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, January 31, 2008

Tuesday 29th January

This week was the 52nd week of sitting, exactly one year since we first got together in Chris’ newly built Spirit Lodge.
We’d recently received some guidance from FC that suggested that we needed to have a second person familiar with the detailed ‘running’ of the séance so that we could continue uninterrupted, should for any reason Chris be unable to run the evening.

FC -whom regular readers will know is the representative personality of a group of spirit people and is the driving force behind the setting up of the circle on their sde, has offered this position of 'back up' facilitator to me. So this week was to be the first one in which I was responsible for making sure the Tape Recorder and CD player functioned correctly and ensuring everything.

Of course, having been a major contributor to generally taking the mick out of Chris and her uncanny ability to press the wrong buttons on anything electrical, she was in very high spirits and waiting eagerly for me to make my first mistake. ..I guess I had it coming!

The evening started off well after a few minor hiccups with the lights etc, Brian was strapped down into the chair, the curtains closed and the cabinet. The cable ties around his one good ankle (a fall from his m/bike that day had injured his right leg so we left that one unsecured) and wrists were if anything a little too tight and I asked him if he’s like them replaced. His reply was along the lines of ‘there’s no need. I’ll be asleep in a few minutes anyway.’ :-)

As the music started we heard the sounds of the chair rocking backwards and forwards and then a period of peace took over for about 10 minutes or so.
Soon though we could hear the sounds of Direct Voice being attempted. Chris joked that there was progress being made and after last weeks Donald Duck impression, the voice box now sounded more like Punch and Judy.
The voice immediately responded with “That’s the way to do it” and a squeaky chuckle. We asked how they were getting on and the voice replied that it was getting easier each week.

Many more strange and peculiar sounds could be heard for a while as the spirit team continued to exercise and experiment with the voice channel before things quietened down for a while.
Around this time we heard 2 of the cable ties being snapped but didn’t register this of particular significance at the time. .....We’ve become accustomed to this now and accept it as part of the routine of the séance – yet only a few months or so ago, we were being shocked and amazed when this was happening. How quickly we’ve become blasé!!

After another short period of quiet we heard a quiet voice welcoming us with a soft “Good Evening”
The voice then introduced himself as Joseph (Link here to see the Spirit Team as we know them to date).
Joseph has been described by the Chief (with great respect) as a “senior” member of the team whose role it is to ‘manage information’ and bring wisdom as required.

His voice was –Like Cheung-Li’s last week- very quiet and even being so close to the cabinet it was tricky to hear everything. However he gave us a clear concept of his role within the team and in the spirit ‘world’. He described his role as something akin to a librarian, managing and responsible for records. He said that he was able to assist in communication between the ‘higher realms’ and the Spirit Team and that he could ensure that the Chief and the team would have the right information and knowledge to enable the Circle to progress.

I asked if, as a ‘keeper of records’ he would be able to access information for future visitors and guests to the circle, to provide them with personal evidence of the reality of spirit. He replied that this would be something possible in the future but that at this time, not all of Brian’s potential abilities were being developed. That the energies brought by a spirit might still carry the condition which caused his ‘death’ and that these might be overwhelming for the medium when in the cabinet.

I asked if this were not the same as a clairvoyant might experience. It was similar he replied but much more intense and Brian would need to develop the ability to manage this energy first.
For the time being at least, the focus of the team is to develop the independent voice channel that will allow a full range of physical voice to be created and used by spirit people to communicate.

Joseph stayed with us for a while, answering questions from all of us before taking his leave.
Almost straight away, the Chief’s voice could be heard. He was asked many questions from the circle and was very light-hearted and jovial in his responses.
He gave me further guidance in using healing energies to help those who feel in need of support, as well as re-enforcing and encouraging some ideas to promote an individuals sensitivity to matters of the spirit when not within a circle.

All too soon the séance came to a close and we turned the lights back on.

The Chief had mentioned that although the séance may have seemed quiet and they no longer needed to snap the cable ties within the first few minutes of the evening, they were still working on creating new things for us and had done ‘something special’ tonight.
When the curtains were pulled back, Brian was still seated in the chair which was tilted back on two legs against the corner of the cabinet. His waist tie was still secure and one wrist and one ankle tie had been snapped clean in half.

BUT…. His right hand was completely free of the cable tie. However, the cable tie was still completely intact!
In order to prevent the cable ties’ being slid along the arm rests, a small plastic guide has been screwed to the underside of the armrest. This cable guide has two apertures through which the cable tie has to be threaded before being fastened around the wrist.

The cable tie, still intact was now hanging from the cable guide, through only ONE of the apertures.
Not only had Brian’s arm been released (and there might always be the suspicion from a visitor or Diary reader that he had somehow managed to slip his hand through the loop) but the cable tie had been freed from one half of the cable guide.

See the photo to the right :
The camera angle is from below the arm rest looking up at the cable tie hanging from one half of the cable guide.

Jon

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Tuesday 22nd January

Last week during the Q&A session with the Chief, I had asked if the ‘routine’ could be varied a little with regard to the cable ties being removed at the start of each séance.
When this phenomenon had first started we were all blown away by such incontrovertible evidence and physical proof of Spirits’ presence, and it’s become regular practice now for them to be snapped off the chair within the first few minutes of the music starting.
But when I was discussing this with a friend, their comment had been “Why? With his arms free, how do you know it’s spirit moving the bells and rings around the room and not Brian under trance control?” & I could see how any new visitor or anyone reading or hearing about the séance might also come to the same conclusion.

This week, once the music started it wasn’t accompanied by the familiar sound of the straps breaking. Instead we heard the chair moving around and the bells being shaken. Soon followed by the coughing and choking sounds as the Spirit team manipulated Brian breathing.

After probably no more than 10 minutes or so we heard the coughing change into a wheezing whistle and then into the sound of a croaky, harsh voice –not entirely dissimilar to Donald Duck!
Within a few minutes this had become a recognisable voice projecting in to the room. Totally unique and different from the sound of Brian when in trance –and complete with a sense of humour.
The short conversation went along the lines of:

Spirit: “Hello”
Us: “Hello”
Spirit: “It’s hard”
Us: “You’re doing brilliantly, it sounds like very hard work”
Spirit: “you should try it from here!”

We teased him/her/them about having brought Donald Duck to communicate and they responded with more ‘quacking’ sounds and an array of other very strange noises.
Later we had a chance to ask about the independent (or direct) voice and the Chief gave us a detailed description of how they were working and the progress that was being made (see the section on the chiefs conversation at the end of this report).

Not long after the Direct Voice had been exercised we heard to soft and quiet sound of Cheung-Li greeting us. This was only the second time that Cheung-Li has spoken to us in any great length –although he has made a couple of brief appearances’ on trance nights.
We had set out this evening with the intent of asking the team to tell us a bit more about themselves so that we could give them their own space on the blog.
Cheung-Li last week had told us that he had lived in the south of China and described himself as a Philosopher rather than a Prophet (at the time this had seemed a little odd and a strange comparison to make) but this week he expanded on this significantly.

We have some research to do to verify much of what was given to us, but the essential details were that whilst he had lived within the physical world some 4 or 500 years ago, this was in a Dynasty of ‘Mings’. However we would find it spelt now as “Qing” – I’ve not looked into it properly yet but a quick search on the internet does indeed show that after the Ming Dynasty came the Manchu or sometimes called the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912).

More interestingly he described himself again as a Visionary but was known as a Prophet within his times. However, he himself believed these visions to be more akin to what we might now call Clairvoyance, which brought wisdom and philosophy.
We asked him to explain in more detail and he described himself as belonging to an “underground society”. This society (one of a number of such groups) was forced to act in secret as ‘unauthorised’ prophets were not accepted by the authorities of the time. If they managed to identify and catch a ‘prophet’ the punishment meted out would be to have their eyes blinded –on the basis that if they had no eyes, they could no longer ‘see’ visions!

Hence these groups would become ‘secret’ but such were the rewards for turning in one of these Prophets that he could trust no-one and could easily be betrayed at any time.

When I asked if his ‘underground society’ had a name, he told us that the closest translation would be “society of lost souls”.

At this time, I’ve not researched into Chinese history to corroborate any of this information, but the level of detail is fascinating. If there is anyone who does know anything about these secret societies, please do leave a comment and let us know.

After Cheung-Li had left, the Chief came forward and it was a relief to be able to hear is voice coming through loud and clear. Cheung-Li’s voice is so quiet as to be almost barely above a whisper.

He commented on the progress being made and explained that the way the ‘independent voice’ was being created was not as a replica of Brian’s voice box –which would obviously only create a duplicate of Brian’s vocal range, but was a ‘blended energy’ voice channel. We’ve been told before that this is something of an experiment and requires a “blending” of different forms of energy together with ectoplasm from Brian.
He told us that progress was being made carefully to ensure that everything was safe for the medium and sitters. That much preparation and work was being done between sessions and that each week was a demonstration of the progress.
The Voice Channel was being created so that in due course, each communicator would be able to create their ‘own’ voice, with their own distinct vocal range. He also explained that the ‘Donald Duck’ voice had not belonged to any one spirit, but was more a part of the experimental development.

We were then able to ask him about the Spirit Team that were working together with Brian as the medium.
Here’s a brief rundown:
Saskia – A native American woman whose role was “water bearer” but who had natural healing abilities. She has a deep capability for compassion. She passed at a relatively young age – approximately 25 yrs old.

Blaze – a young spirit. Who brings a lot of energy but can be a little uncontrolled at times. However, he is becoming a lot more dependable now and will in time be present to speak for himself.

Joseph – A source of wisdom within the ‘hierarchy’ of the team. The Chief seemed to speak of him with a deep respect.

Granddad Phil – Brian’s grandfather who will become an active member of the team.

Cheung-Li – A philosopher/visionary from China. He lived approximately 500 years ago at the end of the Ming / early Qing Dynasty, persecuted by the Authorities of the time for his ‘second sight’.

Running Bull (also known to us as the Chief).
A brave of the Sioux tribe from an area of North America now known as Dakota. He left the physical world at approximately the age of 25 around 900 years ago. Chief appears to be Brian’s primary ‘guide’ and has been with him for many years.

He also mentioned that there were ‘others’ waiting in the wings who would come forward in due course when the time was appropriate.


As the séance drew to a close, I was able to ask a final question of the Chief.
A friend of mine has recently been diagnosed with an aggressive cancer that has statistically only a 10% survival rate. Although she is about to start Chemotherapy, she is unlikely to be with us for much longer.
I wanted to know how best to support her with distant healing or hands on. Whether or not doing this would even be appropriate or whether such action would be ‘interfering’ with her own life’s programme.
The Chief took the time to go into some detail and spoke with compassion and understanding. I’ve paraphrased a good 5 or 10 minutes conversation which in summary said:

Distant Healing energy and thoughts would be the most effective. Compassion and the willingness to be present and supportive as she approaches and goes through the challenge ahead of her would be more beneficial than I might realise.
Understanding and a few words of encouragement and support, perhaps sharing my understanding of the true reality of life beyond the purely physical would help her as she went through the transition to Spirit.

As a “Healer” myself, I have come to believe that healing someone, or facilitating ‘healing’ does not necessarily mean repairing mechanical faults in the human body. Our Medical science has done a remarkable job in being able to do that. And whilst I fully believe that such “miracles” are completely real and available, if I fell down a hole and broke my leg, I’d be the first person to ring for a Doctor.
But once the mechanical work had been done, I would rely then on Spirit and Healing energy to do the rest.

Sometimes, a disease or illness can provide huge opportunities for learning and change for the individual. Not only for themselves but also for those close to them and distant.
I believe that ‘healing’ in the spiritual terminology, provides support for that greater purpose. Many times that might be for the changes in individual’s thoughts about Spirituality after experiencing a physical healing.
Often it will relieve symptoms of pain and discomfort, other times it may work on the root cause of the symptoms, be they emotional, physical or spiritual.

But these are just my thoughts and not a report of the physical séance. As ever, to read the objective and factual review of events, visit the Spirit Lodge Diary

Jon

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Tuesday Jan 22

An excellent evening witha huge amount of information. It'll take a while to sort out and type up but I'll try and get most of it done today.
Please come back later for the complete record.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Tuesday 15th January -update

Following the indication from the Chief at last weeks seance; that it's not significant for the development of the physical circle if the sitters have recently eaten or not, we have been given some clarification on this advice.

It's been pointed out by the Spirit Team that although the Medium and the physical phenomena are not reliant on the sitters having an empty stomach, Everyone in the circle is continually developing themselves (both spirit and human).

Comment from FC: "that whilst he does not disagree with The Chief's accuracy of fact regarding eating before a séance, he would like to remind sitters that development is taking place within the Circle, on both sides of life. Sitters may experience development in many and various ways and a stomach that is filled may as readily become emptied. Unfortunately it is not always possible to predict the developmental stage on any sitter. He therefore advises caution."

Probably good advice for anyone considering placing themselves in any situation such as a circle or seance

Jon

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Tuesday 15th January

Come 8pm, Brian settled himself into the cabinet and I fastened the plastic self locking cable ties around his wrists and ankles, securing him firmly to the chair. The waist belt was secured and with him tucked up safely we drew the curtains.

Christine gave the opening prayer and got the tape recorder and music fired up (both working ‘almost’ straight away!).

The mood was high with a lot of laughter and banter up to that point but once Brian’s ‘going off’ music started we all settled down quietly to give him the maximum opportunity to relax into the trance state as deeply as possible.

Within the first minute we heard the familiar sounds of the cable ties being snapped –a kind of short creaking noise followed by a dull pop. A recent change we noticed has been that where before the ties were always ‘pulled through’ effectively turning the fastening assembly inside out, they are now being simply snapped in the middle.
Also the ankle ties tend to go first, followed by the wrist ties a few moments later.

A few minutes later the chair was banging and shaking within the cabinet, the bells (secured to the back legs and the cross-strut) were being loudly shaken.
Chris asked for the bells to be removed and passed to one of the circle members. The bells were taken off and gently ejected from the cabinet. Although they didn’t get to the requested individual, I did notice later that they had come out of the cabinet at an acute angle and not thrown out in a straight line as they have been in the past.

As usual there was much coughing and spluttering and the projection of these sounds is definitely becoming much stronger.

Half way through the evening, Paul (sitting next to the cabinet) felt something brushing against his legs and body, which turned out to be the cabinet curtains being pulled aside. We heard the sound of a cushion being dropped on the floor and later when Brian’s spirit team started to come through to talk to us, we realised that their voices seemed to be coming from the floor in front of us.

The first of two visitors for the evening was a very clear and distinct voice of an individual who gave his name as Cheung-Ly (obviously he didn’t spell this out for us so this is only my best guess at how it might be spelt)
He claimed to have been in spirit form for approx 500 years, and when he was in a physical form, he lived in the south of what is now China and said that in his time he was a philosopher rather than a prophet.

He didn’t seem to have any great awareness of the Chinese Naval fleets and the great explorations of the 1400’s, -which would be consistent with the Ming Dynasties historical closure of their borders (or alternatively consistent with the academic communities rejection of the claims of Zheng-He Naval accomplishments) –but not totally conclusive.
Perhaps this is something he will be able to shed some light on in the future?

Once he had left, the Chief came forward to chat and gave us all some encouragement and support as well as clarifying a few points for us as well.
One for instance that had been niggling me for as while, was why is it that the sitters within the circle should not eat for at least 4 hours before the séance?
I could appreciate the need for the medium to not go into deep trance on a full stomach, especially if there is any likely hood of physical phenomena being produced.

So I asked the Chief for a clarification and was pleased to hear that it did not actually make a great deal of difference whether the witness’s were hungry or not. But it was their attitude and mood that contributes or subtracts from a successful evening.
-An interesting insight to one of the ‘myths’ about sitting in Circle’s for the development of physical phenomena.

Both the Chief and Cheung-Ly were remarkably clear and communicative. Both their personalities showing through distinctly and we got many clear and insightful answers to the barrage of questions thrown at them.

When the lights finally came back on again, we found Brian lying on the floor with his head on a cushion and his feet raised and resting on the chair. Unfortunately though when rearranging him, the spooks had forgotten to move his hands and after lying on them for over half and hour, it took several minutes for circulation to be restored again.

Thanks to Everyone on Brian’s Team (Granddad, The Chief, Cheung-Ly, Joseph and the ‘Medicine Woman’) and of course especially to Brian for consistently turning up each week to go through it all again.

Jon

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Tuesday 8th January 2008

A happy new year to all and welcome back to the Sanctuary blog.


It’s been almost a whole 12 months now since we first sat together in a newly built and freezing cold garden shed (sorry, Spirit Lodge) with no windows and plastic garden chairs. Six or seven of us then, sitting in the dark, taking turns each week to sit in the cabinet, determined that somewhere between us we would find the ability to enable Spirit to reach into the physical world and prove their existence beyond doubt through physical phenomena.
We had no idea or preconceptions as to how or what these phenomena might be or even who within the circle was most likely to facilitate them through some form of mediumship.

Since then a few people have moved on to other things and left the circle, a few have joined. We’ve been privileged to allow a few visitors to the circle and so far, every single one has gone away convinced that Spirit truly are working with us and that the phenomena we are witnessing is 100% valid.
Overall it’s been an amazing year and the progress has been phenomenal. Both Sandy and Brian’s personal development as Trance and Physical mediums has been amazing.
Other sitters have also shown that not only does the medium develop within the circle but also the sitters as well –both Paul and Chris have developed previously unsuspected abilities that 12 months ago they would have scoffed at.

Anyway, back to last night.
At 8pm on the dot, we braved the weather and crossed the garden into the Lodge. Which is now comfortable, warm and cosy. The green plastic chairs have been replaced with natural wood and the walls are lined with drawings, photo’s and samples of spirits work over the last 12 months.

The small thin cable ties we have used in the past have now been replaced with thick heavy duty versions and I was looking forward to see if this would slow down Spirit’s ability to release Brian from the restraints.

With the curtains closed and the music started, the red light was turned off. Immediately Chris notice the red LED on the tape recorder was not covered and reached forward to place the carefully designed light shield over it (this involves getting a piece of Blu-Tack to stay stuck down and cover the LED).

While Chris was still trying to get the Blu-Tack to stay stuck in the right place we could hear the first two cable ties being snapped. A minute later we heard the other two go, followed by the familiar sound of the chair rocking and tapping in time to the music.

At the Chief’s request at the last séance, the first 4 tracks played were soft & trancy and I could feel the difference in the room as the energy levels increased.
This change is in order for the spirit team to try and get Brian to relax more deeply so that they can take him more deeply into a trance.
This is interesting as it shows that there is much more to the management of the process from their side than you might assume. Also they have made comment on how the level of trust the medium has in spirit makes a huge impact on how far back they are able to take him/her.

Despite the conscious willingness to develop and desire to work as a physical medium, the sub consciousness seems to be a lot more wary of the process and needs to be led slowly and carefully before the necessary trust is built up though personal experience.
This explains also why some mediums are ‘naturals’ and why some take a long time to let go & to start to develop more fully.

As the evening progressed we could hear more development of the Direct Voice with assorted gurgles, humming and wheezing sounds.
Within half an hour, the Chief turned up, and at the time I assumed he had brought Brian back up to the ‘normal’ trance level to allow him to use Brian’s voice box and vocal system to talk through. However, on reflection I recall that the initial ‘chuckles’ that always indicate his presence came whilst we were still hearing the direct voice sounds and had a very different sound quality.

There was then a short break of a few more minutes before the chuckles returned and the familiar personality of the chief could be heard. – Unfortunately due to a small technical problem with the operation of the tape recorder, the tape ran out just before we got to the Q&A session and it went unrecorded. So we’ll be unable to double check this for certain.

The Chief told us that although not much had happened physically within the lodge to our eyes, he was very pleased with the work that had progressed behind the scenes.
Many people had been witnessing the proceedings from ‘spirit side’ and the was a certain level of admonishment when I asked questions as to whether or not there had been other spirit visitors in the room.

My reason for asking was that I had felt a very strong awareness of various people standing next to me in the dark. Plus the ‘cold’ I had experienced from my thighs down to my feet had become almost too uncomfortable and this seems to be connected to how close I am sitting to the North Corner.
However, I hadn’t mentioned anything to the others as I could see nothing specific or objective. I think the Chief did well to not get too irritated and explained patiently that we all needed to trust our intuition whilst not getting too carried away and start imagining things that are not there.

One of the phenomena I’ve always wanted to witness but as yet have never seen within in a séance setting, is ‘spirit lights’- either as orbs or as a general illuminating glow. I’ve always felt this was a particularly strong evidence of spirit activity, maybe because I’m a particularly ‘visual’ person and with my scientific background and training in physics, I have a strong tendency to believe my eyes.
(Maybe this is why I’ve never felt completely at ease with my own mediumistic abilities? I always wanted to ‘see’ the spirits objectively rather than mentally before I would trust myself to share my visions with others).

I asked the Chief if these spirit lights were perhaps more difficult to manifest than other phenomena. The answer was actually that they are not more difficult but that it is more a case of the correct ‘alignment’ between the spirit world and our own. That the work being done here was based on ‘incremental’ development and that the energy was being focused on developing one step at a time. Other phenomena would come in due course.

Overall a fascinating evening again. Quiet in comparison to other evenings if you measure only the physical phenomena. However, there were other non tangible things going on that were just as interesting -if not more so in some ways.

Next Sunday, I’ll be sitting in a circle with Warren Caylor and I’ll post a report on that experience after the event and then it’s back to Tuesday night again next week.

Please do drop by again next week for another update and you can read the Spirit Lodge Diary for more objective and factual séance reports as well as links to the Friday Healing Circle blog.

Jon

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Tuesday 18th December

...apologies for the very late posting of this account. Christmas and New Year now past, service should be resumed as normal :-)



This evening was an interesting one.
We have two circles at the Lodge that both sit once a week for purpose of providing/facilitating evidence of the truth of life’s continuation beyond what we commonly refer to as death.
The Tuesday team are working towards ‘direct voice’ and physical phenomena that defy or ‘bend’ the current belief in the “Laws of Physics”
The Friday team are focused on reaching the same objective but through evidential physical healings.

This Tuesday however, as the last circle before Christmas, we decided to combine the two groups and share the evening together.
Due to Illness and vacations, the numbers were low and the 6 of us settled ourselves into the Lodge and Sandy, a trance medium whose development has been meteoric over recent months, settled into the open cabinet.

The most significant difference between the two groups is that Sandy’s work – being primarily through trance is in full white light conditions, whilst Brian on a Tuesday works in blackout due to the blend of different energies being used.

As the first music track was played, Sandy moved almost instantly into trance and her limbs began to move erratically at first and then soon, in time to the music.
This was interesting for me to see, as my only experience of trance has been my own -or a few others within the circle and one or two public demonstrations. In all of these (and in my own experience) going into trance has been a quiet affair, more akin to going into a light ‘sleep’ state than anything else.
Sandy however was quite different and literally animated. As the first two tracks were played, we could see that someone seemed to be controlling her limbs and her head, which were moving rhythmically and her facial expressions which were changing as if there were some kind of struggle for control going on.

Chris, who is much more familiar with Sandy’s trance work recognised her main guide “Joseph” as being present and confirmed that he was trying to maintain his position as being in control. However, a second person was also trying to take the leadership position in order to start working within the séance.
The second visitor – the doctor – finally won over and proceeded to ‘overshadow’ Sandy and demonstrated his ability to move around the room. This level of control seems to be very difficult for him to achieve and he appears extremely susceptible to minor changes in the energy within the room.
However, having circumnavigated the room and with Chris on the couch, he proceeded to manipulate her finger at which time we could all see and hear definite ‘clicking’ sounds.
(see Chris’ on-line Journal at http://www.spirit-lodge-diary.blogspot.com/ and http://evidentialhealing.blogspot.com/ for more detailed information)

-We checked this again afterwards and whatever it was that he was doing, we could not duplicate it ourselves.

Sandy’s other team members all came through over the next 45 minutes and I had the opportunity to ask some specific questions regarding the nature of Spirit’s entry into the earth plane, and what such spirits could learn from only even a brief visit –for instance from a miscarriage.
The answers were clear and precise and given with a level of compassion and dignity that was surprising.

At the end of the séance, Sandy’s guide Joseph asked for his wrist to be tied tightly to the chair’s arm rest. I was then asked to sit directly in front of him/Sandy and my wrist was also tied tightly in the same way (uncomfortably tight I might add!)
I had no prior awareness of this experiment, although it seemed to have been discussed in advance between Sandy & Chris.
Then Sandy/Joseph started to move and rotate his wrist and the cord – a thick woven cotton cord about 10mm in diameter- seemed to stretch.
I imitated the movements as best I could and found that by pulling and pushing against the cord I could also create some ‘slack’ in the cord, but not enough to free my hand.
Within a few moments though, Joseph had freed her hand and mine was still secure. All this time, her eyes had been tightly shut. I was literally only 2 feet away and so can be quite sure of this.
I then used my free hand to pull at the knot and finally got my wrist free from the chair. I then held up my ‘freed’ hand to show ‘Joseph’ that I too was no longer secured.

This is then when I truly had the first real ‘evidence’ that spirit were working independently through Sandy.
With her face turned away when I waved my free arm, Her head pulled round to face me and with an ‘impish’ smile shook her head. She didn’t speak but her expression was clear. I had been ‘beaten’ and she/he had proved themselves capable of somehow changing the cotton cord to allow her wrist to escape.

All in all it was a very interesting experience.

I have to say though, that had I not known Sandy already and trusted both her and Chris absolutely, I would be hard put to accept what I saw as evidence.
Anyone witnessing this would be unlikely to be convinced and would very likely assume it to be false.
However, knowing Chris and Sandy myself, I am personally convinced now that Sandy’s spirit team are most certainly benign (a concern I had harboured for a while) and that they are genuinely working with Sandy to develop into a quite unique Team.

I’ve certainly never come across anything like it myself and I’ve never heard of anything remotely similar anywhere else.
I’m looking forward to seeing how Sandy, Joseph and the rest continue to develop and work together in 2008. It promises to be quite an exciting year.