Arthur Findlay's Introductory Profile of Direct Voice Medium John C. Sloan

   

 
This blog article presents Arthur Findlay's introductory profile of Direct Voice medium John Campbell Sloan from the fourth chapter of On the Edge of the Etheric (1931).  One can compare the circumstances of Sloan's seances with those of Leslie Flint, whose Direct Voice seance audio tape recordings are available for listening online.  Nineteen verbatim Direct Voice seance transcripts are presented in Where Two Worlds Meet (1951) by Arthur Findlay.

Findlay commented about his participation in Sloan's seances in Where Two Worlds Meet (1951) —

When I was having my regular Sittings with John Sloan, away back in the years 1918 to 1924, I soon learned that it was wiser not to be too curious and only to ask a few questions at a time.  I was told to take what came, but that if I wished to ask many questions I could have private sittings for that purpose, when those fitted to answer me would be present to speak.  Moreover, I found that the other sitters were not anxious to receive the information I wanted, and that they only wished to talk to their friends on the other side.

So these private Sittings were held, and I took with me my secretary to make notes of everything said and done.  Much of the information received will be found in On the Edge of the Etheric and the two books which followed it, The Rock of Truth and The Unfolding Universe . . .

CHAPTER IV.   THE MEDIUM.

An honest man's the noblest work of God.—Pope.

 

Mr. John C. Sloan, in whose presence the experiences I have to relate occurred, is a middle-aged man, of slight build and a quiet manner.  He has rather a dreamy expression, and when sitting still and not speaking or taking part in a conversation he seems to lose touch with his surroundings.  At these times his eyes take on a far-away look, and when spoken to he is palpably startled.  He enjoys quite good health, and at his work few would notice certain peculiarities, which become marked in his own house when his work is finished.  When he has nothing special to occupy his attention this dreamy state seems to take hold of him and he becomes absent-minded and forgetful.  Except for this he is like any other healthy normal individual.

All his life he has been aware that supernormal occurrences took place in his immediate surroundings.  In his youth he was often disturbed by rappings and strange voices which he could not understand, and during the past thirty years these have developed into manifestations of a general and varied nature.  His mediumship during these years has embraced trance, telekinesis, apports, direct voice, materialisation, clairvoyance and clairaudience.  These have varied in degree year by year, but his friends generally agree that fifteen years ago his mediumship was at its best.  To those who have had little experience of these phenomena, let me explain.  Trance is a state of unconsciousness certain abnormal people experience.  It might be compared to falling into a deep sleep with a short interval between consciousness and unconsciousness.  It is, however, more than sleep; it is a much deeper state of unconsciousness; the personality is withdrawn to a greater extent, and the body is more insensible to pain.  A person in trance can be better compared to one under an anaesthetic than to one in sleep, with this difference, the trance state may last for from two to three hours and be repeated several times a week without any ill effect being noticeable.  When Sloan is in this state he speaks, but it would be more correct to say that his vocal organs vibrate the atmosphere, as no one can be with him long while this is taking place and think that his own personality is responsible for what is said.  The voice is different and the accent is different, and much of what is said is quite outside his range of knowledge.  Clairaudience and Clairvoyance are the powers some have of hearing what to others is inaudible and seeing what is normally unseen.  Both are due to the etheric structure of the ear and eye functioning abnormally, and thus these organs can catch the etheric vibrations.  Telekinesis is the word used for the movement of objects without the use of any known force.  Apports are objects brought from one room to another, or from a distance to where the medium is, by some invisible agency.

What is called the Direct Voice is the special subject of this book.  In the medium's presence, but quite apart from him, voices, claiming to be those of deceased people, speak, and when replied to answer back intelligently, showing that there is not only a mind behind the voice but that the intelligence is able to hear as well as to speak.  When first experiencing this phenomena I naturally thought that the medium was impersonating people, as when these voices speak it is generally in the dark, and what could be easier than that he should be tricking me and others into believing that we were speaking to our departed friends?

On the first occasion I experienced these voices I was decidedly suspicious, and yet as the séance went on I wondered how it would be possible for any man, even if he had accomplices, to carry on such an imposture for over three hours.  Thirty separate voices spoke that night, of different tone and accent, they gave their names, their correct earth addresses and spoke to the right people, were recognised, and referred to intimate family affairs.  Never once was a mistake made and the darkness really increased the evidence in favour of the genuineness of the whole proceedings, as, difficult as it would be to remember everyone's departed friends and relations and their family affairs in the light, it would be doubly so in the dark, because fifteen people were present and the medium would have to remember exactly where each one was sitting.  The voice on every occasion spoke in front of the person who recognised the name, the earth address and the details which were given.

It was all very mystifying, and the fact that sometimes two or three voices spoke at once did not make it less so.  There must be accomplices, I thought, and not only that but a regular system of gathering information.  How it could be done in so thorough a manner was the question, but yet, on the other hand, how could the dead speak?  Even if they lived again their physical vocal organs were certainly buried, and how could the atmosphere be vibrated without a physical bodily instrument?  No, nothing so impossible could happen.  I had heard of frauds and impostors, but never of the dead speaking, so the balance was certainly in favour of fraud.

So ran my thoughts that memorable night of the 20th September 1918, when suddenly a voice spoke in front of me.  I felt scared.  A man sitting next to me said "Someone wants to speak to you, friend," so I said "Yes, who are you?" "Your father, Robert Downie Findlay," the voice replied, and then went on to refer to something that only he and I and one other ever knew on earth, and that other, like my father, was some years dead.  I was therefore the only living person with any knowledge of what the voice was referring to.  That was extraordinary enough, but my surprise was heightened when, after my father had finished, another voice gave the name of the other person who on earth knew about the subject, and this voice continued the conversation which my father had begun.  No spy system, however thorough, no impersonation by the medium or by any accomplices, could be responsible for this, and moreover I was an entire stranger to everyone present.  I did not give my name when I entered the room, I knew no one in that room, and no one knew me or anything about me.

That was my first introduction to John C. Sloan and the Direct Voice, and after the séance was over I asked him if I could come back again, as I was anxious to know more about this subject.  "Certainly, any time you care to come I shall be pleased to see you," was his reply, and I turned to someone standing near and asked how much I should pay Mr. Sloan.  I have always remembered the reply.  "If you suggest such a thing as paying him he will be deeply offended; he does this as a duty, not to make money out of his mediumship."  That did not impress me as the method adopted by a fraud.  How could a working man earning a few pounds a week, I wondered, afford the time and the money to gather all the information I heard given to the people present that evening?  I was so impressed with my strange experience that I went home that night and wrote till the small hours of the next morning a careful account of all that occurred at this my first séance, and this practice I have constantly adopted, unless I had a stenographer present.

Slowly, but steadily, I came to understand that what I thought was impossible really was possible, what I thought could not occur did occur, that those I thought were dead were very much alive, that they had bodies of finer texture but similar in form to our own, and that the medium gave off a substance which enabled them to materialise their etheric mouth and throat and tongue and again vibrate our atmosphere.  Further, I learned that as physical life can only gather round it matter, in the initial stage before birth, in the dark, so darkness was required to enable materialisation to take place from the substance drawn from the medium.  This I learned only slowly and after I had given much time and thought to the subject, but before I tried to know how it was all accomplished I set myself to prove the medium's honesty.  This I did in many ways.  After that first night many friends who had died spoke to me, giving their names and correct addresses on earth, and told me things which no one present except myself could have known.  Then I thought it might all be telepathy, though how telepathy could vibrate the atmosphere as a voice which I recognised, I could not understand.  However, I wished to leave no stone unturned to get the truth, and so I waited to see how long this theory would hold the field.  It was not long till it, like the fraud theory, had to go also.  Friends came and spoke to me, and told me things that not only no one present knew but that I did not know myself, and never have known.  These things I found on enquiry to be correct, so thought transference between my conscious or subconscious mind and that of the medium was ultimately ruled out.

I next decided to take the first opportunity to sit beside the medium, and when a voice was speaking to put my ear right up to his mouth.  I held his hands from the beginning of the séance, and when a voice spoke I put my ear close to his mouth.  I felt his breath, my ear and his lips were just touching, but not a sound was to be heard.  This I have done, not once or twice, but many times until finally I was convinced that the phenomena of the direct voice was not only genuine but that those who spoke were those they said they were, our friends and relations, who, though parted from their physical garment, continue to live a life much as we do here, and when able to gather sufficient ectoplasm from a human being, called by us a medium, they can, by lowering their vibrations, vibrate our atmosphere, speak to us, and hear us when we reply.

After twelve years' intimate experience of Mr. John C. Sloan and having sat with most of the other leading mediums in this country and America, I can say with conviction that he is the best Trance, Direct Voice, Clairvoyant and Clairaudient medium I have ever sat with.  Though trance utterances never appeal to me as does the Direct Voice, yet his powers in this direction are remarkable.  His power of hearing clairaudiently is extraordinary, especially his faculty of getting the names and addresses of those speaking, a task which most mediums find difficult to do.  If he had been willing to give his gifts to the public he would have been known as one of this country's most famous mediums, instead of which he has preferred having his friends to his house for an evening once a week or so and giving them the pleasure of meeting again those of their acquaintances who have passed beyond the veil.  He is retiring to a degree and modest in the extreme.  He cares nothing for the praise which so often comes at the end of such an evening.  He always gives me the impression that he dislikes these séances and only holds them as a duty.  I know that, if left to himself, he would never exercise his mediumistic faculties.  His sense of duty and kindness of heart are the reasons why his friends have been so specially privileged.

I know no man more honourable, of kinder heart, or with more of the old Scottish type of independence.  So long as he can get work he will never take money in exchange for his gift.  He has had his ups and downs, and though a good and trustworthy workman, on occasions, through no fault of his own, he has been out of work.  On one occasion Mr. McCully (some of whose experiences are recorded in Chapter IX), who was one of the regular attenders at his weekly séances, told me that when Mr. Sloan had been out of work for some time a proposal was made that he should take something from those who came, and that they would bring others also who would gladly pay.  Very reluctantly he agreed to give three séances on these terms, but after the second he refused to give the last.  "I have now got a job," was his reply, "and I shall never again take money for my mediumship, if I can get work to enable me to support my family."  The third séance was, however, held only on the condition that no payment was made.

Such is John C. Sloan, quixotic, yes; stubborn, yes; but only in what to him is a matter of conscience.  No one need ask him for permission to be present at a séance and fear refusal; no one need fear that he will be made to feel that a favour is being granted.  To Sloan, his duty is to give his gift to those who need it, but no money need be offered, as it would not be accepted.

It may be considered extraordinary that a man with such gifts should be so little known, but this is entirely due to his modesty and retiring disposition.  He hates publicity of any kind; he is so shy that on occasions, when I have asked him to give my own friends a sitting in the Séance Room at the offices of the Glasgow Society for Psychical Research, he has asked me not to introduce him, just to let him come in, take his seat and then have the lights put out.  He is at his ease only when in his own house, his own friends gathered round him, and the séance takes the form of a religious meeting, as to him it is a holy communion with the unseen.  His reward, he says, is in sending away some sorrowing one with the knowledge that life continues beyond this world, and that he has been the means of bringing together a bereaved mother or widow and a son or husband who has passed into the beyond.  To see their happiness after he comes out of trance at the end of a séance is to him ample reward for all his trouble.  Hundreds upon hundreds have received this comfort and consolation through his instrumentality.  He only claims to be an instrument; he says he knows nothing as to how it all comes about; he has read little on the subject, and as he is in trance throughout the séance, he knows nothing of what takes place.

Had Sloan been made in a different mould, he could have made an easy living by his gift and become known as one of our most famous mediums; but he has been content to live simply by the labour of his hands, earning a few pounds a week.  He has brought up a large family in a small, but comfortable house in one of the working class districts of Glasgow, and often he has had a hard struggle to make ends meet.  He performs his daily work conscientiously and well, and his employer, who often was present at his meetings, considered him one of his best and most trustworthy workmen.

Such is the man I met that evening, now over twelve years ago.  I was then ushered into a small room, in which were gathered over a dozen people, and after some preliminary conversation, we sat down in a circle, Sloan on the music-stool beside a small harmonium.  The lights were put out, and the room was in complete darkness.  After a preliminary prayer, Sloan turned round and played several hymns in which we all joined, but before the last was finished he became controlled by an entity who goes under the picturesque name of "Whitefeather," but was usually addressed by us as "Whitie," a most amusing personality, who says that when on earth he was a Red Indian Chief, that he lived in the "Rockies" and therefore thinks our Scottish scenery tame in comparison.

During the sitting Sloan, so far as I could judge, remained seated on the stool.  Voices of all degrees of strength and culture spoke, from what appeared to be all parts of the room, but it was difficult to say where they actually originated, as in the centre of the circle were two megaphones, or trumpets, each about two and a half feet long, and from the metallic ring of the voice it was evident that they were occasionally being used to speak through.  All the time the two trumpets, when not being used to speak through, went round the circle touching each one gently.  Someone would be lightly touched on the point of the nose, another on the top of the head, another's hand would be touched, and so on—never a hard knock.  At request, any part of the body would be touched without a mistake, without any fumbling, a clean, gentle touch, an impossible feat for any human being to do in pitch darkness, as I have proved on various occasions.  Lights, about the size of half-crowns, of a phosphorescent appearance, were continually moving about the room at all angles.

Looking over my records I find that I have notes of forty-three different séances at which either I or my friends had conversations with those who claimed to have known us when on earth, thirty-nine of which have been with Sloan, four with other mediums.  I have also witnessed, at different times, the same phenomena with the leading direct voice mediums, both in this country and in the United States, so I think I may claim to have sufficient experience to enable me critically to examine the phenomena and record my conclusions.  As I say, I have notes of thirty-nine different séances with Sloan; eighty-three separate voices have spoken to me, or to personal friends I have brought with me; two hundred and eighty-two separate communications have been given to me or to them; one hundred and eighty of these I class "A1," as it was impossible for the medium or any other person present to have known about them; one hundred I class as "A2," as by means of the newspaper or reference books the medium could have found them out.  One item of information given me I have not had the opportunity of verifying, and only one I have found to be incorrect.  This latter was right up to a point, but as it was a message given me by a voice on behalf of another, it is possible it was wrongly delivered.  If it had been delivered in a slightly altered form, it would have been correct, so I think that this one exception need not invalidate in any way the other items I have had correctly given.

Within the last few years changes have occurred in Mr. Sloan's life.  His daughters married, and his sons went to sea, so that he found living alone monotonous.  His wife's people were sea-faring folk, so his sons followed the same calling.  He also had all his life a longing for the same life, and as he had no ties to keep him on shore, he too followed his sons and joined an Atlantic liner as Master-at-Arms, which position he held for some years, when he decided to again come and live on shore.  He is now employed with one of the leading business houses in Glasgow, but continues to give séances to his friends.  Only occasionally, however, does he now exercise his gift of mediumship, as his health is not so good as it used to be.

It seems strange that a man of such exceptional gifts should, for all practical purposes, be unknown to the world, but so it is.  It can only be attributed to his persistent refusal to accept money and become a public medium, and nothing will change him from this course.  He writes to me at times and I hear of him through mutual friends, but we seldom meet now, as living in England I am only occasionally in Scotland.  I have, however, my notes to remind me of the many interesting and instructive times I spent in his presence, and all my life I shall be grateful to him for the kindness and courtesy he has always shown me.  I look back on the night we first met, and feel that I was there in the position of one who was looking for something and had not found it, but that night he gave me the chance of finding what I had been seeking, the proof positive that we still live beyond this narrow vale called life, and that, when the end of earth life comes, we not only enter a larger and fuller one but also join again those we once loved here.  For this, my life-long gratitude will be felt towards John C. Sloan.