Incidents in the Life of Matthew Manning

 This is how Matthew Manning described this series of Polaroid photos taken during his stay with Professor George Owen and his wife in autumn 1977: "The first image . . . is a perfectly normal shot of me looking into the camera lens.  In the second shot mistiness is forming around me as I begin to meditate and feel tingling in my hands.  By frame four white concentric rings of light have virtually obscured everything in the room, including me."

 

 

One Foot in the Stars (1999) is the autobiography of Matthew Manning, who wrote the book with Tessa Rose.  Matthew's account of incidents encompassing 'unexplained phenomena' reflect occurrences in the life of an individual person that form patterns of experience making perceptible a Force interacting with living creatures.  This Force encompasses a shared subconscious and Superconscious Mind.

 

In Matthew's life, the sequence of unexplained phenomena that began with 'poltergeist events' encompassed automatic writing.  Matthew commented about the occasions of automatic writing: ". . . I was not consciously aware of what was being written.  I had to read it through afterwards to find out . . . I received messages with more substance once I began addressing questions to specific deceased individuals.  I would put the name of the person I wished to communicate with at the top of my sheet of paper, and then write the question."

 

He also received messages in foreign languages and images in the various styles of many deceased artists.  Matthew recalled:

 

Some of the drawings contained signatures, others did not.  Among the signatures were the names of Paul Klee, Thomas Rowlandson, and W. Keble Martin.  Later, drawings purportedly from Picasso, Beardsley, Goya and Dürer would come through my hand.

At the end of 1973 Matthew learned about the unexplained phenomena manifesting through and in proximity to Uri Geller.  After Matthew and his parents watched a TV documentary about Uri, Matthew's mother asked him if he would try to bend a metal object.  Matthew found that spoons and other metal objects would bend in proximity to himself. 

In 1974 Matthew participated in a series of experiments at Toronto for the New Horizons Research Foundation.  As it seems no association with mediumship cases was considered, Matthew supposed the power being manifested was something idiosyncratic to his own mentality: "During the ten days . . . I bent or split between 20 and 30 objects."  Electro-encephalograph (EEG) testing and 'Kirlian photography' of Matthew's fingertips were among the experiments.

Among the 21 scientists invited to the first Canadian conference on psychokinesis in Toronto was physicist Professor Brian Josephson of the Cavendish Laboratory and Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.  A Daily Mail article by Peter Lewis quoted Josephson as commenting about 'psychic phenomena': "They are mysterious but they are no more mysterious than a lot of things in physics already."

In October 1974 Matthew was the evening's guest on the British television show "The Frost Interview."  Matthew was seen automatic writing health diagnoses from Thomas Penn.  What Matthew describes as "enormous media interest" was generated by the TV broadcast.  His next appearance on BBC radio's "Start the Week" brought him a "tirade of invective" from one of the participants and this made him aware that there would be people who would react with antagonism toward him.  Matthew wrote:

I would come to learn that people who fear the unknown do react in this extreme way, and the last thing they want is honest, reasoned discussion.  It is always easier, and safer, to reject something that cannot be understood than to keep an open mind about it.  Thinking afresh can produce a domino effect, and once a long-held belief system is questioned, other notions held to be dear or true also have to be re-examined.  I feel sorry for anyone who feels threatened by what another person represents

Matthew's autobiographical book The Link was published simultaneously in Britain, Germany and Holland in 1974.  The British edition was subtitled "The Extraordinary Gifts of a Teenage Psychic."  Matthew wrote about this period in his life: "My immediate future was mapped out among a promotional trail of book signings, interviews and radio and television appearances." 

It was arranged for Matthew to take part in experiments with German psychical researcher Professor Hans Bender.  There were tests with electrical and electronic gadgets yet one incident in particular shows the complexity of the phenomena being explored.

He gave me a name, which I did not recognize, and told me that the artist in question was a woman.  After 20 minutes I had drawn a face of inexpressible sadness with a black heart set in its forehead, drooping eyes and down-turned mouth.  Tears ran down its left cheek.  On its otherwise bald head were two single hairs.  Above these I had written the words "Harliquin out of love"; incidentally, this spelling of 'harlequin' is incorrect in both English and German and I have no explanation for it.

 

When Bender saw the drawing he demanded that the filming stop.  He told us that the pseudonym he had given me was that of his daughter, who had been under a severe emotional strain since the breakdown of her marriage.  That morning she had described her feelings to him and had used the word 'harlequin' to characterize them.  According to Bender, in her psyche love and hatred had collided.  He asked me to go with him to his house.  A bigger shock was awaiting us there.  We went into the sitting room to find his daughter dressed in the costume of a harlequin, her face painted in a precise imitation of the drawing, her head shaved.  She fixed me with an indescribable look, a mixture of sheer terror and intense hatred, before fleeing from the room.

 

Contemplating this happening, Matthew mentioned Bender's theory "that all my automatic writings and drawings came from my own sub-conscious . . ."

 

During the summer of 1975, Matthew toured the United States upon the publication of the American edition of The Link.  He commented: "In the States I found the finger of suspicion to be much longer and more pointed than elsewhere, and the promotional ride much bumpier . . . Some people suspected me of being part of the so-called 'psychic circus' that had grown up since the appearance of Geller . . . the same assumptions that had been made about Geller in terms of what he did were dusted down and applied to me.  I too must be a trickster or magician of some kind whose particular brand of trickery would be uncovered in time."

 

The American 'suspicions' are obviously due to overt news media programming as what is promulgated is influenced by commercial considerations involved with concerns that information conflicting with a 'status quo' mentality might alienate the public and advertisers.  (This topic is considered in previous blog articles, including: 1, 2, 3.)   However, as each reporter and editor or producer has a mind of one's own, varying responses to incidents categorized as 'paranormal' will always occur among the news media. 

 

Manning observed: "Every time I turned up for a live performance on radio or television the American publishers had their fingers firmly crossed in the hope that I  would cause some problem to excite further publicity . . . on a programme called 'To Tell The Truth,' a spotlight above my head exploded.  The four celebrity panellists on 'To Tell The Truth' had to decide which of three people presented to them was the real Matthew Manning . . . Just as I was  being introduced to the panel as 'Matthew Manning Number Two' the spotlight exploded, sending glass everywhere and shattering the game of pretence."

 

In 1976 The Link was being published in 19 countries and there was a new paperback edition in the UK.  Headlines included summations such as "The weird world of Matthew Manning."  Matthew wrote:

Such headlines encapsulate a depressing inevitability.  I could not be presented by the media in other terms because they did not possess the necessary vocabulary or understanding.

After participating in laboratory experiments in Sweden, he appraised about the scientists' approach: "The laws of physics could not be used as a yardstick to measure non-physical energy, and yet here they were applying them."  Matthew told The Link co-publisher Peter Bander who'd become his manager that he didn't want to do further experiments relating to physical phenomena: "We agreed that in future the scientists would have to convince me that what they had in mind was worthwhile . . ."

Following a book promotional tour in Spain, Matthew visited Japan upon agreeing to appear on a Japanese television show with a title translated as "Wednesday Special." 

While I was in Kyoto I did some automatic drawing and writing which was filmed for the forthcoming programme.  The most interesting of these was a message which was later identified by the Priest of the Daikaku Ji temple as an example of Bonji, an ancient Japanese script once used by the monks of that temple.

The show's producers were hoping for something more spectacular to keep the audience's interest for 90 minutes.  They were banking on me producing the same effect as Uri Geller when he had appeared on Japanese television.

During the telecast with Matthew, a woman calling on one of the 25 telephone lines said that she had been watching the show when a large glass ashtray on a table in front of the television set had inexplicably split in half with a loud bang.  Then: ". . . the 25 lines in the other studio were jammed with calls from hysterical viewers.  Several hundred individual tales were noted down of the 1200 or so calls received that evening."

Matthew reported about this "wave of poltergeist activity": ". . . the vast majority of the incidents involved the splitting or shattering of glass in people's homes."  He wrote that of the many countries he visited, Japan was the only one in which this 'poltergeist activity' occurred.  He considered the occurrences as "reflecting perhaps a common unconscious response.  To what I am not sure." 

 

At this time in his life, Matthew decided, "I had to find something practical to which my gift could be applied."  As he was tiring of the "promotional tread-mill," there was a "decision to stop and take some time out to think about my future . . ."  While honoring promotional commitments, he "worked half-heartedly" on another book, In the Minds of Millions (1977), that "turned out to be . . . a triumph of style over substance, the exact reverse of The Link."

 

A turning point in his life was reached in 1977 during a trip to India.  The car he was traveling in broke down suddenly upon reaching Narkanda."  Staying in an inhospitable room for the night, he decided to take a photograph of the mountains at dawn.  This was when he experienced an epiphany.

 

I did not take that photograph.  As I watched the sun rise something happened which to this day I have difficulty describing.  Suddenly, and I do not know whether it was for one minute, one second or ten minutes, because I lost all sense of time, I felt completely at one with and connected to everything around me.  I became a part of the mountains and the rocks.  They were part of me.  I was the air, the air was me.  I was part of the tree and the tree was part of me.  In those timeless moments of transcendence I came as close to God as I am likely to get on this earth.  I was aware of a presence urging me to do only what I felt was right and what I wanted to do and not what others  wanted me to do for their own reasons.  I must also follow only those paths that would lead to healing.  This last prompting struck me as very strange.  I knew a little about the sort of healing given by people such as Harry Edwards but had taken only a passing interest in it.  I interpreted 'healing' in its broadest sense and took it to mean more than putting my hands on people.

 

Matthew left India a few days later.  He continued to take part in experiments with scientists and participate in public conferences.  Experiments in extra-sensory perception were conducted in San Francisco at the Washington Research Center, including sessions with James Hickman and other sessions with Jeffrey Mishlove.  The most successful of this series involved Matthew identifying which of ten sealed canisters contained water.  The statistical results of some experiments were open to interpretation, such as a 'coin spinner experiment' conducted with Charles Tart and John Palmer at Davis. 

 

Stanley Krippner brought Matthew in contact with musicians Mickey Hart and Jerry Garcia of the rock group The Grateful Dead and with native American medicine man 'Rolling Thunder.'  When Matthew attempted to perform 'automatic music,' there was an unsuccessful attempt to play the piano and the results with a guitar were "equally dire."  Matthew recalled about meeting Rolling Thunder: "What he called the Great Spirit, I had called oneness or inter-connectedness since my experience in India."

 

In August 1977 he returned to the UK for the launch of In the Minds of Millions.  One incident during this period as he turned 22 years old on August 17 occurred when Matthew was having lunch with Psychic News editor Maurice Barbanell.

 

Our conversation was interrupted when a heavy silver plate on an adjoining table rose up, turned over and crashed to the floor, causing consternation all around.  Barbanell asked our waiter what had happened because so far as he could see nothing in the vicinity could have made it behave that unusually.  The waiter shrugged and said, "I don't think we've got a poltergeist here."  I was used to such happenings, and Barbanell had spent years reporting them.  We both laughed.

Later that year, Matthew visited George Owen and his wife in Toronto.  Owen had been involved with the Toronto experiments and had become acquainted with Matthew upon investigating the initial 'poltergeist'-type occurrences experienced by Matthew and his family in 1967.  One evening when they were joined by Detroit doctor William Wolfson and his wife, quick-developing Polaroid photographs were taken of Matthew as an experiment.  After discussing the 'Thoughtographs' of Ted Serios and similar phenomena achieved by a Japanese boy whom Matthew had met, Tracy Wolfson snapped the photos shown above.  Other photos in this sequence show a ball of light first at Matthew's head and then at the head of Iris Owen, suggesting an energy transfer process.

 

A total of about 70 photographs must have been taken during that session in Toronto, and the vast majority of them reveal nothing exceptional.  However, the images displaying the concentric rings of light and the energy ball came out in sequence and clearly show a development.  I am still amazed by them, because they are so unlike other images I have seen.

 

In 1978 Matthew completed a series of experiments with William Braud in Texas.  "Most of the experiments were designed to test what effect, if any, my thoughts would have on a range of biological systems."  Braud then arranged for Matthew to do trials with Dr. John Kmetz of the Science Unlimited Research Foundation, also based in San Antonio.

The purpose of these experiments was to see if I could disrupt the charge on Hela cervical cancer cells to render them inactive.  Named after Henrieta Lafayette, the black American woman from whom they were taken before her death in the 1950s, these cells are used extensively in cancer research laboratories around the world.  These cells are grown in culture flasks (plastic containers which look similar to the cases of audio cassette tapes) in a liquid protein feed.

Trial results involving the amount of cell death were interpreted as indicating that Matthew's thoughts could influence cancer cells due to what Braud called "parapsychological factors." 

 

Matthew Manning concluded about the youthful incidents described in the first three chapters of One Foot in the Stars:

 

After India I had wondered how it would be possible for me to heal.  Piece by piece the answers had been given to me, first in California, most recently in Texas.  My future had been quietly taking shape . . . .

Matthew Manning and EVP

 An account of Matthew Manning's experimentation with EVP ('Electronic Voice Phenomena') is included in The Link (1974).

 

 

Soon after my 1995 trip to Oklahoma to investigate "America's Talking Poltergeist" I discovered that unattributed sounds and 'spirit messages' were audible while listening to the microcassette recordings of my interviews with members of the Oklahoma family.  At that time, I wasn't aware that these manifestations had a history and had been given a categorical name in the annals of 'unexplained phenomena.'

I first learned about 'EVP' in brief Internet articles.  The first books to chronicle the phenomena are two books by Freidrich Jürgenson: Rösterna från Rymden (Swedish/Voices from Space 1964) and Sprechfunk mit Verstorbenen: Praktische Kontaktherstellung mit dem Jenseits (German 1981) with an English edition Voice Transmissions With The Deceased (2001) translated by Tom Wingert and George Wynne; and Breakthrough: An Amazing Experiment in Electronic Communication with the Dead (1971) by Konstantin Raudive, Ph.D.

Since the summer of 1995, while listening to audio and video recordings I have experienced diverse manifestations of EVP.  Among these experiences is an incident comparable to the ones described by Matthew Manning in The Link.  In his later autobiography One Foot in the Stars (1999), Matthew wrote that his visit to Douglas Johnson for a psychic reading had coincided with Matthew's father buying a copy of Raudive's book.  In 1973 at the age of eighteen, Matthew returned to Oakham School "determined to try one of the experiments outlined in Raudive's book."  What happened next was recalled by Matthew in The Link.

On two separate occasions, an interesting phenomenon manifested itself onto a tape recorder.  The first instance occurred at school and was witnessed by five people, and the second incident took place at home during holiday time.

One night I decided with four friends to carry out an experiment along the lines of the Electronic Voice Phenomenon and we all assembled in my study around a large tape recorder at about 11 p.m.

The machine was switched to the record position, and the recorder, although plugged in, was turned off after each of us announced our name and asked for a particular person to speak on the tape.  When we played back the tape there was nothing but three minutes of silence.  Next we asked someone else to talk; again there was  no response after three minutes.

An hour later, having still had no success, we decided to have one more attempt and then go to bed.  It seemed that we were not going to get any response.

"Why not try Hitler?" someone suggested.  "He is much more likely to work, as it is always easier to attract a power of evil than a power of good."

This, at the time, seemed a good idea, so we invited Hitler to speak, and then concentrated on his name while the tape recorder ran for a few minutes.  After we stopped the tape, we ran it back to the beginning for playback.

It began with distant rumbling gunfire, which soon gave way to regimented marching.  This continued for nearly a minute and sounded as though the microphone had been placed near soldiers as they marched past it.  Then behind this noise a sound like a brass band could be heard playing a marching tune, which was later identified as one of the German Nazi songs.  The marching feet began running as gunfire could be heard more clearly in the background.  Still the music kept playing over it all and incoherent shouting was audible.

It then began to sound as though the feet were running down a stone or concrete corridor which produced an echo.  At this point the tape ended.  Startled and amazed, we played the tape over and over again.  We all had checked the tape carefully beforehand and can swear that it was clean on all four tracks.  The microphone was not switched on, rendering it useless to record normal sounds.

Another incident happened at home when I was amusing myself with a cassette tape recorder late in the evening.

I was listening to the ten o'clock news on the radio; the newscaster talked about violence in Northern Ireland, bombing and shooting, and the deaths of some soldiers whose patrols had been ambushed.

After the news I went to my room and switched the tape recorder on with the microphone plugged in.  I allowed it to record silence for about two minutes and then played it back.

At first it ran silently.  I was suddenly shaken by two clearly audible gunshots.  There followed another short silence that was soon shattered by two rounds of machine-gun fire.  After a couple or seconds these gave way to single shots and much incoherent shooting.  The sequence of noises ran for nearly forty-five seconds, and the remainder of the tape was again quiet.  I played this back several times, and my parents listened to it as horrified as I was.

I went outside for a walk on my own, and returned home about twenty minutes later.

Again I went to the cassette recorder and switched it on to record, as I was wondering if I would receive some information or perhaps the same sounds again.

I played back the tape immediately; organ music was clearly audible.  It sounded as though I had recorded it inside a church while a pipe organ played.  With my parents I played this piece of music of about fifteen seconds' duration over and over again.  It was nothing we could recall having previously heard, and it really sounded like funeral music.

My reaction to the first recording of gunfire had been one of sadness and I had thought of the relatives of the dead soldiers.

I had only gone out for a walk because I felt so sad and miserable thinking about the young men, just a year older than myself.

Whether these two sequences were related, I don't know.  Nor do I profess to know the answer to questions that have been put to me by my parents; namely, whether I might have projected these sounds subconsciously onto the tape.

 

Links Between 'Poltergeist' Cases



There are detailed case study books about some famous so-called 'talking poltergeist' cases: the 'Bell Witch' case, the Mary Jobson case, the Isle of Man 'Gef' case, and the 'Enfield Poltergeist'; while many details of the contemporary Centrahoma case are included in Testament (1997).  In each case, the manifestations show responses to the actions and mentality of the human observers.  

Many cases of 'unexplained phenomena' encompass incidents similar to those found in poltergeist case studies — consider for example some of the events chronicled in Andrija Puharich's case study Uri: A Journal of the Mystery of Uri Geller (1974).  Using the term 'poltergeist' to differentiate cases from mediumship and Direct Voice phenomena categorizations of 'unexplained phenomena' may be most appropriate as a historical frame of reference upon understanding a context and the significance of the phenomena, the topic of the preceding blog article. 

The reader of Matthew Manning's The Link (1974) may realize that this autobiographical book about what was at the time was considered 'poltergeist phenomena' encompasses an interlude of "direct communication with spirit entities"; however, automatic writing was the customary means of transcendental communication for Manning.  On one occasion considering "the state that I lapsed into was really like a trance," he described hearing in succession the voices of Henrietta Webbe, Thomas Salmon, Richard Webbe and Anne Willis who briefly told him about their lives in the house during previous centuries.

The puzzling events in Matthew's life began in 1967 with his family finding objects that had been moved ("lightweight ornaments, chairs, cutlery, ashtrays, baskets, plates, a small coffee table and a score of other articles, but none was ever broken or spilled").  The first object that he witnessed levitating was an eraser near his sister who was drawing at the time.  Their house in Shelford had been constructed in the 1950s.  Matthew wrote:

As the physical manifestations increased, the house began to produce erratic and unsuspected taps and creaks.  The noises would vary from a dull knocking to a sound like a small stone being thrown at the window, and they continued throughout the day and night in all parts of the house.

In many ways the most interesting aspect of the phenomenon was a "pinging" sound that we often heard; it seemed to rebound off windows or radiators, and occasionally glass or china.  Although it sounded like tiny beads striking these objects, the sound was similar to that made by a bat.

Another interesting occurrence befell my father on more than one occasion.  While asleep at night, he would be awakened suddenly for no apparent reason.  He was not in a drowsy state, but perfectly alert and aware of everything going on around him.  He had the feeling that a cat was moving on top of his bedclothes, up and down his legs, trying to find a comfortable position in which to settle down.  After it had apparently done so, he would feel a weight on his feet, although there was no cat.

The first period of the poltergeist-type phenomena lasted for a period of three months.  In 1968 the family moved to the 18th Century 'Queen's House' at Linton.  In 1970 there was a resumption and escalation of the strange events.  Matthew commented:

After the poltergeist activities had been going on for two weeks, it became clear that a certain pattern was emerging.  The phenomenon was basically divisible into three categories: the first was purely disruptive and annoying, the second was concerned with symmetry and balance, and the third was a demonstration of noisy and boisterous movement designed, it seemed, to attract spectators.

While I had no knowledge of either Matthew Manning's case or the 'Enfield Poltergeist' case at the time of my trip to Oklahoma in 1995, there are innumerable parallels between these cases and the other cases of 'unexplained phenomena' that have been categorized as 'poltergeist' cases.  I will identify a few of these correlations to provide examples.

Matthew Manning wrote in The Link:

My sister had in her bedroom a table about twenty-nine inches high by thirty-six inches long by eighteen inches wide; it also held a drawer under the top of it.  Her bedroom was at the front of the house, on the first floor.  On the table she kept a pile of books and papers, a mug of pencils, and other ornaments.

The table with everything on it vanished one afternoon.  We searched the house for it, but in vain.  On a second search a little later, it was discovered standing in our cellar, with all the papers and ornaments still exactly in place on it.  In fact it appeared that none of the objects on it had been disturbed.  It had travelled no less than 105 feet, descended three flights of stairs, passed through five doorways, some less than 30 inches wide, and made no fewer than ten complete right-angled changes of direction.

Guy Lyon Playfair reported in This House Is Haunted: An Investigation of the Enfield Poltergeist (1980):

One morning, we had indications that the poltergeist, or one of them at least, was trying to be helpful.  Mrs. Harper wanted to get rid of the large dining table, which was far too big for the room, and was wondering how she was going to get it out to the back garden.  Just after the thought had crossed her mind, the table, which must have weighed well over a hundred pounds, shot across the room, tilted half over and came to rest wedged against the smaller table by the front window.  Then Mrs. Harper noticed that the table could be dismantled quite easily.

Playfair also acknowledged, "The poltergeist, or at any rate one of them, seemed to have a sense of humour."  He explained:

One night, the Harpers watched fascinated as a slipper performed a little dance balanced on the edge of the headboard of Janet's bed, bending double as if it were being manipulated like a glove puppet.  On another occasion, a poster that had fallen off the wall slid up from the floor and peeped over the same headboard.

One night, I sat on the landing eating a sandwich as quietly as I could, when from the bedroom one of the Voices suddenly announced that it wanted a biscuit.  Mrs. Harper looked at Janet, who was well tucked up with her hands out of sight, when to her amazement a biscuit just appeared out of nowhere, stuck in Janet's mouth.

The 'humor' expressed in the latter incident concerns the manifesting intelligence's response to the suspicions that Janet (and teenagers) might be the causal agent allowing the phenomena to occur.  Recounting when the voice phenomena started in the Enfield house, Playfair himself wrote in his case study book about the family's 12-year-old Janet: "Was Janet a brilliant ventriloquist as well as one of the country's leading conjurors?"  The comment is found in a chapter describing Dr. Beloff's visit to the house and the paranormal researcher is observed to be a distinct denialist in relation to the phenomena he observed, as recounted by Playfair.  The author admitted in the second-to-last chapter:  "It had now become clear that Janet could not be the immediate cause of the poltergeist activity, since this was  still going on in her absence." 

Matthew Manning mentions in The Link some unexpected materializations, including "a stack of large logs and wood" (something I also seem to have experienced as mentioned in the transcript for Tape #38, Side #2 of Testament) and "a bag of sugar."  Another instance of the apparent materialization of food is described by Manning as having happened circa 1972 — a "curious incident occurred on the Brighton to London train."

One evening I was returning from Brighton to Cambridge, and having eaten nothing all day, I was feeling very hungry.  There was no buffet car on the train.  I went along to the cloakroom to wash, taking with me a washcloth I carried in my bag.

When I returned to my compartment, I put my washcloth back into the traveling bag, which I had left zipped and closed.  To my surprise there was in the bag a pint bottle of beer and an apple pie; these I gladly consumed.

It is out of the bounds of reality to tray and explain this away by suggesting that someone had entered my compartment and put the pie and beer in my bag while I was down the corridor for five minutes.  It just would not make sense.  As in the case of the firewood, who would have conceivably carried out such a charitable act, and who else could have known that I was hungry?  The compartment I occupied was empty except for myself.

Incidents of food being materialized in poltergeist cases are reported in the 19th Century 'Bell Witch' case and the 17th Century 'Hieronyma' Pavia, Italy case.  One might also recall the instance of 'unexplained phenomena' in the Holy Bible in relation to Jesus and the loaves and fishes.

The following excerpt from The Link offers a description of temperature changes—something associated with hauntings—and an inexplicable light formation observed by Matthew Manning in a junior dormitory.

The same etherlike cold appeared to creep into this room, and on the wall opposite the door was a small patch of light.  There was no light in the passage that the dormitory door opened into.  When I put my hand up in front of this patch of light, no shadow could be seen; it was as if the light was being emitted from the wall, rather than projected or reflected onto it.  When I felt this patch on the wall, it was very warm, unlike the surrounding area, which was as cool as an uncovered plaster wall usually is.  We stood back from it, waiting for it to grow as it had when it was seen previously.  It did.

This is how the matron described what she saw:

We stood, Matthew and I, staring at this apparition on the wall opposite to the door, above the head of a sleeping boy.  It was a small round bright light which gradually grew larger.  Suddenly Chris woke; the cold had penetrated through his sleep, and he too saw this bright lighted circle on the wall.  I quietly said, "It's all right, Matthew, I can see a cross placed centrally across it."  Matthew said, "It's a crown of thorns around the edge."  We had no lights on—the light of this apparition was bright enough to illuminate the dormitory.

The matron's description is particularly interesting because what she saw and what I saw were not the same.

In Playfair's book about the Enfield case, John Burcombe (Janet's uncle) is quoted as having seen a light manifestation at the bottom of the Harper family's staircase.

"I saw this light," he said.  "It was the equivalent, I should say, of twelve inches vertical.  It looked like a fluorescent light behind frosted glass, which burned fiercely and gradually faded away.

Matthew Manning wrote in The Link:

My automatic drawings have probably aroused the widest interest, and they first brought me into contact with my publisher and The Psychic Researcher.

. . . it was the sheer volume of automatic drawings that appeared to impress people most and, I believe, the wide spectrum of artists . . .

Among those who "signed" are Albrecht Dürer, Rowlandson, Picasso, Bewick, Arthur Rackham, Leonardo da Vinci, Aubrey Beardsley, Paul Klee, and Beatrix Potter.

Guy Lyon Playfair wrote in This House Is Haunted:

During one of the girls' [what looked like] shared dreams, Rose kept saying "I want to speak to Peggy next door" over and over.  On an impulse, I went down to the kitchen, where Mrs. Harper was tidying up, and asked her to try some automatic writing.  I showed her how to do it, and the very first words she wrote, in the characteristic form of this type of writing which I am sure she could not have faked, were:

"I want to speak to Peggy next door."

This seemed a remarkable coincidence.  She could not hear Rose from the kitchen, and I was tempted to go on with the experiment.  But I decided against it . . .

Among the phenomenal manifestations in both the Matthew Manning case and the Enfield case are the bending of spoons and other metal objects; and instances where there is the sudden appearance of water. 

The name Harper in the Enfield case was a pseudonym and the family's actual name is Hodgson.  The reported audible phenomena of this case includes barking and whistling.  Janet Hodgson (now Winter) has always said that the manifesting voice phenomena was coming from behind her and it is chronicled in the book as also coming at times from the direction of her sister Rose. 

Rose's voice was also claiming to be both Fred and Tommy.  This was getting very confusing.  I asked both girls to try and resist the Voice and stop it, refusing to speak to it myself and giving the girls no encouragement to carry on with it.  This had no effect at all.

Playfair described what happened when Matthew Manning visited the house.

Matthew had no difficulty in striking up a conversation with the Voice, which he questioned steadily for twenty minutes without getting any sense out of it at all.  Now claiming to be Mr. Nottingham's deceased father, it often replied to questions with a wordless grunt or a soft "DUNNO . . ."

"I know that's not your real name," said Matthew.  "You're all the same person — Fred, Charlie and Bill.  You're just a big trickster!"

"WE'VE ALL GOT DIFFERENT TITLES, YOU KNOW," came the unexpected reply.

"What's the point of it," Matthew insisted.  "What are you trying to prove?"

"DUNNO."  And so it went on.  I wished we knew the answers.

Playfair commented: "Matthew's cross-examination seemed at least to have subdued the Voice, which showed none of its usual aggressiveness or abuse . . ."

In the Enfield case as researchers Maurice Grosse and Playfair were not able to make any progress in discerning the nature of the phenomena, there were only new mysteries to ponder (along with the drolly humorous occurrences already mentioned). 

Inside the small lavatory, on the wall, were the letters S, H, I and T.  They had clearly been written in it.

"It tapped me on the shoulder," Rose said, "and I turned round and there it was on the wall.  Frightened the life out of me!"

. . . one day a most unusual word appeared, which was written in soap on the bathroom mirror.  It was quite clearly spelt Q, U, L, I, T.

Playfair mentioned that another of the messages appearing on the bathroom walls, mirror or door was "I AM FRED."

Mrs. Harper reported other incidents involving excrement.

Then there were the puddles on the floor, usually in the kitchen or the lavatory.  Finding an unusually large and foul-smelling puddle one day, John Burcombe managed to collect some of the liquid in a bottle and persuade a colleague at the hospital where he worked to analyse it.

"Are you having me on?" the colleague said later.  "This is cat's piss!"

Both voices were now carrying on at all times of the day or night . . .

 

Eventually, as Playfair reported: "The months passed, and by 1979 it seemed the Enfield poltergeist had gone away as inexplicably as it had arrived."  There were some "isolated incidents" and "a sudden but mercifully brief flare-up in April 1979."

The clues remain and may be compared with the Centrahoma case as well as previously documented cases.

Could the mentioned four and five-letter bathroom messages be significant in relation to anagrams?  "Q, U, L, I, T" is an anagram for 'quilt' providing an intriguing metaphor in relation to patterns and pieces coming together to form a completed design.  The other message has been and is a familiar expression of human dismay in addition to the literal meaning of the word.

Ironically, Matthew Manning described in his 1999 autobiography One Foot in the Stars a consultation with a clairvoyant when this word also was heard.  During the winter of 1972/73, Matthew received a psychic reading from Douglas Johnson in the Chelsea area of London.  At the end of the reading Johnson remarked, "You will always have one foot in the stars and one foot in the shit . . . Later I was told that this corruption of Oscar Wilde's observation — 'We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars' — was a favourite of Johnson's and one which he applied to himself and those in whom he perceived a gift similar as his own."

The topic of this article is also addressed in "'Gef': A Modern Sphinx as an Esoteric Lesson about Oneness" and "The 'Poltergeist' In Retrospect (with audio and video clip links)".

Significance of 'Unexplained Phenomena'

This photo shows an Arabic message copied onto notebook paper by a family member during a series of unexplained events described as "America’s Talking Poltergeist" in the February-March 1995 Fortean Times magazine issue 79.  The Arabic message had been left in lipstick on a mirror in a house in rural Oklahoma. 

 

The case of Matthew Manning's experiences of 'poltergeist' and 'psychic phenomena' is a topic of the preceding blog article providing commentary about the recent British GQ Matthew Manning Article.  A variety of unexplained phenomena manifested in proximity to him, including his automatic writing in Chinese and Arabic — he commented that he had not been aware of those languages being present in his subconscious. 

The Arabic scripts among other automatic messages and artwork were displayed in The Link, Matthew's 1974 book chronicling his extraordinary experiences.
 

The caption in The Link explained: "This script, which Professor Bushrui classified as belonging to a very literate person, probably an academic, reads: 'Life consists of many [various] forces [powers] that live within us to the end of time . . . of the body does not frighten us because we shall all come together in the end.  And death shall destroy all differences.'"

 

Upon drawing a morbid sketch in the style of Goya, Matthew's automatic writing brought a message in French translated as "One cannot have roses without Thorns.  Goya."

Proverbs are often found in cases of transcendental communication, as I have mentioned in previous blog articles including "The Letters from Aboard a Flying Saucer".

The life experiences described in Matthew's autobiographical books include acknowledging in One Foot in the Stars (1999) "brief flashes of recognition" concerning previous Earth lives.  Some blog readers will be aware that poltergeist-type phenomena and becoming aware of an apparent previous physical incarnation are facets of my own case.  Two blog articles have profiled nonfiction reincarnation case study books where hypnotic regression is not an essential factor for a person becoming aware of an apparent previous life: Someone Else's Yesterday: The Confederate General & Connecticut Yankee, A Past Life Revealed by Jeffrey J. Keene and Soul Survivor: The Reincarnation of a World War II Fighter Pilot by Bruce and Andrea Leininger with Ken Gross.

Numerologists may find interesting the birthdates of Matthew Manning and myself.  Matthew was born on August 17, 1955 and I was born on August 8, 1956.  In Oklahoma in the summer of 1995 a few days after my 39th birthday, I witnessed the materialization of small objects, including coins, pebbles and a nail.  I noticed that one of the objects upon falling was warm to the touch upon holding it.

Matthew recalled that the poltergeist-type phenomena included his bed vibrating.  Similarly during my Oklahoma visit, when I telephoned my twin brother in Los Angeles he suddenly commented that his bed was shaking.  As the phenomena manifesting in proximity to Matthew evolved, he participated in laboratory experiments and commented, ". . . that laboratory work was useful to me, because without it I don't think that I would have believed that I was capable of healing."  Contemplating my experiences, I realized that a spiritual Force had made possible opportunities that consisted of a step-by-step education in metaphysical understanding.  I gradually was able to discern and articulate noticeable parallels through case studies of unexplained phenomena such as 'The Michael Pattern' and 'The Nine Pattern.'  These patterns have also been the topics of blog articles.  The Michael Pattern revealed the Angelic context of this Force through parallels found in esoteric texts and in many of the scriptures revered among people identifying with a particular religion or wisdom tradition.

As one develops a perspective concerning what has come to be known as 'paranormal' or 'unexplained phenomena,' a metaphysical orientation to life becomes comprehensible encompassing the relationship of an individual personality or 'consciousness unit' with the 'Oneness' of a shared subconscious and Superconscious Mind among all living creatures.  So-called 'poltergeist' cases when considered case by case are exhibitions or lessons about this spiritual Force that make possible individual experiences of coincidences and synchronicity, intuition and telepathy, prophetic dreams and visions, mediumship and channeling, healing, as well as events associated with such expressions as 'hauntings,' 'telekinesis' and 'electronic voice phenomena.'

A simple truth is that every human being develops talents and abilities as opportunities occur.  Psychics and mediums have a gift, as do artists, engineers and scientists in diverse fields of study and expression.  Inventors such as Nikola Tesla have written about having what is sometimes called a 'photographic memory,' which, after all, is a variant of the human mentality.  Blog articles reporting about unusual mentalities include "Clive Wearing's Predicament of Having an Extremely Limited Memory", "The Unusual Mentality of Jill Price" and "The Brain and Psychic Phenomena".

Upon researching some documented 'talking poltergeist' cases from previous epochs and then witnessing firsthand the contemporary case in Oklahoma, my perspective and conclusions resulted from the patterns and metaphors revealed.  My previous articles relating to the categorically so-called 'poltergeist' phenomena include —

 
 

"The Beginning of My Spiritual Awakening — Fifteen Years Later"
 

"The Daemon of Tedworth" 'Talking Poltergeist' Case
 

The Morse 'Talking Poltergeist' Case of 1679-80 Massachusetts
 

The Hieronyma 'Talking Poltergeist' Case of Late 17th Century Pavia, Italy
 

"The Devil of Hjalta-stad," Iceland: An 18th Century 'Talking Poltergeist' Case
 

"Donald Ban and the Bocan," Scotland: An 18th Century 'Talking Poltergeist' Case
 

The 'Poltergeist' In Retrospect (with audio and video clip links)
 

Bryant and Helen Reeve's Flying Saucer Pilgrimage
 

Adventures in Synchronicity
 

The 'Paranormal' In Perspective
 

'Gef': A Modern Sphinx as an Esoteric Lesson about Oneness

 

 

Another article considers Direct Voice seance phenomena as a variant of the phenomena associated with the word 'poltergeist.'  Consistent readers of this blog will understand how this phenomena is comprehensible as being equated with such expressions as 'The Holy Ghost,' 'Christ Consciousness,' 'Oneness,' and 'Superconsciousness.'

Among other previous articles, parallels between seance room photography are noticeable.  In photos of materialized people, an ectoplasmic veil is noticeable, as shown in "Some Noteworthy Instances of Seance Room Photography".  The veils are also found in photos showing examples of 'simulacrum' as mentioned in "Spiritualism, Maurice Barbanell, Spirit Voices and Materialization Mediumship" and "Essential Perspectives on Mediums and Materialization".  One author who wrote about the significance of psychic phenomena is psychic journals editor Maurice Barbanell (1902-1981).  Barbanell witnessed a gamut of psychic phenomena over the course of many decades and was a trance medium himself for the entity known as Silver Birch.  The following is a passage from his book This Is Spiritualism (1959, revised edition 1967).

Psychic evidence reveals that man survives the grave as an individuated spirit.  It is not death which confers a spiritual nature upon him.  The body crumbles into dust, or is resolved into elements which no longer maintain a recognisable form, because the animating spirit has withdrawn to continue its purpose elsewhere.  The body is the lesser; the spirit is the greater.  The body is the servant; the spirit is the greater.  The body is the servant; the spirit is the master.  The body is the machine; the spirit is the individual.  Obviously that which has a limited existence of seventy, eighty or ninety years cannot be superior to the power which gave it life and survives its dissolution.

We are familiar with many of the physical laws which control earthly happenings.  The séance room introduces us to a range of psychic laws which regulate the phenomena produced through mediumship.  It is reasonable, therefore, to assume that there is also a realm of spiritual law to control the spiritual aspects of being.  All this indicates an infinite intelligence which is responsible for a law-governed universe in all its ramifications.  Finite minds cannot comprehend infinity, but there emerges a conception of an infinite spirit as the divine architect of the cosmic scheme.

This is the God of the Spiritualist, not a deified man or a tribal deity, or, indeed, any anthropomorphic being.  This is the God of all peoples, of all creatures, of the boundless universe, not the exclusive property of any religion or nation.  This is the God incapable of favouritism, wrath, jealousy, vindictiveness, or any human weakness.  "God made man in is own image," and man has been returning the compliment ever since.  Man is not in the physical, but in the spiritual, image of God.  The relationship is a spiritual one.  Man here, and hereafter, is an integral part of this infinite spirit.  He is born because a particle of it incarnates into matter and endows the body with life.  He undergoes a variety of experiences designed to train and equip his spirit for the next stage of his existence.

At all times, every human being is united with God.  This spiritual relationship is a fact in birth, life, death and beyond.  It is an eternal union which cannot be severed.  Because of this relationship, man is God in miniature.  It is free will which decides, if he is normal, the extent to which he will allow the seed of latent divinity to flower.

 

This article offers some suggestions about the context necessary to consider one of the statements quoted in my recent series of articles centering on the case of JZ Knight channeling Ramtha.  In 2006 I attended a lecture in Hollywood and heard the visitor from the ascended realm known as Ramtha say:

There's nothing I ever said was the truth.  It only becomes the truth when we initiate you into what I said, into what you said.  And that the experience of that philosophy manifested in your life — that you experience in your importance, then it is a truth.  So the great work is taking this knowledge into a practicality of life because life is a gift and learning to live it at higher tempos of frequency, higher visions and concepts of thought, and to manifest it in the world to the startling reality of the unawakened around you who begin to wake up.

 

The Arabic message shown at the beginning of this article—upon being held in front of a mirror—has been interpreted as the word 'zeaama' meaning 'leadership.’