Tuesday 27th November

7.30am Wednesday morning and I’ve just noticed that Chris has linked this site in her post on the Spirit Lodge Diary, so I’d better post my notes quickly today rather than the usual 2 or 3 days I normally take!

I arrived last night with a strong feeling that the evening was going to be different to what we’ve come to accept as ‘normal’ for our physical circle. I’d been feeling a ‘presence’ or energy around me from about 4pm. And once I was driving towards Bristol this sensation seemed to be getting stronger and stronger.
However, once I’d arrived it seemed to disappear altogether which left me wondering if perhaps I’d just imagined it all – a product of an over active imagination?

Once we were in the Lodge and the door and vent seals were closed (to ensure total blackout) I strapped Brian into the chair and closed the cabinet curtains. Everyone settled into their seats and after last weeks suspected physical touch by spirit, we made sure that everyone was evenly spaced out and could not be touched accidentally, thereby making sure that any future sensations of touch could be definitely attributed to Spirit, rather than unintentional human actions.

I was seated in the North Corner opposite the cabinet but as the lights were dimmed and the opening prayer read out, I didn’t feel a particularly strong energy there and I was looking forward to an interesting night.
Within seconds of the first song starting (allowing for the slight delay as our technology challenged leader struggled to get the right CD going ;-) ) we heard all four cable ties being released.
The usual creaking and groaning, banging and thumping noises came from the cabinet for a few minutes and then the toys started to get ejected into the room.

One unusual aspect was that one of the objects landed just by my foot with a light thump. I took this to be one of the rubber rings which being 4 or 5 inches in diameter are quite heavy, so I was quite surprised to see at the end of the evening that what had landed by my foot was actually one of the plastic maracas. This is a fairly light weight toy that has a very distinctive rattle but it had travelled 8 feet from the cabinet and hit the floor without rattling at all.

We soon heard the sounds of more attempts/preparation for Direct Voice as an assortment of gurgles, wheezes and spluttering came from the cabinet. This died down for a little while and there was suddenly the most enormous crash to my left where Lynn was seated. It was so loud and so heavy that I assumed that the chair from the cabinet, complete with entranced medium had been brought into the room and literally dropped on to the floor.
…Unfortunately the chair had connected with Lynn’s left knee in the process, for which we did get an apology later on.

There was then a few minutes calm while we practised our singing before another attempt was made to make contact with us again. This time the ‘voice’ was projected clearly into the room quite loudly and a very clear “hello” sounded out.
This was followed by the comments “Busy” in response to Chris’ greeting, “Very Busy” came across again before going back to more vocal exercises.

Around this time I felt a huge wash of energy surge into the room and around me, the temperature (especially around my legs) dropped rapidly and I started to feel really cold.
About this time there was some loud knocking on the floor in the centre of the room and (believing that Brian was going to be stretched out on the floor having been deposited there complete with chair earlier on) I imagined that perhaps they were using his hands to beat in time with the music.
For a few seconds this seemed entirely logical until I heard the counter beat coming from within the cabinet.
This went on for a minute or two, clearly demonstrating that none of us and certainly not Brian were making the thumping noises which proved that it was spirit that were causing the sounds in time with the music.

This was followed by another attempt at experimenting with different sounds and vocal ranges with direct voice and we then heard a clear voice greeting us from within the cabinet.
Initially I thought it was the Chief and that the different voice quality was a side effect of being ‘worn out’ by all the extra activity, but our visitor quickly identified himself as Brian’s Granddad and we had an interesting chat about his previous life, his character and an explanation as to why he’d not come through so clearly before.

Once he’d gone, the Chief came through loud and strong with his own unique blend of wit and sense of humour. …He must’ve been a bugger to live with in his last life here.
He asked Chris about the different activities we made nearly a year ago when we first started the circle, about why we were interested or drawn towards the Scole Experiment.
I felt that he was rather obliquely asking us to question ourselves as to where we were going and what the expectations were for the Healing circle on a Friday. Why, I have no idea but I suspect in due course it’ll fall into place. He seemed to be quite intent on making a point of it but without being drawn into anything specific.

He also talked about Brian’s trance state and his need to relax more deeply, requesting a specific change to the ‘going off’ music to enable a deeper trance state to be more easily reached. –taking the opportunity to take the Mick out of Brian’s ability to sleep standing up, sitting down or even working.

We were then allowed to put our own questions to him which he answered clearly and concisely. Clarifying the way he sometimes answered our questions and sought his own advice and guidance to make sure we heard the clearest response.

I asked about how best to react or respond when different ‘energies’ were present in the room and was given some good and very supportive advice on when to ‘go with the flow’ and when to resist.

When the time came to finally close the séance, Chris struggled manly (womanly?) with the CD controls before finally admitting defeat and we resorted to singing 10 Green Bottles to give Brian time to return to consciousness.

When the lights were back on, we saw that he chair was on the floor next to Lynn and Brian was cross legged on the floor in the cabinet. Everything else was strewn around the room and the cable ties were open, the belt still securely around the chair.
Unfortunately due to a technical glitch we didn't get a tape recording of the evenings events, so this is my best effort at total recall. Apologies to all if I've missed anything vital or if my version differs from yours.

The teams’ progress took another huge step forward with clear and loud direct voice as well as Granddad Phil speaking clearly and with great control through Brian.

Thanks again to everyone on both sides for making everything possible.
..and for making ‘nothing’ impossible.