Sometimes a spirit can come very close to a medium, and
take control over the consciousness of the medium.
In some cases the control is light trance and the
medium can be aware of what is happening. This can be the
case in inspirational speaking or direct writing.
Some people who think they are "channeling" spirits
are actually contacting areas of their own unconscious,
archetypes or thought forms. It is good practice for them
to focus on evidential mental mediumship first.
In deep trance the medium can be fully unconscious with:
* a slowed heart rate
* a deep and steady breathing pattern
* a lowered body temperature
* a greatly reduced reaction to touch and pain.
Deep trance mediums usually have a "control"-
a spirit who speaks through them while they are unconscious.
Sometimes the control will act as a medium giving messages
from another spirit to the loved one. And often the control
will give spiritual messages and teachings.
Deep trance is necessary for physical mediumship. Sometimes
the control will coat the medium's vocal cords with a substance
taken from the medium's body called ectoplasm which allows
the control to speak in a voice very different from the
medium. In these cases the medium will often be left coughing
and clearing his/her throat at the end of the trance.
In the video below the medium David Thompson
is completely unconscious and unaware of what is taking
place. The spirit talking is William, someone who died more
than one hundred years ago. His voice, vocabulary and personality
are completely different to David's and exactly the same
as his voice when he fully materialises.
FAMOUS DEEP TRANCE MEDIUMS WHO HAVE BEEN STUDIED
BY AFTERLIFE INVESTIGATORS.
MRS LEONORA PIPER(1857-1950) in
America and England did a great deal of research with deep
trance mediums, especially Mrs Leonora Piper.
Professor William James, Professor of Psychology at Harvard
University, personally organized test sessions for her for
a year and a half. Then Professor Richard Hodgson, Professor
of Law, the greatest and most notorious debunker in the
world took over. And finally Professor James Hyslop, Professor
of Logic and Ethics from Columbia University took control
of the investigations.
Together they brought hundreds of sitters
to her under false names, they hired detectives to follow
her and intercepted her mail. She was taken to England where
she knew no one and arranged for her to stay with members
of the British Society of Psychical Research where she could
be constantly monitored.
She would go into a trance, then a control—an
intelligence from the afterlife —would take over and
start to give a great deal of accurate information and messages
from those who had passed on.
Over several months Hodgson introduced over
150 sitters at séances to Mrs. Piper. Thirty of these
had known the control while he was alive--the others had
never met him. The control was able to correctly identify
all of the sitters whom he had known. Most of them sat and
talked and reminisced with him, speaking through Mrs. Piper,
as if he himself was there in the flesh. His only mistake
was to fail to identify a person whom he had not met since
the person was a very small girl!
These meetings were so absolutely impressive
that Richard Hodgson wrote his report explaining in detail
why he was wrong in his earlier reports and that now he accepted
the existence of the afterlife. He claimed that he had communicated
with intelligences from the afterlife and he couldn't wait
to get there himself.
GLADYS OSBORNE LEONARD (1882- 1968) Mrs.
Leonard was one of the most thoroughly investigated mediums
of the twentieth century. For more than fifty years she gave
remarkable evidence of personal survival to countless sitters.
Her control 'Feda' would entrance Mrs. Leonard, and it was
Feda who would give the actual messages from the Spirit people.
She gave a series of sittings to Sir Oliver Lodge, the renowned
physicist. In 1915, he and Lady Lodge visited Mrs. Leonard,
anonymously at first. With the information given by Feda,
they were convinced that they were communicating with their
son Raymond, who had recently been killed in the war. Sir
Oliver was not one to accept mediumistic utterances blindly,
and he put Mrs. Leonard through a severe series of tests.
But the evidence kept coming forth, and it became impossible
to deny the obvious: Raymond lived on. Sir Oliver Lodge's
book, Raymond, or Life After Death, is an examination
of his search for survival evidence.
Investigations into Mrs. Leonard's mediumship were
conducted by the world's most noted psychic researchers of
the time: Rev. C. Drayton Thomas, Rev. Vale Owen, James Hewat
McKenzie, Mrs. W. H. Salter, and Whately Carington, to name
but a few. She was subjected to very close scrutiny, not for
any moral reasons, but because all noted mediums were being
investigated at this time. Amazingly enough, she never seemed
to be bothered by this, for she knew that she had nothing
to hide in her work.
The material which came through Mrs. Leonard did so in a variety
of ways, many of which were used by the researchers to determine
its origin.
They include:
BOOK TESTS, in which Feda would
direct the sitter to a certain book in a certain place in
his or her home where, on a given page, the sitter would find
a special message. Significant results from these tests were
reported by many investigators.
PROXY SITTINGS, in which the person
present with her would be acting as a proxy on behalf of the
actual sitter. The sitter was known neither to the medium
nor to the person acting as a proxy.
CROSS CORRESPONDENCE, in which
part of a message would come through her mediumship and part
through another medium.
For a complete list of investigations on Mrs. Leonard's mediumship,
you may consult the Society for Psychical Research - Combined
Index, Part III, pages 50 through 52, and Part IV, page 104.
MRS EILEEN GARRETT(1893 to 1970)
Another well-known and very much investigated trance medium
of last century was Mrs Garrett. Originally from Ireland
she traveled to the USA in 1940. There she allowed herself
to be tested by many scientists and in 1951 founded the
Parapsychology Foundation.
One of Eileen Garrett's more memorable
communications, as a medium, was the case of the airship
the R101 which crashed on October 5, 1930, in France, during
its maiden overseas voyage, killing 48 people.
It took place on October 7th 1930, two days after the crash,
Mrs Garret was being tested as a medium at the National
Laboratory of Psychical Research when she suddenly fell
into deep trance. Flight Lieutenant H. C. Irwin, Captain
of the airship, suddenly spoke through her and gave the
listeners a highly technical account of how the airship
crashed.
The narrative was taken down in shorthand and a copy was
submitted to the Air Ministry. According to the experts
the information that came through Mrs Garrett was 100% accurate
in every detail.
in
America and England did a great deal of research with deep
trance mediums, especially Mrs Leonora Piper.
Mrs.
Leonard was one of the most thoroughly investigated mediums
of the twentieth century. For more than fifty years she gave
remarkable evidence of personal survival to countless sitters.
Another well-known and very much investigated trance medium
of last century was Mrs Garrett. Originally from Ireland
she traveled to the USA in 1940. There she allowed herself
to be tested by many scientists and in 1951 founded the
Parapsychology Foundation. 