Phsyical Mediumship Huntingdonshire

Pathway to Spirit, via Joan Hughes is committed to promoting physical mediumship. Over the coming months we intend to expand the website to include articles on physical mediums, some well known, for example , and other mediums, less well know.

These county pages will be devoted to local groups where physical mediumship is of interest, and also provide a place for publication of physical circle activity.

Please feel free to send us an update from you circle's activities and let us have any news or articles you think relevant to physical mediumship. Contact Joan Hughes for advice on sitting in physical circles. See also information on the development circle at Swadlincote Spiritualist Church..

Notice Board for this Area

Nothing to post for this area as yet. In the meantime here is an extract from one of my favorite books, "The Power of Now".

When you listen to that voice, listen to it impartially. That is to say, do not judge. Do not judge or condemn what you hear, for doing so would mean that the same voice has come in again through the back door. You'll soon realize: there is the voice, and here I am listening to it, watching it. This I am realization, this sense of your own presence, is not a thought. It arises from beyond the mind.

So when you listen to a thought, you are aware not only of the thought but also of yourself as the witness of the thought. A new dimension of consciousness has come in. As you listen to the thought, you feel a conscious presence - your deeper self - behind or underneath the thought, as it were. The thought then loses its power over you and quickly subsides, because you are no longer energizing the mind through identification with it. This is the beginning of the end of involuntary and compulsive thinking. When a thought subsides, you experience a discontinuity in the mental stream - a gap of "no-mind." At first, the gaps will be short, a few seconds perhaps, but gradually they will become longer. When these gaps occur, you feel a certain stillness and peace inside you. This is the beginning of your natural state of felt oneness with Being, which is usually obscured by the mind. With practice, the sense of stillness and peace will deepen. In fact, there is no end to its depth. You will also feel a subtle emanation of joy arising from deep within: the joy of Being.

It is not a trancelike state. Not at all. There is no loss of consciousness here. The opposite is the case. If the price of peace were a lowering of your consciousness, and the price of stillness a lack of vitality and alertness, then they would not be worth having. In this state of inner connectedness, you are much more alert, more awake than in the mind-identified state. You are fully present. It also raises the vibrational frequency of the energy field that gives life to the physical body.

As you go more deeply into this realm of no-mind, as it is sometimes called in the East, you realize the state of pure consciousness. In that state, you feel your own presence with such intensity and such joy that all thinking, all emotions, your physical body, as well as the whole external world become relatively insignificant in comparison to it. And yet this is not a selfish but a selfless state. It takes you beyond what you previously thought of as "your self." That presence is essentially you and at the same time inconceivably greater than you. What I am trying to convey here may sound paradoxical or even contradictory, but there is no other way that I can express it.

Instead of "watching the thinker," you can also create a gap in the mind stream simply by directing the focus of your attention into the Now. Just become intensely conscious of the present moment. This is a deeply satisfying thing to do. In this way, you draw consciousness away from mind activity and create a gap of no-mind in which you are highly alert and aware but not thinking. This is the essence of meditation. In your everyday life, you can practice this by taking any routine activity that normally is only a means to an end and giving it your fullest attention, so that it becomes an end in itself. For example, every time you walk up and down the stairs in your house or place of work, pay close attention to every step, every movement, even your breathing. Be totally present. Or when you wash your hands, pay attention to all the sense perceptions associated with the activity: the sound and feel of the water, the movement of your hands, the scent of the soap, and so on. Or when you get into your car, after you close the door, pause for a few seconds and observe the flow of your breath. Become aware of a silent but powerful sense of presence. There is one certain criterion by which you can measure your success in this practice: the degree of peace that you feel within.

So the single most vital step on your journey toward enlightenment is this: learn to disidentify from your mind. Every time you create a gap in the stream of mind, the light of your consciousness grows stronger. One day you may catch yourself smiling at the voice in your head, as you would smile at the antics of a child. This means that you no longer take the content of your mind all that seriously, as your sense of self does not depend on it.

Phsyical Mediumship Huntingdonshire

Extracts from Robert Monroe's Journey's out of the Body

Development of events in sequence that seem to indicate a time lapse. The most certain statement that can be made is that when the condition exists, you are as aware of "not dreaming" as you are when you are awake. The same standards of wakeful-ness can be applied with the same positive result. This is what is so disconcerting in the early experimentation. The duality of existence is completely contradictory to all available scientific training and human experience. Again, the ultimate proof of such affirmation is to experience one's self in this state of being. Is this a product of self-hypnosis with attendant post-hypnotic suggestion? Quite probably the method of induction and establishment of the condition relates to hypnosis in many ways. Hypnosis itself is a phenomenon of which very little is understood. "Suggestion" as employed in hypnosis may be part of the activation process. However, great care has been taken to avoid any indirect suggestion or any stimuli that would induce hallucinated experience. When more is known of the factors involved in hypnosis, an interrelationship with the practices involved here may appear. If the mind does act differently, what are the points of diversion? Generally, it seems that the conscious mind (or the entirety of the individual) gradually passes through a learning process. In retrospect, the effect is an evolutionary adaptation and acceptance of the conscious mind into a relegated portion of a whole. The total is an equal blend of conscious, unconscious, and Supermind (transcendent self?), all fully aware of the others. However, this amalgamation is effective only in the Second State. If it continues in the physical environment, the effect is noticeable only to a limited In the earlier penetration into the Second State, thought and action are dominated almost entirely by the unconscious, subjective mind. Attempts at rational understanding seem buried in an avalanche of emotional reaction. All primary subjective drives are strongly evident, demanding to be heeded and/or satisfied. It is impossible to deny their existence. Basic fears which you believed to be erased are the first to come forth. These are followed or joined by the equally strong drive for sexual union, which will be examined elsewhere. Together, these present two solid strikes against continued development of the Second State. Throughout mankind's history, fear and sexuality have been the major motivating and control characteristics in all forms of social organization. It is therefore understandable that they play such a vital part in the Second State. Slowly, the conscious mind begins to act upon this apparently unorganized, illogical mass, to bring order and objective perception into it. In the beginning, it seems an impossible task. In the later stages, the conscious mind develops a symbiotic relationship with it. Only rarely do matters get out of hand. This is not to say that the conscious mind is in full control in the Second State. Rather, it is merely a modulator of a master or driving force. Who is the master? Call it Supermind, soul, greater self â€”the label isn't important. It is important to know that the conscious mind automatically responds to commands of the master without question. In the physical state, we seem only dimly aware of this. In the Second State, it is a natural occurrence. The Supermind knows unquestionably what is "right," and problems result only when the conscious mind stubbornly refuses to recognize this superior knowledge. The source of knowledge of the Supermind leads down many avenues, most of which seem beyond our conscious-mind-world perception. Heredity is the most acceptable of these, and the most insufficient With this continuing adaptation in progress, we can deduce certain observable premises. These lead to conclusions applicable to the Second State environment. Thought-action synchronicity. Whereas in the physical state action follows thought, here they are one and the same. There is no mechanical translation of thought into action. One gradually appreciates the existence of thought as a force in itself rather than as a trigger or catalyst. It is primarily an emotional thought force, which is gradually molded into coherent action. It is the thought of movement that creates the action. It is the thought of the person to be visited that determines the destination. Also, it is the supermind's needs that create movement into unknown areas, often without an immediate conscious awareness of the motivating forces. Thought patterns carried over from physical activities strongly influence responses in this Second State of existence. It is astounding to discover how many small thought habits one has "grown," and how embarrassed one often feels at the automatic quality of them. Although no purely physical habits, needs, or desires (e.g., hunger, pain, smoking) seem to be carried over as such, minor annoying thought patterns and conditioning appear to confuse and divert attention. The exception to all of this is the sexual drive, and even this is tainted by artificial social standards and the habits they have produced. Here is an illustration of a minor habit carry-over from the notes.

6/11/63 When they came close to me, each taking an arm to lead me through the area, my hand went to my right chest pocket, to feel if the bulk of my wallet was still there, so that it would not be taken. It took some moments to realize that there was no wallet (perhaps no coat), nor was there any intent on the part of the two who held me to take my nonexistent wallet. This is the price of living in crowds in the big city! Little habits like these do get in the way, and you run into them again and again. The method of disposal is to recognize them, one by one. Once they are identified they are no longer bothersome. The same is true of thoughts in relation to the shape of the physical body. For example, if you have been conditioned to acute awareness of nakedness, you will automatically think you are clothedâ€”and so you are. The form of your physical body is carried over in replica down to the last hair follicle and scar, unless you deliberately think otherwise. Conversely, if your thought habits have been in other directions, you may take whatever form is most convenient, deliberately or otherwise. I suspect that one may modify the Second Body into whatever form is desired. Once the thought is discarded, the Second Body will drop back into its habitual humanoid shape. This opens up some interesting speculation into man's mythology. If one wished to experience the existence of a quadruped, the Second Body might be transformed temporarily into a large dog, and someone with Second State vision (there probably are many such people) might encounter a werewolf. Or the fables of half man, half goat/horse could be the result. One might "think" wings and fly, and be transformed momentarily into a vampire bat It seems less impossible when one experiments with the power of thought in the Second State. To put it another way, there seems to be nothing that thought cannot produce in this new-old other life. This invites a note of caution in large red letters: be absolutely sure of the results you desire, and constantly in control of the thoughts you engender. Perception changes. This is the area of most significant yet most incomprehensible alteration. Because we have learned no other way of dealing with it, all sensory input is translated at first into terms and meanings appreciated by the five physical senses. For example, when one begins to "see" in this unfamiliar shape, the impression is that this "seeing" is much the same as optical reception by the physical eyes. Only later do you discover empirically that this is not the case. It isn't physical "seeing" at all. You learn that you can "see" in all directions at once, without turning the head, that you see or don't see according to the thought; and that when examined objectively, it is more an impression of radiation rather than a reflection of light waves. The same applies to other physical senses. You believe at first that you are hearing people "speak" to you. Early, you perceive that no "ear" has received a sensory message. In some other way, you have received the message (thought) and your mind has translated it into understandable words. Touch seems to have the most definite relationship to its physical counterpart. Smell and taste have been conspicuously absent to date. Most interesting is the evidence that none of these modes of perception works wholly automatically. You seem to be able to turn them "on" or "off" at will. There also seem to be a few new means of sensory input. One of these is identification of other human entities (living, dead?) not by how they "look," but through an undisguised awareness of their prime personality habits and thoughts.

This is most remarkable, because it seems infallible, with the innermost self appearing to radiate patterns, much as the composition of a star or a piece of metal can be analyzed by its spectrograph. I suspect that such emanations cannot be shut off by the individual, so there can be no covering over of the inner self to hide it from view. Another is the ability to communicate with others at a level above conscious awareness. This has been performed with living persons awake and asleep. It is quite possible that it also takes place among people living in the physical state who are completely unaware of it. In the Second State, it is specific and utterly natural. There are many incidents reported in the notes of such communication while the other person is in conscious physical conversation with a third party. The most frustrating part of this is that the communicant rarely has any memory of it afterward. Also, it is only with difficulty that such contact is opened with a person physically awake. It is like trying to rouse a person from a sound, deep sleep. It may be that this communicating portion of the mind is actually asleep during periods of physical consciousness. Free association or regressive hypnotic techniques should bring recall from such sources when needed. One problem is encountered periodically in perception during the Second State. It may be more common in perception by physical means than has been reported, and thus not unique. I refer to the question of the mind's identification of persons, places, and things which up to that moment have been unknown and unperceived previously. In the quest for evidential data and self-orientation, the mind seems to act strongly in response to an unformed thought command to "Identify!", without modification or equivocation. Therefore, when an unknown or apparently impossible situation, place, person, or thing is encountered, the mind comes up with some kind of answer rather than no answer whatsoever. The answer takes the form of rationalization, if it can be called that; or more commonly, a search is made of past memories and experiences to produce proper identification. It compares the situation under which the object or action is perceived with past personal experience. If there is nothing to coincide exactly with the observed data, the mind invariably reports the most similar memory and states, "This is the object or action you are seeing." It is only after critical analysis that some semblance of what actually was perceived comes to light. There are many good illustrations of this phenomenon. One of the best is the visit to Mr. Bahnson's house in the morning. The mind, having no reference in its memory of the object being placed in the back of the car (Van DeGraff generator), identified properly its approximate size, the round, wheellike protuberance on a post, and the base platform, and reported erroneously that it was a child's automobile. The mind properly reported the boy and the baseball, because this was a part of its memory-bank data. However, it ran into a problem on the motion of Mrs. Bahnson in handing out the morning mail. This was reported as "dealing cards," but the mind was faced with the incongruity of playing with large white cards (letters) at a table filled with dishes. The idea of "card playing" was the least impossible similar event in the memory association, so that was the unit retained. Of equal interest was the experience of the airplane crash reported in Chapter 11. Here was a whole series of events filled with much sensory data, filtered by the mind's past associations. Added to this was the rapid superimposure of information, so that the sequence of events in time added to the confusion. The impression of taking a trip by airplane was quite accurate. However, the mind "forgot" that there was a bus trip to the airport first. Consequently, in reporting the loading of the bus, the impression was that this was the airplane. In boarding the bus, the mind perceived the driver waiting beside the door. In an attempt to identify the man, the memory was searched and the most similar person in past experience (D.D.) was selected as the person encountered. (The physical similarity between the bus driver and D.D. when compared later was most remarkable.) Recognition of the woman in the seat ahead and her discomfort was another form of misinterpretation. The, discomfort or anxiety was accurate, the reason wrong. The mind had not determined the cause of the woman's anxiety, so it related it to the individual, as some answer was demanded. Then, the flying low and slow over streets was a perfect description of the event itselfâ€”the bus traveling the turnpike to the airportâ€”except that the mind was still fixed on the idea of flying in an airplane. The mind still held fixedly on the "fact" that the plane flight had already begun. When the plane encountered the storm, the mind reported the plane flying under power and telephone wires because it could not translate directly the effect of the storm. Most significant was the mind's interpretation of the "accident" or catastrophe. It "saw" what appeared to be a disruption of the heart activities. This was an impossible situation, an inconceivable event based upon its experience. In the face of this past data, the mind was forced to "Identify!" Experience said the observed catastrophe was not possible. Therefore, it selected an airplane crash as an event that would be believed and acceptable as a possibility. From this, the difficulty of accurately reporting the observance of unknown material can be understood. If it proves this complex in familiar environments, one can well imagine what takes place when that which is perceived has no relationship whatsoever to previous experience. Only by laborious trial and error have a few facts been assembled, and these may not all be common with the interpretation of other minds with other experience backgrounds. This is the reason for the need for others to experience the same conditions. The entire picture may become clear with the help of such additional reports. Of the few facts that have been properly tagged, there are the "flying" and "falling" dreams. I am quite certain that such dreams are but memories of some degree of Second State experience, I have often become aware of experiencing the flying dream during sleep, only to discover that I was actually floating out in the Second Body as I brought consciousness to the incident. This involuntary action happens most frequently without any conscious effort. It may well be that many people do have this experience during sleep, but just don't remember it. A dream of riding or flying in an airplane has a similar connotation. The mind, refusing to accept the possibility of flying without mechanical help due to memory experience, conjures up an airplane to rationalize the event Again, when consciousness and full awareness are brought into play, the "airplane" disappears. There you are, high in the air, with no logical means of support. It is most disconcerting until you get used to the idea. Falling dreams were also repeatedly examined in my early experiments. It is a common "feeling" in quick reintegration of the Second Body with the physical. Evidently, the proximity of the physical causes it to accept relayed sensory signals from the Second, which is "falling" into the physical. By the same token, the process of "falling" asleep often brings forth a "sinking" sensation. By trying it again and again, the effect is produced by the separation of the Second from the physical, and the sensory impressions are split between the two. Perhaps the same sinking sensation takes place when one loses consciousness from other causes, such as fainting, application of anesthesia, etc. Intelligence measurement On the surface, except for the addition of sensory abilities just noted, there seems to be no immediate opening of new vistas of knowledge and information. There is no jump in IQ by the standards applied in the physical world. There is indeed a new kind of intellect at work, but it is in a form that seems incomprehensible. This composite mind uses the experiences of living in the physical, but applies them only when they "fit" the event or incident Sometimes actions take place that seem utter nonsense to the conscious mind, and their validity is recognized only after the event. After a significant number of experiments, one becomes aware that the conscious mind in itself, even with its memory-recall patterns, is insufficient for the task of full comprehension. There is too much to be evaluated that is beyond the scope of conscious personal experience. Again, this demands a continuing need to organize the available data into comprehensive form, and to add to that body of knowledge through the evidential experience of other conscious minds. This conscious mind has recognized its limitations! Memory patterns. If the conscious intellect does not seem improved, the memory storehouse is another matter. One of the early changes is the gradual flooding of the memory with events, places, people, and things that have no relationship in any way to one's current physical life activities or past experience. Nor do they seem to have any bearing on the visits to Locales II or III. The source of these memories still remains a mystery. They are sensed and recalled while in the Second State. For example, I have a vivid memory of a place where I used to live â€”the roads leading up to it, the shape of the land, its location in relation to the road, and the surrounding landscape. It is not a good piece of land, but I seem to have worked hard for it and it was all I could afford. I had intentions of building a house on it someday. There is the memory also of three connected buildings on a city streetâ€”old buildings, some eight stories high. The top floors of these buildings (similar to old apartment buildings) have been joined into one large living area, with large, high-ceilinged rooms. One has to step up or down slightly to go from one room to another due to the difference in floor levels. This was a place I visited, not too often, sometime, somewhere. There are many more, probably unimportant in relation to the whole. It is important to know, however, that these are directly the product of Second State experimentation. Of what value they are, beyond to confuse, I have yet to learn.

Throughout the entire experimentation, evidence began to mount of a factor most vital to the Second State. Yet in all the esoteric literature of the underground, there is no mention of this, not so much as one word of consideration or explanation. This factor is sexuality and the physical sex drive. If the Second State data is contemplated as fact, this business of sex among humans has somehow become thoroughly confused, distorted, and badly misunderstood.

In a nation where over 90 per cent of the practicing psychiatrists are Freudian, much mention is made of this factor. Virtually no thought or action stems from any other motivation, if we subscribe wholly to this theory. With the label of "evil" long pinned to the subject, the underground probably ignores it as something grossly "material" and unworthy of any bearing in spiritual development. Much the same pattern has applied to religions, formal and otherwise. Like food, this necessity was manipulated in man's history again and again under artificial rules and taboos to exercise control over the mass populace. To a great extent, this still applies as a basic control over our desires and actions. Watch almost any American TV commercial to observe one facet. Listen to a hell-fire-anddamnation preacher for another. Study the uncensored history of any major civilization or religion for the long look. In the underground, there were rumors based upon mild evidence that many well-known "psychics" were highly sexed individuals. The more sophisticated group claimed knowledge of this parallel, but nothing was synthesized from it. Gurdjieff, the famous early-twentieth-century mystic, was reported to have stated that if there had been two obstacles to achieving the mystical state such as the sexual one presented, he wouldn't have achieved it. It is impossible to describe how deeply I now appreciate and understand Gurdjieff's comment. For I have been subjected to the same environmental concepts and conditioning as any American. Even now, after a deconditioning process, I sense echoes of guilt and sin in attempting to bring some candor to this section. Yet I know this would be an incomplete report without it. Here are some excerpts from the notes in the early experimental stage.

Abbots Ripton - Abbotsley - Alwalton - Barham And Wooley - Bluntisham - Brampton - Brington And Molesworth - Broughton - Buckden - Buckworth - Bury - Bythorn And Keyston - Catworth - Chesterton - Colne - Conington - Covington - Denton And Caldecote - Diddington - Earith - Easton - Ellington - Elton - Eynesbury And Hardwicke - Farcet - Fenstanton - Folksworth And Washingley - Glatton - Godmanchester - Grafham - Great Gransden - Great Paxton - Great Staughton - Haddon - Hail Weston - Hamerton - Hemingford Abbots - Hemingford Grey - Hilton - Holme - Holywell-Cum-Needingworth - Houghton And Wyton - Huntingdon - Kimbolton - Kings Ripton - Leighton Bromswold - Little Paxton - Morborne - Old Weston - Oldhurst - Perry - Pidley-Cum-Fenton - Ramsey - Sawtry - Sibson-Cum-Stibbington - Somersham - Southoe And Midloe - Spaldwick - St Ives - St Neots - Stilton - Stow Longa - Tetworth - The Alconburys - The Giddings - The Offords - The Stukeleys - Tilbrook - Toseland - Upton And Coppingford - Upwood And The Raveleys - Wansford - Warboys - Waresley - Water Newton - Winwick - Wistow - Woodhurst - Woodwalton - Yaxley - Yelling -

Pathway to Spirit 7 Princicpal of Spiritualism

Phsyical Mediumship Huntingdonshire

Phsyical Mediumship Huntingdonshire

Pathway to Spirit
7 Princicpal of Spiritualism