 this portrait of Arthur Findlay is at Stansted Hall home of the |
ARTHUR FINDLAY
PART 2 The Evidence of Mediumship By B.Hicks Arthur Findlay's life experience was in many ways the epitome of everyone's search for meaning in life and death.The greatness of Findlay is that he observed accurately, thought rationally and wrote clearly. |
|
Arthur Findlay College
on a frosty morning..1995
|
| His books record his exploration of mediumship and set out the methods he used, the proofs he found and the Inevitable conclusions he reached. |
| In Part One,
we briefly summarised Findlay's background and life, identified the point at which he encountered Spiritualism and mediumship at the age of thirty-five, and used his own words from the 'Rock of Truth' to present his message. Despite the later accumulation of evidence, Findlay's first encounter with mediumship in the home circle of John Sloan was a revelation, which clearly convinced him of the validity and importance of mediums, and the messages they relay. In 'Looking Back' Findlay recalls this circle and explains why it impressed him so deeply. For the modern reader his firsthand account Is more than just interesting, it is educational. Let us go back to the turning point of Arthur Findlay's life and what happened in Glasgow on Sunday, 1Oth September 1918. Arthur Findlay has just entered a Spiritualist church for the first time, hem is his description of what happened:A service was going on and the speaker was telling the congregation of some wonderful things he had experienced. I sat down and listened, and when the service was over I went up to him and this is what 1 said: "Do you really expect me to believe what you said 'tonight?it may have gone down with some simple-minded people who listened to you, but do you expect a rational thinker to accept as true what you said ? Can you prove it to me?"
|
I have from time to time challenged a parson with questions, and have received as a reply:
"No, I can prove nothing this where faith comes in. You must believe and not doubt.
The Spiritualist whom I now challenged said exactly the opposite,
to the effect that I could not be expected to believe without proof.
"Proof is essential," he continued, "and what Spiritualists believe has come from experience. All claims made by Spiritualists can be proved5 and if you want to have proof you can get it."
"How?" I enquired.
"By going to a medium," he answered. "Can you take me to one?" 1 asked. "Yes, to-morrow night, if that is convenient to you," he replied.
That reply appealed to me, and I accepted his offer.
So it was arranged that the following night I would meet him at seven o'clock at the corner of North Frederick Street and George Street and he would take me to a seance which was held every Monday evening in a house nearby.When I returned and told my wife where I was about to go, she wondered if it were a wise thing to do. To go with a strange man to a strange house seemed to her taking an unjustifiable risk, but she raised no objection and I kept the appointment next day as arranged.
Consequently on the following day Monday 20th September 1918, we met at the place arranged and walked along a quiet street to a house, the entrance to which was by a passage. He told me we were going to the house of John Sloan, who was a medium. We entered the passage, and my unknown guide knocked at the door on the right-hand side. It was opened and we were ushered into a small room in which were ten people, all sitting on chairs in a circle. The light was on and talking was general.
A man was playing a hymn on a harmonium.We were both given seats in the circle and no introductions were made. All that was said by my guide was a remark to the man at the harmonium that he had brought someone with him. That was all.
My guide did not know my name, I did not know his, and the rest of the people were all complete strangers to me. I put them down as belonging to what is called the working class, nice, kindly decent people who gave me a very friendly welcome.
The man at the harmonium then said it was time to stand, and he switched oft the light A hymn was played and sung and then another, but before it ended the organist turned round and took his place in the circle.Shortly after this a man's loud voice spoke right in front of my right-hand neighbour I heard everything said and the name it gave, the conversation being an intimate one between my female neighbour and this voice.
She had evidently spoken to the voice before, and took it all quietly and naturally.
The voice seemed to know everything of importance she had done since the last conversation, and ended with love and the promise to be back again at the next seance.
When the voice had finished speaking, she calmly announced to everyone that she had been speaking to her husband, whom I took to be dead.This went on for three hours, dozens of voices speaking to different people, men's voices, women's voices, children's voices, all of which I was told came from people called dead.
A woman's voice spoke to a man sitting on my left. It gave a name and referred to happenings at his home. It specially referred to Tom, who was giving his father trouble, and then came advice as to how he should be dealt with.Intimate family matters were discussed between my neighbour and this female voice, and finally with love it said "Good-bye'
'That was my wife, " he whispered to me. "I never come here but she comes back to me. She always knows everything that goes on at home."
I was now beginning to feel that I was the only one to be omitted from this strange medley of conversation which seemed to go on and on without stopping. Everything said was claimed to be correct, and I wondered how it was possible for any human being to be so intimate with all the dead friends, and the private doings of the sitters, as to be able to impersonate their deceased relations in the way that was taking place.Not only did the imagined impersonator know intimately about their dead friends and relations but every voice was different, the mannerisms were different, in fact each voice had a different personality.
What a wonderful actor there must be amongst us to be able to carry on like that for hours on end, and to remember in the dark where everyone was sitting, as the right person was directly addressed every time with never a mistake. Such were my thoughts, when suddenly right in front of my face a strong voice spoke to me. "Yes, who are you?'' I enquired, to receive the answer: "Your father, Robed Downie Findlay."The voice continued speaking, and referred to something that only my father and I, and one other man, ever knew about on earth, and that other man, like my father was dead. I was therefore the only living person on earth with any knowledge of what the voice was talking about It was a private matter that neither I, nor my father nor the other man when on earth, ever spoke about to any other person. All this was extraordinary enough, but imagine my surprise when my father concluded by saying:
"David Kidston is standing beside me and would also like to talk to you about this matter."
Now David Kidston was the name of the other man who knew about this private affair He was my father's partner and he was my partner after my father's death. Only the three of us knew about this private affair and here I was in a Glasgow artisan's house, a complete stranger to everyone, being told by two different voices about something known only to me and two dead men. Moreover the voices which spoke claimed to be the voices of These two men, and Kidston continued the conversation quite naturally which my father had started. What my father said after giving his name was this: 'l am very sorry I did not take you into my business. I would have liked to do so but Kidston opposed it If you had been with me it would have greatly eased my life, 66 I found business a great strain on me. David Kidston is standing beside me and would also like to talk to you about this matter."Then a voice claiming to be that of David Kidston spoke, saying:
"1am David Kidston. I was wrong opposing your coming into our office. I am sorry I did fl but now you need have no regrets. 1 am glad to get that off my chest at last"
That was all true, but only my father myself and Kidston knew about it and the incident referred to happened when my grandfather died in 1904, fourteen years previously.
When he passed on, I said to my father that I would like to enter Findlay Kidston & Goff's office, as now my prospects of becoming a partner in Patrick Henderson & Co. were not so bright.
My grandfather's influence had gone and I might have to wait years before I became a partner.
My father agreed and said he would speak to Kidston about it as l would be a great help to him.
My disappointment was great when he told me that Kidston would not agree, because the business earned enough for only three partners. He evidently foresaw the day when my father would want me to become a partner and that would mean less to go round.
Kidston was so short-sighted that he could not foresee me bringing in enough new business to the firm to justify my being made a partner but he was a very difficult man to work with and my father had some unpleasant times with him. He was grult shod in his manner and domineering, so much so that my father rather feared him. So I knew that what Kidston had said was final and I never raised the matter again, but, as neither he nor Goff had sons, I saw something good slipping away from me. So my request and its refusal remained known only to us three. Nevertheless, here was I listening to what had happened fourteen years previously in a strange house, and in the company of people I had never seen before in my life.
That indeed was a problem. No spy system, however thorough it was, no fraud or impersonation by the medium or anyone else could be responsible for what I had experienced. I was up against something quite inexplicable. That then, was my first introduction to Spiritualism, and, when the seance was over I was introduced to the medium John Campbell Sloan, the man who was at the harmonium when I entered. I thanked him for his hospitality and asked him if I could come back again, as I was anxious to know more about this subject'
(Looking Back pp 175-181)
This account by Findlay is impressive for its clarity and the matter-of-fact way in which the regular circle members accepted the phenomena as part of their daily way of life. They were friendly, welcoming and ready to share their experiences with a stranger without fuss or fear of failure.
Today there are those who might feel that Findlay was being condescending in referring to the '….working class, nice, kindly, decent people who gave me a very friendly welcome,' but he is actually reporting accurately in the social context of the times, 1918 for the circle, and 1955 when he wrote the book. The home circle he describes and which gave him such a convincing demonstration of mediumship must have been typical of hundreds throughout the country. It was just this type of mediumship and these circles that kept Spiritualism alive for 100 years in Britain between the establishment of Keighley church in 1853 and 1953 when Findlay was writing 'Looking Back'.
Findlay's experience is one that many of us seek today. Strangely it seems more difficult for us to find than it was for him. Are there circles today where the phenomenon occurs so freely and is treated as a natural part of life in such a matter-of-fact manner? Probably there are, but they struggle for survival in the modern environment of rush, change and nightly TV addiction.
Just as we have shared Findlay's revelation and learnt from it, so we can gain more by following him along the next stage of his path.
To follow
'On the Edge of the Etheric'
Evidence, Conviction, Publication… Copies of 'The Rock of Truth', 'Looking Back' and other books by Arthur Findlay can be ordered fromPsychic News Bookshop, Stansted Hall UK.
http://www.psychicnewsbookshop.co.uk/Mail to:
Editor@Medium2000.org
back to Contents
