View Related
Rescue Circles (7) Helping the bereaved. More of Lord Dowding and his circle, and the mediumship of Estelle Roberts.
Dowding praised many mediums for the fine work they were doing in consoling the bereaved and giving evidence of their husbands’ and sons’ survival on the other side, after being killed in action during World War II, and also bringing through the civilians, including women and children, killed in air raids.
But he was quick to point out that some mediums were fraudulent by giving their sitters false information. They gave the sitters what they wanted to hear, rather than the truth. They raised expectations by saying that their loved one was not missing in action, or was not really dead, but had escaped, was a prisoner of war, or was in hiding until able to find a way home. Home Office notification, and readings from reliable mediums at a later date would confirm the tragic truth. The sitters had not really benefited by having their hopes raised only to be crushed by the real situation.
However, sometimes a medium can wrongly assert that an individual has passed on, when in fact they are still very much alive! Writes Sylvia Barbanell, “ This can happen when the etheric form of someone, whose physical body is weakened, [travels astrally or out-of-body] and becomes visible to the medium – and she assumes that the person has died. The sensitive has to judge whether the astral body she sees clairvoyantly is that of a dead person or one that is still attached to his or her earthly form.”
But whether through fraud or through inexperience, a medium may say that because the spirit body of a certain individual whom the sitter is asking about is not visible to her, that person is NOT dead! Sylvia Barbanell goes on to describe a specific case. “ Two different psychics told Mrs.Robert Crombie that her airman-husband reported missing in the Battle of Britain, was not on the Other Side. Because she was not satisfied with what she had been told, Mrs. Crombie had wondered for over a year whether her husband was alive or dead. Estelle Roberts was asked whether she could give the anxious wife information that would settle her doubts one way or another. The medium immediately agreed to give a sitting to Mrs. Crombie. No other facts were imparted except the sitter’s name. “The first words spoken by Estelle Roberts to Mrs. Crombie were: ‘I am in touch with a gentleman who has been missing for about 18 months – your husband. He went across the water to France…guns were firing…he was fighting, using guns. He was attached to the Air Force. His age was about 32. He is definitely on the Other Side. He tells me you have two children and that you have been married about nine
years.’ [The air gunner’s age was 31 when he passed over. The other statements were all accurate].
The husband continued to give much correct family information, including recent happenings in the home, including the malfunction of the radio which he would have liked to have fixed. At the end of the message, he asked the medium to ‘Tell her I will always love her, and I will wait for her. God bless her.’ Mrs Crombie’s mind was at rest after this séance. Her doubts and perplexities were cleared away. She knew by the wealth of evidence she received that her loved one was on the Other Side and that he would continue to watch over his family.” [Taken from “Some Discern Spirits: the mediumship of Estelle Roberts” by Sylvia Barbanell, London, Psychic Books, 1944].
In the last post were some accounts of how spirits on the other side actually protect our servicemen as they fight the war on this side, [or right now in our present-day world, how they protect US from accidents on the highway, in the home or during random or planned acts of violence]. Here is another account from Lord Dowding from his home circle back in 1943.
Peter [an airman killed in action] has thrown himself heart and soul into the work of protecting air crews. His attitude is that there are already plenty of spirit volunteers to deal with those who come over. HE is working day and night to protect those still on the job. He says:-
I fly with the Bomber crews. Here is a strange fact – when the bombs are released, I have quickly to remove myself from the machine. The explosion DOES something to us over here. I keep intending to investigate this, but somehow I haven’t got down to it yet. All I know is that it can still knock us out. So that, while the bombs are going down and exploding, we have to leave the lads alone – alone, so far as we lower-grade people are concerned. Then, once over the target and away, we can pick up again. Machine guns have no effect whatever on us.
I have a special plane. Teddy and Derek are members of the crew. Fine lads! It won’t be MY fault if they don’t come back safely each time. A call has come. I must go; I will come again.
Lord Dowding concludes his account of this séance with Margaret Flavell by writing :- I hope I have said enough to indicate that, except during the first stages of readjustment to the new life, any fighting that they [the spirits] do is entirely protective and not aggressive.
In the next article, we will look at some of Lord Dowding’s sittings with Mrs. Hill, and her father and guide, Colonel Gascoigne. We will also review Dowding’s final book, "The Dark Star," written in 1950.
Post Article:
Submit Your Own Article