The Scole Experiment Session 61
Friday 21 October 1994
Scole cellar
Guest sitting
13 sitters: Robin Foy, Sandra Foy, Alan Bennett, Diana Bennett, Ken Britton, Bernette Head, Mimi Salisbury, plus Beverley Dear, Sue Blackstone, John Berkeley, Shirley Berkeley, Shirley Webster, James Webster (stage magician and member The Magic Circle)
Witnessing The Impossible: The Diary of The Scole Experiment
At this session, there were six visitors present, as well as the seven members of the Scole Group. Our demonstration at Felixstowe was now only two weeks away, and the build-up of additional sitters in the Scole Group was fast moving ahead. This particular meeting turned out to be a very good sitting, although the lights, raps, and touches took rather longer than usual to get under way. Manu made an effort to greet everybody briefly, before retiring to get on with his main job, which was the blending together of the energies to create the phenomena.
The cowbells rang, but Patrick was a while coming through; so Mrs Bradshaw ‘filled in’ for a while through the entranced Diana, introducing herself as ‘Emily Bradshaw’. Emily commented that the lights would soon get under way and, shortly afterwards, sounds and various spirit raps could be heard coming from the rear row of chairs. When Patrick did finally manage to manifest through Alan, he initially had difficulty getting his words out, but he soon gained strength and became his usual cheery self as he greeted all the sitters individually. Yet again this time, he described himself to everybody as the ‘Spiritual Co-ordinator’ of the group. Patrick then addressed a few words to the visitors, particularly asking them to be discreet about anything they might witness and telling them a little of the purpose and planned work of the Scole Group.
At this point, the raps, taps, touches, and spirit lights started in earnest. The Ping-Pong ball leapt off the table and rolled towards one of the visitors. The lights were again spectacular as they performed their customary aerobatics - constantly ducking and weaving. Every sitter was eventually touched, either by the lights or by physical energy structures. Again, there were two lights travelling round together, at varying distances apart of between two inches and one to two feet. Their rapid gyrations were - as always - spectacular and, afterwards, all the visitors declared themselves amazed at their sheer speed and manoeuvrability.
We had been asked to increase the number of visitors the next week to no less than sixteen which - together with the Scole Group - would mean a total of twenty-three people in all during the session. This was obviously a very big step for us to take - from six to sixteen visitors - but it was necessary for the spirit team to practice with an ever-increasing number, ready for the challenge of Felixstowe.
Magician James Webster Witnesses The Scole Experiment Phenomena
Witness credentials: Surgical chiropodist, stage magician, Magic Circle member.
Experienced stage magician and member of The Magic Circle, James Webster, found no props or gadgetry in the Scole cellar – nor anything on the persons of the Scole Group members – which would allow them to produce the phenomena he witnessed. He testified that he did not know of any magician in the world who could produce the effects he witnessed in the conditions of the cellar.
Extract from The Scole Report
On 21st October 1994, James Webster, a surgical chiropodist, described as a former member of the Magic Circle and a stage magician, attended a sitting. He provided the first issue of The Spiritual Scientist with a detailed account of an event which had included information about a deceased member of his family, the movement of lights akin to a fireworks display, a tap-dancing movement by a light on the surface of the central table, and the ringing of a string of small bells suspended from the ceiling. After discussing mechanisms by which modern stage magicians might achieve such effects – particularly the light displays – he concluded that . . .
. . . one such modus operandi might be the employment of long, hollow strands of fibreglass with laser light projected through them. But this requires a previous set-up of props and gadgetry in the room and/or on the persons themselves which would immediately fail the test conditions which are required to be met by the genuine mediums and sitters.
Keen, M., Ellison, A., & Fontana, D. (1999). The Scole Report. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 58, 172
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