~ June 2010 ~
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Dear Friend, Welcome to the QFAS Newsletter and thanks to those who contributed. Articles for the next edition would be appreciated, but please keep them short! * New QFAS Publication A booklet of the four talks given at the QFAS weekend residential conference at Woodbrooke in July 2009 is now available. Cherry Simpkin, Don Mason, Roger Straughan and David Britton each gave their perspective on the conference theme: "The Afterlife: How Good is the Evidence?" (A report of this conference appeared in the QFAS newsletter in November 2009.) The booklet costs £2 and is available from David Britton please add £1.00 for postage and packing (address at the end of this newsletter.) Forthcoming Events The QFAS Residential Week-end in 2010 will be held at Charney Manor, Charney Bassett near Wantage, Oxfordshire from 29-31 October. Tricia Robertson, past president and current Hon Sec. of the Scottish Society for Psychical Research, will talk on the theme: "Why I Believe in Life Beyond Death." QFAS Spring Conference 2011 Next year’s Spring Conference will be at Friends’ House in London, on 30th April, 2011. The speaker will be Julian Drewett, the General Secretary of the Churches’ Fellowship for Psychical and Spiritual Studies. Further details will follow in a future newsletter. Spring Conference 2010 The QFAS one-day Spring Conference was held at Friends House on Saturday 24 April, 2010. The theme was: “Why believe in survival beyond death? The role of personal experience”. The bulk of the day was devoted to talks by QFAS member, Roger Straughan, on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his own experiences of communication involving Sir Arthur’s books. In the morning, Roger spoke about the life and work of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and emphasized that there was a lot more to Sir Arthur than being the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories. His written work included historical novels, science fiction, plays, short stories, and poetry. He also stood twice for Parliament, he ran a field hospital during the Boer War, and helped to establish the Court of Appeal and the first British Volunteer Reserve Force – the original Dad’s Army. Of particular interest to QFAS, however, was his interest in psychic phenomena and his work as an early pioneer of the Spiritualist movement. He spent over 30 years investigating the paranormal and became convinced of both survival of death and the possibility of communication between this world and the next. He devoted the last 14 years of his life to trying to convince others. He lectured all over the UK and went on lecture tours in Australia, New Zealand, North America, South Africa and Scandinavia. He wrote extensively about psychic matters, including a comprehensive history of Spiritualism, and took part in high profile public debates. He also worked to change the law and, even when critically ill with heart disease shortly before his death, went to London to petition the Home Secretary for a repeal of legislation on the prosecution of mediums. He attracted great interest and also great opposition, particularly from the Churches. As a man on a mission, he was in no way put off by this. He was convinced that evidence of life after death and of communication could be a great unifying force between religions. Sir Arthur died in 1930. Since then, as one might expect, there have been a number of instances when he was thought to have communicated to those on earth. Only a few days after his death, for example, at a memorial service held for him at the Royal Albert, a well-known medium, Estelle Roberts, claimed to see him there, tried to establish contact and passed on a convincing message to his wife, Jean. His daughter, Dame Jean Conan Doyle, who told Roger about this incident herself, said that although the family felt that 90% of the many messages received for them by mediums supposedly from Sir Arthur were rubbish, they were convinced that the remainder were genuine. Over the years there have been many more claims of mediumistic communications, psychic photographs and physical phenomena involving Sir Arthur. Probably the best known example of his alleged communications are the “messages” received by the medium, Grace Cooke, in the 1930s. These have been published in various editions, some of which are still in print. Following this talk, Roger showed a fascinating video of Sir Arthur speaking about his belief in the Afterlife. In the afternoon, Roger spoke about his own experiences as told in his “A Study in Survival: Conan Doyle Solves the Final Problem”, (Published by O-Books ISBN: 978-1-84694-240-2). The book was reviewed by Ros Smith in the last QFAS newsletter in November 2009. Roger began by explaining that the title of his book was a play on the titles of two Sherlock Holmes stories, The Study in Scarlet and The Final Problem. Roger’s experiences began following the death of one of his dogs. Hence, he could not resist entitling the first chapter of his book “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time”, after one of one of Sherlock Holmes’ best-known lines. The dog died in the night on Roger’s living room carpet, after suffering from a malignant sarcoma. The family had decided not to have him put to sleep but to let nature take its course. Following the dog’s death, Roger went up to bed shattered and wondering whether the animal had suffered unnecessarily. To take his mind off these thoughts, he casually and without thought picked up one of the books lying on his bedside table, which happened to be a volume of collected short stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The book has over 1000 pages. Roger opened it completely at random. His eyes immediately fell upon the line “his exit was as speedy and painless as could be desired.” This was just what Roger had been worrying about. On further investigation, he discovered that the reference was to the death of a dog –“the poor little doggie.”—and, what was even stranger, like Roger’s own pet, the dog in the story had been suffering from “a frightful sarcoma”. The story itself is called “The Surgeon Talks”. It is not a well-known one and Roger had not remembered anything about it. It was unlikely, therefore, that he had subconsciously selected it. Was all this just an extraordinary coincidence or was someone trying to put his mind at rest? As time went on, Roger found that if he opened a Conan Doyle book at random, he would often immediately read a word or sentence which chimed uncannily with his current thoughts or concerns. Being a fan of Sir Arthur’s writing, he had collected a considerable number of Conan Doyle’s books over the years. It was, therefore, unlikely that he was subconsciously picking a particular passage since there were too many for him to remember them all. After this had happened several times, he decided to deliberately experiment with the phenemona. He would deliberately think of a particular question and then shut his eyes, blindly pick a Conan Doyle book from the shelf and open it completely at random. Although the experiment did not always “work”, there were enough instances when it did (hundreds, in fact) to indicate that there was something more than mere coincidence happening. One of the most extraordinary examples concerned the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York. That evening, Roger decided to see if any reference to the events might emerge from his bookshelf. As usual, he blindly took a book and opened it completely at random. To his amazement, his eyes fell on the words: “In New York, in the centre”. Roger tried the same experiment again after watching the events surrounding the bombings in London on 7/7. This time his eyes alighted on the words: “‘We will begin our investigation by a visit to Aldgate Station’”. This was uncanny since, not only was Aldgate Station one of the locations of the bombings but Roger was actually looking at a television transmission of the activities going on there at the precise moment he read those words. Another uncanny example involved Sir Arthur’s daughter, Dame Jean Conan Doyle, whom Roger contacted in 1997 about his experiences. She told him that, as so many of the alleged communications from her father had proved very doubtful, she had a “test question” which she used. No other living person knew either the question or the answer to it. Roger did not ask what the question was. They set up a correspondence. Later that year, Dame Jean told him in one of her letters that she was terminally ill. Roger decided to try a reading to see if he might receive evidence that her father was taking an interest. The first words he read were ‘my daughter’. The sentence went on to describe ‘a broad white hand outstretched with a ring sparkling in the sunlight.’ This meant nothing to Roger but he decided to tell Dame Jean in case it meant something to her. She confirmed by return of post that, completely unknown to Roger, the reading had successfully answered her “test question”. The question had been, “what present did my father give me for my 18th birthday” and the answer was “a signet ring”. Sometimes the passages would give Roger personal guidance. For example, there was the advice given at a time when he was suffering rather a lot from indigestion. One morning, his daughter brought him a cup of tea in bed. Quite unthinkingly, he picked up a Conan Doyle book from his bedside table and casually opened it, only to immediately read the words: ‘You’ve been drinking too much tea. You are suffering from tea poisoning!’ He duly cut down on his tea drinking (which was apparently quite considerable) and his indigestion vanished. Roger wondered whether he should share his experiences. He kept the idea of writing a book in the back of his mind for some years, thinking he would get round to it one day, when he had time. Eventually, he was jolted into doing something about it by a train crash. After attending a conference in London, Roger chose to travel back home on the 5.35 train from Paddington . On the journey, the train was derailed when it hit a car at a level crossing while travelling at 100 mph. A number of people were killed and many more seriously injured. Roger managed to escape from his wrecked carriage through a broken window. Consulting his books in his usual way on the day after the crash, Roger read the words ‘The window, the window’ in a passage that went on to describe a man ‘flying through it’ with ‘blood streaming from his face and hands’ though his injuries were ‘a few scratches, nothing more.’ Roger had, similarly escaped through the broken window, there had been blood streaming from his face and hands, but his injuries only amounted to a few scratches, nothing more. Another reading at this time simply said, ‘There are points here and a curve.’ The train had in fact come round a curve to hit the car at the level crossing, and then travelled some distance before being finally derailed at a set of points. Roger felt he was not alone that evening. Roger’s lucky escape in that rail crash finally prompted him to write about his experiences. He felt he should not put off going public any longer. A consultation of his book shelf supported this feeling, for he read ‘Why should a man wait? One’s nerve is more likely to be strong and one’s knowledge fresh now than in twenty years.’ The result is his book “A Study in Survival”. The afternoon finished with questions to a panel consisting of the QFAS Committee, including Roger, and Jennifer Howard, editor of the Quarterly Review of the Churches Fellowship for Psychical and Spiritual Studies. Here are some of the comments on the day: "A very enjoyable day – thought provoking and stimulating." "Another stimulating and affirming topic at the heart of an excellently organised conference which has been, as ever, most enjoyable. Many thanks for all the hard work which has gone into it." "Having only just started reading Roger’s book this conference has made me very keen to read further." "I was particularly struck by the motive for Conan Doyle’s interest in spiritualism – the combating of materialism." "I am getting Roger to come and talk to York Friargate Meeting – now doubly keen for this to happen." "Very good day and R.S.’s book is well worth reading." "Interesting, enjoyable and a reminder of our reading of the book. Good to have a panel of questions of real life happenings. Thank you all." Britain Yearly Meeting Angela Howard and Cherry Simpkin ran a Special Interest Group session at BYM. This was well attended and it was good to see a number of young people there. Points discussed ranged from the importance of personal experience, the reasons why people in the next world should wish to communicate with those in this one and the psychic awareness of children. One person suggested it was better to counteract the sceptics by emphasising personal testimonies rather than worrying about producing scientific evidence. Another wondered why anyone should want to communicate with us when there were many other exciting things for them to do. Angela suggested that the wish to communicate was as natural as wanting to contact one’s family in the UK after one had emigrated to Australia. Cherry suggested that some people might want to communicate in order to help those on earth. One Friend said that her children had been very psychic when small but had largely lost this ability in their adult life. She also told me an interesting story about this later. When her son was about 3 years old, the family was on holiday in Cornwall when they stopped for lunch in an old public house. While they were sitting in the garden, her son became very upset and cried out “Did the people get out?” When asked what he meant he cried “Out of the fire!” On making enquiries of the land-lord, they discovered that a number of people had been killed in a fire at the pub some 200 years previously! * * * Two articles by QFAS members. Dreaming of a stranger (name and address supplied) In the early 90s I accompanied a client to a coroner's court as at that time I was a solicitor. I had never been to one before and there was little I could do for my client in her particular circumstances, and she was made aware of that fact before asking me to go with her so I was not under any pressure that day. It was more a case of giving practical support which was fine as I liked my client and had no problems with the case at all. The night before my appointment I had a very vivid dream. Things like this (which are personal to me) have happened before, albeit infrequently over the years, but that morning I completely dismissed it as nothing more than a dream. In my dream, it felt like a curtain drawing open in front of me and I was watching a film. I saw a youngish woman in a hallway of a typical suburban house. She was on the floor, clutching her stomach with one hand and half propped up on the other trying to claw her way towards the front door of the house using her one arm and pushing off with her legs. She was in great pain. I was positioned behind her feet and could not clearly see her face but I knew I did not know her in either my dream life or in real life. I 'knew' her circumstances by some method or another which is unclear to me. I 'heard' her voice which had said at some point in the past, 'there is no one left for me now', repeat this several times. It was because she felt so desolate and alone that she had taken a drug overdose to kill herself. I also 'knew' that she did not want to be helped to recover from her suicide attempt, but she was frightened and in pain and just wanted a bit of company while she died. I could feel her acute loneliness and the ambivalence of her wants. She was unaware of me. She wanted to get to the door at the end of the corridor and I could see two vertical panes of glass in the front door. She hoped if she could open the door she might get a passer-by in to ease her loneliness. She did not want to live anymore, was frightened of dying and yet at the same time she wanted to die. As I looked she could crawl no further and she died in mid-way up the hall. As I said, I dismissed this as a vivid and unusual dream, nothing more. That morning, I went to the coroner’s court. My client's case was in a list which began (from memory) at 10.30am and her case was what they call second or third on, so you can gauge timing approximately and you don’t have to listen to all the cases on in the previous batch. I arrived reasonably early, in enough time to talk to my client and not feel too rushed. I entered the court as the case before ours was in progress and took a seat. A doctor was giving evidence about the cause of death of a woman in her twenties. It was a clear case of suicide from overdose of some drug or another which I have now forgotten - it may have been a pain killer or something like that. The court discussed the effects on the body, the pain the woman would have felt and how long it would have taken to die. Evidence was also given about the finding of the body in the hallway of her own home on the floor, facing the front door etc. By this time, I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck prickling and my skin break out in goosebumps. A police officer spoke and then a female work colleague of the deceased gave evidence and described the deceased as an office worker in a normal job as a secretary, but somewhat isolated from the usual office friendships and social life. She said she regretted not giving more time to the deceased as she now realised just how unhappy she was and she felt deeply guilty. She recounted the deceased had told her that she had lost her mother and father at a young age, one as a child and the other as a teenager. Then, when she was in her early twenties, her only remaining relative, a brother, died. The deceased had often said: 'there is no one left for me now' as she felt totally alone in the world with no family or friends. The court heard this was indeed the case, that the police had not been able to track down anyone to assist the court, and the work colleague was the only 'personal' acquaintance they could ask to give evidence. The coroner was well known and a warm and sensible person and very experienced at handling witnesses. His finding was an open verdict because although she had clearly committed suicide, the position of her body crawling towards the door was interpreted as someone seeking help to counteract her suicide - as if she had taken drugs and then thought better of it and wanted to be 'saved'. I 'knew' this was not the case but obviously I could not say anything to the court. The case took only about 20 minutes or so to complete and then my client's case came on. I rarely mentioned the incident to anyone but close friends and family and certainly did not tell my work colleagues as it would have been completely unacceptable. I have always puzzled over why it was important for a complete stranger to make sure that a 'witness' 'saw' and 'understood' her death. It suggests to me that there is an over-riding intelligence that sought out a mind that would be a physical witness to this event. I suppose there is a possibility of time being non-linear, but the deceased had been dead for some weeks by the time of my dream so it gets a bit complicated deciphering whether I saw the past or the future. Whatever it's status, it was a remarkable event and I cannot deny it happened though I cannot prove it to anyone else and have never sought to do so. There have been other incidents in my life when I have seen the future in dreams- possibly half a dozen or so. They are clear to me and I do not doubt them, but I can understand that to an outsider they could be just coincidences. I have no compulsion to tell those stories as they are personal to me and mean nothing to anyone else. This young woman's story however is different. The long term effect has been that I am very wary of all my dreams; I never 'know' which ones are likely to come true, and when. I question them all just in case, but it has given me a profound belief in communication beyond death that has never been shaken. My Ghost – Elizabeth M. Angas I was aware of ‘a presence’ when I first went to view the flat in Walthamstow in 1972. The first floor flat, which I was buying, was in a Victorian house. The ground and first floor flats were half of this house, which had been divided by a solid wall from the other half which had identical flats. My ghost, on the two occasions I saw her, ignored this wall – going through it, from my flat to the adjacent one, as though there were a door there (as there must have been once). She was dressed like a Victorian maid (as in the TV series ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’). She always seemed empathetic to my mood and in a hurry. I felt she was concerned about me and was dutifully looking after me like a ‘good servant’. On my second visit to the flat, I had an appointment with the telephone engineer. He had been up in the attic connecting and soldering the wire so that a phone was installed in my flat before I moved in. After the engineer had gone, I was about to lock up before going back to Wimbledon where I was living. Then I again felt ‘the presence’, as I started to go downstairs to the front door of the first floor flat. ‘The presence’ felt agitated behind me, so I turned round. Glancing upwards, I saw that the trap-door to the loft was open. Yet I remembered that the engineer had shut it before he left. I could see flames and smoke up in the loft through the open trap-door. Using my newly installed phone, I rang 999 to call the fire brigade. Three fire engines arrived very quickly. Just one fireman, however, was needed, wearing a special glove, to climb up into the loft and smother the little fire. As we left the house together, he shook my hand in front of all my new neighbours, who had come out into the street when the fire engines arrived. He said loudly, addressing the little crowd, that except for my quick action, the fire would have spread through all the terraced houses. Upon hearing this several neighbours came forward and also thanked me. So this was a very good introduction to my new home. Really, the thanks should have been to ‘the presence’ who had alerted me to the fire by opening the trap-door. So I thanked her silently in my heart and felt she was calm and happy to have been of help. I felt we had formed a bond. After I moved in, I felt her ‘presence’ whenever my attention needed to be alerted to situations which needed an urgent response. One such occasion was when a saucepan was in danger of burning dry. Another was when a step on the back stairs leading down to the garden had rotted. If I had stepped on it, I would have had a bad fall but, somehow, ‘the presence’ warned me and I cautiously explored it first, without using my full weight. Then, on two other occasions, I actually ‘saw’ her, in her maid’s uniform. These appearances both happened when a close friend of mine had come to stay for the night. We were having a bad quarrel, as we were prone to do, before retiring. As the quarrel ended, we were both recovering, feeling spent with emotion. It was then that I became aware of ‘the presence’ and realised that she was likewise distressed. Turning round, I saw she had materialised and was making little helpless movements with her hands and pacing backwards and forwards, looking at me sympathetically. I moved towards her to comfort her – to reassure her that the shouting was over – but she abruptly disappeared through the wall. The next morning I mentioned it to my friend but she is not psychic and had not seen or felt anybody. She dismissed my account as due to my having an overactive imagination. So when the happening was repeated after another bad quarrel, I kept it to myself. However, realising that the raised angry voices were distressing my ghost, I resolved to not allow any further arguments. When I next felt her ‘presence’, I spoke to her gently but firmly, assuring her that everything would be calm in future and she need not be concerned for me. I suggested to her that her duties were now completed so she had no further responsibilities. A feeling of great relief came from her. I then quietly commanded her to leave the house and go to the Afterlife for her much needed rest. I never saw her again nor felt her presence. More QFAS News - Angela Howard, Clerk. At a recent committee meeting we considered the needs of members who are unable to attend conferences, and wondered if these were being met. We agreed to explore the idea of recording speakers and making those recordings available for sale. Would any member with the necessary expertise and equipment be willing to duplicate recordings and sell them to help raise funds and keep members in touch? (They could also be listened to and used in discussion groups.) If any members are feeling isolated and would like to share experiences, ask questions, or just chat, I am very happy to receive letters, emails and phone calls (before 9.00 pm, please.) We have now held three special interest groups as an introduction to QFAS, one this year at BYM (as Cherry has reported) and two last year at York during the YMG. On these occasions we have advertised these groups as opportunities to share spiritual/psychic experiences. I have noticed that Friends tend to come into the room a little apprehensively (unless they are already QFAS members) and that the atmosphere has been somewhat strained and difficult to begin with. After an introductory chat from the leaders (Ros Smith, Cherry Simpkin and myself at York, and Cherry and I in London) we have invited sharing of experiences, comments and questions. In York where the groups were larger, some of this was done in groups of two and threes. Gradually the atmosphere has relaxed and talk has become animated with laughter breaking out. In the case of four young people, as I recall, there has been a great sense of relief and release at being able to recount quite significant experiences which they had been keeping to themselves and which had been troubling them. It may be that someone has an experience they would like to share with you? I have found that if I inwardly offer myself to receive people’s confidences I often have instances of people beginning to open up, perhaps about the death of a loved one and their hope that there is an afterlife, or about an experience that they cannot explain. I think we only have to signify a willingness for this to happen and it does. Has anyone else had a similar experience? Clerk: Angela Howard Treasurer & Membership Secretary: David Britton |