body.

The point here being that physical phenomena is occurring, empowered by unseen physical energy in a way science believes should not happen.

Levitation

To expand on the theme of psychokinesis, it is as well to consider levitation. It must be said that at the time of writing we have never personally experienced this phenomena, although we would be very pleased to see it demonstrated. Levitation (and dematerialisation) certainly seems to have been an aspect of the Enfield Poltergeist case.

The most impressive report of this phenomena must concern that of the Scottish medium, Daniel Dunglas Home (1833 – 1886). Home famously performed an extraordinary feat of levitation at the London home of Lord Adare in 1868. After entering a trance, Home was witnessed to have floated out of a third floor window and then back into another window in the same room. At other times he handled red hot coals and put his head in a fire without being burned. Perhaps these things could be performed by modern illusionist, but these feats performed before Victorian researchers are impressive to this day.

As further validation, Homes was tested by none other than Sir William Crookes. The great scientist found no evidence of fraud and concluded that Home possessed “an independent psychic force.” A conclusion that never the less earned him ridicule and scorn from his peers.

This article is part of our Mediumship series.

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