Forest Man

Excerpt from the book "On The Edge Of The Etheric", 1931, by spiritualist philosopher J. Arthur Findlay: 

"On the first occasion I experienced these voices
I was decidedly suspicious, and yet as the seance
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 have
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 seance 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 seance, 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 dear 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 seance 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, 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, which most mediums find most 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 seances and only holds
them as a duty. I know that, if left to himself, he
never would exercise his mediumistic faculties. His
sense of duty and kindness of heart are the reasons
why his friends have been so specially privileged."