Tuesday 18th June

Unfortunately I had to miss last weeks sitting due to a few minor problems with hot water pipes and a badly aimed hammer & nail! All leaks have now been repaired and new carpets refitted, so back on track to sit again this week.
Current plan is for me to nod off inthe chair this week, so a more lucid account of the proceedings will probably be found on the main site (Spirit Lodge Diary) - Link on the side bar.

Thanks for taking the time to keep track of our progress
Jon

Tuesday June 10th

Tonight was Brain’s first night back but as the weather had been so hot and as we also had a new sitter with us tonight, we decided that we would hold a trance evening rather than the usual blackout. This allowed us to keep the fans on and the air vents open so we were at least less likely to suffer from heat exhaustion.
And whilst we are more than happy for any spirit person to come forward to chat, the last this we want is for any one to ‘cross-over’ during the séance. …not that we have anything against anyone crossing when ever their time is right, but can you imagine the paper work, let alone explaining it to the local constabulary!

The new sitter Kaz settled in well and with a full house, the opening prayers given and the lights turned down, Brian was soon taken back into a deep trance state. (Michelle, sitting next to me wasn’t’ too far behind either. I don’t think she really heard anything at all through out the whole evening!)

Brian was then brought back up to a level of trance where he could enable communication with the spirit team. Blaze came forward first, much quiet and ‘humble’ than previous visits. He proved to have a good sensed of humour, slight London accent and was able to explain to us the process he used to ‘layer’ the energies in order to maintain an even temperature within and around the medium.
We’d been told by the Chief many times that his role was to work with heat energies, but it was only when he explained things himself that I understood that what he was actually doing was managing the existing energies and those created within the Lodge during a séance to keep everything at a low enough temperature to keep it all stable.

Following Blaze, Cheung Ly stepped forward and spoke about how Spirits who come forward will communicate with the common language (in our case everyday English) despite the fact that in his physical life he would have had absolutely no knowledge of modern English at all. He talked about a number of different things, al of which gave us each different things to think about and to take away.

Finally the chief, as ever came forward to joke and talk about the evenings progressions. All the others in the team often joke about his gruff demeanour, but although you can hear his authority and leadership in his words and tome, you can’t help but like him. ..mind you, I know I wouldn’t want to get on his bad side!

It was a fascinating evening and getting a chance to spend the whole séance talking one to one with the team made for an interesting change in routine. And although it’ll be good to get back to the ‘physical’ development next week, I’m looking forward to the next trance evening we have as well.

Tuesday 3rd June

This week was a slight departure from the normal routine as Brian (our resident Physical Medium) has been away from the chair for a few weeks. So it was decided that I would sit in the cabinet this week for trance.
Over the past month or so, I’ve been sitting privately each week for development and we have a couple of regular communicators now coming through and, as the trance level has deepened a little each week, 3 independent witness’ have each claimed to have seen a spirit persons face ‘overlay’ my own during the séance.

You can read up on this if you choose on the main site (link top left) as I don’t intend to duplicate what was captured there. However, what I can do is relate my version of the experience and how it feels to be in this situation.

On arriving at Chris’s home I could start to feel the build up of energy. The feeling is a little like a static electricity charge building up. For anyone that’s ever been caught on open ground as an electrical storm is building up, this is a pretty close description of what I was feeling. A kind of heavy presence of energy, a potential difference between normal day to day energies and what is about to come.
I feel this right through my whole body but most intensely around the top of my skull, as if there is an invisible skull cap (like the Australian lifeguards wear!) being charged up with electricity.

As the social preamble carried on, I could feel myself becoming slightly more ‘distant’ from it all. I could hear everything and join in as normal, but at the same time my mind wasn’t really focussed on what was going on around me.

Once it was time to go into the Lodge, I quickly sat down and realise that my ears seemed to be less sensitive – as if someone had turned down the volume in the room. And within a few minutes, the prayer had been given and the lights were down low.
As the music started I closed my eyes and relaxed. Within what felt like only a few seconds the first track ended and the second one started. Of course this then set me thinking about the apparent time lapse and I came quickly back to normal consciousness!

I deliberately started relaxing myself and soon was drifting peacefully gain. Images started to flash I and out and as they did, I would find myself ‘thinking’ about them and immediately called myself back into thinking mode.
Each time this happened (4 or 5 times) this would be accompanied by a vertigo feeling and a wave of nausea. At the same time I felt as if someone was ‘stirring’ my stomach with a big wooden spoon.

What I’ve also not mentioned is that as the energy grows stronger, my physical upper body –particularly my neck and arms- seem to vibrate or tremor. Obviously I’ve not seen this myself so can only go on what the others have told me but I can feel it.
It’s an odd sensation as I feel like I have complete control and I know (because I’ve consciously tried it) that I can take control and stop the tremors at will, but it’s as if this takes a concentrated effort and it just seems so much easier to let it go and let my self shake. …must look very peculiar.

As the different visiting spirit controls came and went (there seem to be 2 or 3 that appear to be in charge of matters) they shared thoughts and answered questions from the sitters.
And then towards the end and much stronger energy feeling overtook me and I could feel the vibrations getting stronger and stronger. Apparently during this stage both Chris and Margaret could both see a clearly defined oriental face. Again, I can’t see this at all and can only describe the feelings but after this part finished I felt completely drained and was pleased to hear the séance being ended.
Afterwards I felt exhausted for about 5 minutes and my eyes were streaming and sore. As if I’d just finished a 24 hour shift in a desert.
This passed quite quickly though and I was soon back to normal, feeling overall quite energised.

As these experiments continue in what ever direction the spirit team choose to go, I’ll try and keep my own record of my experience up to date.

Tonight is another trance night (not me this week) so I’ll post an update on this evenings events over the next few days.

Update

My apologies to any regular readers for the inconsistent posting over the last few months, but what with one thing and another it's been hard to find the time to keep things up to date.
However, it looks as though things should be settling down a bit in the near future.

I've not posted much over the past few weeks although I've been sitting again on a weekly basis for most of May. The main site (http://www.spirit-lodge.blogspot.com/) has been keeping detailed records of each seance so nothing major has been missed.
There have been some other interesting changes over the recent weeks as well which will be posted publicly once we know more about where they are going, but in the meantime...
earlier in April I was lucky enough to be included in a home seance with Warren Caylor.
I wrote up my account and it's been sitting here now for weeks waiting to be posted.



A private Home Seance with Warren Caylor. 26th April 2008

Our own home circle had been invited en-masse to Warren’s home and to sit with Warren, Julie and Lisa in their front room to experience a physical séance away from all the usual clutter and people that go along with a public demonstration.

I’ve sat with Warren on half a dozen different occasions now, many of them in different locations and rooms ranging from the slick set up at Jenny’s Sanctuary through to village halls and empty rooms above a shop. And I’ll be the first to admit that the first few times I experienced a physical séance, I was less than convinced. Not that the evidence was too flaky, it was more a case of my rational mind having been trained for years as an engineer simply couldn’t accept the reality of what I was seeing. The only ‘rational’ alternative then had to be some kind of fraud.

I’d read of trumpets levitating and voices speaking out of the darkness, but to sit for 3 hours and see all this and much, much more first hand was more than my sceptical mind could manage. I couldn’t deny these things had happened but nor could I find a ‘rational’ justification for them. If I’m honest, what drove me more than anything else to go back and experience a séance a second time, was the desire to work out how it was being done.

I did go back a 2nd time and more. And what I soon came to realise was that what I was witnessing was really happening. Very shortly, I was sitting in a home circle myself and any last doubts of any deception evaporated as we began to experience similar sorts of phenomena within our own garden shed.

……………

We all arrived –having relied on GPS Sat Nav’s to find our way across the Birmingham suburbs with varying degree’s of success, and sat in the lounge chatting and unwinding from the long drive. When it was nearly 7pm and Warren called the evening to order. After making sure that all our pockets were empty, rings, mobiles and jewellery were all tucked away, we made our way into the ex-dining room that is now the spirit teams dedicated séance room and went through all the usual safety procedures.

This evening though was to prove a really fun and down to earth séance. Within seconds of the first track being played, knocks could be heard coming from different sides of the room and before the second track had finished, Rachel welcomed everyone with her usual laughter and jokes, taking particular delight in teasing the one newcomer who had not sat with Warren before.
Tom joined us and gave yet another very impressive display of control over the ectoplasm as he displayed levitation, played with the drumsticks, whistles and trumpets.

Soon Yellow Feather announced his presence and both he and Albert spent some time not only exchanging jokes with the sitters but also giving some serious advice and philosophy. Much of which centred around the message that those on a ‘spiritual path’ must also keep a view on what is right in front of them. Help, support and opportunities are here in the physical world and often found with close friends and family. You do not always need to look to the spirit world for such support.
This was a theme that was repeated several times by various different communicators.

Yellow Feather then returned and gave a demonstration of full physical materialisation in white light. Initially he stepped out of the cabinet but was only visible from his feet to his waist. His legs appeared to be self luminescent and then when he reappeared moments later he could be seen from head to toe quite clearly in the shaded white light. He joked around with all of us and with the room being no more than 10 by 12 feet, we could all see and hear clearly everything that was happening. He allowed one lady to touch his materialised hand then, placed his hand over hers on the plaque. “So if my hand is on the plaque, and my other hand is on top of yours, …then who the bloody hell is holding the plaque up??!!” -Anyone who has met Yellow Feather will recognise his sense of humour. Even after all this time, he still manages to make you laugh with his often less than ‘politically correct’ wife/mother in law jokes.
It’s nice to know that not everyone turns into saints and philosophers as soon as they cross into Spirit!

More familiar people joined us and shared jokes, phenomena and guidance as well as a few I’d not met before. Proving without a shadow of doubt that regardless of what many might think of their personalities or messages, they are still very much alive and are more than prepared to commit themselves to demonstrate the basic reality of continuing life.

Then towards the end of the séance several new voices were heard as they were helped by the Team to come through with personal messages. You can have all the physical evidence in the world, but somehow there is nothing quite like hearing again from a friend or family member in their own voice, letting you know that they are ok and sharing personal memories together.

For over 2 hours we sat together in a small front room, guests in Warren’s own home and were privileged to be witness to a personal experience that is unlike any public demo. I’ve only touched briefly on some of the main highlights, there were many others that were personal to the sitters & which they can choose to share or not.

And when all is said and done, that is all that Spirit are offering. A personal experience of absolute physical proof that life continues beyond the threshold of what we too often call death.
Once you have that proof within your own experience, it’s then your responsibility as to how owning this knowledge will affect the way you choose to live the rest of your own life.

Tuesday 13th May

This evening was a departure from the usual blackout séance as last week, the Chief had specifically requested the Tracey be invited to the Lodge and that she would enable her guide ‘Red Hawk’ to come through. We were given the impression that the Chief and Red Hawk had something to discuss and that bringing the two mediums physically together would in some way help this.

I suspect in reality however, that neither spirit guides really required the support of a séance to communicate with each other but it did provide a change in routine for us, in addition to giving both guides an opportunity to raise new topics for discussion and learning.
...This though is purely my own opinion.

Also the presence of a newcomer and potential new sitter was quite possibly not coincidental either. As is often the case –if not always in fact- whenever the Chief or FC makes changes to the usual routine, there are many different aspects that always seem to slot into place and work out to the best outcome for everyone concerned. So much so now, that such changes are never even questioned any more as our trust in their management has grown and grown.

On one of the warmest nights of the year so far, all 8 of us gathered in the Lodge with Brian and Tracey in the South and North corners respectively. Chris swapped placed with me allowing her to keep a close eye on both Mediums and to keep her attention on any changes that might be required, whilst I took over the mechanics of opening, closing and the CD player.

After the ‘going off’ tracks were played, we could see Brian being moved or swayed from side to side. This was interesting in itself as we always hear the movement but this was the first time we had been able to witness it under pink light conditions. More so, because Brian’s feet only just reach the floor (at the Chiefs request we have switched back to the more comfortable garden lounger to enable a deeper level of relaxation to be reached more quickly) and to see his upper body swaying whilst his toes remained static and his arms resting at his sides looked quite peculiar.

It was quite apparent that Tracey was going into a deep trance state and within 5 minutes or so her guide Red Hawk began to speak to us. We were able to ask several questions about Healing, individual guides and their relationships to ourselves.
Both Red Hawk, Cheung-Li and the Chief made comments about how to ‘listen’ to input from our guides -trusting the “first thought” and gut feelings as these were most likely to be our ‘guidance’, which comes before our own minds can take over and start to rationalise things out for ourselves.
I think this is also the first time that we have had a themed message from more than one communicator and I suspect that there was at least one -if not more than one- within the circle that needed to hear that message specifically. I know it certainly resonated with me and chimed with my own personal experiences –particularly over recent months.

After about 20 minutes or so, Red Hawk bid us goodnight and withdrew and Cheung-Li stepped forward through Brian. He spoke of how working in trance under the pink light conditions allowed him to demonstrate the basics of transfiguration. We could all see at this point that Brian’s face had changed into a much more rounded shape, his cheeks seemed to be ‘pulled’ out to the sides giving an overall impression of an oriental shape face which was quite distinctly different to his own but at the same time was still very much Brian.

Cheung-Li answered more questions from the sitters about Guides and guidance until he too also withdrew and the Chief came forward to talk with us further. All too soon though it was time to play the coming out tunes and as both Tracey and Brian came back to the room we could feel the full force of the evenings heat.

Thanks once again to the spirit team for enabling such an interesting evening and to Brian and Tracey for helping to make it possible.


When time allows I’ll post some audio clips up which can then be downloaded or listened to online.

Tuesday 23 April 2008

This tuesday was my first time back in the circle for over 6 weeks now and it amazing to see how things have progressed in that time.
There are now 2 regular communicators each week – Cheung-Li as well as the Chief. Chung-Li is now clearly audible as he’s been able to greatly increase the volume of his speech over the past few months. I have a full recording of the discussions that took place and will post some clips up in the next few days.

The séance started quietly with some sounds that were indicative of further development of the independent voice channel. But these soon stopped and we were left in silence as the first few tracks were played through.
For me, I had one of the most significant personal experiences of the past 12 months. Towards the end of the last ‘quiet’ track I both heard and felt a solid ‘tap’ on the bottom of my chair. I was sitting against the side wall with vacant chairs to either side of me. On my right was the cabinet and to the left, Paul was sitting some 4 feet away. So it was physically impossible for anyone else in the room to reach or even touch my chair.
I’d placed my trainers underneath the chair as normal at the beginning of the evening and the sound and tap ‘felt’ as if someone had hit the underneath of the chair with the edge of one of the shoes.

I was just getting my head around the fact that Spirit has managed to manipulate a fairly solid trainer outside of the cabinet when the energy that had tapped the chair, then got a hold of the cross bar on the bottom of the chair and –just in case I was in any doubt as to what they were capable of- gave it a good shake for good measure.
There were a few more slight judders and then it stopped as quickly as it had begun.

OK, I realise that it may not sound like a big deal to anyone else, but I’ve found that although I have witnessed a lot of events that not only defy the accepted laws of physics, but have proved to me that such ‘laws’ are at best flexible -if not downright broken- everything else has been either ‘after the event’ (i.e. When the lights have come back on, there has been visible evidence such as the twisted metal rings, the snapped cable ties or Brian sitting in the middle of the room and the waist tie still fixed the chair etc), have happened to other people or have been so subtle (such as a light brush of something against an arm or leg) as to easily be questioned later in the cold light of day.
This was none of the above and I found that on the recording, I was even able to identify the tap on the chair.
And having someone shake your chair from beneath is a very real personal experience of spirit’s ability to create physical phenomena.

All in all, a super evening again and some very interesting advice and views were given during the Q&A sessions with both Cheung-Li and the Chief. Many thanks to the spirit team for their work and of course to Brian for continually volunteering to be tied up in a corner of a blacked out shed and sent to sleep for a n hour or two every week.
The audio clips will go up when I get time to sort them out later in the week.

Tuesday 8th April

An update on the seance this week can be found as usual at the Spirit Lodge Diaries.
I've posted 3 new audio clips from this weeks circle (see side bar).

I expect to be returning to the circle again in the next few weeks and will be updating the blog regularly from then.