As the tape was restricted to members of the Society, it had a fairly small distribution, and the demise of the organisation precluded any further releases. Alexander has now taken the original cassette and added further recordings to make up a two-CD set. The recordings have been digitised, cleaned and processed by Lew Sutton, but the quality is variable, unsurprising considering many were made at home on amateur equipment, probably small analogue recorders with built-in microphones. In addition to the speakers themselves, Alexander introduces them with biographical details to give some context. These are not interviews so are not structured, but that allows for a degree of spontaneity which might be lost in a formal conversation.
The first disc (77 minutes) begins with a new introduction by Alexander, plus the original 1995 introduction. Tracks 2-4 are a 20 minute extract from a very entertaining lecture on physical mediumship given in 1976 at a Reading Spiritualist church by Douglas Lawrence. He describes witnessing ectoplasm, looking like a large white shimmering silk sheet (but wasn’t), ‘translucent, glistening and beautiful’. Because it is a public event he is reticent about mentioning names of mediums, but it gets the collection off to a good start. Track 5 is provided courtesy of the SPR and is different in being a séance room recording of Mrs Gladys Osborne Leonard, sitting with the Rev. Charles Drayton Thomas. (Alexander dates this to 1951, but it closely resembles the two Mrs Leonard tracks included on the 2007 triple CD Okkulte Stimmen Mediale Musik: Recording of Unseen Intelligences 1905-2007, one with W. S. Irving and Theodore Besterman, dated 17 November 1932, the other with Drayton Thomas, dated 6 January 1933.) Other tracks on the first CD feature Eugene Woods from Ohio, USA, Kathleen Allen, and Joan Honor, all Noah’s Ark-era contributions.
The second disc (76 minutes) has the final reminiscence from the original cassette, Elsie Richards on medium Frank Havard, followed by the 1995 summary plus a new addendum containing a fresh appeal for additions to Stewart’s collection. Subsequent tracks were not on the original cassette. William Cookson and the Rev. Merrill recount their memories, followed by another non-Noah’s Ark recording, extracts from a lecture given to the College of Psychic Studies by Ivy Northage in 1990. In it she displays great talent as a raconteur. The longest in the set, it occupies 38 minutes over four tracks. The final track is the daughter of Mrs L. T. Gordon, reading her mother’s written account of her experiences.
Cumulatively the CDs paint a vivid picture of a Spiritualist culture which has always been controversial, but whatever the listener’s opinion, these accounts are told with absolute sincerity, compassion and often humour. The notion of a ‘Christmas Tree party’, in which spirit children choose gifts and take the etheric component with them, leaving the earthly form behind, will not convince the sceptical, but these witnesses do not come across as gullible fools, even when talking about the most remarkable phenomena, including materialisations and ectoplasm. While there are no guarantees that what the witnesses say happened really did happen, they have left a valuable record. The listener will have to decide how credible they are, but whatever position one takes on the reality of what is said to have occurred, this is a window into the past that comes alive in a way that it wouldn’t if transcribed onto the page.
There is a great interest in non-elite oral history these days, but in 1995 there was less awareness of its value. The project shows us that it is easy to be blasé about earlier times, and then find it is too late to do anything about it as witnesses die. This is the kind of initiative which should be carried on in a rolling programme so that today’s witnesses are able to give permanent expression of their memories for tomorrow. In parapsychology, Rosemarie Pilkington has issued two volumes of Men and Women of Parapsychology: Personal Reflections, and more recently Carlos Alvarado has produced his online ‘People in Parapsychology’ series, but these can only touch a fraction of the workers in that field. Spiritualism is even less well served. In seeking to preserve these memories, Stewart Alexander has done a huge service to future historians of the subject, and anyone else with an interest in physical mediumship, in making these recordings available. As the title suggests, Alexander has more in his collection so this project will continue. It is also to be hoped that in due course the full archive is deposited in a suitable home, and made available to researchers in its entirety. In the meantime, it is to be hoped that anyone with stories of physical mediumship will get in touch.