Introductory Note

By the Editor

The reports of sittings with Mrs. Osborne Leonard, in which Sir William Barrett (W.F.B.) purports to be the chief communicator, are given under his initials, and in conversation the sitter assumes the hypothesis that it is W. F. B. who speaks.

Readers who do not believe in the possibility of survival after death may find this method annoying, but is not any scientific hypothesis assumed to be true while we are testing its validity? On the other hand, it may be thought that messages purporting to come from the other side of death are of too private a nature to publish. This is true of many, and some of the most convincing scripts have had to be omitted on this account.

But others appear to have the intention of carrying conviction not only to the one to whom they were sent but also to others who will read them with an unbiased mind – conviction that death is but the opening of a new chapter in life’s experience.

Sir William Barrett (W.F.B.), when studying the subject on Earth, had always realised that such conviction would only develop slowly. Writing in defence of the work of the Society for psychical research three years before he left us he said, ‘Many perplexing problems still confront us, but we must remember how many centuries passed before physical science began to emerge from the disorderly mystery of ignorance into the orderly mystery of science.’

The sittings from which the reported messages are taken have occurred every few months over a period of eleven years. They were not sought by me, although I had been interested in the subject of psychical research for a long time. On June 6, 1925, however, I received a letter from a member of the Society for Psychical Research previously unknown to me, enclosing notes taken at a sitting with Mrs. Leonard on June 5, 1925. (Sir William Barrett died on May 26, 1925.) The sitter, who was unknown to me, said in her letter:

I had not the honour of your husband’s acquaintance, but as a member of the S.P.R. I of course had often seen him and heard him speak. It is impossible to convey through the notes the vivid impression both my friend and I received that it was indeed Sir William manifesting.

Before quoting the messages received, it seems necessary to give a brief picture of his last day on Earth.

He was specially well and happy in the morning and spent most of it in writing and sending one or two letters to friends. He sent a postcard to our friend Mrs. Jervis, asking her to come to tea on the 28th inst.

He wanted to hear more about her recent experiences in America, and specially her views of the Piper circle – a little group of friends who had periodical sittings with Mrs. Piper, a celebrated medium, who has been investigated by the Society for Psychical Research.

A friend came to lunch with us (referred to in another sitting), after which he went to a Committee on Physical Phenomena at the S.P.R., over which he presided.

After tea he had an interview at which I was present, and at the end I went down to the front door with the visitor, and returned to find him lying sideways in an armchair beside a small table. I rushed to him, but he had ceased to breathe and no heartbeat could be felt. Restoratives were in vain.

The chief messages which concern W. F. B. in the notes of the sitting sent to me are as follows:

W. F. B. I want you to write to my wife just to say I came and that I am very well and happy. I want to give her my very fond love and say that I have sent a message from a place a very long way off – I can’t get the name through here- – it’s from a quarter with which I had a very slight connection when I was here. The place I am speaking of is a long way away over the sea: the message will take some time to reach her; the journey would take perhaps a couple of weeks.
Control: He looks more like thirty years ago – no glasses, eyes bright and he can hear – he is so happy.
W. F. B. It is a great joy to me to hear again clearly and distinctly. Tell her my dear mother is with me and was with me at the moment I passed over. My mother stood by the table. I think she felt she must stand by me because she has told me she felt she must be with me all that day.

Control: Something to do with his leg is better; he draws a line from the knee upwards.
W. F. B. Thank you so much, thank you for allowing me to come, and don’t forget to say what the medium told you about my looking well.

There were three statements in this message I felt to be important:

(1) That a message had been sent from overseas which might or might not be corroborated.
(2) That his mother ‘stood by the table’ at the moment of his passing. He died quite suddenly in an armchair with a small table at its side. He had always been devoted to his mother and she lived with him in Ireland till her death.
(3) That the pain in the thigh was better. For two days before his passing he had complained of pain in the left thigh. Neither the medium nor sitters could have had any knowledge of these trivial facts.

Stimulated by this message I went to a sitting with Mrs. Leonard in July 1925. At this sitting the ‘message from oversea’ was elaborated. He then said:

The message was from America, not very north, rather towards the south. It was given to someone whose name began with P, a word of 5 or 7 letters. P is a prominent person connected with a group. I think it must come your way.
Some months later Mrs. Jervis told me she had received a letter from Mrs. Piper in Boston, U.S.A., about the middle of June, saying that Mrs. Piper had a message from Sir William Barrett: ‘Tell Mrs. Jervis I am sorry I could not keep the appointment.’ On the day that Mrs. Jervis read the obituary notice in The Times (May 27), she had received the postcard from my husband saying, ‘Come to tea on Thursday and tell us more about America.’ While in America Mrs. Jervis had visited the Piper circle. She was therefore the obvious link between Mrs. Piper and England. It seems worthwhile to record these early initial messages because so many think it is those on Earth who seek communication with their departed friends, and even regard it as a disturbance of their peace.

If personality survives death it is natural that those who have passed to a higher life should wish to comfort those with whom they had vital relationship on Earth, but this is not possible to all and there are many difficulties to be overcome.

An explanatory note may perhaps be given for those readers who have no experience of sitting with a trance medium.
The reader should note certain peculiarities in the form of communications purporting to emanate from W.F.B.; for example, a reference to someone or something with which both of us would be well acquainted may be introduced at a sitting in the form of a question.

It should be understood that this is the reaction of the control to the communicator’s thought and should not be regarded as indicating that the communicator himself needs to ask any question about the matter.

Another point to be observed is that a quite definite reference to some personality or incident which W. F. B. would certainly know all about is introduced at the sitting in a roundabout way, as for example, in the statement about my recently deceased brother, which appears in the record of the sitting held on January 15, 1931. It will be seen from the notes the statement was made in spontaneous response to my own request audibly made to W. F. B. in my own home some little time before. A reader unfamiliar with the modus operandi of these communications might naturally wonder why a reference so clear and unmistakable should not have been differently initiated. Why should not W. F. B. have begun what he had to say by stating explicitly that he was in touch with my brother? The explanation is the same as what I have just said about the control asking a question. W. F. B. is apparently using the easiest method of conveying information to the control and having it impressed upon the medium’s brain.

All experimenters in the field of psychical research are aware of facts of this kind and are accustomed to make due allowance for them.

See also p. 98, in the sitting March 9, 1929, where the direct voice of the communicator is contrasted with the interpretation of thought by the control (Feda).

The actual phrasing, therefore, in some places cannot be regarded word for word as that of the communicator himself, but as that of the control operating through the medium.

At times, however, the sitter is definitely impressed by the fact that the communicator is dictating his own message in the precise form in which he wishes it to be received. When this is so the style of delivery changes; the message is given slowly and with relevant pauses instead of quickly, as is the usual mode.

It occasionally happens that if the sitter interrupts by saying ‘You mean so and so,’ the communicator will reply, ‘No, I mean what I have said.’ When the sentence referred to is completed it is invariably found that the word insisted upon was the right word to convey his meaning.
(See record of October 30, 1931.)

Throughout the whole record as here given the abrupt transition from one subject to another is unavoidable, due to the elimination of personal and private affairs concerning ourselves or other people.
In the original script it is not so, as the ending of a private message may lead to the next subject.

The words of greeting at the beginning of each sitting and of farewell at the end are omitted in nearly every case. Words heard in the direct voice apart from the medium are printed in italics.

CHAPTER 1

July 26, I925
Leonard Sitting

W. F. B. I’m here. I sent messages by two ladies. I’ve tried to give you impressions about some material matters – about the house. I should like you to use my room. I have tried to impress this idea on you – I have not just thought of it today; use it for your consulting room.
Is there something on the floor you want altered? I thought I saw you looking on the floor as though you wanted to change something – something about heat.

The idea of using his study as my consulting room had come to me quite suddenly one day when I was busy about other things. The idea came so vividly that I at once went down to the room to consider whether I could leave the room much as he used it and yet introduce the things essential for use as a professional room.
I searched round the wainscot near the floor – specially near the fireplace – to see whether he had arranged new electric stops, as I should need one in a position possible for my lamp.
F. E. B. What would you like me to do about the letters in your cash-box? Shall I destroy them?
W. F. B. Keep them for the present.
F. E. B. Do you want them destroyed ultimately?
W. F. B. Yes, but wait a little. Don’t let anyone else have them. There is no ordinary material reason for keeping them, but some ideal. They are letters that were not written lately, but a long time ago – relics. I had thought of destroying them myself, but put it off.
These were letters written to him when he was a young man, including one from an old friend in time of trouble. The message accurately describes the letters, which are of a private nature.
F. E. B. Can you tell me anything of your passing?
W. F. B. When I passed over I had no pain at all: at once people were with me – my mother and father and others.
F. E. B. Did you know when I came back?
W. F. B. It was not knowing – being aware – not quite the same. I did not see or hear but felt. I was conscious of wanting you for a moment – a flash – I knew something was happening to me, and mentally I called out for you, so strongly I almost thought I had called out.

Then I felt you come back to me, but I was past seeing and hearing: it was very quick. I remember trying to turn sideways: you may have noticed that when you came. You hadn’t gone for good. It was not my passing that called you: you had only gone to come back again.

I had left him to go down to the front door with a visitor with whom we had just had an interview, and when I came straight back to the drawing-room he was lying in the armchair and had ceased to breathe. He was lying sideways in the chair.

I rushed to him and felt his heart, but it had ceased to beat. He was apparently well when I left the room and had been unusually bright and active during the day.
There had been no possibility of Mrs. Leonard knowing these details.

F. E. B. Have you met Frederick Myers?
W. F. B. Myers? Of course I have. There were several friends to welcome me, but I was especially pleased to see Myers. I’m going to work with him.
Frederick Myers was a great friend. The expression ‘of course’ was very characteristic. Written down it sounds a little discourteous; it never did as he said it.
F. E. B. Do you want to tell me about your own papers? Are you satisfied with the arrangements I am making?
W. F. B. Yes. I don’t want anyone else to do it.
F. E. B. What about your book Visions of the Dying?
W. F. B. You must write it. I will do it through you – no one else. Not by automatic writing, but I will impress you what to say. You finish it yourself; we’ll do it together.
The collected material and some of the writing had been done, but the book was in quite an unfinished state.
W. F. B. It used to worry me because you worked so hard: it doesn’t matter now because I know it’s worth doing. Now I can help you more, so I’m not afraid of it. To feel full of vigour – able to do things – is wonderful.
I’ve started work with Myers. Needless to say I am specially working, trying to prove not only survival but the possibility of communicating.
F. E. B. Can I help you?
W.F.B. Yes – later on. I shall have to study it more.
You see, this is a new life for me. I have not yet become accustomed to my new life and to be able to use a body. It is an active life I’m glad to say. Stagnation was death to him.
W.F.B. I’ve met Crookes.

Sir William Crookes was an old friend. The following sentence was said in a deep voice, very slowly, and with emphasis, as though he were personally controlling the medium.

W. F. B. There are two lives here: one I can tell you about and you can understand, and one I cannot tell you about till you come over.
F. E. B. Which is the higher?
W.F.B. The one I cannot explain.
Oh, I do miss you. I can be with you, but I miss your knowing it. I miss the companionship. I have been with you, but it isn’t quite the same. We can’t talk, and it is the mutual understanding on interesting things that one misses.

This sentence was a surprise. The idea of those on the other side missing us had not occurred to me.

F. E. B. Have you met any of my friends?
W. F. B. Yes, but not many yet. I’ve been so full of meeting my own relatives and friends such as Myers.
I have met A. She is a friend of yours. She was very pleased to hear the latest news of you.

My friend Ada Vachell, who appears frequently in subsequent sittings.

W. F. B. A is rather an important friend. I was so pleased to be able to see her. A friend of yours, but she was a friend of mine too.

It is quite true that she was also his friend: when they first met they were friends at once, each appreciating the other.
W. F. B. There is a B in connection with A – a place: write it.

The medium tried to write in the air but got the second letter more like a U.

W. F. B. said every time ‘ No, no, it’s wrong; give a little twirl to the second letter.’

Ada Vachell lived in Bristol.
W. F. B. I have tried to give you a message wherever the power drew. We sometimes try people we don’t know at all. In two or three places I have felt they had power – that stupid little man.
F. E. B. What stupid little man?
W. F. B. I went to the stupid little man with the slates – a long way off – I thought I’d see what he could do as he talked so much. You may get something later and remember.

A slate-writing medium had come to London a short time before with a great reputation. W. F. B. was anxious to have a sitting with him and had prepared what he felt would be foolproof precautions. We invited him to spend an evening before asking him for a sitting, but at the end of the evening W. F. B. said he had very little expectation of any good results as the man talked the whole evening about himself.
The medium did not give a sitting to anyone interested in psychical research during the visit to London, so the preparations were in vain.

W. F. B. There is a great deal I am going to do. You know how anxious I was to prove that even those people who have been sceptical all their lives, at the end know there is an afterlife even if too far gone to say so. Many of them have said so and that is what I wish to show in the script you’ve got.

The material I gathered did not refer only to those who have been believers or psychics. Some were, but some were not. I’m sure that the book will impress many people and help them.
You know I had been working at it up to the last in order to prove it to them. I want them to know I was active and sure of my own mind, and could think things out up to the last. I always wanted to keep sane about the matter, to be balanced in regard to the whole subject.

(Here follows a long talk about intimate affairs concerning other people, which, though very evidential, is too private to publish.)

W. F. B. Life is far more wonderful than I can ever tell you, beyond anything I ever hoped for; it exceeds all my expectations.

The control seemed here to disappear and a deeper voice spoke slowly and with great emphasis.
Having promised to end the sitting, after an hour I said ‘Goodbye.’

W. F. B. No, I’m coming with you. Do you remember I always wanted to go with you – even where I had no business to be?

This is typical of him. He often said when I was going to hospital, ‘ I wish I could come with you, but I know I’ve no business there.’

W. F. B. All my love. My undying love.

So much has had to be eliminated from this sitting because of its private nature that its characteristic talk is lost.
I read the whole of it to an intimate friend of my husband, Philip Somerville-Large, and he exclaimed at the end, ‘Why it’s just like my old friend sitting here and talking to us – as he always did – turning to one subject after another, full of interest in them all.’

CHAPTER 2

September 20, 1925
Leonard Sitting

W. F. B. I have much to talk about and am very pleased with things generally.
About Ireland – something has happened to people I am interested in there – not you going there but something you’ve done – you’ve been helping people in Ireland. I was a little anxious about it, but am pleased now.
Two people from Ireland will be visiting England and I have a strong feeling that you’ll be with them: that is apart from the other matter: two things made me think of Ireland; they are:

(1) The proposed visit of people in whom I’m interested and that you will see.
(2) The other matter you were reading about that pleases me now – not important.

The first reference to Ireland, together with ‘something you were reading about,’ refers to the Home of Rest, whose secretary had sent me a Report.

In a memorandum attached to his will W. F. B. said he would have liked to leave something to this institution but felt he could not do so. I had been thinking of sending a donation to them in his name, but when I read the Report

it seemed to me they would benefit more by my continuing his subscription, and this I had done a week before the sitting.

The morning after the sitting I had a letter from Philip Somerville-Large, an old friend who lived in Ireland with his brother, Canon Somerville-Large.

Both were close friends of W. F. B. In the letter he tells me he is coming to London within a day or two and would come and see me. The ‘two people’ are very closely linked, but only one came.

W. F. B. You are going to use another room outside your house later on – not immediately – fairly soon; it will turn out later to be very important, that is your using a room in another house – a place where many people come and go.

This I could not understand at all at the time, but early in 1926 when I became Dean of the London (R. F. H.) School of Medicine for Women I had the Dean’s room for my own use in that building, which is associated with important work for medical women.

F. E. B. What are you doing in your new life?
W. F. B. I have the greatest joy here – apart from my mother – the greatest joy and pleasure in my renewed friendship with Myers. I cannot tell you all the things we are learning together and I from him.
It is linking up so many things I began on your side.
It is a joy to hear easily again.
Did I remind you last time that I had passed over near the date of what brought us together, the place where things were decided? [Laughing] That will give you something to think about.

This did indeed give me something to think about and I could not remember anything at all in my life, or at Buckstone Cottage, the place evidently referred to (we met there, became engaged there, and spent the first day or two of our wedding tour there), which coincided with the date of his death.
One day when very tired I fell asleep for a few minutes in the drawing-room and woke with the date May 26 before me and the little scene of my taking the cottage from the farmer and saying ‘ You’ve barely a month to quarter day. Can you get the repairs done by then? ’ It was exactly ten years to the day of his death.

W. F. B. We’ve no idea of trying to find an elixir, but we have a feeling – more – on Myers’ part it’s knowledge – that the ugliness of physical death and the corruption of physical flesh is unnecessary: we have a feeling that it is not what was intended – it was not God’s original intention that man should suffer the horrible breakdown of the physical organism that he does: the ugly trappings of death – the dispersal of the physical body – it’s unnecessary and wrong. I feel it will be averted. I do not mean that man will live eternally, in consequence of the prolongation of life. I think he will live longer, but the transition to our planes will be gradual, not sudden.

You remember Myers talking to us about the etheric body and its rate of vibrations. Myers and I feel that man can learn how to exist in and consciously use his etheric body in such a way that he will not function entirely in the physical, but will learn to use both bodies during his life on Earth, with the result that he will develop to a point when the physical body will gradually become etherealised and brought more into harmony with the etheric body: the vibrations of the so-called physical body will then become higher and a gradual transmutation will take place, so that the coarser physical body will in time be absorbed as it were by the etheric.

F. E. B. Can we help towards this?
W. F. B. Yes, in the line of spiritual consciousness: by realisation of the fact that there is a spiritual world: by aspiring to live daily, hourly, in thought, word and action according to the higher promptings of your own spiritual endowments.

How Our Lord was an exponent of what Myers and I are trying to explain to you. He lived in such a way that He used spiritual forces as easily as He used material Forces through His material organism, and at death there was no physical corruption of His body. So you see His body was not there: it was transmuted into his spiritual etheric body. Through living in the most spiritual vibration He was able to raise the vibrations of the physical so that there was no body to dispose of at His death – or as we prefer to say, at His transition.

This was said slowly and very impressively. During the last few months of his life he was very interested in the question of whether there was really a disappearance of the body of Christ at His resurrection or whether the story of the soldiers stealing it was true. He thought it a subject for more careful research both from a Christian and a psychical point of view as well as historical. Now his statement seemed to imply ‘This is the fact,’ which explains and makes clear that the body was not there.

W. F. B. We psychical researchers are often disposed to use the word transition, but judged by what happens to us at the present time on Earth, we cannot truthfully apply that word, or you would not have the physical body to bury or cremate. Our Lord’s was in truth a transition – ours should be. We all know this over here, but we cannot all say it today. We don’t get the conditions in which we can say it. A sitter is a very important factor.
Some sitters might not be spiritually ready to help the communicator to give information of this kind.
You want to know, and I want to tell, so the conditions are perfect. Out of thousands who communicate there may be only half a dozen who can speak of these things.

(Here follow very intimate communications, evidential to me alone – among them further details of his passing.)

W. F. B. You know I’ve met a woman I was interested in who got extraordinary messages. The circumstances were so peculiar that I didn’t want to be mixed up in them, but I was very interested and wanted to know more particulars. She got messages apparently from Crookes.
F. E. B. Did they come from Crookes?

The last paper read by W. F. B. at the S.P.R. was on the subject of this particular mediumship, with a discussion of the question whether the messages did or did not come from Sir William Crookes. Hence my question.

W. F. B. There were messages, but unfortunately they were augmented by her ability to read memories of things written on the atmosphere. I don’t mean they were not genuine: some were given by Crookes – not all.
Even while Crookes was giving them her subconscious mind elaborated them: not very interesting: I’ve met the lady: you know she’s over here, but I’m glad now I didn’t go into it too deeply on your side, it would have involved me in complications rendering it difficult to arrive at the truth. Here it’s clear: there were some communications, augmented by the subconsciousness of the woman herself, but she was quite a wonderful medium though untrained and undeveloped.

The complications I did not understand at the time, but they were told to me a few weeks later by a friend of the lady who knows nothing of this sitting.
Here follows some discussion of physical phenomena and advice as to how to obtain the best results. It was the subject of discussion at the Committee at which he presided on the afternoon of the day of his death.

F. E. B. How could I satisfy people of your identity, that it is really yourself who is talking with me?

It occurred to me that I had been absorbed in the naturalness of all our conversation, but if challenged to say how I knew it was W. F. B. himself who communicated, how could I prove it? Hence the question.

W. F. B. It depends entirely on who asks.
F. E. B. Well – say Sir Oliver Lodge.
W. F. B. He would be most satisfied by the things I have told you of, that please and interest me most.
Others would not be appealed to by what I have said to you: they would be more pleased if I said the wall-paper in the corner of my room was a little torn and now I feel a new paper. That would appeal to one type of mind. Lodge might be interested to hear it, but wouldn’t want to come and talk about it: he would talk about the kind of thing we’ve been saying.

A month before his death he pointed out that the wallpaper in one corner of his room was torn. The room had been repapered.
He had a damaged door handle repaired recently, and was always very particular that repairs should be done at once when needed.

W. F. B. Lodge is nearer the bigger, greater aspect of things than most.

Now I want to say this: I was a good age when I passed over. Lodge is getting to a good age. Have you noticed we all become a little impatient of minor details – of so-called tests? We wanted to know not so much these little things – wall-paper, broken knobs on doors, book tests (though those were very interesting to me) – but we wanted to hear of the other land. It might be thought evidence of senile decay – has been by ignorant people – but it isn’t so.

Lodge is doing other things in which he needs all his physical, mental and creative powers.

I think it is that as we draw nearer to the time when we too may journey to that little-known country our souls have already taken wing and made exploratory journeys, acclimatising themselves as it were to the conditions to which they will soon belong. I feel sure that occurred in my case, and it is happening in Lodge’s case. I don’t mean he is going to come over soon – I feel and hope he has many years yet, but in the ordinary course of events he must be near that time.

Another type of mind would ask what I could do for them – could I prophesy something useful or help them? Another would say could I heal them? Everyone would ask me to prove myself in a different way.
I feel we must pursue the present lines of communication, but I realise that they are very limited.

Each of us is presented at birth with our own little private telephone. God has given each one of us a channel, a sense, by which we can reach those on the other side. You know, my dear, most children give evidence of psychic power, but it wears out in face of misunderstanding and antagonism and so many hard material facts which seem in opposition to their observation – many children are naturally quenched by it.

Soon – it may be months, it may be years – we may be able to develop again those lost faculties.

You have not lost them – you have them to a remarkable degree (but you must be more conscious of them – use them more: they are a little rusty: there is some stiffness in the working) – that is why you get so much from me.

Later on you will be able to work them more, but you mustn’t work too much at present.

I’m just as much with you. I have the better part because I can see you quite clearly but you can’t see me. I feel you so distinctly that I don’t need always to register impressions by looking, but I do at times.

Have you got the painting all finished? Some was done and some to be done later – light paint and washing in the big rooms. They could do with it, but I don’t want to hurry you – I only mention it so that you may know I’m interested in it.

I may want help to find you another servant – I feel some uncertainty in the household – the one who does rooms and things. I am particular about people in the house – it is not work only that matters, but themselves.

Of this I had no knowledge at the time, but the uncertainty had already arisen in the mind of a special maid on account of the failing health of her mother.

On September 21, 1925, the Rev. W. S. Irving had a sitting with Mrs. Leonard, at which his late wife was said to be the communicator. This sitting appears to have been used by W. F. B. to get through further proof of identity and of interest in his old home. The following message was given: (Communicator, Mrs. W. S. Irving.)

‘Sir William Barrett invited me to get a book-test from his house, and he assured me it would be quite safe there, so I was not to be afraid that these tests would be spoilt in any way, because the Medium has never seen the house, and few people go into this particular room now at all, so he thought it would be a very safe place. Now, it’s a room that he often used to sit in himself, the room he used mostly for sitting, and reading, and writing in. There is only one room that he cared to use in that way, so there is no mistaking it. As you go in you notice at once that there are a good many books there. Coming in the door there are books nearest to the first corner on the left hand side. I want you to go to the second shelf up, and take the 7th book from the left, to open it at page 11. It speaks on page 11 of “added strength, added power, greater opportunities,” and he would like his wife to think of him in that way, and I would like you to think of me in that way.

‘Within a span, on the outside of another book are words describing your calling, your profession, your work.’

The Rev. W. S. Irving reports:

‘The day after the sitting I called at Sir William’s house and Lady Barrett kindly helped me to verify the tests. I had not before met Lady Barrett, nor had I been inside this house.

‘The first book indicated – 7th book from the left on the second shelf – was “ The Mystic Way.” Page 11 deals with evolution. I found on that page the following sentences: – “Life has only one way of attaining any stage or state. She must grow to it. Hence the history of the Spirit is for us the history of growth.” . . .

“The soul,” says a great psychologist, “is no more absolute and unchangeable than the body.” ‘The second book – within a span – has its title on the outside – “Religion and Life,” by Elwood.’

I cannot help thinking, however, that the book tests were not the main evidence that it was desired to convey. At the end of the sitting the communicator said: ‘Sir William told me a little while ago that he would be glad for me to try to get a test from his house, because he is there every day, and he feels it is just as much his house as when he was here in the physical body.
‘ Wait – there is one bit I’ve still got to give you from that room. It was, would you ask my wife if a picture has been moved from that room just lately, within the last day or two?’

I had taken down a picture recently and was reminded of the exact date of its removal; for my maid said, ‘It was the last day of the Rose Show: you came in with an armful of roses and put them down to unhang the picture, and

I took it upstairs the next day.’ I had unhung the picture three days before the sitting, and my maid carried it upstairs two days before the sitting.

The date of the Irving sitting was Monday, September 21. The picture was taken down on September 18 and removed on the 19th.

Personality Survives Death: After Death Communication from Sir William Barrett by Florence Elizabeth Barrett is published from White Crow Books