ROBERT BLATCHFORD's deceased wife was purporting to send a message to him through Feda on September 23, 1923. Suddenly a voice seemed to be speaking aloud in the air, away from the rnedium, and away from the sitter. It was his wife's voice, and he could hear her eager, anxious tone as she spoke the words, "Barb, I am here. I am with you, Barb." It was her pronounciation of his name that was especially exciting to Blatchford, because his wife had been a Yorkshire woman who said "Bob" as if it rhymed not with nob but with garb. He felt that to have her speak his name twice in her own special way was highly evidential. It was his first sitting with Mrs. Leonard. He had gone as an anonymous sitter, watchful, not hostile, but rather skeptical-and he had received the surprise of his life.

In 1922, Blatchford, a newspaper correspondent, had become interested in Psychical research in the course of his own research for a series of articles on the subject. He describes his experiences in his book More Things In Heaven and Earth.

On the first of June, 1924, Blatchford had another sitting with Mrs. Leonard, at which time he asked Feda whether his wife really had spoken to him or if he had imagined it. Feda said, "She spoke to you. It is a thing that does not happen in hundreds of sittings with me. There was a lot of power."

At that time, direct voice communication was highly unusual at Mrs. Leonard's sittings. For some years Drayton Thomas had occasionally heard his father's whispers, which Feda then repeated aloud. But nothing more. Gradually, as Mrs. Leonard's mediumship became more powerful, direct voice became stronger and more frequent. By the decade before 1947 when Thomas published "A New Hypothesis Concerning Trance Communications" it had markedly increased.

"Its frequency varies from sitting to sitting," we are told. "In one it may be heard only six times, speaking a total of from twelve to fifteen words in all; at another sitting it may be heard as many as twenty-five times, speaking about sixty words." Thomas hypothesized that something in the early part of the sitting facilitates the direct voice, and that towards the end of the sitting this something fails to act. He says, "It is as if the power were vigorously produced shortly after the sitting starts, and reaches one or more peaks, after which it fails, either suddenly or gradually."

We have already mentioned that Thomas had become convinced that power had a direct relation to the problems of communication. Concerning direct voice phenomena, he developed a concept which he elaborated as follows:

The communicator comes to the sitting in that body which is now normally his in the etherial realms. He takes up the position, some two or three feet in front of the medium, which Feda finds most convenient for her reception of the messages. He speaks his message in words during those periods of the sitting which favor this method of communication, while for other periods it seems more cffective to give it by telepathy. The difference between these periods in a sitting is caused by variations in the output of an emanation which flows from the medium, with possible additions from sitter and note-taker. This emanation is termed by Feda "the power"; it varies in density from moment to moment, and its gradual exhaustion brings progressive difficulty in communication and finally stops it altogether. During the sitting both medium and sitter are within this field of psychic energy, which, although but rarely luminous itself, yet renders visible to Feda any object or person, incarnate or discarnate, who is also within its limited range. Hence Feda's ability to describe the personal appearance of communicators . . . The emanation . . . carries to Feda the spoken words which she hears more or less plainly, although the sitter usually hears nothing whatever save what comes from the medium's lips. I say "usually" because of the exception which will be described hereafter at some length. This is an occasional utterance of a word, or words, in a clear and distinct whisper, akin to what one is accustomed to hear from communicators at direct voice (or trumpet) sittings with what are termed physical mediums.

How is it that, while the greater part of the message is unheard by the sitter, he is able to hear these occasional spoken whispers? I believe that the explanation will be found in the action of the before-mentioned emanation. This emanation seems to be a substance having relations with physical matter and also with the ctherial substance of the next stage of existence. It is sufficiently akin to the latter for use by the discarnate communicator, and it is sufficiently akin to earth to affect the air of the seance room, not at all times, but when moved more violently than it is by the usual speaking of the communicator. When the latter speaks with special vigor the vibrations of the emanation set up secondary vibrations in air, and it is these secondary vibrations which the sitter hears as a clear whisper.

In his examples Thomas quotes a few preceding words, then the direct voice whisper, and then Feda's reaction to it:

FEDA. That is when we usually av- av

D. V. Avail

FEDA. Avail ourselves of, etc.

FEDA. Here there is an inner urge towards meeting opportunities

more than half-way; possibly it is due to-What?

D. V. Awareness.

FEDA. Awareness of the existence of all these opportunities.

FEDA. This touches on another aspect of our-Our what? Our work?

D. V. Our group work.

D. V. You see, Charlie.

FEDA. You do see, Charlie, etc. (A new line of thought commenced with the words-)

D. V. Of course some individuals

FEDA. Of course some individuals obtain, etc.
 

FEDA. Abstinence?

D. V. Abstinence.

FEDA. I'm getting that word abstinence. I don't know what that means, but it means something or other special to him. (What communicator wished to say was evidently this: "It's like being put in charge of a Borstal institution"):

FEDA. It's like being put in charge of a department of boars. Pigs? Boars in an institution?

D. V. Borstal.

FEDA. I'm not quite sure. It's something to do with boars.

FEDA. Willy-What? Who's he? Willy somebody-I can't get his other name. Willy-somebody is compelling you. Wait a minute. I've mixed that up.

D. V. It is not that at all.

FEDA. Willy-nilly? Is that right? Willy-nilly you are being compelled, etc., etc.

In listing a group of examples, Thomas classified them as to the purpose indicated by the direct voice:

Direct voice supplies the required word when Feda hesitates.

FEDA. The conditions of my new life have impressed me more dr- dr

D. V. Dramatically

FEDA. Dramatically, he calls it, than they have people who, etc.

FEDA. When I saw familiar things around me I said, "Thank God! Thank God! All the familiar and comforting things are here. I will live up to them, or I will live up to the benef-, benef- "

D. V. Beneficence which has given them to me.

Direct voice supplies the rejuired word when Feda asks for it.

(This is its most frequent use.)

FEDA. Part of it may happen earlier, but he feels- What? The fill - What?

D. V. Fulfilment

FEDA. The actual fulfilment of the prophecy, etc.

FEDA. A great task lies before us of harmonizing them as they- What?

D. V. Interpenetrate

FEDA. Interpenetrate each other. That's what he says, harmonizing them. What did you say, please? You harmonize what?

D. V. Notes

FEDA. Notes. Wait a minute. I know what you are going to say. I got it once. You harmonize notes in music before you play a chord.

Direct voice supplies the required word without its being asked for.

FEDA. Can you remember talking to me about

D. V. Italy

FEDA. Italy, she says.

Direct voice addresses Feda.

FEDA. A new communicator was characterized by Feda, who spoke appreciatively of his sincerity and quickness in adapting himself to the conditions of his new life, adding, "He was ready to do it."

D. V. Thank you.

FEDA. Thank you, he said.

C. D. T. For your flattering remarks!

FEDA. He says, I don't know that they were meant to be flattering, but I think I may read a certain amount of truth in them.

Direct voice corrects Feda's mistakes. These instances are possibly of special significance as one may suppose that Feda would not thus correct herself.

FEDA. At present it is clearer

D. V. As clear

FEDA. It is as clear

FEDA. You couldn't pretend to be something other than you were not.

D. V. Other than you were

FEDA. Than you were, he says.

FEDA. Tell her that he is happy, that he can see nothing in this life that he would wish altered.

D. V. New life

FEDA. In the new life that he would wish altered.

FEDA. Was there a path would go to some water? Would there be a path to some water, do you know? She keeps saying, "path-water; path-water. " I don't see any water in the garden, but I get a feeling you could go out of the garden and there would be some special path to the garden

D. V. To the water

FEDA. No, not to the garden, she says, but from the garden to the water; as if it would be looked upon as a private path.

(This was a highly important correction and saved an excellent piece of evidence, unknown to me at the time, from being a failure. It correctly described something no longer existing, but which I was able to verify from pictures in archaeological books more than a century old.)

Direct voice corrects Feda's pronunciation.

FEDA. Admiral idea, he says.

D. V. Admirable

FEDA. An admirable idea.

FEDA. It's just as if things become separate, like the spectrum, he calls it. (Then adding for herself-) A man once said Feda was a spectrum.

D. V. Spectre, not spectrum!

FEDA. He says, spectrum; everything get divided.

FEDA. When I realized my surroundings it was a great surprise, I must admit that. In spite of certain things I had read and heard, death struck me as taking me to some empty-What do you call it? Sone? Empty sone?

D. V. Zone

FEDA. Empty zone.

Direct voice contradicts Feda.

FEDA. This gentleman is not quite used to fitting in with other people, and with what they wish him to do. If you suggest anything to him he doesn't jump at it. He waits to see if it was what he wants to do. He's just like that.

D. V. I am not!

FEDA. Yes, you are. He's a good, kind man, but it's just a habit. I feel he was an important person, that people thought a lot of and paid much attention to his words. He says they didn't always pay attention, but it would have been better if they had done so sometimes. . . . He is a funny gentleman!

D. V. Not funny!

FEDA. He's talking about the sinner that repenteth! I think the sinner that repenteth is an awful nuisance!

D. V. No, he isn't.

FEDA. Well, he sounds as if he is.

FEDA. It must begin on the earth, as many myriads- You mean millions?

D. V. No, I don't.

Direct voice exclaims, remonstrates or expostulates.

FEDA. Your father says

D. V. A few days out!

FEDA. A few days out? What, out of bed?

D. V. No, no, no; no!

FEDA. A few days out? Oh, I'll tell him. He was a few days out in his reckoning about the war.

(Before this sitting I had shown Mrs. Leonard a garden thermometer which I had recently bought. It is to this that Feda alludes in the following.)

FEDA. He says that the phenometer-phenomena-He's got a thermometer!

D. V. I was not talking about thermometers!

FEDA. Oh, he says, phenomena. Is that right? The phenomena referred to, etc.

FEDA. He says you must have good working-What? Hippopotamuses?

D. V. Hypotheses.

FEDA. (more loudly) Hippopotamuses.

D. V. Hypotheses-and don't shout!

FEDA. I'm not shouting. I'm only speaking plainly.

FEDA. With his de- de- What? I never heard anyone use that word before-demise?

C.D.T. explains the meaning of the word.

FEDA. It's a stupid, ugly word. Demise! Can't you say "passing over"?

D. V. No!

FEDA. No, he doesn't want to say passing over. Demise, well, anyhow, after his demise she has been very lonely.

Direct voice may be unheard by Feda.

FEDA. The whole tone of life will be on a more artistic

D. V. Plane.

FEDA. What did you say? (I had heard this word clearly.) On a more artistic plane than has hitherto been possible.

FEDA. For their own progress, their own-Their own what?

D. V. Unfoldment. (Both the stenographer and I heard this word distinctly, but Feda apparently did not.)

FEDA. Wait a minute. Their own what? Oh, unfoldment. Wait a minute. It's not quite right.

D. V. Unfoldment of their own powers.

Direct voicemay be misheard by Feda.

FEDA. Man was

D. V. Then more bucolic.

FEDA. More beautiful? No, something like beautiful, bu- something. Bu- Can you hear him?

C. D. T. Yes, I heard him say "bucolic".

Direct voice may he only partly heard by Feda.

FEDA. She says she has been many times to-Bic- Bic

D. V. Bickley.

FEDA. I can't get that name; it sounds like Bickley, but that isn't right, it can't be.

SITTER. I heard her say it, Feda, and it is right.

I am aware that a critic's first reaction to this paper will be to suggest to himself that I, and other of Mrs. Leonard's sitters, have been misled in supposing that the direct voice comes from some point in space away from the medium; they will incline to think that, in fact, it came from her lips. I hasten to assure him that there is no question possible in the mind of those who have heard it often. The direct voice does not proceed from the medium's lips, neither is it possible to confuse it with any whisper which Feda may make through those lips. I am always able, just before Feda greets me, to hear her whispered mutterings in apparent conversation with the communicator. I can catch a word here and there, "Yes, I'll tell him. Yes, Feda mustn't forget," but the grammar and characteristic is always distinctly and unmistakably Feda's own. Between this and the direct voice whisper of the communicators there is wide difference.

Moreover, the latter comes from a different place. Feda's whisper proceeds from Mrs. Leonard's lips; the direct voice comes from a spot some two feet to three feet in front of the medium.

If the above statement is true, the direct voice phenomenon could not be explained as unconscious ventriloquism on the part of the medium. As for conscious ventriloquism, Mrs. Leonard has never in her life given any indication that she might possess this skill. Secondly, to those who know her, her simple denial that she ever used it would be enough. No one who has been acquainted with Mrs. Leonard for any length of time has ever doubted her veracity.

Of the occurrence of these whispers, and of their intimate connection with the remarks which the Feda-persona is making at very nearly the same time, there is no doubt. Nor is there any doubt that they seem to the sitter to come from a position in empty space some distance in front of the medium. I understand that tests made with appropriate physical instruments have failed to show that sound-waves are actually emanating from a source at this external point. But I do not know how easy it would be to establish or refute such a possibility by physical apparatus.

NOTE ON AN ATTEMPT TO LOCATE IN SPACE THE ALLEGED DIRECT VOICE OBSERVED IN SITTINGS WITH MRS. LEONARD.

As the result obtained was not a positive one this note is kept as brief as possible and is restricted to essentials.

The method employed was an adaptation of the well-known double-tube method. It was suggested by Dr. Irons, through the intermediary of Mr. Soal. Two pairs of microphones, as shown on the following diagram, were used. Each pair of microphones was connected with a pair of ear-phones in a distant room, each microphone being connected by a different channel with its appropriate ear-phone. The sensitiveness, etc., of the microphones was carefully balanced, slight inequalities in the ear-phones being compensated by appropriate balancing of the microphones.'

Mr. Heard and Mr. Besterman acted as observers; by careful preliminary calibration on two occasions, once immediately before the sittings, they succeeded in distinguishing displacements in space from the normal position, i.e. that of the medium, of something less than six inches in any horizontal direction. It was found, however, that this method would be unsuitable for the observation of sounds liable to be produced from different and alternating sources, owing to the serious lag in localizing such sounds. Again, it was found that fatigue supervened fairly rapidly and produced serious errors.

The sitting was held on 16 January 1933, with the Rev. C. Drayton Thomas as sitter, gramophone records being taken simultaneously. The notes made by the two observers exactly agreed. A supposed direct voice was heard four times, as follows (approximately corrected times):

a. m.

11:21.5 "Peter"

11:34 "sure to be"

11:34.5 "verified"

11-35 "considerable"

On none of these occasions was the voice found to be displaced in space, i.e. to emanate from a source in space other than the position occupied by the medium. (This work was carried out by the Gramophone Co.'s technical recording staff, to whose efficient and willing help we are much indebted.)

Drayton Thomas once asked Mrs. Leonard if she knew what Feda meant when she spoke of "the power." "I found," he said, "that Mrs. Leonard was familiar with the term but had no theory about it." Mrs. Leonard noticed that she was less alert in mind immediately after a sitting and supposed that the power had something to do with it. In the earlier days, when she had been giving four sittings daily, the power had seemed to be renewed for each. She could not suggest how, but supposed that Feda brought each sitting to a close before the power had been expended.

Thomas goes on:

A group of investigators, wishing to verify this, invited Rudi to London for a series of experiments at the rooms of the Society for Psychical Research. Their findings are recorded in the Proceedings for June, 1933, from which the following quotations are taken:

On nearly every occasion many movements of the galvanometer coil were recorded. . . . These movements of the galvanometer coil, which confirm Osty's discovery, are very remarkable. . . . In addition, the bell in series with a selenium cell rang on two or three occasions, indicating an absorption of at least 50% of the infrared radiation. Whatever it is that affects the galvanometer, or bell circuits, appears to emanate from Rudi, since the ray absorption sometimes synchronized with his breathing and sometimes took place immediately after he said it would. (p. 274)

The many records of large movements definitely indicate a considerable variation of the current in the galvanometer which cannot be due to any disturbance other than the absorption of the infra-red radiation. In view of the distance of the medium from the apparatus and the fact that he was always under vigilant control, it would appear that this absorption is due to some agency at present unknown, emanating from Rudi himself. (p. 275)

[Movement of objects without the contact of the medium or anyone else gives evidence of this power. To see the levitation of a table without contact, Sir William Barrett once visited the Goligher circle to watch Dr. W. F. Crawford's work,] and he informed me that on one occasion, he pressed forcefully upon the table in an endeavor to prevent its levitation, but in vain. He then sat upon the table, and it raised him several feet from the floor. Lady Barrett, who had been present at these experiments, told me that while Sir William was levitated with the table she was feeling with her umbrella underneath the table legs and satisfied herself that no cords or implements of any kind were being used. All was clear; the umbrella met with no obstructions.

I was first personally impressed by the reality of an emanation when having a table sitting with Mrs. Leonard. My wife and Mrs. Leonard placed their hands lightly on the bamboo table while I took down the letters as they were spelled out by tilts. Then my wife and I exchanged places. Messages of an evidential character were thus produced. When Mrs. Leonard suggested that my wife and I should sit at the table we did so, but no movements followed. Mrs. Leonard then placed her fingers lightly upon the exact center of the table, where it would have been difficult, or probably impossible, for her to move it by pressure. The result was immediate; for the tilts commenced and continued until the medium gradually withdrew her hand. As she did so, the table slowed down and quickly ceased all movement. Again the medium's hand was placed on it as before and again the movements continued. It was a clear demonstration that something essential to the table movement proceeded from Mrs. Leonard and that neither my wife nor I could produce this mysterious something....

It would seem that this substance calls for further research. It is tempting to suggest that it will eventually be found to play an important part in the processes of physical life, in the baffling regions of sensation and perception, and in all forms of psychic phenomena.

It may be a substance which links the material with the immaterial and facilitates their interaction. One may even conceive of it as consisting of many grades, some of which interact with matter while others more easily interact with the substance of the realms awaiting our habitation after departure from the earthly body.

And then, during the sitting, everything happens exactly as if the communicator were just in front of the medium and at the sitter's left shoulder; that means that he occupies a definite position in space.

It would be difficult to accept the above without admitting that the communicator is present in body, even if we are unable to picture exactly what kind of substance forms the body which to our senses remains intangible and invisible. We have quoted sufficient to show that Feda and communicator stoutly assert such bodies.

The fact that we ourselves cannot see or feel these etheric bodies does not argue against their lack of existence, according to Thomas. He uses the analogy of water, which remains H₂O whether used to float a ship or to blow a steam whistle or when it exists invisibly as dampness in the air.

(W. F. B.is Sir William Barrett; F. E. B. is Lady Barrett.)

W. F. B. Yes, but it must be persisted in. Will's here. (Said very clearly in direct voice, interrupting the voice of the control.)

W. F. B. I like talking bits myself in between.

F. E. B. I want you to.

W. F. B. But I can't.

F. E. B. Yes, but later on can't we try?

W. F. B. I've tried at night when you are going to sleep. You may hear my whistle.

("My whistle" was said very clearly in direct voice but rather as though with effort. Lady Barrett could not think what it meant.)

F. E. B. Did you say, "My whistle?"

W. F. B. Yes, I did. Don't you remember my own little brand of whistle?

(F. E. B. says, "Then it all came back to me, though I had not thought of it since he passed away. When he was very happy and content he used to make a little clear whistle in breathing. I used to say, laughing, 'You are like a pussy cat purring when you are happy, only you whistle instead.'")