CHAPTER NINETEEN
PARALYSIS DISAPPEARS DURING TRANCE

A woman was anxious to have a series of trance sittings with my wife to obtain material for a book. The medium had never given a trance sitting. She objected, as I did, to this form of mediumship. The woman pleaded for an exception to be made. I refused to allow my wife to be used in this way until I had discussed the project with one of the spirit controls.

We held a little sitting for this purpose, and Flora, my wife and I talked the matter over. It was only on Flora’s assurance that no harm would befall the medium that we agreed. But I told Flora that if my wife complained of any ill-effects resulting from trance, I would not allow her to go on.

I was not present at the trance sittings which followed, which were held in full light, neither had I seen the medium in trance. However, one morning I returned home while a sitting was in progress, and the maid told me that I was wanted in the séance room. On entering, I was greeted by our visitor, who said Belle had suggested I should come in if I returned home before it was over.

Looking at the entranced medium, I could not help feeling amused at her gestures and demeanour. She was clapping her hands and kicking her feet, acting just like a child. I thought that if she could only see herself at that moment, she would never go in trance again. Belle’s voice came through her lips. “Good morning,” she said; “sit down and be quiet.”

Belle then conversed with our visitor. All the time, I was closely watching the medium. I broke into the conversation with a request to Belle. I asked if she could write her name for me on a piece of paper. “Yes, give me a piece of paper and a pencil, and I will try,” she replied. She took pencil and paper from my hand, and then wrote the name Belle. Examining the signature, I found it to be a replica of one that had been written at a direct voice sitting, when seventeen signatures, all different, had appeared on a sheet of paper, without any earthly hands touching pencil and paper.

Belle bade us “Good morning.” With her departure, the medium became her normal self, other than that she was still in trance. After a short interval, I noticed a complete change. This time her expression was totally unlike her own. Her face took on the appearance of a person with a strong personality. When the entity had obtained full control and spoke, I knew it was Flora.

She greeted me in her rich dialect. After a while, she asked, “Where’s my bit of plaid?” Our visitor had given the medium a scarf of the Macdonald plaid, out of respect for Flora, and my wife wore it during these trance sittings. The scarf had fallen from her shoulders and had slipped down behind her. The visitor asked if she should retrieve it. “No,” said Flora, “I will get it myself.” She then reached behind and, doing a contortionist’s movement with the medium’s right arm, got hold of the scarf and put it on her shoulders.

For a moment I was dumbstruck. As a gymnast and physical culture instructor when serving in the Army, I knew the movement of the arm, as performed by Flora, could be done only in the case of an abnormal setting of the shoulder joint. My wife’s joint was normal. When I had recovered, I confessed my surprise to Flora.

“When I came into this room,” I told her, “the first thing I noticed was the medium kicking her feet and clapping her hands as a child would do. I was not so surprised when I realised that Belle was controlling her. When I asked Belle to write her name on a piece of paper, which she did, I sat up and took notice. That was a surprise in itself. But when I saw you twist the medium’s arm in the way you did when you reached for the scarf, I could not believe my own eyes.”

“I have not hurt your wife’s arm, if that is what is worrying you,” said Flora.

“It is not that with which I am concerned,” I answered, “but the fact that her arm was able to be used at all. That arm is paralysed. This morning is the first time I have seen it being moved since her illness.”

My wife had had a serious illness caused by a clot of blood pressing on the brain and completely paralysing the whole of her right side. There was a partial recovery in the leg, enabling her to limp, but there was no life at all in the arm, which was supported in a sling.

The twiddling of the fingers when Belle was in control was the first unusual happening I observed when I entered the séance room. I knew that my wife, in her normal condition, had no motive power in either fingers or arm. It was for this reason I had asked Belle to write her name on a piece of paper. She grasped the pencil firmly, and wrote her name boldly. At the same time I asked her to shake hands with me. I wanted to test the motive power in the hand. As the result of the handshake I realised the motor nervous system was functioning normally.

I asked Flora if she could explain the phenomenon. Her reply was: “When we control a human being who is in a trance state, there are no physical disabilities so far as we are concerned. That is the reason why Belle was able to move the fingers and write, and I was able to reach for the scarf.”