The Sanctuary


In 2007 a small group of interested people decided to set up a
home circle dedicated to learning and understanding more about Physical
Mediumship.
This circle was named the Bristol Spirit Lodge - as Chris, whose home
hosted the circle and who created the idea, lived in Bristol at the time.
The BSL grew and evolved over time with many sitters and mediums coming
and going. I myself developed my own abilities as a Trance and Transfiguration
medium but the hoped for physical phenomena didn't appear to be on the agenda.
Much of the early development records as experienced by myself are
recorded in this blog up to the point where I really felt I was unable to add
anything new to the record.

In May 2013, some 5 yrs down the line, the BSL has relocated to Clevedon
and gone from strength to strength. Numerous new home circles have spun off and
have set up on their own and links to many others have been created
6 months ago, a young lady, wife and Mum contacted Chris to enquire
about physical mediumship. One thing led to another and she has now been sitting
in her own circle within the BSL for development with some amazing results. The
speed and level of her development has been stunning.

A few months ago, her spirit team who have been communicating through
direct voice whilst Emily has been in deep trance, told us that they wished to
form a small closed circle to sit weekly with a handful of dedicated sitters in
support to start what they called the “serious work”.

Last week was the inaugural sitting of the closed circle and what
follows below will be my own subjective account of my personal experiences
during this and subsequent sittings.
Chris will continue to update her own account of course on the BSL
on-line diary. My own diary in no way replaced these, this is just my own
personal record for my own interest and for anyone else who wants to follow.




To read the full diary and objective accounts of the other circles that meet in the Sanctuary, visit the main site at: http://www.spirit-lodge-diary.blogspot.com/




Thursday, July 26, 2007

Tuesday 24th July

Well, true to their word, our friends in Spirit pulled out all the stops on Tuesday evening.

As planned, there were four of us in the Lodge plus Brian (medium). The cabinet was as instructed, left empty and Brian was secured in the stout wooded chair in the opposite (north) corner of the room.
Chris, our audibly challenged circle leader fought her usual battle with technology and eventually managed to get the CD player working in the pitch blackout conditions. (why she doesn’t switch the blessed thing on before turning out the light still baffles me!! ;-) And after much double an triple checking of the tape recorder (Technology is not one of Chris’s closet companions in life) we were underway.

Brian went out like a light almost immediately and within minutes we could here assorted gurgling, crashing and banging in the corner of the room where Brian was secured.
He had been tied in to the chair with heavy duty plastic tie-wraps on both wrists and ankles as well as a soft belt knotted around his stomach.

The chair was heard to be rocking backwards and forwards, side to side for the first 10 minutes or so, and then I suddenly felt something soft land on the back of my hand. I let everyone know and then identified it as being one of the cloth pads we put on Brian’s wrist to offset the tightness with which we’d fastened the straps (not that we don’t trust everybody, but just to make absolutely 100% sure of all eventualities :-)

It was around this time that I saw faint spots of light making rapid up and down movements in front of the chair. The light whizzed vertically up & down 4 or 5 times before making one horizontal sweep and disappeared. “did you see that!” I said to Paul next to me.
“I had me eyes shut” came the reply.

Now, I’m not one to jump to criticism, but… we’re sitting in a séance room, in blackout, for the sole purpose of witnessing physical phenomena. And he had his eyes shut!?

A few minutes later everything seemed to go quiet and I felt very strongly that someone was sitting in the cabinet next to me. I had been playing close attention to the luminous tabs we were each wearing and felt confident that nothing has visibly passed between me and the pair on the other side room.
Then someone moved in the cabinet (I naturally assumed Brian had been moved there by some means) Just at the same time, the chair was moved in the other corner, …in which case, “who the F@#* was that in the cabinet!!!

Within a few more minutes the Chief came through Brian and began what was to become a lengthy Q&A session.
I will transcribe the whole event and post the results here once I have a copy of the audio tape.

Much instruction and guidance for the future development of both individuals and the team players was given, as well as plans for the circle, healing and general information More details to follow once I get the transcript sorted out. ;-]

What was more astounding though was the fact when the lights came up, that Brian's wrist straps were still firmly secured to the wooden chair, the Ankle straps had been physically torn open.
Pulling the small plastic ratchet effect inside out on both straps (you try pulling a cable tie-wrap apart with your bare hands!) And if that wasn’t enough, the belt that was around his waist was still lying exactly where it had been tied, and the knot still secure!

Brian was found sitting cross legged on the floor in the cabinet! See the journal (side bar) for plain facts without the verbal garbage wrapped around.

Next week, will be trance development and then the following week will be Blackout again. Full report next week and transcripts will be posted once they're done.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Tuesday 17th July

Not much to report this week as I was in trance along with Brian and Paul. This was Paul’s first go at trance and did really well. He (apparently) –at least according to our visitors- is well suited to this form of mediumship and has great things in store.

He certainly reported similar (if a little more extreme) feelings and sensations to those I found on my first few ‘trips’. Nausea, vertigo, spinning sensations.
He also had some weird sensations in his arms and hands and it will be interesting to see how these develop or if indeed they have any significance.

We’re still having problems with the sound levels in the tape recorder, so no MP3 files are available as yet, but once we have this sorted, we’ll be posting the sound files for download.

Both Brian and I brought few some visitors to the Lodge. Brian’s experience and talent for Trance shone through and of the bits that I do remember, his communicators were clear and precise. Showing great precision with their presence and ability to talk clearly and concisely about the work that is going on within the lodge.

If you go to the Lodge journal, you’ll get a better picture of what happened (from someone who was at least was awake for the whole evening.


Next week is the experiment that Spirit are setting up for us. We’ve still no real idea what they are planning to attempt. All we know so far is that Brian will be strapped into his chair as usual but rather than in the Cabinet (placed in the south corner of the room) he will be sat in the North corner.
We’ve been told to keep the cabinet empty and the curtains closed and to keep the floor space between Brian and the cabinet clear.
We will wait and see and I promise to post a full report next Wednesday.

Till then
Cheers for now

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Tuesday 10th July

Another amazing evening.
A number of different spirits came through, Brian’s hands were released from the cable ties and both Brian and the chair were carried out into the room and dropped (with a particularly) loud crash.
This was all very interesting and makes for an exciting time, however, is this really what it’s all about?

For me, the whole essence and purpose of the circle is not to merely entertain the circle members but to demonstrate to the world at large that Spirit is a very real form of existence.
That life as we know it is not limited to the merely physical. And when we finally shuffle off this mortal coil, it’s not simply a case of game over, lights out, the big goodnight but a change of focus, a shift in the place of attention.

If you knew, with absolute certainty, with knowledge gained from personal experience, that you lived beyond the physical cycle of birth and death. That your friends and relations who have died are not dead. That there is no death!
Would you change anything? Would you still live your life as you live it today? Would change any of your thoughts about what are your priorities in life? Would you change the way you acted, the way look at others, the way you even thought?

Through our circle, Spirit are experimenting, developing and learning how to manipulate the blend of energies from the physical and spiritual dimensions.
Creating physical phenomena that irrefutably prove through physical evidence and experience that life continues without end, and that our life here is only one aspect of our real life.
When we are given the go ahead, we will be able to start inviting guests to also witness and experience spirits' commitment to us all.


In the meantime, this weeks circle also made a significant step forward as the being known to us as ‘The Chief’ not only gave us detailed instructions for a special experiment for next weeks circle, but also for the first time opened up the floor for questions.

Each of us were given the opportunity to ask questions and the answers received were both clear and concise. Interestingly, the Chief didn’t have “all” the answers and on two occasions seemed to be stumped, then “went to ask”, returning moments later with a clear and lucid response.

We were given an explanation for how the bindings on Brian’s wrists were being manipulated and his arms were being freed, also how the chair (complete with Brian in it) was being lifted from the floor and propelled through the curtains into the centre of the room.
We were given advice on meditation and on the nature of twin souls or soul mates.
Also covered were aspects of how individual events were never simply accidents or coincidences. How some meetings and relationships were intended to be made in order to reach a certain situation or set of circumstances.

Later next week I should have the CD of the evening’s communications and I’ll either transcribe the salient points or simply post an MP3 version here on the blog.

& if you’re still interested with keeping up with developments, be sure to drop by next week when I’ll also post the outcome of the new experiment that Spirit are preparing for.

Thursday, July 5, 2007

Tuesday 3rd July

Firstly my apologies for the intermittent reports over the past few weeks.
I’ve been away from home quite a bit recently and had to miss a few sittings, but I’m sure you’ve kept up to date through the new on-line journal/blog.


But I will still keep this blog going now as it will give a subjective as opposed to the more objective and purely factual reports on the journal.

Over recent months I have also been fairly sparse with the updates as I’ve been somewhat involved in the proceedings myself. I’ve been working with Trance over the past few months and so I’ve not really been in a position to report anything myself as I’ve not really been a witness to anything.
Reports of these sittings can be seen on the circle journal mentioned above.

So, this Tuesday was an exceptionally interesting night.
The evening started quietly as there were a few regular sitters missing. A new guest joined myself and Chris for the evening along with Brian, the physical medium.

Last week, the journal reported that Brian’s wrists had been freed from the restraining tie-wraps that had been used to tie him into the chair. This week, I wanted to make absolutely certain that Brian was secured properly.
I put the straps on myself and made completely sure that the straps were snug. Not so tight they were cutting into his wrists but I can 100% guarantee that there was NO Way that he could have got his arms free.

With Brian safely strapped in –ankles, wrists, chest all secured- and the curtains were closed. The lights were put out and the first songs were started.

Before the end of the second song, we were hearing significant noises, thuds and bangs from behind the cabinet (goodness knows what our first time guest was thinking!)
Then, as the 3rd or 4th song was playing, we heard an enormous crash in the middle of the room. ….it’d fair to say we all jumped through the roof!
There were some more loud noises and the trumpet was heard to be sent flying.

A few minutes later and the noises subsided and ‘the chief (Running Bull) came forward and spoke to us all.
One of the first things he mentioned was that his voice was much loader and clearer than normal, and that the reason why would become apparent once the lights came back on.


Much more was said, mostly encouragement to the sitters and personal welcomes to our guest and myself.
Chris asked if something of a personal nature could be given to our guest to provide further evidence of the truth of what was happening. The Chief said that he would see what could be done.

Later in the evening, a second communicator came forward, giving his name as Lucas. Lucas gave us the name of Sid or Sidney. No further information was forthcoming other than that the name would be relevant to one of us in the room –if not immediately, then in the very near future. – Sidney means nothing to me, so I am assuming it will register with one of the two girls.

Blaze came forward for a brief chat and was (by his standards) very well behaved. Bu he only stayed a short while and then the séance was brought to a close.

When the lights came up we immediately could see why he Chief’s voice was so clear.

Brian, still strapped securely at ankles and chest in his chair, was planted in the middle of the room, a foot in front of the cabinet.
The trumpet was lying on the floor and several of the ‘toys’ had been moved.


In all the previous séances, even though I have been present and trusted in the veracity of what we were experiencing, there was always a small element on uncertainty as to what was happening.
There was always just the tiniest thought that just perhaps Brian ‘could’ have been manipulating the circumstances.
I have to say here and now, that I fully and completely apologise to Brian for ever having held those thoughts. I am completely and utterly convinced that everything we have experienced is and was genuine.

There were only 3 of us in the room, myself and the 2 girls. Each of us were wearing luminous tabs on our lapels, so even if they had wanted to get up and manhandle Brian out of the cabinet, it would not have been possible.
The only way that he could have been moved was via Spirit.

Also, his hand were freed, the cable ties still secured to the chair –which then had to be cut off.

All in all, this was an tremendous evening that confirmed beyond any shadow of a doubt that Spirit is working with us to prove objectively the continuation of life beyond the merely physical.

Next week I will report on what ever follows.
Tuesdays will now be going back to being dedicated to Physical mediumship under blackout, Fridays being given over to Trance in order to allow our members to spend more weekend time with families over the school summer holidays.

All the best to all
Jon