VICTOR ZAMMIT
A Lawyer Presents the Case for the Afterlife
.

.

The Book 4th Edition

<< Previous Chapter : Book Index : Next Chapter >>

17. Proxy sittings refute the allegation of mind reading

“When science begins the study of non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the centuries of its experience.”
British cosmologist, Dr Fred Hoyle

Another argument that was raised in the early days of psychic research was that the mediums were getting the information by telepathy from the unconscious minds of the people who came to sit with them.

The early psychic investigators overcame this objection through what they called 'proxy sittings' — where one person who knew nothing about a certain person took that person's place and went to see the medium on behalf of that other person.

The Reverend Charles Drayton Thomas, a Methodist minister who became a psychic researcher, spent many years as a proxy sitter investigating the mediumship of Mrs Leonard and recording his results for the Society for Psychical Research. He would go to a sitting knowing only the name of the deceased and the name of the person who desired communication.

In one instance in 1936-37 Thomas went to four sittings on behalf of Emma Lewis, a person he did not know. Through the medium, Mrs Leonord, he was able to gain seventy pieces of information which Emma later felt confirmed beyond all doubt that it was her father, Frederick William Macaulay, who was communicating.

The reader has to keep in mind that the Rev Thomas, who insisted on using scientific method to ascertain what was being transmitted, thoroughly investigated the medium Gladys Osborne Leonard, one of the most gifted mediums of this century. We are informed that he had over 500 sittings with her over a period of twenty years. After Mrs Leonard's death in 1945, he joined Leslie Flint, the gifted direct voice medium and did a great deal of valuable work with him.

The only possible objection a skeptic can make in relation to proxy sittings is fraud. There is simply no other possible or probable explanation for the information coming through the medium about someone who has passed on and who had no connection whatsoever with any of the sitters who were with the medium at the time.

But so far in the last fifty years or so, no one has been able to even suggest fraud in the proxy sittings conducted by the Reverend Drayton Thomas. Again, psychic researchers are impressed by the conspicuous absence of criticism of these particular proxy sittings.

Professor Dodds, the rationalist President of the Society for Psychical Research from 1961-63 supervised a series of proxy sitting tests with the medium Nea Walker and was much impressed. He concluded:

The hypothesis of fraud, rational inference from disclosed facts, telepathy from the actual sitter, and co-incidence cannot either singly or in combination account for the results obtained ( Dodds 1962).

In reference to proxy sittings, the reader is referred to the Rev Drayton Thomas' Life Beyond Death With Evidence for direct information about further evidence for surviving physical death.

On the Internet

Susy Smith, The Mediumship of Mrs Leonard, Chapter 5 Proxy Sittings http://www.enformy.com/LeonardCh05.htm

Bibliography on Proxy Sittings
http://www.enformy.com/LeonardRef.htm

 

 

<< Previous Chapter : Book Index : Next Chapter >>

.

Home | The Book | Radio FAQs | Articles | Hall of Fame
Appearances | About Victor | Links | Contact

Copyright © 2001 Victor Zammit.  All rights reserved.  --  
Web site by happysean